A long time ago I interviewed two friends of mine, two travellers, two women that I deeply admire for their braveness, their passions and ideals. One of them was my university mate and she lived for a period in Beijing. Now she opened a school of languages in Sicily. The other one is a Russian friend of mine that I met in China in 2010. She solo visited the Southeast Asia and now she lives in Romania with her husband, but she has just opened a little local business. Two very different stories, but connected by the strength and the decisiveness of two women, one against the economical crisis of her country and the other trying to find out her role in a foreign nation.

Annarita

Hi Annarita, tell us about your travel experiences.
I closed my first luggage when I was 6. It was when I first attended alone to a summer camp 1600 km far from my village!
Since then I’ve began to travel a lot, often just with my luggage as a companion, filled with expectations and dreams on the outward journey and precious memories and enriching experiences on the way back. The kms to travel have increased more and more…1600, 1800, 2300, 3000,4000, 8000, 10000…, but I’ve never feared leaving my country to discover new places and especially new people,
I’ve never backed out of living new experiences, just me and my curiosity for life.

How have these travels influenced your personality?
What most influenced me was the travel inside the travel. Mind travels that I made when I reached my destination. All those positive and sad thoughts that the travel itself, a view, a gesture, a meeting, a word or a coffee have in store for the traveller.

Now, tell us about your project, how did you come up with the idea?
I opened a school of languages. I use the languages that I learnt during my academic career. I teach English, Chinese, Italian for foreigners…soon I’ll include more languages (Arabic, French, German, Rumanian..)

And I trust in the most important thing: my passion and curiosity for discovering the world, my optimism and determination. The school project is designed for students of all ages, from the youngest 6 year-old children to the oldest who are willing to learn. I try to customize my courses, trying to empathize first of all with people and to understand what do they expect and what would they like to learn.
For the time being, work situation is tragic in Italy, to say the least, and often you can’t make your professional dreams come true. But I’ve decided not to give up. They can take us everything away save our ideas, our grit, our spirit. I decided to call the school Smile! Language school, because for me “smiling” is a philosophy of life. In the footnote to the logo there is a US comedian’s sentence: “Everyone smiles in the same language”. I can’t think of a statement truer than that!

We are all equally beautiful and bright with a smile fixed on our face.

Polina

Hi Polina, tell us about your travel experiences.
I saw the Rio Carnival, I took part in a safari in Tanzania, I made an excursion on the Philippines islands, I saw the Niagara falls, I made hiking in Norway, I lived in USA, China and Finland. I have unforgettable memories of all these places. I’m lucky to have a husband who loves travelling and takes life with all its positives aspects. He is surely my favorite travel companion and I had never imagined to be so lucky, until I met him in a temple in Cambodia.

How have these travels influenced your personality?
I think that the fact itself to be born in the Soviet Union influenced me a lot. I was born in 1988 and I remember very well that when I was 5-6 years old, my relatives and friends started to travel abroad. At that time it was not so common and I remember that they were very happy to share with us all their wonderful stories and impressions of their holidays. That’s was how I started to fell a strong curiosity for other countries.
The first time I travelled abroad I was 10 years old. I visited Northern Europe with my family. In Amsterdam I remember I was impressed by the diversity I perceived there. At that time I was too young to realize it, but that experience roused something in me and I started to be more opened. Since then I’ve visited almost 50 countries and I can’t say which one is my favorite, each one is beautiful in its diversity, which I like to embrace completely.

Tell us about your project.
I have always been attracted by beautiful things and I can see beauty everywhere, but flowers especially give pleasure to my sight and soul.
In Rumania gypsy people usually sell flowers and Rumanian are used to spend money in bouquets, as in Italy for example, but I decided to take a risk and to start a business for selling roses and tulips in elegant paper packages. I’ve started just something more than a month ago and I’ve already recouped all my investments.