episodes
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"I have a theory called the 'theory of unprobable things,' which is, if you have to make a decision between two choices, choose the one that is more unlikely to happen. When I had to make the decision where to go, between going to Argentina or going to Japan, Japan sounded more unlikely, so I chose Japan. I still apply it, but it can be very exhausting. I always have to choose a different path. Maybe I just want to have a pizza, but then I need to choose the weird dish. But this is what helps me to discover. Sometimes I just want to choose the normal thing that I know, but it's just more about yourself when you are put into a new situation. Try new food, dress in a new way, something like that. I chose Tokyo for that reason and yes, I apply that even for which path I take to work. Instead of going down the same road, I choose to take another route to explore, so every day I am discovering. That way, there is always something new."
"My plan had been to use my biology, physics and geology background from growing up with my mom to study astrobiology. That was a way to justify learning a little bit of everything. And then my plan had been to go to Antarctica and work as a science assistant. Then, when the call to go to Mars would come, I would have a useful degree. That was my dream of fulfilling my Robinson Crusoe fantasy; going to a strange place, then having to survive it. One day I started limping a bit. I thought I was just getting out of shape. I went to the gym and started training intensely, but every time I would get a fever. I would recover, train, then get a fever again. Eventually I stopped trying to train and gradually the symptoms spread. I stopped being able to use my hand as well as I used to. And then my left hand and then my left foot. This took like four years. The main theory that we have now is that it was some kind of bacteria that got through and somehow managed to do this damage in my brain. That took four years until I was laying in a hospital bed completely paralysed below the neck. Since then, I've gotten a bit better. This is why I'm training so much today, to try to reactivate all those neurons and muscles that have deteriorated and atrophied. Because of my mom, I was very into science. I looked for logic and reason in everything. Art always kind of bugged me because there was never anything tangible that I could touch in a consistent way. When I tried to talk to people about art, it was always so fluid and that kind of bothered me back then. It wasn't until after I got sick and lost the ability to do all the things that I used to that I started to explore what I could do within my new limitations and realised that most of my life I'd been applying this logical method of living in this world. Art is a way for me to relate to nature. I'd been in nature since I was a kid. So getting sick, that was an important thing that I lost. By painting, it kind of gave me a way of connecting with something that I'd lost that now keeps me going."
"I worked on cruise ships for ten years when Covid hit and we had to quarantine on board in the Bahamas. I think the time was very important for me to rethink about many things. Iceland has been a dream for me for over 20 years that I had left behind somehow. I am from Southern Brazil but I also have Italian citizenship. And if I can go to Italy, you can go to anywhere in Europe. I was like, well, that's a very long dream that I have to spend some time in Iceland. And why not now? Because everywhere that I choose to go now, I will have to start from scratch. The chances of things working or not are basically the same everywhere because this crisis has hit the entire world. It's not like only one country or the other. Basically my chances to succeed are the same wherever I go. Why not try in the place that I always wanted to be for so long?"
"I am from Romania. But I was born in Egypt. Now I live in Iceland. So that's a complicated story. I tell my friends that I was born in Egypt. They look at me and say, you don't look Egyptian. And then I tell them my parents are Romanian. They met in Egypt. Actually, my Mom, I was trying to make her talk about it. I think it brings up a lot of interesting memories for her. It involves escaping communism. And this is how life surprises you. The reason I came to Iceland was because I thought I would never be able to come back. But guess what? I was basically forced to come back here because of love. So be careful what you wish for because you just might get it."