Too cool for school

Travelling, I found out, can teach you much more than any of the traditional schools ever could. Learn history while visiting war sites, math by splitting complex bills with your friends, new languages while trying to survive all alone and culinary by eating the real food in the streets. But far more interesting, is finding out that what was tough to be the absolute truth back at home was, in fact, a misconception. Like an Aristoteles with a backpack, I began to question everything, from the origins of my favorite dishes to the meaning of commonly used signals. Below, a few examples:

(i) Strogonoff is neither French, nor Brazilian, it's Russian: every Brazilian knows and loves this dish, but the majority thinks it was probably invented by the French, which would explain its fancy name (some people go even further and pronounce it with a very Parisian accent, like when you say the letter "u" in English, using a very particular mouth formation). Others, prefer to call the dish in a tropical fashion, adding an "i" at the end of the word, as "Strogonoffi". Actually, if you are a foreigner, a key to communicate with us Brazilians without sounding arrogant, is to add an "i" at the end of nonnative words (pronounced like "e"). You would say "Facebooki", "Laptopi", "Reeboki" and so forth. Anyway, what I found out about this popular dish, which is served on Thursdays in most restaurants in Brazil, is that it was invented in the 19th-century by the Russians. And they make a hell of a good one.

(ii) Head signals are not always interpreted the same way: in Brazil and in most countries, when you nod your head you are signaling approval and shaking, the opposite. Surprisingly, Bulgarians use the contrary. Even more surprisingly, Indians prefer to use a cool intermediary signal which could mean "yes", "no", "hell yes", "hell no", "I understand" and "maybe", which is called "head bobble". The motion usually consists of a side-to-side tilting of the head, so it is very hard to come up with a conclusion on what the person is really trying to say, which makes them very mysterious (It was very challenging figuring out whether a taxi driver in India knew the place he was taking me to, because he kept giving me the head bobble).

(iii) An island is not only a piece of land surrounded by water: we have gorgeous islands in Brazil, but one particular type of island caught my attention in India. Mukeshi Ambami, a prominent Indian businessman, built a US$2 billion, 27-floor, 4,532 square metres home in what is one of the poorest countries in the world. His piece of art in Mumbai was placed in a city with huge slums. It was named Antilia, a mythical island in the Atlantic. A proper name indeed.

"Why do Asians have narrow eyes?", "why Malaysians, Mexicans and Indians have such a high tolerance for extremely spicy food?" and "why I'm so sexy?" are profound philosofical questions I still can't answer.