About coming back home

It's been more than three months since I came back home after living abroad during 4 years.

My family organized a summer* weekend when I arrived 

Although it is a short time still, several important things have happened. Among those I could remark the death of my grandmother (she was 91 yo) and the creation of my own start-up.

Regarding the first one:  Despite it is very sad news, there are two things that make me glad about the situation: 1) I was lucky enough to return on time to see her alive and to mourn her together with my relatives and not all alone in France. 2) It was beautiful to see how all the family gathered around her in a matter of hours when we knew she was in the hospital, I feel happy we (as a family) had the great chance to enjoy her all these years, I am glad her death was peaceful and surrounding by her children, by their love and that she passed away during a pray of her religion. I believe she passed away very happy and satisfied with what she did. I am proud of being one of her grandchildren, and I am proud of carrying her last name (sadly very far away in the ID but very close in my hearth).

I am glad this is not "my last memory" of her.

Now let's talk about the second remarkable thing: the start-up. Before, it is necessary to put some context:

The first month was like landing in a pile of dust. You know that you have arrived where you wanted, but the cloud of dust does not let you see where exactly you are standing, nor what is around you nor in which direction you should move. That's how I felt the first month. You are staying in your house, but it feels somebody's else home, you feel like a visitor. You see all familiar faces but you feel you are just getting to know them.

I knew it was a matter of time, so it was just about waiting. But what to do meanwhile?? I was not spreading CVs as I knew I wanted to create my own company, just that I didn't know what about. What I knew was that I had very few money that was not going to last much. I just said to myself, "well, I speak a good English, I know some stuff about Colombia and Medellin so I guess I can make some bucks giving some tours to foreigners. It won't take me lots of time so I'll have enough time to keep thinking about a company, and to write my lovely* dissertation"

With that line of thinking I just started giving some walking tours around Medellin. Then within the blinking of an eye I was already applying marketing, branding and business model concepts. Just without noticing I was already building a start-up www.realcitytours.com.

Real City Tours in action

Real City Tours has given me enough joy, entertainment, responsibilities and money to overpass with relatively ease these famously-known hard days of returning home. I am close to my family (what I wanted),  I am building a company in my country that "brings" money from abroad (what I wanted), I am still in contact with people from all over the world (it was something I was sad about returning: loosing the multiculturalism of Europe) and things seem to have an interesting future.

I was told coming back was going to be tough. I saw many ex-pat friends returning and crying about having done so.  But so far I can say I have had a pretty smooth adaptation. Without any doubt Real City Tours has helped, but I believe my mental preparation before coming was very useful as well.

When I left Budapest I learnt that leaving a city was like mourning a dead relative. When I went back to visit my Budapesti friends some months latter, I confirmed the importance of circumstances. Therefore, since summer I started  preparing my mourning of France and to understand that my future circumstances in Colombia were all going to be new. Nothing was going to be like when I left, hence I should expect a complete new country, not the one of my memories.

Indeed, that was the attitude I came with. I thought as if I was moving to an unknown country (as when I moved to Hungary and France), a place where I knew nobody, a place where I had everything to build up from zero. It is not that simple to apply as it is to say, but I believe this attitude has helped me to not to get disappointed nor frustrated.

So far I haven't regretted a single second about having moved back home. I miss some things obviously, such as friends, my bicycles, certatain circumstances, some independence at home, Decathlon, the champions league at night time, the kebbabs at night and my lovely "Le Saigon" (my favorite restaurant in France hahaha)...as you see, just minor things. I am fucking happy at home, building a future in my land, in my language, around my family. :D


* In Colombia you can get a Summer day any day of the year, you just have to drive an hour and you'll get to a place that looks like summer. Welcome to the tropic :) :)
* Is there a lovely dissertation ever???