Christian Weger: about to live our dream

This morning I met Christian Weger, an EESC official and, by chance, one of my former students at the College of Europe in Bruges. He had come to inform me about a wonderful project on which he will shortly embark. He plans to take a year’s unpaid leave and set off around the world. His idea is to install himself in different cities around the globe, staying in each for a month or, in some cases, maybe two. He has a number of art projects, from photography to writing (a blog and a journal), and, in some places, where he speaks the language, he plans to do some voluntary work, offering to help out local NGOs. He is still working on his itinerary. He will use two round-the-world tickets to enable him to zig-zag back and forth between the hemispheres (also so as to avoid winter). His planned route at present will take in Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Auckland, Japan, South Korea, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Montreal, Seattle, Mexico City, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Cape Town. I think his idea is brilliant and I am warmly encouraging him to go for it. For, in effect, Christian is about to live our dream. I am frankly admiring of Christian’s courage and the discipline and determination he is bringing to this self-imposed task (boiling his possessions down to a suitcase and a carry-aboard bag, for example). Bon voyage!