This section was last updated on February 10, 2012.

Meeting people around the world can be a good way to mirror ourselves. The more cultures we’re exposed to and the more contrast we may find between our way of life and that of the others, the clearer we may get to see ourselves. And the clearer we get to see ourselves, the more common ground we may find between ourselves and the others.

Some societies may accentuate certain sets of human traits, while some other societies may accentuate some other sets of traits. In the long run, however, all human conduct is drawn from one single common pool of human characteristics and there’s no possible human behavior embraced by any individual, tribe or society that may not exist at least in a potential manner in each and everyone of us. In other words, learning about the “others” can be a good way to learn about ourselves.

To go to any of the photo pages please click on the colored title.

Les Sables Blancs, Djibouti, January 19, 2012. I love living by large bodies of water, even if it's only for short periods of time. Santa Barbara, Barcelona, Malta, Shikoku Island, Gangsung, Istanbul, they're just some of the places where I've lived that are located by Oceans or Seas. Djibouti is also a city located by large bodies of water, three of them, and near Djibouti City there are some very nice beaches too. Want to see a sample of them? Check out this photo album.

Djibouti City, Djibouti, December 24, 2011. Ever found yourself in a country that you never imagined you could ever live in? I had always though one day I would set foot on African soil, but I had always aimed at the West Coast. As it turns out, I have now been living in Djibouti, East Africa, for two weeks. No doubt about it, the winds of fate are often totally unpredictable.

Ghost Street & Lama Temple, Beijing, China, November 7, 2011. Walking around the streets of big cities like Beijing one's always bound to find districts with quite different personalities. And some streets might even give us some pleasant suprises. Buddhist Temples, on the other hand, hardly ever fail to be impressive.

Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen, China, October 19, 2011. I had never seen as many good paintings lined up one after another as I saw today in the Art Village of Dafen. The great majority of them were hand-painted replicas and some of them were even excellent at that. There were some sculptures too, and a nice architectural surprise.

Hong Kong II, August 27-September 1st, 2011. It never crossed my mind that I would be back in Hong Kong for a third time in less than a year, but there I was just a couple of weeks ago. This time, however, I didn't get there by train; this time it was a Turkish Airlines flying machine that took me there. And, by the way, that pilot did the smoother landing I have ever experienced.

Pristina, Kosovo, August 21-27, 2011. Eastern Europe has been on my radar screen for the previous few months. I even set foot in Bulgaria for a few minutes a few months ago while extending my visa to stay in Turkey. Still, Kosovo never seemed like a very likely country for me to go. Nevertheless, on Sunday, August 21st, there I went.

Zurich, Switzerland. August 20, 2011. The largest city in Switzerland still has a small-town flavor, at least on Saturday afternoons. Strolling down by the side of the river Limmat for a few hours was a rather pleasant thing to do.

Gossau, etc., Switzerland. August 15-20, 2011. I had been to Geneva a couple of times in the past, but had never gone north-east deeper into the country. This time I went all the way up to Gossau, a city located by the angle between Germany and Austria, not too far from Lichtenstein. To see the town of Gossau, however, was not the reason that I went there. The magnet that pulled me to Gossau was friendship of the unalloyed kind.

St. Etienne, France, August 10, 2011. I have been to France many times over the last three decades and I lived here for some time during the early 80s, but I had never visited the town of St. Etienne. Chance dictated that I land here at the beginning of June and I've been here since then. This is a quiet small town with some interesting characteristics.

Grand Bazaar, Topkapi. Istanbul, Turkey. Photos uploaded from St. Etienne, France, July 7, 2011. Sitting here in front of my Laptop in the city of St. Etienne, France, looking at the photos I took in Istanbul just a couple of days before I left that city by the end of May, I can easily recall the good moments I had over there. You haven't been to Istanbul yet? Give it a shot. I could bet you'd like it there.

Hagia Sophia and The Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey, March 18, 2011. Istanbul, the capital of the ancient Roman, Latin and Byzantine Empires, is a city that exudes history. On Sunday the 13th, I was lucky enough to be guided through some of the city's historical sites by a kind istanbulian friend.

Istanbul, Turkey, January 22, 2011. As "The Highwaymen" more or less used to sing, "the road goes on forever and the findings never end". And such is the state of affairs in this distinct city of istanbul. I haven't even began to discover the historic gems that can be found here, but I already tasted the charm that some aspects of the Turkish way of life have to offer to the foreign eye.

Chinese Folkloric Instruments, Beijing, China, November 19, 2010. String musical instruments have characteristics that may vary from culture to culture. Some Chinese vilolins, for one, have only one string. Then there are the guitar-like instruments which have different sets of strings, or some plucked instruments that often sound like pianos. There are some beautiful musical insruments in China.

Olympic Stadium, Beijing, China, November 4, 2010. Beijing's Olympic Stadium is indeed an original architectural design. On November 4th, 2010, I took the Beijing subway and went to the Olympic grounds to take a few shots of it. Once I was there, I sat down at an outdoor café and enjoyed a good sip of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Pays D'Oc, along with some Danish Blue Cheese and some Italian-style bread.

Summer Palace, Beijing, China, October 30, 2010. Beijing's Summer Palace was built mostly during the Qin Dynasty (1644-1911) The enceinte is basically a compound of several palaces and house clusters scattered around Kunming Lake and its vicinities. On Friday, October 29, I was lucky to visit those grounds in the company of my Chinese friend Zhong, Gang Hua.

Shichahai, Beijing, China, October 29, 2010. Shichahai is a district of Beijing with some sort of western flavor to it, not because of the food, even though they cook some very good oven-roasted pizza there, but because of the style of the restaurants and bars, which have tables on the sidewalks by the lake. Some of those bars have live music too.

TiananmenSquare, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, Beijing, China, October 27, 2010. When visiting Beijing, a stroll through Tiananmen Square is a must. So it is to walk through the gates of the Forbidden City, past Mao's famous portrait, and into the inner grounds of the city. But walking up and down the steps and walkways of the Great Wall is perhaps the most exciting of the three. I visited those three places during the last week of October, 2010.

Guangdong Folk Arts Museum, Guangzhou, China, September 8, 2010. Over one hundred years of existence haven’t robbed the Chen Clan's Academy premises of the folklore engraved on them and the impressive objects displayed there only ad to the beauty of it all.

Hong Kong, August 22, 2010. Because of factors like the size of its capital market, the number of embassies and fortune 500 companies found on its soil, the volume of goods flowing through its ports and airports, and others, the city of Hong Kong is ranked #5 in the world. That makes a truly global city out of Hong Kong. But, is it fun to go there? Well, that may depend on how thick your wallet is.

Guangzhou, China, August 19, 2010. Guangzhou is a fun place. My inability to express myself in Chinese often makes communication between me and the locals a very amusing thing. Given that the locals have an amiable predisposition and that I’m not too often short of smiles, everything usually works out well and in the end everyone involved gets a certain sense of accomplishment.

Nanning, China, March 30, 2010. There are idiosyncratic differences between the peoples of some of the Asian countries where I've recently lived, but those differences are increasingly looking as mild as the ones existing between Texans and Californians or between New Yorkers and Oregonians. Some well-known anthropological evidence corroborates that inter-Asian commonality too.

Da-Nang & Marble Temple, Vietnam, February 16, 2010. The beaches in the seaside city of Da-Nang are wide and nice. Having lunch and dinner sitting at a table placed right on the sand reminded me of Central America. But the Vietnamese fishing boats are quite different from anything I'd seen before. The Marble Temple is a Buddhist sanctuary worth taking a look at.

Hoi Anh, Vietnam, February 14, 2010. Spring comes down early here in Vietnam. It's barely the middle of February and many of us already go around wearing shorts, T-shirts and sandals. The Lunar New Year is here with us too, so I took a little trip southeast of Hanoi to welcome the new year by the sea.

Loutraki, Greece, November, 2009/January, 2010. What do you do when you have to wait for a few weeks before you move on to your next destination? You go to Greece, where the food is good and the waiting is easy.

California, September/October 2009. California is beautiful and is fun. Being there in the company of good friends makes it even more so.

Najd Restaurant, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, July 12th, 2009. Najd is the name of a reputable small chain of restaurants in Riyadh. On the afternoon of Sunday, July 12th, my student Shakr took me there for a delicious typical Saudi Arabian lunch.

Camel Market, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, July 9th, 2009. There are two kinds of Camels in the world, Dromedaries and Bactrians. Arabian Camels are of the one-humped or Dromedary kind. You can find two-humped or Bactrian Camels in Saudi Arabia too, like the one I'm pictured sitting on in the "Riyadh" photo collection below, but they're a small minority. On the afternoon of July 9th I went to Riyadh's Camel Market.

Al Musmak Castle, Dirah Mosque and Gold Market. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 25th, 2009. It is somewhat telling of Saudi Arabia’s contrasts to find a historic castle, a very large place of prayer and an impressive gold market, all of them just a couple of minutes away from each other on foot.

National Museum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. June 19th, 2009. The Saudi Arabia that we know today is a young Kingdom. To visit the National Museum in Riyadh is to relive the history of that kingdom and its ancestral origins. I spent a couple of hours there on Friday, June 19th.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. June 2nd, 2009. I've been in this country for just a few weeks, but that has been long enough to feel the unordinary fascination that this land can exert upon westerners.

Hanami Celebration and Zigenji Temple, Japan. April 6, 2009. In tune with the local Cherry Blossom celebration, which the Japanese call Hanami, I went to the nearby park of Takinomiya. Then I went to the Zigenji Temple, which is just a couple of blocks away from the park.

Japan. First Impressions. March 31, 2009. My temporary home-city of Niihama is mostly an industrial zone with limited things to do or see, so I've been visiting a couple of other cities in the island of Shikoku, where I've met a number of local people and some other foreigners too. Recently I had a very good surprise from the part of the locals regarding Latin music.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates. February 17, 2009. Dubai Airport is the Emirate Airways' traffic hub. I made a 24-hour stopover in that city on my way to Osaka, Japan. I had a different kind of nice time there.

Gozo, Malta. December 21, 2008. Malta, Gozo and Comino are the three major islands in the small Mediterranean archipelago of Malta, with Gozo being just a 20-minute Ferry ride north-west of the largest island of Malta. I spent a nice day there by the end of December 2008.

Paceville & Harbor Cruise, Malta. Sept. 20, 2008. Paceville is the party town for most foreign English students who live in the residential schools in my area. It's also the town with the biggest sand beach in my general vicinity. The Grand Harbor is where Valletta and other historical cities are located. I recently took a 2-hour cruise around that harbor.

My Street Corner's Party, Malta. Sep. 7, 2008. The Maltese people like to party in the streets. They send out their local marching bands and everybody joins them in the fun. This past weekend was my town's turn to celebrate and they did so right up my street.

Malta. First Impressions. Aug./Sep., 2008. Thus far I didn't get any surprises here in Malta. Most things seem more or less the way I had envisioned them when I first started looking into these islands with the idea of coming here. Everything is just as pleasant as I thought it would be.

Paris, France. August 2008. Paris can be a very magical city, but it can be even more so when viewed through the lens of some good memories. I spent one week over there by the end of August and I had a good time.

Jeju Island, South Korea, May 2008. In Korea there are many holidays throughout the year. This time around, parents' day fell on Thursday, May 8th and Buddha's birthday fell on Monday the 12th. This confluence of holidays allowed for a nice 5-day weekend that many of us took advantage of to get out of town. I booked myself a very convenient airfare-hotel-car-rental package to the Korean Island of Jeju.

Phuket, Thailand, February 2008. The island of Phuket is a coveted destination for people from all over the world. After a few fruitless attempts to book a comfortable single hotel room there during the first half of February, I finally found something nice available for the third week of that month. So there I went.

California, August 2007. I spent three weeks in California in August of 2007. I had been away for some 16 months and it felt really good to be back.

The Vedanta Center in Olema, California. I went to many of my favorite places during my visit to California in August of 2007 and at the top of my list was the Vedanta Center in Olema.

Napolia, South Korea. On Monday, March 26, my colleague Mi Ra and I had dinner at "Napolia," a western-style restaurant located a few miles south of Gangsung. I had been to that restaurant once before, so I was glad I had my camera with me, as I knew there were a few pieces of Americana in that place.

An Evening at Gaejin Beach, South Korea. After school, on Friday, March 9, my colleague Mi Ra drove my colleague Bop-Jung and me to Gajin beach where the three of us had some delicious seafood. Once at the restaurant I befriended a couple of kids that were having dinner there with their Mom & grandmother and we all had some fun enjoying each other's company. The following day, I went to Sokcho to do some shopping at E-Mart, the biggest and most westernized department store in that city.

A Beautiful Cove, South Korea. In the afternoon of Thursday, February 15th, 2007, I decided to take a bike ride around the empty rice fields in the vicinity of my apartment complex. It was a beautiful day, so I just rode my bike until I inadvertently came across the little harbor-town of Gaejin, a community of some 500 people. That discovery was a very, very happy event.

New Year 2007, South Korea. Around 10:00 am on January 1st, 2007, my friend Ki came knocking on my door asking whether I would like to go have lunch later on with him and his family. I accepted his invitation and around 1:00 pm we all went to the nearby small harbor of Hayajin. That was a nice way to start the New Year.

Korean Doors, South Korea. One of the nice things I noticed in the Korean streets almost since the day I arrived here is the elaborated kinds of doors and gates that they adorn many of their houses with. I took these photos on Dec. 29, 2006.

Christmas 2006, South Korea. On December 24th, 2006, I drove on Hwy 7 down to the town of Samcheok. Most of that Hwy runs alongside the Korean Pacific Coast, so I took pictures of some beaches.

Cheolwon, South Korea. On December 11 - 12, 2006 all English teachers in the Kangwon EPIK (English Program In Korea) Program attended a demonstration class at a girl's Middle School in the town of Cheolwon.

English Camp, South Korea. On November 17-18 and 24-25, we held an English Camp for some of the Elementary and Middle School kids in our district.

The Ports of Busan & Tongyeong, South Korea. The islands of Yokji and Hansan.

Changing Landscapes, South Korea. How the beautiful view from my apartment has changed since I got here.

Goseong & Doonsan, South Korea. The vicinity of my apartment complex in Goseong Dong, Kangwon Province. English Teachers Orientation Retreat, Doonsan Resort, Chuncheon, Kangwon Province.

Goyang, etc., South Korea. Three months living and teaching in Goyang Dong, near Seoul.

Digital Collages from Barcelona, Spain, 2005. Living in Barcelona during the years 2004 and 2005 was certainly a unique experience.