What am I doing here ?

We live in a world that is continuously changing and evolving. Our daily problems are not the same as those of our parents or grand-parents. I know, every generation says this, but I believe the rythm of change for mine was faster. The "smart-telecom" revolution happened, boarders were opened inside Europe, migration to other countries became easier. Mixed nationality families increased as did the number of bilingual children. 

 I was born and raised in Romania, I spend my first 7 years of life under comunism regim and the rest under a democratic one. I have not traveled abroad until I was 23 and I only met people of other nationalities during English summer camps. I was surrownded by my "own" people, I never thought of the diffrencies between societies of the same sort and on a very naive level I believed people are and act the same no matter where they are born and raised. 

 Today I live in France, I have 2 daughters from different fathers that came from different countries, none of them french. My children are bilingual and integrating new languages still. I have come in close contact with 4 different societies, cultures, customs, beliefs systems. I went through all the phases of discovery : curiosity, astonishment, mistrust, criticism, appalment, acceptence, and I shaped my own personality and beliefs accordingly. It was a long and sometimes painful process that is still and always will be ongoing. I consider that I learned so much during it that I want to share some observations with others that might be engaging on the same jurney. 

 This blog is not meant to be judgemental, nor to give advices on how to live your life. It is purely a statement of facts and some subjective decisions that helped me become who I am today. Maybe someone will find it helpful.

Maïa and Lydia, for you this is meant to give you some insight into who I was when you were too young to pay attention. I wish I could have a pick at my mother when she was my age, not to mention my grandmother :) 

 So for all of you who are curious about the challenges of cultural interleaving, fell free to take a look and don't hesitate to leave comments !