02/06/2021
HUMANS OF ITESS | "Hi! I’m Isabella and I’m from Brazil – I think these two pieces of information cover a good part of my identity. I moved to the Netherlands in 2019 when I decided to study at ITESS and start a new professional path. I would like to focus my writing here in my perception of the huge gap that separates the country that I am from and the one that I’m living in now. I have travelled around a bit and lived in a few different places, but this is the first time that I feel what it is to live in a highly developed nation – cold and rainy too. Funny thing is that it doesn’t make me want to leave Brazil for good, instead it inflates my idealistic being as to go back to my messy, beautiful and exploited birthplace with some of the best references that I know of. All the bike lanes, the massive use of bicycles, the public transportation, the quality of life in general as to housing, education, health, rights. I don’t speak any Dutch and yet it doesn’t really affect my routine. (The dwelling mice are less of my taste, I prefer cockroaches). Just like Brazil, there are many nations in the world that could benefit from such standards. Of course, different nations mean different cultures, and probably not all the Dutch standards fit every country. But in terms of references, it is beautiful to imagine how Brazil and other developing countries could thrive with some improvements that should be just obvious." Isabella Tolomeotti, second year student
