Now, I hope to lift people up in their path. 

In October 2014 I set foot in the small town of Inuyama, where the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University is located (aka PRI). I was welcomed into the legendary lab of Tetsuro Matsuzawa and it was during my 14 months in Japan that I really discovered the fascinating world of primates and human-primate relations. In PRI, chimpanzees live outdoors and come to participate in a non-invasive experiments such as computer tasks or object exchanges. They are called in by their names and they may choose whether they want to come to the laboratory or not; there is no punishment for non participation. There, the relationship between species is a vital part of the research philosophy. To my surprise while I was doing my  ethnography, I received an invitation to design and conduct an experiment to assess the building blocks of categorization and action. This would be a great way to understand how these scientists and chimps interacted. On top of that, the topic sounded very interesting to me, that is, the "grammar of action" in object & color categorization. But, of course, it was not that easy. I had to be trained in non-invasive experiments with primates, become certified, and the trickiest... I had to get the chimps' acceptance as someone worthy of being their experimenter - I kid you not. And no, this is not anthropomorphism, it's a real interspecies social phenomenon that I never thought I'd have to face as an ethnographer. In the end, I became both an ethnographer and experimenter in the same laboratory. This interspecies experience changed my life.