Soul's catharsis

On the benefits of celibacy and late marriage

2011-11-21T12:41:00.002-06:00

While reading on my labor class topic of this week, the economic role of women in pre-modern Europe I bumped into this lovely poem written by Anna Bijns in the fifteenth century! It is on the benefits of celibacy and late marriage in the North Sea region:

How good to be a woman, how much better to be a man!

Maidens and wenches, remember the lesson you're about to hear

Don't hurtle yourself into marriage far too soon.

The saying goes: 'where is your spouse? Where's your honour?'

But one who earns her board and clothes

Shouldn't scurry to suffer a man's rod...

Though wedlock I do not decry;

Unyoked is best! Happy the woman without a man.

E-learning

2011-11-10T18:25:00.003-06:00

Studying a MSc at one of the top universities in the world within my area of specialty can be extremely hard, sleepless nights, bad posture, lack of good food and going-outs, yet technology makes it easier. Imagine to be the computer of such a person like me, a nightmare for the poor device!! that is why I decided to stop the degrading situation of my poor computer worsen by my habits of reading some 10 hrs a day, on it on my ecological effort of diminishing the burden for the environment. Poor mac, its fan sounds now, then I decided to buy a new gadget, just to read. Now I can say I spend more lovely nights in my bed reading all the time, since I wake up, until I fall sleep.

Now I have stopped hating London, this hatred-love relationship has its ups and downs as usual, however I've been discovering the nice bits recently, and at the very end, no matter the traffic, the pollution or the crowd, I live in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the whole world and I am enjoying it, as much as being part of a very prestigious institution. I've got to say it deserves its reputation.

Gray

2011-10-09T10:39:00.004-05:00

I am in London now and I cannot even found what to say about it, there are as many interesting stories as people in the crowded streets, countless places to see, it was a dream’s life to study here, but since I’ve achieved my goal I feel nothing but a little bit clumsy. Have had a immensely amount of activities, have met hundreds of people, top-world researchers and proffesors, have been once again to all the must-see places in the city, have started learning in a whole new revolutionary way, still there is something missing, despite the fact time flies, I enjoy what I do and I spent everyday at the uni.

I have begun thinking I might have spent such an amazing time in Scandinavia that now I just miss it deeply. I would like to be there, strolling in Copenhagen, Stockholm streets, any od them, with my friends, my boyfriend. I was in Sweden last week, to have a break, to breath and I managed to rest and have a 4-day top weekend with my love. Then I came back, days have been passing by really fast even though there is something missing. What has London lost since last time I was here four years ago, what happend with the rapture I felt once for this city, where did it go? Come on, I just need a hint to know what happened to this fanciest city that has transformed in front of me! I don’t even have a clue and everything except school is dull now. However I won’t give up and will certainlty keep looking to see what happened to London… or what happened to me.

To be KØBENHAVN

2011-08-30T14:48:00.004-05:00

Køvenhavn-Köpenhamn-Copenhagen-Copenhague: my home. It was difficult to make a distinction between sounds in pronunciation in four languages in the first instance, but after a year I can clearly distinguish them. København has been my home for almost a year now and I cannot describe it better if I say this is the most wonderful city I've ever been to, or at least it was my impression when I first came. Apart from a home and a place where I learnt to be myself is where I met friends and knew the feeling of freedom, because in Copenhagen everyone is free to do, free to be.

Free to be for a woman coming from a very restrictive society as the Latin American posed such a challenge to me, to get into the Scandianvian mentality and way of doing. Shocking sometimes, slow to understand or totally lost, I learnt to accept, see and do as they do.

Not for nothing here was once where the happiest people in the world lived: they look indeed happy. You can walk on the streets without having to be afraid of being robbed, raped or victim of any crime or scam, nothing matters, even if you are a girl going out clubbing dressed as a slut and walking drunk as a fish 4am in the morning, you really are safe (if you don't look for problems), even if you leave your purse over the table in a club while dancing, it will be there when you come back and no guy will be trying to hook up on you only by dancing, they respect you!

Absolutely freedom to be myself is what Copenhagen has given me, and it's priceless. There are many things worthy to talk about, which I'll keep posting on that will make you understand my deep love for this city.

For now, a gift from Danish musicians Clemens and Julie Marie, a hit in all dancefloors in CPH: Byen sover

Waiting time...

2011-08-25T16:20:00.003-05:00

Last weeks have been full of despair, suddenly moving back to a place you thought you were not going to come back to in a long time, leaving family, friends and boyfriend, leaving a job and a so long waited quiet time for what? Waiting stranded in your old city, the old streets without the old friends have become absolutely and hopelessly boring.

Living alone, having to once again start a walked path you loved once, however this time no more hopes are present by the fact of being forced to remain in a place that not longer feels yours, waiting, waiting, waiting...

From Stockholm to Copenhagen again, until the waiting-visa time is over!

After a year: a life changes

2011-08-18T04:21:00.005-05:00

Looking back in time, my last post "Disgrace" more than a year ago was a real disgraceful attempt to write something and a discouraging way to keep me away from blogging. It's been more than a year and when I see what my life has become I feel that this is the place where I belong.

Many important events have happened --important to me at least-- among them (trying to do an non-exhaustive list of them...):

1-I moved to Denmark and I've been living here for almost one year (sept 5th is my anniversary with this country)

2-I've been more in Sweden than in Denmark though, five months roughly of that year... the reason... <3 (l-o-v-e)

3-I have a masters now: MSc in Global Studies from Roskilde university!!!

4-I made a new best friend: My Italian alligator and not less important I met a bunch of the most wonderful people I've ever met, and I'll remember them for the rest of my days, TRUE!

5 I visited Finland :D (at the end!!!)

6-Living in Scandinavia increased my standards... (will explain in another post)

7-I became a good cook =)

8-I stop blogging

9-I noticed no matter how strong and independent I became I will always miss and love my family and friends back home

10-My stubborn and independent character made me safe and made me learn looking forward all the time, no matter what

11-I've accomplished all my goals during this year, even more than those I set in the beginning

12-I was, I am and I will remain in love and we even had our second year anniversary and our relationship is growing stronger <3. The distance is hard to stand sometimes, but it's worthy every second!

Last but not least... I've spent this year with "him", so my academic success has been intertwined with my emotional stability and the fact that now I have the time, availability and a very strong will to travel to Sweden every second week has made me happier than I thought.

Living this half-the-time period in Sweden has also allowed me to reencounter my friends, learn the language, the culture and to have a new Swedish family that cares of me and loves me, even so I am thousands of miles away from my homeland.

Life is just amazing, the weather sucks in Scandinavia though...

P.D. Even here, visas' bureaucracy sucks too!!! (another story)

Disgrace

2010-08-01T23:56:00.007-05:00

I met Disgrace today, or watched the movie, inspired in the novel written by J.M. Coetzee and starred by one man I always enjoy, who plays with words and give sense to what sarcasm and nerve means, all integrated in one cheeky name: John Malkovich. There is something I never get to understand about him that intrigues me, it would be his parsimony or his open insolence. He definitely results a combination full of power and attraction to me, but he undoubtedly gets my nerves on while making me feel eager to watch him on the mattress once again.

Particularly in this movie, Disgrace, which was real but foremost raw. I cannot deny it is a deeply interesting way to get familiar with the habits of traditional mentality in South African isolated rural areas. There, amidst nothing rules the constriction of the majority's consent, which I name in western terms. However, is this matter of discussion if it's their decision to live the way they've decided to live, or is it that they have no other choice than that and they are just following the path of injustice that reigns well over their lands?

After watching how three men raped a woman and how they got theirs own way, coming up with the woman's accepting her being punished for some position she assumed belonging to that 'society' entailing an undeserved but 'wanted' pregnancy is, from my very western way of thinking, unintelligible and somehow a pregnancy under those circumstances looks to me as revolting. I terribly wish never being put through any of those unfortunate events and I do not know which my reaction would be, however given the circumstances it results disgusting giving birth such a 'baby'.

Disgrace is so far great, but it needs stomach to be watched, by not anyone.

Hus Nr. 9

2010-07-02T12:30:00.002-05:00

Good manner to wake up on a friday and to inaugurate the month of July: new Röyksopp's release "Hus Nr. 9" Vilken ljuvlig sång, jag är leende och nöjd!

Listen at Röyksopp's website.

By Halonen...

2010-06-29T03:39:00.005-05:00

We are on the verge of the end of June and I haven't written anything on the foregoing month. However, by reading Tarja Halonen's speech on Finland's candidacy to the UNSC, I found a quote of hers that referred to global issues on the matter of multilateral cooperation among international actors, that was:

"We have to try to find things that unite us --and not things that divides us-- if we want to be midwives of the future and not guardians of the past"

What is it RUC?

2010-05-29T13:35:00.007-05:00

To me, it's the place where I'll spend the following year of my life... so I am determined to learn more about it, let's take a look to the following video:

Roskilde Universitetcenter (RUC)

Buut... then I found this:

"Trekroner"

Trekroner is the name of the closer train station to Roskilde, and the fear invaded me!!

At the end, I might be more conservative than I ever thought. Huge sigh! Ok, I won't anticipate anything, I want to leave HUGE room to expectations... let's see what's coming and you would ask me after this first term in Denmark!

Uffff

2010-05-18T00:18:00.001-05:00

C’est la vie : très sympa, très difficile… mais tout va bien encore, c’est comme la parfait mélange !! Je ne sais pas parce que je parle le français aujourd’hui, mais c’est très drôle. Demain parlerai le chinois… jajaa ce n’est pas possible, je l’ai oublié… :’(

It’s evident all my attempts to write using other Romance language are out of order... been too focused in Germanic languages that I might have lost my Latin rooted languages-prone mind. Nevertheless I do not feel ashamed, but happy I’ve further developed certain specialized knowledge.

Ahhh *sigh* life is life and it’s complicated as I‘ve just said... professional things are over wheels, but, there are a thousand tinny details to fix, and significant ones that are driving me crazy.

The Swedish dream is now 3 months away in the past and in another 3 months I’ll be living the Danish dream, trying to stitch the corners of this fabric called life. I saw an overelaborated decorated blanket, which guided me nowhere, but was colourful and comfortable, bringing an overwhelming feeling of warmth –among other stuff.

It’s a huge leap in a way full of coincidences and some unexpected obstacles; but going for it is the representation of the end of a stage and the need to push harder to the end.

Success

2010-04-16T01:44:00.004-05:00

After several months of anguish, I've got excellent news, the second best new one month later I've got accepted to the master programme I desired the most...
Let's start from the beginning though... one sunny morning of march, I knew my efforts were awarded when I was accepted to an Erasmus mundus programme, my first choice of seven applications I sent since december. Yes, after 7 months of procedures and pain everything seemed to be changing and today will be published some other results...
However the thrilling new consists in that I just not only got accepted, but they assigned me to both options I chose: Roskilde for year one and the London School of Economics for the second.
Is there something better than this?? I doubt it!!

Parálisis?

2010-04-13T19:09:00.003-05:00

Todo va a estar bien, hoy, mañana y por mucho tiempo y lo sé. Creo que he descubierto el motivo que me ha mantenido paralizada... Desde las profundidades de mi sé conciencia que nada podría ir mal y son tantas las opciones a que me remonto, que cualquier cosa estaría bien. Tanta flexibilidad a veces me asusta, sin embargo casi siempre tiene el efecto contrario.

Resplandeciente y apacible

2010-04-13T18:46:00.005-05:00

Es el día, veo la luz del sol entrando por todas las ventanas, aún cuando el reloj marca casi las 19 hrs. El aroma de café en mi habitación y de azúcar, el clima luminoso y bello. Veo, de reojo todo lo malo y deseo bien para quien no lo tiene, deseo que algún día en esta vida o en otra, pueda ayudar a la gente que no la ha tenido tan fácil como yo... y qué va, ¿yo? tener una ¿vida fácil? Baaa!! eso nunca, la sencillez me aterroriza, como lo hace la monotonía, tengo asco por las rutinas! Una vida fácil no ha sido la mía, de eso estoy segura, lo vi comparando. Sí, ¡comparando! pero fue una comparación con fines ilustrativos, la cual, funcionalmente me llevó al punto de saberlo todo y desear nada. Es como el kistch del comunismo del que tanto hablaba Kundera. Entendí muy temprano que la felicidad no es igual para todos y lo que puede simbolizar perfección para algunos a otros nos causa respulsión y, viceversa. En fin, mi idea de satisfacción puede ser abstracta y muy flexible como yo, es decir, a veces tan sencilla de complacer, otras, pareciera que ni yo tengo idea de qué pedir aunque lo tuviera al alcance de la mano.

Nada es fácil o regalado, se puede llamar fortuna si tienes por lo menos algo, poco. Sin embargo, pienso que el esfuerzo es un motor que te lleva lejos y pienso en la gente, ellos, que a pesar de su dedicación ya no pueden hacer nada aunque quisieran. El sistema en que vivimos no es justo, penaliza la edad y la experiencia, subvalora la juventud y exacerba la riqueza. Hace unos días en mi clase de sueco, cuando hablabamos sobre el tema de una enfermedad que en Suecia es muy común: utbrändhet (sindróme de agotamiento), muy exaltada comenté: Si quieres ser rico, no vayas a Europa, quédate en México, en donde las diferencias económicas son exacerabadas y puedes llegar a ser grotescamente millonario porque no hay leyes que controlen el crecimiento desmedurado del capital.

Enhorabuena!! Existe un país del mundo en donde existe preocupación por el ser humano, en las denominadas sociedades de bienestar. A nosotros latinoaméricanos, nos pareció en un principio una idea extraña, pero después de analizarlo, lo considero un éxito. No dudaría en mandar a todos mis viejos a vivir en un lugar tan tranquilo, en donde pudieran dejar de preocuparse por sus enfermedades y concentrarse en aspectos subjetivos de la vida, como la "felicidad" o, hacer de este un lugar mejor? Sí :)

Hoy conocí a un viejo, triste y completamente solo en el mundo, ojalá encuentre un rumbo y una solución, que algún día aquellos que conocen la 'otredad' puedan estar en la élite de los tomadores de decisiones.

My Nordic scenery

2010-04-03T01:15:00.009-06:00

Imagine to be where you always wanted to be, what would you do if that was the case, if all of your wishes became true, if even the most insignificant tiny little detail of your life is about to be sort out definitely in your favour...? Yes, you are in the top of the world and you didn't even know.

Life's wise, everything is fixed in its proper time and manner, imagine you in that top, where you always wanted to be... I am not digressing! I was there.

Not leaving more room to imagination, I am giving a turn by saying, that to witness such beauty must be a crime. I am talking about the frozen Swedish Archipelago, the frozen ocean, islands superimposed like dots here and there, little colourful cottages, mainly in red or yellow and white. The forest, the cold, some trees scattered in a deep-white snowy made framework and sprinkled snow as dust decorating the sky, making it silver.

And it was the silence that charmed it all.
No one bursting upon anybody, we were entirely alone and I loved it. I was also the first time I played with snow, not exempted from the little upset that such snow caused me when it was melting inside my jacket... however, it was magical dampness!
I got to try "korv och bröd" (nicely grilled sausages in bred with dried onions and small pieces of chopped gherkin yuuummi!!) aaand chokladbollar, one of my favourite swedish desserts: sweet chocolate balls made with butter and oat flakes... hahaaaa I might get fat one of these days!!!

It was one absolutely happy day, though the humidity made me lost my breath so easily, I think it could also be the cold and the physical effort to get my feet out of the 30cm snow layer, that for me, it's a significant percentage of my height... :P

It was one of those few special days I will remember for a lifetime, because it was the first time I saw a "proper" Nordic landscape: the shores of the ocean surrounded by mountains, the white half light of the sun above us, some green nature combined with snow and the deers' pawprints everywhere!!
It is where the human mixes up with the divine. I dare myself to say it was perfect...

Sweden

2010-03-29T21:29:00.010-06:00

I am here, fulfilling an ancient promise, writing about Sweden!

Sweden is, something I got to know, after years of studying their language and traditions, it's a place that has left a trace in my memory by walking its streets, breathing the clean air and loving the snow...
It is more than just that, being somewhere I've long studied about has been like a dream, watching the plane on a map, every minute closer to my destiny. Confused arrived there and found happiness immediately. All was confusing, the weather, the rush, a head ache and a terrible jetlag that persisted for one full week...
In the beginning I couldn't understand any Swedish, doing so made me feel a bit frustrated and silly... then, I did! and everything changed around me, I was no longer a stranger.

First couple of days, me and Erik, went to different places in Stockholm, such as the Nordic Museum, which kept my attention with a Sami exhibition, (I took a course about Sami's ethnography) and; the Army museum, in which I learned how Sweden sent more than 10 thousand soldiers to help Finland during the Winter and Continuation Wars against the Soviet Union.
We also visited every important and representative place in Gamla Stan, the central island in Sthlm, that houses the Parliament --the center of Swedish democracy;), The Royal Palace, the Opera House, The Royal Theater , The House of Culture and concerts and so on...

I'll keep talking about them next time :D

Mexico city

2010-03-07T23:56:00.001-06:00

This text seemed to me as accurate and colorful:

Mexico Citys raw, concrete landscape...The citys ruckus, violence and camaraderie make music and emotions more intense. Sadness is sadder, faster and harder becomes reckless, beauty is rare and hence more treasured. The grittiness of the city leaks into even the finest klezmer clarinet piece and the fast dance songs are all the more rowdy.

--by Isorättyä art (for P. Madre)

No-word

2010-02-27T15:18:00.002-06:00

There is no no-word in my world, there is no no-word in my sky, I always knew it was going to be difficult, but since when difficult means impossible? no deceitful words in my sky exist as no pain is caused by the rupture when something suddenly changes.

No-word is reckless, is powerless and has no room in this world. One "no" means to grow stronger in a row of consecutive no's, but I am strained on the string, waiting for my status to change to "accepted, you're studying here next fall".

2010 is getting cool!!!

2010-01-09T12:10:00.007-06:00

Tal parecía ser, todas las circunstancias me complicaban llegar a mi destino: viajar la siguiente semana. Digo todas las circuntancias, porque, ni me pagaron en mi trabajo hasta casi una semana después porque no sabían cuánto era mi finiquito, mi traductor de cabecera se fue de vacaciones y no tuvo listo un trabajo que le encargué --no sabiamente-- 2 días antes del inicio de sus vacaciones y que sólo hubo terminado hasta ayer... caí enferma más de 2 veces en las 3 últimas semanas, me dio una infección de ojo y el otro lo golpée con un tubo... maldición!!!
pero en 2 días entrego mi tesis en la uni, trabajo que he venido haciendo los últimos meses, he enviado 2 solicitudes de maestría hasta ahora (me faltan 2) y trabajando --y con ayuda de los reconocidos reyes magos--he logrado comprar un boleto de avión y seguir mis sueños hasta Estocolmo, La Venecia del norte, la Capital de Escandinavia y cuantas otras acepciones pudiesen atribuirsele.

***

Well, I will be posting my adventures, as for that was created this blog on the beginning, posting photos, and the good bits, experiences, to sum up, all I'll learn.

Next time I'll be writing from Scandinavia!!

Reward

2009-12-15T19:33:00.003-06:00

I do not know what to do...
sick, in my room, missing my baby and worrying about tomorrow is not the best combination, everyday giving small steps to the finishing line, but I am tired, I am too tired. Can't I just be sent to Sthlm? well, good is I am not a quitter and there is the biggest reward waiting for me, it has a shape, it has a sound, it has that smell that drives me crazy, it has a smile and a name I will repeat with barely half-open lips, it has feelings, and they are for me.
It is my reward that keeps me going.

Altruism vs selfishness

2009-11-11T23:41:00.003-06:00

Everything's following its natural course and developing kind of well, I was really stressed about what's been happening lately and wondered how was I going to manage this enormous bunch of things to do. My checklist contains like a hundred issues, and I've checked 2 of those, or barely checked.
hmm I learnt worrying leads just to stress and viceversa, so after yelling, complaining, getting sad, and bursting out, I knew how it was going to be, I just knew it and then I've loaded my batteries for the battle, working everyday. That is the way it has to be if I want to approach something standing at the top of the top. Competition is harsh, but I've been given fierce skills to address exactly what I want, hopefully :P
Starting point was writing about "altruism vs selfishness" in mammals: underlying reasons to meerkat's sentinel role as well as for human's philanthropist behavior, to act in a certain form. It happened they were pursuing more than general welfare, but a more individualistic profit.
Uhh, I shouldn't have even known.

Cybernetic efficiency

2009-11-03T18:49:00.003-06:00

Nowadays job searching is more and more taking place underground, in decoded cybernetic connections, through a language that seems indecipherable for most human beings, who can only perceive the surface of the iceberg and click here and there to get a clue from what they do.

A positive outlook shows restricted human contact, that is to say avoided, which in the most of the cases happens to be the most concurred common place. Losing contact, saving time and obtaining juicy profits: a perfect and better world where efficiency is rated the highest whilst humans are set aside. It is not a scary futurist satire, it is life in the early XXI century towards a functional, rich and better country, continent, world...

Getting a job through companies such as bumeran or manpower via internet demonstrates you don't have to go out your house to get hired. It is enough to fill in an online application and send two or three CV to find something...

I am not advertising, but I am surprised and determined to keep on looking for a " practical" meaning.

Berlin

2009-10-08T00:39:00.004-05:00

Twenty years after. The collapse of communist ideology and reinforcement of a new one. The end of an era, characterized by a prolonged cold war that lasted more than 40 years.
The birth of a new lasting system, capitalism, that for good or not still rules the world nowadays.
What is next?

IO's to accomplish intl security and peace goals

2009-10-04T22:55:00.006-05:00

International Organizations to accomplish international security and peace goals for global stability are in charge to lay out the framework for cooperation, steadfast organization and destroying most remarkable perils to new human security dimension.
Promoting peace requires addressing their own assets, urging States to sanction the treaties. There are some questionable practices of wrong doing by some countries which are unaware of the Cultural Relativism concept, though I agree with the final aim of them all, as long as they keep clear and even practices.
Some will inveigh about it, but working organizations such as UN, OSCE, WEU, NATO and more have proved their effectiveness on the field. Let's just take a look to the Former Yugoslavia, Middle East or Africa.

It was always inside me

2009-09-18T11:38:00.006-05:00

I am overly close to reach the celestial vault... why do I hesitate making a furrow instead of plainly jumping? I am there, observing the cliff and I want to feel free to fly eternally, free to life.

Today I've decided to jump because I am following the sky not the bottom. It's too close, it's too close that it's almost touchable, breathable and I perceive the smell, the rapture, the adventure, I see it through blind eyes and feel it within as a fluid within my natural fluids, as energizing electricity from the electricity in my brain, through my organs... it's that gives life, strength, opportunity. The push I needed, the final approach I longed for, it is here, and I no longer see it --I am afraid, what has happened?

Well, I regret to say, I won't see it again, because it is taking roots in the depths of my being to never leave me again.

How important is...

2009-09-11T01:50:00.007-05:00

I love when you...
touch me, call me, look at me, write me, sing for me or with me, look after me, hug me, kiss me, make me laugh, mesmerize me, surprise me, insight-me, cook for me, dance with me, learn, read and live with me, talk to me nicely, sweetly...
when you walk with me and go to share anything, when you hastily come to me if I beckon...

When you express something I feel the world could crumble around and I would not noticed it

Today I was on the radio

2009-09-05T00:40:00.006-05:00

Or ipod... In this cold, rainy afternoon, I thought nothing good could came to me, as I was jacket-less and wet (as I hate carrying sweater) even though I stole, pardon, borrowed David’s umbrella. Somehow I deserved the umbrella, as I waited with him for his girlfriend after her class, or he deserved it as well, as I always drink his mate and eat the food his lovely mom always prepares...unfortunately he is becoming a vegetarian now, when I’ve decided I could eat some meat after 7 years of starvation and denial.

After the natural shower, while I was in the horribly full metropolitan transportation, —as an ideal of a Colombian system that worked well for smaller cities, and our authorities thought it was worth it to try— it started beating some electronic tunes in the shape of a lap who boarded the same bus as me, and was close enough so I could hear that deafening high volume on his headphones, as anybody else 3 meters around him. I was surprised he was not deft, maybe that could have explained the volume, but it didn’t.

Huge was my surprise when those beats started having a mental meaning to me...Röyksopp tunes... yes, Röysopp!!! Oh I was astonished by that time! He had that attitude: you mortals have no idea what glory am I going through, you’ll never understand what comes from the north, caressing the poles... and yes, it is me dancing in this ethereal cloud of booms...

But I did understand the beauty and ecstasy. I did get it, and now I am not alone.
Röksopp is to me the rapture of my old soul.

Erik och Joanna

2009-08-21T23:25:00.003-05:00

Min älskling. Min vän.
De har brutit upp hem. Det känns inte bra, det är alltid hemskt att brytta...
Jag hoppas att våra vägar hittar varandra igen, en dag --snart. Därför jag redan är ledsen utan mina favoriter svenskar.

Lycka till!!!

Troll-ekorres vaggvisa för mina stora trana

När troll-ekorre har lagt sitt enda stora troll,
och bundit fast honom i svansen.
Då sjunger hon sakta för sitt enda stora troll,
de vackraste ord hon känner.
Ho aj aj aj aj buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff buff buff...

More, my favorite quotes, part II

2009-08-11T00:52:00.002-05:00

Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet
again. And meeting again after moments or a lifetime is certain for those who
are friends.
:::Richard Bach

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
:::William Blake

Yes, charming! Charming!...And in love? she asked herself. In love with?...With me! The evidence was instantly obvious to her, her heart leaped. The flame in the hearth cast on the ceiling a trembling joyful glow...
:::Flaubert

He's a Blockhead who wants a proof of what he can't perceive;
And he is a fool who tries to make such a Blockhead believe...

Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity...
:::W.Blake

One is not born a woman, one becomes one
:::Simone de Beauvoir

Closer

2009-08-03T01:59:00.003-05:00

Cheeky behaviour! so allow me to take you to the "Closer" world, full of naivety, mischievousness, trust, dreams, infidelities and hidden love... Nothing really matters here, prejudices are off, so give a bare welcome to the truth and some lies, only for the sake of our own sins' atonement

I'm your stranger - JUMP!

Oh, as if you had no choice? There's a moment, there's always a moment, “I can do this, I can give into this, or I can resist it”, and I don't know when your moment was, but I bet there was one.

Don't you fucking say I'm too good for you. I am, but don't say it.

Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off. But it's more fun if you do.

Oh? What did he leave out?
--The truth.

No. It's because... she doesn't need me.

Where is this love? I can't see it, I can't touch it. I can't feel it. I can hear it. I can hear some words, but I can't do anything with your easy words.
(My personal favourite quote)

I don't want to lie. I can't tell the truth. So it's over

I don't love you anymore. Goodbye.

Now fuck off and die, you fucked up slag.

I am not a minx, but the truth

Novelty...

2009-08-01T00:19:00.003-05:00

First minutes, first of August...
So why not to start with all the already long enough procrastinated plans??

That is how is has to be. The way it should be from now and on... no more languid Prometheus, but I am leaving a crack for the Pandora box mysteries' outbreak to unfold.

Wishing the trapped knowledge to liberate

Italy: curb to immmigrants, the Northern League actions

2009-07-30T12:49:00.006-05:00

"Italy is absolutely not a racist country. We just want to be sure that the immigrants who arrive on our land want to be here to work, not to make crimes," says Paolo Grimaldi, an MP for the right-wing Northern League.
As far as one and a half year ago, when the main struggle for power was taking place in Italy it was already glimpsed that strict measures were coming. It reflects that the Northern League "innocent" advertising and election campaigns were not as innocent as they tried to be exposed to the EU.
Thus, now with these new anti-immigration laws passed, which is the extent of rigidness they will reach?
I do not mean to pointlessly protect all illegal immigrants, but is it compulsory to promote punishments such as a substantial fine (5-10 thousand €) or unarmed citizens' patrols that involve population to take action against them?

Human rights are in the spot

It was published in the BBC site this week.

War-peace?

2009-07-24T22:52:00.006-05:00

"Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed"

Preamble of UNESCO's constitution

Master's work-time

2009-07-20T02:29:00.008-05:00

Why is it so difficult for developing countries people to apply for an acknowledged international master program? It should be enough to hold excellent academic and work credentials, but since Mexico joined the OECD our country is considered to belong to the global elite of rich countries: such a bad decision made by our former president, based in the fact that our gross domestic product is only busted because we have the richest man on earth living in our land, Mr. Slim, whose business profits do not necessarily correspond with the Mexico you see over the streets, which don't even match the reality of mexican society.
Apparently I am not satisfied with this situation, the reason that led me here initially was my application procedures to study abroad, a task for the one I am doing an heroic effort to pursue... no country give great scholarships for mexicans (those we need to cover fees and expenses), even though we have a minimum wage average between 51.95 and 54.80 pesos per at least an 8hour journey (about 3.89 and 4.1 USD per day) a salary that places us only over the threshold of poverty (pointing out 3 USD) dictated by international organizations.
Procedures and deadlines carry on (earlier for overseas students) while -overwhelmed- I am trying to keep one's balance not discussing about national politics...

Oh you busted piñata!! all your sweets are falling out!!

2009-07-15T00:27:00.007-05:00

It is important decisions time, about the own being, about what is coming... but all I can think about are: busted piñatas!!!! I should blame my friend Ste for that.
Here it is what is stuck in my head: swedish crib-cot songs or Vaggvisor!!

Prästens lilla kråka

Prästens lilla kråka skulle ut och åka, ingen hade han som körde.
Prästens lilla kråka skulle ut och åka, ingen hade han som körde.
Å slank han hit, och än slank han dit, och än slänk han ner i diket.
Å slank han hit, och än slank han dit, och än slänk han ner i diket.

Listen Prästens lilla kråka video

Trollmors vaggvisa

När trollmor har lagt sina elva små troll,
och bundit dom fast i svansen.
Då sjunger hon sakta för elva små trollen,
de vackraste ord hon känner.

Ho aj aj aj aj buff,
ho aj aj aj aj buff,
ho aj aj aj aj buff buff buff,
ho aj aj aj aj buff.

Listen Trollmors sång

You can find loads of children swedish songs and x-mas ones with its lyrics+video in this place:

Barnvisor

Packing, unpacking... it's never done!!!

2009-06-30T02:30:00.003-05:00

Unfinished is the word to better describe the state of my room and my mental status. Past few months meant a challenge at any concern, as I packed and unpacked I've learnt not just how to (un)fold my clothes at speed... I've seen, experimented, in few words: lived, grew and loved. Sometimes I got too tired, physically it was like training, emotionally it was explosive, provocative, but I turned always cramming for more, eager to bound myself to a transitory instant plentiful of joy, true glory. Trying to set and store every memory —as they were drops to collect during a jiffy before they fell— so they came to linger for eternity. As they shall do, being grateful.

What I expected to happen came at once exceeding all my expectations.

Danish opportunies

2009-05-12T20:41:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't written on time that I've worked for the Royal Embassy of Denmark, so I am doing it... It was something that came out as divine chance. Some friends asked wheter I was staying for long or not, but I did my best hoping they will call me for new projects again. My job was mainly concerning to the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen (COP15), so it was very interesting to deal with, quite challenging aswell.
I'll be dropping some lines soon, as I clear my mind from this laboral state, so I'd be able to bend myself in a new mood.

Le desert: keep updated, keep in touch

2009-05-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

I should have been keeping you up with the most concerning news bout Mexican epidemic-state. However it has been difficult, what can I say that hasn’t been stated somewhere?? As an epigraph I might attach a bit from my non-political perspective, risking myself from looking too vain. That’s how my description goes: after more than a week of being closed up in four walls the economic crisis has experimented deep fluctuations that will affect our economy, despite the irrelevancy it represents to terrified Mexicans with a lack of attention put to it, business bankrupts or drug legalization…
Since yesterday life was reactivated in most of the country, today it came in across the streets of Mexico City. I noticed that when I was walking to work along the main business and corporative enterprises’ avenue, whilst eating in a warm restaurant and during my ethereal abstraction due to that Norwegian photo exhibition which kept me walking for more than 2 hours. A great one, now I deeply feel like heading myself towards Trømso and Bergen (amongst the other Nordic destinations I do have in mind)

Aujourd'hui

Keep the peace, forget the scope, elucidate time

2009-05-08T10:55:00.002-05:00

A massive avalanche of memories from high rated past few days is spinning round & carrying me out till the top of my head… droping a line feeling has come back finally!!! And this new inspiration fills me up enough and pushes me forward too. Berserk girl am I, usually plethoric from such a burden? Why don’t we call it just a rush u really do not need to fulfil at any extent when certain accomplishment performed will never happen. It is neither a hint nor a hue, it’s a declaration of openly knocking over my being -against all odds- all around you that is heating me(-mind) up.
When it is said about the right person in front of me, it will never become boring, turn usual, it would only hide the top touch shaping a pretentious denial to keep the forms.

Mon amoureux garçon

May the 7th

Relativeness’ killing all ‘round (I need a journal)

2009-05-08T10:53:00.002-05:00

Thinking about my latest post I was wondering, revolving all my thoughts, trying to put some order… but they seemed humongous-ly plain, as if I wanted to say so much more but the rush made me write pure rubbish, however, there’s some of a hint of truth lying on it, just like: I feel like ranting, but my resource-less life is heading me to empty spaces to truly express myself, it is like writing with transparent like ink over an air-scroll, which draws futile words instead of a proper abstraction or complex-beautifully pouring letters over ancient paper.
The idea of writing is romantic itself, the fact of attaching deep meaning to everything through the process of adjective-ise doesn’t mean building judgments, but characterising what is stated. That is how I relieve myself when I am amongst my inherent solitude, but it is what also makes me realise how much life is adorning my existence, my new being-me, although, according to each ones outlook, it might be just a little bit of fleeting happiness. Not taking what you have in front of you is not living, that’s my answer to that floating in the space question nobody dares to ask me.
Carpe diem, oh yeah sweet!! From the bottom of my guts!!!

May the 5th

Weighing up the pros & cons...

2009-05-04T20:31:00.007-05:00

An accurate risk-recount trying to measure the damages and benefits of living alone would point out with certain ease that I am increasingly becoming more flexible at mind and body. All those clichés I used to lived with are now fading, a life in which you don't know what's next shows you why they were no more than a sticky burden.

Everything's easier now, feeling free makes me grow and discover who really I am, without boundaries, stereotypes or a far-fetched parent's grousing mood.

Just one month later I left home, I am actually discovering what is like to be me :)

Me-Mew-Me again

2009-04-14T09:29:00.001-05:00

Finally!!! I've been working on setting aside my new way from the former, hard-sad task it was...But as all my true friends told me it was going to happen: Freedom tastes good and I'm increasingly appreciating it. Although the vestiges will remain to make up my mind when needed, suddenly a new trail appears amongst the dusty wood and mood reminiscences, pointing out that "homeless" is my temporary suiting state...

The prettiest homeless in the world

2009-04-08T15:26:00.010-05:00

After a long dissertation about the motives to move out my parents place, I finally left the nest to spread my wings...barely resource-less, but happy is how I've started a new life.

While writing my thesis I am looking for a job and a definite place to live my friends have shown they are my support, like a chosen family.

Trying to live life as never before uncontrollable fate hasn't disappointed me and proved there's someone who's my hint of light in the doom :)

Nouvelle inspiration: Dies iræ (epíteto)

2009-03-15T02:38:00.007-06:00

My first Castilian text... just avoiding global English reigning truth
Las catástrofes retienen cierto halo de la inspiración sin mesuras, contenida dentro del ciclo de hechos cuya progresividad dio origen a la hecatombe. Inescrutables palabras que evidencian la aún más enmarañada colectividad de cavilaciones, de sospechas e inesperadas contradicciones. ¿Injusticia o equilibrio divino? El destino o las decisiones, las ideas que promueven la exegesis, todas ellas cubiertas de polvos, circulando cíclicamente no obstante manteniendo la continuidad de lo que es. Propulsión de los adentros, quedase entonces la aversión oculta si no.

Clara predisposición al fracaso, indicaren todas las señales, sin embargo la negación constituye su malvado desempeño, cubriendo lo que es doblegado por lo imaginario sine qua non se allega sentido a nada. Al final terminase como si nunca hubiese existido, pero permanece encarnado el vestigio de lo que fue o la perene locura ante lo que nunca será.

Epílogo poético

PRÁCTICA MORTAL

Subir los remos y dejarse

llevar con los ojos cerrados.

Abrir los ojos y encontrarse

vivo: se repitió el milagro.

Anda, lévantate y olvida

esta ribera misteriosa

donde has desembarcado.

G. Zaid

Smitten...!!!

2009-03-11T22:41:00.003-06:00

What is that thing called love that we human beings constantly bring to our thoughts???
Someone who has never loved would be shocked by the answer.
Love about... someone or something?? Which is its display in an affectionate way??
Every answer would be different as each person has an own background, lovely tender stories gathered to form what it represents to me a shiny white light that encourages you to do everything, what makes you feel, be, what makes the world follow a new, long and unexpected trail: novelty
Now... am I wondering about my love?
I have been repeatedly saying that I completely, totally adore the Nordics, mainly Finland, (now Sweden more indeed) but lately I haven't had enough motivation to write, is that a sign, or am I only in the battered"not feeling like it" mood?
For love matters, there is not a right question or an answer. You do it or you don't.
Hopefully next time I'll be talking about security or politics
x

Havanna Mamma

2008-12-28T01:56:00.002-06:00

Life's passing by and I've became a graduate student, waiting for the future while living the moment, carpe diem! (and writing thesis as well)
Let's see what happens next few months, because I am changing as time goes by

with a smile

Hon hade väntat flera timmar då hon äntligen förstod

Oktoberfest/Match/November: Death month

2008-10-21T00:08:00.005-05:00

Hangover-ed, after partying saturday night, I had the wonderful idea of popping by the German Club in the sunny demarcation of Xochimilco. The motivation was clear: Beer, alcohol, food and party! whitin the framework of Oktoberfest 2008, mexican edition.
What can I say? too much high quality beer, but in a very familiar environment. The best (excluding beer) was Jägermeister, saxon beverage made with 56 herbs...
Dance, music and singing, mechanical bull, rides but many kids to make it difficult...

October 29
Football match
I've decided to stick this entry here, as it's senseless making a big deal from a match...only good thing was putting together the people I love the most: sis, fish and dad in the same place, watching the way Pumas kicked Sn. Francisco's ass :D
After that... we swept along uni, reaching out enormous offerings: water mirror with a commemorative canoe due to Octavio Paz legacy and quite original concepts and designs spitting skeletons and tradition all around.
An extended culture itself...flowers and costumes

STARS: Live Mexico city

2008-10-01T01:24:00.011-05:00

They played tonight, just before october starts… In was a small warm venue, decorated by silver-leafs bouquets over the instruments, some roses were strategically placed to bring the romantic touch... hundreds of people in a place for at least one hundred less.
“The night starts here”... it was the beginning just few minutes past nine in the evening... the set list also included since I remember Barricade, Bitches in Tokyo, Ageless Beauty, Life 2: Unhappy ending, Today will be better, I swear!, Death and death, Take me to the riot, among other songs from In our bedroom after the war, they also delighted us (for barely two hours!!) with two new singles from their latest album: Sad Robots...they played more songs, such as One more night, Sleep tonight, Heart and Calendar girl.
The thing I remember the most is the power in the voice of Torquil and Amy, the energy around, given by a melange between people and the scorching vibrations produced by the speakers, the colourful lighting and those thin rays emulating stars...

Here are the pics =>
:D
http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd211/lauratisisima/Stars/?albumview=slideshow

Feeling discipline

2008-09-15T23:14:00.005-05:00

This label has really nothing to do with my mood now. It is ironical instead, as I promised to write soon and I haven't. I did not feel like to...
Now to say I am already in track: uni, job (dumped), new brand thesis theme, languages coming to my head at once, just like a cartoon’s anvil threw by a coyote against my head. Pushing me to this new zombie status, when writings are brushed like any kind on blooming ideas.

This is getting boring, but few words remain: music lover and knowledge seeker I am, I’ve became. The bad thing is, as my Swedish and French are going well, my English basis is declining. Hmmm

Nothing special or new in life then... it is how it is, how it goes, but not as it could be, as it should be: not even close to perfection.

Wishing u check my music (last fm profile, linked above) and my writing would flow soon so you can read some more quality words... :P

See u

Farewell

2008-02-02T02:54:00.000-06:00

Our last days were plentiful of nerdy stuff, as visiting museums and learning how life works in a city as London. We enjoyed parties, dinners, places, walks and most important, the company of friends.
This is when we said good bye to all. Farewell London...
Hey! But it’s not the very end yet :)
We waited at Heathrow, having breakfast and checking duty free. Our trip was very comfortable but as we were under Greenland, the plain shacked awfully with turbulences... we landed in Washington to connect to Mexico’s city. It wasn’t over... a heavy thunder storm forbade us to take off. The storm wasn’t over after 3 hours!!! We did board the plane, but we waited 2 more hours on it... Our total delay was up to five hours, reaching my city —after several weeks, up to months— at 3am, in the middle of the night.

Brighton: Gay Parade

2008-02-02T01:03:00.000-06:00

A day that was scheduled to be a quiet afternoon watching Cricket, suddenly turned out into a jaunt when everybody —always aware about the weather forecast and glared by the amazing sun, coming out for the only time we were in England—decided to run away addressing just one thing: a Brighton’s beach sunny day. So we packed and ran early to the train station. There were long queues trying to get a ticket. Deep was my surprise while watching hundreds of Londoners waiting to the official announcement of the platform where the train would depart, and instantly human rivers running towards it when a voice called the 19th platform!
Finally after not few incidents —as I delayed our departure by invalidating our tickets by mistake :P— we got there and met another friend who lives a few blocks from the beach and the pier.
As a coincidence we arrived the next day after the Gay Parade, but the party was still on: hundreds of semi-naked men dancing all over the streets, scattered in pubs, through doors, and paths, shops and laying over the hotels’ cornices. Colourful flags, people dancing with different rhythms while drinking and laughing and a mosaic of beautiful boys showing around their perfect bodies.
We bought our shopping in a small store, drank and ate already in the beach. It was droll to walk over soft stones instead sand, play games and bath into the cooold water.
We didn’t miss the Pier’s attraction, buying some rocks or eating eel (in a cold jelly) and seafood.
The best was when we visited the oldest pub and some other in a “Pub’s visit” —just as we liked to do in the whole trip— I tried the cherry beer and different stouts.
It was wonderful how I did get exited when arrived to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory! Next to it there’s this pub, where we ate and spent the last part of the journey, where fish drank the entire place! From stout to tequila shots and more... (tequila in England??? :P) I ended up carrying his backpack climbing a hill just as the others tried to make him recover in the train station, while he was dancing and listening to music with a cute stranger... our way back was tiring, having to board a train next day to stay with another mate. By that time I hated to carry my freaking suitcase and wondered how I bought that Venetian mask full of feathers...

London one more time…

2008-01-17T01:59:00.003-06:00

Paris was fantastic, but I won’t deny London is my weakness. After 2 short short weeks I took this plain that brought me back to England. I wanted to stay longer in France at the end. Weirdly nowadays I feel very nostalgic about those days in la cite de la lumière, as a certain lack that quickly grew while I was flying...

By leaving cloudy, humid Paris to land in a dazzling and flirty territory about its sun rays all over Luthon, I was addressing my “last one” from each thing: the last day with friends, the last museum, the last stout, the last walk, the last visit, the last sunset, the last-ing rain tapping my head...

Nonetheless it was my first time in others such as Nothing Hill, Portobello, The Royal Albert Hall, The Natural History Museum, Kew Gardens and Westminster. These boroughs are surprising, antiquities are self-evident, 'dancing' figures and colourful fabrics, foreigners, mainly from Italy and Spain came there... a cool mixture

The edifications of the RAH and the NHM are impressive. This last joins any kind of collections and marvellous representations from dinosaurs and savage animals.
Westminster amazed me with its architecture, its sculptures, its tombs and all the royalty stuff! The chapels, the choir, the throne and the shrines... Known names lay there, such as Newton, Darwin and Queen Elizabeth.

Kew Gardens is massive! Hectares and hectares fulfilled with nature, greenhouses with different subjects, buildings, and animals: horses in caravans, ducks in long rivers and glittering lakes, statues and falls, swans, birds, squirrels and some peacocks; bamboos’ areas with little Japanese style houses, the aquarium with fish and turtles and another snapping animals... the orchids collection and the cactus one! Very old plants that stood still and some curiosities that were the most to be true... unique plants in its kind... a relaxing place to learn while you are just, walking!!

Au revoir Paris

2008-01-17T01:16:00.000-06:00

The last night was the night! Dancing all around in a club built over what used to be a train station and walking over the Champs Élysées heading east Paris: the channels of St martin. Woke up just to drink my last cup of black coffee accompanied de pan chocolat. And good byes everywhere!!! That’s not pleasant. Fortunately each farewell grants high doses of party and send-off feasts.
Most important, it implies a “will be”. And I will meet all my friends sooner than before.
Actually both English men and half French have come to Mexico in 2008. The other half will come in February and March...
This party will never stop, here or up there :P
Mundane pleasures...

Musées de Orsay et Le Louvre/ Château de Versailles

2008-01-09T01:57:00.000-06:00

These are breathtaking places I was thrilled about so far… the architecture is superb and the exhibitions’ distribution makes each piece to shine enormously.

The best pieces in Orsay are those of the impressionist in the top floor: Renoir, Monet, Manet, Sisley, etc. till the end of the world...

Louvre is massive!!! Unbelievable how big it is and impossible to describe the collections they posses. Just a few words: the best museum I’ve ever been to. Art is one of my deepest passions and my soul was filled as never before...

Versailles is living art. The Palace, the gardens, fountains, the ‘dancing waters’, the Louis XIV music, the mirrors in the palace, the historical content since Louis’ era until the heritage of XIX century reflected in the nowadays UN. It is a compulsory point of reference, beautiful and always pleasant. It has no parallel.

Saint Honorine (Yvelines)

2008-01-09T01:27:00.000-06:00

In Saint Honorine, also in the Yvelines we went to visit the orchard of another friend, picking all the vegetables and fruits :P It was a small, warming, enjoyable town. Me and my friends worked lots before resting under the rays of sun, cooked a barbecue (for me it was fish :P), played games, danced, drank like a school of fish.

OTHER TOP PLACES
They are the park of La Ville de Paris, St. Suplice and St. Germain churches, Montmartre narrow streets, the channels, Pierre et Gilles exhibition, trocadero, etc.

L’Etange la ville/ Ville de Chatou : Musée et La Maison Fournaise /St. Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines)

2008-01-09T01:04:00.000-06:00

Hmmm where should I begin???? Well first and foremost will introduce these places... L’Etange la ville is a town located one hour driving from Paris to the west. Is where another friend lives emergently and where we stayed a while... La Ville de Chatou is a ‘city’ or Île Chatou, because it is an island. And St. Germain-en-Laye is located in the Yvelines, outside Paris, but not so far.
I got delighted about La Maison Fournaise, it is like its name indicates, a house and a museum, where the impressionist painters took inspiration to their works (the beauty of the landscapes) and started an intellectual amusing environment...
La maison was funded by the Fournaise family, a boat maker who opened a restaurant...

“André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck set up their studio in the Levanneur house near to the Fournaise restaurant. Guillaume Apollinaire and Henri Matisse visited frequently and this freethinking elite let loose their creativity. The particularly vivid colours used by the Fauvists illustrate the aesthetic atmosphere that these meetings ignited. During the first years of the 20th Century, the two Fauves represented the pictorial Avant-garde movement
Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre Prins were amongst those that habitually walked the island in search of that elusive, perfect light that shimmers upon the waters of the Seine.
Edgar Degas was a close friend of Madame Fournaise... Gustave Caillebotte enjoyed rowing locally and Guy de Maupassant often spoke of the heart-warming atmosphere of La maison Fournaise.From 1868 to 1884, Pierre Auguste Renoir was a regular guest of the Fournaise restaurant. He once declared: I was constantly spending my time chez Fournaise” (cited from http://www.musee-fournaise.com/)

Should I add Impressionism is one of my top painting tendencies?

Paris, deuxième foi

2008-01-09T00:04:00.001-06:00

What would be Paris without La Bastille, Le Moulin rouge, Pigalle, La Loco or the Hôtel des Invalides, without Air France, Montparnasse, St. Germain des près or Louis Vuitton?
All this places contain its own flavour, its own moyen de vie... there is an humongous difference between spending one night walking Seine’s shores while drinking red wine and one afternoon in La Défense or the Centre Georges Pompidou.
La vie de Paris has one place to each person, one can live ‘nicely’ or poorly, it depends, but it is like all big cities lives.
Last summer Le Grand Palais and the Petit Palais allowed the entrance to their enclosures, due to a Cuban event taken place in. It was called Havana night, so I went there to dance with a French friend and a Guatemalan girl who was a guest like me at the same place in Montmartre with our lovely hosts Gwen and Tavo. But before that, we had time to contemplate Eiffel Tower diamonds’ while drinking, yes, red wine! After partying we had this looong walk in Champs-Élysées, non the less but 4 in the morning, such a different experience to try...
The thing about wine in France is amazing, it is very cheap and high quality one, so I could drink red wine till the end of the world, and for sure accompanied with good cheese and bread (sometimes, preferably pan chocolat, sweet on the aftermath :P)
La cuisine française is delicious so far, and complicated too. We had the luck to spend time on the ‘mobile’ markets in Montmartre and that our friends cooked for us. Both of them worked to give us an unbelievable welcome dinner...

(Torino towards) PARIS I

2007-12-26T02:40:00.001-06:00

Leaving Rome took me to rediscover the Torino flashes I'd missed, such as Il Museo Egizio or Il Cafe Torino in Piazza Castello...
Then one Monday morning I just left Italy and my friends, coming back to la cite de la lumière, staying near le Sacré Cœur.
Paris is a fantastique city to spin around, finding everything in the same place and good quality of course. It is so stylish, snobbish, historical, cultured, technological, relaxed, cool place. From the Orsay Museum, The Louvre, to L’Arc du triomphe and La Tour Eiffel.
Walking over Les Champs-Élysées, Le quartier du Marais, La Concorde, Les Tulleries or Pont Saint Louis is a full experience, you can see the modern in harmony with the old, the elegance of haute couture designers, the religiousness through gothic art such as la église de Notre Dame and the sportive sight in the project Paris plage or in the court Roland Garros.
Parisiennes enjoy life from the dawn to cultural and nocturnal momentums, the city rhythm is only irrupted when you decide to look up and around to glimpse the quietness of parks, gardens (like La Ville floral), castles (Vincennes and the Palais du Luxembourg), churches, cemeteries (Père LaChase), channels (eg St. Martin)...
I loved walking within Montmartre’s narrow streets, where one of my favourite movies was filmed (Amelie)... dancing in nice clubs comme La fleche D’or or Le Divan du Monde and having the traditional picnic at Pont Saint Louis, whilst the sun was falling, staring at the bateaux-mouches.

Roma

2007-12-26T02:12:00.000-06:00

Looking backwards to build changes and dont pretend to bore you with descriptive long tales, but wonderful feelings and what this experiences have let me.
After Milano, Padova, Bologna, Vicenza, Trento and Verona more than a few times I went to Rome. When all the paths leads you to Rome cant avoid its supremacy: The Roman Empire and the beggining of western civilization. A cosmopolite city with the peculiarity that the new is cohabiting with the ancient.
Many places impressed me the most (even before getting Rome, in the near towns like Oviedo, built in the top of a hill): Colosseo, Palatino, Pantheon, St Peters and the Vatican, Castello S. Angello, La Fontana di Trevi :)
"When he was alive the nature was afraid of him, but when he died, nature died itself" something similar is written in Raphaello's tumb in the Pantheon.
The view of the Vatican when you go there walking from the east, in the middle of the night, watching the lights of St. Angel's Castle and the sounds of the Tever's waters dipping its shores is almost as exiting as admiring La Fontana di Trevi for the first time. What came to my mind immediately was "La dolce vita" and the back alleys to get there.

I'M BACK

2007-12-18T10:46:00.000-06:00

HELLO EVERYBODY OUTSIDE MY LITTLE WORLD!!! I am happy to assure Im back to stay... as many of you know a student life's pure rubbish most of the time and permanently on the end of the semester.
But today Im here to publish this blog still go on and it will be re-newed. Im going to finish my Trip adventures (because I wont give up) and then I'd prolly begin to write about another matters I will figure out on the road...
A recommendation for those who like electro and new music: check the next adress, which is the blog of my friend Lalo Estrada, but hey, it is in spanish :P http://lalo-strada.blogspot.com
See u all soon, very soon.

Venice

2007-10-03T17:59:00.001-05:00

Following the story: We all went to Venice on the 8th and walked, saw more than 10 churches, including famous San Marcos, the sighs bridge, the markets and even an exhibtion from La biennial de Venezia, which sucject was Iceland. We went to eat into a 'osteria' which is part a bar, part a restaurant. I bought a venetian mask and we did a lot of walking in that calorous day, the best birthday I've ever had... :)

2- Eastern Italy

2007-09-20T16:12:00.000-05:00

Bologna, Dolo/Mestre/Marguera, and Trento. Well, we went to Bolonia the day of a mass demostration, deep in the most leftist wing city in Italy :) and as it was a mess we couldn't do anything, so we went shoping. It is amazing how many places are off there, is a thing that starts one day and the whole city changes its colours to open the shop windows.
One day I decided to travel towards Trento, la citá del Consiglio di Trento, so historically it is very important. I went to the castle, which was the place that impressed me the most. It had an ancient gold -from western Europe- collection and it was sited by the Autrian Empire in XX century. It was very beautiful... I also was a bit lost withouth dictionary or anything, so I faced a weird situation when I went to eat... but I found out a latin american lady owning a restaurant and she helped me a lot. There they speak a mix of languages as they live very close to Austria, thus while were talking among them in 'italian-austrian' language I got out of focus... no matter that this is a wonderful city. The church is amazing, is gloomy, very dark, with torchs and little stairs to the top -which seemed to lead to dungeons- everything is in dark colours, different from any other city or church I went in Italy, in fact, only 3 hours in train to Trento and I felt in another country, really.
One day before my b-day we travelled to this three cities, on shoping again... but we slept in Dolo (20min away from Venice), with Beppe and Sara, a wonderful-nice couple who took us to Venice next day. Beppe was born and lived in Venice for years, so he showed us Dolo, with it's high standars and life quality -the river, the mansions and mills. We went for a drink and night walk, where my friends desired me happy b-day when it was 12h00 from the 8th of july...

Again

2007-09-20T15:39:00.001-05:00

Hello there!!! I've been absent, is just school is mad. I will follow the story then...After those hurry days in the north west we moved to the east, till Verona and the little brilliant town 'San Bonifacio' where we spent a lot of time. From there we moved each day to diferent places, such as: Verona, Padova, Vicenza, Bologna, Mestre, Dolo, Trento, Venice, came back to Milano... In Verona we went to see the whole city, Adige river and castel vechio, Il Duomo, the hyped back alley of Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Giulieta, and the pretty Arena di verona, a sort of coliseum, but is a smaller size. In Padova we went to the church of st. Anthony or Chiesa di San Antonio di Padova, the saint who grants love wishes :) We also went to the university, where we saw the rit of graduation (a kind of strange thing, where ppl hit the others, dress weird, wear donkey ears, etc...), we also visited the market of the herbs and the one of the fruits. Vicenza is wonderful, it is consider in fact mankind heritage because many of the buildings there were designed by talented Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio: http://www.cisapalladio.org/cisa/doc/bio_e.php?lingua=e -----We went to the Olympic theater, a master piece with a wide range of sculptures, to the Palazzo Valmanara and another palaces holding several artistic trends. A very small town where everything looks like a picture on it, everything is a manifestation of art, but it also has its church, markets and a lot of luxury shops; its a perfect place to stay and just enjoy.

Towards the South

2007-09-05T17:04:00.000-05:00

From London Waterloo I experienced the Eurostar to Paris, where I spent one afternoon waiting my TGV towards northern Italy. So in one day I was in three countries, I ended up knackered by the way. Then after leaving Robin and Chris (my hosts in UK) I saw Vale and Vic, italian and mexican dudes. We slept in Frossasco, a pretty small town 1hour from Torino. That wekeend we visited Arona and moved to Lago di Orta (Lake of Orta) where we had to clean up grannies house before the graduation party of Valeria were taken place. Her friends are unbelievable people, we swam on the lake and I drank like a fish that I fell asleep and a huge spider bit me on the but... I could not sit for days grrrr. Changing completely the enviroment we went to see the Piemonte: Torino, Pinerolo and Pragellato. In the last one took place the winter olimpic games, so we saw the alps. I love Torino, I went there many times, in this beginning and the end. Places are nobby: Piazza castello, La Mole Antonelliana and the National Cinema Museum, The university, the main Church, both rivers, fiume Dora and fiume Po (heeee), il Borgo Medievale (a reproduction from a medieval castle), il Museo Egizio (the biggest collection of egiptian art in the world, after the one in Egipt) and for sure the Cafe Torino, a very nice place where you can drink Torino s traditional coffe, the famous "Bicerin" a blend made with expresso, milk and pure bitter chocolate, it is delicious. By the way, italian coffe is the best, in small quantities, but excellent quality. Concentrated but as an extraordinary shot :) And the food... well I d need a whole post to describe the varieties of dishes and aperitifs. In little words: I won at least 10 pounds in Italy, which I lost later...

London, second half

2007-09-05T16:56:00.000-05:00

In the second half of my journey in june I went to Hampton Court Palace, where Henry the VIII lived. It is an astonishing place, the kitchens are deeply realistic, they even have the smells and the sounds decorated with wax reproductions of food.
I also had party nights in different pubs, including the Cheshire and Salisbury, and another one, that won the first place in pubs scale last year. Over the night I went to China Town, Leicester Square and Soho, the gay burrough.
In Leicester its amazing the amount of ppl walking on the street mostly from 5pm. There I saw a guy who was soldier in Middle East war and he was partying so hard after just coming back. In Soho everybody knew I was latin american (as it is obvious for all londoners) so they talked to me in spanish, it was bananas!!! On this strand, I was so different there that in the bus, in the tube, and all those non turistic places (and some of them also) the people looked at me more than usual. But british are polite beyond comprehension, so it was fine...

Hello London

2007-09-04T14:24:00.001-05:00

London: got there the 19 of june 2007.
After hours and hours of a painful flight we got there to gorgeous west London. My friend Omar and I began our travelling adventures (Notice that sometimes I'll speak in plural and sometimes I wont). Walking about 10 or 15 hours a day left me know better this wonderful city, even if the murky weather displayed sudden changes in a wide spectrum, from cold to sunny, rainny and windy. The first days were crowned with homongous ancient and new discoverings such as the Tower of London, the City Hall, and most amazing buildings and people within Fleet street and Southwark. The Modern Tate was for most a challenge, but it doesnt compares to the worldwide spread reputation that The British Museum enjoys.
In a never-happening cloudy day I walked and visited/saw the Tate, The London Eye, Westminster (and for sure the tower that shelters the Big Ben bell), Downing street 'down' Trafalgar Square and its Nelson's beautiful obelisk. Then something that thrilled me -because I'm declaring myself as Oscar Wilde's fan-: The Savoy. Then Somerset, were was playing Kasabian.
And the final destination from those hectic days: Ye Old Cheshire Cheese!!! my fav pub in London and the oldest one, just built just one year after the big fire from 1666. The thing is it housed a Monastery, but was turned into a pub... a great choice. There you can taste the best stout ever, it even beats hard Guinness. Which one is the best? it's up to you, I dont want to be in trouble...

Me, Purpose from this blog

2007-08-29T15:46:00.001-05:00

Hi,
This is my first post here and I'm so glad about it, because this is the link between my friends and I, a place where I can for the first time share all my experiences and my pics from the Euro trip I've just made.
It is dedicated to all my friends and the lovely people I met whilst on Europe.
This is just the beginning