Locked up

Areszt śledczy, Toruń 2011

Man held custody in the Areszt śledczy building in Toruń. I have often seen people standing outside of the building, groups of friends or girlfriends, communicating with the prisoners either by sign-language or simply by shouting using strange slang that other people don’t really understand. This man was watching me take his photo. He saw me. He stayed in the window. He didn’t seem to mind at all.

Spatif!

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Today I’ve been with my cousin in Spatif where I spent many nights with the people from the diplomacy course we did here in 2007. Great memories with great people.. and Spatif lives on!

Trójmiasto is great at this time of the year. I should come back to Sopot when I have more time to really go out and dance.

Maldita Dulzura



Vetusta Morla – Maldita Dulzura
Mapas (2011)

hablemos de ruina y espina
hablemos de polvo y herida
de mi miedo a las alturas
lo que quieras pero hablemos

de todo menos del tiempo
que se escurre entre los dedos

hablemos para no oírnos
bebamos para no vernos
hablando pasan los días
que nos quedan para irnos
yo al bucle de tu olvido
tu al redil de mis instintos

maldita dulzura la tuya
maldita dulzura la tuya
maldita dulzura la tuya

me hablas de ruina y espina
te clavas el polvo en la herida
me culpas de las alturas
que ves desde tus zapatos

no quieres hablar del tiempo
aunque este de nuestro lado
y hablas para no oírme
y bebes para no verme
yo callo y rio y bebo
no doy tregua ni consuelo
y no es por maldad lo juro
es que me divierte el juego

maldita dulzura la mía
maldita dulzura la mía
maldita dulzura la mía

maldita dulzura la nuestra

un-idle

I haven’t completely unpacked all my things since I came back from Barcelona. I’ve been running around, meeting friends, hanging out, having coffee, lunches, dinners and running tons of errands. It’s been great but today my body said no, gave me a bad headache and forced me to stay at home all day.

It’s okay. Tomorrow I’m boarding a flight again anyway.

Barcelona – A 6 Month Romance.

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Barcelona – my beloved. Thank you, you’re amazing!


Our relationhip lasted 6 full months and I’ve been enjoying every single day of it. The little streets of el Borne & el Gótico never stopped to both confuse and amaze me, the up-close insight into the protests of #Spanishrevolution, the never-ending dancing at carnivals and parties, all the great food cooked by my roomie Daneff, my darlings visiting me from around the world, the live show provided 24/7 by the neighbours, the fun I had when working at the Euroleague Basketball finals with the UNICEF, the hours spent relaxing in the sun in the Ciutadella park and at the different beaches in and around Barcelona, watching football, winning football, my work with the United Nations Association of Spain and most importantly – the boost in vocabulary I got from living in Barcelona, talking to people every day and from my Spanish classes, are priceless experiences that I always will carry with me.

And the people I’ve met – This post is about all of you. Thank you for all our shared moments – I’ve had a great time and many of us will surely meet again!

There is no other way to describe my time in Barcelona than great, I am in love with the city and thankful for the time I got to spend there. Somehow I was lucky to be living next door from one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, two minutes away from my daily classes, five from the UN Association, seven from Plaza Cataluña and 15 from the beach. By foot. In a beautiful apartment with really nice roomies and high ceilings.

Barcelona – Moltes gràcies!! And remember – this is not goodbye, this is hasta luegoI LOVE YOU!

Friendships & Self Development

Getting to know people from different parts of the world means flowing through realities while learning how to appreciate cultural differences and accepting the contrasts between personalities. Taking the details you most appreciate about them and making them yours, letting them affect and change you.

I believe that learning from people is the most colourful and beautiful way for self development. The art is knowing how to find those little differences and mismatches, learning how to handle them and choosing what to apply to your own personality to become a better person. New people and contrasts are the keys to open-mindness and understanding, the secret to learn how to efficiently communicate with people from different worlds and realities. It is the only way to actually understand the culturally bound and completely subcontious signals we at all times are sending out to the world and the effects these signals actually have on our surroundings.

My lifestyle gives me the incredible opportunity to meet and get to know amazing people from everywhere. At the same time, however, it forces me to at some point transform those friendships to an online mode and move on with my things. Because of this, I try to extract as much as possible of every interesting person I meet on the way, and staying in touch is crucial for me in order not to loose my roots.

I’m not rooted the way many people are in their own locally created society. I’m bound to my friends from everywhere around and I appreciate and care about them in the same way that one cares about that friend next door. Internet provides me with the possibility to stay in touch with all these people, keeping my networks active, being able to follow my friends’ development and still share and change and learn from each other. It’s, as I said, crucial for me to keep these friendships alive, online they provide a different dimension to the relationship, and as I keep hopping around the planet, the chance of meeting again is more likely with every day that passes.

Going home by bus from the airport at 6.30am after saying goodbye to the Venezuelan girl that I shared my flat with the last 6 months sparked my need for writing these thoughts down. You bring something with you from every person you choose to let in and this specific relationship has been more fruitful and deep than most as we both have an interest for and understanding of the human mind and the society while at the same time being culturally, emotionally and personally very different. I learnt a lot from Daneff, and I am very sure we will stay in touch and continue to share our experiences, support each other and learn from each other’s differences. Skype is King.

Gracias por todo mi guapi. <3

Time to get some sleep.