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just life

study with me?

back when we were in berlin, we had something called the early morning study sessions. i’ve written about them before, but in short, everyday we’d meet the same friends at the coffee shop around the corner at 7am, studied for an hour and then went home to continue with the rest of our day.

maybe it was the consistency of it, or perhaps the accountability factor, but every morning when the alarm rang i jumped out of bed thinking “our friends will be waiting, we need to go!“. so we went, and it worked beautifully. i learnt more in those months than i had in a long time, just silently reading and taking notes next to our equally absorbed friends.

i miss this morning ritual terribly. there’s still so much that i want to learn and that i never seem to be able to get to. but there are no nice cafés in the village, our closest friends live 20km away… and i know these are just excuses, but i’ll be the first to admit that my self-motivation was never all that great.

so, keeping in mind this is the age of the internet, i propose an experiment: what if you and i got together on skype bright and early (sometime between 6-8 gmt?), and just quietly learned, researched, crafted or worked on our own projects for a bit? maybe everyday, maybe a day or two per week — whatever suits your schedule.

i know this is not for everyone and maybe it sounds a little crazy… but there must be at least one person out there willing to give it a try, right? in any case, i thought i’d ask. if you’re an early riser and there’s something you’d like to make time to study or learn in the morning, let me know — we’ll see if it works! :)

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just life one second everyday

2017, one second everyday

and here it is, the whole year as a long array of tiny seconds.

so much laughter and silliness, so many friendly faces and new adventures… every single day remarkable and precious.

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just life stationery sundays

happy holidays!

a bit of photoshop silliness for our xmas cards this year. :) have a happy and peaceful holiday!

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in portugal just life

1000 days

a couple of weeks ago, we passed the “1000 days in algarve” milestone, and i stopped to think about it for a bit. here are some scattered thoughts.

reverse culture shock was quite acute in the first year. frustrations ran high because of the house situation, but not just that. being used to the german black & white culture, coming back to flexibly gray portugal felt like a shock. almost 10 years after leaving, we were lost in trying to deal with a grown-up world whose rules we had not really fully experienced as adults before going away.

so it took us a while to reach a sort of balance, an understanding by trial and error. and it forced us to review our ethics code, to understand what we’re ok and not ok with in this society. having different perspectives from having lived all around the world certainly helped shape our rules of conduct, and be more strict about them — even if sometimes it feels like we’re the only idiots in this country not putting all our lunches in the company expenses.

eventually, we learned to let it go and focus on other things instead.

things like the joy of being able to see family and some friends more often. the sun, kissing our tanned, salty skins. the markets, the popular fairs in the small towns, the countryside and the hills beyond the coast. the lagoon with its salt hills and flamingos. all the visitors that our extra room can accommodate. the freshly squeezed orange juice and the toasts made with alentejo bread. the local indie cinema, with its thursday sessions. the nice neighbours who bake us dessert. almond blossoms in january. and the quietness of living in a safe, calm place, at a slow rhythm and without so many distractions.

it’s been good for us, this small-town life. i look forward to the next 1000 days.

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just life one second everyday

one second everyday — august 2017

august! this is definitely the best part of the year in northern europe, with long sunny days that aren’t quite as sticky hot or packed with people as in the south. so we made a sort of escape plan and said goodbye to algarve, bribed the neighbours to water our plants, and left on a mission to catch up with friends we don’t get to see that often.

and it worked! we’ve had the best august i can remember, spent reconnecting with some of the people and places we miss the most. it was so hard to select the seconds for this video because the month was just overflowing with good memories.

the dodgy back threw me into bed for a few days, but after some rest with pablo-the-cat‘s company, i was back in business! :) too many highlights to mention — just happiness all around!