Category: just life

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just life

early morning studies

i was always one of those kids who spent the summer vacations counting the days till school started again. the holidays were great, but what i really wanted was new stationery, new teachers, old friends and never-opened books that smelled like new beginnings… and i also wanted to know more – about everything. i like discovering new things, and my favourite method of learning has always been from teachers. good teachers are outstanding storytellers – inspiring and captivating.

because we miss the stimulation that comes with pushing beyond what you know and learning something new, the boy and i have decided to do join some online courses on subjects that we found interesting. he’s learning about finance on coursera, i’ve been listening and taking notes from a berkeley class podcast, on the history of europe. every early morning after breakfast (but before checking our inboxes and to-do lists), we take an hour or so to sit on a nearby café and just learn.

it’s been… refreshing – and not just because of all the things we’re studying. for me, it’s also the realisation that we can do this: we can learn what we want, at our own speed (as long as we are disciplined and make some time for it). no need to go back to school and endure hours of not-so-interesting lectures in order to thrive on those few subjects that you really like. makes me think that the future of education is probably already here.

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in germany just life

a surprise in a flour package

today, while unlocking our bikes, paulo noticed something was tucked on the back rack of his. it looked like trash that someone had put there, but upon closer inspection, we discovered what seemed to be an empty package of (bio!) flour, all rolled-up. strange…

when opening it, he found what looked like a shiny new bike dynamo inside – and then he noticed the dynamo on his own bike was dangling, broken. someone probably knocked it off, and then bought a new one, which they left there, in disguise.

so instead of being cross about it, today i’m actually quite proud of the neighbourhood! :)

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just life

happy accidents

that’s me, on the left, on a christmas play with some of my primary school friends. my school, a sort of day-school (externato) with a religious undertone, organised very elaborate events for the holidays, with choir singing and historical recreations. everybody was involved, in some way or another, and all the parents came to the event. i remember i used to be good friends with the girls in the photo, but we’ve slowly lost touch with the years and the distance.

during summer last year, i had a scheduled surgery to remove a small sebaceous cyst which was becoming a nuisance. it was a simple thing, requiring only local anaesthesia. i remember dressing in one of those hospital robes and stepping into the surgery room, where a myriad of doctors and interns awaited me, all prepped up in gowns and caps.
i sat on the bed, waiting, until one of the surgeons said: “you probably don’t remember me, but i was in your primary school class until 4th grade“. the girl removed her mask and cap and i looked at her. she had changed the color of her hair, but her face was so unexpectedly familiar! of course i remembered her! :D we kissed, and then talked throughout the operation, sharing stories and tidbits of our life in the 20 years we hadn’t seen each other. i was happy to see her again, the friend who once stood next to me on a school recital.

what are the odds, right? i thought of it again this week because of something ira glass said on his last this american life: great stories happen to those who can tell them. not that i’m a great storyteller, but i think he might be right. :)

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just life

he runs, i bike

i cannot, for the life of me, run. i’ve tried, motivated by the boy’s good performances and general encouragement, but it just isn’t for me… after the first few hundred meters, i get tired and start feeling miserable, regretting ever putting the sneakers on. i never got runners high, and the only place i feel at ease exercising is underwater :)

so, we have a sort of deal: he runs, i bike. he usually runs for 10km, in about an hour – which feels strenuous to me, even though i’m the one sitting… but following him across parks and through garden communities, discovering a different bit of the city every time, it also gives me a sort of serenity, and time to catch up on podcasts and itunes lectures, which i quite like. all in all, a good compromise, i’d say! :)

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just life

29 things i did in my twenties

1. got out of my country for the first time!
2. lived in the netherlands, discovered vla, stroopwaffles, hagelslag, fries with mayo and an underground bunker that controls the gas of the nation
3. wrote my master thesis on a very geek subject (the adaptation of a nitrogen usage simulation case to a network optimization tool)
4. bathed my first laptop in coffee (but it was ok)
5. fell in love with a boy on the other side of the atlantic, discovered i wanted to explore the whole world with him
6. moved to the largest city in china
7. learnt mandarin, did the HSK
8. celebrated chinese new year
9. walked the great wall, rode the maglev, experienced ramadan, lived through a major earthquake
10. went to malacca and thought about the portuguese crossing the sea to dock there, on the other side of the world
11. moved to slovenia
12. fell in love with the mountains, the lakes, the food, the greenness, the traditions
13. climbed some high mountains, saw the sea organ
14. learnt how to swing dance, and how to sew with a machine
15. saw kings of convenience, bon iver, florence + the machine, and bjork live
16. tried fondue, frog legs, stinky tofu, snails, raclette, kanelbullar, fried cheese, ice-cream sandwich, burek, mooncakes, korean barbeque, cevapcici, krofi, gibanica, vadelma munkki…
17. decided we wanted something a bit more urban… moved to germany
18. went back to school to learn german
19. did a couple of awesome roadtrips
20. went to big places like paris, venice, copenhagen, istanbul, tallin, helsinki, hong kong, macau, suzhou, singapore and little places like skofja loka, redang, montemor-o-velho and s. leonardo da galafura
21. started shooting with film cameras, learnt how to develop film, discovered i really liked a camera named holga, collected a few more for good measure
22. got a spinal disc herniation, but managed to recover ok from it
23. went snowboarding, horse racing, snorkeling and geocaching
24. saw the family expand and then contract
25. did some gigs on a radio station, designed some websites, worked for a photography shop and a swedish brand of luxury accessories – now spend my days working on making postcrossing awesome
26. saw the postcrossing stamp come to life
27. decided that health was the best investment one can make, read a lot, gave up grains and dairy (about 85% of the time)
28. fell in love with bikes, stationery and snail mail in general
29. found out that it doesn’t matter where we are – real friends find a way to stick around despite the distance.

in the end, i think i’m doing quite ok. here’s to another 10 years of adventures! let the 30s begin! :)

(this list was inspired by stacey’s list)