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Author Archives: Anna
It is amazing with different cultures, languages, and ways of living. My Spanish friends have inspired me. When we studied French together in Pau, France, I was often invited to Sunday dinner. Vanessa’s and Patricia´s father stood at the stove cooking for hours. With the cigar in the corner of his mouth. The stews were very well cooked. When we then traveled to Spain, they introduced me to tapas, tasty small dishes. Vanessa taught me how to make tortilla, Spanish omelette. Also some important Spanish words such as dog. Today, I am trying to learn some additional Spanish words and small phrases that facilitate communication. My vocabulary is growing slowly and surely.
When we met in Barcelona, we had the opportunity to be tourists together. Please see the photo below where we are visiting one of Antoni Gaudi’s buildings. What incredible imagination and creativity. Of course, we needed a break and we had tapas of course. We have some nice memories to think about. It is needed since everyday life is here now.
You get nice memories that you can enjoy after traveling. I like the sea and it has been a long time since I saw the ocean. My journeys are usually intensive with a lot of planning in advance. This summer I went to Spain for swimming and beach life. The Spanish Costa Brava coast is also known for its gastronomy. Cooking is a lot of chemistry, where you highlight different flavors, coulor combinations, textures, and so on. I once read about a restaurant a few miles from Barcelona that used frozen carbon dioxide (dried ice) to elevate the dish to an exotic and exciting experience.
Dogs have always taken a big part in my life and I met a Spanish Molly. This Cocker Spaniel was not called Molly but was named “Chorizo”. It roughly means sausage. Chorizo is very popular in Spain.
Exercise is short-lived, and in order not to lose fitness, I walked a lot in the mornings. With a water break! Now I am up and running as usual again. I am interested in pulse-raising training and I have been inspired by Associate Professor Eva Andersson who, among other things, has studied maximum heart rate for 40 years. According to her, physical activity has an effect on cognition, i.e. how the brain receives information, processes it, and makes decisions in the short and long term. Exercise has therefore a good effect on, for example, memory and attention. It is well known that the level of the stress hormone cortisol decreases with physical activity, please see Andersson et al. 2022 Läkartidningen, Fysisk aktivitet vid depression och ångestsyndrom
Now everyday life is here, and in some ways, it is also wonderful. All you have to do is load up with tea and candle lights for the coming autumn evenings.
Congratulations to the Spanish soccer team who won the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023! I am so happy to have been in Spain recently seeing my friends, and that Spain won the women´s World Cup. Close to where I live, I have a Spanish supermercado (grocery store) so I can continue to enjoy Spanish food. I especially miss the olives in the evening. It is still warm in Sweden so it is a nice ending of the summer.
Everything will soon return to daily life. There are unusually many ticks this year, and the lice, which usually have a summer break, have been active. Could it be due to temperature changes in the world? I’ve been walking a lot on my holiday to keep going. I intended to go jogging, but it has been too hot. Now it is soon time to increase the pulse again.
We walked a lot in Barcelona and my friends showed me “El mundo nace en cada beso” which can be translated as “The world is born in every kiss”. The captain of the Spanish women’s national soccer team kissed one of the players, and perhaps he was thinking of this picture above. It has become a great chaos in the football world.
This image consists of 4000 photographs submitted by Barcelona residents on the theme “moments of freedom”. The work can be viewed in the square Plaza d’Isidre Nonell in Barcelona. I was so impressed. This is exactly what my little collection of poems “Time for Freedom” symbolizes. Very pleased with the photograph above. Can you see the kiss?
Hasta loego
I have been longing so much for sunshine. It is a difficult balance because too much sun is really harmful, but too little sun is also dangerous for the body. However, recently, I have been to the beach in the small village of Calella, several miles north of Barcelona.
The trip to France earlier reminded me of my Spanish friends I made while studying there. However, they live in the middle of Spain where it is far too hot for me. The sea at the Costa Brava in Catalonia, on the other hand, makes the winds cool in the summertime.
My friends and I got together on a Sunday in Barcelona. It was ten years ago that we saw each other, then in Sweden. I went by bus from Calella and it was an exciting meeting. A little older but still just as happy as we used to be. Back then we used to speak French with each other. Now, French was blown away, and English, with a few words from my small Spanish vocabulary were used. I was given strict orders that I must learn Spanish.
We were walking in Barcelona and we passed this wall with tiles that you see above. This is an enlargement and you will see more later. The tile is in different shades that reflect occasions in life. Red, Spanish shades, of course. I love photographs and this is a cool, intelligent, constellation.
There was a lot of talk about the pandemic. How did it go for you during Covid-19? Then we quickly changed the subject as a large black Russian registered car with tinted windows passed us on one of the narrower streets of Barcelona. Instead, all of a sudden, it was tapas and chocolate cake!
Back home in Sweden, it felt strange that you should be more vigilant than abroad. I feel some frustration with this as it is – what can I say – stupid. Foreign newspapers follow the situation in Sweden as you can see below. The image of Sweden is no longer open to different religions, which I believe is unfortunate.
Where is the Swedish religious freedom that SÄPO (Swedish security service) should defend?
