He vuelto. Y ahora soy doctora. Pero eh! no médico, de filosofía (que aunque no estudié filosofía el título se llama así) . Aunque si os duele algo igual me podéis preguntar y yo le pregunto a Johannes.  En fin, estos meses la vida me ha llevado más a mí que yo a ella. Es decir, no he tenido tiempo ni de respirar y al pararme y respirar me he acordado de escribir, de pararme a pensar. Y no me quejo, ha sido muy emocionante. Os conté en mi último blog que me iba a China, pues me tocó entre rollito y rollito de primavera escribir una linea de mi tesis. No, la verdad es que escribía en una terraza con vistas a unos jardines en el sur de China, en Hainan, mientras el sol me quemaba el brazo izquierdo. Yo es que puedo escribir  (y dormir) en sitios de lo más curiosos. Luego de Enero y Febrero no me acuerdo de nada. A finales de Marzo fue mi defensa, de eso sí que me acuerdo. Y justo antes de mi defensa, como una semana antes, me dieron un montón de clases de cátedra para enseñar en la uni, este tipo de clases no las había dado antes en sueco y me costaron de preparar bastante más que mi defensa (básicamente no me dejaron tiempo para preparar la defensa). Pero cuando me preguntaron si las quería dar, si no era demasiado, todo en sueco, yo por supuesto dije "no hay problema". A ver, en el fondo sabía que era una locura pero en ello iba el tener posibilidades de seguir enseñando en la uni, y no estar ahora en un banco en la calle leyendo mi tesis, sobrecualificada para cualquier otro trabajo.  La misma semana se interesaron los medios por mi investigación y tuve dos entrevistas para las noticias locales y la radio (también en sueco por supuesto). Lo cual añadió cierto extra estrés pero era también una oportunidad única en la vida, que luego cuenta para el CV. Pero la defensa bien, aquí es pública y la oponente era maja, aunque a medida que pasaba el tiempo se le ocurrían preguntas más y más chungas. Lo mejor fue la fiesta, haría falta otro post para contarlo pero resumido: comida excelente, vistas a la catedral, canciones suecas, discursos llenos de emoción y una banda de música de los años 50, perfecto. Luego he estado enseñando y enseñando y ha vuelto la luz (literalmente). En la foto podéis verlo (los estudiantes y la luz) Y todos preguntan, y ahora qué quieres hacer? Y como ya soy doctora de filosofía voy a empezar a contestar que quién sabe lo que quiere hacer con su vida (excepto Andrés que parece que lo tiene muy claro).

Velas y canciones para los días oscuros

Noviembre pasó despacio pero Diciembre ha volado, quizás por los conciertos o las fiestas que por estas épocas del año se celebran por estas latitudes. También hemos estado en el norte de Suecia (el norte del norte, de ahí es la foto) y hemos tenido muucha nieve, que no es el caso en Uppsala donde estamos a unos tres grados y con lluvia que, vale, no es lo más agradable del mundo pero yo (que no los suecos) lo prefiero a los menos veinte grados del año pasado, que tengo que salir a la calle vestida de astronauta... Por cierto este fin de semana tiraron los fuegos al final así que me los perdí por estar en el norte, que mal!
Pero luego hemos tenido las celebraciones, que aquí es curioso pero las fiestas no son como en España que si el día de la constitución o algún santo, aqui tienen el día de la torta de chocolate, el de los bollos con crema... eso sí, igual se trabaja, que las fiestas las pasan al sábado. Así que hemos tenido unos días de los dulces típicos que son unos panes dulces a los que les ponen azafrán, era un poco raro para mi al principio que aquí pongan azafrán en cosas dulces y navideñas pero bueno que le vas a hacer (me pregunto cómo y cuándo habrá llegado el azafrán hasta aquí, la Wiki dice que en 1328).
Aparte de la comida tienen unas tradiciones muy bonitas, una que viene de Italia, que celebran Santa Lucía en el día más oscuro del año (bien oscuro ya que el sol se pone antes de las 3) y van cantando chicos y chicas vestidos de blanco y la que simboliza a Lucía lleva una corona con velas (de verdad) encendidas. Hay una tradición de canciones de Lucía y Navidades muy bonitas, hoy hemos estado en un concierto de canciones de Navidad, en una iglesia pequeñita, la más antigua de Uppsala y hemos visto un coro, muy especial la verdad.
Y bueno ya mirando al futuro (próximo) nos vamos a China por Navidad, sí, esta vez no va a ser a casa, lo siento, pero por otro lado si hace calorcito va a estar bien. Veré si puedo encontrar la forma de escribir en mi blog que puede que esté censurado por allá, así es de provocativo, donde me lo deberían censurar es en Suecia, por hacer gracias de sus fiestas de los bollos y de sus cabras de Navidad que traen regalos, pero noo chicos, esto es calidad de vida!

Long November

This month I'm going to write twice because November is sooo long. It's dark and hours pass slowly. Which, let´s see the positive side, when I´m not sleeping I can write in my Thesis. I´ve advanced a lot :D. But yes, I´ve been a bit sick, throat pain, which is booring and I take medicine that gives me hallucinations... No, well, it's not that bad. And Uppsala is shining, literally, this year they decorated all our street with lights, when I saw them I had a deja vu, I thought "Uppsala in Fallas", or Christmas (judge from the picture). And this weekend was the first Advent, I'm learning the festivities after some years! Yes, this is the time when you compete in hanging a biggest star than your neighbor (ok, yes, this is just my interpretation). But I was really excited because not only we got the street decoration but also fireworks yeah, exactly like Fallas but no... We went up to the castle with thousands of children to see the fireworks but they were cancelled. And here is not like in Valencia, that have fireworks every other week, no, you miss that one and you are done, no more fireworks until next year, I totally understand the kid´s disappointment. But we are going to Hong Kong and I bet they'll have some, as they share the Valencia's fascination for fireworks and rice (or probably Valencia shares it from them). Anyway, by the end of the Advent's day instead of fireworks we got the first snow, and that was a very much waited snow, in the right time, sure beautiful, although enough for me (sorry guys).
So it turned out that we were quite a bit at home and I started experimenting with food. I made my first cookies (I'm realizing my blog sounds like written by a five year old) (although a very smart one). I gave some to my friend Vanda and I told her "you know, they don't look very good.." (which of course they didn't) "and probably don't taste so good either" BUT YOU'VE GOT TO TRY THEM!! Now that's friendship, isn't it? She´s a bit picky with food so that made it more fun "So, you know, that I didn´t like them doesn't mean that you won´t like them". Of course, she never tried them :D. Now, wait for the other one, Claudi, "what is that, some kind of scrambled egg thing?" but she wanted to try them!! Anyway, it's not that I'm mean with my friends, it´s just the virus. The same one that made the cookies. And now, time to put the trashy Christmas tree at work! (I've got to upload that one later...)

What October brought

October passed and the Winter may come soon, especially around here. At least I can say that we got drank with all the light we could in this short but intensive Autumn. We went to the Wik castle together with Johannes, Claudi, Benjamin and Gabriel and all around us was blinding yellow, the trees, the falling leaves, the ground covered by them... I think Sweden is a bit chameleonic, it has the ability to change color with the season, and I mean all the color, trees, ground and sky become all the same color, it may be blue in the summer, with the lakes and the sky, and white in the winter, with the snow and the cloudy skies. But about the excursion, the Wik castle stood there, high and elegant, slightly scary, as a premonition for Halloween. Specially when we walked behind the castle, wich was closed, and heard a very quiet piano playing from within the house. This after hearing Gabriel's story about the lady owner who drowned in the lake and stays there as a ghost. Just like when I used to read Bécquer's ghost stories to my little brother and cousins in the Halloween night.
Besides this, we went to the Short Film Festival and saw a program of surprisingly good films about inmigration and, to compensate, another program that was very very annoying. It's usually like that, but it's worth it for the good ones. Anyway, now it's the movie season, as it's dark, so we'll have to find some good films. Or... work in my thesis. Yeah, changing subject (again), we were last week in Spain. And no, dear Swedish friends, it wasn't just sun sun and sun, it rained two days and then well yes, it was more than twenty degrees... ok you may be jealous, mostly for the views from the apartment, the ones I attach. A 90 degree view of the sea and a hugh rock cut somehow by erosion. On the evenings the sunset dyed the rock in orange, the night was extraordinary covered by stars and the sunrise was spectacular, first the clouds turned pink, then, the sun appeared as a fried egg over the end of the rock (so poetic, right?) and finally the sea started to sprinkle drawing the path of the sun over the water. It's good to be home but, strangely, I miss the view, or maybe the sound of the waves. It's quiet now.
And October also brought three babies to some of our friends, so congratulations Maria, Pablo, Marta, Jimmy, Boukjan and Theres!!

Flying through the Autumn

I've been flying and I don't know why in this trip the views were amazing. In the flight to Valencia, the plane couldn't land right away and flew over the Albufera (a lake by the sea), passed Valencia and showed a panoramic view of the sun illuminated sea and went up through the clouds. In the other flight towards Madrid I could see the sunset as a thick pink-red line, I never saw the line of the horizont so thick! And finally in the way back to Sweden it was also sunny and we landed by a field of yellow topped trees. Then I thought I really have to go out to the forest! Because Autumn is the season of beauty. Also a little melancholic, but that's a frequent property of beauty. This September hasn't been so cold and it's now when the trees start to turn orange-reddish in the northern countries. When I have time I walk to work through the botanical garden between green, yellow and orange leaves. And as in the PhD comics, I think it has come the time for me to fall off the tree too. Well maybe not right away, more like in the Spring. Anyway who wants to talk about that... coming back to Spain, besides seeing the sea from the plane, I also swam in the sea! Not surprises yet, I know. We went to the sea one evening, before the sunset, and there was a storm coming so the colors were fascinating. From the water we could see an intense blue sky in contrast to the almost phosphorescent dark green of the waves. And the water was warm, 27 degrees, it was colder in the air! I have to describe it because I don't have pictures, just the images in my brain, but I´m not exaggerating a bit, it was breathtaking. However I will post some pictures of the Autumn trees, which I took today in a gorgeous sunny day, the cold hasn't realized that it is Autumn yet...

El final del doctorado?

Bueno sí, como que estoy en la recta final de mi doctorado, tengo que dar una clase de tres horas hablando de conocimiento y lenguaje.... y no tengo mucho tiempo de escribir. Pero hmm todo bien, por lo menos sigue habiendo luz por aquí y todavía no me han llegado los 200 exámenes para corregir (os hablaría de estrés...) más otros 80, en sueco. Ale ale, quién conoce el miedo? Terminemos con un típico comentario de doctorado, parece que hay un final... aunque sólo el tiempo me puede dar la razón (esperad unos meses y ya veremos). Escribir al menos me lleva a tomar decisiones y creo que me voy a ir con los 200 exámenes a la playa B)

Sad news

Being in Sweden makes you feel closer to the crimes the last weekend in Oslo. It's hard to comment, first you don't have words, but then you think we have a great deal to say. Intolerance and fanatism, and where this can end. Of course it's the same in the other side, extreme ideas from any political side are the same, extreme, simple and dangerous. So simple that you got to start wondering. Because yes of course to kill cold bloded like this murderer, sure he has to have some problem, psychopathy is the first thing that comes to mind, but when crazy people come close to simplistic and extreme ideas, then we have to think twice. Because a lot of people like them. Specially when there is crisis, when things are not going very well, there is nothing easier than to blame it in the neighbor, or the one who is different than me, or than us, in some way. And the simplest the idea the easiest it is to spread it out. But here is the point, things are not simple. If you want to understand the world, you better get informed, read, listen to the others. There is too many people out there that thinks they are smarter than others, that they "know", but they just have opinions, like everyone else. One opinion is like another and if there is something makes an opinion better than another is that is grounded, that the person has been informed, has listened to others, that is critical. There is where simple ideas fall. If you think your country/language/whatever? is better than the neighbor's falls because the neighbor thinks the oposite (this is, the same, but not about your country), and who even knows who put the line there to separate the countries? And the reason I write these things that may seem so obvious it's because lately I hear this kind of ideas more and more. The "I'm not racist but the X do not like to study/are not clean/are lazy...". Then they fill the X with whatever they feel like. How can these ideas spread out?? I find it really hard to believe that people repeats these things. I try to explain to myself how this can happen. And I guess it's just that it's simple. Everybody tries to understand things and simple ideas are just easier to understand, and prejudice and hate are universal. There are experiments in which they make two random teams and give green shirts to one and blue to the other and automatically they start to think the "same color shirt people" are their friends and the others, the enemy. Well, I guess what I want to say here is, before generalizing, please, think and read more. A crazy person followed by many others with simplistic and fanatic ideas have already almost destroyed the world... in several occasions, and no one wants to see that happening again. And what can we do? Teach people to think, prompt them to think critically, I guess. Other ideas?