Thoughts on Christmas presents

This Christmas I really don't want any presents. I love the tradition of giving and receiving meaningful, thought-through gifts to/from the people I love, - don't we all. But as we all know, this tradition is becoming more and more corrupted by the faulty impression that gifts, not only should be bought, but should be done so at a fairly high price, and/or that we should give presents simply because it's Christmas, everybody! Ho ho ho!

Most of us really want to show our love for friends and family buy giving them things we know they want, need or like. I love giving presents to my loved ones. I love finding something when not looking for anything, and thinking "Wow! This is perfect for X! (S)he's gonna love it!".
And then it gets complicated... If it's a good friend and the whatever-it-is isn't too expensive, it's a no-brainer, I get it for him/her. If it's too expensive and not really a very close friend, - oh, well, maybe I can just tell him/her about it and they can buy it for themselves if they like it. BUT! If it's a really close friend, but the thingy costs a bit more than I am comfortable with paying, - what do to? If I do buy it I'll probably not dwell too much on the money issue, but my friend might feel bad for giving me something cheap(er) (no matter how perfect) in return. On the other side, I might feel bad if I decide the price is too high, - do I not appreciate my friend enough to get this awesome-amazing gift that I know (s)he will love? And then for the other scenario: a cheap thing, perfect for a friend who is not really a close one (let's call her Maria Jesús - in the spirit of Christmas). Then I would like to get it for Maria Jesús, obviously. I'm sure she will really appreciate it and for me it's no problem getting it. But if I get this for her, then I should definitly get something for all my friends who are much closer than Maria Jesús.

Am I being neurotic?

When it comes to receiving presents, I'm a natural. I'm the kind of person who always reads the card first before neatly opening the present, building up the expectations little by little, folding and putting the wrapping paper gently aside before continuing to dig my present out from bubblewrap, paper, boxes etc. When it turns out to be an album from an artist I don't really like, or a piece of clothing I might have worn when I was 12 years old (if my mother made me), I give a wide, genuine smile and exclaim something like "How nice! I've heard about this artist!" or "What a cute sweater! It goes great with my pyjama pants!". And it is really genuine. I love ALL my presents. I tear off the "no return if broken" seal to show the giver how truly grateful I am. And I am. For about 2 minutes. When I realize that both I and probably the person giving it to me would have preferred that I returned it for something more fitting. We all love presents. We do not always love the things they consist of.

I am sure many of you feel the exact same way. I can't stand returning Christmas presents, - it makes me feel like I didn't at all appreciate my friend's/family member's gesture of giving me a gift. When indeed it is the gesture which is the most important, - or should be. We love getting presents because it makes us feel loved, appreciated and special. We love giving presents because we love our family and friends and want to show them our gratitude for having them in our lives, and we want to show them that we care by giving them something special. Giving Christmas presents is about us! It's about people! Not things.

I guess, that is the point I'm somehow trying to make. I don't want to expect getting presents this year. I really can't think of anything I could possibly want or need, other than being with my friends and family after not seeing them for 4 months, getting a little bit of snow, finding the almond in the rice porridge, and lots and lots of Christmas cookies. If someone wants to give me a gift for Christmas, I will of course gratefully accept it! But, please, do not give me something simply because you feel you should, or because you think I will be disappointed if I get nothing. If you really can't think of something good, no matter how well you know me, it's probably because I already have all I can wish for! My health, my family and friends, the opportunity to go crazy and move to Spain for a year!

So are you one of my friends living in Stavanger (at least for the holidays)? The best present would be your promise that we'll catch up when we're both home. That's what you are all getting from me.
Are you a friend living far away, that I don't see very often? Give me a call! Tell me all about what's going on in your life! I'll do the same!
Are you my family? Just get along and be happy together with no talk of whatever disagreements you may have, at least for now. And let me find the almond on Christmas Eve!

~~~

PS: I took a chance that I'm not doing anything illegal by posting that picture on here. I'm not using it to sell anything, it says where I found it, and they are "currently working on" their copyright information... Am I in the clear?

La escalera del Albayzin

Ya la he encontrado...

 

 Un día en diciembre, nos poniendo camiseta.

 

 

I <3 Granada

Madrid

That's where I went together with Mariana last weekend. We arrived Friday afternoon and went more or less straight to Museo de Reina Sofia - an arts museum with lots of Picasso and Dalí, and some García Lorca. We didn't have time to see half of it, since we were cheap enough to go in the last two hours of the opening hours, when the entrance is free.

Madrid was freakin' cold on Saturday morning, and I refused to do any serious sightseeing before buying a winter coat. So I bought two, plus plus, and we started touristing down Calle del Arenal towards Palacio Real where we took the necessary photos, Brazilian style, before heading towards Museo de Prado.
Being as cheap as ever, we also went there in the two last opening hours - free entrance! And so did all the other tourists.

Luckily a museum lady told us about an entrance on the other side with almost no people. Same thing she told nearly half of all the turists... Well inside, we aimed for Goya - just to have a some kind of a plan. I hadn't really done any research, - what I know about Goya is what is portrayed in the movie Goya's Ghosts. All in all I preferred the art in Museo Reina Sofia which is more modern. And there I found this Dalí painting which I fell in love with.

I came to learn that, in addition to two huge arts museums, a huge palace, a huge amount of tourists and a Plaza Mayor, Madrid also offers huge beer and a huge flea marked; El Rastro, where you can get basically anything.

 (I skipped putting up one of my pictures of El Rastro. Thought this one of me drowning in one litre of beer was more charming than me drowning in an ocean of shoppers).

On Sunday we went to Toldeo, a relatively old (settled roughly 2700 years ago), and beautiful city just south of Madrid. The weather wasn't quite on our side, so to make the sightseeing more efficient, I went up in the two towers of Church of San Ildefonso or Jesuitas.

Mariana preferred to wait downstairs at the Plaza Padre Juan de Mariana, - naturally.

When we felt more or less done with Toledo, Toledo decided it wasn't done with us, and we spent 1,5 hour or so wandering in the rain with no clue of what direction the bus station was in, and too proud to ask.




Still, Toledo knew how to cheer us up and remind us that we would soon be on our way back to the right city.

When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

~Anatole France

Dance first.  Think later.  It's the natural order.  ~Samuel Beckett

Dans er den samfunnsmessige anerkjente form for utukt. ~Sigurd Hoel


I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. ~Voltaire

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.  ~Author Unknown

Den mosjon, herre, vi har av en natts dans, er så sunn, som å få et helt apotek i maven. ~Ludvig Holberg

Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health - it rusts your spirit and your hips.  ~Terri Guillemets

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire. ~George Bernard Shaw

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.  ~Japanese Proverb

Rock Andaluz!

Wau! El ultimo día de noviembre... Ya! En poco más que tres semanas viajaré a casa para celebrar la Navidad con mi familia. Cómo vuele el tiempo! La semana pasada he tenido mucho trabajo, y todavía queda bastante...

Sin embargo, unos de los trabajos ha sido muy interesante! Una presentación para mi curso de español con un tema de la cultura española. Mi grupo elegímos música andaluz. Y yo la hice sobre Rock andaluz, un género de los años 60 que incorpora rítmos y pulsaciones flamencos a la estructura de pop y rock. Ya tengo mucho música nueva en mi vida, y eso me encanta.

Aquí teneís mi parte de un trabajo que era tan interesante y divertido hacer. Espero que vosotros, como yo, descubraís algo que os guste:

Rock Andaluz

En los años 60 había los primeros intentos de creer una fusión de rock y los rítmos flamencos. Ese nuveo género de música se llamaba Rock Andaluz, y empezó con los grupos sevillanos de rock progresivo, entre los que hay que mencionar el grupo Smash. 

El principio de los años 70 era un periodio sin mucho desarrollo de rock andaluz, eso fue en gran parte por la desaparición de las bandas seminales del género. Sin embargo, mas cerca de la mitad de la década aparecieron grupos como Estoques y Guadalquivir, que abrieron la vía del jazz-rock para ese género, y Triana qué era un grupo prototípico de rock andaluz y que además comenzó el ”rock andaluz sinfónico”. La popularización del género fue gracias a ese grupo.

Los ultimos años en los años 70 eran los más fructíferos para rock andaluz. Con el desarrollo sinfónico, y del imagen arabe, - acentos árabes, referencias a Al-Ándalus etc. Además consiguió la línea de jazz-rock andaluz, y el grupo más importante en este línea y época fue Guadalquivir cuyo líderes eran de Sevilla. Colaboraron con guitarrista flamenco Diego Carrasco de Cádiz, entre otros. Su primer disco, Guadalquivir:

Desde el final de los años 70 hacía la mitad de los años 80 fue la época cuando el género alcanzó su punto álgido y cuando había más ventas de discos de rock andaluz. Los grupos Alameda (Córdoba) y Medina Azahara (Sevilla), que ambos debutaron en 1979, fueron los más vendedores, junto con Triana.

También en el año 1979 apareció el album quizá más conocido del rock andaluz, La Leyenda del Tiempo de Camarón de la Isla. No se vendió muchas copias de ese album, pero todavía era uno de los discos españoles más influyentes. Vamos a escuchar la canción con el mismo título como el album: 

Las letras es un poema de García Lorca:

El Sueño va sobre el Tiempo

flotando como un velero.

Nadie puede abrir semillas

en el corazón del Sueño.

A partir de 1985, empezó la decadencia del rock andaluz. No hay muchos de los grupos clásicos que han sobrevivido hasta la actualidad, - Medina Azahara es uno de los únicos. De los grupos nuevos hay sólo uno que sigue la tradición del rock andaluz, con inspiración de Triana, Zeguán.

Sin embargo, rock andaluz es un género muy influyente e importante por el desarrollo de la música en Andalucia, y España en entero. Además, en los ultimos años han habido muchos festivales dónde han tocado los grupos clásicos como Guadalquivir, Smash, Medina Azahara, Iman, etc. Quizá el mayor: Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla de 2008 dónde había una noche de Rock andaluz, ante más que 5000 personas. También han editan albumes nuevos los grupos Cai y Alameda, entre otros. El hecho que hoy en día hay blogs y páginas webs dedicadan a Rock andaluz sirve como evidencia de la importancia de ese género de música, - nacido en Andalucía.

http://www.rockandaluz.com/

http://www.guadalquivir-rockandaluz.com/

And to anyone who won't bother trying to understand or translate the text, - just listen to the songs and know that they are my humble demonstration of the evolution of the genre Rock andaluz, of which I am becoming a huge fan.

PS: Learnt a new word today: Marshmallows = Nubes de azucar (sugar clouds!)

Más vale tarde que nunca...

Por fín! Ya he hecho lo que debería haber hecho desde septiembre... Poco a poco...

 

Mis amigos guapisimos! Puedes verte?

Qué recuerdos buenos :)

Quien coño es La Niña Maria?

Mein Gott! Eg har vel klagt te de fleste eg kjenne her nere, men te dåkke der heima har eg muligens malt et litt for rosensødt bilde av min kverdag i <3 Granada <3.
That's about to change... Don't get me wrong, - living in Granada is great!
However, waking up in Granada after 5 hours of sleep because your neighbors choose to celebrate whatever kind of holiday THREE days early, I must admit does not rub me well. Especially when my neighbor is a Primary School, - and they don't have to celebrate anything to make a great deal of noise in the morning.

Don't they understand that people living right next to their schoolyard would like to get a good morning's sleep after a late night? I mean, they're right outside my window! Right there!

And 5 floors down. Sadly one can't see the stage that's behind the trees. But one can absolutely hear Coldplay, Gigi d'Agostino, K'naan - Wavin' Flag, and "Viva La Niña Maria!"...

Anysooo... I mentioned late night... That was for my Norwegian homies. Spending the evening in a bar, dancing and drinking, and going to bed at 2am on a Wednesday night - a school night - would be "a late night" for me in Norway. Here it's my regular Wednesday night - salsa class. It starts 22:30 and goes on as long as we want it to, más o menos, - and afterwards we usually grab a beer somewhere. So yesterday I was actually home earlier than usual and having drunk only water (which I had to buy for 2€, - 0,50€ less than a beer). And school on Thursdays doesn't start before 6pm, - my Spanish course.

Other things I'm noticing about <3 Granada's <3 effect on me: I have no hair on my right index finger. Yes, I'm that macho that I have tiny hairs on the first digit of my fingers. Except on my right index finger... Why?, I here you cry. Because of the combination of gass stove and an empty lighter which only lights the gas by its spark.

Here you can see our excellent "teapot". Just enough for one cup, - that's how selfish we are. And single. And since I, for the moment being, can't warm my hands on much else (except salsa and bachata, which is hawt!), I drink huge amounts of tea. Because, contrary to common belief, it's freezing in <3 Granada <3!

Sol i Stavanger! Og øveskya her? And only 3 degrees warmer here than in "Noruega? Hace frío allí, no?". I'm obviously not counting the fact that later today we will have 15 C here, while Stavanger still will have less than 5. And that the forecast is lying, - it's not cloudy here today.

 And we can still dry our clothes out on the terraza.

But 15 C could just as well be 5 C when we can't control the heating in our piso/apartment/leilighet/kåk. I read in almost all the rapports written by students who had done their year as Erasmus in Granada: - Find an apartment with central heating! 'Cause then you get to have a too warm room between 5pm and 22pm, and a morgue cold room and apartment the other 19 hours. My dear friends Devold, Kari Traa and Ulvang barely make it possible to stay other places than under the blankets in bed, but it's still too cold to have fun with homework in Spanish. Even with my "pantalones arabes" it is still freezing...

I'm too cold to think about Spain's role in the history of psychopathology or ponder about the correct uses of subjuntivo. I'd rather take silly pictures and complain to you. And read one of my all time favorite children's books. And hope that by some miracle it won't be as cold this time tomorrow, because then I really have to think about Spain's role in the history of psychopathology, and whether Szasz criticizes psychiatry. And what is a pseudopatient?

Ya estoy lista!

 

When I feel like

And can’t concentrate on anything school related, but still want to learn.

When every other minute I get sucked in by some meaningless distraction.

 Then it's time to fix a snack

And remember that I live in

 

And that here the day doesn't end 'till we let it! It's technically Saturday, and now I'm ready for my Friday night!

¡Pásalo bien!

Psyche!

 

Although we may all feel like this poor guy sometimes, don't worry, - it's not gonna happen.

The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.
 
- Paul Reber, professor of psychology at Northwestern University

I love my brain <3

Catorce brasileños y una noruega fueron a Marruecos...

My first travel to Africa. My first travel to an islamic country. Some things reminded me of Guatemala. Others of Vietnam and Cambodia. And a few things reminded me of Granada, - logical, thinking how much Andalucia has been influenced by Arab culture. So many things were completely new and strange to me. Having to wear long pants and preferably a scarf when the temperature easily reaches 35 degrees during the day, was absolutely different from what I'm used to. Luckily I've had a few months in Spain to get aclimatized to warmer weather.

Before I went to the airport in Madrid with Mariana, I knew we were going to travel with two more Brazilians I know from Valencia, Maria&Mário, and furthemore 2-3 friends of Maria's from Uni in Madrid. I was right and wrong... We ended up being a group of 15. Exchange students from Bilbao, Madrid, Barcelona and Granada, and the mother of a friend of some of the girls on the trip.

Now, I can't say that I am a particular fan of travelling in big groups, and believe me when I say that being the only Norwegian in a huge group of Brazilians isn't always as fun as it might sound. Mostly because eu não falo o português! Which I repeatedly told them, but which didn't always have much effect, - and they would keep talking in portuguese. But in spite of our differences in culture, travel experiences and, most importantly, language, I had a great time! And according to them I'm almost a Brazilian now ;)

We stayed in a nice hotel situated in the heart of Marrakech, right by the big square Djemaa el Fna, one of the most famous market places in all of Africa. Here seen from the roof terrace of our hotel, where breakfast was served.

 

One day we went to a small city at the coast, Essaouira. It was good to get a break from busy and noisy Marrakech. And for me it was indescribably wonderful to see and smell the ocean again! I can never get used to not living by the ocean.

Then, the next day, we went in the opposite direction, - further east and south, to spend a nigth by the outskirts of Sahara by Zagora and the Dunes of Tinfo. We payed for a 2days (in a tiny minibus) & 1night (in a huge tent) - package which included dinner and breakfast, camel back riding, and a very friendly driver.

The camel back riding was really a lot of fun, for ten minutes. Then for the last 80 it was a pain in the butt, - in the most literal way...

 
 But dinner was amazing. The starry night sky like nothing I've ever seen before. The sunrise beautiful. And the ride back in the morning, just as painful as the first...

  

I wanted to try, taste and do as much local stuff as possible and sometimes had a hard time keeping my opinions to myself when some of the others ate at KFC or MacDonald's. But I too ordered Coca Cola to almost every meal, - following the advice of mi amiga, Kristin, who never lets me forget that once travelling with her family, she was the only one drinking Coca Cola and the only one not to get sick... And look! It's Arab Coca Cola!

 

And I got a henna tattoo. For 52 € less than the woman initially asked for, and around 13 € more than a henna tattoo is worth, I got a pretty flower pattern on my left foot and hand which I was promised would last four weeks and which now is barely visible. Partly my fault seeing that I went to a Hammam and treated myself to a body scrub and massage on my birthday, before we went back home.

Oh well... I enjoyed being a tourist on vacation! 6 days with the perfect balance between relaxing and travelling.

Bonus pic!

It's time for Africa!

Just a short update! That's all I have time and internet capacity for right now,- in Marrakech!

Together with Mariana I left Granada 19.00 pm on Wednesday. 6 hours by bus later we arrived in Madrid and hurried on to the airport, where we met up with Maria & Mario and 5 other Brazilians. After 4-5 cold and sleepy hours in the waiting hall plus 2 unconcious hours in the airplane, we landed in Africa! More specifically: Marocco and Marrakech.

We found our hotel, which is perfect! Small, clean, cheap and with a huuuge breakfast included. We fed and slept before strolling across the Djemaa el Fna and on to the market place, taking it all in.

We are still trying to plan the next 5 days, - so far we're thinking about spending a night in the desert and maybe take a day trip to either Casablanca or Essaouira. Tuesday will be my birthday! So I'm planning on spoiling myself by spending the day at a spa...

More to come, with pictures, when I get home in the middle of next week!

Gracias!

I want to thank this guy for giving me the opportunity to enjoy one year abroad as an international student.


All the places I get to see.


All the things I get to do.


All the people I meet.


Yeah, yeah, sure... I know he didn't actually have anything to do with the programme I'm part of today. But it's his name on the money I'm spending!


And what good it does me...