Category: Barcelona 2011

Caroline BachLeave a comment

Gibran ft. McCrae

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.”

“Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
And stand together but not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

Khalil Gibran

I’ve had a very nice day with friends, good food, wine and Gibran. Thus, today’s treat from me to you is an oldie by Gwen McCrae and these two masterpieces by the brilliant Lebanese poet. Khalil Gibran – The Madman (1918) + Khalil Gibran – The Prophet (1923)


Gwen McCrae – 90% of me is you
Gwen McCrae (1974)

Caroline Bach1 Comment

My extremes

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In between the extremes is the reality where most of us are, where we feel safe and where life flows comfortably without drastic changes, where you just live – and let yourself be led by your strivings to reach what your surroundings already have accomplished.

I don’t want predictability, I want the extreme points of reality, the whole spectrum. The harshest contrasts with all of their details. I want to understand both “Bottom up” & “Top down” and talk to the lonely streetkid and to the man in the shiny suit. That’s where I feel that I learn, where I can be surprised and stimulated by something new. Where I can grow and get enough experience to actually do something, to be aware of the differences.

I need the world to surprise me, to not let me conform in “in between”, to give me reasons to move beyond myself. Cheesy enough it’s why I studied both Psychology and International Relations – because that’s where I want to be, understand all the realities of other people and myself, find myself in my own extremes.

Both of the pictures above were taken in 2010. The first one is in the Streetchild rescue center in Assagao, India. The second one is with Martin Luther King Jr. III on a Peace Conference in Jaffa, Israel. Both events taught me more than a year of master studies in Sweden ever could.

At the moment I am striving for two new extremes – one in Sub-Saharan Africa and the other one in shiny places where big decisions are made. I don’t know what will happen or where I will end up, but until then I have my beloved Barcelona which gives me a lot of stimulation at the moment and which seems to be the right place to maybe one day create a home base. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to whatever the future brings.

Caroline Bach3 Comments

Press? Sure!

Yesterday we worked until 3am to finish our articles and meet the deadline, it was good fun at the office apart from the fact that I had to be hopping out of bed four hours later. I’m working here at the Catalonia Model United Nations as staff, reporter, photographer, translator and a lot of other random things – and I’m having great amounts of fun. The event lasts until Saturday evening and we are printing a daily newspaper where we report on what has happened during the day and what been discussed in the different commissions. I am responsible of covering the Security Council which I find very interesting – and the ongoing debates are on fire!

The thing I think I like most about the working part is that that there always is some kind of deadline that keeps the adrenaline on top at all times, making the whole day a bit stressful, but above all stimulating and fun. Besides working you get to meet interesting people the whole day, and the team itself is great – we are having a lot of fun with all the cheesy word games that you have to master when writing catchy headlines and twisted endings. Tomorrow morning the heat is on again and I think I might need to get some redbull! Pressure? Oh, C’mun!

Caroline BachLeave a comment

Buen rollo

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Daneff studying, David playing the guitar, everybody doing their own thing – at times sharing random comments, laughs and talks. Add some Radiohead on top of that and you have a very classic example of buen rollo. Live from our livingroom.

Why don’t people ever get tired of that band? It’s like there’s just something about Thom Yorke and the guitars that makes you incapable of disliking it.