Author: Caroline Bach
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.
something’s on over there.
Just perfect.
Still in Office
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!
Live from C’MUN
Buen rollo
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.
Hey, hop – elbow up!
The story of Nuria & Kala
My dear neighbours, Nuria and Kala tend to have very loud and aggressive fights in the middle of the night – like right now. They leave their balcony open so the whole building gets the inside information about what their issues are all about. We have been talking about investing in walke talkies for them as they always scream from the corner down the street to communicate that they are coming home and they want the door to be opened before they get there. Sometimes however, the other part doesn’t hear the calling so they end up standing on the street below our balcony for half an hour screaming either NURIAA or KALAA, thus, there is no question what so ever about their names. The friends of Kala and Nuria also stand downstairs calling them at least once a day, often however, they use other techniques to get their attention, some throw coins at their windows, some throw bigger things that make a lot more noise, some kick at the door three floors down – no matter the hour of the day. Nuria and Kala have a pitbull that sometimes is left alone out on the balcony. His name is Xixo and he doesn’t like to be left alone at all so he makes sure to let the whole street know he’s very sad about it.
It’s a very special building, the one opposite from ours, it seems to be opened only from the inside using some kind of cord and I haven’t fully figured out the secret behind it. Nuria and Kala are at home a lot, their friends from downstairs have four big dogs that like to bark and Nuria sometimes swears at them from the balcony. They also like to listen to rock music, they like the volume up and Kala likes to sing along, mostly however (like all day, every day), Kala stays in bed playing Playstation while Nuria goes downstairs to hang out with the friends who have all the dogs. Kala seems to be the passive and calm one in the relationship while Nuria is a very loud and passionate woman that seems quite easily irritated. We have their balcony just below ours, across the narrow street, so we have direct insight into everything that goes on in their very compact livingroom/bedroom/kitchen apartment. Kala has a red mohawk, Nuria sometimes likes to walk around naked.
The fuss around Nuria and Kala might seem like a loud nightmare, the truth is however that we love them over here and they provide us with a lot of good laughs. Anybody who’s been in our house has experienced some part of the show of Nuria and Kala, they are our beloved weird neighbours – high quality live entertainment.
Back to bed.