Category: Sweden
#Malmö
Sleepless in Lund
Too many juicy stories to tell and too little time! An entire night of talking suddenly turned into morning and wifey has just left to board her flight. The new wigs shall be safe until next time we meet – and that time there will be dancing, no excuses. Time to get some sleep now, I’m back in Malmö and the sun is up.
Twist & Shout
The Turning Torso building in Malmö is the tallest skyscraper in Scandinavia. Designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and 54 stories tall, the tower is composed of blocks that give the illusion of a turning movement. Pretty cool, eh?
I’m so busy here I barely have any time to breathe. A vacation is officially not a vacation if it involves going to the dentist, the pharmacy, the post office, and the bank. I refused anaesthetics at the dentists today, “You kind of should be screaming by now.” ..and apparently I have a very high pain threshold.
Doesn’t save me from being very tired today, unfortunately.
Call me maybe – I missed you so, so bad!
I’m listening to the radio while driving around Malmö, catching up with what’s being played over here.
A song that apparently has been around for a while but that I completely had missed is Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call me Maybe, a horrible but extremely catchy song that I’ve heard a million times these few days. And just as I was about to get annoyed over how they won’t play anything else, I found out that the hilarious Youtube comedian Steve Kardynal has made a video for it.
Cheesy song, chat roulette, Youtube, and laughing people. I now imagine this video every time I hear the song, so it just makes me happy.
& here’s the original video for the song. It’s so bad. So, so bad!
I bet that you learnt the lyrics by now.
(Sorry, I’m not filing this under “music”. haha)
Zlato moje
Uh-huh!
Välkommen till Malmö!
Copenhagen
I absolutely adore this city and I love my friends here. Spent the entire day with Maria yesterday until Leonie joined us after midnight, just like the Cicirella she is. (get it? Cinderella + Cicirello.. haha) and we stayed up talking until 5am.
Today, I visited the UN house, said hi to friends and my old office, had lunch, had catch-up’s and felt extremely nostalgic about the whole thing.
Do you know the little peacekeeper? He has been at Copehagen’s UN House with his owner for a while now and really wants to see Mozambique, so I took him with me across the bridge to Malmö.
And here I am now. In my city. Driving home on the right side of the road. With Wifi. Without a Swedish phone number but with a million errands to run. And friends that I can’t wait seeing. Very busy and very, very happy!
Killing Saudades
Me & children in a school in Chibuto. Gaza province, Mozambique
The matte veil of whateverness that had been blurring my existence the past month was suddenly pulled off as I clicked the confirm button on the BA homepage, buying my ticket to Europe.
I woke up in the middle of the night in Chibuto, off the grid, accompanied by nothing but the full moon and a strong wish to see my mother. I thought about all the people I had met, children orphaned by deadly diseases and families separated by the struggle for employment and survival. I couldn’t find the logic in deliberately putting myself in the state of missing my close ones so much it would hurt me. Of course, one could argue that the price I had to pay for my flight can’t be justified for the few days I will get in Sweden. For me, however, happiness has always had a higher value than money and experience has taught me that the rest always can be sorted out with priorities. In other words – I’m coming home, baby.
I bought my ticket already the next day in the car on the way back to Maputo, using my phone as a modem. When I had confirmed the payment and received the e-ticket in my inbox, everything suddenly made perfect sense again and all grey feelings disappeared as if they had never been there.
I happily informed family and friends, and was met by excited and heart-warming hurraying. Friends are arranging their flights, my mother is asking what I would like for dinner. All this love, I’m so overwhelmed! I am working on a schedule to make sure I get all my millions of errands arranged, I can’t wait!
Knowing that I will spend a week in Sweden gave sense to everything else and has filled me with new energy to continue doing what I do. I am already starting to long back to Mozambique, to this beloved job, to the summer that is approaching, and to spending more time with the family I have become a part of.
What I was suffering from was clearly the state that in Portuguese is referred to as saudade. A very strong feeling that there is no real translation for in English, but I can assure you it’s a pretty damn real one. Anyway, that’s all gone now – I’m back!!