Queues...

More than a week has past since my last post. Well, what can I say. Classes have started and that's that.

But heaven, so many peculiar things have happened. Like today for example, when I was milliseconds away from falling asleep on my fish biology class. It would have been more ore less embarrassing since we are three students sittning around a table. The sleepyness had to do with some strange form of insomnia last night and then having to get up at 5.50 am to be in school at 7.00 am. Probably it also had to do with the zillions of new words never before heard on spanish: names on sea-living animals (there are quite a few of those creatures I can tell you), describing different parts on these animals, how you separate them from one another, and so on. Well, I felt very bad since the teacher is one of the most fish dedicated people I have ever met and a very nice person. To make it up to all those fish out there I put up one of the pictures from today's lesson. The spikes are in fact it's scales, marvallous isn't it. I am telling you, this fish business is getting to me!

So, what's new? As the devoted radio listener I am, I have tried my best to get a grip on the lastest political turns. It sure isn't easy since the opposition is so incredibly againt Chavez, whilst the Chaviztas can't take a word of criticism. The most recent debates are about the following:

- OF COURSE still Chavez proposition of a reform of the 1999 Constitution, specifically concerning:

*Article 230 - prolonging the mandate time from 6 to 7 years and changing the maximum period of time a President can stay in power from 2 mandates to "forever".
Opposition: With the reform he wants to make sure that he stays in power his whole life. He is becoming a dictator.
Explanation given by Chavez: If the people in a country want a President to stay in power they should have the possibility to decide so, without being limited by the consitution. The same system is found in many European countries which makes the massive critique against the proposition from foreign media difficult to take seriously. Why should the population in a third world country not have the same right as poeple in the West to choose whom they want as their President?

* Reducing the working day from 8 to 6 hours
What will happen to productivity? Factories will produce less and the economy will stagnate.
Lina's comment: This was said by a friend, who is very against Chavez, being very upset. But I just smiled, wonderful!

* Article 115 - concerning rights to different kinds of property
Opposition: Chavez wants to get rid of all private property. To vote in favor of the reform would meen that company owners, business men, etc would see their property being handed out to the public. International companies will pick up and leave the country and there won't be a single investor wanting to put money into Venezuela. The economy will freeze and degrade.
Chavez: Studying the actual change of the article can not leave anyone in doubt of the continuing respect for and recognition of private proparty. What is new is the extension of the different kinds of proparty the citizens of Venezuela can share. The reformed article adds: community property, citizen's proparty, collective/cooperative proparty, as well as other types, which is thought to give people more influence and possibilities to participate as citizens.

The reform deals with 33 out of totally 350 articles in the constitution. But the ones mentioned above get almost all attention. Apart from those two the reform also suggests:
- the distribution of un-used land to small holders and campesinos
- a total abolishment of all monopolies
- to make it impossible to privitize the nation's nature reserves
- establishment of community councils with a direct influence over the decisionmaking
- employers would be forbidden to force employees to work overtime
- introduction of a whole set of new fundamental rights for workers (pension, vacation, work free time before and after pregnancy, etc)

Oh my, this is getting out of proportion, there are still so many hot topics to mention, but I will go easy on you and save them till my next post, you can think about it as a cliff hanger!
Although one last one to make you drewl for more, before I stop:
- The setback of the time by half an hour
This sure has taken some seriously outrageous proportions in media, and everyone I have talked to so far about why Chavez wants to change the time, all inclusive (for-against-in the middle) shake their heads in confusion and call him crazy.
Chavez: To set back the clock by half an hour would mean that no one, working normal workday-hours, would have to get up before the sun rises. It is unnatural and very disturbing for body and mind to get up when it is still dark. It would also be easy to on the same time make it so that people working within certain sectors start work earlier than others in order to reduce traffic and the time people spend in queues.
Lina's comment: As a swede I don't find the suggestion so strange at all, and I don't understand the outcry by everyone.

In every speech and on every event Chavez appears at he speaks about media's manipulation of his intentions and the government's politics. And it is quite clear that it has been successfull. It seems to me that people more and more finsih their argumentation against Chavez by: "Well, he is a crazy man". True or false, no one seems to have the interest to check it out further, and there ends the discussion. Sad.

Well, that was that. Other than attending class, trying to keep up with the academic scientific spanish and standing in one hundred queues every day (waiting for the bus to and from the uni, in the inscription queue, the queue to the school restaurant, and so on forever) I have been training with the running team. The competition is this sunday, at 7.30 am, 8000 people participating, shit. We did 4000 m on the track yesterday, on time the fastest we could. It was very unpleasent. I will die the "heart bursting death due to over dose of adrenaline" before I even get to start running, or maybe the "running too fast in the beginning and be all drained out of power heart bursting death" after 5 km, or just the normal and slightly boring (and zero glamorous) "being squashed by 8000 pairs of feet against hard concrete death". Hm, what do I prefer...

I have a new assignment. Self imposed and with a high probability of being a complete failure, but well, here it is: To make the school restaurants (serving about 7000 meals every lunch) serve vegetarian food one day a week. Ok, so for you who have been on the south american continent maybe understand the magnitude of this goal. People here looooove meat and they eat meat in every meal. To get support from the students in this is the biggest challenge. So I am now in the process of planning how to carry the whole thing through. I need to be very strategic, and I have to say that it sofar has gone way beyond my imagination.
Yesterday I got a lift home with one of the men in the running team. He just happened to be the vice headmaster of the university and the one in charge of "services" which is transport and food. So what to do when sitting in a car stuck in a queue for 40 minutes... I launched my idea and waited for his friendly face to take the form of a raisin with fire coming out of his eyes and his skin colour turn red... but to my surprice he said:
"But what an excellent idea! I am "naturalista" myself, we only eat vegetables, well not all vegetables of course. We don't eat tomatoes nor soya meat, I don't know why. But lately they have become less strict, so... now we eat tomatoes."
I was amazed! Dropping me off he said: "We definetley have to talk more about this!"
"Of course", I responded, you know, the way you respond to one of your pals, I mean, I am so cool when it comes to dealing with authorities.
So, yepp, it will be very interesting to see where this end up. My only concern is that the whole idea of my project is lost, which is to raise to issue of eating meat in the first place. I will have to talk to my friend (the vice headmaster) about it, I am sure he will understand.

Ok, a few photos in the end. The flowers are from a walk I took this sunday in the very beautiful botanical garden and the others are just a very representative for this country, and yet so very controversial.

So long.

Fiesta, theater and school

This saturday I went down to the area around the Central university. Before I left for Venezuela a friend in Malmö had given me the email address of his friend, Christina, who is engaged in a social center, called Ateneo Popular, located in Caracas. After having been in contact with her a few times since I got here she invited me to the celebration of its anniversary. It was very nice to see what they had accomplished and just to meet people who have ideas and try to carry them through. The house offers different kinds of cultural activities, but they also organise discussion groups which touch upon various political issues. I have signed up for one of those!
They have recently put together a library with a good variety of political litterature, open for everyone. I didn't really get a deeper explanation of the main aim of the house, nor to how they carry out their work. But the general idea is clear, and it gave me a whole lot of positive energy!
In the evening it was a very nice show on the street outside with people juggling, linedancers and other very difficult things. There was even a girl doing acrobatic stuff in a long piece of hanging cloth. Darn, it was impressive.
The area around the university Central is known to be very pro-Chavez and indeed it was the first place I have visited where I could actually see that.

At the fiesta I met a guy who the day after (sunday) took me and my room mate Petra to the theater. It was a play about the contemporary woman in Venezuela. It was very nice to see them play but to be honest I didn't understand much at all. The actors were a bunch of quite fast speaking women and they didn't go easy on the slang. But I laughed on the right moments and all that, thank god it was dark where the audience sat so that no one saw my confused and lost expression. Apparently it was about how venezuelan women tend to be very over protective with their children and how that affects the children.

After the theater we went to a café and talked about politics. It was very releaving to get a more diversified analysis of Chavez, by a socialist.
Listening to seemingly well informed and often outrageous anti-Chaviztas can really give you the idea that "socialism" is being dragged in the gutter by C-man's politics. In these situations it is difficult to justify why leftisch organisations/groups/partys all over the world are behind Chavez. But after having spoken with quite a few anti-Chaviztas I am now of the opinion that they tend to deliver their arguments with just too little reflection. When I ask WHY their sworn enemy has made a certain proposition they explain it as if the only reason is to worsen the situation it concerns. Even if this is true, that is not the reason given by Chavez. The official reason behind a reform does not have to be in every way correct, for sure, but the explanation to why it is proposed should at least be mentioned and analysed by the people, no matter if they are pro or against Chavez.

When speaking about C-guy in public everyone lowers their voices, and poeple prefer to talk politics in private. I guess there are many individual reasons behind that, but I was told that one reason is that openly expressing your political view (pro or against) will generate such lively discussions that it is often better to keep quiet. The political dichotomy also tends to make any discussion predictable in the sense that it is already beforehand obvious that no one will change their minds. People generally know what they think they know and that is that. They don't go in to discussion with an open mind and a will to understand the opponent.
This problem is quite applicable all over the world though...

Ok, so just a few short words about my first two days in school. Well, it is a hazzle trying to understand when the courses start, where to go and who to talk to to fix everything.
Yesterday I had my first class in Ecología II, I was one hour late since the two first buses for school just passed me, without picking me up, they were full. But once I got to class I got a good feeling about the course, the teachers and the students. And I understood everything they said! Weeha. But making comments myself will have to wait a while.
Thereafter I met with my teacher in Fish Biology! It is a very nice and extremely devoted man who talked for about one hour non stop. Clearly there is much to say about fish, but then again, who ever said there wasn't?? We are only three students taking the course so it will be hard to miss out on classes without him noticing, not that I would want to do that. Three hours of fish knowledge every wednesday, smack, it's gonna be great!

Today I trained with the running team for the first time. We were doing laps at the sportsfield. The teacher wanted me to run 5 laps (2000 m) the fastest I could. Christ Almighty. I haven't done that kind of thing since I was 15 and my sports teacher "forced me" to run 800 m at the district championship. Man, I hated it then and that acid, energy draining, feeling with a taste of iron (which is blood people!!!) hasn't really grown on me since. I did my one try, but the rest (a group of lively and clearly crazy men in their 40's) did 3! Tomorrow we are doing long distance running.

Other than that, Venezuela is full of extremely nice people. All the time students at school come up to ask who you are, where you are from and why you chose to come to Venezuela. And then they invite you to join them on whatever they are up to: salsa, a trip to the beach, lunch, hiking...and so on. Well, it is very nice indeed. And the machismo that I feared so much before coming here has kept quite a low profile still.

ok, this has to end. tomorrow:
second lesson in Ecología II (7.30 am!!)
first lesson in Fish biology (I get goose bumps just writing it...)
tour of the library
running with crazy old men

can't wait!
Ciao

Feminism in a book store

Just a short post this time...

I went in to a book store the other day with the intention of maybe finding some nice venezuelan female authors, or just feministic literature in spanish. So to get some assitance with this I went to the counter. The following scenario took place:

Another woman had just bought a book and was getting it wrapped in paper by the girl working in the store. As the girl is about to finish the whole wrapping project she turns to the customer and asks with a bored (this is clearly routine) voice:
- ¿Es para una hembra o un marrón? (Is it for a female or a male)
- Un marrón, the woman answers and the girl bends down and with a resolute gesture she takes out a green bow to decorate the present with.
A marvallous feeling of extreme predectability comes over me, it is like I am crying with frustration inside but with a smile on my face, because of course, of course the man should have a green bow. I can only imagine what colour it would have been if the present was for a woman... The world felt so incredibly safe in the most awful way.
Thank you and good bye. My turn.

- Hello, I am searching for any kind of feministic litterature.
A confused but still proffessional look meets my eyes, and then a short discussion with her male colleague follows. Satisfied they both turn to me and say:
- Aha, sí, literatura sobre lo feminino, sí eso tenemos. The girl showed me to one of the bookshelves further away.
- Aqui! This is what you mean, right?!

Well, what to say, except for:
- Eh...hrm, yeees, thank you!

I didn't buy no book that day.

After this I went to check out the main university in Caracas, Universidad Central, which is public (the other public university is the one I'm at). It was a huge campus and very beautiful. It had a good atmosphere and felt a whole lot more relaxed than up at Simón Bolívar (my uni). The students were older, the variation of people much greater and they have a Centro de estudios de la Mujer (women studies)!
I guess they just have a more alive and engaged activist culture, and nice wastepaper baskets like this one!

On my way home, I live in an area called Baruta, I go through Baruta center which looks like this ---->







And a little further up the road, I have to pass this:









It is a little animal shop, selling animal food, animal toys and... chickens and rabbits, living in tiny cages.

Once back at home I had a private moment with C-man, he held a speach, it lasted 2 hours.


Well, that was all for now.

I have seen him!

But alló to ya

One week has past of my stay here in Venezuela. And I am more confused than ever, who is this Cavez-guy, and what does he really want??

Sunday I visited the famous Plaza Bolívar and went to a few museums. It was quite pleasant, we walked around and I got a better feeling of the city center. It is big though, as much as I like to walk to where ever I am going, Caracas is home to over 5 million people... The areas around Plaza Bolívar are known to be pro-Chavez, this gave me some hope of maybe getting a more positive picture of him, compared to what I have met so far. And immediately as I saw the famous square open up infront of me I could almost feel his presence. How strange... There is a huge statue of Simón Bolívar himself in the middle of the plaza and as it was sunday, it was filled with old people, kids and birds! Oh yes, there it is ---->

Well, walking around the square I passed something I couldn't really figure out what it's exact purpose was. Clearly it was a government thing, and I believe it was some kind of info-booth.

Maybe an efficient way of making it easy for the people to be more participatory... but then again, maybe it serves a totally different purpose. My newest co-habitee, a young girl from Venezuela, didn't know either.
Although, their looks didn't really remind me of a "service minded, come-join-the-revolution-it-is-great-and-if-you-
have-any-questions-we-are-here-to-help-you" kind of a look. No, more like "Chesuss-I-am-bored-and-it-is-hot-in-these-dark-long-sleeved-uniforms-and-
who-are-you-strange-foreign-person-who-stares-at-us, what-don't-you-sympathize-with-the-revolution?-oh-you-can-fuck-off"-
type of a laid back glare.

Once we had rounded the square we entered the Caracas museum, a little hidden museum, forgotten and bypassed by most tourists (according to the Insight Guides guide book). Knowing this I strolled in through the doors with an almost ignorant appearence. And what catches my eye?... who would have thought... I mean, in this little museum (ok it was a nice old house and historically very important politically, but still)... no one less than C-man himself.
It is true! Tamtadam!
Hello! Nice to meet you at last! We got eye contact and I could see he was thinking:
"Oh, hello Lina. I've heard nothing about you. Welcome to my country! Believe every word I say!"
It was a fine moment indeed!

Because of Chavez' newly suggested reform of the prevailing constitution, which among other things will enable a president to be re-elected more than two mandates, it is a big discussion going on here in Venezuela. Have been listening two hours on the radio today and scanned numerous homepages to try to get an idea of what it is really about. Haven't been easy, especially due to the fact that I don't know which channels and which newspapers that are for or against.

I was then overdosed with anti-Chavez-propaganda. I had a long discussion with a middle-aged person, very engaged and energetic, and with an endless storage of arguments to why the revolution and Chavez have ruined the country. It was very interesting and also quite frustrating not to have enough knowledge myself to know if there were some obvious lies or just misunderstandings being told.
A few of the arguments:

• During the times before Chavez you never saw any kids begging on the streets, now there are heeps of them.

• The police and the military are loyal to Chavez but they are completely corrupted. Compared to before, there are now no security at all and more than 180 people a month die in Venezuela due to acts of violence and assaults on the streets.
  

• The last election should not have been in favour of Chavez, it was an obvious fraud. The authority, CNE (Consejo Nacional Electoral), who is responsible for the elections, is a governmental body and therefore not trustworthy as a objective party. Also there was cheating in the actual voting system. During the day of the election everyone in the voting queue was going to vote against Chavez, and still he won, how did that happen?!

• The governance of the country is really bad. Economically it is being mis-treated. Before there were investments in Venezuela, but now, no private entrepreneur or big company dare to open anything. Instead companies close down, Hilton for example. They think their property and land will be public. McDonald's, Burger King and all those came before the Chavez-era. So, from where will the money come?

• Chavez has changed definition of himself during his rule. In the early days when he was asked if he was a socialist or communist, he denied it. Today he claims to be both and that is not trustworthy!

• The new reform is only a way to asure himself lifelong power!
  

Well, there were more arguments than these, but I don't even remember them all. I was just quite shocked by the rage behind the words. I suddenly felt like I am in the middle of a historical, politically decisive, timeperiod but without the sufficient means to grasp all its aspects. I had to read some pro-Chavez articles at www.venezuelanalysis.com when I got home, to regain some balance and realise that there actually exist people in this country who are in favour of C-man.

At the radio there was a really interesting discussion where they were comparing the US-backed chilean opposition against Allende during the 1970's and the opposition against Chavez today. I believe it is important to keep in mind the huge amount of resources that the opposition in Venezuela possess...

Monday was my first day at the university. I now know which courses I will be taking during this first trimestre, starting next monday. Ecology II, Introduction to Marine ecology and last but not least... Fish biology, or Biology of the fish... there is no way to say it to make it sound better. Ok, fish, I like fish, I mean I don't eat fish. But, you know, fish are important animals...they live in water, and I really like water. Well, maybe I don't really like the ocean, to swim in that is, or to drink either for that matter, but when I think about it I don't like to drink water at all, no matter what kind it is. So, I will learn a lot about fish, good! If you need to know something about fish, you come to me! Maybe I can become the leading fish expert in Sweden, expert on fish living out of the coast of Venezuela that is... I am sure I will be extremely wanted, work wise. I mean not that I don't think I won't get a job anyways, no no, I will, I am sure. Well, at least there will be vacant positions that I can apply for, or, one can hope so. And that will feel good, to know that I can apply for a job. I have lowered my expectations lately. ok.

so long.

After a visit at a Robinson beach

Back in civilization, in Caracas after about two and a half days on the beach Cuyagua. Me and my fellow roomies left for the beach thursday morning at six o'clock am. What we thought would be a 4 hour trip turned out to be about 6.5 hours. We used almost all different kinds of public transport there are, except for boat. The day before we had bought a tent and so we were well prepared for some nice days on the beach.
First miscalculation:
- Should we buy food here in Ocumare de la costa (over there in that shop, right there! that has all that food) or wait until we get to the beach?
- Let's wait, surely there will be tiendas with food and fruit at the beach or at least at the little village.
Damn. As it turned out, there was not even the smallest little kiosk at the beach (because we arrived during the week), and after having walked the 30 minutes to the little village, we were very upset to notice that all it had to offer foodwise, were white toasts, tomatoes and salt.
Ok, so we accpted the fact that it would be a hungry stay at the beach, but probably a relaxing one.

Ok, here it will have to come a passus in the story, just to remind myself once again why I don't feel an overwhelming urge to have kids. The two little granddaughters of the nice Hilda (my host) are standing outside our door (two meters away) and playing a game (they just made up) called superman (or atleast that is my own interpretation of its name). The game is: the bigger girl screams (!) SUPERMAAAN and shoots her arm up in the air (just like superman, ok) trying to get the smaller girl (maybe 3 yrs old) to do the same, she soon succeeds... and the game continues for at least 20 minutes. It is in every way a nice game for the two little ones, I am sure, but one I can't understand or relate to, for me it is mostly noise, very loud and annoying noise. These kids... so hard to get.

Just so this post won't take you days to read, I here by continue the main story, the one about the beach...
Once the tents were up we could finally enjoy the sea. It was lovely temperature and great waves. Not that I am a negative soul (considering the above comment) but I do have to say that salty water not is my cup of tea. It gets into my throat and kind of stays there, and after the swim, you don't have that fresh feeling you have after a swim in a river or a lake, no, your body is covered in salt! What is that... but people seem to like it, and it wasn't like I didn't go in again.

Overall it was a very pleasant beach. Many tents were put up underneeth the coconut trees and I met some quite nice venezuelan youngsters. Some of them had been there on the beach for weeks! Crazy! So from then on there was not much to do but to read in the shade, take a swim in the ocean, talk with rasta-guys and... well not more than that actually.
Coconuts fell down from time to time and could just as well have killed someone, but as it all was so tranquil and paradise-like it was of course only charming. And so people showed how to open them up and put a straw into it to drink the water. It is like a gift from nature, and satisfied we stated that: We would survive afterall!!
Although, continuing my negative track, I hate coconuts, in every form and that disgusting water inside the nut was surely not better! Sad to admit that I would be the first to die if we were to be stranded on an deserted island.
So after two hours of this happy unproblematic life I was bored out of my head. It was just too hot and too little distraction. I think we all felt more or less the same, or atleast we all agreed to cut the trip short by one day and return saturday (today) instead! Good decision!

Friday evening I hung with some nice venezulan@s and tried to get there view on their countries political situation.
It was actually quite difficult. When I asked about Chavez they hushed and started to whisper, as something I think was a joke, but still. I do believe it is not completely unproblematic to talk freely out of your heart about C-man, if your ideas are not entirely appreciating.
Atleast from these young people I got support in my opinion about the ridicilous price on petrol. They commented on the fact that the low price is almost the same as giving the petrol away for free and how that doesn't match with our ongoing climate change problem.
I have tried to get a feeling for how big the general interest in politics is among the people here. As from where my own political understandig takes its ground, it is not sustainable to go through with a revolution in the name of "the pueblo" and not have the people engaged in what is happening. Politics and the way it is carried out should be on every ones lips, it should be thoroughly analised and discussed by every person in the country, since everyone will be affected by it.
I have failed big time in my tries to get hold of a news paper, it keeps slipping my mind. I do long for an update in what is going on in the country and how it is reported. My general feeling is that I have met over all people with quite good possibilities to do what they want in life, and they have all been negative to C-man. I'd like to meet the people who in first hand ripe the fruits of his changes. He did get about 67 % of the votings in the last election...
And then another question and concern, why put such hype on yourself while carrying through a revolution? I get the chills. But still as I said, so much remains to be understood about this country, it's politics, it's people and the revolution.
Ok, enough for now with this. There is so much more to say about it but I have written too much already.
The book tip of the month: Kvinnor på gränsen till genombrott, for you who understand swedish. I have gotten a hangup for swedish feminists from the 1920's, they were strong!

So long!


The tents at the beach!

Me on the beach. I am not sucking in the beauty of the ocean, I am thinking, damn it is hot.

The Cuyagua beach from a mountain nearby.

Me posing. I don't know from where I get all these ideas for such stylish positions, but it is quite good, isn't it?!

Arriving in Caracas

And so here I am, in Caracas in Venezuela. I came yesterday afternoon, it feels very awkward to be here. I have met my two room mates, Kajsa and Petra and I have met Hilda, the lady that we rent our house from.

The night before my early morning flight to Caracas me and Cinthia went to Kastrup, bought a coffee and some chocolate to stay awake and then just waited it out. The only positive thing with leaving to enter that flight was the knowledge that a whole set of american romantic comedies awaited me, but... no. The dissapointment was immense, no film! 9 hours and 20 minutes, we crossed the whole Atlantic ocean, and not one single movie! And even worse, I had to wait about eight hours for a coffee... not that I am supposed to keep that bad bad habit up any longer, but anyways! Isn't that horrific?! Keep away from AirFrance, that's all I have to say!

And then I arrived in what is to be my home for the next months. Green high mountains was the first thing I saw when exiting the airport. And after having been harrassed by different men offering me to change dollars to bolivares I could finally go with the taxi driver who was sent to pick me up by the university. As we are in a rainy period, the rain was pooring down, it was 25 degrees and quite pleasent.

I asked the driver different things about the country and still I refer all my Venezuela-knowledge to his answers!
For example:
What fruits do you have and is it cheap?
The driver: We have all kinds! And yes it is very very cheap! If you like fruit you will love Venezuela!
Lina's comment: Well... as it turned out, fruit is bloody expensive, one apple is about one dollar, I cried blood once I realized this.
How far is Caracas from the ocean?
About 4o minutes.
Great!
How much is the petrol per litre?
Oh, it is very expensive, it costs 97 bolivares.
Hm, ok, it sure depends on what one refers to. This is about 33 öre!
Are there big differences between the different barrios in the city?
Oh yes! Many barrios are very poor. In Venezuela there is so much corruption, everyone is looking for money, that is the problem.
What about the social projcets that Chavez has initiated, are they helping at all?
Chavez is crazy, he is not fulfilling anything. Everyone dislikes him. He will probably not be re-elected. He gives alms to people, but most people don't want to be given money, they want to work to earn their money. He doesn't understand this. And he has not been able to fight the corruption.
Ok, this was when I understod he was an anti-chavista...

Well... I sure will continue my quest. The quest is simply to get an idea of what the venezulan@s think about the bolivarian revolution.

Today, we went to the university Simón Bolívar, where I will be studying biology (marine ecology, etc). It was quite nice, lots of green areas and trees. I have heard that students in Venezuela are very young when they start university, and on this specific university (technical-science and expensive) there are mainly people not supporting the big C-man. The two words within the brackets maybe explain why that is... not showing my prejudices at all.

ok... I will end this now. Tomorrow I will follow Kajsa and Petra to the beach Cuyagua, about 3 hours from Caracas, for a few days. We'll be back sunday. On monday is the introduction for exchange students which we'll be attending.

Now I will check on my kidney beans which are boiling.


The bedroom. My feet. The white door goes out to the living room.

Kajsa and Petra, my roomies. My bed is he middle one. Note the pink sheets!
_
Coming out of the bedroom. This is the living room and the kitchen. Our dining table, and internet corner. The door the entrance and the house that can be seen through the window is Hilda's house.

Malmö hang out

My last days in Sweden are soon coming to an end and I am trying hard to squeeze out the most of it. I am back in Malmö and the Nobel-collective since wednesday after a short stop in Uppsala and a visit at Norby (my brother and his family). By the time I left for Malmö I had already been several different animals, read bed time stories and just spent some very fine quality time with the two little ones (Tova 5 yrs and Vidar 3 yrs).

Just one dissapointment, as I picked up Tova at her pre-school I couldn't help to notice how the activities among the children didn't seem to have changed since I went to school. The girls were sewing and talking about curly versus straight hair, while the boys were playing cards and doing other boyish stuff. Well, during the 10 minutes I spent there, I sure couldn't make a qualified analysis of the general situation at pre-schools in Sweden today (but I can make one up if you want to!)... but I just wish the little girls didn't have to spend any time at all thinking about how to organise their hair when that means thinking less of more important things, whatever that might be.
But well, maybe they will turn out as ultra radical feminists anyways, haha... who knows.

Ok. Since I got back to Malmö I have tried to pack my things, empty my room and run like one hundred small errands. I have done quite well! I took a shot for tyfoid fever, didn't hurt at all, actually I kind of enjoy taking shots! I am lucky that way, but on the other hand I can't take the thought of crawling larvae without being disgusted, nor can I hardly look at the orange envelope from the "Allmänna pensionsfonden" without panicking. I guess we all have our weaknesses...

Yesterday was a very good and soft day. I spent about 5 hours drinking coffee with a princess and after a gourmet dinner á la Nobel with two of my sisters (Linda and Julli) we all went out to Möllan to continue socializing! It is clear that Möllan is too small for our excessive company, the tables were too few.
Except for a male idiot harrassing Jessica the night was mighty fine!

Today: packing, emptying my room (has been an ongoing project since wedensday night but doesn't seem to be advancing) and hopefully some running. How I have missed the track in Pildammsparken (the park of the arrowdamm...), all three of them... well well. After having had the hills and forest paths in Norrland to run on, it will be a challenge to find the motivation to run in Malmö.

So. Thank you for commenting on this blog. Keep doing that!


Pic. 1: Jonas and Toby the princess, probably here in a deep conversation about Twin Peaks. Pic. 2: Cinthia, Linda and Jessica. Linda is bloody funny as you can see on the photo! She has just fired away a clever and very funny joke!