Saturday: Now What?

Assignment handed in. It was one of the most fun assignments I’ve had in a long time. It made me watch the news. I would like to continue to do that. Anything that challenges one’s brain is good. But then again, I’m know to think that I like all my assignments. Just like I have a tendency to start sentences with “this really is one my favourite things in the world…”. Je to jedna z mojich najobľúbenejších vecí na svete.

The coffee is cold. I like cold coffee. I also like pineapple juice. But not together.

I need something good to read.

I feel like working out. I mean really, really working out. Unfortunately my gym is only open Monday to Friday.

It’s grey outside. And rainy. But some fresh air would be good. Lunch time. Maybe I’ll cook something tasty for J.

Almost all Saturday ahead and it’s already being great!

Getting the Essentials: Myslím, že potrebujem kávu. Veľa kávy. Dobré ránko!

 

It’s always positive if one knows how to express one’s need for coffee in foreign languages.

And then to a completely different topic. I’m writing an interesting essay for my advanced sociology class. The other day I bumped into a very fascinating story about Democracy in Latvia. There is a website called Manabalss, where citizens may propose and sign proposals for legislation to the Latvian parliament. 10,000 signatures are needed before the parliament will take the issue on their agenda. How cool isn’t that?

The European Union actually has something similar in the European Citizens’ Initiative.  However, gathering 1 000 000  signatures from 7 countries might be require more effort and mobilisation. I believe that the Lativan version of this idea might be more effective.

Upsetting Things This Week

• “Yet, about 100,000 teachers at regional schools and educators at universities will see their wages increase by 5 percent, which would add an approximate €42 per month to their pay…”. Source: The Slovak Spectator. Vol. 19, No.34. Monday, October 14, 2013 – Sunday, October 20, 2013.

Excuse me, what? I – not being or working as a teacher and with no responsibility to inspire and teach future generations – earn more than that. How on earth is a country (not just this one but any country) going to develop if there is no investments made in the future skills and knowledge of its children? Teachers and the educational system is one of the corner stones of a functioning society, where the quality of education should be a goal. And really, who will be inspired to choose the teaching profession if one will barely afford a roof on their head and food on the table with the prospective salary?

• Slovak women ranked as the 2nd most beautiful women in the world. Or something like that. This was something I saw on facebook and can no longer find.

Anyway. Why should women always be ranked depending on their looks? And for that matter, why should nationalities be ranked? And who cares? I get that men like looking at attractive women, women like to look at attractive men, too. But why make such a big deal out of it? There is so much more to people than their looks, but especially in the case of women, this fact is often overlooked. Women are constantly – directly and indirectly – fed information about how they should look in order to be accepted.

People can be clever, funny, witty, smart, intelligent, talented, disciplined, kind, sweet, nice, caring, thoughtful, positive, optimistic, affectionate, amusing, encouraging, courageous, amicable, considerate, diligent, energetic, creative, friendly, ambitious, determined, honest, good, loyal, sincere, passionate, polite, and a lot of other things. So why just focus on being pretty and attractive?

My personal belief is that the source to a deeper appreciation for life and the world lies in the cultivation of knowledge and social relations based on internal factors. Looks are just the shell. Taking care of one’s appearance is not wrong but it should not be the only factor upon which our worth as human being is based (by ourselves and others).

Emptying of time, emptying of space*.

So. There it goes again. The concentration. The focus. It’s amazing how little it takes sometimes. The sentences that made sense just a moment ago suddenly turn incomprehensible. Oh, well.

 

Lately I have spent a great deal of time thinking about emptying, getting rid of. It struck me in the tram that I have a lot of things to be grateful for, and owning things is not on that list. All I need to be happy is my laptop, books (that generate knowledge) and a little bit of love.

 

 

* the title of the post was inspired by the book The Consequences of Modernity by Anthony Giddens.

život [sk: life]

View from work. Pohľad z práce.



Autumn is here. Jeseň je tu.




I love colours. Milujem farby.



Thursday. Štvrtok.



Wake up! Prebuď sa!

The Pea Soup Disaster

Why do all good ideas decide to make their voices heard in the shower where there is no pens and even less paper?

In the shower I thought of Finland. Here in Bratislava we have a small circle of Finnish people: great people, kind people. People with so many stories to tell. Some have gone back, others are planning their return. Others never want to go back.

We admire, we complain, we compare. Some are here for the adventure, others found love. Then there are some with nowhere else to go.

Sometimes I’d like to go beyond the façade, scratch the surface, look deeper inside.

The point of stories is, after all, to teach and to create infinity.

And yes.

Today I also made some pea soup.

One needs peas, 2 small onions, and some bacon. Boil almost until they explode.

Štrkovecké jazero

Not too far from our house there is an artificial lake - Štrkovecké jazero – that we sometimes like to go to. Yesterday we grabbed our cameras and headed there for some autumn photography.

Gondolatok a könyvtárban [HU: Reflections In The Library]

There has been very little translation and very little Hungarian in this blog recently. But, when stumbling into a poem about a library, I just had to give a go at it.

Gondolatok a könyvtárban was written by Hungarian poet Mihály Vörösmarty. It’s a long poem and can be found in its entirety here. Here’s the translation for the first lines.

Hová lépsz most, gondold meg, oh tudós,
Az emberiségnek elhányt rongyain
Komor betűkkel, mint a téli éj,
Leírva áll a rettentő tanulság:
"Hogy míg nyomorra milliók születnek,
Néhány ezernek jutna üdv a földön,
Ha istenésszel, angyal érzelemmel
Használni tudnák éltök napjait."

 

Where are you heading now, think, oh scientist,

To humankind they throw rags

In gloomy letters, like a  winter night,

Written down the scary lesson stands:

“While millions are born into poverty,

A few thousand could be welcomed to the world,

If they knew how to apply God’s wisdom, the angel’s emotion

to their lived days.”

Right Now.

Discussing the Nobel prizes. Admiring the prettiness of Scarlett Johansson. Watching the news. Listening to the rain. Enjoying the bitterness of coffee. Planning for the weekend. Looking forward to tonight. Reading the Tao. Sneezing. Being thankful it’s Friday.

Happy Friday to You!

Morning Thought

Waking up. It’s dark outside. I’m looking for news for one of my assignments. Sometimes the world – and all that happens in it – seems such a horrible place. But, there is beauty in it, I believe, as well as lot of wonder. This morning I decided to start off my day in a way that I haven’t done in a long time, by reading a verse from the Tao.

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 50

Between birth and death,
Three in time are following life,
Three in ten are following death,
And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.

He who knows how to live can walk abroad
Without fear of rhinocerous or tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinoceroses can find no place to thrust their horn,
Tigers can find no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so? Because he has no place for death to enter.

(translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)

Vegetarian Pumpkin Stew

Currently I am…

…reading: Shantaram

…having a crush on: puppies

…listening to: talk

…watching: Californication

…feeling: ill

…planning: going to the gym

…eating: we found an Asian buffet with delicious seafood. Today I want to cook a Moroccan stew with chickpeas and chicken

1st Year In Bratislava–part 3

In May I visited Finland and cuddled with Sasha. We started making smoothies and my Slovak studies were doing so-and-so.




Our favourite restaurant Idyla is nearby, it’s cheap and the food is delicious. One of my favourite dishes is Devil’s Camebert. No summer without a trip to Hungary. Budapest was lovely as always and Eger was a cosy little town.


 

I did not find many pictures from July. At least I had some food, it seems.




The highlight of August was our holiday in Slovenia. That is one lovely country. We stayed in Ljubljana for a couple of days and a few more days at the coast. I definitely want to go back!

Autumn In Bratislava

Last weekend my parents and aunt came for a visit to Bratislava. Autumn is such a lovely time and I’m happy that it has finally arrived. Of course I had to bring the camera along to our sightseeing.

Images In My Mind

There have been some images lingering in my mind lately, images that refuse to go away. They are short reminders of something yet to come, still so obscure.

One image is this: it’s early in the morning, the street is waking up. I’m going somewhere on sweat pants – my hair in a pony tail – and a take away cup of coffee.

I cannot get rid of that image, no matter how hard I try. It’s so simple, so meaningless. Yet, there it is.

Well hello, October.

Sitting here, listening to The Sound of Silence and thinking about autumn and life and stuff. There will be some soup for dinner and I philosophise over writing and creativity and learning.

I have been so tired lately. The cold is not going anywhere. I’m just sleepy and grumpy and horrible.

Things I wanna do this month:

• yoga
• get rid of this cold
• go to the gym
• investigate the possible usages of parsnip
• eat more soup

Creativity at a high level, as you can see