It's getting hot in here

Hello!Sorry for the delay in writing, vacation time! Now reporting straight from the warm lands. Facing awesome humid temperatures of 30+ celsius. I think I got unused. No hair gel or make up works fine here. They vanish at the first sweat drop.
Nice to show some cleavage again and wear summer clothes, but the heat feels warmer when you have tasted the almost polar cold. You feel sticky the entire day!
Can't spend too much time here. Will go out to taste some nice brazilian barbecue!
Promise I'm gonna write again soon!
Beijos!

Fígaro, fígaro!

Yesterday I went to the Opera house to watch “La Bohème”. I really like classic music and opera so I was very excited since it was the first time I would watch it in Europe. To my surprise, people were not dressed super elegant as they do in Brazil when it’s opera night. It’s nice, because it shows it is more popular here (or that people got poorer because of the economic crisis).

Everything was great. Production, scenario, singers. Even the chocolate muffin I ate at the pause was tasty. We got a privileged view from our seats and as usual the opera was in Italian (this one was written by Puccini), but with Swedish subtitles. One of the cool things about going to an opera is that you get to know things about famous classic music you had no idea about before. Like in the aria called “Quando me’n vo”, which means “When I walk/go”. I had always known this one with only the orchestra, never with someone singing. I actually had no idea it was from “La Bohème”. And then one of the characters, an egocentric, good looking and heartbreaking lady starts singing this beautiful melody, saying that, when she walks down the street, everyone looks at her, admiring her beauty from head to feet. It was truly beautiful, the melody, the power of her voice…great!

Anyway…all that beauty didn’t prevent me from listing some things that always happen when we go watch operas, ballets or similar:

-Coughing people: Amazing how people spare all the phlegm they have been gathering a whole day to cough it out at the theater. Not mentioning the ones with no phlegm at all, but that simply swallowed saliva in a wrong way and can’t stop coughing, just to disturb you and the others.

-Crying people: If you look carefully around you can see people wiping their tears. I couldn’t resist it myself.

-Plastic bags: Another classic. People who need to mess with a plastic bag in the important or silent scenes. Put those and the coughing ones together and we have an orchestra.

-Professional clappers: These are the ones who know exactly when to clap, because the act is ending, even before it ends.

-Exciters: Those are cool somehow and very common in Brazil at least. They stand up by the end of an act to clap or to scream “Bravo!” and so.

Well, I went home happy and satisfied with the show. Waiting for the next one!

If you want to check the beautiful known aria I mentioned above, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmSCNFNzMWs&feature=related

Enjoy!

Sali!

In order to take care of my body and health I go to the gym every day. And every day it’s the same thing on the radio: Rihanna, Neyo, Justin, Britney etc with the same songs top of the billboard. The kind of “working out music”. You can lift small weights following the rhythm:“Umbrella, ella, ella, e, e, e”... could you picture it? Works perfect. I even memorized the order of the songs the DJ plays. He probably leaves the whole list playing and goes home or something.

The thing is: one of these days to my surprise, it was not Rihanna leading my work out series, but some kind of slow music in a language I couldn’t identify. Then after some few verses I realized it was Finnish . The gym owner, a happy old man from Finland, came closer to me and I asked him what it was:

-This is Finnish tango! I am Finnish, you know…hehe.

-Oh, nice! Cool to listen to something else than the same pop stuff on the radio. -I said cordially.

Big mistake. The following days were interesting. He would play Finnish tango all the time and it was nice, I liked it. The thing is that after two whole weeks listening to it you realize you do your series much slower than normal. And not only that…after the tango he would play old romantic American songs. So instead of having Rihanna and her “Disturbiaaaa” disturbing me and making me do fifty sit ups, I could do only 25 to the sound of “Unforgettable...in every way….”. And not only me. Actually most of the ones working out are quite old and you can see their eyelids closing slowly while they pull and lift… “Crazy…crazy for feeling so lonely…” and we all get slower.
I really hope this is not part of a sordid plan by the happy Finnish man. Getting us all drugged with music. Nice “narcotics”, I guess :)

SO DIRTY!

I don’t really know if it’s just me or I’m surrounded by people who don’t really care about hygiene. I still remember the first time I came to Sweden and stayed at a friend’s place. When it was time to go to bed I would brush my teeth, but he never did the same. Then one day I decided to ask: “Don’t you brush your teeth before sleeping?” and he simply said “No, I never get cavities”. From that day on I pitied every girl who could possibly have a relationship with him. After all, if he didn’t mind not cleaning something everyone can see/smell, think of the “hidden” parts…

This is only one of some examples of disgusting things I am in contact with here in Sweden. Today’s list is about them:

-Kids eat whatever: So many times I see babies chewing on books, keys, plastic wrappings and even pieces of wood. Start paying attention and you will understand what I’m talking about. The parents really seem to live by the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.

-The towel: Today I saw this woman showering at the gym. Since there was no hook for her to hang her towel, she simply threw it on the bathroom floor! Now think of everyone stepping around with dirty shoes and the woman cleaning her whole body with that towel soaked in dirt.

-Dust: Another non important issue for many here in their houses or apartments. Maybe some of them keep their furniture full of it for the Acari’s (those microscopic creatures who eat dead skin and live in the dust) sake.

-Yellow teeth: No it’s not gold. It’s coffee and tea excess and bad teeth brushing. It of course added to that humid and warm breath….urgh.

-Animals: They go out for a walk and when they come back it’s germs party time! Paws-sofa, paws-bed, paws-whatever, bringing every dirt from the streets straight into your home!

-I want candy: I was on the tram and this man (he indeed looked like someone who didn’t care at all about hygiene) opened a little box with candy. One of them flew straight to the floor. Thinking about food waste and the poor children of Somalia, he bent over, took it and ate it! A whole new flavor…

Take a look around and I’m sure you will spot other nice examples. That’s it for today. Stay clean!

"Don't stop me now"

I have wanted to write about it for ages, but since I had no picture to illustrate it, I decided to wait a bit. Then again I can’t wait anymore so I’ll upload the pic later.

Well, the thing is that every time I pass by Brunnsparken (a square around here) right in front of Nordstan (a mall) there is this woman sitting on the floor playing a flute. So far there is nothing wrong about it. Many amateur “artists” stand there and sing, play something or try any other talent to get some coins from you. But not this woman. I believe that much more than some coins, her real objective is to drive you nuts and stick to your brain leading you to certain and slow death somehow.

She sits there in her rags and plays the same annoying sound nonstop. There is no melody, the only thing you can hear is “Do, Re, Do, Re, Do, Re, Do, Re, Do, Re, Do, Re…”. Worst thing is that giving her a coin doesn’t make her quit!

So if you are waiting to cross the street you need to put all your efforts in concentrating into something else than the annoying sound of hell. “Do, Re, Do, Re…” and you can only think of finally getting inside the mall and freeing your ears and brain from that curse.

With further investigations, I also discovered that this evil woman has not only the flute but other instruments from the dark side of the force, namely, a banjo and a tambourine. She uses the same strategy. With the banjo all you hear is an uncoordinated “blein, blein, blein, blein, blein” and with the tambourine “tchic, tchic, tchic, tchic”.

So if not certain death, I believe she wants people to slowly become zombies, led by her pain in the ass sounds. In the end she will form an army of brainwashed humans and we will end up donating her all our money. I can already see her codes:
Do, Re= give me your money
Do, Re, Do, Re, = give me your friend’s money
Do, Re, Do, Re, Do, Re, Do, Re,= kill that man and give me his money.

And so it goes. But don’t worry. I am committed to taking her picture and posting it here so you can all be aware. See you!