In twelve hours I will already be on the bus going to Valencia. I’m staying there until Sunday, and I’m really excited about going. I will of course take many pictures, as always, hehe. Tonight I found out that Iveta will also be going to Valencia this weekend with some friends, so maybe we can do some things together there, we will see. To be honest, I don’t mind being by myself during the day because that way I can spend as much time as I like on the different sights, but it would be nice to be able to go out for drinks once or so, so hopefully we’ll work out something. It is supposed to be between 75 and 80° in Valencia in the next few days which is really nice and quite a bit warmer than here.

Yesterday I went shopping. I got two new pairs of pants, one pink [yes, I now own a pair of bright pink pants], one brown. They are both linen or some thin material like that which will be good to wear during the summer. I also got a jacket [like a sweater, just with a zipper, not a proper jacket], and a scarf to go with my dress for the June wedding, though I am not sure yet whether I will keep it or keep looking.

I have been catching up with reading in the past few days and it’s been going okay. I still have some more books to go but I will be taking a couple with me to Valencia to read during the bus ride. [Valencia is about 220mi / 350km from Barcelona and the bus ride is four hours.] I got a paper back today and I am really happy with my grade, especially because I did not like my paper very much, I was really unhappy with the content but at the same time did not know what else to write, but I got a 8.5 [out of 10] so I really can’t complain. I made a plan for studying and writing my papers because I only have 3 weeks of classes left and so much stuff to do, I will really have to be disciplined. I actually am supposed to finish reading a book tonight and finish writing a paper and prepare a presentation about the book tonight, and seeing that it is already 11pm, I will probably be up late. I still have to pack as well.

Anyway, I hope you all have a nice weekend, and I’ll post again next week with pictures!

Police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN that 73-year-old Josef Fritzl admitted holding his daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, hostage in the windowless cell and fathering seven children by her. [...]

Elisabeth said her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984 — weeks before she was reported missing — her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told police.

For the next 24 years, she was constantly raped by her father, resulting in the six surviving children, she said, according to the police statement. (Source)

This is the kind of news that leaves you speechless. It is unbelievable that a person could do something like that to another person, not to mention a father to his daughter. It’s hard to grasp how a human being could be capable of such things, what a twisted mind it must take for someone to do this. I remember when another Austrian girl escaped a couple of years ago from a man who had abducted her eight years earlier [Natascha Kampusch], and this case just seems a hundred times worse. I cannot fathom how strong a person has to be to survive abuse like that - and how damaged and hurt they must be for the rest of their lives. It makes me feel sick just to think about it.

On days like this I am just appalled at the human race.

Edit: I see, my blog is somehow linked at the bottom of that CNN article. Interesting. That would explain the over 200 visitors since I posted this three hours ago [as opposed to the usual 25 a day], I suppose. It would also explain the somewhat weird comments. Move along people, nothing to see here. This is just a personal blog. [That happens to be linked to from the main article on CNN.com. Eeek!] Don’t other - you know, more important - bloggers blog about this topic that Sphere can link to?

You may have noticed [or not] that all of a sudden the amount of posts on my blog has doubled. That is because I decided to import the posts from my old blog [the one I had before I got the domain earthtobella.com]. I also decided to link to the even older posts that I backed up to my [first] LiveJournal account at one point. [Random tidbit of information: I created my first LiveJournal account in September 2001, yes, I've been a blogger for that long already!] So that means you can now read all my blog posts going back to December 2004, if you want. Just click on the month you want to access in the sidebar. Took me quite a while to figure out how to import my old posts & comments [and I did not manage to import the categories, so I had to sort all the posts again]. I also had to re-upload [or find on Flickr] all the pictures from all of the blog posts between December 2004 and October 2007. Took me several hours but I finally finished everything a little bit ago.

Now on to the meme. This is the voice post meme I had originally wanted to do way back in the end of November. But then my laptop melted a little, and I never got around to doing it. I just remembered it recently as I was thinking it would be fun to make a voice post instead of always typing, because wouldn’t it be cool to hear my raspy voice?] Then I was wondering what I’d talk about, and this meme answers precisely that question. Here it goes …

If you want to post this meme as well, here are the questions.

Continue reading My past & a meme…

I’ve decided to join the Stuff Portrait Friday bandwagon. If you are curious what it’s all about, read about it at Kristine’s blog Random and Odd. But in short, it is a photography project where you post one picture every Friday to a specific theme. This week’s theme is ‘Towels’.

These are my towels here in Barcelona. When I first got them, they would lint until I had washed them several times, so there would be pink ‘dust’ everywhere, but they are fine now, and I love the color. I’ll definitely take them back to Germany with me.

So, did you play?

Yesterday was la diada de Sant Jordi, a.k.a. St. George’s Day. Saint George is the patron saint of Catalonia [among other countries], and on this day of lovers traditionally men give their women roses and women give their men books [not quite as traditionally].

Also known as “The Day of Lovers,” La Diada de Sant Jordi is like Valentine’s Day with some uniquely Latin twists. The main event is the exchange of gifts between sweethearts–men give their novias roses, and women give their novios a book to celebrate the occasion. Roses have been associated with this day since medieval times, but the giving of books is a more recent marketing ploy. In 1923, a smart bookseller started to promote the holiday as a way to honor the nearly simultaneous deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare on April 23, 1616. Barcelona is the publishing capital of the Spanish-speaking world and this heady one-two punch of love and literacy was quickly adopted.

I went to Plaça Catalunya in the afternoon and strolled down the Ramblas for a while. I have never seen the Ramblas more crowded, it was so packed that sometimes you could not even walk and had to stop every few steps. All along the Ramblas there were booths selling roses and books. I also got a free book that was being handed out on my way home. It was really fun to see so many people with roses in all colors, and it seemed like half of Barcelona was out and about on this beautiful spring day.

As always, you can see all of the pictures at Flickr.

Continue reading Feliç Sant Jordi…