← back to home
./july 2023
- entered deadlock
- realized that I will only be able to play this romHACK for the first time once in my life
- in an expression of self-discipline that would make Confucius cry, decided to wait a few weeks to better enjoy the moment
- was overwhelmed by an unparalleled urge to play this Spyro 3 romHACK IMMEDIATELY
- discovered the existence of a romHACK of the game that makes up the deepest strata of my mind (Spyro 3)
- it was a cat walking on a leash on the ground
- the cat climbed a tree
- the cat was playing with the leash
- was visually assaulted by a woman walking a cat
- entered a room where supposedly a wise king studied alchemy
- was amazed by a 50-year-old Brazilian and his 30-year-old son trying to buy ice cream in Spain without applying a minimum of effort
- climbed a monument under restoration
- promised I would visit Italy within 5 years
- said goodbye to the only Italian I ever met in my life
- entered a cathedral made of a material called "bleeding stone"
- won (we won?) a cork map of Spain to hang on the wall
- was left to choose between 3 journals to submit to
- passed my thesis paper through all co-authors
- watched a tour guide recount the plot of the opera "Il trovatore" by Giuseppe Verdi in the palace where it's set
- entered the Aragonese state congress
- the screening was canceled because the projector didn't work
- waited 30 minutes and the person who had invited me finally arrived
- heard the young people retort "seriously??? you guys weren't communists??? lolololol"
- the organizer said "the movie will start soon, if anyone wants popcorn, the bag is 1 euro"
- was surprised by 7 or 8 teenagers making a terrifying racket
- arrived 15 minutes early to a small room that had only 9 people
- was invited to watch a film screening organized by the communist party youth
- entered an Italian palace just to pee and was surprised by one of the most bizarre collections of erotic paintings I've ever seen in my life
- bought a pot painted by nuns
- learned a lot about the life of this noble lady
- saw the piece of wood that Saint Teresa of Ávila used as a pillow
- went to the monastery where Saint Teresa of Ávila lived most of her life
- didn't have enough courage to try a cookie-flavored yogurt
- the museum dedicated to origami was one of the best museums I've seen in Spain
- discovered the intimate ties that connect the city of Zaragoza to Akira Yoshizawa, father of modern origami
- in an act of serendipity, visited a museum dedicated to origami
- was asked by a Portuguese person if I was Portuguese and answered him, in Spanish, that no
- couldn't see properly for the rest of the day
- while posing for a photo, spent more than 1 minute looking directly at a spotlight made to illuminate a 12m high wall
- saw a group of children dancing in the middle of a Spanish square and couldn't understand where they had come from
- stood still until silvia bought super glue and glued it (again)
- experienced my glasses breaking on my face (again)
- engaged in the ancient rite of going to a friend's house to play board games and video games
- complained about life in Brazil on at least 3 different occasions, and felt bad for doing so on at least 1 of them
- laughed heartily upon discovering the former Spanish president Mariano Rajoy
- had my initiation into the world of Spanish memes
- followed the Spanish elections
- finally understood how the Spanish electoral system works
- asked them to explain the Spanish electoral system (again)
- saw Barbie (2023) and thought it was cool
- remembered how good Halt and Catch Fire (2014) is
- started rewatching Halt and Catch Fire (2014)
- after three seasons, we decided to QUIT being accomplices to the bad trip called Barry (2018)
July! July. What to say about July?
First of all, July was hot as hell. When I arrived here in Spain, I loved making jokes like "bahaha you don't know what real heat is you stupid Europeans bahaha" but since then I've shut up because the heat there is without a doubt WORSE than Rio de Janeiro, something that seemed impossible to me. Two reasons: (1) here in Madrid it's dry As Hell (imagine 45 degrees... in Brasília), and (2) you know that coolness that starts at night in Rio? Well here it doesn't exist because the sun sets at freaking ten at night in summer. The sun is not only strong and unbearable but it's inevitable during almost every moment the human being is awake and performing their activities. So yes, Madrid's heat is worse than Rio's -- an interesting curiosity, if it weren't painful!!
And speaking of summer, July is the last month Spaniards work, because in August they have this thing called Summer Vacation: the city gets empty and everyone travels. I'm talking about an entire month of synchronized vacation, where you walk down the street and 5 out of 10 stores have a sign on the door: "closed for vacation, we'll be back September 1st". And then they say Brazilians don't like to work!!!
All this to say: in August the university closes, so July was the last month I spent at university -- i.e. in my routine to which I got so used to. And although I'm only going back to Brazil in the first week of September, I ended up feeling like July was a month of endings somehow, since afterwards I'll only meet my friends to say goodbye. And that made me quite melancholic!
My heart is the photo of an empty place!
← back to home