My beautiful 60-year-old mother

I wish I could dig into the family albums to share with you people other beautiful photos of her during her 60 years of interesting and unusual life. She was born on April 19 1949 in Koivistonkylä in her childhood home while the men were on their coffee break from working in the fields. From there on life took her to numerous adventures and places of which Japan became her second home. She raised, along with our dad, 4 daughters between two cultures and countries and guess what, we all turned out pretty ok! My sweet little mom, あなたを愛してる.

Next week: Buenos Aires

Next week me and Laila are off to Buenos Aires for a few days! I am very excited to go there and here is a list of what I'm gonna do there:

- Sit at different restaurants and cafes and eat delicious food. I love food, I so do. I love cooking, I love eating other people's cookings and love eating out.

- Drink Argentinian wine, obviously.

- Watch Laila getting it on with the famous Argentinian beef. Good luck, girl. We'll see if I'll get jealous and start questioning my decision of being a vegetarian. I've been off carne for a long long time and I don't really even know what I'm missing out on but I am afraid if eating well in Chile has been limited on my part, in Argentina it is even more so. I mean I'm sure I can find great vegetarian food in a place like Buenos Aires but I just don't get the best of the best, the true Argentinian culinary excellence, the beef steak.

- Drink good coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker normally but I do enjoy a cup of cafe con leche if it's well made. Actually the last time I was in Spain I was hooked on the milk coffee they had in Pedreguer. I sprinkle sugar on the nice foamy milk surface, then eat the sugar+milk foam with a spoon, then add more sugar to the rest of the coffee and enjoy it preferably with a bit of equally delicious chocolate. But if the coffee is as good as it sometimes is I don't even need the chocolate. And while drinking it I don't even have to make funny faces like I normally do with the awful Finnish coffee because I actually like it a lot. So the reason why I'm hoping to spend a good amount of pesos on coffee in BA is because the coffee here really sucks. And it's supposed to be a lot better in Argentina. I know a few places with good espresso based coffee here but other than that it's nescafe. And seriously a cup of that instant shit often costs more than a huge completo (local "hot dog") which is absurd. With Laila we never get tired of being amazed by that. Chile is not a coffee country, not saying Finland is but it's still half a light year ahead of Chile with its coffee.

- Listen and watch tango. How could I not do that in Buenos Aires?

- See the real Casa Rosada. Our home here in Valpo is called Casa Rosada by its people and by its friends. Mainly because of its pink residents (Anne and me of course, NOT referring to any hello kitty stuff, just our beautiful nordic skin. Although the concept of rosada has gone beyond all things explainable. Everything can be and is pink around here. In conclusion: PINK IS A STATE OF MIND.) but the house itself is pink too. I'm not particularly interested to see the Argentinian precidential palace except for the fact that me and the prez share something really special, something pink.

- Visit book stores. I love books for a variety of reasons. I love them as objects and I love reading. I've heard that one of the most magnificent book stores in the world is in BA, it's called El Ateneo and I definitely wanna see what it's like.

- Try to get to know a little bit about the (political) history of Argentina. This will probably include visiting the grave of Eva Peron as well as other monuments. I read that even today the mothers of those who disappeared during the dictatorship march every Thursday at Plaza de Mayo and give a speech in front of the Casa Rosada. Mothers will never forget and I support them.

So wandering, eating, drinking, listening, enjoying, laughing and talking will be my tasks for next week.

P.S. The pictures above are from Restaurant Allegretto in Cerro Concepcion here in Valparaíso.

AMRIK

I went to the library here in Valparaíso yesterday to kill time before going to the cinema. I found a book called AMRIK - PRESENCIA ÁRABE EN AMÉRICA DEL SUR. It's a very interesting book about the presence of Arabs and Arabic culture in South America. Especially in Brazil there is a relatively big community of mostly syrian-lebanese Arabs. Here in Chile the Arabic population is mainly originated in the Palestine. Eventhough there are a couple of Arabic restaurants here I can't say I've noticed really any Arabic presence here. But interestingly I secretly learn parts of the Arabic language while learning Spanish.

The Arabic language has had a big influence on the Spanish language. That's because the Arabs invaded and ruled the modern day Spain for hundreds of years back in the day. It's actually pretty amazing how much Spanish words derive from Arabic. You can find a list of them here.

The picture above is from the book Amarik. It's a picture of two young Arab-Latinos: a beautiful mixture of sweet Arabic mint tea and salty beef from the Pampa.

Man, the world is such a big ass mystery to me. I can't get enough.

polaroid100project

By Lina Scheynius.

Fab + Rodrigo + Binki again

LITTLE JOY

There seems to be a dialogue between regret and hope, this might sound cheesy but has playing these songs been therapeutic at all?
F: Oh God yeah. It doesn’t sound cheesy at all. Are you kidding me? I’m going to be very honest with you-regardless of whether we’ve done something good for people, we’ve done something good for us. I feel like a different person, be it through my friendship with him [Rodrigo] or my love for her, or my love for him, just making this music was almost like a trophy for the next step in my life.

R: That’s where we go with Vonnegut right? When he says that everyone should express themselves in some form, just for the sake of putting some part of yourself out and looking at it. That’s not cheesy. I can understand how people can perceive it as something cheesy, but it’s right.

From an interview with Kyle Williams on www.americansongwriter.com.

The pictures I took from their myspace, they're photos from their tour in Europe in the beginning of this year with the band Dead Trees.

P.S. I love Koko, we think alike. Especially on a Saturday morning.

Kiki for Boy

Lovely K. Dunst for Boy (Band of Outsiders). Thank you Iiro for the link.