Summer pleasures that prevent from writing

Summer is at its hottest, friends and love is all around, the food is always fresh, the volleyball is on nearly every day, and the water is bearable as well. The adventures are calling one after another and there's no such thing as using the computer for more than one hour a day anymore. Sweden looks far behind me, and I am far from longing to go back there. Well, I miss my friends a lot, but they are not actually there right now, so it doesn't really count. I've been up to so much lately, but, I must admit, I did not write. What motivated me to come back to it was the first payment I have ever received for writing ^^ So I am back again and I will try to come up with new ideas to write on and avoid making such long breaks in writing. I start to miss it very fast :3

Technology, back off.

Today, I got really really lucky. Today I got to feel weightless and perfectly peaceful. No drugs, no yoga, no meditation, just hard, long work. Today was the time for packing and cleaning, getting ready to finally leave for the summer, working from early morning to late afternoon. People usually hate those days. But today I was truly into it. Don't know why, don't know how, but I was. How do I know that? Caught myself running around with my stomach making noises of a mating whale. And this, one must admit, doesn't happen very often, especially now, when the weather is so nice and warm and your whole existence is constantly searching for an excuse from work (by the way, if it doesn't find one, there's always a backup plan- 'I'm hungry', even if it's not really so). So then I make soup, putting in the pot whatever I can find in the fridge and stand by the stove, impatient, smelling the food. Time slows down to almost zero speed. When I pour the contents of the pot in the bowl, I realize it is a little bit under-cooked, but...whales in my stomach won't shut up, I really need to eat.
But then I go to my emptied room and sit on the floor. The windows are open and I can hear the birds. My computer is turned off, and, I guess, this completes the feeling. I end up sitting there, slightly smiling, thinking nothing, being a part of the nature, of the house, a part of the room, all of us just being one. The soup cools down.

Just don't

If you have a surprise for someone, try your best not to ruin it, even if you have to lie and you feel really bad about it. Although at the moment it sounds fair, and also the best thing to do to finally get some nice sleep, it is not a good choice to make.

Good old cinnamon

We all know cinnamon as one of the best-smelling natural food preservatives. When we were little,  I guess, most of us also tried tasting it, and, surprisingly, cinnamon alone was disgusting. And that's what spices are like: you can not enjoy eating them alone, but when you combine it with certain foods, just a little dash of spices can make miracles.
If that alone wasn't enough, quite recently I happened to find some information, proving cinnamon to be very useful for us. What I found was that many centuries ago cinnamon was used to treat certain diseases. Consequently, cinnamon can have positive effects to those who have type 2 diabetes, also to have an anti-clotting effect on the blood, lower bad cholesterol, and relieve arthritis pain. In addition to that, very recently cinnamon has been found to be a natural remedy to eliminate headaches and migraine relief. Surprisingly, I also found that smelling cinnamon boosts cognitive function and memory! This sounds quite weird, but I think it's worth a shot.
And finally, just before I end this post- good news for those who are trying hard to get fit- cinnamon can stabilize blood sugar, which means, it fastens weight-loss. So, this information I found once again proves that big difference comes out of small changes. Conclusion: I should go and get some cinnamon. To end this small article, some tips and tricks from me on combining your meal with cinnamon:
1. Simply put a couple of dashes of it in your cereal or morning coffee.
2. One of my favorite light snacks: chop some apples, pour yogurt on them and then put some cinnamon on top.
3. When mixing the dough for your morning pancakes, put a little bit of cinnamon, along with vanilla sugar in it- your entire kitchen will smell good after you are finished cooking.

Sports challenges

So, as I wrote before, I am currently working on two sports challenges: squats and crunches.
To be honest, I have dropped the squat challenge and settled at the number of 50-100 squats a day, depending on how I feel and how much I run. One more thing: starting from the 1st of June, until the 18th of June when I will be going home, I promised myself I'll go running every single day, no matter the weather. So far, I have only been running 3.5 kilometers a day, but I am seriously planning on coming back to 5 kilometers in a couple of days. So, this is the main reason why I quit squatting to the schedule - when I had to do 160 and even more, it got too much, so my legs would shake and the muscles would get extremely tense when I was running. Anyways, even though it is not so intense anymore, I haven't given it up :)
About the crunches: I just did 115 and that looks really good so far. The number is still growing day by day, but since my legs have nothing to do with it, I have no right to complain :)

So, to sum up, my daily routine has to do a lot with sports. It has gotten pretty intense lately, and takes quite a lot of time by the way, but, since I can see the summer at home coming, it keeps me motivated and happy :)

Thoughts about saying good-bye

Saying good-bye is not what everybody has a chance to experience, but it is something you never learn how to deal with. It hurts every time, even if it's not forever. And if that wasn't enough, those moments of parting settle in your memory and later become one of the reasons for out-of-nowhere sadness. Especially now, when people freely travel all over the world every day, good-byes are becoming a very common thing. Even children experience that with, for example, their summer camp friends. Also, one mustn't forget about the rivers of tears that are being shed on graduations, in airports, bus and train stations, and, finally, hospitals and cemeteries. In addition to this, couples fall into long distance relationships, children leave their parents, people go on business trips, and soldiers go on missions, knowing they might not come back. But then, there is always some brighter shades regarding some of those points (not the cemeteries, of course). Take, for example, the fact that people make friends all the time. Then, in some cases, it becomes a closed circle: you find friends and leave them, then you do it again and again. But still, I do not believe you can ever put up with the feeling. Oh, and some more news from the bright side: just think how many love songs and letters have been written for the ones who were left alone, especially in the case of LDRs (Long Distance Relationships). From my still lasting experience I can say that this is one of the most morally painful things one can experience. Especially the beginning of it, which is always the worst. As time flies, it gets a little calmer inside, but the pain and sadness never disappear (of course, if the feeling of love remains). Nowadays, it has become an entire new culture: hundreds and hundreds of videos on Youtube, all those previously mentioned songs and cute letters, little gifts, big packages, motivational pictures on the internet... It is surprising how everything has changed to the extent of LDRs when the meeting of a couple in love is actually the first time the two people see each other! So, in conclusion, good-byes are painful, but what comes out of it in some cases is just amazing and couldn't possibly result from anything else.

And that's how my summer began

Summer.. In our heads, it's all about long nights at the fireplace, swimming in the sea or lake, comforting sound of crickets every night, and lots and lots of sun. For me, it's the same. But today..it's just different. The first day of summer '13 feels completely different than usual. So here I am, sitting in my room, enjoying relaxing music, eager to make art. Contrary from what we all expect, there is no sun. The rain drops are knocking at my window, creating that incredible feeling of harmony and peace. It's pouring outside. Just an hour ago, I heard shy, lazy murmurs of thunder. It's the first time I got to hear them this year. It's the first time the first day of summer looks too cloudy to see the sun, smells like rain and speaks to me in quiet peals of thunder. Weird, you say, but, surprisingly, more enjoyable than ever.

Creativity takes over

So this is a story which I wrote at about 5a.m. tonight for one of my courses.

Elijah, a five year-old, was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the endless hills outside, which contained all possible shades of green, roughly interrupted by some red, white or pink bits of blossoming wild flowers. He was alone in the house. Alone, but not lonely. He was used to this feeling, waiting for his dad to come home from the corn fields. It’s been like this for a long while, that actually lasted more than he could remember. However, when he was way too little to be left alone, his aunt Cora would stay with him throughout the day, talking to him, sometimes calming him down so that he would stop crying. He was such a cry-child! He took her as a family member. But as he grew old enough to stay alone in the house for the whole day and do some cleaning, she became a guest, a visitor. She would come once a week, every Thursday. More and more often, talking to her felt completely different, strange, even awkward.

He saw Caleb walking across the tall grass towards the house, a chocolate-brown figure, surrounded by the greenness of the sun-lighted hills. He finished the day’s job and until the next day he was free. Elijah watched him, relaxed, getting closer and closer to the house, waving to him. The little boy waved back. He felt sympathetic to Celeb, although the old man did not seem to mind the obligatory work in the fields. Elijah might have to go and work there one day, too. Just like his grandfather did, just as his dad does. But he might as well not. Caleb told him that things were getting better, everything was changing. However, seeing his dad so lively and happy every time he was coming back from the fields, he felt like this kind of work was all he needed for a good life. It seemed to Elijah that it was enough to feel useful, enough to be treated fairly, to eventually gain respect from the whites, which, Caleb used to tell him, was an important goal to achieve. The door opened and he heard a cheerful and lively voice, calling his name. Impatient and excited, he waited for Caleb to take of his shoes, then jumped off the chair and ran to greet him.

  What, from your point of view, was the main idea of this story?