hello africa, tell me how you're doin'! (or: trying is the first step toward failure)

I know that I promissed that this woulden't be yet another "hey, I'm putting my diary out on the internet for all to see!" blog, but i just can't control myself right now. I'm so excited! The future looks so unthinkable bright right now!

The thing is that I realized the advantages of distance tuition/studies. Went to my sister's & her boyfriend for dinner yesterday & we discussed what I was planning for this autumn (quitting my job, continuing my studies to get my masters) & I joked about the fact that I should move home (to my parents) like people do when they wanna cut the costs of living, except that I don't have a "home" to move to (well, not in this town at least). & then my sister's boyfriend said "But why don't you? If you've applied for a distance course (is that the right term in english? you know, studying over the internet) why don't you just move down to your mom in Mozambique?". & I thought, yeah why don't I?

The last couple of weeks I've joked a lot about my goal in life, my dream job; to sit in southern Africa and "do some blogging" (a plan that is both childish & neo-colonial, I know). & here's the perfect opportunity! I don't have to wait until I get my degree, wich was the original plan. So I texted my mom this morning & told her to make the bed in the guestroom, 'cause I'm on my way & her response was "Okay, get down here asap!" more or less.

& no, I refuse to listen to people who tell me that no one I know ever managed to finish their distance studies. That it didn't turn out that well last time I went to Moz to do field work & that I will hit myself hard for being stupid again, when I'm back in about a year with yet another unfinished course at Uni to deal with...

here be dragons

I've spent the weekend visiting friends in Gothenburg - yes finaly, after months of planning I got my shit together & actually went there. Almost cancelled the trip this time too, 'cause of a bad cold that had me floored during the whole week (or more correctly - horizontal on the couch). But I'm glad I didn't, had a great time going to club Koloni, drinking beer, bying records, eating vegan pizza & thai food, hanging out with the best people & trying to figure out the difference between a tram & a bus. It's kinda funny that I once spent a whole day at the international airport of Dar es Salaam without money, passport or a ticket to get out of there, without being too worried - but to go to another town in Sweden & try to figure out the public transportation system there totaly freaks me out.

Except everything above I also managed to visit the exhibition TAKE ACTION that I've written about earlier. It was pretty good, some stuff that felt a bit "been there, done that" but all in all well worth a visit. Especially since it got me thinking about som new cross stitching ideas. As you probably noticed I've been slacking off a bit during the last couple of weeks. But not totaly, I'm actually working on three different things but they're all pretty big & will take some time to finish (thus the lack of updates here).

A part of the exhibition covered the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, illustrated (amongst other things) by posters from the ANC. They might be on loan from the Apartheid Museum in Jo'burg - a museum I really recommend visiting if you're in the walled city. Anyway, they also reminded me of political posters from Mozambique & Angola during the fight against colonial opression & the years after independence. It's something about the aesthetic expression of these posters that I like, so I'm thinking about doing something similar in cross stitch. Found this site that has a big collection of posters to draw inspiration from & here's some examples: