Category Archives: Uncategorized

I just saw a TED talk with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the importance of telling many stories, and not just one. That for many westerners, there is only one story of the continent of Africa: the story of catastrophe. That more stories are needed, told by people with different experiences. And it made me think ofContinue reading “not my story to tell”

I’ve been reading a book about Charles Taylor, the Liberian school teacher turned business student turned activist turned rebel leader turned president of Liberia and then finally turned convicted war criminal in the ICC. Charles Taylor and Liberia by Colin M. Waugh. It is a book about the complex person Charles Taylor, but also a book about theContinue reading “a different kind of childhood”

It’s night and I see that name on the screen. I hate that he is there. That he sits by a computer somewhere, across town probably, simply existing. Without realizing how it affects me. 35 minutes away on the subway, and still completely and so utterly inaccessible. Facebook is a source of much unhappiness andContinue reading “the representativeness of words”

After writing a page on my thesis this morning (I ate breakfast with Hannes too, he spent the night here on the couch after playing board games with me, Lina, Frida, Kirke and Felix last night – awesome evening, seriously, this board game party idea of mine was brilliant and it will definitely become aContinue reading “my happy place”

Last Christmas, I worked in that old reception and found Abbie’s blog. Abbie, the wonderful, architecture loving girl from Minneapolis who could talk about Tolstoy with me at Duckworth Farm in Sebastopol, California. She had written a little bit about me on the blog, and I so clearly remember this afternoon, by the pond: KatjaContinue reading “what if’s and the memories of a former philosophy student”

At the newly renovated subway station at Hornstull, they’ve made one of the pillars into a piece of art. It’s a tree with human features. It makes me think of Catherynne M. Valente‘s The habitation of the blessed and The folded world. Her living trees. I wonder when the last book about Prester John isContinue reading “underground art”

There are so many things to distract me from studying. Like the flowers. Every morning, right after waking up, I go running. To wake up, you know, and get some air. I started with this right after I got home from Liberia, which has given me the amazing opportunity to see the process of allContinue reading “distractions”

I told you about the seeds that I planted last week, right? On Wednesday, 1st of May, instead of going to the demonstrations in town or writing on my thesis. For a while, I thought I had killed them, watered too little or too much, used the wrong kind of soil, put them in theContinue reading “yet another ineffective day”

I decided that today I should get done with the first part of my map analysis thing for my thesis. But then it was so sunny, so I walked to the market garden and bought lavender, basil and silantro in pots and seeds for five different kinds of herbs – and then I spent theContinue reading “a day of excuses”

So, I woke up far too early this morning and thought, well, hey, this could be a good thing. I could go for my morning run, go past the grocery store to buy some yogurt on the way back and maybe even get started with my studying before 9. That’s not happened for at least a month.Continue reading “the irony of a morning”