Dear Jan, I haven’t heard from you for the past two months. I guess you may be already in Nuremberg getting ready for your course, or perhaps back to Sheffield babysitting that sod, or hopefully plucking apples with Vincent at Limoges. I m…

Shirin, what a merciless prince stole the flame of your thoughts and the lightness of your heart. Why did he do so? Why did he put such a heavy stone on the top of your head? Did he want to test his aim with a bow? To hit the stone and set…

Last night. Four people of an uncertain age in a car heading to the movie theater. A figurine of Jabba the Hutt hanging from the rearview mirror. Average percent of brain usage barely reaching 10 point 01. Let’s name them Do, Re, Mi and Fa…

Dear selection committee and other bureaucrats whom it may concern or not but that for some reason have to read this letter in order to file it, burn it or use it to even the desk's legs:I chose the Monographic Course on Aesthetics to fulf…

The difficult slope. That’s what I named it. It was two hundred meters away from my house. Just a cut in the ground, an ascending wall of mud delimiting a sunny field of daisies from the shady forest of cypresses that crowned our side of t…

My middle sister is getting married. So far nothing thrilling or surprising. She has found the perfect guy. They sound like two songs by Carosone; they look like a finished 10000-piece puzzle, they smell like melted candy in an amusement p…

Somewhere at this moment there is an English person studying Spanish. Somewhere at this moment there is a Spanish person studying English. The first has conjugated the future perfect of 'to fall' instead of the subjunctive. The second has …

Living on the highest floor of a building has some drawbacks, especially if it’s August, a hand fan is the only way you have to cool down, and half the day southern sunbeams paint the rooftop yellow. Also you may sometimes find the lift bu…

The use of mobile phones has become widespread among the youngest members of our society. This undeniable fact, partially triggered by the nature of the modern market, has aroused the worries of teachers and therapists and has initiated a …

When I was little, my siblings and I used to play a game called ‘The dictionary’. The rules were easy. Someone picked a word, quite a complicated one, and wrote down its official meaning on a piece of paper. The rest of us had to compose a…

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority… Children are now tyrants… They contradict their parents… and tyrannize their teachers.” Socrates (469–399 B.C.) Some elders say they don’t recognize this world; …

“So, how was your date?” “I’d better keep my mouth shut.” That’s exactly how Fran usually starts a detailed disclosure about the events that took place the previous night. “Score it from one to ten.” “Am I allowed to use the decimal scale?…

I’m not sure if it was Jack Kerouac who said that the only requirement he asked of his acquaintances was an uncontrollable fascination towards life. I guess that’s too much to ask nowadays. The twentieth century has passed away and the you…

“Can’t you see how merciful and wise the Universe is? It will always give you back as much as you offer it.” If I had to pick a friend to spend the night stargazing with, I’d choose no other than her. The secrets of the starry sky are some…

The brittle flamenco verses of a drunk man slip into the room from outside, along with the full moon light. It’s Saturday; fifteen minutes to midnight; the precious moment; it’s movie time. 'The Color of God' in Iran, 1999. 'The Color of P…

A recent investigation has proven high IQ causes staying up late at night. Ok, that’s probably not the most accurate summary for such a costly research, but since today is Friday, I’m not going to get into technical slang. The juicy matter…

The most important characteristics that a person can have to be successful in life are self-confidence, perseverance and humanity. Self-confidence will be the start button to have success. Beyond whatever success means for someone, one wil…

10:00 a.m.; tomato on toast; juice made out of one and a half oranges; demitasse of dark coffee; me having breakfast at any coffee shop. Breaking news in the local newspaper: It has been proven that Averroes changed the path of trending to…

It was my second year at college, my friend Rosa and I lived in the downtown area of a cute city in Southern Spain. It was a neighborhood full of college buildings, bookstores, coffee shops and used clothing tents. The music conservatory w…

Sometimes I wonder about the nature of this peculiar phenomenon among people. At times I try to reconstruct the genesis of this sort of miracle. Every so often I want to untangle the geometry of this intangible tie, to extract the recipe o…

I posted a note on the fridge some months ago: ‘Leaving for skipping robe. I’ll be done at 3 p.m. Save some cake for me.’ This note, which was wickedly intercepted by the girlfriend of one of my roommates, generated quite a stir by the tim…