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Autumn has arrived. The rain, the chill, the leaves falling from the trees... Everything becomes an idyllic place in which to make indoor plans. As you and I have often said, here, in petit comité , we often look for something more than "having a drink" when making plans, and even more so when it comes to indoor plans. It seems that the only activity in this city is spending money on eating and drinking or staying at home (and spending money on eating and drinking by ordering food). Therefore, it is the perfect time to experience the new museums - or that's what I call them. We associate the concept of a traditional museum with silence, with enormous spaces, with very high ceilings, with a predominance of white stones, marble, respect. Places that impact and impose, with their room guards, their safety distances, benches in the center of infinite rooms. An almost religious space, in which respect and decorum are essential to be able to be privileged to participate in that environment. If not, bye. This has changed. Even though the classic museums still exist – and their existence is very necessary – the world (of reels and tiktok) has been filled with countless "experience" museums , in which it seems that everyone is competing to be the most , no matter what. The most instagrammable (although almost all of these places have this in common), the most different, the most interactive, the most impressive, the most expensive? In any case, and although sometimes I consider them just another way of being the most pedantic trying to be the coolest, there are some that I think offer us enriching experiences, that are fun, that you learn from and that are not just a showcase for your photos. In my quest to explore this recent world that is expanding like wildfire, and that we will see if it does not disappear just as quickly, I went to travel to Japan without leaving Madrid on my visit to The Spirit of Japan at NOMAD , a museum dedicated exclusively to these immersive exhibitions that I was talking about. The Spirit of Japan consisted of an interactive trip to Japan through its illustrative art and its peculiarities and characteristics that we like so much. It was divided into two spaces: the main one and the interactive one. In the main space we found the –already typical– room full of projections on all the walls and on the floor , with mirror columns and a lot of poufs to lie down on and enjoy an audiovisual experience worthy of an ASMR night. In the second space, the so-called activity room, was a place with different activities in which you could learn more about Japan while bringing out your inner child. Continuing with that relaxing experience, there were tables where you could do a colouring session , colouring typical Japanese illustrations, painting on huge digital screens or enjoying those illustrations you have coloured in an even more immersive way with virtual reality glasses . It was certainly a different afternoon in which my inner child was very happy. However, I think they could do a lot more with what they had, improve the experience or make it more modern. Today's world is moving at almost impossible speeds and I understand that it is difficult not to be left behind in a matter of seconds, so I encourage you to be the judge for yourself . For me it was cool, but I feel that perhaps it is not worth the money I paid (about €20).

It's no secret that we see fewer and fewer original ideas in the cinema . Those films that make it to the big screen are either adaptations, they belong to sagas or they are spin-offs. I understand that, in the world we live in, it is increasingly difficult to attract people to the cinema, and the easiest way to do it is giving them something they already know, because they already know they like it. However, I, as a cinephile, when I go to the cinema I hope to experience new things and although, unfortunately, I am going to go watch them anyway, I am not a big fan of the way they take things further than they should go, and I don't usually like that, although there are some exceptions. It's not that I have anything against sequels, in fact there are some that I find better than the original, like 'Shrek 2' or 'Terminator 2' , but I feel that there are sequels that are made only to make money by taking advantage of nostalgia and beyond that, they don't add anything new. In the last two weeks I went to see two new releases that perfectly exemplify this second case. The first was ‘Alien: Romulus’ and the second was ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’. The Alien saga should have stopped releasing new films a long time ago. It's true that some good ones have slipped through the cracks, but it's gotten to the point where, just like with 'Star Wars', when they release another film, instead of getting excited, I think: "Oh my God, another one?" The case of ‘Beetlechus Beetlechus’ is perhaps more comparable to ‘Trainspotting 2’, they are aware that they live off nostalgia but they know how to take better advantage of that, they don’t pretend to be something they're not. When a choir of children sings the song of the first possession of ‘Beetlechus’ at the funeral of Lydia’s father, it feels like a hug to your inner child. Another example of a great movie that should have been left in one film is 'The Matrix', the second and third films are already a little bit bad. They lived off the thirst for more that such a masterpiece left us and they're not good, but they're not that bad. However, the last film: 'The Matrix Resurrections' from 2021 seems to me like an insult to the saga, it's not only that it does not contribute anything to the original film, but also makes it worse, I swear that when I left the cinema I was really angry . Yes, there are, as I mentioned at the beginning, sequels that I appreciate, even spin-offs. In fact, I am one of those who think that ‘Rogue One’ is the best of the recent ‘Star Wars’ films, since it fills in some gaps left by the IV episode. But episodes VII, VIII and IX seem awful to me, the new characters have no personality whatsoever and everything seems superficial and empty to me, they make me feel like they just want to see how much more money they can make. Other spin-off prequels that I think are worth taking a look at (and let everyone judge for themselves) are ‘House of Dragon’ and ‘The Rings of Power’ because although they clearly aim to continue making money from both sagas, they are expanding the lore of universes for which there is actually enough material and therefore, they can afford it. As I said, it's not that I'm against sequels, there are sequels that I do think are good, I just think that before making a universe bigger we should ask ourselves: Is it really necessary?

As we talk on BBS about the difficulties that working from home can have , the lack of concentration, organizing, being able to be more productive or waste less time... Among all the things that I was able to capture on this keyboard, we talked about Pomodoro. The Pomodoro , pomodoro technique or the pomodoro method, is a time management technique to be more productive , like many other existing techniques. It helps us make the most of our work or study time, being able to do more in less time, and thus, procrastinate less and be able to do much more during our days (not just work). It's very simple: We will choose a task that we have to perform. Using a timer, 25 minutes will be spent concentrating on doing the task without distractions (1 pomodoro). After 25 minutes, we will take a 5 minute break. Every 4 pomodoros, we will take a 30-minute break. And let's get started. In this way, by having a fixed time to work, our brain will be able to concentrate much more easily, thus making the most of our time. Although sometimes it is difficult for us , it is a perfect method to establish routines, train our concentration and be able to improve every day. And you? Did you know him? Do you know other techniques?

As a lover of order, organization and stationery, it could be said that autumn, and specifically the beginning of the school year, is one of my favorite times of the year. September is a system reset , it is the true new year for me (and for many others). It is a time when there are moves, new beginnings of the school year, of work, and even of the city where you live. It is the time to resume those habits that you left aside, to be more disciplined, healthier, to be a new version of yourself (or that version that you always try to bring out). It is also an invented reality that many of us cling to, especially if you work from home , since after all summer trying to ignore that people are on vacation or leading a double life of work and vacation like Hannah Montana, September finally arrives, finally the routine arrives for the rest of the world. Ironically, it does not get easier to create a routine. Yes, it's true that we have the perfect excuse to try again, but after a summer trying to survive the bombardment of holiday energy, my brain is still in survival mode and now says that it's not going to get back to a proper routine so quickly. Therefore, one way to get into that work mood is by creating, taking care of and resetting our workspace. The most essential step is to have a fixed workspace (or one with similar characteristics if you are someone who travels a lot), both spatially and in terms of schedule. It can be a room designated for it, a space within it or a place in the house where you always start working at the same time and place. In this way, your brain will associate being in that place and at that time with "it's time to get to work", which will make it easier to start the task. Related to this is the factor of separating the space for leisure and rest from that for work . Sometimes, just putting a few things in that space at the time of work can help you get the idea that that space is now a work space, during that period of time, and thus visually differentiate when that space is for leisure and when it is for work. In either case, I highly recommend that the place where you work (even if it is multifunctional) never be the bedroom , or the place where you sleep. Next step is to change your clothes . Wash your face, take off your pajamas and put on different clothes or clothes that you usually wear to study or work. This helps to wake you up and get rid of the sleepy look, as well as trick your brain into knowing that it is time to take action. The type of clothing is totally a personal choice: you can have your work sweats on or dress up as if you were going to an office. There are very comfortable clothes to wear at home that can also look good. Mind your posture . Try to use the most comfortable chair you have at home or invest in a good desk chair, if you can afford it. There are also tables that can be raised and, knowing that this is an investment that not everyone wants to make, I give you the alternative of changing the height for different surfaces in the house if possible, or moving from time to time. Last but not least, time management . Although it may be very typical, the Pomodoro method is not only useful for studying. After all, it is a time guide to be more productive and make the most of the time we have. There are other time management alternatives that you can investigate. If you do not have a set routine or are still getting used to it, I highly recommend it.

Or also known as: how to make a pinhole camera with your room (or other ways to entertain ourselves this summer). For those of you who don't know, a pinhole camera is one of the most primitive ways of taking photos. It consists of a box (it can even be made from a shoe box) with a very small hole through which light enters. Inside this box, a photosensitive or light-sensitive paper is placed inside. This paper is exposed to light for a few seconds through the hole and that's it (or more or less, taking into account all the subsequent chemical processes that have to be done afterwards so as not to lose the image and fix it to the paper itself). And, if we think about it, a room is a camera. It's a box, which if it has blinds we can make it practically light-tight (no light enters). But how do we get an image projected in an entire room without a projector or photosensitive materials, Dew? Easy! Let me explain: We will need: cardboard, aluminum foil, adhesive tape and garbage bags. The first step is to choose our light source. If there is more than one window, we should close all the blinds on the rest. We need to get a space with as much darkness as possible. If you don't have blinds, or if you still get some light, I recommend that you use garbage bags to cover all the places where light can enter. In this way, we will get a completely sealed "box", making the final image look much better. Once we have everything isolated, we will need cardboard to cover the window that we will use, and to which we will make a cutout in the center. There are two options here: Make a small hole on the cardboard and enlarge it. Using aluminum foil. Inside this cutout, we will stick a piece of aluminum foil and with a needle or pencil, we will make our hole in the center, little by little bigger, until we see the clear image. It's a method that I find much easier than having to cut the cardboard with a cutter. The bigger the hole, the more light will enter but the less sharp the image will be, and vice versa, so it's important to go little by little, and find the perfect balance. And wow. There we have it. Our room as if it were the inside of a camera. You will notice that the image we get will be inverted from top to bottom and from left to right and this always happens and will happen, even in our cameras. However, our camera is responsible digitally (or through a set of mirrors, hence the name "reflex" camera, to reflect) to put the image right side up. This method to create and project images was widely used even before the appearance of photosensitive materials to, for example, draw landscapes or other images. And you? Have you ever tried it?

(this article contains spoilers) This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of “Howl’s Moving Castle”, and to celebrate, it was brought back to some theatres. When I watched it, as it usually happens to me, I got that Ghibli nostalgia and I spent the whole week watching and reliving all my favourite Miyazaki films, here they are: My Neighbor Totoro (1988): This may be my favourite movie on the list. Many people say it’s the most childish and I agree, maybe I like it because it appeals to my inner child. It’s a feeling of tenderness and sadness because you see life from the girls’ point of view. Everything is beauty and imagination, escaping from reality, which is that they are living a very hard situation. They've moved to a new place so they can be closer to their mother, who is very sick in the hospital without being able to return home. There is a theory that Totoro is a Shinigami (a God of death) that only people who are close to death can see. Also, at the beginning of the movie, the neighbor’s grandmother tells them that she could also see dust bunnies as a child, but she had stopped seeing them once she grew up. This would help us understand, that there are things that only children can see, things that when you are an adult you stop perceiving. According to this theory, when May's sandal appears, it is because she has drowned and Satsuki refuses to accept the reality and says that it is not her sister's sandal, when it clearly is. After that, she goes to Totoro and asks him to take her to her sister. When the cat bus picks up Satsuki, the stops that appear before May are: the cemetery and the swamp and at the end the mother (who is very sick/close to death) says that she thinks she saw the girls. Let everyone draw their own conclusions… Princess Mononoke (1997): If 'My Neighbor Totoro' is the most childish film on the list, Princess Mononoke is probably the one that conveys a more adult and modern message. This film tells us how humans pervert nature to benefit at their own expense, regardless of how it affects mother nature. We modify our environment, but then we are unable to accept the fact that nature turns against us. The soundtrack is breathtaking, as in all the films on the list, really. Spirited Away (2001): Who hasn’t cried watching this movie? It has all the elements we usually see in Miyazaki’s films multiplied by 1000, I'd say it’s Miyazaki in its purest form. All the fantasy, the innocence of childhood shattered by trauma, the magical creatures… It’s pure fantasy. The beginning of ‘Spirited Away’ is one of the most memorable that I remember. When they arrive in the village and Chihiro’s parents start eating all that delicious food (that we would all like to try) and then turn into pigs... just wow. Howl's Moving Castle (2004): The first movie that I watched on this list and the one that made me so nostalgic that I was forced to do the ultimate marathon. This story of a hatter who is cursed into an adorable old lady who makes an adorable scarecrow friend and meets an adorable boy wizard… not to mention Howl, I was in love with Howl as a kid. Everything about this movie makes me nostalgic… the soundtrack, the sets, the characters, everything.   I have to make a special mention, a film that I've been meaning to watch again: ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ by Isao Takahata, the other founder of Studio Ghibli, which tells us the other side of World War II. It’s super sad, so if you dare to watch it, be prepared to cry like there’s no tomorrow. I could go on with this list forever because they are all amazing, but these are the ones that have always left the biggest mark on me and if you have never entered the Ghibli world, you already have a place to start.

Before I begin spitting out words, I’d like to clarify that everything I know about the subject is from having discussed it in therapy, I have not studied this and I am not a psychologist, I am speaking purely from my personal experience. Also, I write this from the highest point of the roller coaster of emotions that I am and a bit as a therapy too. Sometimes you have to write what you feel when you’re up to remind yourself when you’re down . So today, I'm talking to you, but I'm also talking to myself. I can't seem to remember the first time I felt this way and believe me, I've tried. No matter what I do, I always feel like it's never enough.  Since I was little I always got tired very quickly of all the activities my mother signed me up for. Swimming, gymnastics, flamenco lessons... It has always been difficult for me to find my place. I consider myself a very eclectic person, I find everything quite interesting and I always want to try everything. This is sometimes difficult when you arrive at a place where people have been doing something for years and you are the last one to arrive, so you feel like you will never fit in and instead of accepting that no one is born being an expert, you decide to give up. I have always admired people who have things clear, people who have a passion and focus on something and won't stop until they achieve it. For me, since I like doing many different things, there are many people who ask me: “Girl, how can you do so many different things?” as if it were something positive, when what I feel is: “Girl, you suck, you do a thousand things so you do them all at half throttle, you're not able to focus on something and so, you're never going to be good at anything.” So, when something goes well for me, I tend to think that it was a coincidence or that they are cheating on me, that they are doing it out of pity or that people tell me that they like it because they are people who love me. In other words, when something goes well, it’s never due to my own merit and when something goes wrong, it’s just another proof that, indeed, everything I do just sucks. For a long time I thought that the way I’d solve all of my problems was choosing, trying to focus on something. Over time I’ve come to the conclusion that if I did that, I wouldn’t be me, that I am a combination of all the things that I like and that, also, the things that I like can be combined with each other. So if you feel like me and I can give you some piece of advice, that would be: search and accept your nature.  You can't try to be something you're not, so if you're a crazy person who likes doing a thousand different things… Do them! Because trying to go against who you are is only going to make the situation worse. Stop comparing yourself to people who are not essentially like you and accept that each person has their own world, so find yours. Another piece of advice I’d give you and that has helped me a lot (thanks to my stubbornness) is: no matter how hard it seems, get to the finish line. Try to remember why you started doing what you’re doing and even if sometimes you don't want to continue, or it seems impossible,  don't leave halfway through . You may feel that you’ve failed, or that you have not achieved the result you were expecting, but for me, the feeling of not having even tried is much more disappointing, and it will only reaffirm your suspicions that "you are good for nothing", and we don't want that. And since I'm using you as a diary, I'm going to tell you about my latest existential crisis (with a happy ending). Almost three years ago I bought a controller to DJ, because I’ve always loved making playlists, discovering new music, etc. and I thought wow, if I'm good at this and my friends like the music I play, imagine how cool it would be to DJ at a party or a rave and everyone is dancing to the music that you've chosen. So, I bought the controller, I watched four hundred tutorials and I started practicing at home. What happened? Since it didn't turn out perfectly (obviously, I was just starting out), my head automatically started saying: "Of course, you want to be good at everything when in reality you're not good at anything, I don't know who you think you are" What did I do? I put the controller in the box and didn't take it out again until a few months ago (terrible). So, last year, in October I got a small victory because I released my EP “RAICES”, the first thing I've done that I'm proud of and I still like it (almost entirely) after releasing it. I decided, together with the girls from El Piti de la Suerte, to do a presentation in Barcelona and since we were going to organize everything ourselves I wanted to take advantage of the fact that it was a safe space and do my first DJ set.  Spoiler alert: It was horrible, I had a terrible time. Right now, I thank Lola from the past for that wonderful idea, but at the time I regretted it very much. I don't know how many anxiety attacks I had and how many times I said to myself: Why did you decide to do this? Don't you have enough singing that you also want to DJ? Who do you think you are? And I cried a lot. I cried choosing the songs I wanted to play, I cried while rehearsing, I cried thinking about how ridiculous I was going to be and I almost vomited from anxiety before DJing and yes, I screwed up a lot while she was DJing, but I did it.  People told me that it was very cool, that the flaws were not noticeable at all and that they had a great time. I didn't feel that way at all, but I did feel deep down that it was a first baby step. Also, people had fun, which is what this was all about in the end.  After that, they invited me to DJ at an event, and I saw on Instagram that a DJ I've been following for a long time, Niki Lauda, ​​was going to teach online. So, I got carried away by the impulse of the moment before the impostor feelings hit and I decided to send her an email. Thanks to these classes, I did better on that second set. I've gained confidence and I’ve dared to search for my personality in the music I choose, something that I felt I had not managed to achieve the two times I played in front of people. As a result, two and a half years after buying the controller and 7 months after almost vomiting and having four hundred anxiety attacks from DJing, I have managed to upload my first set to soundcloud and I couldn't be more proud of myself. I know that it’s not perfect and I know there are things to improve and a thousand steps to take, but I’ve managed to surpass the limits that I set for myself and finish what I started two and a half years ago, so it’s one more victory against my negative self, since sometimes I feel like I'm my own worst enemy. In conclusion to all this nonsense, the worst thing about always feeling like an imposter, is feeling that I don't want to feel that way, that I wish I could see myself the way others see me. I would like to listen to all the people who tell me that I should be proud of everything I achieve and who I am, and right now I am, so I try to focus on these small victories and keep improving one step at a time.  The question is: When I get to the next fall, Will I be able to see it?

This week I went to the CaixaForum in Barcelona to see the temporary exhibition “Horizon and Limit. Visions of the landscape” , which will be available until September the 1st. The exhibition addresses the concept of landscape and the human impact on nature and I found it very interesting. As soon as the exhibition begins, the introduction text teaches us that the concept of landscape is an invention of art, only five centuries old. This has shaped our perception of nature. The exhibition in general is highly recommended and has many works of different types for all tastes. I'm going to leave you here the ones that caught my attention the most: Fontcuberta tried to take the fiction of photography to the extreme. Although it seems real, this landscape does not exist. Fontcuberta generated it with a computer program designed to interpret maps. The artist asked the program to interpret the image of a €200 bill instead of asking it to interpret a map. Fontcuberta taught us back in 2002 that to create the illusion of the landscape you only need to play with a code. This work is born from a photogravure created from four small photographs from the 19th century. The artist drew and wrote on top of the photographs. The unreal landscape results from rock formations in the German region known as Saxon Switzerland, while the foreground shows sand dunes and bushes. The artist titled it Fernweh, a German word that describes the desire to travel, escape and disappear from the place where one is. Najjar made an expedition to the summit of Aconcagua, the second highest mountain after the Himalayan system. Najjar took photos during the tour, that he digitally manipulated later to match the outline of the mountains with the graph of the world's main stock indices , thus uniting nature with a great representative of humans: capitalism. I found these works super interesting because at first glance they may look like real landscapes, but they are modified or completely generated by humans. Throughout the exhibition there were different approaches to this idea, so I recommend if you are in Barcelona that you go make a visit, it will definitely give you something to think about.

(Contains spoilers)  It's been a little over a year since 'The Idol' came out and I was reluctant to watch it because of the reviews I’d read, but in the end, out of curiosity and to see what all the fuss was about, I decided to watch it. The only thing I knew about the series before watching it was: that it is from HBO (which usually makes very good series), that it starred Lily-Rose Melody Depp and The Weeknd, that it is directed by Sam Levinson (creator of Euphoria), that before all the episodes aired, it had already been canceled (there will never be a second season) and that it was surrounded by controversy . What I heard at first was that the show was very empty and that The Weeknd (who is co-producer and co-creator of the series) was a terrible actor and only wanted to shoot sex scenes and take advantage of the situation. I'm not going to dig into this, because I don't think it's in my hands to gossip about something like this, I'll only say what I think of the show as an audiovisual product and for its message . Digging into it a little more, it turns out that, according to what I've read in different sources, the director would be Amy Seimetz, but when they had 80% of the production done (having already filmed practically the entire show), the Weeknd and Sam Levinson thought that they didn’t like the point of view (some people say that they thought it was too feminine, but again, I'm not going to go there) and they decided to re-shoot the entire show, and that's why they had to reduce it from six chapters to five. This is proven, since you can find online images that members of the team shared on social media from the first shooting where you can see characters, costumes and entire sets that didn't make it to the final version. After watching the show, the truth is that I am very curious to see what they had filmed, but I guess we never will. There is one thing that is indisputable and that is that, whether you like the show or not, the photography, the colours and the art direction are top notch. The show is visually beautiful, really a waste since, I'm going to say it, I didn't like the show at all . What's more, it even made me very angry at the end. Leaving aside the controversies, if the point of view was “too feminine” or if they only wanted to record sex scenes or blah blah blah, I'm going to tell you why I though this show was awful. The show revolves around Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Melody Depp), a well-known artist who is fed up with her image and wants to make a change. From what I've read, in the original series, she was a child star and wanted to get rid of this image and be more adult (kind of like what happened to Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus). However, in the final cut that we can see on HBO there is nothing left from this past, and they do not give us any kind of context , we do not know who Jocelyn was before the show, we only know that she wants to change but we don't have any background of the character, we only know that she's traumatised because her mother died, and that's literally the only thing we know about her. I think this is the first failure and it may be what makes the show feel empty, since they do not give any context or history on any of the characters, which makes it quite difficult for me to empathise with them. Anyway, Jocelyn's life changes when she meets Tedros (The Weeknd), a totally repulsive character who honestly seems like a very poorly constructed villain to me . For me, a well-made villain is one with whom you can empathise in certain things, for example, Cersei in 'Game of Thrones'. She is a bad bitch, but deep down she is a protective mother who had to marry a disgusting man while being in love with another man (who happens to be her brother, oops). I'm not saying that these backgrounds justify what she does, but they make you see that neither the good guys are all good, nor the bad guys all bad. The thing about Tedros is that everything about him is disgusting. The rat tail they gave him is too distracting, the way he speaks, how he behaves and how he treats people, everything about him is incredibly disgusting (not to mention his acting). The final twist of the show, which is what really pissed me off, is that you spend the entire show thinking that Tedros manipulates Jocelyn and in the end... Surprise, surprise! She is the manipulator and the worst of them all and she takes advantage of everyone... What?! This fatal twist in the middle of 2024 bores me and pisses me off a lot. And if that wasn't enough, there is a second twist, and in the last 5 minutes of the show, they forgive each other and live happily ever after.. These two shitty people without any background or justification or context or past life, NOTHING! Honestly, I will never watch this show again and although there are things I like, especially on a visual level, I don't think it's worth wasting your time watching it. Also, what they've done with the soundtrack is horrible, because they put Tedros as a disgusting manager of a cult that draws out people's talents by basically torturing them, but almost the entire soundtrack is by The Weeknd, so it seems super anticlimactic to me, and Tedros has made me feel so much rejection that I won’t ever listen to The Weeknd again . Also, being a show that revolves around Jocelyn's music and the new songs she makes to create a new image, honestly, the songs she makes and are supposed to be the best thing ever and blow your mind, I don't remember any of them and I think that is a very bad sign. Another thing I didn't like about the show are the sex scenes, supposedly Tedros and his sex free Jocelyn and help her record new music through these scenes, but they seem so out of context, so unnecessary and so uncomfortable to watch that, again, they make me feel nothing but rejection. I understand that they justify it by saying 2284208429 times in the show "sex sells" , but in my case, they didn’t manage to sell me anything.

When Dew and I were in Chicago, the city of wind and skyscrapers, we did one of the things I liked most about the trip, the architecture tour along the river. On this tour, they tell you the history of Chicago and how it's reflected in its landscape. The architecture of Chicago is very different from what we can see in Spain (although I imagine not so different from other large cities in the US), it is full of skyscrapers and very modern. What I didn't know before that tour is that Chicago is such a modern city because it was completely rebuilt in the last century. If you go to this city, I recommend this tour 100%, since there are some buildings specially built so you can see them from the river and you cannot appreciate them the same if you walk by them in the street. Furthermore, the stories they tell you are super interesting, here are a couple of them. What happened in Chicago in October 1871 was, what is known as a series of catastrophic events. The fire started in the O'Leary family barn in the southwest of the city. Chicago, at that time, was covered in wood. All the buildings and even the sidewalks were built with it. In addition, there was a very serious drought since it had not rained all summer. The river that runs through the city was heavily polluted by industry and had a layer of flammable substances on top, so even though you'd think the river could help contain the fire, what it did was spread it and help it “cross” to the other parts of the city. To top it off, when the firefighters went to the place where the fire started, they took the wrong direction, giving time for the fire to continue expanding through all the layers of wood in the city. By the time the firefighters arrived at the right place, the fire was already out of control and the result would be the entire city reduced to ashes , 17,500 buildings destroyed and 90,000 affected. The number of people who died is not known with certainty as many were left under rubble or in ashes, but it is estimated that around 300 people died, and a third of the population (yes, a third of the total population) was left homeless. Instead of taking the city as lost, Chicagoans saw this as an opportunity to rebuild the city by learning from their mistakes. Wood was left behind and laws were made so that new buildings would be fireproof. Thus, brick, stone, marble and concrete, among others, arrived in Chicago. However, the greatest innovation was the use of steel, a much lighter material than iron that would allow taller buildings. All this reinvention (partly forced by the total reconstruction of the city), gave rise to the Chicago School, responsible for the world's first skyscraper , the Home Insurance Building, built in 1884. Another huge step to prevent this from happening again was cleaning the river. As I've told you before, the river was so polluted that it helped spread the fire. Furthermore, the river flowed into Lake Michigan, which was where the citizens of Chicago drew their drinking water, so it was time to get their act together, accept the sign of destiny, and clean the water on which they depended so much. This story also seemed very interesting to me, cause they changed the direction of the river by building a canal, so that the dirt would leave the city instead of entering the lake, but this did not help either, since the river then flowed into the river Mississippi, another source of drinking water. Finally, it was concluded that the solution would be stop dumping waste into the river and gradually begin to clean the water of pollution. This process began at the beginning of the 20th century and it continues today. From what we were told, it is planned that within around five years, the water will be so clean that people can swim in it, although I don't know how they'll do it, with the tourist boats continually passing by. In short, if the city of Chicago is what it is today, it's “thanks” to the fact that it was completely destroyed and rebuilt from scratch, just like when my ex dumped me.

Dew and I spent a week in Chicago and she had already lived there, but for me, it was the first time in the US. I had already heard and read about the cultural differences, but I would like, now that I have experienced them firsthand, to explain them from a Spanish point of view and hopefully you will find something curious. Huge drinking glasses:  I get the feeling that in the US everything is huge. Huge buildings, huge supermarkets, huge streets, huge cars, the food portions are gigantic and so are the soda glasses. If you go to the cinema, the small glass is the largest glass in Spain, and on the street you will see everyone with a huge glass in their hand. Something that amazed me was that you could eat and drink everywhere. In the shops, on public transport... In Europe (at least in the places I have been) you couldn't eat or drink on the bus (although we have always sneaked drinks in), here I asked if it was possible and they looked at me like: Why wouldn't it be, ma'am? Also, when I say that the glasses they carry on the street are huge, and when I say huge I mean a litre, I am not exaggerating. Maybe you've already seen them at Starbucks but the size of the coffees they drink is impressive. It's true that the coffee is very watery and maybe has the same amount of caffeine as an espresso, but it never ceases to surprise me. Driving safety is zero:  Not only were there vehicles of all kinds that I am sure would not be legal in Europe, but almost everyone drives with headphones on and shamelessly looking at their cell phone. Also, as I understood, even if the traffic light is red for cars, if there are no people passing by you can turn, something like when in Spain the traffic light is amber for cars and green for pedestrians, but always. The war against cash:  Although in Spain is usual paying with card as well and young people use less and less cash, there are still places where they ask you for a minimum to pay by card or prefer that you pay in cash. There are even still (although it is increasingly rare) places that do not accept cards, not only in Spain, I also found it in London recently and I had to go to an ATM to pay for the food. Here (at least in Chicago, where I've been) they have greatly increased the use of the card, I didn't need cash at any time. In most places, in fact, it says: “we don't accept cash” and I heard a couple of conversations of “Wow, this is another place where they join the war against cash”… I guess it's for financial control. No guns signs:  In all the shopping centers and in some establishments (not all of them) there were signs prohibiting weapons, but what seemed most incredible to me was that at the airport, when we were going to pass the security check to leave, next to the sign to put the liquids and creams in bags and that they are less than 100 ml and such, there was a sign that said something like "From here you shouldn't carry weapons", in case there was any doubt... like "No, That toothpaste has more than 100 ml, you have to leave it, but the gun is welcome". Bleeding control kit: Just as in Spain we can find fire extinguishers or defibrillators in shopping centers or museums, on our visit to the Museum of Natural History we found a bleeding control kit, in case... I don't know, you get shot watching the dinosaur section and you have to have an emergency transfusion. Capitalism taken to the extreme:  Capitalism is in the air. Everywhere you go, there is the expensive option and the poor people option (I don't say cheap, because nothing is cheap). Do you remember when we could take a carry-on suitcase for free on planes and you would board according to the row you had? And now you have to pay if you want to bring something more than a backpack and those who pay the most board first. I also remember that the first few times I flew with Norwegian they had free wifi and now you have to pay for it. And I always think, why limit the resources if they are there and we could be using them all? Well, in the US I had this feeling with everything. Museums are organised differently: And it's incredible, but the extreme capitalism that I've already told you about has come to this point, and I think it's so internalised that you can even see it in how they consume culture. I wouldn't know how to explain why, but I had that thought throughout the whole visit. I already saw it years ago when I went to the Royal Ontario Museum and I felt it again at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The conclusion I come to is that museums in Europe are better organised. You have signs everywhere showing you the different sections and they are arranged in a fairly coherent way. What I have found in the North American museums that I have visited is that they are not well marked at all, if you do not have a map it is impossible to find the different sections and sometimes they have no distinction and you go from one section to another without even realising or knowing where you are. They also had several parts that you can only see by paying a separate entrance (quite expensive, too) or attractions within the museum in which you can only participate by paying, even if you have already paid for the “general” admission.  The food is super tasty  and it tastes different. I had already heard that Coca-Cola tasted different, and it's true. Although I've been to restaurants in Europe with American food, it didn't taste the same. I don't know if it is because there are preservatives or flavor enhancers that are prohibited here. What I liked the most was the cheddar. We have all tried the typical cheeseburger with American cheddar and it has nothing to do with it, it is much tastier and the texture is much more "melty". Fruit and vegetables are very expensive and in restaurants it's not usually an option. I think they don't have fruit and vegetables so introduced in their gastronomy as we do in Spain. Since I’m used to the Mediterranean diet, where you can order a thousand salads and where dessert usually includes fruit, everything we ate was fried, burgers and things like that, and although I also like this type of food, after 5 days I was dying to eat a salad. It's true that if you go to a Mediterranean food restaurant, that is, Italian, Greek or something like that, you will have options, but if not, at most you will find a Caesar salad, which yes, it is a salad, but it has fried chicken, fried bread, sauces and cheeses, so it loses a little of the freshness that I look for as a salad fan. In summary, I didn’t have any super strong culture shock because in the end, globalisation and the fact that much of the audiovisual content that reaches us is American, means that we already know many of these things, but I wanted to share with you the little things that I thought were strange in some way. Finally, I'll add that I've been to a city that is supposed to be the cleanest and most walkable in the United States. I suppose I would have to go to other places in the US to dig deeper into the matter, perhaps in the future I will.

I wouldn't be able to count the times I've been to the Alhambra since I was little. With school, high school, every friend from abroad who has ever come to see Granada... and it still continues to impress me every time I go,  and I'd like to tell you why. First, let's talk history of Al-Andalus. The Arabs were in the Iberian Peninsula for eight centuries, and unlike many people think, they didn't only occupied the territory that we currently call Andalusia, but it was much, much bigger.  I'm going to give you a short summary of the history of the Arab invasion in Spain so that we can visit the Alhambra with a little more context. The Arabs arrived in Hispania in the year 711 when they defeated the Visigoth king Don Rodrigo in the battle of Guadalete and in just 8 years they had already conquered a large part of the Iberian Peninsula, giving rise to Al-Andalus, which came to occupy a large part of the peninsula  (except northern Spain) and even a small part of present-day France. Al-Andalus experienced its greatest splendor in the 10th and 11th centuries, being very advanced in art, architecture, science, medicine, literature and philosophy. Córdoba, the capital, was one of the largest and most important cities in the West during this golden age. But what goes up comes down and in 1031, due to all the internal disputes, Al-Andalus was dissolved into 30 kingdoms: the kingdoms of Taifas, among which we can highlight those of Granada, Valencia, Toledo, Murcia, Seville or Zaragoza. This division would be the beginning of the end, since once divided, they were easier to attack and the Arabs were losing territories to the Christians. The taifa kingdoms gradually disappeared until in the second half of the 13th century, only the Nasrid kingdom of Granada remained, which lasted for two more centuries until the last Nasrid king surrendered Granada to the Catholic kings in 1492. The Alhambra was a palace, citadel and fortress, residence of the Nasrid sultans and high officials, court servants and elite soldiers that was built in the 13th century and reached its splendor in the second half of the 14th century. The rest of the population of Granada was located mainly in what we know today as the Albaicin, a neighbourhood that can be seen perfectly from the Alhambra. Granada, then capital of the Nasrid kingdom, gradually received Muslim populations with the advance of the Christian conquest, since, as I mentioned before, it was their last refuge. After this history class, we are going to get inside the Alhambra, since last month I made my most recent visit. Whenever I bring someone from outside to see the Alhambra, what draws the most attention is the size of the premises, and there are people who think that it's going to be like a museum, a building and that's it. And no, the Alhambra is enormous, you literally cannot finish it in one day (at least I've never managed to see it all in one day). Apart from being a giant complex, with architectural elements that you don't usually see in Spain, and having various styles, what I like most about the Alhambra are the stories behind each part.  There are stories that I remember from the guided tours we did with the school, others that I have read out of curiosity and some that I have stolen from the guided tour of some other group. I am especially struck by a room that can no longer be visited. When I was little I used to find it super interesting, and it was the gallery of whispers.  If you whispered something in one corner of the room, what you were saying could be heard if you put your ear on any of the other corners, but not in the rest of the room. On this last visit I caught a story that I loved because it explained the meaning of my favourite part of the Alhambra (architecturally speaking): the muqarnas or honeycomb vaults . The parts where these curious plaster structures are on the ceilings always leave me speechless (and with pain in my neck) because of their peculiar shape. The sensation of depth is amazing, although it's not very noticeable in the pictures, so if you don't know what I'm talking about you'll have to see it to believe it.   The story behind this particular ceiling (which my photograph does not do justice to) is that Muhammad, a prophet considered the founder of Islam, was meditating in a cave near Mecca. Then, the angel Jibril, who you may know as Archangel Gabriel (yes, the same one who impregnated Mary) appeared to him and revealed the Quran to him. The shape of these roofs imitates the stalactites of a cave,  which is why they have such a peculiar shape and protrude from below the tips. And well, I guess I'll have to mention this part, not because I like it but on the contrary, because I don't like it at all. The palace of Charles V does not fit there (this is my personal opinion), the Catholics planted it to say (sorry): “Mine is bigger.” When you visit the Nasrid palaces, my favorite part of the visit, where you see the most luxurious parts, where you hear all the legends and go through all the rooms where the sultans had their thrones, you will see that it is planted in the middle of the enclosure and nobody knows very well what they destroyed to put that thing there, but part of the main patio was lost. I recommend to everyone who tells me that they have not visited Granada to go visit the Alhambra because it will really leave you speechless. As a tip, there are many websites that try to sell you the ticket with a guide and they are more expensive than the general ticket, and only for specific parts (they will not let you access the entire venue), so make sure you buy the general ticket on the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife  website, which costs about €18 or €12 if you have a European youth card. Also, remember that you have to buy it well in advance, usually more than a month because they are always sold out. And finally, I highly recommend that you do not go see it in July or August, because remember that 50-70% of your body is water and I guess you don't want to evaporate.