Zoning out from drugs on 9/11

In late summer of 2001, a car hit me while I was biking my usual route to work. For a short while I thought I was dead. Events from my whole life were streaming on many parallel channels in my head. An excruciating pain in my left leg returned me to life. I realized I …

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Young and hungry on inter-rail in Europe

“Four friends and I travelled for a month by train in Europe. We saw Sweden, Denmark, West Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, maybe even the Netherlands. Then we returned to Finland through Germany, Denmark and Sweden”, I answered to my Philosophy teacher’s question  about what I had done during the summer vacation. The whole …

Xenophobia a social heritage?

On the last day of class at the UC Berkeley, one of my American Professors came to me accompanied by a dark-haired woman about my age. “Tarja”, he said, “ I want to introduce you to Professor Svetlana from the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. You two must have a lot in common and could …

Women climbing mountains together

The other day I hiked up Williams Mountain in Northern Arizona with 11 other women. We are all members of the “Rim to Rim” (R2R) hiking group established in the beginning of the 70s. Without the group I would not be hiking so much or maybe not at all. I never hiked before I found …