ROUX - Issue 14, May 2024

ROUX Student Magazine EST 2022 Issue 14, 30th May 2024 Luxembourg Print run: 515 copies Chief Editor: Poopee the Poopster Popper Pee

Contents 2

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4

9

10

Letz guess!

Monologue

Against

Hello, René Magritte

Cloud observations

Interview

on nature

Disenchantment

Painting commentary

Guest travel logs

PRAISE THE SUN!

Architecture research

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18

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Tf is Esch Biennale?

BALLS! BALLS!

How not to drown

Polyamory

Rimworld: Cella’s

Cannes’ cooler

BALLS!

Short story

explained

Wrath

alternative

We’re going balls

An overview

Video game divul-

to the wall

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24

gence

26

28

Ansembourg’s

Myrtle’s heart

Blondies just wanna

Rot Boy Summer

Grand-Chateau

Short story

have fun

Is this still poetry?

Hidden places Starring: Auriane MÖCK – your friendly commie neighbour Daniel SCHENKELS – space jesus but a mad mage Dorian SOUSA CALVO – thought fish sticks were chicken nuggets Jacopo MOGLIA – chief contemplative officer Jason BILLARD – local mushroom enjoyer José FERNANDES MAIA – poster boy; Mr. Inker Upper Jo Yi HOON – post-modern-hypnotic-pop tease Kasra KARAMI – cage builder Kristina SHATOKHINA – woman of vision; high priestess Margaryta ALEKSANDROVA – the witch Mégane BAUTISTA – vermillion virtuoso Nancy LAMBERT – landscape shutterbug Sherley DE DEURWAERDER – mossy music nerd Sofia MILLER – entertains the primordial Hylemxylem Umut UCAK – level 100 yapper Valère GAUBE – homme à tout faire et n’importe quoi Yassine ZAOUCH – handsome Instagram Goblin Zoltan TAJTI – Eastern machinations Alex KUZMINA – guest writer We are thankful to: Ramona Ventimiglia and the Office of Student Life, Veerle Waterplas, Sonja Di Renzo, Antonio Tavan, Repro Team, Espace Cultures, Anouk Wies, Karin Langumier, Bianca Pirrelli, Andy Adams of the Alumni Network, Véronique Heitz and Rotondes, Student Lounge Belval and all children of SAUL, Dalmat CoffeeHouse, Julie Toussaint, LLC, Julie Jephos, Inès Planchenault, Stilbe Schroeder, Virginie Dellenbach and Silvia from Café Saga.

2Roux is a partner of RTL Today

Recipe Unless otherwise noted, all images in the magazine are public domain as described in the Creative Commons CC0-1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication licence, and fall under no copyright obligations.

Direct all copyright claims to: paper.roux@gmail.com Find us at: campus buildings (reception areas, magazine stands), Student Lounges, chill-out-zones, Dalmat CoffeeHouse, and LLC. Join us! We are looking for graphic designers, writers, artists, photographers, admin lovers, reporters and all sorts of sailors willing to (wo)man the good ship ROUX in the upcoming 2024/25 academic year.

Contact us: paper.roux@gmail.com Find the magazine online: https://issuu.com/rouxmagazine Instagram: @roux.magazine Some pages designed using images from rawpixel.com Cover hand-drawn by Jason Billard Back cover hand-drawn by Mégane Bautista, Sofia Miller, Kristina Shatokhina, Jason Billard and José Fernandes Maia.

Poster p. 14–15 hand-drawn by Sofia Miller ©ROUX Student Magazine. All rights reserved

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ROUX, a fat gold watch and a toilet lid?

Love set you going like a fat gold watch

Sylvia Plath, Morning Song (1961)

Just touch my cheek before you leave me darling

Juice Newton, Angel of the Morning (1981) I open this letter with the first line of Sylvia Plath’s Morning Song, but why this specific line you may ask? Out of love, ROUX was birthed to help satiate the creative appetites of students and alumni alike, which are valuable contributions during and after university life.

As the semester draws to a close, we would like to say thank you to the university community, particularly to OSL for their patience and continuously championing ROUX. Our gratitude also extends to all of our external partners for allowing us to meet, discuss and write about their bountiful pool of work, for it is wonderful that we can reach so many individuals. Last but not least: thank YOU our wonderful readers! Without you, ROUX wouldn’t be what it is today and we’re grateful for your kind words and ongoing support.

In this issue, we salute spring and summer with bejewelled blondies and beguiling balmy breezes. If you’re feeling adventurous, discover the hidden Luxembourgish gardens at the historic Grand-Château of Ansembourg. Whilst you’re there, in your best Rive Gauche/Droite accent, feel free to recite passages from texts which sing to you. It could be on discovering the unique functions plants such as cacti and carrot flowers have, a tale to understand a lover’s heart or an analysis of a colony management simulation video game. And to add to this glorious scene, our staple poster can — as always — be marvellously displayed in bedrooms, kitchens or on top of the toilet lid!

To echo country singer Juice Newton, make sure to touch ROUX’s cheek before summer officially begins. Prior to that, presently spring is still unwinding, when assessments of knowledge are commonplace. From us at ROUX, we wish you all the very best of luck in your upcoming exams, and are looking forward to greeting you once again at the dawn of autumn.

By a post-modern hypnotic-pop tease, Jo Yi Hoon

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I N T E RVIEW

? ??

Wanna play with the Fox? Founders of an Online Game Rarely do we find such interesting projects in our search for topics as the business venture of six students at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers. Their enterprise is called Letz Guess, with which they represent their school in the competition Mini Enterprises. ROUX was very happy to sit down with two of the six high schoolers, Fohr Sébastien and Flammang Elisabeth, to talk about the present and future of their initiative.

Let us first introduce the two of you to our readers!

I’m Sébastien, I’m 18 and the CEO and software developer of Letz Guess. I am also responsible for our finances.

My name is Elisabeth, I am 17, and I am Letz Guess’ web-designer. I am also responsible for marketing and communication.

– an Interview written by Zoltan Tajti designed by Auriane Möck

Please, tell us something about the competition you enrolled your project in.

We enrolled in the competition along with approximately 100 other projects. Mini Enterprises is a contest for high school students of Luxembourg. Altogether two teams signed up from our school; one more along our project.

The launched enterprises usually focus on selling soap, drinks, or clothing. We are the only ones that have developed a free online product focusing on education.

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e u G z t e lay L

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https://letzguess.lu

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What is there to know about your business, Letz Guess?

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about Letz Guess?

We wanted to come up with something educational, fun, and community-based. We decided to make an online game because it meets these criteria. Playing Letz Guess helps the players get to know Luxembourg better. This is helpful for both locals and expats living in the country. Our game also helps build community, as players can play against each other.

I would like to mention our other four members! Bodé Leslie is responsible for graphic design; she designed our fox mascot herself.

There is also Ludwig Sven who is responsible for cybersecurity and data protection of our players. Dondelinger Mathieu is our head of research, and Friederici Fabien is also doing research – they are the ones who come up with the questions of the game.

Playing the game is completely free, and there are more than 400 questions with answers in the game at this point. We are now in the seventh week after launching our website, and we already have over 1,000 players! We also have quite a few sponsors and partners: Luxlait, GP Lux, Emile Weber, and Raiffeisen, among others.

What happens if you win the competition?

The competition ends May 22nd 2024, but whatever happens we intend to keep going.

Firstly, we think our project is important and makes a difference. Secondly, our partners wish to continue working with us because they believe in our project, and its positive impact on Luxembourg and our community.

We attended a student-company fair in Germany, in Neunkirchen. Letz Guess won the Best Pitch Award. We were also in Belle Etoile where our project was given very positive feedback by Luxembourg’s Minister of Education. This April we are attending the Students Expo at LuxExpo.* And of course – join the community of our players, and learn fun facts about Luxembourg.

We guarantee you’ll have fun and will be surprised by some of the trivia!

We are now working on our mobile app for both smartphone platforms. This will make Letz Guess more accessible to players. Also, whether we win or not, we are giving a prize to all our players!

About Mini Enterprises: https://minienterprises.lu *D’YEP! Schoulfoire: https://schoulfoire.lu/

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PRAISE THE SUN

A Monologue on Nature I bet you have heard about plants, often green, plants are strange and wonderful creatures. They come in all shapes and sizes and have many functions: such as decorating rooms, producing fruits and vegetables or scratching your legs when you walk in short pants close to bushes. It turns out, that almost all plants have a similar anatomy that is composed of four parts: roots, stem, leaves and flowers. Roots gather the minerals and water from the ground, the stem, which also supports the plant, transports it up to the leaves where the nutrients are stored and the photosynthesis happens in order to produce more energy. Finally this flows into the most important part for nature, the reproductive organ aka the flower. The flowers bear fruits whose seeds will grow into the next generation of the plant. Or at least that’s the general idea, plants will always find new and funny ways to adapt to their environment.

Male Flower, Female Flower, Fruit

Cactus

Black Locust

Hazelnut

Carrot

In cacti, the leaves have developed into their characteristic spines, whilst the stem has taken over the role of photosynthesis and storing food. In trees, the distinctions between the roots, the trunk and branches forming the stem, the leaves and flowers is pretty obvious. But that doesn’t make them less interesting. If you take a look at a single black locust leaf, you may think it is a stem with many leaves. Hazelnut tree flowers are also fascinating. There is a clear separation between the male flower, hanging and spreading pollen all over, and the tight pink female flower above, waiting for the pollen to form a fruit. Most plants have both parts releasing and awaiting the pollen, often in the same flower, sometimes, like in Hazelnut trees, separated into two different kinds of flowers but still on the same plant. However, exceptions such as kiwi plants that grow with exclusively male or female flowers exist. Carrot flowers are also quite beautiful, but we don’t get to see them often because we massacre them brutally before they can flourish. Absolutely worth it in my opinion, I love carrot cake.

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Schematising plants into these four components is a fundamental idea in botany. But the average folk nowadays knows much less about plants and nature than half a century ago. Thanks to the development of technology, the city population increased and society shifted from a population that worked in the fields and remained close to nature, towards today’s society that functions and entertains itself through computer systems. This has resulted in a significant decrease in our interaction with nature – our increased usage with simple human-made devices such as phones have resulted in spending less time with nature.Technology and convenience decreased our connection between humans and nature. Instead of walking under the trees and hearing the birds chirp, we sit on a train listening to music on headphones. When we buy food in supermarkets, we don’t feel a strong connection to nature. The food we consume is so often transported over hundreds of kilometres, and farmed with huge tractors on pestcontrolled fields. As a result, we have developed the illusion of money being a necessary intermediate for food, despite nature providing options all around us. For instance, nettles can be made into delicious soup or jam. If you don’t like nettles you can also make a delicious jam from dandelion flowers. Since you now have dandelions, you could use its leaves for a salad. Similarly, poppy leaves can also be eaten in salads.

Its seeds can be further utilised to bake delicious muffins with blueberries and wild strawberries that you have harvested from your local forest.

We live in a world full of plants, and it is vital that they are abundant. They directly and indirectly provide food not only for all animals, but also for fungi and other plants from their decomposing bodies. Plants filter the air’s carbon, collecting the minerals from the ground, and capture the water from the rivers and oceans to feed all the beings dwelling on this planet. All is powered by the energy of the sun. All of our buildings, forests, and arts are the result from complex alchemy driven by the rays of our star. And yet, we have forgotten this key factor, that the notion of our existence is but an emergence of this magical work. In today’s society, we are trying to control every part of it, with the illusion of understanding the complexity and consequences behind it. If we stop trying to manipulate what we do not understand, but instead dance alongside it, we would avoid all the problems caused by our actions and progress much further.

Written and Designed by Jason Billard

Humans are a part of nature, and we are as ephemeral as the us surrounding oak trees and as fragile as butterflies. We appear in this world, flourish and ripe throughout our life, and turn back to the roots after planting seeds for future generations. Humans are nature, I am nature, you are nature, we are the movements on earth – the blue ball orbiting around the mystical luminous flame.

In other words, we are the sun, the very essence of the solar system. We are the stars and galaxies forming the clear night sky that I admire before falling asleep. And you are everything that I look forward to when I wake up the next morning.

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A R C H I T E C T U RE RESEARCH

Against Dis The expression Disenchantment of the world was first used by German sociologist Max Weber in the early 20th century to describe a process in which the modern world rapidly characterised itself by rationalisation, secularisation, and the decline of traditional beliefs and magical thinking. Such disenchantment – the vanishing of the religious and the sacred from our world – was then borrowed from Weber by feminist scholar Silvia Federici.

Reinterpreted by her politically, the disenchantment I’d like to discuss lies in the emergence of a world in which we lose the capacity to recognise the existence of a logic other than that of capitalist development. This disenchantment corrupts our relations to land, resources and labour. Today it culminates in a housing crisis, corporate monopolies and wage slavery.

Students of architecture, in our master thesis research my friend and colleague Christine and I asked ourselves:

What does this disenchantment mean architecturally?

How could we use our architecture to resist it?

(A little disclaimer before we proceed – In the previous ROUX issue, I wrote a short overview ofn the history of ruins where I explored how ruins had been exploited for centuries: from mining their materials and romanticising their aura to becoming a tool for modern economic and urban development. I kindly suggest you take a look at it before we go on.)

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senchantment We decided to start by looking into and learning from the most enchanted of all the architectural forms: the ruin.

Scholars researching the phenomenon of ruin today agree about its power to transform our perception of time and space. The slow disintegration of abandoned buildings is antimodern – it exposes what modernity seeks to conceal, revealing that its vision of continuous progress is nothing but an illusion. Instead, the ruin phenomenon can help us understand the current system in which we live as a repetitive cycle of destruction. This discovery forces a reevaluation of capitalism’s true impact on society and the environment: architectures, communities, and ecologies ruined. These transgressive qualities turn ruins into potential places of rebellion, alternative ways of living guided by the values of care and repair we would like to explore in our thesis.

What if we reclaimed the modern ruins of our cities as a refuge for vagabonds and witches, as places of resistance against the disenchantment of the world under capitalist exploitation?

Take a closer look at the abandoned factory in your hometown: feel its crumbling walls and overgrown courtyards triggering our collective (albeit a little rusty) imagination; accept the ruins’ invitation to explore other ways of living in the broken world. In the context of a society increasingly alienated from its history, culture, and environment, ruins force us to confront the modern narratives that seek to erase the traces of the past. They are a perfect base camp for all of those who wish to embrace the complexities and contradictions of our shared heritage.

Then, who are the witches and vagabonds of Luxembourg? For years young people, immigrants, and even Luxembourgish families have been exiled from their homes to Trier, Metz and border regions because of unaffordable rent. As a result, the inhabitants consist of a very homogenous middle-class that can afford a rent of 2000 euros a month. Reclaiming ruins for affordable social housing would help bring these communities back home, and, while at it, preserve our architectural and cultural heritage.

Thus, we would end up reclaiming not only physical space but also the power – arguably, magic power – to shape our cities.

The first step in reclaiming ruins is, first and foremost, to locate them. There are multiple ways through which we have been researching over the past 3 months : walking on site, consulting archives, talking to locals and tracing the evolution of the facade through years on Ggoogle Mmaps. We’ve found many abandoned buildings in the vicinity of the Esch-sur-Alzette centre. Some of them are too ruined to live in, some are only beginning to deteriorate. All of them were abandoned for at least 7 years.

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A R CTHHIET EGCRTEUA RTE RREEPSAEIARR C H

Upon analysing the ownership we’ve found that none of the abandoned buildings were owned by actual small owners, average citizens like us. It’s always either the commune, or state, or big corporations, or real estate investment companies. Hence, the ruined buildings are often located in clusters, each of them having the same corporate owner.

In our master thesis, we want to ask ourselves if it’s still possible to tear these ruins out of the speculation cycle and “re-enchant” them. If yes – then how?

Surely, we would not want to make anyone interested in the answers wait too long. The public defence of our master thesis will take place in SPEKTRUM, Rumelange on the 26th of June. There, you can get acquainted with our research and the design proposal itself – everyone is welcome to join our presentation and discussion afterwards!

Esch-sur-Alzette ruins, 2024.

Photos by Christine Chen & Kristina Shatokhina

Looking forward to seeing you :)

written, designed and spell-bound

by Kristina Shatokhina

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“All that we see hides something else.”

The Son of Man, 1946 by René Magritte

Dear Caladrii, I bet you’ve noticed it before: sometimes, you So, ladies and gentlemen, The Son of Man is a look at a work of art and see “something”, and self-portrait of René Magritte. And though the painting subsequently becomes adorned with art critics’ opinions can help us look at this theories and legends. But in reality, everything masterpiece from a completely different angle, turns out to be simpler. It’s YOU depicted in the it’s equally interesting to learn what the artist painting. himself had to say about his work.

A man in a classic suit, tie, and bowler hat, an apple covering his eyes, leaving us unable to understand or decipher his face or personality – The Son of Man by René Magritte has accumulated many theories and stories. Some believe it portrays the “Adam of the New Era” dressed in contemporary attire, but still craving the forbidden fruit. Another theory suggests that we observe the modern man, who is so focused on material things so he misses out on the world around him and its opportunities, or that in front of us stands an individual who, despite portraying themselves in society as a person of high morals, succumbs to temptation.

Magritte aimed to illustrate one human quality: people always want to know what is hidden. The surrealist described the painting as follows: “At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.”

But in reality, everything is slightly easier – or not. Take a closer look at the portrait. Could it be that YOUR face is actually behind the apple?

Let’s move backward to 1964. Magritte’s friend and lawyer from New York, Torczyner, asked him to create a self-portrait, but the artist hesitated, Yours sincerely, calling it a “conscience problem.” In his response The Goth Witch to Torczyner, Magritte explained that he included himself three times in a “portrait,” clarifying that Written by Margaryta Aleksandrova he aimed to paint a painting, not to create a Designed by Kristina Shatokhina portrait.

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G U E S T T R AVEL LOGS

Travel Journal - Entries written by Alex Kuzmina / designed by Sherley De Deurwaerder

01/03/2024 It’s funny to think how something that used to seem so forbidden and arbitrary to a youngling’s path of life, is now the essence of relaxation for a bare adult. The pungency of smoke entering the realm of the airstream; the same smoke that used to choke and make me suffocate is now, seemingly, the only air I breathe.

What was once taboo, so unforgiving in its residue, is now just another aspect of the day. Something to do at dusk and dawn, something to feel and something to do to forget and to distract.

04/04/2024 Walking down my hometown path that goes into the woods, the soft fabric of my dark wash jeans gently touching my legs with each stride, a Fleetwood Mac song twisting around the outer workings of my ears. I feel free – released from the confines of the house I've been locked inside of for the past few days because of the recurring waves of sickness and flu, whose grasp doesn’t seem to let me go. I light up a cigarette; mixing in the smell of the past and coming rain with smoke-entangled breath. I feel a little better.

I stand at the top of the hill that overlooks almost the entirety of my town – a . temporary place I’ve mustered up the courage to call home – looking up at the sky whose clouds engulf me in light spring rain. These hugs however, do not enclose me. The trees beside the bench I’m standing in front of hold their hands out to filter the rainfall, allowing only a few drops at a time to caress the hood of my jacket; gently, softly, ever-so-slightly tapping my forehead. Almost as if God is kissing my temple, vicariously through the world around me.

Passing the smoke through the small gap between the top half of my teeth and bottom lip, I listen in and breathe into the music sifting through my headphones. The mélange of the output of technical advancement, the chirping of birds, and the light taps of the rain above. I look up, or rather in front, at the clouds, noticing how fast they pass. Only the outer layer though, the closest to earth, to us, to me, almost as if to say that the worst always passes first. It leaves the rest to intermingle in the way it wants, the way it pleases.

Looking at this scene, the liberty of its mundanity, or rather from its mundanity, I think of a poem I wrote for English class when I was fourteen; the first line being “I am a lover of grey skies” but I’m not. Because these grey skies, these clouds I’ve always found myself looking at – are blue. There’s so much depth in blue, way more to picture than grey.

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08/04/2024 I can feel my human beat – that of my hear t – in my teeth.

Often I hear, and in turn, feel, this sort of silence wash over me. But at its core, it’s not silen ce: It’s a sort of static noise, almost the covering of a highpitched beep lost in the magnitude of the ta ngible wall of static.

It slows everything do

wn.

I feel almost outside of myself if it weren’t such an internal happ ening.

24/04/2024 Sitting on this bus, taking an off-road to get to Pétange, I look out my window – situated on an empty four-seater, nothing but my bag beside me and few people out front – and see the hazy sky; a baby blue turning dark at the turn of dusk. I think about how commune to commune, town to town, from one end of the south to the other, all landscapes look the same in this country.

Same outlines of poplar trees, the same ol’ hill that marks the end of a trail, whilst simultaneously serving as a backdrop for the next; same hint at the glimpse of stars.

Maybe God got bored when designing this place. Every road feels as if it were an imitation of the one just seen prior, the same one I just saw a few moments ago and, yet... the same one I’ve seen for years on end.

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C A N N E S ’ C O O L ER A L T E R N A T I V E

u o Y t a h W w o n / / K r I e m m u S * * t s DID* La l Do, **This l i W * It’s Bie nnale season y’a

ll!

What about Esch? Do you like it, love it, or hate it mindlessly? Have you adapted easily and quickly, or did it take you some time to finally put up with it? Have you had the time to find or rediscover your functional identity amidst the five-minute commutes to the campus, within the golden cage of your preferred food court, your favourite café, and the convenience store in one of the tentacles of the octopus of Belval mall?

I had found that the more I knew about the Esch/Belval project – a.k.a. the reurbanisation of Terre Rouge, the once iron-rich wasteland of Southern Luxembourg – the more I was able to appreciate it. This is because I like change and I like projects; and a project is exactly what Esch-sur-Alzette has become in the twenty-five years since the last of the Belval furnaces went cold for good. EschBelval is best thought of as progress, not a condition; it is not a static town, it is a set of executed tasks; it is not conservative stability but a backdrop to dynamic gestures.

ROUX has written quite a lot about the history of Esch-sur-Alzette and our main campus, about their advantages and desired selfcorrections, about their future and related students’ expectations – feel free to visit and revisit ROUX #1, #2, #6, #7, #9 and #10 for spilt milk and wishful thoughts. As for now, get ready for a status report, a mission statement and an exciting exhibit of successfully manifesting identity.

Esch-sur-Alzette was European Capital of Culture in 2022. #esch2022, function of functions: a series of cultural events, happenings and cooperations. It could have

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written by Zoltan Tajti designed by Sofia Miller

ended with the turn of that particular calendar year, but Esch once again decided not to be a state but action; not to clock out at the end of an individual project but to consider itself as a continuum of aspirations and implementation.

2024 marks the second year since the beginning of Esch2022, and as such hosts a five-month-long series of events that on the one hand represent a follow-up to the cultural milestones of 2022; and on the other hand acts as the forthcoming link in the chain of cultural developments the name “Esch” is now meant to imply.

The events’ – Biennale 2024 – focus is on architecture, but with a minor twist. This particular festival about architecture will not be fixated on buildings and their applicability, on how public spaces should be utilised, or how people should be involved in supplying content to buildings intended for mere scaffoldings of culture. Biennale 2024 does what Esch stands for: it concentrates on acting and initiating – on application, not applicability.

Biennale 2024 – Architectures is thus NOT a festival about architecture. It is your five-month-long summer festival of major music events of all genres, secret concerts at weird locations, theatre plays, exhibitions, workshops, lectures, guided city explorations and much more – all this by taking advantage of the variety of Esch’s architecture and landscape.

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Partners of the Biennale are FrEsch asbl; Elektron and its partners; Konschthal; Bridderhaus; Kulturfabrik; National Museum of Resistance and Human Rights; Escher Theater; Escher Library; and the Conservatoire.

Check out the website of the Biennale (in the text box) and if you are spending Summer in Luxembourg, make sure to treat yourself by joining the events.

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Biennale 2024 – Architecture

17/5 - 28/9

Grand Opening: 17-18 May – Reesch E’vol

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Flagship Exhibition: DIS-PLACED Also, to name a few: ELEKTRON, David Guetta, Ninho, Shaka Ponk, Leurs Enfants Après Eux, MEMM, Francofolies Heavy Metal Day, Damien Saez, Tiken Jah Fakoly Closing: 28-29 September – SL’ESCH Check the website for more info: https://eschcapitaleculturelle.lu/en

a L

OH, ESCH MY BELOVED!

C 20 E 4 2 A P I T ALE Culturelle 13

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S H O R T S T O R Y

How not to drown in a glass of water

by Kasra Karami

the fathers of the world to see their child’s first laugh, the anxiety of all the students from the moments of the exam, the fatigue of all the workers after

The truth is that my warm coat does not fit in my small weekend bag. However, it seems that the weather is mostly sunny in the upcoming week, except for Thursday when a thunderstorm is predicted. So, I’ll stay in the hotel on Thursday, and walk a few streets less, and probably miss out on a local meal at a good restaurant. And what does it matter, those streets will be added to the endless streets that I will not see for the rest of my life, and that food will be added to the list of foods that my mouth will not taste in my lifetime. I have fallen out with life one-sidedly. I want all that man has lived in the world, and all that he has seen, heard, and experienced.

I like to feel the change of seasons on the farm like a farmer who has spent his whole life in a village, and I like to spend my days going to delivery points and passing by the plains and deserts like a truck driver. I want to be everybody with all my heart and life does not accept that. I want the joy of all

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moving all the loads of the world, and the thrill of all the lovers from embracing their beloved. I want all the wounds of the heroes of yesterday on my body. I want to dream all the dreams that have ever been seen. I want to knit as many scarves for the children as all the mothers in the world together. And the word “but” becomes the cruelest word in the world that does not allow me to put a full stop at the end of my sentences: but... it can’t be.

I don’t want to live up to my capacity. If I don’t have enough time to sit on all the beaches of the world, what difference does it make if I go to ten beaches or a hundred of them by the end of my life? My life is no longer a race to experience like it was in previous years, and it’s been a long time since I stopped envying when my friends told me about their previous trips.

But you can’t go too far without a purpose.

After a while, you find yourself struggling to hold back your passion. Standing still is

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no fun. It’s as if the film is being recorded, the dialogues are being delivered, and an actor stubbornly refuses to act. So instead, I focus on my role in life’s scenes. I pack my bag without a coat. One, two, three, action:

it. It’s a two-way ticket dated for today.

A traveler has decided to spend their afternoon in a nearby town whose name I hadn’t heard before. I write down the name of the place, and I hear the sound of splashing. The fisherman is pulling his hook Opening sceneout of the water. I don’t look at the hook, Noon, Milan, in front of Duomo, sunny fearing that I might see nothing attached My friend is talking about choosing a to it and the competition would continue. I restaurant for lunch. A voice in my head stand up and head off. keeps shouting: -What difference does it End (?) scene make? what difference does it make? I stop myself from spilling out this sentence with Morning, Porto Venere, inside a gift shop all my strength. The delivery of this sentence I look at the postcards. I want to take one makes the end of our conversation and the card from each stack of the first row and end of this scene, while nothing has yet be done with it. It’s a ridiculous idea. The happened in this take. I discuss our choices top rows are the pictures of the nearby louder than the voice in my head. At the sights that I did not include in my trip plan. table, I force myself to read all the details I think it would be nonsensical to give my on the menu before making a choice. I try friends postcards of places that neither of other people’s food, and when they ask me us has ever seen. The bottom row is the old about the taste, I just mumble something pictures of the streets and beaches where as my opinion.

I have walked. The photographer, who is surely no longer alive, brought his camera Nth scene decades ago to the streets on a sunny day Night, La Spezia, next to the pier like today to say that life is what you see here, I have forced myself to prolong this part and it will remain so. Don’t expect anything of my movie instead of going back to more from life than these hotels, trees, ice the hotel room and resting. The port is cream shops, and the sea. An elderly woman quiet, and there’s no sound to engage my behind the counter is keeping herself busy cash mind with. I sit on the edge of the dock entering numbers into the to better hear the subtle rhythm of the register. I pick up water playing against the concrete. Fifty four postcards meters away, two fishermen sit, their and head gaze fixed on the red floats at the end of t owa r d s their lines. I challenge myself to endure, to her. continue sitting until one of them catches something. The wind flutters a discarded ticket towards me from the sidewalk. I pick it up and read the information on

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P O L Y A M O R Y E X P L A I N E D

I think, I have feelings for both of them… written and designed by Auriane Möck A common misconception in our society is that when you are in a relationship with someone and one person then starts to develop feelings for another person, that

It‘s about freedom and confidence in each other.*

this implies the end of the first relationship.

In my opinion this doesn’t have to be the case, because you don’t stop loving one person just because you love another one. You love both of your parents and your siblings or your friends, right? There are so many

Polyamory means having a relationship that is not just based on one pillar, where there is no pressure on a single person to fulfil all of their partner‘s needs.*

examples of how we can feel connected to more than one person and yet society makes us believe that one can only develop a romantic connection with a single person. I think that many of us are capable of loving several people at the same time, even romantically.

Everyone just has to decide for themselves whether they want to invest the time and work and get involved in several romantic relationships.Were you to get involved, you would find yourself in a polyamorous relationship.

Polyamorous relationships can look very different because there are no social norms as to what they should look like, everyone can shape their relationships in the way that feels right for them. There is solo polyamory, i.e. a person who has relationships with several people who are all independent of each other. But you can also decide to have a polyamorous relationship as a couple.

This means that both partners are open to the possibility of falling in love again and starting another

Polyamory vs. Polygamy

relationship alongside their first relationship.

Polyamory = having intimate relationships with

If they find the right person, they can

more than one person at the same time

also have a polyamorous relationship as

Polygamy = being married to multiple partners,

a throuple, meaning that three people are

which is illegal in most countries.

romantically involved with each other.

I could fill a whole page with the different forms of polyamorous relationships, each of which has its own name. But I think you got the point that

Polyamory is what may happen everyone is free to find their own way. when you are honest with your own feelings and stop restricting yourself from expressing them with your For me, polyamory means letting your feelings run partner(s).* free, not forcing them into social norms and ideas, creating your own reality that feels right for you and the people that you actively choose to be with.* 18

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Can you cheat in polyamorous relationships? Yes, you definitely can! Many people hear “polyamorous relationships” and think it‘s just a free pass to sleep with other people. But it can also be a closed polyamorous relationship where you are only sexually involved with your partner. And even if it‘s an open polyamorous relationship, you can cheat if you don‘t respect the boundaries of the other person. Communication is key here. Jealousy also exists in polyamorous relationships; it is only that we work on it. All feelings are valid and sometimes show us a need that is not being satisfied.

We need to feel secure in our relationships in order to be able to allow new connections, including those of our partners. A really good book on that topic is Polysecure by Jessica Fern, in case you feel like learning more about it.

Polyamory, for me, means having the freedom to explore new connections with other people, while knowing that I have a great base of trust and support with the partners I already have. All while communicating openly and respecting our needs and boundaries. * If this is your first time ever coming across polyamory, it might seem like a lot: a lot to decide on how you want your relationship to be, to consider the needs of different people and a lot of feelings. And yes, that’s all true. On some days it can feel overwhelming; it can feel like it would be easier to just have a “normal” relationship. It is the same when it comes to “coming out” to other people. But then on the other hand it also feels so free and these deep connections with

Per a mi és una forma de relacionar-se desde la llibertat i la despossessió, establint com a base la comunicació i la sinceritat.*

(For me it is a way of relating to other people in a free and non-possessive way, with communication and sincerity as the basis.)

my favourite people give me so much and I just wish that society would become more open to these different concepts of relationships that go beyond the monogamous and mostly heteronormative framework.

* All statements come from wonderful people I know personally who are in polyamorous relationships.

V I D E O G A ME REVIEW

Cella’s Wrath:

A RIMWORLD REVIEW written by Umut Ucak - designed by Dorian Sousa Calvo

I recently got addicted to a single-player colony simulator.

But it is not a game, it is selfdescribed as a “story generator”, as all the events in the game are simulated and generated by an “AI storyteller”. There are 3, but one shines brightest. His name is Randy Random, and he is as much of a “storyteller” as he is a “psychopath”. He has no desire to tell a coherent story and no moral compass or regard for your overall well-being. He lives in the present and generates completely random events for you that do not necessarily have a logical flow.

The goal of the game is simple: you have crash-landed on a planet, and now you have to get off it. But you aren’t alone on this planet, there are other civilizations, tribes, pirates and raiders, and wildlife; and you are welcomed by none of them.

The game is very detailed, to the point where most would get discouraged to play it due to the steep learning curve.

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As a reviewer, I could explain and give feedback on the mechanics and features of the game; but that would both be overwhelming and redundant, because the mechanics of the game are overly intricate, making it impossible to cover it in a short, written review; also, a more fun Rimworld review has already been made by SsethTzeentach.

Instead I will tell you a story from my first game.

I had 4 colonists. We farmed rice and potatoes, and hunted deer and alpacas for meat. I wanted to expand more, so after conducting careful market research and an analysis of global politics I arrived at the logical conclusion that I should mass produce cheap and addictive hard drugs, and trade them for food, medicine and weapons. The settlements would implode from the subsequent epidemic I had bestowed upon them, creating a power vacuum in the local area, which I would gladly fill, all while making myself richer, allowing me to peacefully unburden my neighbors of their earthly troubles.

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Winter was nearing, so I got to work.

Problem: to realize my dreams I had to produce a lot of drugs, which meant I needed a lot of raw materials, which really meant that I needed more manpower. Luckily, a slave trader was passing by. He had a 6 year old Yttakin girl (the beastren of this world) and a 40 year old man for sale. The man cost 4x more than the girl. Money is tight, so I bought the girl. But before you judge, I had noble intentions! I would raise her as one of my own, providing her with safety and shelter in exchange for labor. Thus, Cella was the newest addition to our settlement. This can only be a good thing!

I let her clean, haul, and execute other similarly simple tasks, as she is an incapable 6 year old child, allowing the rest of the colony to focus on production. Shortly after laying the groundwork for my drug empire, I was given notice of a nearby raider camp with lots of food and little defense. Winter was nearing, and I needed the food. I sent 3 of my colonists on this noble quest, leaving Cella alone with my pet monkey Zara and my doctor Jen. However; after only a couple hours of their departure, Cella realized we lowered our defenses, and quickly capitalized on it.

Final Score:

9/10 Cella went berserk, kicking and throwing things in the dining room, scaring Jen away. I grabbed Jen by the shoulders and gave her my best Phil Jackson impression, hoping to inspire her to discipline Cella before things got out of hand. After my pep talk, she grabbed the monkey, a revolver, and went into the dining room to settle things down. I warned Jen “Do not shoot her, just scare her.”, and she nodded. When Jen and Zara entered the room, Cella took the initiative and lunged forward, grabbing Zara, and tearing its head off. Jen froze in shock, couldn’t lift a muscle. Seeing her monkey’s head roll on the floor, a rage filled her, and she charged towards the child. After trading blows, Cella broke Jen’s kneecaps, immobilizing her. The gun flew across the room.

As Jen crawled away for her life, smearing blood everywhere, Cella went around the dinner table, picked up the gun, and shot Jen. She then set my dining room on fire, grabbed all my remaining food, and fled. My entire base burned down.

When my colonists returned from their mission they found nothing but the charred body of their now-gone friend. As a snowflake landed on one of their cheeks, they realized, winter is here. Then I realized, I lost the game. Then a spaceship full of milk fell from the sky. Thanks Randy.

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L O C A L P H OTOGRAPHY

The Gardens of the Grand-Château of Ansembourg Being one of more than 70 castles in Luxembourg, the Grand-Château of Ansembourg is not one of the most touristic ones. While the castle itself is a private property, its gardens are open to visitors. A family of master blacksmiths laid them out during the first part of the 18th century. At the beginning of the 1990s, the current owners decided to restore the gardens and the castle under the guidance of the Service des Sites et Monuments Nationaux (Department of National Heritage and Conservation).

Extending over 3.5 hectares, the gardens include pools, decorative steps, statues and fountains among others.

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Als eent vun iwwer 70 Buergen a Schlässer a Lëtzebuerg gehéiert de Grand-Château vun Aansebuerg net zu deenen touristeschsten. Wärend d’Schlass selwer am Privatbesëtz ass, si seng Gäert fir de Public zougänglech. Eng Famill vu Schmattmeeschter huet se an der éischter Hallschent vum 18. Joerhonnert ugeluecht. Ufanks vun de 1990er Joren hunn déi aktuell Besëtzer decidéiert, d’Gäert an d’Schlass ënnert der Leedung vum Service des Sites et Monuments Nationaux ze restauréieren.

D’Gäert erstrecke sech iwwer 3,5 Hektar an ëmfaassen ënner anerem Waasserbasengen, dekorativ Trapen, Statuen a Sprangburen. text and photos by Nancy Lambert

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RECIPE

Blondies…the alternative cousin to the brownie.

Brownies represent the muddiness, cosiness and welcoming darkness of the autumn and winter months, while blondies represent the youthfulness of the spring and summer months.

Granted, blondies are traditionally to be more toffeish, but these blondies are on the more fruitful side, with a fudgy centre – exactly how both brownies and blondies should be.

Admittedly, unlike brownies, I believe that blondies pair wonderfully with summery fruits – golden squares decorated with coloured gems of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and pearly white chocolate chunks are simply glorious. Plus, the contrast with the sweetness of the chocolate and the natural sweetness and tartness of the summer fruits, is an additional delight.

BLONDIES JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

Blondies, along with madeleines and tanning booths, are powerful time-travelling devices that bring back memories of carefree times spent enjoying ice cream cookies, sunset walks on the beach with good friends, and of course, these bejewelled blondies. They also make a great treat for girl dinners (see ROUX’s issue 13 on girl dinners).

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Brownies are great when relishing the days spent curled up and sheltering from the winter in the warmth. And as the temperatures heat up, I highly encourage you to savour these buttery ruby and amethyst-coloured treats in the spring-summery rays, as… well, blondies simply want to have fun!

Makes

generous-size

12

Ingredients: 200g unsalted butter 250g white chocolate, with 50g put aside, chopped into rough even chunks 180g of light brown sugar 3 eggs 1 tsp of vanilla extract (essence also works fine too) 100g of washed raspberries, blueberries, blackberries 60g flour 1tsp of baking powder ½ tsp of fine salt

blondies

3. Once the mixture of melted butter, chocolate, and sugar has cooled completely, add the eggs one at a time, making sure to gently fold each one into the mixture using a wooden spoon or spatula, followed by the vanilla extract (or essence).

4. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder, in a separate bowl, then gently fold the dry ingredients into the liquid mixture, ensuring there are no flour pockets.

5. Stir the fruit and white chocolate chunks into the combined mixture.

Equipment: 1x20cm tray

6. Fill the baking tray with the blondie mixture and place it in the middle of your preheated oven – assuming there is a middle, of course.

1. Melt the butter, sugar and chocolate, either in a bowl over a pan of boiling water (Bain Marie) or in a microwave to melt them together. Set aside the melted mixture, allowing it to cool entirely. The last thing you want is scrambled eggs in your blondies – a terrible concoction that would sabotage an otherwise delicious treat (and believe me, you don’t want to eat this).

7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven after gently poking the blondies with a skewer. It is done if the skewer comes out clean with minimal crumbs.

8. When the blondies have cooled completely, remove them from the tray, cutting them into 12 generous-sized squares. Alternatively, if you lack patience such as myself, cut yourself a piece and greedily devour it and allow the rest to cool. However, you choose to have your blondie, enjoy the flavours of spring and summer in these luscious, golden squares.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Greasing the tray with butter, and line the tray with baking paper.

written

by

Jo-Yi Hoon

designed

by

Sofia Miller

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