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Amsterdam,Queens day 2006

foto by me

To the few who made the day......
Under the dutch rain...a good day!

Mindru, el teu fotolog ha estat bonissim! Quines cares i quines ganes de marxar que teniem el dia 2 d Agost, poc ens pensavem el que ens pasaria el dia 3 d agost, pero mira ara no nomes tenim aqui una foto de nosaltres, sino tambe dels nostres companys. Quina pena que la Maria i el Matthew no hi surtin! En fi... 2 d agost del 2006 ! :) ens veiem aviat!!! Tu ja saps on trovarme M E S S E N G E R ! o EMAIL.

While going through my friend's blog I found the following question:

"Porque é que uma pessoa de mau-humor influência mais depressa e facilmente uma pessoa de bom-humor? Porque é que não é ao contrário?"

Why why why is the question. I wish it could be the other way around. A person in a good mood always makes you feel at least for one split second better compared to one in a bad mood. However, I dont know to which extent our life would change and we would be infulenced by happy good mood people, afterall how many people in the world tend to be in a good mood??? But its sometimes amazing how a simple "hi","thankyou" a smile or a crossing of eyes can change your day....Specially when you just have had it with the badly mooded people, and you are the one bringing the bad mood around to others. Just a bad day....and its dark dark dark dark.

I have the feeling we will have to deal with the following word at least for the following months, and im not happy about it:

e‧go - Pronunciation[ee-goh, eg-oh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun, plural e‧gos.
1.
the “I” or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought.
egotism; conceit; self-importance

No photoshop

Magic sky

3rd September around 6.30am

... somewhere in France....

from a Vueling plane....

foto by me

its 6p.m. its DARK NIGHT

.... wHeN wiLL tHe SuN cOme bAcK??

In Need of: sun,grass.smiles,friends,holidays,laughs,

relax,freshair,beach, mountains,trees,

childs attitude,t-shirts,icecream,holidays,

chocolate,cheese,paella,sangria,beer,

neve ending days.... i need to spend at least

some time laying down in the grass, having a good laugh and with some sun....

One day less for spring.

Proxim Juliol: Catxondisme a Australia [ Siberia Juny o Agost :P]

Avui m han fet un regal. El meu pare m ha donat un tros de fusta que podeu apreciar a la foto. Haha. Es el nou lletrero que penja al meu cuarto! Es mes que res per que em quedi clar on seran els meus pares, perquè em vagi acostumant a que ja no puc trucar a vueling si necessito anar a veure-les sinó que mes val que contacti a Singapore Airlines o a Quantas.

Fa 1 any em pensava que avui seria a Barcelona estudiant a ESADE, vaig canviar d opinió i vaig decidir fer un doble master entre Rótterdam i Paris. I ara resulta que els meus pares molt probablement vagin a Sydney. Així que qui sap com canviaran les coses. Per ara em quedo amb aquesta fusta al cuarto. Que no nomes em recorda que els meus pares viuran a la quinta hòstia del altre hemisferi, sinó que també em motiva per anar hi algun dia de visita. Encara que abans he dit que vull anar a Siberia, hi hi anire fijo. El que esta clar es que als pares els tens que veure... i a mi em sembla millor que jo els hi fagi una visita que no pas que ells m en facin una a mi XD Així que aquest estiu em sembla que agafo el nou vol de la singapore airlines des de Barcelona a Sydney.

Ara en serio, algú s hi apunta. El meu plan es anar-hi al Juliol durant 1 mes, potser mes, però m agradaria viatjar un mes, en plan barato. Això si a Sydney els meus pares ens deixen la casa :D hehehehe....qui s apunta?

Per apuntar-s’hi es necessiten els següents prerequisits

Major de 16 anys
Viure a Berga,Vilobi,St.Cugat
Saber la definició de Catxondisme
Voler anar en pla barato
Si toca dormir a Syndey esta disposat a aguantar els roncs del meu pare a la nit.
Que no li faci por pujar en avio (ja que el viatja en barco dura massa..)

Next Destination

Let me introduce you to my next destination.
It has been a while since I have thought that I wanted to cross Siberia with a train. Actually, when I was small my dad already told me once that one day I would learn so many languages that we could speak everyday a different language at home. Monday would be the french day, tuesday german, wendsay italian,thursday english,friday spanish,saturday japanese and sunday we could speak in our language, catalan. Well, just cuz i like languages, and because school just taught me some and some friends taugh me a others, this has becomed possible. Not like we ever trully do this, but I can at least speak a few languages, and soemtimes it just makes it easier if i feel like watching a french DVD, like today or going to see a foreign movie... no need to have everything translated into catalan. Yeah, i know these languages are mostly all latin languages, so if you learn one the other one is easier, but still... a language is a language. For me a language is a puzzle, i just love to bring those pieces together and to form sentences its actually fun! I hate those grammar classes, or those essay writings, but when u just go somewhere and u can speak it with the ppl, that feeling is just great. My problem, a BIG problem is that i feel extremly embarasssed to talk at the beggining... and that just stops the learning process. How to overcome it? Just keep in mind that speaking it you will learn further...

I also remember my dad saying that one day we would cross Siberia with train. I dont know if he remembers but i know he said it. I never really thought about it again, we lived in south america so i just took care of thinking of that region, then we moved to spain. Who in Spain thinks of those eastern countries, never crossed my mind. Then moved to Prague, went to russia three times, loved it and thought about siberia once again. But still with no exact plans for anything. Then moved to Holland and started earning little money, but started earning. Then is when things could get done, what i wanted could get done, what i like which is to travel could get done. And im not refering to paris,rome,madrid or milan. Those cities are great, ive seen them, got a bunch more of "famous cities" to see, (really want to see Porto,Naples,Stochkolm) and would love to go to paris,rome,madrid and milan again to discover new places, or to go check out the ones that i never got to go. But the places that i trully like to go are the ones in which you can get in contact with the locals and they have a complete radical different culture than yours. I like the adventure as well of having a backpack with you and waking up without knowing where you will end up. I like to walk in the street and see a few backpackers but know that afterall its my trip, its my way, its me who does it. I like the chaos in not knowing how the other system works. I like to sit in a resturant get a menu that I cant read due to language problems and chosse some food, and then see what they give u.... i just like this adventure. Ill admit i like security. I like to go somewhere where i know ill come back alive, I like to go somewhere where i know ill be fine, i like to travel with one more person. But i like the landscapes,photography and people, talking and knowing the culture. That is why if i have to chosse a trip for Rome+Paris+Madrid or Ulanbatoor. Im going to Ulanbatoor, there is no doubt. But if i can do both,trust me ill do both. I still would like to become a writer for Lonely Planet South East Asia, but that might have to wait a while ;-) Or why not Lonely Planet Worldwide, hahaha. Afterall you dont need to be a good writer in the sense of writing novels, so it smth that could actually work out.

Siberia had been in my mind for a long time. So had India. India came this summer. As my first trip,on my own far away for a month, and as a backpacker,I decided India was more of a known place. I have been to Russia and things there dont work the way they work in western europe (duhh.. you might think). But i just felt in russian lands things might not have ended up the way they should have. India felt more "tourist friendly"... i guess it just depends on the regions, but it was my first trip so i was going to touristy india anyways. But now im back, one is done. Next is Siberia.

Ill be honest, I dont know much about Siberia, not to say nothing. But i still want to cross it. My plan is to take the train Moscow-Beijin, which passes through Ulanbatoor, Mongolia. I have been to Moscow and to Beijin, so what intrests me the most is the middle. Id like to take the train and stop in certain little towns, id like to see the Baikal. I think it might be boring though, desolated small towns. I dont know how "often" trains pass, but i dont want to be stuck 3 days in certain cities. Id love to go on my own, but without speaking Russian I have my thoughts about crossing the Russian-Mongolian border on my own, as a 21 year old, and as a woman. Then comes the chinese border. I dont know, i have my doubts. I wish i could just speak russian. I could take my russian friends with me, but i dont know how much they would enjoy that. Even if i have my doubts i know it will get done, i know 2 people who did it and said it was real great (except the food suxed...but well.)

My dream is to cross siberia, i still dont have a date. I still dont know much about it. Ive scaned the trans-siberian lonley planet book a few times, but never read it in detail.Today i bought the national geografic from june 1998 (for 1 euro hurray!) about the trans-siberian. I know i will cross it, but i want to make it perfect. And for me making it perfect means going on my own, with a friend and with a translator that takes us to the places he knows and we tell him to go. I really dont feel like joining a group of 10 ppl and doing it with them. Specially not a group of 10 spanish ppl, or 10 french ppl. I want to go on my own, i feel i wount find that translator.But who knows, got to keep researching. Or convince one of my russian friends;-)

Well, sometime soon, ill be crossing siberia. Last time I crossed it it was in 1990, by air. All I remember is seeing burning oil from the sky. This time ill touch the ground.

Anybody wants to join?

Its official...

So its official!!! Bachelor of Science in International Business Administration! Hahaha... Seemed like we took 1,000 pics and then when i got home i realized there were only about 23 out of which there was only 1 comic picture... Oh well, it was a fun day. Afterall it all was more deogranized than the typical graduations that they did at ISP or Lincoln, which made the ceremony less emotional and less important in a sense. Although it was a good ceremony. But i just liked it the way it was done....relatively quick (except for those Cum Laude individuals AHUM... :P ) Except for my parents lossing their luggage and waiting at Schipol for their promised luggage then having to deal with a traffic jam and missing half of the ceremony. But who cares it was a fun long day and a great weekend after it , and tommorrow we start with Block2 of the master...... at this precise moment, its the last thing i trully want. But hey, tommorrow at 6.45 the alarm will go off again, and once again ill have to head to uni... new groups, new courses... For some reason just waiting for the 23rd of december to head to Barcelona for 10 days......

And the bachelor is over

Tommorrow is the last day, the day where they call our names and we get a piece of paper, everybody aplaudes everybody is (suposately) happy and we all party the night off. Its been almost four months since our last exams, actually two for those with resits (in other words, me). And its taken the office two months to get all the papers ready, im really not going to get into the burocracy topic right now...

Tommorrow is the day where you see the faces of those people you have been seeing for the past three years and of who you still dont know anything about. Tommorrow is the day that before leaving the univsersity you start a chat with someone who suddenly you discover had the same intrests as you, you discover that you always avoided that certain person who afterall was not as you thought. Its the day where you start chating with people you didnt even knew their name, and somehow you feel they could have been your best friend. You realize that it is over, officially over, once again over, and once again its the begining of an end (not gona go into that song either..). Its the day where you say hi and pretend to be friends with those people you met the first day of your arrival in the country and who for some reason you never crossed paths again, its the day that you realize that that guy who was always sitting in the back or simply not showing up for class and arriving late at exams has a cumlaude.

Afterall its just a bachelor diploma, but once again its a closure to another time. Lets face it the world is small yeah, and you will definately see ppl around the world when less expected. Has happened a bunch of times to me. But you will never be sitting again in B5 with the same 350 people (well.. at no time where we ever 350 together) listening to those professors. I guess i wouldnt want to go back in time either and have to go over the same boring (most of them) lectures again. But I will miss some familiar faces, and I will miss some people, some of which will never know that I will. Tommorrow night ill be sitting in the same place, infront of this same screen, hearing probably the same songs and by me I will have the diploma. Bachelor of science in International Business Administration. Nothing will have changed from today, just that the table will have one more paper on it.

Looking back, this sounds impossible. I knew i came here to make it, afterall if you puted a bit of effort it wasnt so hard to survive. In june 2003 i was jumping of happines of finally living in my own :) and in another country and the best part came with the fact that they spoke another language (just love that foreign/mysterious aspect of countries with languages that seems very strange *yeah dutch is no strange language by now..but well there is always some mystery to discover new words and phrases). However, I will admit that after 6 months in the netherlands i had my first nervous breakdown where I started to get convinced that it was time to go to Barcelona and forget about an international carrer and expierence and finally discover what Barcelona was all about... It seemed like the "newness" in the country was gone, nobody intresting to meet, nothing intresting to study,no job to do, no sun to shine over the grey days....

Dont know what happened, but i stayed. I was even suposed to leave for my master, everything was ready for my application at ESADE, had meetings with directors, obtained refrence letters, was ready for my exams but im still here... Well the bachelor is over, and now comes the master. Next september Ill be definately gone. Next year this time ill be in Paris (hopefully).... going through the same "newness" once again and trying to figure out once again if that is what I really want or not.... and asking myself why I always push myself to look for something new... Am I escaping something??? Or is it symply a need for discovery??? Would it ever be worth to stop time?? Wouldnt it be better to experience 1,000 different things than just 1 good one? I sometimes want to stop these cycles of newness because at some time they drag you down, on the other hand they are too adictive..... im still wondering if there are any answers...

In the meanwhile, I stick to what I found in somebody's blog, which once again is from DalaiLama (and that is just a coincidence)

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day." Dalai Lama

And im Back!

....So I am back on the blog page :D For who knows how long... I have 0 inspiration at the moment, but since i just got back from work and im just laying here in bed with the laptop I figured it was time to let certain people know that I am still alive.... Feels like everything is the same as always, but actually found a new job, started a new master, started suddenly babysitting quite often, and realized this is the last year in Holland....Next Year: Paris.... And still looking for a french teacher....

I have just been thinking about another of the paradoxes of the DalaiLama up in Dhramsala, it was strange cuz we only went to his teachings for 1 day, and simply for the curiosity of seeing him. Everybody was listening super attentively and taking notes on everyword he said, Ana and I rather just layed down and heard his words translated into korean and later to english. All he said was more "obvious" than anything else, but somehow i still clearly remember those words about, happiness, society etc... and all without having to take notes :D


....Dhramsala..... The place where we met our small spanish/tibetan buddhist family coming from La Casa del Tibet de Barcelona

The paradox of our Age
We have bigger houses but smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgment;
more experts, but more problems;
more medicines but less healthiness.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbour.
We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,
But have less real communication;
We have become long on quantity,
but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall mean but short characters;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It’s a time when there is much in the window
But nothing in the room.

H.H. Dalai Lama