Xmas Dinner

In the evening of the 24th came our christmas dinner organized by the little lodge we were staying at. With a cocktail to start, live music, lobster with typical polynesian vanilla sauce.... lekker lekker lekker! Miquel had an argument with the lobster but succeded to eat it by the end.

The night finished with some live music...by Alain.

Merry Xmas and Seasons Greetings to Everybody!

Day 4 and 5 Island Tour and Snorkling

Day 4:

We headed off early in the morning in a small boat to the island right infront of Raiatea...Tahaa island. Our boat had the 5 of us, 5 greek rude girls and 1 french lady. First stop was a pearl farm. Pearls are harvested here, the entire process was taught to us, and afterwards we obviously got offered some for sale. They were really nice and some necklaces were beautifully expesnsive. My grandma kept jumping on and off the boat - a miracle of nature. We then headed of to a vanilla plantation where they also showed us how to plan the vanilla plants and offered everything made of vanilla for sale. Later came the lunch in an island and some snorkling. I swam with some rayfish and small sharks...yes SHARKS! and later on we headed off to the other side of the island for some snorkling.

We snorkled down some corals which were magically situated by a super expensive hotel. The Taha private resort, blabla costing 1200 euros a bungalow A NIGHT! We were able to get there just by boat and be the only ones snorkling...a pleasure! So many fishes. Its astonishing that the fishes come up to you and swim right besides you with no problems. Unfortunately most of the pictures that I took outside of the water did not come out.

Day 5:

We rented a car and went around the island, 100km trip... nice day, except ITS RAINY SEASON. So we had strong rain fall on us for a while, then sudden stop, then rain again and then sudden stop. Break for some cookies and juices and ran back into the car as the rain hit on us strongly. Pictures, no that nice, rainy day cloudy skies. The interior of this island is very green...and mountainous, not suprisingy with all this rain. We also stoped at Uturoa, the biggest city of the island....There we visited the 4 stands of the market and took refuge from the rain. The market mainly had fruit. The supermarket was extremly expensive, since most of the things where imported from France.

The buses in this island are very intresting, they are like trucks. You can see one in the above image. While going around the island we also found a small van that was opened like a van and served as a shop around the island going house by house.

DAY 2 and 3 RAIATEA

On the second day we woke up early to have a nice swim in the swimming pool and get our luggages ready. We were heading off Papettee and to an island close to it...Raiatea! Only 198 km away from Tahiti; thus a 40 minute flight. We got on an ATR and flew quickly to the next island. As stated by Air Tahiti magazine, Air Tahiti has chooseen to have a fleet of ATR because they do not have strong engines. Later in the magazine it was argued that this led to less waste of fuel. At Raiatea we collected our multiple luggages and headed of to our little hotel. This is a small family hotel, very colonial and far away from a big city. Its extremly calm...once you jump into the water the fishes are right there. If you throw some bread into the water the fishes litteraly come up to you to eat out of your hand and pass infront of you..... quite amazing!! We even have free wifi to update blogs! Things start early, breakfast is from 7 to 8.30 and by 10 pm they close all the lights and leave me here alone with my computer updating my blog! Our first day at Raiatea was mainly spend hanging around the grass and the swimingpool of this small hostel, as my grandma had high fever and we didnt want to move too much around.

Day 2 lead us to an early morning start, early breakfast some reading and then off we went snorkling. We headed snorkling to what seemed to be a close by small motu- island- Have way my brother and mom surrender and only my dad and I made it there. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me. The island seemed horrible from war away, but once there it was the typical islnad that you can only see in pictures of paradise. Palm trees, white sand, blue water, no persons and 3 abandoned cats. We walked around and after a few walkings we came back swiming. The swam back wasnt easy, we spend lots of time and had to swim against current. The water was calmed but still if u didnt swim it took you away from the area. After swiming for at least 30 minutes we finally got on shore, and it starting raining hard. It is rainy season. We didnt get off at the same place we had jumped into the water so we walked through the road till we got back. Lunch, Photography,Reading...and the afternoon passed by.

The destinations that one can reach from FAAA airport in Tahiti were all desnatinations I have never seen in departures screens ever... I took a picture, it felt exotic. Raniroa, ahe, raiatea, bora bora, rurutu... hahahah!!! This airport recieves flights from Tokyo, LA, Paris, Sydney..and yet is an airport which has no fingers, every passanger must get of the planes by stairs.

I put extrem sun cream on my self to make sure I didnt get burned, but now im all red like a shrimp already after the snorkleing and its hurting quite badly. And its only day 3....

Raiatea, the island we are staying at, and Tahaa, right infront and in the same lagoon.

The Pacific Islands

The islands of the pacific region. From New Zeland to the USA.

The Flag of French Polinesia

The capital city of French Polynesia is Papetee, founded in 1843 and located in the most populated island, Tahiti. Tahiti contains 70% of the entire polynesian population. All international flights come in through the airport of FAAA in Tahiti and then you must take a plane or boat to reach any other island.

Map of the french polinesia. The circled part on the right is TAHITI island and on the left Raiatea and Bora Bora. Some of other very well known and famous islands are Huahine, Moorea,Tahaa. The islands are grouped in the following groups: The Austral Islands, the Bass Islands ,Gambier Islands Marquesas Islands ,Society Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago

The islands are made of old volcanos which have come out of the sea. Coral has made up the walls of the mountains. And they have becomed atolls leading to a very rich world of fauna and flora. Its full of fishes and coral making snorkling a fun and save activity. The water is transparent due to the low depth and white sand.

Please note that according to Wikipedia French Polynesia has the smallest crime rate of the entire France.

Raiatea

Raiatea at Night

DAY 1

We spend the first day at Papetee, and did some snorkling. We took some kayaks and went till a place where there was a sunken plane. We had some bread with us that we holded in the hands and fishes would come and eat right out of our hands!! There were a lot and of multiple colors and were not scared to come and pass 2mm away from us. Swiming does get you tired...and burned! Although do note I had put some EXTREM cream on me....Afterwards we spend some time in the pool and then I litteraly fell asleep, I was still jetlagged. In the evening we had a nice dinner while we watch some traditional polynesian dances.

Its full of palmtrees over here and coconuts and vanila are two very typical things from here. Together with perls. In fact, I was given a "pearl" in the airplane from Robert Wan, the big polynesian pearl farmer. I saw a nice lovely pearl necklace for 480 euros...yeah, had to skip on that one.

One long flight was ahead, 11.30h hours from Paris to Los Angeles...... and flying during the day time. I had no hopes up, the entretaiment system -compared to other airlines- suxed. I watched two movies and then simply listened to music, walked around, read some magazines ate a sandwich, stared trough the window and slept for 2 hours. We passed greenland and entered the north of Canada. However it was very cloudy so no special views. The best views came when we entered the Nevada state and crossed Sierra Nevada between Nevada and California. Hollywood. The thing that shocked me the most of the plane was its already pacific style atmosphere. Attached are the pics that i took when I walked in the plane. Yellow pillows, polynesian music, blue seats, and air hostess dressed up with flowery dresses and shirt gave an atmosphere already in paris. THe plane was small, an airbus 340 but made it well to LA and later to Tahitis international Airport Faaa

Later we were able to do a full flight over Los Angeles which gave me a good view of L.A. and Hollywood. As can be seen in this picture, not very well. L.A. gave me the impression of being a very largely extent city. Full of small houses, very american style each of them with their own little garden and multiple cars. Even from the sky you could recognize the fact- seen in many more american cities that the cars are ten times bigger than european ones. LA appeared to have a small business center with large skyscrapers but the majority were houses. Dont miss out on the small white flower on the wing of the plane - That is the symbol of Air Tahiti Nui!

In Los Angeles, for security reasons even the passengers in transit to Tahiti -thus me, we were forced to pass the amercian police. Even though we were going to reboard the same plane. The policeman took a copy of all our finger prints of all 10 fingers together with a copy of our eyes. After having passed the policed we were forced to go back upstairs and into a transit zone, an extremly boring area where we patiently waited for a few hours. In L.A. the plane got quite full. Unfortunately for me, the plane got full of rich,rude americans. The man with the red shirt got on with a cigar on his mouth....why he got on with the cigar if u cant even smoke it remains a mystery for me. Roman and his sister who had been flying from paris to LA now had to sit together as the plane got full. Roman seemed to have goten over the fact that her sister - they must have been on their 20s but seemed like they were 5 - had thrown juice over his pants when they had just borded in Paris. And off we took from L.A....... this time there was no view of the city...directly the pacific ocean....and yet 9 more ours of flight to go....sunset was starting.

I had had only 2 hours of sleep before the flight,due to my nerves. And almost no sleep during the flight Paris Los Angeles. So finally after watching a movie I fell asleep right after for 5 hours.....next thing I heard was that we were finally ready to land at FAAA intenrational Airport in Tahiti! oh yeah! This is a french territory thus I could enter- if I wanted with only my Spanish ID. I showed my passport but got no stamp, as afterall I had a EU Passport. Flying for 21h it seemed unsual to me to be in a territory where I could entere with a european passport and have no need for a stamp! So so far the only stamp is that of Los Angeles,city which I did not even get to visit.

Everybody had tons of luggage, but me. I think I was rather unusal. Traveling on my own, having a hoody promoting alcohool consumption and having only 1 small luggage. I was the first one to exit and was told if i was on holidays and if I visited family. As I replied to both of them positively I was asked to exit through the right door. It turns out I came out at the RESIDENTS exit :)

Unfortunately at the hotel I remet Roman and his sister and a few other posh americans. Who looked at me strangely as I was now surrounded by 4 family memebers and no longer wearing my alcohool promoting hoody. hihi. With an extreme jet lag it took me 1 day to get into routine.

Before Departure

3am
Flight will depart in 8 hours, but I still cant sleep. Its 3am and I cant sleep. What a typical scene before a flight departure. G walking up and down her room, tumbling around her bed for hours, G finally after 5 hours of attempting to sleep gives completely up and goes have a shower. Lets hope to have a nice flight, the unconcsious nerves are killing me.

Its been 1 years since I havent done a long haul flight. For many its not even that long. However, for me its definately been a long time! I know what to affront, legs that will swallow and hurt, discusting orange juices, people that will snore, and I with all the nerves will not sleep in the entire never ending flight.
.
Call uponTranquility! I have some paper and pen to write and later update this blog :)

9am
I have been at the airport for 1 hour and the "intresting issues" have already happened!

I showed my passport and was told if I came from Spain. Why I was going to Papetee and when I was coming back. However, they still found that strange. So, I was asked for a french ID card when I showed my spanish one. Unable to understand that I do not have a french ID card due to my european nationality they asked for something to justify my residence or work/studies in France. Luckily I had my student card with me, that gave me green light!!!

Due to the way im dressed - highly confortable for a long flight: hoody;jeans and i unbrushed hair and sleepy eyes ive been looked wierldly a couple times. Although I took all my cables out of my backpack they still asked me to have a second look at my bag.

One day I might be the non suspicious individual...one day!

Marauder...

Mardi 16 Dec = Maraude
Mardi 9 dec = Maraude
Mardi 2 dec = Maraude
Mercedi 10 dec = renfort samu social,
Mardi 11 nov = Maraude
Mardi 14 oct = Maraude

Faut pas donner trop de détail c'est mardi après mardi après mardi. Mois après mois après mois. Tu te rencontres avec les gens tu fais "ton boulot" et tu crois bien que quand tu vas dormir tu vas tout oublier et bien te déconnecter. Tu crois bien que tu as réussir a être bénévole et a pas t attacher aux gens, a pas t inquiéter.

Et le grand froid arrive. Tu mets ton écharpe tes gants ton bonnet tu te promènes sur la ville pendant le weekend et tu est bien glacee. C est la ou tu peux plus te déconnecter.

Tu te réveilles un mercredi apres ta maraude et tu peux bien écouter la pluie dehors. Tu as encore pas mis tes pieds au terre et sans vouloir tu te rendes compte que la première personne a qui tu penses c'est le mec qui tu as croisse a 11h du soir penant la maraude et qui était pas dans un endroit ou il pourrait se couvrir en cas de pluie. Après tu pense a l autre a qui tu as donne des gants car il tremble. Le samu va passer, plus tard ,ils ont beaucoup de travail. Toi tu lui as donne les gants et deux soupes, c est déjà qql chose. Mais aujourd hui a 7h il y a la pluie, est-il toujours haut sous la sortie du metro la ou il y a l air chaud? est ce que le samu est finalement passe? Est ce qu il a réussi a aller dans un centre d hébergement? Et en automatique sans même vouloir tu fais une liste de toutes les personnes qui tu as croisse la nuit d avant et tu te demandes si ils vont bien. Il semble que c est le grand froid qui fait que tu peux pas plus deconecter les mercredi entre 7 et 8 h. Et jour apres jour.

Tu te rends compte que d ici rien l aventure "Paris" sera fini. Et c 'est un choix a prendre, un choix déjà fait. Et une des seules choses - qui étant donnes les circumstances actuelles- me donne vraiment envie de rester sur Paris c'est les mardis. Les "bon courage" des gens, les gens de l équipe, les "thank you, good life for you" le " thank you, you have a nice heart" de quelques gens qui habitent sur la rue et les souris des autres. Même si je me couche tard, même si pendant l hiver les matins je me demande ou ils sont toutes les personnes que j ai croisse pendant la nuit. Les mardis me donne un peux plus d énergie pour affronter la semaine.

Je parts bien tot en vacances, après ca sera le commencement de la fin - une autre fois dans ma vie. Mais il faut profiter. Grace aux mardis et a tout le monde des équipes j'ai réussi a connaître mieux une autre "part" de la société, souvent bien ignore pour beacoup des personnes. Et il y a encore beaucoup a apprendre. J 'ai eu l opportunité de connaître des gens incroyables- Et la j'ai peur de la fin, mais je sais bien que c est moi qui a décide qu'il faut partir. Les aventures comme celle si sont faites pour "aider" et "toucher" les gens a qui tu parts a la rencontre mais tu arrive même pas a te rendre compte comment ils peuvent arriver a te changer a toi même.

--et wow je viens de faire mon première blog en français, ça c'est aussi un peux grâce a l effet mardis!

Paris

Paris + Paris + Paris + Paris = Paris
A great weekend, specially with Italian company ;-)

Finally a la tour Eiffel

I can finally say that I have climbed it - and the view was beautiful. Only to the second floor, but it was nice. With a nice fotography exhibition on the first. Paris from above, although nothing will ever beat the views from a low flying plan ready to land at Charles de Gaulle.

- Parisian Kisses-

Unconfortable Views 4 - Student Flats

This is an Email that I send to my flatmates - being the author of the mail I feel in full authority to publish the story of the tomato spaghetti and chicken that were having a party in my kitchen for a week. If u dont speak spanish I suggest you get a translator- the email has had quite a sucess. If you are thinking wether to live in student flat or not...I suggest you read the mail :)

Que onda? Espero que tu viaje ande bien por Escocia. Por aquí Paris todo anda muy bien, te escribo por que me a sucedido un hecho inédito!! Si inédito!! En fin, es una historia que creo que aun que no te conté tu misma ya la conocerás pero en caso contrario te la explico.

Un mañana un tomate, pollo, queso, spaghetti, bueno en fin ya me entiendes varis cosas quedaron en una cocina! El siguiente día las chicas empezaron a cocinar y luego salieron de la casa, dejándolo todo allí. En fin, todo el mundo tiene derecho a tener prisa un día o otro. El tomate quedo allí en la cocina. De hecho no me siento mal por el, ya que estaba acompañado por un poco de carne y sopa. Mas lejos, en la mesa tenia a su amiga la lechuga que nunca había salido de la bolsa amarilla del supermercado. Que suerte tenían el tomate y la lechuga estaban bien acompañados! Siguieron allí toda la semana, todos juntos! Mientras una chica española y otra italiana pasaban cada día haciendo café y lo miraban. Supongo que al tomate no le sintió muy bien el hecho de estar allí abandonado y tener una muerte tan lenta y dolorosa. El tenía la ilusión de descubrir el sistema digestivo del ser humano. Pero todos sabemos que no tenemos siempre la suerte de tener la muerte que deseamos. En fin! A mí el que mas pena me dio fueron los spaghetti que después de casi dos semanas se endurecieron en un pote en la nevera. No solo se endurecieron sino que tuvieron que estar acompañados por un olor fuerte y repugnante ya que había otros vegetales allí muriendo lentamente.

Se que en estos momentos tu mayor preocupación puede que sea el hecho que es la noche y te estoy escribiendo un mail. TRANQUILA, ya vi que aun que no tuvieses tiempo de limpiar la cocina, y todavía menos de por lo menos pensar en decirme que sentías dejarlo todo literalmente en proceso de desintegración. En cambio tuviste muchísimo tiempo para esconder tu computadora y preguntarme donde estaba tu Ipod. Cada uno tiene sus prioridades, tampoco pensaba utilizar tu ordenador.

No te preocupes. Te escribo esto en Microsoft Word y luego lo voy a copiar y pegar en un email desde el trabajo a escondidas. Mas que nada para que sepas que por mi parte el proceso de desintegración de la comida esta aprendido. Y tu, has tomado buenos apuntes?

Mis músculos te agradecen eternamente que lo hayas dejado todo sucio. De esta forma han podido pasar una hora y media ejercitándose fregando tus platos. Todo y eso me dicen que prefieren ir al gimnasio donde cada músculo recibe una atención personalizada y la hora y media no se basa en mimar un solo músculo.

Solo nos quedan 6 semanas mas de vivir juntas. Durante ellas te darás cuenta que yo no soy la persona mas limpia del mundo – seguramente eso ya lo has visto. Solo les pido a todas 3 (y por eso todo el mundo esta en copia) una cosa – lo que se usa se limpia. Me hubiera encantado pasar la tarde leyendo o escribiendo en mi blog. De hecho por eso hoy salí del trabajo a las 17.30. Pero ahora son las 21h y aquí estoy terminando de limpiar.

Te escribo ahora en caso que hubieras dejado la sopa o el arroz en la cocina por que deseabas ver en que color se transformaba al cabo de una semana. A mi también me interesaba saber si la sopa tendría tonos mas naranjas o amarillos, pero tenia miedo que vinieran bichos sobre MI comida por eso lo tire. No te preocupes a tu arroz y tu sopa les he hecho un enterramiento digno. Hasta he puesto dos o tres velas.

Hablaremos del tema cuando vuelvas y estemos las cuatro chicas. Solo eso, por favor lo que se utiliza se limpia.

P.S. Te recomiendo que cierres la luz de tu cuarto si te vas durante una semana, que cierres la puerta ( o por lo mínimo me pidas si puedo cerrarla yo), que no te olvides las llaves en casa (ya van tres veces).Ah, y por ultimo, solo para que quede claro, gano [....]al mes, ya sabes cuanto pago de alquiler o sea no me vuelvas a pedir cantidades superiores a 20 euros si no es para una emergencia rotunda. Todavía menos si el día siguiente vienes con una nueva memoria externa.....

Con todo el respeto del mundo. . .

Buenas Noches

G

THANKS FOR COMING OVER!!!!!
FOR WHEN THE NEXT MEETING????

Unconfortable Views 3 - The temporality of international communities.

Dinner again at Strasbourg St.Denis, French, Brazilian, Mexican, Spanish, Turkish, Austrian. . No matter when you go there the apartment is always full of different nationalities. Fun and convivial dinners, with the few people who are left from the HEC times, some of us hadn’t even met at HEC, ironic huh? We end up always confronted with the same question “when are you leaving?” Response: Xmas, February, maybe march. The furthest that I heard was – “maybe April”. Its good to see that like me, many are full of international plans, moves and crazy adventures ahead. The same goes around my apartment “ 22^nd December”, “4^th of January”, “sometime in February”. . . . Yes, hanging around international people is what I am used to we are all in the same situation- new in a foreign country-, however this temporality makes it hard. I’m constantly being reminded that every single person with who I spend my weekends and evenings – except for red cross Tuesdays- will be gone within the next 3 months. I will probably be the last one to leave. And if I stayed? New friends all over again?? I do have some French friends- not many, some also left. In order to avoid all this temporality and sadness of friends coming and going are we meant to stick to local communities? Will we then be assured that nobody moves away from the city within the next 6 months? No. However, maybe then, we will be the ones that will move the fastest and like this feel less the impact of the movement of others on our lives. But let the concept not trap us, at the end nothing is permanent, and even in more local communities things move and change; maybe at a slower pace- but they change too. However, when trying to find a stable life the international community of expats exchange students and international interns might simply move too fast.

Unconfortable Views 2

It was windy on the boulevard, a grayish winter Parisian midday as I was walking back from the gym, after an astonishingly long work out. Suddenly the old woman with a red coat, make up, and shaking hands that hold a black umbrella and purple bag shouted at us. “Madame Madame, vous savez ou c’est la maison de retraite, je suis perdu”. She was looking for the house of the retired people, she was lost and did not know how to get back home She told me she didn’t know her street name, so I asked her for an ID card to try and figure out her street. She didn’t have one, but told us that once she was in front of the retired peoples home she could find her way around. We had no idea where it was. All we knew was our house, the cinema, the gym , the supermarket and the metro stop. We told her to hold on as we asked somebody else for directions. Luckily we got a response super quick as she was not too much in the mood to wait in the cold air. We walked with her the two blocks till the elderly peoples house. Her slow pace due to her age of 92 allowed us to have a nice talk, she didn’t remember her street name, she had a son, no grandchildren, she lived in the neighborhood, usually had lunch at the retired peoples home which was near her house and came from outside of Paris.

We reached the retired peoples house. Outside the building it clearly said that it was opened only from Friday to Saturday, but luckily the door was open. We encountered two women who must have worked there. With a very pissed of face they said that she got lost usually, and then they asked her in the most rude and uncaring tone ever Why she didn’t spend Sundays at her house rather than going out. They told her that she always comes to the elderly home with random people from the street (like us). When she said that we were her friends they could only answer in a continuous rude tone that we were not her friends but just some people who she had crossed in the street. Rude comments continued which did nothing more than underline to the old woman that she was mentally loosing control of herself and getting lost. The woman was nice, kind and thanked us for helping her and told us she would like to see us again some time. I didn’t want to leave her there with the two bitches who clearly had no patience or empathy for older people- and who ironically worked at an elderly home. I told the woman I could walk her home if she wanted, but she decided to stay there and watch some tv and reassured us by explaining that now she knew where her home was. The elderly home was her guiding point. She clearly had some guts to stay with those two bitches. Will we meet again?

La sociedad sería una cosa hermosa si se interesaran los unos por los otros.

Chamfort

......more to come on this topic.....

The parisian trap - Finding an Appartment

Paris is beautiful, specially by night illuminated. As all cities it is even more beautiful when on holidays than when you actually live in it. When you come on holidays and you like it- the streets- the alleys- the architecture- you might think "wow if I could get an appartment here" Be carefull, finding an appartment in Paris is like going thorough a beauty pagent. If you have an objective, if you try hard you will find something, but the path aint easy and you better not be too picky, specially if you are a foreigner.

In Paris there is an undersupply of appartments, in addittion many landloards are afraid that tenants will not pay up so they ask you to proof that your salary is at least three times that of the appartment. Many people end up moving to a chambre de bonne, which used to be the old maid rooms. These ones have a separate entrance in the builduing and are genearally cold and not too well equiped (at least the ones I visited). They are mainly rented out by wealthy parisians who have a large appartment in the same builduing and rent out their chambre de bonne in a way to invest. You only have to go to www.pap.fr or any website to find out that a shared appatment rents for 500 euros a room, somtimes if lucky 470. If its cheaper its that you are either in an extremly dangerous zone or that something in the appartment is clearly not working well. To continue many lanloards will ask for a granty of you parents or somebody, photocopies of all kinds and proof that you will stay for a long time.

Due to the undersupply of appartments you find yourself going to visit places and being literally interviewied by people- what do you like to cook, what are your habits, what do you do in life, where do you work, how long will you stay. I was even told if I cook using fire or microwave and if I shower more than once a day. Every single one of my interviews finished with ´thank you, we have 10 more visits today and 10 tommorrow´ we will call you if you are selected. It even happened once that I was told " see this girl over here? she came 5 minutes before you and she took the room". As you go back to your hostel you realize that the task aint easy. The demand is so high and the supply is so low that future teanants have no bargaining power, if you ask for anything you are not going to be selected, the landloard is able to choose any other tenant. It is for this reason that many appartments and chambre de bonnes are sometimes in a decading state, and the search for appatments becomes a big neightmare for people who rumbles the streets with their ´dossiers´hoping that the day when they will be chossen will soon arrive.

...Ready to Fly Away?

I think you know it as well as I do - Im leaving France. Not yet, still 4 months to go, but suddenly you are all coming for visits. You know its one of the last chances you will have. Myself on the contrary I dont know where Im heading off to. I see the economic crisis freezing the hiring processes of many companies I see the daily life geting more expensive and unless there is a sudden radical change, I will soon not find myself in the French capital, and maybe not even Europe.

My head tumbles around the words - Hong Kong, Sydney, Barcelona, Paris and I find myself trying to decide if I want to live in a place that is meant to be my home, if i want to go live near my family and explore a new continent, if I want to continue living in a place where i have found and establish my life or If I want to go and discover my all time favorite asian city (which I dont even know that well). Four complete different options, four roads, and no final decision. Always an open eye at the job market and a specific job in mind. One day there will be a post- with a final decision.

I dont know where I will be on the 1st of march 2009 but I feel I will probably be on my way to saying good bye to some of you. I will miss you, yes I will!

re·spect (r-spkt)

Photo by me
India 2006

I dont think I have learned this week to obtain inner peace, but I have at least realized that I should calm down interiorly and not allow the disrespect of people to affect me.

Disrespect from people at work, disrespect from people in the streets, disrespect from people in the metro, disrespect from the lady that sold me the tickets in the movie center, disrespect from the girls in the shopping mall. Id love to teach to certain people what respect towards others means. Unfortunately I will probably never be able to do so as being disrespectful as they are they would never bother listening, and even less understanding and even less assuming the fact that they were disrespectful.

The best is to be kind and corteous to others - hello, thank you, goodbye- and for the disrespectfull comments -in one ear out the other-

According to wikipedia ´Respect is esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person´. Technically speaking if we are not bothering or hurting anybody I would assume that we deserve a sense of worth.

Today I stood at a sports shop asking you to buy some warm cloths for the homeless to help them pass the winter. There was no need for you to expres your frustration and shout at me cuz you pay already too many taxes. There is even less need for you to pass by and pretend you werent listening, and there is no need for you to gesticulate with your hand when you can open your mouth and say ´no thank you im not interested´. Theres nothing more annoying than to see everybody trying to get in the metro when you are clearly trying to get off it, and even worse people pushing you out of the wagon cuz they want more space. Not wanting to sell me a ticket to go see a movie at the UGC when I pay everymonth to have unlimited tickets, and in addittion insulting me.

Imagine if we would all get on the bus and say Good Morning, If we would at least let people get off the metro before geting on it and if we would actually just say ´No thank you´ in the morning to the guy that is offering you a newspaper. Would we arrive to work with a different smile and attitude?

28 hours in Torin and Back to Paris

The dark tunnel to cross the Alps was never ending but inally we finished crossing it. Soon after crossing the tunnel came a station, I can see that all the cars have yellow licence plates- we re back in the Hexagon- France. Still 4 hours until we arrive at Paris. This willb eo ne long trip. I have in 1 day gotten a bad cold and Im trying to survive even though I feel completely congested. The pink toilett paper that I stole from the toilet is gona run out, i can already sense it and I dont feel I have too much energy to go and steal another 100 meters of toilet paper- quantity needed for the level of this cold.

It has started to get dark outside, the sky is still has some dark blue and the black siluette of the mountains can be seen through the window. It will soon be pitch dark. The trip, although short has been good- very good. It a way, it has been a culinary trip- thus excellent. As I got off at P orta Sussa the first impresion was that the builduings waroudn where greyish and decading. I quikcly found the metro to go to the other station, Porta Nuova. It was there that Carlos and Giulia where both waiting for me. The metro was cheap! 1 euro! Coming from Paris where the price has just increased from 1.50 to 1.60 euros I smiled. I also felt I was in a small place. The train had stoped in a station with only 3 train trakcs, the metropolitana (meto hehe) was line 1 but there were no other lines int he city. And indeed Torino is a city of 700,00 inhabitatns which is runned mailnly by buses,trams and this 1 metro line. I quickly got to Porta Nuova, which was only 3 metro stops aways and foudn Carlos by the elevators. This area had a different feeling that that of Porta Susa- seemed more renovated and there where more people- good sign. Giulis, so smart as always, had decided to go shopping and bought youghurts for the breakfast of the Mr. The thing is they couldnt stay int he car allday long so she had to go to her friends house to leave the youghurts in the refrigerator since she lives in Asti a 40min ride.

We were all starivng and headed for the search of a restaurant. however, we passed by a square which there were doing a degustation of different foods by the association of cooks of Torino. I grabbe a dish with cheese ham and varied things and shared a Foccacia with Giuila. DELICIOUS. We then started walking through the center. The old part of Torino is organised by parallel and perpendicular lines making it a perfect grid. Hoaving been the first capital of Italy it has mulitple castles,squares and palaces. The center has a ceratin magic to it. In the middl eof the walk we stopped for my first coffe. 1 euro and EXCELLENT.
Kept walking to stop at a DELICIOUS icrecream chain GROM- Dark Chocolate lemon and for 50 extra cents home made cream on top of the icecream. MORE THAN DELICIOUS. Grabbed the car and drove to the Olympic stadium.

Yes, Torino had Olympic games. Winter games- they say these ones count as much as summer ones. Carlos and I ares still a bit skeptic about this concept. However Giulia having been a volunteer of the games in 2006 eagerly defended their importance. But serioulsy, how many of you remember Torinos games only 2 years ago?We at least managed to convince her of the ugliness of the onlympic torch. Some sort of 4 tubes interviened. It semed lika a factory. Now the stadium has becomed the Juve and Torino stadium, who astonishngly share it. This is a practice which in Spain would seem impossible and yet is frequent in Italy. We stayed and rested in the park infront of the stadium, and saw the sun set from there. After we headed to Il Lingotto. There used to be some factories belonging to Fiat but where dismanteled and remodernized by the same architect who did the pompidou museum in Paris. there now are conference centers, shopping malls and a place in which my eyeballs left myface and I would have loved was my home - EATALY- the name sais it all.

It was a sort of supermarket-restaurant you cou.d get all sorts of fresh and seasonal fruits, meat,fish beers and typical italian food. In addition each section had its own bar restaruant. It was only 19h and at 20h we had an apointment for dinner with Giulias friends.... but being gourmands as we were and since we were once again hungry we rested our asses in one of the restaurants. We allowed our paletts to enjoy a DELICIOUS rice salad and a dish of warm tomato pssata with Ricotta and tosted bread. I couldnt finish it, but it was EXCELLENT (yes,again). If I could eat like that everyday at work and in life...then my life would be perfect. Then we headed to the wine and beer section downstaris, just because the toiletts where there. Carlos had to grab two ales. I stopped at the wind section, where there were huge barresl and empty bottles. We rang the bell and a young guy came to our aid.
- hi we want a 1L bottle of red wine
- sorry we only have bottles of 2L
- No problem.

I kept taking pictures in theis food, drinks paradise and our bottle of wine got filled infront of our eyes in a moment. Off we headed and we went for the search of Giulias friends- Giulia2 and Ale- and headed to dinner. Giulia, Carlos and I clearly knew it "we are going to have something small". However by the end our dinner consisted of a pasta plate, sorbeto limone and coffe. LEKKERx10000 We then went to giulias friends house to grab her youghourts and since we were all falling asleep after 1h of chatting we got the wheels of the car rolling to Asti. I myself fell asleep already int he car. We did wake up a bit latter than planned and had certain issues with getting warm water in the shower but by the morning we headed of to suberga. Its a churche on top of the mountains. Oh, before you wonder breakfast was also DELICIOUS with Molino Blanco cookies and home made coffee. However, back to suberga, It wasnt even cold but due to my cold that I had had through the night I was very cold and sleepy. The view was nice but again due to fog we couldnt fully see everything. The church in the inside was in reparation. After a while we grabbed the car and came back down the moutnain to stop at a pizzeria for some pizzas and coffe. Pizza Cipola it was and well EXCELLENT again! We headed by the river and had a walk around it, it was very calm and relax and there where lots of families and kids walking around later went to town had one last walk, one last icecream and yeah 2ominutes before the train departure I told Giulia I had to have my last coffe macciato, so I went to the station bar to have an excellent coffee....

Now,back in Paris curring my cold and feeling jelous about the fact that Carlos and Giulia are still able to be eating and drinking those excellent icecreams,pastas,pizzas and coffees. They did a good job in motivating me to move there. Expectations more than fullfilled!

Hugs

12.22 BARDONECCHIA

In 1 hour I will be in Torino, finally the 5.30 hours of train ride will be over! If i would have flown for 5.30 hours from Paris id be in such a different world, but well train will only bring me as far as Torino, good enough. The smile can already be seen in my face. Im in Italy!! First stop in Italy!! Many changes have happened of people in the 12 rows of thew agon.: People have goten on and off at various stops , yet once again only a group of persons has catched my attention. The 3 australian women- again. I was starting at the celing, where there are the luggage holders. These ones are made of a type of glass that reflects and ats as a mirrros. From your sit you ans see through the glass what people are doing- a great spying device. As I was bending my neck upwards to stare around my eyes saw an estonishing event. The Australians had opened their tables and on it they had papers, glasses of water, palettes to paint and paint and of course paintbrushes.

So yeah, they were paining in the traine while engaging in a friendly chat with eachother. It appeared as if they were in the middle of an art class, only that they were in a TGV which was running at high speed. Every person that passed by glanced at them and some even took advantage of this rare event to start a conversation. The conversation was always in english and it ended up with one of them saying "merci".

For the rest the customs police man passed by checking every luggage and asking to whom it belonged. Then the French and the Italian policeman also stopped by to check Ids. It suprises me that the police never stop by in the train Paris- Amsterdam, which crosses three countries- France,Belgium and Holland. Yet in this train security has been quite strict. My stomach is strting to roar so I just ate my banana but Im hoping to arrive in Torino to have a proper lunch, with some coffee of course!

7.15 Pain au Chocolat et Cafe SVP

I needed to get something warm as my throught is starting to get irritated and i think I will soon get a bad cold. Buyin my coffee gave enough time for the SNCF to post the number of the track from where our train would be departing: Track 5 it was. Amazingly every person who had dark skin and had a train ticket was being checked by the police. Ont he other hand I was able to get on the train without showing my ID or ticket. Later the police got on the train to check once again the people with a dark skin. This kind of filtration of people just irritated me. As it did the beating up of sales people in India or the ID checking of south american looking people in St. Cugat this scene made me feel unconfortable and found it rather unfair. Who said I wasnt an immigrant myself??

In the wagon there is a group of 3 Australians. Highly identifiable by their accent. Although 4 rows ahead of me their loud voices and excitment of their trip grabed my attention during the first 20 minutes before the departure of the train. Soon after another couple also of middle age got on the train.
- Are you Australian????
- Yeahhh (with a typical southern Aussie Accent) You???
- New Zeland
- Oh UHhh Ohhh Uhhh

And with the social skills of the people of these two nations the group of 3 and the couple quickly engaged into a conversation in which they discussed their European trips ´´sight´´.

Nobody else has catched my atteention in hte rest of the 12 rows of this nicely decorated and confortable TGV wagon. Silence prevails and everybody seems to be engaging in one of the follwoing three activities. 1 Reading 2 Sleeping 3 staring out of the window. In the past 1.30hours of train ride I have attempted the three activities myself. Sleeping has clearly not worked, staring out the window is useless due to the gog and in my TGV magazine I have found only one intresting article- Disposable Mobile phones- A new product created by BIC at a price of 50 euros.... to be thought, how disposable is it something that costs 50 euros?? The marketers of the product claim its not meant to be disposable, however the title of the article underlines the disposability of the product.I wonder how consumers will see this product....
-

Destination Torino

Fog is all you can see out of the window. Pitty because my hands are anxious to grab the camera and start shooting, but ill have to wait till later on the day. The atmosphere is calm in this train 9241 destination Milano Centrale. Although id love to go back to Milano if only to visit Marco,Chiara, Fiore and the rest of the people this time I will be getting of at Porta Susua, Torinos stop. It was hard to resist the temptation of the add"30 euros ticket to Torino from Paris". Saw the add, run home, got online and bought a ticket- of course previously checking if Giulia was okay with it, afterall im staying at her place. This is where the adventure began on the 28.09 at 22h on the sncf webpage.

Expectations? Not many, will be staying at Giulias and Carlos place in Asti, 40 minutes away from Torino. Hope to speak and hear lots of italian, eat pasta with real parmaggiano, I willt ry and take as many coffess as possible. And enjoy the few hours- 28 to be precise- that I will have in Italy. Having been to Venice, Milan,Bergamo, Florence, Pisa, Rome and multiple villages in the Alps, im very happy to go back to Italy. I dont know if its the language, the people , the culture or a combination of all which makes me want to go back. This time a new destination. However, Naples remains the city where I want - and of course, one day will go to. Italy is one of the countries where I have most friends from. How this happened I remains a mystery to me, but maybe one day I will move there, if only to absorb and enjoy some of its culture.

I feel that although extremly "fashion oriented" (yes, this might be a major generalization) people are very opened and warm. The impression is that a big value is given to family vanlues and with it reunions gatherings and of course meals. the mediteranean diest appears to be complemented with pasta with all sorts of home cooked sausces , later comes the meat the cheese the cofee and the after food discussions. Loud in nature, and with a need and urge to gesticulate every zord with hands, arms and body friendly discussions form part of their daily routine.

Trains to the south- Italy, Switzerland- seem to leave from gare de Lyon in Paris. This station is very easily accessible with line 14 of the metro. This line has very few stations, however it crosses Paris from one side to the other. Starting at St. Lazare and finishing at Olympiades the line is the newest of the city and most modern. The metros have no conductors and a double door exists permitting a more secure entry and exit of passengers. Each station has a connection with multiple metro lines, becoming like this a central axis perimitting commuters to easily and cross the city.

Lo menos frecuente en este mundo es vivir. La mayoría de la gente existe, eso es todo.

Oscar Wilde

This is an open promise, for you the reader....

This is nothing more than one big abandoned blog, with very sudden entries. I promise to develop this into an entreaining blog of anecdotes and travel adventures.

From now on I will write about intresting encounter in every trip that I take. Be it at the Thalys to the Netherlands or on a plane to Barcelona. I promise one entry per week at least to keep you updated on all the Parisian secret places and hidden beauty.

-- From Paris with Love--

Last night’s meeting lasted 4.30h. After a long day at work one would think that 4.30h of meeting would kill, but it was good. Im not sure to which extent it was productive, but every Tuesday I put on a coat of the red cross and I get on “working mode” and never have the chance to really meet with the other volunteers and actually talk. Tuesdays are charged, from work directly to the red cross, it starts at 19.30 and it finishes around 00.30 with arrival at home any time between 1 and 2 in the morning. 5 to 6 hours of sleep and back to the metro direction suit dressed world - work.

You have no time to think nor to wonder where all your actions are leading. We all have time but not enough during our “working time” to reflect. This can easily lead to a sudden burn out, when on an exhausted day during the week you wonder why the hell are you even bothering to volunteer and what your motivation is. Its unbelivable but you get into a “relationship” with the homeless and you start taking a part of responsability (which maybe you shouldnt) on their lives and future. It is not only you who is influencing their lives but also them who are influencing yours, and all of a sudden that can lead to a crack. You are giving your time, a time you could spend having a beer with a friend or watching a movie. Then why bother helping someone if two, three weeks in a row they dont smile back at you or simply just repeat the same story over and over. Where is all of this leading?

The life of a “volunteer” (who does the same as me) seems to last from 6 months to a year. Afterall it is all related to your objectives, the highest these are the easier you will be decieved. In the world id love to change many things, but I know i cant walk out of my door and change things. They do say think global and act local, but even like that sometimes one encounters frustrations. When you go to work Wendsay morning and you are running through the streets not to be too late cuz you missed your alarm clock and in addittion the previous night you think you in no way helped change anybody’s life it is then that you start to rethink what all your actions are leading to. However, the next Tuesday comes and with a renewed energy you head to the famous rue where you meet your two team members and start the journey through the streets of the 11eme....a simple smile or thank you from the part of the homeless revives your motivation, you are there for something. You were right when a few months back you called some unknown number to say you wanted to help out.

And the meeting is good to see that you are not the only one that sometimes might wonder why you do this, that falls into a routine, and wonders how all of this will on the long run change the persons. But this experience not only has helped me to create relationships with around 7 to 8 parisian homeless but to also be much more alert and sensitive to the situation of homeless people and the intensity of their problems. I have comed to start talking to certain homeless in the streets who I would have easily avoided or simply dropped a 10cents coin a few months back. And although quite a reserved person I think afterall this experience is helping me to listen and react to situations even more than I previously did.

365 days and 48 hours later... Bienvenue en France

365 days and 48 hours later things have changed A LOT. If 365 days and 48 hours ago you would have asked me where I would be today I would have looked at you with an expression on my face saying “Dont Bother Asking, I have absolutely no idea”. Without having spoken french in 5 years and with only having done 2 years in highschool I decided to move to Paris. I was a bit afraid, i was meant to take exams and study at HEC one of the best, okay modesty apart- the best renowed university in France for Business. How was I going to get out of that with my level of french? But I was relieved, I was heading to what I had heard was a beautiful city plus one which culturally was way closer to “my culture”- the catalan one.

My friend Maria drove from luxemburg to Holland to pick me up and drive me to what we thought was “Paris”, after a 5 hour ride we arrived in Jouy and Josas, place where the HEC campus is found. To simply leave me in my room and drive back to Luxemburg. I think I never thanked you enough for that. On the 8th of september we left the Netherlands at around 5am and underwent quite an odessy to arrive to France. I remember seeing in the middle of the fog the sing “Bienvenue en France”. Neither Maria nor I could believe this was happening, I had openly declared that I was going to move back to Spain after Holland. Yet once again I was overcomed with my desire to keep an international life and experience yet another exprience abroad. And has this one been a great one! Not always easy, starting by the first day in France, but definately a good and enriching one.

I now work in France and in french in the domain that I like- logistics, wouldnt have said that would happen. ( i have had to update my cv in yet another language).

I have learned plenty of french street words and expressions, wow.

Ive been told that my french is good, hahaha that would not have happened 365 days and 48 hours ago when I had to look up half of the words that I would write in the emails.

Yes, I have been told a bunch of times that I have an accent, and I have started to believe that this wount disappear, but no need to. Im happy with the fact that sometimes I start to think in French, WOW!

I have seent he tour de France arrive in Paris

I have been able to enjoy amazing fire works on the 14th of July in Paris.

I have discovered a new city.

I have even managed to live on my own with no flatmates and little friends during 6 months, thing that seemed totally not possible 1 year ago. I thought i could never live completely on my own in a 11sq meter studio.

I have attended HEC. Done and Over.

I have lived the “exchange world”, and met many new friends, many who have once again left....

And although they have all left Paris, 365 days ago ( without the 48h) I met many new friends, catalan friends....ESADE students that came to HEC...it was good, and as he reminded me, 365 days ago we hanged my Catalan Flag in the balcony of room 137 of the B2 builduing of the HEC Campus....thats where it all started, the friendships of the catalan “team”at HEC. At the end even Paris helped me get closer to Barcelona.

Whatever this leads to I now feel “at home” @ Paris. Yet with a sudden sadness when I land at Charles de Gaulle or when the Thalys arrives at Gare du Nord. I might never belong anywhere in the world, but Paris has becomed yet another city where I can at least feel that I am home. This was not the case 365 days and 48h ago.....

To Give or Not to Give

Some of us give and some of us don’t give. Some of us have time and some of us don’t have time. Some of us have money and some of us don’t have money. Some of us are kind and some of us are unkind. Some of us are hopeful some of us are unhopeful. There is no need for anybody to find an excuse for not doing or being what the others do.

I decided to become a volunteer long time ago. I was a volunteer in Argentina in the Mother Theresa’s home already when I was 12 and 13. It was related to school but we would collect clothing for the homes, build games for the kids and go visit the homes. It was a first experience to giving and receiving. It then continued with various small activities in Prague, and then the major cleaning up in Prague after the Prague floods in 2002. You have a house far away from the river, which doesn’t get flooded. You go to the center of the city every week to enjoy of its tranquility and beauty and magic and then one day you arrive from holidays and its all flooded destroyed and business unable to run. How can you just sit at your house on top of the hill and stay there? I also helped out for a few weeks in an office of an NGO in Sydney and now it has gotten all more stable and real in Paris in the Red Cross.

For me it is time that I can and like to give. I like to work with people and help a little bit out, you can never revolutionize the world, but you can always bring a small smile to at least one person. It is frustrating at times to see that some situations don’t improve but its always good to hear that somebody was waiting for your arrival and is happy to see you. I do not judge the people that don’t give time, everybody can donate or not donate. I do think that things would work much better if everybody donated at least 15 minutes a week to help someone who is in problems, but after all people are consumed in their own world and many times unable and/or unwilling to give.

As I say, I respect everybody and their decisions to donate or not donate be it time or money. Nevertheless, I can not stand those hypocrites that do not allow volunteers do their work. Some people cut off your resources so that you won’t be able to help out. This refers to a particular problem that arrived last week. Live and let live, and don’t get in the middle of the actions of someone who is trying to help someone else. Some people are simply extremely disrespectful. The same goes for the governments that do not allow the NGOs to access to their countries to save the lives of those that are at risk, in particular at moments when a second might mean the difference between life and death.

Also, why are people always looking for excuses? If I say I volunteer why do people reply with “oh I don’t have time, oh my life is too busy? Oh I cant deal with homeless people”. Did I ask you why you don’t do it? Did I ask you to donate money or time? I don’t see why people look for excuses when they are not even forced to do something. I don’t do it because I’m forced but because I enjoy it. In fact, after all we all face and will face big problems at some point in our lives, even the most unforecastable of problems. Some of us might end up homeless in the streets, others might end up in the hospital being extremely sick with no medication to cure ourselves- lets be realistic, shit happens. Why not help someone while you can?

Why do people come to me to tell me that they could never travel to “such poor and dirty countries” or that they could never work in humanitarian jobs as “they are not well remunerated”. Did I ever ask anybody to volunteer or to travel to poor countries? I do not do these activities because I feel that I am forced to do it, if I felt forced I could not even enjoy it. I don’t believe I own anything to the community nor that I must do good for the community. It is simply something I like to do and I wish that if I ever really need help somebody will help me out. In the mean time everybody can choose their style of life without needing to give me excuses on why they don’t give time or money.

Live and Give or Live and Let Give. They are both good so stop giving me excuses.