Claire's blog

Nothing is written

2011-12-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

I've been to the cinema, reader. I don't know exactly what happened, but it got me all crazy. Not the film itself, more the way back... I walked, for like an hour, and upon coming home, I felt like a sock: turned completely inside out, with a few strings hanging out.

I've been to see Jane Eyre, actually, and I knew upon going that it was going to be a weird experience, and that I probably wouldn't enjoy it. But hey, it's Jane Eyre, it's my favorite book in its own way, it's important, and I wouldn't have missed it. I did not like it (big surprise there), but how could you possibly get angry at someone for failing at an impossible task? I don't actually think it could have been any better. I think probably Charlotte Brontë would have approved, and the girls next to me at the cinema had obviously never read the book and got out intending to do it. So, well, mission accomplished, I guess.

Please forgive the crappy photo-video thing I just had no idea for a picture, and I really like the song, and find it appropriate.

I personally think that filming Jane Eyre is impossible. All the details matter too much. All that she says, all that he says, all the "little" characters on the side (her nurse at Gateshead, her teacher friend at Lowood, everyone matters in their own way). I think that's what makes it such a good book, actually, there's hardly anything that's not useful (only St John, if you ask me. Not useful at all, and a terrible bully, as well as a bore. Someone should rid us of St John once and for all. He's insufferable. Yes. I said it. Insufferable.)

I would have made it differently, of course. I would have added more of this, and cut a few of these long shots of her walking under blossoming cherry trees, but honestly, there were really, really good ideas. I think what I would do is make an 8 hour long version, with EVERYTHING in it, except maybe make Lowood slightly shorter, and St John slightly less annoying The trouble is, in order to produce all this, I'd probably have to make some concessions. Like put a huge battle in it. With orcs, and elves, and someone screaming "Haldir! To the gate!", and probably she'd need a sidekick. I don't think Jane Eyre would be quite the same with Jar Jar Bings telling her to "cheer up, missi".

Two things I can't forgive, though, even though it's perfectly well cast, made me cry, and did turn me inside out, after all (that must mean something): Rochester never says "He would not rue his bloody blunder more than I now rue mine", and that's like filming Hamlet but cutting the part when he says "To be, or not to be", and also he doesn't accuse her of trying to drown him in his sleep, which is one of my favorite parts of the book, and which was exactly the excerpt that they chose to print in the leaflet that they distributed at the cinema. Why would you make me read that scene again, make me want to see it very badly, and then not put it in? Why? I do not understand it.

Anyway. Do go see it, though, it was actually good. I did not like it.

I may tarry a while...

2011-09-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

"If I'm late, don't wait

Go home without me

I may tarry a while

'Cause I need to know

Before I go :

How come the devil smiles"

I have not been writing here in forever, and I'm kind of missing my blog. Actually, I think what I'm missing is inspiration. And I mean that as in "I miss you" not as in "there's no coffee left" (I am making very little sense, and hope that you can read my mind...)

In any case, part of the things I do when I want inspiration is I go for a walk. Nothing new, of course, but walking tends to help me think clearer. Or maybe not clearer, but in a more focused manner.

So this summer, in order to look for inspiration, I've been going for walks in the night. Yeah, because I'm too cool for school, and walking during the day is so yesterday. Actually, here is a list of 5 good reasons to go have a nice walk by night, especially if you live in Cologne.

1. It prevents you from being reduced to a smouldering mess on the pavement. After a long, hot day of summer, when it's time to go to bed, but you don't want to get between the sheets because they're going to be sticky and you'll be too warm, just turn all the lights off, open the window very wide, put on a t-shirt, and walk off for an hour. Things will be much better when you come back (supposedly. Sometimes, a giant moth may decide to settle in while you're away, and then you'll have to chase it through the room, which will help you build out a nice little sweat, and then you're doomed to go back and have another little walk.)

2. There's no better opportunity to pretend you're a ninja fighter. Or a medieval princess. Or a gothic vampire warrior. Or a drug dealer. No one's on the streets, and you can just go ahead and be whatever you like. Depending on what your MP3 player decided to choose. (Respectively the Kung Fu Panda soundtrack, Emily Portman, weird techno stuff roommate N gave me or the "The Wire" soundtrack).

3. There's no better opportunity to be cheesy. If you're alone. Because in fact, it's not a necessary condition. Sometimes, going for a walk at night WITH someone is even cooler. But if that option's out, then you can go alone and have the cheeziest thoughts ever. You know, some of the thoughts when you're convinced you've found some Sacred Snippet of Truth. Actually, you've forgotten all about them by the time you reach your front door again, but still, it's nice.

4. It's cheap and romantic. It's actually not romantic at all, it's just walking in the night, but then you can claim that you "like to take long walks in the night". Kind of like "I'm writing a novel actually" or something. And it's sport without being sport, as well, which is wonderful. Ok, it's not sport at all, but calory-wise, it's still better than to sit on my couch, I guess.

5. It gets you acquainted with your neighbourhood in a very different way. It's in the dark, and there's no one around, so if you like you can stop and have a closer look at the grafiti, or maybe even stop and READ them (in my neighbourhood in Cologne, we've got a crazy person writing whole political pamphlets on the walls... Very strange. I don't understand anything, I just wonder where the guy came from, because he seems to know what he's talking about. I'd bet on a rogue European MP, driven mad by a 5 hours meeting on the correct length of shoe laces.) I'd say "you can stop in your tracks and look at the stars" as well, only I tried that the other day, and it turns out there actually was someone on the street and he stared at me like I was nuts (some people just don't get cheaply romantic, do they??)

Anyway. It's time for me to get back to my vocab list for my contract tomorrow (which, as it turns out, is much cooler than I expected it to be, so life's good). Have a nice night, and sweet dreams, reader!

Sh'PAM! PAM! PAM! Another one bites the dust!

2011-07-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today, because I am, somehow, for no apparent reason, in a martial mood, I shall write a post about songs that I'd listen to if on my way to a battle. It's actually partially inspired by Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman (whom I love)... in the book he says that each of us is born with his or her very own song, and all you need to do is find it. Then he writes about a lady and says :

"Take Daisy, for example. Her song, which has been somewhere in the back of her head for most of her life, had a reassuring, marching sort of beat, and words that were about protecting the weak, and it had a chorus that began "Evildoers beware!" and was thus much too silly ever to be sung out loud."

I find the idea so amazingly cool, and I wish I had exactly that song in the back of my head, that's the type of person I'd like to be, I think, a little bit. It's probably one of these leftover things from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In any case, I don't. I think my song is about marshmallows and puffy blankets. That's fate for you.

In any case: I like the idea of a marching sort of beat to lead you through life's daily battles (like ordering coffee at Starbucks in German and getting the English accent on the right words. Bringing yourself to talk about something really important. Getting that stupid paperwork done. Getting out of bed. You know what I mean...)

So here are 5 songs that I think are good battle-fighting songs.

1) Another one bites the dust. Or We will rock you. I don't know what it is with Queen, really, but every time I listen to their songs, it gets me completely hyper. I'm not exactly a fan, and I don't even like everything they do (like, for example, "Princes of the Universe", which is terrible) but MAN! These two, and a few others, they are so awesome and so completely great that I find it hard to believe anybody actually wrote them. I think they must have been part of our collective imagination much earlier on.

So that would be for physical tasks, I think. Like going to Ikea and getting that 45 kg bookcase back home using only public transportation. And your roommate (eternal gratefulness, but the SHAME!!! OH THE SHAME, IT HAS NO END!!! Like a GIRL, for heaven's sake...)

2) Uninvited, by Alanis Morissette. I don't like this type of over-emotional songs, usually. I'm very easily ironic and snobbish about that type of songs. But this one? I don't know. It makes me want to punch holes in a wall and grow taller and taller until I'm big as a statue and shining and terrifying, a little like Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings movie. That would be for... getting angry at someone you like.

3) Sunday Bloody Sunday, by U2. I'm in a U2 kind of mood, these days, weirdly. That song is just great, and it makes me want to move mountains. That would be for political battles, obviously. That would be for going to a demonstration.

4) Inertia Creeps, by Massive Attack. It's a nice crescendo-type song. Really cool on the train to somewhere where you're scared to go. Matrix-type of mission.

5) Alles Neu, by Peter Fox. I don't know if you know Peter Fox, reader. He's a really cool German hip-hop (kinda) singer, and this song is about destroying things and starting a revolution, and beginning again from scratch. It's, hence, self-evident the type of battle that this is about.

With this, all I can say is: peace out (ha ha ha)

Comme envie de crever ton chat...

2011-05-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

Reader, I can't take any more. I'm not like that, usually, I don't ever talk about politics, not here, at least, but well, this is the Internet, and on the Internet, any fool can express their opinion, whether sufficiently informed or not, so this here is mine. The opinion of an uninformed fool. Here are 5 things that, truly, really, profoundly and deeply annoy me about France these days.

1. I cannot deal with the blatant populist crap that's been vented by the people in power over the past few months. We are dealing with all kinds of troubles, these times, a terrible economic crisis, war in Lybia, it's not like it's a light news week, and yet, what do we talk about? We go on and on about state subsidies for the poor and how that's too much already. We start a 20th debate about Islam in France. As if that was going to make anything better. As if the problem with Islam and France was not that we talk about it as if it were a bloody problem.

2. Follows on 1.'s heels: Why can't they see that it doesn't work? Why can the moderate right-wing people not just wake up already: the number of their supporters are plummeting, the extreme-right party is getting more and more successful... Maybe it's time for a change in strategy, what do you think? Come on! Come on! I listen to them and they remind me of Fox News maniacs. I like my country better when it's lukewarm. The outdated racism we are dealing with these days makes me want to come home and fight. It makes ME! want to go home and fight. You might not really know me, reader, but I'm one of them half-hearted, don't really give a damn kind of people. What I'm saying is: It's bad.

3. That thing with the head of the IMF. I don't know if it's a terrible ploy against him as a person or if he just snapped, I don't really care, to be honest, it's a sad story either way. But in any case, that's one more interesting candidate for the French presidential election 2012 down, and it's depressing.

4. Follows from 1 and 2 as well: people are getting louder and louder and feel less and less guilty about voicing hateful, racist points of view. I've seen a piece on TV today, a typical xenophobic rant, things that I might have found... well in a way normal from an 80-year-old, because well, it takes time to know enough to not fear the people coming over to your country. From a bus driver. He might have been 40 something. Is that really what it's all coming to? Are we not a little bit cleverer?

5. The media, too. I'm not really blaming it on the reporters, they do their job and report, but maybe, maybe if we did not jump on every occasion to broadcast racist rants and backward remarks, we would have less of a problem with people broadcasting their own racist rants and backward remarks on the bus. But then I might be wrong about that, because, as they say, know your enemy.

Well, I sound just like the holier than thou pains-in-the-butt that I would like not to become, but it just had to come out. I just had to say it. This is NOT GOOD, and I really, really wish it would stop. Self-righteous rage is not a good look for me.

Roses are red, violets are blue...

2011-04-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well, reader... I've got an annoucement to make. Also, I wanted to get rid of that previous post, which was quite lame and stayed up for too long.

I'm in love.

I thought you should know. I thought this blog might be a good way to announce it. Share the joy with you, with whom I've shared quite a lot of stuff over the past few years.

We met on the internet. He's a polyglot, like me, and that what we bonded over, at the very beginning. Well, basically, I needed someone to help me with my work, so I went on that forum, and then... I met him... And I stayed. He's always ready to help if I can't find my words, he's brilliant at communicating, he's got a load of cool friends, whom he's not afraid to share with me, and even though there is no real reason, I trust him entirely. I feel secure that he won't lie to me, he's one of the most reliable guys I've ever been around.

He's not the prettiest, granted, but he's strong as a lion, and he's very talkative, very open minded, he always looks at all sides of a problems, lists all the possible solutions for me, so that I never feel lost. He's always available for me, 24/7, always ready to listen to me and give me advice.If I'm at a loss, especially now that I'm abroad, and don't know what to say, in any given situation, I know he'll always be there to help me on.

That's love. And all you need, is love. His name's Leo. You can find him here, we're in a more... open relationship at the moment :)

Gotcha?

Note to self...

2011-03-11T13:43:00.001-08:00

Dear future Claire :

Whatever happens, come wind, come rain, if you're alone on a friday night and feeling pathetic, DO NOT, DO! NOT! Decide now's the appropriate time to try listening to Radiohead's OK Computer. It is wonderful indeed. But it's giving me a blue screen (ha ha ha).

PS: In case you were wondering, I'm perfectly fine, and will be fully operating again tomorrow.

Ja, dieses Schunkeln kann ich nicht ausstehn

2011-03-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

Oh Lord. OK. This is probably my very last post. I'm scared. The city is under siege, shops are closing down and the enemies are about to attack. It will start. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, the end begins. I shake in my boots, and fill jute-bags with sand, I stopped showering with water three weeks ago and use Früh beer instead, hoping against hope that they might not smell me, yet I cannot but shiver at the mere evocation of the word :

Carneval

Carneval is upon us, my friends, and we'll need all the support we can get. My sister's coming over with her husband V, and if that cannot trump the odds and help me have a cool week-end nonetheless, then I'm sure that nothing can.

I do not understand carneval. I am scared of the drunken packs roaming the streets. I do not like to dress up, and have a (I believe very healthy) severe dislike to Volksmusik. I do not understand it, and I do not mean that in a metaphorical way. I asked my roommates the other day about the posters that you can see all over the city, with "Kölle Alaaf" written on them. Roommate 1 said : "I don't think it means anything, I think it's just an exclamation, kinda like "yay" or something". To which roommate 2 answered "Yeah, arschloch is an exclamation too, it still means something". I feel very close to roommate 2's Carneval-spiritedness, these days.

But I'm sure we can overcome. I'm sure we can manage to avoid the worst part of it and just enjoy the fun. Because I've heard of a few sane people who actually enjoy Carneval. A few cool bars, and a few parades are supposed to be quite pretty and colorful, and even, on occasions, fun. I'm scared because when I ask people how to avoid the worst parts, I'm generally laughed at. I don't get any anwer. Just ominous giggles, and, when I'm real lucky, a look of amused pity. But I'm sure we can manage.

If we don't, well, we'll just go home and hide under my bed, all three of us. Whatever happens, I'm pretty sure we'll have a laugh!

Shore to shore

2011-02-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

I'm back from working in Dakar. I'm sick, I'm sunburnt and I'm exhausted, but it was pretty cool nontheless, when I think back on it. So here are 5 things I learnt over the week I spent there...

1. I can get culture shock. It takes me 2 days to get over it, and then I feel much better. But it has weird consequences : I get scared of everything... cockroaches, people, cars, getting my bag stolen, getting sick from the food, getting sick from the mosquitoes, getting sick from the mosquito repellent, getting lost... 2 days, then I feel much better, but it really had consequences on me that I would never have thought it'd have. It turned me into a real sissy, is what I mean. For 2 days. Then I was just a regular sissy, but at least I started talking to people and enjoying myself.

Still, I'm really angry at myself about the cockroach issue. A big, red one with large antennaes, on the wall in the bathroom. I'm NOT SCARED OF SCORPIONS, but a stupid cockroach nearly got me screaming like a girl! Ok, I am a girl, but you see what I mean. Stupid crap animal jumped on the toilet seat, then on the floor, then ran away between my feet, making awful, terrible little clicking noises on the tiles with its gross little legs. I might have gone : "meeeeeeeeeeeek", but it was just ultrasound, and I don't think my roommates noticed anything.

2. Opening the blinds, and having a gorgeous view of the sea is all I need to be in a good mood in the morning. Was that so very complicated? Is that too much to ask? Honestly?

3. I cannot negociate. I've heard on my last day that when someone offers 20 000 FCFA as a price, you need to say "5000" and then reach 10 000 in the end, halving the difference everytime. I tended to say"19000", then the guy would say "you're robbing me!" and I'd end up paying 22000 and leaving a tip. If I had stayed a few more weeks, I'd have had the GDP triple.

4. I found a cause I'm willing to fight for. I saw a guy, alone, with a sheet of paper (a sheet of paper, a regular one, not a banner or anything). He'd written "I'm fed up" on it, with a red sharpie, and was marching down the alleys screaming "I'm FED UP!". I wanted to get his contacts and become a fan on Facebook, but I was in awe, and did not have the presence of mind to go and talk to him.

5. What EVER happens : Sunscreen.

So yeah. I had a pretty good time in Senegal, ate a lot of grilled fish, talked to a bunch of really cool people that I would never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise (the interpreting team really was very, very cool, and I do hope I'll get to see them again at some point).

I'm my own grand'pa

2011-01-18T04:58:00.000-08:00

Hullo reader ! Well, I haven't been writing here in forever, so I thought I'd drop by, and keep you updated on my status, because, as is famously known, my life is rivetting. So here are 5 random news from Cologne.

1. I still love it here. I love my room (which is actually furnished now, and very comfy too, thanks to the generosity of... we'll say Santa Claus, but you know who you are), my flatmates are still great, and if only I could manage to drag my butt out there, I'm pretty sure I'd even enjoy the city in itself. I've been a little short on time, in fact, these days, and haven't been to the city center this week. Maybe it would be a good idea to get some fresh air. And ice cold wind. And rain.

2. I went to a techno party with flatmate N the other day. I went mostly out of curiosity, but I really did love it. I think it's not really music. And I don't mean that in a grandmother "that's not music it's noise" kind of way, obviously. It's just, it doesn't talk to your ears so much as to your ribcage. It's music that you can actually (cheesy-alert) listen with your heart. I mean that literally. Because it vibrates. Follows that you can also listen to it with your lower intestine, but that's a really cheap joke. "Bässe massieren eure Seele" I guess is what I mean, but Peter Fox said it better than I can, though it's a little pompous for my purpose, I guess.

3. I'm going to Senegal next month, to work. I'm kind of scared. I don't know what to expect, there are going to be hundreds of us out there, and I don't generally like such huge gatherings, but I'm still very excited and can't wait to be there. It's probably going to be sunny as well, which really will be a nice change, the weather here is just plain depressing. I already got my shots and my passport, and my plane ticket and all, but I still feel like there's no way I'm going to Senegal in a week or so. Still, it's going to be very cool, and my friend J is going too, so I'm guaranteed to have a lot of fun.

4. I've been watching too many stupid videos on the internet lately. Especially Muppets video. Therefore, I've had stupid songs stuck in my head for days, like the Manah manah song, or the one that goes "I'm my own grandpa ! I'm my own grandpa ! It sounds silly I know, but it really is so, oh I'm my own grandpa". It has been a constant and conscious effort not to start yelling them out in the kitchen randomly. I'm holding on. I think it may burst out of me some time, and then, though I will still find my roommates great, they might change their mind and throw me out on the streets. Thanks for nothing, Jim Henson!

5. I've bought a salad today (rivetting, I told you). One of these pre-mixed, ready to eat things with mayonnaise in them. I thought it was perfectly innocent coleslaw, carrot-free and delicious. It actually containted PINEAPPLE. PINE-APPLE in COLESLAW. Germans are mad.

Well, that's it from here, I believe. I hope you're well. As for me, I'm going to go have a look in the kitchen, see if there's something reasonable I can scavenge.

Though it's cold inside...

2011-01-01T06:54:00.000-08:00

2011 is here! 2010 is over!

I wish you a happy new year, sweet things to eat, soft things to wear, warm things to sleep in, and nice people all around you. I wish you love, joy, health and glory, I wish you sunshine and fresh air, I wish you all the best, and then something even better.

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas

2010-12-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

When it's the 19th of December, you're alone and far from home, and yet you feel a sudden urge to turn on all the lights, light all the candles, grin like a looney and call everyone you know to tell them you love them, I think it's a sure sign.

Christmas is coming.

Living in a Winter Wonderland

2010-12-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

Oh man. I'm slowly defrosting on my bed, and my fingers are still numb from the coldness outside. I did nothing at all yesterday, so today I figured, it doesn't matter if it snows, I'm going into town. I'm a tough polar bear. I'm so hot I never get cold. Something like that. Didn't quite work out, and I ended up in Starbucks, hugging my white chocolate mocha as if it were my true love come back from the war. Now that I come to think of it, it is very possible that white chocolate mocha's my true love. Anyway.

I did nothing at all yesterday, except for chatting with my sisters on Skype (I love Skype. I love Skype and white chocolate mochas) and I talked to them about my new appartment, and my sister F said that sharing a flat was often awkward. You can count on my sister F to find the exact, perfect word. AWKWARD is what it is. And fun. But also awkward. So here are my top 5 awkward things about the first days you spend in a new flat. May not be the most christmas-y or the most refined and ladylike post ever, but hell.

1. Food. It's awkward having everyone know what you eat. I decided this time I would only ever eat my meals in the kitchen, because I need to socialize, and because it's going to help me not gain 10 pounds (because when in the kitchen, I tend to get nervous and think things like "I'm sure they think I eat all the time. I'm sure they noticed the lack of greens in my diet, I'm sure they JUDGE me. Because obviously, my flatmates have nothing better to do with their time than watch my diet)... But the amount of question it raises is staggering. Do I cook just for me, do I make enough for the others as well, even though we're not eating together, do I knock on their door and tell them I've made some food, or do I leave people alone? Awkward.

2. Laundry. Now, here, in this appartment, the wire-thingy on which you hang your clothes to dry is located in the kitchen. This is a problem for underwear-wearing people, like me. I generally solve this problem by hanging things in my closet, except, obviously, I don't have a closet, because my room contains... well a bed, and nothing else. So I opened up a cardboard box, and made a nice little underwear tree, that I hid behind my bedroom door. It looked comical. And slightly embarrassing. But it's already disappeared, as if nothing had ever been there.

3. The passive-agressive quality of washing the dishes. Because I'm fine with washing the dishes in the sink when I wash my own dishes. I don't think my roommates are sloppy, and I'm very happy for them to leave a few plates in the sink. I'm no clean freak (understatement of the century), and it's all perfectly OK. However, I have noticed in the past, that people tend to understand you washing their dishes as a message to wash their own dishes in the future. It's a little bit awkward.

4. Getting up late in the morning. Getting up at all. In fact, my problem, I think, is that I'm always trying to pretend I'm a pretty princess that doesn't ever sleep and that looks fresh as a rose at all times. And eats healthy food and gets up at 6 every morning to go jogging in the snow. So when I open my left eye at 11:30, and figure it's time to roll off my bed, looking like I've been trampled by a horse, you better hope there's no one in the kitchen. Worse of all is when there's someone LURKING in the kitchen (like I do), sitting at the table and silently drinking some silent coffee. Awkward.

5. Music. Ok, in our case here, it seems pretty straightforward. I know what they like and don't like, they know I'm the folk/pop kind of person. BUT: can I play a CD in the kitchen while making cookies? Do they hear my music when I play it in my room? More importantly, do they hear me laughing out loud when watching Craig Ferguson alone in my room? Awkward again.

Anyway. Here you are. Ever experienced flat-sharing awkwardness yourself, reader? By the way, I hope you like the pictures in this post, absolutely nothing to do with anything, but I took them here over the last few days, so I figured I might as well post them.

It's a kind of magic

2010-12-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

Something happened today. It was amazing. You know how you always wish your life could be a musical? You don't? You know who else doesn't like musicals? TERRORISTS!

Sorry. Didn't mean that. Anyway. You know how I always wish my life were a musical? Well, today, I walked into an English bookshop in Cologne, feeling a little lonely and frozen to the bone, and the guy told me "can I help you" and I said "yes, I'm looking for some Victorian poetry". (Now, I don't really know why I said that, probably related to so much Charlotte Brontë over the last few weeks).

The man at the counter proceeded to take me on a tour of his whole bookshop, looking for something that might be relevant, and told me about his favourite poet. He asked why I was so interested in Victorian poetry and I said, well, I don't really read poetry, and I figured maybe I should try to broaden my landscape a little bit. Then we started talking about English Folk music, because I had seen a Laura Marling album on one of his shelves, and he told me to sit down, and some of his Scottish friends came over, and he started playing folk tunes on his guitar* and it was all very lovely.

I did ask if I could possibly move in, but his answer being noncommittal, I decided I'd better get a move on, and went away. It was all very romantic, and it involved a Scottish couple. I no longer feel lonely, and I'm pretty sure the cold part can be arranged with the help of a nice bowl of tomato soup.

So, here's to the awesome English bookshop in Cologne.

* It was actually a ukulele. But somehow, it doesn't quite fit. The word "Ukulele" in itself is enough to destroy the whole romanticism of this whole story. Still, I had to set the record straight. Please, note that I have no personal romantic interest in the guy from the English bookshop, who is married to a Russian woman.

So many possibilities

2010-12-11T01:36:00.000-08:00

I'm in Cologne, reader! For real! I moved in! \o/

So here are 5 things that I love about my new appartment, and 5 things that slightly worry, or worried me.

1. Worrying: my roommate's e-mail the day before I arrived, suitcase already packed and all: "You are aware, of course that the room is not furnished?!" I wasn't.

1. Cool: my roommates (N and I) are very helpful and provided a blanket and a matress for my hopeless self. (Yes, for my hopeless self. I played it Jane Eyre style the whole week through. I read Jane Eyre again, and it's still as good as ever. I especially enjoyed the part where she said mother nature would have to provide her with lodging free of charge. I could rely... ok, right, I'm overdoing it again, now...)

2. Worrying: The heater doesn't really work, and I'm freezing... my... bottom... off. (Actually, apparently, it's not that the heater doesn't work, but that there is, litterally, no isolation whatsoever.)

2. Cool: I'm actually OK since yesterday's trip to Ikea. I bought a nice warm blanket and I slept much better last night. I nearly never came out of the Ikea Köln alive, reader. I might have died in there. I went back in to eat köttbullar once I had paid for everything, and I had my blanket with me, and I figured, of course, I can get to the exit directly through the restaurant. I couldn't, and had to go back to the checkout counter. I ran through the whole Ikea again, explained my situation to the security manager, and looked absolutely ridiculous (and like an evil blanket-thief, as well. Blanket-thieves are the worst kind there is. Despicable really). BUT I did manage to get out, with my blanket and all, and now I have a nice cozy room, with a bed and curtains, and life is beautiful.

3. Worrying: There's a cow's head on a stick in the garden. One of them skeleton heads. And its horns are painted bright orange. I am slightly worried by this. I think anyone would be, really. It is a slightly worring fact, by all accounts.

3. I haven't found the bright side to having a dead cow's head on a stick in your backyard, but I'll keep you informed. Meanwhile, let me mention my cool roommates again (I cooked for all of us yesterday evening (ha ha. I the roomate. Not I me. Ok, for the sake of clarity, we'll call him Ing)... where was I? Yes : Ing cooked for all of us yesterday, and we all seem to be getting along really well). Also worth mentioning in the cool category : though really cold, my room is very pretty, with little golden things painted in the corners, and real floorboards. I love my room.

4. Worrying: My roommates asked me yesterday if I had any plans for the evening. I did not. I do not have plans. They have an actual word for it in German, "Planlos" (Planless, obviously, though I never heard it used in English and they use it a lot in German. Mostly in my presence. Somehow).

4. Cool: No plans = an infinite choice of possibilities. So I'll just be not lazy for once, and maybe go for a drink and have a look at the christmas markets (and eat apple-sauce and drink some glühwein), and then maybe I'll go to the movies. I'd like to see Tangled, and I figure it's OK to watch animation in something else than the original version.

5. Worrying: I'm a little roommate-shy. I'm catching myself not getting out of my room when there's someone in the kitchen, and I keep checking everything I say twice before saying it out loud, and end up staying silent.

5. Cool: I know I am roommmate-shy, it's OK to be like that for the first two day, so I'll just get used to things and remember that if anything I want to say does not bear to be thought about twice (that's not English, I know, but you get my meaning anyway), I'd actually better stay silent. Maybe I should do that more often even in French... And as for roommate shyness, I just now went to the kitchen to have a coffee, and my problem is nearly solved. Life's schön.

So basically : some freaky points, but the cool side is winning by far, and I can't wait to know a little more about the city and to go have one more look around this afternoon. I think maybe I'll go take a walk along the Rhein as well, though I have no idea if it's more a "take a walk along the Rhein and be a pretty princess" area or rather a "take a walk in the industrial port and get murdered" area. I'll keep you informed.

It makes me smile...

2010-11-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

Now, I know this is pathetic, I put it on Facebook already and all, but I'm sorry, any pink truck called tro-con deserves a bit more advertisement. For any non-French-speaking reader I may have: it means "totally stupid" in French, or something close. Makes me happy. One of these schadenfreude things...

Too cool for school

2010-11-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hej reader.

I'm in Köln again, looking for a flat, and I couldn't resist the impulse to come over here and blog a little bit, to fight off the panic attack.

I HATE looking for flats. I'm no good at looking cool. Especially not at looking cool on purpose. I have three visits planned so far, and they all seem like nice people, but I always go giggly and daft when I meet potential roommates (or, more generally, people) for the first time, and then I panick, and it makes everything worse. I have terrible, terrible giggly-issues.

So here I am, the incarnation of misery, lying on my hostel bed, trembling and lightly drooling, saucepan-eyed and looking like someone who's in the queue to see Saw 3D. I mean, honestly, who wants to see Saw 3D?

Anyway... I don't really look like the incarnation of misery, tough, I look more like Frankenstein's bride, because I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show yesterday, and it made me want to wear bright red lipstick, which is a weird idea, especially when you're me. But I figured, bright red lipstick is cool, a little bit like me, Claire, the Ideal Flatmate. I'm FlatGirl, the superhero who's great at sharing flats. Actually, I might stick to that name. I'm FLATWOMAN!! BOW TO ME!!

See? See what room hunting's done to me? I'm losing it!! Losing my last marbles!

Anyway. Apart from that, everything's fine, and be sure that I'll keep you posted on my flat-hunt. Who knows what I'll find this time! Probably a Plutonian or something. At least one of the flats I am going to visit already told me they were "alternative" and the kitchen was "somewhat less than perfectly equipped". I bet this is the one...

Anyway, sorry for being all crazy, I thought maybe a non-top-five post would do me good, and I do feel a little better now. Less panicky. More professional. I'm like a bounty hunter. I'm like Trinity, only cooler... My my... This is going to be fun...

It's just a thought...

2010-10-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

Fiiieeeeeewwwh!

I'm back home, and what a week (or a couple of weeks) it's been. I've been to Lyon, Paris, Limoges, Metz, Chalons en Champagne, Troyes, then back home for a night, then Cologne, then Lille, then back home, where I am right now, sitting on my parent's couch, as usual. It's been crazy and exciting and cool, and I wish I had that much to do more often. Maybe not all the time, but it definitely was cool. Maybe all the time would be ok once I get used to the rythm.

Anyway. What I wanted to tell you about today, reader, is Cologne. I don't know if I already told you this, but I intend to go there for a while. As in I don't really know how long. Maybe a few months, maybe a year, maybe less, maybe more, in any case, I want to go there for a while.

Might never even happen, who knows, but it's the plan. And here's why. It's going to be a long post, but there's very little to read. I'm very sorry about the quality, all pictures were taken from my iPhone, and I'm not quite used to it yet. By the way: Thanks go to my best friend V for giving me her iPhone, it's so cool to have an internet access all the time! I love it.

There. Is it not nice? The Rhein, the big bridge and the Cathedral? I like it. The light was a little strange, half grey, half twilight, half sunset (Ok, that would be thirds, then, but you see what I mean). There was a big crowd there, and everyone was rushing back to the city and trying to see the view at the same time, and for a second, I had a weird feeling that all these people, coming directly from the Koelnmesse, men in suits and women in high heels, were about to jump in the river like lemmings. They did not. Anticlimax of the century.

There seems to be quite a lot of things going on as well. Ok, Kylie Minogue and Wir sind Helden may not be my all time favourites, but still. Plenty of concerts. And Charlie Winston was there just yesterday. Besides, I don't really know Wir sind Helden that well, and I'm ready to believe they really are heroes. Who knows.

Also, Cologne is apparently in Mordor. And if that's true, then Aragorn can't be far. And that's good, isn't it?

They are not completely barbaric. They know how to live (that's a Comptoir des Cotonniers shop and an "elsässisch" restaurant in case you can't read. It really is very blurry, but it makes me very self conscious to take photographs of ridiculous things when I'm on my own, so I did not take more than one shot.)

My sister M, who likes this kind of things, will have reason to come and visit me. Is this big guy not awesome? I find him awesome.

And also, also :

Need I say more? If I ever go, I will come back a different woman. As in 80 pounds heavier.

I have to show you this however. I am sorry, but I have to. Germans will be Germans...

Several things spring to mind when seeing something like this. Things like, "oh Lord, that laughing piglet wants my soul". Things like "A bag full of lard? Really, Deutschland? Is that a marketing concept?". And in case you were wondering, I did buy the bag. I could not bring myself to take a picture of such a ludicrous thing in the shop. So I spent good money on it. Then I figured, hell, it's just marshmallow, and I opened it. And I ate it all. I am full of shame and fake lard.

Have a nice day, now, reader.

Unrockbar

2010-09-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today, in order to fight boredom and try and have an adventure, I comandeered my father's car and set off to the wonderful, amazing, dazzling and sexy town of Breisach am Rhein. It was a weird idea, one which I do not, however, regret, insofar as I got myself a nice piece of blackberry pie in the bargain. Oh, and I bought a book, which doesn't seem to be as bad as the previous 13 I bought in Germany. I also figured out a new list, while I was there, looking around and wondering: the top 3 weird things that puzzle me about Germany.

1. What is with Germany and weird shops that sell things that have nothing to do with one another? I don't mean a regular kind of general store. I mean plain weird things. Today, I got into one shop that sold clothes and pans. PANS. What do PANS have to do in a clothes shop? What do clothes have to do in a pan shop? They also sold vases (!) and socks, but mostly clothes, and pans. They did not sell other kitchen equipment. Just pans, and clothes. Flabbergasting. I know that's not a verb, but you get my meaning. Why?

2. They seem to take the law of comparative advantages reaaaaaally seriouly. Ok, this is not just about Germany, it also includes the majestic city of Graz, where I started this blog. I'd like to know why there are about 90 opticians in Saarbrücken (can't even type that name without starting to shake again), 500 pharmacies in Breisach, and why one shop in two in Graz, Austria, is actually selling carpets. Do they have like a weird rate of eye diseases in Saarbrücken? Are all Graz-ians yogis? Oh, and also ice-cream shops in Baden-Baden, and bookstores in Stuttgart. Why, reader, WHY??

3. When you go to Germany, people are dressed pretty much like we are in France. Maybe a little bit more gothic people, maybe (probably) a higher rate of tattooed people, but still... it's pretty much the same all over. HOWEVER, when you go into German clothes shops, (except for Freiburg and Berlin) it looks a lot like a Damart catalogue. Weird dresses that would look good in an episode of Murder, she wrote* and that are altogether unsightly, leopard-print scarves, extremely strange shoes (and when I say strange, I do mean ugly) can be found in shops, but nowhere on the streets. This might be just Western Germany, though, I haven't noticed the same in Berlin. Puzzlement ensues.

So here I am, puzzled and with no hope of ever finding an answer. I will, however, continue this list once I find more information. I intend to set off for Köln soon, and continue my inquiries. I will keep you posted.

*Has there been a murder ?

Almost happy

2010-09-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

I went to the movies yesterday, reader. I had a feeling I was not going to like it, but I still went, because I really like Julia Roberts, and because there's been NOTHING interesting at all to see over the last few weeks, so I was kind of desperate. So there we go, I saw Eat Pray Love. I didn't like it. It was not completely crap, I admit. Julia Roberts is a good actress, it was good quality, the music was great and all...

But sometimes I figured, oh, come on. She's got a cool husband, and a great job, she creates problems where there aren't any, and then she tells us all how to live our lives... Go pray in India, wear a perfectly folded sari, go eat pizza in Italy and gain about a pound (because, I mean, Julia Roberts? Telling us it's OK to be a little chubby and you should just enjoy life, one spaghetti at a time?)... Oh! And go fall in love with a sexy brazilian guy in Bali, people! What are you waiting for? It's not that tough! All you need is to have 50.000$ handy, don't be chicken!

Ok, I might be a little intolerant, because I know you're not always happy even though you supposedly have everything it takes. Happiness is not a recipe and stuff, the right ingredients do not always amount to a big pink happiness cake, but still. In this precise case, it was all a little bit too much.

I know it's supposed to be a true story and all, but come on. She goes to Italy (first problem THERE, mate, if you want to go eat some place, go to France, who are you kidding?). There, she meets a cool swedish girl, and her super-sexy friend, and then they have great fun, the sun shines all the time, and it's all either quaint or perfect and funny, then she goes to India, and things go great and she doesn't get stomach flu but she's invited to a wedding, and then she goes to Bali, and she meets Javier Bloody Bardem.

On that note, though, I have to say, the Brazilian accent of Javier Bardem's French voice made me shiver. Not in a good way. Everytime he appeared on screen, an alarm sounded in my head : "He's going to talk! He's going to talk! Please, make him not talk! Maybe he's got a flu today! Maybe a vesicular pharyngitis!" but he never did. I suppose he was dubbed by a real brazilian, but somehow, it sounded like he came from Marseille and had a giant tongue or something...

Anyway. I did not like it very much, though the soundtrack was really good (so many movies saved from total wreckage by their soundtracks, when you think about it...) and the actors all played well, I was really moved sometimes. Richard Jenkins was in it. I haven't seen him in many movies, but he really is a good actor. If I were to shoot my bollywood-style musical about Scottish and English victorian vampires wearing capes, he'd be in it. It's really just a matter of time, really, and of me finding Spielberg's phone number...

Over the hillside, and over the sea

2010-09-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

My big sisters are sad today.

Sometimes, there's just nothing you can say that will make things any better, because everything is just plain unfair and terrible. But when there's that much love around someone, I really believe that things are bound to turn out all right in the end.

Please, please know I'm here if you need me, like you always are.

Transylvanian concubine

2010-09-03T03:14:00.000-07:00

Well, reader, I've been watching True Blood. A lot. I don't really really like it, but like many series, I find it weirdly addictive. And it features vampires. I can't resist vampires, shame on me. And I liked the book. Why am I looking for excuses? I just watch True Blood. And then I saw some top 10 list from the Rolling Stones magazine, about their top 10 best and worst vampires.
So I figured, go ahead, write your own top 10. And then I figured I couldn't, because I don't know that many vampires at all. But here's a top 5 list, anyway. And if you think I missed out on some great vampires, please do not hesitate to tell me. Aaaaah, vampires.

1. Spike. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I blame my love of anything vampirey, Twilight included, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm still looking for something as great as Buffy, and though I know it will come from Joss Whedon (as soon as he gets the chance to shoot more than two seasons of one of his AWESOME series...), I can't help but check on vampire stuff as well. Anyway. Yeah. Spike. My favourite vampire ever (though maybe he has too much of a sense of humour to actually be a proper vampire), and in fact, one of my favourite characters ever. EVEN THOUGH he has bleached hair, which is saying something.

2. Vampire Eric from the True Blood books. I couldn't figure out why everyone was so crazy about Alexander Skarsgaard in season 1 of True Blood, but he gets more interesting in season 2, I must say. Still, in the books, he's really great. He's got blond hair, and he's sarcastic. See a pattern emerging here? I think I just like sarcastic blonds, whatever their eating habits...

3. The one from Neil Gaiman's short story "Snow, glass and apple". I loved it. And it was terriffying. Some would argue that's how a vampire should be. Terrifying, not sarcastic. I fully understand this point of view, and would endorse it too if only I didn't love the two previous items on this top 5 so much...
4. Dracula. I read it when I was in Ireland a while back, and though I really, really did not like the ending (am I the only one who thinks that Bram Stoker just got bored halfway through? Am I criticizing a major literary work although I mostly read chick lit? I think I am. Sorry about that.)I found the vampire himself amazing. It is one of the... well actually it is the only book I ever read that literally kept me from turning the lights out at night. It may have had something to do with my flatmates at the time... And with the fact that I was probably (and inadvertently) responsible for the death of their son's pet gerbil and was afraid it was going to come back and nibble at my toes. "Whyyyyyy did you give me hobnobs, you crazy lady? Eeeeeek! Eeeeeeeek!" Just thinking about it gives me the creeps.

5. Edward Rochester's wife in Jane Eyre. Now I know she's not a vampire. But I can't help it. She'll always be a vampire to me. And she is compared with one at one point of the novel, I believe. So she comes 5th in here. I'm pretty sure her version of the book would be very interesting, poor woman. It would be so awfully sad and terrible that it would probably receive a Nobel Prize and/or be adapted for the screen by Lars Von Trier... Anyway.

So here it was. My top 5 favourite vampires, only one of them isn't one. And by the way, I apologize for the lack of originality of this post. It seems like just about eeeeeveryone is talking about vampires these days. We'll blame this one on peer-pressure, I already blamed the boogie too many times.

Rock me mama like a southbound train...

2010-08-20T03:46:00.000-07:00

What did I tell you? What do you mean "You have no idea, and you ended up here trying to find Snow Patrol lyrics on google"? Ok, then, I'll tell you again: When I posted yesterday that I was feeling down lately, I said at the end "I'll feel better soon", and I actually do. I feel better today. I stopped whining and started working, for a change, and now I'm feeling better.

So I figured, let's come on my blog, and not rant, see how it goes. So here it comes : the top 5 things that get me in a cheesy mood (at the moment). Make me stare at the sky wide eyed and eyebrows raised as high as possible, and smile daftly. I only do that when I'm alone, don't worry. Top 5 rules apply, and this is just about little things, of course.

1. Pushing Daisies. I've watched the first season only, I think there's a second one, but that's all there is... --And 10 seasons of Smallville. Go figure... Oh no, I'm ranting again...-- Anyway. I did what I was supposed to do, and fell completely in love with the Piemaker about 10 minutes into the pilot. I like the fact that the scenarios make no sense, because who cares about scenarios when you've got great characters, I love Olive the waitress, and the whole thing is really worth a watch. (thanks, step-brother V, for telling me about it !)

2. Country music. Ok, not all country music. But things like "Dance dance dance" by Neil Young, and "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show. Now I have to admit. I listened to both of these only because of covers by Mumford and Sons. Who make me cheesier than a whole truck full of camembert (yuck). But still... Country music... makes me want to put on brown boots and a flowery dress and... wait a minute... everything makes me want to put on brown boots and a flowery dress... Well, you know what I mean. Must be the banjo and the harmonica... Wakes up the squaredancer inside.

3. Wedding proposal scenes in Jane Austen books and the movies they inspired. And a special mention for Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility. Now I know, this is not particularly original. But it's true, I just can't resist. And who could, really?

4. Musical scenes in movies. Sometimes you expect them (for example in musicals... isn't it amazing?), sometimes you don't (500 Says of Summer is a great example), but they always make me feel happy inside, a little bit like a hot chocolate in winter. I told you it made me cheesy!

5. Flash mobs. I've never witnessed one in real life, and not all of the ones I see on the internet are great, but still... I think it's related to number 4. And to number 2 as well, actually, because when people sing or dance together, it never fails to wake up the squaredancer within, and Squaredancer Claire, she's a very emotional, girly girl. Unlike real-life Claire, who's merciless and tough, of course.

Anyway. Here it was. A new top 5. Now I'll go and work a little more. Or maybe have a look in the kitchen, if there's something to scavenge... Or in the mailbox, who knows, maybe something nice awaits in there...

Not in Notthingham

2010-08-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

Well well well, reader. My mood has been going from bad to worse over the last two days. Isn't it terrible? TWO DAYS of terrible mood? Has any creature on this earth ever suffered such a terrible ordeal? Am I overdoing it already? Sorry...

Anyway, I figured, "go back to your blog and complain some more, it helped a little bit last time". So here goes. 5 things I don't like about being in a bad mood (because, as you know, many people enjoy being in a bad mood... See, I started out kidding, but I for one must admit, I sometimes cultivate my bad moods by listening to K's Choice or the Babyshambles, which have got nothing to do with one another, but still both work very well either way. But tonight's bad mood is one of those you'd just like to go away, like a toothache...)

1. I hate that I'm not happy for people who are happy. I think that's really bad. People write e-mails to me, saying "I've got a new girlfriend, and so does everyone, new love grows on trees*, life's beautiful, my holidays went great, and I'm loving life..." and I'm all bitter and mean and I think "well good for you, you schmuck, how about you stop polluting my mailbox with all your... happy?" and then I turn into a big ball of self-hatred.

2. I hate that I blame it on the bad weather, the stars, the atmospheric pressure, what I ate for dinner last night, the book I'm reading, anything but just my mood. And then I get annoyed because I figure: why could I not just be unhappy and in a crap mood? And then I get annoyed at myself because the answer to this question is: because I have no good reason at all to be unhappy and in a crap mood. And then I turn into a big ball of self-hatred.

3. I cry and talk to myself and rationalize and think about why I'm so down, and then, it figures, I can't think about anything but me. Which is just exactly the problem. I am the problem (which is good news, really, since I am also the only thing I can change, in here), and I can't think about anything else. Then I figure this is all both silly and very selfish, and I turn into a big ball of self-hatred.

4. When I'm bored enough by number 3, I start thinking about what's really not going well outside of my head, and then I start blaming things on tectonics, destiny, German, my grand-parent's neighbours (of all people, yes, I blame it on YOU, Mr P. from OberE. in Alsace), freakishly-tallness and Charlotte Brontë, and then I turn into a big ball of self-pity.

5. I talk and talk and pester everyone with my petty problems. I know this sounds like I'm fishing for "noooooo, you don't bother us", but I really am not. It's related to number 2, I think. I can't think about anything else but why I'm down, and then I can't talk about anything else (because talking, in most cases, though not always in mine, requires thought prior to execution.) Then I find someone to talk to, and I figure "stop it, stop it, mayday! mayday! your mouth is talking! incessantly! quit it! now!" and I just can't, because it's coming out and out of my mouth like... well like I'm being sick, really, which is gross, but in most cases you feel better afterwards.

But you know what, reader? Moods like that, they go away after a while. Maybe tomorrow, I'll get paid, the sun will shine a little bit for a change (it's bloody August! It's like 15 degrees outside, and it's been raining for days on end!), I'll call both my sisters and my brother too, maybe see my friends and make cookies, and I promise I'll come back in a better mood. C is for cookie. That's good enough for me.

* That's not mine, of course. That's courtesy of Pete Doherty, whose permission I did not ask.

When I was out there

2010-08-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back already with the promised post about the Cranberries concert I went to last week. But first, let me get something off my heart: I'm very, very sorry about my complete and utter incapacity to deal with double punctuation and spaces in my English texts. I keep wiritng "oh !" instead of "oh!" and I'm very sorry about this. Just so you know: in French, there are spaces before and after :;! and ? and this is all very confusing for my little brain.

Now let's get back to the concert.

I like the Cranberries very much, and have liked them ever since I was in Junior High... I don't really remember which song started it, whether it was "Dreams" or "Ode to my Family", but I really, really love the music and have always been impressed by the voice of the singer. So when me and my best friend V heard that they were going to be playing at the Foire aux Vins in our hometown, we decided to go (and I got invited! Thanks, V!), especially since the first half of the concert was going to be the Gotan Project (see this here if you're interested) and I liked them a lot. They are not very well known, but I had heard parts of their first CD at my sister F's place.

I was a little worried about said first part, though, because it's got nothing to do with the kind of pop/rock band I am used to seeing in concert. It was, however, really great, what with videos and a little bit of theatre, and a guy playing the bandonéon (O.ô for the badonéon, I tell you, reader...), and though it took the audience a little time to get used to things, they ended up being a real success. Still, I find it a little... say... odd, to pair up the Gotan Project and the Cranberries, but why not... I, for one, was very glad to see them both.

As for the Cranberries, V and I were really excited about seeing them, and the concert went great, (we were really close to the stage, too, and there were quite a lot of real fans in the audience, so it was nice), only the sound was a little strange, and we couldn't hear the singer properly. She kept going backstage for a while and coming back and going again, until they just stopped playing, because of some support power system failure or something.

They hadn't sung their most famous song yet, so the crowd went wild and started screaming, and then I went wild and started shaking (I don't LIKE IT when 10 000 people scream at an empty stage, it makes me feel like I'm in "28 days later", which is ironic, because they all wanted to hear "Zombie"), and then they turned the lights on, said "yow, be quiet, they're coming back" in a very, very unpleasant manner, and then they fixed the problem (much more pleasant) and the band came back and sung the last 3 or 4 famous songs that they hadn't had time to sing before, and left.

I juste hope they'll still come back and won't hate us for screaming because of the power shortage, because they really are a great band. She said "We're Irish, we've invented Murphy's law", which was as good an excuse as any for the Foire aux Vins' technical shortcomings... Which were surprising, because I love going to FAV concerts, and it was the first time ever that anything went wrong, as far as I am concerned...

Anyway, thank you, Cranberries, and thank you V, for a really cool concert (and the photo, as usual, is courtesy of V as well, since I'm not good at all with a camera).

We'd up and fly, if we had wings...

2010-08-17T02:36:00.000-07:00

I am not in a very good mood right now, reader. Not in a very good mood at all. My sister F left, after spending nearly 2 really cool weeks here in Colmar, I am home alone, the weather is crap, and I am experiencing a bad case of the MSN annoyance. So I figured I'd log off, and come over here and write an annoyed post. Which reminds me that I have not written anything on the Cranberries concert I went to last week, invited by my best friend V, and which was great (zoommmmbie, zoooommmbie), even though... well, I'll write something about it soon.

Anyway. In order to spread the joy and surf on the mood, here it is : the top 5 things that annoy me about clothing these days.

Let me, first of all, say that I am not a fashionista. The sheer fact that I say "fashionista" proves this. I am not good a getting dressed, I was laughed at throughout junior high for wearing jeans that were too short and having a haircut that made me look like that thing you use to scrub the burnt part at the bottom of pans and pots. My hair hasn't changed, though I manage it a little better, but I now only wear jeans that are a leeeettle too long, to compensate (hell of a challenge, when you're more than 6 feet, I tell you). Still, I enjoy shopping and choosing clothes. They are, also, a necessity (I don't know if you had noticed this fact, but they really are). Sometimes, however, designers seem to take a particular delight in making them as inconvenient as possible...

1. "Dresses" that have no skirts. Oh come on. Ok. Mini-skirts are sexy, we live in a modern world, and I have no moral objection to them as such, people should just go ahead and show as much as they are comfortable with. But then again... How about you guys give us a choice, maybe? How about you just add a teeeny little bit of fabric, so that we can sit down, and maybe even stand up, and maybe, even better, not have to pull everything down and look daft everytime there's a tiny breeze? I'd like a study to be made about that. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one annoyed. Once again, I'm freakishly tall, which only makes the problem worse, but still...
You find the puuurfect dress, English old lady style, but slightly modernized, maybe with some tiny pearls sewn on it, or maybe with a little lace here or there, and then you take it from the rack, and it's actually a glorified t-shirt which would suit Kate Moss, but no one else. I hate, hate, hate clothes that are too short.

2. Trapped clothes. You go to the shop, you find a lovely, black t-shirt, with the right cut and a nice neckline, you're happy as can be, and then you turn it around, and there it is, a huge pink heart, bedazzeled by a colorblind maniac, with ruffles all around, and something like "Lovebirds are forever" written in gold lettering underneath. I think having stuff written on you clothes is, generally, something one should be circumspect about (cf that guy we saw the other day in Strasbourg with "iPood" written on his T-shirt, and a guy sitting on a toilet drawn underneath. Oh puh-lease).

3. Clothes with a piece missing. Armless pullovers more than anything. Things with only one shoulder. Things with only one sleeve. Ok, sometimes I find these pretty on other people. But armless pullovers? They are pretty too! Oh, of course, they are pretty, the fiends ! But then: why wear a bloody pullover if it doesn't KEEP YOU WARM AT ALL? Why, why, why? This is probably "so last season" or something, but it did really drive me mad last winter. Impossible to find any stupid pullover with arms on it. Are you trying to save money, Mr H&M? Well, you sure won't get mine. Said the girl who'd been looking for a sleeveless cardigan for weeks...

4. The fact that the clothing industry manages to change my TASTES. It freaks me out a little. One of the most ridiculous clothing items I heard of over the last few years is most definitely the "sneakers with frills" footwear thingy that I saw for the first time in the Parisian subway, maybe... three years ago. At the time, I figured: aw come on, this is just ridiculous, sir (yes. It was a sir, not a miss. He was wearing white sneakers, but the tip was shaped like that of those italian mocassins things, all pointy and aggressive). And the other day, I saw a lady in the street wearing one of these ridiculous pairs of Converse with heels, and I thought "Oh, cool". I don't like it very much when someone proves that I have no opinion of my own...

4. The fact that they had me convinced that I couldn't tie my shoes anymore, there, for a while, because tying your laces is not "fashionable". Are you crazy, people? I'll tie my laces the way I want, you're not the boss of me. Ok. So maybe I will hide the knot a little bit, just in case someone looks at my feet and laughs. Because nothing interests people more than the way I tie my laces, apparently. One more Junior High trauma, there. Because I figured "hey, who cares if my jeans are a little short, honestly" and then people did care. It was an insult to their sense of fashion that you could see a thin slice of my socks between the bottom of my trousers and the top of my PROPERLY TIED sneakers. Life's tough this way, when you're 12 and don't have a care in the world.

5. Jeans that are meant to be worn low on your hips, (actually meaning that you can't sit down in them unless you are wearing a long t-shirt (or maybe, say, a "dress") on top), high heels shoes in which you can't walk, those t-shirt you never can figure out quite how to wear. But hell, that's also what I love about clothes. They are unconvenient and sometimes, you need to have a little imagination and be a little clever, cause they're not just meant to keep you warm. They're here to make you feel secure (which sometimes involves giving you blisters, just to remind you of their presence), pretty, and sometimes proud, when you've tamed them.

Anyway. Here was my rant for today. If you are now in as bad a mood as I was 20 minutes ago, you can watch this here. Will make you feel better. Or this here. Won't make you feel better, but it's still nice, I figure.

Basket case

2010-07-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

Hey reader...

Well, I'm back from Belgium, where I've worked a little (not too much) and had a nice time with my sister M and my sister F whom I visited in Paris, managed not to melt completely in the process, and now I'm back in Colmar, wondering about Fate and Destiny. It's kinda nice, having time to wonder about Fate and Destiny.

I think my Fate and Destiny will be to go to Berlin next year, for a year. What do you think about that, reader? One year in Berlin... I think it's exciting. I think they have Dunkin Donuts, in Berlin...

Anyway. I was looking through my stuff the other day, and found a bunch of doodles I did while working over the last two years. Since I haven't posted anything here in a while, I figured I might as well share, and also, maybe it will reassure you as to my ability to draw. It's not always as bad as what I manage to do with Paint. Sometimes, it's worse (ha ha ha)...

That's an owl. It's trying to keep its eyes wide open during a particularly boring speech.

That's a bunch of jellyfish. And an octopus.

That's me at different times of the day. Really cool job, this one, but a little... let's say intensive.

That's a dragon and his big dragon buddy...

That's when life's tough

That's when it's time to go home

I have no idea what that is. It says "let's talk about shrimp". NO IDEA. No memories about it whatsoever. This is very strange.

Sadly, I lost my notepad from Copenhaguen, into which I had drawn a lot. I also complained about people dressed as yaks, the fact that no one was listening and the cold, and wrote down some of the weirdest things I heard over there. And I did hear some really really weird stuff.

If I ever find it again, I'll be sure to share what I find in it with you...

Sense and...

2010-07-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

Well reader, there we are, I am back to France for a little while before going to Belgium on brand new adventures! Wonder what will happen when I come back from there, I tell you... I have so no plans at all, I am starting to make some to move to New Zealand and become a sheep farmer.

So, yeah. Over and done with Stuttgart, where I actually spent about three days over the two and a half months I was in Germany, since I actually lived nearer Böblingen. Still, I'll say Stuttgart, it's bigger and more well known.

I hate leaving. I hate packing, I hate saying goodbye, I know it's not very original, but it's true. I've kind of had enough saying "see you soon" to people while knowing I won't, actually. I've had enough of leaving, but I've not had enough of going places, and I still am always happy to come home, so I guess I'll have to deal with some more of that sooner or later...

Still, as you say goodbye, you like to look back on the good things that happened while you were away, so here are 5 things I loved about living in Germany over the past two and a half months.

1. My roommate. Now it would be a long post if I had to go over the details, but my roommate was great. He enlightened me about Bärchenwurst (sausage shaped as a little smiling bear. Would you agree to say it's a little wrong?), Dosenwurst (tinned sausage --very wrong, no argument there), Schweinskopfsülze (you don't even want to know), powdered little bugs swimming in vitamin-flour (still not over this one), death metal underground punk dark clubs, how to use my blinker, cinema from modern-time eastern Germany, quite a lot of music, the difference between Abend and Nacht, Nacktschnecken (a slug, in German, is actually officially called "a naked snail". Is it not great, reader?) the difference between a star and a faraway plane and many, many other things. For all this thanks, very sincerely. And if you hear me, which you don't, mach's gut. Please.

2. The cool people I met. An incredible quantity of cool people. A special mention to H. our really great "nearly-neighbour", fun and interesting and welcoming, and his friends B and G with whom I had many great evenings, to B, my roommate's best friend, who is quite simply amazing and whom I wish I had had time to know better, here's to V, also, who was very drunk and said, "I am full wie die Badewanne" the night I met him (in so many words, half English, half German. A Badewanne is a bathtub. I suspect it was close to reality). Won me over. And to R, as well, who had, weirdly, an é in his first name, and who made me feel at home even though I was not, and to all those who were patient and OK with repeating things when I had to ask them to. I appreciate it very much. Once again, thanks go to M, my roommate, for helping me meet them all.

3. Much less important, but Subway. We don't have Subways in France (at least, not in my region). We should.

4. The culture of Barbecue. How great is that? I love barbecue as it is, but in Germany, they take it to a whole new level. Marinated meat, amazing sauces, incredible amounts of so called "baguettes", salads and potatoes and potato salads and hanging around in gardens with your friends... What's not to love, I ask you? Ok, maybe smoke and bug bites and smelling like bacon for days, but even smelling like bacon for days can be seen as an advantage. Who doesn't love bacon, honestly?

5. The faraway-so close aspect of Germany. Germany's abroad, there's not denying it, however close the Alsacian culture may be to that of our neighbors to the East, and yet I feel weirdly at ease over there. Also the fact that I could go home and see my friends and my family whenever I wanted was nice. Maybe I'll go back there soon, and visit some other part of the country... More preparation for the European tests in April might still be a very good plan... I heard Hamburg was wonderful... Any advice?

What it's for, or what it's about...

2010-06-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

I’ve been working reader! Real-working! A mission! Cool and interesting!

I met another one of those guys. Did I ever tell you about the volunteer interpreter guy from Copenhaguen? I think not. He was a volunteer interpreter. From Spain. Very tall, lean, handsome, with the whitest set of teeth and the nicest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen. Cultivated and funny, and he could play the guitar and sing. And then someone said he had trained as a doctor. I’m pretty sure the man’s hobby was saving kittens from fires. Made me want to go back to bed.
Well I met another one of those, yesterday. Same kind. Organic farmer, sporty, looked like a hippie, taller version of Edouard Baer (if you are not French, you might not know, but I do. And it’s a good thing, to look like Edouard Baer in my book). Then he said he was also into music. Then he said he had worked with orphans in the Himalayas. I hesitated, and then I grunted and decided I found them both annoying. Do you think it’s a healthy reaction?

Anyway. Over the course of the week, I found out one more thing to tell to my imaginary group of students about being an interpreter (yes. I’ve got followers in my head. They follow me around and say “yes master, you are wise”. In fact they are mostly a little group of Claires from the future, whom I tell that I am very stupid now, and they’d better improve before their turn comes. It is a little less self-important than it might seem).

Where was I? Oh yeah. One of the things I tell my imaginary group of students about being an interpreter, is that you need to be able to stand alone in the middle of a big, empty hall, and look like you’re OK with it and you belong there and you need no help at all. I believe this to be an impossible task.

This is one of the parts of my jobs that I like a little less: arriving at the venue with no idea what to do, who anybody is, where you need to go, and generally what to do with your arms, that are so bloody long, and your mouth, which you suddenly realized is a little frowny, but then you smile, and then you feel stupid, and then you bite your lips, and you look stupid and affected, and then you start frowning again. Sometimes, I try reading, but read what?

The best is when you have something related to the theme of the conference, (not a book, because you don’t want to look like you don’t care, not your vocabulary list, because you don’t want to look like you don’t already know it all by heart). Like maybe an article about the eating habits of penguins if you are going to a Linux conference. Loosely related. Knowing all the while that no one gives a damn what you read, I’m aware of that fact. But I can’t help it. And my little group of followers are still running around in my head, waiting to be impressed by my amazing skills.

In any case, followers or no, when I am sitting alone in an uncomfortable leather chair that is much too close to the ground, studying my shoes and making bets with myself on the number of places where my feet are going to hurt when I take them off tonight, I often wish I just were home. Home sounds nice, at 7.30, when you are alone and embarrassed. So here is a list of things that make me feel like home.

1. Knitwear and jam. Not both together, of course. My mother used to knit (she stopped now, somehow), and all my pullovers when I was a kid smelled like the hospital, because she had knitted them there (my mother’s a nurse). Now I’m the only person in the world who actually likes the smell of hospitals. As for jam, jam makes me feel like home for exactly the same reason. My mother makes jam. It is like a fever, a passion, an industrial endeavor, call it what you like, but it causes my home to smell like hot orange juice or strawberry very late at night. Somehow, jam only works if you make it very late at night. I keep annoying my mother about making crazy sorts of jam and letting the whole fruit in them instead of mashing them up, but the truth is, whatever the shape and form, it’s always nice to have your home smell like jam when you go to bed.
2. Talking about knitwear, that old dark blue pullover which is one of the rare items in my closet that are actually too big for me. Never felt cold in that pullover, and it probably has to do with the fact that it was worn both by my sister and my father. Who could feel cold in a pullover like this? It’s thick and itchy, and it’s got a nice, night color. It weighs about 5 kilos. It is immortal. It is the father of all pullovers. And it still looks new.

3. De Palmas’s “Marcher dans le sable.” Reminds me of when I was in high school in a weird, good old times kind of way. It’s not particularly happy, either, but somehow to me, it will always taste of summer, laughs, running around in fountains and sun.

4. The Star Wars movies. After watching them 678 times each, (probably a little more for episode 6, I guess) they still totally work. (Do I need to specify that I only like episodes 4 to 6? I hardly think I do…) I know the dialogues pretty much by heart, but only in French, because I was too young to read the subtitles when the rage was full on…

5. The Indian restaurant where I helped out when I was at the university. I still go there regularly, and even when I just think about it, it makes me feel like home. I went to a street festival the other day, and there was a stand with Indian cuisine, and it smelled like the restaurant, and I wanted to teleport. I did not, and I still had a great evening, but you get the idea.

I’m leaving Germany next week, and going back home for a while. Well, I’ll be off to Brussels soon, even though the European tests of death are postponed till April next year (Can I swear on the Internet? I believe I cannot. I shall refrain. I already said Arsch last time…), so I won’t stay home very long, but still. Bye bye Stuttgart, live long and prosper etc. Maybe I’ll tell you about homecoming, and leaving places where you settled for a while next time, if I find 5 interesting things to say!

Because I'm bad, really, really bad

2010-06-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

I'm in a terrible mood tonight. Blue and angry and annoyed and mean at everyone I see, for some reason I don't clearly understand. I also know the solutions to this problem (singing very loudly, watching Bones with my mother, reading more Shakespeare and dancing to the Sugababes while brushing my teeth) are not immediately accessible, which only makes matters worse.

Somehow, I believe that reading more Shakespeare and listening to "About you now" would achieve about the same result. Is that not really, really weird? I think it is. Maybe I'm just dehydrated.
In any case, since I am in a mean mood, I figured this top 5 would be a good idea for today, might even improve the situation. I've been wanting to write it for a while. Indeed, I did it again, reader. I went to that gothik-metal-dark-anything-as-long-as-there's-a-K-in-it club with my roommate on a pretty much weekly basis.

And I looked at people a lot, for three main reasons: 1. they are fascinating, 2. my "pretend what you hear is Rihanna and not Rammstein"-plan did not work out at all, and 3. my German, though it is improving a lot (I think), still does not suffice for me to understand what (mostly drunk) people say to me when very loud music is playing in the background.

Have you ever noticed, reader, how getting better at something is exactly like growing up? You don't really notice it yourself when you do. Except when you need to reach that box on the top shelf, and suddenly you actually can. Well it's the same with my German. But still, it's not enough for me to pass as a person of average intelligence when loud music is playing in the background.

The few people I have managed to talk with were really, really nice, though, and they really did try their best and did not give up on me even though they had to repeat everything 5 times. Special thanks to my roommate there, for introducing me to all his cool friends and not being ashamed of me, even though I must seem quite lame. Still, as I have very little skill in the area of deaf-mute small-talk in German sign language, I mostly tend to smile daftly, and then take off and go have a soda in a dark corner.

No dearth of those. Mostly I spend the night grinning like a crazy person, sitting in my dark corner, and I am not at all respecting the law in there that says you need to look blasé and sad. I can't help it. And I'm not mocking them, either, it's a kind of nervous fascination thing.

Sometimes, however, I do mock. And this is what I want to tell you about tonight. Tonight, the top 5 things that make me happy even though they really should not. The top 5 Schadenfreude. Cause I'm in Germany at the moment. Not all of them relate to Gothic punk rock dark metal clubs, though, but this is still where my inspiration came from.

1. Women who have very high heels and cannot walk in them. I cannot walk in heels either. I love high-heels shoes, and were I not freakishly tall, I would probably wear some every day. Except for the fact that I would then have to stay seated at all times. But somehow, the sight of a girl going down the stairs veeeery slowly and a little unsteadily in heavy boots with 5 inches heels makes me unreasonably happy. When I am wearing sneakers, that is. Because I am cruel. When I am the girl walking down the stairs, needless to say, I do not find it as amusing.

2. My roommate who forgets to take his laundry out of the washing machine. Do not ask me why, but it makes me happy. Then it stinks, and he has to wash it again *delighted laughter*. I nearly hoped he would forget it in the washing machine again the next day. He's really nice and all, my roommate, I have no reason whatever to wish either him or his T-shirts ill luck. I have no plausible explanation for this particular guilty, happy feeling.

3. Metal fans who are not happy with the rock remix of Katie Perry's Hot and cold being played at their favourite club when they were expecting something by some band named something like "Stabbed Puppies Kry Acid Tears of Fire". Whadayamean "cliché"? Honestly, I am only slightly exagerating, and this is exactly why I find it all so awesome. Because sometimes it's fun to just go for it. Especially when it means I get to wear a long black skirt and really dark smokey-eyes make up. Still, I rejoiced over the depressed look of that guy on the dance floor yesterday. The brief struggle before he decided that his pride could not take head-banging to the beat of a pop song, remixed or no. Then he mimicked his head exploding, Mars Attacks style. Hu hu hu...

4. This creature. If you really, really mess up in this life, you'll be that thing in the next. The fact that it is so very ugly makes me unreasonably happy. But then again, it probably is a reasonably happy creature, and it digs galleries, who am I to judge. Unlike the little bugs that I saw the other day at the pet-shop with my roommate. They were all white, so we asked the seller what was wrong with them, and he said "we powdered them up with vitamin powder, because the (whatever bigger bug he was feeding at the moment) need vitamins". "DIE WERDEN EINGEPUDERT"! OoÔ

5. People who lose soccer matches. Only when they are not French, though. I know. I'm getting used to disappointment. I've been going to "public viewings" of soccer matches lately, twice, in fact, I've seen both Germany's games, and I don't really know why, but the "aaaargh" and "booooooh" (and occasional "arschloch", ok, I have to report this, because it's the truth) make me grin. I've not had my own "arsch" kicked yet, but I supposed it won't be long now. Only they are already happily making fun of me in return, so in fact I guess I'm safe.

Well I do actually feel better now, strangely... I'll go now, and try to be good.

Nothing else matters

2010-06-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

My brother got married last week.

It was an eventful day, what with the groom cutting his finger and actually severing a nerve hours before the ceremony, but it was his index and not his ring finger, so everything went fine. He was sent back from the hospital and allowed to enjoy the evening. Probably less so the surgery the next day, but hell... We all learnt a little lesson (do not use scissors on your wedding day) and he was there at his own wedding, which is already a reason to rejoice :)

It has been a crazy time for my brother and his wife, since they have been simultaneously looking for a job, moving from the other side of the Atlantic, and preparing the wedding. And not once did I hear them say they were stressed out about it. Makes me dumb with wonderment. I do hope, however, that last saturday marked the beginning of a new, calm period of utter boredom. OK, right, no. I do hope that last saturday marked the beginning of a really great time in Paris where they will have plenty of professionnal and personnal success. Maybe just a few weeks of boredom would be good, however. Just a tiny little bit of sleep.

Here they are, reader! I will not show their faces, because you need sunglasses to look at them safely.

Picture is courtesy of my step-brother V, I hope he doesn't mind. He was the photographer for the wedding, and his pictures, I must say, are remarkably non-blurry and very impressive

You know, sometimes in life, I figure I'm too lucky for it all to be true (not always, though. Mostly I forget, but I really am very, very lucky). This is exactly how I felt last sunday, sitting in church next to my sisters, at my brother's wedding, listening to the choir in the church of my grand parent's village with the whole family. I just watched all the people around me, and figured I was just plain lucky. If I ever have children, I want to have a lot of them, so that they're as happy as I am to have awesome brothers and sisters.

As for my brother's wife, S, she looked amazing and perfect. She makes me feel austenian and want to use big words and say "you're my sister now". Don't ask me. I'm so very glad they got married. I'm so very glad they're coming back to France and we'll get to see them more often, because I really missed them a lot.

I look at them and I figure : I wouldn't see them anywhere else with anyone else. They kind of just belong together, in a very logical way. You can never be sure of anything, and as I said, I have not seen much of them over the last few years, but when I think about them, I figure there must be an equation somewhere that's just been perfectly balanced. They're a reason to be optimistic, and I wish them both all the very best.

After the storm

2010-05-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

Reader, I've officially had enough. I'm a healthy young woman, and I've been sick for one week in a row, that just cannot be tolerated. Back pains, then a really bad cold and temperature, and today, migraines. Now I'm complaining again. Sorry. Still, I figured, while I am sick, why not let others enjoy a bit of what I learnt over my last 5 or 6 migraines. Could be helpful. Most of these 5 hints would be considered common sense by most. But, you never know. Hence: Top 5 things NOT TO DO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES when you have a migraine, or feel a real bad one coming up.

1. Watch Eyes Wide Shut. Now I would say that one of the things NOT TO DO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE even when healthy is watch a Stanley Kubrick movie, but I might just be mean. I never could watch any until the end, so I suppose I cannot and should not judge. Still, Eyes Wide Shut with a migraine is an even worse idea than Eyes Wide Shut when healthy, and that's saying something. I stopped understanding anything, saw black patches all over the screen, nearly threw up on my Australian cousin, who was home at the time, and then went to bed and cried myself to sleep. One very, very good night for me.

2. Go to you german sight translation course, even though you know you are the only sucker who goes there every week, and you are bound to end up alone and helpless. But I already told you about that one.

3. Pretend you're fine and go have a friendly chat in German with your roommate and his friends. Who are listening to hard style techno music. Makes your head pop. I've come back from the dead to deliver this message to you : No hard style techno music OR German conversation when you have a migraine. What happened to me is what happens to the aliens in Mars Attacks. T'was not pretty, and from above, I can see my roommate trying to scrub the remains of my brains from his scorpions' terrariums. (Sorry, gross)

4. Go for a walk because you figure maybe fresh air would help. Even though the German countryside is beautiful and the cherry trees in full bloom, it will not improve your situation, you will want the stoopid birds to shut up already, and generally hate anyone driving a car.

5. Read those Harper Connelly books by Charlaine Harris. She's the one who wrote the True Blood books, which are great and very funny. The Harper Connelly series is very good too, but much less funny, and much more Stephen King like. Absolutely gross and very dark and cruel. Bad, bad mix when your head already hurts and you just want soothing. I just want soothing, reader. However, the Charlaine Harris book has got me hooked, and I want to know the ending. Sometimes, you must suffer.

Well, here we are. Yet another self-pitying post. It's actually not so bad, and I'll be much, much better tomorrow, the situation has done nothing but improve over the last few days. I hope that you are doing good!

Life, oh life... [edit]

2010-05-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well, reader, looks like I lied. I said I'd be writing here much more often now that I am in Germany, but nothing as thrilling as going to a goth club happened to me in a little while now. Here's a 5 steps update on my status, however. Because I'm sure you're dying to know.

1. I have a terrible, terrible backache going on, and I wish it would just stop already, because I'm going slowly crazy. Also, I don't know if you noticed that, but as soon as you back hurts, you want to sneeze every 5 minutes. Which only makes matters worse. Why is that, reader? Why do I have back pains NOW that the allergy season is full on? It is not nice at all.

2. My roommate M went to Switzerland yesterday to pick up the last things that were still missing in the kitchen. This means that we now have a fridge, a stove, cupboards, knives and forks and even sharp knives that you can actually use to cut onions without crying your eyes out. Ever tried to cut up an onion with a butter knife? Don't. But our new kitchen? I like it very much. Kitchens rule. I love cooking. I'll come back in a few days, and say that I don't have any ideas left, but as of right now, I love cooking and I am the stove-queen. I don't know, I seem to have something with royalty these days...

3. I have a truck-load of translations to do, which is great and will help a lot (money-wise) with my "find a dress for you brother's wedding" mission. I can't WAIT to go on THAT mission. A dress! A dress! I get to buy a dress! I love dresses! I'll try not to pick anything with tiny flowers on it. But you never know. Maybe I'll just go crazy and wear a Victorian gown and a gas-mask, like that girl I saw the other day at the gothic thingy. How about that? A Victorian gown and a gas mask... And then, once I have a dress, I'll actually go to my brother's wedding. HA HA! 5th of June! 5th of June! When will it finally be the 5th of June??

4. My room is in a terrible, terrible mess, even though I cleaned it yesterday. I don't know why this keeps happening to me, but I really, really hate it. OK today it does have a little bit to do with all the stuff my roommate brought back from Switzerland, but my "corner" of the room, with my bed in it and all, is in a terrible mess. I think some kind of evil spirit comes up in the night, while I am sleeping, kicks me in the back and messes up all my stuff. I'm pretty sure there is a Japanese ghost who does exactly that. And he's currently on vacation in Holzgerlingen. Stupid bugger.

5. I have been catching up on series the last few days. I now have seen all the latest episodes of Ashes to Ashes (not as good as it used to be, if you want my opinion), Glee (anything that sings hs got my vote) and Dr Who (I'm so glad Matt Smith is good. He really is good. He really is very very good). Series make me unreasonably happy. I still have some catching up to do on the Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, but I just can't keep up with the breaks and stuff.

Well, here we are, reader, 5 very important news-flashes about me. I hope you are doing good, and wish you sunshine.

And also :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wik2uc69WbU you can no longer live without this. Sing with us !

The Cave

2010-05-01T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hi again, reader!

Now that I have moved to Germany, I figured I could try and start blogging a little bit more regularly. It will help with my English, hopefully, since I am speaking German so much lately. Of course, right now, I am back at my parents' place, sitting on the couch, but it won't last, I'm going back tomorrow. In any case: I will try to blog more often now that I am having adventures in a foreign country on a daily basis. First type of adventures I had last week: Spending time in gothic-dark-metal-rock-clubs in Germany.

Now if you know anything about me, (just read the previous post, for example), I am not a gothic-dark-metal-rock-club type of girl. I am a folky-pop kind of girl, and I like to drink herbal tea. I gather, also, that German gothic-dark-metal-rock-clubs are particularly... let's say... radical. I might be wrong, however, as I have no points of comparison whatever. Still, I spent some time in them last week, since it's the type of things my flat-mate M likes to do. It was really great fun, in a Discovery Channel sort of way... Here are 5 things I discovered :

1. You can be the Prince of Darkness and the King of Doom if you wish to. Just do it. It's OK, here. You are among friends. I find it pretty cool. Give me two weeks, and I'll be the Duchess of Night and the Marquise du Désespoir. It sounds so much more gothic in French, I figure...

2. If you wish to be the Prince of Darkness and the King of Doom, however, watch the DJ closely. He might choose to play little pranks on you. Like for example wait until you and your valets are very, very drunk and then play "Walking on sunshine" or even, amazingly "Ca plane pour moi", a weird Belgian hit from the late 70's, by a guy named Plastic Bertrand. (It's in French, but it's still Belgian. :D YOU GUYS NEED TO TAKE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES). The sheer name of the singer gives you an idea of what it sounds like. It was a very... 4th dimension sort of an experience. Or rather, Close encounters of the 3rd kind, maybe.

3. You will be more noticed wearing a T-shirt and jeans than, say, a tartan skirt, a linen shirt, a jingly little ankle-chain, and a dead racoon hanging from your back. I am not kidding you about the dead racoon part. However, apparently, wearing a washed out 92 Backstreet Boys Tour t-shirt is OK too. Did I ever tell you about Colin Farrell... Crap, no. That was Boyzone....

4. If you are the Prince of Darkness and the King of Despair, you also know how to dance to the music they play in clubs like the ones I was at. I can't. I can dance on Rihanna "Pon De Replay", and I'm not even so sure about that. But: My challenge for next time around: Play "Pon De Replay" in my head, and try and dance to that, while completely ignoring Rammstein in the background. I'm pretty sure it will be a huge win for the Claire Team. I'll keep you informed. ("let the bass from the speakers run through ya sneakers, move both ya feet and run to the beat" \o/ _o_ \o/)

5. Maybe, just maybe, I'm completely losing my marbles. It is a possibility I can't ignore. I'll keep you posted on this one too, I promise.

PS: Another mission for next time: Learn how to spell Marilyn Manson before saving my beautiful Paint illustration.

Thistle and weed

2010-04-30T02:17:00.000-07:00

Reader, I need to tell you something veeeery important. I have found it. All the time, when listening to music earlier, I thought "that's THE band. THE band that was started just for me and I'll love them forever". I never do. But this time? I found it, I did. And you need to listen to it, you do.

MUMFORD & SONS

I told you about them in an earlier post, presuming I might forget all about them in two days. Instead they grew on me. Then I saw them in concert, thanks to, but sadly without my sister M (thank you, thank you, thank you for telling me about the date, and sorry much that you weren't there). I was there however with my best friend V, who did not know them that well, but was instantly convinced. Amazing is how they were, and nice, and just what I needed.

Here are 5 things I love about Mumford & Sons.

1. I can listen to the whole CD ("Sigh no more", buy it! buy it!) without finding one single track I want to skip. The sad songs are great, the happy songs are great, and when there's one I like a little less, I listen to it again, and I find it awesome.

2. They are a folk-band. I do believe "folk" is what I like. I thought it was country, but I think now that it is rather folk. They play the banjo, and most of all, they all sing together. Oh my. People who sing together, I don't think I could find any example of an occurence that I don't like. Abba: check. The destiny's child: Check. Russian army choirs? Check. Mumford & Sons? You bet.

3. They have great lyrics. Now, maybe just by my own standards, I don't know, but I think they are great. First of all, their song titles are beautiful. "Thistle and weed" being my personal favourite. They also say things like "and pestillence has won when you are lost and I am gone". Pestillence! Pestillence has won! And also "you are lost and I am gone" I don't know, it's nothing special, but it just gives me the shivers. And also, between the great lyrics, they breathe in and just sing one note and you can feel that it comes from the pit of their stomach and they give all the air and the strength they have and you just want to fly and sing too and you love the world and you love them. That's how it makes me feel, and I don't care if it's cheesy.

4. I am not at all ashamed of loving them. Most of what I listen to is... best described by the terms "girly-pop". I know it, and I regret it, but you can't fight your feelings, can you. Even when they are for Brian Adams ("Everything I doooo, I do it for youuuu"). But Mumford & Sons, that's another deal altogether. Hell, I even bought a T-shirt :)

5. They get me in a group-hug mood that I wish I was in more often. They make me want to be nice. I don't know why or anything, it just is so. It was the same with "On the road again", by Canned Heat, I remember, one day, we listened to it in the car with my sisters and my brother going to my grand parents. It was a long time ago, and my sister F had just brought their greatest hits CD, and I remember thinking "how I love them all, and how beautiful is the world we live in" and such. You know what I mean. Well, Mumford & Sons do the same to me. Make me want to spread the love. So here I am. Spreading the love. I hope you'll like them too. First one is sad, I must warn you. Second one is the first one I ever heard, so I'll try it on you too.

But my heart told my head

2010-04-20T00:21:00.000-07:00

Pour une fois, un post en Français. Pour ma grand mère Jeannine, à qui j'ai loupé l'occasion de le dire. Je ne sais pas exactement pourquoi je suis en train d'écrire ça, probablement que c'est parce que j'ai trop peur pour le lire à l'église. Mais : C'est important quand même donc : Voilà, une petite liste de ce qu'elle m'aura apporté, personnellement, et aussi peut-être à ses 18 autres petits enfants.

- Un goût pour l'art et les belles choses, et l'expression en général. Un goût tellement prononcé qu'il aura même créé de vraies vocations chez certain(e)s d'entre nous.

-Un goût prononcé pour mettre les mains dans la patasse, dû aux séances de malaxage de glaise quand j'étais petite.

-Un goût prononcé pour les "beaux mecs", et pour les solides, aussi, parce qu'elle n'avait pas choisi n'importe quel grand-père.

-Un amour inconditionnel des "BN tout nus" + beurre et miel

-Des tas de souvenirs de vacances d'été, sous le cerisier, (généralement les mains dans la patasse)

-Une critique positive de Jane Eyre, qui m'a aussi encouragée à le lire.

-Tous ces livres d'art, dans la bibliothèque, et plus particulièrement ceux sur les créatures fantastiques. Qui font peur, mais qui sont tellement romantiques.

-Des Noëls, des rencontres chez elle avec des cousins et des cousines qu'on ne voit pas si souvent finalement, et que du coup, on considère comme une vraie famille. Un sens du QG. Qui restera là longtemps, longtemps après son départ, parce qu'on ne va pas laisser tomber ça comme ça.

-Des éclats de rires qu'on pouvait entendre depuis le premier étage. Et probablement depuis la maison d'en face.

-Un certain amour des animaux et des gens. Et la conclusion que "plus on les observe, et plus on les observe de près, moins on en a peur". Dans sa bouche, ça parlait d'une araignée dans sa cave, mais je pense que ça s'applique assez bien à l'alsacien d'à côté, en fait.

-Du coup, des voisins qui l'aiment, et ça, on ne peut pas en dire autant de tout le monde. Cheannine, elle a su s'intégrer.

-Ma maman, et des oncles et tantes, qui seraient autrement si elle avait été autrement, mais autrement, ça ne seraient pas eux, et eux, c'est mieux.

Il en manque, il en manque des tonnes, mais il va falloir faire avec. Les gens qui partent, ça donne toujours l'impression qu'on n'en a pas fait assez. Mille mercis, donc, et désolée.

I'm feeling glad

2010-04-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

Reader, I have annoucements and news. Today : Five good news.

1. Spring's come. Definitely. All the signs are here: radish, tulips, cherry blossoms, runny nose, itchy eyes, sunshine, sunshine all around, and I'm feeling happy. I was really, really fed up with the winter and the cold and the crap weather. I had lunch with my friend V today, sitting outside in Kaysersberg, eating a salad in the sun, and I just felt happy that winter's over. (Also we went and partied all night on saturday, and went to a concert, and I had not done any of this in a long time, and that evening was just perfect. I think I really needed to go out and dance all night. I should do this more often. Anyone care to join me? Murder on the dancefloor? Dancing Queen? No? Ok then. I'll just go brush my teeth and listen to Rihanna.)

2. I've watched Dr Who, yesterday. The brand new Dr Who. The one without David Tennant. The one with Matt Smith. And it was absolutely great. Now, I'd hate to rush things, it might still go wrong, but he passed, Matt Smith did. And so did his brilliant Scottish friend Amelia Pond. Way! To! Go! I really missed the one-shot episodes (as I am not a great fan of large-scale plots. It's the same with every series. X-Files more than the others perhaps, because I really, really hate Mulder's little sister, and I wish he'd just give up on her already. Melissa! Melissa! Melissa was eaten by aliens, Fox, get over it, and back to Eugene Tooms. He scares me. He scares me everytime I go to the bathroom, and here's the catch: I've never even seen the bloody episode!)

Anyway, one-shot episodes seem to be back, and it was a really good one at that. I do hope it will go on like this, and stay that cool. He said "Carrots? Are you insane?" about three minutes in, and I was lost. Maybe the BBC can do it again! They made me love David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston, I am willing to love Matt Smith too. And all the new characters that have been added seem really cool too. C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!

3. This is my 200th post. I wrote 200 of these (good news to me, not so sure about you :D). I do hope I'll reach 400 and maybe even 1000, as long as you are willing to put up with my grammar mistakes, my constant whining, and stay interested in my slug-filled adventures and detailed classification of post-2000 Hindi musicals, characters with hats, and English actors' backsides. I love blogging, I love the format and the medium, and I love comments, and I'm very, very happy I've got you, reader.

4. I'm going away again. I was born under a wandering star. Maybe. Which is going to take me as far as Stuttgart. I've been spending too much time on my parent's couch doing nothing at all. So I'll be off next week, in one last and desperate attempt to improve my German enough to claim I actually speak it.
I've found a room, a cool flat-mate, and though he also owns a pack of live scorpions, I'm pretty sure I'll feel at home real soon (provided he doesn't choose to lock me up in his basement and feed me beetles, I've only met him twice, you can never be sure). In any case, I'll be going to Stuttgart, and having brand new adventures on German-speaking land. Wish me luck. I will tell you all about it. What I won't do is crawl under my bed and indulge in my most sociophobic behaviors. No watching series all night, sleeping till noon, and hiding away as soon as someone makes a noise in the hallway! No nervous giggling and sudden, shameful silence in the middle of a sentence I am sorry I ever started. Open, sunny, easy-going Claire I'll be, and my brain will have no choice but to remember that it exists and knows better. Mark my words.

5. My brother and his fiancée S are getting married. Two months from now. 5th of June. I'm very, very happy, and I can't wait. Two months! Not even two months! Here are the details. And in my blog-roll. Weeeeeeehehehee! A wedding! Drinks all around! And then guess what? They might even stay in France! No more expat interviews! He he... Happy news \o/

There you go, reader. I have a feeling maybe part of the crap actually is melting away under my very eyes. And it makes me oh-so-happy. I hope you're happy too.

Noch mehr Spass hätt' ich daran, mich selbst ins Knie zu schiessen...

2010-03-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

Never, ever before did I use the word "derelict" as often as I did today. In fact, I do believe that I had not, ever, used the word "derelict" before today. And it's funny, because "derelict" happens to be exactly how I feel right now... But it was a new contract, reader!! How about that! Brain-melt completed at 8 p.m. tonight, but at least, it was interesting and it was some work.

Anyway, now that I am coming back from Lille, on a train and bored with my eeeeeePC (I can never remember how many eeeeez there are. Even when it's written on the screen right in front of me...) I figured I might as well just get on with it and write a new top 5. Today, the top 5 things that PISS ME OFF in a completely irrational way (pardon my French), even though they are really not important things at all.

1. Slow and/or crappy ATM machines in French train stations that do not properly record every number you type in, and then they think that the PIN-code is wrong and they beep terribly loudly and say things like "NO! WRONG CODE! HA HA HA! LOOK! HERE'S YOUR TRAIN ENTERING THE STATION! YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT GETTING ON IT!" and then all the people behind you complain to the people next to them and sigh heavily because not only are you either a thief or a dimwit, but you are also wasting their time. (Do you love the word dimwit, reader? I know I do). Someday, I'll stay next to the stupid machines once I have my train ticket, and then wait patiently and make fun of the next person in line who gets into trouble for typing his or her PIN code too fast. Being annoyed doesn't necessarily make me charitable.

2. My cell phone when it runs out of batteries. I hate it when it cuts me off mid-sentence, especially when said sentence is "I'm sorry, I have to go, I'm afraid my battery is l..." and then I feel like I'm rude, even though it's hardly my fault. I think the stupid cell phone could hold on for 2 more seconds. Just 2 more. C'mon.

3. My headphones when they get all knotted up in my pocket and then I have to detangle the whole thing in the subway with everyone there having nothing metter to do than watch me. I have to say, though, this one is really just my fault. First of all, because I can never seem to manage to have my headphones last longer than 2 weeks. Second, because the only headphones that I have had for more than a year I have destroyed as much as I possibly could without actually damaging their ability to produce sound. I separated the two wires leading up to my ears, and now it doesn't just get twisted any more, it knits a bloody pullover in my pocket everytime I put it away. Also they are the weird kind with the wire for your left ear reaaaally long, and the one for your right ear really short, and then you have to go all the way around your head to put them on properly and it annoys me. It annoys me much.

4. People making noises in waiting rooms. I have never been able to understand how it happens that you can sit next to them for half an hour and not notice anything, but once you hear that they are chewing their gum loudly, or maybe breathing heavily, or fidgetting with their key-ring, then it drives you completey nuts. Happened to me twice tonight. And I was already derelict before. Imagine how I feel now!

5. Streets where house numbers have been granted by a madman who couldn't count. You arrive in the right street, you're looking for number 145, and then you notice that next to number 12 is number 324. Then there's number 98. And that's in Lille. But if you're in London, you must also distinguish between 345 Crescent Road and 345 Crescent Street. Makes me completely mad. Wakes up the Godzilla in me (which is never really far beyond the surface I must say).

Anyway. Here are some trifling things that annoy me beyond expression in my daily life. Because some times, it's nice to write these things down, it helps me remember that I don't have real problems, and I have enough time to worry about my headphones getting knotted up in my pockets. Tell me about you!! What's annoying to you?

Oh! And also, before I forget! I wanted to share with you this sentence by Anne Brontë, in the preface to "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (see how I don't write Tennant with a double N? I had to make a real effort!). Made me laugh to myself on the train this morning, and it was before 7 a.m. so it must have been real funny :

"...if I can gain the public ear at all, I would rather whisper a few wholesome truths therein than much soft nonsense".

I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies to Anne Brontë for getting all mixed up in her advice and doing exactly the opposite here. Now, next time, I'll try to find a fex wholesome truths for you, and you'd better be ready and polite, even though "He that [has the courage to dive for the truth at the bottom of the well --don't ask me, I'm just copying this from a book--] will be likely to incur more scorn and obloquy [yes, you hear me right, obloquy. And scorn.] for the mud and water into which he has ventured to plunge, than thanks for the jewel he produces."

Now, this may well be tasteless persiflage from my part, but the preface to the second edition to the Tenant of Wildfell Hall is sheer brilliancy, from beginning to end, obloquy included.

Next time : post n° 200!! Any good idea of something special I could write to celebrate?

White blank page

2010-03-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

Random fact time ! No top 5 today. Just random facts:

-My "official" computer, the apple of my eye and the essence of my days, has been fixed by my super-powered brother in law V. I can now type with reasonable intervals between the keys, which is really nice. Feels like luxury, after using me eeeePC for so long. Like for a week, that's how tough my life is... I'm very glad about this, and so here we are: an Internet tribute to V, whose week-end was spoilt by my merciless nagging.

-Have you ever listened to Mumford & Sons? I heard of it on Craig Ferguson, the other day (today, in fact), and when he said "English pop-folk band", and said their album was named after a Shakespeare sonnet, I knew I'd love it. I was right. I mean, what's not to love? English, Pop, and Folk. With a little Shakespeare thrown in. Do listen to their songs, they're really brilliant, I hope they're really, really successful, and I likes them much. They have banjos and they sing together and they're like the band that needed to be invented just for me. At the crossroads of Joe Purdy and Flogging Molly. (And a little bit of Damien Rice, as well, though that's not my favourite side of them, with all due respect to Damien Rice. There's only so much Damien-Riceness I can take, and Damien Rice himself should stay in charge of it).
Go on Deezer right now, reader, and tell me what you think. (I have discovered them today, I might have forgotten all about them tomorrow, but I don't think I will.)

-What I like best about modern society and the internet is THIS type of things. I don't know if it's me, but it makes me cry. This one does, and the Belgian one in a train station where everyone starts singing "The sound of Music" too. And then I feel better about life in general.

Here are my news for today. Three random facts. I have to say: This month of fFebruary has sucked. I hated it (apart from some cool stuff, like my sisters coming over, or going to the movies with my friends). I hope March will be better, and I'm sure it will, with the help of flash mobs and Mumford and Sons and sunshine and more good stuff. Blank slate: now, it's time for the spring.

Lots of love,
Me

Here come the drums here come the drums

2010-02-24T07:10:00.000-08:00

Hey reader! Here I am, waiting for the very last episode of "Alisa, follow your heart", (the German series I told you about a few posts ago). It is apparently to be followed by "Monika, don't trust your brain".

It's the 240th episode of the series (oh my, I can't believe I've watched so many). It has helped me a lot with my German (am I believable? OK, right, maybe it hasn't, but I can now say "Zum Risiken und Nebewirkungen, lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen Sie Ihren Artzt oder Apotheker" nearly as fast as the guy on TV, who says it after basically every add (it's the warning for over-the-counter medicine, for which there are very many adds in the afternoon on German channels. Suits the target. I have the same taste in clothes as English old ladies, and the same taste in TV shows as German grans.)

Oh my, here we are. Started already. They got married, last time, and the previous three episodes were spent mostly making out on various couches all over Germany, whispering "I love you", and "Never again shall we part", and "I'll never let you go" and "you're my life". Also, we had a little sneak preview of the following series, "Hannah something or other", which is actually a spin off. Very handy. In any case, since I also baked millionaire's shortbread yesterday, I'm not sure I can handle any more sugary sweetness. Here we go. Speeches. Cut the cake! Cut the crap :D

So. Well. What I really wanted to tell you is : today's top 5. Today's top 5 will be about the series that really matter(ed). Now, I'm not crazy, I know the difference between fiction and reality, and nothing is ever as important as what happens in real life. But some series, especially n°1, just matter more than others. They make you laugh and cry even once the credits have rolled, they make you feel like you know the characters, they change you ever-so-slightly, just like books can. Top 5 rules apply, and some of the items on the list matter much less than others. Number 1 and 2 matter more than 4 and 5. So it's not really a top 5. It's more of a list. Here goes, in any case (and I promise I'll try to be a little more focused from now on).

(Ah ! Watlz time ! Huhuhuhu I so wish I could put a video right here. You'd love it I'm sure. She looks like a swan, he looks like a penguin, their offspring have a 50/50 chance to fly... Ok right. I don't care. I love it and have been waiting for it for... 240x40 minutes. Feels like a lifetime.)

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Best series ever, according to me. I'm not at all ashamed of admitting how much I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series 1 to 7 kept me rivetted, me and my sister M were in front of the TV every saturday at 20.50 sharp (not sure she's as keen as me to admit stuff on the internet, but hell... XD), and I so wish it had not ended and I still miss it, and I still compare all the series I watch with it. Willow, Alex, Anja, and my favourites : Spike, Giles and Buffy herself... 7 years of coolness and great dialogues. And the best title music in the history of television. Also, something more I have in common with my best friend V. We both cried our eyes out during Acathla, and we still call Alyson Hannigan "Willow"...

2. Dr Who. Now, only three seasons had any impact on my mood (I did not like the fourth so much, and I have terrible fears concerning the 5th), but boy... They really hit hard. And there are so many episodes, and so many aspects of it that give me the shivers that I think The Doctor deserves his place on the top 5 completely, in spite of the ridiculous visual effects and the Oods, which are so ugly I wish they had blurred them altogether. Still, there is the "Blink" episode with the creatures that can move only when you don't look at them, the episode when the Doctor becomes human and David Tennant's last, which I watched at my sister's the other day. I think I'll stop right now, because I feel like all I ever talk about on this blog is the Doctor. Is this love, is this love, is this love that I'm feeling?

3. ER. I don't know exactly why, but I know that simply listening to the title music makes me cry. Cause it's over, now. And I'm a little emo. I was very disappointed by the last episode, but it's still a brilliant series, with great actors and great stories, and Neela. (My my. Alisa and her brand new husband are off to Canada in a horse drawn carriage. I'm a little stressed about the part where they cross the Atlantic, but whatever). Neela, and Abby, and Carter and Benton and Archie. Yeah, even Archie. And also Kovac, who kills me with his smile, even though I don't even like his character that much. And also that episode in Africa which was better quality than many movies, and that other episode with Ewan McGregor as a guest star.

4. Firefly. Another Joss Whedon series, and I'll never know if it mattered so much just because I felt maybe if I loved it enough it would not really be cancelled. It has great characters, brilliant dialogues and that's all I would ask for. But it also has a Star Wars vibe to it. And by that I mean a cool Han Solo vibe, not a lame Jar Jar Bings groove. Yeah. I said Jar Jar Bings groove. I'm very sorry.

5. Bones. This is one of the ones that don't really really matter, but I still want to mention it here. Because Booth is one of these character that you think you might actually fall for in real life. And because I like them all so much, Sweets and Bones and Hodgins and even Angela and her calling everyone "sweetie". I really wish they would show us the end of season 5... It was suspended, here in France.

So here. And of course, there are many, many other series that are really great (Lost, for a start, House MD, Glee (ahahaha !! That's a new one ! Drives me completely nuts, can't wait till april for season 2 !), Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes...), the list is very, very long. What's your opinion on the subject? Any series' characters you might fall for in real life? Anyone thinks I have missed something huge?

Defying gravity

2010-01-27T09:15:00.000-08:00

Hi, reader ! I'm writing this both from my hotel room in Limoges and from my brand new eeePC, so, please forgive the typos, which can tonight be blamed both on the tiny keyboard and on the weird location (is that not a valid excuse for bad spelling ? Ah, well. Will have to do.)

I had a huge allergy problem yesterday night, asthma so bad it made my head hurt, and a terrible case of the sneezes. I learnt my lesson, and will leave my friend A's cat alone next time, even though it's cute and I compensate never having a pet of my own.

Anyway, I felt a little weird when I got up, and today, as I was on my way to my next contract (in Limoges, as I said), many weird things happened to me. I think I saw a baby elephant in a garden on the train (in a garden I saw from the train. Not a baby elephant in a garden on the train), I think I saw the blond woman from Fringe staring very hard at me from an old Renault when I was crossing the street, and I think everyone looked at me in a weird way. Also my brand new eeePC had a terrible blue-screen episode, which I hope won't happen again. I just mean to give you more explanation as to why the following post might be a little weird. Oxygen deprivation and all, I think I may be a little high.

Anyway. Today's top 5 is : "The top 5 questions about books that I asked myself on the train from Colmar" I hope you'll like it, though it is a very self-centered post. If you do not like it, I'm very sorry, I blame it on the boogie.

1. Is it true that I like books written by women more than books written by men? I always thought I did, but come to think of it, some of my favourite books and stories were written by men. Even though Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë will always be my favourite, I really love male authors too. William Goldman's The Princess Bride, Neil Gaiman in general, John Irving, Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy and Stephen King (though I must admit I mostly only really liked Dolores Claiborne). So I don't really know anymore. And William Shakespeare, though I can't honestly claim I know anything about him. He still wrote that line in Hamlet which is so beautiful it makes me shiver.

2. Would I still love The Princess Bride as much if I read it again now ? Did I only love it that much because it was the first time I really read a book in English ? Did I only love it that much because I liked the movie ? Will I ever be brave enough to read it again to find out, or had I better just let it be, in case I do not love it as much re-reading it ?

3. Can you establish a link between a book's popularity and its quality ? I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society that I just finished on the train, and it was a huge success. I really liked The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie that I read coming back from Finland, and it was a success too, I believe. I kinda like the Charlaine Harris books, and they're very popular. I like to think that when something is really, really popular, it means there is something particularly good in it. Might not be the best thing ever, and all, but I figure there is always a fair reason why people love something.

It's a comforting thought, somehow. Take Brad Pitt, for example : He's a superstar, and though you may like him or not, you can't deny that he's a really good actor. He doesn't owe it all to his good looks. (Then again, Avatar is a huge box-office success, and I think it's a really sucky movie...). My point is : Do I really have abysmal taste in literature, or is there some hope yet ?

4. How much of my liking a book is owing to the environment I'm in when reading it. I told you about reading Jane Austen in an old military club a few months back, and today I read through half of The Guernsey Literary... in the train, while being slowly steam-cooked by the SNCF's crazy heating system, and listening to some classical music on my MP3 player, so focused and so into the book I would not swear I was really conscious. Did I really like the book, or is it only the artificial, heater-and-comfy-jumper-induced fever that made me so enthralled? (How I hate that word...) Is there any way of knowing if a book is really good without reading it twice?

5. I think I should have brought The Shining with me, seing how the hotel I'm in is the perfect location to read it. Would that have been a good idea, do you think ?

Fire and snow

2010-01-19T06:45:00.000-08:00

Well, reader, it's me again. Why, you ask ? Because, I've... got... chills, they're multyplyin', and I'm looooooooosing controwowol... No. Sorry.

Actually, it's because I've got... some serious work to do, so it's started an irresistible impulse to come over here and blog. It's pavlovian. In any case, I came over here to tell you about the top 5 things I found out hanging around in temperatures below zero over the last two months. Started in Copenhaguen, went on in Colmar, continued in Berlin, and kept on freezing in Rovaniemi, Finland (which was not so bad, even though it's in the polar circle). Did I tell you I love my job? I do. I'm not being ironic.

1. There are not many things prettier than a tree covered in snow. Not many things prettier than a quiet city street covered in snow. Not many things calmer than the sound of snow falling on snow. Not many things that look more comfy than a newly snowed layer of snow, all puffy and soft under your feet.

2. Even if you are feeling at peace with nature and romantic and ice-princess-like, it's best to resist the impulse of touching the snow, for several reasons : it turns into muck, it's wet, it's cold and it makes you trun lobster red. Also, even though everyone knows that suitable snow-shoes are for cold-footed sissies, it's best not to go out with stupid city-chick boots. Keeping your balance hurts your hips and makes you really tired, really fast. As well as look very stupid. Especially when surrounded with tough Samis who are very, very far from being cold-footed sissies.

3. Even if you are feeling at peace with nature and romantic and ice-princess like, it's best to remember that you have chapped lips, a red nose and that your hair is a mess : in a word, you look more like Rudolf the Reindeer than like the ice-princess. This, to avoid a dreadful shock the next time you encounter a mirror.

4. Forgetting your scarf in Brussels when going to the arctic circle is very, very stupid. Still, I bought a cool new scarf, soft as a feather and warm as... a scarf, which is nice. I now have two of those...

5. Danish socks and my DocMartens are all I need to be happy in the Arctic. And a crash course in deer-hunting, I guess.

... and a happy new year !

2009-12-31T03:14:00.000-08:00

I may, or may not have used the same post title last year, but, well, it's seasonal. And appropriate.

In any case : Happy New Year reader ! I am off to Berlin, to celebrate the new year with my friends and enjoy a bit of the German atmosphere. First time in Berlin in my whole life, though I've studied German for... wait... 12 years. Quite a lot von die Motivation !

My plans for next year : Eat less, work more and spreaaaad love. What about yours ?

I wish you all the best, anything you might wish for yourself (except if it involves whatever form of death and destruction), and love, health, glory and riches on top of that !

Fahlala lala, lala, la, la !

2009-12-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

** MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU **

I wish you all the best, a very, very merry Christmas, and also this :

Loooove all around !

The world is all around you...

2009-12-19T05:18:00.000-08:00

Hej! Hej hej hej! I am back from Copenhaguen where I spent these last ten days for the Klimaforum09. It. Was. Awesome. And really weird sometimes. A mixture of hope and despair and stress and love and hate and tiredness and music and noise and laughter and tears, and yes I do believe I'm out of clichés XD

It was very exhilarating and if you add all the excitement to the message and the depressing-ness of the situation, you end up with being perpetually on the verge of some kind of break down. The kind of state where you start crying because your keys fell to the very bottom of your handbag, and you fall in love with anyone who says hi to you in the corridor. The kind of state where you want to hug people half the time, and kick the furniture and scream the rest of it. Nothing in between. It is all very exciting. And very tough to describe. But here are 5 things I wanted to tell you about more particularly. My top 5 Copenhaguen "Here's to".

1) Here's to guitar playing hippies Yes indeed. Guitar playing hippies. Here's to vegan people, here's to the Via Campesina, here's to love and vegetable soup. Here's to woolen hats, here's to yogis, here's to trees and raisin bran, here's to organic coffee beans and to activist T-Shirts, here's to that lady from Tibet, and the other one from Bolivia, here's to you all who came and went and changed the way I see the world like nothing that happened to me before. Here's to me becoming a little less cynical and a little more sorry.

2) Here's to the danish pølse (and to those danish letters with the slashes and the ° on them...) Pølse is a type of special Danish hot-dog, with pickles and three types of sauce on top. They are very inexpensive, and they include some meat. Pølse are murder. Here's to vegans indeed, but I needs my proteins.

Pølse saved me from turning into a turnip at day 5, or falling into the dark pit of vegetable-spread induced depression.

Look Marion! Cool stuff on the walls in Copenhaguen too!

3) Here's to the Danish people in general, to their English skills which helped me a lot throughout the trip, to my hosts who were very, very kind and accepted to give me a bed for 10 days even though I came home at crazy hours every night. I need to find some kind of karmic offset for my hosts.

4) Here's to the Danish currency, which also saved me from starvation (had the prices been in Euros, I would probably have eaten nothing but the free vegetable soup they gave at the conference center). Honestly, Denmark, what's with the crazy prices ? 5€ for a coffee ?

5) Here's to the booth technician P, J from GoodPlanet, and the grey-haired lady who believed our tales of peanut and chocolate-fueled interpretation and brought us sweets and water all the time : Just seeing them got me in a good mood. I really like those people who are always, always in a communicative good mood.

I forget many, many things like the guy in the black hood talking about "ze pipole of ze Bretagna", the øko-chocolate cake of the conference center, my pillow and my blanket, the little christmas gnomes they have all over the place in Copenhaguen, my awesome lipstick from Japan which helped a lot with the frostbites, MSN and IT in general, all my colleagues and cinnamon rolls, but if I go on for too long, I'll start crying and saying things like "we are all part of one big human community" or "spread love" and then we will all be sorry .

PS: Sorry about the layout of this post, blogger seems to have gone wild

In the box right now

2009-12-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

Hi reader! I'm writing here straight from my hotel room in Le Mans. I'm so glad to have a blog, sometimes... It's been a nice working day, and everyone was really nice, only I must admit to feeling slightly stupid in comparison with the experienced interpreters I worked with today. But I learnt plenty, and it was really cool. I left my hometown in the morning, (at 5.30, in fact. Too morningy for me, I am afraid) and thought about my blog in the train, since I stupidly forgot my Dorothy L Sayers at home. I hate forgetting my book at home, especially when it's as great as this one. But let's get back to business : I have a new list ! The top 5 amazing things I learnt over these past two weeks. I learnt many more things besides these five, but these are the ones I feel like talking about.

1. On the latest album of my favourite French singer, there's a duo with Eagle Eye Cherry. Now. This number 1 thing implies my admitting to the world that my favourite French singer is Gerald De Palmas. And I know for a fact that most of my readership (one is a person, two is a "-ship") knows what De Palmas sings, and is familiar with his lyrics. But I have no shame, and I love De Palmas. He's great, he is!

The reason why it's amazing that he sings a duo with Eagle Eye Cherry now, is that when I was at the end of junior high (i.e. about 10 years ago), my very very first pop-rock concert was a double bill Eagle Eye Cherry and Gerald De Palmas. It was sooooo great. I went with my sister M and my best friend V, and had such a great evening. I saw De Palmas and Eagle Eye Cherry afterwards too, but each in their own concert. So it's really strange that they should record a track together now, but it makes me very happy. Besides, it's a really cool track. Called Pandora's Box. I likes it. Makes me happy. Listening to it right now and shaking my head like those plastic dogs they put in cars...

2. Reading a book by Jane Austen is just not the same as reading another book. Now I knew that already, but last week, I read "Persuasion" in a beautiful room with golden chandeliers and portraits of dashing officers on the walls, and then I had two gin tonics, and then I went completely crazy. The kind of crazy where you pretend you are slightly lifting the long skirt of your dress when going up the stairs so that you wont step on it, even though you are wearing jeans. The kind of crazy where you can't help smiling when you remember about the "you pierce my soul" part, even though you are on the subway. Aaaaah, my. Jane Austen. One more person I'd like to thank if I ever go to heaven.

3. A good reason for tall people to wear nice shoes. I have noticed in Paris lately, and very often before, that people tend to look at my feet when I get up. Now I might be paranoid, but I can't help thinking that they are checking if I'm wearing heels. So, I figure, it's a good reason to have nice shoes. And yes, I am just trying to justify buying two pairs in two days.

4. If you are doing something silly in the street, there will be someone to watch you. Say you are in a small town, where hardly anyone is out after 10 p.m. except for you, apparently, since it's midnight and you're going home trying to be furtive as a ninja so maybe you can startle someone who's just like you, except going the other way.

Say there's a little chain dangling from the top of a shop window. Say you want to try and see if you can touch it, and then you jump a little and make a little jingle-noise with the chain. Well, statistically there is a 100% chance for a parked car to materialize right there on the spot, with a guy inside, and then you look ridiculous. And it really doesn't go with the vampire image you are trying to have when walking alone at midnight. But then again. Who knows. Maybe vampires play silly games in nightly cities all the time. If I were one, I know I would.

5. I can eat a shrimp with a knife and a fork and not use my fingers. What the mind can do... :)

Have a nice day !

Rows and rows of big dark clouds

2009-11-08T05:08:00.001-08:00

It's Sunday. No big and interesting adventure ever happened on a Sunday. I hate Sundays. I don't really, cause they also mean sleeping till 11 a.m., only since I don't really have a job these days, I can pretty much sleep all I want any day of the week, which robbed sundays of their sole purpose. And outside of family reunions, I really do hate sundays, because there is nothing interesting to do on a sunday, and I don't know why, but they seem to be rainy all the time. So today's top 5, in honour of Crap-Sunday-Weather, will be the top 5 things I sould remember not to do when I am down on a sunday, together with possible solutions. I do not actually believe there is a cure to sunday crap-ness, but you never know. There we go. I should not :

1. Listen to the music I want to listen to. What I should do is choose whatever track I feel like listening, and then pick its exact opposite. I should avoid, in particular, listening to sad tunes (it only ever makes things worse. Patty Griffin nearly killed me today. By the way, about Patty Griffin... Is it cool to listen to Patty Griffin ? I like it, but I also have to be pointed out what's cool, so I'd really like to have your opinion... Long Ride Home is such a nice song...)

Also, listening to rock music that you believe will make you more... say tonic and... wake you up is not a good solution. I tried the Babyshambles (whom I really, really love), and all it did was adding a wish to kick the furniture and punch innocent walls to a feeling of down-ness. Whatever you call it. It's no good.

Because then either you stay aggressive till it's time to go to bed, or you do punch a wall, and then you hurt your hand, and then you feel so stupid you want to punch yourself. I would say... stupid hip hop stuff. Or maybe also "Superman (It's not Easy)" by Five for Fighting. But that might just be me. Cause it's a sad song, but it makes me feel happy, somehow. Scouting for Girl also does the trick (especially "James Bond", which is really cool).

2. Go back to bed and do nothing. Then I feel bad because I haven't done anything worthwhile with my day and it adds guilt to the lot. Baaad idea.

3. Start making a complicated recipe that I always wanted to try. Are you crazy, Reader? On a gray sunday under the sign of Craponus, roman God of failures? Usually, I find out that I am missing a key ingredient AFTER I melted half a pound of butter. Then what do you do with half a bloody pound of melted butter? Drink it? So no complicated recipe.

Then again, you might never have thought of baking a cake just because you're down, but that's what comes up first when I think about things I could do when I am bored. It's also valid for any creative work. Start with what you do have, and then figure out what you could do with it should be the general guideline.

4. Procrastinate. Cause it's sunday and you're supposed to rest and you're entitled to do nothing. No good at all. The logical thing is to start on the most boring task you can think of. Like... I dunno... cleaning the windows. Because, look at it this way : you are already bored to death doing nothing, so why not go on being bored to death, but at least figure you've done something worthwhile at the end of the day? (There, even I would argue that cleaning windows is really not worthwhile at all as long as you can see through them. But I'm sure you see what I mean).

5. Go. On. Facebook. Going on Facebook when you are bored will only EVER make things worse. I don't know why I like Facebook so much. I think I like the Facebook pages of other people so much that I pretend I like it myself in order to absorb some of their coolness... Doesn't work. Three hours spent on FarmVille are a good equivalent to drinking half a pound of melted butter.

Now, reader, time for me to follow my own advice and go 'glossarize'. I promise I'll write something a little more... interesting and cool next time. When the sunday afternoon jinx is gone again. Have a nice week-end!! Hu hu hu... that sounds kind of cynical now, doesn't it? Well go ahead, then! Clean the windows!!

You make my dreams come true

2009-11-03T03:01:00.000-08:00

Hey reader !!

My sister F is going to Japan tomorrow (Bon voyage, F !! Keep breathing until you're on the plane, and then everything will be fine. You are a tree. Your roots go deep, deep in the earth, and you feel the wind in your leaaaaaaaaaaves. No? Ok, then...) and the other day, when she came to visit, she told us about two of her favourite movie lines ever. Now. Is that not a great idea for a top 5 ? It is. Let me not forget it is. But it is not today's. (Feintés :D)

Today's top 5 is also a movie-related top 5, concerning "those moments that make you shiver even long after you have watched the movie". Please, please, for my sake, read the top 5 rules. I probably forgot great ones. And also, please, please, tell me which in the comments.

So. Here goes. (Oh, and I make no claim to originality). (Oh, and now that I think of it, possible spoilers ahead)

1. The Dead Poet's Society (unexpected, huh?). At the end. I love the movie, I love that scene, and it makes me shiver just thinking about it right now. You know which scene I mean, I'm sure, and I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it yet. By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, do.

2. The shower scene in Casino Royale. Now Casino Royale is hardly a "favourite movie ever" candidate, but that scene ?! That scene is wonderful. I told you about it already I know. But let me tell you about it once more. Eva Green (oh, if I just could look like Eva Green, just for a minute) has killed a man. It was self defense, and she had no choice, but still. She killed a man, and she's traumatized. James Bond (yeah, OK, I say Eva Green and James Bond. Indulge me.) comes up to her room to see if she's OK (This is getting real long, but I love it so...) and he finds her sitting under a cold shower in her wondrous dress. Now what does James Bond do ?

Does he take her out of the shower and dry her hair ?

No he does not. He sits next to her under the shower, keeping his expensive leather shoes on, because does he care about his expensive leather shoes ? No, he does not. And then he takes her in his arms and turns on the hot water tap to make her warmer. I can hear you hardcore James Bond fans at the back going "Sean Connery would have thrown her a blanket and poured himself a drink". To you I say : "You do not exist, I only ever have 2 readers, whom I both know, and who are no hardcore James Bond fans". And "I don't care. I like Daniel Craig 100 times better".

3. The prison scene in Dark City. I don't remember the movie so clearly, to tell you the truth, even though I remember it was great, but that scene is carved in my memory for ever. He's in prison, and she comes to visit him ("he" being Rufus Sewell, and "she" being Jennifer Connelly --If only I could look like Jennifer Connelly...--) and he's got the power to change reality, and he shatters the parlour's glass, just so that he can kiss her. OK. Those "shiver" scenes are always big, girly love scenes. Breaking news, I'm a girl.

4. Collision. Now it's not a scene, it's a movie. But there are at least 5 scenes in that movie alone that make me shiver just thinking about them. My favourite one involves Sandra Bullock and her cleaning lady, but I cannot say more, because 95% of my readership has never seen the movie (in spite of my insistance, pleas and numerous begging sessions). I guess I might have spoilt it for them.

5. The scene in Amelie when she bakes her cake at the end. A French movie in a top 5 is not a usual thing. But then again, Amelie is not a usual movie. Anyway, she bakes a cake and imagines her love is at the door. Then it turns out he really is. Might be because I've baked so many cakes and imagined my love bringing me the missing ingredient so many times without him ever showing up at the door that seeing the scene was kind of like having a wish granted. I love that movie.

Now, reader, I have to go, because a top 5 includes... well... 5 things, so mission complete, and also because lunch is ready and I should go take it out of the oven. Weirdly enough, I now really, really want to see Sense and Sensibility. Do you ?

PS: The title is tacky, but the song is cool. Have you seen 500 days of Summer ?

Ashes to ashes

2009-10-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

Well reader, it's me again! I'm coming back from my first international business trip to Lille. What do you mean, "it's not international if you stay in France" ? What do you mean "we don't give a rat's ass"? Have you been watching Craig Ferguson again, reader? Oh no, wait. That's me. Guess I'm talking to myself again...

Anyway. First mission complete, it was really nice and interesting and I love my job. Did I tell you already? Well, I do, anyways. And while going to Lille (and coming back from Lille, which included missing my stupid train because of my stupid alarm clock and waiting for three hours at the stupid Lille train station in a stupid café and having to pay for my stupid ticket twice) I watched videos on my laptop (which I had probably brought with me because a part of me just knew I could not catch a train before 7 a.m.)

I watched the first episode of Dollhouse season 2 (while going to Lille. That's a paragraph ago. I know I should go see a doctor about that brackets issue...). What I mean to say is: I watched the first episode of Dollhouse season 2 and THE WHOLE season 1 of Ashes to Ashes. And I just thought I should tell you that it was great.

Both were great.

And I will never, ever understand why shows like Smallville manage to stay on air for years on end, and shows like Dollhouse and Firefly get cancelled in a jiffy. Bad ratings. For DOLLHOUSE! It's great! It's fantastic! It's moving, it's original, it's funny, it's sad and I love it. I hope it's going to keep things up until the end, which I know to be near. So here's to Joss Whedon, and I hope he keeps up the good work for years to come, even if it's just one season at a time.

But let us not be bitter, and let me tell you more about Ashes to Ashes (nothing whatsoever to do with Joss Whadon there. It's an English show). It's a Life on Mars spin-off. Or a follow-up, I don't quite know which, but it's really good in any case. It's the story of a single mother who gets shot in the head (things are starting out great for her...) and who is sent back in time to 1981. She doesn't know if she's dreaming or if it's some kind of paranormal time travelling thing, but in any case, she knows for a fact that she's one second away from death in her real life, and she still wants to get back to her daughter.

You might or might not enjoy the main character being a little too hysterical for my taste, (even though she plays really well), but not liking Gene Hunt (who is about as unlikable as they get, since he is racist, homophobic, bitter and rude) is a real challenge. I don't know what it is with English series these days, but between Dr Who, Life on Mars and this one, I just can't wait for the next one to come up.

Anyway. I guess this is all for today. I hope you are well, and I hope you managed to follow. Next time, I promise, less brackets and more interesting stuff. I know I can do it.

PS: We do have TGVs in France. The steam train thing is just because my TGV just looked like a weird rectangle.

And I'm a million miles froohom youuuh

2009-09-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

Well well well reader. Guess what? YES! Indeed! I have not written in a very long time!! No particularly good reason for this. I was thinking about something great to write about the end of this schoolyear, that will be my last, it is now official. Did not find anything great, at least not great enough to describe my years at the university, so I figured, let's just tell them I made it and move on.

I MADE IT READER!! I'M AN INTERPRETER!! Do the boogie, do the boogie, YEAH!! YEAH!!

So, 5 words to describe my mood now, before I move on to today's 'official' top 5: happy, incredulous, sad, panicky and hopeful. I do hope sad will go away one day, when hopeful turns to happy. Twice happy! Wish me luck!

But enough about me, let us turn to today's top 5 : The top 5 things I learnt while watching "Alisa, Folge deinem Herzen" on the German channel ZDF.

You have to forgive my regular references to Alisa over the last few posts (actually, I think I only talked about it once, but still), since I am watching one episode a day these days. It is slowly becoming an obsession. It is eating away my life, my soul, and most importantly, any sense of taste. Just kidding, it's actually not that bad, the actors are good and the music is great. (Check out "wrong turn", by Jack Johnson, it's a great, great song). Anyway. Alisa, as we will call it for short, is, as the title indicates, following her heart. And teaching me valuable life lessons in the making.

1. If you are in Germany, and you really, really want to look inconspicuous, because the whole police force is after you since you've been making dirty business with arms dealers (I always feel silly saying "arms dealers" in English. I keep imagining some kind of limb-distributing ATM...) what you really, really should do is sport an ugly and fake looking blond wig, huge sunglasses and Columbo's coat. And walk really fast but making teeny tiny steps, looking either at your feet or casting quick glances all around you.

2. Apparently, the German police force are quite stupid

3. If you're really sad because your boss died, the first thing you should do is go out in the garden and play a sad little tune on your trumpet while doing the boogie of death. It's always appreciated by the mourning family, which will then proceed to come out in the garden and give you a nice big hug.

4. Behind every great german businessman, there is a strong willed Damart-model who bakes apple-pie for him.

5. You could make me watch anything. Anything at all. Put a nice soundtrack and a love story in it, and there I am. Lost. Forever.

There you go reader. And if any of you likes "Alisa, folge deinem Herzen", please note that I am being mean, but I like it too. More than I like to admit. They're all so lovable. XD

Have a nice evening !!

Every step

2009-08-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

Lo reader !

I have not written in quite a long time (how many of these posts start with that same sentence, I wonder...) but I was quite busy. I ACTUALLY was quite busy, for once, since I finished my final paper from hell (though I had a lot of trouble with La Poste, and let it be known right here that I really, really don't like them. *insert something rude*). Anyway, between two nervous breakdown, I still found time to go to a festival in my hometown, Colmar, and see plenty of concerts, which was absolutely great. Great, great, great.

Here it is, then, the top 5 concerts I saw at the Foire aux Vins this year. Top 5 rules apply (I saw only 6 concerts, and I'll spare you the BB Brunes, which is a French pop group and which I don't like very much. At all. And there are not enough numbers in 5 to make room for Superbus either, which is another French group, and which was nice and all, but not really my cup of tea.)

Well.... here goes!

1. Cocoon. First group I saw this year. It's a French group, but it's in English, and their songs are all soft and pretty. They were very nice and funny, and the perfect way to start the whole series. Do listen to their songs, and maybe look at their videos too, they're really nice and put you in a great mood!

2. The Do. They are kind of French too, I believe, though they sing in English, and they are at least part Finnish. Well, let's say they're European. They absolutely did not sound like what I expected, and I liked them very much all the same.

3. Charlie Winston. Might well be the best concert I ever saw. It's definitely in the top 2, anyway. (I feel very sorry for my sister M who was not with us, but if he ever comes to Brussels where she lives, I'm in!). I was in love when I got out. I don't quite know with whom, but I sure was. He started the concert, then his brother joined him (Tom Baxter, apparently well known in the UK, and very very good at playing the guitar and being awesome), then at the very end people from Cocoon and the Do as well as his brother joined him on stage and it was really, really cool.

In case you don't know about Charlie Winston, his album's called Hobo, it's just brilliant and it makes you feel happy. Do listen to it, and tell me what you think. Especially... Well, especially all of them, but more particularly 'Tongue Tied" and "Every Step".

4. Amy Macdonald. I don't know if I ever told you about Amy Macdonald before, but I bought her album about a year ago after seeing her 2 minutes on a French TV show. I just love her voice and her lyrics are nice and it's folk music, which is, I believe, my favourite kind. She's from Scotland, and no one in the whole room could understand a word she was saying when she spoke to us, but the concert was still brilliant, and I wish I could go back and hear it again right this evening. Thank you so much, V for inviting me!! And if you don't know Amy Macdonald, I would say... listen to.... "Barrowland Ballroom", and "Let's Start a Band".

5. The Babyshambles. We waited for one hour, and were quite convinced that they wouldn't come, since Pete Doherty had had legal troubles, but they were very much here in the end. I did not know their songs, and I don't even know why I took the ticket in the first place, since I did not know the music and was firmly convinced that they would actually not come, but I don't regret going for a minute.

The atmosphere was incredible (really), and the music was great, and their rendition of Twist and Shout was just... well. We all twisted, we all shouted, and we had a great, great time. I felt a little bad though, because... well, I know it sounds silly and probably patronizing and all, but it made me a little sad being so happy and seeing that man on the stage being so not well. Made me think of that song by the Flogging Molly that goes:

"Well it breaks my heart to see you this way

the beauty in life where's it gone?

Somebody told me you were doing OK,

somehow I guess they were wrong"

But. It was a great concert, and I loved every minute of it.

Altogether, it was a great, great festival, and I really want to go again next year and see as many concerts as I can. There really is nothing like live music with cool people around you, in my opinion. And then you can go have a dring and talk about the coolest bands you saw and all, and it's still great memories years after. What was the coolest band you ever saw? I need to know! I need to know who I have to see next year!

Love is hard...

2009-08-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Hi Reader !!

Here's a new top 5 ! A new Top 5 inspired from my sister F's Blog a few weeks back. The Top 5 Things I love even though I'm terribly ashamed to admit it. It's such a brilliant top 5 idea. And yes, there are things that I am STILL ashamed to admit, even though I already told you so many shameful stuff. Let it be known that I still hesistate here, line 5 of this post. Maybe I'll just give up and not publish this message. But let us be brave and write on. Nobody reads this anyway. And those who actually do probably know I have to be ashamed of a lot of stuff. Bollywood, musicals, my multiple crushes on nine tenth of hollywood actors (notwithstanding Orlando Bloom), my hopeless love of Dr Who... Aaaaah, so many things I should be ashamed of, and stand up for, against all odds... (whatever...)

Well, enough procrastination, here comes the actual top 5.

1. Rrrrrrrrrghhhhhhaaaaaaaacan't say it ! Can't say it !! Thhhhhhe Twiiiilight-----(Ok, ok, no one knows my actual name. No one is interested anyway. Go on ! Go on ! Breathe ! It's easier if you say it fast...) Hhhhhh... hhhhhh.... THE TWILIGHT SAGA. Feels better now it's out.

Yes. The Twilight saga. I read the four books in two weeks, stayed up all night to know the ending, and found it great. I liked it, I liked it, and I firmly intend to go ahead a read them again some time soon. Also I went to the cinema, and saw the movie, and will go ahead and pay for my ticket to watch the second one, might even watch it twice and pay both times. And even though I laughed at the sutpid joke that goes "what do you get when you cross a disco ball with a douchebag" and the answer was Edward Cullen (yeah, cause in Twilight, vampires glitter. I also laughed when I found out...) I still must admit it. I liked the books very much.

2. English-old-lady style dresses. Put a dress with tiny pink flowers on it in any clothes shop, you can be sure that I will take a fancy to it. If given the choice, I would probably look like an English Gran all the time. Probably comes from all those Jane Austen books I read. By the way, have you seen "The Young Victoria" ? If you have not, you should, it was pretty good, and they had great dresses. It made me giggly (especially Sir John. Go, see The Young Victoria, and giggle at Sir John for me. His life is crap, he hates everyone, and he kicks the furniture around. I thought he was swell). I would like to see it again, actually. And Paul Bettany's in it. What a great, great link to point 3...

3. Well, I must admit, my kind of man. Tall, blond, blue-eyed. This is, I must say, quite shameful. And very unoriginal. But well. Here it is.

4. My willingness to see anything that's a musical. Even if it's French. Even if it's Le Roi Soleil and I bought the CD. Oh, no, no, no, this is never going to be published on my blog for all to read. Le Roi Soleil, yes, I must admit. This is sooo less cool than secretly being a gothic punk fan and listening to Hard Kaur, F, if you hear me... But well, I liked it. I still kind of do ("Je fais de twaaah mon essentieeeellle..."). Still recovering.

5. Oh so many songs and groups and music styles that I KNOW are not particularly clever but still love to listen to, very loudly, in my MP3 player while I brush my teeth. Rihanna, Britney Spears, the Sugababes (oh my...), and the Spice Girls, and also, even, too, Billy Crawford). There. I said it. I wrote "I love to listen to Billy Crawford" on my blog.

Help me ! Tell me what you love and are ashamed of before I wilt and die !! Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You are my only hope.

Your butt is mine ! \o/

2009-07-17T02:41:00.000-07:00

I just can't believe I finally found a good reason to put this as a title here. Anyway. Yeah, cause "I'm bad". You'll understand in a minute. But first, a big question, adressed mostly to my sister F: What does Michael Jackson say, in Bad, that sounds like "shamoo, shamoo"? Anyone?

Ok, now for the actual post : Today, my top 5 favourite actors who look perfectly evil without even trying.

1. Rufus Sewell. This whole post is actually just an excuse to write something about Rufus Sewell. He looks evil, he squints a little (or maybe one of his eyes is bigger than the other, I can't decide), and he's got green eyes and curly black hair. I want green eyes and curly black hair on the 7 feet tall and cape-wearing, curry-eating man I ordered for Christmas. Write that down, Santa! Rufus Sewell played in A Knight's Tale, which is one of my favourite comedies ever (featuring Paul Bettany. Crap. Paul Bettany's got no curly black hair, and blue eyes. Whatever, Santa. Take your pick.)

He also played in Dark City, where there is one of those scenes (oooh, I just found the theme of my next post!)... One of those scenes that make you shiver just thinking about it. Oddly enough, it involves another black-haired and green-eyed creature, who is, incidentaly, the wife of aforementionned Paul Bettany. This first paragraph is getting sooooo long... :D Well. Rufus Sewell.

2. Alan Rickman. I saw him first in Robin Hood when I was 8, and he said something to the effect of "I'm going to tear your heart out with a teaspoon ("why with a teaspoon ?") because the less sharp, the more painful". And then I saw him in Sense and Sensibility. Like Rufus Sewell, I saw him both as a nice and as a totally evil character, and loved him in both cases. Wait... Am I talking about Rufus Sewell again ?

3. Gary Oldman. Just for the "disappointed" thing in the 5th Element. Just for the 5th element. I have not seen him in much else, in fact. But just for this, he's got my vote. I really like the 5th element actually. Mostly because of Gary Oldman, I believe.

4. Thomas Gumpert. Yeah, I also did not know the name until 30 seconds ago (thanks, IMDb), and you probably don't know the face. He's the guy who plays the villain in a stupid German telenovela I'm watching at the moment in order not to forget my German during the holidays (Ok, also because I really want to know the ending, and also because I'm slightly addicted. But the actors are actually very good, unlike the scenario which is as lame as they get).

Thomas Gumpert, then, who plays an evil German (how original). He looks very much like the stereotypical Nazi, I must say, with icy-blue eyes and he's kind of freaky (also he speaks German, which sends shivers down my spine). Yet he is so caricatural that he cracks me up. He smiles an evil smile, and you can see that the actor is actually having fun (or at least I like to believe he is). I'd like to meet him in person, I'm sure he's great fun. I can't see his evil smile without smirking too. And now I can't even see his face without smirking.

5. Paul Bettany. Comes 5th because he doesn't actually look evil without even trying, he just plays evil guys very often. But I love him in anything (except of course for Dogville (akh, bakh) and Firewall (ukh bukh) for very different reasons. And some other things were bad too. But I still love him). And he can look absolutely terrifying. Have you seen Gangster Nb 1, Reader ? He laughs and bares his fangs in an elevator, and the picture is burnt in my retinas. Very, very frightening.

Anyway. This is it for today's top 5 (I have no time left, lunch-break is nearly over). I am sorry for the lack of ethnic diversity in this post. I tried thinking of a black or asian evil looking actor whom I really love, and could not find any. The only asian actor I could think about was Takeshi Kaneshiro, and he's not evil at all. In the last movie I saw him in, which was quite good, he was cast as a wise military genius/zen master. About as believable as Orlando Bloom as Yoda. But hell... any role will make me happy... Have a nice day, reader !!

Paper planes

2009-07-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

Hello again, reader !

Yeah, two post in two days, I'm just in a crazy mood, don't get used to it...

First of all, let me wish a happy happy birthday to my brother P! Happy birthday P! Hope you have a really nice day!

Now to today's post: I have been to the movies recently to see "The Boat that Rocked" (called "Good Morning England" in the French version, God knows why...) and I liked it a lot, and it made me think about how great soundtracks can be, in movies. A few days before, I had watched Star Wars episode 4 with my mother (4, 5, 6, let me say it once more, the only Star Wars episodes worth watching) and it had reminded me how important soundtracks can be, in movies.

So here you are, my top 5 soundtracks (musicals excluded, because that's cheating, and I've done it already anyway...)

In order to keep me sane, please do refer to the Top 5 rules in the right-hand part of this blog!

1. Pirates of the Caribbean. The soundtrack just makes me happy. Also makes me march down the corridors of the subway with a Xena the Warrior Princess grin on my face, which I know is going to cause problems sooner or later. But there's really nothing quite like the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, except maybe for...

2. Star Wars. It's mythic and great, and I like that low, humming noise you get when Vador walks in, and I like the main theme, and just listening to the music at the beginning, with the text fading away in the starry sky, makes me feel like I'm 5 all over again. These movies, reader... I don't care what happens with the franchise now. These movies are just great.
3. Pride and Prejudice. This is the one I like to pretend I'm a 19th century English lady to. Especially on the train to Brussels. Going all "my is that couch slow" and batting my eyelids at my reflection in the window, pretending Mr Darcy is sitting in the seat in front of me. Of course, that's just before I fall asleep, start drooling on the seat and can only be woken up by the ticket punching guy after the third time he's called me and tapped on my shoulder. Less ladylike, but very entertaining for all the other people in the wagon.

4. O Brother Where Art Thou. This is not very original, I know, and the movie is actually not that great, but the soundtrack is just brilliant. I don't think I'll ever get sick of these Alison Krauss songs. I don't think I'll ever get sick of any of that soundtrack. Only problem is, I can't listen to it on public transportation, because I can't help but sing along, and there's only so much my dignity can take. Drooling and snoring is OK, singing is a no-no.

5. Slumdog Millionnaire. Not very original either, but really, really, those M.I.A. songs? That great, great one with the gun-noises? And listening to a song that goes "some I murder, some I let go" on the Parisian subway is also quite satisfying, I must say. It is possible that I have a murderous light in my eyes while doing so, but then again, I pretty much always have a murderous light in my eyes in the Parisian subway, so it's not too embarrassing. Pretty much everyone does. Thank you to my sister F, by the way, who both gave me the CD as a present and pointed out to me what the singer was saying. I thought it was "sam sam sama sama mah dah". Now my life has changed.

Anyway, here it was, my top 5 soundtracks. I have to say it. I probably have forgotten some great ones. Elizabethtown, Juno, Shrek, Shrek, Shrek (crap, I've forgotten Shrek...) all kinds of great soundtracks. Don't resent me.

Have a nice day, reader!

Elle est dans ma tête, elle ne m'abandonne jamais

2009-07-07T04:21:00.000-07:00

These, readers, are the words of a stoopid French song. They mean "she's in my head and she never forsakes me". It's exactly what happened to me with the stupid song, which is now constantly playing in my head, and driving me crazy. Call me Jukebox-girl.

Anyway, I'm not here to complain about the radio (yet), but to say hi, because I have not been writing in a terribly long time. I've been sitting the Big Oral Exam From Hell, which I passed (yay!), and then going to Cracow in Poland on an internship (yay again!).

The internwhip was great, except we interpreted for a guy for 4 hours, and he then proceeded to tell us that he had actually understood the original version all along, and we needn't have bothered, with the happiest grin I had seen in quite a long time. But it was a nice experience anyway, and we would just have sat there and been bored if he had told us he didn't need us any sooner, so no big deal.

I then moved back to France, and slept for 10 days straight, which was nice indeed, and now I am in Paris, working, which is nice too. It's sunny here, and also I'll get paid at the end of the month (yay!) and I have a little time to blog on my lunchbreak, which is nice too.

Of course, it would be a good idea to work on my thesis and/or on my German (which I'll have to sit again in Spetember... could someone please do something for my grammar?) during my lunchbreak instead of coming here and telling you all about my rivetting life, only you know me... besides, my fingers are all sticky because of the soy sauce that came with the japanese meal we ordered for lunch, so you'll understand that I can't possibly write anything serious with sticky fingers. (Just kidding, IT guy who probably reads my blog like 15 milion other readers at least, of course, I washed my hands thoroughly and never eat anywhere near my keyboard).

Well, I'll have to run, now, I just wanted to say that I was still pretty much alive and give you some news, before writing something more interesting and focused some time soon, I promise. Have a nice day in the meantime !!

Standard de Liège, olé olé olé

2009-06-12T07:54:00.001-07:00

Well hello reader ! It's been quite a long time since I last wrote, but I've been very busy (for real, what a nice change...) Indeed, it's exam time again, and I took the first of a long and dreadfuls series of oral exams on monday (I started with German, which is a good thing, insofar as it's... well... not my main strength, let's put it that way so I'm just glad I'm done with it. Till September anyway... -_-'')

The other exams were not that bad, but it's not finished until the Big and Evil Jury of Death which is on Tuesday. I don't know yet if I really am going to go. I consider a lot of alternative careers, nearly all of which involve the words "vodka", "country singer", "under a bridge" or all three... Anyway. Since I am going to leave Brussels soon, whatever the outcome of the exams, I wanted to tell you about another Belgian top 5 : The top 5 things I'll remember about the Place du Luxembourg.

1) The European MP's walking around in their nice charcoal suits and shiny shoes. They are all very serious and elegant, and they always have their name tag hanging around their necks, which oddly reminds me of the "Unaccompanied Minor" things that they make you wear when you are taking the plane alone. Like "If lost, please return to seat 234, European Parliament, Brussels"...
And also I love how they all have backpacks with teeeeeny tiny straps and then their backpack is stuck just under their heads and their suits are all crumpled up. It looks a bit like their backpack is holding their arms up. I whish I worked at the European Parliament, then I'd get to see them wriggle and writhe to try and extract their arms from said straps. But don't mind me and my evil mockery, I'm just jealous is all. One day I'll work at the EP too, and I'll be wearing the shortest backpack straps of them all... Just wait and see.

2) The Liege Football team winning the Belgian football cup. I was "working" on my Big and Evil Paper from Hell, and then I heard quite a lot of noise downstairs, so I decided I'd go and have a look (I had been working for 5 minutes straight, and thought I deserved a break.) Never seen that many people peeing on such a small surface at once before. Amazing. All the supporters in a line, peeing on the wall of the sport's bar. I wish I'd had my camera...

3) The homeless guy who asks for money downstairs. He always says he accepts checks and credit cards, and he cracks me up. He looks a little like crocodile dundee, and once told me I had saved his dog, because he would have had to eat it if I had not been there to help him out with his lunch money. I then said "well, it would have been nice with a little ketchup and stuff" and he looked at me like I was weird. Anyway.

4) The unbearable crazy drunk who wanders under our windows screaming rubbish all the time. I don't mean screaming "RUBBISH" all the time, I mean screaming rubbish as in... well, you know. He's rude.

5) The Delhaize downstairs where I spend 85% of my money buying a lot of very unhealthy stuff. Especially now that it's exam time. I pretty much feed on sugar and fat now. I am always afraid that the students who work at the Delhaize downstairs think I am some sort of alien creature who eats only broccoli and mars bars. I do have the complexion of a broccoli eating alien right now, so I don't blame them, I just hope they won't call the FBI or anything. But then again, I might get a Dana Scully autograph for my brother...

Anyway. I'm going to get back to work now (trying to find some interesting speech in German...) I hope you aree doing fine. Oh, and if you've got a little time, go see Craig Ferguson singing on Malinky's blog. She's got the greatest YouTube channel ever, and uploads Craig Ferguson's show every night. I'll be forever thankful, Malinky!

Have a nice day!

Seems like everywhere I go...

2009-05-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

The more I see, the less I know...

Ok, granted, it's not too original. But hell. That's a good song. In fact I was on the verge of a terrible panick attack tonight, and then I went and saw a Craig Ferguson video on YouTube (I've been doing that a lot when I was on the verge of a giant panick attack, which has happened often this week. I love it. And then I make stupid private jokes with myself all the time...) Anyway.

I was looking at Craig Ferguson videos on YouTube (because I don't have CBS here at my flat) and then I saw that video of Michael Franti & Spearhead, and suddenly I felt much better. I do hope it will have the same effect on you. Especially if your back is stuck. But I'm just saying.

Spread love, reader ! Weee heeeheehee...

PS: Here's the non-live version if you like those better. I know I often do.

Space cowboy

2009-05-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hi reader!!

I have a question to put to you. What do you do, when you learn that the thesis you have to wirte, due in 7 days, must be 100 pages instead of 40?

You get to work, stop sleeping, replace meals by Red Bull and coffee and consider brewing your own vodka with old potatoes in a plastic bottle under your mattress?

Ooooor, maybe... you pretend nothing happened, work little by little, hide the panick under a thick layer of sugar and go to the movies? That's what I did. I liked it.

I went to see Star Trek, since I am planning to become a geek in order to understand all the jokes and references in The Big Bang Theory. I liked it. I like all these recent movies that are very first degree and could have been shot 30 years ago. Star Trek perfectly qualifies, and it was really great. Only it's still shows that it's a modern movie, since the special effects are very, very pretty and I think the costumes have been slightly updated.

There were some things that I did not like though. For example, the guy cast as Jim Kirk. You can only be so ridiculously caricatural and not lose me (Not true at all. I am very, very hard to lose. But that guy? With the blue eyes and the squint?) And the music too. The music was a little weird. Though I loved the title music which was basically just TAM TAM TAM TATAM. Got me in the mood for the rest of the movie.

Anyway, I thought it was really nice, and I secretly believe it dealt with nuclear weapons and why they are not good for you. I like making up my own secret meanings for movies as much as I hate reading those of other people. I have a great secret meaning for Joss Whedon's new series Dollhouse. Probably completely obvious secret meaning. Interested in knowing?

If you hate reading the secret meanings other people discover in movies (like ""Singing in the Rain" is a metaphore for McCain's campaign and why it failed" or whatever weird stuff you sometimes read on the Internet) then do not proceed with the reading. (Is that English, or do I just sound like a douche?)

Well, the Dollhouse is a series where people are emptied of their own personalities and kept in a super-secret underground base. They are then imprinted with a new personality and sent on missions. I thought at first it was about whether you are a body or a soul and, if you are a soul then where is it exactly, in your body, or in your memories and stuff. But I think, in the end, what I get from it is more a story about what we do with ourselves.

It's like we were all our own little Dollhouses. We go on missions and we want to have new personnalities in order to be able to face the challenges, so we make room for the new character to step in. Only sometimes it's a little complicated not to forget who we were in the first place, and if you do a bit, which is a compulsory part of growing up, then when one of your "mission" personnality is outdated or falls, like a mask, maybe because you are a little tired or because there's no one here at the moment to remind you of what you are exactly, then you feel like you're empty and meaningless, like the empty Dolls of the series.

I'm not saying we all are empty deep inside or anything that pessimistic and depressing, just that you may feel this way once in a while because you realise that you can't remember who you are exactly. I feel that it's because I am not exactly the same person depending on the context and on who I'm with. In real life, though, I like the fact that you make your own imprints. People around you may change the mission. But you make your own imprints. I like it.

Anyway. This is starting to sound half-Gollum, half-Dr Phil, so I guess I am just going to go to bed now. Yes. That will be nice... HIT THE PILLOW !!

Live long and prosper ! (I bet you did not expect that one...)

Explosions in the sky

2009-05-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hey reader !

I bet you don't know the song, because it's not very famous at all, but it is still a song, and most appropriate for tonight's post. As you probably know, Brussels, Belgium, is the capital city of Europe (Kind of. I believe it's Strasbourg, people in Luxemburg believe it's Luxemburg (har har) and I guess people in Germany believe it's Berlin, because of the symbol and all.) But Brussels, I think, is the real capital city of Europe. It's the most European place I've ever been to, whatever that may mean.

So tonight, they had a great European celebration (the Festival of Europe, it's called) and there were fireworks tonight, which I saw from my window. And here's tonight top 5, therefore, the "Top 5 random things that went through my mind while watching the Festival of Europe's fireworks" (that's one top five I bet you did not expect. I thought about doing the "Top 5 actresses I'd most like to look like", but then I changed my mind. Maybe later)

Anyway.

1) I don't know why I hated firworks so much as a kid (apart from their being noisy and loud and terrifying, and the fact that I'm afraid of big crowds, especially the ones that drink stale beer from plastic cups on the 14th of July (and I do mean 14th, it's not a typo, I'm French, goooo team baguettes, I heart frog legs and snails, give me my beret, I need to go on strike and march down the streets singing the Marseillaise)

2) If I hear someone tomorrow saying "I wish they would not use up all our taxpayer's money to blast stupid gunpowder in the sky for 15 minutes, we're in a recession and all going to die, they should save it to subsidise baby seals' feeds", I might get a tiny little bit agressive. I'm glad we can do something pretty and light and poetic with the taxpayer's money for a change. Without that, it would all just be business, and I do hope Europe's more than that.

3) I'm very glad I chose to become an interpreter. It's because of Europe and all, international community and stuff. I'm glad I chose to become an interpreter. I do hope I'll manage to get my diploma. WRITE THE DAMN THESIS, CLAIRE ! (I read my own blog, so why should I not leave a little message to myself, huh?)

4) At some time during the fireworks, however, I decided that I did not have a good enough view from my window, so I joined my roommates who were watching it from the roof. The next thing that went through my mind, as I was climbing the fire-escape ladder barefoot, was how important it is, in life, to have the appropriate shoes. One should always take time to consider footwear before coming out of their room (especially in their pyjamas at midnight in Belgium). Might help one not freeze to death and enjoy the fireworks without one's feet turning blue. Also they looked like they had been barbecued, since the floor up there was an iron grid. Things are better now. I added a hot water bottle to the comforter I was wrapped up in before, and things are going great.

5) Even if you don't feel like you belong and you don't know what to tell them and they look a little puzzled everytime you open your mouth, it's nice to have roommates.

So there you are, reader, tonight's Festival of Europe fireworks. Hope you had a nice saturday and will have a nice sunday too. Any random thoughts you'd like to share with me?

Chanda mama

2009-04-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hey reader !

I was a little tired today when I came back from class, and I needed to get to work but did not, and then I felt a little bad, and then I went there

http://www.playingforchange.com/episodes/7/Chanda_Mama

And I suddently felt much, much better. So if you're feeling tired and down, go there, listen to this one and the other ones too, maybe bake some brownies or something, and everything will suddently feel much, much better.

Good evening !! (Next time, I promise, I'll post a real post and not just a link)

<3

All you need is...

2009-04-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Reader ! Reader ! Hark !

This weekend, my sister M got married. Look at her! Is she not pretty?

Yes she is.

The wedding has been "being prepared" for nearly a year, now, and I've been wanting to tell you, and then I felt silly, because you know, when something's big like that, you never really know what to say, and though I'm OK with being silly, it's more difficult to... well... that's it right here. A very good example.

The ceremony and the party were great, I got a chance to see all of my huge family, and also the huge family of my brother in law, V.

I see my sister M and her brand new husband V pretty often these days since I am studying in Belgium where they are currently living. In fact, V is Belgian, like the chocolate, and that's not the only thing they have in common. Indeed, V is very very nice, and has a knack for being supportive when you're down.

(V, if you hear me, sorry again for the total meltdown this summer, after the interpreting school incident. If you had not been there to look slightly confused and make me a nice, strong coffee, I'd probably have been reduced to an alternative form of life. I'm so very glad my sister M's got you to make her a nice, strong cup of coffee and look slightly confused whenever she needs it, because I wouldn't want my sister to be reduced to an alternative form of life). Indeed :

My sister M's perfect as she is. Have you seen her? Scroll back up, and get a second look. There are not so many things you can be sure of, and everything changes very fast, and nothing is ever for certain, and why did the chicken cross the road, and what about black holes and the speed of light, but one thing I know for sure is: Everyone, everywhere, needs an awesome big sibling like the ones I've got. I should know, I've got three.

I wish I could tell you all about my big siblings, and I wish I could tell you all about how great it is to see all my family and my mum and dad and aunts and uncles and grand-mothers and cousins, only I can't, because by the time I'd be finished just with the immediate circle, I'd be old and gray, and I've got important things to do (like seing them in person). But let it be known that my family, new brother in law included, is the awesomest in the whole universe, and I wish you the same one.

Spread love, Reader!

PS: The great picture's courtesy of my friend V (she's not the same person as my step-brother V. Same initial is all :)! What a nice picture! Thanks!

Call me up before you're dead, we can make some plans instead...

2009-04-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Heeey reader!

I told you this was going to happen... I said "I'll have to work on my thesis, so I'll be here babbling away pretty soon"... Well, here we are. I sat down half an hour ago, highly motivated and wheezy (stupid month of April strikes again... And it's even worse than last year...) and here I am already, not having written a single serious word...

Anyway, still, I'm going to try to keep it slightly short, so that I can still manage to do some work before it's 6 pm.

I just wanted to tell you about a few articles and blogs I have read lately, and how you should go have a look at them and all.

a) This blog, if you want to see beautiful pictures (better to know French, but you can manage without it too). Eerie and cwoool.

b) This interview of David Tennant and Russel T. Davis. I know I should be ashamed. But today, they are showing the first of Tennant's last four episodes as the doctor. Please indulge me. Besides, it's a cool interview.

c) This blog. It's huge and it's funny and it's updated every five minutes or so (I'm sure that woman does not exist. She can't possibly do that many things all alone. I think she's a team. I wish I could have a team, then I could stay on my bed and read her blog all day. Only that's not true, my dream life is not to stay on my bed all day being a no-life. That's just my life in Belgium. Hu hu hu...)

Anyway. I just wanted to tell you about these three. I'll try to go on to write something interesting and serious and academic now. Please, please, let me write something interesting. Please, please, please, I so wish I could hand that paper in some day.

Have a nice day, reader! A bientôt!

Don't ever let your mind stop you from having a good time

2009-03-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hello hello !

It's been verrrrry long since I have last written here, and I really am sorry. The good news is that I have plenty of things to tell now! I've had plenty of internships lately, and then my awesome friend V came and visited me and we had a great week together in Brussels, partying and visiting and sleeping a lot too, I must admit, and now I am back in Colmar for two weeks holidays before.... oh before something, reader, if you knew :) (Only you probably do, since 5/6th of my readership is part of my family) --I promise I'll tell you, only I need to figure out something, like, really good.

Anyway, I've been going all over Belgium, one city a day for the past few weeks, and it was great. I want to Ostende (internship) and to Blankenberge (for fun !), both of which are on the Belgian coast, which is always nice (I've got a thing with the sea. No matter how ugly the coast might be, if you turn your back to the land and watch the far-dom, it's always, always a nice feeling. Also I like to play in the sand and bury my feet in it and write stuff in it with my fingers and look at the shellfish, and then when I get bored with the silly stuff, it makes me want to lay flat on my back and wait forever. It's a feeling I get a lot, lately, I must say. The urge to lay flat on my back and wait. But then I get bored with that too, get up and go eat some free-trade chocolate.

I also made a stop in Marchienne au Pont, on an intership, before Blankenberge and the fun part started. Whatever you do, in your life, wherever life brings you, I would recommend that you avoid Marchienne au pont on a friday night at 7 p.m. It is probably the most depressing place on earth, even on a bright sunday morning at the beginning of spring, but on a rainy evening, when it's just getting dark (you know that particular twilight light that makes everything look a little bit dirty) it is really very depressing. Go to Blankenberge instead. Avoid Marchienne au Pont.

Anyway. I also wanted to tell you about another thing which is very nice to do on the beach, and that is listening to I'm Yours, by Jason Mraz, sharing headphones with your best friend. We went to see him live with V and our friend A (who was a perfect hostess and provided Cecemel for all) last tuesday, and it was just brilliant. Really really nice. The first part of the concert was Marit Larsen (if you don't know her, she's made a very fast and amazing climb on my "The people I'd like to be if I wasn't me" list, check her out on YouTube, it's really nice and very very sweet. Maybe too much so if you're not in the mood, but still).

And then the second part of the concert was Jason Mraz, I already told you about him, and I must once again thank my german friend A (hey A! Haven't talked to you in forever! I hope you're doing good!) for making me aware of how great he was, and I don't just mean "I'm Yours", though it is the best song ever written (This week. Might change soon. But this week it definitely is. Honestly, who can resist I'm Yours? It's so nice! It's nice and pretty and it makes you want to smile. I love that song.)

Well, that's basically the news from me, back in Colmar. I promise that I'll try to write a little more regularly over the newt few days (probably going to happen since I have to work on my thesis (also called "*shout curses* bloody paper from hell *shout curses again*", but don't tell anyone I said that))

I have to go now, shopping time, but have a really nice day. And here's to V for coming to Belgium to visit me even though she'd already been there and for being awesome and taking cool pictures that I can put on my blog.

Spread love ! (what do you mean, "stop that hippie crap, Claire, the concert's been over for a week now"? Go pick some flowers and bake cookies, and don't be so cynical.)

Follow the light

2009-03-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Reader! I have not been here in quite a long time, but I am back today for a top five, the top five things that kept me away from thinking about my beloved blog lately. It also goes under the name of "top five worries in our hero's rivetting life" (I guess maybe I'll change my blog's name. "Our Hero's Rivetting Life" sounds much classier than "Bloody Blunder", you have to admit.)

Anyway. Back to business.

1) The Prom Ball. Hell yeah ! XD
I get to go to a prom ball this year, for the first time of my life, though it is my last year at the university if all goes well. Only
a) I don't have a ticket yet and the pre-sales are over

b) No one has asked me "are you going to the ball" looking excited that I might be there, and I don't mean a guy, I mean any kind of person. (I did ask that very same question to everyone I met before even sayinig "hi", without giving them the slightest chance to ask first.. I think I'm the only one for whom that ball's such an issue. The others have been spoilt by too many balls, and are completely blasé).
Besides, good news, I was invited to the pre-ball party today. Not quite officially, but still. I can officially crash. You won't know what's coming, pre-ball party-ers !

c) I'm not so sure about my dress anymore. It's a kind of Indian thingy which looks really nice, but I'm afraid that it will look weird, and I already look weird enough with my six feet on the dance floor. And I mean six feet as in the size. I have the right number of feet at the ends of my legs, thank you very much.

d) I have the strange impression that I sound like a stupid high-school sophomore (throwing hysterics about how she deosn't have a daaaaaaayyyyte and how her dress looks all wrooooong). Do I really? Yes I do.

2. Next year. As I mentionned, this is my last year at the university (if all goes as planned, which is not guaranteed. Do not kill the bear before selling its skin. No wait. Do not skin the bull without selling a cart. Crap. You see what I mean, I'm sure.)

I am worried about not finding a job and not knowing what to do. But I'm sure things will work out. German's said to be a very good weapon on the interpreter's job market. German's a very good weapon anywhere, if you ask me, it nearly killed me more than once.

3. Becoming an interpreter. I'm training to be an interpreter. I love being an interpreter. It's a brilliant job, the most entertaining in the whole world, if you ask me, and you get to speak a lot. I like speaking. But mostly I like learning things everyday and knowing a little something about everything. So I am not worried about the "will I like my working life" part.
I am however worried about the atmosphere and the people. Most of the professionals I have met up till now were all extremely serious and professional and impressive. I feel very much not up to the standards.

4. Writing my final paper. It's supposed to be like a trillion pages, and I have not gotten properly started yet (and by that, I mean that I got kicked out of the office of the person I was supposed to gather most of my info from). I have a plan, though. A scheme. Ideas and documents and contacts. But will I ever really get around to writing anything worth reading?
Let us hope I will. If I don't, I'll write a little poem instead of the introduction, and tap-dance at the oral examination. (Is that not a brilliant failsafe plan?)

5. Other stuff. Lots of other stuff. Some things are not worries but puzzlement, anticipation, excitement, patience, doom, and generally sensing a revolution in the air.

Whish me luck, reader! And have a good evening. Do tell me about how you felt at the end of your studies too. Maybe with your help I can decide how I feel at the end of mine ;)

Ode to joy

2009-02-23T12:15:00.000-08:00

I spent the summer in a crap-town

Called Saarbrücken in Deutschland
I've been bored and I've been broodin'

From June up to homecomin'

I lived with ugly slugs

My room was full of bugs

I hated life, I wanted home
Drank vodka out of mugs

But one mornin', came a'rollin'

Straight from heaven

Tanned and dashin'

The Bus Seventy-Seven !

Oh, bus driver, my bus driver,

I'll never forget thee

You were the sunshine of my summer

But d'you remember me ?

I've seen you once, I've seen you twice

And then you disappeared,

"Timetable change" was my demise

It shouldn't have interfered

If I could've, then I would've

Looked into your eyes

But you were looking at the road

Which probably saved my life

And each mornin' I sat waitin'

Dressed up to the nines

For you to come a'rollin'

In that big bus of thine

OOOOH, bus driver, my bus driver,

I'll never forget thee,

I wish all other drivers

Would be so nice to me !

PS : Dear reader, I hope you enjoy this magnificent bit of high-profile poetry. I've just had a brilliant week-end with my sisters, and I'm in a great mood. Here's to you, F and M !

Mmm mmm mmm mmm

2009-02-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

(That's a song, by the way. Crash Test Dummies, as I'm sure you'll have guessed)

Anyway. I have been, once again, reading that blog, which has been recommanded to me by my sister M, and now I want to eat this, more than anything. I want to eat this when it's still nice and warm, and I want to bake it before, and I want to smell the smell of the hot chocolate in the pan, and I want to smell the smell of the butter melting, and then I want to feel the icing under the knife, and then I want to eat the cake. Eat the Cake. Eat the Cake ! Eaaaaat the caaaaake ! It has replaced all other ambitions. It has become my purpose in life, and my sole obsession. My quest.

But apart from that, I'm OK.

So since I don't have chocolat, or butter, or sugar, or pecan nuts or vanilla, or eggs (in fact, all I have is a pack of flour, and a longing heart) I figured I'd come here and tell you about the cake of my dreams. Some day, I'll go buy some groceries, and that day, reader, I shall be avenged.

Right now, I'm trying to fight off bankruptcy and overweight (why not kill two birds with one stone, after all, let my being broke have a silver lining !), but soon enough... soon enough... I'll go to the Delhaize Express downstairs, and buy all the ingredients. And when that happens, I will take pictures and post them here.

But apart from that, I'm OK.

Have a nice day, reader, and forgive that silly post !

If there's a rocket tie me to it

2009-02-18T17:40:00.000-08:00

Is that not a brilliant song title, reader ?

Well, well, reader, it's late again, and I can't sleep again, and I don't know why ! No green tea today, nothing that could possibly explain why I'm more awake now than I was this morning during my German class. I reached a new German-class low today, and got my teacher to say that I annoyed him. I would try and be a smart-ass and say that's what I was going for, but I must admit, it would not be true.

I was drenched in cold sweat and praying to make it out of the room alive, and then I forgot all about declination and grammar. And the teacher actually said "it is really getting on my nerves." In so many words (only in German). I do believe I had managed to convince some teachers that I was a hopeless case (with the cunning use of swedish verbs and a completely radom declination system) ... I remember one in Graz, who had told me my grammar was as bad as my vocabulary, and that she really did not see what she could do for me... But never had I in fact managed to make them personnally feel annoyed. (Hey ! My very first auto-link to the single most self-pitying post in the history of this blog !)

But honestly, though, it did not bring me down too terribly, since I really felt that I had done a good job in the simultaneous translation that we had done moments before, and since I knew I had done a very bad job while he was listening to me.

Somehow, when I feel I've done a good job, I'm never the one that we listen to, and today, as I was even considering offering my candidacy for the correction, we realised that the booths had a problem and our speech had not been recorded...

It's funny, because yesterday I was all alone in class, since my two classmates had an internship, and once again, I had no chance of escaping the scrutinous ear of my teachers... that's when my stupid brain decided it was time to launch into one of those great ocular migraine crap sessions, where you can't focus and see bright flowers all around and get tingles in your cheeks. Let me tell you I had a great time convincing them I was not on cocaine. ("No, it's like a migraine, only it doesn't hurt, and it makes me see things... and sometimes I get all.. allif... afuse... acon... a little ! confused ! With ! Wordjjjz !")

Anyway. Apart from that, there is not much to say of my life in Brussels, it's been dreadfully dull lately, and I've been spending a lot of time watching movies. I have watched one today, in fact, called Dor, it's an indian movie, and it's brilliant, but the subtitles are only available in English.

So I figured, Claire, my dear (yeah, I call myself my dear, especially when I have annoyed my German teacher, and when I'm out of chocolate), why don't you translate them yourself, so that your French-speaking friends can watch it too... So I downloaded a sub-titling (sub-titleing?) programme. Then I spent about three quarters of an hour trying to work on the first three minutes of an episode of Dr Who (I was just training. Don't sigh. I'm not watching the whole series all over again a third time. At least not this month ^^).

Of course, I did not get very very far, but you never know, maybe tomorrow !

In the meantime, reader, good night, sweet dreams, and à bientôt.

PS: Here's to my sister M who also had a headache today. Hope you're feeling better !!

Keep myself awake...

2009-02-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hi reader ! Good morning ! It's eleven past five a.m. here in Brussels, and I have been struggling to get to sleep for hours, and I still can't, so I figured I'd come and tell you some stuff about what I did lately !

I've not been writing very regularly recently, somehow, because I've had quite a lot of internships (Ha ha ha. Who am I kidding ? I've been doing a lot of nothing, watching series all the time and reading the Twilight books. Much as I hate to admit it here in public, they are quite good, and really badly addictive. I just wish she would stop talking about his "muscular chest" and how he "looks like an angel". Because it makes me laugh, and it spoils the mood. Oh ! And I've also been reading this blog which has proven to be addictive too, and then I had used up all my daily screen time and had none left to come here and tell you my opinion about everything...)

But still, I've had a lot of internships, a "fake" one at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (which was really cool, because it was an internship in a prestigious European institution, but I still felt a little like I was on holidays because I could go on seeing my French friends and family), a magic one in The Hague, which was as cool as they get, mostly because of the Shakespeare-quoting Irishman for whom we got to work and the fact that we generally had a lot of fun, while it was still interesting and possible to follow and well-organized. Please, hire me again, people !

And then today, I had another one (a fateful one, should I say), in Brussels, for my own school, which had organized a "Chinese New Year" event.

As you might have guessed, I was the interpreter for the "tea" workshop, and have been, therefore, drinking Oolong, Pu-er and other weirdly-named beverages for pretty much 7 hours non stop, and now I am hyper. High on caffeine. Oh, and I also had a double espresso on my way home at around 7 p.m. because I was feeling a little sick and wanted to sit down some place warm before actually going to bed.

Good idea, Einstein.

But the workshop was really interesting, I learnt plenty of stuff about tea, actually enjoyed a cup of tea without sugar in it, and it was all very lovely. Also I liked the way there were some complete ignoramus (ha ha ha, ignoramus... that's why I like dictionnaries so much...) on the one hand, and some very educated people trying to do things by the rule on the other...

The lady who presented her rare and precious teas, and said things like "smell the herbal and flowery flavour that stays in your mouth as an aftertaste" or "it is very herbaceous". She was handing a little pot with the wet leaves in it for us to smell, and to compare and indeed, even though I am not one for warming up the cups before pouring the tea (what difference could it possibly make, honestly), they did all smell a little different... and the temperature too ! It actually made a difference ! I was beginning to see things ! I had entered the Matrix (or whatever)!

And then a weird old man said "OOOOH ! CA SENT LES EPINARDS" very very loud. So the tea-woman looked at me with question marks in her eyes, so I felt I had to translate... "he says it smells like spinach," I said, and I was very subdued... and then he went on to say "yesss, spinage, spinage, it's comme les spinage, ha ha ha" and she was all confused and not a little annoyed.

He he he. I do love that future job of mine.

Have a nice day, reader !

J'ai dix ans...

2009-01-30T12:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Reader !

I've been going to the movies on a near-daily basis recently, and yesterday was the turn of "Inkheart", with Paauuuuuuul Bettany.

Paul Bettany, as I might have mentionned before here, is my favourite actor in the whole world. Inkheart, however... how can I put it...

It was part of thoses movies I've seen recently that should have come out years ago. That includes 300 (that should have come out some time around when the movie is supposed to be set, whenever that is (I don't know what it is about BC dates, I don't have any frame of reference, so I won't even venture a guess)) (crap, double brackets ! I'm getting bracket-madness again !), Twilight (which should have come out when I was 13... That would have driven me literally crazy) and some other movies as well.
In fact, now that I come to think of it, if I ever have children, I'll turn them into Paul Bettany fans. I'll brainwash them. I'll call them Paul and Paula (if there are more than two, then I'll add numbers), and when they'll be 5, I'll make them watch Inkheart (though it was not very good, it might seem cool to a five year old).

Then when they turn 12, I'll show them A Knight's Tale, and that will win them over forever.

Then when the Pauls get to 14 or 15 and become completely lame, I'll show them Firewall, I bet they'll find it awesome. Besides, they will like the fact that Han Solo's in it too (yeah, because I'll make them be fans of Star Wars as well !!)

When the Paulas get 16, and they get sweet and cute (yeah, you know how it goes, girls get cute and sweet, boys get lame and stop talking for 6 years). (OK, that about the girls getting cute and sweet was such a blatent lie I won't even try to defend myself. When we turn 14 or 15 we become extremely evil, and start talking non stop in order to fill in the terrible and dreadful void left by the male's trying out sub-sonic level whale language...) Aaaaanyway. When the Paulas get 16, I'll show them Wimbledon, and we'll have ice-cream evenings, dreaming about being 4 feet tall, like Kirsten Dunst, so that we can have the same height ratio, because they're such a cute couple.

Then when they all get rebellious and grungy, I'll fight with them over Dogville and say it's a very sucky movie, and they'll claim it's actually very good, just to annoy me (it is a very bad movie, but I won't go on with the rants, I've gotten angry too many times this year, and you already know my opinion about Dogville !)

Anyway. I'm going to go away now, because I'm dead tired and a second episode of Bones has just started (It's a pretty cool series, that one !), so I guess I'll watch it and try to keep my brain from running through my ears... Not an easy task that one, I can tell you ! Have a good evening !!

And they have a turny button too, and it lies to us

2009-01-19T15:54:00.001-08:00

Hi reader !

Just trying the "embed" thing on Youtube !

Have a nice day !

Things will never be the same again

2009-01-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I figured quoting the Spice Girls would be a good idea as a title for this post.

You might have heard me, reader, shamelessly spreading rumours about Colin Farrell having failed at the "Backstreet Boys" casting. In order to shamelessly make fun of him. Because he sometimes is ridiculous (Don't ask me why I chose to pick on Colin Farrell and spare all the others. I don't really know anymore. A lame interview in 98 or something...)

I have, in fact, used the sentence "did you know that Colin Farrell had failed at the Backstreet Boys casting" instead of the sentence "Hi, how do you do", for at least two years now. I even risked being beheaded by my friends on several occasions, so fed up were they by my constant reminder of the fact. It was, in short, my favourite piece of information about Hollywood. Even better than "did you know that Princess Leia is in fact the daughter of the cool girl in Singing in the Rain?", which I love too. (I'm not making fun of anyone there, it's just cool, I think.)

And today. Today. Today my world collapsed.

He did not, in fact, fail at the Backstreet Boys casting. He failed at the Boyzone casting. And that too, because he was too famous already and would have cast is magnificient shadow upon his co-boys-banders. You can't see me right now, reader, but I am crying. A simple mistake in the wording, confusing two groups which are basically the same... And now... All is lost.

I must say I felt happy for his Golden Globe, and had pledged to go easy on him after In Bruge anyway, which is a great movie, which I really love and which I plan to buy as soon as it's out on DVD in France, but now, I just feel empty. Confused and sad. I don't know if I will ever be able to get over it. Boyzone. All this time I've been lying.

Here's to you, Colin, if you can hear me. Here's my attempt at being forgiven.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mZorO0AzdU

And here's my dignity, reader. Take it out with the waste.

Marche à l'ombre...

2009-01-06T02:53:00.001-08:00

Ha ha, looks like 2009 is going to be "the year of the rants"... I have just read this article thanks to a link on the fabulously great IMDb website (this site is sooo much more than just a Yellow Pages for the movies !) and I thought it was a good top five idea. So here comes : My top 5 most annoying movie characters. This of course does not include girlfriends in movies just for the sake of it (like Kirsten Dunst, for example. She annoys me very much, especially in Wimbledon, but that's just because she's great, and all over Paul Bettany. It doesn't qualify) nor villains (because they are being annoying on purpose, and were they not here, I would be bored anyway).

And it's not in any kind of order, and it is not complete, nor eternal. In fact it will probably be different tomorrow. (I'm going to write some stuff here, and it will stay at the top of the page forever so that I don't have to write that stuff over and over again) (Done ! It's right there under my favourite websites !)

1. Jar Jar Bings. Yeah, I did get the idea of the blog from which the idea comes, but he really is the worst ever. When he appears in episode 1, you know instantly that Star Wars will never be the same again. Everytime I watch the former ones, I hope that they have not been spoilt by the new ones, and so far, they have not, but still. I resent Jar Jar Bings. I should probably create a facebook group called that. There are probably 120 facebook groups called that.

2. Buffy's riley. Spoilt one whole season out ouf not enough seasons. I resent Riley too. He has some of the most stupid dialogue lines in the history of Buffy. He looks like the perfect son-in-law, and one who would be a good step-brother to Smallville's Superman (what with the dead eyes and the stupid smile). What I liked most was when he said "I'm an anarchist". Suuuuure. And I'm Fidel Castro in a penguin outfit.

3. Legolas. Now, I will say it : I'm all for Orlando Bloom. He might look stupid and be too cute to be honest, he might even deserve a place on this website. Still, I like him. I even liked the blond wig. in fact, I'm not against Legolas himself, as such. It's just I have to revolt against the person responsible for his dialogues... I don't know if you ever noticed the amount of ridiculous things he says while running after the two kidnapped hobbits, tracked by Aragorn. Like The sun is red, this morning. A lot of blood must have been spilt last night.

You sound a lot like a drunk seaman to me, Orlando... And always stating the obvious in a dark, ominous voice... like "It's night. It's dark. I'm scared for our little furry friends, alone in the mountain". Well, My dear... "You're blond. You're lame. You dress like an ice-skating champion; You're losing me very fast". And I will ignore, here, the ridiculous scene where he surfs on a shield, because that's too much as it is to need additional comments.

4. Soooo many people in the Matrix. But I'll give the award to Monica Bellucci, just because she always gets all the credit and people are saying she's so great. REVENGE ! (Ok, that's low...) Her character has got no point, no purpose, and talks too much. This is also the case of the architect, who has no point, no purpose and talks forEVER. The Merovingian, who's played by a frenchman, is a disgrace to our great nation, and to the poor Lambert Wilson, who is in fact, not half as bad as he looks in the Matrix.

5. Lost's John Locke. I just wish he had been thrown in a hole full of dynamite in season one, exploded, and then drowned. It's not that I'm against the actor, even though he's ruining the "boeing full of models" thing... it's just that everytime there is something to be ruined... He's there to ruin it. He only talks in riddles (as if the whole island thing was not already riddly enough) and he's mean to everyone, he's a patronizing creep and he's trigger happy. I don't like him. Please make him go away.

Anyway. Anyone you find annoying, that's not on my list ?

... and a happy new yeaaaaar !!

2009-01-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

This post is cheating a little, I've started writing it a long time ago...

Heeeeeeee hehehe, reader ! I belieeeeve I can fly ! I believe I can touch the sky...

Sorry. I've just come back from the movies, where I went with my friend V to see the latest Baz Luhrmann, "Australia". I don't know about the movie itself, really, but Hugh Jackman! Don't expect me to write anything clever and smart tonight. I've seen him with a beard. I've seen him without a beard. I've seen him in a tuxedo. I've seen him without a tuxedo. I've seen him dressed as a cow-boy. Call me, Baz Luhrman, I've got plenty of new ideas for you XD

Anyway. I'm going to try to concentrate for a second and write a brand new top 3, i.e. the top three of things which are great for everyone, but just don't work for me.

SoooOooo... *stares, dreamy eyed, at the imaginary picture of Hugh Jackman smiling*

1) Relaxation. You know how they all say relaxation is good for you and helps you... well, relax. I keep trying to do that when I can't get to sleep at night, and I imagine I'm, like, floating on the sea, or lying in the grass in a summery field. Only I have some kind of weird disease, and I start figuring out high-tech security systems for my haven of peace, which tends to make it look less like a haven of peace, and more like Guantanamo.

Besides, all the engineering it takes to implement my security system eat up at least 2 hours of my sleeping time. Let me take an example, and try to clarify things a little bit: Take the floating on an ocean thing: it's OK for 5 minutes, but then I get frightened that I'll fall asleep, and drown. So I lie down on an imaginary air mattress and I try to relax. But then I think I'm going to drift, and maybe starve to death on my mattress in the middle of the ocean... So I tie it up to the shore. But then it's not so floaty anymore. So I have to imagine a system that anchors the matress to the bottom of the ocean, without piercing a hole in it, so that it does not deflate and I don't fall in the water and drown. But then what of exposure ?

And I won't even start on the lying in a field thing. Between hayfever, the bugs in the grass and the people who might kill me in my sleep, let me tell you relaxing is not exactly the first term that jumps to my mind...

2) Waxing my legs. The ad says "smooth and silky for weeks". I say yeah! The principle is that you stick a strip of wax, covered by a paper, on you leg. Then you pull. Then the wax comes off, with the paper, and then your legs are smooth and silky for weeks, apparently. That's what happens to people in general, and it does sound like a good idea.

As for me, the paper does come off, but NOT the wax which stays attached to my leg. And then good luck with the washing the wax off your damned legs. You try rubbing them with a tissue paper soaked in oil (grease is, apparently, the only thing that does the trick), but then the tissue paper stays stuck to the wax itself... at the end of the process, you legs look like they are covered in that gross black sticky stuff that remains after you took a plaster off your finger, they are red and sore, as far from smooth and silky as they can get, and they smell like pizza and detergent. Then mostly you hate life and want to march down the street and burn you bra. But maybe that's just me.

3) Joining a spur-of-the-moment party at my flat when I feel like staying in my room. Most people would say, if you're alone doing nothing worthwhile, it's always best to get out and socialize. So when people come knock on my door and say "care to join us for a drink, my friends are here, why don't you come", I nearly always do, because it's nice to be invited, and you never know who you might meet or the cool conversations that might ensue.

I remember talking for nearly two hours with a guy in Dublin about wether or not carrots had feelings (I know they don't. They're freaky and from hell, I'm sure they can't have a heart). I'm not sure that qualifies as "cool" but it was fun, anyway.

So I get out of my room, and join the fun, and after saying hi and smiling dumbly in a corner for 5 minutes or so, I usually end up using my super escape technique, get up, pretend to dance, move step by step towards the door, and when I reach it I whisper "good night, all" very softly (so that I have an excuse to get angry and self-righteous if they ever say I was rude, leaving without saying goodbye), and then make my escape as inconspicuously as I can (Lord, is that hard to spell...)

It's the two guests out of five being completely drunk that spoil the fun. It's OK when there are 15 people, you can always find someone to talk to, but when there are only 5 or 6... Too much attention focused on you. I go all Wall-E and some mechanical voice starts screaming in my head "too much pressure," "embarrassing," "better get back to the Tardis"...

You know it, I'm my flat's official boring grand-mother. You can tell they have not seen my smooth Rihanna groove from yesterday when I brushed my teeth ! I nearly tore my second molar out when S.O.S started. I'm a party girl, once I'm alone and wearing pyjamas !

Anyway. A grinchy first post for 2009, which I wish you full of success, love, health (Hugh Jackman) and fame. Happy new year reader !!

Although it's been said, many times, many ways...

2008-12-25T03:39:00.001-08:00

!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU !!!

Looking for you, Mr Castang

2008-12-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

Well, well, reader, I intended to spend the afternoon doing useful things and studying and being a good girl, but I got glued to the couch by the sweet sweet christmas spirit (it acted a bit like molten toffee, you know, and then you're trapped, forever). Since I am alone at home, I turned on the TV, and then all was lost...

It started with the 101 Dalmatians, (Hugh Laurie ! Incredible ! Hugh Laurie's in that !) then it went on with the stupidest film in history called something like "two lovers at christmas" or something, and then I changed channels and went on the watch a bit of something with Katie Holmes and Buffy's Riley (can't remember his name) and that was just so sweet it was too much (gave me the feeling of having eaten too many bredalas though I haven't even started with the Christmas anti-diet yet), so I changed channels again, and IT WAS DR WHO !!! So all is lost, I guess I'll just sit here until I'm completely rotten. :3

Anyway, since they are episodes I have already seen at least twice (oh that "Blink" one with the statues... Just brilliant, that's what it is), I figured I'd get my laptop, and tell you about my parisian week-end in a few words, while raising my eyes to enjoy the sight once in a while !

So ! Paris ! It was really great seing all my friends and we had a great time ! We went to the theater too, to see a play by Edouard Baer, who's a French actor and comedian, and it was absolutely brilliant. You know that thing I had with capes ? It has not improved since "A la recherche de Mr Castang". If you have the opportunity to check his work out, do, it's really cool. And he's got that talent to set my mood to great for at least two days. So thank you V, (my best friend V) for inviting me, it was a really great play and I loved it !

Apart from that, we went around, saw the Eiffel Tower, went to the Galeries Lafayettes and the Printemps and the Palais de l'Elysée, and it was really cool. Paris really is a great city, and it's particularly lovely at christmas, what with all the lights and all.

I also wanted to congratulate my friend A. who succeeded in entering the french Police Forces, which is her lifelong dream. I'm so happy for her, I figured I'd tell you, even though I don't think she comes here very often ! Yeah for you A !!!

Well, I hope the christmas spirit has not glued you to the couch, and if it has, well, move on, enjoy the cold, bake some cookies and have a nice day !!

Christmas boogie (aka : the post whith no purpose)

2008-12-19T06:09:00.000-08:00

Hi reader !!

Well, well, well isn't it nice ! I'm on holllidayyy !! Hark, the angels are singing ! (By the way, though I am aware this is very far from the appropriate Christmas spirit I should be showing, hark is a silly thing to sing. "Oooh Yeah, the angels are singing" or "All you need is love, the Angels are singing", I'd about understand, but hark ? anyway...)

I just finished my one and only mid-term exam, so I'm singin hark as well, and I must say I had a bit too much "Christmas spirit" myself (My roommate and I celebrated the end of my exams by having a drink, and I had apparently not eaten enough beforehand, which explains why I have to read over what I write over and over again, because I've got a bad case of christmas spirit-induced typing dyslexia.) Still, I wanted to share my glee.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I'm off to Paris this week end, I'm sleeping at my sister and then spending the week-end with my friends in the capital ! Watch out, Eiffel Tower ! I'll tell you about that as soon as I come back home to Colmar, as well as a full Bredala update. In the meantime, have a nice pre-Christmas week-end, and à bientôt from Colmar !!

When I feel heavy metal (woohooo!) and I'm pins and I'm needles (wooohooo!)

2008-12-12T09:48:00.000-08:00

Hi reader!

Some news from here in Brussels where I had my first real-life internship as in interpreter today! Weeeeeeheeee! I'm hyper hyper, I can tell you that much. High on adrenaline, I guess it's called. It did not go perfectly well, because it was a little difficult, but it went OK, and the man for whom I interpreted (a representative for Oxfam) was really nice and encouraging. All in all it was a pretty nice start, and now I can start stressing for Monday and Tuesday, when I'll have another internship. Wooohoo! I can't wait to be there!

Apart from that, I must say there's nothing much to tell you that's not been told already... I can feel the sharp energy fall coming up, so I guess I'd better go to the kitchen and eat something veeeeeery sweet in order to compensate. Short post today, but I still had to tell you!! Have a nice evening !!

PS: If you like, you can go there and listen to that cool German song, it's nice...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUTaR6ajiz0

PS2: If you speak French, you can go see the hilarious posts by Boulet about my friends the slugs... http://www.bouletcorp.com/blog/index.php?date=20081209 (Join the fight ! Join the fight !)

Félicie, aussi...

2008-12-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Hey reader! I got a package today! A cool package from my friends in France! A cool pirate book, and pirate gums (as in chewing gum, don't be gross!) and pirates mints with a rum flavour. I particularly liked the rum flavoured mints, and it reminded me of an anecdote which reminded me of a post idea I have had for a long time, so here comes... suspense...

The Top Three of Things Which You Thought Were a Good Idea But Turned Out to be Really Stupid.

1) Baking Bredalas. I think I told you about bredalas. In the definition in the Alsatian-Alsatian dictionary it expressedly states "Delicious little evil cookies which should be exclusively baked by someone else". Following that logic, I usually leave the bredala cooking to my mum, mostly, because she bakes duuuuh-licious bredalas.

A few weeks back, however, I decided to bake some in order to have a birthday present for a friend I have at the university. I went "yeah! It's going to smell like cinnamon and christmas in the kitchen, it's self-made and tasty, let's!". At the end of the day, the kitchen looked and smelled like the inside of a reindeer's stomach, I had spent three hours in the kitchen (three bloody hours! Can you believe that!? What have I done with my youth, reader?) and had an estimate 50 pounds of paper thin biscuits, which were hard as marble. And I cried and I cried...

2) Drinking rum to get over my cold just before my music oral exam for the Baccalaureat. Now look, I know this one sounds like it's so stupid I should be too ashamed to even write about it, but: I woke up, 3 hours to go before my exam, and I had a sore throat. I had to sing for my music exam, so what do you do?

A nice grog, that's what you do! Herbal tea, honey, and a dollop of rum. Only when your nose is blocked, you don't actually smell how rummy the whole thing is until you've drunk it up and blown your nose. At which point it is too late and you have to go complete your oral exam smelling like a homeless guy who randomly stumbled into the exam room. I did manage to complete the exam, and had a good mark too, and now that I come to think of it, maybe I should get drunk before my final oral at the end of the year. I'm sure the potential guy from the UNO in my jury would be sensitive to my impersonating Angela Merkel dancing the twist.

3) Now I believe this one is my all time favourite. I once heard a guy on TV say that putting a drop of dishwashing liquid on your glasses would prevent them from getting all misted up. It's annoying when your glasses get all misty. What's annoying too, is when your goggles get all misty at the swimming pool, because then you don't see anything anymore, and then you don't swim straight and then you bump into other people in the next lane. So what did brilliant Claire do?

You know it! She put dishwashing liquid into her goggles, and went swimming. I was 15, like, waaaay too old to say I was too young to know. I leave the rest of that little story to your brilliant imagination.

There you go, reader. A top three. Could not muster 5 things worth being told (I could have put "going to the cinema to see Scary Movie 1 with my father", in there -I do believe I've never been that embarrassed ever since in my whole life-, or "eating that cookie with nuts in it, because it looked delicious", but enough is enough, and I already told you of the time I went to the "speed-friending event" in Austria (hahahaha) and also of the time when I sprayed window-cleaning liquid on my frozen windshield to make the frost melt faster and ended up driving on the pavement and losing a hubcap).

Now the cat is out of the bag (the rat is out of the henhouse ?). If you have additions to make to the list, please, do not hesitate. Might help me feel slightly better.

It's not easy...

2008-11-30T02:27:00.001-08:00

Well, I've written a post some time ago about songs in movies and series, and then I wrote another one about movies that make you cry, and after being (once again) reduced to a pathetic soup after listening, in a row, to all the great, great songs my friend H gave me (they always have that soupifying effect on me, but I've had a sad, sad week this week too, so it kind of soupified me ²), I decided to tell you about one particular song, which is kind of part of the soundtrack of my life, and always makes me feel better.

The song, reader (yeah, that suspense was killing you I know, it's about to end, pretty soon. By the way, did you know that it snowed in Colmar this week ? Amazing, innit ?) is called "Superman". Hence the "soundtrack of my life" comment, since you know by now that I have superpowers, an amazing strength, and a thing for capes. Nah, just kidding (about the superpower thing, I do think capes are the ultimate classy accessory, and they should be made compulsory from the age of 20 onwards). The only superpower I have is that of helping old ladies reach the can of peas on the top shelf in grocery stores. And I often demand to get paid.

Anyway. "Superman, It's not easy" is a song by the Five for Fighting, which, as soon as I steal the secret of the deezer.com widget from M, I will link here, for you to listen to. It was used in many soundtracks, because it's so beautiful and cool, and it's about Superman and how it's not easy to be great. It makes me feel better for two main reasons :

-It goes "It's not easy to be me" and "even heroes have the right to bleed" and stuff, and it's a bit like someone going "now now, darling, you're just great, it's OK to crack down once in a while" like that. Handy to have someone like that in your MP3 player for nights of desperation...

-After listening to it a little while, it makes me laugh, because as I stated earlier, I have no superpowers, and my life is pretty easy. So I exaggerate the drama queen aspect of crying to a song, laugh a little at myself, think about why my life's so easy, and then I always feel much better. I had to change the next track on said MP3 player though, because it was a song by Francis Cabrel, whom you probably don't know if you're not French, but who is a disease which can only be cured by two lexomils and a triple vodka. Now the next track is Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca". Thank God for Ricky Martin.

Anyway. A song I wanted to share with you, so that maybe it works on you too. Have a nice day !!

You're so cute, when you're slurring your speech...

2008-11-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

How weird I can be sometimes... I've been studying in Brussels for months, and neveer even told you about either the city or the courses I take. Now as far as the city's concerned, I do have excuses, insofar as I don't see much of it, since I live right next door to the university. I don't even have to wear a coat in the morning, I just jump out of bed, and straight to my interpreting booth. I must say it's a nice change from having to wake up 2 hours before classes start, walk to the station, wait for the train, then take the tramway to the university. But still, as a consequence of that, I don't see much of what's happening in the city outside my little neighbourhood (as well as that of my sister M, where I spend quite a lot of time as well...)

As for the courses I take, there is no excuse for not telling you about them (except maybe for the probable fact that you're not even interested, but to hell with modesty, my life is absolutely thrilling, you're going to read about the time I spend locked in my booth in Brussels wether you like it or not. Read on, faithful reader, I can see you through the screen. And stop scratching. Wash. -Private joke for my fellow Alsacians...)

Sooo, what can I say. Booths are nice. Booths -boothes ? offer privacy and shelter. They make you feel like you're all alone, and like you're the unseen being who sees it all. However, even though it is sometimes very tempting, you must never forget that though unseen, you are definitely heard, and that can cause inconvenience...

-You can't comment on what you see. And for someone who is as fond as I am of giving her opinion aaaaaall the time, more particularly when no one gives a damn, it is extremely annoying. You can't even let a "yeah right" slip when someone says something you find daft, because in a real life situation, it couls start a land war in Asia. And if there is something I learnt from The Princess Bride, it is that you should NEVER get involved in a land war in Asia.

-People actually hear you when you try all articles in front of a word in German. You can't go "Ich gehe in der die das den dem Küche" like you do in your head when you're writing a paper. People hear you think. Mostly your teacher hears you, and though he might be kind-hearted enough to acknowledge the fact that for a change, you did not just pick one by chance and pray for the best --I never do that, by the way, reader, believe me--, he still will laugh at you, and who could blame him.

-I have come to ask myself radical questions about my career path last friday when I was struck by a terrible pollen attack just before going to class. That or the bloody raw carrots in the durum I had for lunch. It was terrible anyway, my nose was running, my eyes were swollen and my voice was going. Glam effect² in the headset of my teacher. But I would hate to gross you out.

Anyway. I'm sure I answered some of the key questions you were asking yourself about studying interpretation. You're welcome. Have a nice night, I'm afraid it's more than time for me to go get some sleep too... Tomorrow's simultaneous into German (he heehehehe, I love saying that...), and I have shivers running down my spine already...

Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsener ebenso

2008-11-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

Guess what, reader ! Yeah ! I've been watching another episode of Dr Who tonight (season 4 finale, for any of you who might be a fan too), and now I'm all blue for all kinds of reasons (I've seen a lot of my family this week end and now they've all gone back to their own abodes, --I'm afraid Claire misses her pillow and the smell of her own house--, one of my housemates screamed at me for no reason, and oh *hopeless and withered sob*... David Tennant *sob again*... broke my heart twice over *sound of glass shattering*-he's leaving the show and he... well I can't tell, spoilers, you never know.)

Anyway, my post tonight will be about sweet sweet songs and movies. Sweet Sweet Songs and Movies being, of course, a genre in itself. OK, I'm not the last one to laugh at High School Musical, I'm not the last one to laugh at anything, for that matter, and I am a very cynical and sarcastic being, I must say. But, still, in my opinion, all this silliness, this melted marshmallow and stuff, does help to make the world go round, and I sometimes wish I could stand by my opinions about all that a little more.

Bollywood musicals, musicals in general, in fact, having cute little rabbits pinned on my wall, liking pink, liking Pink (actually, I just realised, Pink illustrate about the diametral oposite of the point I'm trying to make, but I still like her...), liking all those cheesy movies and stuff, being naive -be it consciously ;) being an optimist, it's sooo nice once in a while.

Sometimes, I even think it's more of a stand to make than being a punk or a revolutionnary. It's also not so funny as being cutting and ironic, I have to say. Sweet and soft-brained is not a state I would like to be in all the time. But it is something I love once in a while. Often, actually. And I STAND BY IT, world ! Looove it what makes you go round! Sweet sweetness, faith, beauty and heroism. And songs. And beauty. Did I say beauty already? Well, you get my point, hopefully.

However, since I am not even sure of the point I wanted to make, I guess I'm just going to go now and get to sleep, because I've been living a crazy life these days. Enough craziness. Craziness makes me blue and soft in the brain. And a poor blogger. Have a good night, reader! Sweet, sweet dreams ! Involving music and love, and beauty. Did I say beauty?

As for me, Mr Dreammaker, if you hear me, let mine involve a doctor and a blue box, would you?

Because I'm a material girl...

2008-11-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Lo reader !

Just a little post tonight, from my little room, to tell you about my great friend M who has started selling her creations in a shop in Strasbourg. It's pretty, it's original, it's smart, in just one word : It's as cool as she is. Don't hesitate to go have a look at her blog, she's got photographs of her masterpieces there, and I'm sure she'll add new ones to her collection soon !!

PS for my friend M : Sorry about stealing the photograph of your trademark from your blog. It was in the sole purpose of spreading your genius through the blogosphere, pleaaaase, pretty please don't sue me, cause I don't stand a chance !! ^_^

PS for my beloved reader : I don't know if you've ever heard the Scissor Sisters' "I can't decide", but if you have not, then do go to Deezer.com right now, and check it out because it's really cool, though it doesn't have anything to do with anything.

Don't go breaking my heart

2008-11-09T03:53:00.000-08:00

Well well well, reader... I've been watching an episode of Dr Who again (what do you mean, "get a life"? I have a life, reader, I went to Bruge today with my friend A, and it was brilliant. But still, generally speaking, it's nice and boring, and I can watch all the episodes of Dr Who I like.)

Anyway. As soon as you stop making impolite comments about my social networking skills, I'll be able to tell you the subject of today's post, i.e. The Top 5 Works of Filmed Fictions that Broke My Heart so Bad I couldn't Stop Crying Even After the Credits Were Over. A long title. As always, this list is not classed in any way, nor is it exhaustive. It's just the one I came up with tonight.

1. Moulin Rouge. Broke my heart. Made me cry and cry, and after I came out of the cinema, I wasn't happily ashamed of myself, like I was at the end of Amelie, when me and my sister M gave a big, loud and simultaneous sob as soon as the movie was over. I was down and sad, and it didn't go away until I reached home. Then I remembered the Elephant Love Medley and Ewan McGregor's teeth and all and I felt slightly better (also I went and saw it again and again -and again- with my best friend V, and then I was so focused on his eyes and his eyebrows smiling before he did in "Your Song" that I mostly flew home and sang The Beatles' "Till there was you" all the way). The first movie by far that touched me that much, as well as one of the first of a huge lot of great movie-going experiences with said best friend V.

2. The Dead Poet's Society. Saw it once, didn't understand any of it, saw it when I was old enough to relate, and now I still get shivers when I think about that O Captain my Captain thing when they all climb on their desks. (Yeah, I know, that's not very original, but it's definitely in my top five I think, even in the classed and exhaustive one). It's that sense of waste and the good things that are said about human nature that do the trick in this case. Faith and regret and love. I like it.

3. Well, there we go, I talked about it, I'd better write about it now, Dr Who's "The Human Nature" and the follow up episode called "The Family of Blood". Now I know I might well sound lame, it's just Dr Who, it's for kids and all, but these two episodes are simply something else. The Doctor becomes human for a change, he quits being a Time Lord (you don't need to know nor understand the reasonsfor that, really, they really are lame), and he forgets all about what he used to be. The episodes are mostly about Martha Jones, his companion on the Tardis, starting to think that even without their love being impossible, it still would be. It's one of these occurances when the screenwriters just went too far. It's too sad to be enjoyable, and it quite simply depresses me, but they still are my favourite episodes of Dr Who ever, because they say so much about the characters and they say it so well, and you know me, the Doctor, Martha Jones, I think they're just brilliant, the both of them. I must admit this might not be on my top 5 in 2 days' time, but I saw these episodes tonight, and I just HAD to tell you about them, because they are such good GOOD episodes.

4. Devdas. Oh, yeah, Devdas. The lady and the tramp (only it's rather the prince and the lady-tramp, only calling Aishwarya Rai a tramp simply won't do, not on any occasion, not even a lady-one), but which would end terrrrribly wrong. The worst ending in the history of cinema (in that it is terribly sad, of course, not in a Matrix Revolutions kind of way). Plus music, plus costumes, plus curry, plus Chandramukhi. I love it. The movie is 4 hours long, more than worth the time if you watch it on a big screen. Allow one good hour to get over the heartbreak (oooh, the heartbreak, break brrrreak, chanananan). And do not forget to take one big sister with you, it's a sine qua non condition, you definitely cannot go alone.

5. Buffy's Acathla. I'm actually still not over it. It's too mean to do that to a character, it's cruelty for the pleasure of being cruel to your character. It's beautiful and great and I loved every bit. Actually, now that I come to think of it, I'll make number 5 a global award to the amazing works of Joss Whedon : the Acathla episode was brilliant, the one when Giles leaves for England left permanent salted-water stains on the carpet of the living-room, Spike alone would deserve an entire top 5. And let us not forget the regretted team of Firefly, who managed to make me cry when watching the bonus material. I so wish we could have seen more.

There you go, reader. A new top 5. It is now officially 4 in the morning here in Belgium, and more than time for people like me to get their beauty sleep if they do not want to look like the whole cast of Dawn of the Dead rolled into one tomorrow morning (Ghrrrruuuuuuhh). And I'd like to know more about your own top 5 ! Tell me more, tell me more!

Build a Whole Bunch o'them

2008-11-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

Well hi again ! See ! Internet in my room and I'm getting crazy already...

So, I wanted to write the necessary post about the American election, without getting all political beacuse I'm not informed enough to have an educated and clever opinion. Just wanted to say some random stuff I've noticed during the course of this election:

a) I'd rather like for our French journalists to quit talking about Obama by saying 'the first black to..." or "the black candidate". Ok, it's really cool that he was elected whatever his color, but that's my point exactly. He was elected, whatever his color. So how about we talk about something else, for a change? I don't know how it is in other countries, but it's something I also found extremely annoying with Ségolène Royale during our election, they talked about her being a woman aaaaall the time. I have eyes, I can see she is. Now how about changing the subject a little?

b) I'm afraid I'm a sucker for great speeches. Something I've noticed about me, in fact, during this election. Get me a good orator, and I'll be teary eyed in seconds, and then all my objectivity will be lost forever. Well, a good orator and a kind message, there still are some limits to how gullible I am, no matter how good they are in front of a crowd. I kind of knew McCain had lost when I heard him say "As for power plants, let's build a whole bunch o'them".

A whole bunch'o powa plants, really ?

A whole bunch?

Whereas Obama, in spite of his talking about his parents incessantly, which I can't help but find a little patronizing (I would like it better if he did not try so hard to be moving), still had me convinced. Has to do with the message, of course, but also with the voice and the words and the order he puts them in. Like Yoda. He wouldn't be as cool, not sound as clever if he said "Yeah, he's ya daaaad, Loook" in a normal voice.

c) Political or not, I'm just going to say it, I'm glad he won.

d) One of the aspects of globalisation I like most is the interest people have for people in other countries. I set my alarm clock at 3 this morning, to see who had won, because the suspense was killing me, but I was too early, so I went back to bed. As soon as the results came in, there were so many people down on my street screaming and partying that I was woken up again at 5.

I think it's great, and not (only) because I was glad he won, too, but mostly because it's great that a bunch of Belgians should get excited about the future of a country to which they do not belong. Ok, the US is kind of special in this way that it has a huge influence over the whole planet, but still, I think this has changed in recent times. I remember, during the crisis in Tibet, just before the Olympic Games, a bunch of people had organized a little demonstration in my hometown. It's small and old and rich, not exactly the revolutionary kind, but still. They were touched, and they said it. I think it's a pleasant feeling to know that even if it's far away, and even if they're not directly concerned, people actually care about what happens to other people.

Well, reader, I think I'm getting a little foggy, so I'll just go do something which involves some amount of walking around, or at least an upright position, because what with all this getting up twice in the middle of the night, if I don't do that, I'll fall asleep right here where I'm sitting. That wouldn't be cool.

Have a very nice day, and please, do check my new blog roll. I gave up on my ex-colleagues' blogs, which is sad, but they were kind of not getting updated anymore... I added new stuff, however, like Boulet, which you definitely have to check out if you're French-speaking, because he's just brilliant.

Kissing all the girls and blowin' the bad guys away...

2008-11-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

Hey reader !

I'm all ecstatic and glad and happy because guess what: I have internet in my room ! I am right now writing from my little room in Brussels, and I don't even have to spend a penny on coffee ! How about THAT! I've been in a brilliant mood ever since I came back anyway, because I've had great holidays in Alsace, and I've seen all my friends and partied, and slept and laughed, and I feel great. Also, I did not have classes today, so I pretty much spent all day sitting here watching Torchwood and eating grapes, until I realised I had access to the net, at which point I pretty much came directly here. I guess I might be high on vitamin C, I eat so little fruit, usually... Also I've seen James Marsters, in Torchwood (you know, Buffy's Spike?) and he always makes me smile.

Anyway. So yeah, I'm back, and I can write the long awaited post about Quantum of Solace. (Long awaited by me, since I've been wanting to see the bloody movie ever since the credits first rolled on Casino Royale). I am not going to write some more about the shower scene in Casino Royale. I'm just going to mention it, because it's so great. I'm also not going to write some more about how cool Daniel Craig is. I'm just going to say, if I marry one day, I have a list from a previous post about being 7 feet tall, liking curry and wearing a cape, well, now, he'll also have to be able to lift up a moped + its rider single handedly. That was just SO cool Mr Bond, really.

But let me not be diverted from my holy mission by any weird looking Englishmen, however good they may be at lifting stuff off the ground: Let's get back to Quantum of Solace.

It is the male equivalent of a musical if you ask me. Replace the songs and dances by (truly amazing) stunts and wild chases, and leave the rest as it is. Well, nearly. It was pretty good, and really funny, once or twice, but it's a good thing that I had actually seen Casino Royale before, because the scenario is a little blurry, and it's all mostly about Vesper and revenge and understanding what happened exactly. Vesper, whom I missed a lot, because if you ask me Eva Green really did set really high scores as far as James Bond girls are concerned. She's just absolutely brilliant. Her successor is pretty good, but not nearly as good as she was.

Also, it was really moving at times, only I couldn't really concentrate because

a) I was too distracted by the weird looking Englishman's putting on his coat/wearing beige trousers/smiling (once, maybe, I think)/being extremely cool and sleek and great on every level.

b) I was too busy trying to understand what the hell was going on with the evil, rat-looking French villain (I saw the movie with my friends V and A, and some details still escaped us after putting together our different understandings of the scenario.)

c) I was too distracted by the stupid stupidheads who came to see the movie just so that they could annoy other viewers. Honestly, could anyone tell me why these guys pay for their tickets? They spend their time calling each other (on the phone, yeah), playing video games (on the phone, re-yeah) and going in and out of the cinema...

d) I was too busy trying to understand why they had chosen such a weird, uncomfortable title. Kind of understood why in the end, but I still wish they had called it something dumb like "Don't die until tomorrow", "Diamonds are nice and shiny" or "Go ahead and shoot people". Hee hehe. Daniel Craig in "Go ahead and shoot people". Now that's appealing.

Well, this post is getting really really long, so I'll just stop now, and maybe go for a walk or something, because all the oxygen in my room will soon have been used up completely. Just two things before I go:

a) Here's to F, who's in Japan. Hope you're having a truckload of fun! Two truckloads ! A lot and a lot ! Sleep a little, if you can, and go see James Bond when you come back, I'm pretty sure you'll like it. Not quite as inspiring as the first one, but there still are interesting stuff about raw materials ;)

b) David Tennant has stepped down as Dr Who. He was, is, and will probably always stay the best Doctor in the Galaxy. I hope we'll get to see him in plenty and plenty of other stuff (I hear he's going for a career in theaters now, which is great, but come on, what about me? I'm in France, I can't go all the way to London to watch you!) However, if you hear me, David T Russel, I know of a guy, he's brilliant, would make a wonderful Doctor, and keeps playing in verry verrrrry bad movies in recent times. I'm sure he'd be delighted of the opportunity. A guess, anyone ? -yeah, that one's really hard...