Comme envie de crever ton chat...

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 The outdated racism we are dealing with these days makes me want to come home and fight.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...

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?

Gotcha?

Ja, dieses Schunkeln kann ich nicht ausstehn

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

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).

Too cool for school

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...

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

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 ?

After the storm

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!

The world is all around you...

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

Standard de Liège, olé olé olé

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!

Explosions in the sky

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?

Ode to joy

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 !

<3

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 !

Build a Whole Bunch o'them

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.

Maybe tomorrow...

Fuh reader...

I watched Crash today and I loved it and loved it. It's got to be the best movie of its kind that I have ever seen, and honestly, I think it might be one of the best movies ever shot. I should not sound too enthusiastic, in case you have not seen it, because otherwise you're bound to be disappointed. Though honestly, I hardly see how one could not love it.

It was directed by Paul Haggis, who's a famous screenwriter, and it's mostly about people in L.A. and how they deal with racism. It's a story of many characters, whose lives are changed by bigger issues, and about how they deal with it at their own little level, and how they all are, in a way or another, connected to one another. You've already seen the movie, and it was called Babel? I see what you mean. People are doing that more and more, and I always love the idea and mostly love what comes out of it. But Crash came first, and it's by far the best of the results (if you ask me. Which you did not. But I'm still telling you).

People will tell you about the scene with Thandie Newton and Matt Dillon and the burning car, and it is one of the best scenes of the movie, but it's got so many high points, it would be just about impossible to talk about them all, or tell you which of the stories touched me most, or which moment I prefered. The great thing is how believable all these people are. It makes you live the story through the eyes of many many people, and it make you see the story from sides you would never have explored otherwise, and honestly, I don't understand how a Scot can have written that all by himself. He's a genius, if you ask me. The movie's genius anyway.

If I had one little thing to say against it, it would be... but no. I'm not saying it. Maybe if you're watching the movie for the first time, you don't see it, so I'll just shut up and give my opinion to people who've seen the movie already. If you know me, I'll lend it to you, and if you're French or Belgian, you can go to the Fnac, the DVD only costs 10€ this week. Oh, and you get 3 DVD for 20€. I bought Casino Royale (the shoooooower sceeeeeene *_*) and also Children of Men to make it three (the flip-flop sceeeene °_°). Maybe I'll tell you about Children of Men in a later post. Maybe when I have checked I have not already told you about it. I'm not so sure anymore. Whoa, this blog's getting out of hand! This blog's becoming the USB stick of my brain!!

Besides that, there's not much to say, started this post with a masterpiece, ended it with "Claire's clever shopping tips", I guess I'll just go to bed now. Puh... Oh, and I did not tell you about my interview yesterday... Well, here's a picture of Jean Pierre Jouyet, if I may give you just one tip in life, it would be to Wikipediate his name.

Have a good night, and be happy. Spreaaaaaad love!! :)

PS: If this post looks ugly and the paragraphs are all cranky, please do not resent me, I'm doing my best, but Blogger has an html sickness tonight. Get well soon, Blogger!

Sois polie si t'es pas jolie...

Hey!

New update from Saarbrücken where I am starting my second week as a translator! Things are going fine for me here, though I am a little bored in the evening (which means I'll be telling you about new series I am watching pretty soon...), and the job is getting more and more interesting everyday, except for today when the USV-system crashed down... don't know what it's called in English (though it's probably USV too...) but it's supposed to protect your computer against power surges. Only I did not quite understand what the computer guy told me, but you're supposed to unplug the damn thing before power cuts.

It sounds like these USV thingies are real sissies, and I think (*hope*) I understood the guy wrong (honestly, that would just be too stupid to be true), but whatever the real issue with the USV may be, they crashed, and I spent 3 extremely entertaining hours this morning thinking about the extra time I could have spent in bed and looking intently at my blurred reflection in the blacked-out computer screen. Aaaaay'v aaaad ze taaayme of my laaaayfe....

I am having a much more comfortable week this week than last week (lots of weeks in this sentence) though, because I have brought pans and saucers from Colmar, as well as a wonderfully beautiful orange curtain, with butterflies on it, which mercifully shields me from the outside while at the same time letting some light through, so I can live my life happily and not feel like I am living in a cave. Just as well, really. I was starting to miss my tooth-brush dance sessions (Rihanna bellowing in my iPod tends to make teeth-brushing much more interesting somehow.)

I also spent my time here (or at least the little time I spent not in the office and out of home (i.e. mostly in the bus) discovering a little more about the German culture. Because although I have been living less than 50km from the German bordure for most of my life, I have never actually spent any real time in Germany at all.

Surprisingly enough, really, it is a lot like Austria here, and the more I see, the more I feel I have more Germanity about me than I care to admit when people say "oh, you're from Alsace, you're German..." My reaction is mostly extremely annoyed then, but I just have to say, it is true that we Alsacians have very German characters. For example, our idea of politeness is the same I think. Anyway, my idea of politeness. I think that's why people think Germans (and the French too, I think) are so cold: we people like to leave people alone. It is more polite to let them decide wether they want to talk or not, so we do not start a conversation, but answer with a smile when someone tries to do so.

Unlike the Anglo Saxons, supposedly, who think it's more polite to make strangers feel welcome. On the one side, they feel at home and lonely, on the other, they feel welcome. I don't know, it's up to you to make your choice between Graz and Dublin!

I have also been able to notice that cashiers are just as terrible here as in Graz: I don't know how regular people manage to stuff everything in their plastic bags before running away here, but I am not super-Greta yet and I NEED more than 30 seconds to pack everything in bags. Please, cashier, if you hear me, do not look at me with those evil eyes. I am but an innocent creature, looking for means to feed myself. Mostly vegetables.

Anyway. This post is becoming wayyy to long and confused and has no proper theme, so I'll leave it at that. I would have sent you a nice picture of Eric le Basilic, who's half dead already, only I forgot to bring my camera's cable, so I'm deprived of MP3 player AND photos on my blog till the end of the week. *life's tough*...

Have a nice day!!

La vie en rose

Oui, reader, today is the day to get patriotic again. Cause I'm French. You know what they say about the French. They are rude, and they smell like garlic. But mostly, they are very proud. I don't think I'm too rude, and I sure hope I don't smell like garlic, but I am a little proud, I must say. Opportunistic would be more like it. And today, Reader, Marion Cotillard, (she's French) won the Oscar for Best Actress.

Hell, I don't even think I've ever seen a movie whith Marion Cotillard in it (well, yeah, I have seen Taxi...), but hey, she's French! So I'm very proud. Besides, she was so happy, I just wanted to say I was happy for her too. So thank you Marion Cotillard, for giving me a reason to show off (ha ha, I'd use any reason to show off, it's like a profession...), for making me happy, and for making the cutest acceptance speech ever.

Other than that, I must say I don't have much to say, maybe because I've been on holidays this past week, and I haven't done much, apart from working and working and sleeping and hanging around at home. Not much to blog about.

But I also have a thank you note to pass to radio presenters... I just wanted to thank them, especially local ones, because they are always so nice. Not the ones who speak all the time and mostly make stupid jokes, but the one who just present songs. Because mostly, they only ever say nice things and wish us well, and tell us to be careful on the road, they never ever complain, and no one ever sees their face. They are the closest you come to angels, in the media. Apart from health journalists in Belgium of course, but they are a special breed ;)

Anyway. I'm going to go now, and eat something, because I'm really really hungry. So have a nice evening, reader, and a good week, too, while I'm at it. And be careful on the road!!

Place des grands hommes...

I was watching some YouTube videos about David Tennant, the guy from Dr Who, and I was thinking that every country has got some people like that: He's mostly well known in Britain (or so he was until the new series of Dr Who got really successful), but there, everybody knows him. And they're lucky. I found some people like that in France, but you couldn't always say we are lucky to know them. For example Johnny Hallyday, a really really successful American-rocker-wannabe. (I've never been able to figure out wether he was French or Belgian by the way. I think he's a bit of both, but I remember hearing him say he never had the Belgian nationality. I don't really know. And I don't really care). I could live without Johnny Hallyday. Wouldn't be too bad.

But on the other hand, we also have people that are only well known in France, and that's a pity for you guys who do not have the pleasure of being French :D So here you go, reader... I made another top 5... (Oh, yeah, and this time, there's not classification whatsoever. I just wrote things in the order they came up...)

1. Michel Denisot. The best talk show host in the world, if you ask me. Which you didn't. I don't care, I'm still telling you. He's brilliant, he's got opinions, but do not impose them on the people he's talking to, he asks honest questions you'd like to have the answer too, without trying to make people say what he wants to hear. He's brilliant, and so is his show. (Le Grand Journal de Canal+). I'm afraid Michel Denisot doesn't really qualify to enter this top 5, because he's not quite famous enough but he's so good that I couldn't not put him in.

2. Jean Jacques Goldman. He's the ultimate French singer. He's writing nice lyrics, maybe not overly original, but very rarely silly, and he looks so nice you wish he were your friend. I think Germans have their own Jean Jacques Goldman, named "Herbert Grönemeyer". But I'm not sure, because I think Grönemeyer might have a little more rocky touch, whereas Goldman... Well what Goldman does can only be described as "Frech variety"...

3. Jean Rochefort. He's fun, he's old, and yet he's not annoying, he played in good movies, and he still does, he doesn't constantly name drop (Ah, "I remember when Gabin told me that", or "Romy Schneider was such a sweety". Mostly with people who can't come and say "I might have been a sweety, but you were the most dreadful, self-loving bore I ever got to meet".) He's not afraid of playing in some weird new-wave movies, and he's very funny.

4. Phew this is getting tough... At this point the people I would like to put in are either not well known enough, or simply already well known abroad... Getting a little difficult, really... Well, I guess this is just going to be a top three then... No, no, I guess I should be writing Jael Debouze down. He's fun, he's brilliant, and he is a reference. The funny little guy from the suburb. And yet he does get a message through, about the French society and all. Yeah, Jamel would be in ther. Funny how I haven't found any women I could write down... I'm sure there must be at least one...

5. Well then OK, Christine Ockrent. She's a journalist too. She's really good. She's funny, but always serious, she's intelligent and intellactual, but without being incomprehensible, and she often deals with interesting issues. She's very much pro-Europe, and she's extremely well known (she hosted the daily news for quite a while.)

Well, here you go, reader, my so-so-list-of-the-5-French-people-they-would-be-sorry-not-to-have,-abroad,-if-they-only-knew-they-existed. Any suggestions from the French people here?

What's MY line??

Hey reader!

Well, my sister Marion just sent me this link to a little video, and I thought it fit in nicely with the presentations about cultural differences. I usually don't like to imply that Japanese people are all strange and weird, (would be against my philosophy of people are people are people), but I found this one really funny. So there you go! Do check it out! (It's in English (sometimes). And it stars Johnny Depp...)

Have a nice day!

I'm just a girl...

I'm a little angry again, reader. I've spent quite a lot of time this week studying for my "major problems in the US society" course (yeah, well, it sounds a little more thrilling than it actually is) and I am kind of annoyed. I have read three texts by feminists from diverse nations, and I just wanted to say how much I disagree with them.

No! Women of the Western world, don't rise! At the beginning, I was actually very interested in getting to know more about feminist theories, because we hear about it so much, and yet know so little about them. Well I don't know much about them anyway. And then, I read about a woman whose encounter with these theories had been some kind of an epiphany: "Oh, that's why I've been so angry for so long! Because I was oppressed and hated by the alpha males of the world!" She said it had helped her become a better person, she had lost weight, and changed her body posture, and realised herself as a human being.

So I was excited about learning something about the meaning of life and how to achieve happiness (and lose weight, though I was kind of doubtful about that part). And then I read the texts and thought, what the hell??? I feel more insulted by what these authors say than by my so called "oppression" by the "patriarchal society". I mean, come on, we're not living in the 19th Century anymore!

First of all, things have changed, it's time to wake up: I might not get the same pay for doing the same job as a man, but that's going to change, and I can go and work, be a lawyer, a judge or have a political career if I want to, no one will stop me. It might be a little more difficult for me than it would be for a man, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and that will change as well.

Second, I am happy about some of the differences that exist between the way women and men are treated, and I feel privileged to be a woman: I can stay at home and take care of my children if I choose to, people won't call me weak or lazy. I can show my feelings, people won't call me a sissy. Well not at once. I can put make up on, and nice dresses and stuff, which I consider really fun, I don't have to wear the same old boring smoking. I can also choose to be a tomboy, it's not going to ba a big problem, people actually find it pretty cool sometimes. I can expect men to ask me out, and don't have to take so many risks as they do. I can blame my bad mood on my... let's not talk about this one actually...

I love being a girl, and I don't want anybody coming up to me and telling me I should be sorry, telling me I should be ashamed of being happy with my situation, that I should change it, because I am under pressure and submissive. I'm not! I just think there's nothing wrong with the way our society is going!

Then again, I guess maybe that's my opinion because I have never had to face difficult situations, I have never been penalised for being a woman, or been hurt, or had to face domestic violence. But domestic violence, or violence against women is not seen as normal today! People who do things like that have to face the law, and are considered criminals! I'm not saying it doesn't exist, and I'm not saying we can stop fighting domestic violence, but that's not a fight for feminism! It's a fight for human rights!

Besides, I think generalisation is OK, to some extent, but not in this area. I mean, three billion people on each side of the fence, can we really assume that they are all the same?? Poor women, boiling with hate against their oppressors on the one side, and spiteful, violent and stupid men on the other, obsessed by their "phallocentric narcissism" [sic!]?? Come on, reader, isn't that kind of crazed?

Anyway. I got irritated, as you might have noticed, because I read three of these texts in a row, and I just can't identify with them. Do you think the theories are wrong, or do you think there's something wrong with my being such a happy bunny that I can't understand them, because I don't have the proper background?

We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way...

Flash post again, reader!

Here is the link to the interesting article I talked about during my presentation today, in case you're interested!! It's about pro-Bush country and punk rock singers...

By the way, thanks for participating so much!! I did not feel lonely at all up there, thanks to you!!! :)

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Sept2004/macdougall0904.html