au revoir Paris

It's been a long week..

• Christmas shopping
• Social celebrations at work: cocktail at the Embassy and then the next day tapas and paella with the people of the Office in the considered by many "best spanish restaurant in Paris"... (prefer my mother's lol)
• then again more eating, pot au feu this time, with Agathe. Paris was in between the Caribbean (where she goes on holidays) and the Indian Ocean (where she lives) so she stopped by to say hello
• Goodbye dinners till next year and the New Years Resolutions
• ... and Sara Baras, a spanish dancer, in the Champs Ellysées, playing Carmen

Im heading now home for Christmas :D but I will come back soon!

Best wishes to all of you..

Joyeaux Noël et à bientot!!

topics and films get true

I am not going to complain about animals. Guess that others have more to say about it. And this is not National Geographic :)

Just wanna say that Ratatouille exists. He lives in the kitchen of my Office. I haven't seen him yet dancing on the table, but we have already met twice, he looked at me and then hide. He is shy and so do I. I know that soon he will cook for us. And I really fear the day he gets trapped in one of those mousetrap I hate.

This post is to greet my brother whose birthday is today. He saw a mouse in a Deli last weekend and he was surprised. I had to explain him that topics are true.

And what is more. Some things in films are true too (surprising eee?? lol) Like the shop in the film where they have dead rats, does really exists. It was recently included in my personal tour... (hopefully you would be able to appreciate the details in the picture, and if not you would need to come and check it yourselves)

(A anotar una de las frases de la chica en la película: No soy borde, soy francesa)

A land of 246 kinds of cheese

It's a statement. People that know me well won't believe. They know by heart that I love cheese. But let me tell you something, after 10 weeks here... I don't like it anymore.

Now I understand when Charles de Gaulle complained about the difficulty of governing a country that had 246 different kinds of cheese.. he had too much too ;)

It's true, I promised not to eat any more cheese till next year

last weekend before Christmas

Friday night with your visit from Spain: first, ballet in the Opera.. called, PAQUITA! a "romantic" episode of the Independence War of Spain from the point of view of a French; afterwards Hard Rock Cafe for dinner; then Casa Prada for the first drinks (not necessary to mention how spanish was that..) and finally the Serena, a widely known spanish bar in Paris. No comments ;) anyway, let's say everybody enjoyed the night

Anyway, we tried to make it a little bit more french with the typical Steak Tartare (buaghhh), galettes du sarrasin and cider and all that stuff of crepes with nutella... a little bit of Art and some Christmas shopping. Not bad at the end ;) just the needed dose of French culture before thinking about heading back home...

Just a comment on evolution. Even though I am one of those persons who always are cold.. guess that this three months changed me. Even though Paris is not that cold (I may get and idea what cold may mean for others..) I don't feel it any more.. Sunny days, with its 0º are just as a spring day in Madrid for me... hurra for evolution!!!

josh rouse

sometimes you go to a concert being already a fan, sometimes... you become a fan... I was feeling as if I was missing a lot of concerts these days, but guess I was just waiting for a good one!
this was the perfect plan for a sunday evening after a great weekend... thanks to Al for coming with me.. it was great sharing it with him, hopefully it will be just one among many.. in Paris, in London or anywhere else..!!
Unfortunately images cannot show what means not being able to sleep afterwards or being singing the songs for a couple of days now, but just in case.. (anyway, for the fans..)

London in the rain

I did it. I finally crossed the sea by train and got to London for a weekend! I left the country of the Champagne to arrive to Pancras Station, where the longest Champagne Bar is. Anyway, it was not the time for Champagne anymore but for pints in Camdem ;) and that was Friday night: gossip and laughs with the interns of London and chinese food for one pound, delicious!
On Saturday, Ines and me decided to make some tourism, but it isn't easy with that rain... soooo we moved to the British Museum (hehe, just to see what will be missing and I won't be able to see in Athens in a couple of months), ate with Begoña in Shakespeare's Head: fish and chips and then some shopping. The chapter in Abercrombie and Fitch and the casual luxury deserves a post in itself, but I wait for Ines to do so. I will just say that the queue deserve the entrance and that I fall in love four or five times ;) I can't avoid it when a boy smile at me like that...

After a tour around, Covent Garden and its musiciens, Piccadilly Circus etc we met again to go to the Soho to have dinner and have some drinks. Not bad the interns that decided to live there.. (sí, somos unos pobres becarios sí...)

Sunday, not even trying to keep with tourism.. but a better plan for a Sunday morning: Brick Lane. The market (I will deny it anytime in the future, but I bought three dresses for 8 pounds..) the superb Indian lunch, Truman Market, with, as Alberto described, all the cosmoposh of London, and finally the 1001. This was THE PLACE. 24h open from Saturday to Sunday, various ambiances, cafeteria, chill out, and disco. The beers at 3pm on Sunday afternoon and the House Music, just unforgetable.

Then it was THE CONCERT (next post coming soon) and waking up early after a short nap to get to Paris on time to solve all the AP (absolute priority!)

Great weekend, who were there know what I am talking about.. Thanks to the A-Team (Andrés, Alberto, Andrew and the A-usent A-lvaro who let Ines and me slept in his bed) and to Begoña who showed around like an authentic londoner!

Finding Netherland

I waited for this trip a long time, lack of opportunity, lack of company, lack of time? But then the right time comes, (as always for anything in life) and there you are, sitting in the Thalys heading for a weekend in Amsterdam.

I cannot write a common post about Amsterdam cause Amsterdam is like an impressionist painting. You make an open composition with a couple of brushstrokes in order to get the movement, the crucial element of human perception and experience. Here you have some brushstrokes…

• Netherlands sounds like something out of a fantasy novel. And it is indeed the scenary of a fantasy novel.
• Casual people. Not studied casual, but straight ahead 'I think I'll go without shoes today' casual.
• Language sounds like German being spoken underwater.
• Crafted - everything - staircases, water glasses, window shade pulleys, laptop stands - crafted, and crafted well.
• Water everywhere. Canals, bridges and nice houses 1,80 metres length.
• Red Light District. Girls in underwear to the left and to the right (feel safer looking ahead). Hate the look of the guys, like being in the best supermarket ever.
• Contradiction. Hate prostitution but they get more money in one day the monthly minimum wage, they have central heating and guess it is not that boring. Wish there was a supermarket of men to get an idea of what it feels like. It is a pity that no man can stand a full-time working day (yeah, you cannot pretend that erection..)
• Smell pot everywhere. In every corner you get whether the best pot smell, or the nastiest dirty weed ever. And coffees in a coffee shop.
• Flower market full of bulbs and grow-your-own-dope kits.
• Bicycles everywhere. One million for a population of 800.000. And boats. Want one house-boat.
• A sculpture of a hand-touching-a-brest-and-a-half at the feet of the main church of Amsterdam, which is just in front of the Red Light District. Are the Church and the Sin still so closed?
• Recipes. Discussions about whether it is better raw, boiled... but in the oven??? A lot of discoveries…
• Wok. The best wok ever, made by a Spaniard and his Thai girlfriend. Next thing in my list to thing that I have to learn to prepare.
• The flying pig: a crazy hostel with crazy people. Love that I still enjoy that kind of things and situations, I am not that old yet ;)
• Aurora’s awesome tour on a Sunday morning. It rained for 4h, but it worthed it. Amsterdam does look different now for me.

And then coming back to Paris with a lot of new thoughts in my head. Is spirituality a motion that runs against reality, or is it an intense experience of reality? I feel contradiction, the more and more contradiction

Gracias Cris por este finde. Definitivamente nunca hubiera tenido mejor ocasión ni mejor compañía.

Santa

What I got from Santa in advance... a lot of spanish ham Iberico (preparing a party to share it cause I don't feel able to eat that much), spanish cheese Manchego, turron, one of our secret recipes, alcohol (hehe like the Jagermeister), magazins, a tshirt to impress the frenchis and.. laughs and cares. Unfortunately I had a cold, but anyway hope you enjoyed Paris as much as I do! Thanks to you

who said there are not sunny days??

I know it is hard to believe but sometimes topics are not true. After two months here I have to say that I have had plenty of sunny days, most you don't enjoy them cause you have to work (oh what a pity..) but others, you DO enjoy them.
Here a couple of videos of one of my favourite plans, just sitting by Montmatre..
The thought was inspiring, maybe for another ocassion.. today just the videos...

if you are travelling

We always fear running out of battery in our Ipod.. voilà the solution...
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=GfPJeDssBOM

strike: DAY.. who cares!

Tuesday morning..

Anything you are reading about the strike here is... true? hehe guess it is something you have to experience to understand.. but the most important thing, don't think it only affects the metro!

Yesterday we had tickets to the Opera... thanks that I had taken the metro in the morning (well, it was not that much fun, but at least..) because in the evening, I did 6,5 km to reach the Opera and then 3,5km to get home (thanks I stopped by and I was invited to have dinner, otherwise I would have never arrived ;)

And thanks that I live in the CENTRE...

But the best part was the ballet. They are on strike too, still don't know if it is in solidarity with the others or because they didn't want to take the metro or just that they want to work till 50 too. Anyway, a strike there means that there was no scenerie, nor wardrobe. So.. the dancers were.. some in slips (I promise it is true, every time he danced Patri and me couldn't stop laughing), some in their Adidas, and some with the pijama... PRICELESS.

The good thing was that with our 10euros entry we sat in a great place as it was almost empty, and the ballet is always the ballet ...

una opinión como otra cualquiera

http://www.cincodias.com/articulo/Sentidos/corazon/Espana/oficina/Paris/cdscdi/20071119cdscdicst_1/Tes/

veni, vidi, vinci

Some visits scare.. the Old School is one of those. No matter how well you slept the night before it would never be enough to survive the weekend.. No matter how many great great nights you had spent together you always find that you can still have a great one.. Even though there were some absences.. some expected and other unexpected :( I am looking forward for the next one!

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strike: day TWO

• sun was shining.. don't try to go by underground, just walk... beautiful beautiful paris on a cold morning.. one hour and something to get there.. and many many pictures after..

• arrive to the office: 10.15 :) (love strike days, people even greet you for arriving..)

• today it was BEAUJOLAIS, the day the first wine is on sale. So after work.. cold evening.. no transport.. the answer is just to drink a couple of wines...

• discover a typical TASCA with wine and kind of tapas. Get drunk easily (I'm sooo easy.. ;)

• go back on foot again..
  

Conclusions of the day:
1. you love Paris
2. you have made more than 12km by foot (I would say many more cause I still have trouble to find the shortcuts ;) love to walk along the Seine..
3. you love the Beaujolais (it won't never happen again, you promised it once already hehe...)
4. you go home early cause even though you love more than anything "liarla" (kind of get on trouble) you know that you have more obligations.. tomorrow the old school is coming (hehe la vieja escuela, vosotras sabeis de lo que hablo) so you have to be prepared for that :)
5. did I say I love Paris? oh my God.. that's a funky crime...

strike: day ONE

This is the song to cheer up a day like today, again on a stupid strike and probably the last one with good weather (from now on I will probably need a boat to come to work hehe) It really makes me laugh! Don't get scared...