Montpellier (France), morning
I have to write down this, because I thought it was so weird...
The people who lived before in the apartment I got, had black toilet paper. I found black toilet paper in the bathroom. I didn't even know that toilet paper exists in black. I saw it pink, white, but never in black.....
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
pictures of the apartment
Montpellier (France), nightAfter my previous two blogs, I thought that I have to put some pictures of the place here, to show how nicely old is the building and how dirty I found the apartment.
On the left of this sentence there is what you see as soon as you enter inside the building. It is so nice and cool there, that some people put a
table with two chairs to hang there. I guess it is cooler that in most of the apartments of the building. From there, the stairs to go up to the apartment start and it looks like in this picture on the right. And then you have the old stairs that brings you up and up to the last floor, where the apartment is. I have to write it again. The location of the apartment is great and the building too. Also, as they highlighted at the agency trough 
which I rented the apartment, in this place there is not risk of ending up with water in the building, since it is high up in the city, we are far from the seismic areas and also far from the area considered dangerous in terms of fires (I found these info weird, but there is a law based on which they have to inform the customer and make him/her sign a paper in which is stated that the customer has been informed). Ah, here a picture of the stairs.
Then finally, when you enter the apartment, this is the main room of it, with a lot of light. I like it a lot (especially when it will be clean and with my own stuff).
Unfortunately, what I found yesterday was not a welcoming environment in which to move as
soon as possible. What I saw was more something like here on the left (to have a better idea of how dirty it is and which kind of dirt it is, just click on the picture and you can see it bigger. Ah, that foot is mine...I know I am not wearing fancy shoes and I have a fancy nail polish) and below. What it is not easy to see from the
picture, is that there was a lot of cat food pressed and glued in some way to the floor. It was quite hard to remove it. After I managed to clean this mess, I found out that the floor is actually in a much lighter color that it seemed before.................And I decided to also take a picture of the few furnitures that are in there, all of them with a piece of tape or broken (except the bed, that is the only surviving thing). Ah, the shower with the piece of rope, the two broken chairs and the mirror with the broken frame as the oven that doesn't work are not in any of the pictures. These are in the order the bookshelf, the drawer, the table and the bar on which to hang the curtains....just to give you an
idea...Please consider the fact that I had to pay 450 euros of deposit just for these furnitures and that the rent of this place is higher because of the furniture....
Tomorrow I will go back there for more cleaning, and hopefully I will also start to move some stuff there.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thief/thieves
Montpellier (France), night
Maybe I am a bit of a paranoid person....but there is something I didn't write yet in my previous blog and I didn't like about today.
When I was standing in front of the door of the building where the apartment is waiting for the person of the agency to come with the keys of the apartment, the girl who lived in the apartment before arrived (she was supposed to have left the apartment in the morning). She said she left her cat upstairs and she wanted to get it before to leave. And she entered in the building. When a few minutes later we came in front of the door to visit the apartment and write down the status of it, she was still there. With the cat. And she was still in the building when we left 2 hours later.
Because that was weird and because I couldn't understand what she was doing there, I asked her. She said that she was waiting for the cat to calm down (2 hours?) and that she would have gone to Paris and then back to the Antilles. We left the building and we left her there. I had things to do, so I didn't get back there after that visit and I will go there tomorrow to clean it, but I didn't like to see her hanging around with a no reason.
So, I talked about this with a few people and only one told me to not worry. Since I have a huge imagination with a tendency of thinking to the worst and bloodier scenario, seeing that other people were as worried as I am and possibly even more, made me feel so bad that now I don't know how I am going to sleep tonight.
I will probably try to change the look, hoping that a) I can do it and b) the people of the agency in charge of the apartment will not complain about it. Better safe than sorry and based on the fact that here seems to be the paradise of thieves and any window of the bottom, first and second floor of any building as bars in front of them, I think I have reasons to be worried.
In these exact moments, I wish I wouldn't be alone to have this kind of stress and worries just on my shoulders.
Maybe I am a bit of a paranoid person....but there is something I didn't write yet in my previous blog and I didn't like about today.
When I was standing in front of the door of the building where the apartment is waiting for the person of the agency to come with the keys of the apartment, the girl who lived in the apartment before arrived (she was supposed to have left the apartment in the morning). She said she left her cat upstairs and she wanted to get it before to leave. And she entered in the building. When a few minutes later we came in front of the door to visit the apartment and write down the status of it, she was still there. With the cat. And she was still in the building when we left 2 hours later.
Because that was weird and because I couldn't understand what she was doing there, I asked her. She said that she was waiting for the cat to calm down (2 hours?) and that she would have gone to Paris and then back to the Antilles. We left the building and we left her there. I had things to do, so I didn't get back there after that visit and I will go there tomorrow to clean it, but I didn't like to see her hanging around with a no reason.
So, I talked about this with a few people and only one told me to not worry. Since I have a huge imagination with a tendency of thinking to the worst and bloodier scenario, seeing that other people were as worried as I am and possibly even more, made me feel so bad that now I don't know how I am going to sleep tonight.
I will probably try to change the look, hoping that a) I can do it and b) the people of the agency in charge of the apartment will not complain about it. Better safe than sorry and based on the fact that here seems to be the paradise of thieves and any window of the bottom, first and second floor of any building as bars in front of them, I think I have reasons to be worried.
In these exact moments, I wish I wouldn't be alone to have this kind of stress and worries just on my shoulders.
apartment in France
Montpellier (France), afternoon
As I wrote in one of my previous blogs, Montpellier and the area around are just so nice to feel you (I) want to live here forever. Then you just need to look for an apartment or to try to move into one, and all this desire of living here forever is gone.
I think I idealized French and France a bit too much. Something is absolutely great here. The weather, the University environment, the city, the natural environment, the bread, the bars with the terraces outside. These are great things and I love them. But....
The but concerns anything involving bureaucracy, renting a place, respect for the common things and hygiene. I was supposed to move to the new apartment today. I was so looking forward to that. First, I could have said goodbye to my current noisy roommate, then I would have moved to live downtown and especially I would have had my own place to make it the way I wanted and have a bit of stability.
The reality was that the place was so dirty, but so disgustingly dirty that tomorrow first thing I will have first to clean it well. Then every single piece of furniture in there is broken here or there and kept together by tape. Of course this is not something that you can see just visiting the place once, without an accurate inspection. The shower is kept together thank to a piece of rope. The sink in the bathroom was grey on its frame. Some of the light didn't work. The oven doesn't work and they are not going to repair it because "it is not necessary to an apartment"...
I don't know the all place could be so great, great location, a lot of light, small but enough for just me...and then after the inspection today I felt like everyone here doesn't give a shit about what they rent since "if you don't take it someone else will".
I paid 900 euros of deposit for the apartment, because it was furnished and I think if I would have bought the same things that are in there, new, at the Ikea, it would have cost me much much less.
The person in charge of renting it said that they will talk to the owner and probably the chairs will be changed (ah, I forgot, one has a hole in the middle, the other one is broken) and maybe the bookshelf will be substituted. For the rest, they cannot promise me anything............
I planned my day today in a completely different way.
I am sure in a few months I will just laugh about it, but for now it is just disappointing. Beside being a waste of money.
As I wrote in one of my previous blogs, Montpellier and the area around are just so nice to feel you (I) want to live here forever. Then you just need to look for an apartment or to try to move into one, and all this desire of living here forever is gone.
I think I idealized French and France a bit too much. Something is absolutely great here. The weather, the University environment, the city, the natural environment, the bread, the bars with the terraces outside. These are great things and I love them. But....
The but concerns anything involving bureaucracy, renting a place, respect for the common things and hygiene. I was supposed to move to the new apartment today. I was so looking forward to that. First, I could have said goodbye to my current noisy roommate, then I would have moved to live downtown and especially I would have had my own place to make it the way I wanted and have a bit of stability.
The reality was that the place was so dirty, but so disgustingly dirty that tomorrow first thing I will have first to clean it well. Then every single piece of furniture in there is broken here or there and kept together by tape. Of course this is not something that you can see just visiting the place once, without an accurate inspection. The shower is kept together thank to a piece of rope. The sink in the bathroom was grey on its frame. Some of the light didn't work. The oven doesn't work and they are not going to repair it because "it is not necessary to an apartment"...
I don't know the all place could be so great, great location, a lot of light, small but enough for just me...and then after the inspection today I felt like everyone here doesn't give a shit about what they rent since "if you don't take it someone else will".
I paid 900 euros of deposit for the apartment, because it was furnished and I think if I would have bought the same things that are in there, new, at the Ikea, it would have cost me much much less.
The person in charge of renting it said that they will talk to the owner and probably the chairs will be changed (ah, I forgot, one has a hole in the middle, the other one is broken) and maybe the bookshelf will be substituted. For the rest, they cannot promise me anything............
I planned my day today in a completely different way.
I am sure in a few months I will just laugh about it, but for now it is just disappointing. Beside being a waste of money.
The Garden State
Montpellier (France), night
I am watching a lot of movies lately. And after a few crappy movie, this evening I saw one that I liked. One of this movie that I don't know in some way makes me feel in peace with the entire world. It is just nice. Weird maybe, but nice, not pretending.
And almost at the end of the movie she (one of the main characters) asks to the main character "how are you feeling?" and he answes simply "safe, when I am with you I feel so safe, like I am home".
I had that feeling. I had that. I want to have it back. Because it is a wonderful feeling. The world can collapse next to you and you feel safe. Yes, I had that. And I remember that as one of the most precious feeling I had. If you find someone who makes you feel like that, who makes you feel home, you should make sure to keep it as long as you can.
I am watching a lot of movies lately. And after a few crappy movie, this evening I saw one that I liked. One of this movie that I don't know in some way makes me feel in peace with the entire world. It is just nice. Weird maybe, but nice, not pretending.
And almost at the end of the movie she (one of the main characters) asks to the main character "how are you feeling?" and he answes simply "safe, when I am with you I feel so safe, like I am home".
I had that feeling. I had that. I want to have it back. Because it is a wonderful feeling. The world can collapse next to you and you feel safe. Yes, I had that. And I remember that as one of the most precious feeling I had. If you find someone who makes you feel like that, who makes you feel home, you should make sure to keep it as long as you can.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
stress effects
Montpellier (France), evening
Because I was stressed today:
- I bite my nails, so that now they are short and ugly
- I ate an entire package of chips, so my stomach is upset and for sure I am not healthier than before to eat that
- I behaved like a totally unfriendly spinster, which doesn't for sure improve my relationships here.......................
I should learn to manage the stress in a better way. I should find a course of Yoga (but it makes me sleep, I already tried. I liked the Bikram yoga, but they don't seem to have it here and beside now it is 32C here, so no desire to be in a warm room) or Pilates (I liked that) or/and meditation (if it doesn't involve religion and how to try to reach God, because that is not for me for sure).
Because I was stressed today:
- I bite my nails, so that now they are short and ugly
- I ate an entire package of chips, so my stomach is upset and for sure I am not healthier than before to eat that
- I behaved like a totally unfriendly spinster, which doesn't for sure improve my relationships here.......................
I should learn to manage the stress in a better way. I should find a course of Yoga (but it makes me sleep, I already tried. I liked the Bikram yoga, but they don't seem to have it here and beside now it is 32C here, so no desire to be in a warm room) or Pilates (I liked that) or/and meditation (if it doesn't involve religion and how to try to reach God, because that is not for me for sure).
a few true words from a song
Montpellier (France), afternoon
"..........for a minute I thought you were really mine, it was a big mistake because I left you too free, oh but what do I care, at least now it is really broken, yes its really over for us..."
André Hazes
"..........for a minute I thought you were really mine, it was a big mistake because I left you too free, oh but what do I care, at least now it is really broken, yes its really over for us..."
André Hazes
no title
Montpellier (France), morning
Sometimes I behave in a way that doesn't make sense. Not even to me. I don't want to hurt people, but in the last year I am like a bomb, hurting whatever man tries to come close to me. I don't trust them. And so, I actually act in a way that doesn't match the way I think or the things I desire and want in my life. My private life is a disaster and lately I think it is my fault.
Sometimes I behave in a way that doesn't make sense. Not even to me. I don't want to hurt people, but in the last year I am like a bomb, hurting whatever man tries to come close to me. I don't trust them. And so, I actually act in a way that doesn't match the way I think or the things I desire and want in my life. My private life is a disaster and lately I think it is my fault.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
a wonderful place
France, evening
Tired. Like always lately. I am working a lot. But I am also highly motivated. It is an inspiring environment here. And then, when I get out of work, it is always sunny, not too hot anymore, with a bit of wind, geckos on the wall (I always see the same big fat gecko when I go to get my bike), and it is so nice just biking or walking home that all the day of work can just move beyond me. This surrounding just makes me happy. Despite the bureaucracy here, despite the fact that it seems to me that here poor people could just die since you need to pay in advance or do a lot of paperwork for whatever thing you want or have to do.
But the environment is so nice, people look so light, so much like the enjoy life, that you just can't be upset. People's clothing are light, way of interacting is light (French girls behave like they don't give a shit about anything), it is just like everyone here really feels like life is to short, so why bother with anything else beside enjoying it?
I hope to be able to absorb and make mine a bit of this attitude. Not the careless, but a bit more of lightness and just enjoying what it is around me.
Plus, the working environment so far is not only highly motivating, but also really really relaxed and so extremely nice. People are productive even if they have long coffee breaks very often. Which means, it is possible to be productive without always being pushed or stressed. Beside, my bosses are extremely good, nice and friendly. I never experienced anything like that in the working environment, so I hope it will last. I am afraid of waking up from a dream.
Maybe here I will learn to live again and have a life beside work.
I just like here. A bit more friends, my own place to live, less bureaucratic bullshit and I think I wouldn't mind to spend more than just a year here.
Tired. Like always lately. I am working a lot. But I am also highly motivated. It is an inspiring environment here. And then, when I get out of work, it is always sunny, not too hot anymore, with a bit of wind, geckos on the wall (I always see the same big fat gecko when I go to get my bike), and it is so nice just biking or walking home that all the day of work can just move beyond me. This surrounding just makes me happy. Despite the bureaucracy here, despite the fact that it seems to me that here poor people could just die since you need to pay in advance or do a lot of paperwork for whatever thing you want or have to do.
But the environment is so nice, people look so light, so much like the enjoy life, that you just can't be upset. People's clothing are light, way of interacting is light (French girls behave like they don't give a shit about anything), it is just like everyone here really feels like life is to short, so why bother with anything else beside enjoying it?
I hope to be able to absorb and make mine a bit of this attitude. Not the careless, but a bit more of lightness and just enjoying what it is around me.
Plus, the working environment so far is not only highly motivating, but also really really relaxed and so extremely nice. People are productive even if they have long coffee breaks very often. Which means, it is possible to be productive without always being pushed or stressed. Beside, my bosses are extremely good, nice and friendly. I never experienced anything like that in the working environment, so I hope it will last. I am afraid of waking up from a dream.
Maybe here I will learn to live again and have a life beside work.
I just like here. A bit more friends, my own place to live, less bureaucratic bullshit and I think I wouldn't mind to spend more than just a year here.
I don't believe it
France, night
Ok, I know, I am not really smart. I complain a lot about the lack of sleep and then I am still here...But I have an excuse for it. I just found this about the Bestierare (great name!!!):
I don't believe that Elio Germano even sings and not only acts (but he doesn't really move like someone who has the rap in his veins, but it looks like he has a lot of fun singing). And musically the songs are not even bad. I like the rhythm of "prima va a chi la gira"....it reminds me of the song of the Articolo31 about the "Maria".
So, this is the reason why I am still awake. I started to listen to the songs and so...still here. Now I am seriously going to bed.....
I don't know anything about MySpace...but is it like a blog? and what is the difference from a simple blog like this?
Ok, I know, I am not really smart. I complain a lot about the lack of sleep and then I am still here...But I have an excuse for it. I just found this about the Bestierare (great name!!!):
I don't believe that Elio Germano even sings and not only acts (but he doesn't really move like someone who has the rap in his veins, but it looks like he has a lot of fun singing). And musically the songs are not even bad. I like the rhythm of "prima va a chi la gira"....it reminds me of the song of the Articolo31 about the "Maria".
So, this is the reason why I am still awake. I started to listen to the songs and so...still here. Now I am seriously going to bed.....
I don't know anything about MySpace...but is it like a blog? and what is the difference from a simple blog like this?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work
France, night
I was thinking to title this blog work and to write the word work so many times as the hours that I have been working in the last couple of days. But that would have made up to too many work words, so I just wrote a few of them.
If all this is nonsense, and I am sure it is, it is due to the fact that it is late and I just stopped now to work, reading papers and trying to write something for work.
I am basically mentally deadly tired, so if my flatmate allows me (which doesn't seem the case tonight too), I will try to go to bed and sleep. A lot!
I was thinking to title this blog work and to write the word work so many times as the hours that I have been working in the last couple of days. But that would have made up to too many work words, so I just wrote a few of them.
If all this is nonsense, and I am sure it is, it is due to the fact that it is late and I just stopped now to work, reading papers and trying to write something for work.
I am basically mentally deadly tired, so if my flatmate allows me (which doesn't seem the case tonight too), I will try to go to bed and sleep. A lot!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Respiro
Montpellier (France), night
Just a small blog before to go to bed...It has been a really frustrating day today. I watched the movie Respiro tonight. I liked a lot and Valeria Golino is so good in that role. It seems made for her. And the scenario is so beautiful and it reminded me of when I was there during one of my scuba diving holidays (great sea, but not too much to see under the surface). Everyone was going around on old vespas and everyone was going around on the vespa in two or three per each vespa. Like in this movie...
I think I liked this movie because she is a free spirit, because in some way it gives me an idea of freedom.
Just a small blog before to go to bed...It has been a really frustrating day today. I watched the movie Respiro tonight. I liked a lot and Valeria Golino is so good in that role. It seems made for her. And the scenario is so beautiful and it reminded me of when I was there during one of my scuba diving holidays (great sea, but not too much to see under the surface). Everyone was going around on old vespas and everyone was going around on the vespa in two or three per each vespa. Like in this movie...
I think I liked this movie because she is a free spirit, because in some way it gives me an idea of freedom.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
every piece in your life
Montpellier (France), afternoon
Working on a paper. I want to go to the sea...but it seems that here none cares about going to the beach (too hot, too many people, too small beach....whatever)...so if I find my way, I will go alone.
I was listening to a song of the Editors while I was writing. In the song there is a sentence:
Every piece in your life will mean something to someone
And I was thinking. Is that true? most of the time I think that every piece in my life means something to me (more or less, sometimes actually doesn't make sense to me either)....I am not sure it means actually something to someone else...of course, sometimes it does...but the majority of pieces in my life, I think don't mean something to someone else except me.....
Working on a paper. I want to go to the sea...but it seems that here none cares about going to the beach (too hot, too many people, too small beach....whatever)...so if I find my way, I will go alone.
I was listening to a song of the Editors while I was writing. In the song there is a sentence:
Every piece in your life will mean something to someone
And I was thinking. Is that true? most of the time I think that every piece in my life means something to me (more or less, sometimes actually doesn't make sense to me either)....I am not sure it means actually something to someone else...of course, sometimes it does...but the majority of pieces in my life, I think don't mean something to someone else except me.....
Saturday, June 21, 2008
so cool!
France, night
Just taking a trip on internet. I found this really cool website or blog or whatever it is...it is so cool to see him dancing in different places
and check the 2008 video here (I couldn't see it on his website), watch it in high quality. I love it. It is so cool! So beautiful to see so many people dancing in a nonsense way all together!!!
Just taking a trip on internet. I found this really cool website or blog or whatever it is...it is so cool to see him dancing in different places
and check the 2008 video here (I couldn't see it on his website), watch it in high quality. I love it. It is so cool! So beautiful to see so many people dancing in a nonsense way all together!!!
My blueberry night
Montpellier (France), night
I have a special talent. The one of picking up movies that I don't like. I got my blueberry night this time and it was an incredibly boring movie as I found out....I got two movies since I am here and I didn't like any of them. Fortunately this one was not violent or anything, just boring.
The only good part was Jude Law with his accent. Not because I like Jude Law or I find him attractive, but just because men with a British accent I think have already something more compared to other men. I am crazy about men with a real British accent! It is so sexy!
I have a special talent. The one of picking up movies that I don't like. I got my blueberry night this time and it was an incredibly boring movie as I found out....I got two movies since I am here and I didn't like any of them. Fortunately this one was not violent or anything, just boring.
The only good part was Jude Law with his accent. Not because I like Jude Law or I find him attractive, but just because men with a British accent I think have already something more compared to other men. I am crazy about men with a real British accent! It is so sexy!
Friday, June 20, 2008
it happened again
Montpellier (France), evening
I am more and more convinced that I should just stay far from the kitchen. I am Italian and I am a woman, but cooking is seriously not in my genes...sometimes I think I have been adopted...except that I look too much like both my parents. My mum can just make a great meal with an empty fridge. With an empty fridge, I can just get some pasta and try to boil it and add pasta sauce (already made it). And I manage to make a disaster also with something so easy. In fact, I made so much pasta that I could feed an entire family with it.......If I am alone, I really don't care very much to what I eat, as long as it fill me and makes me happy at the moment (but I don't eat junk food). If I have someone for dinner, beside getting completely stressed at the idea of cooking for someone else (I feel like it is a huge responsibility feeding someone and make him/her happy with what you prepare) and needing a week to mentally get in the mood of preparing something, I can prepare something even quite good...
This pasta is really too much and too salty and I didn't even put salt in the water that I used to cook.....
I am more and more convinced that I should just stay far from the kitchen. I am Italian and I am a woman, but cooking is seriously not in my genes...sometimes I think I have been adopted...except that I look too much like both my parents. My mum can just make a great meal with an empty fridge. With an empty fridge, I can just get some pasta and try to boil it and add pasta sauce (already made it). And I manage to make a disaster also with something so easy. In fact, I made so much pasta that I could feed an entire family with it.......If I am alone, I really don't care very much to what I eat, as long as it fill me and makes me happy at the moment (but I don't eat junk food). If I have someone for dinner, beside getting completely stressed at the idea of cooking for someone else (I feel like it is a huge responsibility feeding someone and make him/her happy with what you prepare) and needing a week to mentally get in the mood of preparing something, I can prepare something even quite good...
This pasta is really too much and too salty and I didn't even put salt in the water that I used to cook.....
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Like in a movie
Montpellier (France), night
Today I met a nice Colombian woman. She was at the Department barbecue and she was extremely friendly, thing this that made me especially happy. We talked a bit about a lot of things and it came out that she has an Italian husband. The way she met him seems directly taken from a movie.
To be short. She went to a conference in Naples. She decided to take some holidays after the conference and one day from Florence she decided to take the train and go to Pisa because on her travel guide it was written about Pisa been historically famous as "Repubblica Marinara" together with Genova. So, she thought that Pisa must have been on the sea and since she wanted to see the sea, she got there. She started to walk around Pisa, trying to find her way to the sea (for whom don't know Pisa well enough, the sea is not in Pisa. Getting to the sea from Pisa train station is a long long long walk of hours). She ended up in a square where there was a concert when she realized that she had to run back to catch the train back to Florence. She missed the train. She came back to the concert, which by that time was on a break. On her way to the concert they gave her a small bottle of liquor to try. She didn't like it, but she had it in her hands when a guy asked her where she got it. That guy had a friend who realized that she was a foreigner and asked her if she wanted to go to see the sea. He drove her there, offered her to eat watermelon together, spent some hours together and then brought her back to the station. That's it. They kept in touch (she was working in France), she spent her holidays in Italy, they got together and now they are married with two children.
When she was telling this story I thought that it was such a cool way to meet the person with whom to spend your life and then I realized that something like this could never happen to me because:
a) if I am not in a familiar environment and someone, especially a man (and especially an Italian man with the bad fame that they carry with them), comes to talk to me, I would bark him something back to scare him away
b) if this person doesn't get scared and after this first attempt actually keeps talking to me and offers me to bring me to the sea, I would never go with him alone. If this guy is not even good looking, I would probably do my best to convince him that my boyfriend is big and will come soon (that normally doesn't work so well), that I have some weird disease for which it is better to stay away from me (I am not good in telling lies, so I am sure it wouldn't work either) and finally I would look at him really badly like I would like to kill him (I am mastering this look!).
c) if he is good looking and actually I wouldn't mind to know him better, I would still not go anywhere with him, but I would ask him his email or phone number and start at least a year long phase in which I would test him, push him away, be a total angel or a total bitch depending on the mood to finally realize if I think in a remote future it could work between us.
If someone is interested in following my strategy, I have to admit that the year testing doesn't seem to work very well, since my past relationships were long, but ended even if I tested the guys for longer than a year before to move from a close friendship to the next step......
Today I met a nice Colombian woman. She was at the Department barbecue and she was extremely friendly, thing this that made me especially happy. We talked a bit about a lot of things and it came out that she has an Italian husband. The way she met him seems directly taken from a movie.
To be short. She went to a conference in Naples. She decided to take some holidays after the conference and one day from Florence she decided to take the train and go to Pisa because on her travel guide it was written about Pisa been historically famous as "Repubblica Marinara" together with Genova. So, she thought that Pisa must have been on the sea and since she wanted to see the sea, she got there. She started to walk around Pisa, trying to find her way to the sea (for whom don't know Pisa well enough, the sea is not in Pisa. Getting to the sea from Pisa train station is a long long long walk of hours). She ended up in a square where there was a concert when she realized that she had to run back to catch the train back to Florence. She missed the train. She came back to the concert, which by that time was on a break. On her way to the concert they gave her a small bottle of liquor to try. She didn't like it, but she had it in her hands when a guy asked her where she got it. That guy had a friend who realized that she was a foreigner and asked her if she wanted to go to see the sea. He drove her there, offered her to eat watermelon together, spent some hours together and then brought her back to the station. That's it. They kept in touch (she was working in France), she spent her holidays in Italy, they got together and now they are married with two children.
When she was telling this story I thought that it was such a cool way to meet the person with whom to spend your life and then I realized that something like this could never happen to me because:
a) if I am not in a familiar environment and someone, especially a man (and especially an Italian man with the bad fame that they carry with them), comes to talk to me, I would bark him something back to scare him away
b) if this person doesn't get scared and after this first attempt actually keeps talking to me and offers me to bring me to the sea, I would never go with him alone. If this guy is not even good looking, I would probably do my best to convince him that my boyfriend is big and will come soon (that normally doesn't work so well), that I have some weird disease for which it is better to stay away from me (I am not good in telling lies, so I am sure it wouldn't work either) and finally I would look at him really badly like I would like to kill him (I am mastering this look!).
c) if he is good looking and actually I wouldn't mind to know him better, I would still not go anywhere with him, but I would ask him his email or phone number and start at least a year long phase in which I would test him, push him away, be a total angel or a total bitch depending on the mood to finally realize if I think in a remote future it could work between us.
If someone is interested in following my strategy, I have to admit that the year testing doesn't seem to work very well, since my past relationships were long, but ended even if I tested the guys for longer than a year before to move from a close friendship to the next step......
Flatmate, flatmate and flatmate again
Montpellier (France), morning
I have no idea why it seems so difficult to find a good flatmate. Of course, as I realized reading a blog of XUP (link on the left in my blog page) about how nice is to live alone, I like too much living alone to really appreciate to live with someone else, especially if I didn't chose the person...But in Amsterdam I had good luck with two of my flatmate (actually one was great, was even cooking for the rest of us sometimes....). After then, no luck.
Maybe I am picky. And I am aware of this. Maybe I am too jealous of my space, time, things, schedule, but I have some serious issue with my actual flatmate. And she is nice, she is friendly. She is just difficult to live with. Last night before bed, I decided to clean the kitchen that was looking like having hosted a wild party (even if there have been no parties in there as far as I know).
I got the broom (I always forget this word in English) and it stunk. The broom had the smell of the perfume of my flatmate. Really, really strong smell.
Now I wonder, does she comb her hair with the broom? I don't think it would be an easy thing to do. So, how is it possible that the broom smells of her perfume even more than my flatmate itself? did she spread the perfume on the broom? I wanted to ask her about that, because it is just too weird...but I thought that explaining her the thing in French wouldn't have been that easy, especially at night...so for now I decided to keep an eye on the broom and check if something weird happens to it.
I managed to clean the kitchen anyway.
I have no idea why it seems so difficult to find a good flatmate. Of course, as I realized reading a blog of XUP (link on the left in my blog page) about how nice is to live alone, I like too much living alone to really appreciate to live with someone else, especially if I didn't chose the person...But in Amsterdam I had good luck with two of my flatmate (actually one was great, was even cooking for the rest of us sometimes....). After then, no luck.
Maybe I am picky. And I am aware of this. Maybe I am too jealous of my space, time, things, schedule, but I have some serious issue with my actual flatmate. And she is nice, she is friendly. She is just difficult to live with. Last night before bed, I decided to clean the kitchen that was looking like having hosted a wild party (even if there have been no parties in there as far as I know).
I got the broom (I always forget this word in English) and it stunk. The broom had the smell of the perfume of my flatmate. Really, really strong smell.
Now I wonder, does she comb her hair with the broom? I don't think it would be an easy thing to do. So, how is it possible that the broom smells of her perfume even more than my flatmate itself? did she spread the perfume on the broom? I wanted to ask her about that, because it is just too weird...but I thought that explaining her the thing in French wouldn't have been that easy, especially at night...so for now I decided to keep an eye on the broom and check if something weird happens to it.
I managed to clean the kitchen anyway.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Bridget Jones in Montpellier
France, evening
Bridget Jones compared to me is just a beginner. I am shy. It doesn't look like, but I am. I am talkative, but only if I feel comfortable and I know the people around me. In French being talkative is for sure already more difficult. If I don't know anyone around, is actually impossible.
However, today I decided to start to talk to the head of one other scientific groups here. It was a few days that I was preparing in my head the perfect excuse to talk to him. I had everything figured out. Of course, the everything I figured out was slightly different that how actually things happened.... I met him on my way to the copy machine room. I stopped him and asked him if he was the head of the other scientific group. At his positive answer, I asked him if they have lab meetings and if I could participate to them.
I didn't introduce myself. I didn't ask his name (which I still don't know).
He nicely asked me my name. I was already completely red to say anything more that my name. Till that moment, I spoke French to him. He then proposed me to give him my email address, so that he could add me to the mailing list and I would receive an email every time they have the lab meetings. We then walked to the copy machine room and by that point I probably became blind since I couldn't find neither a paper nor a pen to write with. Of course they were in front of me, so he took them and he started to write my email. I got so confused between the French and English that a) I confused him on how my name is written (which is already not easy to start with) b) I gave him a wrong email address................
The redness level of my face at this point was like a strawberry
I fortunately realized that the address I gave him was wrong (he probably started to think that I am quite retarded) and gave him the correct one. When he read my email, he made fun of me and asked me if I was famous since I have my own website. He was joking, but I was so much in panic that I couldn't say any meaningful word in any language, Italian, French or English and in the order I:
a) started to justify myself for having my own website, blathering and mumbling some nonsense (as I could realize from the expression on his face).
b) almost stepped on his feet, so that he had to jump out of my way
c) realizing that I was probably making a totally horrible impression, thus getting even redder and more confused if possible.
End of the story. I finally apologized to him for being so confused (?)......in three weeks since my arrival here, I made a point. Which is that I am probably the most confused person they have ever met....
Bridget Jones compared to me is just a beginner. I am shy. It doesn't look like, but I am. I am talkative, but only if I feel comfortable and I know the people around me. In French being talkative is for sure already more difficult. If I don't know anyone around, is actually impossible.
However, today I decided to start to talk to the head of one other scientific groups here. It was a few days that I was preparing in my head the perfect excuse to talk to him. I had everything figured out. Of course, the everything I figured out was slightly different that how actually things happened.... I met him on my way to the copy machine room. I stopped him and asked him if he was the head of the other scientific group. At his positive answer, I asked him if they have lab meetings and if I could participate to them.
I didn't introduce myself. I didn't ask his name (which I still don't know).
He nicely asked me my name. I was already completely red to say anything more that my name. Till that moment, I spoke French to him. He then proposed me to give him my email address, so that he could add me to the mailing list and I would receive an email every time they have the lab meetings. We then walked to the copy machine room and by that point I probably became blind since I couldn't find neither a paper nor a pen to write with. Of course they were in front of me, so he took them and he started to write my email. I got so confused between the French and English that a) I confused him on how my name is written (which is already not easy to start with) b) I gave him a wrong email address................
The redness level of my face at this point was like a strawberry
I fortunately realized that the address I gave him was wrong (he probably started to think that I am quite retarded) and gave him the correct one. When he read my email, he made fun of me and asked me if I was famous since I have my own website. He was joking, but I was so much in panic that I couldn't say any meaningful word in any language, Italian, French or English and in the order I:
a) started to justify myself for having my own website, blathering and mumbling some nonsense (as I could realize from the expression on his face).
b) almost stepped on his feet, so that he had to jump out of my way
c) realizing that I was probably making a totally horrible impression, thus getting even redder and more confused if possible.
End of the story. I finally apologized to him for being so confused (?)......in three weeks since my arrival here, I made a point. Which is that I am probably the most confused person they have ever met....
Dogville
France, night
My goodness. I am sure that this movie, Dogville, has some deep insight about human nature that I didn't get. I am sure that movie experts could consider it a great sophisticated and whatever else movie. I just found it disturbing. Disturbing in an horrible way. I liked the fact that it was played like in a theater. I liked the acting. But the story is so terrible, so unnecessarily mentally disturbing brutally violent. I don't know. I really don't like this kind of movies. I know that on the imbd database the movie got a high rating. But still, it is just too much for me.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276919/
And I wanted to watch it because a person who was working with me in Germany told me that it was a great movie...I am sure she saw in there something that I was not able to pick up. I am sure she was able to move behind the sadness of the story, the violence.
I hope to be able to have good dreams tonight and sleep well.
My goodness. I am sure that this movie, Dogville, has some deep insight about human nature that I didn't get. I am sure that movie experts could consider it a great sophisticated and whatever else movie. I just found it disturbing. Disturbing in an horrible way. I liked the fact that it was played like in a theater. I liked the acting. But the story is so terrible, so unnecessarily mentally disturbing brutally violent. I don't know. I really don't like this kind of movies. I know that on the imbd database the movie got a high rating. But still, it is just too much for me.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276919/
And I wanted to watch it because a person who was working with me in Germany told me that it was a great movie...I am sure she saw in there something that I was not able to pick up. I am sure she was able to move behind the sadness of the story, the violence.
I hope to be able to have good dreams tonight and sleep well.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Bagel and guacamole
Montpellier (France), evening let's say
I keep thinking about my skype chat with Vasco today. He wrote me if I was planning to run this evening (I have been quite lazy lately). I wrote him back that it could have been a good idea, considering my lunch. He imagined me eating sausages and beans for lunch and he obviously couldn't figure me have such a lunch. So, he asked me what I actually had for lunch.
This is what I answered him: a bagel, with guacamole sauce and chips after.
And he started with "what"?
And I didn't know which part of that he didn't understand since I love bagels, I like guacamole and I have to stay away from chips to avoid to eat an entire package in 5 seconds.
From then on he started with a completely absurd and funny chat about not knowing what the guacamole and the bagels are, and he was so funny, that even if I was in the office at work, in a room full of people, I couldn't stop laughing....
He can be quite funny when he is in the mood :-)
I keep thinking about my skype chat with Vasco today. He wrote me if I was planning to run this evening (I have been quite lazy lately). I wrote him back that it could have been a good idea, considering my lunch. He imagined me eating sausages and beans for lunch and he obviously couldn't figure me have such a lunch. So, he asked me what I actually had for lunch.
This is what I answered him: a bagel, with guacamole sauce and chips after.
And he started with "what"?
And I didn't know which part of that he didn't understand since I love bagels, I like guacamole and I have to stay away from chips to avoid to eat an entire package in 5 seconds.
From then on he started with a completely absurd and funny chat about not knowing what the guacamole and the bagels are, and he was so funny, that even if I was in the office at work, in a room full of people, I couldn't stop laughing....
He can be quite funny when he is in the mood :-)
France vs USA
Montpellier (France), late afternoon (which basically is evening)
Still at work. I may have finally got how a principal component analysis works. But this is not the main topic of this blog. The topic concerns something I observed over my lunch today.
I got a great bagel with vegetables and guacamole. I sat and while eating it, I saw in front of me a girl opening a bottle of water, taking a napkin, dropping on it some water and using that to wash her hands. She didn't have eaten anything. She was just sitting in a public place, with her hands on the public table. I knew before to hear her talking that she could only have been American. In fact, she was.
I stepped from the world (USA) were if they could, they would kill every kind of existing bacteria (even the ones that are good to us), to the world (France) where public hygiene seems to be just an hobby. I can't stop to be shocked every time I observe these strong differences.
Still at work. I may have finally got how a principal component analysis works. But this is not the main topic of this blog. The topic concerns something I observed over my lunch today.
I got a great bagel with vegetables and guacamole. I sat and while eating it, I saw in front of me a girl opening a bottle of water, taking a napkin, dropping on it some water and using that to wash her hands. She didn't have eaten anything. She was just sitting in a public place, with her hands on the public table. I knew before to hear her talking that she could only have been American. In fact, she was.
I stepped from the world (USA) were if they could, they would kill every kind of existing bacteria (even the ones that are good to us), to the world (France) where public hygiene seems to be just an hobby. I can't stop to be shocked every time I observe these strong differences.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Montpellier pictures
Montpellier (France), afternoonI am falling asleep. I have to drink my coffee otherwise I cannot make it to the end of this blog awake. I went for a walk downtown today. I wanted to go to the beach by bike (without getting lost of course), but the weather was not too nice. Instead, I decided to walk downtown and take a few pictures.
This is part of place the la Comedie, looking at the Esplanade. It is much bigger, but just to give an idea.
Then if you walk from there in the direction of the Arc du Triomphe, there is the Place du Marche' du fleurs, where hopefully I will move at the end of this month. The picture has been taken in a way that the building that you see is where I will enter to go to my future apartment.
Interestingly, next to the entrance door, there is a SPA and a pharmacy with all the anticellulite products :-). In the same square, there is also another SPA. It is definitively the right place for me. As soon as I can, I will also take a few pictures inside the building, because it is amazing, but for now I have no access to it.In the summer, on thursday evening, there are free tango classes (I have to try it) and people dancing tango on the square. In the square next to it (which is not visible in the picture) on friday,
there are bands playing jazz in the evening.
The road going to the Arc du
Triomphe is quite fancy, but the
Jardin de Peyrou after the Arc is simply beautiful. I am planning to go there running in the evening after work, once I will move to the new apartment. It is so close. And before to pass the Arc, there is a building that I have no idea of what it is, but it just looks nice, so I took a picture of it. Of course, I could have also crossed the road to read what it is, but I was lazy and so I will have to check that another time.
Then you finally get to the Jardin and this is what you see in front of you as soon as you enter in there and at your shoulder, you have again the Arc. 
Walking in, at the end of the Jardin there is another structure, which I am not what it represents.... I am a disaster as a guide, I know.........but I am trying to improve that.From the Jardin on the left you can walk in the direction of the Botanical Garden of which this was the entrance (but now it has been moved a bit further down to the road). Before to get to the current entrance of the botanical garden, on the right there is the Faculty of Medical Science, which is in an amazingly looking huge historical building. I would chose to go to the Medical School for a couple of years just to say that I am going to the University there.....
At the botanical garden I finally saw two lizards. I was wondering where all the lizards are in this place......
The Frenchies and the shoes
Montpellier (France), morning
I don't know how they can. I feel in pain just looking at them. But no, here it seems that everyone is doing well wearing incredible flat shoes with no sole. I have to always wear a support in my shoes ok. But that is not the point, the point is that if these French girls were walking bare foot, it would probably be better for their feet and their back, at least according to what physicians always say. But not, they all walk kilometers and kilometers in these flat shoes, which seem to me to be even more uncomfortable that high heel shoes. You try them on and you feel you have nothing under your feet, so when you walk you can feel whatever little stone or anything that is on the floor. Beside, you are so close to the floor that if by any chance you step on a dog shit (which wouldn't be a rare fact here, since dog shit is everywhere), your feet would end up cover with it.....which is quite disgusting, and I guess it would be disgusting even for the low hygiene standard of here....
However, super flat or not super flat shoes, as I wrote in one of my first blog last year, the Frenchies are able to look good and sexy no matter what they wear....
I don't know how they can. I feel in pain just looking at them. But no, here it seems that everyone is doing well wearing incredible flat shoes with no sole. I have to always wear a support in my shoes ok. But that is not the point, the point is that if these French girls were walking bare foot, it would probably be better for their feet and their back, at least according to what physicians always say. But not, they all walk kilometers and kilometers in these flat shoes, which seem to me to be even more uncomfortable that high heel shoes. You try them on and you feel you have nothing under your feet, so when you walk you can feel whatever little stone or anything that is on the floor. Beside, you are so close to the floor that if by any chance you step on a dog shit (which wouldn't be a rare fact here, since dog shit is everywhere), your feet would end up cover with it.....which is quite disgusting, and I guess it would be disgusting even for the low hygiene standard of here....
However, super flat or not super flat shoes, as I wrote in one of my first blog last year, the Frenchies are able to look good and sexy no matter what they wear....
Friday, June 13, 2008
pensiero
Montpellier (France), night
Io non mi voglio proprio bene. Ancora di piu' io non mi amo e non mi rispetto. Veramente mi comporto come se valessi zero.
Io non mi voglio proprio bene. Ancora di piu' io non mi amo e non mi rispetto. Veramente mi comporto come se valessi zero.
kitchen
Montpellier (France), morning
Having a flatmate is such a pleasure. This morning I got wake up by a weird sweet smell. Plus a lot of noise. It was 7 am. I couldn't realize what the smell was till I got to the kitchen. And then I saw a kitchen which was looking more like a war field than anything else, with some whitish smelly substance spread all over. The kitchen is so dirty that not even a mouse would step in it. I cleaned it a bit to be able to make my own breakfast, but for the rest is still the same....
Having a flatmate is such a pleasure. This morning I got wake up by a weird sweet smell. Plus a lot of noise. It was 7 am. I couldn't realize what the smell was till I got to the kitchen. And then I saw a kitchen which was looking more like a war field than anything else, with some whitish smelly substance spread all over. The kitchen is so dirty that not even a mouse would step in it. I cleaned it a bit to be able to make my own breakfast, but for the rest is still the same....
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Scorpions
Montpellier (France), night
It is not the best thing to watch before to go to bed. I should have instead read a book, but the book I am reading is too depressing. This instead is just disgusting..... ok, the dialogs are not really clear, but the video is clear enough...and it is disgusting..............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J68pyG5QUQ&feature=related
It is not the best thing to watch before to go to bed. I should have instead read a book, but the book I am reading is too depressing. This instead is just disgusting..... ok, the dialogs are not really clear, but the video is clear enough...and it is disgusting..............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J68pyG5QUQ&feature=related
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
apartment
France, night
This is just totally ridiculous. To rent my new future (hopefully) apartment they asked me: a copy of my passport, my bank coordinates, a copy of my contract, one month rent for the agency (450 euros), two months deposit for the apartment (900 euros) to pay at the moment of the signature on the contract to rent the place, a person who can warranty for me (who has to fill in a lot of different forms), and then the first month rent.
Basically before to even enter in the apartment I have to pay 1800 euros, give them a lot of documents and pay everything with French checks. So, if you are a foreigner and you just started, you are screwed. I heard of this and I thought that it was only for Paris...but not, also here it is the same story.....
Will I be able to move to the new place and at the end when I will leave the place, get all my money of the deposit back? it is not that I find 900 euros up on a tree...
This is just totally ridiculous. To rent my new future (hopefully) apartment they asked me: a copy of my passport, my bank coordinates, a copy of my contract, one month rent for the agency (450 euros), two months deposit for the apartment (900 euros) to pay at the moment of the signature on the contract to rent the place, a person who can warranty for me (who has to fill in a lot of different forms), and then the first month rent.
Basically before to even enter in the apartment I have to pay 1800 euros, give them a lot of documents and pay everything with French checks. So, if you are a foreigner and you just started, you are screwed. I heard of this and I thought that it was only for Paris...but not, also here it is the same story.....
Will I be able to move to the new place and at the end when I will leave the place, get all my money of the deposit back? it is not that I find 900 euros up on a tree...
sex and the city, high heels and addictions
France, evening
That's it. I have to recognize it. I am seriously addicted to sex and the city. Plus, I am a weirdo. As people who got a bit more in contact with me here already noticed (and didn't have any problem in telling me that).
Anyway, since I left my Sex and the city dvds in Italy, I had no choice that looking on internet for video/articles/blogs. I ended up on this blog entry and I thought of me (meaning that I should probably practice following this video and the tips of this blog) and of my sister (exactly the opposite of me. Able to walk on stiletto heels also on the most improbable street). Check it out, it is quite cool
and this is for crying a bit. It is for when you are abroad, alone, thinking of what you miss, your friends, the places you feel home, the people with whom you feel home, the big love, the big fights, the laughs, the hopes, the challenges of a new life. When you see a life passing by and you feel you are not really living it because you have none to share it with. Nothing to say. I am a dreamer and I still dream of lifting my head like at the end of the last episode of SATC and find that right man where I would never expect to see him, there for me. Just because he wants me. And I can watch this video over and over and over.
But the movie...the movie is a diluted version of what it was the tv series. And Big. Come on, in the movie he is too good. He is so good that is not credible. I mean ok that he is in love for Carrie, crazy in love...but he is just too perfect. Even when he doesn't show up at the wedding, actually it was not as bad as he used to be. It was a nice movie and I enjoyed it, but Big changed too much.
That's it. I have to recognize it. I am seriously addicted to sex and the city. Plus, I am a weirdo. As people who got a bit more in contact with me here already noticed (and didn't have any problem in telling me that).
Anyway, since I left my Sex and the city dvds in Italy, I had no choice that looking on internet for video/articles/blogs. I ended up on this blog entry and I thought of me (meaning that I should probably practice following this video and the tips of this blog) and of my sister (exactly the opposite of me. Able to walk on stiletto heels also on the most improbable street). Check it out, it is quite cool
and this is for crying a bit. It is for when you are abroad, alone, thinking of what you miss, your friends, the places you feel home, the people with whom you feel home, the big love, the big fights, the laughs, the hopes, the challenges of a new life. When you see a life passing by and you feel you are not really living it because you have none to share it with. Nothing to say. I am a dreamer and I still dream of lifting my head like at the end of the last episode of SATC and find that right man where I would never expect to see him, there for me. Just because he wants me. And I can watch this video over and over and over.
But the movie...the movie is a diluted version of what it was the tv series. And Big. Come on, in the movie he is too good. He is so good that is not credible. I mean ok that he is in love for Carrie, crazy in love...but he is just too perfect. Even when he doesn't show up at the wedding, actually it was not as bad as he used to be. It was a nice movie and I enjoyed it, but Big changed too much.
ideal evening
Montpellier (France), evening
I was enjoying my dinner and watching on youtube some trailer from Sex and the city when I looked outside the window and I saw a big fat gecko on the wall of the house...so, what can be nicer than having sex and the city and a gecko?
I was enjoying my dinner and watching on youtube some trailer from Sex and the city when I looked outside the window and I saw a big fat gecko on the wall of the house...so, what can be nicer than having sex and the city and a gecko?
Jeans
Montpellier (France), morning
Today is a crazy busy day.
But I love myself in my Banana Republic jeans. It makes me feel good.
Hopefully, I will solve all the paperwork issues here.
Today is a crazy busy day.
But I love myself in my Banana Republic jeans. It makes me feel good.
Hopefully, I will solve all the paperwork issues here.
Monday, June 9, 2008
cages and dogs
I am totally asleep, but I will try to write a blog, hoping to be able to finish it. I already apologize for my english tonight.
The more time I spend in this city, the more I am convinced that here bathrooms and toilets are not anything to care about. Even the bathroom at the University look totally disgusting. Bathrooms, showers and things like this are not a priority here. Of course for me it is a bit of a drama, since after the kitchen the bathroom is my favorite room in a house (in fact in my apartment in the USA the bathroom was as big as the kitchen :-)!
But it is not about this that I want to write. I just realized something. That I saw here something that I saw only in Caracas and in South Africa before. The bars in front of the windows. Every window of the first and second floor (and something also of the other floors if those windows can be accessed in a relatively easy way) is "caged" to avoid thieves entering in the house from there. It is in some way kind of shocking, since it makes me immediately feel insecure. At the moment of deciding which apartment to rent (beside the fact that of the 4 apartment I visited the one I decided to rent was the only decent one), my almost cousin here told me to not rent anything at the bottom, first and second floor. Then we checked for how accessible from the roof is the apartment that I will rent (not accessible fortunately) and then he told me to not leave the windows open....Sometimes I think that I am naive as Alice in Wonderland....so when I realize that actually yes there are thieves also here and yes they normally enter in the apartments and yes I have to be careful, I feel extremely vulnerable, even more than necessary probably. Last saturday a guy came to me. He was quite drunk and dirty and I was just watching the gay pride, so not paying attention to anything. This guy came close to me then and he asked me if I would go to Marseille with him. My thoughts were: a) why the hell of all the people around he decided to come to me b) do I look so innocent? c) is he going to attack me and hit me?
Of course as easily as he came, he also easily and quickly left, so nothing happen. But I was already imagining myself dead on the floor of the beautiful picturesque main square of Montpellier in a pool of blood (my blood of course).
I know I have a huge imagination. And the tendency to always imagine the worst tragedies. I am aware of that.
Last thing and then I go to bed. Here if you are begging for money, if you are homeless and sleeping on the road, if you are drunk BUT you have a dog, the police cannot do anything to you. Which of course is nonsense to me. The result is that I never saw so many dogs like here. Every single homeless/drunk person (I am not able to distinguish if they are both or if they are just drunk and they like to sit on the floor), and there are quite a lot here, have its own dog. Plus, there are also some I would define hippie people who also have dogs, just to avoid any possible problem with the police in the case the policemen would even think to bother them....It is a weird thing, difficult to explain. It just need to be seen....
But I have to confess that after my first trip to Paris, when I was still a kid and I went there with my parent, my child desire was to become one of these persons who play some kind of instruments in the metro station and hope to make a living with that. I am not sure how from that child dream I became a scientist. I still miss the link. But it was a fortunate event for me, since I am so bad in playing instruments (no patience to learn).
The more time I spend in this city, the more I am convinced that here bathrooms and toilets are not anything to care about. Even the bathroom at the University look totally disgusting. Bathrooms, showers and things like this are not a priority here. Of course for me it is a bit of a drama, since after the kitchen the bathroom is my favorite room in a house (in fact in my apartment in the USA the bathroom was as big as the kitchen :-)!
But it is not about this that I want to write. I just realized something. That I saw here something that I saw only in Caracas and in South Africa before. The bars in front of the windows. Every window of the first and second floor (and something also of the other floors if those windows can be accessed in a relatively easy way) is "caged" to avoid thieves entering in the house from there. It is in some way kind of shocking, since it makes me immediately feel insecure. At the moment of deciding which apartment to rent (beside the fact that of the 4 apartment I visited the one I decided to rent was the only decent one), my almost cousin here told me to not rent anything at the bottom, first and second floor. Then we checked for how accessible from the roof is the apartment that I will rent (not accessible fortunately) and then he told me to not leave the windows open....Sometimes I think that I am naive as Alice in Wonderland....so when I realize that actually yes there are thieves also here and yes they normally enter in the apartments and yes I have to be careful, I feel extremely vulnerable, even more than necessary probably. Last saturday a guy came to me. He was quite drunk and dirty and I was just watching the gay pride, so not paying attention to anything. This guy came close to me then and he asked me if I would go to Marseille with him. My thoughts were: a) why the hell of all the people around he decided to come to me b) do I look so innocent? c) is he going to attack me and hit me?
Of course as easily as he came, he also easily and quickly left, so nothing happen. But I was already imagining myself dead on the floor of the beautiful picturesque main square of Montpellier in a pool of blood (my blood of course).
I know I have a huge imagination. And the tendency to always imagine the worst tragedies. I am aware of that.
Last thing and then I go to bed. Here if you are begging for money, if you are homeless and sleeping on the road, if you are drunk BUT you have a dog, the police cannot do anything to you. Which of course is nonsense to me. The result is that I never saw so many dogs like here. Every single homeless/drunk person (I am not able to distinguish if they are both or if they are just drunk and they like to sit on the floor), and there are quite a lot here, have its own dog. Plus, there are also some I would define hippie people who also have dogs, just to avoid any possible problem with the police in the case the policemen would even think to bother them....It is a weird thing, difficult to explain. It just need to be seen....But I have to confess that after my first trip to Paris, when I was still a kid and I went there with my parent, my child desire was to become one of these persons who play some kind of instruments in the metro station and hope to make a living with that. I am not sure how from that child dream I became a scientist. I still miss the link. But it was a fortunate event for me, since I am so bad in playing instruments (no patience to learn).
Sunday, June 8, 2008
disaster in the kitchen
Montpellier (France), evening
I was putting some picture on my blog, when I decided to start to make dinner. I am not sure my genes are 100% Italian, because my eating/cooking behavior has nothing to do with the typical Italian woman. There are things that I like to eat and things I don't like, but if I am alone, I care a little of what I eat as long as it gives me some immediate satisfaction. This means, that I love to just eat yogurt (and not only for breakfast), since it is soft, as well as mashed potatoes. When I decide to eat it is because I need food. At that moment, or soon anyway....
So, this evening I decided for tuna (from the can), boiled broccoli and mashed potatoes. If my mum reads this blog, by now she would disgusted. By anyway, this was my plan. The mashed potatoes was for a pre-cocked mashed potatoes thing, so I just needed to add soja milk and water. So, I prepared the thing, put everything in a pot and I came here to keep adding pictures to the blog and writing emails. In another pot I but the water to boil the broccoli. And I forgot about the dinner. Till the moment I heard a weird noise from the kitchen. And I found a whitish, bubbly thing coming out of the pot. In the other pot, the water didn't even start to boil, since, as I found out, that part of the electric kitchen doesn't work. I tried to save the dinner anyway and it turned out that I I rescued the mashed potatoes, I managed to boil broccoli and I have been able to open the tuna can without any further disaster. I also already cleaned everything.
Basically, it is not that I don't like to eat or to cook, it is just that if I am alone there is no satisfaction in neither of the two....but I have to bring here my wok. With that, I am a bit better and I can also cook something decent just for myself. The wok is so fast!
I was putting some picture on my blog, when I decided to start to make dinner. I am not sure my genes are 100% Italian, because my eating/cooking behavior has nothing to do with the typical Italian woman. There are things that I like to eat and things I don't like, but if I am alone, I care a little of what I eat as long as it gives me some immediate satisfaction. This means, that I love to just eat yogurt (and not only for breakfast), since it is soft, as well as mashed potatoes. When I decide to eat it is because I need food. At that moment, or soon anyway....
So, this evening I decided for tuna (from the can), boiled broccoli and mashed potatoes. If my mum reads this blog, by now she would disgusted. By anyway, this was my plan. The mashed potatoes was for a pre-cocked mashed potatoes thing, so I just needed to add soja milk and water. So, I prepared the thing, put everything in a pot and I came here to keep adding pictures to the blog and writing emails. In another pot I but the water to boil the broccoli. And I forgot about the dinner. Till the moment I heard a weird noise from the kitchen. And I found a whitish, bubbly thing coming out of the pot. In the other pot, the water didn't even start to boil, since, as I found out, that part of the electric kitchen doesn't work. I tried to save the dinner anyway and it turned out that I I rescued the mashed potatoes, I managed to boil broccoli and I have been able to open the tuna can without any further disaster. I also already cleaned everything.
Basically, it is not that I don't like to eat or to cook, it is just that if I am alone there is no satisfaction in neither of the two....but I have to bring here my wok. With that, I am a bit better and I can also cook something decent just for myself. The wok is so fast!
Saint-Guilhem le Desert
Montpellier (France), eveningIt was supposed to be sunny today. I got sunny only after we finished hiking. I enjoyed the walk anyway, even if it was raining a bit. I went with Vincenzo (my almost cousin) and his fiancee to a small cute village close by. This place, Saint-Guilhem le Desert, is one of the due stops of the Santiago way, the way of the peregrines that goes from Arles to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The walk was lovely and too bad I didn't see almost any animal if we exclude one scorpion, a beetle, a bee and some butterflies. This is the view of the village from the hiking trail
There is an hermitage along the way. It was actually quite wet there and with something similar to caves (where the eremites were used to sit) and I looked for frogs or other animals, but nothing.....
In the village, where we stopped after the hike to drink something, walk around and enjoy the sun, there is a beautiful romanic (the spell check gives me romantic...I don't know if it is romantic, but I was referring to the style in which it is built) abbey, the abbey of Gellone. Unfortunately, part of it is in different museums in New York.....
13e Festival des Fanfares
Montpellier (France), afternoon
"Chat noir, nuit blanche" Quartier Boutonnet/Beaux Arts
Yesterday, fanfares (bands) downtown from 6.30 pm to 2 am. The bands were playing in different parts of town and it was everything free. It was really nice. I stayed there to listen to some band till 9 pm. I heard that around 11.30 people were a bit drunk so it was not too enjoyable anymore, but when I saw it, it was really nice.
And....there were a lot of people playing saxophones. I have to learn to play the saxophone...hopefully, one day.
A few other pictures
"Chat noir, nuit blanche" Quartier Boutonnet/Beaux Arts
Yesterday, fanfares (bands) downtown from 6.30 pm to 2 am. The bands were playing in different parts of town and it was everything free. It was really nice. I stayed there to listen to some band till 9 pm. I heard that around 11.30 people were a bit drunk so it was not too enjoyable anymore, but when I saw it, it was really nice.
And....there were a lot of people playing saxophones. I have to learn to play the saxophone...hopefully, one day.
A few other pictures
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Montpellier pictures
Montpellier (France), evening
A few pictures from today at the gay pride today in Montpellier
On the other side of this square there is my future apartment
The gay pride in Montpellier is nothing compared to the one in Amsterdam. There were even no people in leather pants....
And a few pictures of Montpellier
A few pictures from today at the gay pride today in Montpellier
On the other side of this square there is my future apartment
The gay pride in Montpellier is nothing compared to the one in Amsterdam. There were even no people in leather pants....And a few pictures of Montpellier
Friday, June 6, 2008
Flatmate part II
Montpellier (France), morning
This morning my flatmate woke me up at 6.45 am because her phone was ringing first and then she started to speak on the phone so laud that it was impossible to keep sleeping. She even went to the toilet with the phone, keeping talking to someone who, I imagine, was not that interested in hearing the toilet flushing and the rest....
Beside this, I forgot yesterday to mention probably the best flatmate I ever had, a Japanese...In Amsterdam, I shared the house with other 3 or 4 people, depending on the time. This guy, arrived and he looked immediately a bit weird, but as I never interacted before with Japanese, I read his behavior as a cultural difference. Basically, he never wanted to adapt to the different time zone compared to Japan and so when we were going to bed, he was awake working, while when we were up going to work, he was sleeping...that, I have to admit, was really good for sharing the common spaces, since he was never there when the rest of the people were there....
One time, he stopped to appear at the time we were going to bed, we didn't hear him, we didn't see his laundry, not hearing him moving....at that point we started to worry if he was just away for a trip or if he was dead in his bed....after a quick consulting with the others, we decided that he was away and to not worry. Something like 5 days later, he appeared from his door, telling us that he was sick and for all that time he spent his days in bed without coming out from his room (which beside was cut just on his size, since it was originally a room for young kids, so extremely small). I guess that when none was at home he may have left his room to go to the bathroom or to drink or eat. But he did that in such a silent way that even the one of us who was always working at home, never heard or saw him.
My current flatmate is again on the phone. I think I am going to put her phone on fire....
This morning my flatmate woke me up at 6.45 am because her phone was ringing first and then she started to speak on the phone so laud that it was impossible to keep sleeping. She even went to the toilet with the phone, keeping talking to someone who, I imagine, was not that interested in hearing the toilet flushing and the rest....
Beside this, I forgot yesterday to mention probably the best flatmate I ever had, a Japanese...In Amsterdam, I shared the house with other 3 or 4 people, depending on the time. This guy, arrived and he looked immediately a bit weird, but as I never interacted before with Japanese, I read his behavior as a cultural difference. Basically, he never wanted to adapt to the different time zone compared to Japan and so when we were going to bed, he was awake working, while when we were up going to work, he was sleeping...that, I have to admit, was really good for sharing the common spaces, since he was never there when the rest of the people were there....
One time, he stopped to appear at the time we were going to bed, we didn't hear him, we didn't see his laundry, not hearing him moving....at that point we started to worry if he was just away for a trip or if he was dead in his bed....after a quick consulting with the others, we decided that he was away and to not worry. Something like 5 days later, he appeared from his door, telling us that he was sick and for all that time he spent his days in bed without coming out from his room (which beside was cut just on his size, since it was originally a room for young kids, so extremely small). I guess that when none was at home he may have left his room to go to the bathroom or to drink or eat. But he did that in such a silent way that even the one of us who was always working at home, never heard or saw him.
My current flatmate is again on the phone. I think I am going to put her phone on fire....
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Flatmate
Montpellier (France), night
I have to admit that the last two flatmates I had (the one in the USA and the current one) were both weird.
The one of the USA with no doubt, the weirdest person I lived with. Weird sometimes in a scary way, like the time I got back home to find her desperately crying about her hip. Apparently she had such a terrible painful problem to her hip that she was limping and the physician told her not only to not do sport (to take it easy basically), but also that she would need a complicate surgery and that she could end up on a wheel chair. Of course, I got terribly worried and feeling sad and sorry for her. Imagine the scene. You come back home from a hard day of work, you just desire to relax going to the gym and then as soon as you step home, you find your flatmate in tears in a urgent need to share her sufferance with someone. That someone of course is you. So, you change your plans and then you spend the following hours trying to convince her that she can't lose hope, that maybe her surgery could be better than expected and solve the problem and bla, bla, bla, till the only result you get is that she runs away (still in tears) to her room (of course thanking me for the help). Anyway, that time, when I finally managed to make it to the gym, who did I find her sweating and pushing like crazy on the step machine? Obviously, my flatmate, with no sign of hip pain not that evening not anymore in the following months we have been living together.........................
But that is only of the stories of my experience of sharing an apartment with her.
The current one just behaves like she lives alone. So far, beside spending every single hour at home with the tv on and talking on the phone, didn't seem too weird.....But this evening, in which I came back home totally exhausted, I saw a pair of blue underwear in the organic trash. Since it was not my underwear (also because I would have remember if I would have trashed with the organic trash), I imagined it belonged to her. I don't investigate on why she trashed that underwear, that is her business, but I admit I was a bit disgusted about this discover in our common trash....But the thing I wonder more about it is why would you trash your underwear with the organic recyclable stuff and not in the general trash? does she wear recyclable blue underwear? I had a strong input of knocking at her door just to ask her that.
I have to admit that the last two flatmates I had (the one in the USA and the current one) were both weird.
The one of the USA with no doubt, the weirdest person I lived with. Weird sometimes in a scary way, like the time I got back home to find her desperately crying about her hip. Apparently she had such a terrible painful problem to her hip that she was limping and the physician told her not only to not do sport (to take it easy basically), but also that she would need a complicate surgery and that she could end up on a wheel chair. Of course, I got terribly worried and feeling sad and sorry for her. Imagine the scene. You come back home from a hard day of work, you just desire to relax going to the gym and then as soon as you step home, you find your flatmate in tears in a urgent need to share her sufferance with someone. That someone of course is you. So, you change your plans and then you spend the following hours trying to convince her that she can't lose hope, that maybe her surgery could be better than expected and solve the problem and bla, bla, bla, till the only result you get is that she runs away (still in tears) to her room (of course thanking me for the help). Anyway, that time, when I finally managed to make it to the gym, who did I find her sweating and pushing like crazy on the step machine? Obviously, my flatmate, with no sign of hip pain not that evening not anymore in the following months we have been living together.........................
But that is only of the stories of my experience of sharing an apartment with her.
The current one just behaves like she lives alone. So far, beside spending every single hour at home with the tv on and talking on the phone, didn't seem too weird.....But this evening, in which I came back home totally exhausted, I saw a pair of blue underwear in the organic trash. Since it was not my underwear (also because I would have remember if I would have trashed with the organic trash), I imagined it belonged to her. I don't investigate on why she trashed that underwear, that is her business, but I admit I was a bit disgusted about this discover in our common trash....But the thing I wonder more about it is why would you trash your underwear with the organic recyclable stuff and not in the general trash? does she wear recyclable blue underwear? I had a strong input of knocking at her door just to ask her that.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
my room and this first apartment
Montpellier (France), night
These are a few pictures of the place where I live now...I have to say that from these pictures the common areas (shower place, toilet place and kitchen) look less small than they actually are....
My room (which is nice and sunny, especially after having improved it with some Ikea furniture)
The kitchen (which as I said is much much smaller but taken from these angles looks better)
Beside everything we also have in this small space two different kind of trash bins (I moved them outside the door because together with my roommate and I, thanks to the trash, we also have a lot of different kind of animals that use the small vital place of the kitchen), plastic flower (which have been fortunately removed) and an old oven that none was using since we have a microwave and anyway there is not too much space to cook.
This space is shared between me and my roommate. If she is in the kitchen, I can't go, since we wouldn't fit both in there except if I would stand on top of her (which is actually not one in my present or future plans) or her on me (which fortunately doesn't seem to be in her plans either).
Finally, the entrance of the shower place with the shower and the sink.....I forgot to take a picture also of the toilet place....The shower is in the kitchen basically and if we are not careful enough together with washing the floor of the shower place when we take a shower, we also wash the floor of the kitchen (which I admit may have some advantage on saving time on the cleaning....)
These are a few pictures of the place where I live now...I have to say that from these pictures the common areas (shower place, toilet place and kitchen) look less small than they actually are....
My room (which is nice and sunny, especially after having improved it with some Ikea furniture)
The kitchen (which as I said is much much smaller but taken from these angles looks better)
Beside everything we also have in this small space two different kind of trash bins (I moved them outside the door because together with my roommate and I, thanks to the trash, we also have a lot of different kind of animals that use the small vital place of the kitchen), plastic flower (which have been fortunately removed) and an old oven that none was using since we have a microwave and anyway there is not too much space to cook.This space is shared between me and my roommate. If she is in the kitchen, I can't go, since we wouldn't fit both in there except if I would stand on top of her (which is actually not one in my present or future plans) or her on me (which fortunately doesn't seem to be in her plans either).
Finally, the entrance of the shower place with the shower and the sink.....I forgot to take a picture also of the toilet place....The shower is in the kitchen basically and if we are not careful enough together with washing the floor of the shower place when we take a shower, we also wash the floor of the kitchen (which I admit may have some advantage on saving time on the cleaning....)
News from France
Montpellier (France), evening
I didn't have the internet connection, so I couldn't keep up with my blog....but I have so many things to write about...from the first moment I got here some many things (weird things) happened that I just wanted to have internet to write about it.
But I have to write about one thing I noticed over and over in these last days...actually two things which impress me a lot...The first....the baguette...You buy the baguette and the hygiene is the last thing that the French think about it. They put the baguette on whatever place while you are paying them, and then they give it to you or with a piece of paper around it (?) or in a plastic bag with whatever other thing you bought too. Today for example I bought some glue and a baguette. The plastic container of the glue was extremely dusty. Well, I paid and the man trowed the glue in a plastic bag with the baguette. I think that I made a disgusted face and immediately removed the glue from the plastic bag. Maybe it is a technique that they have to get in contact with as many bacteria as they can to try to boost their immune system....bah...
Second weirdness...the "salle de bain" or bathroom is not existing in France. In these old houses the shower place is separated by the toilet place. The sink is always so small that you have to be really good in spitting the water and the toothpaste in it after brushing your teeth. There is a higher chance that you would spit it outside the sink. Forget about putting body cream on you in the bathroom. You can't move in there. You wouldn't do it in the room where there is only the toilet and in the room where there is the shower, you can't move. The advantage of these places is that you can make a #1 or a #2 and at the same time brushing your teeth. I know it sounds disgusting, but it is a possibility.....Anyway, for someone like me for whom the bathroom is the second most favorite place (the first is the kitchen), here it is really frustrating. You can't actually enjoy it. And of course, since these two places are so small they have no window. Hopefully in the new buildings this situation has been improved....but so far, for what I saw, French don't care that much about how their bathrooms look like.....
I didn't have the internet connection, so I couldn't keep up with my blog....but I have so many things to write about...from the first moment I got here some many things (weird things) happened that I just wanted to have internet to write about it.
But I have to write about one thing I noticed over and over in these last days...actually two things which impress me a lot...The first....the baguette...You buy the baguette and the hygiene is the last thing that the French think about it. They put the baguette on whatever place while you are paying them, and then they give it to you or with a piece of paper around it (?) or in a plastic bag with whatever other thing you bought too. Today for example I bought some glue and a baguette. The plastic container of the glue was extremely dusty. Well, I paid and the man trowed the glue in a plastic bag with the baguette. I think that I made a disgusted face and immediately removed the glue from the plastic bag. Maybe it is a technique that they have to get in contact with as many bacteria as they can to try to boost their immune system....bah...
Second weirdness...the "salle de bain" or bathroom is not existing in France. In these old houses the shower place is separated by the toilet place. The sink is always so small that you have to be really good in spitting the water and the toothpaste in it after brushing your teeth. There is a higher chance that you would spit it outside the sink. Forget about putting body cream on you in the bathroom. You can't move in there. You wouldn't do it in the room where there is only the toilet and in the room where there is the shower, you can't move. The advantage of these places is that you can make a #1 or a #2 and at the same time brushing your teeth. I know it sounds disgusting, but it is a possibility.....Anyway, for someone like me for whom the bathroom is the second most favorite place (the first is the kitchen), here it is really frustrating. You can't actually enjoy it. And of course, since these two places are so small they have no window. Hopefully in the new buildings this situation has been improved....but so far, for what I saw, French don't care that much about how their bathrooms look like.....
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