Impossible n'est pas Frenchie

Be still my heart, Manuel Neuer comes to FC Bayern

2011-06-05T11:47:00.005+02:00

For those of you who don't watch any German Football, Manuel Neuer is the goal Keeper of the German Football National Team, the Mannschaft. For the Americans among you, when I say Football I mean Soccer.

I love Manuel Neuer, he is a great goal keeper (the Best in Germany, objectively) and he is really really REALLY hot. For two years now I am a huuuuuuuuge fan but Manuel played for Schalke04. Schalke is like the super duper enemy of the FC Bayern, don't ask me why, I am not thaaaaat into Football.

anyway, I thus had to pick. So I picked Schalke04, loyalty always goes to the hottest goalkeeper ;). I even have a T-shirt with Manuel Neuers face on it that Boyfriend forbids me to wear in bed...

It was kind of annoying though to pick Schalke because I live in Bavaria, so FC Bayern would be the natural choice, even if they were not that good this season, I'd rather be for the FC Bayern, logically... And that would make it more intersting.

Now Manuel Neuer did something really unexpected: he left Schalke, after something like 20 years in this club (he plays there since he is a kid) and signed a contract at the FC Bayern, therewith solving my eternal problem of FC Bayern vs. Schalke and making me one of the new FC Bayern fan. Thank you Manuel, I will be able to lick my TV dressed in the same colors than my friends ;)

Some more Bavarian Traditions... with Beer!

2011-06-05T11:08:00.004+02:00

As you may have noticed, no matter what time of the year, you always find in Bavaria some good reasons to party and drink Beer.

They usually have some quite nice ritual or origin and it is always fun to do these at least once, even if you don't like Beer.

Starkbierfest

For example, around march, you have the "Starkbier Fest", which means the "strong bierfest". During Lenten Season (the time before Easter when the Catholics fast), the Paulaner monks in Munich developped a "Starkbier", which has a higher percent of Alcohol and also more calories, to compensate the fact they did not eat much during this time. This bier is now called Salvator.

Since then, most of the breweries in Munich also have a Starbier, which name always ends with "-or".

The Starbierfest is therefore in Paulaner am Nockerberg a big event, close to the Oktoberfest ambiance that you find in the tents. The main difference is that your bier is not served in See through One Liter Glass, like at the Oktoberfest, but in Clay one liter glass as it keeps the beer cool longer.

The Starkbierfest is also called the 5th Season of the year... so it is a real must do in Munich, and in Tracht!

The Osterfeuer

On the Saturday before Easter huge fires, the Osterfeuer (Easter fire) are lit all around Bavaria (and in some other parts of Germany). It is a great tradition, where the people of the village, especially the youth, gather and drink beer (what else!) together in front of the fire. It is very impressive to see. I don't think that any of the pictures you can find on internet can come close to how you feel next to it.

It was a pagan tradition meant to burn the winter and pray the gods and goddesses for fertility of the land, etc. When Chirstianism spread and became stronger in Germany, the church tried to forbid this pagan tradition. The population refused to abandon it though, so the Church made it a catholic thing, which i think is quite smart. It is still a very vivid tradition, especially in Bavaria. If you ever get the chance, totally worth it.

If you speak french or German, check out on Karambolage, they have a very interesting short reportage about this.

Frühlingsfest

As you may have guessed, the Frühlingsfest (Spring fest) is in the spring and celbrates the arrival of the Spring. It takes place on the Theresienwiese (just like the Oktoberfest) and it is called the Small Oktoberfest. It starts mid of April and lasts two weeks. just like for the Oktoberfest you will find somebig tents (two of them: Augustiner and Paulaner) and some carnival rides.

Maibaum Aufstellung

On the first of May, almost every bavarian village is putting up a Maibaum (A May pole) and it is my favourite German traditions.

I already wrote a whole post about this last year. If you have the possibility to check it out, it is such a cool thing to do. Try to find a village where they put it up the traditional way, and not with the crane. It takes longers, but it is very impressive to see. Of course, there too, you drink beer.

Johannistag or Saint John Fire

In the night from the 23rd of June to the 24th, people also lit huge fire and dance in order to celebrate the sommer and Saint John. Very similar to the Osterfeuer it is one more occasion to gather and celebrate. And drink Beer.

So these are the main traditions in the first semester of the year, hope you check them out. It is not just about drinking bier, it is integration ;)

Staying friends with the Xs…

2010-08-13T16:17:00.003+02:00

I have been asked lately how and especially why I made it -so far- to stay friends (or at least in friendly contact) with all the x- boyfriends who counted.

why bother schlepping your past with you, you’ll ask me? Why work so hard for something that could possibly endanger a current relationship? Why take the continuous risk to open old wounds or see someone once loved actually happy with somebody else?

Mainly it is about respect and the fact that you were not anybody’s girlfriend/Boyfriend. You dated the person because you thought he/she was worth it and if it does not work out for a reason or another as a couple, then it could be really worth it to keep up a friendship and lose only the lover, not the friend. I am in touch with all the guys I loved, because I loved them. And I guess I still do, even though it is obviously in a very different way, but I still do.

And I did not want to lose them completely. For me, the saddest thing in a break-up is to be pushed to get this person out of your life, “to move on”. Sometimes you need to and moving on is always essential. I am just not fine with clearing up everybody you ever loved just because it did not work out as a couple, if this person respected you. There is more to it, and I consider myself lucky that my Xs see it this way too because reaching the point where everybody is fine with the break-up, and still seeing each other takes time, hard work. It is rarely easy, no matter who broke up, but it is worth it.

I see it as a win-win situation: you keep the complicity, the laughs, you don’t spoil good memories with anger and you have there a “new” friend who you do not need to impress, and who knows you.

My experience is that you realize if it worked out when you are able to talk about new relationships without feeling bad/guilty/or needing to brag back. Talking to the ex about the new boyfriend / girlfriend does not come easy but if you pass this point of awkwardness, you know you have made it.

You get a friendship where relationship and sex are not polluting elements. You had it, it did not work, and you are both over it. Only the friendship stays. You can honestly be happy about one another successes and happiness. That’s a great feeling. And sometimes you almost forget you were a couple, you just see this person as your friend; someone whose label was not always easy to choose but someone you know you did not want out of your life. That’s something, isn’t it?

50 things that still make me smile

2010-08-05T15:34:00.002+02:00

An update was due on the stuffs that make me smile. What makes you smile?!

Fresh made coffee in the morning
Putting ALL my clothes on my bed and sorting them
Arriving exhausted at work because I talked too long on skype the night before
Receiving hand written cards
Eating on my own one of the foie gras I brought back from France after a shitty day at work
Hearing my good morning playlist
Any movie with Jude Law
Smoking huge cigars
Still thinking “merde, I spent way too much money on shopping today!” and looking at my bags
Giving presents
Flirting shamelessly with bartenders
Planning My sister’s wedding
Someone telling me my german is good
Cooking for Boyfriend
A guy with grupchen
Watching the movie Love Actually
Living in Germany. Most of the time.
When people ask me how come I talk to my best friend three hours on the phone when see her everyday
The book “Begdorf Blondes”
Having a martini and eating grapes
Achieving something at work
The joke “how to drive a Belgian guy crazy? put him in a round room and tell him there s a fry in the corner”
Jewels and particularly diamonds
Honnest compliments
Talking to my family (most of the time!)
The song “mon coeur mon amour” from Anaïs
Buying new pretty pink useless stuffs
Getting ready for going out
Getting Gerberas – ideally in hot pink!
French people talking to me in German
Waking up at 7am on a Saturday morning knowing that I can sleep 4 more hours
Making it to cross everything out of my daily to-do list
The german word “Nickerchen” (nap)
Travelling around
Most of Oscar Wilde’s quotes
Singing “Viva Bavaria” at the Oktoberfest because I know the lyrics
Buying make-up and beauty products I do not need
The british accent
Planning the decoration of my future apartment with Boyfriend
All the things that make me smile but that I can not write on a public space
The face of guys when I (rarely) say the words eine Flasche von die Bier die so schöööön hat geprickelt in mein Bauchnabel.
My cat opening candies like I taught her
Looking at my shoes
Looking at my hats
People correcting the way I am pronouncing a french word e.g. croissant, Perrier,and so on
My Dad asking me if I NEED more money
Looking at my pictures from Sweden
ANYTIME I see Manuel Neuer
Knowing what I want
Getting what I want

The (German) Art of watching football

2010-06-14T16:47:00.002+02:00

The football World championship 2010 just started this week-end in South Africa and it is such a reminder of my start in Munich. I moved to Munich 4 years ago almost exactly (I celebrated my 4th anniversary this week-end) and the whole city was bubbling with football. The “WM” (Weltmeisterschaft) 2006 was taking place in Germany and it was a huge event all over the country. It was also a key point as it seems that Football is one of the only things that allow the Germans to be proud of being Germans and say it openly.

Back then the German team did actually really good – the German Sommermärchen - and was one of the championship surprises. They lost against the ones that later became the world champions, the Italians (damn them!).

Four years later, it is almost all back. The atmosphere, the excitement. Football is a big deal in Germany and the German team has the whole country behind them.

The moral did go down when the captain, Michael Ballack (hot, hot, hot) was hurt and had to forfeit his place in the championship. A lot of people thought that it meant no hope left for Germany. It actually was quite the drama here and a lot of people hated the guy that hurt him. You should have seen the “Bild” cover…

But unlike the French, who keep on bitching about the trainer (I bitch about the trainer too), about Henry’s hand, about the hotel that was chosen, about the ball and about basically anything they can, the Germans actually support their country in this championship. The Media have created a really positive vibe which is so refreshing when I compare it to what’s actually happening in France.

Here, people take days off to watch the games, organize big parties and every city has put in place the beloved “public viewing” system (in Beegarden, in Staidums, Pubs & bars). It is pretty cool. You might also notice the very very popular “Car flag” which is now equipping 1 car out of 2 here. This year Germany does believe that anything is possible and god, it is just nice to be caught in a positive wave.

My favourite way to watch a game is, I think, the most German way to do it. I call it BFF (barbecue, friends and football). It is a simple and “gemütlich” barbecue in the garden of somebody, where a lot of people/friends gather and use this as an opportunity to have a good time together.

So here are some basics (un-written, un-said) rules to enjoy this time with your friends, be a good host or a good guest:

1. The host provides the beer

Beer is to the Germans what water is to the rest of Europe. It is just a BASIC. It is also very cheap here and let’s face it, tastes much much better here than anywhere else in the world. It is therefore the host responsibility. Basically, any German has at least one “Kasse” beer in his Garage /kitchen, at any time. Barbecue time means stocking up so if you are hosting don’t be shy and bring it on.

2. The host provides the barbecue but the guests each bring their own meat / salad / bread, etc.

It can seem a little strange for non Germans, I’d say especially to French people who barely let the guest bring dessert but it is very common in Germany. The Germans LOVE to grill. It is like a national sport or something and the best fun is when you get a maximum of people together. As providing so much meat for so many people would be insanely expensive and that it would mean also that people don’t do it that often, the Germans’ compromise is pretty smart. Everybody brings his/her own food and therefore you are not limited in your choice of guests by the costs. It just allows everybody to have a good time, all together and it is not too much to ask for the host. Each guest can also bring whatever he wants, share it with others and everybody s happy with what is in their plate. I love this system.

3. The shoes go off

Anytime you have to set a foot in the house, the shoes go off. It is making me absolutely insane and it generally results in pile of shoes blocking the door access but it is just a basic in Germany. Keeping your shoes on if not expressly allowed by the host is really rude. So if you need to pick up a fork or the salt in the kitchen, you need to take them off and on every time. And they do it. Every damn time. I am sure you will particularly enjoy the cleaning time when you go out and in and out to bring the stuffs back inside… but if you respect that, they might let you come back so don’t be rude and suck it up.

4. There is never too much beer

Yes the host is the beer-provider but there is never too much of it. People always appreciate a Kasse Augustiner and if you don’t want to carry that much, you can think of the ladies and bring a 6-pack of Becks lemon, it is always a crowd pleaser.

I have been often asked if I wanted to take the empty bottles with me. It can seem a strange request but the bottles have “Pfand” on it, which means that you get 0,15€ per empty bottle you return. As your host does not want to make money “on you”, they usually offer you to take the bottles back with you. It is up to you to decide if you do it or not. If you are looking for other popular stuffs to bring, paprika chips or huge boxes of Haribo always work.

5. Be equipped

If you are hosting the barbecue, remember that Germans love barbecue and they are good at it. They all have beer benches and beer tables, most of them also even have some tent for bad weather… they have some barbecue tools kits and making the fire is no peanuts business. If you are hosting, be prepared, it is mostly also seen as a “Männersache”, a guy’s thing and failing at making a barbecue is not going to wear off easily.

6. Be a man

Ladies, you will probably notice that as soon as the barbecue is on all men gather around it for some guys version of chit chat. Maybe it is the fire, maybe it is the “responsibility” but German guys just love to stand there and get all stinky and red-eyed from the smoke. Don’t ask me. That’s unfortunately also where the fun conversations take place so I’d say, don’t put your prettiest jacket on and go stand there with the guys; it is way funnier than making the salad dressing in the kitchen with the other girls and fighting over which oil to use.

7. Get some info. And update your German Wortschatz

If you want to follow these evenings, you should definitely learn a couple of stuffs before, especially the German word like Elf meter, Faul, Schiedsrichter, Tor, etc. It is also useful to know who is the captain (Lahm for Germany), the trainer (Löw), the goal keeper (Neuer), and some main players (Klose, Schweinsteiger and Podolski), etc.

8. Man, it is FOOTBALL, not soccer

Yes, it is called football. My blog might feature some Americanized English but I will not call it soccer and the Germans won’t either. Football is a European game, and all nations all over the world call it Football so it must be the Frenchie in me talking, but I will not give in on this one and you should not either.

9. Dress up

Like everywhere in the world, it is not mandatory but it is really cool to dress up to the colors of the team you’re supporting. Apart from this annoying Vuvuzelas-crap, having a German t-shirt, official or not, or some make-up, really shows up who you are for and gives a stronger I-belong-here feeling. I think it is especially nice to see the Germans wearing their colors (black, gold and red) proudly because it does not happen that often and I am always so happy to be a part of it.

10. Sing & Cheer

it is good to know the German national anthem but most people actually barely sing it. Yesterday’s game was pretty awesome for that, because the players held each other by the shoulders and sang during the national anthem.

Finally, the cheering rules are the same than in any other countries: CHEER HARD AND LOUD!

It worked yesterday, Germany kicked Australia’s ass 4-0.

Go Germany!

Serious Trauma - Milord Vs. The fricking Red Horse

2010-03-28T18:45:00.005+02:00

At a late party I came across a particular German cover of a French song I really love and it made me die a little inside. It did.

The French Original (1959) is called Milord. It is about a woman talking to Milord, in a bar, he has a broken heart and she is trying to make him smile. She also has feelings for him that can not become anything as they do not belong to the same social class. It is a beautiful song and ANY French man or woman knows this song.

The German Version (2008) is called the "Rote Pferd" (the red horse). You can see on the videos it is not really the same atmosphere....least you can say. And don't start me on what the German text says...It is basically about a fly bothering a red horse, and the red horse try to get rid of the fly...

So basically when I heard the German version for the first time, and that all the people at the party started doing the dance (as i said it was late, and booze had been generously provided to everybody), I seriously wanted to cry and / or fly home. By home I meant France, Civilization, no-red-horse-song-land.

The really weird thing was that I felt personally insulted and for a quick moment there, I hated the Germans. I really did.

So now my friends have a very strong VERBOT to ever play or sing this song while I am here. :D

The real point is that I am always surprising myself on how very small things can set me up in what I call "Culture Shock mood". It is actually just a song, but it brought me on a whole other level of feeling cultural aggression.

I love Germany, I really do, but I guess that every once in a while I need to hate it a little not to lose myself.

Reviving the 22 years old in me

2010-03-15T20:45:00.005+01:00

I was 22 when I left France to move to Sweden, and I still remember thinking "what the f* are you doing?". Why would I want to leave everything behind? I guess mainly because I felt like I had lost myself in a cliché of me and wanted to become Me again. So I packed and pretended I was not sad and I left.

And when I got there, I figured, what the heck. Nobody knows me, nobody expects anything from me, I can be whoever I want. So I became, somehow, this crazy Frenchie. I did stuffs I had no idea I could do or even wanted to do and basically I just had fun. While I was trying this new me out, other people were there too. Maybe they were trying to find themselves again too o whatever but we lived and experienced all of it kinda the same way. So I let down my guard and decided I did not want to be perfect and good, just me... So that's what I did.

Since then, 5 fricking years have passed (5!) and I was thinking of how much has changed and how much hasn't:

I do not go partying every week-end (or 5 times a week) like I used to and I don't even think that my body could take it... I actually also enjoy going out with friends gemütlich- even if i am not hangovered the next day (because I am not hangovered the next day?).
Now, i have a serious Boyfriend, known on this blog as Boyfriend (that's because I am a creative person). He is hot, he is smart and he is funny, ...BUT he does not like pink or shopping, he listens to totally different kind of music and has a different opinion on almost everything. Still, weirdly, we just click. In the end, he is the only guy that could tame me and / or stand me for more than a couple of months/weeks. And vice versa and that is a big change.
I also have a serious job, in which I am supposed to take "important" decision, negotiate, be mean and bitchy sometimes (not that I don't like it, you know me). But in a few words, It is a very grown up job.
I have my own appartment (I don't share an appartment anymore) that I actually clean every week, yes M'am. My fridge is not empty with only one aging tomato, a frozen pizza and two bottles of vodka but actually has vegetables and fresh meat in it. My mom is so proud of me. I do keep some vodka in my freezer though.
I now also take the time to remove my make-up before going to bed and I almost never wake up after 13:00 on Sundays.
I am invited to three weddings this sommer already and it is not even weird (THAT is a growing up sign, trust me)

So I kinda changed, I grew up a little, well ok, grew up a lot. I did all the catching up I had to do and I am getting closer and closer to a grown up. But so are most of my friends.

Somehow, despite all that and all this changes, I still feel like I felt when I was 22. I feel like this girl, a tad crazy and totally improvising depending on what comes up. I don't FEEL like a grown-up despite the fact that most people see me like that, and I am wondering / hoping I will still feel like that when I am 80 cuz I am definitely having my fun pretending.

The Lodge (Thai Restaurant)

2010-03-14T00:06:00.006+01:00

One of the best thing in Munich is that you have all kind of restaurants everywhere. I used to go a lot to the pizzeria Osteria, next to the Fraunhoferstrasse. Despite their incredibly unfriendly waiter we used to love to go there. Mostly the guy was doing it on purpose, kind of for the show and the food was good. On top of that they had this really cool terrace outside...

Well the restaurant is gone now, and there is a new one once since a week, the Lodge. So far I have not found a website for them but I tested it personnaly today for lunch.

The place did not change much, they basically kept the "italian" seats and benches but they painted the wall and went for a kind of lounge atmosphere with the lamps... it gives a quite mixed result, I still do not know if I like it or not.

The food, on the other hand, is really awesome. It is mainly Thai cuisine, but they also have some more classical dishes on the menu. I totally recommend to try one of the Risottos... yummy.

They also changed all the furnitures outside to have some more comfortable and more relaxed seats and the team is very friendly, giving advice on what to order and etc.

I can only recommend it: everything was delicious and the prices are absolutely ok for Munich. As an example, a starter is between 5 to 8 euros, main dish goes from 9 to 30 € but mainly is around 12 -15€.

The location is very convenient and the terrace is really perfect to enjoy the coming up spring days.

Best way to get there is with public transportation (U1 /U2 or Tram27 til the Fraunhoferstrasse).

Telephone for reservation: 089 32650 147

Bon appétit!

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=fraunhoferstrasse+muenchen&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Fraunhoferstraße,+D-80469+München,+Allemagne&ei=8RmcS4XUDoLesAbtv6npDw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ8gEwAA

Leave me alone, I am lonely

2010-03-12T18:42:00.004+01:00

Boyfriend and I are doing the long distance thing again – and we are not enjoying it so much. On top of it, my life keeps getting more and more complicated. Now when I meet new people it goes like that: yes, even if my English is good, I am French. No I live in Germany. Why? Because I lived in Sweden and I met a lot of Germans there. Yes my Boyfriend is German. Oh no he does not live here, he lives in Canada. No, in the English speaking part.

So I am again further torn between so many parts of the world.

Home is where the heart is, right? Well, where is it? Boyfriend is in America, family is in France (mind you, France is not that small and my family is naturally spread over it), friends are partly in Paris, Northern Germany, England, Belgium, Munich, Austria, Italy, wherever and I am here.

Sometimes it does feel lonely: No matter where I am, I am missing a part of me anyway.

Obviously it is a choice for me to live in Germany, but not the whole thing is chosen. You do not choose to get attached to people and then leave them. Or be left by them, because they are following their orwn path.

It is just what happens no matter where you go. There is nothing to choose about that. I mean, if I did have a REAL choice, then I would make all the people I love move to Munich and then I would transport Munich in France. I KNOW – that s why i am a crazy frenchie.

Anyway, the chances of that happening being so huge and everything, I actually have to find a way to cope with feeling cut into pieces most of the time. I will always miss someone, some people, so I deal with it. Kind of.

Mainly I am fine 90% of the time. And then suddenly for a reason or another, I think of how much i would like my family to be there right now, or Boyfriend, or me to be over there, and it just makes my heart break a little inside me.

I know that is a lot of self pity for one blog, I just do not know how to fix it. So mainly when I am homesick I get bitchy and wallow one day (phase I), until it is over and then phase II kicks in which is basically compensating by making myself artificially happy– either with shoes or with chocolate. Well, that’s what girls do. Phase three is the good phase, I start planning my holidays and week-ends to visit all the people I love and miss so much. And that really makes me happy.

White Rose Movement

2010-02-22T10:53:00.003+01:00

If you have not heard of the White Rose, you are probably not German. The white rose movement was a pacific and intellectual movement of resistance in the Nazi- Germany.

They were a bunch of students and their philosophy professor that opposed Hitler’s regime through a very famous leaflet campaign: they prepared and distributed a manifesto on 6 leaflets calling to oppose the tyranny of the regime and prone tolerance.

They actually were from Munich, the Ludwig Maximilian University, and the two most famous members of the group were the sieblings Sophie and Hans Scholl. They now have a place in their name next to the university, so does the Professor Huber. In front of the LMU you can see the “memorial leaflets” in stone on the ground, remembering the actions and the bravery of the group. Their motto was liberty of action, of opinion and of expression:

Isn’t it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes - crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure - reach the light of day?
- From the first leaflet of the White Rose

The movement was active from 1942 to 1943. Unfortunately, they were caught while throwing leaflets through the university. Today is the “anniversary” of their trial and execution (they were found guilty of treason and immediately beheaded).

A copy of their last leaflet was smuggled to the allies who copied it and distributed it by plane all over Germany.

The White Rose movement and especially the Scholls are really beloved in Germany and one of the favourite WWII heroes of the Germans. As the Germans still have a lot of difficulties dealing with their past and all the guilt, the Scholls story, the whole White Rose philosophy and action, their courage and the denial of the self preservation to defend an ideal do sweeten the opinion the Germans have about themselves. It is something very very special in Germany and I think that anybody living in Munich should take the time to check out the Geschwister-scholl Platz.
You can also see within the university a "Denkmal" to the White Rose.

A lot of literature is available on the topic as well as movies like “Sophie Scholl, die letzten Tage” which I seriously recommend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

The art of teaching yourself a language...?

2009-12-01T20:46:00.005+01:00

After a short but awesome visit to Poland, I feel like I should really really learn Polish. First of all because Krakow is one of the most beautiful city ever, secondly because anybody should know how to say "No, I don't want a fourth Sliwowica" in Polish. If you don't, they will pretend they dont understand and pour you one more.

I don't have much time to visit a class, as I am usually working late -and already took a German class the last four months so I decided to track down all the means to te ach myself for free which are: wikipedia languages and grammar books / articles plus "learn polish" podcasts like survivalphrases.com .

I also have a lot of Polish colleagues - the ones with the bottle - so I am gonna ask them to send me the names of good polish bands and singers to listen to.

Finally, I am gonna get some Polish kids books.

It is basically repeating everything I did to learn German (except the Moving to the country part) and it worked out very well so wish me luck.

Now all efforts don't always work out immediately, I, for example, spent a whole evening saying "good morning" to the waiter instead of "thank you". but I downloaded something like 5 Podcasts and 12 books so next time I am there, I hope I'll do fine.

The Munich readery

2009-08-17T12:55:00.001+02:00

Among others, I have since long developped an addiction to books. It started when I was a very little kid and it has not changed since then. I buy a lot of books, often and just the shopping for books is a great pleasure.

In Munich, we have the chance to have one of the largest English second-hand bookshops of Germany, the readery.

The very nice atmosphere, the comfortable seats, the wide books choice and the very helpful shopkeepers will make you feel like you never wanna leave this place. And when you do leave it, it probably will with a huge pile of books.

http://www.readery.de/
Augustenstraße 10480798 Maxvorstadt,
München, Germany
+49 89 12192403

The cuckoo’s child

2009-06-04T14:56:00.007+02:00

I have to become “Verhandlungsicher” in German (capable to negociate in German), which means that to boost my German, I have to watch German TV (and God, do I hate it), read German books and obviously take a business German class -thank you my dear employer for paying for it.

I am showing good will, and I am doing all these things. When I moved to Munich, I did buy some books in German and as I was not what one can call fluent (understatement of the year) I had a look at the teen section to take it easy (easier!). Now I am digging them up again, because my other alternative at the moment are the memoires of Willy Brandt, and of course I admire the man very much, but it does look denser… The book I am rereading is called Kuckuckskind (“the cuckoo’s child”, this bird that steals other bird’s nest).

You follow the thoughts of two teenagers (18), a boy and a girl. He is a womanizer, she is too grown up for her age and they end up in the same class. From that point, they officially hate each other, and of course also feel attracted to another. A lot of serious things are gonna happen, that are gonna make the characters evolve and co and the book is great, particularly in the way it is written. One chapter is her thoughts the next one his and etc. It was actually pretty deep for a teenage book and I read it really fast with great pleasure.

So if you are trying to improve your German as well, maybe that s a tip for you?

The Picture of Dorian Gray

2009-06-04T14:44:00.002+02:00

After the whole Shopaholic series, the "Bergdorf Blondes", "How to walk in high heels" and the weekly Glamour magazine, i decided to restore my "smart girl" image in the u-bahn and in the office. As I can not decently wear a t-shirt stating my iq though it popped into my mind... i thought i would start with a bit of smart books like a good classic. I picked the picture of Dorian Gray because no, Oscar Wilde did not only write one quote about temptation, he actually wrote full books.

The picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of this more than handsome young man, that after seing his own painted portrait makes the wish to keep his beauty and youth and to make the portrait change instead of his own body. Sounds kind of weird, and reminded me a bit of Balzac idea in "La peau de chagrin".

The book is amazingly well written and each sentence could actually be used as a quote (can see something lightening in one's brain?). it is not a funny book like some other works from Wilde but it takes your attention and it is hard to let it go.

the morale would be that you d better watch out before wishing stuffs and also that you always pay your mean actions. in this case, his beauty fades away the more depravated he gets, but only on the portrait. his soul is represented by the picture while he will keep the appearance of this handsome young gentleman.

last message in the book: we always tend to think that beauty is a proof for a good soul and it is harder to hate someone that shows a perfect face. Beauty also can lie, and here Oscar has a point.

American Heritage

2009-05-19T17:14:00.004+02:00

One of the advantage of getting lost, is that it makes surprising things come up your way. For me, last week-end, it was the shop American Heritage.

Next to Rothkreuzplatz, you have this store which sells essentially decorating stuffs, which are perfect for gifts, or for making your apartment a little different from the page 75 of the Ikea Catalogue. They have really nice objects in different styles like shabby chic style or retro. They also sell specialty foods from the "good old days".

I especially liked the metal signs to hang, and of course some traditional American mail box with the little flag to raise and a lot of different-shaped cookies cutters. It is one of these shops where I always get out with a purchase. Too many cute stuffs. It is not exactly cheap, but it is good quality, and most of their items are different from what you usually find. Some real American classic. It is worth a visit.

O.M.G.

2009-05-19T15:02:00.004+02:00

Mayday Mayday, Base Munich speaking. the sun is back. Naked people everywhere again. Mayday, Mayday. I need an extraction. I repeat, I need an extraction.

European elections - 7th of June 09

2009-05-14T10:31:00.013+02:00

Between the 4th and the 7th of June, all European citizens have the right, and may I add the duty, to elect their European Parliament.

If you're non German in Munich, you can find more information here .

Whichever your country of origin and your country of residence, you can get a lot of information on this website. There you will find information on what is the role of the parliament, but also on all the parties, whichever the country, to which European parties they belong, etc. It means that if you do not go and vote, you will not have the excuse of the "it is all the same" or "it is too complicated". You have everything explained to you.

Now I have to say, if you go on German Parties websites to read the programs, which I just did, you might get scared. They are very very fond of extra long sentences with extra long words, and if your German is not fluent, it is tough. Good for us, Auslander, they have short and long versions of the programs, some have it in English, you also have extrernal pages summarizing it for you and of course you can always ask your German friends or colleagues. Worse case scenario, you do not get a word, do not feel comfortable voting blind - which you should really not do - so think of the "Briefwahl". Voting in your homeland but through a letter, or sometimes at your consulat / Ambassy.

You also have parties regroupment, which are indicated on the European vote website: it shows you which party of each country gathered together. For example, the German CDU /CSU gathered with the French UMP, because they share common ground ideas. SPD gathers with PS; etc.

You have a loooot of possibilities to vote and express yourself, also as foreigner, and you should not pass on this opportunity because of misinformation, fear of hassle or lazyness. It is a big deal and we often to forgot how easy we have it. I don t want to play the Mummy eat-your-spinach-there-are-kids starving-in-africa but nevertheless, I kinda will.

A lot of people actually fight and risk their lives to obtain the rights to vote, so just because we have since decades, it does not mean we should not see the duty in it too. we owe it to ourselves and to the others to go and vote. It is something everyone of us should be proud to do. No matter what the ideas are, we live in free democratic countries and we actually empowered to choose who will guide us, and what will be done. I think that taking the time to research what the program of each party is and getting up on a Sunday morning is the very least each of us can do.

Too many people expect everything to come cooked in their hands but never take a stand, participate or do something. It is very easy to say "all rotten" and just spend your Sunday tanning next to the Isar. It really is easy, to not care of the election but then, when actions are taken by people you did not elect, to get upset. But the thing is, if this happens, you will have no right to complain about anything done in Europa, because you will have done nothing, not even vote. If you let the others decide for you, well, they will!

So please think about it. Get yourself on the lists of voters, and actually vote on Sunday 7.06. Voting is not just a right you use if you feel like it or if the weather gets bad. It is a chance, it is a duty and you should just take it as your damn right, and make sure you will express yourself and participate to the decision.

Here are a couple of links of the main parties to start checking the different programs:

CSU: http://www.csu.de/europawahl/wahlprogramm/1401093.htm
FDP: http://www.liberale.de/webcom/show_article_portal.php/_c-548/i.html
Grüne: http://www.gruene.de/europa.html
SPD: http://www.spd.de/de/politik/europa/manifeste.html

and here some videos and the popular "5 friends 4 Europe" (Do not vote! Except if...)

A brand new Student guide for Poitiers

2009-04-28T13:33:00.001+02:00

With 20.000 students out of 100.000 inhabitants, Poitiers has one of the French most active student life.

So once upon a time, when I still live in beautiful France, I managed a project within my Business school called “Dédale”, which was an online guide for students in Poitiers. I was thrilled that my idea had been picked by the direction to make a project and that I could manage the other students - that were one class below me. It was pretty cool, mostly because the team did a great job and made my life as their “supervisor” very easy but also because it was just fun to explore the city I thought I knew so well, and still get (good) surprises. Sadly, after two years of existence, nobody was there to take it over, and the guide died. The page was deleted from the internet. Bouhouhouh.

Now – couple of years later – some people within my former school found that an online guide would be pretty cool and started a whole new project. I have absolutely nothing to do with it and they did not use our now outdated basis, so the credit is all theirs. They are from my school and they had a smart idea (I just had it earlier ;-) ) so I thought it can not hurt to acknowledge the great job done and advertise their guides. I KNOW it is planned to have an English Version nevertheless so far it is just in French. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you the Pic’ton Guide:

http://www.pictonguide.fr

By the way, picton is the word for Poitiers inhabitants.

My dear friends enjoy Poitiers in the name of those who can not and miss it!

A 1st of May in Germany

2009-04-28T10:42:00.002+02:00

So today, crash course on a tradition I absolutely love in Germany: the celebration of the first of May.
Here like in a lot of countries, it is a day off, but we have so many of them, it is not that special. No, what I really love here is that on the first of may you have the Maibaum tradition.

In most regions, a “Maibaum”, or Maypole, is built for the 1st of May to celebrate the 1st of May and the arrival of the midsummer. It is a long wooden pole which is going to be set up in a visible place of each village. Here in Bavaria, it is always painted in blue and white, the colours of the Land of Bavaria but of course, you knew that.

The preparation of the Maibaum is a pretty fun ritual and it is done by the villagers, especially the youth. They cut it, shape it, and decorate it. Maibaum are often decorated with long coloured ribbons, with flowers, drapes or wreath hanging or any regional attritubute / decoration.

When it is ready, just before the first of May, during the night of the 30th of April, the young men of the village have to guard it and keep a night watch. Indeed, it is also tradition that the neighbour villages (the youth) steal from each other their Maibaum. This night is called “Walpurgisnacht” or “Freinacht”. They try to steal because villages are “in competition” to know which one will have the highest Maypole or the most beautiful and mostly because it is a lot of fun trying to do that. It the Maibaum is indeed stolen, the villagers will get in back on the morning of the 1st of May against a “Brotzeit” (snack meal of bread, cold cuts, cheese, etc) and some beer (what else?).

The set up of the pole itself is a really big thing, pretty exhausting, and the higher the pole, the more difficult the set up. The custom is that everything has to be done manually (from the cut to the set up), this is why most men of the village need to participate.

Here two pictures from the town Fuerstenfeldbruck:

On the first of May, once the Maibaum has finally been set up, one celebrates the “Tanz in den Mai” and dance around the Maibaum to celebrate. It is a huge celebration and a very community-oriented one, which I think is the best part of this tradition at all. The Maibaum is supposed to symbolise the belonging to the community and its harmony thanks to the teamwork necessary.

After the first of May, the Maibaum often stays for several months at its place, sometimes until the next year or even up to five years.

To me, these blue and white May poles really belong to the Bavarian landscape. They are one more little thing that makes Bavaria so special to me somehow.

The Killers or the (Brandon) Flowers power part II

2009-04-09T11:39:00.003+02:00

Once upon a time, I was watching MTV, bored at home, and a video changed my life… or almost. It was Mr. Brightside, from the Killers. Largely inspired from Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge, it was an awesome video, for an absolutely amazing song and I just could not get enough of it. I was literally mesmerized by Brandon Flowers, not because he is hot (and of course he is) but his charisma and his odd way of moving /dancing just dazzled me. I remember recording on a video tape (yes yes, a tape, like in VCR tape…I am that old) and watching the video over and over. I also went to buy the CD on the same day, and since then, I have been systematically ordering each album of the Killers in order to have it the day it comes out, without bothering checking if I actually liked the album or not. I just knew I would.

I fell in love with the 4 Las Vegas guys who can write and play songs that actually give me goose bumps - for real. The four of them [Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer and Ronnie Vannucci Jr] are just perfect.So I am not going to write ten pages about why they are the most awesome band I have ever heard, they ARE, and we will just assume that you know that too.

I am a fan from the almost beginning and of course I am kinda proud of that. And this is where the fan ego is a really weird thing: when they were not that known and famous, I tended to despise people who did not know them or worse thought it was too alternative, like they said. I know I should not despise people just because they do not like the same music, and I am not proud of it, but I did. I do.

When I went to the concert two years ago, it was a small club, maybe a thousand people max. and I was on the third row, overexcited, bouncing, jumping, singing every single song loud and off-key, and eyes wide open to make sure that I enjoyed every second of it.

Now two years and two albums later, they are known by anybody, thanks to their more “pop” hit, human – which by the way, at least half of the people do not get and keep saying to Brandon that he made a grammar mistake. So now the killers are not underground or alternative or whatever you want, they are famous. And I am still unsatisfied. Let me tell you why.

They came in March to Munich and I had two tickets- bought them the day they were released. I waited for the concert like I always do when I go to a concert I am gonna love, by being really impatient, and obsessing over the album: for example hearing the Killers albums and only the Killers the whole five weeks before the concert (now Boyfriend thinks I am cute but crazy).

And then, it was time. The concert. I realize most people do not act like that, but what am I gonna do? I had my heart ready to explode in my chest and my legs weak when I got to the Zenith. Literally. Again, it has nothing to do with how gorgeous Brandon Flowers is, but for me it is the level of perfection they achieve in any of their songs. It makes me lose my words and talk like Ashton Kutcher in his worst movies: AWESOME. AWESOME. AWESOME.

I would have shot the pre-band if I could have, not because they were bad, but because they were not the Killers and therefore had nothing to do on the stage. And when finally after the pre-band, and changing the mics, and testing, and letting the public wait and wait, they came.

They are absolutely AWESOME on stage and I was again seriously overexcited, bouncing, jumping, singing every single song loud and off-key, and eyes wide open to make sure that I enjoyed every second of it. The only difference was that, this time, the location was bigger, they were more people,etc. So as a fan, I should have been happy of course but I was not.

First of all, because I liked it better when we were 800 rather than 6.000 and second because the room was full of people like the ones next to me, that is: a group of 5 Munich typical bimbos, with blond hair (and their pretty black roots), little pearls-earrings and flat ballerinas with orange faces, a common sickness in Munich, due to a strong belief that a five-centimetres-thick foundation looks good. They clearly tried to look “rock” for a rock concert so they accessorized like only Munich girls could: with a pale pink scarf that had skulls on it …wait for it… in GLITTERS. Yes, their idea of rock is a glittery skull on a pale pink scarf. So obviously, I irrationally hated them guts right away.

Please try to imagine me, blocked between two groups of this type, which in total knew maybe three songs of the Killers. I mean, come on, it just ruins it for everybody. Ok, maybe not everybody, but me at least.

So I came up with a little Improvement suggestion for the next concert: everyone who tries to come should give his/her favourite songs of each album, and if he/she can’t, then they don’t get in.

Mr. Brightside / Sam’s town / Romeo &Juliet/Dustland Fairy tale + Don’t shoot me santa.

Ahahah. I get in. I’ll let you know if they implement my brilliant and, I admit, kind of mean and intolerant idea.

I blocked out the Tussis and concentrated on the music and the band, and it was, well, awesome. I told you my vocabulary melted. They played only songs I loved (which is not too hard as I love every single song they play, wrote and probably listen to):

Human, This is your life, Somebody told me, For reasons unknown, I can’t stay, Joyride, Bling, Tranquilize, Spaceman, Smile like you mean it, Dustland fairy tale, Sams town (in acoustic!), Read my mind, All the things that I have done, Mr. Brightside, The world that we live in,etc …
And for the encores: Bones, Jenny was a friend of mine, When we were young (thank god, we thought they would not play it), etc…

The good bye music was of course Moonriver and it was perfection. I actually felt really sad when the concert ended because I had loved every thing about it. The band, the costumes, the songs chosen, the décor, etc. So I got home with a lot of pics, videos and a t-shirt that I will never take off. Ever.

I AM A VICTIM.

Official website: http://www.thekillersmusic.com/
Fan club: http://www.thekillersmusic.com/victims

The art of surviving a German Sauna

2008-11-21T10:50:00.006+01:00

First time I went to the Sauna here, i thought "I am going to die". I am not a prude, those who know me know that, but back home (my happy place) people just don’t walk around naked in front of others (when they don’t sleep with each other).

In Germany, it is different. Here it is ok to walk around naked in the English Garden (Munich Hyde Park) when in France, we would DEFINTELY call the cops for exhibitionism. Here it is ok to see your colleagues or the friends of your Boyfriend penises. And it is fine if they saw your breasts. Except that I am absolutely not ok with that, most of the French would not be. Either seeing nor being seen is a no go, so I do all I can not to be put in such a situation.

I learned what FKK means (and if you are French living in Germany, you definitely want to google it). I avoid some parts of the park… and now it is winter anyway. So I kinda let down my guard, I thought I was safe but avoiding the FKK places is not enough to avoid seeing naked people. Indeed, I forgot the Sauna. Yes, these crazy German kids go to the mixed sauna, naked. Really naked. Not even with a towel. No matter who is there.

So I almost went blind last week, when I got in the Sauna at the fitness Studio and that the guys were all laying there ….naked. Including my fitness teacher. I restrained myself for screaming OH MY GOD, MY EYES MY EYES but that s basically what was going on in my head. I do love Sauna and it is awesome to have one in the fitness club but from now on I go in staring at the ground, with my towel tightly wrapped around myself and there is nothing that could make me raise my eyes to the other benches.

So to all the Frenchies in Germany, DON’T GET TRICKED if you get invited to the sauna with your mother-in-law (oh yeah, they do that too), you should always remember: standard sauna in Germany is a full thing, and to them, you are the weird one.

Having a bathing suit is also a no-go, first because it is incredibly unhealthy, second of all you will look ridiculous and finally it does not stop you from seing the OTHERS naked.

My advice: take a huge towel for yourself, ask your friends what they plan to do and if they could maybe stick to the towel too for you but mostly just get psychologically ready: there is actually few you can do to stop the German love for what they call "the most natural suit".

Bonne Chance mes amis!

Expatwomen.com

2008-11-21T10:33:00.002+01:00

I just registered my blog under a new blogging community: http://www.expatwomen.com/ The name is pretty self-explaining: Women + Expatriate.

The website is actually pretty cool, first of all it is pink, second it is helpful, finally it is pink.

The structure of the website is a bit weird but you do find what you look for. There are two main points:

1. Blogging - a lot of Expat Women blogs registered for A LOT of countries)

2. Helping - some tipps for travelling, your career, your family, dating abroad, how to improve business skills, etc.

I liked the book section a lot, because you can find specific literature. Now i really wanna read “The Grown-Up's Guide to Running Away From Home: Making a New Life Abroad”…sounds so relevant somehow ;-) Take a look there.

Pisa Test: Viva Bavaria... nope, sorry. Viva Sachsen.

2008-11-19T15:18:00.005+01:00

If you have ever been to Bavaria, you have at least once heard people bragging about having done their Abitur (highschool graduation) in Bavaria. Because of course it is the best. Right after this, usually comes a mention as the ultimate proof of the Pisa studies results, where Bavaria has been ranked first for years.

God did that get on my nerves! I love Bavaria, I really do and usually i love Bavarian people, but there are three topics which I need to avoid if I don't want to lose it:
1. FC Bayern (except if we are talking old games with Ballack shirtless),
2. the bavarian Abitur
3. the Solidaritätszuschlag (solidarity tax everybody has to pay in order to finance reconstruction and renovation in the former East Germany)

Now, I am gonna be able to get back to topic 2 relaxed because the Bavarian pride got seriously hit there, and mean as I am, I am a little happy with that.

I had to hear a thousand times, Bavarian young people (some of my friends even) despising de facto the rest of Germany, especially the former East. The hitting points are always economy and education, and I just can't help but getting pissed of by so much permanent badly hidden arrogance.

Bavaria is better, blablabla PISA study Blablabla.

I actually saw people wave with a sign of the hand some other students better grade by a simple "yeah well, but I did MY abitur in Bavaria". Trust me, this can be pretty mean and/or particularly annoying - especially to the other 70 Million Germans, the non-bavarian ones, that are often treated like morons because they did their Abitur somewhere else.

And now, these 70 Million (and I) can laugh a little at the reaction of the good bavarian people, getting upset at the coffee machine this morning: "Have you heard????" Indeed, Bavaria got its behind kicked at the ultimate study it used to prove itself superior to the rest of the world: the very serious Pisa Study.

The Pisa people put Bavaria only second. Yeah bouhouhou, that's sad...wait, no it is not. It's actually a little funny. Funnier is that the Land that got first at the Pisa ranking is...

...Saxony! The other Freistaat, the own neighbour actually of Bavaria, which for those who don't know, belonged to former Eastern Germany (gasp!) and THAT is for Bavaria the utlimate kick.

Gavin DeGraw concert in Munich - Club Ampere

2008-11-19T10:25:00.008+01:00

I discovered Gavin DeGraw too late. One week to late to be exact. I was in Sweden and a friend of us went to "some guy" 's concert in Stockolm. And a week after he came back, he made us listen to it, the guy was called Gavin De Graw... and the music was so good we all wished we were more spontaneous people and had just jumped in the bus with him the week before.

Happily for me, God is a loving God. He let Gavin do a second album, and therefore, another European tour for its self-titled "Gavin DeGraw" album. With a stop in Munich. YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!

So i jumped on the tickets and called my we-love-Gavin-DeGraw friends and off we went for a girls night out.

We waited 20minutes under the rain in front of the Ampere (Muffathalle) but did not even mind. We were all three mentally screaming Gaaaaaaaaavin like groupies.

When we got in, surprise. The Ampere club is even smaller than we thought. Maybe room for 300 people. 400 max. From where we stand, the 2 most important features were 2 meters away: bar and stage. Cheers.

Two drinks later, the pre-band shows up. usually, preband are boring because even if they are ok, you are not here to listen to them anyway. Sometimes, on top of that, they suck. Well the pre-band was actually a pre-guy, Jack Savoretti, absolutely adorable, with a great voice, eye-lashes so long that you can't help thinking it is a waste on a man, great songs and a huge potential to become an international heart breaker with his charming smile (ladies, with dimples!!!!).

He is not exactly what the Germans would call a Party-lion, and most of his songs would easily get you to spend a tear or two, but he had enough charisma and put enough of himself in interpreting the songs, that one could not just look somewhere else. And of course, we immediately bought his cd. Songs are pretty deep and fit with the "tortured artist" image. Listening to him was nothing close to boring and we can only hope hearing more of him soon.

And then came Mr. DeGraw: more groupies screaming, this time out loud and just for the love of screaming. It was just perfect. In the beginning, he told us to "sing as much as (we) want, as loud as (we) want", so we did. The small club allowed a pretty personnal contact (actually he was so close to us that now i feel like i could call him Gav') and Gavin is a real stage man. Funny, looking good, anything but standing still, holding hands, smiling, jumping, actually talking to the public, and most of all looking like he really enjoyed singing for us.

There's nothing i hate more than an artist singing bored. If you wanted to hear the songs exactly like on the cd, you'd just stay home and save 30 euros. But Gavin DeGraw did not just sing, he actually interpreted all his songs, and that was great. We all felt great and wished it would have lasted longer.

Among others he interpreted: Chariot, Cheated on me, I don't want to be, Follow through, in love with a girl, Nice to meet you (anyway), Crush, Chemical party, She holds a key, Next to me, I have you to thank, Untamed, We belong together.
Then I am not sure anymore.

Anyway, it was a great evening and obviously, as a groupie, I went home with the Tour poster.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavin!!!!!!

Reporters without borders - Annual Report 2008

2008-11-19T10:09:00.004+01:00

"Reporters Without Borders criticises lack of public commitment to press freedom and expresses fears of anti-media violence in coming months, as it releases its annual report today."

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters without Borders published its annual report regarding freedom of press. If you re interested in knowing what is the reality of journalism across the world, please help yourself: the report is available in several languages.

And for those who think that we are not concerned at all in the "old" Europe.

"Attacks on the right of journalists to keep their sources secret increased in the major democracies in 2007. Journalists were arrested and questioned and their offices and homes searched in France, Germany and Italy. Legal officials tended to approve this kind of behaviour especially when legal confidentiality had been violated."

That's in Europe, where we are lucky enough to have real rules. Then you have Russia, Somalia, Turkey, etc. Anna Politkovskaïa's story is spread enough these days to show there's a reality there.

Take a look at the website: http://www.rsf.org/

P!nk – Funhouse - Tour 2009- One more concert to look forward to.

2008-11-03T11:46:00.004+01:00

P!nk is coming in Munich on the 6th of April for her new album tour and I of course bought the tickets right away and I am taking Boyfriend with me. One of the few pop stars that actually has a brain, good music AND real boobs, I am not gonna miss it. What I can say? I love the music, I love the energy and the fun that you can feel and I love this capacity to make fun of herself in an honest way. Mastering self irony as well as an acute sense of criticism …she does deserve her exclamation mark.

Funhouse was just released, and of course it is awesome. Even “awesomer”: the main Single “So What”, which is a reference to her divorce from husband and bestfriend Carey Hart. Note: in the (great) videoclip, it IS Carey Hart.

so just five months to go…

So What - Pink

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

Na Na Na Na Na Na

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

Na Na Na Na Na Na

I guess i just lost my husband

I don't know where he went

So i'm gonna drink my money

I'm not gonna pay his rent (Nope)

I got a brand new attitude

And i'm gonna wear it tonight

I wanna get in trouble

I wanna start a fight

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

I wanna start a fight

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

I wanna start a fight

So so what?

I'm still a rock star

I got my rock moves

And i don't need you

And guess what

I'm having more fun

And now that we're done

I'm gonna show you tonight

I'm alright, I'm just fine

And you're a tool

So so what?

I am a rockstar

I got my rock moves

And i don't want you tonight

Uh, check my flow, uh

The waiter just checked my table

And gave to Jessica Simp- Shit!

I guess i'll go sit with Tom boy

At least he'll know how to hit

What if this song's on the radio

Then somebody's gonna die

I'm gonna get in trouble

My ex will start a fight

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

He's gonna start a fight

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

We're all gonna get in a fight!

So so what?

I'm still a rock star

I got my rock moves

And i don't need you

And guess what

I'm having more fun

And now that we're done

I'm gonna show you tonight

I'm alright, I'm just fine

And you're a tool

So so what?

I am a rock star

I got my rock moves

And i don't want you tonight

You weren't there

You never were

You weren't all

But thats not fair

I gave you life

I gave my all

You weren't there

You let me fall

So so what?

I'm still a rock star

I got my rock moves

And i don't need you

And guess what

I'm having more fun

And now that we're done (we're done)

I'm gonna show you tonight

I'm alright(I'm alright),

I'm just fine (I'm just fine)

And you're a tool

So so what?

I am a rock star

I got my rock moves

And i don't want you tonight

No No, No No

I Don't want you tonight

You weren't there

I'm gonna show you tonight

I'm alright, I'm just fine

And you're a tool

So so what?

I am a rock star

I got my rock moves

And i don't want you tonight

Ba da da da da da

Du bist Franzose, wenn...

2008-09-02T23:03:00.001+02:00

1- Eichhörnchenschwänzchen ist für dich unaussprechbar.

2- Du verstehst nicht, warum ist der Dativ dem Genitiv sein Tod.

3- Du denkst, keiner ist so gut wie du.

4- Du denkst, keiner isst so gut wie du.

5- Du brauchst immer Brot beim essen.

6- Du denkst, dass guter Käse stinken muss.

7- Es ist für dich normal, dass man sich als Begrüßung auf die Backe küsst.

8- Du willst die französische Sprache von fremden Wörtern säubern.

9- Du bist zu stolz, um English zu sprechen.

10- Du denkst, dass jeder Tourist Französisch beherrschen sollte.

11- Du bist nicht nackt beim saunieren.

12- Du bist einen Super-Liebhaber.

13- Du hast immer einen guten Grund zu streiken.

14- Du darfst am 14. Juli nicht arbeiten.

15- Rote Fussgängerampeln sind für dich nur Dekoration.

16- Du trägst mehr Parfüm als Deodorant.

17- Du bist schon 16, wenn du in der ersten Klasse bist.

18- Du hast Philosophie im Gymnasium studiert.

19- Du bist nicht fertig, sondern hast fertig.

20- Du hqsst die deutsche Tqstqtur.

Brief thoughts on Facebook, Sweden & Friends

2008-09-02T16:07:00.003+02:00

One of the main inconvenient of Facebook are the people, one could call “ghosts”. The ones you did not see for a really long time, mostly did not wonder what they became and did not think of them. And they find you. Past the first reaction “oh funny, what are you doing now?”, you remember there was actually a reason for these people to be “kicked out” of your life, however it was done.

On the other hand, one of the main advantage of Facebook, is to be found by some people, that a bad reason or a stupid fight kicked out of your life. And all of a sudden, a couple of years later, it just seems so silly that you don’t even understand or remember why you did not keep in touch.

And I have been contacted in the last weeks by a couple of people, I was so glad to hear from again ,it got me all melancholic. The “traditional” linking on Facebook makes you look at pictures you had not seen in a while and moments you were too busy to think of. And talking to these people again, seing the pics and thinking about it, makes me miss Sweden, and especially the people there (some at least).

I miss the crazy Americans that got me drunk (pretty willingly) every two days by teaching me Kings and Fuck the Dealer and threw chairs through the window.

I miss the drunk Swedish guys singing in the queue of the disco.

I miss walking around the frozen lake with my German friend that is satisfied with a Beer and a look at the free sky (no danger, check).

I miss yelling at the distracted French guy with whom we were supposed to write our thesis.

I miss stinking like barbecue after a bone fire.

I miss my North German girlfriend who did everything real girlfriends do but could also beat any guy at drinking contest.

I miss drinking wine and talking until four a.m. with the cute Austrian guy who loved snow.

I miss all that, all which has been my Swedish life for a year, with laughter and tears but as cheesy as it sounds, with people I really cared about. And there is no way I will ever again in my life live such an intense year and create an affectionate bond so strong and so fast as the ones I did there. In the meantime, I still know the rules of Kings, I have the pictures and of course I have you all in my Facebook friends.

Jack Johnson concert in Munich - singing in the rain

2008-09-02T15:43:00.006+02:00

I love music, and what I like even more than music are concerts. And this summer Jack Johson was in Munich. So you could think I am being casual about it, but I am not. I had bought the tickets something like 8 months in advance and I was literally bouncing the day before the concert. Excited is an understatement and I was glowing with happiness when I woke up on this 11th of July. AGAIN I bothered all my colleagues with my bouncing and my iamgoingtojackjohnsonconcert!!!!whatyoudontknowjackjohnson?! (mental *loser* note). I know, I am mean and intolerant but I was shocked to know that none of my colleague, NONE!, knew Jack Johnson. And worse, therefore none of them was jealous of me, and I don’t like that ;-)

Anyway, I had initially planned to go there with BF but BF is still in Roast beef Land I had to find a substitute. I actually found two very Good people, willing to come with me to a fricking awesome concert. It was a Friday and the sun was shining, like you expect it to be in July. The whole afternoon had been really warm, and I was so happy about that because I the concert location was the Olympia Reitanlage, that is Munich Riding facilities and thus … open air.

We left early because the Concert location in question is kind of remote. You need to take the S-bahn there and then walk for like 1 to 2 km to get there. Then there is the traditional routine of getting all your really dangerous weapon taken away, like for example, you bottle of water. Theoretically, you could use water as a weapon, indeed and maybe try to throw the bottle on somebody, or worse… drawn Jack Johnson.

We took or seat and enjoyed the sun while the pre-band was playing. I know the pre-band was good, I actually like them, but like at each concert I was mentally screaming: “boooooooo go away, we want Jack Johnson”. Now that I think about it, it was not mentally screaming. It was just screaming.

And then, He came and He started to sing. And without knowing it, I was screaming again. The stage was arranged with some huge frames, which were actually monitors, showing either videos e.g. from surfing or showing Jack and his musicians.

Ironically, it is when Jack Johnson started to sing, that it all went wrong, in the weather are. The sky rapidly got darker, and we all knew that a summer storm was coming; we were just praying that it would not reach us. For God’s sake, it had been 8 months I was waiting for the concert! Of course it did reach us, and not just a bit.

It started by a clear change in the air density, followed by some really entertaining pink lightening (how pretty). It was then a bit of rain and some wind (cuz otherwise we would not be cold enough) and then we started actually hearing the thunder, it got closer and closer. And then, finally, the sky must have broken loose, because it started pouring rain on us, like I have rarely experienced. I even started wondering how it possible that so much water is just held in the air. I don’t wanna play Joey, but it is actually quite impressing.

The couple behind us was kind enough to try covering us with their umbrella. As we were sitting, it led me to relatively dry hair, though curling, to totally wet legs. Happily I am not made of sugar. I felt really sorry, for all the “surfers” that came barefoot and “bare chest”. They did not seem to mind either actually and were dancing all around.

Jack Johnson was there, and if he did not keep us warm at least he distracted us from our frozen feet. He played a lot of songs from the latest album as well as some “classics”. So we heard Sleep through the static, Good people, Hope, Banana Pancakes, Bubble Toes, Same girl, Sitting Waiting Wishing, Flake, Do you remember, Go On, etc

When playing Banana pancakes, the sentence “can’t you see it is raining” took a whole new meaning for Jack Johnson and for us, the crowd, being miserable but incredibly happy. Happy until the concert had to be stopped (because of the thunder) for at least half and hour. A lot of people left, and my two friends were considering it, so to entertain them and convince them to stay I alternatively: sang, remembered them how much the tickets had cost and yelled at the leaving people that they were “losers, who did not deserve Jack Johnson to sing for them if they were ready to leave because of a couple of drops”. Yes, I am a friendly person.

Finally, while my friends were still trying to convince me to leave and that the concert was over, it started again –thank god. And again, It was awesome. T. had managed to find for all of us a plastic bag, initially meant for trash, but not used yet, that we opened and use to protect us from the rain. It could not keep us wet, as we were since long retaining in our clothes liters of water…

I know, it could have sucked. I mean I was wet like I have never been in my life (outside a pool), totally freezing but I was having so much fun, I really did not care and was in a great mood.

After a while, the body temperature of my friends got too low for them to be able to actually enjoy anything and for the sake of the group, I accepted to leave without waiting for the end of the concert. But I negociated some “five more minutes” and “one last song” and when we started leaving Jack said “ok guys this is the last song and then I ll let you go home”. And my friends were so kind to me and so nice, “lieb” like the Germans say, that they accepted to stay for the last song. And it was the best ever: a mix from Better together and Angel. I could have cried.

Then we had to walk the kilometres back to the station under the rain, in the mud, and it sucked but did not matter. We wringed our clothes before coming in the train and liters of water literally came out. We ended up wet and happy in the city center burger King to warm us up. And you could see right away, who was at the concert or not. Mascara running, my panda style even earned me a “great concert, right?” with a bright smile from a cutie. See, it was all totally worth it.

Chuck Norris recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.

2008-08-21T15:01:00.009+02:00

If you have some free time and/or need a laugh, here is another funny website:

http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/

Out of all the funny Chuck Norris Facts, the ones that Chuck Norris himself chose as the funniest:

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.
When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.
Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.
Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.
Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost
Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a DeltaForce marathon on Satellite TV.
Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.

And remember: Chuck Norris once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!".

So i know, now you are gonna think I am not working too hard lately. I am not. It is august and everyone is in shut down so i have nothing to do at work but surf the web. I swear.

A last one for the road: The only reason the color pink still exists is because Chuck Norris is color blind.

Born to shop?

2008-08-21T09:52:00.000+02:00

I was, once more, on a shopping diet - because everyone has been boring me to death with the fact that I need to save money (which I really do) – which meant not by clothes, shoes or any pretty things I do not really NEED; even though you could argue (and trust me I did) that the concept of need is very relative but anyway, once more I was not supposed to shop and I knew it.

It lasted something like…hmmm a good week until I failed miserably.

Indeed, as I was, yesterday, innocently walking through the Kaufingerstrasse (and by the way, in Kaufinger there is “Kauf” which means “Buy”), I had the objective to buy just chalk (climbing chalk), therefore I was supposed to spend exactly 3,49€. That’s right. So I bought chalk. I also bought a new skirt, the t-shirt to go with and this little cute jacket that just goes perfectly with it. I thought of buying just the skirt, and coming back for the rest, because that would have been the least unreasonable thing to do. But it did not happen, of course, mostly because i went like that: “hmmm I really should not…*thinking hard about it* No I should not. But I will. So what, sue me!”

It is not in my nature to not buy, especially when I find such a perfect and cute outfit. And seriously I do not know why I keep going against my nature, it is NOT WORKING.

I can’t say if I am a born- shopaholic or if I grew to be one. The good old innate vs. acquired debate. So just in doubt, I am going to do what Freud taught us to, any time you have an issue: blame it on your mother.

So Maman, it is all your fault.

Ladies and Gentlemen, when I was not even out of babyhood (maybe one to two years old), my Mommy used to seat me in my baby chair and give me some clothes catalogues to look at, La Redoute & Les 3 Suisses and I would look though their pages happily (and quietly) for hours, tearing the pages I liked and looking further. That’s right. When I was only a baby. And I am not even making that up, my mom is telling me every time I see her (and show her the new stuffs I bought): “this is all my fault…”.

Yes it is. Now if you excuse me I need to sort my clothes in my cupboard to make some room.

Vie de Merde - "Ma vie c'est de la merde, et je vous emmerde"

2008-08-19T10:17:00.005+02:00

For the French speaking adept of Schadenfreude, my favourite website:

http://www.viedemerde.fr/

Litteraly: "shitty life". Real people tell in a few sentences, why their life is shit, either generally speaking or with some anecdotes. They all start with "Aujourd'hui..." ("today") and end with "VDM" (for Vie De Merde). And for the mean person hiding in front of each of us, it is hilarious.

I recommend not reading it in the office, because I did, and as I was actually crying from laughing, my colleagues must have figured out that I was taking a break and not fully concentrated on work...

Some of the best ones of today (source: http://www.viedemerde.fr/):

"Aujourd'hui, ma fille de 5 ans n'a rien trouvé de mieux à faire que de gratter les fientes d'oiseaux sur le capot de ma voiture... avec un caillou. VDM"

"Aujourd'hui, je me fais un bain de bouche en déambulant dans mon appartement. En passant devant l'ordinateur, je vois un poil sur le clavier. Réflexe, je souffle dessus. Mon clavier a la meilleure hygiène bucco-dentaire de l'histoire de l'informatique. VDM"

"Aujourd'hui, ça fait trois jours que ma copine a eu un accident. Je suis allé chez elle arroser ses fleurs. J'ai trouvé son portable avec les SMS d'un certain "David" qui demandait pourquoi elle avait raté le "RDV habituel du vendredi" et si elle m'avait finalement largué. VDM"

Bonne lecture!

But where do the BMW Marketing people get all this inspiration from?

2008-08-13T11:17:00.012+02:00

The automobile industry is a men world. I know it, I work in it. Last job, I was the only girl for 25 guys during a long time. In my new job, I am the only girl for 8 guys (ratio improving, I know, but still the only girl). So of coooourse, you have to deal with sexism and guys being stupid.

As Robbie Williams said: “God gave men both a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time."

That is the automobile world, it is sexist, there is sometimes even misogyny and if you want to change it, you can try but it is not going to happen overnight. I accept that but there are limits (as my colleagues know). So I accept that working in the automobile industry is a men's world. Now when it comes to buying cars, that’s different and I am not ready to put up with some sexist crap.

Since women now work (yes, times change), since they have their own income and sometimes, dear god, are not even married, they have become a pretty interesting target for car manufacturer. They can represent for some models more than 50% of the buying population, and guess what they are making their own decision. On their own. Also, most of them don’t NEED to make a statement or overcompensate for other things, so they are not going to base this decision on the same criteria than men. Well, nothing new there, that was all obvious.

My point is: it does not mean they don’t want a beautiful and/or a sporty car, it just means they don’t need to relate to sex when picking a car, unlike the other sex. So now, you are gonna tell me: what?! Such a cliché about men! And I am gonna hear “blabla blabla blabla”. And I am gonna prove my point with the example of two Germans car manufacturers who have been très stupid.

Last month, BMW published its new ad for used cars (destined to the Greek Market if I am right). That’s this one.

You know you are not the first
So the sexist aspect of the ad is more than obvious but I will still break it down for you:

Women are treated like objects, no, even better: “used objects”. So real classy. Note: Referring to sex to sell: wow how refreshing. It seriously is one of the least elaborated strategies you can have.
It IS insulting to women by promoting once more the concept of ownership of a woman by a man…
The choice of the model has been widely and unanimously criticized, and I am sure you can see yourself why: she looks like she is fifteen.

These are the main reasons why it has been a scandal over the net. A lot of blogs, especially women in marketing are bitching about it and creating petitions. Of course, if it was not for internet, no blogs would talk about it. No one would even know about it except Greece.

Obviously you could say that the fact that everyone is talking about it could be seen as a success of the marketing strategy. So sure, if you consider successful that there is any kind of talking, then yes, it is freaking successful. If you look at the content of what people say about it, it is ninety percent of criticism (which get pretty angry), five percent of "whatever" and five percent of "great job BMW!". The blogosphere has been bubbling with indignation from women, from men and from the Marketing sphere generally speaking. Whatever the point of view (is the ad sexist or not) it is agreed that it is a lame ad, and that the age of the girl is more than tasteless.

A successful ad is an ad which either improve the brand image or create sales. This one definitely does not improve the brand image. So will the ad deliver sales? Nothing is less sure. BMW typical customers are more likely not gonna decide on buying a car just because of a hot chick on the ad (who could be their daughter). So good job to the Marketing guy who signed this ad off: alienating women customers without guaranteeing any male favourable response… Way to go!

But that's not the best part of it because even if you get over the really sophisticated message: driving a BMW will get you tail with hot (probably underage) chicks, [and very honestly even being a BMW fan and everything, I really don’t get over it] the most pathetic aspect of it is that the stupid sexist marketing concept of comparing used cars to non-virgins women taking a sensual pose before the camera…well it was already used. Yes, BMW were not the first either. And guess what, it was used by Mercedes, one of BMW major competitors. And this is not something people talk about in the blogs, and i do not get why.

Indeed, Mercedes ad also had a woman, in a sultry pose and it says:
Would you mind not being the first. The woman is a young adult, not a teen though. Used more than a year ago, the ad did not have the coverage the BMW ad is getting but still, it exists.

What does that tell us:
- It is not the first example but it shows that the marketing creativity of the German automobile industry is really poor. Last year Christmas wishes cards from BMW and Audi also had exactly the same concept, which I already found pretty sad.
- That BMW and Mercedes do not understand a lot of the evolving car market, the importance of women buying power and that is without a doubt why Audi is kicking their sexist asses on a lot of levels.
- That Robbie Williams is not just hot, he is also smart and realistic. It makes me sad though to think that to get a guy to take a decision so big as buying a car, which represents a lot of money, you still would need to talk to his penis. Is that true? How sad.

Sadder is arguing that BMW is just using a marketing tool, that it is not a big deal. Well, actually, huge surprise, it is NOT a must to use women as sex objects in order to sell cars, it is just really lazy. The marketing people of BMW and Mercedes should just stop drinking coffee, stop getting their quote of “what women like” out of FHM monthly Bimbo interview and try to actually work on something that has not been already done 1000 times. Otherwise with this level of creativity, next ad will show some teens in jeans-short washing a car and wetting her t-shirt with the hose. Now come on! We are all better than that.

Take a look at Renault or Peugeot, I do not think you will find something like that in their ads. Not that the French are not sexist sometimes but I think they got a grab on the women-have-money-and-are-real-customers concept earlier. They also focus the blood use for the brain when at work, which means….they don’t need to demean women in order to sell the cars! Insane strategy, right? Neither do Fiat, Citroen, or Volkswagen (please check out the Unpimp your Car videos, so funny!).

Now I know, I know. Most of the guys are going to find this ad cool, they are going to think it is funny and that the girl is hot and some X- rated stuffs and everything. I am not naïve, nor stupid. They are most likely not going to tick on the fact that it is sexist and that the model is way too young to be referred to as a sex object for over 40-years old Manager who wants to show off with a new toy. Most guys, will not have a lower esteem of BMW & Mercedes by seeing this ad.

I do. First because I am a woman, and being seen as a man's property does not really make me jump all over the place (therefore a freaking long text about why BMW’s move was stupid) but also because I work in the automobile industry. This is one of the most competitive industries, it is facing so many challenges at one time, that mistakes are not allowed and creativity is just a vital need. You need to be better, price competitive and different.

With such an ad, BMW and Mercedes just got themselves cheap. Their inability to be really innovative and to understand the market is exactly why they are having so much trouble currently.Audi is this hot brilliant charming guy and they are like the lame guy at the bar counter, trying to pick up women with easy and lousy lines. Guess what, counter guy is getting home alone, probably mumbling something about women being all b**ches and to feel better about himself,…well he might just buy a BMW.

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Oh yes.

2008-08-12T17:42:00.002+02:00

Bored at home, men surf on porn. Well,when I am bored at home, I have my own kind of porn: it is called Tiffany and Co and it makes the prettiest things in the world.

Looking at the wonderful jewels or simply thinking of getting one of those pretty blue bags is much more satisfying than Woman- and -ping -pong- ball videos, Trust me.

So, it turns out, Tiffany has THE ring. The ring I would sell my kidney for. Or almost. The ring I would take above all the others…The Tiffany statement, the pretty pretty pretty (and big) Fancy Purplish Pink diamond.

Yes, pink diamond. they are actually rare and very pretty. From what I read, they are also mostly found in Australia. I’d put a picture but I don’t think I can because of the image rights and everything.

Click here and you will see, it is beautiful, it is just perfect. It has a 4.83-carat center stone “surrounded by 102 hand-set round diamonds”. Beautiful, elegant, original. Tiffany got it right, it IS a statement.

And I am in love with it. I love it so much I’d marry it and make it a lot of sparkling babies if I could.

Je me présente, je m'appelle Henry...

2008-08-12T16:52:00.001+02:00

Today, while reading Le Monde, something happened to me that does not happen a lot: i actually smiled reading the news. Yes, M’am, I did.

So what made me smile: well the crazy story of Pascal Henry, now talked about all across the world... More or less.

Mr. Henry decided to go on a gourmet tour across the world: 68 stops, 9 countries. First, that’s already a bit crazy because that is a lot of food in a short time and I am not sure you really enjoy it after a while, but anyway.

The crazier part of the story is that, after visiting 40 out of 68 of all the Michelin three stars restaurants, our guy disappeared really mysteriously. He was having dinner, then wanted to pick up his visit card in his car, got out from the famous restaurant El Bulli, and never came back, leaving behind him his hat and his famous notebook (in which all the Chefs of signed).

So now, first of all, everyone is wondering what happened, the family freaked out and the police got into it – initially because being all gone as he was, Mr. Henry did not pay his bill at El Bulli (FYI a meal there cost about what I spend in food monthly).

But it gets further: Was he kidnapped? Did he disappear because he did not have enough money left? Because he did not have any more appetite? Then why did he leave the book? Nobody knows, but everybody is wondering.

So what’s with Henry, you’ll ask. Well he has been seen since then, briefly, apparently getting money in Spain so… the guy is alive and most likely he left willingly, now everyone wants to know why he left and as Interpol put a lot of efforts to find him…he might have to answer a couple of questions.

It was also a very public story. The media got all excited by the story, especially in Spain where it has been used by the major competitor of the El Bulli’s chef. And in France of course. Because it is about food.

That’s actually pretty interesting to see: the German article published on a magazine website was pretty brief, whereas in France a relatively long article was published in one of the most known and serious newspaper (Le Monde). Hmm, what does that says about us? When you think about it: Thriller and food, what more could the French need to be interested? Don’t answer that.

People's Republic of China will promote the Human Rights thanks to the Olympic Games. Of course.

2008-07-31T20:16:00.005+02:00

Soooooo with the big games coming up, one would have to be blind AND deaf not to know about how hard it is for the journalists to actually do their work. Yeah god prevent they actually say something that could enlighten the world about the fact that maybe (really i am just assuming there) some bad stuffs could be going on in China... hmm hmm.

Anyway, I am not a journalist, i am not smarter than average but I do appreciate having a press which has the freedom of expression without risking the death penalty. And i do appreciate having so many rights and privileges, even though it is so trendy to spit on all our political systems. Well guess what, there are worse.

So as i said, i am not anything close to useful and they are some way braver and way smarter people that explain it all: what it is the reality in China, especially now and why the Olympic games are NOT gonna help the Chinese People at all, despite the (how reliable) promises of the Chinese government (one of the reasons they got the games at all from what i read).

So if you have time, it is really worth reading:
- Amnesty International Report
- and of course to be up to date, Reporters Sans Frontières

C'est jaune, c'est moche...

2008-06-23T18:00:00.005+02:00

The French are know to be reluctant to anything decided by Brussels [or Paris for that matter], so they need a special way to be talked to so that they do stuffs they don't want to do. The fact that it is the LAW is not enough of a good reason.

Let's take this new campaign. As of the 1st of July it will be mandatory in France to have a security triangle and reflective jacket in your car at any time [which is already the case in Germany for a long time].

But we are french so we can't just go and buy a damn "triangle + jacket" kit in the next garage for ten euros: we first need an incentive, we want to know why the heck, should we take this huge effort. That's why it is written on big letter that "IT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE". It ensures you it is not just the government trying to money on plastic triangles, it is also for you. Well now, it is already better.

And if we need to implement some European/national directive then let s just do it in style... Haute-couture designer Karl Lagerfeld is therefore the one promoting the security jacket with the slogan: "it is yellow, it is ugly, it does not go with anything...but it could save your life".

Well i am getting one of these!

Could you become German?

2008-06-17T14:24:00.005+02:00

Since last September, all the foreigners applying for a German citizenship have to take a test and need to answer 17 questions right out of the 33 asked.
The famous newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung offer to test yourself on 7 questions:

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/jobkarriere/spiele/quiz/263/179711/

so could you become German?

Happy anniversary…me!

2008-06-12T14:27:00.005+02:00

At the moment, the city of Munich is celebrating (and big) its anniversary with a lot of events since May to September and with the motto “Building Bridges” . The city will be 850 years old in two days (14th of June, date of its foundation).

But that’s not the only anniversary I am celebrating. Indeed today, it's been exactly two years that I moved to Munich. Tadddaaaaaa!. Of course the level of importance is nothing comparable but the resonance for me is pretty big… So as I was completely unable to keep a diary on a regular basis, I thought, at least, time for a general assessment, right?

The first thing coming to my mind when I think of these two years is how much has changed in between. Biggest change I would say is the status change, already mentioned in my previous post: I switched from Intern to an adult full-time job and if the working hours themselves did not really increase, the lifestyle did change a lot.

Well yeah, I have money like a grown up now, so obviously that’s a big change in life style (it means I can shop in more expensive stores or simply shop more!) but the real change is that I settled and organized my life. As silly as it sounds to mention, it is one thing to be in a foreign country for a six-month internship and therefore in a permanent carpe diem mode, it is another one to actually live there for an undetermined time and actually build a life. Undetermined becomes really undetermined like in no-i-do-not-know-when-and-if-i-move-back-to-France. You kind of automatically settle, because after a while, it does lose its fun to go out every week-end and spend all your Sundays in bed recovering; small or big trips become planned in advance and more organized, because you don’t feel like it is now or never. You got time.

People you hang out with also change. A lot. When you stay longer in a place, you slowly build a friends- circle carefully picked out. When one is new, and alone, one tends to stick with the ones one already have, even if they don’t really correspond, because, one does not really have a large choice so the standards for friendship get lower. The (very human) necessity makes that you keep up friendships with some people who you would probably rarely see or not at all if you were at home… that’s only when, after a while, the new place becomes a “home” that these people are progressively “evicted” and replaced by friends that fit one better. That’s when one starts building “real” friendships, which are not based also on necessity but purely on choice. So that’s what happened to me too. It is always long to get there but that is definitely worth some efforts. It was for me.

Now let me tell you something I am incredibly proud of: How I changed the language I use on a daily basis. I used to do everything in English because I just could not speak a word of German, then progressively English only with my friends and German at work, now I am on a full-time German basis with some very rare exceptions. I did a lot of progress (having a German boyfriend is for sure a nice carrot) but I put a lot of efforts into it. So every single time someone compliments my German abilities, I am so satisfied with myself I could almost purr.

What also changed progressively is how I feel about the Germans and Germany. After the Swedish culture-shock, I had a pretty long honeymoon phase in Germany, where everything was awesome. With time and a bit of reflection, I skipped the culture shock part and went straight to Integration. I realize what I like more about Germany, what I like more about France and I feel good in both countries. It is a pretty nice situation actually. Not to feel lost or out of place; not to be shy or confused. And now that I feel completely at ease and confident I am also able to have a way more objective perception of Germany and its culture than before. I don’t see everything pink (or black for that matter). Therefore it takes more to impress me and it takes more to annoy me.

Finally, I have developed an over sensibility about all that is about French stuffs and France when in Germany ( I bite when I feel like my country’s honor is endangered), over sensibility about Germany when i am in France, and a pretty serious addiction to Travel books like Bill Bryson, Stephen Clarke and Co which now fill my bookshelves.

What did not change is that I still love Munich. It is an amazing city, very international, very wealthy, very active and very secure and I just love it for a 1000 reasons. Despite all the difficulties and even if I also see why the rest of Germany sometimes is not totally crazy about it, my infatuation for the city became a real love and I am not even close to breaking up with the “World city with a heart”.

Does Bavaria know better?

2008-06-03T10:57:00.007+02:00

An international cliché is that the French people are arrogant and always act like they know better. In France, when disliked by our EU neighbour, we answer with: "you're just jealous because we are better; you just wish you were French!"
A German national cliché is that the Bavarian people are arrogant and always act like they know better. Hu. What a coincidence, they are not much liked in the rest of Germany and they justify it with... "you're just jealous because we are better". Do you see where I am going there?

So why is Bavaria to Germany what the French are to Europe? I think the first reason is that Bavaria always detaches itself really clearly from the rest of Germany…and clearly defines itself as better than the rest of Germany (better economy, better education system, etc). And most of all Freistaat Bayern! But this is something I already discussed in my post "I live in Bavaria, it's next to Germany".

The second reason for dislike is that Munich is clichéd as a posh city and well...that’s just not completely false. I must say, on bad days it does get on my nerves too. If the city is wealthy and benefits from it on a lot of level, a loooooot of people in Munich are also really bourgeois.
The common German adjective used is “spießig”. It does not always relate to money and income actually, even though it often does, it is more an attitude. And it is a lot about having the right clothes, going to the right clubs, liking the right music, driving the right car: you sometimes really feel like you are back in High school. The need which some of the Munich inhabitants have to blend in and belong to the “right crowd” gets sometimes close to ridiculous. It is also pretty boring I think because if you take a look at it closely, all these people, desperate to be and look “good enough” to pass the Munich Bourgeois standards become interchangeable. They just look all the same.
For the girls, same pony hair cut, same pearls-earrings, same leather boots and same blouses. For the guys, same stripes shirt and boring haircut, same brand clothes, brown leather-shoes.
After a while, it just gets sad and insipid and you can’t help but think to yourself “gee, just get a personality”. Most of the time I try and avoid this crowd but some times, when I feel like being mean and silly, I like to start debates with the few specimens I know. But that’s another story…

The third annoying Munich/Bavarian thing I see is still in line with this perceived and/or actual arrogance and the whole i-know-better attitude: they know better so they come and share that with you. so kind...
Here some total strangers come up to you to make comments on your attitude, your clothes, or whatever they think you are doing wrong, to teach you how to be a better person. The most astonishing thing about it is that they always look like they are so righteous, that you should almost thank them or burn in hell. And god, does it drive me crazy.
For example, I got yelled at in the street by an old man for wearing t-shirt showing a bit of cleavage when going out. I got lectured for, in a weak moment, smoking a cigarette outside a bar (not smoking where it is forbidden, just smoking when this person disapproved of smoking…glad to know). I got summoned for talking in an ungrammatical way in German (the person apologized when I explained I was French) and another time for eating a burger (unhealthy). I got grumbled at for reading a book in English in the metro (“what is it with the young people, always doing everything in English, no respect for German…*more grumbling*). I also got insulted for wearing a “Germany” t-shirt (I was allegedly a Nazi…). So now i learnt a lot on how to be a better person. Thank you...

Anyway, half of the time, it is just grumpy old people but that would be totally underestimating it to think it is only the old people. In the end of course, it is only a lot of funny anecdotes for dinner conversation but I think the funniest thing of it all, is when I get lectured by Bavarians themselves about how the French people feel they are always right… Do we reaaaaaaally?

Finally Graduated!

2008-03-14T14:03:00.010+01:00

I am a Business School girl. I did the whole crazy french Grandes Ecoles thing from beginning to end. It all started after my Baccaulaureat, when i started Prepa. Let me tell you about it.

Prepa is the abbreviation for "Classes Préparatoire aux Grandes Ecoles" (preparatory class for what could be translated as Grandes Schools). Commonly called: La voie Royale (the royal way)The admission in prepa is based on your school results since let's say... second grade?

It is the most competitive education in France (with the Medicine school). Supposedly only the "crème de la crème" can be admitted in Prepa and every prépa student takes a certain pride in the fact that they are the most expensive students to the government (something like 15.000 euro a year per capita if i am not mistaken).

In reality, only the best students can get in top prepa (well of course, prépas themselves are ranked too!), and (upper-)average students can always get in the smaller ones that need to fill their places anyway. Both cases, you have to be slightly insane to send the application. Which i was. am. whatever.

As all the attendees of prepa know, Prepa is (if you will allow me to exagerate in order to make a point) the student equivalent of Guantanamo Bay for the Tipton three: a wonderful place where no law elsewhere applied is there recognized, of mental abuse, of sleep deprivation, of Brain-washing, of daily unacceptable humiliation and where the words fairness, kindness and smile simply disappear from your vocabulary [along with psychological balance] for want of meeting any reality.

Also you tend to lose grasp with this mentionned reality, particularly when it comes to set priorities. Your parents and old friends look at whats left of you- when they make it to catch a glimpse of you behind your maths books- in this weird and worried kind of way, not understanding why you feel so desperate or why it is such a big deal that you forgot the price of an oil barril in the US in 1979, they seem to think one can still be a decent student without knowing this. But they don't know nothing.

In the end, i did pretty fine in prepa (thank god, my parents, family and friends who all pampered me during those years) but one must know that Prepa Students along with Medicine Students have the highest suicide rates, the highest psychotrop-medication rate and another couple of titles that one should just not have to use talking about students.

On the good side, Prepa does make you smarter, stronger, faster and tougher. I don't regret doing it for a sec (which shows how wicked Prepa Students are!).

After the two years, you have the insane exams couple of months and if you're smart and lucky enough, you will get an interview in schools you actually want to go to. Some more tests, smartness and luck later, you may even get in the schools and pick your favourite one. and then, your life changes.

You start having a social life again, meeting people you re not forced to hate because of a sick competition spirit. You start going out, partying (and business schools students do know how to party). You get through awesome and dazzling experiences all starting with the "Week-end d'inté". You meet your old friends again, and yes, you do have time to actually do stuffs with them. On the educationnal side, you get international teachers that teach you stuffs you heard about, dreamt of but never learnt so far and on top of it all, they don't include Algebra or Matrix.

You get involved in associations (famous BDA, BDE, BDS...). you learn to master a ton of abreviation. you have a laptop, finally and spend way too much time on skype and msn to talk with people sitting a meter away from you. And most important of all you start to live!

There is a price though: just on application for the Business School, you can count something between 1000 and 2000 euros. then you have to include all the costs of travelling around in France to get to the interviews. And once you're in, just the school will cost you something around 23.000 euros. So you either have to be rich, or take a loan at the next bank. You do get pretty interesting rate in the banks. Those schools are good so it gives you a pretty good bankable potential. You also need to get the laptop, the appartment, the insurance, the food and all other things that anyone has to pay. It can be pretty heavy if you don't have Mommy and daddy covering up for you. Lucky me, I DID have Mommy and Daddy, glad to pay for me, like only parents can be.

And after two years in the school, crazy me decided one master would not be enough t ensure my success in the job market so i left for Sweden in Erasmus year and did a double degree. Lots of fun and two theses later, I was done with the studying part of the studies... Only the 3end of studies"-internship was left. As you know, i packed again all this sedish shopping and moved to Munich. I found a great internship and because it was so great...

I extended my internship from 6 to 12 months. So you d'think I'd be done after that because if you can count that was already 6 years of being a student. Well no, cuz two thesis was not enough, i had to register for one more year and write another full report on my internship, which thankfully did not take me a year ;-)

Finally, finally! I gave it back and presented it, got graded, and passed (pfiou). Six months after that, ... so almost 7 years after i started the crazy Grandes Ecoles thing, i finally finally received the pretty invitations for my Graduation Party, ma remise des diplômes.

And there i went. January 2008. With Mommy and Daddy, who well deserved to see their daughter up on a stage after so many years providing for her... I got a gown, and a hat. It looked kinda ridiculous and was playing the big girl, believing i did not really care...I mean it is just a ceremony and so long after I actually started working...

And then they called my name and i started walking through the full room, at least two thousand people, direction the stage. And my heart went kadam-kadam, my legs felt suddenly a little weak and i felt something that could be interepreted as...Well ...emotion. And pride. Weirdly and logically at the same time. Got hugged by my teacher and received proudly my degree; went to the side of the stage to wait for my co-students to join me and looked at it: nice blue frame, thick nice-looking paper...and whatthef! not my name, nothing. Blank spaces. I went on smiling Queen-of-England-style cuz i was on stage and a lady does not lose her smile for such a small thing as a darn fake degree...

and then when i was off, i found the responsible person who kindly informed me they lost my degree. Well it happens right, to lose stuffs. So I ...lost my mind for a short time, and freaked out and yelled. I think the words incompetent xxxxx and 23.000 darn euros in three fricking years might have popped up in the conversation but hey...

Then i left him there to recover, lady-like with hat and gown and pretty dress and went to the open-bar buffet to get wasted with my long not-seen friends.
Thanks to seeing them all again, to the catching up, the nice food, and maybe also the Champagne did help too, i relaxed and enjoyed my last evening as a (slightly drunk) student.

And now? Seven years later, well now i am officially in the grown-up world, with a real job, a rent to pay (almost on my own...), my real degree that they found back three weeks later, a stable relationship, a view on a new appartment, a budget to plan and stick to and a membership at the DAV. Am i responsible, or what?

But the embarassing pics of me in the gown, last instant as a student, can still be seen in my mom wallet.

100 posts

2007-11-21T10:56:00.000+01:00

Well well well... this is my 100th published post so i thought i shall do something kind of special. Usually people do the "100 things about me" but i already did that a year ago so it would be really redundant and boring.

I figured i rather explain where the name of my blog come from. Impossible n'est pas frenchie. As you probably got it, it means "impossible is not frenchie" which means that there is nothing i can't do. The typical french humility, you will tell me.

Well yes, it is definitely french. It comes from this classical quote we have "Impossible n'est pas francais" (impossible is not french). Guess who said that. I ll give you a hint: he was very french, very small, did not have a clue of how to spell humility and had this weird hat. Ladies and Gentlemen, yes it was Napoleon the first.

In a letter sent in 1813 to the Général Lemarois, he wrote : "Ce n'est pas possible, m'écrivez-vous; cela n'est pas français." which clearly meant, that he would not take no as an answer, because nothing was impossible to the French.

Humility, humilty, humility. Anyway, i chose it as my motto because as any normal French person, i do believe in la grandeur de la France and also I believed in me, able of achieving whatever goal i would set to myself. So far, i haven't been proved wrong, let's hope it is not gonna change.

Also a motto like this one is also here to remind you, in case of doubts, what I believe in and that even if a day, a week, a month or a year might suck, there is nothing I can't do. After all I am french ;-)

Another Step for my integration

2007-11-14T14:58:00.000+01:00

Good news for me: I just became a member of the DAV, the Deutscher Alpenverein. That is the German Alpine association. And this membership my friends, just made me a better person. Well of course I am still a foreigner but I am definitely gaining an interesting aspect there.

Indeed, the Germans (or at least the ones here) are almost as crazy as the Austrians when it comes to mountains. It is one of the most important thing ever: you must love the mountains. Then it does not matter if you go skiing, snow-boarding, hiking or rock climbing or just raclette- making in a “hutte”, you just have to love them.

And the DAV, it is the official mountains-hugger association. It gets you special prices and a bunch of discounts for rock-climbing, borrowing books, renting a “hutte” as well as the right to participate to a lot of mountains-hugging events.

But it is not the only thing it does: It makes you a good person. It shows you UNDERSTAND the mountains. And those people who do not have the little green card… they are suspect. Yes sir, they are.

So, after 18 months being here, I decided I should do something to justify my presence in the sacred Alps and got my green card. Easy to get, you just need to go on the website of the local DAV (here is Munich) and fill the “Anmeldung” formular to be a part of it.

Then they will quickly take the money away from you (31 euros when you are under 27) and send you the pretty laminated plastic thing stating your membership. It is actually pretty useful and it does pay itself out really quickly if you are into the mountains sport. Which you are anyway, aren’t you?????

Your membership starts as of December to the January of the year after, so now is a good time to get a membership in order to make the best out of it.

I already feel I am a better person. Now I can say stuffs like “yeah with my DAV Sektion…”: I am sooooooooo close to looking like a native.

Einmal Löwe, Immer Löwe

2007-11-14T12:06:00.001+01:00

It is been about a year and a half that i moved to Munich and …it is been about a year and a half that I want to attend a football game in the new, design and changing colours Allianz Arena Stadium.

Munich city has two football teams (soccer) that share the stadium: the very famous FC Bayern team (in red and white) and the TSV 1860 team (in blue and white) whose mascot is a lion (like Munich). As you may have guessed, the two teams and their fans hate each other. anyway, I did not want to attend a game of the FC Bayern because....I just don't like them. They are arrogant and commercial and they are getting even more on my nerves since the front of the Theatinerkirche (a church) had a huge Nike commercial with Ribery announcing himself new king of Bavaria.

Sooooooo, I always said I would only go to a game of the 1860. Thanks to two of my (female) friends, i can say it is now done. Monday, was my first live football game in Germany and it was nice. It was also freaking cold, but the Germans have it all figure it out: you don’t just wear as many layers as an onion, you also need to drink some Glühwein. It makes the world warmer and happier and all that for 3.30 euros a cup.

The game was fun. The first thing is that anytime a player from 1860 entered, they announced his first name on the micro and the public had to scream his family name. Thank god it was all written on the giant screen… Then we sang some fans songs (also written on the gigantic screen). Finally the game started: we yelled against the green little men (Mönchen Gladbach) , sang and applauded for the blue, we yelled against the sold red and black referee that was being so unfair… Casual football.

I do like football live. It is always different and funnier than watching it on TV, you can check out the cute players (e.g. Görkan or Hoffmann), scream some “Go! Go! Go!” with all you can, it is fun. But it is not Care Bears planet either. You definitely need to be mean and in this case your enemies are:

1. FC Bayern

2. the other team (to which you say that they are exactly so sh**ty as the FC Bayern)

3. The referee

4. “Your” own players in the case where they are not following the orders that you have been screaming from the fans stand since half an hour.

In all cases, you will probably make some reference to some parts of the body, you generally do not refer to. It is part of the thing, it is also part of the fun.

Unfortunately “our” team did a 0-0 which I was very disappointed about. I was even more disappointed that technically they did score, but the (for sure bribed) referee decided for a “abseits” (offside). Stupid rule.

It was a lot of thinking for me to watch the game because even though I do know some basics football rules, I still had to figure the right vocabulary in German and try to figure what is the French word for it. Next I had to try to remember what it means. Then only I could analyse what happened and decide that it was unfair for the referee to use his whistle on one of “our” guys.

The evening was great and it was even greater that I went there with people from Bavaria, real 1860 fans, that could explain to me all the happenings, songs, stakes, rules…and let me annoy them the whole time.

I actually wanted to check if there are any differences between a German game and a French one even if, it is not like I am a French soccer expert but anyway. They are not actually that much. The only things that were weird to me were that the songs music was different (I expected same tune, different lyrics) and that there were no ola (at the last game I attended in Paris we did one every 20 minutes).

Other than that, and among the funny things, one of the guys had his nose broken so he played the whole time with this black mask on the face. Mean me thought it was really funny.

Now if you will excuse me, i need to check on youtube that this Abseits was really an Abseits.

You know you are Swedish when...

2007-11-08T14:20:00.000+01:00

(From the Facebook group of the same name)

1. Your family had to re-arrange a number of Christmas traditions when Arne Weise retired.

2. You get nostalgic by thinking of the summer of 1994.

3. You don't rely on weather forecasts unless presented by John Pohlman.

4. You thought Astrid Lindgren was immortal and was shocked and cried your heart out when she actually did die.

5. You really want to attend the Nobel Prize Dinner.

6. You get pissed off when Norwegians state that the peace prize is much more famous than the other Nobel prices.

7. You go seriously sentimental when entering an IKEA store, outside the borders of Sweden.

8. You love complaining about Sweden when you are there and state "it's much better in Sweden" when you are abroad.

9. You secretly love the Eurovision Song Contest to pieces.

10. You know at least 10 Abba songs by heart.

11. You claim that you are not a royalist but actually do care what "she" will wear on the Nobel Prize dinner.

12. You are prone to stand in line without complaining.

13. Whenever discussing international problems you always, without exception state that "why don't you do it like we do it in Sweden?"

14. You know the names of a multitude of IKEA items.

15. You know how to pronounce these names and sigh when non-Swedes don't.

16. You grew up in a house looking exactly like as if iit would have been in the IKEA-catalogue.

17. You have a tendency to not divide words when you write in English, since "särskrivning" is a sin.

18. You don't really care about winning as long as the Swedish beat the Norwegains and the Finish, no matter what the game/contest is.

19. You know that Sweden never actually will win the World Cup in Football, but keep partying anyway.

20. When you don't really consider silence a problem in social situations.

21. When you find people from other cultures generally being rather loud. With the exception of the Finish.

22. You wouldn't even consider buying electrical items unless they are "S"-marked.

23. You consider the question "how are you?" as a question that when posed, needs to be answered with a honest and thorough explanation of your mental health.

24. You have serious difficulties crossing the street when there is a red light. Even when there are no cars.

25. You get guilty conciense from throwing things in the dustbin that could have been recycled.

26. You take your shoes off when entering a house, and don't get why non-Swedes find that funny.

27. You know what the term "dansband" refers to, but know that it is a losing battle explaining to non-Swedes what it is.

28. You don't consider a congregation of trees being a "real" forrest unless it takes at least 20 minutes to drive through it.

29. You use metric system and really don't get why there are people out there who don't.

30. You consider "schlager" being a proper music genre.

31. You consider a fast and audioable intake of breath as a synonym to the word "yes".

32. You find the ads for Coca Cola during Christmas completely useless since noone would consider drinking any other soft drink than "julmust" during Christmas anyway.

33. You consider Denmark and the Danish "pretty continental".

34. You know that it is not true, but you like to believe that there is a massive difference between the taste of "julmust" and "påskmust".

35. You know that the most common cars in Sweden are not Volvo's or Saab's, but Ahlgrens Bilar.

36. You can debate for hours the difference between the taste of the pink, the green and the white car in a pack of Ahlgrens bilar.

37. You actually have a favourite colour of Ahlgrens bilar, and is pretty militant in your opinion on this point.

38. You are not likely admit to having watched a full episode of Allsång på Skansen, but feel that the fact that they broadcast it every summer is soothing, and a notion that things remain in their normal state.

39. You like things in general to be "lagom".

40. It annoys the hell out of you that there is no good translation for the word "lagom" in any language (except in Turkish, apparently)

41. You consider Sweden being on the verge of annoyingly "lagom". Like a tetra pack of mellanmjolk, sort of.

42. You have at one point, or more, during your childhood, attempted to fabricate something that you learnt how to make from watching "Hajk".

43. While fabricating the thing mentioned in point 42. things went terribly wrong.

44. You think that Sweden winning a gold in any type of World Championships require celebrating by getting really drunk and splash around in a large and famous fountain.

45 You have a tendency to make Swedish verbs out of English nouns, and do not consider it slang or gramatically incorrect.

46. Generally, you prefer writing in pencil.

47. You've never seen a starbucks.

48. You have a summer house in the countryside. It has no running water or flushing toilet, but you can't understand why no one wants to visit.

49. Making fun of Norway is a national institution. And vise versa.

50. You love Kalles Caviar. Everyone else outside scandanavia hates it.

51. You are obsessed with health issues. Everything is bad unless it comes from sweden, in which case its ok.

52. You could survive on just fish and prawns, and still manage to have a different dish for every meal for a month. Oh, and you even put it in cake.

53. You find it normal to have to go to a special store that is owned by the government, that's only open during daytime to buy a bottle of wine, or other alcoholic beverages.

54. You constantly try to avoid meeting your neighbours in the stairwell.

55. You split the check by the exact penny after eating at a restaurant.

56. You try to explain "The Law of Jante" to non-Swedes..!

57. You don't mind waking up way too early during the first 24 days of December in order to watch 15 minutes of TV's annual Advent Calendar.

58. You find the idea of wall to wall carpets in bathrooms and toilets simply appalling.

59. You just don't "orka"...

60. You think you understand Danish.

61. The Danish think you understand Danish.

62. Ultimatley, when spoken, you don't really understand Danish.

63. You thought wall to wall carpets was a concept of the past or the ferrys to Finland/Estonia/Germany/Denmark. Then you went abroad and realised that you were wrong.

64. You don't even realise that you speak/write Swenglish whenever you speak/write to Swedish people.

65. You die a little inside if you don't get your weekly ransion of "Mamma Scans Kottbullar".

66. You think that everyone is allowed to walk in any field or forrest. And when people abroad tell you it's private land, you don't understand and say "But, what about Allemansratten?"

67. You expect people to be drinking atleast a bottle each of vodka, and think that's normal.

68. Your ideal breakfast consists of a slice of bread with egg och kalles kaviar, och a big cup of oboy...

69. You drink black espresso without sugar, believing that is what you do in Italy, and actually believe that you like it...

70. After having realized that someone is standing on your foot in the subway, you think that the best idea is to not say anything at all or maybe cough or nod a little in order to attract the attention of the person standing on your foot.

71. You find non-scandinavians so loud and noisy but find it perfectly normal to get completely wasted, "bröla", sing along to "när vi gräver guld i usa..." and piss in public, when you're abroad and partying with non-scandinavians.

72. You secretly consider Sweden the best place on earth and that Swedes are the most intelligent and beautiful people in the world.

73. You know who Bamse is, and love him with all of your heart.

74. You take a sip of Strongbow, frown, and state that there's nooo way that the yellow sludge they call cider really is cider..

75. You refuse to belive that snuff or "snus" is harmful.

76. Since snuff "isn't harmful", you can't understand why no one except the swedes use it...

77. You think that all things Astrid Lindgren ever wrote, sums up all the good things about being Swedish.

78. You have become addicted to Playahead/Lunarstorm/Helgon and/or Bilddagboken.

79. Your favourite site for games and videos is Hamsterpaj.net.

80. Seeing a young woman with lit candles stuck to her head no longer disturbs you.

81. You wake up with BIG hang-overs on the days after April 30th (Valborg) and December 13th (Lucia).

82. you have, with some measure of success, spoken rövarspråket.

83. You are stuck in front of your TV watching curling during every Olmpic Games.

84. You actually understand the rules of curling.

85. You have been accused of being from Switzerland. Repeatedly.

86. You refer to some internationally famous Swedes by their nicknames, even when speaking to bewildered non-Swedes who have no clue what you are talking about.(I.e: "Svennis" (Sven-Goran Ericsson) and "Henke" (Henrik Larsson).

86. You cried when Henke Larsson cut his hair.

87. You just love singing "snapsvisor" while drinking any kind of alcohol.

88. You would rather stand up on the bus for an hour than bother the person who's handbag is currently occupying the last available seat.

89. You would never use public transportation without a valid ticket, even though it's ridiculously overpriced.

90. You happily engage in a conversation about the weather.

91. You cannot see why the first floor you walk in to should be called anything but the first floor, and the next one up the second, and so on, and you get confused by this in every multi-storey building you enter.

92. You generally consider the pre-party better than the night out in a club that follows.

93. You cry of nostalgy and happiness thinking about Peter "Foppa" Forsberg's penalty in the ice-hockey final, Olympic Games in Lillehammer 1994.

94. You look forward all year for August when you get to gather your friends, put on stupid paper hats, drink Vodka, sing and eat crayfish.

95. You don't mind women using the men's bathroom in clubs if the queue to the "Ladies" is long.

96. You go abroad on vacation and first things first try to localize a Swedish bar and restaurant.

97. You LOVE Carola and knows almost all her songs by heart even though she's a bit of a freak these days.

98. It still disturbs you that Carola did not win the Eurovision Song Contest the first time around she participated, back in -83.

99. you get chills down your spine thinking about the "Flour-tant".

100. It's totally ok to stop working for a while when Anja is skiing in an important competition and instead join your colleagues in front of the TV which somebody brought.

101. You actually miss Knäckebröd abroad but never eat it in Sweden because it's so "torrt"!

102. You always go "That's not REAL snow" whenever it snows in countries that usually don't get snow.

103. You find it adorable when people from other countries get excited about a few milimetres of snow that only stays on the ground for a few hours.

104. You are amazed to find that other countries are not familiar with winter tires, 'halkbanor' and 'dubbar'.

105. You insist on that Swedish chocolate is the best chocolate in the world, despite of what the Belgians and the Swiss might say.

106. It's raining and you hear yourself say your grandmothers wise words, "There is no bad weather, just bad clothes"

107. You insist on convincing people the vikings were the first to discover america.

108. you refer to girls of other nationalities as beeing inferior to swedish girls (another race).

109. You understand the man talking embarassingly loud to his son in the elevator.

110. You can't refrain from bragging about winning both the olympics and the world championships 2006 in hockey back to back whenever you have the opportunity to...talking to a Canadian...

111. You realise that toast and marmalade can never, ever replace dark bread with "prästost".

112. You have tried to translate a phone conversation from "Hassan".

113. You have genuinely believed that a person from the UK talking about "hockey" meant "ice-hockey".

114. You consider blond hair about as normal as dark hair.

115. You constantly have to point out that not EVERYONE in sweden is blond, in fact you add that most people are not.

116. You only consider hair on the verge of being "white", blond. Everything else is just very bright brown hair.

117. You have tried, and failed, to convince non-swedes that jam with your food is really good.

118. IKEA is home away from home.

119. You don't understand why non-swedes find salt lakris inedible.

120. You know Carl Larsson captures the atmosphere of a 'stuga' perfectly.

121. you realise the potential and imagination behind a number of Swedish words (like: förfest, träningsvärk, groggvirke, sola, KLOCKRENT)

122. you get frustrated because there is no way you can say these words in any other language and sound correct.

123. you don't think a farmhouse is actually a farmhouse unless it is red or yellow with white trim.

124. eventhough jumping into haybales is really gross you still do it and love it because "Bullerby Barnen" did it.

125. you compare all other spiced wine to glögg and with a frown state the obvious superiority of the Swedish Xmas drink.

126. you seriously look for Baklava made from whole grain, because "in Sweden, we don't eat white flour anymore, Socialstyrelsen says it's not good for you"

127. you consider taking a cruise ship to tallin a valid excuse to get completely off your face and act like an utter ass as soon as the ship leaves port.

128. you know that there is no way the nesquick powder can ever replace real O'boy

129. you find it OBVIOUS that a mile is 10 kilometres.

130. a nights sleep only counts if it consists of 8 consecutive hours. 10 hours would be considered too much.

131. you hate to 'lose face' in public, and will act like everyone else to prevent this from happening

132. you insist on buying ridiculously tight pants (guys) and you innocently say F**K at completely inappropriate times when talking english.

133. you consider it tradition to get wasted and dance around a giant penis symbol stuck in the ground every summer.

134. you think it's perfectly normal to pay over 50 % of your income in taxes.

135. everything you know about sex you learned from ”Bullen” or KP's "Kropp och Knopp".

136. you were devastated to find out that neither “Skurt” nor “Televinken” were real people.

137. you can’t for you life understand why there’s no handles on the paper bags you get in the liquor store.

138. the theme song from “Ika i rutan” still gives you the creeps.

139. you have been or know someone who has been an exchange student

140. When "tallriksmodellen" pops up in your head every time you serve food.

141. you find it morally reprehensable to not at least TRY and eat from all the food groups.

142. you consider it is a sin to record Kalle Anka (Donald Duck) on the video at Christmas.

143. you talk about politics at house parties.

144. you like to travel to other countries where you KNOW that 99% of the people there are Swedish or speak at least decent Swedish

145. you actually do care if your mobile phone meets the fashion standard.

146. people ask you if you have polarbears on the streets and you try to spread the myth further by stating it's true.

147. you go to the downtown during a sunday and don't expect to meet a single soul during a 30 minute walk

148. you have a craving for at least 1 litre of Arla milk a day.

149. you can name at least 7 different kinds of jam, and produce 4 of them in your own kitchen.

150. you think you're better at english than you really are.

151. you LOVE to use english quotes and slang.

152. you're not really offended anymore by getting confused with switzerland and nobody can locate sweden on a map.

153. you think its a BIG THING to have a drivers licensce before you're like 22.

154. using fuck, shit and other badwords isn't really that bad for you.

155. you automatically answer "no" when people ask you questions like- " do you have polarbears in sweden? "- " is it legal to smoke pot in sweden? "

156. you think its completley normal to at least have studied one year of german, one year of french and one year of spanish

157. you know that the only parts swedish people get to play in movies is when there is supposed to be a stupid blonde in the scene.

158. you know what a midsommarstang is, and you know every song and dance that comes with it

159. it's perfectly fine to party and get wasted on random week days (especially wednesdays) just for the heck of it. Even if you have work/school the day after..

160. you have a million pictures of yourself, and 90% of those pictures you took yourself.

161. you end every phone call with "puss".

162. you find it unbearable and disturbing that "puss" and "kyss" is only one word in English.

163. you know the phrase "svenskar reser inte till ngt, dom reser fran ngt"

164. you find it weird that people go to church every sunday instead of being the people that find it weird that you DON'T go to church every sunday

165. you call it "mobile phone" and not "cell phone"

166. you always try to defend sweden for not being a part of "nasty" Europe where girls are sluts and there is no drinking age.

167. you don't mind walking instead of taking the car

168. you know almost every other country in the world as well as most capital cities, or has at least studied this for a Geography test.

169. you have at some point in your life had a volvo or a saab as the family car

170. you think it's normal to be drunk every friday and/or saturday all year round.

171. you see a woman with a baby carriage trying to get on the bus you're in so you pretend to be sleeping so you don't have to help her with it.

172. You just love singing "snapsvisor" with any kind of alcohol.

173. you don't find "bananer i pjamas" to be a bit sexual.

174. You know what innebandy is, and you find it quite a cheesy sport.

175. You have, on several occasions, played innebandy. And enjoyed it.

176. Smörgåstårta. Nuff said.

177. You actually know how to pronounce smörgåsbord.

178. You think that any type of dish including fläskfilé och bearnaissås and köttbullar med rödbetssallad (an xmas version!) makes a superb topping on a pizza...

179. You´ve ended several conversations with "japp....så är det det...mmm" followed by an uncomfortable staring at the ground whilst shuffling some snow around wiht your foot… (there´s always snow...it´s sweden for christ sake!)

180. Everytime you see a swedish /brand/ actor/ company/phone /car / furniture store you feel compelled to point that out to your friends (with badly hidden pride in your voice).

181. If you´re from stockhom or gbg you don´t even look twice when you spot 18 year old guys with shirts tucked in to their jeans (which despite being increadibly tight is worn with a gucci/diesel etc. etc. belt) smart jackets, backslick hair & SILK SCARFS shopping for lobster in saluhallen....

182. You find teenage mums shocking and very strange; because you don't know anyone who had a child before 25...and you thought that was young

183. You thought 'Aftonbladet' and 'Expressen' were full of silly news...then you went abroad and found that many papers include nothing but naked women and sex

184. You know they are the same, but you just don't trust ibuprofen and paracetamol the way you trust Ipren and Alvedon

185. You think it's ridiculous to sell milk and yogurt in anything other than Tetrapak...and you wonder why Fil isn't sold abroad

186. You’re always stuck trying to explain what "fil" is...unsuccessfully.

187. Even if you normally hate ABBA, Ace of Base, Roxette etc. you still LOVE it when you're in a club abroad and they play something Swedish. (you'll probably even ask the DJ to play it…)

188. You have to explain the wonder that is "snus" while everyone around you are about to vomit.

189. You understand the phrase "fjortis" and suddenly don’t mind the “chavs” too much anymore.

199. You in desperation think you bought the wrong item because the condoms come in square packages instead of rectangular packages.

200. Lösgodis (pick n’mix) becomes more desirable than cigarettes.

201. You ONLY eat candy on Saturdays.

202. Your parents pay you every month for not eat candy for a year (or so)

203. You have to tell people to take of their bloody shoes when they come into your house.

204 You in pure disgust try to tell your fellow peers that it’s basic human behavior to shower after PE and they look at you like you come from a different planet.

205. You can’t believe that you have to pay for your disgusting school lunch.

206. People say your name in fifty different ways, but no one can get it right.

207. when people ask what your parents are called and you are tempted to say Inga and Sven...because you know there is no way they will understand or be able to pronounce names like åsa, åke eller Örjan

208. Your middle name is also the name of an IKEA shelf (Ivar).

209. All English you ever learnt in Sweden came from American sitcoms.

210. robert aschberg is a household name

211. You KNOW that Harry Potter will NEVER EVER be close to as good a read as Pippi Longstocking

212. You get REALLY annoyed when people outside of Sweden do not know that Pippi Longstocking is Swedish.

213. You just love to 'fika', and know that it is an activity that is meant to last for hours and is not the equivalent of going for a coffee.

214. You don’t get why no other language has a verb for drinking coffee/tea since it is such a very, very important pastime!

214. You don’t consider Starbucks a proper café, since a real cafe is a atmospheric, groovy, cosy place not at all as brightly lit and multi national as Starbucks.

215. You know that a "macka" consist of one slice of bread!

216. You sometimes finish your e-mails to non-Swedes with the letters "Mvh".

217. You instinctively spot 'Swedes' from a distance just based on looks and what they're wearing. (obviously they are anomalies- Norwegians or Finns at a push…)

218. You've been forced to perform the "frog dance" skipping around a palm tree.

219. People refuse to believe you're actually from Sweden because you're not platinum blonde with a Sven-Goran Ericsson accent

220. You think going to the pub for a drink is a waste of time if you're not going to get drunk

221.. You brag about the free healthcare and the free schoolsystem to every non-swede that you have a political conversation with.

222. You consider yourself as Scandinavian, not European.

223. You are happy to say that you can go around Scandinavia with one language, which of course is Swedish, the biggest one. (the Swedes, the Norweigans, the Danes and the (LUCKY) Finns understand it...)

224. You are just as happy to point out that you do not need a passport when travelling to Norway.

225. You have absolutely no idea what is meant by" Swedish massage" that keeps being advertised as a hot item in spas all over the world.

226. You have never ever heard of either “Annas gingerbread” or “Mrs Elswood's cod roe spread - product of Sweden” or “Swedish glace” (it’s free from cholesterol, gluten, all animal ingredients and genetic modification).

227. If you have heard of “Swedich glace”, you know that it is not anywhere close to being as lovely as proper Swedish ice cream.

228. It annoys you that the hot chocolate powder abroad don’t mix with cold milk.

229. You love O’boy to pieces.

230. You're not in Sweden you miss the hotdog stands where you can get a hotdog with shrimp salad when you have been out partying!

231. As like IKEA, H&M feels like home away from home.

232. You are an expert on commenting whats typical swedish...

233. You shove your pants into your socks even when your inside, and there is not snow/rain anywhere in sight.

234. You eat pancakes with jam, not lemon and sugar like the English.

235. You always try to find was of being self-righteous of other's people debauchery but secretely LOVE poppin' bottles, travelling private jets and making tons of money. (a consequence of 'Jantelagen')

236. You end a P.S with a D.S.

237. You find it perfectly normal to dress up like a witch at Easter and find the Easter bunny completely illogical.

238. You celebrate Easter and Christmas a day before most other countries

239. You know that real Easter eggs are not made of chocolate; they're made of paper and filled with pick'n'mix (losgodis)

240. Easter means decorating some twigs in a vase with coloured feathers, eating herring and painted eggs, and of course, dressing up as a witch/over made-up older lady and knocking on random neighbours' doors in hope of getting some candy.

241. You couldn’t care less about the sixth of June and consider celebrating “Midsummer” as being as close to a proper national day as it will ever get.

242. You dress up like a star-boy (stjärngosse) and people think you are from the kkk and a black guy gets mad.

243. You know that gravy is crap compared to the choice of sauces Swedes have.

244. You're abroad you like to ask for "Swedish" coffee at the hotel..

245. And apart from the point mentioned in 244, of course you do also use other quotations from "Sällskapsresan" when going abroad.

246. You believe that GES "När vi gräver guld i USA" is one of the 10 best songs ever written and performed, right up there along with four works by Tomas Ledin and five by Laleh Pourkarim.

247. You buy an ( S ) sticker for your Volvo... while living outside the borders of Sweden

248. You put toilet paper on the seat in a public toilet and double fold it neatly.

249. You see your non-Swedish friends utter display of confusion when you answer 'there is no danger on the roof' in response to their comment of not having any money left on their bus card...

250. Staffan Westerberg (Vilse i Pannkanan, Lillstrumpa och Syster Yster) gives you the creeps.

251. You find it hillarious that Bo G Eriksson is E-Type’s father.

252. You have quoted Elin from Fucking Åmål MANY TIMES when you were a teenager ("Varför måste vi bo i fucking-jävla-kuk-Åmål?", "Jag vill knarka", "Jag ska bli psykolog. Eller... det tror jag i alla fall", "Jag är hellre glad nu än om 25 år", or "Jag ska aldrig mer bli ihop med nån. Jag ska bli celibat")

253. You have been at a club making fun of people dancing even though you know you are at least as bad of a dancer as they are.

254. You feel bad if you're not outside on a sunny day.

255. You think that Robert Gustavsson is the funniest man alive, period.

256. It's not strange that the Prime Minister marries the CEO of "Systembolaget"

257. You want to make love, you want to do it to the sound of Buddy Holly

258. You know that Per Gessle is responsible for more child conceiving than Barry White

259. At cafés, you find it completely normal walking all the way to the counter to order and then carrying it yourself to the table rather than being waitered.

260. You find it completely normal, when going to a pre-party (förfest) everyone has their Systembolaget-kasse in the fridge and notoriously keep track of which liquor is their liquor!

261. You get offended by the fact that not everybody considers braces and a bow tie to be the height of fashion

262. You ask a visitor from back home to to bring you “Langa Fina”-bread, “Kvibille Mellanlagrad Cheddar” and “Herrgardsost”.

263. when you get annoyed by people standing to the left in the escalator.

264. You actually read all of these.

265. YOU WOULD NEVER EVER ADMIT TO ANYTHING ON THIS LIST.

266. (But you realise that everything is so true as well...)

Some links to funny videos

2007-10-31T16:00:00.000+01:00

While bored in the office, waiting for my long week-end starting tonite, I did not have anything better to do that surf on Youtube to distract myself. Here is a compilation of très très distracting videos.

A trainee of the German coastguard has difficulties in English: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8vBn2_ia8zM

English tourist stuck in France:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o7dC2Tng0yg

70 Millions people in Germany can not speak Bavarian…we help (in Bavarian!):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r-82c_wFOvo

A Dutch family that should take English lesson : http://youtube.com/watch?v=3RcrRRlKTUM

The famous and hilarious Un-pimp your ride:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cv157ZIInUk (part 1), http://youtube.com/watch?v=xCIF6JF1O5U (part 2), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I0WfnhVs2s&NR=1 (part 3)

Uh uh yeah. Still from Volkswagen: the Germans aren’t the most relaxed, but who wants a car that falls apart? (in German): http://youtube.com/watch?v=qkqe5prrNeM

The benefits of birth control:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WC02eZeBhw

A classic, the Renault commercial “the safest cars come from France”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_bvEoao2Ps

For those who feel they need to change company:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqhMxFJTEiQ and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1owcncKCHg

Bad morning? :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sFd5Vc_Rlo

Schtudifow what?

2007-10-29T14:14:00.001+01:00

Since i have been here, i kept trying to find ways to meet new people and make friends without a lame "wanna be my friend?". And i got help:on-line communities. Or that s what i thought.

Communities on-line won so much popularity (and not only among the young people) that you can see everywhere new ones, even created by companies that want to ensure their customers loyalty. Communities are a way to link people that have something in common and give them some space on the Web to express themselves but also to meet.

The type of communities i am interested in are student communities like the american "Facebook" or the German "StudiVZ". Both allow you to have a profile, where you present yourself (or what you would like yourself to be) through your tastes, favourite quotes and etc but also your relationship status and what you are looking for (relationship? parties? friends? etc.).

Once your profile is set up, you can look for people you know and ask them "to confirm your friendship", which basically give them an access to your page. You can also of course upload pictures (and link your friends so that people looking at the picture know who is featured and can directly click on their profile).

You can also join groups. Groups are for people sharing the same interest than you, but if you pick StudiVZ, the aim of the group is not really to find people sharing your interests, it is more about adding something to your profile. By that, i mean that under your taste and etc, will appear the list of your group. What everyone does, is to join groups whose title says something about them. For example, i am in groups that are "a life without shoes, is like a life without purses" or "F*ck, i forgot das proper German Wort". I do not actively write messages in my groups or even read them. It just adds a lot to my profile because I am in 55 groups. Most of them have a funny purpose, not a "community" one in the original sense of it.

Another tricky thing on communities is that you do not need to know each other in "real" life to be "friends" on StudiVZ. You can, for example, look for some people in your neighbourhood and ask them to be your friends, if it goes well virtually, you can eventually meet. you can also just look for people that have the same interests, etc. Theoretically, it is a great idea. In reality, you do have dangers with that, which is what i experienced during my search of new people to meet.

First, all the losers that just to want to look like they have friends when they do not, and that add you.

Then you have all the guys adding girls expecting something really specific from their "new friends".

Finally, you shall not forget that if you ae participating actively (with pictures, groups, contact data, etc), you are giving away a lot of information about yourself that you do not want everyone to access e.g. some recruiters look up the groups you are in and put you on the grill during the interview because you joined for fun some group named "I like to drink, I like to smoke, I like to have sex...So WHAT?" or whatever group you thought was funny. And don't forget, you also have freaks there, that could call you and etc.

Of course, you can control who accesses your data. For example, my privacy settings are made to ensure that only people I accepted as my friends, can see my complete profile. the other can only see my name, and it is not even my full name (First name + first letter of my family name).

Well then the thing is that only friends you already have can contact you... see where i am going with that?

Finally, and this is an issue that ALL the people using StudiVZ experienced, the invitation of friendship from someone you know but do not feel like you MUST have this person in your friends. It is always very awkward because you can not really refuse the invitation without creating a mini-social drama, but this person is not your friend and most likely you will not talk to her or him, he/she will not talk to you: you will just be in each others list. How great.

This is why, i say careful. I started using it, thinking it would boost my social life as a new inhabitant of Munich, truth is, it did not. It is great to use it, i really enjoy having my friends on it and exchanging pics, writing on each other "Wall" and etc but i think one should be careful when it comes to your data management and your contact to strangers as well as your expectations because it is not that easy to "make friends" over Internet, not even if your email says so.

Karambolage

2007-10-29T14:03:00.000+01:00

Karambolage is the German word for collision. Carambolage the French one. It is also the name of a TV-program that is broadcasted on Arte every Sunday around 8pm. Arte is the result of a French and German collaboration and it is a greaaaaaat TV-channel. Two little books in French and in German were also made out of the program as well as some DVDs.
So what is it about? Both the TV-Program and the books deal with cultural differences between France
and Germany, particularly about small things, what is really specific to each. Therefore, the name.

It is fun to read (also helpful sometimes) and in my opinion a very fascinating thing to realize that the simplest daily habits, that we just consider as "normal" are actually so culture-related. I am still surprised and every time I come across one of these things, I try to remember it in order to be able to post it here. So far, here are a few things I came across:

- The way the table is settled: fork tips up; it is the other way around in France. A permanent source of discussion with Boyfriend till the agreement: my apartment is like the embassy, it is French territory. Also, when in a restaurant, to signalize you are done eating, you need to put your cutlery on the side, on your plate.

- People here openly read YOUR magazine /book /newspaper while sitting next to you in the metro. Very very rude to my eyes, but really fine here.

- The yellow square representing the "smoking area" at the station is taken literally: people smoking will not put one foot out of this ridiculous square, behaving like it is electrified.
- Your plate will be taken away from you, as soon as you are done with your dish. No, it does not matter if the others aren't done, it is just the way they do.

- The Germans aren't kidding about stopping when the light is red for the pedestrians or having lights on your bike. The same way they aren't kidding about anything we, French vilains people, consider as "suggestions" more than "real" laws. As Stephen Clarke says in his book Talk to the snail: "I am French thus i am right, and i know better what is better for me".

- The "Kirchensteuer", that is to say, the "church taxes". They are taken out of any salary you perceive IF you declared being religious while you did your "anmeldung" (mandatory inscription) in the city. So if you are catholic and want to stop paying it, you need to lie and say you are not catholic (which is a sin of course), so you just pay and complain about it. To me, this tax is really really weird as the whole Republic is based on the separation of State and Church... but while in Rome, do as the Romans do.

- The "Eikocher": in a totally different field, I was stunned to discover that the Germans use a machine to boil eggs. You just can not have eggs if you don’t have the machine. Like using the saucepan and boiling water is not precise enough and is risky (you could break an egg). So they have the whole material, stunning to French me.

- When in a bar or a restaurant, you need to tell the waitress/waiter before paying, how much tipp he or she gets. In France, where we do not like to talk about money, you leave it on the table. Here you have to announce it out loud, so if your meal costs 8,9 Euro and you want to give a bit more than 10%, when you are announced the price to pay, you answer "let s do 10". It is a question of habit.

- The "PfandAutomat": almost every damn bottle that you buy has a refund on it: you pay more than what the product cost, and you get this difference back only if you bring the bottle back to the shop or to the pfand automat. System I got familiarized with in Sweden actually but still very funny. You put the bottle in the machine that will analyse barcode, weight and material and give you your money back or better said a tickets on which the value of all the bottles you left is written. As these "Pfandautomat" are typically found at the next supermarket, you can either get cash, or use the refund to pay your groceries (or a part of it).

- The fact that it is allowed to drink in public e.g. drink a beer in the metro on your way to a club... still weird to me as in France, drinking in public (street, bus, etc) can cost you a night at the police station.

How do you go back to Teenland?

2007-10-25T15:05:00.000+02:00

I accidentally landed on a teen-blog today... That happens. The welcome music of her blog (of course that was a her) was "Don t want you back"...yeah the song from the Backstreet Boys.

What she was writing was just sooooo boring i got jealous. I don't pretend that what i write is interesting and I am aware that not only totally crucial information for the planet is featured here; but i felt like i wanted to come back to this blessed age of 14 when all the problems you have are:

1/ skin problems
2/ "mom and dad don t want to buy me a scooter" problems...a**holes.
3/ Explaining to your mother what is stylish. Yeah Mom, black nailpolish is very beautiful. Yeah, even if i have some all over my fingers.
4/ does Mathieu know how to french kiss?
5/ saving enough money to buy some secret make-up. Make-up that of course you don't know how to put on properly, and you re mother is not gonna miss the opportunity to mention it...”I hate her”!
6/Jen and Marc just broke up again, because Jen kissed Alex who was dating Marie... So in the end, Marc is free again...
7/ "This Math teacher is such an a**hole" problems.
8/ Making your mom accept that you slept over to your best -female!!!- friend place
9/ Oh my god i had a beer at a bday party. yeah i am so cool.
10/ trying to smoke a cigarette behind a tree.

So a lot of “I am misunderstood”. that s basically a teenager life... must feel good not to have any real things to deal with, only grown ups being a**holes because smart.

...when the decisions you take are so not important, you can 't really mess it up, ...when it does not really hurt to break up (well of course you cry a lot, but a day later it is over because you are soooo in love with some random guy you don't know, possibly older than you and way cooler than all those a**holes in your class that are so immature, etc)... ...when you can listen to Boyzone, Backstreet Boys or others because it really touches you (now I’m way to sarcastic) ...when you can go home and just be bitchy with your parents whereas they do all they can for you (when you re a grown up you can do that too but then you have this annoying guilt feeling ...),
...when you still have all your illusions about the world and think that the nice people always win, that it is being honest you ll make it, etc (though i m still 14 for that)
...when it is fun to play "telephone secret" to find out who is your secret admirer
...when you come back from school and just stay watching TV until your mum call you to set up the table
...when you consider that going to bed at midnight is late ...when some movies are still forbidden for you
Well too late for me. I m over aged, I m allowed to buy cigarettes, alcohol, i have my driving license and if I take a stupid decision I will be the one that has to pay for it. I live in a new era where Britney lost hair and virginity. Welcome in grown up world...Happily I can listen to Take That to remind me of the good old times.

The art of surviving public transports

2007-10-25T14:58:00.003+02:00

I am officially now a city-girl because first of all I am living in a place where Gucci and Dior do have their shops (and are not just retailed in big general stores) and second because there is the metro running here. Civilization!

The metro is called U-bahn (like Underground) and is managed by Munich public transportation company: the great MVG . For those who know Munich, I am living in Giesing (south East) and used to work in Garching (nooooooooooooorth) which mean I had the immense pleasure to experience the mv-g services two hours minimum per day. In case I would actually try to do something for my social life (it happens) then it reached the amount of three hours minimum a day. Happily I like to read.

The metro here is pretty much safe, clean and easy to use. I do not think that the bavarian people are aware of how great is the ubahn here... for public transport.

When I compare to all the cities where I had to use the underground… Munich is definitely awesome. Let’s take Paris example, where it is probably the worst place in whole Europe to take the metro. Nonetheless is it complicated, it has no rolling stairs, it is taking hours and very expensive BUT it has also this power to suck out of you any joy or any positive thought. A bit like the Dementors in Harry Potter for those who know. It is ugly, dirty, and full of creepy people. When you are a girl you thank god any time you go out of there without having being touched by strangers’ hands and / or verbally aggressed. Yeah, so much for the City of Love. Prague has like three lines, it is full of pickpockets and i am sorry but it mostly stinks...

I know it is not the most challenging topic ever but taking the underground is a big part of my life, because when you consider things objectively: I take the u-bahn more than i go shopping. Shocking, isn't it?

In the morning, I am très working girl cliché:heels, suit, ipod and coffee to -go. Plus a book, and of course i am trying to do all that in the same time: adding sugar to my coffee without spilling it / breaking the top, turning pages and changing playlists. My neighbours always look at me like i am a mobile danger and i can not really blame them. I would not seat next to me either.

I have to admit even if Munich metro is great, it is still the metro, with all that it implies; you add to that the fact that in the morning i am generally not such a awake or friendly person... Of course, i really enjoy being packed with 3000people in the same metro wagon but sometimes ... people won't get that no one can physically get in anymore. They manage not to see that your face is pressed against the glass, tongue out, giving it this "i just crashed from the 23rd floor" kinda style.

Anyway, i am mostly pissed off in the morning, particularly when i take the metro at 7:45. It is an assumption, but it would probably get better if i did not have to have my nose right under the arm of a sweaty person; all that before 8 and before my first liter of coffee. Just an assumption.

I was way more friendly in the beginning. Little "provinciale", all excited about the metro and still with the education of a rather small town. In the first three weeks, i used to say "hello" to the people i sat next too. they looked at me as a freak, half scared half stunned and probably praying that i am not gonna try to start a conversation. Probably wondered where my Aldi bags where and why i looked clean. After the first month i totally gave up and saw that, no, i would not be the one, bringing some new politeness to the Munich inhabitants.

so now that i have it all worked out, I know that, even if munich metro is great, it is also really really a challgening place if you want to keep cool and be relaxed. so how do you survive in this hostile jungle, will you ask me.

well i used to pick a cute guy in the wagon, and smile at him. the game used to keep me busy for a while and relaxed me. Plus it forced me to smile and think positive. I don t do it anymore, not only because of Boyfriend, but also because you have some real creeps in the u-bahn, and i got really harassed. I decided flirting with strangers is theoretically hot, but not in real life.

Now i have another strategy in case of really full wagon, or really bad day so that it makes the ubahn drive bearable: i call it the bubble. The people around me are not here, i am creating in my head my whole world. In this case my ipod becomes my bestfriend. So does my mean look that clear say "just leave me alone; don t walk on my feet, don t ask me where to go, don t talk to me; LEAVE ME ALONE".

As a matter of fact, the face of most of the people, most of the time in the Ubahn, I am lead to assume they have the same strategy, and that there were a lot of bad days for them.

in case of normal day, the important thing is to simply have something to distract you. That way, you won t see the guy in front of you pick his nose or you will not obsess about the screaming baby, a whole new ubahn open his doors to you if you have something to do. I recommend magazines rather than newspapers because folding and unfolding your Sueddeutsche Zeitung in the Ubahn at 7:48 is not something you can achieve without hurting or getting hurt.

you have the traditionnal mp3 player, as it is Munich, and as you want to look cool, it is most likely an ipod. You can have music, audio-books or the very great podcasts. These are broadcasted over internet. you pick the ones you want and then your Itunes will download them automatically, including any new update. You can choose any topic you like: at the moment i have two to learn German, one about french news and one about Munich and the events taking place.

In case of good days, you may just sit there and smile at the people or even just look at them, and most likely, this will make you wish you had a magazine.

Finally, with time, you get all the tricks to not let "the other people" bother you (as Sartre said l'enfer, c'est les autres) and tricks to keep your mind busy in order to let it ignore all these annoying things that are happening in front of your eyes sometimes.

You might, with time, even learn to buy the right ticket for the right destination without spending too much money (Have fun) and in the end, learn to master the strategies of front /back wagon and right/left side, as well as how not to be walked on.

When you will, it won t mean you are safe, but it will mean you may survive the city jungle without getting a nervous break down.

The Art of denying your own vertigo and go rock-climbing

2007-10-17T11:58:00.000+02:00

Everyone who read my blog lately knows that I have been lately switching from shopping saturdays afternoons to sporty ones. And it is all Boyfriend's fault.

Last misdeed from Boyfriend: inviting me to go rock-climbing. Indoors but still rock climbing. As everyone knows love makes you will-less and so of course i said yes (AGAIN). I put myself in a very strong denial state where i kept repeating to myself that i do not have vertigo anymore and decided that it could be fun to hang with a rope, 10 meters above the ground. I kind of thought i was lying to myself but Boyfriend being cute as ever, i just went there without a word and with a smile stick to my face.

Also, it is to say that Boyfriend has showed me recently that sport can actually be really fun, even for me, so if i got to like the hiking and the running, i thought i do not have anything to loose giving a shot to rock-climbing. Plus it was definitely gonna look cool.

It is cool but it is also kind of expensive to go indoor rock-climbing. It costs 14.50 euros in the DAV Halle where we have been (if you are a member of the mountain association called DAV, you pay 11 something). And you need to sign a paper saying you will not hold these people responsible if something happens to you. I had a hard time signing this. Seriously.

Then, to be able to rock-climb, you need a lot of equipment: you need ropes, a belt, some carabiners, special shoes, chalk, etc. Very specific equipment (and you don't want to have the cheapest one).

Now that i think of it, it is actually one of the best thing with sport: you need to do a lot of shopping, preferably expensive, and this I can. Of course, as we did not know wether or not i would like climbing (my heart secretely thinking "no" would be a winner), we did not buy the equipment for me, we borrowed it.

The guys had all the ropes and carabiners stuffs, so i just needed a belt and shoes, which i had to rent from the DAV. That was another 7 extra euros.

After that we left to get changed and put our very professional equipment on. When i met the guys in the corridor, i was almost crying: "my shoes are tooooooooo small". I was told that the my-toes-are-crushed-in-the-damn-shoes-feeling was normal. It is on purpose. So they told me to stop whining, take the shoes off and only put them once i am about to climb. Why would you on purpose hurt your feet like that? The answer is to get a better grip there. If your feet are smaller, it is better. Of course.

The next step is to learn how to secure your friend, the one who is climbing. Indeed, one can not climb alone, there must be someone down there, at the end of the rope, making sure that if you slip, you are not gonna crash on the ground and explode your skull. Yes, it is a sweet sport.

So you need a full preparation: you start with knotting the rope in a very particular way (make an 8 and then make the other side follow it in a parallell manner) in the carabiner hanging to the belt of the "securer" or whatever you call the person staying down there. the other part of the rope goes in your own belt, again with a special way (because it can not be easy). Then you need to get someone else to double check all this for you.

Once someone starts climbing, the rope should never be loose, and at NO POINT you should let it go (cuz you could kill your friend and we do not want that to happen, do we?).

After the teaching on how to knot and verify, my guys taught me how to descent and we rehearsed it. Several times. You need to let your hands go, your legs are stretched straight in front of you and you kind of pretend that you are sitting. Your feet touch the wall and then you have to bounce while the person securing you will give some loose to the rope in a very regular way. Looks easy, really.

So once you are all set, you can start actually rock climbing. you have different kind of walls, with different levels of difficulties, heights, or material (and colors, not that it matters).

We started with a nine meters high wall, and that was much for me and my vertigo (that i was still denying). So the game is to hang where you can and try to go higher by finding grips wherever possible, stretching legs and arms like a spider.

You are supposed to base your ascent on the force in your legs, which no one told me so i gave all i had... in the arms. Not smart. When i got totally up the wall, i could not feel my arms anymore . Other problem i had to face was that, once i was 9 meters above from the ground, i looked down. Big big Mistake. The denied vertigo just hit my face to tell me "haha i am crashing your party".

I started screaming (loudly) and sticking to the wall, holding to the hand grips with all the strength i had left...again, it was not much. The guys down (down down) there, were screaming i should let my hands go, like when we did the descent rehearsal. Except i was nine meters above the ground, not one meter anymore, i was almost hysterical, unfortunately really aware of the fact that letting the hands go meant trust for my life the guy down there to hold on to the rope. Which is fine on a theoretical level, but not on a 9m- situation.

After a lot of screaming, panicking, holding and fast breathing, my arms could simply not take it anymore, and I had to let go. I want to mention the patience of my nice friends who did not even make fun of me when they could (should?) have. I finally got silent and put my hands on the rope which i found way more securing than having my hands in the air, even though in the end, it did not change a thing for my security level.

When I got down there, I recomposed my self-confident face and told Boyfriend: "did you see that, i went all up. from the first shot". And as Boyfriend is a good person, he did not mention the screaming and kissed me saying how proud of me he was. That was all worth it.

In total, we stayed something like 3 hours "netto" climbing. We ended our adventure (ok, my adventure) in the bouldering section where you rock climb on walls that are n0t higher than 2 meters. But you climb without rope. The ground is covered with mattresses and it is the perfect place to play the monkey, head down, feet up. And crash on the ground, without the annoying skull breaking thing. It was also very fun, even though I did not have much strength left to put in the exercice, and quickly ended up lying on the mattress, watching my friends play the monkeys (and who better than guys can do that?).

My poor little arms, not used to that much exercise, suffered. The next day, it felt like having a permanent cramp, on both arms, and it forced Boyfriend to do everything for me, even butter my toast, carry my things or simply open each door.

The worst thing of all is that the next day I was on Decathlon website, checking out rock-climbing equipment.

I live in Bavaria, it’s near to Germany

2007-10-10T15:05:00.000+02:00

Whenever I meet a German in Munich, who is not originally from Bavaria, I always tell this joke : “oh, it s good to have another foreigner here”. They always laugh, because all the Germans perfectly know that nonetheless is Bavaria a very special Land (state) but it also secretly (or not) does not consider it really belongs to Germany. In the way that it is better than Germany; a little bit like the French and the European Union.

And I guess it is why I love Bavaria so much. I admire its will of singularity, its strength to protect its tradition and its culture and to stick to the fact that it has a right to difference, even though it means being hated by the rest of Germany. Feels like home, without the baguette. Why is Bavaria that special? You will ask. First of all, Bavaria’s constitution offers a Bavarian citizenship. Even if this citizenship is more cultural and symbolic than political, it is the only Bundesland in Germany that has one. Moreover to the Bavarians themselves, it is a very powerful symbol. You are officially Bavarian if you are born in Bavaria, born to a Bavarian parent, adopted by a Bavarian as a child, married to a Bavarian, or naturalized in Bavaria (source: Wikipedia). Of course, that is the citizenship, but in the hearts, you are not really Bavarian if you just got married or moved there. You would then belong to the "Zuagroaste" ("those who have traveled here"). I do, it is ok, and they still talk to me and give me beer.

Bavarians will let you know that they are “real” Bavarians, even if you did not ask. As opposed to my previous post on the impossibility for Germans to be proud to be Germans, the Bavarians are highly proud to belong to their beloved Free State, and I love them for that.

The common image of a traditional German person that comes to any foreigner minds will probably be blonds people, at the Oktoberfest, drinking beer, most likely wearing “tracht” (traditional outfit) a dirndl for the girls and Leather pants for the boys… that’s the Bavarian traditional outfit. Just like in your mind the French people wear a black beret, a baguette under the arm and a white and blue striped t-shirt. So when we think of Germany, we actually think of Bavaria. Why? Because none of the other Länder has assumed and exported its cultural specs as much as they did. We know only the Bavarian Folklore, and take it for the national one.

Typical example: for the opening of the World Championship (soccer, what else?), the traditional Bavarian outfit was picked to represent Germany and made the rest of Germany angry. Truth is it is tough to think of anything else. Germany being a federation with a very chaotic history, it is tough to find a “German” identity. So what do we remember? The ones out of the Germans that show their identity. Ironically enough, the Bavarians don’t want to BE Germany. They cherish their independence and their differences. They are Bavarians (way) before being Germans. In the Bavarian mentality, it is like the federal Germany is more something that was created for the other States, because they were too weak on their own. And Bavaria had to join but would still be fine on its own. The “Free State of Bavaria” is already a pretty clear name.

In practice, they are not trying to leave the Federation of Germany (except for some weirdoes) but they like everyone to know that they are different, and with different they mean better.

It goes through having a special organization for most of things: The Red Cross has a branch in Bavaria, and one for the rest of Germany. Same thing with the political party CDU and CSU: The Bavarians ARE NOT like any German. They are special. And they are proud to be. Plus their own government has ensured and developed this love and respect for their Land.
One that did a lot for Bavaria and its singularity is Edmund Stoiber, Bavarian ex Minister-President. He led the state from 1993 to 2007 (until 30th of September) and was also chairman of the (Bavarian) party CSU. As mentioned earlier, the CSU and CDU, even though they are allied, are not the same. Stoiber was leader of the party, leader of the State. He stayed in power for almost an eternity and announced last January that he would leave at the end of his mandate (a week or so ago), and he did.

Even if Bavarian are naturally a strong people and disregarding one political points of view (Stoiber was very criticized in the end), there is no doubt that the man did a lot for Bavaria and strongly influenced the will of the people to defend their culture and assume their identity in a stronger way. Moreover, like Franz Josef Strauß, Stoiber belonged to this category of politicians that Bavaria loves for being strong characters and of course, Bavarians. He is also one of the rare German politicians that are known abroad.

His party, the CSU has been ruling in Bavaria for more than 40 years, without really sharing the power, which it is not that common. My (humble) opinion on this is that, as opposed to the SPD, that has one party for the whole federation, the existence of a separate one for Bavaria is the only way to ensure an understanding of the people…and their support. The co-existence in Bavaria of Modern and Tradition is a very unique thing in my eyes, and thus needs to be handled as unique. This is what the CSU represents to the Free State.

There are a lot of reasons why Bavaria is special. As I said, I strongly believe it is the only federal state that managed to preserve its cultural specificities in such a strong and assumed way. Tradition does not mean obsolete here, tradition is even modern and desirable. Which Länder can pretend to do better at defending its own culture when everyone here, including teenagers (the toughest group), owns a “tracht”; when all the natives master the difficult bavarian dialect. When none of them would dare to eat “weisswurst” after 12 (I got yelled at and insulted by a waiter when asking for some in the afternoon); when its only pride you can see in one's eyes mentioning their origins. The Bavarians have a lot of reasons to be proud of their state (of course, I am not implying that the others states don’t). They even have some good reasons to think they are living in the best state: the education system is acknowledged as being the best one , the rate of unemployment is the lowest in the whole country, its capital, Munich, is the first city in which the Germans would like to live, etc. How could you not be proud and satisfied to live here?

The Non existing German Pride

2007-10-09T13:56:00.001+02:00

One of the most shocking german thing for the French girl I am, has always been the Germans’ lack of pride to be German (you thought I d say the Currywurst, did not you?).

I have noticed this fact for quite a long time but its most striking sign was the non-party that did not happen on the 3rd of October, National day. The third of October is the official day of the German Reunification that took place in 1990, when Eastern and Western Germany (re)became one same country.

Well you could think that the Germans would be happy to be one country again, and everything and so that this very day would be a very emotional and happy day. You could think that, if you are not German. When you spent the 3rd of October here, you give all its meaning to the word “emotionlos”. No emotion. No party. No smile. No people dressed in the colors of their country. No pride. No patriotism.

Take France (random example), the national day is on the 14th of July. Of course no one has to work, we dress in blue white and red, go to fireworks, that are followed by a bal and of course we sing our national anthem, with all the air there is in our lungs. I was really excited to be there for the national day, and was confused by the fact that I did not remember last year… So I asked eagerly my friends: how do we party here????

The answer was quick and painless as they say here: “we don’t”. Yes, I was offended, yes I asked over and over, repeated “but it can’t be”, etc. The thing is that: NO ONE CARES. The shock over, I googled the history, talked to people in order to understand why in the name of God a whole country would consider its own national day with so much indifference and would not do anything apart from a couple of flags on official buildings.

The first answer is that most of the Germans are not that happy about the country being “one again”. The western Germans complain about the “Soli”, the (pretty high) solidarity tax that each of them has to pay (as a matter of fact, I do pay this one too). The tax was supposed to be there for only a couple of years and well, 17 years after the reunification, it is still there. The Eastern Germans are not happier about the “Wierdervereiningung”. They mostly consider life was nicer BEFORE and that they benefited from a lot of advantages that are gone by now e.g the number of places for kids in day nurseries. Plus a lot of them lost their jobs due to the reunification, easy to understand why they are not that keen on celebrating.

The second reason is that the chosen day is not really something thaaaaaat moving or full of emotions. The 3rd of October of the year 1990 is not what burnt the German (or non German) minds. What really moved the Germans and the international community was the fall of The Wall in 1989, the 9th November to be exact. So why was not this day chose as the official day? Like the fall of the Bastille was chosen for France. The Batille event was not actually that much of an actual step in the Revolution, but it was the first time the people of France joined their forces and broke the monarchy order. So don’t people need an emotional event rather than an official one to be able to commemorate and celebrate it? Yes they do.
But there is a little problem: the 9th of November happens to be also the day when the Nazis destroyed a lot of Synagogues and murdered a lot of Jews in 1938. Therefore was not it chosen to be the German National day.

Actually, some people are still advocating for the 9th of November, they consider that the event of 1938 and of 1989 being joined in one official day would allow the Germans to celebrate their nationality without forgetting the past, which I think is a very interesting theory. Plus it would this time on a cultural and emotional level, strengthen the link between West and East, link that is so far really weak when not inexistent.

The third “explanation” is a general lack of pride to be German. The international community has been blaming Germany and Germans for decades and well they were, yes, responsible for the two world wars and the holocaust.

Now, let me tell you, they ARE aware of it. More than 60 years later, old and new generations are still ashame of this, it is still not possible to make jokes about the war (even when you re French, I tried). Neo-nazis are considered with the greatest disdain and the weight of Germany s fault is heavy on the Germans’ shoulders.

No German can dare to say he is proud to come from Germany without people understanding he is a Nazi. The remembrance duty is more than fulfilled, trust me. Having a German flag was a problem until the World Championship in 2006. Last year. The national anthem has been reduced to only its third strophe in order not to offend anyone or to be associated to the Nazis (that used its two first strophes).

Germans also practice on a regular basis some tough auto-flagellation: about the language that “is so ugly”, about the Germans themselves “that are all grumpy, unfriendly and lazy”, about everything they can blame themselves for. They constantly apologize to me “for being so German”, etc. As a typical example, the funniest thing happened to me was last week-end when I told a German girl that I really loved her hair and that she really looked German: She felt offended.

Anytime someone tells me I look so French, I am glowing with pride. I told her she looked German, and I of course meant it as a compliment, and she got offended. This fear to be strongly related to a country itself so related to drama and war, is still 60 years later as strong as ever, without people realizing it.

To remember does not mean to remember only the bad and the dark. I am sincerely looking forward to the day where being German does not mean feel overguilty and ashamed. I hope for the Germans they will find a way to combine their national pride and the duty to remember (and to prevent from happening again) what is more than a stain in their history.

I wish to the Germans to (re) learn that national pride and patriotism are natural things, they are also crucial to hold a country altogether. Associating yourself to your culture is more than something nice, it is also essential to make you aware of your own individuality and identity. I am me and I am as French as possible. I carry with me, my culture, my language, my country, its wars, its mistakes, its artists, its acts of bravery and of cowardice. I carry its ideas, its changes, its failures and its successes. It all belongs to me and makes me also who I am. I would not be willing to give that up just one second. I really wish to the Germans not to deprive themselves from it any longer. After all, Germany is a great country.

The art of finding a job (in Germany)

2007-09-09T21:19:00.000+02:00

After having being really busy staying home finding a new job, and shamelessly using some stuffs already written to post, i just decided to get back on my blog now that i have everything more or less settled.

Here is the story of how, me arrogant little french girl, thought i d found a job in a foreign country in less than two weeks.

As i recently officially graduated from my expensive business school (yes, congratulations to me) and in the same time, finished my great internship in the great bavarian car company, it was time for me to find a job and enter the grown-up world.

I have to say that applying in Germany is a very strict process, even more complicated that the one in France. First of all, you need a "Bewerbungsmappe" which means an "Application Folder" in which you neatly expose your whole life.

The first page is supposed to have your picture in HUGE in the middle as well as your contact data, and the list of the documents that you so well organized in your BM. You can find very different BM that you buy like any other office stuffs. Each of them cost between 2,50 and 6 euros. Theoretically, a company refusing you is supposed to send you back all your documents, which is a good thing considering their cost.

The picture MUST be a professional picture, you are wearing a shirt or a suit, your head is supposed to be slightly on the side, you re smiling but nt showing too much teeth either (cuz you want to look serious) and trust me, the Germans aren't kidding. They ll just trash your expensive BM if it isn't professionnal picture (it costs between 60 and 150 euros). Or if it is scratched. or if the color isn't right (as a random example, pink is not to consider). or if for any reasons they have the feeling that something is wrong with it.

Second, comes your resumé. The German résumé is très très "minimalist". They just include the crucial information and it certainly should not be more that two pages, yes even if your life is interesting. One page being perfect. Germans make it by writing simply the period of employment, the name of the company and the title of the position. It is not relevant to know what people actually did. But the funny thing is that some people add in their personnal data the profession of their parents or their elementary school. Don't ask me.

Then comes the "attachments" part, this is the fun one. You need a document to justify each things written on your resumé (which in the end, is not one document but like 15 to 20): internships reports, degrees, certificate in languages, certificate for the association you did, etc). The head of the association department at my school thought i had hit my head badly when i asked her to write in an official document all the associations i had been part of. And don't underestimate it, if they can't find the ONE document you are missing, they ll be asking you about it and stay suspiscious until the end of your interview.

All ready and set up (after six weeks gathering the right documents and taking the right picture), i started officially looking for a job prepared my BMs carefully and stored them in a place protected from water, fire or anything that could just harm the precious documents. As i am really silly and overrating myself, i though it would be an easy thing to do to find a job. I speak four languages, i have experiences abroad and an excellent internship report, and i graduated from a really good business school, i mean, a lot of people out there must need me. Plus i had it all prepared the German way. I thought it d take me two weeks max. Right.

Well actually not that many companies need urgently someone able to order a Latte in Swedish. Really too bad cuz it the best i can do in this language. So naive me decided to apply on the websites of big, famous and rich company, but wait, i had expectations: good salary, cool products, interesting tasks and of course, in Munich, cuz nonetheless are most of my friends there but i also developped a very interesting relationship with Sporty Guy who is now also very officially named Boyfriend. First of all the websites applications all take forever because you can't just upload your perfect resumé and your head-slighty-on-the-side picture: no! you need to re-enter your resume in some specific field, that vary from one company to another and that often lack the stuffs you want to put in e.g your spec field, your (french) school, etc. It takes a good hour for each. I almost threw my computer through the window when after entering all the information, the last step of the company recruiting thing was to upload your résumé. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY? Last problem with this kind of thing is that very often, there are very few jobs on-line, most of the time because the real people working in the real company don't even the use the websites for recruiting. How great.

Then i thought that "recruiting agencies" might be helpful. I did realize pretty quickly that yes, even if they write "Recruiting" most of the time (like 99,99%) you should therefore understand "Temporary Work" agency, but i thought even there i could give it a shot. I mostly wanted to have money to be able to stay in Munich, so why not? Well here is the why not: no matter what you have written on your résumés each damn interview is going to be for an "assistant" position, that is to say secretariat job. They first talk to you about "this greaaaaaat job offer they receive" that "would be sooooo perfect for you", they describe it, you think "well sounds good" and then they casually drop "position already filled BUT " and then comes the speech where they explain to you that until they receive another offer like that, maybe you could apply for secretary jobs. With a two weeks contract. So when you say "sorry, blabla, have 2 masters, blabla, not interested in being a secretary, blablabla" they will ask you how you re gonna pay your rent now that you are unemployed (it is because they care about you). Very sweet.

After this step, i started getting seriously depressed which lead me to call my Mummy every day to ask her to cheer me up. Indeed and as everyone knows, Mummies don't get bored to cheer up their beloved daughters whereas friends might after a while. and actually as baby as it is, Mummies do know how to cheer up, even if there are far and can't prepare a hot chocolate for you [plus i got the hot chocolate part covered by Boyfriend].

So after a lot of useless interviews, i started making a list of companies i would love to work for (most of them in the luxury good industry or/and fashion industry). Plus to help my imagination, i bought a great book called "Jobs in München" where they list all the big companies that would eventually recruit and present them, with included the contact data of the Human ressources department. The strategy to send spontaneous applications is one with very few chances to go anywhere. if they don't have an advertised position, there are most likely not gonna hire someone because she/he looks nice on the picture. On the other hand, in case they would have a non-advertised position that would fit with your profile, it gives you a shot to get an interview. Very few cases though.

After that, i decided to attend fairs and events and give my resume around, like i went to the huge Logistics fair in Munich, gave a million BMs, to a job fair for the students of Munich, etc. The good thing about this strategy is that you get a good overview of what each company offers, their expectations, you get a personnal contact and more easily an interview afterwards. You also learn to eliminate company that look good on paper but do not fit your expectations. So do they. the disadvantage is that you do not get fast answer, it takes them about one to two months to give a feedback. On the other hand, i got a lot of commercial presents (e.g i have two new great dark blue Kühne und Nagel towels, as well as USB sticks, flashing balls, diverses pens)

and some new books all made to help me find a job. Plus of course at least 30Kg of brochures that Boyfriend carried in his backpack for me and that are now hidden somewhere betweon my desk or under my bed.

Finally the most boring and the most useful way is to simply apply for advertised position (yes you have to actually look for the job yourself AND put efforts in getting it, that s a tough life). So i spent hours of my day looking for position that would fit my profile on Monster, Jobscout24, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung or any job search engines /Newspapers. It takes forever, it is mostly boring, and cherry on the cake, you have to learn to decode what it ACTUALLY means (like "Junior Sales Manager" is most likely going to be you in an Audi 3 trying to convince new customers to buy stuffs they dont want and don't need 13hours a day).

Once you found the perfect offer (though after a while your standard isn't going to be "perfect" but more "ok") you need to write your applications. For this too i bought a book. So you obviously need to have a very personnalized application letter (IN GERMAN), and you need to be really convincing that you are perfect for the job. I know it sounds obvious but trust me, it took me a while to write appropriate application letters, and even longer to write great ones. It is a très subtile mélange between making the best of your internships BUT not lying. try it, it is fun. Then of course, when you are french and that your German is not perfect (yet), you need to convince one of your friends to correct it, once more, so you have a list of which people could do that with how many letters each of them already corrected. and then you just have to begg and cry on the phone how depressed you are and how thankful you d be, and yes you swear it is the last time, this time. No no, for real, the last time.

After you survived all that and that your friends did as well, it start getting better: people start calling you for phone- interviews, real interviews or assessment centers. It takes another while before you get used to that, master your shaking voice and don't stare blank at some questions that were not in the book "how to manage a job interview". I figured after a while i d just be really honnest and skip the craps like "What s your biggest default! - Well sometimes when people don't work fast enough i get very impatient" OR the great "Sometimes i am way too involved in my work". And after a while, you know what to expect and you know what you want, you can even say it without sounding either damn arrogant or dam terrified. So you just make it to be yourself, and explain why you WOULD be really great for the job.

It pretty much worked because the people liked me and now i have a GREAT job to be looking forward to. Yes after 7 weeks of searching, not 2, but still, it is not that bad.

My conclusion on the job research is "god it is so exhausting" and "it is good when it stops". but if you thought i could rest now and enjoy life before starting a new job, you re wrong. I need to find an appartment...

You know you're German if...

2007-09-03T19:09:00.000+02:00

A little thing (not from me) that i thought was funny and fit pretty much :- )

You know you're German if...

You separate your trash into more than five different bins.
Your front door has a sign with your family name made from salt dough.
You carry a "4You" backpack.
You eat a cold dinner at 6pm.
You call your cell phone "handy" and a projector "beamer".
You have no problems with nude beaches and saunas.
You have asked your Asian-American friend, "No, but where are you *really* from?"
You have gotten splinters from environmentally friendly toiled paper.
You call an afternoon stroll "Nordic Walking".
You are shocked when you have to pay for dental care.
You own a pair of jeans in a color other than blue.
People start talking about Hitler and Hofbräuhaus when you tell them where you're from.
Tenth grade was all about dancing lessons.
You work 40 hour weeks and have 6 weeks of vacation a year, but complain about hard times.
Your childhood diet consisted of Alete and Zwieback. Your college diet consisted of Miracoli and Döner.
You were educated about sex by Dr. Sommer.
You yell at people for jaywalking.
You grew up watching "Löwenzahn" and "Die Sendung mit der Maus". And Baywatch.
You think college tuition is an outrage.
You routinely go 100mph on the highway and tailgate heavily.
On your last day of high school you made your teachers sing Karaoke and jump through hoops.
You wear brown leather shoes.
Your first audio tape was Benjamin Blümchen and Bibi Blocksberg.
You have ended an English sentence with "..., or?".
You can tell at least one Manta joke.
You're a college student in your 11th year.
Your first sexual experience was on Sat1, Saturday night at 11pm.
You spent hours in school learning to pronounce "th".
You expect chocolate in your shoes on December 6th.
You complain that in other countries everything is dirty.

My song :-)

2007-06-07T22:34:00.000+02:00

Aurélie
by Wir Sind Helden
album: Die Reklamation (2003)

Aurélies Akzent ist ohne Frage sehr charmant
Auch wenn sie schweigt wird sie als wunderbar erkannt
Sie brauch mit Reizen nicht zu geizen
Denn ihr Haar ist Meer und Weizen
Noch mit Glatze fräß ihr jeder aus der Hand

Doch Aurélie kapiert das nie
Jeden Abend fragt sie sich
Wann nur verliebt sich wer in mich

Aurélie so klappt das nie
Du erwartest viel zu viel
Die Deutschen flirten sehr subtil
Aurélie so klappt das nie
Du erwartest viel zu viel
Die Deutschen flirten sehr subtil

Aurélie die Männer mögen dich hier sehr
Schau auf der Straße schaut dir jeder hinterher
Doch du merkst nichts weil sie nicht pfeiffen
Und pfeiffst du selbst die Flucht ergreifen
Du musst wissen hier ist weniger oft mehr

Ach Aurelie in Deutschland braucht die Liebe Zeit
Hier ist man nach Tagen erst zum ersten Schritt bereit
Die nächsten Wochen wird gesprochen
Sich auf's Gründlichste berochen
Und erst dann trifft man sich irgendwo zu zweit

Aurélie so klappt das nie
Du erwartest viel zu viel
Die Deutschen flirten sehr subtil

Aurelie so einfach ist das eben nicht
Hier haben andre Worte ein ganz anderes Gewicht
All die Jungs zu deinen Füßen wolln sie küssen auch die Süssen
Aber du merkst das nicht
Weil er dabei von Fussball spricht

Ach Aurelie du sagst ich solle dir erklärn
Wie in aller Welt sich die Deutschen dann vermehren
Wenn die Blumen und die Bienen in Berlin nichts tun als grienen
Und sich nen Teufel um die Bestäubungsfrage schern

Aurélie so klappt das nie
Du erwartest viel zu viel
Die Deutschen flirten sehr subtil

How i started hiking

2007-05-27T13:01:00.000+02:00

The good thing when you meet new people is that if you are lucky, they will bring you something new that you may like. And when you meet a really hot and sporty guy, you are most likely gonna find a new interest in sport. I did.

If you wanna do sport properly and impress the hot and sporty guy, you need the equipment, and so…well you need to go shopping (here you go, it is still me). This is how I ended up shopping in a sport shop (usually I don’t even enter if it is not sales on pink surf quicksilver t-shirt) and most of all I ended up spending 260 euros in sport equipment, which is something like …well ten times what I usually spend in a year for sport equipment. I DON’T do sport. Or at least did not.

The guy in question loves hiking. My last hiking experience was when I was a kid and that my cruel parents would force me and my sister to go hiking in the mountain instead of letting us tann on a beach. Yeah mean mean parents! But the guy is hot and he said he would really love if I would join once. I am weak and I said yes, thinking well I ll go there, try it and then say that it is too hard for my ankles (I have weak ankles said the doctor) and he would leave me alone with the whole “mountain crap” as I secretely called it. Don’t give me some patronizing speech about honnesty being the foundation of a relationship…I KNOW.

Anyway he found the perfect week-end, sunny weather and he invited me to come with his friends in a hut to spend the night and the next day go hiking. I could not say no. I also knew that the friends are really sporty too and if I knew I would look stupid hiking and sweating I could not afford to have a stupid look. Thus, I went shopping for hiking pants.

And here I was in this sport shop with all the equipment for mad people that spend week-ends sweating and hurting themselves…
First remark: all the clothes are in the same color: it supposed to be green but I like to call it the “goose poo”-color. Anyway, I was really wondering what the hell I was supposed to do because I really did not want to wear any of these things – denying my girlie identity- when a miracle happened: I found pink hiking pants. How cool, I KNOW! Of course they are not pale pink, rather a dark kind of pink. And they officially belong to hiking pants so I can not get any comments. Muahahahahaha.
So they costed something like 80 euros (hiking pants ARE freaking expensive) but at least I could wear them without mentally thinking “if I were not the one wearing them, I d call the fashion police”. And by the way the goose poo ones cost the same price if not more expensive.
I was thinking of getting a t-shirt printed with big letters saying “I don’t belong here” but then I decided that pink pants to go hiking with sport addicts was a statement strong enough about my identity. Plus I have a pink cooler bag. Let’s not overdo it.

When I told Hot Guy I bought pants, his face lightened up, I guess it is because he liked that I was getting interested in sport or something… like it was a good thing for the relationship. Well good I bought them then. His face brutally changed when I said I bought pink pants. Poor him, I think he did know they are other colors than “green” for hiking pants. In his world the goose poo style rules but they don’t call it like that. Of course not.

Smart me, I waited that he got over it for showing the pic nic bag, explained the all picnic plan and then …He totally broke my heart with a “honey, we re not gonna do a picnic, we re gonna do a “brotzeit””. Right. Same thing or? Well no. For info “Brotzeit” means “bread time” and it s not like a picnic (he explained), it is basically bread with cheese and if you re lucky ham. So you don’t take the cute blanket to sit on, the cute paper plates… You must basically skip eveything that is cute and concentrate on what sporty people call “essentials”. Right. I must have looked so sad that we give up the picnic (cuz I have the whole equipment for that) that he said I could still take my baby carrots and my cherries tomatoes. I did not even know it was a question but apparently the rule is to take as less as possible cuz then he needs to carry it (and “so what?” is no appropriate answer).

Then I informed myself: went through a catalogue (I am good at catalogues “informing”) and got a special explanation from a friend about what “gore tex” is. No it is not a halloween costume, it is a special technology they use in hiking shoes (and just look it up on wikipedia if you don’t know what that is). So now i have a pair of 160 euros hiking shoes, with Gore Tex. and not goose poo coloured. They are kind of light beige, which is really the best i could find (how sad). All the guys in the shop started laughing when i said: "ok i ll take those, what other colors do you have?". They are no other colors, and they seem to think it is good. i could have objected, but i am realistic enough to realize that i would just be...for nothing.

Anyway, we drove there to this hut thing. It has a name like Steinhute or something but I called it (secretely) the-hut-with-all-these-dead-bugs-on-the-bed. For any reasons. So it was made of wood and I am not gonna go in details about the toilets “system” but the point is that despite all that, despite the fact that I am a girlie girl that like her comfort ; I must say it looked really really cute. We had a very nice evening cooking, having a fire and drinking wine. So I actually enjoyed it, ME, even though they were no shower either and that they were living and dead bugs, but no spray to destroy them. I survived and enjoyed.

Next day we woke up pretty later and I appreciated taking my time…and then they said we are gonna go to the farm to pick up milk. The day before I had thought “how cute, a farm”. Yet, it was the next day without having any coffee. I figured I should better not complain and just go and get the milk to put in my coffee cuz I do have manners somewhat.

So we all went there and I mean it was not far but not next door either. well yes next door but far far far next door cuz it is the mountains. So of course you can imagine when we got there, the smell was strong…well there are A LOT of cows there …so generally speaking I am a sissy but cows are still not that bad. They are not dangerous so I basically can deal with them. It is “generally”, which means when I already have had coffee… I am a smart girl despite my girlie girl aspect and I decided not to communicate the information “this smell, yurk, I am about to throw up” to any of my friends. I bravely kept it for myself and then saw kittens outside,, screamed “oh kittens! Sooooo cute” and went there”to play with the lovely baby cats”. And it happens that it took me far from the cows, what a coincidence!

Then, once we had the milk, it was perfect. We had a looooooong breakfast on the terrrace. I liked the mountains, sitting on the terrace driking coffee and eating nutella-ed bread. Of course the resting part did not last, we did go in the mountains hiking but the breakfast was awesome.
We packed and started walking. I delibaretly did not take any watch with me, and anyway they said it is a three hours walk. Excep that they meant “three hours to go up” and all the people that go hiking know you refer only on the one way timing. I unfortunately did not belong to this group of people –yet!
We walked all up there and that was sooooo exhausting that I had to stop regularly just to make my heart calm down but the people I was with did not rush me and honnetly it was awesome. They have this saying “the real goal is the way”. It is true, it is beautiful and totally ceizing you. Breathtaking in all meanings of the word.
Finally after three hours sweating we made it up up up up there (as you can see it was really up) and that looked sooooooooo awesome (as awesome as up), really beautiful. I took million pictures – which showed how new I was - plus we took a real break and had a “Brotzeit” including baby carrots.

Then I thought we re gonna stay on this nice path where you can actually walk side by side, or just maybe on your two feet but no. Naïve me! It would have been too easy obviously., we took a short cut. I let you imagine what kind of shortcut that was.... I deliberately had not tell Sporty guy that I have vertigo cuz I thought he s gonna think I am a sissy (he does not have to know about it yet, I thought).
We got to the point were he realized himself: that is to say me back against the rock, not moving and sobbing a “I can t move anymore, I am so scared”. Of course he rescued me, which made me happy to have vertigo in the end.
Then to go down we had to jump in bushes when the steepness was sooo hard. we had these soft bushes and they were no choice than simply bounce (that was actually much fun, a bit like walking on clouds or something). Very much fun.

Finally we got “home”, I had mud and scratches everywhere (the pants are safe though),I was totally exhausted and evertime I would put a feet down i was crying mentally… but as surprising as it is, I loved it. I said yes to doing it next week-end, not only to impress sporty guy cuz I can say, there is no way I am gonna impress himin the mountains, but because it was fun.

The sight is as I said really amazing, but also the feeling you have when you go home, totally exhausted, is a great one. You did something at least and when you go to bed, you just sleep like a baby. I guess it is why so many people in Germany go in the mountains hiking on the week-end (Bergewandern). i am not even talking about the Austrians... ;-) It is a super popular activity so it is not only good for my relationship but also good for my integration.

Now I have to say, the next monday everyone at work kidded me because I could not walk without looking like one of those silvered guys on the side of the Seine pretending they are robots. It is ok though…

The art of ...Messing with me

2007-04-02T18:27:00.000+02:00

Something has been happening over the last few months that i am trying to understand: i am touchy/very touchy/supertouchy about what i like to call the "french craps" topic.

So the name may not be totally clear: i mean by that all the craps i hear all day long, everyday about the French people.
I have been hearing everything and nothing and sometimes i am not sure if i should laugh or cry, most of the time i laugh.

so i am gonna avoid the "most stupid thing ever said about the French people" contest (just for info the french perfumes are so famous because the french dont shower so they learned how to hide it...) and i will go straight to the (my) point: how hard is it for someone to understand that when he/she meets a foreigner, the first thing he / she SHOULD NOT do is to repeat stupidly all the prejudices ever said and heard? how hard is it to think that maybe i don't want to hear anyone insulting my culture? obviously pretty hard.

Regarding the fact that i am an educated grown up, and alsoo that i am used to it, i should of course, be mature and really give a damn on that. I should laugh at those people or simply put them back to their place by asking how many times and how long they have been in France. Maybe i should explain that it is not enough to conclude, because once he/she met this french guy that threw his chewing-gum in the street, that the French people live in chewy streets. sure i could.

that is actually what i used to do. Now, i reach the two-years abroad (and by this i mean out of my sweet beautiful France) and i don't laugh that easily. I am over reacting everytime.

The biggest "problem" i have is the french girls reputation... what i call "the french girls crap". Main image of the french girls: they are wild -and the statement under this is that they are actually easy. Like my best friend would say, they just grab a guy, do very dirty things, smoke an after-sex cigarette and go home. Of course SHE is joking cuz she can THINK.

It is, sadly enough, not everyones case and i must say that if the hot french girl image is not really what someone could call a problem - yes life could be worse than people thinking i am hot - i DO have a problem when it comes to a certain extreme, and yes even among educated people, this image remains.

The time before the last time someone did that (are you following there?), i thought "next time is gonna be bloody" and actually it was not. By mistake -big big big BIG mistake- i went for a coffee with a friend of a friend. That was a guy and i was absolutely not interested in more than a coffee with him, made it clear from the beginning,etc. But obviously he was not intersted in my smartness, which i should have known. After something like 10 minutes of conversations he was asking me if i ever had something with a girl. Stupid me, I am thinking that he must be kidding. I make a joke and switched topic. Ten minutes later he says: "come on i know you re a naughty naughty girl. ". Oh you do????? I should have said "you damn pig" and just leave but I thought i d take the opportunity to get revenge for all the assholes that told me those things before.

I (of course) won't write on a public space what i explained to him, but i gave him some pretty naughty stories...exactly what would fit in our reputation and oh, surprisingly he asked for the bill and let me alone. He probably hated the fact to be seen only in a sexual dimension, or that he understood he does not matter further than that. What a surprise! I enjoyed making him feel comfortable; i enjoyed the look on his face and when he left i thought with satisfaction "i am never ever gonna hear from you, thank god".

That was also the first time that I transformed anger in a "wheapon". And trust me I have been feeling really angry lately. Giving it a lot of thoughts, i understood that if i am getting so angry at those people (and by angry i mean out of my mind) it is because i miss France, i miss it badly. So of course it is not the fault of the stupid people gang that i am abroad, it is my own decision and i stick to it. Still, my country, my culture is a stronger part of my identity. It is actually the first thing that defines me here when i am introduced to someone. At home, i was X's friend, a Business student, Y's daughter or the head of Z association. Here, i am the french girl. it would not be honnest from me to pretend that it is onyl negative sides, of course not.

it gives me a little special thing that i would not have at home of course. and please please please don t get this post wrong cuz i love the Germans and i love living here but today is my "coup de gueule" against narrow minded people (and perverted minds).

The Germans -and despite a tense history between our countries - do like the French, and actually have a pretty positive image of our culture. the positive image is just to a certain extent not that positive anymore in my eyes.

I have of course people around (most of them) that are understanding and know that i try myself to adapt. they represent most of the population but i tend to undervalue this-yes i am wrong- when someone stupid tell me those craps AGAIN. So it is not that i am immature, it is medical, i have been allergic to dumb people since i am a kid...

Eventhough my friends dont get completely why i overeact and think i should be more relax, they cheer me up by eating anything i cook -there was no ig snails challenge so far. On my side; I decided that i am gonna work on expressing it a different way and that i have to think it positive. Arent you proud of me guys?

Munich forever...

2007-03-05T10:42:00.001+01:00

That is it, I am joining the group of the Forever interns: I extendend my intership again *hihi*. So I am officially here until end of June, plus I am actively looking for a job, and this time, I mean the actively. There s nothing I want more than that and when people were asking me until when I am staying I hate it to say “until March”. I don’t want to stay until December, I want to live here!!!!
I have been here for eight months now and I am still in love with the Bavarian Capital. So, current mission for the little frenchie: Manage to coordinate busy social life, busy professional life, writing Internship report for school and finding a job. Won t be that easy but i ll do all it takes and I always get what I want. That s my mum who is happy…

It was very easy for me to take the decision to stay, and I had been thinking of it for a while but it was hard to get it accepted by my family and friends... "Don t you wanna go home???”; well try to explain them that home is Munich. they all look at me with those big eyes like "don t you miss us?".
Ok let s not panick right now, I do think straight; I can reach the door in like what…10 seconds. Running and hiding is always a very smart strategy. The best option: I sigh (sighing helps people to understand that it is hard for you) and I say “sure i do miss you” and here comes the “but” they don’t want to hear. There are actually a couple of buts, though the only acceptable to communicate to a loving family would be “but I have greater professional opportunities”.

Try to tell your mum you actually do appreciate that she can’t just drop by and analyze since when you haven’t done your dishes… Drop by accident a “I don’t even eat home” and congratulations, you just won an hour of comments on how bad it is for your health to eat out with all the stuffs they put in the food to make it taste better and all this oil they use and she just read this book that said that people eating out blablabla (can’t hear anymore).

Making fun of my mum is not nice cuz I love her. The truth is that I may have been running away from home a bit those last months… not really something I am proud of but what I am proud of is that now, I want to stay for good reasons which do not imply a three-week flirt, neither escaping any family situation nor feeling cool to be abroad. So we did improve here, right?

In the end, well, I told them, I can not help it. The world city with a heart got mine...and god knows how stubborn I am when it comes to falling in love; -) My boss also offered to help me out which I think is awesome. I have real plans and real goals.

Most of all, the killer argument: they saw me here. And guess what, I am really integrated, which is the other thing I am so proud of.

I am totally fine here. I know my way around, know the cool places to go, I am out almost every night because I met way too many people here that I like and I have way too much things I want to do. I read german books, magazine, and understand them cuz I totally improved my German. I am part of the German Facebook, I meet people on my own with who I only exchange in German, I drink beer and I even have a resume in German. And I know it is called a Lebenslauf. I get mad when people criticize Germany, I am not scared anymore of going to the movies, I know what one can do and one can not do. I think I understand most of the cultural differences and I also appreciate them. I am still getting packages shipped from France with food in there but I am kind of getting used to the Germans cuisine. I am still a “Kitchen Napoleon” (new nickname, it is a bit mean but…well can t really deny it) but I do not yell anymore, I smile (yelling inside).

I have plans to improve: I will work on understanding German humor, which is honestly something very special (so far I do not think it is funny, but …gonna change), I will work on my slang (cuz I recently asked my colleagues what Vögeln means, and believe me, I should not have). I will work on my grammar and will stop thinking that it does not matter if it is genitive or subject.
I have secret wheapons: As I understood I will probably never lose this French accent of mine, I will go on whispering in guys ear “’ast du noch eine Flasche von die Bier die so schön ‘at geprickelt in meine Bauchnabel” cuz it drives them crazy and I will thus remain their favourite Frenchie.

50 things that make me smile

2007-01-20T20:14:00.000+01:00

Fresh made coffee in the morning

Putting ALL my clothes on my bed and sorting them

Arriving exhausted at work because I talked too long on skype the night before

Receiving hand written cards

Eating on my own one of the foie gras I brought back from France after a shitty day at work

Hearing my good morning playlist

Any movie with Jude Law

Thinking of the face my mom would have if she knew what I currently have in my fridge (a bottle of vodka, 1 tomato and frozen pizzas)

Thinking “merde, I spent way too much money on shopping today!” and looking at my bags

Giving presents

See my best friend’s face when I make a dirty joke

Getting “gruscheln” on studiVZ

Someone telling me my german improved

Ordering a “screaming orgasm” cocktail (Kahlua, Baileys and cream)

A guy with grupchen

Watching the movie “how to lose a guy in ten days”

Living in Germany

When people ask me how come I talk to my best friend three hours on the phone when see her everyday

The book “Begdorf Blondes”

Having a martini and eating grapes

Achieving something at work

The joke “how to drive a Belgian guy crazy? put him in a round room and tell him there s a fry in the corner”

Jewels and particularly diamonds

Honnest compliments

Talking to my family (most of the time!)

The song “mon coeur mon amour” from Anaïs

Thinking of the guy i like

Getting ready for going out

The article “ich will mich integrieren verdammt nocht mal“ (and the Shibboleth one is really good too)

French people talking to me in German

Waking up at 7am on a Saturday morning knowing that I can sleep 4 more hours

Making it to cross everything out of my daily to-do list

The german word “Nickerchen” (nap)

Planning the trips for this year (Ösnabruck, Hamburg, Vienna, …Canada?)

Most of Oscar Wilde’s quotes

Singing “Viva Bavaria” at the Oktoberfest because I know the lyrics

Buying make-up and beauty products I do not need

The british accent

Realizing that my sister is a grown-up

All the things that make me smile but that I can not write on a public space

Hot guys in hot suits

My cat

The fact that my best friend feed me with chocolate from the moment I say I am on a diet

Looking at my shoes

Looking at my hats

People correcting the way I am pronouncing a french word e.g. croissant, Perrier,and so on

My Dad asking me if I NEED more money

Looking at my pictures from Sweden

Knowing what I want

Getting what I want

And what makes YOU smile?

Cooking in Germany

2007-01-09T22:09:00.000+01:00

Well this is gonna be a post that will (almost) be mean with my beloved hosts, the Germans: I am gonna compare the (different) point of views French people and German people have on cooking and eating. I will not be objective for the following reasons:
1. I am french
2. I am french
3. I am très french

Now that has been said, we can get started (and do not get mad at me, I still love Germany…).

Sooooooo….how do I get started again? Oh yes. FOOOOOOOOD.

I am just freaking out here, cuz it looks to me they don’t know how to eat…and by this I did not mean the Germans can not cook, they can. I did not mean they do not have good dishes, they do (some).

No, what they do not know is how to enjoy it. They eat to ….feed themselves. As an example here it is ok to have ketchup with everything. Or tomato sauce on a pork sausage with 100g of Curry powder. It is ok to have water in your orange juice, in your beer or in your wine (just thinking of it, I am shaking). And baguette, by the way, is NOT supposed to taste like that.

Cooking and eating are, for French people more than feeding yourself for survival. Those are moments to share, communicate and exchange. It is super important for each of your social interactions, would it be in your family, your boss, your friends or your bf/gf.
Cooking together makes people get closer (and that s a well known flirting trick) and eating together is supposed to be relaxing and sharing (and I am a 100% serious). Yeah yeah this is why we take so long to eat, because eating is one of the life greatest pleasure (the second one on the french scale) and thus you shall not rush it.

So now that you have been briefed on how eating/cooking is a key to social relations in France, let me introduce you to the world of alimentarian barbarie I found here and you ll understand my pain (and yes of course i ll be exagerating to make my point).

Cook for your friends, they will eat separately, preferably watching TV or checking emails, and if it is in paper plates it is fine too. If they can, they re gonna throw an unwillingly mean comment like “do you mind if I add 250 g mayonnaise in there?”. Don’t shout back “ your white stuff is F***ing NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT mayonnaise you d**b a*s”. It really makes the atmosphere colder for the dinner, even with the Tv on.

It would almost make you forget the drinking trauma: A little bit of Beer with Lime aroma to finish killing the taste of the dish you just spent two hours preparing.

where did i put those stupid valiums???

And this is when you are lucky enough to make them TRY IT cuz see, most of the Germans are also scared of anything that is not pork or potatoes. Ok I am being mean, but you know, deep inside your heart, that I am not that exagerating.

Once in a life trauma: I bought Rabbit at Dallmayr (let me tell you that was really expensive for a freaking rabbit) and we cooked something really good. Failure of the dinner cuz it is “not possible to eat something that cute”. Can I answer that without having you being mad at me?
1. It is already dead
2. right cuz Eating beef, pork and fish is way nicer (not to mention no one cares for the poor baby shrimps hü!)

To summarize it, in six months, I had a hard time promoting some of the best french dishes or drinks, not because they were not tasty but because of how / with what they were made: foie gras, cognac, goat cheese, camembert, rabbit,…do I need to mention it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a German eat snails? You tell me, it is better for me cuz I get more but any time i am organizing a dinner, i get a headache.

The point is that I would not mind anyone that d tell me “sorry I don t like it”, but in France, one of the rudest thing to do is to refuse trying. Don’t worry for my friends, most of the time, I do not scream, I just breathe in and out really slowly. I am boiling, screaming inside but no need hitting your friends, right?

For all the Germans friends I have, that are gonna take that personally (it kind of is of course) and that will think I am being mean to them, I would like to say: I tried curry Wurst, I tried Sweet mustard, I tried Obazda, I tried Pork stuffs that are unpronouncable, I tried basically any weird thing that was introduced to me and I even tried biscuits with cinnamon (when I already knew I hate cinammon).

Why? To try it, to be polite, and because I thought, “never know, might be tasty”. Guess what, among those things, some were actually tasty, even obazda, wich look like someone just threw up in a bowl. I am asking you guys for a bit of open-mindness and for the favour to remember that your crazy french friend does care about it.

and also because pharmacies actually don't give away valiums without prescription.

So as I am not really mad and that I actually still enjoy cooking for my german friends (It is a challenge and as you know, impossible n’est pas Frenchie), I have prepared the ten commandments for your next dinner with me:

You shall try everything you are offered.
You shall not think that “Normal” water is sparkling water with strawberry taste
You shall not say: “it is bad” , rather “I do not like it”.
You shall know that it is socially acceptable to start drinking at noon.
You shall not think that boiling pasta and adding a premade sauce is cooking. Neither is anything involving a micro- wave. Yes, even if you add yourself pepper to the premade sauce.
You shall drink only (pure) water, (pure) wine or (pure) champane while eating. Fruits juice, Schorle or Coke are NOT acceptable.
You shall not bitch about the French. It is not about cooking, it is just my general rule.
You shall not complain that I am serving the salad with the cheese.
You shall enjoy your time. It is not only about what you are eating or drinking, but with who you are eating.
You shall kiss the cook ;-)

Happy new year everyone / Frohes neues Jahr / Bonne année

2007-01-05T20:41:00.000+01:00

So yeah christmas is over, and what did i learn from Christmas time in Germany?

- The Germans are Christmas-addicted. not as much as the Swedes but still...
- Christmas markets are not for Peruvian art, unlikely to my home country where all you can get on those few and shitty Christmas markets are purple lamp cover and whool-hats that make people wonder where the hell is your lama and/or your taste.
- "Gluhwein rolls baby": this is the main interest of any Christkindlmarkt, the Gluhwein stand. Preferably you drink it with an extra dosis of alcohol, this stops you from feeling the cold and wondering why you followed your crazy German friends to this place where you can only drink too sweet hot wine, STANDING.
- If you don't know the lyrics of "Last Christmas" by heart, you have not been out for a while
- Present wrapping is as important as the present itself. that s too bad.
- You get presents for your friends. I did not know that, and i had a couple of embarassing moments where i received presents without having one for the person... In France, we mostly get presents for the family... I ll know that for next year.
- You eat Chocolate: of course we do that too, but it is way more fun here :-) YUMMIE.

So what about Sylvester? Here Sylvester = fireworks + Dinner for one + melting Iron + alcohol

- In each garden, each family has its own show with fireworks. It is very surprising for a french girl, cuz we really don't do that but here it is a must, and it is actually fun. Except when you are in charge of keeping a shy Labrador.
- When it comes to Dinner for One (a short movie), it is apparently the tradition to watch it on Sylvester. that was my first time, and this too was funny.
- Finally, i did not quite get the iron melting, that is supposed to tell you something about the year to come... but i did it. I melted the iron and threw it in the cold water, the result looked like a whale and as there was no "whale", we decided on "fish" (i know whales are not fishes but come on). My message for this year is: "a bath would be nice". Thanks.
- as regards to the Alcohol, i was already quite used to this tradition ;-) We have that too in France. And i even had the chance to be with people that had bought real Champagne. it is quite easy to make me happy.

May 2007 be great for all of you ...for all of us ;-)

Driving home for Christmaaaaaas

2006-12-27T23:21:00.000+01:00

In my case that was flying. Waking up: 3h30. Awesome. I was not tired at all. I was supposed to go to bed at 8pm... At ten i was still bouncing in my room on Pink last album (part of my working out program).

I am already not a morning person usually but waking up that early knowing that i am gonna have a full day of travelling-during-christmas-time-you-idiot-stress did not help putting a smile on my face. And the 4€ disgusting Latte Machiato did not either.

Queuing 40 minutes to check in my suitcase was tough. At least i made it to respect the under 20kg rule...very cruel on my opinion but it is not like Air France care about what i think.

When i (finally) sat down in the plane i had to seat next to this HUUUUUGE guy taking all the space he could from MY personnal space. Breathe in, Breathe out.

You are going home You are going home You are going home You are going home.

Then the thought of my family during last Christmas popped into my mind. Alright. Breathe in, Breathe out.

It is only a week, It is only a week, It is only a week, It is only a week.

Put a smile on your face. Try harder. Here we go. Oops, i think i just scared a kid. Hey... Someone started talking to me. A french girl. Talking in German. Oh noooo, bad luck, i have the wrong seat and i have ti seat next to this hot guy. Well, i guess i can do that... All relieved i move to the right seat... which turned out to be not that a good decision.

This guy looked like if he was about to strangle this poor 8-years old kid in front of us. Ok the kid is not exactly quiet, but still. you only have two choices in case of Kids turbulences:

1. Breathing in and out, slowly, until you calm down

2. Freaking out, and looking like a monster because you hate a kid.

He picked 2, Bad choice. He grabbed the kid hands and whispered a "now calm or i ll be mean". Bad luck, the hostess heard it. Yeah yeah try to explain to the others that YOU are not the monster, and that this kid is the Antechrist. Never works. NEVER!

i thought ok, i have an unfriendly neighbour, but i can handle that. Obviously he was also a christmas-hater. Maybe he was going back to his family too...? So lost in my thought trying to answer "how comes one can be so unfriendly without saying much", the hostess brought the breakfast. This is the good thing with air France, they always bring you some food. I got croissant and coffe. And milk.

Pause. So at this moment, i had no reasons to be scared to die from anything else than a plane crash. Because it is the main death cause in a plane. Right.

Play. i open the milk, and can you picture me, almost never clumsy... I spilled some on my neighbour s jacket. I could have screamed "nooooooooo" and jumped on him in slow motion to protect him, instead i stayed paralyzed in my seat, one thought in my mind "Merde, Merde, Merde. Think straight, in God s name think straight".

I grabbed a tissue and took off the milk from the leather jacket. In the end there were no harm. For the jacket. i cleaned up fast so i tried a shy sorry and then, i took the wrong decision. I tried to be friendly and (kind of) funny and dropped a "i heard milk is good for leather". Wrong decision but it is too late. The guy looked at me in astonishment, and let me know he did not look too friendly when astonished... He dropped a " so you are also very stupid?". wow. Dont be that kind, i am gonna get spoiled. I smiled and said " no. i am just clumsy but at least my mom gave me an education and i did not become a rude person". no need to say we did not exchange numbers.

apart from that, the most entertaining event of the flight was this little girl who, when offered a Bretzel for Breakfast, started shouting "noooooooooooooooooo i do not want a Bretzel, Bretzel suuuuuuuuck, i want a croissaaaaaaaaaant!", until she got one. Well done girl, show them what s breakfast!

Galliano's Vogue

2006-12-24T16:28:00.000+01:00

Vogue, THE fashion magazine always has a special edition for the December / January magazine. This year, they did even better than any other year and it is Galliano who was put in charge... after the first moment of excitation, i put myself together and went to buy it.

i would strongly advise you to do the same: you won't regret it!

The Art of Writing a Club- Hit

2006-12-22T21:07:00.001+01:00

You are young and beautiful, and you want to be a star. Or you just want to be a star. You can do it! You probably do not have much talent (no offense) so the easiest strategy would be to produce a club hit.

First, understanding your purpose. Yeah you want to make money and get famous but to achieve this you need to be able to make people not only dance, but also make them…(let s be nice) full of desire for a partner. And I am not really talking about love.

So you start with the “melody”. The beat has to be intense loud, and most of all it should be an explicit bang bang. When it comes to the music itself, it should be catching and repetitive to get your audience set up for dancing in the first ten seconds. You know you achieved it when your song is played and that the group of Barbies in the back scream with delight “yuuuhu”, clapping hands and running to the dancefloor. The guys with shapeless pants should be raising up and putting down their arms, they DO think it is dancing.

Writing the lyrics. It is the tough part. It takes a real talent, happily it is no problem at all to have almost the same lyrics than all the others, because they make money (and you do not change a winning team, right?).

So you have to “talk” about a club cuz this is where you are gonna be played and people do not REALLY need creativity. The plot should be how you are gonna get laid in the end. What am I saying? Sorry…how you are gonna find love… Never underestimate your audience ;-).

If you are a girl you have to explain ho you “and your girls” are so hot and so gorgeous and so well dancing (yuhhuuuu they are playing the Black Eyed Peas, clap hands clap hands). But your eyes are staring at THE guy. And oh, he is dancing alone and you, of course you can’t stop moving your hips, no you can not help it blabla. Easy going. A bit of whispering is always good. Ultimately, when you want to have an outrageous success you can also moan a bit in the background, in case anyone would have missed the message.

If you are a guy, you first have to find a singing partner. Preferably a black guy with a lot of muscles and a really deep and hot voice. He is not reaaaaaaally gonna sing, he d rather repeat (with his deep and hot voice) what you just sing. Alright. “Move your hips girl” is a good gimmick. Alternatively you can use Ladies/ babes or put a sexy as an adjective in front of any word you could choose to use to refer to the sexy-women-babes in the room-club-disco.

Your plot is how you get ALL the ladies. For example, with conversations and Hennessy. Well this one is taken but it is easy to find another brand).
And yeah, it is ok if you are ugly, this is why you give the girls-suga-sexy-babes some alcohol (take something strong though).

Back to the lyrics, I would suggest to use very sophisticated metaphores. For example, inspire yourself of Eminem, his poetic “I get more ass than a toilet seat” is a killer.

Any case: Advice your audience ho to behave, because they do not know. They are poor young single people stuck in a smoky club, they are at least half drunk and they are desperate to find a bit of lovin. So easy message there too:The girls have to shake their booties, their hips and whatever else they have and the guys have to pay them drinks.

Now that the people know what to do, and in case that would not work from their first time using your super tips, you have to repeat your message through a video broadcasted every 15 minutes on MTV and in Macdonalds. I mean, do not feel bad about it, it is exactly like educating people.

So…your teaching video. Do I need to mention the hot chicks shaking booties in hot pants and bikinis? Not really right? It has to follow the “plot”. It happens in the disco and it has to teach people how to shake, rub and make out. Sorry I meant dance – do not know what s wrong with me today, I keep on miss-typing.

Do not forget to maintain your dirty image by having videos of you having wild sex circulating or by getting arrested for destroying a club while having an orgie. It always increases the sales.

That should be it. You should become soon a famous star adored by the whole youth and making tons of money. Next time I scream yuhu and clap my hands in my mini-skirt in a club, I hope it is because of you.

This post is dedicated to the very very very hot dark-haired stranger in the Rakete (Nürnberg) that liked my "pair of socks" and whose number i should definitely have asked.

What and who are you blogging for?

2006-12-20T14:11:00.000+01:00

It is been now 10 months I am having this blog and that I am writing craps in here on a regular basis. or at least i try to make it regular.

I have been also reading a bunch of blogs, more or less regularly and it became obvious to me that people expect different things from their blog.

The common basis is this narcissic thought that someone would be interested in what you write (hidden there: you are yourself interesting). I am not gonna lie: I do have this thought too. Otherwise I would just be writing a secret diary: “Dear Diary, today the guys from Team Europe were mean again to me…” (nur ein Witz guys).

No, the thing is that consciously or not, and I would tend to say consciously, we all think that what we write is interesting. What does make the difference though is for who do we think it is interesting and thus, who do we write for?

I am not having secret ambitions to publish later on my blog as a book cuz my life is not as interesting as Belle de Jour’s. I do not even pretend that it is interesting for expatriates either cuz then I should write more about the German culture and less about shopping. No I think some people are doing good enough in that, and I do not need to produce a pale copy of pre- existing blogs because some do it really well. I just do not feel like I would bring anything relevant, and keep it secret but not EVERYTHING I say is interesting.

I am not trying to increase my traffic, do not really care how may pages hits this week or whatever, and I am not willing either to make out of his blog a fancy website with interactive things and complete strangers giving their opinion on my opinion. So I would say I am writing mostly for my friends and also for whoever end up there by accident. Of course my ego do appreciate comments from strangers, even more flattering as I think the strangers mean it and do not try to please me like my best friends could do (And by the way, you all know guys that my ego is big enough ;-) ). My blog is also a way to keep in touch and just show them what s up in my life, or that I did not change lol. That would be the official version, the one that I can say outloud.

When it comes to unofficial statements, well I have to say I don’t know. If I were really writing only for my friends, I guess I would send emails (or mass emails). So there must be something else that pushes me to write in public what I did and how I feel. As I said, ego is a part of it too and I would not even dare denying it.

Though I know that most of the times, when I write something, I do not plan it. I just suddenly feel like writing about something that I have in the mind and just go for it. I have an unbelievable number of “articles” that are and will remain unpublished (too sensitive, too daring, too boring, too whatever I feel). I have this one about me falling in love in the metro twice a week, this one about what I think of the bible’s view on sex and women, this one about THE guy and a bunch of others articles which quality and content are highly variable.

I do not publish them but I wrote them thinking I would. I think blogging is a way to express yourself and to take out feelings out of your heart and body, write them noir sur blanc and deal with them. It also allows to deal with them in a more neutral way than talking to a friend because your way of telling is always, would you wish it or not, biased by the person in front of you and what you know about him/her. Writing for unknown people, or at least not a pre-defined person does change the writing and consequently, the thinking.

Any human being needs to express itself, which does not mean looking for recognition or fame but purely and simply talking out loud. It does not really matter if there is someone to listen. The world wide web gives this chance to those that do not have the talent to be novelist, poets or musicians. I find it très très cool.

21st Century boy

2006-12-19T15:00:00.000+01:00

yeaaaaaaaah Mr Germany was elected and i have to say, he looks very... hum... SMART ;-)

His name his Dennis, he is 26, and well, as i say, if he was in my bed i would not sleep in the bathtube. we got there a very nice eye candy. of course they are gonna try to make us believe he is single, cuz it is exactly like a miss, it does not sell that well when it is taken. that s ok, we can just have a look at him and admire his whole...smartness.

i am kind of offended though as i was not part of the jury, but next year for sure i dedicate myself to the German nation and i spend days checking out guys :-) ... for Germany.

More info (and a pic!!!!): http://www.stern.de/lifestyle/leute/:Mr.-Germany-Der-Sch%F6nste-Berlin/578752.html

Could i spend 18 billions?

2006-12-15T12:50:00.000+01:00

My shopaholic abilities have been challenged by two colleagues that say i could not spend 18 billions. Sure I could.

The founder of Red Bull, Dietrich Mateschitz, is leading an empire of 18 billions and he does not know what to do with this money (poor him), so he bought himself a mountain. I think it is a kind of depressing purchase because I would not know what do with a mountain.
He also bought a lot of different sport teams…of course I could do with really hot guys in shorts but I think it does not give you the right to make them strip on your birthday, right? So a bit pointless.

My challenge would be: could I make it to spend it all? Knowing that if you invest the money only at a 3% rate (so rather secure one) you would just get for DOING NOTHING 5,400,000 euros. That s a lot of zeros but they do make a difference…funnily. So just to keep you money the same as from the beginning of the year, you would need to spend 1,479,452 euros a day. So you HAVE TO spend one and a half million a day just not to get richer. Life could be worse I guess.

Now here comes the challenge: could I spend all that per day, could I even get less rich than what I was in the beginning and maybe even spend it all? I am not saying that if I had 18 billions I would try to spend it all because my dad would again “inform me of his strong disapproval on (my) money management” and there is no point spending that much money anyway but for the beauty of the challenge, I would consider it and honestly: I can.

We have been talking about it over and over, there a re a bunch of things I could spend my money on, and honestly thinking of all those shopping opportunities is a delight. Try this and you ll be in a good mood for the whole week.

The art of Grocery shopping in Germany

2006-11-26T21:47:00.000+01:00

Someone that never had to live abroad can not understand how confusing it is to go grocery shopping in a foreign country. Everything is just different. First of all, it is not written in your own language,and yes, it IS disturbing. You can end up with orange sirup when you tried to buy orange juice, and though you realize it from the very first sip, I think it stays a high price to pay to learn the word syrup.

Second of all, the eating / shopping habits are totally different and this is also a problem (what is the EU doing about that, I am wondering!!!). Take the random example of a french girl living in Munich looking for a supermarket. The only two possibilities offered are a mini grocery store that is expensive, with a very limited offer OR a really weird grocery store (where they do not even refrigerate cheese or ham). Grocery shopping becomes very annoying, does not really give you the will to cook and consequently you eat out all the time and of course only very healthy things like this BigMac Menu thing.

All of that why? Because there are no supermarkets in Germany. Well they are, but they are not at a feasible walking distance from this french girl’s appartment we talked about… so they are none to me. They were none until today. My roomate noticed that if there were no dishes it is not because I do them but because I did not eat home at all. She decided to help me out and to show me where the real supermarkets are.

First we had to take our bikes…yeah I do have a bike, I mostly do not use it but it looks really cute because it is pink and I can see it from my window and say outloud to myself “this week-end I could go on a bike tour”. Of course I never do but it is good to know that IF I wanted to go on a bike tour, I could.

Anyway, we took the bikes and went to this very nice supermarket to go grocery shopping. I had also taken with me my huge backpack because it looks really cool and I thought I may fill half of it today but only with healthy things of course.

So the first section I started with was the chips section. It is almost impossible to find in Germany appetizers or salty biscuits that do not include paprika taste. It is like you are in a different universe where the only taste possible is Paprika. Of course you have different paprika: really spicy, not too spicy, red, etc. though, it is and remains paprika and I am wondering what s wrong in here honnestly. Not that I would like to critizise anything but though, we have, in France a lot of different aromas for all the chips: cheese, chicken, barbecue, onion, vinegar, salty, crème fraîche, Thai, anything you could think of. And Paprika.

I made a list of funny observations like for example the fact that a cheese is french allows the supermarket to charge the customer twice the price for a stupid industrial (but french) cheese.
I also love the fact that German people do buy Mayonnaise which is white. I had to fight not to explain this poor lady that if it is white, it can not be real mayonnaise but I made the smart choice to shut up. I am not sure she would have understood anyway.

I also noticed that if the Sausages section is really advanced here in Sausageland, the yoghurt one is really ridiculous compared to France. I mean we invented Danone, not for nothing…

Finally, my favourite section, the chocolate and sweet one really shows that the Germans understood the “sweet girls need sweet things” concept. They have a thousand brands, which most favourites are Milka and Kinder. Same things with the sweets (God bless Haribo).
There are no chocolate you could not find here: with biscuits, pieces of nuts, full nuts, nuts and raisins, raisins, walnuts, dark full nuts, white with strawberry, mango, yoghurt, whatever. I am a chocolate junkie and being in Germany is like being dead and in heaven. I bet their cows ARE violet and white.

I will spare the list of each section and their differences (though I bet the sociologue I have for a mum would love it) but in the end the problem was that this supermarket was really really cool. Consequently, the shopaholic in me got totally excited and bought way too much food, spent too much money for a girl living alone and not eating home and filled the backpack as much as it could stand…and more.

All of that would not have been that bad if I did not have to bike home. Indeed the ride back included me not being able to break and crashing my bike in the fence of our building. Happily, my roomate (who is supergirl at night) fixed everything not without looking at me in a weird way…which I do understand.

If you have a birthday costume you are invited to our birthday

2006-11-11T13:13:00.000+01:00

Last week-end, I was supposed to go to Prague with two friends of mine, to visit 2 Americans we got to know and that happened to study there –the ones from the Oktoberfest. That sounded perfect: two fun guys in a fun city…Let s go there. So we bought our tickets, like always I pissed off the colleagues during a month with some “I am going to Praaaaaaaaaaaague” (one of them vomit every time I mention the trip)… in a nutshell: we really got excited.

The packing though was a kind of a mess for me…went home at one am on Thursday night, a bit dizzy from this nice Merlot and packed unreasonably my big backpack e.g. packing my bikini (I have a just-in-case-joker for this one), high heels and 6 pair of socks- smart. Ended up also totally overloaded for just two days –expected.

Anyway…we all made it on time to the train-unexpected, with all the tickets, all the mobiles, all the keys and even all the passports. We realized we forgot the alcohol (not for the guys, for the ride). Happily this nice old man with a weird moustache entered our wagon to sell us chocolate or peanuts. I kindly asked “Alcohol?” he said “beer?” I said “Fine”.

We also made it to have the compartment only for ourselves:
a) By picking a smoker compartment (even smokers hate smoking compartment)
b) By putting all the backpacks and coats everywhere –people thought we were already ten in there (actually, just three girls ahah).

True, this annoying guy joined us for a couple of stations and when he went out in Regensburg, he was greeted with a choir of “finally!” Ma, never choose OUR compartment, we have serious things to discuss in high confidentiality: so did Schatzie call you back?

Everything was thus going really well except for the fact that I had to play this stupid game with the girls. No clue how you call that in English but you are supposed to pick a random letter and find in the shortest time possible a job, a country, a brand, a sweet, etc that starts with this very same letter.
May I remind you that I was playing with two German girls? Consequently they refused the “mouse keeper” because “it is not a job that starts with an M”. BUT IT IS. Same thing for my “snake keeper”. And they did not think either that creativity deserved points… tss tss.

We had fun though and I did it my pleasure to mess up their rules until we got controlled just before the border. Because you see, one of the friends mentioned above is born in Germany, speaks German, and even refuse to cross the street when the light is red for the pedestrians (so a real German); though her passport is not a German one. Neither is it an EU one. She checked a month ago (when we bought the tickets) if she was allowed to enter the czeck republic, which she was. This is what we tried to explain to those two ugly controlling guys… after a good time discussing and arguing and begging, they politely asked her to go out of the train at the next station or to go in jail. Actually when I think of it, it was not that politely.

Surprise surprise, they changed the regulation two weeks ago… Alright. So she is actually allowed to live in Germany, travel to France, Greece and etc, but not Czech Republic… I won’t repeat my anger speech against the European Union, the Czech Republic, the Deutsch Bahn and every other institution possibly involved in that, the fact was she went off and we went there without her.

The guys were lovely: one of them picked us up at the station and brought us to their place (where they turned out to be three cute Americans, and not two anymore, exactly like the bread miracle…and they changed water into beer for us too). They cleaned up everything for us which I found very sweet and apparently, there was a lot to clean...

We spent the first evening chatting and chilling until 4am…when they looked at us anxiously and said: what time do you guys want to wake up? Early? Medium? Late? Answer: Well, definitely, LATE. I could see the relief on their faces and even think I heard a whispered “thank god”.

And we did. Then we visited the city, walking a bit everywhere, getting lost looking for the Café Louvre. So what about the shopping? We did intent to shop and the guys were totally fine with that, I quote:
Girls: can we get there like just really really quick? Please please please? (+ moving eye-lashes at the sun speed).
Guys laughing: “take all the time you want girls”.
Girls:??????? + (let s run in there before they change their minds….).
Though, anytime we went into a shop, it was either a chain such as H&M (so no point shopping there when we have 24 of them in Munich) or we were disappointed. It was all cheap right, but it also looked very very cheap, and not only the material…

So in the end, we spent the all Saturday (afternoon) walking around and having latte Macchiato. And cakes. And bagels. And Cappuccinos. I LOVED IT.

In the evening we had two objectives: eating Czech and going to a jazz club. So what happened was we ended up in MacDonald but only in order to make it to the Jazz club. I am so glad we did: first of all cuz Macdo might me the only place in Prague where service is something close to decent, second of all cuz this jazz club was so small we got some of the last seats. The band was great and we had the occasion to experience a lot of cocktails with weird names: I was given a blow-job for the first time in my life .-)

Then we decided to go on drinking (they had the best Bloody Mary there) up to the point where we were starving...and so went to MacDonald (I know I know but now I have two more toys for my collection).

I cant’t really recall exactly the details of it, but I know that we waited for a tram kinda long, I renounced to strangle this headache-giving girl cuz she was also nice (and I mean, it would not have been that polite either) and then we (finally) went to another club. This one was kind of super weird but I liked it. To make it short, the decoration was more than creative, you had parts of engines used a lamps on the tables, people playing human-sacrifices upstairs (like in “they just pretend, it is not real, still a bit creepy”), a bit of everything on the wall and a very weird atmosphere. And a lot of beer. We had a good time there, got home with a cab at most likely 5 something and totally overslept.

I think I woke up at 1:30. The train was at 5:15. As it took us ages to get ready, and even longer to get the food in the Czech restaurant (we had to leave without having the desserts yet, which I don t think is such a bad thing considering the taste fo the main dish), we never made it to the castle, we had to run to the train station, could not say bye to two out of three of our hosts (which I do still feel bad about) and ended up in a smoker wagon, with a lot of smokers. Yurk.

In the end, and despite I missed my friend so much, we had a super good week-end, had fun and relaxed, and talked english with natives (I am still thankful for that ahah). And yes, Prague is a nice city.

Now as a little souvenir, here is the mesmerizing poster of the jazz club :-)

I believe it is no spam

2006-11-11T11:52:00.000+01:00

Usually i get very mad at people foorwarding me all those chains letter that tell me " if you don t send this letter to 23 people in the next 23 minutes you are gonna have the most miserable life ever for 23 years and all the kids with a heart disease in Ecuador are gonna die because of you". so far i always deleted immediately, never heard aout a mass-death of heart-diseased kids in Ecuador and my life is ok, thanks.

Today, i received one that you re supposed to forward but for different reasons. This is one you actually will WANT to forward for sure. Not because you are totally bored but because it is indeed very nice and very smart. I got sentimental... ;-)
Here it is, please enjoy.
[And to the person who send it to me: i believe there is nothing you can't do and i love you].

I believe-
That we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I believe-
That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and, you must forgive them for that.

I believe-
That true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I believe-
That you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I believe-
That it's taking me a long timeto become the person I want to be.

I believe-
That you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I believe-
That you can keep going long after you can't.

I believe-
That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I believe-
That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I believe-
That regardless of how hot and steamy arelationship is at first, the passion fades and therehad better be something else to take its place.

I believe-
That heroes are the people who do whathas to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of
the consequences.

I believe-
That money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I believe-
That my best friend and I can do anythingor nothing and have the best time!

I believe-
That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe-
That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I believe-
That just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I believe-
That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I believe-
That it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others.Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I believe-
That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I believe-
That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I believe-
That just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other, And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

I believe-
That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I believe-
That two people can look at the exactsame thing and see something totally different.

I believe-
That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

I believe-
That even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.

I believe-
That credentials on the wall do not makeyou a decent human being.

I believe-
That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.

I believe-
That you should send this to all of the people that you believe in.

I believe-
I just did.

The (Brandon) Flower’s Power

2006-10-15T22:45:00.000+02:00

I ll make it brief. I am AGAIN overexcited about a concert…indeed I have tickets for the Killers’ concert whose new album, Sam s town is just AWESOME. Since Hot fuss, I am in love with Brandon Flowers, the singer and also the music J. Here s an extract of the song Sams town that I am listening to every morning, for 45 minutes in the u-bahn…gonna kick asses at work ;-).

Nobody ever had a dream round here,

but I don't really mind that it's starting to get to me

Nobody ever pulls the seams round here,

but I don't really mind that it's starting to get to me

I've got this energy beneath my feet

like something underground's gonna come up and carry me,

I've got this sentimental heart that beats

but I don't really mind that it's starting to get to me now

Why do you waste my time?

Is the answer to the question on your mind

And I'm sick of all my judgesso scared of what they'll find

But I know that I can make it

As long as somebody takes me home,

every now and then...

Well have you ever seen the lights?

Have you ever seen the lights?

I took a shuttle on a shockwave ridewhere people on the pen pull the trigger for accolades

I took a bullet and I looked inside it

Running through my veins an American masquerade

I still remenber grendma Dixie's wake

I've never really known anybody to die beforeRed white and blue upon a birthday cake

My brother, he was born on the fourth of the July...and that's all

Why do you waste my time?

Is the answer to the question on your mind

And I'm sick of all my judges

they're so scared of letting me shine

But I know that I can make it

As long as somebody takes me home

Wooooooo!

(every now and then)

You know I see London,

I see Sam's Townholds my hand and let's my hair down

Rolls that world right off my shoulder

I see London,

I see Sam's Town now

My first Oktoberfest

2006-10-11T17:38:00.000+02:00

„Wir lieben das Leben, die Liebe und die Lust; Wir glauben an den lieben Gott und hab’n noch immer Durst.“

So that s it, the Wiesn is over for less than a week…and i am still recovering from the sleepless and beerfull nights that those two crazy weeks implied.

My first time at the Wiesn was in a more or less controlled scheme as it was with all my colleagues. We all wore the traditional outfit at work(dirndl for girls and lederhosen for guys). Isn’t that crazy? I actually learned that if I wanted to I would theoretically be allowed to go to work everyday with my Dirndl.
The company had booked tables upstairs, we went there all together and we all had (at least) two Mass beer(so twice 1liter) and some food… after a while of course the atmosphere got … let s say “relax” and it ended up in totally crazy pictures of everyone, including me, that were put the next day on the common drive of the company. My boss call those pictures “interesting”, I would say “funny but a bit embarrassing”.

When the next day I was asked about my first impression, I thought that the Oktoberfest was crazy but that was actually nothing compared to my second time.
We went there in a private context, that is to say with all my crazy german friends and two very cute American, decided to enjoy the german culture.

We had a "warm up" with some crazy roller coasters, leading me to ask the guys every single time before the ride"why the hell did i follow you" ...and ending up dizzy but with the biggest smile.

After this, we all decided to start to experience this german (and by german i mean bavarian) tradition...

Thus we got all totally drunk and spent the evening dancing on the benches of the Hofbrau tent, singing Heyyyyyyyy baby (uh ah) and Viva Bavaria. I definitely improved my German skills and I am now able to sing a couple of drinking songs on my own; if possible drunk on a table with a friend begging me to go down.

Anyway…as one would say, it was only experiencing regional traditions and I HAD TO do it. I did it actually a bunch of times, spent two weeks sleeping maximum 5hours per night and had the pleasure to receive some of my special guests that I missed so much since I left Sweden (thanks again for coming to visit!!!).

My body must be totally messed up with so much beer, fact that i positively decided to ignore…In one week-end I had more than 13 liters of beers… well that was a four days week-end but though…! And don’t forget I am a girl, to me two liters of beer IS A LOT.

My conclusion: I loved it. I loved the friendly and happy atmosphere, I loved the singing, I loved that everyone wore traditional outfit, I loved the grilled almonds, I loved when they served me a fresh great Bavarian beer and I loved being there with my friends. I truly had one of the best time ever there. I am not drinking alcohol for the next two months.

Message personnel

2006-09-21T12:39:00.000+02:00

Happy birthday sweetie

my best wishes and all my love!!!!

Dating in ten lessons

2006-09-19T19:03:00.000+02:00

It is said that men lost their manners, I can’t really disagree. Don’t you dare saying it is because of sex equality or whatever, it is absolutely no excuse. Manners are a must have if you wanna score. Here is a lesson in case you do not know all those things yet and if you do not want to be the one refered to “as the disastrous date”on Monday morning at the coffee machine.

1. Be on time: we are allowed to be late (we actually HAVE TO according to Glamour and our mums) but you re not. Yes really unfair but you do not have hair issues so please…

2. Pick the place: When we say that we do not care, we lie. We totally care but we want to know what places you like and what kind of places you are gonna take us to. It is a kind of test so pick a nice place, no too crowded and not too loud. Or really loud and really crowded to get closer and be forced to whisper in our ears ;-) [NB: of course not on the first date!!!]. Definitely to avoid, a bar where oh! Look at that! They are showing the soccer game. You chose to go on a date and not watch the game with your dudes…stick to this smart decision.

3. Take into account our outfit: while picking the place for example. We probably spent half an hour on the phone with our bestfriend to choose the perfect skirt/top/earings/shoes so do not bring us to places where we would either be underdressed or totally overdressed. It is mean! You may also wanna mention how good we look and no, “nice tits” is not appropriate.

4. Be gentle: take off our coat if in a restaurant, open the door, etc. By the way, if we have a bug in our drink, send it back and ask for a new one. Don’t take it with your fingers, throw it away and smile saying “that was just a small mosquito”. It is GROSS and probably the last time you see us.

5. Listen. Or at least pretend because believe me, when then we ask you about your opinion and that you go with “sorry I did not listen” we think that
a/ we are boring you (we might be but it is not a reason to say it)
b/ you are picturing us naked (you did not notice it when WE pictured you naked…take the effort).

6. Be confident: there s nothing more annoying than a guy that blushes everytime we talk or everytime that by accident (or not) we touch his hand. There s probably a reason if we are here tonite...so smile!

7. Drive or walk us home or at least to the next metro station. Most of us have a limited orientation capacity and also, we hate it to walk alone when it is dark. Be the nice guy and take the time to make sure we are fine, we will be thankful later.

8. Don’t rush the first kiss but don’t wait too long either. I know it is not helping said this way but honnestly after a while we give it up. Man, a lot can happen in a week and this gorgious colleague of ours might not have any scrupule so take your chance or you will lose the girl. Moreover, it is the guy s job to do the first step. That s what I learned…

9. I know there is this stupid three days rule that says you shall not call back before three days. I strongly disagree. I think it is always cute and nice if you do it before, I think it is even better. Though you need to make sure you are not creepy e.g. sending an appropriate amount of sms in one week-end or saying weird stuffs. Creepy is just the worst thing you can be. We will never call back, we ll get scared.

10. Here you go, you have been the nice guy, you have been waiting patiently, did everything right and this it, you made it to convince us to take you home/go home with you. Congrats, light up candles –always great, turn on nice music and do not mess it up now or after e.g. asking how much we liked it. “So if you had to give it a grade between zero and ten…” Absolut no go, you won’t have a second round.

Viva Bavaria

2006-09-16T19:38:00.000+02:00

Today was the first day of the famous-super-famous-could-not-be-more-famous Oktoberfest. Despite of its name, it starts in september and basically, the main thing is that everyone gets drunk under the pretext of celebrating the wedding of Ludwig blabla and his dear Therese couple of years ago ;-) .

I am gonna miss / missed the opening but will go there for sure on Monday -only for cultural experience of course. I am finally gonna wear my super cute Dirndl, will take pics of my drunk friends and colleagues and will experience (again) the Mass bier which is a little one liter glass...

for those who would be interested in knowing more about this bavarian tradition here is the official website.

i am currently trying to learn the traditionnal songs and some bavarian dialect... and of course i ll post on it once i ve been there...i am only going there to inform you.

Crying out of nothing at all

2006-09-12T20:27:00.001+02:00

This is something I believe is only feminine –which does not mean a priori that it is bad- crying because of a song. Of course you have those great songs which text and melody touch you and everything, of course you do. But you also have those awul romantic songs, and by romantic I mean cheesy, which texts are just so sweet they would make you diabetic. And those that are not only too sweet but also ridiculously sad and depressed, and those my Dears, are the worst.
They are a danger to any woman that would feel a little sensitive or a bit sad, and if possible because of a guy, the radio will of course play them, and stupid you, you would not tune another radio playing regular songs. Nope, you would leave it on.

You would know the lyrics by heart as you learned them the last time you were heartbroken, and spent four hours and a half per day listening to the very same song, blowing your nose and looking like a panda with your mascara all around the eyes. You sang them, messing up their “melodies” with your broken voices, a hair-brush for microphone.

An example of the dangerous cheezy songs “Making out of nothing at all” from Air supply: this one is actually the number one cheezy song. Starting with piano-like keyboard sound because those songs always do, please pay attention to the firt chorus when the “pain” is so high that the “piano” gets more intense, the choir starts and the singer is not singing but screaming the lyrics as fast as human capacity allows it…and then it gets slow again,cheezy lyrics and finally , the master piece, the chorus which is actually repeating on variable tones the same sentence: singer:making love/choir: out of nothing at al…and again and again. Do you feel the tears rolling down? The “do you really want to see me crawl?” is a killer.

….making love out of nothing at aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall….