The Various Ramblings of Juliette

2008-12-05T13:14:00.001+01:00

2008-12-05T10:40:00.000+01:00

Hibernating

2008-08-12T20:52:00.001+02:00

After much thinking, I have decided to put this blog in hibernation for now. I am working on a few others, and it's becoming too much to mantain them. If you want to stay in touch, you can look at those:
Me in French
Claxton Bay Mangrove
If you're bored, do some good
Forest love
Much love, and thank you to all my followers,

Juliette

2008-07-28T22:59:00.001+02:00

Spread some forest love this summer

2008-07-28T22:38:00.001+02:00

2008-07-04T13:12:00.001+02:00

Free our activists!

2008-06-21T18:07:00.001+02:00

Release our activists

2008-04-30T10:50:00.000+02:00

I've just been admitted to the LLM in Public International Law in Amsterdam!!!

2008-04-21T18:57:00.001+02:00

Tilburg

2008-03-31T17:12:00.001+02:00

I'm in!
Three cheers, and a great weight off my chest!

Giraffes...

2008-03-01T22:06:00.000+01:00

End of an Era

2008-02-19T14:10:00.002+01:00

Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president, therefore he doesn't have his place anymore on my list of the world's worst leaders (remember the first rule: you have to be in power to be featured on that list).

To my bored Google specialists readers

2008-02-18T18:47:00.001+01:00

I'm looking for the list of States that ratified the 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf.
Please put a link in comments if you find it.

Ringo - he always was the coolest one

2008-01-08T14:32:00.000+01:00

2008-01-04T19:15:00.000+01:00

I'm usually not one to encourage European States to go againt EU regulations and directives, but for this one, I'd say Sweden should just ignore Brussels. And Brussels should pay more attention to Sweden's good ideas.

2007-10-14T16:18:00.001+02:00

Blog Action Day

2007-10-12T18:10:00.000+02:00

I'll participate to Blog Action Day next Monday. The idea is to write a blogspot on the environment, which shouldn't be too hard for me. I have a rough idea what I want to write about, but if anyone out here want to hear about a particular issue, don't hesitate to ask, I might even take your opinion in account.

Save the Dugong!

2007-09-19T19:24:00.000+02:00

From the Greenpeace blog:

Dugongs living on the coast of Japan's Okinawa island are threatened by the proposed expansion of a U.S. military base there. Construction of the airbase would destroy local coral reefs, the habitat of the dugong, and thousands of other creatures, including three species of threatened turtle.
So what does a dugong do? Not much, except wander coastal areas from the east coast of Africa to Australia, and beyond, grazing on the seagrass of coral reefs.

Help us save the dugong. Sign the petition here - the goal is 10000 signatures before September 26th.

Trolls

2007-09-03T19:46:00.000+02:00

I've been trying to compile a list of criterias to bust forum trolls. If anyone has ideas besides the lists mentioned on the wikipedia article, it would be awesome.

2007-08-28T18:52:00.000+02:00

I've discovered this summer that there is nothing like anticipating the news, and knowing more about a specific topic than most journalists who talked about it.
While the international press was rambling about Russia going to the bottom of the Arctic, I re-read a few times my best post ever (in my opinion, you can disagree).
The scramble for the Arctic follows that of the moon. It's funny to think of the reasons why humans go exploring new places.
Everyone wanted to go in space, then on the moon, mainly to look cool. After all, besides dust, the moon doesn't have much to offer us - or if it does, it's too far away to bring it back. So, after a while, they realised that the moon sucked. Now, the only person who thinks it's a good idea to go there is George Bush - that tells a lot.

It is common knowledge among ocean-geeks that more people have been on the moon than at the bottom of the oceans. So, the recent scramble for the Arctic would sound like good news if it wasn't directly related to its possible doom. After all, the ice is melting because of global warming. The consequence will be more exctracting of oil - fun!

I am often amazed by the hypocrisy of oil companies. I've read recently that some of them consider the Arctic melt as good news: if the ice melts, it menas shorter boat routes, which saves oil...

Anyway, I'm more decided than ever to do my big dissertation on this for my 4th year - which starts in less than a month, time flies by!

I'll leave you with this video - do remember to sign the petition in the end!

2007-08-09T19:38:00.000+02:00

Just so everyone knows (I seem to have a few people worried for my health), I am alive. I am a bit busy right now, and will go back to writing real posts next week.

Oh, and on the comments, whoever was having fun will be disappointed to see that I've deleted most of them, except the decent ones (hi Pepijn and Prune!) and that they're now all on moderation. Please know I have no problems deleting everything, and it takes me no time. If you feel like still having fun, just know that I'll be the only one to see it.

Cheers,

Me

Update

2007-06-18T22:35:00.000+02:00

I am told that I haven't updated my blog in a while. This is absolutely true. I have a problem: the more interesting my life is, the less time I have to talk about it.
These past few weeks, my life has been VERY interesting.

First, I left Bologna. It wasn't so hard, as I had a lot to look forward to, mainly Berlin. It was an epic train ride home, as I had a lot of stuff and not much room... I worked it out, though.

I spent five days at my father's, mainly procrastinating, enjoying living in a big home, with actual trees and animals around. It felt very good.

I then went in Normandy, to see my mother and her new home. It's a very ugly place, with a lot of potential.

Well, no, I'm unfair. It's a rather pretty place, just with the ugliest wallpapers. They'll work on it all summer, though, so it could get better very fast. We'll see.

From there, on June 10th, I left to go to Berlin. I took a night train (I must be setting a wordl record in night trains this year), and arrived in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof a bit after eight.
I had a few contacts for places to live in, and I had booked two nights in a Youth Hostel to be sure I wouldn't be left outside.
The first I visited turned out to be very good, very cheap and seemed a friendly place to live in. Mina, the girl I had talked to, sent me a text message a bit later, and told me the room was mine if I wanted it. I did, and moved in on Tuesday.
I am now living with Mina (French), Veronika (German) and Michel (not sure).

I started my internship on Friday. I think I'm going to like it - I'm having fun so far. I probably won't be talking much about it though, as blogging about the workplace is not generally recommended, especially not when it's diplomacy - I don't do anything James Bondish, but you never know.

Save the Wiki

2007-06-08T01:01:00.000+02:00

OK, here is a ridiculous campaign I've decided to start. In the light of the WikiCharts Top 1000 for May, it seems people only ever research mainstream stuff (and sex).
Scroll down this list a bit, and if you're anything like me, you'll be appalled - there is actually an article called "List of Large Chested Women".
So, I'm starting this small campaign: get the most people possible to click on the same article everyday, so that a real quality one will top the charts next month. I'm going to try to have a new one each month if this works.
So, for this month, the article will be Dogme 95.
Click on it everyday, once, and spread the word. Together, we can save the Wiki.

The List Update

2007-06-06T17:32:00.000+02:00

Now, I probably won't be telling anything new to anyone, but George Bush and Vladimir Putin are really two idiots. They've been very annoying lately, so I randomly decide to give them one more point each on The List.

This is what it looks like now:
1. Kim Jong-Il, 10 points
2. Vladimir Putin, 7 points
3. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 5 points
4. Ehud Olmert, 5 points
5. Hu Jintao, 5 points
6. Bashar al-Assad, 5 points
7. Emile Lahud, 5 points
8. Fidel Castro, 4 points
9. George Bush, 4 points

It actually doesn't change at all - they just have a few more points. And now that I look at it closer, I think Bashar al-Assad deserves one more point for saying he won't cooperate with the Hariri International Tribunal.
So here is the definite version for today:

1. Kim Jong-Il, 10 points
2. Vladimir Putin, 7 points
3. Bashar al-Assad, 6 points
4. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 5 points
5. Ehud Olmert, 5 points
6. Hu Jintao, 5 points
7. Emile Lahud, 5 points
8. Fidel Castro, 4 points
9. George Bush, 4 points

2007-06-01T18:02:00.000+02:00

My new philosophy is: "Whatever doesn't fit gets thrown away."
I'm hoping that bullying will make my belongings afraid, and that they will all shrink themselves.

2007-06-01T16:10:00.001+02:00

I'm at that moment in packing when I'm not sure if I should be hopeful or desperate... Incertainty is always the worse.

2007-06-01T12:58:00.000+02:00

I'm leaving Bologna tomorrow night, by night train (what else), so packing is underway. I'm a bit worried, actually, since the "keep" pile is huge and the "throw away" pile is almost non-existent. I'm soon going to face the problem of "it just doesn't fit".
The weather is crap here, as if Bologna was doing nothing to try to keep me - just as well, this way I won't be too sad to go. I have Berlin to look forward to now - it's gonna be an awesome summer.

Public service announcement

2007-05-31T01:23:00.000+02:00

I am looking for a room to rent in Berlin from June 15 to September 15.
Please let me know in a comment if you know someone who could help me with that.

The Pity Factor

2007-05-28T19:33:00.000+02:00

To complete the following experiment, you will need:
- 3 girls
- 3 backpacks
- 3 bikes
- 2 tents
- 1 strong morale
- 1 motivation with no failure

Three girls arrive in Lecce on a Monday morning by night train, with a crazy project in head - they just don't quite realise it just yet. Here is the story:

The idea

Zelda and Juliette, sipping a coffee in Bologna, chat a bit. Want to take a few days vacation, see something else than Bologna... But where?

I had wanted to go in Apulia for months. I convinced Zelda - who really was only asking to be convinced - and we started making a plan. I don't really remember how the idea of camping and bikes arrived, but once it was there, it never left us. Tamara, a freind of Zelda whom I didn't know loved the idea, and we said alright - the more, the merrier.
The plan seemed really easy: go around the Salento - the most southern province of Apulia - by bike. 200km, piece of cake, we'll do it easily...

The road

We wanted to go to the sea, so we checked right away how to be there as often as possible. This is what came out of it.
Thursday, last day, train between Gallipoli and lecce, so we could stay one full day at the beach.

The bici

The bici, it's the bikes, in Italian. This word sneaked into our vocabulary, I don't really know how. We rented them in Lecce on the Monday morning. Tamara and I had mountain bikes, Zelda had to do with a city bike - she was a bit smaller and couldn't find a mountain bike her size. 100 euros total, for three bici and four days.
I like giving names to everything, and I couldn't find one for each of our bici. Only Zelda's found one: it was pink and bitchy, I called her (yes, a lady) Paris Hilton.
First time we stopped because of her flat tire was between Lecce and San Cataldo. It took us a good fifteen minutes to figure out the tire, but between then and the very last flat tire, Zelda became an expert mechanic. We had flat tire pauses about every 5 km.
Tamara's bici had quite a character too. The chain got blocked, the breaks jumped (literally) on the very last day, five minutes before we gave her back to the bike rental.
Mine was a slight bit nicer. She took her time to accept to change gears, and when she finally did, I limited myself to three gears, to be sure she wouldn't give me any bad surprises.

Anatomy lesson

Nothing like a hard physical effort to get in touch with your body. The first to remind me of its existence was my coccyx. Locked between the bici seat and a 12 kilos backpack, it wasn't happy, and it let me know that.
Getting back on the bici soon became a torture for the three of us on the first day.
Slowly, the entire anatomy started complaining.
Second day, it was the tights for Zelda, the shoulders for me. The calves were getting angry, the fingers were sick of holding the bici. The skin was complaing of too much sun, despite the high sunscreen.
The entire body was tired. When we went to sleep on Monday night, a luxury hotel couldn not have made us happier than our tents/sleeping-bags/sand. That first night, giving up was in the atmosphere. The effort was much harder than we had thought, the packs heavier, the beach pauses shorter...
Our anatomy was rebelling, and we didn't know how to stop the revolution.

The gear

Decathlon was our main sponsor - well, we paid for it all, so it was more us making them a free advertisment.
Quechua is good gear. I was carrying the tent (Quechua) in my backpack (Quechua), as well as Zelda's sleeping bag (not Quechua, but still Decathlon, I think), which was lighter than mine, lended by Prune, that Zelda was carrying to even the weight (you following?). I was wearing Decthlon shoes with Decathlon socks.
The tent was up in 10 minutes max (a bit more to pack), waterproof (not that we got so much water to test that, though). The pack was solid, nothing broke even though I had completely stuffed it.
This isn't a hidden advertisment, I'm not taking money from anyone, I just want to say that i was really happy with my gear - of course, it was kinda heavy, but what else could I ask from a tent I bought for 20 euros, a pack for 25 euros and a sleeping bag I didn't even pay?
Tamara was a bit less Decathlon - she had the pack, not the tent. Hers was a bit thiner and smaller - not a problem, since it was reeeeaaaally hot anyway.

Apulia is gorgeous

I'll put photos up as soon as Tamara and Zelda forward theirs to me. I can already sum them up. The sea is blue and clear, say for the sky. The towns are a sort of oriental-occidental-greek mix, inherited of invasions by the Greeks, the Turkish and many others.
The great part of riding your bici is that you see so much more landscapes and appreciate them a lot more. Just our of San Cataldo, we were in the middle of pine trees, then subtly, we arrived in the middle of olive trees. As we got nearer to the sea, we found ourselves in the the middle of small bays surrounded by rocks, and sometimes by white sand. A bit after Otranto, the terrain was a bit higher (my legs noticed). From the top of the cliffs over the Adriatic Sea, we could even see Albania on the other side.
When you're in Santa Maria di Leuca, you're at the end of the world - at least if you consider "the world" from two milleniums ago.
Back up to Gallipoli, all is flat - even though we barely felt how flat it was with the wond in our faces, it felt like a permanent slope. In that area, you have many sand beaches - we you can feel with the number of empty vacation homes and ghost villages you find there at the end of May.

In Apulia, it's hot.

No comment.

Back in time

I often had the feeling that I was going back in time, or to have arrived in another world. Everything takes more time. On the Adriatic Coast, we went through villages so small that in France (or amlost any other western country for that matter) they'd be dead, but there, you can always find a grocery store and a bar, at least. Everybody knows everybody, no one is really a foreigner.
From Gallipoli to Lecce by train, I saw a few times employees for the Ferrovie del Sud Est turning by hand a crank for the level crossing - I think these things have become illegal in many countries.

Si fanno panini?

For four days, we ate almost only panini (sandwiches). The magic question when you go in a grocery store/ supermarket is: "Si fanno panini?" (Do you make sandwiches?). By far the cheapest food (on average 2 euros), and the most filling. Special honors for the very first of the trip in San Cataldo, with a bit of olive oil, cheese and tomatoes for a whole 1,50 euros.
Energy drinks were nice too, but I wondered more than once what happened to all the calories of the world - with everyting we burned, we needed a lot of calories, and it seems that these days, all you can buy is "diet" stuff.

Cute stuff

We made a lot of friends along the way. The very first of them was a dog in Otranto, when we arrived late at night, right after buying our panini in a supermarket. We called him Vattene (= go away) at first. He followed us to the beach we had found to sleep, fighting with all the dogs we met on the way. We were kind of afraid of him at first, we thought he was after the panini.
He watched us set up the tents, and waited outside while we ate.
He barked anytime someone went by, which annoyed us at first, but we soon realised that if someone weird approached the tents during the night, he'd warn us. It's around that moment that we changed his name - Seguimi (= follow me).
When we woke up the next morning, he was still there. He followed Tamara as she went for a little walk, and kept following us as we tried to find a bar for breakfast. He abandonned us as we got closer to town, which made us a bit sad, but also relieved us: we couldn't really take care of a dog for the rest of the trip.

Our second friend was Max - met him in Castro during our afternoon break on Tuesday. An adorable little puppy sitting in the basket of his owner's bici. She stopped when she saw how we looked at him. We holded him, and he licked our faces - absolutely adorable.

Our third friend, I'm not sure he really is our friend. We saved him, but most likely the poor thing will only remember a horrible experience and link us to it. We met him during a photo break between Castro and Santa Maria di Leuca. Zelda has arrived first, and had started taking pictures in silence. Only we I arrived did we start to talk - that's when the cat started meowling. At first, we couldn't find where the noise was coming from - we were on top of a cliff. Then, we looked a bit down, and we realised it was coming from a bag, sitting on a rock, further down. To catch it, we had to bow a bit on a 50 meters cliff. Saving cats was fine by me, I just wanted to get out of it alive too. Tamara took a hold of my shorts to catch me, just in case, I reached out, and took the bag on a corner. I could feel moving inside - I brought it back on land.
The bag was closed, and the poor thing needed help to get out. On the other side, we were quite worried of what we were going to find inside - if the cat was hurt, we had to finish what we had started and find a veterinarian, which was absolutely not on the plan. But then, if we did nothing, we were condemning the cat to starve to death. We ripped the bag with a knife I had brought just in case.
The cat was gorgeous - clearly one abandonned by its owner à la Aristocat. He didn't want to come out, terrorized, but since he was only skin and bones, we had to help him a bit. I poured a bit of water next to him so he'd drink - which made him jump out of the bag and disappear in the woods. We never saw him again, but we still wanted to find him a name - Moses, saved from the waters where he would have fallen without us. We were quite proud of ourselves.

Many other animals loved us, but we didn't really like them back - mosquitoes, flies etc.

A shower with salt water isn't so bad after all...

From the start, we had known we weren't off for a spa. We knew that after hours of bici each day, under the burning sun and with no shower - thanks to camping in the wild - we wouldn't smell too well, but we decided we didn't care.
However, at some point, feeling dirty isn't very nice anymore, especially after fixing a bike chain, or killing a million mosquitoes. That's how, Wednesday morning, we tried the shower on salt water. Tamara and I had brought soaps in case by miracle a shower happened to fall from the sky, and we used it in the sea after all. It was a quick bath, but it felt good.
The hair wasn't so nice either. "Bunch of knots" give a feeble image of the state of my (usually) pretty curls by Thursday morning. I didn't even need to put a hair tie anymore, they held themselves up.

The beach

The goal of the trip was the sea. We tried many ebaches, starting by the oens we slept on in Otranto, Santa Maria di Leuca and Gallipoli. In Otranto, we felt the sun rising on our tent (at 4:30 am - TOO EARLY!!!!). In Leuca, we chose the only sand beach - right downtown - before realising that it was a rock beach that had just been covered with sand (not very practical to plant the tents). In Gallipoli, the beach was huge, but kinda dirty - we set up the tents on the only bit of sand that had been cleaned up. The water was pretty warm at night there, so we took a midnight bath (at 9pm...)
We alos had mid-day breaks on the beach, in Torre dell'Orso on Monday and Castro on Tuesday - on Wednesday, we couldn't find a decent beach, so we went straight to Gallipoli under the burning afternoon sun.

The pity factor

The pity factor is the title of this post, because it's the most important element of this trip.
Every single person we met, without exception, was absolutely great with us. From the bici rental lady who gave us the first of a very long list of discounts, to the guy at the Gallipoli train station who somehow managed to have the train changed so we could put our bici in it, without forgetting all those who made us a pay a bit less - even though it was only a few cents, it felt nice - and of course the locals who filled our water bottles when we knocked on their doors, and also the little old man who invited us for dinner - we had to refuse, we were late on our planning. And I probably forget some others...
If I had to remember one thing from the Salento, it would be how nice everyone was.
We laughed a little, because we said they only did all this because they took pity on us and our huge bags, all sweating and tired. However, very often, elsewhere in the world, sweating and tired, we'd have been rejected. In the Salento, we were welcomed with open arms.

If I had to do it again...

... I'd do it in a heartbeat. Maybe with a lighter tent and sleeping bag, and maybe with 10 km less per day... In any case, I know I'll keep a wonderful memory of these four days. I enjoyed it the most I could, and I want nothing more than starting over.

2007-05-25T20:44:00.000+02:00

Sorry, but I just had to laugh...

Ich bin ein Berliner

2007-05-15T00:37:00.000+02:00

My life is a bit confusing lately. Until five days ago, I thought I was going to spend my summer as an au pair in Netherlands. It was very clear in my mind - I had quite a few plans involving pedal boats in Amsterdam's canals, and lots of ice-cream. I was waiting for a phone call from a potential family Wednesday afternoon - they looked absolutely great, living in Amsterdam, very nice family - so when the phone rang and a weird number appeared, I thought it was them.

Hem.

It wasn't.

It was the French embassy in Berlin calling me to say they had an internship for me, working at the scientific communication service.

...
...
...

Oh. My. God.

I have spent six months trying to find an internship, and now that I had given up, it arrived. Starting June 15. In a month, I'm in Berlin. In the meantime, I have to pass my exams, take a four days vacation with Zelda, go back in France, arrive in Berlin and find a place to live in.
Normally, that wouldn't be a problem for me. I'm used to travelling, ging to live in other countries. However, usually I have more than a month to get used to the idea. It's hard to put that idea in my head - I was really mentally ready for the Netherlands.

Oh, well. It's one more adventure. When I'll be old and crampy, at least I'll be able to say I've travelled my share, and didn't let my chance pass when it came!

Only a few days left with the shrew

2007-05-08T20:38:00.000+02:00

I am surrounding by annoying people.
Currently, like for the past half year, my neighbor is listening at her (I'm assuming it's a girl) music very very loud. If I heard James Blunt whining "Good bye, my lover" one more time, I'm going to blow up. It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't insist on singing with James. And I can assure you the James sings a lot better.

But the annoying neighbor isn't the worst part. I've stated a gazillion times that I've been living with a very bad roommate this year. She's going to leave next week, and I can officially state that I've never, ever heard a genuine laugh or seen a genuine smile from her. She seems to be in a permanent bad mood. I'd be sorry for her if it didn't ruin my life too. Every single moment this year, I've had the clear impression she hates my guts. If I sleep, she sends me dirty looks. If I'm awake, she sends me dirty looks. If I listen to music, or if I'm silent. If I'm reading or using Babette, or making cookies, or having friends over, she ALWAYS sends me dirty looks. I'm sure she even sends me dirty looks when I'm not there. She slams doors. She sighs five times a minute. Last time I had a friend over, she asked if we could go to the kitchen as she was going to sleep - we did, and one hour later, when my friend left, we found her still awake and fully dressed.

It must be really hard to live this way, even without considering the people around her. It must be so depressing to be constantly mad at something.

The sad part for me is that she almost single-handedly ruined my year in Italy. Not completely, thank goodness, I'll be bringing back more good memories than bad. The crazy part is that 98% of my bad memories are due to her.

Can't wait to be rid of her.

Fuck

2007-05-06T19:03:00.001+02:00

It seems that Sarkozy has won.
Shit.

New bookmark

2007-05-06T14:38:00.000+02:00

While browsing the EU commission website for info on the "Polluter Pays Principle" directive, I found a new blog to bookmark. It's written by Margot Wallström, vice-president of the commission.
I usually highly dislike politician blogs, because they're:
1) Never updated
2) Almost exclusively dealing with the topic "me, myself an I",
3) Extremely boring.
Margot's is none of this, and I think I'm going to read it more in the future.
Here is my favourite entry so far:

L'élection présidentielle française

I both cheered and cried in front of the TV yesterday.

I cheered for the achievements of a presidential candidate belonging to my political family – The voter participation was very high and that is worth recognizing and cheering for as well. And maybe this was the first time that the web debate had the same status as all the other media ?

Mais, peut-être plus que tout, j‘étais si contente de voir qu‘une femme participera au deuxième tour de l‘élection présidentielle! Nous avons déjà eu en Europe, des femmes Premier Ministre et Président de la République et nous avons, bien sûr, un certain nombre de femmes ministres dans les différents gouvernements (et même beaucoup de femmes, comme c‘est le cas dans le nouveau Gouvernement en Finlande). Mais jusqu‘à présent, en France, jamais une femme n‘était parvenue au deuxième tour de l‘élection présidentielle! C‘est historique, et je voulais, en tant que femme engagée dans la politique, rendre hommage à Ségolène Royal et lui souhaiter “Bon vent“ pour la suite.

I love this blog already - she's multi-lingual!

A boring Sunday afternoon

2007-05-06T14:11:00.000+02:00

I'm going to be frantic all day long again... In less than six hours (six hours!) I'm going to find out who my new president is. Granted, all suspense has been killed by the polls that all give Sarkozy a clear advantage, but I'm hopeful anyway, and still root for Ségolène. My father will vote for me this time around, as I obviously can't do it from another country.
I'll try o study a bit of inetrnational relations to get my mind off things, but it will be quite difficult.
Please, let Ségolène win. She would be good, I just know it...
I'm following the evets as the unfold on Le Soir, newspaper from Belgium, since in France, it is forbidden to write or say anything until 8pm.
In the meantime, while I'm bting my nails to death, you can check out my latest baby right here.

(And yes, as you can see, I've been having fun with the format of this blog too)

The $67 million pants

2007-05-04T13:53:00.000+02:00

...

This is just absolutely ridiculous. How do expect people to trust each other after that? You spend half your life watching your back just in case something you're doing could lead to a lawsuit.
My idea: auction this off and give the money to those dry cleaners. It's probably worth $67 millions. Or more.

2007-05-04T13:44:00.000+02:00

Sandra: "So, do we do a Powerpoint? The teacher said he'd prefer it."
Carolina: "Yeah, and we could add a video. My boyfriend said he could do one for us."
Juliette: "That sounds cool!"
S: "But I thought your boyfriend was in Brasil?"
C: "Yeah, but he found pictures about it on Google, he'll put them together and send them with a pretty music."
J: "So, we should all do our part, and then sent it to one of us who'll put it all together."
S: "Yeah, since we all have gmail accounts it will make things easier."
J: "I'll google a bit to find out if more happened on the topic since the book was published."
C: "We could skype each other on Sunday, to see if we can make it last 15 minutes."
S: "Yeah, great idea."
...
...
...
J: "Gosh, we would never survive without the Internet."

2007-05-03T12:26:00.000+02:00

Interesting article of the day:

“We never expected it to come back every year,” said Cheryl Aldrich, the assistant manager, guiding a visitor on a tour of plants that would once have needed coddling to survive here: eucalyptus, angel trumpets, the Froot Loop-hued Miss Huff lantana. “We’ve been able to overwinter plants you didn’t have a prayer with before.”

2007-04-29T19:00:00.000+02:00

This is both cool and absolutely useless at the same time...

2007-04-28T20:42:00.000+02:00

Update: I finally found something in English language on the Geremek story.

2007-04-28T17:48:00.000+02:00

I blogged ages ago (well, OK, last December) about how fascinating the melting of Arctic ice could be, from a nerdy Law of the Sea point of view. Now, that blog post had a pretty big impact on my life, since while writing it I realised just how cool LoS could be (and it changed few other things too, that have nothing to do with LoS, but that's another story...).

It seems other people are starting to comprehend my weird fascination. This could become one of the major international relations problems linked to global warming. I can see a few others, like the scramble for clear water, loss of coasts due to sea level rise and risk of massive emigration. At least, this one doesn't come with potential human disasters...

Poland fact of the day

2007-04-28T11:54:00.000+02:00

This is something I don't find reported in any part of the English speaking press, yet everywhere in the French speaking one, even though lately it is centered only on the presidential election.

The Polish government has been annoying me a lot lately. Poland is currently more or less governed by identical twins, Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczunski. Lech is President, Jaroslaw is Prime Minister. They are both profoundly anti-EU. They've proven it times over, the last proof was accepting this crazy anti-missile shield from the US without even informing their EU and NATO partners, which has sparked a very serious crisis between Russia and the NATO.

Lately, they've done two terrible things. Besides being EU-phobe, they're homophobes and have started a witch-hunt against former communists, à la MacCarthy.

A new law has been passed to "limit homosexuality". The idea is to forbid homosexuals from being teachers, to avoid "homosexual propaganda". Apparently it is "bad for society to have more homosexuals". My, oh my. For this law, the EU is threatening to strip Poland of its vote in the Council of Ministers, since according to the Nice Treaty, any country violating human rights can lose the right of vote. Good one.

They're now hunting other people. Former communists. They've passed a law that makes it mandatory for any person holding public office to take a pledge they did not support the communist secret services. MacCarthy would be so proud. They're saying they want to "purify" Poland. Some 100000 people could have to take that pledge.
However, two people are resisting this witch-hunt, and they're not the least influent. Bronislaw Geremek, current euro-deputy and Tadeusz Mazowiecki, former post-communism Prime Minister, both members of Solidarnosc, the Union that tried to reform communist Poland, have refused to take this pledge, out of principle. No one seriously thinks they've collaborated. However, as things stand today, Geremek has been stripped of his mandate as euro-deputy. The EU Parliament is resistign this. Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the Parliament has pledged his support. They're going to resist this scandal by all means possible.
It's in moments like these that I'm proud of being European.

24 hours in my life - the night

2007-04-28T11:52:00.000+02:00

3 something am: Stop at the border. Do they really need to turn on the light in here?

-----------------------------------------------

More later

24 hours in my life - the evening

2007-04-27T17:36:00.000+02:00

7:00pm: I wish I was in front of a TV right now. Or a computer. Or a radio. The participation results must be in by now.
7:05: Holding my phone closely, hoping that if I stare at it hard enough, it will just ring.
7:07: It's not working.
7:10: I wonder if the people with me in this train have voted.
7:11: I wonder if they wonder the same thing about me.
7:15: I call Steph, hoping the votes have been counted in Montluel. No answer.
7:20: If things keep going this way, I won't have nails anymore by 8 pm.
7:21: Or by 7:30.
7:25: Papa doesn't answer his phone either.
7:30: Claire-Lise does, but she wasn't watching TV.
7:32: I feel disconnected from civilization.
7:35: I'm sure the law that says no results can be announced until 8pm was passed just to make us discover real suspense. It certainly worked.
7:37: Science fact of the day: starring at your phone does not make it ring.
7:40: I'm amazed at the number of small stations between Lyon and Dijon. I'm even more amazed by the fact that time does not seem to go by from one to another.
7:45: I call Steph again. Still no answer.
7:46: A guy nest to me gets a phone call, and someone tells him the participation rate - 85%. Why can't my friends do that for me? At least he's nice enough (or annoyed enough by my constant phone calls to everyone) to tell me.
7:55: Call Claire-Lise and decide to spend the five minutes to come talking to her. That is, I would, if I wasn't in the middle of nowhere, and the phone would actually work.
7:59: ...
8:00: ...
8:01: Why is none of the people I've been harassing for the past hour calling me?
8:02: I call Papa.
8:03: Sarkozy-Ségolène. I can start breathing again. No Le Pen on the second round. Things will be tough for Ségo, but it's doable. And she will get my vote.
8:07: Some nails have survived. It's incredible. Now I can relax and have a life.
8:10: Nice to see I'm not the only one obsessed. Everyone else on the train is calling to get the results.
8:15: I'm actually crossing a pretty nice part of the country.
8:20: I had forgotten! Cosmo! The French Cosmo is the only decent one, a really fun read.
8:30: Cosmo, I love you.
8:40: Cosmo, will you marry me?
9:00: Dijon, Dijon, the other train station where I feel I'm spending my entire life.
9:02: There is a law of physics that states that my trains to Italy are always late when my train from Lyon is on time, and always on time when my train from Lyon is late. This time, it seems that I'm going to have the utter pleasure of spending two hours in Dijon, instead of one.
9:05: What to do, what to do... it's not like there is a lot of animation tonight around here...
9:10: Cosmo tells me that if don't buy stilettoes for the summer, I'm completely out fashion-wise...
9:11: ... and then tells me that flats are sooooo in this year.
9:15: According to my horoscope, I will have a "very demanding sex drive at the beginning of the month." Only Cosmo ever tells me this.
9:17: Short dresses make girls look like pre-schoolers. Good to know.
9:18: But guys like short dresses. Even better to know - or is it? Do I want to be with a guy who likes me because I look like a five-years old? It sounds a little creepy.
9:20: I will NOT buy fly sunglasses, I don't care how fashionable they are, they're just ridiculous.
9:22: This dress is absolutely beautiful, but it's 175 euros over my budget of 20. And the shoes are 685 euros over my budget of 30. Sucks to be me.
9:26: What kind of person spends 500 euros in underwear?
9:30: Apparently, dating your boss isn't a good idea. It's only for this reason that I'm my own boss.
9:40: Eva Longoria wants to spend her wedding night wearing her wedding dress. That's strange. Most people want to spend their wedding night wearing nothing.
9:45: Cosmo advices me to be myself. Uhm. My problem is that I'm too much myself most of the time...
9:50: Apparently, guys like girls when they're waking up, not perfect, just as they are naturally. That's good new, I spend most of my mornings in bed anyway.
9:54: The waiting room is packed with people going in Italy, waiting to know when the train will arrive.
9:55: It is not a good idea to harass a guy you've just met and leave your toothbrush after the first night you spend over. I thought that was general knowledge, but it seems that some girls just never learn...
10:00: ... and lying is usually a pretty bad idea too.
10:02: It's interesting to watch people stressing out because of a late train. A couple in front of me is listening to every single annoucement word by word, just in case a secret was revealed during the messages saying smoking is forbidden.
10:05: How to have a beautiful skin... What's wrong with my skin?
10:10: Another couple is learning by heart the map of Florence. Don't worry, people, it's a pretty small city, you'll be fine. Plus, everyone speaks French there.
10:30: Note to self: Never ever let my friends find me a boyfriend. According to Cosmo, it's a generally bad idea.
10:31: Let's leave the waiting room a bit before they announce when and where the train arrives, so as not to be lost in the crowd going up the stairs.
10:40: Announced! Now, to get on the platform before the mass of other travellers...
10:45: A family with four young kids is waiting next to me.
10:46: "Maman, Maman, Maman, Maman, Maman." Hem, I think your son wants to ask you a question.
10:47: "Maman, Maman, Maman, MAMAN, MAMAN!"
"Yes?"
"Nothing."
Can someone remind me why I want five kids?
10:50: "Papaaaaaaaaaa... When does the train arrive?"
"In fifteen minutes, dear."
10:51: "Is it fifteen minutes yet?"
Five kids... Where in the world did I get that idea?
11:00: "Is this our train?
"No, dear."
"Why?"
"Well, because it's not."
"But WHY?"
...
Note to self: sterilisation is way underrated.
11:05: It's here! It's here! Gosh, I'm tired.
11:10: Found my bed, gave my ID for the border, my train ticket, now, it's bed time.

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More later

Cool thing of the day

2007-04-27T14:25:00.000+02:00

This (found through Making Waves) is the coolest thing I've seen in a while.

"The [supertree] is a new way of showing all the mammal species on the planet, starting with a common ancestor. Species relationships can be inferred from morphological characteristics and genetic sequences," explained Dr Jones.

Get the pdf here, and zoom to 2400% to see the species names.

24 hours in my life - the afternoon

2007-04-23T19:20:00.000+02:00

12:35 pm: the drain seems to be fixed. Good.
12:36: the neighbor comes over to help fix the drain, and sits down for a drink when he realises it's fixed.
12:37: word has spread that we have drinks to serve, another friend of my father and stepmother comes over.
12:40: My sister is bringing eight people over for lunch, and they won't be here for an hour. My stepmother relaxes a bit, and accepts to have a drink.
12:50: My brother arrives with his girlfriend Audrey. Conversations drift towards the elections. Starts to be interesting.
12:51: Gosh, it's hot.
1:00: I start wondering if I'll ever manage to see my friends, considering I'm leaving here around 4:30 and lunch hasn't started yet.
1:05: I'm starting to regret having left my sunglasses in Bologna.
1:10: I need to find the best strategy to avoid being named barbecue person of the day.
1:15: Should I pack before or after lunch?
1:16: After.
1:20: Let's pretend to help setting the table to avoid doing anything else afterwards.
1:30: Béné and co are here.
1:31: Now, let's try and remember everyone's name.
1:32: Or let's give up right now, and call everyone "Hem, excuse me, can you pass the water?"
1:35: Very, very hot in France. Especially without a hat.
1:46: I'm usually a better strategist. How did I end up on the side of the table that isn't in the shade?
1:50: Isn't there sunscreen anywhere in this house?
1:51: Guess not.
1:55: I'll just push people around on the other side.
2:00: All this to end up being named responsible for the barbecue.
2:02: Uhm. Is so much fire normal?
2:03: It's not.
2:04: I'm declared free from barbecue work out of irresponsability. Perfect.
2:05: Problem on this side of the table is that I know no one.
2:06: Oh, well, I'll make small talk with myself. I do that all the time anyway.
2:07: Lala la, lalalalala, la.
...
...
...
3:00: Meal seems to be somewhat ending.
3:01: Let them eat cake! Or me at least! And I'd rather have fruit salad.
3:15: Yipee! Nathalie and Claire-Lise have arrived!
3:18: And Béné is leaving... That's the sad part.
3:20: Gossip time!
3:22: Gossip is soooooooo good.
3:23: Especially when I have gossip on myself.
3:24: And Claire-Lise always has good gossip on everyone else.
3:45: Gosh, I need to pack at some point.
4:00: Now Claire-Lise and Nathalie are making me regret voting Bayrou.
4:15: I think I have everything. I think.
4:25: Bye Papa, bye everyone!
4:30: Off we go!
4:35: Bye Nath. I hate spending so little time with my best buddies.
4:40: Claire-Lise drops me off at Audrey's. I'll go to Lyon to take my train with her and Frédéric.
4:45: That is, if we ever leave.
4:50: They have apparently decided to go vote as a group.
4:55: A group of friend that is notoriously late everywhere - they must have Italian genes.
5:00: Off we go again. Finally.
5:10: Or not. Fred forgot some stuff at Audrey's.
5:15: Maybe this time is the good time?
5:20: Yes!
5:45: I'm visiting Audrey and Fred's apartment for the first time. It's really really big, and very nice too.
5:50: Now time stresses me. I have over one hour to make it to the station, which is very close, but I'm fretting.
5:55: I'll give myself fifteen minutes.
6:00: I realise my brother has his own apartment, with his girlfriend - gosh, we're growing up.
6:10: Bye Fred and Audrey. This has been a very short stay.
6:25: The Gare de la Part-Dieu. I feel like I've spent half my life there. I probably have.
6:26: Train is late. Why is this train always late?
6:30: I'll buy Cosmo to make up for my disappointment.
6:31: And a sandwich.
6:32: But I'll wait for the train to enjoy Cosmo.
6:35: Lalala. La La. La lalala.
6:50: Train is here. I'm gone for good.

--------------------------------------------------
More later

24 hours in my life - the morning

2007-04-23T10:59:00.000+02:00

9:30am: "Juliette, the sun is up, why don't you join it?
"Mrskjgdfhjeb ryhg."
"Juliette, you have many things to do today - like voting."
"I still don't know who to vote for."
"That's a problem indeed."
9:35: "Juliette, you have a freshly pressed orange juice in the kitchen."
Did I ever mention I have the best Dad in the world? I came home for a few days, and it's already the second time I'm getting fresh orange juice.
9:40: Gosh, fresh orange juice is sooooooo good. I'll make another one.
9:45: Check e-mail, chat, write a few posts on the Greenpeace forum.
9:49: Do dishes.
9:50: "Papaaaaaaaaa! We have a problem with the sink!"
"How so?"
"When I empty one side, the other side fills up."
"..."
"Papa?"
"That's a problem indeed."
9:55: "Do you need help fixing the sink?"
"Naa..."
9:56: "Do you need help fixing the sink?
"..."
"Papa?"
"Yes."
10:30: "Whkhseifhrlng"
"What?"
"The entire drain is blocked."
"Do you still need help?
"No."
"Can I take a shower?"
"No."
"Can I get dressed and go vote?"
"Sure. Try to see if the supermarket is open, and if they have the most potent acid in history."
"They're closed on Sundays."
"Go anyway."
10:50: I leave the house.
11:20: I'm in town. The store is closed indeed.
11:25: I arrive at the school I used to go to, where the vote takes place. Gosh, it's packed.
11:26: A neighbor I haven't seen in ages arrives right after me. I'm in for half an hour of small talk.
11:30: Still in line. Half the town is here it seems. All people I grew up with, and haven't seen in ages.
11:32: They should make election day a city ball. Everyone seems to meet here.
11:35: I should probably decide now who I'm going to vote for.
11:45: Ségolène, François? I'm closer to Ségolène, clearly, but I think only Bayrou can defeat Sarkozy on the second round. Bayrou it is.
11:46: Second line. I see Stéphanie has just arrived, I'll have to stop by and say hi when I'm done.
11:55: "A voté!" There, I'm done, Alea Jacta Est, all you want, I can put this dilemma behind me. Now, I'll start biting my nails until 8pm. At least, from what I've seen, we'll get high voter turnout.
12pm: I say hi to Stéphanie, make plans to see her later this afternoon, with the rest of our friends, see my neighbor who tells me to tell my dad he can count on her husband to fix the drain.
12:01: I walk back home, wondering if I did the right choice. Oh well. I can't go back now.
12:05: Gosh, these shoes hurt.
12:10: I'll never wear these shoes again.
12:25: First time in history I'm happy to see a Range Rover - the neighbor stops next to me and picks me up for the rest of the way home.

---------------------------------------------------------

More later

2007-04-18T00:05:00.000+02:00

I don't like to admit when I'm wrong, but I'll have to do it today (tonight?).
First of all, I'd like to say that I am really sorry for the families of the victims of the Virginia shooting. This is a terrible way to die, unfair, and I really wish the US would move its ass and try to get better gun control.

Now, here is where I was wrong: Pepijn and I disagreed yesterday on the media coverage of this event. It was reported in all major newspapers and news networks, American or not. Pepijn saw an unbalanced coverage: stuff like that unfortunately happens worldwide everyday, and no one ever talks about it. Suddenly, it happens in the US, and the entire world knows about it. I said that the US being the world power today, anything that happens there is important to the rest of the world, any national political debate can change things on the other side of the planet. Therefore, if this sad event sparked a debate, it was normal to put it in the front pages of all newspapers worldwide.
This is where I got it wrong. The shooting is making the news. Not the debate on gun control. Therefore, the rest of the world is not really concerned, at least not anymore than if it had happened in Korea, Lettonia or Micronesia.

So, now I'll say it publicly: Pepijn, I was wrong.

2007-04-15T18:13:00.000+02:00

I am a disaster waiting to be made today.
The plan for the entire day was "no plan", which sounded amazing. The only thing I had to do was some laundry, which I figured was safe and eprfect for a sunny day, since it would dry a lot faster etc.

It's pretty bad when the only human activity you have all day is one that you've been doing for years, and you still manage to screw it up.

All my clothes changed colors.

That would be fine if the colors in question were something nice and shiny, something I'd want to wear.

Instead, they' almost all grey.

I usually like grey. Once in a while. When it's a nice grey, one that you'd want to wear everyday, not one that screams "LAUNDRY DISASTER" when you see it.

The two pieces of clothing that didn't turn grey are the culprit (a nice blue grey skirt, that I usually love, but is my worst enemy today) and my white hoody that turned... red.

Red is the color of what written on it, i.e. "Whippets", the mascot of my US school.
That hoody was a miracle so far, I'm sure it could actually be used for the trial in sainthood for John Paul II. In the five years I owned it, it remained pure snow white. Like, in five years, I managed to avoid tomato sauce, ink and all the kinds of disasters my clothes usually suffer.

Until today.

I'm sooooo mad.

If a piece of clothing I like is going to be ruined, I want it to ahppen the old fashion way, by eating a nice piece of pizza, or pasta, or anything that includes red food. It's just unfait to have it happening during something I don't enjoy doing in the first place.

I'll try to attack it with bleach in a while, but I'm afraid it's too late.

I probably wouldn't be so angry if it was the type of clothes I can find anywhere. Most of the white stuff-turned-grey I can replace if I really need to - they mainly come from H&M, which is available everywhere in the world. However, this hoody can only be bought in Whitewater, Wisconsin, United States, and I'm about 7000 km away from there right now, and I wasn't exactly planning on going to visit my friends there in a few years - I love them, but there are many places on my list, and Whitewater isn't in first position.

Technology-holic

2007-04-13T19:19:00.000+02:00

Today was the last day my friend Lola stayed over, and we wanted to go shopping for lots of good bolognese food. She had to take some money at the bank first though.
Lola had three credit cards, two from her banks in France and one for when she's in Wales. Neither her French credit cards worked, and it kind of annoyed her, since she knew for sure she had money on them. We tried five banks, none worked. I thought I'd be a good friend, and lend her some money - my credit card didn't work either, in any bank. That started to be a bit strange, since exceptionally, I actually have some money.
We went in the bank, asked what was going on, and the guy couldn't tell us.

We resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be able to take cash, and decided to just pay by credit card in the store - didn't work either. Lola finally decided to try her Welsh credit card, which worked - but she wasn't too happy about that, since it meant she'd pay for the change between pounds and euros.

First thing we did when we got home was to check a bunch of websites - our banks, visa international, finance newspapers (in case a bank had gone bankrupt, you never know) - nothing. Plan B was to call my dad and her mom, which worked a whole lot better. They called the banks in France, and learned that the entire Visa network in Europe had crashed - it was impossible to make international payments. Lola had managed to pay with her Welsh card because it was a mastercard.

Now, far from me the idea of bashing Visa - I've had a Visa since I was 16 (very useful in the US), and this is the first time I have a problem. I'm just really hoping they fix it fast, because as things are right now, I have 40 euros of cash that Lola lent me, and after that, I'm screwed.

I had never realised just how dependent I am on my credit card. I knew I was an Internet-addict, that I couldn't live without my iPod, that I would be lost without my cell-phone, but I had never noticed that piece of technology until it stopped working.

I could never live in the middle-age. Or even in the 19th century. Or even ten years ago. Proof of that, is that the first thing I did when I noticed it screwed was starting to plan the blog entry I'd do about it.

If you want to kill me, don't attack me. Just deprive me of every electronic item I own. I will die.

2007-04-07T19:25:00.000+02:00

My friend Lola is visiting, so I won't blog much over the next few days.

2007-04-06T12:47:00.000+02:00

I've mentioned a gazillion times that my sister is amazing, but did I ever mention that my father is absolutely great too?

As in "incredibly incredible?"

As in "contending for best Dad in the world award?"

As in "amazingly amazing?"

As in "type of Dad who randomly buys to his three kids tickets to go see the Rolling Stones in concert in Lyon on June 18th"?

HOLY SMOKE!

I'M GONNA SEE THE STONES IN CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!

This is amazing on so many levels.

He told me that last night at the end of a skype conversation. I'm still not over it.

THE ROLLING STONES!!!!
Oh. My. God.

I'm probably going to have a major schedule conflict somewhere along the way, since I put my internship availability dates from June 1st, that whatever I get, I'll probably be on the other side of Europe, but I'll figure it out one way or another - it's the Rolling Stones, for heaven's sake!

Time Out

2007-04-04T15:50:00.000+02:00

You've all watched or played a volley-ball game in your life. The principle is pretty easy: each team keeps sending that ball to the other side of the net, trying to make it difficult for the other to send it again - and if you sent it out of bounds, drop it or keep it too long, you lose.

Volley-ball is usually fun, until you hit the ball so much that you wrists start itching and burning.

A giant game of volley-ball is being played right now by the world leaders, and it's time to stop, because the planet's wrists are slowly turning red. Yesterday, George Bush send the ball to China:

“Whatever we do,” he said, “must be in concert with what happens internationally.” He added, “Unless there is an accord with China, China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in a brief period of time.” (NYT)

Hem.

Mr. Bush, there is already something going on internationally - it's called Kyoto - and I seem to remember that you were the one who decided you'd rather keep on playing volley-ball than have a break and drink some water.

Then, we have Mr. John Howard, Australia PM, telling off Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for environment, who dared suggest that Australia should lift a finger to cut CO2 emissions. Howard said that Australia was different from Europe, and therefore had no lessons to take.
Yeah.
Maybe in Australia CO2 isn't a greenhouse gas.

Today, in my environemental policies class, we've talked about acid rains, and how, slowly, over 20 years ago the governements started cooperating because they realised that forests were dying. However, the movement was too slow, and in 1983, a group of ten countries decided that they'd move on alone, unilaterally cutting their SO2 emissions by 30% - because the emergency didn't allow time for more talk and symbolical actions. They had nothing and everything to win in the process - nothing because they were losing comparative advantagesw, which is never a good thing in this dog-eats-dog world; everything because their forests were slowing dying, and someone had to do something. Finally, a few years later, it was decided that everyone would do the same - except, of course, our British and American friends (between la Thatcher and Reagan, it was unlikely they'd move their little finger).

When I heard this story, I really wondered what it would take for this to happen on GHG. Yes, I know, the EU has already decided to do better than Kyoto - not that this is amazing in itself, considering all the flaws Kyoto has. I would just like to see someone saying "OK, we've screwed up really bad, we know it, maybe it's time to stop and actually do something highly significant."

It all comes down to volley-ball. When, in a team of four, one of the player is really bad, the others have two choices:
1) They can point the finger, blame him for everything that goes wrong, stop cooperating and lose the game for sure.
2) They can decide to take a time out, come up with a strategy involving only three players, and ignore the other one. They stand a chance to win, and even if they lose, it won't be as bad as with the first option - maybe they'll get at least a set.

Mr Bush and all those following his example want to follow option one, just because they don't care about winning or losing, as long as the annoying fourth player doesn't win either.

I think it's the moment to take a time out, and start playing the game without the bad players. There will be free-riders in this game whatever we do. Let's face this fact, and move on.

Picture of the Day

2007-04-03T18:21:00.000+02:00

Taken on a wall in Bologna yesterday... One of my all time favourite graffitis (only pay attention to the text, don't mind the guy throwing something...)

New Bookmarked Website

2007-04-03T18:00:00.000+02:00

I randomly found an absolutely great website, ChangeThis. It may or may not be one of these websites that everyone knows about, and somehow forgot to tell me. I just find it incredible that such a good source of knowlegde would be a secret...
This website is great in the sense that it helps my craving for good tips on how to get organized better, how to make people realise how amazing I am, how to make life treat me nicer in general, as well as tips on marketing. I really appreciate that last one, because I love marketing - it's the kind of topic so rational and down-to-earth that makes me laugh, while at the same time being oh-so useful. I had a marketing course last year, and I got a terrible grade in the end, not because of the marketing part, but because it was coupled with accounting and such stuff that I understand nothing about. I would love to study marketing if it wasn't automatically linked to finance, accounting etc.
Anyway, ChangeThis is nice for that, and also because they speak in terms that the average human being (the one that didn't do a bunch of fancy college courses) can understand.

Their own description of themselves is:

ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.

We're on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds.

Most (if not all - I write most because I didn't browse the entire site yet, and I don't want to get it wrong) of their content is under creative commons license. they don't charge you for great tips, which is in itself remarkable.
So, there, because I'm just that nice, I give you the link - go have fun.

2007-04-03T00:28:00.001+02:00

Bush Refuses To Set Timetable For Withdrawal Of Head From White House Banister

WASHINGTON, DC—"I stuffed it in here for a reason, and to remove it now would mean giving up on everything we believe in," Bush said from between two White House banister poles.

2007-04-02T21:29:00.000+02:00

I've become a regular reader of Spiegel Online - for those who don't know, Der Spiegel is a German magazine that has recently started to be published in English too - and I really like it.
This week, they made their issue about - guess what? - climate change!

It does seem to be the new hype lately, which could not make me happier - when you've been yelling for years about something, you kind of appreciate people starting to pay attention.

I like the Editor's note:

Humanity only has 13 years left to take the actions needed to prevent a climate change hard landing. According to the recent United Nations climate report, annual carbon dioxide emissions must have begun to drop sharply by 2020 at the very latest -- and that just to ensure that global temperatures do not increase by more than an anticipated 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. If left uncurbed, however, emissions could lead to an increase of up to 6 degrees. Right now, the trend in emissions is pointing to the latter: The amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the world's population increases each year. This happens in part because of the economic ambitions of newly industrializing countries like China and India, but also because of highly wasteful Western lifestyles. With this essay, SPIEGEL ONLINE launches a new series: "New Energies -- The Path away from Climate Catastrophe." The series presents a host of ideas aimed at helping to solve the problem of climate change.

Save the Whales!

2007-04-01T22:45:00.000+02:00

Greenpeace has set up a while ago the I-Go campaign, where basically everyone can come up with a way to save the whales, and test the waters - quite literally.
One of the campaigns is very very very very cool. The aim is to send a message to the Greek government, which is not yet part of the International Whaling Commission, but seems getting ready to do so. Last year, the whales lost in the IWC by just one vote - so Greece could change many things, if it joins before the key date.

The way the message is sent is very cool: take a picture of yourself with a sign for Greece, add what country you're from and post it one the website. Join this campaign here! Quite a lot of people have already done so!

2007-04-01T15:26:00.000+02:00

I absolutely love Jane Austen, so reading articles like this one makes me very happy...

I Am In Love

2007-03-31T11:24:00.001+02:00

That's A News Network I'll Watch...

2007-03-29T13:32:00.000+02:00

Onion News Network Promo

6 Weird Things About Me

2007-03-28T21:56:00.000+02:00

I've only just noticed that I've been tagged by Meg for this fun little game.

1. I can cure hiccup. I have no idea how, I just can, by taking your hand between mine and waiting.
2. When I was a few months old, somehow my stomach folded itself. The way to cure this, my parents were told, was the hang me by the feet after every baby bottle. So, for a few weeks, as a newborn, I got hanged by the feet at least three times a day. Then they wonder why I'm weird.
3. I name my electronic devices. All of them.
4. When I studied in the US, I got better grades in English than my American classmates, which annoyed them to no end.
5. I have no nail on one of my toes. I wasn't tortured by anyone, was just born this way.
6. I have travelled more in the United States than most Americans.

Rainy Day

2007-03-26T15:51:00.000+02:00

It's raining pretty badly here in Bologna today. Rainy days aren't really the norm here, so since we've had three or four in a row this past week, it's getting a little depressing. I have a magical formula, though, that makes a rainy day more shiny. It's very simple: bright umbrella + good music.

I wonder why all umbrellas don't have rbight colors. When you think about it: if you have an umbrella, it's because it rains. If it rains, then it's not a very bright day. If it's not a very bright day, then it needs some brightening - therefore, no dark, brown, black etc.
My umbrella is yellow with flowers on it, so it respects the first requirement.

Second is music. For this, I have a fun "Cheer up!" playlist on Mariette. Because I'm that nce, I'll share it with you.
Note that the songs on this list are not all exceptionally funny or cheery, they just all put me in a very good mood. If you made your own playlist, it would probably look different. It also constantly changes - it looks different from two days ago, and will look different two days from now.

Aretha Franlin - Think

Ben Charest - Rendez-vous
Bénabar - Le dîner

Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody
Christophe Willem - Born to Be Alive; Où sont les femmes
Edith Piaf - La Vie en Rose

France Gall - Besoin d'amour
Frank Sinatra - New York, New York

James Brown - I Feel Good

Michael Bublé - Spiderman Theme; Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Pink Martini - Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler

Queen - Killer Queen; Fat Bottomed Girls

Robbie Williams - Have You Met Miss Jones
Sergio Mendes + Black Eyed Peas - Mas Que Nada

The Beatles - Two of Us; Strawberry Fields Forever; Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds; Penny Lane, Yellow Submarine

U2 - Elevation

2007-03-25T14:02:00.000+02:00

Just finished The Life of Pi.
Awesome.
Highly recommanded.

2007-03-24T18:19:00.000+01:00

What About Coconuts?

2007-03-22T21:32:00.000+01:00

Exclusive!

2007-03-22T21:25:00.000+01:00

Ann Coulter unveils the final argument against Global Warming: Al Gore is fat.
Gosh.
Now I'm convinced global warming is a lie. I just needed dear old Ann to point me in the right direction.

Shopping Day!

2007-03-22T20:00:00.000+01:00

I noticed a trend today: it's when I decide I'll go shopping because I really need new stuuf that I buy nothing. When I don't need anything, I'll buy a ton of stuff. Today was a perfect example. I recruited my friend Zelda because I needed two things: a new pair of glasses and a pretty dress to go to a wedding.
I bought neither.

Oh, now I know which ones I want, but since both items are over-budget (well, the dress really isn't, but it requires buying that perfect pair of shoes that make my legs look like they're three miles long), I left the both stores empty-handed.

Which sucks. Because I really need new glasses (my current pair is five years old, and will not hold for much longer, I think), and well, if a wedding isn't a good occasion to buy a dress, what is, really?
And really, besides the price, both items are just perfect. You know, when you try on something, look in the mirror and think "Oh, God. This is it. The one I looked for my entire life." So it makes it even harder to be reasonable and leave empty-handed.

So, tonight, I'll call my bank (also known to the world as "Mom") and ask for a budget extention (for the glasses, the dress comes out of my own pocket, unfortunately).

I'll keep you updated - I wanted to make photos today, but it turns out, stores don't like it when you take pictures of yourself trying on stuff...

Primavera!

2007-03-21T20:52:00.000+01:00

Today is the first day of spring, so I'll treat you to a few pictures to celebrate (though it looks more like winter here...)

2007-03-18T22:45:00.000+01:00

I've added some long overdue pictures from Ancona in flickr. Check them out!

Stupid Quote of The Week

2007-03-18T18:31:00.000+01:00

When we were fighting communism, OK, they had mass murderers and gulags, but they were white men and they were sane. Now we're up against absolutely insane savages.
Ann Coulter, August 16th 2o04

I've decided to find a quote each week by someone who is completely stupid, just so my readers and I can feel a little smarter. Ann Coulter was a very obvious first choice.
Feel free to suggest your own.

2007-03-17T21:22:00.000+01:00

A new service called GrandCentral, now in its final weeks of public beta testing, solves all of these problems. It’s a rather brilliant melding of cellphone and the Internet.
Its motto, “One number for life,” pretty much says it all. At GrandCentral.com, you choose a new, single, unified phone number (more on this in a moment). You hand it out to everyone you know, instructing them to delete all your old numbers from their Rolodexes.
From now on, whenever somebody dials your new uninumber, all of your phones ring simultaneously, like something out of “The Lawnmower Man.”

While this might look amazingly cool at first, I can see a thousand flaws in it, 99% of which have to do with my privacy.

This is good-bye to ignoring the phone and say "Oh, sorry I wasn't home", or "Oh, sorry, I forgot to recharge the battery" etc.
There is no calling anyone for a surprise first. "Guess who? it's me, that person you haven't seen in a thousand years, I just wanted to know how you are..." or "Happy Birthday? What, you don't know who this is? It's vexing..."
No affairs anymore, if your wife can pick up the house phone when your mistress is calling at work.
Most of all, this sounds terribly big-brotherish to me. It's nifty technology, sure, but I'm already a slave to the phone with only one number - I don't know how bad things will get when I start having a fix phone, and a work phone, and a pager and... List goes on.

This still needs some work if you ask me.

Why?

2007-03-17T18:56:00.000+01:00

Why? Why do my shoes do this to me? I was all prepared to love them, cherish them until death doth us part, and today, after less than a week of love, they betrayed me!

Absolutely beautiful weather today in Bologna, so I went out in the Giardini Margherita, found myself a tree, took off my shoes and tanned while working - or maybe worked while tanning, I'm don't know. I felt like a lizard, warming in the sun, it was perfect.
Then, when I was warm enough, I decided to go for an ice-cream in a parlor that friends of mine recommanded. That's when it happened. I tried to put my shoes back on, and somehow, they didn't fit.
I don't know if in the space of an hour and a half my feet got bigger or my shoes got smaller. Maybe it was both.
However, now that I had an ice-cream craving, I needed to go. I figured that it would just work itself out - uh uh.
I took my ice-cream, but started to limp while I was walking in town. I stopped, took off my shoes, and when I noticed I was actually bleeding, I decided it was time to stop playing superwoman, and just go home.
I felt defeated.
My biggest problem now, though, is "what am I going to wear?" I own tons of clothes, but not that many pairs of shoes. And it's not like I can afford to buy a new pair every week either...

That's one heck of a problem to figure out.

Green Everywhere - In Sports

2007-03-17T14:06:00.000+01:00

The cover of Sports Illustrated is more famous for its swimsuit edition, but you'll excuse me if I find this one much sexier.
SI is doing a special Global Warming issue. I don't know if they're just following the hype, or if they're really comitted, but I like what I'm reading:

The next time a ball game gets rained out during the September stretch run, you can curse the momentary worthlessness of those tickets in your pocket. Or you can wonder why it got rained out - and ask yourself why practice had to be called off last summer on a day when there wasn't a cloud in the sky; and why that Gulf Coast wharf where you used to reel in mackerel and flounder no longer exists; and why it's been more than one winter since you pulled those titanium skis out of the garage.

SI asked an architect to plan out a self-sustaining, carbon neutral stadium. Aside from the idea being really cool, it looks absolutely great.

Sometimes, I kind of wonder what it has to do with sports at all, then I remember that the person reading SI is the average american, the one who has no clue how to make a difference, and I'm happy that today, he's reading stuff like this:

Humans are accelerating global warming, and we can at least minimize its damage, if not reverse it. By acting quickly, the two countries that emit most of the world's carbon dioxide, the U.S. and China, might be able to avert that forecasted five-degree temperature increase, slowing the rise of the seas enough to allow for the development of new technologies to redress the problem. What would it mean to act? Decrease the burning of fossil fuels, improve fuel efficiency and conserve energy in our daily lives.

You can read the entire article right here.
Now, if we could just start by getting rid of these, I think we'd be making a giant jump forward.

2007-03-17T13:27:00.000+01:00

I think this is what they call a verbal joust, and I have the feeling that David Letterman won it.

You Know Something is Wrong When The Onion Gets It Right

2007-03-16T14:13:00.000+01:00

In a sad way, this isn't too far off from the truth.

Why My Sister Rocks

2007-03-16T10:28:00.000+01:00

I googled my sister to find some inspiration. Not that I'm not inspired, but you know, in case there was a major secret about Bénédicte that the entire world knew, and I didn't.

I didn't find anything that I didn't know yet, but I was reminded of a few things.

First of all, how our lives have been very similar. It's quite obvious, really, but we were born in the same place, grew up in the same others (here, then here), went to about the same schools (though since I'm four years younger, I changed less times) like this one or that one (actually, this isn't the one we really went to - it was destroyed, and they built a better, nicer one).

This really doesn't matter, though. I just found it strange that only her and our brother Fred will ever experience childhood like I did.

I was reminded of another thing, though. My sister is really pretty. This is a picture of her that's starting to get old (her hair isn't blond anymore now, and it's a bit longer, as you can see on the picture below).

This is still not the most important thing, though.

I've noticed, while googling her, that nothing of the person she is comes out from her CV. You have to get to know her.

To me, Béné is the person who, when I was growing up, lent me clothes, gave me girly advice on everything and pretended not to notice when I stole her books.
When we were still living in Lyon, we shared a room, and almost every night, I'd come in her bed, and we giggled for hours, shushing when we heard our parents coming to the door, and then starting over.

Then, when we got older, my sister is the one who told me about her boyfriends, making me feel extra special because I was in on her secrets, and no one else was. She gave me insight on boy world - that's a scary world when you're eleven - and taught me everything from make up to matching clothes to avoiding our parents' wrath (well, that last part, she taught Fred more than me. I was an angel - not that this is necessarely a good thing to be).
She taught me a bunch of stuff I would never have learned otherwise. I've become quite an expert in meteoroglogy, making her study for her own exams. At some point, I knew the names of half the bacterias in the world (I promptly forgot, she didn't).
When the fateful day arrived in May 2005 (the day before that one - talk about a crappy week-end), she was the one who held me and let me cry, before driving me to see my best friend. From that day on, she's been the one with whom I could rant on my family problems - all of them - because she knows exactly how I feel. We went through that day together, and we'll do many more after that.
She's the one who brought me food almost every Sunday last year, and then spent the afternoon chatting with Lola and me about that latest developments of our lives.

What I'm trying to convay here, in a very complicated way, is that Bénédicte is the kind of person you can rely on. She's a good friend to have. She's bossy very often, but when you need her to be comprehensive and listen to you, she understands right away. She's there when you need her.
I'm so lucky to have her for a sister. I have to share her with a few other little sisters she found herself over the years (Alex, who took my place in Montluel when I was in Wisconsin, Lola in Strasbourg, who now chats with her on skype more often than I do), but I'm not jealous. She's got room for a lot of people in her life, without letting anyone down.

Béné is smart. She's efficient (give her something to do, she'll raise an army and get it done - almost literaly). She's patient (her annoying cat is proof of that). She's succesful (at least, so far she is - she's still looking for a job in environmental management - if you're interested, leave a message!).

She's also a pretty good example of the stupidity of men. I just don't understand why I don't have a brother in law and two nephews already. How is it that no guy has noticed her? Or rather, that the guys who do notice her all turn out to be creeps? (by the way, if you're interested, write me here - no creeps, married guys or losers allowed)

Now that I'm grown up too, I lend her clothes, give her advice and pretend not to notice when she steals my books. However, she's been so amazing to me in the past, and still is today, that I don't think I'll ever be able to repay her - not that she would ever ask me to.
I've tried to do a little bit with this blog, but even that I managed to screw up - she had asked for something funny, and here I get all mushy. I couldn't help it. No amount of jokes could make people understand why my sister rocks.
I think she won't mind that I screwed up.
She's that great.

Saving the World - Again

2007-03-15T19:43:00.000+01:00

Lots of fun today. I had forgotten until this idiot woke me this morning that I had world saving plans on March 15th.
Then I remembered! UniCredit! Nuclear!
Actually, that's about all I knew about the entire thing: UniCredit, a bank, had planned to finance a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, and Greenpeace was trying to convince them it's eeeeeeevil.
I arrived right on time at the meeting, where Lara explained me that actually, UniCredit had decided not to finance it after all (yeah!) and that Greenpeace was now conducting a study to find out if clients of the bank knew at all what had happened, and if they favored a bill that would prevent banks from financing dangerous projects that thier clients disagreed on (the latest eurobarometer study found out that 60% of Europeans oppse nuclear energy, 30% approve and 10% are undecided).
We were a group of five (I'm behind the camera, you can see the other four), and we split in two groups, to go ask our question at the exit of two different banks.
I went with Lara, because I just knew this was going to be very fastidious, and I wanted to have fun - I know when Lara is around, fun will just come.
The banks in Italy don't work office hours - they're pretending the make you a favour just by opening altogether. In the afternoon, they were open from 2:35pm to 4:05pm - not much time to ask many people questions, considering that a good 90% of them blasted us off.
So, we decided to have fun - sang, danced, made up a play - and we made friends with the security guard.
He was a really nice guy, actually. When we first arrived, we were ready not to like him (I mean, he was holding a gun after all). He looked at us, and I started thinking "Oh, no, he's going to breathe down our necks for the entire afternoon," but then, he came up to me (while Lara went in the bank to talk to the director and tell him how proud Greenpeace was of UniCredit for giving up on the nuclear project - and do you mind if we do a nice little study this afternoon outside your bank?), asked me what we were doing, looked at the papers I was holding an said in a low voice "You're doing a great job - you're entirely right."
Yipee!

It turns out, security guard is a very boring job - I mean, really, you get a bank attack once in every five years at most, the rest of the time, you just stand there and watch the street. He started talking with us. He really liked Greenpeace, and his main topic of interest is - seriously - overfishing. I was stunned. I think I've actually found the one person in the world who knows more about fish that Pepijn - and he's working outside a bank (Pepijn, now you know what the future looks like for you - sorry).
When the bank closed, he came to see us, shook our hands, told us he was glad he met us - I wouldn't be surprised if he comes at the next meeting, really.

The best part of the day really was the ice-cream we got ourselves for a job well-done. Or, rather for a job done. I'm not sure we were good, we only managed to interview 30 people or so, but hey! in Bologna, Thursdays are slow days - the center is closed to trafic, to "breathe" better, so half the stores are closed. The office in Rome decided on the day of the study, we didn't get a say...
I then brought Lara to see one of my dream dresses, that costs barely 200 euros, and she said that she could manage to home-make a similar one, cheaper - yipee! We'll have to see if we find good fabric, and then, I might just get myself a gorgeous dress!

Gosh, that was a good day.

Well, they're not worth much more...

2007-03-15T19:15:00.000+01:00

Conversation With Bologna's Stupidest Man

2007-03-15T12:03:00.000+01:00

The door: "Riiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggggg"
Juliette: "mpsdgbk"
The door: "Riiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggggg"
Juliette: "lefhnsfreih"
The door: "Riiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggggg"
Juliette: "OK, OK, I'm up." (answering) "Yeah?"
The man: "Paolo J***?"
Juliette: "No, he's not here."
The man: "I need to talk to Paolo J***."
Juliette: "Well, he's not here."
The man: "I have a package for him."
Juliette: "Well, bring it up, I'll take it for him."
The man: "I need to give a package to Paolo J***."
Juliette (slightly annoyed): "Yeah, I kind of understood that after the thousandth time you said it, but he's still not here."
The man: "OK. Can you come down thake the package for him?"
Juliette: "No, I can't. Come up, and I'll take it."
The man: "Why don't you come down?"
Juliette: "Because I'm in pyjama!"
The man: "What? I can't hear you!"
Juliette (yelling, and frankly annoyed): "I'm in pyjama!"
The man: "OK... What floor?"
Juliette: "Second."
... One minute
... Two minutes (I push the open door button again, in case he's so slow he didn't get to the front door before it locked again)
... Three minutes
(it normally takes me 15 seconds to arrive from downstairs to my door).
The door: "Riiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg!"
Juliette: "jhezgkfkdfbgk" (opens for the third time)
The man finally arrives, looking completely exhausted, even though he took the elevator.
The man: "I have a package for Paolo J***."
Juliette: "No. Way. I would never have guessed."

Let's Go Wake Up the Sun

2007-03-14T21:08:00.000+01:00

In my Latin America History class today, we talked about Mexico in the 1920th, and the work done by José Vasconcelos to unite the country under the banner of the revolution. I paid a lot of attention to that, not because I have a passion for the Mexican revolution, but rather because the name "Vasconcelos" sounded very familiar, and I couldn't figure out why.
I thought about it for the whole length of the class, and I figured it out when it was over: one of my favourite childhood books was written by a José Mauro de Vasconcelos.
It turns out, this is another José Vasconcelos (according to Wikipedia, there are seven somewhat famous José Vasconcelos - must be a common name), but this is besides the point.

My Sweet Orange Tree is one of the books, along with the Little Prince, that I've read a thousand times over when I was growing up, and that just never get old. It's the story of a Brasilian boy, growing up in a very poor family in the 20s. His best (only) friend is an orange tree in the back of his garden, to which he tells all his secrets. Actually, it's an autobiography, slightly embellished.
That story brought me to tears every single time I read it. And I'm sure if I picked it up today, I would cry again.

The thing is, I've looked for it on the web, and it's almost unavailable in English - the only copies on amazon are hard cover first editions, sold from 100$, which make me think there never was a second edition.
There is also a sequel, that looks like it was never translated in English at all. The title in Portuguese sounds great, though - Vamos Aquecer o Sol - it roughly translates to "Let's Go Wake Up The Sun". It's the story of the same boy, slightly older, undergoing to changes of adolescence, first love, and becoming a man (that one made me cry a lot too).

I think it should be required reading for all boys of the world. Seriously.

Anyway, English wikipedia seems to ignore this José Mauro de Vasconcelos, but not the rest of the world. Read about him in French, Spanish, Portuguese or German.

2007-03-13T22:28:00.001+01:00

Why didn't I think of it sooner? This is what I should do - just for guys.

Tutti Frutti

2007-03-13T20:30:00.000+01:00

While I'm waiting for Grom to open, I've found a place where I can get a fix on junk-food dessert.
It's a sort of fast-food restarurant, Italian way, with a lot of choice, and only one dessert, which lately I've been buying every other day.
It's a dietetician's nightmare. Imagine cubes of cream, side 2 cm long, deep fried in oil, and covered with powder sugar.

Yeah.

It's absolutely amazing.

Actually, when they first described it to me, I thought it would be the most disgusting thing in the world. The woman, seeing my worried face, let me sample one.

And I was in heaven.
Or maybe in hell, because really, something that good has got to be a sin in about all the religions in the world.

I was really happy to find this, because, honestly, besides ice-creams, Italians are not very gifted with dessert. OK, the ice cream here is perfect, but for the sake of changing pleasures, it's nice to have different options.

In other "news", I've found out that either I have a foot longer than the other, or one of my new shoes is smaller than the other. I'm betting on the second option. Just a hunch. (It kind of hurts, by the way).

What else? I'm finding out that there isn't a single topic on which I disagree with my environmental policies teacher, even when we're not talking about the environment at all (which happens very often, now that I think about it)...

My sister asked me to do an entire blog about her on Friday, which I will be very happy to do - as long as I figure out how to put what she wants me to write in a funny way...
I'll work it out (somehow...).

Things That Make Me Happy

2007-03-12T19:40:00.000+01:00

Recieving an invitation to my best friend's brother's wedding - and I'm invited for the whole thing, even the dinner and the party!

I get to buy a pretty dress!

June 23rd - marked in my calendar. I'll have to figure out a way to go in France, wherever I spend my summer.

Quote of the day

2007-03-12T07:15:00.000+01:00

“Will have to control myself when I see you. First urge will be to rip your clothes off, throw you on the ground and love the hell out of you. Am anxious to get you alone.”

Holy cow!

That's called getting to the point!

And Then God Said... Let There Be Sweden

2007-03-11T20:18:00.000+01:00

This summer, I was a nanny for three girls (two sisters, Carolina and Benedetta and one of their friends, Viola) who were as fascinated as me by fashion and pink. One day, Carolina, noticed a barette in my hair, that was pink, shiny, and basically gorgeous, and she fell in love with it. Needless to say, I wasn’t going to give it up for so little. Cinzia, Viola’s mother, was a pretty big fashionista too, and she asked me where I got it.
“H&M”.

She smiled, of the smile of those who know that you can find everything you want in H&M.
Carolina, who wasn’t ready to give up so fast, and who had never been in an H&M before (can you believe this? Poor girl), asked me what kind of store H&M was.

That was a pretty hard question. How could I possibly convey in my answer the marvel that H&M is? They, I knew.

“H&M,” I said, “Is exactly like IKEA, just for clothes.”

And that was it.

Because, really, when you think about it, they’re both Swedish, sell excellent design for very little money, they’re all over the world, and when you look closely at the price tag, they’re all Made In China.

I don’t know how I would live without Sweden, really. My house is furnished by them, and I’m almost fully clothed by them. Just wait till they make food and electronics, and I’ll start waving a blue and yellow flag (hang on… they already make electronics… Nokia is Swedish, isn’t it?)

Anyway, I’m telling you this for a purpose (this is where I start talking about clothes, if that bores you, stop reading).

Today, I was desperately looking for a pair of plain, normal, flat white shoes. I was really looking for the simplest thing in the world, to replace my boots that recently died (just when I was getting my favourite pair fixed. Talk about timing). OK, not really replace, since what I was looking for is more a pair of spring shoes, but the death of my boots was a perfect excuse.

It turns out, the simpler what you’re looking for, the harder it is to find.

I went through half the shoe stores in town (and this is Italy: most of the stores are shoe stores), and couldn’t find a decent pair under 50 euros - I was definitely not ready to give that much money to anyone, at least not until I marry this guy or that guy.

And then, I went in H&M.
And I found them.
The perfect shoes.
I’m not kidding, they’re EXACTLY what I was looking for, they cost 15 euros, they had my shoe size, I saw them, I bought them.

They’re not high quality, which means they’re going to last till the end of the summer, which is perfect, I’ll be able to change shoes by next year, to follow the fashion.

Another great thing happened while I was in town.
I’ve found out that the best ice-cream counter in the whole world in going to open in Bologna. It’s called Grom, there was one in Padova, and I think that this summer, they received almost half my wages.
How can I explain Grom?
Ice-cream from Grom isn’t about the ice, it’s about the cream. You can feel, while it melts in your mouth, how much time they spent whipping it.
There are quite a few ice-cream counters in Bologna, but nothing, NOTHING had come close to what I ate in Grom.

And they’re going to open in less than a month!

I can’t wait.

Gosh, I’m going to spend all my time and money there, I just know it.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway, all this put me in a great mood, which is quite something, because that bitch last night got me quite depressed, and even though I skyped Lola, which was awesome (she’s going to come in Bologna next month! Yeah! We’ll go get ice cream in Grom together!), I was feeling pretty down.

They call it retail therapy.

2007-03-10T23:00:00.000+01:00

The Internet can have pretty bad surprises at times.

I was google stalking a few people I know, including one that I don't like, and I found her blog. This person made pretty nasty comments about me, that I won't report here, cuz that's not the point.
I'm kicking myself right now. I don't like this person. She's the kind of person I don't want to be, very self-centered, who thinks she knows everything about everything etc. I should be honored she thinks so little of me. I knew she never liked me, actually. Yet, reading what she said felt like a slap in the face.
I'm so kicking myself. I'm not rooting for world popularity. Every person is disliked by someone else. You just don't expect to read about it personally.

I feel so stupid for being hurt by this, but I am.

2007-03-10T14:18:00.001+01:00

2007-03-09T23:32:00.001+01:00

2007-03-09T23:29:00.000+01:00

World Affairs Seminar

2007-03-09T18:12:00.000+01:00

Now is the time of the year when I start advertising for the amazing World Affairs Seminar.

The World Affairs Seminar is a week-long conference held in Whitewater, Wisconsin. The theme changes every year, but the goal is always the same "Peace through understanding".

From the website:

The purpose of the World Affairs Seminar (WAS) is to bring about a better understanding of world problems through a study of current issues, while at the same time providing the opportunity to discuss those issues with other young people from other countries. Emphasis will be placed upon promoting a better understanding of the causes of international conflict with the thought that if the causes are understood, problems are more likely to be solved peacefully by our future world leaders.

I've had twice the chance of attending the WAS, once as a student, once as a conselor, and both times had an incredible impact on me.

The WAS is open to high school students from 16 to 18. Now is the time to start to apply. Many local Rotary clubs, Lions club etc. offer scholarships.

This is a life-changing experience, take it!

The Sterility Certificate

2007-03-08T14:50:00.000+01:00

Today is international women's day, and I'm stunned by how little press coverage there is about this.
Many people think that female discrimination is a thing of the past, that equality has been reached when women have the right to vote, get a job and have their own sex life.
I wish it were this easy, but it's not.

I'm going to let you in on a conversation I had with my sister a few months ago.
Bénédicte is 26, a very smart person, with a good university diploma in a sector that hires a lot lately (she knows all about ISO 14001 certification).
She graduated two years ago, and has had contract jobs ever since - most of the time, they last 6 months max, and then, she doesn't know what's going to happen to her. It's unfortunately how the world works for young women today. She coined a pretty good expression to avoid this. She calls it the "sterility certificate".

There is a consensus among employers that any woman under 35 is going to get pregnant at some point. This implies a potential leave of absence, unavailability when they go pick up the kids at school, not being focused entirely on the job - basically, having other priorities than your boss.
Balancing a carrier and a family is one of the biggest challenges a woman has to undertake. Thankfully, fathers are getting more and more interested in helping their wives/ girlfriends/ unfortunate one-night-stands, but there is still a long road ahead.
Women still do more housework than men, on average. This starts very insidiously, as a bad side-effect of trying to help women to have both a carrier and a family.
In France, the goverment is very generous with mothers, and helps out by giving very long (almost fully paid) maternity leaves. During this maternity leave, the mother starts to spend a lot of time with her kids, and has more time to learn how to change a nappy, make a baby-bottle and all those little things wrongly thought of "mother instinct".
By the time the kiddies start to attend school, the mother ends up doing more than the father, even if you're in a progressive family, and even if the father believe in gender equality and all. This is not an attack against all men, it's just a fact.

Back to the certificate of sterility. Based on all I've written before, an employer will be looking for a male rather than a female, or a female over 35.
To the employer, the arrival of a baby is rarely a good thing. An acquaintance once told me that the day she announced she was having a baby, she said "well, I'm happy to tell you I'm pregnant!" The man looked at her and said flatly "I don't see what you're happy about."

This is (partly) the cause of lower employment rates among women. Among other causes are the fact that men have - allegedly - more charisma, and will therefore impress more, other predjudices and stay-at-home mums.
If all the employment difference between genders could be explained by mothers who volunteerly stay at home, we'd be closer to utopia.

So we're pretty far away from gender equality, even in the western world.
However, we white European/ American women are priviledged compared to the rest of the world. At least we're allowed to protest, show our hair without risking jail, get out without asking permission first, defend ourselves against violent boyfriends/ husbands, and so many more things - the list is so long, it's impossible to be exhaustive.

This is one more International Women's Day that we spend seeing so many wrong things, and realising not much improved since last year.

I'm hoping that by next year, some steps will be taken - preferably big steps, but I'll settle with small, as long as something is done.

Hopefully, by then, Bénédicte will find a job - without the sterility certificate.

For more information, check out Amnesty International.

Photo (c) me

New Blog for the Interesting Ramblings List

2007-03-06T19:22:00.000+01:00

While browsing the Internet looking for interesting master's programs on Law of the Sea, I've come accross a blog on Environmental Law. It's not what I was looking for right now, but it definitely is the kind of blog I'm usually looking for in general, so it's nice.
I'm not sure the author would appreciate her writings being called "ramblings", but whatever.
By the way, if anyone reading this is aware of a good Master's program on Law of the Sea (preferably in Europe, and preferably not too expensive - my funds are very limited), please, leave a comment.

Another Crazy Train of Thoughts

2007-03-05T22:55:00.000+01:00

Anytime I see a homeless person in the street, I wonder what happened for them to end here. Have they always lived in the street? Did they end up here after many things went wrong? Did they just snap one day and give up everything?

I also wonder about the people they used to know. Did they use to have a girlfriend at school? Does she remember them? Do they have kids? Are they good or bad persons? Does anyone think of them from time to time and wonder what became of them? Do they think of the past much, or do they try to ignore happier times?

There's a homeless man in the streets of Bologna "residing" in the University district, so who I seea lot, that really strikes me as the type of person who just snapped one day. All this guy seems to own is his clothes, a pillow and... a collection of DVDs and a DVD player.
I've thought about this a lot. I've figured that if I ended up living in the streets someday, a DVD player would probably be one of the last things I'd think to buy with the money people give me. But then, what else could he buy, should he manage to save up some money? The most useful thing would be a home, but if you can't give 500 euros in advance, and proof that you earn money, no one will give you a home. Then, maybe a good meal - but then, when you're sitting in the same place all day long, begging for money, you use less energy - and gte less hungry. Sad, but true. A dog, for company? I've often thought that utter selfishness was taking in a dog, when you knew you couldn't feed and house yourself, let alone another living being. When you think about it, a DVD player is not such a bad choice...

I really wonder what happened for this guy to lose everything, and buy a DVD player. Does he use DVDs the way I use books, to escape reality? In that case, he's very much like me - how can I be sure I won't end up like him in the street someday, with an army of books next to me? I'm sure I'll have no problem finding a job after my studies, even if I have to settle for something that is not perfect, but how can I be sure that if life treats me badly, I won't snap?
Other questions are more pragamatic: where does he charge the batteries? How gives him money? (can you picture yourself giving money to someone who owns a DVD player and fifty DVDs?)

I want to ask him all these questions, but that would be terribly rude. Plus, I'm not even sure he'd answer them. I know if all I had left were my books, I'd ignore anyone who interrupted me in my reading. I think he'll ignore anyone who interrupts a film...

Seeing Funny Things in Things That Are Not Funny

2007-03-04T22:34:00.000+01:00

I took a little field trip to Ancona today (photos will come later, I'm too lazy to edit them tonight).
Ancona is a 220km south of Bologna, on the Adriatic. It's the capital city of the region Marche, a gorgeous town, with a beautiful port, if you manage to find it (it's quite hidden and not very accessible by foot).
With the cheap trains, that stop in almost all train stations, it's a two and a half hours train ride from Bologna. Or it should be. If your train back home doesn't get stuck on the track for over an hour.
Does it sound like this happened to me? Because it absolutely did.

For a reason that was described as "problem on the track" (which means everything and nothing at the same time), we got stuck for 74 minutes (I counted) in the lovely town of Cattolica.
For heaven's sake! I was stuck for over an hour in a town named Catholic! What could possibly be more dull?

I had brought with me a nice book to read while sitting in front of the sea, which I finished in the train, Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson. It's a hilarious book about very sad stories, that revolve around disfunctional families and wives killing their husbands with an ax in the head.
So, creepy book + too much time on my hands = fast thinking Juliette.

I found myself reflecting on my life, and how I do not want to become so insane that I'll kill my husband with an ax in the head - or rather, I don't want to kill my husband at all.
This led me to think about whether or not I have Desperate Housewive DNA. Am I going to wake up one day and realised I've compromised on my dreams? Am I going to be one of those millions of women who go to good schools, get great diplomas, and somehow end up at forty, driving a Land Rover Discovery because their husband decreted it's safer, resolving more bathroom time conflicts than middle-east conflicts, cooking dinner for their husband who they know has a mistress - but really, they're relieved about it, it means they can avoid orgasm-less lovemaking and sleep better? The same kind of woman who one day, just wakes up with a murderous feeling, and either acts on it or runs away...
Now, I know the world isn't a copy of Desperate Housewives or Stepford Wives, but I sometimes really wonder what life has in store for me - if I'm going to change the world like I want to, or if I'm going to be one mroe anonymous soccer-mum, or, worse, if I'm going to be the old lady in the house on the corner, who never married and has too many cats.

I have so many dreams, and I can't kid myself: everyone has dreams, and most of us somehow just end up following the movement, and count the days till retirement.

I'm no better than most people, so I can't say I'm sure this won't happen to me. But I'm trying my best to avoid the concitions that will lead me down this road.

I cultivate my little bit of crazyness, not only because it makes people laugh, but also because in a strange way, it keeps me sane. I know that as long as I can see funny things in things that are not funny, I won't completely forget that happiness is not a goal you need to reach, it's a road you need to follow.
Sometimes, when I'm doing something Juliette-like, I can see people in the corner of my eye shaking their heads, and probably wondering when I'll finally grow up.
Well, I'm not planning on ever growing up completely. There's your answer.

I'm not very funny tonight, I'm sorry, but that's what happens when you get stuck in a town called Catholic for over an hour...

Picture is a secret posted on PostSecret a while ago...

2007-03-03T01:26:00.001+01:00

Spring is here!

2007-03-03T00:25:00.000+01:00

While I was walking through Bologna today, I could feel spring up in the air. It's always a very special day, when that happens. I can remember last year when that happened.
Strasbourg in the winter is a beautiful but sad city. When spring arrived, you can literaly feel the re-birth of everything. I know, it's a terrible cliché, but the day spring arrives, I feel a thousand times better, even if I didn't even notice I was feeling down.
I remember one day, a Saturday night, when my housemate Lola and I just took our bicycles through Strasbourg, to a park. There were no cars in sight, the streets were empty, the air was fresh but not cold, and the entire world belonged to us.
Today was a special day like that in Bologna. I went through the Giardini Margherita, put Oscar to work, and took some pictures of the flowers slowly appearing. I spent most of my afternoon taking pictures all around town. It was great. The weather was beautiful, so my pictures turned out loads better than the ones yesterday.
Now, the arrival of spring is causing me a slight problem. My favourite pair of shoes is close to being ruined - as in, my feet would be drier if I didn't have them on type of ruined. I have two other pairs of shoes: my boots, which are really inconvenient in spring and summer - due to being too hot - and the other pair, which calls itself shoes, but is really only a torture instrument, so I only wear these on special days. So, if spring is here, I need to get my favourite shoes fixed.
I've been looking all week for a shop that could do that, and couldn't find any, until I realised, obviously, that there was one two minutes away from my home.
So, I brought my dearest shoes to repair, only to find out that the guy was going to repair them for twice the price and in twice the time it usually takes in Strasbourg.
I then realised how inconvenient it would be to go to Strasbourg to get my shoes fixed, so I relunctantly gave them up.
Now, I have to go around with inconvenient shoes until Wednesday. This is not going to be fun. However, I'm strong, and I'll bear it.

I was supposed to meet a new friend in town too, an American girl, Sandra, who is in Bologna just for the second semester. We're in the environmental policies class together - another reason I love this class: you can actually meet people.
She didn't know the Sala Borsa, so I brought her. It was fun, because she had the exact same reaction I had when I first came months ago: this place is heaven. She's a library lover like me - I think we're going to get along just fine.
That place is really incredible. I've really rarely seen a library that great.
Should be the first place anyone visits when coming in Bologna.

Flickr

2007-03-02T00:43:00.000+01:00

I now have a flickr account. You can find all my beautiful pictures, made with help from Oscar right here.
My nickname is greenblackberries because it sounded cool and juliettelucie was already taken (probably by me, and then I completely forgot it).
I kept it for the website address, because it really sounded cool.

2007-03-01T22:55:00.000+01:00

Really really really good video here.
Make sure you also click on "learn more".

2007-03-01T21:22:00.000+01:00

Romania is soooooooooooooo going to win the Eurovision this year.