March 15, 2007: New Odyssey Part 1
Strange things happen to you when you’re under intense experiences, I don’t mean the near death and white light stuff, just ordinary daily experiences that seemed elliptic. One day you were at the beginning of winter and the next thing the arrival of spring…Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year all seemed to be eclipsed into a brief time span because of intensive courses at the faculty which entailed weeks and weeks of contrôle continu and the finals and then suddenly, it’s already the first wave of exams of the second semester…ouch. Well, that pretty summed up my winter experience for 2006 going 2007. This year, I promised myself to be more relaxed but there’s just no getting around it with the French system at the faculty.
As usual, weather has been a rather obsessive preoccupation for me (and for the French too), especially having had to slosh through slightly melting snow mixed with cow dung at 1700m above the sea level! If we don’t believe in global warming with this kind of proofs, I can’t think of anything else except divine punishment for man’s follies on Earth. This winter, or should I say last, in view that winter has only about 10 days left, wasstrange for my experience because there wasn’t any snow and temperature was almost printanière. The sun came back a week ago after such a long, rainy and warm winter. Managed to do a bit of ‘touristing’ around familiar places this time due to financial and time constraints (well, mostly financial because of imprudent buying during winter sales, which I will divulge later on). Saw a rainy and terribly windy Bordeaux one Saturday in January. A friend had wanted to see the town so I acted as a tourist guide and got cheap tickets because we were traveling in group with children. Part of the outing was also to locate the nearest Kentucky Fried Chicken because they had this incredible pang for it. As far as I am concerned, I will strictly disassociate myself from promoting fast food for all the reasons cliché or no…Another crazy thing was to faire les magasins before the end of winter sales. The trip was soured by a weirdo who probably figured out that we were not locals (probably won’t need much effort at that) and he followed us everywhere. THAT was a scary experience and to sum it up, this is my second trip to Bordeaux and each of it was marred by unwanted incident ( the first was a lady who tried to unzip my backpack from behind in a crowded street right in the middle of Rue St. Catherine, Bordeaux’s famous shopping district). I would say that it will probably be the last time I will ever want to see this town again. I felt a lot safer in Paris than in this very much smaller town.
A stall vending hot drinks and sweet cakes to passer-bys at Rue St. Catherine in Bordeaux. I seek refuge in a café nearby and snapped this photo while waiting for my friends doing their last shopping round. I was too exhausted to continue.
The week of CNY, went to see my sister in Toulouse but it was such a rush that we didn’t get to do much. Went up to the mountain in the Pyrenees but the trip was quite miserly, with very little snow, leaving visible bare brown patches everywhere, even at 1700m. The snow was thin and felt hard because it melted a bit here and there. Meanwhile, news of Airbus laying off 10 000 jobs really shook France and people manifested as usual, as if that had been an effective way to solve problems facing mondialisation and competition. Juggling socialist ideology and maintaining a capitalist economy must have been a very delicate job for the ruling party. In 40 days, we shall see the outcome for the first round of the Presidential Election of 2007. It’s going to be a square off between favorites on two extremities, Sarko on the Right and Sego on the Left, with a third sudden candidate of central wing, Bayrou. There isn’t a day without their coverage in the news these days. These daily ‘hot’ news with incessant statistics as to who is leading the opinion poll certainly gave new heights to the meaning of global warming in France.
Snow capped peaks of the Pyrenees. Notice the brown patches on the skiing ground and the sparsely covered peaks. A little souvenir from global warming and a reminder to humanity.
Back at where I live, winter sales had been quite fruitful, with huge discounts at the last minutes. Snapped up a supple suitcase, a messenger bag, a lambskin hobo for the missus back home, a reporter bag and a leather clutch bag at minimum 40% off the price. Yepp, 5 fat items from Lancel in one sale…kind of excessive but you only live once. Nice shirts too, at 8 euros a piece from Zara, 10 euros a piece from Celio and Burton, back season designer jeans from Trussardi at 40 euros a piece (bought 2 pairs and a matching bomber jacket in jeans), nice underwear from HOM at half-price at Printemps, cashmere and silk cotton mix pull at 20 euros, hats and belts to mix…now, did anyone forget to check if these items still have any space in an already overcrowded cupboard? I’m SOOO bad.
The pipe organ of the Eglise St. Sernin (Church of the St. Sernin) in downtown Toulouse. Went for a few concerts organized in churches throughout Poitiers where I live to listen to the playing…incredible acoustics. It is placed at the entrance of the church, not facing the entrance, for acoustics reasons.
Cultural Notes:
Contrôle continu means progressive testing, aka formative test.
Pritanière(feminine) or printanier (masculine) are adjectives used to associate the characteristics of spring (season) to things.
- Faire les magasins means shopping.
Mondialisation is the French version of globalization, just for variation. Globalisation in French would have meant ‘generalization’.
Sarko is the synonym affectionately given by the press to the popular candidate for the Presidential Election in April. Son of an immigrant and has tough stands for immigration issues and violence in the inner cities. Tipped to be the likely winner.
Sego: same. Segolène Royal, if she ever wins, shall be the first Madame La Présidente of France. Feminists have high hopes for her after the win of Angela Merkel in Germany. Why not? France, a country known traditionally to have a paternalistic culture, might revel in a new era under a feminine leader. Incidentally has a royal family name to go with the coveted title. Don’t anyone believes in signs these days?
