This is the end

(don't start thinking "of the world as we know it..." - like REM said). It's just the end of another semester. =)

With a great image of the sunset in Recife - the end of a day, as I knew it...

The day the saucers came

(...)That day, the saucer day the zombie day
The Ragnarok and fairies day, the day the great winds came
And snows, and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of the Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

(extrait from Neil Gaiman's book "Fragile Things")

So, what are you going to do during the vacations? Hope you won't sit just waiting for someone to call... =)

Plans for the weekend

And here we are, camping at the university until all papers are done...

Well, at least until the library closes - then I'll have to move my tons of books to my "already-disappearing-under-paper-and-notes room", and only God knows when I'll be able to get out of this chaos. So you know where to find me during the next days: at home, ar the university, or maybe during a few hours tomorrow, at the Fête de l'Escalade . You can see some pictures here. And then I'll go back to my books and my attemptions of being clever and coherent!

Enjoy your spare time... If you have any! =)

Christmas Shopping Descontrol

Here we are, almost Christmas and still lots of gifts to buy. (if you started thinking that I must be crazy to say that 2 weeks before the 24th, let me say that normally I buy all my gifts in November - I just hate going inside those crowded stores to try to find something "really great and not so expensive" to my friends)

And another problem is writing the Christmas cards. 22 of them. To be sent before December 10th, otherwise they'll arrive for Carnival. =)

Gotta keep cool....

Shopping in Barcelona

It's imposible not to be seduced by all the great stores and designers that we can find in Barcelona. One of my favourites is, of course, Custo (which I really can't afford, sometimes a simple T-shirt can cost more than 60 euros. But it's still a nice reference in matter of prints and use of colours and shapes). I've seen lots of his collections on magazines and so, but another brand that amazed me this time was a nice and powerful store named Desigual. They do have a folk and vintage accent and everything is so full of energy and youth... If you want to see some of their clothes, you can visit Desigual's website.

And to know more about where, how and when to shop in Barcelona, there's this interesting online guide with some tips and adresses!

Hope you have enough savings... I didn't! =)

Some ideas to come

From a conversation with some swiss friends I had this strange revelation: It's been exactly a year that I'm living in Switzerland, but I still know very little about it!!! The first 4 months I've spent in Lugano, I went to Zurich for a weekend and since I moved to Geneva I've only had the time to visit Lausanne and Montreux in the nearby. What a shame! (specially if I consider that during this year I went to Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Milan, Florence, Kiel, Lyon, Paris and Brugges, not to mention Berlin...)

Furthermore, during the last days I've assisted to some nice events in Geneva - one of them was the "course de l'escalade", and it is something supposed to have some connexions with Geneva's history - don't ask me, I'll just tell Olivier to write it down for me and then I'll paste the thing here. =) It's such a pitty that I live here, but I don't feel "part of" the city yet - I know it takes time and lots of effort, but I don't want to feel like a tourist forever: I still want to grow roots somewhere!

So, one of my next goals is to buy myself a nice copy of "Swiss History for Dummies", a Switzerland's map, and just explore the country. I have an year and a half before finishing my master, so...

Next stop... Nächste Halt.... Prochain arrêt... =)

Kitsch, luxurious, hedonist...

Jus to put you on the right mood to think about Barcelona... A kitsch, luxurious and hedonist city sang by a kitsch, luxurious and hedonist artist (I love Freddie Mercury)!