Madrid

Finally I was able to remove the virus from my laptop: I actually had to format the C drive (thank God I was able to back-up most of my data to another hard drive), reinstall windows and all other programs. In a kind of weird or sick way I'm happy it happened. It gave me a chance to clean the hard drive and only keep those files and programs which I really use and need. I have much more space now on the hard drive and the laptop is running faster. I feel I'm getting a clean start....which goes perfect with the New Year.

So here I am, back to my writing and trying to pick up where I left off...my Christmas trip to Madrid.

La Puerta de Alcala

I arrived in Madrid on Thursday December 20th with a delay of one hour since 5 passengers who had checked in for the flight did not show up at the last minute and their bags had to be removed from the plane. I know, I can’t still figure out why people in this day and age of tight security with everything that has to do with airports and flying would do something like that. The "funny" thing is that before taking the flight, a section of one of the terminals in the Orly airport had also been closed because someone had left an unattended bag. The police and firefighters were all over and they were even evacuating part of the terminal.
After leaving Paris I will be returning to Madrid for the final leg of the trip (as a friend of mine would say), to make that city my home base for my future "traveling" operation and also to take the flight back to Miami. So I took this opportunity to bring one suitcase with me and leave it there. My initial thought was to take 2 suitcases now and then 2 suitcases later when I go back, but since I was traveling with one of those low cost airlines (Air Europa) they only allowed one checked bag (20 kilos max). I took the biggest bag I had (20.2 kilos) and packed my backpack with the heaviest things I had (probably another 10 kilos…OK maybe I’m exaggerating, you know me. But if it did not weight 10 kilos it was very close to it). As a result I arrived in Madrid exhausted from carrying all of that thru the metro stations in Paris and from changing from one train to the other just to get to the airport. Many of the metro stations here don’t have escalators or elevators for us poor traveling souls. So you have to carry everything yourself up and down the thousands of stairs. I arrived around 7pm, Eliana picked me up and I finally got some help with my luggage. The first order of business after my arrival: grocery shopping. I was so happy at the supermarket I wanted to purchase everything. The prices in Madrid are sooo much cheaper than in Paris (or maybe I should just say that Paris is so much more expensive than Madrid and Munich) I wanted buy all the goodies I don’t get to buy here. After the supermarket it was off to go take a look at the fishes and make sure they were well and recuperating from their illness and then we finally went back to Eli’s apartment to have dinner. Ah…the fish story, I almost forgot. A friend from Eliana who was going to be out of town for the holidays left her in charge of checking up on the fish in his aquarium as 2 of them were sick with a cold. So we had to go there and see how well they were recuperating and make sure the water’s temperature was OK for the convalescent Nemos.

The week in Madrid was a good break from my Paris routine and the Paris weather as the temperature in Madrid was about 5-8 degrees Celsius higher. I had time to do a little bit of everything: jog in the mornings, see Jorge (my uncle), walk around the city, watch a couple of movies, eat excellent food at reasonable prices, and do some shopping. I met up with my uncle on Friday afternoon and we walked, and walked and walked. I don’t think I know anybody else in the world who can walk as much as Jorge. We walked half of Madrid. He also accompanied me to look for a true winter coat (the one I had wasn’t cutting it with the cold weather in Paris), he took me to eat churros with chocolate (mmmmm….it was sooooooo goooood….I can’t wait to go back and have some more), and we finished the night with a caña (a glass of beer) and some fried calamari at a Spanish bar/restaurant with tables full of people who seemed to be having their office or family Christmas dinner.

Plaza Mayor -- Puerta de Alcala

Most of the nights I spent them walking in the downtown area and looking at the different Christmas lights and decorations on the streets. One night, just by coincidence, we walked towards Cibeles (a fountain with a sculpture of the Greek goddess of the earth mother) to find that the streets were all closed and the placed was totally crowded. It so happened that there was a fireworks, lights and music show about to begin on the old Post office building right in front of the fountain. The fireworks show lasted for about 30 minutes and it was spectacular.

Old Post Office building -- Paseo de la Castellana

December 25th started out as a celebration of life: a 12km jog in the morning and a an afternoon cooking for our Christmas late lunch - early dinner. Juan C (a coworker from Eli) joined us, we had lunch around 430PM and we spent the rest of the evening talking and talking and talking. We all had a great time. Sometime around 9PM we decide to go check up on the fishes. What was supposed to be a pick-up-the-mail-check-up-on-the fish task of about 10 minutes turned into an hour and a half ordeal. Sadly, the 2 fish who were sick were dead. So our Christmas day ended by having to call Eli’s friend and having to break the bad news to him, getting the dead fish out of the tank (Eli’s task, not mine, thank you), putting them to rest, changing the water from the tank (which is quite a process), and cleaning everything afterwards. So as lively and joyful as the day started, it ended up on a deadly note. Unfortunately I had left the camera at home (remember this was supposed to be only a 10 minute thing) and could not make any pictures of the operation. I’m still disappointed at myself for that. But I learned my lesson: never, ever leave home without the camera as you never know when a Kodak moment will present itself.

Christmas lunch/dinner

The second to last day in Madrid I spent it with my uncle walking the other half of Madrid we did not get to walk on the first day. For lunch we went to a Colombian restaurant!! And yes, ladies and gentlemen after 7 months of "bandeja paisa" abstinence I had myself a delicious one with a "manjar blanco" for dessert (something similar to dulce de leche). I thought for a minute I had died... and I was in heaven!!!!

I left Madrid with minus 1 bag (3 more to go) in the afternoon of Thursday December 27th and arrived to a very crowded and full of tourists Paris. It seems that a lot of people do come to the city of lights to celebrate New Year’s. From what someone told me they had heard on the news, there were about 400,000 tourists here around those days to welcome in the New Year.

Happy New Year

First of all I want to wish everyone a wonderful, healthy, happy, and joyful 2008!!!
May this be a year of peace for you, your families and the world. That is my one wish: PEACE FOR ALL!!

On another note, my computer caught a virus which disconfigured my wireless connection and therefore I can't connect to the internet (I'm currently using someone else's computer). In addition, some of the applications are running very slow or they just freeze on me while trying to open them. And to top it all, it also did something to my Norton anti-virus because I cannot run it anymore, it started conflicting with other applications and I had to uninstall it. So right now my computer has no anitivirus software and I'm extremely scared to connect it with the LAN cable given its current state. I was on the phone with my "help-desk" in the US (a.k.a my brother) until 4 o'clock in the morning the other day and the veridict is somewhat sad: I have to re-install window. The good news is that thanks to my always pro-active brother who brought me an additional hard drive when he was in Germany I won't loose all of my data.

The current status: I'm waiting for my windows CD to arrive here in Paris sometime this week so I can re-install it and be back in business. Until then I won't be posting any stories or pictures in the blog.

For now I'll just tell you I had a great time in Madrid where I spent Christmas. I came back to Paris on December 27th and received 2008 right in front of the Eiffel Tower together with the 400,000 tourists who were in the city to also welcome the New Year and with who knows how many Parisians who also gathered around the most iconic symbol of Paris to say "au revoir" (good-bye) 2007 and "salut" (hello) 2008. The new year has been a calmed year for me where I've spend most of my time visiting museums and other sites in the city as well as getting together with friends who were out of town during the holidays. I only have a bout 3 weeks left in France so I won't be going to school anymore and will take this time to hopefully travel in France and also to finish doing some tourism in the city.

I'll keep you posted

Merry Cxmas

Me with the 3 Kings in Madrid*

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy holiday season filled with happiness and joy!!! May this time of the year also be a special time spent with family and friends.

Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas

Froliche Weihnachten

Joyeux Noel

* I came to Madrid for a week to visit my friend Eliana G and my uncle Jorge who live here. I will spend Christmas here and will return to Paris on Dec 27th weher I plan to spend New Year's.

Ile St-Louis, Pere Lachaise, et al

Ile St-Louis

This weekend the afternoon rains finally ceased and I was able to visit some outdoor places I had wanted to go for a while now. The days were actually gorgeous sunny days with clear blue skies. The only “but” is that they were way too cold and windy. This week we are in the 30–35 degrees with you actually feeling between 25 and 30 degrees due to the wind factor. I had wanted to go to the island of St. Louis (a small island on the Seine River right next to Notre Dame) for some time now because they had recommended it to me as a very nice area to walk; but every time I got there it started to rain. So Saturday I was able to finally stroll down its little streets filled with shops, art galleries, restaurants, cafés and tourists. According to my teacher and other sources the best spot to eat ice cream in Paris is located in the island of St. Louis. The ice cream shop is called Berthillon and usually a long line forms right outside of it with lots of people wanting to try it. But as much as I love ice cream I had to pass on it this time around. I did not have any desire to eat ice cream with an outside temperature of about 33 degrees. The only thing I was craving for at that time and that temperature was a hot cup of chocolate or café con leche...with churros. It is horrible, but the cold weather increases your appetite for all this kinds of foods that are extremely high on calories. Ile St. Louis is located right behind Notre Dame, which also gave me a chance to make more pictures of the church but this time from the back.
I also went to Buttes Chaumont, a park located on the northeast side of the city, which was built by Napoleon III. The park is supposed to be filled with Parisians in the summer who go there to sun bathe, have a picnic and just enjoy the warm weather. So around this time of the year you do not find that many people. However it provides a good view of the city from a different angle and it also gives you the chance of disconnecting from the big city without being overwhelmed by a humongous and boundary-less park. I ended the day with yet another visit to my favorite spot in the city: Montmartre.

Notre Dame (side view) -- Notre Dame (back view) and Ile St-Louis (on the right)

Buttes Chaumont

Cemetery of Pere Lachaise

On Sunday afternoon I had an encounter with death…or should I say with the dead…But don’t worry, it was all done for “touristy” and “getting to know the place” reasons. I went to the cemetery of Pere Lachaise. Not that going to a cemetery is how I would envision spending my afternoons now, but having so many people told me how nice this place was and then having read again and again in all of the Paris city guides and books that this is the most visited cemetery in the world I decided to go. The first thing that stroked me happened even before leaving the house: the cemetery’s official web site. Yes, in this day and age of technology where there is a website for every one (just look at me) and every thing, the cemetery has its own site. A French and an English version are available as well as a virtual tour, a map with the locations of the different graves and a search engine to locate the famous dead person of your interest. Of course, knowing me and knowing that I’m a planner at heart I took a couple of minutes to study the names of the famous people who were buried at the Pere Lachaise and more or less plan my visit. The cemetery is on the opposite side of the city from where I live so I believe me it took me a good 30 minutes on the metro to get there: perfect timing to catch up on my reading. When I arrived the setting was perfect for the place I was about to enter: the sun was setting and giving way to the first glimpses of gray of a late afternoon and it was very very cold. I saw a lot of people walking around who just like me were impressed with the place. I have to admit I was a little skeptic before going there but the place is so peaceful, tranquil and also beautiful that all of my skepticism went away quickly and easily. Lots of famous people are buried here: Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Honore Balzac, Frederic Chopin, Isadora Duncan and Oscar Wilde just to name a few of them. Lots of graves are a work of art themselves, with many having impressive sculptures or a bust of the deceased. Lots of people also come to pay their respects to the different personalities buried here and to bring them flowers. One example is the grave from Frederic Chopin, the polish pianist and piano composer, who died here in Paris in 1849. Besides the graves the cemetery is also home to various war memorials dedicated to the French soldiers who have died in the different wars France has participated in.

Cemetery Pere Lachaise - Frederic Chopin 's tomb

After being out on this cold and windy Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours I was not only tired but in need of looking for refuge in a warm place: and what could be a warmer place than home? I did not really know this but I’ve discovered that the cold weather makes me very tired. I’m not sure if it is the carrying of all those extra pounds on your body from the 3-4 layers of clothing between t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweater, coat, and then the scarf, the hat and the gloves; or if it is the battling against the wind when you walk with the 3-4 layers of clothing on top of you; or if it is from all that mental effort I make trying to convince myself that “No, it is not cold” “No, I’m not freezing”, “No me voy a congelar!, no me voy a congelar!, no me voy a congelar”. So I decided to go straight home and make it a blockbuster night. I watched “The Perfume: story of a murderer”, the 2006 movie based on the novel by the German writer Patrick Süskind, and called it a night.

Centre Pompidou

Centre Pompidou

Last Saturday was the perfect day to go to a museum: it was cold and it rained all day. Besides visiting its “Museum Shop” and its café on the sixth floor (where I only went once before to profit from its view and not to pay its astronomical prices for a piece of cake and a cup of coffee – 11-15 Euros) I had never really been inside the Centre Pompidou; although I had always wanted. The Pompidou Center is a 6-floor complex which hosts the National Museum of Modern Art, a large public library and other halls and rooms where different temporary exhibitions are presented throughout the year. Since I do enjoy modern art I was really looking forward to spending some good quality time at the museum and be able to enjoy it entirely without rushing. And that is exactly what I did: I got to the museum somewhere around 2 o’clock in the afternoon and did not leave until 9 PM. The center was opened in 1977 and it was named after President George Pompidou who died in 1974 while still in office. President Pompidou commissioned the building of the center to the dislike of many Parisians who did not like nor appreciate the looks of this modern structure in the middle of one of their refined, chic and elegant “quartiers” (districts). Nevertheless, they all have gotten used to it and have grown to love it as this center has become one of Paris’s most visited museums together with the “Louvre”.

Pablo Picasso - La Muse // Jackson Pollock -Painting (Silver over black, white, yellow and red)

In the permanent collection of the National Museum of Modern Arts you get to see a little bit of everything from paintings, sculptures and other objects. I have to admit that even though I enjoy modern art there were some things that were too modern for my taste…or for my knowledge. I’m sorry, and I know I may sound too ignorant or too closed minded to be criticizing some of the “art” I saw, but there were things that I couldn’t stop and wonder what they were doing there. For example, there is the “Structures Pneumatiques” hall where different types of chairs, tables and other objects made out of that kind of plastic you inflate are displayed (the same plastic material used in lifesavers you inflate for little kids to use when swimming). Or there is the “Dark Black Panel” by Kelly (another one of those ?!?!? moments for me). On the paintings side I saw works by artists such as Picasso, Matise, Pollock, Rothko and Kandinsky and sculptures from Miró just to name a few; all of which I enjoyed a lot.

Henri Matisse -Grand interieur rouge// Joan Miro

Artist from the 9th Concept Studio//Dark black panel by Kelly

The center is also currently hosting an exhibition on the life and works (paintings and sculptures) of Alberto Giacometti, an exhibition on some of the completed, under construction and proposed projects of Richard Rogers and Architects (the same architects who designed the Pompidou center), and a presentation of the cinematography of 2 directors, a Spanish and an Iranian, who have lived parallel lives and have done parallel work without knowing each other. And last but not least one of my favorite temporary exhibitions: “Peinture fraîche face à face avec le 9e concept” (Fresh painting: face to face with the 9th Concept). This exhibition is actually an event where you can observe local artist, who belong to the 9th concept studio, work on their paintings inside a room in the center. While watching them you also have the opportunity to interact with them and ask them questions. All in all it was a very interesting day. I left feeling more cultured, for all that is worth, but I also felt feeling very tired from standing up all day long. During my 7 hour journey I only stopped for about 20 minutes to have coffee.

Richard Rogers and Architects

Centre Pompidou - Barajas Airport Terminal 4

I've moved

My room...with a view (view from my bed)

Between Wednesday and Thursday I moved to a new apartment in the city center and I couldn’t be happier. I’m 10 minutes by foot from the Eiffel tower, 10 minutes by foot from Les Invalides, 2 minutes by foot from 3 different metro stations and metro lines, and to top it all I have a spectacular view of the Eiffel tower from my bed. So how did I get to move and live in such a great place??? It is sort of a funny story…or maybe not that funny but it was definitely one of those opportunities that life (God) just presents to you without you really looking. Friday before last, I received a phone call at night from a friend. To make a long story short, an be able to finally post the pictures from the apartment, he told me his roommate was going to be out of the country for the remaining time I was going to be in Paris. He asked if I would be interested in taking the room and I answered: Absolutely!!! 2 weeks prior to that phone call I had been at his apartment for dinner and I already knew how well located it was, what an amazing view it had and how comfortable it was. This was Friday night and I had already paid until Thursday at the place where I was living. So I just talked to some people to make sure it was OK for me to leave before (I had told them I was going to stay there until January) and once they told me there was no problem I started packing. And since I don’t have class on Wednesdays, I moved basically all of my stuff on that day by making several trips on the metro. Talk about perfect timing. The way I see it, this is just another one of Gods gifts to me throughout this experience. I wasn’t even looking for something like this or asking for something like this…not even in my wildest dreams. That is why I feel so lucky, so blessed and so privileged to be living in Paris in a way that cannot get even more “Parisian”. Believe me I’m not taking for granted the fact that I’m getting to live in one of the most amazing cities in the world and in this way.

View of "Les Invalides"--The Eiffel tower in the late afternoon

The Eiffel Tower at night

Dining Room & Living Room - Kitchen

My roommate also went to the German school in Medellin (yes… I know…we are everywhere) but he was 2 years ahead of me. We never kept in touch and we just happened to connect again thanks to a friend of a friend who lives in Paris as well. One afternoon, in talking to Carolina (my friend’s friend who is now also my friend…are you keeping up with all the characters??) told me: I just remember I once met someone here who went to the same school you did and you may know him. I recognized his name, she called him and he invited us for dinner at his place. That is how I ended up living in such a great place. I’m about 15 minutes away from school by metro (changing lines one time) and in case there is another strike I could get to school by walking about 25 minutes. The area is very lively with many restaurants and cafés. I already started doing my one hour jogging in the mornings and the views are unbelievable. I cannot believe I get to see so many beautiful and historical places in that one hour. I walk out of the building for about 5 minutes to warm up and then I start jogging, 2 minutes later I’m at the “Ecole Militaire” and I then cross the street to the “Champs de Mars” – the long and green park that leads up to the “Eiffel Tower”. 5 minutes later I’m jogging right underneath the arches of the Eiffel tower past the hundreds of tourists who are making pictures or are standing in line to buy their tickets to go up the tower. Once I pass the tower I take a glance at “Trocadero” before making right and continue jogging along side the Seine River. The same river where the bodies of hundreds of French nobles and aristocrats where thrown after being guillotined almost 300 years ago during the French Revolution. See what I’m telling you?? Lots and lots of history. I try not to think about what went on there and I just continued on my merry way past “Le pont de l’alme” all the way down to “Pont Alexander” where the “Musee d’Orsay” is located on one side and “Les Invalides” is located on the other. I then make a U-turn and return back home.

I'll leave you with the light show I see every night before going to sleep... I guess they don't call Paris the city of Lights for nothing!!!

Late afternoon-early night show

At night the Eiffel tower is lighted in a yellowish color. Every hour on the hour it is illuminated with flashing white lights for about 5-10 minutes (I still have to time it). The last show is at 1 o'clock in the morning when the yellow lights are turned off and only the white lights flash. After that the lights are turned off and you only see some red lights all the way at the top and some regular lights at the base. Everything else gets lots in the darkness of the night.

1 o'clock in the morning show

Lazy November

Champs Elysee with Christmas Lightning and

Arc de Triomphe in the back

I have to admit it: I was extremely lazy in November as far as posting on the blog goes. I think there were a couple of external factors that contributed to my laziness such as the infamous strike (when I couldn’t do much and had to become a couch potato). The fact that I’ve had a cold for over a week now hasn’t helped either. I’m in the coughing stage and I really hope it goes away soon. Ok, but I’m going to stop with the excuses and get started with updating everyone on what I have been up to.
I continue to go to school, and will do so until December 20th. I changed to a different course but I continue to go to the same school. Now I’m going 3 times a week as opposed to 5 times a week (I’m off on Wednesdays and Fridays). Taking this less intensive course allows me to save some money and at the same time gives me 2 extra days to do more sightseeing and other extra-curricular activities. The school will be closed 2 weeks at the end of December because of the holidays and they will re-open the second week of January. Since my plan is to stay in Paris until the third or fourth week in January I have decided not to go to school in that month so I can visit some places near Paris and other places in France before I leave this country. I continue to be very happy with the school because as I said before it has a very good teaching methodology and I do feel that I’m making progress. I took a 3-hour oral and written comprehension test on Thursday for which I will get the results next month. I guess I better wait to see those results before I can claim victory.

The school experience in Paris has definitely been very different from the one in Munich. Here it has been more of a true educational experience and less of a social one. What happens is that most of the people who attend the French Alliance, at least in the morning sections, are here to stay: some because of work, some because they are going to attend a graduate program and then the majority because they have a French boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife. So the vast majority of my classmates come to class, they stay from time to time to have lunch or have a coffee as a group and then they go on with their already established Parisian lives. In Munich on the contrary, people were there for only a couple of weeks at a time to improve their German skills before going back to their countries. Therefore, everyone was by themselves and they had nothing else to do after class. They were all eager to go out and see as much of the city as possible before going back home. In addition, the school in Munich was always planning a bunch of after school activities whereas the school here is not really into that. So most of the people that I’ve met here and that I hang out with are people who are not students; and that is why the French experience feels so different. And I think it is great!! I can truly separate one from the other…and not only because of the obvious differences (language, culture, food, and the French people) but because of my environment (the people I’ve met and made friends with and my daily and weekend activities). In the afternoons and on the weekends I’ve been doing a lot of sightseeing on my own: museums, churches and cathedrals, and just plain walking thru different neighborhoods in Paris. I’ve also spent some time doing window shopping as this city is filled with very cute and quaint little stores. But only window shopping; my student budget does not allow me to buy things that I do not really need right now; especially when I consider the astronomical prices of everything here in Paris and make the conversion into dollars. I also don’t have a lot of space in my bags so what I have I’m saving it all for books, movies and music.

A parisian building -- Jardin du Luxembourg

The weather has been good. The temperature in the last couple of days has been somewhere between the mid 40’s and the low 50’s. In the afternoons it does get overcastted and it rains a little bit. But with a good umbrella and raincoat you can still go out for a walk. The only problem is when it gets too windy because then it does feel colder and you also have to struggle with your umbrella: making sure it does not get blown away from your hands or that you do not fly away with it.

OK…I have some more things to talk about but it is past midnight, I’m tired and I have to wake up at 730AM to go to class. I will leave you with a couple of pictures and with the promise of more stories and more pictures throughout the week.

Notre Dame Cathedral at night (with Christmas tree)