China

It is now my 5th day in China with Sabrina. We just arrived this morning in Xi'an, our second destination. Beijing was hugelly massively impressive. It's just enormous. There are dozens of cranes in the city, as new sky scrapers are poping out every day. I am really amazed by the pace at which Beijing is going on. VW Passat is the must car, and indeed there are thousands of them on the jammed streets of the capital. Audi and Mercedes are also incredibely numerous. This city smells money being massively transfered between busy hands... But some do not manage to follow. Some rickshaw guys still wander around, but they seem lost in the middle of the 10+ lanes avenues, packed with thousands of cars and city buses...
Yesterday we took the bus to the Summer Palace, a couple of kilometers away from the central Forbidden City. The ride was at least 2 hours long, due to the incredible 24h traffic jams that characterize Beijing. The high rise appartment building are everywhere; for kilometers and kilometers they can be seen, as long as the smaug allow the sight. Beijing is huge.
Yet I already love China. People are great, and very helpfull. The first night I wasn't able to order food, for the language barrier is really a problem. But I'm already getting better. I even asked for soy sauce the other day to put in my rice. Also there is so many Chinese tourists that foreign ones aren't perceived as rats invading the country, as I felt in Latin America. I'm looking forward to be able to discuss in Chinese so I can talk with the people... Maybe get to visit some people living in one of the few Hutong left in Beijing (the traditional districts with houses with courtiards)... I think the comming 3 months are gonna be great.


3 km from downtown Xi'an...

The nice view from the plane, over Beijing.

Forbidden City...

And the view from the summer palace.

On my way...

That's it, finally the day has come, I'm going to China. As one would say "nothing taste better than dumplings"... Yes, it's gonna be my strangest 3 months I guess. And hopefully I'll speak fluantly chinese in the end... but in the meantime... Anyways, my backpack is nearly ready and there is barelly 20h of travelling separating me from China. My heart's starting to beat faster while I write. I realised the other day that I haven't travelled for that long since my sabbatical year in 2005/2006. And I never experienced such a cultural choc as the one I'm going to have... but that's the beauty of the thing, isn't it? Yeah.

Baguette and rosé, accompagné de saussisson.

Et voilà. Like every other year since I left France 3 years ago, I'm now back in Provence for the summer. Yes. This time it started with a flight with Air France, in which I got my small baguette with my meal. I like. However, I had asked for a vegetarian meal, trying to be inovative with my flying condition... but the three ridiculous piece of dried tofu were not even funny. Does vegetarian mean not hungry for Air France thinkers? The baguette was nice though.

Later on I enjoyed myself with a 4€10 cafe in the Place St Germain-des-Près in Paris. Delightfull.

The best was the 1€ glass of water in Nîmes, for it was sunday. The water from Nîmes is known for its therapeutical virtue. I will take the occasion to celebrate my birthday next week end. Voilà. What a beauty.

Spring is showing its nose tip!

That's it. Spring is finally here after these long months of snow, cold and depression...
I just wish I didn't have any exams. Anyways, I'm still happy. Soon it will all be finished, and soon enough I will be in China trying to speak Chinese with real Chinese people. I guess it's going to be fairly interesting. Or even peculiar.

Oh remise quand tu me tiens!

Neither Do I.

A new stage

Today my enigmatic worthlessness has reached a new stage which is tremendously terrific. The question itself about stages is quite amazing, I have to admit, but there is more...
Indeed what people call "proof of efficiency" may loose it sense and blur its very own meaning, for the inefficiency itself can be slightly stunningly efficient when it reaches such a stage. And such an occurrence of efficient inefficiency today proved that I was always right, always. It is in a way similar to the famous explosion over the forest of Tunguska, where black holes, comets, antimatter and stony asteroid met each other. Yes.