Ma ci-T va craquer

Dites les frenchies, il se passe quoi en France? C'est un remake de 2005 ou on gère la situation? Les journaux étrangers comprennent pas toujours ce qu'est la banlieue et pourquoi et comment on en est arrivé lá, donc ils rapportent pas toujours la chose de facon très efficace.

Merci de votre point of view.

Biz

L'idole des jeunes

J'aurais voulu etre une artiiiiiiiste, et pouvoir faire mon numéroooo... mais comme on peut pas tout faire dans la vie, eh ben j'ai décidé d'etre l'idole des jeunes à la place et d'inspirer le monde. Ma derniere "victime" en date est Audrey qui va sur la cote Amalfitaine l'an prochain apres avoir (entre autres) vu mes photos du mois de juin. Mais avant ca, elle va se lancer dans l'aventure bloguesque apres avoir suivi mes périples de ces derniers mois. La vie d'une choupette à NY, il me tarde le 2 janvier (le 1er, elle ne sera pas en etat, dit-elle) pour découvrir ca!

Deja la moitie de la semaine ecoulee et demain devrait etre une journee cool, et apres c'est vendredi et youpi, l'école est finie!!!!

Antrobus

This week-end was so great! It actually started a few weeks earlier for me as I was event leader together with Brenda. We were helping for the organisation of the from now on annual Bus Trip held by H&M aka Henrik and Male. In the beginning we were supposed to go to Uppsala or Karlskrona but ended up in Helsingborg instead!

On Friday evening, instead of getting ready for the trip and going to be early I was at Manu & David's place drinking glögg, not so smart but so much nicer. After that I packed my luggage around midnight as usual when I'm travelling.

Saturday morning, 7 o'clock in the morning, the alarm clock rings... mmh early! 8 I get to Ullevi, nice that I live so close. Not so nice that it's so cooooold! Thank God I took my gloves, my hat and big woollen scarf. Some of the Mexicans are late as usual but they are not the last. Jörgen who has lived all his life in Göteborg (when he's not travelling around the world) happened to take the wrong bus because guess what? they changed the line since he last took it seven years ago! Ahaha, he heard a about this one a few times during the week-end, let me tell you! ;-)

Soon we're on our way to Skååååne, or Scania in English and the sun is shining. Pringles, Spanish tortilla and pie for breakfast, yummy! We stopped in Halmstad for a technical pause and it was actually very near where I lived in 2002, the very famous and no less luxurious Fina Laxen hotel/hostel. Time went fast and soon it was time for Bingo! And the distribution of the first prices. Erik won the money, Jörgen cheated and Edith got lucky. Then we arrived in Höganäs, the first stop of the week-end. Höganäs is the name of a town but also of a ceramics company making very nice things.
They had an outlet store and some of us took advantage of the good prices to buy some christmas presents for their family or for themselves. I bought this lovely teapot for myself, had wanted for a loooong time and I'm soooo happy I finally have it! It's the one on the pic but in Turquoise. They have several colours and my collection is a mix of turquoise, light grey and black. Male & Henrik have the brown ones and the white ones, Tom & Malin have the blue ones, Brenda and Andreas as well. That's something that I like about these, that although we buy the same product by choosing and mixing different colours we make it personal.

After that we went to check in in the youth hostel, just outside Helsingborg and 500m from the sea. The weather was not really as in the picture but as it was around 4 o'clock and already getting dirk, it didn't matter any longer, hehe! After dropping the bags we headed to Fredriksdal for an open-air theater representation called Potta Långhaka, Potta longchin. The story is about a women taken for a witch. The twist is that the action is happening in several places in a kind of open-air museum and the audience is following the actors from scene to scene. Amazing! The downside was that it must have been close to zero degrees and two hours in the cold was very tough. In the end I thought "I don't give a shit about this witch, I want to go back to the bus!"

In the evening, all nice and dressed up we headed to the city center to have dinner on a boat. Except from Emanuela and Rebecca who are seasick and had to go to another place... But we catched ut after dinner to go to "La Cantina" which was supposed to be a mexican/latino place. The only mexican thing was the name and the big neon sign outside but it didn't matter. 26 people who want to party don't mind where they are, we took possession of a part of the dance floor and never left it.

Sunday morning, the alarmclock rings at 8, this is the weekend but no holidays... but that's for the good cause because we have another nice day ahead of us and Denmark in on the program. I am actually surprised that everyone is up on time, except the mexican student guys, hehe. Breakfast in the main building (seen on the pic up there) with the view on the sea, more or less like on the right, less the spring and flowers part. Very good breakfast by the way. =)


Brush your teeth, pack your bag and hop! in the bus, direction Deeeenmark! And Humlebæk where the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is. From outside it's just a nice mansion but when you step in it's huuuuge and the park as well. Full of nice and interesting scluptures. Like the ones of the picture or the one of a pair of boobs for instance. More seriously, there were some great exhibitions like Lucian Freud, which I don't particularly like but I can't deny that he has talent. The one exhibition that I knew I would like and that I loved was the one about the photograph Richard Avedon. Only B&W pics from famous people as well as anonymous. All beautiful. And by the way, the land that you see in the distance is Sweden, that let you see how close the two countries are. Helsingborg - Helsingør is actually where Sweden and Denmark are closest.

After the museum, we went back to Sweden via the boat and the duty free shop where almost everyone bought some alcohol. Much cheaper that in Sweden! The funny thing is that you can buy the alcohol only in the Danish water and tobacco only in the Swedish water and given the crossing lasts only 20 min it means you have only 10 min to buy the alcohol which is why all the people are rushing like idiots then. Fun to watch: alcohol and chocolate, that's all they buy but they buy a lot! And on the way home we had another couple of more games and among other a great quiz prepared by Brenda where David surprised his wife Manu by killing the game and taking home all the prices. A very complete TV-culture and especially series indeed.

As usual, when having such a great time and escaping from my routine I have a bit of a hard time to come back to this precise routine and sometimes boring life. But it's fine, 'cause today I made some nice plans for this week-end and then, the following two are already booked with some friends visiting me. And the one after these, I will be in France and it will almost be Chriiiistmaaaas!

Anyway, looking forward to next year's edition and I'm wondering if we shouldn't even make a spring and an autumn edition... should submit the idea to H & M.

Quick

The choice of the evening was: talk on the phone with my mum or download my pics and write a post here...

Pictures can wait!

Nationality cocktail

I had one of the best week-end ever! Such a great time. And one of the explanations lies in the cocktail of people that were with me. We were 26 and among us, were the following nationalities:

• Swedish
• Mexican
• Norwegian
  
• Spanish
• Italian
• Russian
• American
  
• and French of course! ;-)

The whole story with the pictures, hopefully tomorrow. Stay tuned people!

Daft Bodies - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

So f***ing fantastic!!!

Daft Bodies - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Lägg till i min Profil | Fler Videos

4 things

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Sales person for Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysées, Paris
2. McDonalds (not as glamourous)
3. Telemarketing for a study on people with bladder problems, I had to call Canada, the French speaking area and it was not easy to understand sometimes!!!

4. Marketing Manager for my current company


Movies I would watch over and over:

1. Top Gun
2. Love actually

3. La cité de la peur

4. Le diner de cons


Four places I have lived

1. Artigueloutan, France

2. Halmstad, Sweden
3. Reims

4. Paris


Shows that I watch:

1. CSI (Vegas, NY and Miami)

2. Heroes
3. Grey's Anatomy

4. Ugly Betty


Four places I have been:

1. Mexico

2. Italy

3. England

4. Spain

People who e-mail me (regularly):

1. Helene

2. Male & Brenda

3. My little Pruno, Anne-Aurore
4. My Sis', G

What I do when I go on the Internet

1. check my emails

2. check my blog: comments & stats

3. check my facebook

4. check what's on TV tonight

My favourite food:

1. Foie Gras

2. Tarte au citron meringuée

3. Baguette and butter

4. Strawberries (from my pruno)

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. In my bed

2. On holidays

3. In the arms of a guy

4. With my nephew in my arms

Four people who will respond
1. Helene?

2. DD?

3. Audrey?
4. Pruno?

Things I am looking forward to this year (I mean 2008):

1. The holidays with D, H & M next summer

2. Being able to save some money to go to New York and see Audrey

3. Sophie coming to Sweden? (no pressure, hehe! ;-) )

4. Meet new people

Des films

Encore un week-end special films ce week-end... Un grand ménage de printemps d'automne aussi dimanche mais pas besoin de s'étaler sur le sujet...

D'abord Goya's ghost avec Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem et surtout Stellan Skarsgård. Et oui, on ne sait pas tres bien pourquoi mais Milos Forman a choisi un suédois qui mesure presque 2m pour incarner Goya, un petit espagnol (sans doute velu, hein norore et mel? ;-p ) qui mesurait tout juste 1,60m.











Ensuite Ocean's 13. Ils se sont pas trop fait chier pour le manuscript mais les mecs sont toujours aussi bons.Brad et George qui chouinent devant Oprah, c'est trop bon! Et Brad, ah Brad... George est super beau mais personne ne pourra dépasser Brad, hein ma Soso? En plus il a plein de fringues trop bien dans le film. La classe!










Et le dernier, Le Labyrinthe de Pan; je voulais le voir au cinéma mais mon pote de ciné Emil (non c'est pas un tueur, Soso... ;-) ) l'avait déjà vu. Donc je l'ai loué. Donc il était en VO. Donc en espagnol. Les sous-titres étaient dispos en finlandais, danois, norvégien ou suédois, youpi! Même pas en anglais. Bon ben, pas de sous-titres. Mais le film est trop trop bien. Et puis ca se passe dans les Pyrénées... Ah les fougères, j'ai jamais autant aimé voir des fougères!

The countdown has started

Today I was in the city and there are more and more lights, even on NK (the big department store) so it's official now: the countdown to Christmas has started.

On Friday I will drink my först glögg (warm wine similar to Glühwein in Germany for instance) of the year!!! Yay!!

On TV, commercials related to Christmas have started to be broadcast.

The traditional food like Lussekatte have appeared in the shops.

The newspapers are full with advertising with "Julbord" commercials. Jul means Christmas in Swedish and bord means table. A julbord is a typical buffé dinner with A LOOOOOT of food and many special meals only made in December, like a special bread or a special way to prepare the ham for instance. This is sooooo good and usually you eat enough for the rest of the week. But to be able to eat that much, you have to adopt some strategies and be ready to leave some dishes in order to take more from the others for instance. Another technique is to take rounds: first the herrings, then warm dishes, then cheese, and in the end "Rice à la Malta", it's a must! Most of the companies have a julbord for their employees, wonder if we'll have one and when we'll have it in that case... mmmmh, am hungry now!!!

Me Like

On Friday, I went to the cinema with my Bio-buddy Emil (bio means cinema in Swedish). This is a kind of habit that we took of going together as we both love it and have similar tastes. This time we decided to see "Curse of the Golden Flower".


I love this genre, I have already seen:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Hero
• Flying Daggers
• and maybe some other...
  

Most of them, if not all are by Zhang Yimou and with Chow-Yun Fat, Gong Li, Zang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh. You would think that you would get tired of seeing almost the same film with almost the same people... but not me! :)

In this one, the rythm is quite slow and it takes a lot of time before the plot is finally set so it's on the edge of being boring sometimes. But I didn't care, I was too busy admiring the fantastic scenes and costumes and AAAAAALL this gold, and all these flowers. I love how the actors express strong feelings such as love, hate and fear. Especially given that Chinese people usually don't show feelings, it's in their culture to be very reserved.

After that, I felt like seeing all the others again and I thought it could be fun to watch all of them on the same night, like a "special China" theme or something. I have to suggest the idea to my movie-buddy now. ;-)

Nothing

No real post today, not inspired. Got a half crappy day today. It started when the bus left while I was one meter from the door only which had me take the tram and then walk 25min, how to start the day in a good mood... then the day was ok and I was supposed to go to the gym but the bus came late and got more and more delayed when we got closer to the center. Result: I was barely at my usual busstop (instead on in the city center) while my pass started, went home directly with my bag that I carried for nothing in the end...

The positive of the day: heard a piece of a potential huuuugely good news for one of my closest. Will tell you later when it's confirmed.

Going to take a bath listening to Billie Holliday now...

Arriverderci!

Pourquoi je serais chef un jour

L'Université de Luleå (tout au nord de la Suède) vient de publier les résultats d'une étude faite par Lena Forsberg. "Les futurs leaders sont aujourd'hui dans l'écurie. Les filles, oublier les écoles de commerce, allez au centre équestre à la place. C'est là que vous obtiendrez les qualités nécessaires". Voilà le résultat principal de l'étude.

-Lorsqu'on est sur le cheval, il faut savoir montrer qui décide, c'est un gros animal, raconte la passionnée d'équitation Regitze Lybecker, 14 ans.
Le gros et potentiellement dangereux cheval force les filles a être claires et décidées. Cela développe leur pouvoir de négotiation et leur courage. Exactement comme un bon leader est sensé être, en d'autres termes.
-Toutes les qualités sont très importantes pour un chef, spécialement la clarté, dit Klara Adolphsson, Consult en Leadership.

L'étude montre également que les cavalières se différencient des autres filles dans la mesure où elles vont à l'encontre des attentes traditionnelles qu'on peut avoir des filles de cet âge. Elles se voient elles-mêmes comme des leaders.
-Quand vous êtes cavalière, on vous écoute. Si personne ne veut être responsable pour un travail en groupe à l'école, on prend les commandes car on est habituées à décider, dit Clara Lövgren, 14 ans.


Une cavalière est:

• Claire
• Décidée
• Bonne négociatrice
• Courageuse
• Energique
• Responsable
• Compétente

(Qualités qui sont mentionnées dans l'étude de Forsberg)


Vous me reconnaissez dans ce portrait? Moi en tout cas, en tant que cavalière depuis des années, je suis tout à fait d'accord avec le fait que l'équitation vous enseigne des valeurs importantes. Si en plus, ca m'a aidé dans mon développement personnel et a quelque part contribué au fait que je suis là où je suis aujourd'hui, alors ca valait la peine de se lever le dimanche matin à 6h même en plein hiver pour aller aux compètes. =)

Därför blir jag chef om några år...

Framtidens ledare finns i ridstallet. Tjejer, glöm Handelshögskolan. Gå till stallet i stället. Där får ni de rätta ledaregenskaperna.

– Man måste visa vem som bestämmer när man sitter på hästryggen. Det är ju stora djur, säger hästjejen Regitze Lybecker, 14.

Detta visar också en ny studie från Luleå tekniska universitet, gjord av Lena Forsberg. Den stora och potentiellt farliga hästen tvingar tjejerna att bli tydliga och bestämda. Detta utvecklar tjejernas självbild och får dem att uppfatta sig själva som handlingskraftiga och modiga. Precis som en bra ledare bör vara, med andra ord.

– Alla de egenskaperna är jätteviktiga för en chef, speciellt tydlighet, säger Klara Adolphsson, ledarskapskonsult på Ledarna.

Studien visar också att stalltjejer skiljer sig från andra tjejer genom att stå emot traditionella förväntningar på hur tjejer ska uppträda. De ser sig själva som ledare.

– Som hästtjej lyssnar folk på en. Om ingen tar ansvar i ett grupparbete i skolan är man mer framåt, eftersom man är van vid att bestämma, säger Clara Lövgren, 14.

Stalltjejen är ...

• Tydlig

• Bestämd

• Handlingskraftig

• Modig

• Driftig

• Ansvarsfull

• Kompetent

Egenskaper som nämns i Lena Forsbergs uppsats

Källa: Dagens Metro (http://metro.se/se/article/2007/11/13/21/1754-45/index.xml)

C'est blanc, c'est... ?

C'est de la neige!! Ce matin sur le trottoir!!! Voila, l'an dernier on a eu ptet 1 jour ou 2 de neige en décembre et meme pas une semaine en fevrier. Mais là je pense que cet hiver on va avoir notre dose de poudre si ca commence comme ca à la mi-novembre...

Donc si vous aimez le blanc, viendez me voir!!!!

EDIT: je viens de voir la météo pour demain: 1 degré ici à Göteborg et 18 degrés à Pau... soit environ la température moyenne qu'on a eu cet été ici... tell me about wrong!! Donc si vous aimez pas le froid et si vous voulez du chaud, ben viendez à Pau à la place...

Verdict

Remember these shoes? Well, I loved them (was surprised that you didnt like them Audrey...) and I tried them several times but I just couldn't walk so I took them back. I don't think it shows on the pictures but the heels were too high around 9 or 10cm, and it was impossible to walk. I looked like... I don't know what I looked like but not a top model on the catwalk that's for sure!

I didn't see any other nice pair of shoes here, Sweden is really an underdeveloped country when it comes to shoes. And it's really strange because they are really good at fashion so why can't they make shoes? I don't know but what I know now is that there is only Italy and France that can make shoes so I will stop trying to find some here and will buy my shoes in France everytime I'm there... 3 pairs of shoes per year that's really less than what it used to be, I might have to buy 2 pairs each trip! hehe! ;-)

The price to pay

This is probably what makes it hardest to live far away... to miss him growing up. :(

Au menu...

Hier, on s'est fait un petit diner entre filles avec Manu, Mioara & Ann-Sofie.

À l'apéro: martini blanc et plateau de fromages avec une sorte de bleu et un pur brebis (francais) avec de la confiture de figue & noix (qui vient de Corse). La combinaison brebis + figues est super bonne!!

En plat principal: Pasta au saumon et à la vodka avec du Sauvignon blanc d'Afrique du Sud.

En dessert: gateau aux pommes et à la cardammome avec du Chardonnay (Pays d'Oc).

En conclusion: une très bonne soirée!!!

The king that became a cake

Last Tuesday, on the 6th of November we celebrated "Gustav Adolfsdag". Gustav II Adolf den Store, or Gustav Adolphus the Great is the most important king of the Swedish History. Like Louis XIV for us in France or Elizabeth 1st for England for instance. Gustav II Adolf died in Lützen, Germany (near Leipzig) the 6th of November 1632. The day of his death has always been celebrated in Sweden and, until it was decided that the 6th of June would be the official National Day, the 6th of November was kind of fulfilling this function.

The celebration of this day is particularly important in Göteborg because he is the founder of my adoptive town. At that time, this precise location was the only Swedish territory on the West Coast because the Norwegian boarder was a few kilometers north and the Danish boarder a few kilometers south. Gustav Adolf decided to establish a town here in 1619.

If you want to read more about Gustav Adolf or Göteborg, check Wikipedia, there's plenty of material about all this. And in your own language as well.

But the interesting thing about this celebration is that it includes food. And this is sooooo typical about Sweden. They do not have as many bank holidays as we have in France for instance (well, for starters, they were not involved in two world wars... ). Even their national day was a regular "work day" until 3 or 4 years ago. But when they are celebrating something, it ALWAYS include food! Midsummer is about Sill (herring) and Aquavit, in August you have the Kräftskiva with crayfishes, on the 4th of october, it's Kanelbullensdag (Cinnamon rolls day), then this Gustav Adolf's day, apparently the 17th of November is some kind of Napoleon's day with more or less the same cake as Gustav Adolph's day, and the whole advent season and Christmas are filled with special seasonal food.

Why is that?

Här är världens konstigaste lagar

3 931 britter har i tv-bolaget UKTV:s regi röstat fram de knäppaste bestämmelserna i Storbritannien och världen. Huruvida alla lagar och regler de röstande hade att välja mellan ännu gäller framgår inte.

Storbritannien:

1. Att dö i parlamentsbyggnaderna är olagligt. (27 %)

2. Att sätta ett frimärke med monarkens anlete på upp-och-ned är landsförräderi. (7 %)

3. Kvinnor får inte vara barbröstade i Liverpool, förutom om de arbetar i affärer som säljer tropiska fiskar. (6 %)

4. Att äta "mince pie" på juldagen är förbjudet. (5 %)

5. I Skottland är det en rättighet att knacka på och få låna toaletten överallt. (4 %)

6. Gravida kvinnor har rätt att kissa var som helst, inklusive i polismäns hjälmar. (4 %)

7. Om en död val hittas längs brittisk kust tillfallet huvudet kungen och stjärten drottningen. (3,5 %)

8. Skatteverket har rätt att bli informerat om saker den skattskyldige vill hålla hemliga, men har inte rätt till uppgifter som medborgaren gärna delar med sig av. (3 %)

9. Det är olagligt att ha rustning på sig i Londonparlamentet. (3 %)

10. I York är det fritt fram att mörda skottar som är beväpnade med pil och båge. (2 %)

Världen:

1. I USA-delstaten Ohio är det olagligt att göra en fisk berusad. (9 %)

2. I Indonesien bestraffas onani med halshuggning. (8 %)

3. Manliga läkare får i Bahrain bara undersöka kvinnliga patienters könsdelar genom att studera dem via en spegel. (7 %)

4. I Schweiz får män inte stå upp och kissa efter klockan 22. (6 %)

5. I Alabama får man inte ha ögonbindel när man kör bil. (6 %)

6. I Florida ska ogifta kvinnor som hoppar fallskärm på söndagar bestraffas med fängelse. (6 %)

7. Kvinnor i Vermont får inte ha löständer utan skriftligt tillstånd från sina makar. (6 %)

8. I Milano måste man alltid le, förutom vid begravningar och på sjukhus. (5 %)

9. Det finns ingen minimiålder för att idka sexuellt umgänge i Japan. (5 %)

10. I Frankrike är det olagligt att döpa grisar till Napoleon. (4 %)

Källa: http://metro.se/se/article/2007/11/06/19/1654-62/index.xml

Discret

Elle est pas belle ma voiture? ;-)

C'est la voiture que j'ai loué vendredi pour aller voir Frank & Julie. 299 SEK par jour, soit environ 33€ et c'est tout compris sauf l'essence en somme: cela inclut le kilométrage illimité, l'assurance, le journal Aftonbladet et quelque chose que je trouve très intéressant: le "klimatneutralisering", une sorte de compensation pour la nature. Ils partent du principe que vu qu'ils gagnent de l'argent sur quelque chose qui nuit à la nature en polluant, ils doivent le lui rendre par un autre moyen. Ainsi une partie des recettes est réinvestie dans le développement durable, l'énergie éolienne et tout autre type d'action écologique. Pour une société pétrolière (c'est une chaine de stations essence qui louent des voitures entres autres), je trouve que c'est une prise de position responsable et citoyenne.

En résumé, pas cher du tout et responsable: pourquoi chercher ailleurs?!?!!!

Frank adore!

Need your help

I have a big dilemma and I need your help. I bought them today and have until the 14th to give them back. Do I keep them or do I return them?

Strömstad

Strömstad, à la frontière entre la Suède et la Norvège, hier à 14h30...

Avec Frank & Julie


NB: les photos sont de Frank, prises avec un Nokia N95-je-ne-sais-pas-quoi, celui qui fait tout à la fois...

Officiel!

C'est officiel, je suis embauchée! Hier s'est achevée ma période d'essai et j'ai signé mon contrat. Je savais déjà que je resterais mais c'est pas grave, c'est qd même un sentiment agréable. La sécurité, c'est bien ca, la sécurité. Un salaire (le meme) qui tombe tous les mois. A partir d'aujourd'hui je travaille pour du vrai argent, un vrai salaire pour bien causer la France.

Qd j'ai décroché mon job en juillet, je m'étais auto-congratulée avec une mini-bouteille de Moët & Chandon rosé. Et ce soir, j'ai bu l'autre, pas du rosé mais du Moët & Chandon quand même... et ce accompagné de:
-saucisson
-pâté de campagne de chez Laguillon
-fromage de chèvre
-et en dessert un pur gateau au chocolat, une sorte de tarte à la mousse de chocolat, je sais pas comment le décrire mais c'est bon!

Ben, ouais, on va pas se faire chier!

Demain, direction Strömstad (la ville du courant en mot à mot) à la frontière Suède-Norvège pour voir July & Frank.