I hate this

As someone who has made a grand or two writing about France, I probably shouldn't be trashing this article in the NY Times about Paris. But oh my god it's so full of the same bullshit you read in every single article written about Paris. Check out this gem of an opener:

"THE chief danger about Paris,” T. S. Eliot wrote to a friend, “is that it is such a strong stimulant.” That wasn’t merely the overcaffeinated ramblings of a Left Bank cafe habitué. Few cities thrill visitors with such a beguiling multiplicity of personalities. There is the devout Paris of Notre Dame’s Gothic solemnity, and the naughty Paris of Pigalle’s red-light bars. Sophisticated Paris radiates from the vaulted galleries of the Louvre and the gilded Opéra Garnier, while bohemian Paris emerges in the art galleries of the Marais and gritty rock ’n’ roll nightclubs. For every Gallic gastronomic temple, there’s an Asian, African or Middle Eastern restaurant brimming with exotic flavors. And for every Jean Paul Gaultier, there’s a fledgling fashion student opening his first boutique. In the words of Henry Miller, another American drawn to Paris’s manifold pleasures, lofty and low: “To know Paris is to know a great deal.”

When I'm in Paris I too quote American expat artists. Then there's this:

Not all baguettes are created equal. [so original, that line!] At the bakery of Gérard Mulot (76, rue de Seine; 33-1-43-26-85-77), the bread and croissants (1 euro) are sublime, and the jewel-like pastries — like the ruby red raspberry tarts and jade green pistachio macaroons — are as finely wrought as Fabergé eggs. Eat them as you stroll to the belle époque Café de Flore nearby (172, boulevard St.-Germain; 33-1-45-48-55-26), the former hangout of André Breton and the Surrealists, Jean-Paul Sartre and the Existentialists, and a who’s who of screen stars like Brigitte Bardot. Trotsky and Hemingway may be gone, but the French intelligentsia still stops in to slurp café crème and exceptional hot chocolate

It's just ridiculous. I pity the fool that goes to Paris after reading this garbage.

Christmas in Colombia

My Christmas eve in Cali was pretty nice: food + beer (ugh) + Pink Floyd + Creedence Clearwater Revival + Manu Chau. Not quite the same as back home but definitely cool. Olivier and I also spent half the day lounging at the lovely Parque San Antonio somewhere in town. There was even an iguana.

Parties start tomorrow afternoon and last through the New Year, and somehow Margot and I are supposed to get some work done this week.

Hope all of you are having a lovely holiday season with your families and food. I don't know how many immigrants come home for the holidays, but talking to them or their families as they describe how happy they are to be together, it's sweet but mostly annoying since I'm jealous. Oh well, I hope all are doing well and having a lovely time.

Please, drink a cup of champagne for me!

why Colombia is sometimes annoying

I just thought I'd let you know that in the process of a very serious academic study that will soon be presented before the ministry of foreign affairs, the SENA (national job training center), the DANE (i.e. census nerds), and DAS (visa bureaucratcs), and the International Organization for Migration, I got prettyy ripped with my interviewee and his friends. It was good fun until the moment when I had to get into the car to go up the windy mountain roads to Bogota. I didn't spew, but by the end I was seriously ready to be done with these damned buses.

And ahorita (in a little while, i.e. 2 hours) I have to wake up from my non-bed (we gave everything to charity) to pack everything from my apartment and take it to a friend's place and then catch another bus to Cali, which supposedly is just a giant party for the week after xmas. Should be fun, no? Except that we'll be working and doing interviews. Except that interviews in Colombia means meeting people and accepting any invitation to eat or drink. And I'll probably end up dancing non-stop for the next week. Cool, no? And they call this a sub-developed country!

US protectionism

Why don't more people say this [in French]? Nice quote from Ségolène Royal, socialist presidential candidate for the 2007 elections in France.

Si je suis en responsabilité et puisque nous aurons la présidence de l'Union européenne au 1er janvier 2008, nous mettrons à plat ce qui se passe sur les autres continents, au premier rang desquels les Etats-Unis, qui savent très bien tenir un discours libéral mais organiser des protections sous des prétextes divers et variés.

Translation: If I'm in charge, and as we'll have the presidency of the European Union on January 1, 2008, we'll clarify what's been going on on other continents, first in line being the US, which knows well how to talk like a liberal [free trade, etc.] but organize protection under diverse and various pretexts.

Critiques of the US as ultra-liberal on trade always forget about the maze of protections and regulations designed to benefit domestic producers (as is done in Europe as well). An example would be food quality regulations. Yes, they're good for consumers in the sense that we get to eat less bad food than we might otherwise (bear with me, let's ignore the recent e coli outbreaks and whatnot), but these regulations can be selectively enforced with foreign producers specifically in mind (more vigilant customs agents, with the backing of the agricultural lobby), keeping prices higher than they would be if there were foreign competition.

Babies vs. pandas

Because there's clearly nothing more important going on in the world, there's a fascinating poll on the front page of CNN.com: Which do you think is cuter, babies or panda cubs.

Proof:

For the record, at the time of writing panda cubs are out in front, 61% to 39%.

Also, CNN thought it would be useful to many people to publish an article called Scraping By on $150,000 a year (that's their income when only the wife is working). Here is my nomination for oh-my-god-these-people-are-f*cking-idiots award:

Budget for some fun

...

Last year, for instance, Brian's parents gave the Schuetts a horse named Red for their kids to ride. They think it will cost a few hundred dollars a month to feed and care for the animal, and they're willing to give up ballet lessons and gymnastics classes for the girls to pay for it.

The trade-off is worth it, says Brian, because "the kids so love having a horse."

In fact, Amy has already got a name if they get a second horse: Buttercup. "We'll probably have to wait a while for that," says Brian. "We've got another beast to tame first."

Yes, the beast that is their two unoccupied rental properties. Woe is Brian! I'm so glad to have learned about his mistakes and problems, which are so similar to mine and those of most people in the US.

it was a good day, this one

It's now 3:30am and I really shouldn't be bothering with this. But today was one of those nice, productive, fun, satisfying days and I thought I'd share it with you.

It started off with a presentation of our work to the head boss and the other administrators of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). While our Powerpoint slides weren't beautiful, at least they were interesting. The presentation went really well, they were really impressed with everything we'd done, and they finally realized that we were there for something (i.e. setting the foundation for a 500,000 euro study on exactly the program we're studying). They want statistics and reports ASAP, though we're not even going to finish the interviews before early January. It's just nice that they care.

The next big project was going to the SENA where we've been searching through archives for lists of people who went to Spain and with which company. Today, I finally dropped off database of 350 temporeros, and we should have all sorts of demographic data on them by next week.

Man ... I'm too sleepy. I'll try to finish in the morning.

p.s.

By the way, those prices include taxes. And for the last year or two I haven't gotten anything for less than $600, so these are sweet prices.

note on plane tickets

In case anyone wants to come to Europe (i.e. Paris, of course), there are some great tickets with American Airlines out of SFO at this link. No need to fly directly into Paris (not very cheap) but you can get to London Heathrow for about $500 roundtrip, spend a few days gorging yourself on curry, visiting amazing free museums, and getting your fill of an English accent for a while, then catch the Eurostar train into the center of Paris in three hours for like 60 euros roundtrip.

On Friday only, there'll be some sweet deals via STA Travel for students or people 26 y.o. or less. Last Friday I found a ticket into Paris for less than $500.

I expect to be in Paris sometime early February. Hint hint!

p.s. you have to purchase tix by Dec. 20 and fly before the end of March and stay 30 days or less. More details and legalese via the link.

yay, guitars!

I just thought I'd announce to the world that I bought a guitar the other day. It's a lovely, cheap acoustic, and for the moment I'm using it to learn David Bowie and Beatles tunes exclusively. I'll branch out once I've mastered Rock n' Roll Suicide, WHILE singing. Hmmm ... well, it's a good thing no one else is here right now. The chords are easy but the singing is rough. So then, I guess I'm accepting suggestions for Beatles or Bowie tunes to learn, and I promise never to sing them to the lucky suggester unless you piss me off or something.

In any case, it's nice to be playing an instrument again, even if my fingertips are crying out in agony, I already lost my first pick, and I managed to use Hey Jude to distract myself from work for half the day. Actually, that last thing is pretty cool. Vive la guitarra!

old post

Turns out I wrote something a few months ago that I never posted about a party at a fancy restaurant. Here it is: clickity-click

gotta love yer students

I finally got around to picking up my teacher evaluation the other day, and to my delight and surprise, my class seemed to think I did an ok job. Ok ok, so they did the evaluations halfway through the semester, before the quality of each class dropped as I got busier and busier, but it's still cool. I made #4 out of 13 on the partial list I have, though I'm a bit skeptical since I got a good "grade" for being punctual, which I never was. Then again, I suppose that didn't bother the students that much -- less lecture, fewer notes. All in all I think we all (Noemie, Margot, Olivier, and I) did pretty well in our evaluations. Yeah!

they would never do this back home

Christmas is a big deal here in Colombia. Family members living abroad come home for the holidays if they can, the office where I've been doing research lately is totally decked out, and tonight, as I was taking a nap (which only made me sleepier), there was an insane fireworks show.

Now, this wasn't that special really, in the sense that I'd already seen stuff like most of the fireworks they had. But it was mighty impressive waking up to earsplitting explosions and for a second or two being sure the paramilitary and guerrilla are firing artillery into the park next door. So of course, I went to the window to see what was going on.

While the building two blocks is always cool at night ...


... this is just cool:



Can you imagine them shooting fireworks off the top of the Transamerica building in SF or the Empire State Building or something? And then raining sparks over the side onto the street below? Me neither.

Gnite then.