DejaVu-Production’s latest project is finally up and running! To find tons of original art, clothes and toys, I would urge you to check out the website. With the holiday season coming up, you could find unique gift ideas to please your family and friends!
For those with a remote interest in French politics and social issues, I would like to share something that raises a debate in France.
All over the french media, and on the internet we are talking about French minister (Minister of the Interior to be exact) caught saying words that can easily be qualified of racist.
In short what the conversation can be translated as follows:
Female voice - He eats pork and drinks beer!
Mr. Hortefeux - He does not match the prototype at all then! There is always one! When there is only one, it’s okay. It’s when there are many that problems begin.
To let you know what a beautiful democracy we live in, all Ministers (including the Prime Minister) support him completely. For his defense, the argument is that he was talking about “taking pictures…”. From the conversation, that is simply ridiculous.
To give a little background, a few weeks ago, this same Minister of the Interior suspended a chief officer (Préfet), because that officer was suspected in a racist altercation in an airport. That officer defended himself (he sure has a history of himself since he had many similar lawsuits involving racism attacks), saying that this story was all just a manipulation of the Minister who wants to appear like a defender of anti-racism. At that time, I thought this man was simply mad; but today I simply suspect that the whole circle is simply racist, and doing its best to hide it. Now the difference is that there is a video recording of the matter involving the Minister.
Last reminder, you can barely be surprised of this situation when the current president is known for saying about our beautiful country: “France, either you love it or you leave it”.
+1 FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC! You gotta love democracy when it proves that the French majority is simply trying to hide its underlying racist nature. Naming ministers from African descent doesn’t change anything! You need to genuinely act in a tolerant way to lead by example, that is if you actually are convinced of what you preach….
What surprises me is the very little emotion that this affair has raised, and the lack of popular reaction.
Luckily, the weather has been cooling down these days, which marks the welcoming of the month or ramadan!
Of course, my thoughts go to those who suffer from true hunger, extreme weather and other challenging living conditions.
God bless!
A bit late, I have to share a few stories about my lively trip to Italy.
I had the pleasure to attend a friend’s wedding in Titignano (a few 100km away from Rome), which was simply amazing. The setting was breathtaking, the food was excellent (and seemed to keep coming, I won’t give details about the 8 or was it 10 course meal). I had the privilege to stay in an amazing room with stairs in the room going straight to a huge washroom, with bathtub, shower… Basically a duplex with the bathroom the size of the big bedroom (with a massive bed). No words can reflect the pleasure I had (especially seeing old friends I hadn’t seen in 10 years; LITERALLY). Great wedding, and great high school friends reunion.
Next step was a road trip by car coming back to France, by driving North of Italy. I will avoid details but 2 stories.
First, we parked the car in an overpriced parking at the entrance of Venice one of our major stops), and started walking through the city. When we figured out we wouldn’t manage to find by ourselves (Venice works with neighbourhoods rather than streets, which made it complicated) we stopped to ask direction. First, a waiter at a restaurant simply didn’t want to help us, but then we asked a man on his yellow motor boat. He barely spoke any English, but didn’t hesitate to take out hotel names and phone numbers, called them, and simply offered to take us. To avoid bad surprises, I asked how much it would be (hearing a man 5m away offering us his taxi services), and he simply refused to take any money. It was his personal boat, and he was in front of his street, and simply wanted to welcome us in Venice! HOW AMAZING WAS THAT! His name was Pietro Antonia, and I he must be one of the friendliest person in Venice (knowing that pretty much everybody there is a tourist, I have to be right).
Apart from that, Venice is a Labyrinth full of tourist (I cannot emphasise it enough), nothing THAT amazing.
Second, was the fact that I ran into KOBE BRYANT! Yes, he was there with his beautiful wife and daughters, with only one body guard. Apart from the American tourists, nobody hardly recognised him. I was kindly asked to not take pictures…
We ended up with good news: “HENRI DES SE LAISSE POSSER LA MOUSTACHE!!!”
Second (already 10 days ago), I flew back to Paris, and I had 2 funny stories while leaving Canada. First, as often my luggage were loaded (especially given the fact I took most of my stuff in case I would settle in Paris), so it was of little surprise that I was a few kg over the limit. While the woman at the counter was starting to explain that I should either take off some load, or pay some fees, I heard a young woman on the next counter saying she was lucky to be a student and be allowed to have an extra 8kg over the limit! That was some kind of luck, since it was more than enough for me, and luckily I did have my student card with me.
Then, I proceeded towards customs, and started wating in some kind of huge line up. I had done the check in roughly 1h20 before the flight departure, and when I asked when we should cross the gate; the woman at the counter replied: “1h30 before take-off”… Yes, I had to go back in time and magically get through customs instantaneously! By the way, the line was far from over behin me at the check in, I would say another 100 people were still waiting (I had arrived 2h in advance at the airport and rarely saw a line that long, I can’ t imagine what kind of mess the A380 will generate).
While I nicely turned and turned (like the last level of the snake game), I started noticing people who checked in next to me going through a priority line, and then people switching from the long line to the express one. So I asked one security guard if i could do the same, to which he answered that they must be VIP’s… He didn’t even bother checking, even when i told him that students who checked in the Economy class are no VIPs… I continued my wait; and as I was one of last person of my flight left in the long line, I asked another security guard who checked for my flight and came back saying there was no rush; they hadn’ called our flight yet. A while later, when I finally passed the metal detectors, I hear the last call for my flight “all passengers must be on board”. My reaction was not to panic; those who know me already guessed, I WAS ANGRY! Instead of rushing, I took my time, simply walking fast (but not running) ad even stopping at the WC. I made it among the last 10 passengers of a huge 747 (of over 500 passengers). My suggestion to the steward was to give feedback to the airport, because we left 15 minutes late because the stupid security guards couldn’ do their job properly, and for some reason the check-in ran super late!
Yes, I haven’t posted in almost 2 months, a new low for me. Let’s say finals, administrative issues, interviews, moving out and travel have kept me busy. And yes, I did pass all my classes (some were close as expected).
First, thumbs down to Graduate House at UofT. I asked to be able to move out after my final exam, but they were not accommodating when I know for a fact that it takes at least 3-4 days for a new resident to move in. All these greedy idiots wanted was a full month rent when I wanted to stay an extra 48h. They didn’ even let me stay an extra 24h, and wanted me to move out at 3pm when my last final was at 6pm that Thursday.
Overall, yes Grad House was convenient and had fun social events (yes food nights!), but the administration was horrible! At best they didn’t try helping; at worst they were amazingly rude, and looked like they tried to make it as stupid as possible, not even following their own rules! For a non-profit branch of a public University supposed to help students find affordable housing, they did the exact opposite (not helping, while not being cheap). Overall, very bad value for the money. I would not recommend it; and rather suggest to find 2-3 roommates and find a small house close to campus. That will be my sense of education in UofT: get as much money as possible from students while not delivering…
Who knows when I will come back to TO; and who would have expeced that I would have mixed feelings leaving some good friends, in a place where I did have some good times…
Only 4 weeks left in Toronto and this stupid Grad House. Instead of complaining some more (as I often do), I will share a positive experience.
Today at Grad House residence, there was a “Learn how to make Sushi” event. I had heard that it was not hard, and for trying it myself, I must say it isn’t that difficult indeed! The ones with the rice on the outside is slightly more challenging, but I managed to get some good ones. We had nice teachers (fellow residents, RA’s to be exact), and the rice was ready, but cutting the cucumbers, avocado and the rest wasn’t bad. There also was some green onions, and I must say I experimented and really liked the end result! REALLY TASTY! No need to mention what a pleasure it was to eat! For $2 grocery contribution, that was just the best event I experienced at this crappy residence. I ate 3 full rolls, and made 2 to go (hope they’ll still be good tomorrow; I heard the rice might dry out).
Coupled with the Rotman Amazing Race on Friday, it was a fun week-end after all; good memories within my last weeks ina town I haven’t enjoyed overall.
Once again Toronto weather comes back in my posts. It is especially cold today (-15 before windchill, which means it probably felt closer to -30), and it reminded me of a post I should have written last Friday. Last week was especially humid with quite a bit of rain, and the prospect of the coming cold weather made me anticipate a lot of ice on the street. But I had no idea the drop would be so sudden! On Friday morning I woke up to go study at the library, and since Thursday was very warm and humid, I decided to not take my big winter coat but only my rain jacket. I was right since it felt like +15 (was actually +10) and heavy humidity would have made me sweat way too much under my big winter coat. I was lucky enough to come back home for lunch, since on my way back home around noon, I noticed that it was getting windy, and dryer and could feel the temperature drop. I had lunch and went back to university with my big coat, and as soon as I went out, the freezing wind made me glad I made the first good weather estimation since I was in Toronto.
In summary, between 11am and 2pm the temperature had dropped from +10 to -10! A 20 degrees differetial in 3h! And this is without counting the windchill!
My beautiful girlfriend told me she crossed the path of a huge convoy in Tripoli with dozens of ambulances. Only the ambulances were British… It turns out that a huge organized group is traveling from all over Europe to Gaza and help out. I just wanted to make a shout out to this great initiative.
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