Category — Life & Thoughts

I just watched the Travel Channel for the entire day. Tonight was the 100th of Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations” so they played the some previous shows and damn, I love Anthony Bourdain. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s chef, author of several best selling books about food and the food business, and also host of “No Reservations”. He is funny, opinionated, and not afraid to speak his mind. He essentially travels all over the world to discover other countries’ food culture and lifestyles. I adore how in his interactions with people, he always seems to be very gracious and is always touched by the generosity of people who offer to share their food/culture/lives with him. He never flatly refused to try anything, even if he feels repulsed. Of course, he gets paid for that but he is a true food lover so it isn’t extraordinary hard for him. I think the most annoying thing about watching The Travel Channel today was probably the “Man vs. Food” teasers every 15 minutes. I hate this show with all my heart. It stands for everything is wrong with the American food culture: the overindulgence in food that isn’t particularly tasteful, good for you in normal doses, and the celebration of it. “Anyone who can finish the dozen egg omelette challenge deserves respect,” is one of the quotes from the teasers. Because in America, overeating to the point of absurdity is a source of pride. The total opposite from Anthony Bourdain’s views on food, and yet they are on the same channel. Knowing how he criticized The Food Network about their shows, I’m curious to know what he thinks about his colleague’s show, but I guess he will probably never be able to say a word about it until his show stops. If you’re interested in discovering and watching “No Reservations”, here’s one of my favorite episode: Rome.

This is my 100th post. It might not seem a lot of blog post but I’m actually rather proud of myself to have had the motivation to keep posting regularly on here for a year, especially in English which is not my native language as you can easily tell. And this is also the oldest blog I have ever had. To be honest, my previous blogs lasted from 1 week to 1 month. A lot has certainly happened in a year, but in many ways I feel like I’m just getting started. I feel more and more confortable with my writing. A week ago, I installed Google Analytics and was pretty surprised to see the number of visitors. I only created this blog to practice my English writing and share stuff with my friends. So, it makes me very happy to see that people I do not know read it as well.

My friends and I have been having a BBQ on the rooftop pretty much once a week for the last weeks now. I discovered in myself a passion for cooking. I guess it’s my French genes. More than just the act of cooking, I think it’s the simple pleasure of seeing people smiling and enjoying the food I made with my own hands. I also love going to the farmer’s market to get the ingredients I need, smell the perfume of fresh fruits and vegetables, meet and talk with the local producers and watch people interact with each other. It reminds me of France where farmer’s market are very common and I would say, part of the French culture. Unfortunately, when you live in the US it’s pretty much the only place where you can buy good quality food but it’s pretty expensive. Here’s what I made the other night:

Roasted Red Peppers with Olive Oil and Garlic on Fresh Mozzarella,
Garlic and Herbs de Provence pan fried Potatoes,
Pike Place Market’s King Crab legs with Lemon,
Grilled Lime Scallops,
Beef Kabob (for the unlucky one who doesn’t like seafood),
A La Mode Pies’ Key Lime Pie,

and of course, some French wines. It was a great dinner.

This was my first time on the Oregon coast and it was so beautiful. We left Seattle on friday morning to the Tillamook area, driving on the Pacific Coast Highway 101. It overlooks Oregon coast’s most spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean. We stayed in a Bed & breakfast in Pacific City. Private cottage fully equipped with fireplace, Jacuzzi, wifi and an amazing 4 courses breakfast each morning. We didn’t see much sun but the clouds and fog created an incredible atmosphere, almost creepy. The perfect place for horror movies. I loved it and wish we could have staid longer as I will probably not see this place again before I move to Canada. The Oregon coast is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited in my life. No words could explain this experience. You can look at the photos here.

My friends and I went to Deception Pass for the day last saturday. It’s a State Park located an hour and half from Seattle. The bridge separates Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island. Even with a partly cloudy weather, it was absolutely gorgeous. There are hikes all around the park with beautiful scenery and beaches, including several secluded areas where we picnic’d with some French food and good wines. We even caught a nice sunset over the open water. That was grand. I can’t believe how many natural gems the Pacific Northwest has. It’s one of those places I can easily imagine myself spending my life in (hello Vancouver, BC). Hopefully there are as many -easily accessible- beauties in Quebec as there are here in Washington. Next stops, Cape Lookout and Cape Meares in Oregon next weekend.

On the ten schools I applied to earlier this year, half of them accepted me. Most of them are American and one is Canadian. I picked the Canadian one, the English speaking John Molson School of Business in Montreal, Quebec. It’s a top tier business school and it’s also very cheap for French citizen. Basically, because Quebec was a French colony, French citizens pay the same tuition rate as Quebec citizen ($3,000 per year instead of $18,000) and can also be covered under the Canadian social security. So, I will be moving to Montreal with Jacob in december. At the time of the move, I would have spent a little over two years here. All I can say is that I have had an amazing time and met great people. This country is truly beautiful and I will for sure come back to visit. However, I do no think that the United States is the place where I can settle. Few things bother me about how this country works and its values. With time I guess I just figured out that I’m looking for more social countries to settle. Canada might be the one. I fell in love with Vancouver, BC the last time I went. It is definitely the city where I want to live after I’m done with school and having a Canadian degree from a great business school will certainly help.

So I saw all of these mediocre pictures of that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of, so I figured I should go and do better. But the flights to get over took forever as expected (somewhat). 4 days after leaving I finally made it, but the weather was terrible for another 4. Just before leaving it got pretty good for about a day and a half and this is what I managed to get. Wish I had more time. I missed all the cool Lightning and the Lava of the first eruption. But I figure this will just be a trial run for another day.

That’s the true power of the Earth… making humans look small, because that’s what we really are. The track that we can hear during the video is Kolniður from Sigur Ros’ leader and singer Jonsi. Jónsi has spent more than a decade writing epic compositions with Sigur Rós, creating some of the finest, most acclaimed albums of the last ten years. The choice to make an album of solo recordings came together as a solution to a backlog of songs Jónsi had written that didn’t seem to fit within the Sigur Rós context. He released a new album titled “Go” on April 6, 2010.

Some people support parties against their own interests. It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy.

You can do amazing things today. Believe in it. Today, unlike yesterday is completely unique and special, but it’s up to you. Somewhere, someone believes in you, trusts that you’ll make the right decision, knows that you have the ability. Because you’re good enough, you are skinny enough, you’re not too short, your hair looks fine, and hopefully today you’ll believe me when I say you are smart enough, don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something.  Do you know how much time I wasted believing them when they said I couldn’t do something? Too much time. So today, take hold of it, take hold of what’s yours, because you’ve earned it, you deserve it, and it’s about time.

Recently, I was watching some youtube videos made by a gay man and his partner where they talk about homosexuality, relationships and stuff. They also talk about gay stereotypes in the media, and he has a series of videos on this topic which I thoroughly enjoy as well. In one of his videos, he mentions that he feels negatively towards gay pride parades and I tend to agre with him.

More likely when you read the news about gay prides, you first see people dancing down the street naked or dressed in costumes normally worn in private, which leave less to the imagination than a trip to the beach. When it comes to pride parades and demonstrations, LGBT groups have opted not to show maturity, restraint, or an understanding of what sorts of behaviors are appropriate in public, and instead have turned these events into something that would earn participants an arrest and permanent status as a registered sex offender if it weren’t for the city permit. Whatever the theme, the local news will show footage of the grossest dude there, invariably wearing a rainbow-colored jock strap and rollerblades. Or the leather BDSM people who think they’re opening minds by appearing in public flouting their fetish. Sure it’s fun, but it is not the message the LGBT community (at least not me) wants to send. I believe that if the LGBT community wants to be more accepted, it must change a few things: hire some public relation specialists and get more organized. The blacks had Martin Luther King, the LGBT community has Adam Lambert. The difference is as big as comparing George Washington and George W. Bush. About the gay pride parades, the LGBT community needs to project a positive image of homosexuals in order to get accepted by most. Most gay guys are “normal” – I hate that word – people, with normal morals, and normal lives. This is the side of gay people you want to introduce America to. I truly believe that gay pride parades quite frankly shoot the gay movement in the foot. Nobody takes us seriously, and it’s pretty obvious. Now I think marriage equality rallies are great, probably because there’s a clearer purpose. And maybe because some of them take place on the front steps of capitol buildings and such. The best possible gay pride parade would be almost unidentifiable as a parade because everyone would be wearing their normal street or work clothes, sending the message that gays aren’t all freakshow leather daddies. Do people really think that having public rave parties will help? We should seriously look at the other movements for right equality (blacks, womens…) that were successfull and take them as examples to follow.