Posts from — August 2009

It has been 6 months since my old one had been stolen in my car and I was sick of taking pictures with my iPhone so I decided to get a new one. Not a compact one, a SLR. So, I found a great one in Sears in Canada, the Canon EOS Rebel XS (aka 1000D). Plus, I saved a few dollar because of the currency. I love it. Here some pic of the camera and some shot taken with it in Vancouver BC.

I was taking a shower and listening to the sound of the water falling. I enjoyed the silence apart from the delicate sound of the water falling down near my feet. I watched it dance down my body. It felt nice.

I have this want to just go away. I want to get a pass to all the national parks and go on a road-trip going clock wards over the whole United States. I miss the mountains, rivers, waterfall, deserts. I miss biking through forests with a light drizzle. I want to have time to spend in the nature with people I love. I miss the Milky Way. I miss the smell of the ocean

Toronto’s eastern clouds. @ [daily dose of imagery]

We left around 10 on the morning to Leavenworth, a little bavarian town in the Cascades Mountains. The city is two hours away from Seattle. The road, through forests and mountains, is gorgeous. Leavenworth kinda looks like a little stereotypical german town. There is all kind of german stores, restaurants and bars. Everyone’s dress in traditional german outfit. I don’t know about the history of Leavenworth but I felt like I was in an amusement park. It’s cute but it didn’t seem very authentic. It’s too touristic for me I guess but if you are in the area I would recommend you to visit it. It’s something to see. We ate in a german restaurant. For the first time for a while, I haven’t been really excited about the food on the menu. Germans receipes’names are just not very sexy. Chicken Schnitzel with Spaetzle.

The road to Lake Chellan was so different from everything I saw in Western Washington. We went from the grey clouds and green forests to yellow and orange sand of Central Washington. The lake is not very wide but it is the longest lake in the United States. It has been created by the huge dam on the Columbia River. We spent the day there, looking for place to relax and swim. There were some gorgeous houses and manors by the lake, it’s insanely rich.

We came back home at 11.30 PM. Such a beautiful day trip.

I talked to someone today on the phone. I haven’t heard of him for 4 months at least and he asked to call me to talk for only two minutes and I said ok. I don’t know why, I guess I just needed to interact to someone. However we certainly went over the time frame and I asked him why he wanted to only talk to me for 2 minutes. He said, so we would talk again. I liked that. We hung out a while at home with some wine before he goes to work. Wine was great, the headache then wasn’t that great. It made me totally unfunctional for the rest of the day.

When I moved from France, even if I knew that European and American cultures weren’t that different, I expected a little cultural shock. It never happened. I guess it is because our society are both based on the christian model and that Western Europe has always been flooded with American movies, TV shows, music or books. But still, there is some differences between America and Europe. I’m just going to talk about the two principal differences, I will keep the other ones for another blog post.

First, religion. France is one of the less religious country in the world and at the same time, USA is the most religious country. Huge differences, isn’t it? Religions scare me. It makes people go crazy. It creates wars, conflicts and problems such as this doctor who was shot and killed because he was performing abortions to women. Also as a gay, it has created a lot of problems with the family of the guys I have dated. Sure, it’s the same everywhere and sure it happens in France too but I have never heard of my life before things like “my son, you will go to hell because you’re gay” or “let’s go to the Church, the priest will turn you straight”. It is disappointing how religion has consumed America. I always found a lot of hypocrisy in religions. Officially, it’s all about tolerance and respect of the other human being but when it comes to sensitive things such as homosexuality, tolerance and respect do not exist anymore. Some people says that religion makes the US a very moral country, but what’s moral? Who can say what is good or bad? Bush played with the good and the bad for the Iraq War and now we can see the consequences.

The second topic is about food. I place food in the top 3 of my life priorities. In France, food is at the center of the society. In the US, I feel like people just eat because they need it to keep themselves alive more than eating for their pleasure. In France, people try to find as many occasions as possible to spend some time at the table, with their family and friends to enjoy the taste of great products and drink. Here, you turn on the TV or go down the street, it is all about fast-food and junk food. I love fresh food and we can find great food here too but it is not very affordable. Now, I understand why there is so many obese people in the US. Good and healthy food is expensive. All the shit is cheap so if you don’t have a lot of money, you don’t really have choice. Also, it is so easy to be lazy and just cook a random junk food for 2 minutes in the microwave, or just do it because you don’t have time. In fact, the average lunch break in the US is 30 minutes so you actually can’t cook and eat something good and people seems okay with that. The average lunch time in France is around 1h30, it used to be 2h thirty years ago and it makes a lot of people mad when they figure out that it’s reducing over time. It really shows us how important the act of consuming food is in France compared to the US. Eating well requires times and energy, and it is not something that people should give up because at some point, they will pay the expensive health price of it.

To be continued.