16 min...

Yeah, that is it, when the only band from which you know more than 15 musics you think a little bit more before not going to their concert!

U2 opened an extra on their time and decided to come to Zürich, in Switzerland!!!!!! The ticket sale started on January 28th at 8h am.....and it finished at 8h16 a.m.

Now I tried for enter in the site one million times and my access was denied all of them! How is it that some people could by 8 pieces?I think they have mega computers with mega access to internet!!!

well...just to register that maybe (I say maybe because we are only in January) this is going to be the happening of the year!

Good job to the ones who got it!

bored...

Well, these last days I haven't written at all. I have been translating my CVs and diplomas to all languages I can speak, passing the entire day refreshing the job offer page and reading...

Isn't this very boring?

Maybe I should give up looking for a job in my area and get a easier job! Why have so much specialization if then what you can find is so difficult?

In the meantime the weather got crazy! La bise (the very strong wind) started blowing again and it makes the 2 degrees outside looks like -5! It is very interesting this sensation.

Another thing I noticed is that they removed the 20minutes newspaper box from our neighborhood! I have no idea where it went!!

At least I enjoy the time to learn languages, clean the house and socializing!

Wish me luck!

Back from home. But where is actually home?

We passed one entire month in Brazil, from the half of December til this half of January. It is always amazing to return home, though this time I think I didn't really deserve it since I am not working.

Every year we go is the same thing. At the beginning, I take a little while to get used to the cultural, political and economical differences.

From the political point of view, here in Switzerland, the people really decide what they want. Like on the last voting to decide about smoking or not, to decide if they will keep producing war weapons or if they want the minarets. I believe Swisses pay more attention to the politicians they elected. In Brazil, they offer people something for them to vote on him/her and then they forget about it. That is what we call a 'political promise' because it will never be accomplished.

From the economical point of view, I can enumerate several ones, specially compared to Switzerland. As I moved to Europe 7 years ago, I can say that life in Brazil became very expensive. I remember completely different prices of several products and services, but the salary itself didn't really increase. Even diary products like bread, milk, eggs and in some cases you pay European prices. In some cases, we can't deny, like food and work force are cheap. For a hairdresser in a nice place in Brasilia, we pay about 50 reais (about 30 CHF) for a fashionable lady haircut with all included (washing, cut, drying with a nice style). On the other hand, in Geneva, we don't pay less than 60 CHF! A Brazilian dentist asks 200 reais (in a special case!about 110 CHF) to fix your tooth decay, here one can pay 600 CHF for the same job! For a half leg wax epilation in BRazil, they pay 15 reais (almost 9CHF) and here in Geneva, they pay 30 CHF (do they really pay this???hands over your head!) And all this price difference doesn't mean that the job quality in Brazil is worse.

Now the most difficult difference to get used to is the cultural one. I mean not all of us do this, but I would say a lot of Brazilians do it.
1.Arriving on time, this is a very thorny subject. Lots of brazilians arrive at least 30 min late after the established meeting time. IT is true. Sometimes I ask, you arrive on time of Brazilian time? 2.Another thing?touching, it is quite natural to people to touch you when they are talking or want to start talking or want to pass by you and you are in the way. Nothing rude, even I have to admit I did do that, but nowadays I don't like it anymore and yes I like my distance.
3. One funny thing? Poor people mistreat other poor people when they are clerks or attendants. It is amazing!
4.Other? they don't really blow their noses when it is running like Europeans do it (on the other hand, Brazilians are nail cleaning maniacs!).
There are several ones. But one topic I think in Brazil it is ways better, the waiters. They really have sympathy and talk to you in a nice and funny way if you allow. Also they do a nice service, instead of like here in Europe where some of the waiters think you are doing them a favor of eating at their restaurant, if you know what I mean.

Well, these are just some differences. I can go on with a lot of them. Like the beach we were in northeast, Fortaleza. Advertisements were made saying we have internet, or we have that drink, or we have that meal and when we go inside they say exactly that is missing. BAD MARKETING.
After all this, I still think this is one of the best countries to live and where people's mood are the best, even if the situation is bad, they try to keep a good 'astral'.

And now, back to the cooold and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Is it worth?

Traveling is always a delicious thing. You have the preparation time, when you savor the thoughts of every little thing you gonna do when you get to your target place. Then, it comes the trip, you enjoy the place as much as you can. At the end comes...nothing less than.... the end. When you start savoring all the things you left behind, all the undone jobs you promised you would do and you did not finish because you were checking all the schedules of your trip.

But only one thing you probably didn't think about: the trip itself. I really mean it. We can list in it waiting time in airports, time spent inside the airplanes and time spend complaining about your broken luggage.

When waiting in the airport, you start to wonder about those people who will flight with you. Come on, look around, some of them are kind of weird, aren't they? Look that family with the mother alone with some kids, yeah those kids who look like angels now, they are actually the ones who will scream the entire trip and not let you sleep all night! And what about that girl dressed with such a short skirt that she can hardly seat, and you wonder how she is gonna spend 11 hours sleeping X seating X spending time in a closed and tight airplane seat? To avoid self pitty you think of your MANTRA: the nice beach where you gonna dive and walk and all the delicious things you gonna eat....

Boarding time!!!! Finaly we got there! Of course the objective of a transatlantic flight will be to carry as much people as they can in the best price (for the airplane company!why? you thought it would be for you?). So boarding time means, for you who didnot buy at least a business ticket, waiting on a long line for some miiiiinutes. To avoid self pitty you think of the nice beach where you gonna dive and walk and all the delicious things you gonna eat....

Inside the airplane you realize that all that money you spent in the ticket is not well employed by the company and they do not give you a confortable seat (unless...). Instead, you will think about all those times you promised yourself you would actually engage in a diet! But you didnt't! Why? IF you travel by TAP (the portuguese airlines) you will have some problems with your seat. It is so tight that if you are a little bit taller than the average, your shoulders will touch the shoulders of your neighbours. Unless, of course, you are lucky and you don't have anybody seating besides you (which is kind of rare). To avoid self pitty you think of the nice beach where you gonna dive and walk and all the delicious things you gonna eat....

After a night spent in the airplane, with the very cold (or hot) air conditioner, with a drunk neighbour who woke you up all the time to go to the toilette to do only God knows what, the other one who snored the entire night in your ears together with drooling, after the fantastic dinner, after the crying-running nose-kids who ran up and down the entire night finally got asleep, after you started to actually follow up all the minutes left to the end of the trip, you wake up (given that you could sleep) and run to the toilette to enjoy those few minutes that it is still not so, let's say, used. To avoid self pitty you think of the nice beach where you gonna dive and walk and all the delicious things you gonna eat....

The airplane landed!!!!! This is the happiest time ever since the beggining of the trip. You run to pick up your bag praying it came with you and you can go to have a shower after this incredible night. You pass a pleasant half to one hour in the passport control queue and to avoid self pitty you think of the nice beach where you gonna dive and walk and all the delicious things you gonna eat.... Now, where is the bag?After a moment of suspense, there it is! A bit scratched and with some handlers missing, but IT is there! Happily you forget all the bad moments and from now on it is just pleasure!

But is it? All of this, is it worth?

Well, I hope you don't ever pass through these 'funny' passages, if you do, just think about the MANTRA: think of the nice beach where you gonna dive and walk and all the delicious things you gonna eat.... See you walking in the crunchy warm white sand in the breezy sea shore with refreshing cold waters.

Copenhagen meeting...

Scientists and politicians of several countries met last week in Copenhagen to talk about the weather changes that have been happening in the last years since the Kyoto signing and to decide what to do next.

It is a fact that our little blue planet has changed since we were kids. I remember a different weather when I was a kid, probably my grandma remembers the same thing. My city, Brasília, the capital of Brasil (that's right, it is not Rio de Janeiro) has a period of June to September without any rain. 40 years ago when my mother moved there, right after the inauguration of the city, there was rain by this time and temperature was not so high around 25-28, today the temperature is around 28-30.

It is also a fact that we have our dose of guilt in the CO2 emissions and still some people believe that global warming isn't caused by men! This sounds unbelievable. Of course, there is the natural course of nature, but since the industrialization time, it increased absurdly.

I hope politicians will get to positive conclusions and we will do our best all around the world to avoid a bad future for the sons of our sons. I live here a video, as I see it is a fashion to use 'poor' Hitler to different reasons, but this one is quite good and about how everybody is concerned with the weather. It is in german, but at the right low corner of the video there is a closed caption for the "English text."



Well, we can do our part, trying to minimize our shower time, and turn off electric machines when not in use (not leaving them in stand by), buy the ones that have clever energy usage, solar energy is an alternative (Germany is quite good in that, told me a German person) and some other things that can be useful...
Think about it, it is worth while!

Event of the year in Geneva

The Escalade, invasion plan

I heard from natives that this celebration is one of the most important ones in the city, it is called Escalade (like in 'climbing').

It starts one weekend before the Dec 12th with a race in the Vieille Ville of Geneva, where serious runners and also disguised runners go to run.

The main time of the celebration is on the night from Dec 11th to Dec 12th. Why? Well, everything started in 1602 with Charles Emmanuel, duke de Savoy (one of the french regions right besides Geneva). He was a duc whose ambition didn't have any limits and he decided to surprisingly invade Geneva with his army and like this save its people from heresy.

Late at night they prepare in Plainpalais to climb the city with portable stairs and arms when a group of Swiss soldiers coming from the Monnaie gate (which can be visited only by this time of the year) interrupt them! Meanwhile they fight, a soldier (Isaac Mercier, who became famous) shoots his arquebus and the alarm is given, the bells in the Temple of St. Pierre start to ring and all citizens wake up and go to fight.



According to Genevois legend, Catherine Cheynel, originally from Lyons and the wife of Pierre Royaume, ("Mère Royaume"), a mother of 14 children (wow), seized a large cauldron of hot soup and poured it on the attackers. The Royaume family lived just above the La Monnaie town gate. The heavy cauldron of boiling soup landed on the head of a Savoyard attacker, killing him. The commotion that this caused also helped to improve the townsfolk to defend the city.



After losing, the Duke of Savoy was obliged to accept a lasting peace, sealed by the Treaty of St. Julian in July 12, 1603, and forget the fact that his trial to end up the influence of Calvin (died 1564) was over. The Escalade was from that time onwards destined to become a symbol of the independence of Geneva, celebrated since every year.

Now you might be asking, why is it so important they celebrate it? Well, think about it. If the French would have won:
1. Geneva would be capital of Savoy region (a very different European map!) and;
2. it would be Catholic instead of being this strong Protestant city it has been since Jean Calvin lived and made this city the Reform head quarters.
3. Another consequence, this one economical, was that some of the more financially-minded Protestants, feeling safe in the haven of Calvin’s city, set up Geneva’s original private banks!

Escalade celebrations include a large marmite (cauldron) made of chocolate filled with marzipan vegetables and candies wrapped in the Geneva colours of red and gold. It's customary for the eldest and youngest in the room to smash the marmite, while reciting, "Ainsi périssent les ennemis de la République! " (Thus perish the enemies of the Republic).




we have to make our own video with our own Marmite!

Other traditions include mulled wine and a large serving of soup, and children in Halloween-like costumes singing Escalade songs for money. And, of course, people disguised in clothes from that time go in procession around the Old Town role playing the important events of that night.