Where are you From ? - Everywhere...

Almost at the end of it...

2007-05-02T02:01:00.000+04:00

May the 2nd, almost 4 months after the last post... and so many things happened since then! April was not a good month for me. Between car repairing, theft of my wallet and laptop, it seems that I had my unlucky period. Dealing with the local police was and is still a hardship, when you don't speak the local language. Worse than that, being non Saudi citizen, they just don't care about you. The day when the glass of my car was stolen, after calling the police, they told me that they would certainly help me B U T not before the weekend. Everything happened on a Wednesday night, 11th of April.

That day, I was seriously thinking about taking my car to the workshop.. At last. and so I did, at night I asked my secretary if he would come with me to Thoqbah, a place known to shelter many Yemeni people quite good at repairing cars. We were still at the center, I remembered well that I was holding my laptop case, hesitating whether I would take it with me or not. And finally, after making up my mind, I decided that it with me, how silly. As usual, when I am driving my car, I leave my laptop on the backseat. If I stop by a restaurant to take some food away, I don't move the laptop from its current place, as I just need some 7-10 minutes to have my order ready.. But that night I had it wrong. Back from Thoqbah, I decide to invite my secretary to the restaurant, as he helped me to find the garage and translated everything.

The place where I will leave my car is a busy one. On this big axis called Pepsi Road (as there is the Pepsico factory that provides the whole Eastern region), to see a traffic jam has nothing specially amazing. It crosses the city from West to East, until the beautiful Cornich. So, I will park my car not far from the Steak house, actually opposite to a shop that sells lighting stuff (so, from there one could see my car quite well...).

After parking my car, we will wait a little bit in front of the restaurant. Indeed, at 8 pm, it is the end of Ishaa prayer which is the last in the day... and as you know, all the shops and restaurant are closed during prayer time, locally called "Sala". We will get into the restaurant at 8.05, when one of the filipino waiters that I know quite well, opens the door for us. Pleased to have my secretary as a guest for the first time (li awwal marra) i will suggest him to try anything he wants. He will try this black rock grill, a piece of tender meat on a square volcano stone, warmed up to 450 degrees... so that you can grill it "your way" hehe.

He will be happy of his meal, and so will I. Both of us will get outside the restaurant at 9.45. I will push the button on my key, to open it in the distance and I will sit down. To be sure my stuff is still there, I will turn round and see an empty backseat. Wow. Strange. I was sure I had taken my laptop. Maybe I had left it at the institute. Well. then I will take a glance at the glass, behind the passenger seat. Missing. there won t be any glass any more.

I quickly understood what happened but didn't really understand why. Come on! This is Pepsi road, a large avenue busy at night like at day, how come? We then asked the shoptenders, on the opposite side, if they had seen anything. But they hadn't, or I would say, they refused to talk. Supposed to be lamp and bulb dealers, they remained enable to provide us any light. My friend Ihab joined me, so did the new owner of the restaurant, who assured us that this practice was common, happening periodically. While...

While the police claim the right to be on weekend. I'm not lying. after dialing 999 (like the number of hell, but upside down : I let you visualize the image) a police car came to us, apologized in the name of the thief - which was a nice idea but not my concern at that time. They made the report, took some fingerprints and pictures. Basicallylike the FBI as far as equipment is concerned, but the difference was about credibility. Then they told me : "look. We are on a Wednesday which means that tomorrow [Thursay] and the day after tomorrow, it is the weekend. So please come to the office on Saturday.

What the f### is this, police who don't work on weekends. What I was satisfied about, at that time, is the fact that nothing had happened to me physically because the hospital staff might have answered the same bullshit. Sorry, no intensive cares on THU and FRI. "Come back on SAT", they will say, with a large smile meaning "at last on a weekend!"

If there was a moral to extract out of this story, I would suggest this one. If you really have the desire of getting into trouble, make sure that you are on a worked day : Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays.... from 8 am to 9 pm.

When Bahrain is looking westwards...

2007-01-07T22:12:00.000+04:00

Yesterday in Bahrain, there was a sport celebration, "the big event" of this beginning of year on the little island. The national football club, which was founded in 1957, was celebrating its ... errr... ( 2007 minus 1957... equal...) okay, its 50th year. What would have been better than to invite the leader team of the Italian league? Before starting again the championship, the Italian team were having a kind of "resting period" in Middle-East. The Bahraini coach then decided to invite the "Nerazzuri" for a little show. Even though Bahrainis are still developing their economy towards leisure and tourism, they don't have that many opportunities to catch the attention of the countries all around. Once a year, there is the Formula 1 Race at the International Circuit (see pictures of the circuit here), big hotels are being built, a business district as well... Somehow I have the impression they want to compete with Dubai... hopelessly, I think. Someone told me that 70 % of all the cranes in the world are currently located in Dubai. 70 %... it sounded incredible but it's not impossible. Ehm, I think this post was about football...

So, to get back to our initial topic... This match (pictures here and maybe videos one day :p) was interesting. Of course, there was not the least stake (not steack) for any team... However, I would say that the main objective for the Bahraini team was to score at least one goal, "for honor". And they did so, finally there was a difference of only 5 goals! 6-1, and honestly I would have never imagined that Bahrain would score any goal. The Nerazzuri were not even running, I think they were just pretending... except for the goals : the ones Adriano scored were really nice. I also appreciated Figo's game, who was in my opinion "the man of the match" (if we can call this a match). The atmosphere was friendly, the public was cheerful.

But you will ask me "Quid of Materazzi ?". Ehm. I think that he is the most hated player in this professional generation, since the public did not forget this famous episode which happened during the final match of World Cup 2006. Whenever Materazzi was touching the ball, the public were whistling him down... and so was I ;) Honestly, I think wouldn't have replied anything if Materazzi had insulted my mother because this guy is very tall (I would say 1,95m) and quite strong. I guess Zidane knew that Materazzi would not "reply"... That's why the shock was a bit violent :p

That's all about sports for today, we'll open this topic again soon. I hope I will attend this Formula 1 race, on the second Sunday of April. By this time, I consider changing my camera whose pictures are really poor in quality and disappointing...

See youuuuuuuuu

looping on my Poddy

2007-01-06T07:34:00.001+04:00

2007..... what's inside?

2007-01-05T20:55:00.000+04:00

Where is it? tic tac tic tac tic tac....... BZZZZ!!! no answer... ? Well, this is a nice city where I went three times already, which is neither in Bahrain, neither in Saudi Arabia and not even in France. This city, it's my 2007 project. From now I know what I want to do and where I want to be, right after this Saudi experience, I think my relatives know about my intentions... and I appreciate very much their encouragements. I'm growing with the idea that France is a nice country, seen from outside. And honestly, even though it requires a distance with friends and family, I want to entertain this distance with my homeland... Also and mainly because there is another distance I would like to get rid of. I don't specially believe in the magic of numbers, but if during the year 2007 I manage to fulfill my projects, I might become a bit superstitious ;) And among those "if", "would", "maybe", "probably" and other "hope", I will do my best to find a real way.

Who agrees with me on the fact that 2006 ran very fast...? Actually, time flew. From the beginning of 2006 I remember a very nice new year's party, my research for an internship, this night partying in Lille at Fred's homecity, a pleasant week of rest in April with Aurelija and then... Departure to SA. On the eve of 2006, I never imagined that I would be here one year later, this was not in my plans at all. At that time, I had other expectations which unfortunately failed but I found a personal benefit through that, it taught me that I should prepare myself better before planning anything serious. Now, I have something like 3 months to get myself ready and gather necessary documents for my different applications. I'll also enjoy some 15 days in France in the first half of March to get a bowl of fresh air. Every 3 or4 months spent spent here, you feel that the air is a bit dusty so... what's better than have a break (shall it be short...) and meet again with your family, love and friends? I'm counting days now... But still, I'm not yet nuts enough to display the daily countdown on my MSN nickname. ( "France : 41 days until D-day")..... I also need to refresh my music folders, which are getting even more dusty than the local atmosphere! So this is my official holiday plan for March : 28th Fev - 4 th March in Orleans, 5th March - 16th in Chalon... not without some trips to Paris. We'll see that when time comes.

2007 has just started and it seems very busy already. Let's hope it will indeed, if not exactly as I expect it to be, at least I'd like it to look like this mental picture I have, something that is getting clearer and clearer day after day. But first of all, there is a little mission to finish here in Middle East, and I still enjoy it very much. I think that contrary to many foreigners coming here (i.e. for oil business) my relation to local people is not "client-oriented". I'm not sure that business can lead that easily to friendships, or maybe not as much as cultural exchange is. Even though I would like to do something else in my life than teaching French language all the time, I enjoy very much this position here and I encourage anyone to take any opportunity to come to Middle East. If we grew with the idea that the Western World is ruling everything, we shouldn't forget that interesting things happen Southwards and Eastwards. The best way is not to be stuck on National Geographic channel or read travel books, it's just to go and see it with your own eyes, feel it with your own guts. Yes, I admit, I'm far away from my relatives but I'm sure I'm not wasting my time. I'm almost 25, and I realize there are so many things left to see, and so little time. That's why I want 2007 to be the year of change, the "great bend" : I still want to discover people, cultures, languages ... but this time, "not alone".

Interesting tools...

2006-12-31T04:59:00.005+04:00

Today I have been setting-up some tools for my blog that indicate the country from which my visitors come from... and I am very surprized about the results! I was wondering about my visitors from the US, actually. I couldn't find out from where they were exactly... First, I was thinking that as I'm writing the posts from Saudi Arabia, some people would be "interested" in the content of that blog, for any reason. Then I set-up another tool that gives me a geographical position of my visitors (I like this indicator very much) and I realized that they are not all coming from the state of Washington! So I am happy : my American visitors are not all working for the Pentagon! :)

Thanks also to the visitors from other countries, although I have never visited their homeland they give me some ideas for future holidays ;)

Best wishes for 2007!!

Well done! (please)

2006-12-31T03:27:00.000+04:00

"Well done" is an expression I use when I go to this Steakhouse restaurant. I like it very much : American atmosphere, which reminds me of "Buffalo Grill" restaurants in France, friendly waiters, and most importantly, great great food. How to say.. The first time I went there, I was looking through the menu and was wondering what I would order. The choice is very wide and many meats (except pork meat of course, which is absolutely prohibited) are proposed... Beef, chicken, turkey, mutton... and also some fish, that I did not try. One feature of my personality is that I am very difficult and conservative about food, no one reading this post can say the contrary : neither the persons who know me well, and even less the people who don't know me :P You might think it's very silly to order a-l-w-a-y-s the same thing in a restaurant. But as far as I am concerned, I am a bit afraid of being disappointed with a changing. I know the value of what I'm ordering and I don't want to change. That's why I always have the same seat and the same dish. From my seat, next to the kitchens, I can see the waiters and cookers running here and there, filling the plates and so on. It is something we don't have in France. When you go to a restaurant there, the kitchens are hidden from the customers. Here it's not, and actually I prefer that.

In August, I decided that I would go to this restaurant once a week, every Wednesday after duty. Now, the waiters know me and know my order. It's like in France, when you've been living in the same town for a couple of years and are used to buy your baguette at the same baker shop, they know your name and your order. However, I don't consider staying here for years of course ;) And I know I will miss this restaurant and its food, for sure.

What is so special about it? That's simple : the quality of meat. In France, you can easily make the difference between the quality of meat that you buy at the supermarket, meat that you buy at the butcher's and meat you eat in a good restaurant. Until I reached Saudi Arabia, the best meat I had ever had was in those "Buffalo Grill" restaurants - even though the quality of their food has been decreasing those last years. To me, it was the highest level, the best taste. But now it's far behind what I experience here. The quality is incredibly good. I asked one manager about the origin of beefs; they are neither from the Gulf nor from Europe, but from Brazil. I was surprized.

I remember that after the affair of "mad cow" in Europe in the mid 90's, the French government had created a kind of "norm" such as ISO9001 but specific about Beef, after they discovered in the "Hard Rock Cafe" restaurant in Paris that they were keeping out-of-date beef meat in the freezers. This "VF norm" (Viande bovine Française) was supposed to "relieve" customers about the quality of meat they were buying. At that time, there was a huge phobia about meat coming from the UK, as if each piece of British cattle was contaminated with this "madness" !! But since that time, there has been a typically French paradox I still cannot understand. The Government insisted on important measures about freshness of meat, health of cattle, better tools to identify the origin of meat.. and in the meantime, quality has been decreasing. I'm not the only one who claim this. Meat is not as good as before, and I don't believe it's because of industrial methods of killing, because they haven't changed for 20 years; I have no clue that could solve this paradox. To conclude about french meat, I would say that such protectionist measures didn't provide us a better quality.. Brazilian beef does taste much better ;)

You may think that I have much time to waste, by writing about food. But if we look well into the topic, it's not just about food. It's generally about the way we (French people) deal with our own national products. It's not only about meat! Look at wine. For many decades now, the French has thought that the quality of their wine had no possible competitor all around the world. Bordeaux and Bourgogne vineyard's owners refuse to accept competition, but it's been there for a long time already. Five years ago, there was a wine worldwide contest. Each country picked its best wine and sent its best experts. Those experts, just by sipping some wine, could tell you about the country, the year, even the type of grape, the region, and many other details (that's why they are called experts :P). During this contest, of course, all the bottles were blindfolded, only 2 or 3 persons actually knew which label corresponded to which bottle. Each bottle had a number. So, after some rounds, the experts unanimously chose one bottle. They were all sure that it was one of the best Bordeaux ever but they were all wrong. It was a wine from Australia. I guess that a little wind of shame was blowing this community of "experts" that day.

So what? what is the relation between this wine contest and the quality of food? This relation can merely be called "illusion". This illusion is founded upon the old reputation of a French style that is nowadays completely obsolete. If French wine used to be the best, some years or decades ago, now the competition about quality is harsh and I have absolutely nothing against this; the instant when you start thinking that you are above any competition because your products have a good reputation, I think you start losing the point. Because in this competition, there are many guys who have enough energy to convince you that your reputation belongs to past. And I'm sure that this French touch already belongs to past....

Will you save Saddam?.... ehm.

2006-12-29T18:13:00.000+04:00

Please don't take this question seriously. Even though I'm against death penalty, I won't give any personal point of view about this complicated topic, merely because I have no point of view about it. However, I still think we can make fun with anything so here is a little game. Enjoy!

Subsequently to what happened, maybe it's better to delete the game... and to change the topic :) Better listen to my weekly playlist ;)

Christmas memories...

2006-12-26T16:44:00.000+04:00

There are some countries, maybe most of the countries in the world, where children's eyes will be illuminated in front of big displays of Santa Claus made of chocolate. But in Saudi Arabia, this does not exist... I mean, it could have existed but it didn't. This story happened in the supermarket (Hypermarket) Carrefour of the region. The department-Head for Food supplies decided to make a huge display only with Chocolate Santa-Claus, Kinder products like on this picture. The display was nice, prices were attractive and many people were filling their trolleyswith those red & white chocolates. But the issue was that some guys, wearing white and red suits but WHO WERE NOT Santa-Claus (look at the next image) but actually people called "Muttawa" came to the supermarket and asked to talk immediately to the General Manager. They gave him "fifteen minutes" to empty the display completely, otherwise they (the Muttawas) would call their colleagues and do it themselves. Of course, such a threat is not something to joke with... Why??

Because the Muttawas represent the religious authority here in Saudi Arabia. (5th of January : I have found the name of the Commission that hires the Muttawas : the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ... I will make no comment about this.) They have as much power as the police, maybe even more according to some sayings. Some years ago, the community of Muttawas pressured the royal family to get more power on people and companies, and they obtained satisfaction to their request. For example, in Saudi Arabia all the shops and companies stop their activities during prayer times, and the Muttawahs are in charge of "checking" that this rule is well observed. Subsequently, at prayer times, you will always find those guys with policemen, walking around and looking into the shops if anyone is working. And if they catch someone "red-handed", and if - this detail makes the consequences even more serious - the guy is Muslim... He could be beaten. Or his ass could be kicked until he reaches the gate of the Mosque. So... better not mess up with those guys. Also, if they see a woman who doesn't hide her hair, they absolutely have the right to make a remark to her. This is all about Muttawahs!

About my Christmas eve, it was how to say, less boring than a 14th of July :p No.. Honestly, those two days were interesting, I have no reason to complain. I received many phonecalls from relatives, friends, and was busy quite all the time. I celebrated the Eve in a nice bar-Club of Bahrain with Jais, it was the occasion to meet with some British and Irish people. They are incredible... So drunk that they could say "hello, where are you from?" 3 times to the same person in the same night. But very sociable and funny, when it comes to drinking. For one night I thought I was in the Rasmus Rask Bar, in DK. So... the atmosphere was good.

Today I went back to my office to correct the papers of my students... It took one hour all in all, which is not that much actually. My expectations as far as those exams were concerned were actually much lower than the results. I was well surprized by my students' papers, even though some of them are a bit weak at some points, they all made some efforts to pass it. I have no failing student this session. For level 1, particularly, students shew interest and motivation for language, even though they all have different aims. I have a 11-year-old boy, a British manager, and the 12 other students are Saudi doctors or engineers who will complete a postdoctoral program in France.

For the next days, I will try to enjoy some rest, but will go on working for private courses with a student who will attend a french school in Tours from next February and during 8 months. Then, he will be attending a speciality program in medicine at Hopital Cochin, Paris. On the 10th of January, 3 days before the beginning of a new session, I will invite my students from all the levels, here at the Institute. It would be an opportunity for them to meet with more experimented students, and also some managers from FR companies settled here. They are all complaining that there are too few occasions to implement their knowledge, to speak french in the region and that's true... So, let's try, we'll see the results.. Now I feel a bit hungry, i'll go and have dinner...

Seeya..

This blog is not dead

2006-12-16T11:50:00.000+04:00

No it's not! Just that for some time, you know, I wanted to leave some things away, stop analysing all the time everything that was happening to me and live it 100%. I have to admit as well that the level of laziness was quite... how to say.. HIGH. But let's say that I managed to put up with this, and that i'll try to write here more regularly.

My last message was posted some 4 months ago, in the middle of August. At that time, I was just considering starting to write “seriously” my internship report which was to be handed one month later, when I would go for some vacations. Today, my need for some vacations is comparable to that former period, all the more since everyone around me (not geographically speaking, I’m talking about my relatives) is preparing Christmas. I don’t mean to complain at all about my situation here, since I will spend this period in Middle East – hoping that some 2 weeks will be given to me after the January-February Session – but it feels very weird to know that it’s Christmas period when absolutely n-o-t-h-i-n-g in your immediate environment reminds you of the events. No need to mention that in the Muslim context, 24th and 25th of December are not more significant than a 12th of April, unless one of those three days might match with an Islamic celebration. Even at my workplace, the students didn’t seem to understand clearly why I took the Christmas days “off”. “ But it’s going to be a hole in the session, isn’t it ?”,one said....
Yes, so what? Isn’t it me, the boss, after all? :)
It is in Bahrain that we find some elements, decorations that remind one about Christmas. Some big trees are decorated (Christmas palm trees are a bit... exotic but still, a tree is a tree even though it requires big balls.. ehm). However I still haven’t found the sandman with a carrot as a nose.
This “opening” to Christian culture in Bahrain is mainly due to the important community of filipino people. Some of them chose Islam, but they are not that many. I had long been wondering what was the connection between Filipinos and Christianism (Roman Catholicism). It’s thanks to – or because of, choose your point of view :P – the Spanish. Them Spaniards, again! They brought Catholicism there, and also had an influence in the forming of one of the main Filipino dialects called “Tagalog”. When you hear Filipinos speaking this language, despite their pronounciation which is typical from this Asian-Indonesian part of the world, it’s possible to recognize some spanish words such as numbers, for example...
So Bahrain is more tainted with this Christian tradition but we shan’t exaggerate : it’s still a Muslim kingdom and even though Christian churches are tolerated – contrary to Saudi Arabia that admit nothing but mosques – you will obviously find more mosques than any other religious temple. Another difference, as far as religion is concerned between Bahrain and S.A. is the belonging to a specific dissidence. In Islam, we mainly find two dissidences, the first one which is “Sunnite” and the latter that is “Chi’ite”. The Chi’ite Muslims have different mosques, their convictions are based upon the great tragedy of Islamic people in the History of religion. In Bahrain, the religious color is Chi’ite contrary to Saudi Arabia, where Islam was born. I’m not sure that the open-mindedness of Bahrainis is due to this religious specificity.. I’ll try to find some documents for next post about this and explain it better.
Today I found again my little book entitled “learning Arabic without pain”. So far, I’ve ignored the therapeutical virtues of learning this language. When you look more thoroughly into it, you realize that the title is a big joke, since its content seems to be very hard to digest. Still... This is a language I want to know more about. Now that I can read numbers (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) and most of the arabic alphabet, it would be quite useful to grasp their meaning. To me, learning a language which looks like no one else has always looked exciting. I experienced that through my “very light” learning of Ancient Greek 4 years ago and I liked it very much. At that time, it was the changing of alphabet that gave a special difficulty and interest to the language. Now, the difficulty has reached another level above, since not only is the alphabet different, but the direction of reading is different. Another interesting thing is that letters, in Arabic, are not written in the same way depending on their position in the word : there are 29 letters in the alphabet, and each of them has 3 graphic variations : one variation if the letter is at the beginning of the word, another one when the word is in the middle of the word and a “final” version, when the letter is at the very end.
Let’s forget about linguistic stuff for a while... Some more news will be coming soon. For now, I will just go to bed, keeping some things to say – I mean, to write – in a little corner of my mind. I hope my “frequent readers” who were disappointed with this huuuuge break will excuse me.
See you..

In peace we trust?

2006-08-15T19:45:00.000+04:00

Hey Hey... It seems that those iron birds became silent again... Let's hope that what we call "peace" will last for a long time. Those operations were a real disaster for Lebanon, with no more bridges, no more roads, no more facilities to get drinkable water. The Arabian community in the Gulf, everywhere, displays this Lebanese Flag in order to ask for some help to people who lost everything, and those who are in great difficulty. Here, in Saudi, there are many poor people... And particularly in the district where I live, which is far from being the safest and the richest one, Charity starts to show its real shape. Even people who have a very few things show solidarity and give a hand. Shoes, rice, tissues, towels, shampoo, toothpaste, water, cloth, people give anything they think it could be useful. And that is great... In the last decades, I think, Charity has become a kind of fancy thing : those big directors of companies have been showing off on TV, with enoooormous cheques, hundreds of thousands dollars... "Look at me, people !!! I am rich but not selfish !!" Fair enough. At least, it's a clever way to help people but maybe Charity should remain something one should not show off with. To be helpful is not something one should be proud of. Those Saudis, Banglas, Pakistanis, Indians, Jordanians, Bahreinis, Qataris have never asked to be on TV... However they do something, and ask for nothing material in return. Consequently, I'm starting to think that the world is divided between people who have moral values, and people who try to show that there is a moral in this "nothing-but-money" world. Even though I admit to be obsessed by money sometimes, or maybe always... I cannot have an objective point of view about myself, actually. In French, we have such a saying : "it's like that, but you know, I try to cure myself".

Let's now change the topic.. I'm still leading this quiet and busy life in Saudi, everything is going well for the moment. I've been here for almost 10 weeks now, even though I have the impression that it's been more than 3 months. The end of September, which corresponds to my vacation period, is coming quite rapidly I would say. On weekends, I go to Bahrain to have a little drive around. The local French school proposed me to have an accomodation there, sometimes when I want to spend the whole weekend. Bahrain has a bad reputation among Saudis : maybe that's why there are soooooooooo many cars from Saudi at the border line on Thursdays :P :PI could visit some interesting things there... The architecture is very interesting, next time i'll take some pictures if I manage to cross the border even earlier in the day... without spending those 30 minutes at the immigration office, as I do everytime. My embassy did not register my residence permit in the computer, so it gets harder when it comes to leave and get inside the country. From tomorrow I'll see that. I did a very interesting visit, even though I'm not that much interested in sportscar, I went - by curiosity - to this new Formula One Circuit, that was built 3 years ago. It's giant. They say that it took 16 months to make it up, people worked 7.7 and 24.24 on this project. One of the "crazy" ideas of the Bahreini king, who somehow had one of his dreams come true. If you want to take a glance at the pictures, you can find them on this webpage : http://cfsd.ifrance.com/wab/bhr . Now, as I lack some time at the moment to do whatever I want, I'll get prepared to go outside, I have a private course to give. And then, my internship report, "AUN" (Academic Useless Necessity) to write...
Wish you a good day!

Once again... the Cedar is falling.

2006-07-17T04:19:00.000+04:00

Middle east is burning... I'm not talking about the temperature outside, that daily reaches 45°C and more. Just about sad events that give us all the creeps. The Gulf is shaking... It seems that a civil war in Irak, failures to make the non-proliferation law (about Uranium modification) survive in Iran and the neverending Gaza conflict were not sufficient elements to provoke a slight reaction in the International Community. Yes... We hear that "This country and that one merely condemned the events and asked for their immediate interruption"... And then??! This speech is tasteless now, and has no more effect... We wouldn't even swallow those false condemnations as "placebo medicine", just to have the illusion that everything is going well. No one can believe this now, any more. Middle east has become like a sad widow... Desperately looking for a partner, a neighbour with whom she would get along well, and maybe expect some bright days. Sometimes she hears some voices... "Heeey, look at me... I want to help you!" But when this partner comes and tries to know her better, he rapidly realizes that her body is covered with scarves, among which some are still not sown. Then, Miss Middle-east has no other choice but to accept to be left alone again, against her destiny. And lacking any wilful surgeon, her pains gets worse and her wounds, infected. On the 14th of July, a tree fell on the ground. It was a Cedar... A big green tree that needs many many...many years to grow and which had already fallen before. Who wanted to put it down? Just some falcons flying around. This kind of devil bird which wings are made of steel, and that could kill any child within a distance of 40km. Those birds are blue and covered with stars... They were bred in the nearby country, a country where they teach you how to forget mercy... For the reason that in the past, people had no mercy towards them.

Filled with the desire of eradicating terrorism - which is a necessary quest, Israëli govt eradicates civilians. Israëli govt bombs the airport. Israëli govt destroys bridges, Israëli govt destroys roads, Israëli govt destroys factories that clean water, and no wonder if Israëli govt soon destroys some powerplants. Because Israëli govt is on the side of war against terrorism..... is it? YES IT IS !! and don't ever say the contrary, if you don't want to be labelled as anti-semitic. Do you know what a syllogism is? Let's consider the famous syllogism of Socrates. "The human is mortal. Besides, Socrates is human. Then, Socrates is mortal." Now let's implement this syllogism to Middle East : Hezbollah is a terrorist group. Besides, Hezbollah's location is in Lebanon. Then, Lebanon is a terrorist country. You got it ? Don't try to find any complexity in Israel's foreign policy : it's very simple!! The best way to eradicate a terrorist group is to bomb the whole country : then you can be sure that you'll have reached your target! One thing that is left to be understood by Israël, I think... It's that terrorism is not a correct reply to terrorism. It seems that they still have this grudge against History and Humanity. Maybe one day we will realize that people who have undoubtedly suffered along History (facts and statistics are not to be questioned at all) can certainly be victims, that's right... But let's not have any bad conscience in thinking that they can also behave bloodily. That's exactly what's happening. What I'm dealing with is not politics, but just some mere questions. I don't give a damn about religion in this case, it's meaningless. I'm just worried about the fact that the situation is already excessively unfair, but there is still not any strong action against a government that considers itself as almighty in its legitimate quest against terrorism.... Please answer me : between a terrorist and a terrorist? which one do you choose? Easy, uhhh....

Now, I'd just like to show some sympathy, without any self-interest, to people who were forced to leave their school, their job, their house behind them.... at least, what is left of these buildings. There is a justice for everything, in the History Lebanon managed to stand up again after many hardships, I wish this could happen again.

With all my heart and respect.

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2006-07-07T17:59:00.000+04:00

Hi… Many of my « regular readers » asked me why I haven’t updated the blog since the 20th of June. I don’t have the answer myself. It’s not that I’m not interested anymore in writing on this website, it’s just that I can’t find much time for myself. There are moments when I’m at work, at the office, preparing some courses, at some other moments i’m teaching, and once I completed those 2 things, I try to rest a little... which means that I merely want to do nothing special. My “biological rythm” is being changed, I didn’t feel it much at the beginning of my staying here, but it’s true that when the sun rises at 4.30AM in the morning and sets at 6.30PM, your behaviour is a little bit modified. I don’t have enough distance to know “how” this behaviour changes, as far as I’m concerned, but it influences much the way i’m scheduling each day.

First, I have to say that my attitude about the country is changing, as well. First, I had the impression to be in the middle of nowhere. Amelie Nothomb – who is not my favourite writer, but still, I remembered how she called China in “Biographie de la Faim” – called those strange places “nowhere” and “never”. A strange calling that simultaneously involves the idea of space, and the one of time. About space, and particularly because of the climate, I was wondering what I was doing there. The temperature outside, that reaches an average of 45 – 47 °C in the afternoon, is quite difficult to stand. However, I will not complain : at the office we have a very efficient air cooling system, the “A.C.”. So, inside, it’s constantly 22°C. Mild, isn’t it? And for those who will tell me that my skin is still very clear, I just remind them that I haven’t come there to sell donuts on the beach! :D
As far as the topic of Time is concerned, let’s say that I have the impression to find objects as they were in France 6 or 7 years ago. About “junk food”, for example : I remember when SEVEN UP had still a “not too much acid” taste, it was some years ago in France, before they change the recipe... that I’ve liked much less since then. Here, I find again this sweet taste of sevenup. There are such examples with many other products, it wouldn’t be interesting to list them individually. It’s not a bad critique, to say that I’m feeling as if it was 6 years before. In reality, according to “Egire” calendar, the current century is the 15th. This explains that.

Let’s talk about the job itself, now... It’s getting very interesting now, because my group of beginners become more and more able to produce a “correct” french. By evaluating them, I actually evaluate myself. Many of them come to see me after class, to ask me some more vocabulary about very common things, “everyday expressions” for which they’d like to know the translation.

It was days ago that I realized how much English is useful in teaching. Knowing very few things about Arabic (definitely not enough to use this language in a teaching context). It gives a very special dimension to the language you teach. Not only do you analyse your mother language by teaching (and by answering the students’ questions) but you also examine the language that serves you for the teaching, which is not the “target” language but the “instrument” language. It requires – and provokes, in the same time – a double metalinguistical analysis, and I think this is an aspect that I wouldn’t have discovered if I had remained in France for my internship, in a company or association. Here, I am certainly the teacher, but first and foremost a learner because the person who faces a situation of immersion in a “foreign context” is not any of my student but myself. Peculiar situation, to be both a teacher and a foreigner. I know the topic that I have to teach, to transmit, but it’s connected to a knowledge that is geographically speaking far from there. And that’s the difficult point : to make that knowledge closer, as much as possible. Before leaving – and wholly speaking “in my curriculum of a language learner” – I realized very rapidly that the one who teaches learns a lot, and the one who learns indirectly teaches, through his positive and negative reactions during the process of receiving Linguistical data and general knowledge.

Last day, I helped one of my students, Hamed (36 y.o, surgeon) in enriching his application for Schengen VISA, as he considers going to France from the 31st of July. At the Embassy of S.A. in Paris, they advised him to attend a FR school in Toulouse, as he will be studying surgery (for specialization) in Paris. I advised him to get closer to Paris, and finally they found a school for him in Tours. He will spend 3 years there, for his specialization. I’m very glad that he is going to fulfill one of his dreams, which is to get an higher education in medical sciences, in France.

Now, it’s the weekend, I’ll try to rest a little bit. My next projects are to get my Iqama (residence permit), my Passport (with the Multi-entry mention) and my Saudi driver licence, which was just converted at the Embassy. With those documents, I’ll be able to purchase a car... and travel around when I got spare time. Raed was very nice to drive me back home everyday after work, now it’s time to get some more independence and show some gratefulness.
And some other project.. to decide about my holidays of September which include some days in Orleans, some other days at home and, I hope so, a week with Aurelija in Vilnius. Days are passing quite fastly here, I hope it will be the same for the whole summer... and rapidly we should reach September. Until this date, I will have to write my 25-paged report for University, and another one for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I’ll try to give some news quite soon! See you, take care.

After 6 days of silence, here I am :)

2006-06-20T11:58:00.000+04:00

Hi... It's been almost one week since I last posted a message on the blog. It's true that I've been very busy in the last period. I started working at the center last Wednesday and tried to find some basis for my project. As I wrote in the last messages, I need to find a "direction" for the Franco-Saudi Center and to think of a new way of communicating outside. To rely on a "self-made" reputation is definitely not enough. What is required is to give a new, fresh skin to our image. And it's not easy at all, you can believe me. I admit that sometimes, I've been too lazy to face the problems directly : I did face them, but I took my time to do that, postponing always postponing the tasks to the next day, until the deadline. Now I have to reconsider my way of regarding things. Efficient reactivity is needed, and once again, I have to admit that I am not that good for this. I'm not used to making decisions that are both "fast" and reasonable. When I hurry up to make a decision, it's sometimes very imperfect, and when it's reasonable, it means that it needed time. Now, I have to make those two qualities match : that's my personal purpose.
For example, let's talk about courses for Women. As you might guess, in Saudi Arabia it's not possible to have men and women in the same class. If it was the only "problem", still it would be ok... but I was told that it's not even possible for men and women to be in the center at the same time. I thought about having Men courses in one room, and Women courses in another room, independently. Unfortunately, this is not something we are allowed to do here. This would have been more practical, but it doesn't fit with Saudian traditions and moral rules. It would be very risky for me to show any sign of anger about this. It would cost much... I would lose my job, if not worse.. Today women called me to discuss this. Actually, for the reasons I've just given, they have to go somewhere else to attend the lectures. And this 'somewhere' is inside a compound (A secured residence), whose director lends us a classroom for free...provided that the French-Saudi center is in charge of the cleaning. It had been 3 months since the last teaching session, which means that the room hadn't been cleaned since then. One student woman called me to complain, because the place was dirty and too small to welcome 10 students. As I was new, as I didn't know about this before, how could I react? Actually I felt ashamed. I was ashamed, because if it had happened to me, I would have called the director to complain and I wouldn't have been very nice on the phone, thinking that I would be "right" to do this. When you pay for a service, particularly language lectures, the minimum is that you attend them in acceptable conditions. Dust, Dirt is not what I call an acceptable condition for studying. She was right to complain, and I didn't have the good role. I understood that the responsibility of a captain (it's not very humble of me to use such a metaphor...) is not just to lead his ship towards the direction he wishes. Sometimes, there are contrary streams, storms. He can do nothing about it, but try to find solutions to keep it over the surface. That is my role : to react rapidly and efficiently. Today, I hired a cleaner to tidy up the woman classroom. Otherwise, I would prefer to give their money back, rather than provide them a service in such conditions. The center needs a new image : image is strengthened by credibility, and if you provide a service in bad conditions, you're going backwards. I don't want to harm our image. Men and women attend the class separately, all right : but in the same conditions, that's my word.
The positive aspect is that despite the world cup (that explains some kind of absenteism), registrations for the classes are going quite well, particularly registrations for women. We are going to hire a new teacher (not to replace the previous one) because the classroom is too small to welcome more than 10 people... And we have 14 registrations. Today I received a c.V. and a letter of motivation from a french-speaking woman from Canada. She speaks Arabic, English and according to the secretary, has a very good level in French : besides, she has already taught this language and already knows our teaching method. (Méthode Panorama 1 and 2). The funny thing is that she doesn't have any literary carrier, she's rather a scientist (She has a PhD in physics). What matters is that she speaks well and teaches well. I will receive her soon at the office, probably next week. That is another part of my job, to be responsible of human resources. The center is not that big but still, if people keep on talking about the center to their relatives, we should gain some importance and consider hiring new teachers. I like this "coordinating" aspect.

About the courses I've been teaching, today was my third day. On Saturday, I started teaching 2 different levels : from 5.30 to 7.30, I have a class of beginners who are already able to introduce themselves correctly, with a good pronounciation, after 6 hours. I'm happy about it : they are very interested in their learning process, and always talk with me after the session, around a cup of coffee or tea. Then, from 7.40 to 9.40, I have a group of good speakers. I don't need to use english for the teaching, I just speak French and they understand quite correctly. However, I still need to speak slowly. Their level is "6", which corresponds to the studying of the Unit number 6 of the method that counts 12 units all in all. Their level is very good, I would say, considering that they reached the middle of the "learning process". Of course, it doesn't mean that when they pass level 12, they have the same level as native speakers, not at all. Still, they can do many things with their knowledge and competences... to ntroduce themselves, talk about many topics, construct a skilled argumentation, or even apply for a job. I didn't imagine that teaching your native language to people could be such a satisfactory experience, when you realize that they do well and that they constantly want to improve themselves. So far, I have spent 6 hours with each group, so 12 hours all in all... there are 48 hours of teaching left before I reach the minimum amount of hours for the Master thesis. I have to make a paper about this experience... Something like 20 pages. I think that it's ok : I already know what I'm going to write in this mini-thesis. I won't have to invent anything, if you know what I mean... I just have to open wide my ears and my eyes to find something interesting to write about my first official teaching experience. I didn't want to have an internship in FR, although it can be very useful for foreign people who arrive in France to know some words. I would certainly have enjoyed to committ my internship into a social and human action, but I prefer travelling. To teach French is a good pretext for travelling, and for the moment I really don't regret the choice I made. Another aspect of my mission is to go to the companies' headquarters and propose them the services of the French-Saudi center. However, it requires that I have a car, and before having a car I need to convert my FR driving licence into a Saudian one, and this process requires that I get my residence permit.... The problem is that my passport is in Paris now (again...) at the Ministry. It will come back soon, I hope so.

I'm having my last 2 days at Eric's place, the teacher of Greek and Latin at the French school, I think I won't forget the way he has welcomed me here in Saudi. He completely shared his big house with me, shared his food (delicious diet meals from Carlton hotel ;) ) and his good mood. Today I made a present for him, a pair of jeans from his favourite brand (Replay) and he looked very happy. At the moment, I'm proud of myself in the sense that the presents that I made did provoke the effect I was silently hoping for, which is pleasure... and it makes me even happier afterwards. I'm hesitating about asking Eric if he would like to rent me the same room from September on... On the one hand, this place is very pleasant to live in, but on the other hand, I don't want anything bad to happen if we become room-mates, I experienced this in DK.. I want to keep on getting along with him, meeting him some time and go to Bahrain with him, as he promised me.

As soon as possible, i'll write about my new life downtown. It's going to be very different from life in the compound... but it's another interesting step to take.

See you soon and take care..

Errrr... I don't know which title to put on my message!!!

2006-06-14T10:00:00.000+04:00

Well, after "hello", "heyhey", I think I will have used all the different manners of greeting you on this blog. I receive some comments about it sometimes, and I'm very glad about it. I know who they come from, it's better to have few messages from people you like than tons of posts from people you don't know. So, thank you very much for giving me reasons to continue... Today was a calm day, on the whole. My chief picked me up at the compound and drove me to the FR center, where I spent the whole morning. During this time, he went to the travel company to buy his ticket to go back to Riyadh. Today, French pupils who live abroad had their first exam at high school, and began with philosophy. His son is among those pupils, so it was normal that he goes back to Riyadh and encourage him. We spent 3 very interesting days, my chief and I, he gave me some instructions about how to run the center, about the objectives in terms of communication, partnerships with companies, advertisments in newspapers... There are a lot of things to do, above the mere act of "teaching" and this dimension gives a very interesting dimension to my job. I am free about taking initiatives, contacting companies, schools, educational institutions in FR.. This center will become what I want it to be, so on the one hand it raises a lot of excitment, and on the other, it supposes to develope a high sense of responsibility. It will help me to become more mature... I don't want to fail it. The responsible of Cultural office, in the FR embassy of Saudi Arabia, had been hesitating for a long time between closing the center and leaving him a last chance to survive. I think I want to take this chance and make this Center not only a language school, but a cultural center, a kind of tool for local schools and companies whose purposes are to cooperate with FR institutions. The demand for FR lectures is high, according to the phonecalls I receive, as far from the side of man as from the side of women. Saudi express a real motivation and interest for FR language and, furtherly, for higher education : it would be a shame to waste this demand... What do you think about this?
I'm very glad to talk with local people on the phone and to invite them at the office for a tea or coffee, it's the occasion to have a nice conversation about their expectations, linguistically speaking, and also culturally, by the way. In general, they are shy, they say 2 or 3 FR words, expressions in a sentence, to show you that they are interested in what you do, and that they would like to learn more. I spend nice moments at my office, sending some faxes to France, to Saudian companies to let them know about my new project. People are coming and going, I already have the impression that it's living, at least a little bit. What I would like, it is to leave a good and sincere impression to the visitors, so that they can talk around them. I would like to set a system of sponsorship, so that people thanks to whom new people come to register would be rewarded, I don't know yet the way I would do that, but not necessarily by doing a commercial special offer : rather by thinking about an intelligent way to catch their interest.. I keep this topic "under my elbow" ;) The main objective, of course, is to have as much people as possible in the courses.. But I don't want to favour the commercial aspect, i'm not interested in that. I want people to feel good by coming to the Center, both feeling at home and abroad. As the region is known for its very high production of Oil, it would be good to create some partnerships between the companies and the French Institute of Oil, for example, that proposes some very high education in this area... Everything is possible!

For the moment, I'm feeling good where I am. I visited the owners of the neighbour shops, as my office is inside a mall, and had some cool conversation with them. There are different types of shops, which is interesting : offices of educational information, restaurants, clothes shops, candy shops... They all greeted me very kindly. I admit that the position of the "white foreigner" makes me feel uneasy, although I can't get rid of it I need to show that I'm here to work "with" them, and not only "next to" them. Integration is important to me, even though I am quite realist about it, I don't have utopical expectations. At least, I have to try! The secretary who works in the office is really kind, he's going to help me to find a car. Today, I told him that I needed to leave the office because I was a bit hungry, he proposed me to call Mc Donald's... and finally went there for me, although I felt embarrassed. I don't want to command anyone, hierarchy is not something that will cross the door of "my" center.
At night, i'm living in the compound, where there are some important (quantitatively speaking) communities of people from France and Lebanon. The day before yesterday, we played Scrabble altogether and I was amazed by the deep knowledge of FR language that people from Lebanon have. To get back to my temporary living place, i'm very happy and quite sad at the same time. Eric, the Latin&greek professor who invites me, is really welcoming and helpful. I enjoy talking with him about anything, jobs, conditions of living abroad, our respective lives in FR. The sad thing is that soon, I will have to find a place to live in outside the compound.. not that I am afraid, it's true that the idea of living downtown is exciting, but still, the Fr community is nice here and I will miss the compound, for sure. I'm still thinking about a present for Eric.Tomorrow in the morning, I'll visit the French school, which has been proposed to me several times so far. This place is also a potential partner in the activity of the FR center : its director looks interested in the running of the center, we will probably soon talk about settling the female lectures inside the FR school. I'll also contact the teacher for women, we need to work together on the way we will communicate. My boss told me that she just "teaches", I think we'll reconsider her status and give her some little more tasks in terms of communication about the center.

Wow.. I thought I wouldn't have that many things to tell today, it seems that this post is longer than the previous ones. I can't promise that I will write so much everyday, but I'll do my best to update the blog as much as possible. Now i'm thinking of a picture to publish with this message. Oh, and one more thing, I admit that it's not easy to publish pictures, but anyway I managed to find a solution.. not the easiest one. Now, you can have a look at this URL, if you want to see some pictures : http://martiello.free.fr/web/index.htm I will also put this link as a permanent one, on the blog, above Google News. Try to look at them sometimes, if you wish !
Have a good night, feel free to leave messages and questions...

Hey Hey.....

2006-06-12T19:45:00.000+04:00

I'm going to give the news for the 3 last days, for those I couldn't talk to since Friday. Many things happened, not bad one on the whole. First of all, I have to admit that it's not really easy to communicate the news on the internet, not that I don't have any access, on the contrary, but just that Saudian equipment is not as fast as the one I've known so far. I'm going back to the source, a 56k connection is the maximum I can have for the moment : I'm thinking very seriously of opening a private DSL line, but beforehand, I'd prefer to find an accomodation of my own, and the most important thing, the instrument we can do nothing without it : a car. But let's begin with a chronological summary of the last days.
On Friday, I was on my second day in Saudi Arabia. The sun rised over Riyadh very early in the morning, at around 4, 4.30 if I'm not wrong. It permits to wake up early, an habit that I've got familiar with since I've arrived, despite short time spent sleeping. I had my breakfast, then spent the morning listening to music, not daring go outside to see the landscape and take some pictureS. There is something in my mind that told me that there are risks about taking some pictures inside a diplomatic area, so I retained myself from doing that. At 1.20, I went to my chief's place to visit him, as he had invited me for lunch at this time. After posting Thursday's message on the blog, we had some drinks with a colleague of him, and another young man who has worked for the FR embassy since April, and who has the same status as mine. We had a very delicious lunch, some fish whose name I can't remember. As far as I know, i'll publish its name, it's worth tasting it but I doubt we might find some in Western Europe. The desert was a "Strawberry Charlotte" prepared by a cooker from Lebanon. I've been told several times that food from Lebanon is good. Well, at the end of lunch, everyone went back to his place, I had a nap until 6.. At this time, my colleague from Riyadh called at the door and we went to the Embassy together. He had some Faxes to send, while I would relax in the swimming pool. Of course, I can't give details about security inside the embassy, first because I know almost nothing about it and also because it's not an interesting topic to develope now, but the few that I saw about safety rules impressed me. After swimming, my colleague came to pick me up and we walked to our quarters. The "D.Q.", on the whole, seems to be a very safe place, we just have to look at the number of soldiers, overall near the American area, whose people were target of some attacks 2 years ago. Once again, no details.For dinner, I had some... pasta (looks like in DK, doesn't it?) and listen to music - Cyril's selection on my USB player - until tiredness close my eyes naturally. By the way, if there was a country where Sand Sellers wouldn't suffer from unemployment, it would certainly be Saudi. However I don't know if the joke of the "Sand Seller" is valid for everyone. No big deal...
For the beginning of the week - in other words, on Saturday 10th - it was planned that I would go to the embassy to register my presence here. First I went to the Consulate, which is a kind of Townhall and that is in charge of civil rights and duties, voting, stuff like these. Then I went to some more specific offices, to apply for the IQAMA, that is to say the Saudian ID. Without IQAMA, theoretically, you can buy no car and open no bank account. As strange as it may seem, I'd like to do those two things... I hope my papers will rapidly be available.Inside the embassy, I met some people among whom the head of the FR school in Khobar, "JF" (as he calls me "JMM"), he's someone who has a pleasant sense of humor. In the afternoon, we were supposed to have a flight to Dammam at 3PM but that was just "the plan". Once at the airport, we knew that the flight would be delayed, 30 minutes or so. Then, the flight was announced at 4... then 5... at 5.30, we finally took the bus until the plane. And things started to take a strange appearance. All the passengers were sitting calmly in the plane, reading the newspapers that had been offered some minutes earlier. Engines started spinning rapidly, then ... nothing. No light anymore in the cabin. OK, sometimes it happens that the pilot makes some tests on engines before taking off. 30 minutes later, still nothing. It was already 6.30. We saw some engineers getting into the plane, holding some corkscrews and toolboxes. Then I thought : "there is definitely something wrong with the plane". Suddenly the pilot announced that we had to take the bus again : the driver took us to the airport hall again, where we waited for some 40 minutes, and at 7.30, AT LAST (!!) we took off. It means that all our plans for the night were cancelled, as we were expected to land at Dammam at 4, 4.30. The last joke, that we call in FR "the little cherry on the top of the cake" happened when everyone stood up to get out of the plane, after landing. The pilot taxiied the aircraft until its full stop location but no stairs were there to let us get out. People nervously laughed, "and then finally" :) left the airport quite rapidly.I left with JF and 2 other people from Lebanon, among whom a music teacher (who works at the FR school) and a cardiologist whose fluency in French is almost perfect. After some 50 km sitting in a very comfortable American car, we reached our compound. There, I was welcomed by a French teacher with whom I got along very rapidly. He teaches Latin and Greek and also French at Middle school. His welcoming was warm and still is, I'm looking for an idea to show him my gratefulness, something else than a mere "thanks a lot". If you have any idea, please "post it"(©) as a comment. My first night in Khobar was calm, I rapidly fell asleep..
On Sunday morning, my chief picked me up at the entry of the compound, where some soldiers asked me what I was doing there. Showing them my temporary resident permit, they finally understood that I was waiting for someone. By car, we visited the main areas of the city; Some mosques by the sea are really interesting as far as their architecture is concerned, I'll try to take some pictures. (Sorry if you have the impression that I promise "more than I show pictures.. For the moment, it's a very long process, if not impossible to publish them on FTP servers).After visiting my workplace and talking about it with my chief, we went to the clothes-shop just below the Saudi-French Center. We found very interesting stuff, among those I found a leather pair of trousers which brand is Levi's. Quite surprizing.. The FR teacher who rents me a room told me that those items are genuine.For lunch, we went to a kind of asiatic restaurant in which many nationalities are present. I had some beef with a spicy sauce, and drank some "Saudian champaign" which is made of apple juice,sparkling water, pieces of oranges and apples and leaves of mint. It's very tasty. Then, we went back to the F-S center where I stayed some time and met the secretary of the place, someone very helpful and polite. He proposed me to give me a hand in the choice of a car and of a little apartment. I sent some faxes to Bahrain, in order to propose them a partnership if they had any cultural project. I did the design of my business card and made some modifications compared to the previous one.At night, after getting into the compound again (and walking in front of the soldiers who had recognized me), I brought a letter to JF who proposed me to play scrabble (Scrabble duplicate) with other FR-speaking people. And I can say that people from Lebanon are very good at Scrabbling :P That was a good idea to go there, I had the opportunity to have a talk with people I didn't know before.
Generally, I like the place, the country where I am and the job i'm going to fulfill. There will probably be darker sides in the next weeks, but i'm already trying to consider which things could be negative for me within a short or middle perspective. I'll let you know about this soon. Until then, take care and leave me some news when possible. SEE YOU..
P.S. : My best wishes to those who are starting High School exams from today.

Everything s going ok !!!!

2006-06-09T14:10:00.000+04:00

Hi!!

Let's begin with a trial of answer to the question i'll be asked more than 30 times in the next days : Everything is going all right !!!! From the very beginning of the day, once we were at the station with my mother and Cyril, I had some very deep emotions, having on mind the idea that once again, after Denmark, I was going to leave family and friends. And now that's done.

What should I start with, to tell you my first "day" in Saudi, (let's say "night"). I will say that after quite a tiring journey by plane, I was very happy to walk on this land. Indeed : the plane took off from Paris at almost 12, then we arrived in Roma at 2, then we took off again 1 hour later, spent 4 hours aboard between Roma and Jeddah, then landed for another hour, and finally reached Riyadh at 10:30 (French time). Oh yes, for those who didn't ask me about this, there is one hour of difference between FR time and S.A. time. Now i'm on the same time as in Lithuania, by the way...

I tried to take some pictures during the flight, few of them are "acceptable" but i'm going to publish them anyway. My battery went low quite rapidly, it wasn't even a matter of space on my memory card :(
Well, I'll leave a comment for each picture.. Now that I found a technique to create galleries, It should be easier to publish them : the question is "when will I do it now?".. I hope i'll have time for this soon.

There is a paradoxical difference between FR and S.A. (and a lot of other ones, of course, but it's not a cultural judgement), in the sense that here, it's 1 hour later than in FR... But on the other hand, in S.A. the "weekend" is on Thursdays and Fridays.. as an equivalent for our Saturdays and Sundays.... which means that i'm already on weekend (sorry guys..)!

Another good news is that I met my chief tonight, Roland, with whom I got along quite rapidly. He picked me up at Riyadh airport, and I was lucky to get out rapidly from the Customs, otherwise he would have left without me : in the airport there was no flight announced from Paris, so he was worrying a little bit. The particular thing in Riyadh airport is that they control the content of your luggage (X-rays) even when you leave the airport. As I was a foreign person, I needed to fill in a form with my datas, name, surname, place of birth, date of delivery and expiration (for passport) and on the document it was written : "BEWARE ! DEATH FOR DRUGS TRAFFICKERS". I have no reproach to make to myself about this topic, of course.. But then I started thinking that if someone approached my handluggage during the flight, while I was in the bathroom, he could put something inside that didn't belong to me. So, before having my luggage checked at the Customs, I searched into my handluggage if there was anything "suspect" inside.. You'll probably think i'm silly, and why not paranoïd, but still, those written words on the immigration form were very impressive.

To deal with my chief again, he drove me to the diplomatic neighborhood of the city, where there are 2 amazing checkpoints at the entry. Then, he took me to my "temporary place", a little studio near his apartment. Before my arrival, he had the room cleaned and started the air-cooling system, which is really not a fancy thing here. at 10h30 (S.A. time), the temperature was still above 33°C. He put some bread, jam, mineral water in the fridge, so that I lack nothing at the very beginning, and I'm very thankful to him for this mark of attention. After letting me visit "my" place and drop my luggage and bags, he invited me for a Coca cola at his place, where we talked about our objectives for the running of the Saudian-French cultural center. We talked mainly about the region of the Gulf, the places where we could find some potential students (universities, companies, private schools). A very interesting conversation, all in all..

Now I've come back to my place, it's 1:10AM and i'll go to bed soon. My chief proposed me to use internet today (Friday) so I will save this message and try to publish it on the blog. Thanks for your reading, and feel free to leave some comments, questions or suggestions if you like.

Take care... and see you soon.

I GOT IT .....

2006-06-02T12:08:00.000+04:00

Wow... it's been quite long to wait for those documents. This morning, at 9, the FedEx post(wo)man rang at the door (so... she woke me up but it's not too bad ;) ) to give my the missing papers.. Train ticket, flight ticket, and passport. Nowww everything seems to be ok, nothing can prevent me from leaving anymore. I still have to do some photographs with very strange dimensions, buy some clothes, pork and alcohol.. Actually to conform their law, I should get heavily drunk and eat a lot of ham to be disgusted at the end...

Sun is appearing today, it had been 5 days in a row that it was hiding, now that 6 days are remaining until my departure the weather's changing. Let's not complain : maybe it's a good thing that I have rain in Simandre, because this kind of climate should be more or less "absent" in Saudi. Let's forget about clouds.

I'm in a hurry now, I'll post another message later, 'cause some other news are expected for today.

C.U.

Some news about...... Passport!!

2006-05-30T17:27:00.000+04:00

UUUHHH... What a pain, this "passport-story"... At last I have some news, and not bad ones.. Still, I haven't won the game yet. Yesterday, I called the ministry, to take some news about this bloody piece of paper (which I hope is not bloody for real...) and they merely replied "No Sir, still no news from consulate.." Well, then I decided to write an email to my chief there, in Saudi, who replied me "don't worry, I'll try to control the situation".
Then he called the consul himself, to ask him what was going on, and the latter told him that I could call by myself, if I needed some information... which I did. Now, it seems that everything (... almost everything) is ready for me to go... except the flight tickets. It would be good if I left from here on the 6th or 7th, which would leave me some time to finish.... errr.... start packing everything up.
This morning I called a former colleague that was in Ryiadh, to ask him some questions, but it seems that Ryiadh and Khobar are 2 worlds apart. (please no joke about "worlds apart") First about religion, it's much more strict in Ryiadh whereas it's much more cool in Khobar. As well as for the climate... I'm expecting hot-damp weather..
Now.. I still have to buy a little container to put my stuff inside, I haven't done this yet, and an "emergency box" with a big pot of sun-cream (why not buy a brush to spread it...?), and a lot of things that could be very useful. I'll try to leave stress at home, because if I decide to take it with me, then there won't be enough space anymore for clothes and books.
It's not easy to find something really special to report on this blog, during this "waiting" period... Not that I have nothing to tell, but days look like each other, even though i'm often outside doing some activity.

I'll go back to my "pre-packing" activity... See you later..

it's been a long time!

2006-05-27T17:49:00.000+04:00

After almost one month away from "home" because of exams, I'm back to my lands.. Exams were generally nooot thaaaat bad, but the best way to confirm this is to wait for exams : until then, I prefer not to give any firm opinion..

On Tuesday, everything was ready to leave St Pryvé.. 4 big boxes contained books, the printer, clothes.... in other words, my mess :P . Today, I realized I didn't turn back towards the house, to see it a last time before a long one. Despite little misunderstandings that have no more meaning to me, I'm sure I will miss this place. Everyday, to have dinner there , to study, to sleep until the next day... and sometimes not sleeping.. It's there that I discovered my "student profile", or a "student philosophy (which is definitely not wise at all, according to some colleagues) : for almost each assignmen, I waited for the eve of the deadline before efficiently working on the topic. On the other hand, from the very day when the professor gives the topic, I start thinking about it... I read some articles, look at some websites, and sometimes, take some notes but not too much ! : otherwise it would mean that I work in advance, and that's definitely contrary to my methods.

It's true that the level of stress kept increasing, along this academic year : this method was still working but at the end, the results didn't exactly correspond to my expectations. Sometimes it was much higher than expected (in this case, why complain?) but sometimes, it was lower.. Well, it seems that I didn't master that well the fiability of the method. Luckily, I've never had to face a tragedy...

Now, about my departure, I still have no news from the ministry. They are waiting (so am I, by the way...) for my VISA, and only then, they'll be able to book my flight. The big question mark now follows the word "WHEN"... Actually, I'm not worrying that much and I don't think there is a reason to feel very concerned : when it's time to go, i'll go ! :) However I had some news from the FR school in the city where i'll settle : its director sent me an email and proposed to provide me a temporary accomodation, leaving me the time to find my own roof. I have some chances to find it in the FR compound, but I'm still thinking about the advantages and defects of such a choice... This topic will be dealt with later..

That's it for today.. Tomorrow, a family meeting is planned, from the Italian side, to celebrate Mother's day with the grandparents. We should be 32, all in all, it will be one of the last meetings until a long time from now.

Take care, and see you soon

The end of exams...

2006-05-19T02:47:00.000+04:00

I'm done with exams! Today was supposed to be the most loaded day of exams, all in all I was supposed to write during 6 hours. In the morning, there was the exam of textual linguistics (or "speech analysis"), the topic was a funny poem from Fourest, about sardines. The task was not to explain the meaning of the text, but to analyse its poetical features as a linguist would do. Then, I had some hours to think about something else, before the other exam (at 2.00 PM) which was to last 4 hours. It took 2.30 hours to answer the questions that were not very difficult. However, I prefer to t for the results before giving any pronostic. I preferto be careful, any "accident" can happen.

It seems that today was my last day at university before the month of September when I come there again to defend my internship. I realized this after leaving University with Mathieu, a good friend of mine that I've known for 4 years.

After the exam, we had some relaxing time at the Library, playing Legion on the Internet (a game online made of questions about general knowledge), as we often did during the year, before attending Mrs Volpe's lecture about "didactics of French as a Second Language", on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tonight, we were supposed to meet Xavier at Mathieu's flat but he was unfortunately not available, it would have been nice to spend a "laughing session" altogether as it was the case in 2nd year of Bachelor. Well, I keep my fingers crossed hoping that I'll be able to meet them again in September, after the defence of my Training. The little "goodbye party" of tonight was nice, simple, as usual we made jokes with Mathieu and François and had good time. Now, I consider having the same kind of celebration with my other friends : not more special than usually, as if we were to meet next week.....

Today, Friday 19th of May, I think I'll put an end to my Internet connection in my studentroom of St Pryvé, then it means that I will maybe not update my blog until a few days. Now, even though i'm not totally feeling that "exams are behind me", I'm trying to think about something else. I've put my friends aside those last days, because of exams, and I think I should meet them again very soon. Pressure of exams, papers to hand in made that I thought too much about myself, now I want to think about my friends and to feel available again for someone who counts even more than anyone.

Soon I should receive some news about my Visa, I'll report them on the blog as soon as I can do that. Until then, take care.... and thanks for reading...

(Also, I want to thank Louis for the little modifications that he did to the blog, namely to the banner that is much cleaner now... )

After Literature exam...

2006-05-11T16:39:00.000+04:00

This is the sponsor of the day...

Well, this day is not bad... The commentary of the poem was not too hard, there were many things to write about it. Even though 4 hours seem to be a lot for an Literature exam, I think it's just enough. In the afternoon, the professor who teached us "FR Culture and Society" gave us the CDs with the works of everyone, which is a good memory of what we did this semester. At the end, the professor cried a little, because she felt sad to leave us..
Another good news is the fact that my doctor gave me some news, she will send me back my papers for the VISA application.. At last !!
The sun has come back over Orleans, the mood is better... I hope it will last !!!
See you..

Another grey day above Orleans...

2006-05-10T13:26:00.000+04:00

After a weekend that was shared between sun and rain, it seems that clouds had the upper hand. It's 11:30 A.M, but all the lights are on, in the library of the faculty... Not the best atmosphere to study!

Sore throat and running nose are on the program of the day, I hope it will change rapidly. I'm at the library with Cyril and Louise, trying to study, and at the same time I'm growing hungry. Many things are left to be done, some papers to be handed, some dates to be remembered.. I hope I will have enough time.

This morning I received a call from the ministry about the certificate of baptism.. It seems that this document is necessary, but we'll try to ask for the visa without sending this document, hoping they won't refuse my request.

Another funny thing is the fact that my doctor, who was in charge of filling the papers for the medical analysis, won't be available before the 21st of May... which is... convenient, isn't it? Well, i asked for another copy of the application form, i'll see anther doctor and send everything rapidly.

As soon as I have more news, I'll report them there...
See youuuu...

Exams...

2006-05-07T14:39:00.000+04:00

Here comes the period of exams, in the University of Orleans... The faculty of Humanities didn't suffer that much from the strikes and the blocking that the Anti-CPE organized... The dates of examinations were maintained, we even had a week of holidays (a real one....).

The dean of our Faculty promised that the value of our diplomas wouldn't be decreased this year, but according to the topics we received for the 1st exam - which looked more like an exam from secondary school - we can doubt this assessment.

Present a book that left its mark on you. <--- No comment.

Well, now I'm preparing for the exam in Linguistics for the Master Degree - on Tuesday, it shouldn't be that bad.. The surprising thing is that our approach of Literature, Linguistics and Humanities in general is very scientifically oriented. I'm still wondering why it is so. On Thursday, I'll have an exam in Literature written in French (which is not the same thing as "French Literature"), then on the second week of exams, I'll sit for English, linguistics, 20th Century Literature and.... French as a foreign language. Everything should be over on the 18th, hopefully! I have a thought for all my friends who are studying now, preparing for their exams as well or for their master thesis and for whom it's a period of high pressure. I keep my fingers crossed!

This Sunday afternoon, I'm going to study some linguistics, and tonight I should be downtown to watch the show dedicated to Joan of Arc. It seems that this year, the municipality of Orleans invested a lot of money and human resources for those events. I'll try to get some pictures and then publish them... it's a pity that I don't have my camera (yet).

Wish u a good day..

My first message..

2006-05-06T15:23:00.000+04:00

Heya....

I've decided to create a blog, a few days before my departure for Saudi, where i'm going to get my first full-time job. The purpose of such a webpage is to give some information to my relatives about my settling there, also my impressions and feelings on arriving in this country which I know nothing about yet.

I will try to publish some pictures as well, with some comments.. As the FR people write on their "skyblogs", don't forget "to drop your own comments" about what I'm going to write there. This space is not only mine, it's also yours.. If you feel interested, or want to write a few words, anything, feel free to do so. I'm not going to delete any comment, I'm a reader and not a censor ;)

Well.. I think that's it.. Don't forget to send me some pictures, as far as possible I'll try to do the same, in the next days i'm going to open a FTP space on which we'll be able to exchange files... Pictures, movies.. I guess all of you have my email address, from June i'm going to use my GMAIL.COM account since the FREE.FR account won't work there.

See you in the next days..