Monday, June 24, 2002

in a technophilic world
you can still be fucked over. unofrtnuately all the normal methods availible to me have all conspired to become not workable.

.: posted by aidan burrell @ 2:34 PM

Friday, June 14, 2002

i replied to mums email and it has found its way on to my web page cos i ran out of time. its pretty much where i find myself at the moment-living overseas, experiencing and doing the stuff i have always wanted to.

Its awhile since i wrote-i miss the mobile-why do the french have to be different so mobile doesnt work?

re: phone call. problem is that my class takes up the time between 8-2pm which coincides with the best time to call australia. i will call some time in the next week, but it will unofrtunaztely be late in the evening 5 (around 11pm)

James is feeling under pressure finishing his degree 7 all it implies so hopefully it was good we saw him too-we had dinner with he & iona philip, richard etc on sat night-that was very enjoyable.

cool. i had a good couple of chats with him before i left sweden and the time apart seems to make no difference at all. all this ilona stuff sounds very thoughtful and mature. she sounds really good for him and vice verca.

Went for 2 long walks with dad which ws really good.Sydney was warm cf here tho windy in the evening-we are getting excited about coming to europe, seeing you etc.

i am in summer, you are in winter. he he he he

>What are you doing after your month in paris-need to talk -say reverse charge call-we are booked to stockholm & James thinking of coming too-dates, accomodation issues.

ok. the plan is to rent a car and drive thru parts of eastern europe for approx 16 days. will be finished before you guys come to sweden. going with three other guys from uppsala : sarah from sydney, alena swedishbosnian and a harly from NZ. alena lived in bosnia until the relatively recently, and is really experienced with countires like bosnia, croatia, hungry - the safe roads- the best places to chekc out. she arrived in sweden about 7 years ago or something with a fascinating story but i dont know it all. for perhaps three or four nights we are going to stay with her family.

the plan at the moment, although very likely to be rearranged is to first drive to croatia, then bosnia, hungry, maybee prague.

obviously safety is an issue for some of these-the australian embassy and european embassies all say bosnia is safe except for some isolated areas where refugess are returning. but alena is very aware of the situation. her brother has driven the exact route thart we plan to take on numerous occaisions before with no problems. she also has travelled thru there alot in recent years and has a pretty good idea about some of the better parts to see.

we can talk more on the phone- if safety is a concvern (as was for me initally) i recommended the australian or us websites.

Paris sounds great-are you ever lonely? if so is it ok?

paris is fantastique. i really am serious about moving here at some point in my life. at this point in my life it satisfys so much what i am looking for. it burns brightly with culture, personality, humaness and has a central place in the WORLDs affairs . the experiences you can have here just seem limitless, and the place seems to invite you to explore.

and i love the language and getting better at it. iam now pretty good at comprehending almost all my teachers say, but rather unattractively mumble thru my small amount of working vocabulry when i speak. i can usually get my point across but slowly, overly simple and in a convuluted way. the others in my group say that is totally normal and the confidance and complexity will develop soon enough. i along with some of the other americans feel so stupid amoungst some of the multilingual euros, who can chose thier language and pick up new languages so quickly- for them it is usually only a question of vocab- grammer and sentence structure is just seems to work so naturally and it all just seems to come out right.

for me speaking another language is still something new and exciting. still a test at school, or a fun thing to try when at a pub. everytime i talk to someone who doesnt speak english i feel like i have joined some private club. but young and old people in europe just seem think of languages as a normal thing to manouver thru. it is normal to speak a lot of languages comlpetently. the french are the same.

the thing that is weird about the french is that we have all heard stories how they are langugue snobs and that they scoff at english speaking tourists. well i found the solution. try to speak to them first in slow french and they will be willingly driven to speak english. in fact everytime i try and it results in them speaking english, they seem pretty happy to be practising. and everyone seems to know more than they admit. the thing is just not to begin in english, and you wont get the attitude for being an english speaking ignoramus. cos thats whats pisses them off, the fact that we expect alot of pêople who speak it as a second language, and dont appreciate that it is actuaually quite hard to learn another language .

i have started going to movies cos its what everyone seems to do here. they are great for street vocab and for doing fun things that can be justifed as educational. there is no shortage cos all movies are in french (even american) - thier laws for maintazining the (beautiful, romantic and better) french langugue are pretty strict with things like movies and advertising. dinner time with my french hosts is another source. we mumble copious amounts of pleasantries for an hour each night; si vous plait; excuse moi; passez vous le fromage si vous plait; j ai mangé sufficisment, merci; et plus et plus et plus- dinner vocabulaire, pleasantries, manners, will undoubtedly be one of my strongest areas after this month. or rather less of a weak area.....

the answer the question about lonely ness is that like in sweden i dont ever seem to get lonely. i have made a big buch of friendly, outgoing internationals, using english, french, german,; japonese, hands, faces and anything else to communicate and have fun. i havent found it hard to meet people and get to a comfortable level. if anything i sometimes find it hard to say no and find the time for my own space. one of the things i love about paris is that i can lose myself here, wander and walk and meet people and be anonymous. helen says she is a big city person, and i know exactly what she means- you know if you are comfortable in a big or small place cos they both offer such a different experience. i too think i am a big city person

>We are still dealing with management issues at th. Meeting with mark next wed.& Rachel, the viticulturalist at th at 7.30 amLots of love , Mum.

.: posted by aidan burrell @ 5:35 PM

Monday, June 10, 2002

Un Jour Typique en France (note:potential to make jealous- dont read if with relevant risk factors)
its now about 4:30 in the afternoon, a little overcast, and still a little sleepy after lunch. i arrived at this internet cafe (cyberc@fe de paris) about 20 mins ago after spending the majority of the afternoon wandering thru little streets that come of rue st germain. it has been a typical day.

walking about poking in little shops, an art gallerie on rue d`universitie, having coffeès, reading french signs and books placed on stands on the road side.

i am, in fact, in love with paris. there is something indescribable, a coolness, a chicness of the people and the place. the Parisian people seem mysterious and a little crazy. they huddle together around small coffee tables, quietly talking, posing and watching. their dogs are huddled next to themtrying not to get ashed. there is something unpredictable. crazies are everywhere; i have lost count of the number of people talk to themselves, and if not crazy then a little mysterious
.
the place itself forms the other part of this mysteriousness. there are just so many beautiful buildings. walking around the streets you discover one amazing building after another, and i again stand in front just chekcing it all out as the parisians shuffle past. cafes are everywhere; their tables crammed together in corners, little parcs in the centre surrounded by beautiful 6 story 18th century housing and streets. there is so much to see; so far i have mostly just been walking about soaking it up. st germain, sebastopol, montaportal, and st micheal in the latin quatier, chetau, sacre coeur.

the thing about paris culture is that it feels like you are forever an outsider. just missing out on some other private world, privy to only the tres chic french. it makes you keep looking about trying to find it. artists feel it when they move here and try to describe it. now i do, and it burns. i want more of it. i want to live here when i am older to satisfy it.

despite the dreaminess though, which is in part cos i am tres rooted -part of living in big cities is that there is never any time left to sleep-i have a sneaky feeling it will be a productive month. the acommodation i am staying at is beatutiful. a beatutiful 18C villa in eastern paris, only about éà mins to the centre of paris on the metro. it has this grande facade -incredibly impressive when you approach, and a very traditional intereur - decorated with only the best stuff from your grandmas house. there are about 25 rooms there, and the Girards are well used to students. they are what you might call a 'traditional couple'. madam girad is a very feminine french woman of about 65yo, patient, generous and tireless. she is forever running around, organising social events with other well-to-do types and keeps the conversation going in the mornings. monsieur girad is more stoic, distinguised, and has a good laugh after he has warmed up. we haven't talked about medical stuff yet, but i will once my converstaion improves. last night after dinner he grunted (i think what was an approval) about the election swings to the right-although you never can tell with doctors.

the french school is also located very centrally. only one minute from rue de st denis (the one with all the old crsuty prostitues on it-near moulin rougue). the teachers are very enthousiastic, and again very chic and french. surprisingly i have found my french to be not too bad. i understand almost everything my teacher spits out at a 100 miles per hour, and the grammer hasn't departed me too unkindly. need to get up the confidence to speak and practise in class more. the other students form an interesting bunch. they are the international types who have houses all over the big cities of the world and the majority are fucking loaded.

other cool things that i have seen so far:
saw the franch urwagy match. the 0-0 draw was, as you can imagine a disarster-the referee must have been cheating. its just funny watching the vigor of european football supporters-their passion is almost comical to this australian. the whole town stopped for lunch - i heard jaque chriac even unofficially turned a blind eye to an 'extended lunch'.

went to a club on sat night with some guys from the school: WAGG is a exclusive paris club filled with strong colonges, tight clothes, UK house djs, and raised noses. 9 euros a beer inside made for a VERY sober dance. the biggest joke of the night though was that we somehow charmed the bouncer into letting us in-we were all still wearing random cloathes from the french school.

hmmmm, been doing other stuff, but that is probably enough. i have another hour to kill before dinner. perhaps i will do some french revision-vocab or something dans un cafè. i need to look up the word for bouncer so i can write about it in my french diary. i would like to put up some photos but need to first find a way to download them from my camera without my computer. à bientot

.: posted by aidan burrell @ 4:40 PM

Saturday, June 01, 2002

mania before paris
uppsala this last week has been sweet and extreme - parties, sun, ultimate frisbee, semester completion, good byes, birthdays, red mars and green mars, phone calls, and did i say parties?. most have finished for the semester, but everyone is manic. spring mania. the mania spring waiting to burst. can you imagine me bursting with enthousiasm about the summer?

spoke to v. chin on her way back from whyalla with em. we laughed alot. i miss them.

spoke to pip too and she told me about her cool but crazy family. shes getting anxious/excited/anal about her big trip in two months. and we talked about things. also james' and kara's issues. they were both going to go to india for his summer placement ( december for the northerners...) now india looks too unsafe, and well, they need to find somewhere else that they both want to go to.

it is a little sad: this place is going to be totally different when i return.
1.almost all the exchange students will have left. that leaves sarah, ali, kerry and my swedish friends only for next semester. but i don't think they will be around till end of august either.
2. i move out of "the kage" - into flogsta. basically to keep doing new stuff during this year. but i will be leaving my flats mates behind.
3. AND the weather will be getting worse everyday, rather than better. mid summers is june 15th, mid way thru paris. after that the depression sets in and apparently it is then that everyone starts killing themselves.

so the plan for tonight. roof party at flogsta. My last with sean, brent, and many others. make it a goodie, aidan. then packing shit for tomorrow. then waking up, watching the swedish underdogs play england in the world cup in their first match at the ekonomicum, then catch the train for stockholm.

.: posted by aidan burrell @ 7:22 PM

kylie came to sweden two nights ago. anton (see photo below entitled "crazy swedish friends") went and loved it.
"she even did do the locomotion" he beamed......

.: posted by aidan burrell @ 7:14 PM

man, nikkiwebstar has her own web page

.: posted by aidan burrell @ 12:10 PM

martians can be attractive too
my book is getting so hot that i can't find the time to pack, call Mr and Mrs Girad in french to give them my arrival time and read this mornings lemonde newspaper. the current protagonist in the mars trilogy has been musing on the topic of sexual attractiveness, cos he has just found out he is now attractive to the opposie sex after plastic surgery. he had to do this a few chapters ago to hide his identity from the multinational armies who have been trying to harvest all the martian resources for the profit god. everyone knows they are opposed to an independent mars. he on the other hand is part of the mars resistance, one of the first 100 colonizers, and the former head of the terraforming project. they all violently oppose this expediency, and are figuring out ways to respond.
but now he is confused, cos he has a brilliant mind and learned to succeed without looks.
he can understand why certain biological configurations would be attractive. big hips and large breasts in women, powerful strong men maybe. but why is it that other things in attractiveness are so important. for example a persons face when really the differences between beauty and the ugly tree are so small. why did we evolve to value this so much? facial attractiveness is so sublte, so individual. why is that that two identical twins can be almost perfectly the same, but one is plain while the other beautiful? humans can be so complex and yet so simple, he concludes.
i conclude i love this stuff. lets all move to mars and help them in the resistance. mars is going to be exploited if we don't help........

.: posted by aidan burrell @ 11:50 AM