Another Prix

Another year, another Prix de Lausanne. This ballet competition is always so inspiring. Not to be a ballet dancer, as I know that I'm really not cut out for it, but to stand up straighter, not be as pigeon toed and to dance, just because I love it.






Semi-finals
This was the first time they kept the curtain open right up until the competition began.

Elena Karpuhina 18/9, Poland (Ecole National de Ballet, Danzig)




Dancers are H-core about injuries.







Sirui Liu, 16/4, China (Shanghai Dance School)








Dimity Azoury, 18/2, Australia (The Australian Ballet School, Victoria)




Do you see those arches?






Martin Daniel Vizcayo, 17/3, Spain (Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza, Madrid)









Finals
I always look forward to the open class on-stage (with Sergiu Stephanschi of the NBS!) before the competition begins.





Look at that arch!







And now, and tribute to amazing extensions and perfect timing...





Sorry skaters, you've got nothing on dancer's Charlotte's.




Buying Prix products






Introducing the Laureates of the Prix de Lausanne 2007:
6th Award: Delia Mathew, 16/10, Great Britain (The Royal Ballet School, London)







5th Award: Telmo Moreira, 15/7, Portugal (Ecole de danse du Conservatoire National, Lisbon)
This guy's just a baby! I can't wait to see where he goes!

4th Award: James Hay, 17/6, Great Britain (The Royal Ballet School, London)



The Royal Ballet School had a really good turn out this year.







3rd Award: Chaelee Kim, 16/2, South Korea (SunHwa Arts High School, Seoul)







2nd Award: Mai Kono, 17/5, Japan (Ballet Akademie, Munich; Hitomi Kikuchi Ballet Studio, Japan)




This young lady was amazing. Her Ramonda variation was breathtaking. Her balance was just ridiculous. She was definitely my favorite, but the eventual winner really stepped
up her game and I thought performed better in the contemporary variation, so being the overall package could have clinched it for her. Still this girl was...wow. She also won the People's Choice Award.







1st Award: Sae-eun Park, 17/1, South Korea (Seoul Arts High School; Korea National University of Arts, Seoul)

I never really considered South Korea to be at the forefront of ballet, but in the past three years there are always finalist from these two schools along with the school of the 3rd place dancer.

The awards ceremony:


The finalists...








and the final bow from the winners.




- Logo courtesy of www.prixdelausanne.org

Keeping up with TV land

Ever since I arrived to Neuch, I’ve scoffed at the students who are addicted to their TV shows. Most don’t have access to TV at their pensions, so to entertain themselves here there and everywhere (what ever happened to making conversation or just reflecting about life to pass the time?) before EVERYONE got an i-pod and the “youtube” frenzy, DVDs were the hot ticket item.
In first year, it was the OC and Sex and the City. Second year was One Tree Hill and Desperate Housewives. This year, it’s more diverse…24, Prison Break, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy, among others.
I personally, have a TV at my disposal and use it quite often. While I’m watching most of my shows in different languages, I have to admit that most of the time, the TV’s on just to have background noise. I didn’t have a DVD player until recently, so the plethora of DVDs that all my students had did nothing for me.
This year, started out the same. I made fun of the students (and now other staff members) who couldn’t go another day before seeing the next episode and were desperately trying to find a good internet connection to download this show and that movie…and then came Tunisia. One night, when we had nothing better to do, I decided to join the kidlets watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I was mildly interested.
Now the mild interest has turned into a full blown liking for the show. I’ve just started Season 2. The thing about being this far away for this long, is that I don’t actually know how far ahead the real show is on for, and I’ve been gone long enough that before I left I didn’t know anything about the show. This works out perfectly, because I can start watching the show right from the beginning without knowing what’s to come – except for the fact that I saw the “bomb episode” in Tunisia and they had to fill me in a little bit about the characters, so I knew about the main things that were to come by the end of the first season, which meant that the season finale wasn't too much of a shock (although the rest of the episode was quite funny). I’ve recently been told that they’re actually at around Episode 12 of the 3rd Season, so I just have to make sure that the students (who are up to date on the show) don’t ruin anything more for me.
I have to admit that it’s a pretty good show. I like the medical stuff and the banter and wise-cracks that some of the characters come up with. I don’t really feel a strong connection to the Meredith Grey character for some reason…but some of the other characters are pretty amusing.
One of my students thinks I’m very much like one of the characters on the show (which is actually how I’d heard of the show for the first time). Feel free to guess which one. I’m not sure if it’s a compliment or an insult. When she first described the characteristics of the character that reminded her of me, I was a little taken aback, but after watching the show…well, I see the similarities, although for a slightly different set of reasons. Or not. Whatever.
Bottom line, if you’re a Grey’s Anatomy fan, “woot woot!”, but don’t tell me what’s to come. Let me find out for myself…just a year after everyone else does.

Finally

Today was the first day that it snowed in Neuchatel. It was a light dusting, not too cold and very pretty. That's all I have to say right now because it's "marking madness".

Yummy yogurt

Before I came to Neuch, someone raved about Swiss yogurt. I was confused, but upon arrival, when trying the yogurt I did agree that it was good. Then again though, I didn't really remember what Canadian yogurt tasted like, so I didn't know if I was actually eating something that tastes better or maybe it just tasted exactly the same.

I would suppose that most people find Swiss yogurt better because apparently it is creamier. Would make sense, as the milk here does taste different than in Canada. I don't even drink the milk here. When I first got here, I tried a lot of different types of milk, but they all just tasted bad. In Canada, I drink skim milk...which is...I don't know, whatever percent. Here, the regular milk is 3.something percent. I think their "skim milk" equivalent is 1.something. Still tastes gross. Due to the "grossness" of the milk though, other products have greatly benefited. Ice cream and yogurt are just two examples of such products.

The yogurt is quite creamy, although recently I bought the "slimline" brand yogurt (it was on sale and other people have raved about it) and I really don't like the taste. I guess there's not enough fat in it to make it taste yummy.

Another thing I love about yogurt here in Switzerland is that they have amazing flavours. We're talking about mixed yogurt here. No fruit on the bottom grossness that they often have in Canada. They have so many different and unique flavours, I'm always trying something different and slightly surprised at how good the weird combinations are.

Along with the regular fruit varieties that you often see in Canada, here are some examples of "different" flavours:
- chestnut
- coconut/chocolate
- chocolate/pear
- hazelnut
- mango/apple
- orange/starfruit
- banana
- caramel/pear
- mango/passion fruit
- blood orange
- lemon
- plum

Yes, in Canada, they have pieces of the fruit in the yogurt, but here they have huge chunks of whatever it is. Can you believe that they have shavings of coconut in the yogurt? It's amazing!

I really am going to miss Swiss yogurt.

<sad>Sigh</sad>

Well, I'm not totally sad, but I'm really overwhelmed right now. I've just come back from a fabulous trip to Tunisia, but I've had to close a door in my life and I'm falling behind in a bunch of things and I promise I'll try to write more soon.

Presents for me!!!

I'm now the proud owner of:
- Camper boots (it worked out so well...a sale - 22% off because it's December 22nd...and boots that actually fit my weirdo feet - stupid bunions...and Camper...swoon!)
- two fleece tops with thumbholes!

Unfortunately, the Bally store didn't have the 3000CHF bag for me to get tempted by.

Thank goodness the French train company is still on strike or else I would have missed all this good shopping fun! Although, after two attempts and now possibly not being able to ever go, I haven't experienced the Strasbourg Christmas Market.

Freakin' ostriches

Yesterday, after a day of judging in Dubendorf (chatted a bunch with Sarah Meier's mom) I went back to Zurich to wait for my train. I noticed that the stores were open (on a Sunday...gasp!!! Actually, it's just pre-Christmas shopping, so they opened the stores specially on a Sunday) so in my half hour before I had to catch my train, I journeyed down to Bally to look for a bag. I really want to buy a Bally bag sometime soon. I only saw one bag that I liked, and the total shocker was that it was on sale. Sigh, 2950CHF still isn't a good enough sale for me.
By the way, Zurich is dangerous for the shopper. Last time I was there, I went into Burberry and fell in love with a black coat that was on display. Sigh, they didn't have my size and consequently, couldn't drop a four figure amount on a beautiful item of clothing.
Oh and by the way, if you need someone to pick out the most expensive item of clothing in a store, I'm your girl. Sigh.

<happy>Sigh</happy>

Remember a couple minutes ago when I posted that I missed lights and decorations and stuff? Well, just now there was a huge fireworks display by the port and I got a great view from the staffroom window. I had no idea why it happened except for the fact that someone out there knew that it would make me happy.
I took a video of it and my batteries died before I could take any good photos, because I really wanted to share them here.
I wonder what it is, but I feel like I need evidence of everything wonderful that happens in my life. Is it because I want to share it with everyone else once I get back home? I think it's also because for some reason I think I'm going to forget about all of these things when I get older, my memories will fade and that I will need these pictures to remind myself about just how lucky I am.

I used to love a hectic lifestyle

Ok, I guess I still do, but this is a little bit bonkers. What I want right now, is to take a couple days off work and just go Christmas shopping. To see lights and trees. To drink hot chocolate in Second Cup. To visit Holts and CM and windown shop in Yorkville.
No, I swear I'm not homesick. I just need a little breather. I was the one who decided to be all crazy busy right now, but I wish I could just hit the pause button for awhile.
I hope everyone else is enjoying ther hectic-ness of the approaching holidays. Being out here really keeps that stuff to minimum, which is a little nice. I do miss those lights and decorations though. There's a huge tree downtown, but I don't get there very often. Sigh.
Just four more days of classes and then I get a day off before going to Tunisia.

Sassafraz

I can't believe that big yellow Sassafraz burned down. Thank goodness a week before I came to Neuch Laura and I went for lunch there to be "spotted".
Strange how when I told someone here in Neuch who still has a house in Yorkville that it's gone, she imeediately thought that someone had done it on purpose. She predicts that all the nice boutiques and restaurants in the area will be gone soon becuase all they want to do is build condos. She thinks maybe the mafia torched Sassafraz. I wonder.

Getting to the big leagues

So, something new to this post. I judge figure skating. I may come to edit this post if I really want to leave out almost everything possible to trace my existence, but right now, I think it's pretty safe, and plus, this story is interesting enough to tell so I don't really care.
Last weekend, I was in Geneva judging the Swiss Senior National Championships. For those of you not into the skating scene, this is a BIG deal. Well, okay, I wasn't really judging. I was trial judging. By the way, this is still a BIG deal.
Ever since I came to Neuch, I tried to get into the Swiss judging system and to be able to trial judge at the Nationals is really exciting. Judging is something really important in my life right now and I hope it will be for some time to come.
Sure, it's nowhere near the calibre of Canadian Nationals, but it's pretty exciting. It was actually overwhelming at some points when all of the press decended (namely when Sarah Meier and Stephane Lambiel skated) and when the audience (amazing turn out to the competition...admission was free! Can you imagine that in Canada?) got really rowdy at times...and booed the scores for one of the skaters. I actually found it hard to concentrate on the skater's performance and was in awe of Stephane and Sarah's skates that I momentarily forgot to write stuff down on my paper. Oops. Wow, this post is making me sound like a horrible judge, but honestly, I'm so glad that I had this experience, because I learned so much from it in terms of what my future (hopefully) holds. Yes, yes, I want to make it big in the judging world...we'll see what happens with that.
In case you're wondering, Swiss Nationals are divided up into different competitions. In Canada, there are Sr. Nat's and Jr. Nat's, but here there's Nat's for every level.
For those interested, the ladies event was very lackluster. There was Sarah Meier, and then there was everyone else. Sarah was gearing up for the Grand Prix Final and was therefore in top form. She's still pretty young, but she's really developing into a great skater. She's got great spring in her jumps and a wonderful air position. Good eyes and her projection's getting much better. The rest of the girls were at best landing triple toes/salchows. What a difference.
In the dance event, there was actually a Canadian. I'm not sure why he decided to come to Switzerland...better chance of going to the next level? Who knows.
In the men's event, the big buzz was that Stephane wold be unveiling his new long program. It was incredible. He's coming off being sick (missed his last Grand Prix event and consequently the Final), so he wasn't in the best of shape and that along with the fact that it was a new program made it a really tough skate. Great artistry and passion in his skating, I think that he really needs to work on his speed. Hoepfully it's just his endurance that's down, but eitherway, he's got to work on that some more. Of course he's got great spins, but his footwork was really amazing. Great musicality and character of the music. Fabulous.
Anyway, I'm still so happy that I had this experience. The judges were really really welcoming and observing their behaviour during the competition was so beneficial. Here's to the future!

Oh, and apparently I was spotted on TV. Sitting on the panel in the background as Stephane Lambiel skated. Wheeee! I made it on TV!

Holiday trip

Last year I went to Kenya, this year, I will going to Tunisia. I know it's a little last minute to be spreading the news, but it's only because I decided rather recently about this trip (due to many reasons). Sadly it means, I won't get to see a fab girl get married in Zimbabwe and I won't get to explore more of Spain (Madrid and Seville) and see the super huge Christmas tree in Lisbon that E told me about. I guess I'm excited to go to Tunisia...part of the trip include a couple days camping (uh, oh) in the desert. I just don't know enough about this country to be excited. I have to do some more research, but I'm been so insanely busy and btw, I need sleep desperately. Sure, I'm great at falling asleep on trains, but it's taking its toll. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry, I'll probably talk about it rather soon. Obviously it has to do with skating in some way. It always does. I just love that sport so much that it's ridiculous, but when do you draw the line. When is enough vague-wishy-washy-situations enough? Hopefully I'll have the answer soon. Maybe it's a sign that I'm just not meant to be a part of this branch of the sport.

The Departed

So I guess this is what people with lives do. Go watch movies on a weekly basis. This past Friday, I went to see yet another movie - The Departed.
Apparently, this is based on some Chinese movie, which I've never seen before...except strangely enough, supposedly I flipped by this movie on a hotel TV in Krakow, Poland.
This movie is about New York cops trying to bust a mafia guy (Jack Nicholson - good at playing creepy guys) by putting in a guy (Leonardo Dicaprio) with Nicholson's gang undercover. At the same time, Nicholson's already got a mole (Matt Damon) on the force. So it's the story about who can get whom first.
It felt like a LONG movie. Many parts didn't feel like they were going anywhere and I was really really bored towards the end.
I enjoyed the part with the Cantonese speak, probably only becasue I haven't heard Cantonese in a long time. And it's always nice to hear Chinese guys yelling at each other.
I thought that there was an extraneous number of killings. People were just being shot for no reason. Lots of violence. It wasn't like I cringed at the violence, it just got too over the top and I was like, oh, there goes another guy.
Oh and the little thing at the end was definitely a groaner. How annoying when they put in things like that.

- picture courtesy of www.thedeparted.warnerbros.com

Casino Royale

Last Friday night, I went to see Casino Royale. Starring the blonde (oooh, scandalous) Daniel Craig as James Bond, this is Craig's first appearance as 007 and the went back to the beginning of the series to introduce him to the viewers.
I haven't seen many James Bond movies (only 2 or three of the most recent ones - but not the one with Halle Berry), but I can say that I really liked this one. For some reason, I really liked the opening credits. They were really stylish and went well with the music, theme of the movie and the general "James Bond" feeling.
One of the first chase scenes was WAY over the top (the part on the construction site especially), so that was a little ridiculous, but as a whole I really liked this movie.
There were a couple lines which made me groan...but it's to be expected from a Bond movie. The incidental music was good and as always they weaved in the James Bond motif at all the right times. It's so interesting to hear what composers come up with.
Although, as I mentioned, I haven't seen many portrayals of the James Bond character by other actors, I thought Craig did a good job. He was really good at looking very cool under pressure, breaking a sweat, but not being out of breath. He had this pouty lip thing going as well which a couple of us were discussing if it was natural, or part of the character. He brought a different feel to the character (compared to Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery, I thought). More cool and less suave.
Anyway, it's not like I've read the books or anything, so I didn't know what was going to happen, and I don't know what will happen in the next movie, so I was a little confused by the ending, but I kind of liked that though. A Bond movie should be filled with crazy action scenes and some random twists.
Yeah, I'd recommend this movie for sure.

-picture courtesy of www.sonypictures.com

Babel

Last Friday night, I went to see Babel. I remembered being tipped off about the movie a long time ago when my friends who seem to surf the internet way too much or something mentioned that the trailer for the film looked amazing. I agreed. Actually, I'm glad that they're all up to date (or better) on the times...being so far away from it all means that it's nice to be kept in the loop. So yeah, it came out in the original version here in Neuch and I decided to go see it.
Where there were supposed to be subtitles, they were in French and German, so although my French is good enough that I understood what was happening, there were a couple words here and there that I didn't quite understand which I think might have provided a little bit more insight to the movie.
After all this time, I still can't really pinpoint the type of movie I like, but I can say that usually I like movies that have different plotlines which end up being intertwined. This movie was one of those movies. The trailer gave just enough away that I got an idea of what would happen, but not enough that I knew about everything.
There were three main storylines in the movie - one in Morocco, one in Japan and the other around the US/Mexico border. I think the part in Japan was my favorite. I won't get into anymore details because it's something that you should see for yourself.
I found this movie to be a little long in parts...like it was getting to a point, but taking a long time to get there. At the end, I didn't really feel like it got to a "point", but that I got a certain emotion/feeling from the film. Perhaps it is also due the some of the situations that I have been placed in recently and will continue to be in until around the end of March (if I'm lucky) and perhaps even as an educator who is doing a lot of reflecting on education. As I was watching the movie, I resolved to be a more accepting person. To reach out to others who may feel alone or in an alien environment. To be compassionate. I was reminded that there are many different ways of communicating and that communication, whether verbal or non-verbal is the key to everything.
Perhaps the "point" of this movie is to get you to think. Even though I wouldn't necessarily watch the movie again, I would highly recommend everyone to see it.

- picture courtesy of www.paramountvantage.com/babel

Persimmons

My first memory of this fruit is a flattened, dried up orangish thing that my mom promised me tasted good by I didn't really believe her. Years later, I still don't like the dried version, but if the fruit is really really ripe and super soft, I love them. If they aren't really ripe, they leave a weird paste-y feeling on your tongue. My mom told me about a different species of persimmon which was harder and apparently just as good, but like the great daughter I am, I was skeptical.
Anyway, I've seen persimmons in the grocery stores here in Europe, but have never bought one, because they were really huge and rock hard. This scared me. They were also called "kaki", so I wasn't quite sure if they were the same thing. And they were a little expensive for something that I wasn't sure if I would like (although this hasn't stopped me before). They are 5.40CHF per kilo.
This past weekend, I saw someone eat one, and so I asked her about it, what it tasted like and if it was really an Asian fruit. She cut it open, and it looked exactly the same, just less goopey, because it was harder. I built up the courage the try a bit and it was exactly the same...really tasty, and no weird feeling in the mouth! And the weirdest part is that you eat it like an apple. Skin and all! I would never usually eat the skin!

The point of the story is that:
1. Maybe the persimmons they have here are the ones that my mom was talking about
2. I've found something else to lessen my homesickness
3. My mom was right (grrr...she usually is)

Krakow, Poland (October 13th-16th, 2006)

Again, just a bunch of pictures for now...

In the centre of Krakow is the market square where the "Cloth Market" is. It's an indoor market selling lots of different things, but mostly wooden crafts and amber:


On certain hours there's a horn player that sticks his head out of the window and plays a song then stops abruptly. They stop because apparently one horn player was shot while they were playing.







This is a really old university.

Another city, another opera house.






Krakow skyline at night.




We visited the Wieliczka Salt Mines just outside of the city. There were tons of sculptures carved out of salt and who whole place smelled - well, salty. You could lick the walls in the place. They were salty too. This is the Last Supper...can someone pass the salt please? (har har har)

Regardless of your belief system, try to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. It's really interesting. Just like with all of the other trips I've been on, I feel so lucky because I get to walk what I've seen in movies, read in books and has happened in history.
Auschwitz itself has very well done exhibitions. Over my career at the ROM and with all of travels, I have come to be somewhat of a museum connoisseur.



"Work will bring freedom"...(I remember this motto from Dachau)




A sectioned off area at the Auschwitz camp, away from the rest of the camp where no one would know of the executions that took place there.





"Auschwitz II", AKA Birkenau. The extermination camp.



At Birkenau, there are only ruins of the "shower rooms" and crematories because they tried to destroy the evidence:



The railway tracks just came to a stop...where the building housing the shower rooms and crematories were.






Living quarters.






Cemetery in the Jewish quarter in Krakow.







This wall is created from remains of tombstones from before WWII.



The "roof" over the tombstone is not original. It has been placed there to preserve the tombstone as much of the carving/engraving disappears over time due to exposure to the elements. Apparently Jews leave stones to show that they visited.






Looks just like in the movie. Another surreal moment.












I found it interesting that the tour guide mentioned that this impressive World War II memorial only said the number of people who died in the war but nothing
about them being mostly Jewish because they were under the Communist reign. It was only afterwards that Jew puts up a smaller memorial behind this one recognizing those Jews who died during WWII.

Helsinki, Finland (June 8th-11th, 2006)

Yes...this post is WAY overdue...here's a couple pictures for now, and I'll add commentary later if I get the chance.
All I'll say right now was that it was a FAB trip...would highly recommend.









The City Hall in Helsinki.


Jean Sibelius is a Finnish composer. This is a monument built for him:















Apparently they eat them too.








Love this store. Not really into the clothing, but the homeware and accessories are fab. I bought a BOLD bag (of course). I love it.




Church built into a rock.








Someone famous is buried here...I forget who. Oops.




On Suomenlinna, there was a group of students hanging out...I swear they looked like they were straight out of Hogwarts...it was a little bizarro becuase I doubt school children actually dress like that in Finland.





Took an afternoon/early evening trip to Talinn, Estonia (1.5 hour boat ride from Helsinki). Another country to add to the list...and a really neat visit!






There was a huge Russian Orthodox church there. I haven't gone to Russia yet (fingers crossed that I can go this year), but this church is exactly what I always thought Russian churches looked like.