To be continued... Or not...

Artwork by Marguerite Sauvage http://www.margueritesauvage.com/blog/

Will this blog live on? I don't really have this answer yet. Maybe I will go on. I don't think I can still continue to post once a week. But we will see. Or maybe this blog will stop there and disappear into the large comunity formed by internet. I don't know.

Report about the English class of the 2nd semester

Artwork by Benjamin http://blog.sina.com.cn

List of vocabulary that could be helpful for lessons:
-Economics: finance (stock market, money, monetary system); unemployment; vocabulary about variations (increase/decrease, etc...);...

-History: wars & conflicts; industrialisation; transports (boats, carriages, railways); agriculture; names of cities, countries, people, treaties, battles spelt differently than in French; religion; kings & power (different types of monarchs, troubles, rules)...

-Others: ...

Now my comments about the class:

-It would have been better not to choose class hours early in the morning or after 5pm in the

afternoon (sorry, but after 2hours x2 (or 3) of courses, I know I can't concentrate anymore).

-Better to give precise essay subjects, because talking about "ping-pong diplomacy" is a bit too vast for only 2 pages, and talking about our city even orally I personnally find it uninteresting. The subject about the press was good because it allowed lots of discussions.

-The diversity of exercises is good, but spending one hour or two reading one article, even if explaining the vocabulary is tiring and boring.

-Maybe a bit more of books' extracts would be good.

-Watching TV shows for oral comprehension was good, as well as the blog idea to improve the writing.

Du fond de quelle douleur allait-il trouver cette capacité illimitée de créer?

In English: "From the depth of which pain would he find this unlimited capacity of creating?"

This is a sentence by Proust. I found it on the blog of a philosophy teacher: http://hansen-love.blogspot.com/. Actually I like to read what she is writing from time to time, it kind of changes of what I'm thinking about normally. Most of the time, it is short quotations like this one. Simple sentences which seem clear and even obvious sometimes but which can arise a lot of thoughts.

I chose this one today because it echoes my feelings. I used to draw a lot and I had stopped since I was always busy. I draw again since 2 or 3 days now. And it is my way of creating. When I'm drawing, I'm automatically thinking of my drawings as creation because it comes out of me. I reproduce an image I keep in my head most of the times but by making it material, I create it. Anyway. I don't totally agree with Proust. Pain is surely a good incentive to create. To evacuate the pain, you'll try to draw, to write anything. However pain isn't always good for creation. It depends of the kind of pain you're feeling.
If the pain is related to feelings, I will create far more easily than if it is a physical pain. For instance, I couldn't draw for a long time because either I was too tired or because I felt depressed. And each time I tried something, it was wrong. I think we can create related to pain but it will depend on its nature.

Artwork by Lolita Jungle (lolitajungle.com)

Motorcycle Diaries (Carnets de voyage) by Walter Salles

Choose the poster you like better.

The first one is more modern in some way.

The second one depicts the fact that the movie is adapted from a diary relating a trip through South America.

The third one plays with Che Guevara's image.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi & Romain Rolland

Since I talk about Gandhi, I decided to put at least one photo with him on it. This one is my favorite. He is talking with the French author Romain Rolland who fight for peace and for European reconcilation during WWI and after.

Photograph taken in 1931, photographer unknown, public domain.

I did actually forget to talk about Gandhi

After thinking for a while, I did find another person who is as symbolic as Che Guevara. It is Mahatma Gandhi. I should have thought of him earlier since we have a weekly lesson about South Asia but he just seems to have got out of my mind (maybe I just didn't want to think about PSSA, maybe I'm becoming allergic to it). But being a serious person, I can't forget that Gandhi became a symbol in the same way as El Che. Not for the same reasons, Gandhi was a more peaceful guy and a much more down-to-earth person.
However there is not really one photograph of Gandhi that inspired people. And that's my point. For the photographs of Che Guevara and the Afghan girl, they became famous and symbolic due to their portrays and their gesture. It's their expressivness that reached people.
Copyright to oliviakin.

Another symbol

Usually symbols are objects. Sometimes it can be animals or plants. But a symbol is rarely a person.

Indeed a symbol is something that should be eternal and universal and there are few people that are seen in the same way in every part of the world.

However it's different for Ernesto "Che" Guevara. How did he become so popular? I can't really answer this question, I wasn't born the day he died. However I've seen his face and his name used very frequently until now before I knew what he exactly did. For all people he is a hero. The symbol for rebellion and struggle against oppression. It is this way I always perceived him.

I put here the two well-know photographs of him. The first is his portray and the second one shows his dead body as army officials exhibit it a few days after he was captured and executed. It was in 1967. His body disappeared a few days later because they feared that his body would become a relic. But it contributed to make his name last. And when the place where is body was buried was found outa few years later, it actually became a cult object.

He was a guerillero fighting for a goal he could never attain: he wanted to unite all South America as one and unique folk. He took part in many revolts and guerillas, he fought on Fidel Castro's side during the Cuban revolution.

Most of people forgot that he advocated violence as the only way to overthrow a governement and that he should have killed many people.
He is a man that fought for his ideas and died for them. And people remember that. I'm not trying to praise Che Guevara. I'm just interested in him, the way he lived and what made him such a symbol. I'm interested of the way the people all over the world unanimously agree about him when usually for great men there is always an existing opposition. Try to find another man in the world History that had such a influence on people. For instance, Leonardo da Vinci was a great scientist, painter and humanist, but his name doesn't carry as much emotions.
Photographs taken by Alberto Korda on the 5th March 1960 and by Gustavo Villoldo on the 9th October 1967.

The "Afghan girl"

I came across this photograph working on my presentation about wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan. And I just wanted to put it here because I think it's one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

This photo was taken during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. It was one girl who was in a refugee camp. The photographer Steve McCurry published the photograph in the June 1985 issue of National Geographic and it became famous world-wide as symbol for the war in Afghanistan because of her eyes expressing anger and fear at the same time.

Here is the article accompanying the photograph:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/original-story-text

But until recently the photograph and the girl in it were referred by as "the Afghan girl" because Steve McCurry didn't know the name of the girl. He only knew that she was from a Pashtun tribe (in the Southern regions) and that she was around 12 in 1985. So he decided to go look for her. He found her after many difficulties. The article describing his trip was published in the April 2002 issue of National Geographic.

Here is the link if you want to read it: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat.html

Her name is Sharbat Gula and she has never been aware she became a symbol for the Afghan people in the world. She had been living according to Pashtun customs, almost isolated with her husband and she had four daughter.

Here you can see how she looks like now:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text

I truly the look she has. She expresses fear and anger at the same time as she is hiding a terrible inner strengh. When I look at her, I see misery but I see pride too. It is a terrible picture but so beautiful. In my opinion, such a picture would always be more beautiful and magnificient than any picture of landscape or than any painting, be it Mona Lisa or the Niagara falls. Just because it is a real person on there and she is how reality looks like.

Copyright to National Geographic and the photographer Steve McCurry.

Where is time running, I wonder...

That's a good question, in fact.

Time is a huge issue in my life. It's always time to study and it's never time to sleep, to eat, to shower nor to go to the supermarket. If I didn't ignore time passing by, I would always study.

Time is really a scary thing. You know there's no ending to it but you never have enough time. You try to spare time, to organise it, not to waste it but it just continues to flow. Furthermore everyone needs time. I need time to finish my oral presentation, my mom needs time to recover from her depression, my sister needs time to choose where she wants to go to school next year and my dad just doesn't complain so I think he's the only person in the whole world that doesn't run after time.

Time is flying. But I doubt it goes to the sky with little birds otherwise everyone would have noticed a huge growing cloud made of time in the sky. Maybe it goes into space. And it forms back holes that swallow up spaceships just like in "Planet of the apes".

Time is flowing too. It's melting with water and that's why there is always big swirls in big rivers. Once in a while when seas did eat up too much time, it provokes tsunamis that kill a lot of people for the time to be released. Time is a really dangerous thing.

There are just too many legends and stories about immortality and eternal life. I don't really know what people blessed with eternal life are doing because most of the people I know (all of them I'm sure of it) are obsessed with time. Maybe we can find an answer in the "Highlander" films (I should really stop putting so bad references in this post), but I don't think that fighting with swords with every other immortal person to be sure not to have your head cut down is really fun. It must be really tiring.

However I'd really like to have the power to bless people with eternal life so I could give immortality to my grandmother so that she will stop talking about the time when she won't be there anymore.

That was my philosophical delirium of the week.

I think I drained my brain, I'm really tired, I'm going to sleep. Time to work will be tomorrow.

:)

P.S. TV show Supernatural's third season ended last Thursday. It's so unfair. I want it back on track right now. I won't be able to finish the pop corn's bag that is waiting in my kitchen. It's sad.

Copyright to whoever owns this photo (not me that is for sure).

Minicrit Dijon 2008

Six hours to go to Dijon, around one hour to find the right place we should go to and we met people from the other programs of Sciences-Po Paris on Saturday for a sport contest. In fact the Minicrit is much more than just a sport contest, it is the only occasion for all these people to meet. And we felt it when all the people welcomed us by shouting and cheering when we arrived (we were the last ones and we were late for the volleyball competition).

Being the first year of our campus, we didn't prepare anything because we were not really motivated and didn't really had time. But next year we swore we'll be ready. We cheered for our team and other teams, we ran around, some lost themselves in the city, we partied a lot and we came back exhausted but really happy.

I want to say word about Alice too, who organised our trip and came with us but on a wheelchair because she was operated last week. She was with us the all time and took part in all the activities with us. She really deserves to be congratulated.

But there are some disadvantages to this week-end: first we didn't want to come back in Le Havre, secondly we are far more tired than when we left, we couldn't revise for the History exam on thursday (in fact some revised in the bus on the way back, but I, personnally, wasn't really in the mood), and finally we got sunburns (the weather was really hot in Dijon) and lost weight (I never ate so few in three entire days) .

My final words will be for the people that didn't come: they really really really missed something great.

Artwork by Nachoyague on Deviantart.com

Links

Three links I wanted to recommand (in fact I wanted to write them down somewhere, and because I always lost my papers I said myself that I will post them here so that they won't disappear. In addition, I make a bit of advertising so it's all good.)

-http://www.mangapop.com/ & http://www.deviantart.com/: two websites exposing artworks of people that are not always professionals

-another link, if you want to read a cute story talking about japanese mythology:

http://www.blackmoontides.com/e/doujin/kage/kage0.html

Artwork by Sho-U ("Show You": play on words, I understood only recently.) Tajima

What I like (and what I don't like)

Here is a small Edward Scissorhands to begin my post today and to inspire me. He looks poetic, funny and lost at the same time. Isn't he sort of cute?

Five-points lists are the best when you're lacking ideas.

1) I love Edward (this one) and drawings (both to look at and to draw) and kitsune smileys (and I don't like the smiley that Fabien always put at the end of his sentences on msn, he looks creepy, I don't like the one with the big glasses neither, he looks like Mr Schwarz and I get the impression that he is spying on my msn chats).

2) I love the scent of my berries flavoured tea. And I don't like the smell of incense sticks that my sister and my mother put in the house once in a while.

3) I like to sleep. And I don't like when my neighbors start to play music at 2am, or when they are doing a rap contest at 3am. I don't like workers checking heaters or waterways to wake me up at 9 am on the only morning I have free in the week.

4) I like to watch film trailers on allocine.com to find new interesting films to rent. And I don't like the fact that they use famous people to dubb characters in cartoons. As if the character could be magically transformed by the person who dubbs him.

5) I like to search for books in shops or libraries. I can stay here for hours reading the small summaries on the back covers and asking myself which one I will choose. I don't like books with no summary on the back cover and I prefer pocket books because you can take them in your hand easily. Plus large-framed books are too expensive.

A five-points list is just magic . Ideas are starting to come back. My brain went on vacation and it still hasn't completely come back yet. (Maybe it is the reason why I had a so hard time working on my Economics presentation.)

Artwork by JollyRotten on Deviantart.com

About Cosmopolitan, Glamour and "rallyes"

Sometimes, I'm just tired of taking courses all day, looking at my computer and reading books so much I begin to mix up all the words. So I just go buy some stupid magazine like Cosmopolitan or Glamour. It is more effective than any aspirin pills. It can be useful too, when you are really depressed and feeling ugly. It has the strange super-power to make better the mood of a depressed person.

In addition, by buying Glamour, I remember a friend that was obsessed with it. In fact she was obsessed by fashion but each month she would buy Glamour and Vogue and discuss all the clothes, and new trends. It became sort of funny, because each month when she got the magazine, she would bring it at school and every friend would ask her to lend it to her. So in the end, she still brought it at school but she showed it only to her closest friends. Everytime someone was coming, she hided it. And it was really funny to look at.

She acted as if fashion was vital. She was always living according to trends, buying tons new clothes every seasons. Talking about her, just make me thinking about another thing. Do you know what are "rallyes"? As I am coming from a little town nearly in the countryside, I didn't heard about it before Highschool. But in the school there were alot of girls coming from Versailles and that were taking part in these "rallyes". It seems that for them rallyes were one of the coolest thing ever. For me that was looking from outside, it was more like a gathering of all the teenagers of the families of the healthy part of versailles. In fact many people of these rallyes marry together. It is a kind of circle. There still are some in Paris too.

When I first heard about it, it surprised me a lot because I assimilated it to a gathering of privileged people like it was for aristocracy during centuries. I thought nothing like that existed anymore. I was maybe too naive at that time. But even if girls taking part in it were always so proud of it, it always disturbed me a lot.

People living near Versailles like to make fun of the conservative people coming from rich, old families of Versailles. That is the caricature of the "Versaillaise" family. But Versailles has got, like Paris, its "jet set". And I'm not sure it's a good thing.

Artwork by Kazuya Minekura

Writer's block

Today I have got a so called "writer's block". And even more terrible I didn't want to write. Usually I just talk about what we discussed in the week with friends. But this week I just hadn't anything to say. Furthermore I can't speak of anything related to the campus, it just makes me depressed.

So I decided to speak about writer's block to avoid it. In French it is much more poetic, it's called "syndrome de la page blanche". I took a look at the wikipedia page, there there are even a lot of scientific and very serious theories to explain it. The problem is that these theories don't really help the poor writers experimenting writer's block when all they want is to find a cure. Like me.

In addition, it is said that writer's block "can be closely related to depression and anxiety two mood disorders that reflect environmentally caused or spontaneous changes in the brain's frontal lobe". Very comforting.

At the same time it sounds so true. It fits perfectly what we have to bear at Sciences-po Le Havre. Depression and anxiety are two states of mind that overwhelm the average student of Sciences-po when he has worked for 2 full months already, has 3 galops d'essai coming, only one week of holidays and when he just learned that the people from the administration want to cut off half of his week of holidays because there are 2 people coming to the CCI during this week and that it 'll be terrible for his future if he misses these 2 so-important-and-interesting-and-edifying people. In fact the student is so exhausted that he doesn't want to stay in Le Havre, he just wants Sciences-po to leave him alone, so that he can go home and find emotional support in his family.

It's weird: somehow my post about writer's block just turned out in a claim to protect our holidays (in fact we already have so few that, if this goes on, a SciencesPo-student-with-holidays will soon become one of the many "critically endangered species".)

Artwork by Kazuya Minakura in "Salty Dog III" artbook

How to ruin a week

I was in a pretty good mood last week, and even last week-end. Visiting Caen on Saturday was fun. And on Sunday I slept, watched D.Gray Man and looked at the snow falling. So it wasn't a bad week-end at all.
But the week that came after started badly. On Monday on the way to the CCI, I sprained my ankle. Just lightly, it didn't hurt but when I came back home in the evening, my ankle didn't look good. It was all swelled.
I couldn't go to the pharmacy, it was too late. It hurt all night and I really didn't sleep well.
On Tuesday I spent an awful day. I usually hate taking courses from 8am to 7pm: at the end of the day I am always drained, in a really bad mood and I still have a huge amount of homework.
But hopefully, I had time to get something for the pain and a contention bandage during the day.
Wednesday was also not a really happy day. We all revised earnestly a test of Politics & Societies that the teacher cancelled. She said (more or less): "A test? What test? There is no test today. Furthermore I said that it'll be a surprise test so I won't tell you the date." She wasn't really popular before that but I think it is even worst now.
And that made my week worst that it was. I hope it'll stop there otherwise I won't be able to take it.
And I need to sleep.
Sleep is the cure for everything and it even makes people more intelligent.
And I need to finish my speech for the English course. However I don't understand why the slogan of my candidate (Dennis Kucinich) is "Defend the Constitution". It is odd.
Artwork by Mikaël Bourgouin taken from cafésalé artbook.

Various information

1) The Silkroads Newsletter is now online at:
http://euro-asie.sciences-po.fr/newsletter.html
Thanks to the IT manager of the campus Olivier Rondeau.
Go take a look!!
2) From what I found, Hiroyuki Asada is actually a guy, so I was right.
3) I corrected mistakes in my former posts.

Artwork by Shigeki Maeshima.

Paul Celan, Todesfuge (Deathfugue)

I just want to put here the poem I talked about in the last post. The English translation is not by me. So no need to correct this post.
Just one comment: poems of Paul Celan are hardly translatable. It is not really obvious for this one but other of his poems just don't mean anything anymore when they are translated from German.

German: Todesfuge
Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends
wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts
wir trinken und trinken
wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland
dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die Sterne
er pfeift seine Rüden herbei
er pfeift seine Juden hervor läßt schaufeln ein Grab in der Erde
er befiehlt uns spielt auf nun zum Tanz
Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich morgens und mittags wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland
dein goldenes Haar Margarete
Dein aschenes Haar Sulamith
wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng
Er ruft stecht tiefer ins Erdreich ihr einen ihr andern singet und spielt
er greift nach dem Eisen im Gurt er schwingts seine Augen sind blau
stecht tiefer die Spaten ihr einen ihr anderen spielt weiter zum Tanz auf
Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags und morgens wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith er spielt mit den Schlangen
Er ruft spielt süßer den Tod der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
er ruft streicht dunkler die Geigen dann steigt ihr als Rauch in die Luft
dann habt ihr ein Grab in den Wolken da liegt man nicht eng
Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
wir trinken dich abends und morgens wir trinken und trinken
der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist blau
er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft dich genau
ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er hetzt seine Rüden auf uns er schenkt uns ein Grab in der Luft
er spielt mit den Schlangen und träumet der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith

English: Deathfugue
Black milk of daybreak we drink it at nightfall
we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night
drink it and drink it
we are digging a grave in the sky it is ample to lie there
A man in the house he plays with the serpents he writes
he writes when the night falls to Germany your golden hair Margarete
he writes it and walks from the house the stars glitter he whistles his dogs up
he whistles his Jews out and orders a grave to be dug in the earth
he commands us strike up for the dance
Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink in the mornings at noon we drink you at nightfall
drink you and drink you
A man in the house he plays with the serpents he writes
he writes when the night falls to Germany your golden hair Margarete
Your ashen hair Shulamith we are digging a grave in the sky it is ample to lie there
He shouts stab deeper in earth you there and you others you sing and you play
he grabs at the iron in his belt and swings it and blue are his eyes
stab deeper your spades you there and you others play on for the dancing
Black milk of daybreak we drink you at nightfall
we drink you at noon in the mornings we drink you at nightfall
drink you and drink you
a man in the house your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith he plays with the serpents
He shouts play sweeter death's music death comes as a master from Germany
he shouts stroke darker the strings and as smoke you shall climb to the sky
then you'll have a grave in the clouds it is ample to lie there
Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at noon death comes as a master from Germany
we drink you at nightfall and morning we drink you and drink you
a master from Germany death comes with eyes that are blue
with a bullet of lead he will hit in the mark he will hit you
a man in the house your golden hair Margarete
he hunts us down with his dogs in the sky he gives us a grave
he plays with the serpents and dreams death comes as a master from Germany
your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith.
Artwork by Asada Hiroyuki.

German pawaaaa!!

My mood improved a lot this week. I put a happier picture.

I rested more and worked less than last week. I think that the people saying that sleep can make people intelligent are right.

What did I want to talk about in this post?

Yeah, first I wanted to say that German is a beautiful language (yes, it is!!) and the people that don't agree just never heard a real German person (except the Bavarian and Austrian ones, their way of speaking can be compared to Scottish or Irish people in English, just terribly hard to understand with a weird accent) talking or they never read Goethe in German so I don't consider them able to judge.

I really wanted to say that because I'm really (really!!) pissed off by (how could I explain it?) the indifference of some people that will say to you that Germany is really no fun, just for the pleasure they get to oppose you. In other cases, you just get the feeling that because they are not interested in it, they consider that it is not worth to be liked. It is really weird. Germany and German culture are sure still not as popular as the English or American ones.

It is the important statement that is stuck into my head for some months now. I just happened to have spent something like 8 years in a French-German elementary school and then French-German High School and I am really surprised how French people just don't know anything about German culture. Even though Germany is a neighbouring country, and you can get in Berlin within 1h30 with the plane (only when the airport's (Air france's in fact) staff is not on strike, otherwise you can wait more than 8 hours to get on your flight. And believe me, it's really boring: there's nothing to do in an airport apart from shopping in really expensive high-class shops. You can't even sleep because all seats have really annoying armrests.)

In fact, I like the German past culture better than the German present one. Germany (and Austria) had great writers and poets. Goethe of course, all the philosophers from enlightement (Aufklärung), but not only. I like people like Novalis, Heinrich Heine (Read the Lorelei poem!!), Bertold Brecht (with Mother Courage), Süskind, Arthur Schnitzler (from the time of the Austrian Empire) and others.

My favourite ones would be Stefan Zweig, Robert Musil and the poet Paul Celan. The first one of these authors I hope you know him at least by name (a clue: he wrote The World of Yesterday). I like the book of the second one titled The Confusions of Young Torless that I studied in German class (there are few books that I studied in German class that I actually enjoyed maybe it's because I sort of didn't like the teacher that I had for the last 3 years, still now I think it's a miracle I put up with him 3 years long). And the third one wrote a poem that I think is one of the most beautiful that I ever read (another is the Erlkönig of Goethe, I like the remixed version of Rammstein in the song Dalai Lama too).

Next I think that German way of thinking nowadays is pretty complicated . Here I only speak for myself, what I think resulted from what I saw and heard. German people, still today, are tied up first to the WWII and Nazi past and secondly to the period of the DDR. These two periods of time take a big part in the life of German people today. I think they are deeply traumatised by it.

(Primo Levi, Les naufragés et les rescapés, a good book with some clues about that)

In my High School it was just an obsession, every years we spoke about it, every years teachers explained again and again what happened. Maybe it's because of that German society is so stiff, far less "easy-going" or "relaxed" than the French society. But it is just some of my thoughts, nothing to take as truth.

Artwork by Miggy from the Robot anthology Nr.2.

www.wani.com/robot.php

Camillo Cavour & Otto von Bismarck

Have you ever tried to summarize the political situation of Italy and Germany during the 19th century in a presentation of 15 minutes?

No? Good for you. I have and I thought I could have died of it. Just imagine: at year 1, there is something like a mess, hundreds of States (for Italy just around ten) that have nothing in common. But somehow the people living in these States start to think that it would be fun to live together and unite. The biggest problem is that the different rulers of the different States don't want it because they will loose all their privileges.

At year 70, all these States are united. There are one king, one language, one economy and one State. A kingdom for Italy and an empire for Germany.

How did this happen?

People did what they always did when they don't agree with their governments: they revolted, again and again, thousands of time between year 1 and 70. But at last, the king of one of those States decided that he had enough, reformed his army, provoked a war (Against Austria for Italy, against France for Germany. For just a second, I want to say that Napoleon the 3rd was just the worst ruler that France ever had, at least in foreign policy.), and conquered all the other States to create one Nation. However the two kings, king of Piedmont for Italy, king of Prussia for Germany, were suggested to do so by their Prime minister that were maybe the most intelligent men of the 19th century (at least in politics). I deeply admire and thank Camillo Cavour (Italy-Piedmont) and Otto von Bismarck (Germany-Prussia) for making my work lighter.

In fact, they should have been born even earlier. Maybe they could have prevented the 2 italian wars of independence, the many Italian and German insurgences of March 1848, and me of doing my long and complicated presentation in front of 19 students that were totally hungry and bored (perhaps bored first and then hungry). Fortunately, the History teacher was listening and paying attention all the time. Because of her, I didn't get the impression of losing my time.

Artwork by Human-Graphik & Made-by-eyes again.

5 books I have to read

1) The first one I should read is my book of macroeconomics. But before that, I have to find out where I put it. My room is not so big but somehow I lost my things easily in it. Indeed, I absolutely don't want to read it. I hate economics. Furthermore, I don't like Joseph Stiglitz (the author of the book). He is way too smart for me.

2) Second one: the book of History. Same thing that for the one of economics. Maybe I should think about tidying up a bit my room.

3) "Le monde d'hier" by Stefan Zweig, I tried to read it in German (I love German) but it was too hard, so I bought it in French (not really, I made my mother buy it for me in fact) and now I don't have the time to read it anymore. It's sad.

3) "The divine comedy" by Dante that I borrowed to my grandmother something like one year ago, that I have still not read and that I always forget to give her back.

4) Another book for the History course that is laying on my bookshelf and that I try to ignore: "Siddharta" by Hermann Hesse.

5)All other books I bought saying to me that I will read them, knowing perfectly well that I 'll never have time to do it: Le parfum (Süskind), les versets sataniques (Rushdie), Neige (Pamuk), Voyage au bout de la nuit (Céline), Le grand secret (Barjavel)...

Making this list really did make me tired.

Artwork by Human-Graphik & Made-By-Eyes

About my neighbour...Again.

After a discussion with Fabien about my neighbour and the fact that I don't hear him when I should, we came to the following conclusion: for being so hyperactive all day long and unable to calm down, he is constantly under medical treatment at home.

Isn't this pretty persuasive ?

I should add that I don't know when anymore (last weekend?), I heard the best friend of my neighbour who lives 2 floors upstairs and who has the same first name talking for hours (it was around 1am and I couldn't go to sleep because he wasn't stopping) through the wall I hear nothing from my neighbour (surely, he was too concentrated on his videogame...).

Somehow I got the feeling that no one listened when Sako-san spoke (as the Japanese teacher of Japanese calls him).

Cover of Sumergi Natsuki's artbook called Gashu.

Asada Hiroyuki

This post is special for Marion and our common interest of Asada Hiroyuki. Here is my favorite picture of him (is he a man or a woman? I'm not sure, I should find this out.).

For the officially declared "otakus" of Sciences-po Le Havre, I recommend his mangas: I'll (Crazy kouzu BC), and the part he draws in the anthology called Robot.

What I want right now

1) I want to be able to teleport myself like Hayden Christensen in the film Jumper (has anyone seen it yet? is it fun or not?) so that I could go buy food for the week without getting all wet (today: rain in Le Havre).

2)I want to be born in France in the 17th century and to go to the court of Louis the 14th, to know what the craziest man of French History looked like. (Paintings are not fun)

3) I want a special button to push to make Fabien happy so that he will stop saying stupid things and being mean, especially on Thursday mornings when I have to put up with him non-stop from 8am to 2pm.

4) I wish that reading a book would take no time. Or that I could know all what is written in it by eating it. Then I will be able to invent books that taste like chocolate or strawberry.

5) I want a subscription to the Japanese magazine Kikan S for my next birthday or for Christmas. Do you think Santa Claus reads email Christmas letters ?

Publishing a newsletter as a teamproject...

A small collection of guidelines for when you try to create a newsletter for the first time in your life :

First of all, be sure something will go wrong even if you planned it so that it shoudn't.

Secondly, you should have an organised team working with you (you can of course try to build a newsletter by yourself, but you'll miss a lot of fun). Finding a team was not a problem for us, the team of the Silkroads Newsletter was constituted pretty quickly and easily. But there is a but.

But, make sure that :

(I'll put numbers again, I love numbers, it makes everything seem so clear... (don't mind this little comment.).)

1) everyone is filled with motivation (that is really not easy to tell beforehand but you'll see it once the work has started)

I like brackets too even if I know it exasperates lot of people, I'll try not to put too many, promised...

2) everyone understood the goal (very important). It should save time and maybe allow people to get along a bit better (even if, anyway, someone will start a fight one day). However I'm proud of announcing that no one died yet in the Silkroads Newsletter team (we just released 2 issues until now, yeah, I know but it still counts).

3) I forgot what I wanted to put for the third one. Um, um, ... *trying to remember*

Nevermind.

Next step, organise the work. Make sure everyone has the same amount of work to do (you can give more work to the most motivated people but it should be in reasonable proportion).

Some practical tips: if you plan to get the newsletter finished over the holidays, be sure to know where everyone of the team is going (special comment for Jiani who was lost in Spain), check if they will all have internet access and a phone that is working, with plenty of battery for their mobile phones (that is a special tip for Julia and me) and be sure (one more time) that everyone knows the deadline and send them to you (the poor one that is in charge of the page setting).

If you don't get all articles by the deadline and don't manage to get ahold of your coworkers, don't panic.

Here is a special thank you for Eleonore who I could always find on messenger. And who is always there to help me when I receive only half of the "sentence of the month" in Korean or Japanese and I'm trying to find the other half.

Just one complaint: why the hell does professional design software like InDesign not recognise the Hindi language ?

Because of that I'm forced to do some weird work-arounds that just look horrible.

End of the minute of complaining.

Once you have got all articles, photos, sentences and others, and you have ordered all that in a pretty way (for this one I suggest the help of a digital artist dad, he is very useful and always happy to give a hand), and you think you are finally finished, you can be sure that something will go wrong. (No, in fact you finished if you created the newsletter only for your own pleasure but for us that planned it as a team project, the newsletter at this step is absolutely not finished).

Then comes the hard time of proofreading/checking/correcting of the newsletter by the high authority of the Sciences-Po campus of Le Havre's administration. For our first newsletter, I think I made something like 7 or 8 different versions as modifications came one after another (always put the exact word they want, it would save you a lot of emails). For the second one I think I only made 3 versions. Next time, the goal is only one version (if that happens, I'll feel really smart).

The last step is to send it. That is an opportunity for a lot of discussion: who sends it to whom, should we send it to everyone at the same time or to some first because we are really late and to others later...?

It is very philosophical.

And you end up sending the newsletter at the beginning of February when there is still "January" written on it.

Very uncool.

But this time it's really really finished.

Uh oh, not really in fact, you still have to ask for it to be on the campus website (what I forgot to ask for, so I still have to do it. The January Silkroads Newsletter was released since... what?... more than a month ago already...oops. But I'll do it...Soon...I swear...).

Now that I said all that I wanted to say (I'm sure I forgot some parts of it though), I'll do a bit of friendly advertising.

Please read the Silkroads Newsletter, at least take a look at it. Thanks.

Artwork by Cannabis.

Oops.... I forgot

I promised a certain someone to speak about him in my first post. He started it as a bet but I think it ended as a sort of joke.

But I'll do it anyway.

This certain someone is my neighbour in Labédoyère (our student housing) and everyone is persuaded that he is an awful neighbor. In fact he's not. Except maybe in exam periods.

I'll explain: maybe he is very noisy and always nervous and sometimes says mean things without noticing, all that during the day (I think he should truly decrease the amount of coffee he drinks, it may perhaps solve some of his problems of stress or hyperactivity).

In fact I don't really hear him in the evening or at night. I looked for reasons because everyone told me it wasn't possible:

1) He's never at home. It could be the case but I doubt it.

2) The workers that renovated the flat did a really good job and my home is super-soundproof. It could be the case too but why is it that I hear cars passing by down the street?

3) I always listen to music too loud and I'm almost deaf. Am I really ?

Last possibility, he's indeed calm when he's alone. Yes that's possible, I'm sure of it.

What I'd like is that he would be calm during exam periods. Because I really don't hate him, but he really stresses me out when he goes out, something like 30 minutes before it is time, the morning of an important exam and that I'm still in my bed when he bangs the door, waking me up and making me totally panicked because I think I'm late.

Or in the morning when I have my breakfast and that I hear him walking (I don't know how he does it, kicking the floor maybe with his feet) on the other side of the wall, as if he is in a rush (maybe he is but he also manages to ruin my day by making me unable to enjoy my breakfast peacefully).

Despite all that, he's a totally charming neighbour.

Sometimes too, it just seems strange to me when we're talking on msn knowing that we are just on each side of the same wall. But it doesn't matter.

Picture from Kikan S of Summer 2006 (japanese mag). I don't know the name of the author. I don't read enough kanjis yet.

Love Japan

Why and how did I come to love Japan to the point to be willing to learn Japanese and wanting to stay one year there? That's a good question.
Most of the people who are with me in the Japanese course will say that their passion of Japan came with mangas (sorry if it's not true, don't take my words for a widely-spread truth ). Me too. Even if my love of mangas is not as extreme as others.
What I love in mangas are the drawings. Pictures. A good story is welcomed too but I could spend my lifetime watching for pictures done by authors I like.
I don't know why and I'll surely never know, but I'm fascinated by drawings and people who draw beautiful pictures. It's like that that my love for Japan came up. Because Japanese people use a lot more pictures than in France or in Europe. At least it's what I think.

So that's why I decided to post a picture I like every time . This time it's Sho U Tajima. (Does anyone know MPD Psycho ?)

First step

First post, first blog.
I'll try to make it work at least to get a good grade in English class (I know I can, my hopes are up!) and then I'll try to do it for fun.
One post a week at least, I'll try to post more. Each time a picture in the post starting next time, the why to be explained later too.