Le temps passe

I can’t believe it’s been 14 year since I lived in Lyon. I stepped out of the airport shuttle and into Part Dieu station and it felt like yesterday that I was here. The smells of the boulangeries, the taste of the bread, the dog poo on the ground everywhere and the smell of cigarettes all pervading; these are the things that make Lyon feel, taste and smell like home. It’s an ugly city really, full of pollution and urban sprawl. But when I was 18 it felt like the most exotic place on earth. The old cobblestone streets of Vieux Lyon (which are still beautiful), la Place Bellecour, Cathedrale Fouviere, Parc de la Tete d'Or, and the two rivers La Saone and Le Rhone, they all bring back such memories of a magical year which, perhaps more than any other, helped shape the direction of my life. The friendships I made that year are some of the most enduring of my life. I don’t see those friends often as they are spread across the far reaches of the world, but when we do see each other the bonds that began here in Lyon hold strong. As I was taking the metro today I saw a group of 4 or 5 girls, maybe 18 or 19 years old. They were mimicking the metro announcement in French just as my friends and I used to. Then they started chatting and laughing aloud in English, just as we used to. I wonder if they will still be friends in 14 years? How will their lives have changed and what memories will they still hold dear when they return?

Jerome

It’s a sunny spring afternoon and I am sitting in a familiar backyard. It is the backyard belonging to my friend Jerome, or rather his parents. It is the backyard where we swam and had BBQ’s. It is the backyard where I put Jerome to sleep with a shoulder massage. It is where he first kissed me and where I fell in love with him. It wasn’t real love I suppose. I was a wide eyed 18 year old Australian girl on her first trip overseas and he was a charming French man; of course I would think I was in love with him. No, I wasn’t in love with him, but I did love him very much. He made me laugh, he teased me, he rescued me on more than one occasion and we just loved being in each other’s company. We had our favourite tape that we would play whenever we drove somewhere and there was one song that was ours and no one knew it except him and me. It is strange to sit in his backyard and know that I wont see him. I will stay here with his mother and I’m sure we will talk about him and perhaps she will be able to shed some light on why he did it. Maybe it doesn’t matter why. He’s gone and being here is sad because of that. I wish many things – that I hadn’t left it so long before I came back, that I had told him how much he meant to me, that I had known he was unhappy. Perhaps I have come here simply to tell him goodbye.

Th...th...th...th

Friends of mine recently showed me a video on You Tube. It is the very funny encounter of a 'translator' dealing with people from several different linguistic background. I highly recommend it

(here is the link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/301400/the_translator_catherine_tate/)


Anyway, once you watch this video you will appreciate why I have been walking around Madrid and all I can think of is "th..th..th..th.." It's true my lack of Spanish has not helped the situation but I always feel that i experience a place less when I dont speak the language. I always wonder what people I may have met, what experiences I may have had, if only I had been able to communicate with people better. That said, Madrid is a beautiful city and perhaps one day, once I have taken the time to learn Spanish, I will return and discover what I missed out on during this visit!

Lanzarote

I can't say that i would ever have had a notion to visit the Canary Islands if i didn't know someone who lived there. Having said that I am glad that I had the excuse as the one Canary island that i visited, Lanzarote, was fascinating and strangely beautiful. Form substantially by Lava flows throughout the last several thousand years, the island has a rugged, brittle surface to it. Most people cling to the edges and enjoy the crystal clear aquamarine waters and the volcanic sand beaches. But if you take the time to venture inland you see the artistry that a river of fire can leave in its wake. There are giant lava bubbles just below the surface of the whole island. Huge caverns of air creating elaborate and often colourful rock formations. Thanks to the genious of Lanzarote's most famous artist , Cesar Manrique, aswell as the islands most unappreciated artist, Jesus Soto (Elana would want me to mention Soto!) these lava bubbles have been transformed into restaurants and concert halls, art galleries and homes. These artisits sought to integrate Nature, art and architecture so that the natural beauty of the place was accessible, but more than this, was a part of everyday life. Cesar Manrique's own house was the perfect example of this. Built on top of a lava field containing 5 lava bubbles, the structure moves and flows in, around, through, on top of the caves and the landscape and the house meld into one integrated being. i cannot speak for the other Canaries, but this one is certainly worth a visit.

Old friends

Dont you just love the kind of friends who are like an old pair of shoes. You may not have worn them for a while but they feel comfortable straight away!

Shooter

For fans of Happy Gilmore, look who i bumped into in New York!

The whitest girl on the planet visits the Bronx

Remember that song they used to sing on Sesame Street 'One of these things is not like the other one, one of these things just doesn't belong'? Well that was what was going through my head yesterday as I caught a subway into the Bronx Borough of New York. Tom, who I am staying with, works as a Maths Consultant for about 10 schools located in the Bronx and he had invited me to come with him and visit a school. On the ride there I became increasingly aware that I was the palest skinned, blondest person in our subway car. This became even more obvious as we left the subway and walked down Fordham Rd, the main Strret of the Bronx. I was conscius of how I looked, how I walked and how I spoke. I was accuetely aware that I had stepped out of my comfort zone. Once we got to school and made it through the metal detectors I was signed in and introduced around. Staff members were very friendly and welcoming and were happy to have me visit their classes. Inside these classes I witnessed some of the best teaching I have seen in my career. Great practictioners who have created fantastic learning environments for their students and believe me the students are rising to meet the high expectations being set. One of the campuses of the school I visited was called 'The West Bronx Academy for the Future'. What a great name for a school!
When I finally left the school and walked (by myself) back up Fordham Rd to the subway station I did not feel as awkward or out of place. I moved beyond my own sense of strangeness and instead saw this as the community of those children, the Community that they will grow up in, the community that they will help to shape in the future. Suddenly it didn't seem so foreign any more.

Interesting MoMA installation

There was an interesting installation at the MoMA which involved an artist drawing directly onto one of the walls of the museum. The result was some pretty interesting socio-political graffitti. Here's a sample. More photos on the 'my photos' page.

MoMA

This afternoon was magical. I spent it in the company of Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Kandinsky, Klimt and Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art. Up until now my favorite gallery in the world was the Musee d'Orsay in Paris but the MoMA has certainly equalled it in my mind. It is hard to express exactly what it feels like to stand in the same room as Vincent's 'Starry Night', or Monet's 'Water Lillies'. These paintings that have somehow been part of my soul for so long, standing before them and seeing the contours and the texture and the size of them, it's like walking around in heaven.

Let's Go Yankees!

Yankee Stadium has got to be one of the great sporting venues of the world and despite all of the nay-sayers I really enjoyed my first baseball game. I think I would really get into it if I lived in New York. Unfortunately the Yankees lost the night I went but I got to see the A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez bat, and I saw bases loaded a couple of times and a home run (by the other team, to win them the game!) I have decided that Johnny Damon is my favorite player!

Central Park

I spent a beautiful Monday afternoon wandering around Central Park. I had planned to only spend an hour or so there and then go on to do other things. The park persuaded me to stay longer and I'm glad I did. Here are a few photos from my wanderings. If you want to see more, click on the 'my photos' link on the right.

New York

New York is intoxicating. It is so loud and busy and crammed with people and vehicles moving in every possible direction at every possible moment. But here's the unexpected bit. New York is full of beauty and warmth. The architecture has been thoughtfully crafted and built to endure the tests of time. City planners have taken the time to create green leafy spaces in amoungst the skyscrapers so that you can often forget you're in one of the biggest urban centres in the world. It has that 'centre of the universe' feeling to it, the sort of feeling I have only ever experienced in London. But unlike London which leans toward the more serious tones of life, New York has a casualness to it, a sense of welcome and safety that I wasn't expecting. I finished my first day in New York with a visit to the top of the Empire State Building to see new York by night. It was so peaceful up there, so quiet and calm and incredifbly beautiful.

Waterfall birthday

I celebrated my 33rd birthday with a visit to one of the wonders of the world - Niagra Falls. The falls themselves were genuinely breathtaking and I can only imagaine what spiritual significance they must have had to the original inhabitants of that land. I also wonder about the experience of the Europeans exploring the area for the first time, perhaps sailing down the Niagra River as the roar of the falls became clearer and louder. I imagaine the phrase 'backpaddle' may have been used! The only disappointing thing about the experience was the township that has grown around the falls. Imagine if you will every possible tacky kind of sideshow experience and you will have the main street of Niagra Falls, ON. It's the complete opposite of the beautiful nature experience the Falls should be. Why is it we humans feel compelled to ruin what is a perfectly beautiful landscape?

Finnian

I have been visiting friends Jason and Sarah in Toronto for the past week. It's such a tresure to have friends around the world who you just feel at home with. The visit was made even more special because I got to meet their beautiful son Finn. He's way too charming for his own good and is just a little bundle of wonderful. I know that the next time I see him he will be much bigger and he wont remember this visit, but I certainly will.