Lost in translation

Every time I'm amazed again and again when I found word that is untranslatable to English and you need to many words to convey it. It's unbelievable how much expression can contain a one single word. When I accidentally pop on such a word I write it down in my notebook. Who knows... maybe some day I will need it. Here are some of my favorite words which I've found up to now:

    cafuné (brazilian, portuguese): the act of tenderly running your fingers through someone's hair.

    l'esprit de l'escalier (french): the feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said.

    vacilando (spanish): term for the act of wandering when the experience of travel is more important than reaching the specific destination.

    hygge (danish): complete absence of anything annoying, irritating or emotionally overhelming,or the presence of pleasure from comforting, gentle and soothing things.

K.

friends of friends

I believe that the clothes you wear, the lifestyle you have and the place where you live reflect your personality (I'm sure V would agree that music is included in that category as well ;). Your home should tell the story of who you are!  It's so boring and the same time appalling to walk into someone's home and feel like in a hotel. Some places are furnished with the most expensive furniture, but there is no uniqueness... there is no comfort. Anyway... I actually started this topic because I wanted to share a cool website (Freunde von Freunden) that I found. This website is about creative professionals in their working and living spaces. The interviews are very interesting (some in English, other in German) and documented by excellent photographs that portray these people in their immediate living environment, whether at home, in the studio, apartment or their neighboorhood. I would say the places of all these people are really  full of individuality! Here are some photos from the interviews:

 K.

Show me your ipod, I'll tell you who you are.

I think to some point I judge people on the music they listen to. It is often one of the first questions I ask when I want to get to know someone. Seeing someone's music playlist tells me a lot as well. Some profiles are very defined, maybe cliché but still close to the truth :

• The guy who wants to impress with its music culture : its music player is full. Favorite sentence : "Whaaaaat? You don't know that band, I know it for ages and has all its 379 albums, I can send you some music and teach you life by the same occasion".
• The guy who listens to music nobody listens to : he has a pretty wide knowledge of music but he is not used to talk about its own tastes because people do not even the name of the genre but is pleased to share information when you are really interested in discovering a new style.
• The guy who only listens to one type of music : his ipod is a living encyclopedia of the style and you can learn a lot about it if you are interested but the exchange of music and information is very limited as soon as you listen to a different type of music that he usually does not enjoy.
• The guy who listens only to the radio. He knows all lyrics of  the current top 50 and mix up The Doors and The Roots. No further comment needed.

I feel like I have described my exs. For sure there are other profiles, less caricatured, but these are the ones I judge when not knowing them. 


A few days ago one of my colleague told me that he does not like music. I was really bewildered and I could not put him in any category because he is the only one I know like this. I wonder what it means.

V.

Timelapse

 Taking pictures taking pictures taking pictures... it has become with time some kind of obsession. It is like documenting what I do. But for who? Not sure. Okay, I like to show them to people but it's more a way to describe a trip or an experience. There are a lot of them that I never show. Not because I do not like them but because I think people are too molded when it comes to photography. I often hear things as : "oh noo, here the picture is not well framed, or the subject is too close, why have you taken this picture, this is not interesting, you have put too much contrast or effects..." My pictures are far from being perfect but it is a way to express myself and I have my own style. I am not good at drawing (sigh...), not a musician either (sigh again...) but taking pictures is accessible to everyone and you do not have to be a genius. Nevertheless I think there is nothing worse than boring/arranged pictures or people who just share the 237 pictures of their memory card, sometimes even not turned in the right way. I think I like taking pictures so much because I live far from my family and K. and I always wanted to show them aspects of my life they cannot understand through a conversation. Plus I am so fascinated by my family old photo albums, I can spend hours turning the pages and imagining what was the joke told so that my grand father laughes so hard.


Last year, K. and I started to think about making a video, for a change. It actually turned out quite well, even with very basic equipment and a lot of people appreciated it, to our surprise. Then this winter we made another one, and here it came, our new obsession. We've been thinking about a stop motion video for next time and we've started gathering some ideas.


Today I just wanted to share this video made in Hong Kong : a timelapse video. Definitely something I would love to try but for that, some more serious equipment is needed, so until then, I will just dream about Hong Kong through this very nice work. 

V.

The Breakfast Club

The first thing I think in the morning when I open my eyes is: BREAKFAST!

This is the most delicious meal through the day. And I can't understand people who don't eat breakfast (yes V. , you're one of them ... shame on you), because I really can't properly function without my morning meal! 

And this here is a tumblr that I discovered recently and that inspires me for my next breakfasts. Yummm!

 K.

" Sometimes it is easier to talk to a stranger than someone you know... Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as they wish us to be ."

K.

Trauer

Exactly two years after my semester in Munich, I will go for 6 excited months in China - Hong Kong. Ever since I had these incredible news, I can't help thinking about it. 6 months in Germany last year were so full of emotions, surprises, lessons and experiences. I hope I will meet at least as many fantastic people as I did in Munich. 

I love every bit of this city, it has such a heart. I can see myself growing old there.

V.

Apricot

K.

Live the language

K.

K.

Sometimes it's better to be hasty.

К.

Don't be hasty.

V.

If we don't, remember me

I love the details... and also the moments that sometimes go unnoticed. V., you know that sometimes I can remember some small moments that happened years ago... I can tell you what you  were wearing, what was the weather, which song was played at the moment, how you reacted, what you said... Sometimes I think I can remember even my birth, but here I'm not sure if my imagination doesn't play a role.
Maybe that's why I liked so much this tumblr page, when I found it yesterday.  If we don't, remember me gathers amazing collection of animated gif images from great classic movies. Small scenes... small moments... Pretty Artful!

K.

Let's bubble the city!

I'm pleased because yesterday I ticked another point on my list of things to do in 2010! And to be more precise ...

Item No. 24: Participation in Flash mob

K.

The monster.

This is the story of the best friends forever in their early years when they discover some kind of monster, dark and unknown.


Lady Gaga discovered a few years back this same monster and tells her story:

Look at me
That boy is bad

And honestly
He’s a wolf in disguise
But I can’t stop staring in those evil eyes

He licked his lips
Said to me
Girl you look good enough to eat
Put his arms around me

He ate my heart
He ate my heart

Instead he’s a monster in my bed

Uh oh! There was a monster in my bed
We french kissed on a subway train
He tore my clothes right off

He ate my heart the he ate my brain

Some people call him zombie, others vampire or werewolf. The truth is… nobody knows the truth.

Then each one of our two best friends fell into these unavoidable monsters paws…

At the beginning they surely knew great pleasure, but very quickly it turned into worries, wonders, pain and loneliness.

Then our two friends decided to get a therapy to get better because they heared it worked well with Britney.


They did not learn that much about these monsters because even if books exist, nobody can really understand why they act that way. Why do they keep girls on the hook? Great unsolved mystery.


The therapy was really helping our poor girlfriends and one day they came up with a great idea.


From now on, they would not be interested in monsters anymore but only in nice guys, nothing dark, cheating and bitchy anymore.

And then they found two amazing walruses and lived happily ever after.

The End. Or The Beginning.