Isola del Gran Sasso

Gran Sasso d'Italia (or Great Stone of Italy) is a mountain located in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. The Gran Sasso is the highest mountain in continental Italy south of the Alps and is part of the Apennines. Teramo and L'Aquila are the nearest cities to the Gran Sasso; Assergi, is a small town at the base of the mountain; Rome is 132 km by road or two hours by car. We were staying at IBE isola (Isola del Gran Sasso).

We were 18 ragazzi from Dragona & Aquila and studied the first 3 chapters of the book of Daniel.

Daniel and his friends offer lots of encouragements and challenge for us today. What is your purpose in life? How do you define your identity? How do you keep this identity safe? How much do you value your life? just to name a few...

Questions that are of utmost importance for ALL of us!

have a nice week!
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Fashion Design by Red.Impala

A selection of my creations in the old times.



Diaporama (il est un peu long à charger)(it takes a while before downloading):




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Marrakech - le riad

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Marrakech - le souk

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Maroc - Marrakech

- Gare de Marrakech -

- Place Jeema el-fna de jour et sous les averses -

- Sur la même place de nuit -

- Marchands de légumes -

- Toits de Marrakech et l'Atlas au loin -

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Maroc - the furnace

This is smoke and dust, it's not a blurred picture!

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Maroc - food

- Couscous de légumes -

- Petit Muscly -

- Brochettes d'agneau -

- Poulet roti et riz au curry -

- Thé à la menthe -

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Woman contract pilot in Afghanistan

read article here
Danielle flies the war zone


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Maroc - Casablanca 2

- Mosquée Hassan II -

- une partie du front de mer, Casa -

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Maroc - greenish

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Mechanisms of trade

Around Termini Station or in the neighbourhood of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, I discovered an aspect of trade I never thought about.

In Italy you have many people selling fancy jewelry, umbrellas, sunglasses, bags, socks... on the streets. Do you see what I mean? These guys actually buy there goods in (mainly) chinese shops near Termini station. It's amazing how many of these you have there. These are what we would usually call wholesaler even though they sell like retailers (you can go and buy there). The quantity and diversity is amazing. Just imagine the number of earrings you can have on a 100 m2 surface given the volume of one item! Basically the chinese import the goods for nothing in Italy, sell it for 3EUR to street vendors who get at least 5EUR out of it, that value added! Ok, that's for jewelry, mobile phone accessories, socks, pens, watches... But what I didn't really understand is the number of clothes retail there with 5 persons sitting there reading the newspaper, no client, and almost nothing to sell in the shops. I don't know if it's whitewashing, an activity to get a permit of stay or if these are also wholesalers, displaying a few items for markets vendors and keeping the rest in stock.

So my advise is that if you want to buy one of these things, go directly to China town you'll have more options and get it cheaper.

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Roma - neighbours

That's a view from my window. Typically mediterranean with laundry hanging outside, noises of plates, domestic scenes, screams during soccer match (it's how I discovered that AS Rome was playing against Arsenal) etc.

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Italy & pasta

That's a pasta of my invention (penne rigate, piselli, fromaggio) and I liked the colors, that's why I'm sharing it with you.

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Italy & Italians

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Notre responsabilité

• Un enfant né dans le monde industrialisé consomme et pollue durant sa vie plus que 30 enfants nés dans les PED,

• Les dépenses des USA en cosmétiques pourraient payer l'éducation minimum pour tous,

• Les frais de l'Europe en glace pourraient financer l'eau et les installations sanitaires de base pour tous,

• Selon le PNUD, les soins médicaux et les produits alimentaires de 1ère nécessité représentent 11 milliards d'euros chacun MAIS chaque année on dépense 24,5 milliards d'euros pour nourrir nos animaux domestiques ou 44 milliards en cigarettes et 87 milliards en boissons alcolisées.
  

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Third culture kids (TCK)

Oui, j'ai eu tort de dire un jour que je préférai que l'on ne me pose pas la question... mais voyez! je ne suis pas la seule.

You know you're a TCK when:

- You've heard this 'textbook' definition of a TCK before: "A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents' culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs."

- "Where are you from?" has more than one reasonable answer.
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your "home" country.
- Your life story uses the phrase "Then we moved to..." three (or four, or five...) times.
- You've gotten out of school because of monsoons, bomb threats, and/or popular demonstrations.
- You speak with authority on the subject of airline travel.
- You know how to pack.
- You have the urge to move to a new country every couple of years.
- The thought of sending your (hypothetical) kids to public school scares you, while the thought of letting them fly alone doesn't at all.
- You think that high school reunions are all but impossible.
- You have friends from 29 different countries.
- You sort your friends by continent.
- You have a time zone map next to your telephone.
- You realize what a small world it is, after all.
etc.

from the facebook group, Third Culture Kids
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¿ Devinette ??

Two pennies to who guesses the nature of this heap...

Deux pennies à celui ou celle qui me dit de quoi est constitué ce tas...



ps: les MISL sont exlus du jeu!
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Casablanca - bidonvilles

Et oui! pour ce qui est des photos touristiques vous n'avez pas besoin de moi, il suffit d'acheter des cartes postales.

Quartiers défavorisés de Casablanca.







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