Pâques 2010 - Faithbook

http://www.paques2010.com/

A snapshot of the worship at "Pâques 2010." event in Geneva this year. This event is organized by l'Institut Biblique de Genève every 3 - 4 years to encourage young people in taking important decisions. The 2010 tagline was

FAITH BOOK. REJOINS la REBELUTION!

Connecté à Dieu (1), à la croix (2), à l'esprit (3), à moi-même (4), à l'évangile (5), à l'église (6), au monde (7) were the 7 main speeches, and it is exciting :) no I'm not crazy, open the book and you'll see that it is more than actual and was written for YOU!

CH - Geneva old town

My promenade in Geneva a few weeks ago. Enjoyable spring day.

Culture acclimation

Derived from my (long =) experience as nomade impala, I want to share with you my theory about acclimation to a new country/culture.

Acclimate = become accustomed to a new climate or new conditions

This a process with different stages, the duration of the stages depend of your experience, your expectations about the host country, your original culture and the destination culture and the gap between the two, if you know the language, and many other factors.

Second important preliminary remark, it depends of your degree of immersion in the culture. You can live, share, work, speak or live-share-speak, or only share-work-speak. In Rome, I'm not living with italians, I'm working in an international environment, but I master the language and I'm spending a lot of time with non-internationalized italians: I'm the configuration share-speak what gives me a lighter degree of exposure than a live-work-share-speak but still a good immersion.

Stages are evoluting over time:

(1) DISCOVERY PERIOD

You arrive in your new country and you discover a new way of living. You are curious and list mentally what they do differently from you and you learn to behave like a local or at least avoid the traditional tourists mistakes. e.g. ordering a cappuccino in the afternoon. Maybe you are also in the process of learning the language. You can have a first few initial shocks, but you adapt.

(2) HONEY MOON

You think this is a better place than home. When you are away, you just want to come back. You could even see yourself living there forever (with some compromise).

(3) OBJECTIVITY DAYS
One day you wake up and start to feel the "dark side" of the country. You now have lived long enough there to be able to identify the main societal or behavioral trends. The sun is not enough, you have a job but you realize that the economical situation is actually really bad... that the country is struggling with issues that seem overwhelming.

(4) CLASHES

While the objective days are a general feeling or comprehension of the culture, the clashes are made of personal confrontation between you and the local people. The attacks can touch your personnality as the locals may have totally different expectations from you than your vision of life. You fight, but you will never exactly understand it because you were raised in different cultures/environments.

(5) LAUNDRY SORTING

You adapt. You understand that you will always be a stranger. You choose to conform on some points and keep your differences on others. You try to get the best of the two worlds. You decide to stay with compromise or you might decide that you have to give up too much in staying.

(6) THE DIVORCE
Enough is enough. Time or a particular event can push you towards the exit. You decide that you want to leave the country. It was a nice, (or a bad experience) but you need some fresh air or maybe feel the urge to come back to your roots. You change life, and take with you the memories, the pictures and the contact details of friends. You start again somewhere else and slowly become nostalgic about the lost paradise. It was not so bad afterall...

Today...

* an application in 255 characters! (try and you'll see how much space you have to write your motivation in 255 characters, spaces included)

* a russian tourist, lost and not understanding anything, anything, anything...

* a comparison between Zara and WFP, it's better than Toyota-WFP

* an ice-cream: ginger-cinnamon & cacoa-rhum

* Rome delicious spring night

* Italian phonecall: "I have really absolutely physically no time until Saturday to prepare these things" and me german-wise "So... conclusion? we go for it or not?" "I don't know, I really don't know, I have no time to prepare and anyway they are not going to come" So what?

* One more italian miscall, always between 23:00 and 24:00. "No it's just to let you know I'm thinking about you"

Aujourd'hui

- la journée fût assez animalière: j'ai promené mon pinguin, ma souris m'est devenue indispensable, les grenouilles sont de sortie et ça parle crapauds....

- le gouvernement belge est en mauvaise passe et les amis répondent bien à l'invitation

- on pense déjà aux fêtes d'anniversaire, en petit comité? à la plage? pique-nique?

- concert en plein air, un peu humide, à Circo Massimo

- et le mot d'ordre est "less talking, more action!!!!"

Sweet home

"Envie soudaine de cassoulet?" says this homepage of a french website targeting expats that want to buy their favorite products and brands from France. That's how far e-commerce have been going. But it's a fact that families travel to France to do replenishment once in a while (if they don't live too far away from the border). At least it's what my parents do for years!

I think I would like some morbier ;)
and I urgently need 1 or 2 big boxes of "boules quies", I don't quite like the swiss ones they sell here... (& I'm serious about that last comment...)

CH - Institut Biblique de Genève

L'institut Biblique de Genève, situé à Cologny est le premier Institut Biblique de langue française à avoir vu le jour. Son histoire remonte au début du XXème siècle. C'est là où s'est tenu le rassemblement de Pâques 2010.

Pour la petite histoire, "C'est en 1919 que H.E. Alexander, originaire d'Écosse, fonde la première école biblique de langue française au Ried sur Bienne, qui, de 1919 à 1924, a équipé de nombreux jeunes pour le service.

Le 10 janvier 1926, les Anciens de l'Action Biblique se réunissent à Neuchâtel. H.E. Alexander, fondateur de l'Oeuvre, est contraint de rester à Wengen pour des raisons de santé. Mais il demande à ses collaborateurs de prier pour que Dieu révèle sa volonté en ce qui concerne l'ouverture d'une nouvelle école biblique. Au cours de la nuit suivante, une pensée s'impose à son esprit : Cologny ! Le lieu où il s'est converti à Dieu, le lieu où, 20 ans auparavant, il a prié pour qu'un jour s'y dresse une école biblique de langue française.

Après l'achat de deux parcelles de terrain contiguës à la villa de M. Alexander, en 1926, les travaux débutent en automne de cette même année. En septembre 1927, le bâtiment est achevé.

Le 11 janvier 1928, deux ans jour pour jour après la conviction reçue par H.E. Alexander, l'Ecole Biblique de Genève ouvre ses portes pour la première promotion composée de 27 étudiants. A la fin de cette première année, 25 d'entre eux avaient l'intention de partir en mission. Ainsi a commencé de se réaliser cette vision de la formation en vue de l'évangélisation du monde. Depuis lors, plus de 2000 personnes ont ainsi pu bénéficier de cette formation."

Je suis aussi en train de lire un livre de H.E. Alexander et je peux vous dire que ce fût un homme au message clair, précis, tranchant et sans demie-mesure!

http://www.ibg.cc/

Italians & Soccer

I love this picture, it shows Germana a friend LISTENING to the soccer match around the house (here in the garden) because she says it's too tense to watch it on TV. It's funny to see her so excited when an action is going on, the headphone plugged into the ears!!!

Métiers de la logistique

If you never understood what I meant when I say "I'm working in logistics" (or Supply Chain), here is a nice description of the different jobs you have in Logistics from -Freight Forwarding- to -Global Supply Chain Optimization-.

http://www.geodis.fr/geodis-ressources-humaines-metiers-@/index.jspz?id=163

Switzerland in Pictures - link

The rebelution by Alex and Brett Harris in Switzerland over Easter (Pâques 2010).

Switzerland in Pictures

I almost finished reading the book, didn't ask for the autograph but had a chat with alex or brett (I don't remember who is who :S) and I think there must be a picture of us girls with them somewhere in France or Switzerland.

To be honest my first reaction after the first speech was not ebullient but I must admit that it makes sense, it boosts me to seek and achieve new challenges and had a great impact on the teens!

More pics and comments on Pâques 2010 will follow... be patient!

CH- Lac Léman

Every time I'm seeing that landscape and I'm walking along the quay in Geneva I'm thinking that if ever I had the misfortune to get burnt-out or need to recover from a blast, I would come here to rest (or maybe at the Starnbergersee and sit between the two lions starring at the alps in the dawn).

The funny thing is that it's the second time I did that walk from the Cornavin station to Cologny, route de la Capite and twice I felt out of scope with my backpack on this kind-of -posh promenade le long du lac. For everyday life though, I think I prefer chaotic Rome, its crazy traffic, the mafiabar next to my building and the ugly ostia promenade. :) A 5* hotel will hardly compare with a night in the little brother's bed in Dragona and Nutella crêpes with cinnamon tea on Sunday morning (even tough you wake up at 8am by the screams of the children covered by the parents ones) (and yes, I've spent a weekend in a 5* hotel so I know what it is, le garçon d'étage knocking at the door and asking if you want him to prepare your bath, - I was speechless and poor guy I made him repeat its offer 3 times before understanding and declining -).

- yes, it was quite windy -

Au sabre

Combat de sabres... des vrais! au parc à Genève vendredi dernier

Pâques 2010 le défi

Voici le défi, recopier toute la Bible à la main en 2 jours.
Pour ceux qui n'ont pas l'ordre d'idée en tête, ma Bible "de poche" fait 1219 pages. Ecrit en tout petit à raison de 2 colonnes par page.
Alors au travail!

Chacun recopie une trentaine de versets. On a plus ou moins de chance selon les livres ou les passages. Qui veut un chapitre de généalogies? Moi j'ai recopié l'histoire d'Absalom dans 2 Samuel. Certains se faisaient la dictée, à chacun sa façon...

Puis chacun accroche ses deux pages à l'endroit indiqué sur la corde.
Au début ça donne ça:

Puis ça:

Et au 3e jour, bravo les gars!

Et oui, on était 1000 et certains courageux ont recopié plus que leurs 2 pages... Un record digne du guiness book :)

CH - Visite guidée d'un bunker (de filles)

Officiellement ça s'appelle un abri de la protection civile. En pratique c'est un héritage de la guerre froide et il s'agit de bunker conçu pour se réfugier en cas de crise atomique ou épidemiologique. Je vous laisse imaginez la Suisse déserte, les hommes en combinaisons blanches et scaphandriers... Voici la visite guidée des abris:

- L'entrée. veuillez noter le sas, l'épaisseur des portes blindées et les canalisations renforcées -

- La salle commune, vu que la population est censée y vivre en promiscuité pendant plusieurs jours voire plusieurs semaines -

- A votre droite les toilettes (2 WC et 1 lavabo pour 80 personnes, pas de douche) -

- Les dortoirs (2) composés ici de 4 blocs de 3x5 lits. Nous avons dormi au fond en haut à droite -

C'était l'abri Meinier, un abri de luxe comparé aux autres. Un petit abri (80 pers) moderne, propre et agréable. En plus il était situé sous un gymnase ce qui fait que nous avions accès aux vestiaires avec douches chaudes. Ci dessous, celui de Pâques 2006, on pouvait à peine passer entre les lits, le 3e étage se cognait la tête au plafond et les couchettes n'étaient pas séparées. Mais quand on est fatigué, on dort partout, ou presque... Et organiser les conférences de Pâques à Genève serait impossible sans les abris.

ps: une super vidéo a été tournée dans les abris, si je réussis à la récupérer, je la publierai...

Vue du ciel

Au cours de mes voyages, je prends souvent des photos d'avions, d'aéroports et parfois de hublots. En voici deux de mon voyage aller en Suisse.

- L'italie et ses petits nuages -

- Les Alpes enneigées -

CH - Spring Love

It's a well-kept secret but if you know me, you should not be surprised...
I like to take pictures of fashion windows, the best place for that kind of sport is actually Paris. However these two were taken in Geneva.




related posts:

• Dream
  
• The old old old old times...
  

A non conventional day...

Imagine you can choose to ignore your alarm clock. Eyes still closed you decide if you want to go to work now or later or not at all. Take your time to get ready. No rush to the station because you are not going to miss your train. You arrive at work, you can waste a few minutes drinking a latte macchiato and a cornetto around the pool, the sun warming your back, arguing with colleagues if we should buy CFR or FOB. Then you work, get stuff done. Lunch time is coming. Well, still nothing really inspiring at the canteen. After lunch back to the spring sun, sitting on the bench right in the middle of the daisies field, chatting. Work again. Later, you get to talk about your faith with your chief and he is enthusiastic, telling you "It is of no use of having people with good values in monasteries" and "It is difficult and courageous to assume different convictions in today's world". Whaouh! I was amazed! At 15:45 you leave the office, get the train back home and head to the park. You sit at the Umberto I monument and think "It's a beautiful day". The sun sets and you get annoyed by an homeless guy (that's common when you are alone in a public park in Rome). But you still think "What a beautiful day!". You have to go home, do some grocery shopping, cook, pay your rent... but you just have been convinced that even the smallest things prepare you for the future, so you say, "that's OK!".

Think different

- & LIVE DIFFERENTLY -

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. (Ephesian 5,15-17)

(c) red.impala, roadsign in Fiuggi, Italy 2010

GVA - FCO

Geneva Airport, around 16:00 today

Looking at the sunny, white Alps in front of me I'm thinking these 4 days have been like a week.

I want to be back, my environment, my bed, my rituals. I'm tired.

Then I hear speaking italian and I'm asking myself, do I really have to go back?

And my thoughts are running and flying in my head.
------
The flow will only be disrupted in Fiumicino stopping my thoughts at their current status: solved, pending, to be refined or to eliminate.

From Fiumicino onwards I turn on the autopilot and in Tiburtina for one of the first time in life I wish there would be someone at home to welcome me. Side effect of the exhaustion while seeing people hugging friends arriving. But the air is quiet and smells after-rain. If I wouldn't have had to carry my luggage I would have walked home.

Tomorrow I have to write my action plan, before I forget or loose the momentum. It was an inspired idea to take days off...

Puglia - Roma cantando

My computer is almost full and I have to delete files... Looking into my "video" folder I found that video compiled last september after sequences taken during the return trip from Puglia where we attended a Southern Italy GBU (Gruppo Biblico Universitario) week-end. These few days made a difference in my life thanks to Jonathan Lamb and the series of Bible studies on Nehemia. On top of that it was a deep dive into the italian culture and we had so much fun :D (as you will see, but not only)