:(

My namesake and cousin, who was not quite one year old yet passed away on Christmas day... I am so sad, I can't imagine how her parents are feeling right now. There is nothing I hate more than death. The little one has been suffering since the day she was born because of congenital heart defects. I was hoping that she would survive and grow up to be healthy and happy child. It is at times like these that the unfairness and absurdity of human existence becomes glaring. She was so tiny but she struggled to live, to breathe, to eat, to smile and even to cry...

RIP little one! You'll always be loved and remembered!

RIP Cesaria Evora!

:(

Angels

Angel - UFOMA

Tout me fait chier! :(

I love my parents but they can both be a pain in the neck sometimes. So I finished my dissertation and got my Masters Diplome (excuse me while I dougie in the street...hehehe)It's been the reason that I was away from my blog for ages! Anyway, what was I saying before...yes, I have finished with the school (well, for now) and I also switched from my former office. I am still in Geneva but working for a different organisation... that is a story for another day...why do I keep side-tracking my story?

This post is about my parents meddling in my affairs just because they think I'm ready to "settle". I am so pissed as I write this post because of this whole thing. I got a call the other day from some random dude who was telling me that he got my number from his father, who got my number from my father. I was like WTFLUMK??? It turns out he wants to get to know me, and asked me to send him photos of myself and to add him on skype so that we can "discuss".

I was like, biznatch, first of all, why are you collecting phone numbers from you father at the age of 23, is that not too young to be asking your father to arrange someone for you??? Secondly, I freaking live on another continent, what the heck do you think is going to come out of all this, aren't there people to date on your side of the world? Thirdly, I am NOT sending you my pictures or adding you on the skype, I don't know who the flip you are! Fourthly, who told you I would be interested in the first place. Finally, we are in our very early twenties, what in the world is the rush?



Men, I was pissed. This weirdo had the audacity to keep calling me and sending me text messages the entire week and when I didn't respond, he got his father to call and text me, asking why I have not been taking his son's phone call. WHAT THE HELL??? I blame this on my parents, who did not think to ask me before throwing my number to random people, just because they are "friends" with them. I blame myself for always being the compliant child who does everything they say. If I was the stubborn child who listened to no one, they wouldn't be doing this kind of stuff (they haven't pulled this stunt with my other siblings and I am one of the youngest!).

Am I over-dramatizing the whole thing? Is this normal or am I the only one who thinks this whole thing is crap? I just wish they would all let me be!!!

What I'm listening to right now.

It is a cold and grey Wednesday and only slow music fits the mood...


Jeong Yeop- Thorn Flower

David Tao- Melody

Andres Cepeda- Dia Tras Dia

Clazziquai- She is

Collie Buddz- Tommorrow's Another Day

Begin- Koishikute

Vanessa de Mata- Bao Sorte

Park Hyo Shin- Hwa Shin

Soha- C'est Bien Mieux Comme Ca

John Legend- Floating Away

Charlotte Church- Dream a Dream

Gage- Pardonne Moi

Tears are the Stars.

Love this song so much, Morningstar Lily has such a beautiful, soft and sonorous voice.

Tooth Fairy Affair

Tooth Fairy Affair from Izabela Melamed on Vimeo.

Amazing animation, excellent draftsmanship! :)

Wanderlust.

I am thinking of leaving Geneva. Well, at least for now... I'm not sure where I am going to go this time if I leave. Geneva is great but it seems to be the place to be when you are older and further in your career, when you are some kind of big-shot. I'm just beginning so I always feel out of place and a bit isolated at my work. It is a great place to live when you are earning tons of money so that you can buy a chalet in the mountains and eat a thousand year old cheese for breakfast every morning (yuck). Okay, I exaggerate just a bit.



I think this is the perfect time to move to another place. Most of my friends have been transferred somewhere else. We all came to Geneva at the same time but they all left to do more interesting work elsewhere. It is a bit hard to go making new friends after two years of being around the same people. Also, I have no family here, neither am I in a relationship at the moment. It can get a bit lonely. booohooo. (ha!)

I am also almost done with my dissertation (ahem* ahem* not quite...hehehe)



Actually, I am drowning in an ocean of laziness and procrastination, yes, I have only done the first three chapters and the deadline is on the 15th of next month. I thrive on panic and I fart in the face of danger!!!

I will get it done! (chanting to self)

But seriously, when my dissertation is done by next month (by a great and mighty miracle), I feel like I should move. I need to figure out my next step because my permit expires in October. I love my job but I feel so isolated in the office (I am the only one in my 20s, everyone else is at least 45 years old). I can't take it anymore. I don't feel like renewing my permit or staying in Geneva. (Well, I would reconsider if there was a mysterious massive increase in my earnings hehehehe)

I usually have things planned a couple of months ahead but this time, I am feeling quite lost. It's only been two years but I really want to leave all of a sudden!!! It would be easier if I had tons of job offers, you know, people dying to hire me and pay me tons of cash. :P

Seasons by Haowei Hu

Seasons from Erica Haowei Hu on Vimeo.

Very charming!

Conversation with a female flatmate

Flatmate: “I can’t stand women, they can be so catty and they hold on to grudges forever. That is why a majority of my friends are male. In fact, if possible, I would trade my female housemates to live with only men. Women have so much drama, I can’t live with them. “

Me: O.o (she didn’t just indirectly diss me!)

Flatmate: ” Don’t look so surprised, you’ve always known that I am a tom-boy. I grew up with men around me, all the time. All my best friends are male.”

Me: “It must be nice.”

Flatmate: “Yeah, men are so chill. They argue now and forget it two seconds later, but women never do.”

Me: “Okay.” (eh, let’s not over-generalize here. I do know Samson, who stopped talking to me after I made fun of his favorite football team… and its been weeks since it happened)

Flatmate: “It was so much fun when I shared an apartment with three guys. We were always making fun of girls being girly and stuff. Men tell jokes like jokes but women take things too seriously. I have learned to be chill about stuff because I hang out with men all the time.”

Me: “Right.” (Yeah, I thrive on drama. I brush my teeth with bitchiness every morning, the word "chill" is not in my vocabulary)

Flatmate: “Oh by the way, I ate the blueberries in your fridge. I was so hungry at night and didn’t have anything to eat. I hope its okay.”

Me: “Well, I am a catty woman. Give me back my blueberries NOW.”


Moral of the story: Men are not a certain way. Neither are women. I can choose to be nice and I can choose to be mean. It’s not something that depends on gender.

Moral #2: Don’t diss me (directly or otherwise) and expect blueberries in return.

Chick

CHICK from Mayki on Vimeo.

I love this video!!! Unique animation, it is beautiful and creepy at the same time. I've been trying to decipher what exactly the woman was took away from the man. I wonder.

I'm so appalled.

A friend of my parents teaches in a Community school in Nigeria. She decided to save her money, scrimping from paltry monthly wages and numerous informal jobs to ensure that her child would not have to go to a Community school like the one she is teaching in. She wanted her child to go to the best kind of schools in the country. So she chose one of those foreign private schools in the big city. This particular one is quite exclusive, with very high gates and many security guards, no one sees the kids going in or coming out. She had heard that mostly foreigners from certain countries send their kids there, but she really felt that it would be worth it to try. She went on an inquiry about the application process... but was told that that certain school was only for foreigners. "Indigents" were not really included in the admission net, regardless of their earnings or background. WHAT???!!! O.O



Discriminating against people in their own country??? Try to be exclusive in a country that is 99 per cent black??? WTFudge is that???

I understand that the parents of the children in that school are VIP foreigners but still, it seems they are going out of their way to be too exclusive. If you hate so much to mix with "locals", then send your kids back to your country of origin to study or put them in some isolated cave in the middle of nowhere. Exclusion in ones own country in this day and age? The most annoying thing is that no one is complaining. It is accepted that the only indigents on that school compound are probably gate-men and cleaners. No one notices or talks about the weirdness of the whole thing. Or maybe I am reading too much into everything. Am I??? Is it okay for them to want to have an exclusive education for their children in another country??? Maybe it is??? Oh what the heck, it isn't!!!



ri-damn-diculous!!!

The conclusion of the story: She did not send her child to that school. Her kid is at another school now. She tells people about the story and they shake their heads and wag their fingers. The end.

:)

"I've seen true beauty because I see you..."

"Mémoire-thèse"

(I love the picture of the murderous exam, stole it from google)


I am on the final leg of my thèse, I made it through all the horrible law exams and papers, hallelujah!!! I am definitely glad the exams are over...FOREVER!!!! I thought I was going to die under the stress and pressure. So long SUCKER!!!

BUT this is the time that I have been dreading!!! I just submitted a 40 page final bibliography (yes, my supervisor is the DEVIL... or his cousin!!!), a plan détaillé and an abstract. I spent so much time on the bibliography because I had to have a good amount of jurisprudence-case law, which can be such a drag. All the time I spent on finding sources, I forgot that I also had to do the plan détaillé and the abstract, I was in a lot of trouble when the deadline hit.



I am writing about the Protocol against Smuggling of Migrants and the Protocol to prevent, punish and suppress Trafficking of persons. I love my topic but dreading the work because my supervisor is so scary. For one, He is THE expert on Refugee law and international migration laws, therefore, he knows everything and I know almost nothing. He is also French. French professors scare the crap out of me because they have this "god" complex, i.e. you are a tiny fly on the windscreen of their academic careers whose life can be exterminated by the wiper of their academic grandeur (I don't care if that description doesn't make any sense!!! hehehe)


(I am losing my stripes too!)

I feel like my work is always not enough, even at times when he says that I have made some progress! I dread having to meet with him to discuss the research, even writing the e-mails to him are scary!!! I should have chosen a nice professor who smiles (at the very least) and does not make me feel like a stupid butt... hehehe... but no, I had to ask the grinch. He has the fewest "advisees" because all students find it hard to get on his good side, we don't even know IF he has a good side...ahahahahaha...okay, I'll stop bashing him, in all fairness, his god complex is not for nothing...he deserves all the academic adoration and fear he gets. I just wish things were a bit easier for me. I still have a couple of months to work with him and I hope I can get through it without tearing out all my hair and chewing off my fingers!!!

Nuit Blanche by Arev Manoukian & Stephanie Swedlove

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.