For the first time in more than a decade I see snow, yeap is just frozen water but it brings this nice feeling to everyones life and a nice bright touch to the city.
I was there on my seat inside the airplane when all of the sudden I saw something white through the window and then again some other piece of white land, I wasn't expecting snow on this time of the year (or ever according to my previous experience) so my first impression is that the place was really weird, then the airplane was flying lower and lower and I realized that everything was covered with snow.
Right now we have something between -1 and -5 degrees and I am glad to tell that I am not the only one feeling cold here, my roommates also thinks this is cold and they are Europeans.
I am just trying to get used to this because it is just starting, the real cold weather comes in February and then we'll have -25 degrees. First 15 was cold, then 10, then 5, now I miss the 5 degrees weather because at least you go for a walk without feeling pain :P
But as I told you before, I am happy here enjoying all the experiences and I am pretty sure I won't forget this one...
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Warsaw trip
Hello everyone I wrote this while traveling last week to Warsaw...
Ok today’s new thing: Tallin’s Airport! yeap I am traveling to Warsaw for a week, I will visit Mary and we are going to the Apocalyptica concert next Saturday :P you may be asking yourself how did he got one free week in his job? They fired him? Well nope, none of them, I didn’t sale my soul to the devil neither I just asked for five days and of course I will be working on Saturdays until the end of my life… actually four more days (I already worked last Saturday).
Anyway I am happy to visit Warsaw, I don’t know why but I really like that city my hypothesis is that I have good memories everywhere there and was the first European city in which I had the chance to live in, I went to many museums, walked a lot through the streets, went to Palaces and historic places, I had parties, met a lot of people, had my first European hair cut and tried several types of beers.
Right now I am in gate number five with a bunch of people waiting to get inside the airplane that is going to take us there…
... now I am back and this time in the LOT Airlines airplane at about 8Km above the sea level and according to the captain flying over Lithuania, and in my curious mind I am wondering why do we a cliché about good looking stewardess? I am not a frequent flyer but since I took the airplane in Barquisimeto I flew six times through Venezuela, Germany, Sweden, Finland and now Poland and I have never seen a good looking stewardess, it’s the same with nurses, I don’t remember one beautiful nurse in my life and I am from Venezuela! We are supposed to have gorgeous ladies everywhere, so my conclusion right now is that the cliché only exist because they are wearing nice uniforms… aaaaanyway we’re about to land in a few minutes and the stewardess wants me to turn off this…
… Ok this is me again now on another airplane this time on my way back to Estonia, I spent one really really good week in Warsaw and of course I was way too busy to sit down a few minutes to write something in my blog.
I am going to start saying this: I love Warsaw :), I always have a good time there because of the many places to visit there, friends and of course my girlfriend :P I went to new parks and squares and restaurants and also to same old places like the Pizza Hut in the center of the city or the old town and the Pierogeria (Pierogi restaurant).
This week we had the Halloween Party and Asia prepared a party at the flat with a lot of people, she was wearing a bumble bee costume like the ones in the No Rain video from Blind Melon, in my case I don’t have many options here so I took my Cardenales de Lara baseball shirt and dressed as a Regetonero-Baseball player-Malandro, and I was even wearing a diamond earring and some jewelry on my neck, and after eight beers (0.5L each one) I had a good time there, and the party was so good that even the Europeans were dancing really good, you can take a look at picasa if you want to check the details ;)
In Poland the first day of November is the Dead People’s Day and (almost) everything is closed that day because everyone visits the cemetery, is impressive, we went to the Wilanow cemetery at the south side of the city and the place was full of people bringing candles and flowers to their relatives and the place was full of these stuff, there is also a video about this in picasa.
Something we were expecting since we arrive to Europe is the winter time change, this event happened last Monday, right now Warsaw has a +5 hours difference with Barquisimeto and +6 with Tartu (instead of +6 and +7), but the funny thing is that nobody told us that, so Mary went to work on Monday at 7 instead of showing up there at 8, of course nobody was there. But the scariest thing about this time change is that our lives changed in two or three days, why? Well, you may think that living in Europe is hard because of the language, or because of the cold winter, or because you are away from your family, or because you are a foreigner, let me tell you that for me and Mary the worst thing is that we don’t have sun anymore! Or at least we have less sun right now because is setting at 16.30…
Sorry the airplane was about to land so I took a long break to pick up my luggage, buy some chocolate, take the bus from the airport to the bus station in Tallinn, have “lunch” (a really crappy hamburger) and right now I am on the bus on my way to Tartu.
The time is 16.38 and as I was telling you in the last paragraph in this moment the sun is setting and it looks like 18.40 in Venezuela, when we noticed that last Sunday it was shocking :S you feel like it is really late and that the day is ending and you should be on the bed in a couple of hours when actually you have half of the day left, yeap this is a cultural, weather or geographic shock, any of the words can apply right now.
But despite all the bad things you can imagine, add to the list that your skin gets soooooooooo dry that you must use creams to have a normal life, because of the cold and dry wind your lips will break and you will have blood in your mouth, the beautiful snow can be very slippery and many people break their legs because of this, despite all these stuff I am enjoying the experience a lot! Everything is new and after 24 years in the sunny Caribean it was the right time for a change ;)
If you want to see the pictures click hereThursday, October 25, 2007
Helping animals in Venezuela
The last few days I have been involved with PETA trying to help at least by signing petitions and sending information to friends about the actions around the world to help animals, while doing this I was contacted by a Venezuelan friend who was really interested in doing something about it, but besides that she also wanted to help and get active in Venezuela, that made me really happy because at least one person is interested in taking actions in my country and of course I did some research on the internet to find information about something like PETA but in my country, it seems that we have APROA (Asociación Pro Defensa de los Animales) and they have been really active for many years, the website has a lot of information about campaigns, previous accomplishments, current complaints, some legal help, lost pets and foster animals.
Now to close this post I will publish the info also in Spanish to my Venezuelan friends:
Hey saludos a todos ;)
Varias personas me respondieron el mail sobre el maltrato de animales con interes de unirse a la campana en contra de estas practicas y ademas me preguntaron por organizaciones similares a PETA pero en Venezuela para participar y colaborar, esto me parecio mucho mejor ya que podemos ayudar en nuestro pais para acabar con esto y luego de enviarle un mail a la gente de PETA y recibir respuesta hoy, termine en este website:
http://www.aproa.org.ve/
De la Asociación Pro Defensa de los Animales, en el website pueden encontrar correos en caso de querer contactarlos, informacion sobre las activiades, pueden realizar denuncias, recibir apoyo legal, hay informacion sobre campanas y pues todo lo necesario para hacer algo al respecto, espero les sirva de ayuda a aquellos que quieren participar y no solo ver lo que pasa y quejarse de las cosas malas que pasan en el pais... y de nuevo como decia Einstein:
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Saludos
Friday, October 19, 2007
KFC secret ingredient: Cruelty!!!
I used to eat a lot in KFC when I was working in Caracas, it was the only place to go while working in a zone full of factories, but I will put KFC in the list with Snickers, Twix and Mars and now I can say I WON'T EAT KFC FOOD ANYMORE!!
And if you want to know why I took this decision please read the following email that PETA sent me and take a look at the video on the following link: http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/
Dear Luis,
When the ghosts and goblins stop by your house this Halloween, why not leave them with a lasting impression about KFC? Carve pumpkins that illuminate the words "Boycott KFC" for the large crowds to see, or dress up as a chicken with a "Broken Wings and Legs" sign. If you'll be busy giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, why not hand out "Evil Colonel Sanders" or "I Am Not a Nugget" stickers along with a delicious vegan treat? If dressing up or trick-or-treating isn't your style, there are many other things you can do this Halloween to get the word out about KFC's cruelty to chickens.
Share Pam Anderson's KFC exposé so that people can see the horrors endured by chickens raised and killed for KFC's buckets. E-mail friends and family members to ask them to check out KentuckyFriedCruelty.com and stop supporting the gruesome torture of chickens.
And remember this:
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8jw-ifqwkM
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Visit to Tallinn
This weekend I took my new jacket and my bag and went to the capital of Estonia... Tallinn, Kike (Carlos Botero), an AIESECer from Caracas was waiting for me there. He has been living in that city more than one year and was one of my first contacts with this country when I was applying for internship a few months ago, now after many months talking through Skype, finally got the chance to meet him.
Traveling through Estonia as I told you in previous post is pretty fast, taking a bus from Tartu to Tallinn takes 2 hours, that makes it really appropriate if you need to go buying some weird stuff or just having fun in a different place every weekend.
I arrived at 2pm and as soon as I was out the bus I felt the big amount of Russians that live there, plus you can also feel the diversity in the city with people from Asia, South America and Europe everywhere, and of course many malls and a lot of movement in the streets.
Something that amaze me from Tartu and now also from Tallinn is that, even though these cities are small, I mean only 100.000 and 400.000 people each one of them, you can see people and cars moving everyday at every moment like in a big city.
Tallinn surprise me with its size, the Old Town is beautiful and I also had the chance to eat in a restaurant there, in this place we watched Estonia playing against England for the Euro cup qualifications, but they suck really bad playing football and the whole country knows it, but at least means that I can watch some good teams playing here. There are also many concerts here like Aerosmith, Elton John and Apocalyptica to name a few.
Besides Kike, in this walk through the Old Town we also met Gabriel (Bolivia), Kaida (Estonia), Peter (Russia) and Breno (Brasil) who is living in the same apartment as Kike. Gabo and Kike have been living here one and two years respectively so they almost feel Estonians and they a lot of experience in how to survive the minus twenty five winter here.
After a nice Estonian breakfast and a quick look to an outdoor marketplace, that remind me the "Avenida 20" in Barquisimeto, we went to Kikes office in Skype, yeap the main Skype office in the world and of course it is exactly what I was expecting, they gave us free headphones and stickers on the entrance, a very modern, clean and clear decoration, a lot of entertainment to boost your creativity, for example a Sauna, pool table, Wii and of course flat TVs and the opportunity to call wherever you want in the world for free. Nice way to keep you happy in an office with forty different nationalities.
Unfortunately my time there was about to finish and didn't have the chance to visit more places, but since it is just two hours away I am pretty sure I'll be back soon ;)
I putted the pictures here...
Traveling through Estonia as I told you in previous post is pretty fast, taking a bus from Tartu to Tallinn takes 2 hours, that makes it really appropriate if you need to go buying some weird stuff or just having fun in a different place every weekend.
I arrived at 2pm and as soon as I was out the bus I felt the big amount of Russians that live there, plus you can also feel the diversity in the city with people from Asia, South America and Europe everywhere, and of course many malls and a lot of movement in the streets.
Something that amaze me from Tartu and now also from Tallinn is that, even though these cities are small, I mean only 100.000 and 400.000 people each one of them, you can see people and cars moving everyday at every moment like in a big city.
Tallinn surprise me with its size, the Old Town is beautiful and I also had the chance to eat in a restaurant there, in this place we watched Estonia playing against England for the Euro cup qualifications, but they suck really bad playing football and the whole country knows it, but at least means that I can watch some good teams playing here. There are also many concerts here like Aerosmith, Elton John and Apocalyptica to name a few.
Besides Kike, in this walk through the Old Town we also met Gabriel (Bolivia), Kaida (Estonia), Peter (Russia) and Breno (Brasil) who is living in the same apartment as Kike. Gabo and Kike have been living here one and two years respectively so they almost feel Estonians and they a lot of experience in how to survive the minus twenty five winter here.
After a nice Estonian breakfast and a quick look to an outdoor marketplace, that remind me the "Avenida 20" in Barquisimeto, we went to Kikes office in Skype, yeap the main Skype office in the world and of course it is exactly what I was expecting, they gave us free headphones and stickers on the entrance, a very modern, clean and clear decoration, a lot of entertainment to boost your creativity, for example a Sauna, pool table, Wii and of course flat TVs and the opportunity to call wherever you want in the world for free. Nice way to keep you happy in an office with forty different nationalities.
Unfortunately my time there was about to finish and didn't have the chance to visit more places, but since it is just two hours away I am pretty sure I'll be back soon ;)
I putted the pictures here...
Monday, October 8, 2007
Eating arepas in Estonia!
Yeap that's it, Arepas, the thing I was missing so much from Venezuela, the main meal every day in breakfast, lunch and dinner in my country. I am so lucky that the Russians also use corn flour (I don't know why) and this weekend doing some shoppings in a mall near my place I found the magic flour...
Of course is not our beloved Harina P.A.N but what the hell I am 14.000Km away from a "Central Madeirense" (popular Venezuelan marketplace) and just because of that it taste like heaven :)
The taste is not exactly like Harina P.A.N. it is more like the other brand (I don't remember right now) in Venezuela that we had to buy when it was really hard find good products. Besides I had to fry the arepas because the pan has a really crappy Teflon so everything gets stucked there.
I had my typical Sunday breakfast with some tuna with sweet corn, sour milk (creama de leche pero un pelo inspida), ham and cheese. And if you are wondering why the arepas look like something else, well is because the corn flour is not the same so basically it was really hard to keep the rounded shape in the pan while frying them.
And now for all of you in some other country different than Venezuela that may had never seen an arepa before, here is the way they should look and besides the real Harina P.A.N and some butter.
And to close this post I'll show you the thing I'm going eat on my next trip to Barquisimeto, the fabulous and tasty Arepa de Carretera (road Arepa)!!!!
Of course is not our beloved Harina P.A.N but what the hell I am 14.000Km away from a "Central Madeirense" (popular Venezuelan marketplace) and just because of that it taste like heaven :)
The taste is not exactly like Harina P.A.N. it is more like the other brand (I don't remember right now) in Venezuela that we had to buy when it was really hard find good products. Besides I had to fry the arepas because the pan has a really crappy Teflon so everything gets stucked there.
I had my typical Sunday breakfast with some tuna with sweet corn, sour milk (creama de leche pero un pelo inspida), ham and cheese. And if you are wondering why the arepas look like something else, well is because the corn flour is not the same so basically it was really hard to keep the rounded shape in the pan while frying them.
And now for all of you in some other country different than Venezuela that may had never seen an arepa before, here is the way they should look and besides the real Harina P.A.N and some butter.
And to close this post I'll show you the thing I'm going eat on my next trip to Barquisimeto, the fabulous and tasty Arepa de Carretera (road Arepa)!!!!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Para reflexionar un rato...
Sorry international friends, I have to post this one in Spanish because is easier for me to express what I feel about the problems in my country this way...
A mi gente en Venezuela, tanto mis panas que apoyan el gobierno como mis panas que no, les envio esto para que piensen un rato y se hagan ustedes estas preguntas:
Lo que esta pasando en el pais es normal?
La economia va por buen camino?
Cosas basicas como la educacion y la seguridad han mejorado?
Se los envie a unos cuantos, espero que al menos a uno o dos no les de flojera responder esto y al menos puedan leerlo hasta el final, porque desde donde yo estoy y con la realidad que estoy viviendo ahora me doy cuenta que las cosas no se ven nada bien en mi pais y me pregunto en que esta pensando la gente que apoya lo que esta pasando alla.
Leer el periodico y ver noticias de un chamo de 20 anos que puede ser tu pana, tu hermano tu primo o algun conocido con 14 tiros a las 12.30 del dia en el centro de mi ciudad? que encontrar leche, azucar y alimentos basicos sea una odisea? ni si quiera nombro los hospitales y el estado en el que estan o la educacion con escuelas, liceos y universidades cada vez mas por el piso, que demonios es un pueblo sin educacion, alimentos basicos y seguridad???
Cuando le pregunto a la gente de Rusia y Estonia como era la vida hace 20 anos con la Union Sovietica, lamentablemente lo que veo son similitudes con lo que se esta convirtiendo mi pais, todos eran iguales y en ese momento todo era de todos, suena bonito y conocido no? pero cual era la defnicion del gobierno para el termino TODO: 1 tipo de camisa, de comida, de tv y de cada cosa que quisieras, por ejemplo como todo estaba nacionalizado incluyendo los carros, para comprar un carro el papa de Immu (un pana estonio) espero 20 anos (hasta tener 44 anos) para tener su primer carro, y sonar con viajar fuera del pais (o los aliados del pais) era algo imposible, era mas dificil conseguir la visa de la Union Sovietica (hasta eso necesitaban) que la de otro pais, Dasha una amiga rusa me conto que ver una Coca cola en esa epoca era algo sorprendente y ver comiquitas de tom y jerry solo podian hacerlo en una cinta de vhs de contrabando, porque el canal del pueblo no permitia eso... la lista continua y si les parece esto similar a algunos patrones que se estan viendo en Venezuela pues entonces deberiamos preocuparnos TODOS.
Ahorita estoy viviendo en Estonia, un pais que logro salir del desatre que era la Union Sovietica y algo similar a lo que los pobres cubanos se tienen que calar (la Cuba que tanto adora nuestro Gobierno). Estonia tuvo su reforma constitucional (si algo similar a la que vamos a tener nosotros) en 1992 y desde hace 10 anos este pais a tenido un crecimiento economico superior al 10% y ha sido el pais de Europa con mayor crecimiento economico en los ultimos anos... gracias a esas reformas. Lo preocupante es que luego de que Mary (mi novia) recibiera en Polonia material politico relacionado con las reformas ( a pesar pedir especificamente material cultural) y me contara un poco y luego yo investigara al respecto, nuestras reformas son totalmente opuestas a las que hubo aqui en Estonia, aqui se quizo privatizar las empresas porque se comprobo que nacionalizadas no funcionan y ahora en mi pais hasta las carnicerias pueden ser nacionalizadas, aqui se cambiaron leyes para reducir impuestos y en general promover la inversion internacional y la creacion de empresa en el pais, y en mi pais se espantan a los inversores tratando de eliminar la propiedad privada, nacionalizando todo y aliandose a Iran y Cuba. Por ultimo, el cambio aqui en Estonia donde ahora se ven Mercedes-Benz, Audis y BMW, oferta laboral sobra y la gente tiene dinero (con valor) en mano y la calidad de vida (salud, educacion y transporte) esta al nivel de Europa, ese cambio que se ve tardo 15 anos con varios gobiernos en ese periodo, acaso en Venezuela necesitamos reeleccion indefinida para tener otro Fidel Castro en Venezuela?
Y regreso a donde comence, luego de reflexionar un poco y pensar en lo que esta sucediendo les vuelvo a hacer las mismas preguntas:
Lo que esta pasando en el pais es normal?
La economia va por buen camino?
Cosas basicas como la educacion y la seguridad han mejorado?
No soy economista ni consultor politico, pero soy Venezolano y conozco la realidad de mi pais, quiza no toda y con detalles, pero no se necesita mas que abrir los ojos para ver lo que en realidad pasa.
Bueno senores saludos a todos y les deseo lo mejor...
--
Luis Barragan
A mi gente en Venezuela, tanto mis panas que apoyan el gobierno como mis panas que no, les envio esto para que piensen un rato y se hagan ustedes estas preguntas:
Lo que esta pasando en el pais es normal?
La economia va por buen camino?
Cosas basicas como la educacion y la seguridad han mejorado?
Se los envie a unos cuantos, espero que al menos a uno o dos no les de flojera responder esto y al menos puedan leerlo hasta el final, porque desde donde yo estoy y con la realidad que estoy viviendo ahora me doy cuenta que las cosas no se ven nada bien en mi pais y me pregunto en que esta pensando la gente que apoya lo que esta pasando alla.
Leer el periodico y ver noticias de un chamo de 20 anos que puede ser tu pana, tu hermano tu primo o algun conocido con 14 tiros a las 12.30 del dia en el centro de mi ciudad? que encontrar leche, azucar y alimentos basicos sea una odisea? ni si quiera nombro los hospitales y el estado en el que estan o la educacion con escuelas, liceos y universidades cada vez mas por el piso, que demonios es un pueblo sin educacion, alimentos basicos y seguridad???
Cuando le pregunto a la gente de Rusia y Estonia como era la vida hace 20 anos con la Union Sovietica, lamentablemente lo que veo son similitudes con lo que se esta convirtiendo mi pais, todos eran iguales y en ese momento todo era de todos, suena bonito y conocido no? pero cual era la defnicion del gobierno para el termino TODO: 1 tipo de camisa, de comida, de tv y de cada cosa que quisieras, por ejemplo como todo estaba nacionalizado incluyendo los carros, para comprar un carro el papa de Immu (un pana estonio) espero 20 anos (hasta tener 44 anos) para tener su primer carro, y sonar con viajar fuera del pais (o los aliados del pais) era algo imposible, era mas dificil conseguir la visa de la Union Sovietica (hasta eso necesitaban) que la de otro pais, Dasha una amiga rusa me conto que ver una Coca cola en esa epoca era algo sorprendente y ver comiquitas de tom y jerry solo podian hacerlo en una cinta de vhs de contrabando, porque el canal del pueblo no permitia eso... la lista continua y si les parece esto similar a algunos patrones que se estan viendo en Venezuela pues entonces deberiamos preocuparnos TODOS.
Ahorita estoy viviendo en Estonia, un pais que logro salir del desatre que era la Union Sovietica y algo similar a lo que los pobres cubanos se tienen que calar (la Cuba que tanto adora nuestro Gobierno). Estonia tuvo su reforma constitucional (si algo similar a la que vamos a tener nosotros) en 1992 y desde hace 10 anos este pais a tenido un crecimiento economico superior al 10% y ha sido el pais de Europa con mayor crecimiento economico en los ultimos anos... gracias a esas reformas. Lo preocupante es que luego de que Mary (mi novia) recibiera en Polonia material politico relacionado con las reformas ( a pesar pedir especificamente material cultural) y me contara un poco y luego yo investigara al respecto, nuestras reformas son totalmente opuestas a las que hubo aqui en Estonia, aqui se quizo privatizar las empresas porque se comprobo que nacionalizadas no funcionan y ahora en mi pais hasta las carnicerias pueden ser nacionalizadas, aqui se cambiaron leyes para reducir impuestos y en general promover la inversion internacional y la creacion de empresa en el pais, y en mi pais se espantan a los inversores tratando de eliminar la propiedad privada, nacionalizando todo y aliandose a Iran y Cuba. Por ultimo, el cambio aqui en Estonia donde ahora se ven Mercedes-Benz, Audis y BMW, oferta laboral sobra y la gente tiene dinero (con valor) en mano y la calidad de vida (salud, educacion y transporte) esta al nivel de Europa, ese cambio que se ve tardo 15 anos con varios gobiernos en ese periodo, acaso en Venezuela necesitamos reeleccion indefinida para tener otro Fidel Castro en Venezuela?
Y regreso a donde comence, luego de reflexionar un poco y pensar en lo que esta sucediendo les vuelvo a hacer las mismas preguntas:
Lo que esta pasando en el pais es normal?
La economia va por buen camino?
Cosas basicas como la educacion y la seguridad han mejorado?
No soy economista ni consultor politico, pero soy Venezolano y conozco la realidad de mi pais, quiza no toda y con detalles, pero no se necesita mas que abrir los ojos para ver lo que en realidad pasa.
Bueno senores saludos a todos y les deseo lo mejor...
--
Luis Barragan
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