Indian Wells

That's it - I am getting into the rhythm of long week-end excursion trips again! Switching continent does not change the good old habits. Still, there are several differences with doing long week-ends in the USA as opposed to in Europe: the jet-lag, the same shops/business and the same language across the continent, the 5-lanes freeways. From Los Angeles, it is a three hours drive to Indian Wells. For the first time, I use a GPS and it is certainly not more efficient than the good old maps. This instrument even manages to make you to exit a freeway, when you are in the middle of the desert... This GPS is no competition for my sixth orientation sense!
The trip to Indian Wells led us to the Master tennis tournament. Federer and Nadal played against Djokovic and Del Potro respectively. Great players and great games!
Since this blog is not a history book, you can check the final scores in your newspaper or online.
The stadium is very modern and I must admit that the spectators behave better than in Washington. The vibe is good, but it is not as passionate as in Europe. Very few flags, and of course the rowdiest supporters are the ones for Djokovic. Federer remains the crowd's favorite.

Besides the tennis tournament, Indian Wells/Palm Springs is mostly a recreation oasis and a place for retired people. So when we hit the tennis court, we were asked to play doubles against 70 year olds. Hard to believe, but we almost lost... thankfully I managed to compensate my teammate's mistakes. There are also three nice canyons. I am not going to say how long ago I visited these same canyons, but they have not changed a bit - and I have not changed a bit too, right!

Well, the canyons have changed, but it is just because of the season. This time there is lots of water running down the small streams.
Back in Los Angeles, I stopped at Venice Beach. It is a huge beach, where cool people hang out. Nice to see and touch the Pacific Ocean. But facing the wide ocean here is not the same feeling of remoteness, adventure, openness and unknown as in Sagres/Portugal or Cape Agulhas/South Africa. Maybe because LA is not the end of "my" world. But most probably because of the planes flying out of LAX airport.

New Orleans

First things first, I have not heard a single word of French in "La Nouvelle Orleans". Sure, they are trying to keep a certain French flavor. Hope it is not only for business purpose, but we are in the USA after all. I will not comment on the food either, except to say that it is worrying that this place is supposed to have the best food in the USA. What is really ironic about the French influence is that, on the other side of the Mississippi river, the main town is called... Alger.
The French Quarter is very lively, with the highlight being all these bars and clubs with live music bands playing all types of songs. I happened to be there just before "Mardi Gras" and they had a dress rehearsal of the floats and parade. Floats were making jokes at Sarah Palin, the Republicans, BP, airport controls, Wikileaks, etc. In-between floats, bands were playing. From the balconies over looking the parade, spectators were throwing down cheap neklace at passerbys. Got mine as well.
The architecture is indeed latin, with a mix of French and Spanish influence. Lots of patios for example. Indeed it is an old town which will soon celebrate its 300 years anniversary. They also have the oldest tramways (it is seems they have not changed it since...). Further, I did a tour of the garden district and its cemeteries - you cannot imagine all the problems encountered to bury the dead in this swamp area. Suffice to say that nice smelling trees such as magnolia and sweet olives were favored to cover the bad smell.
My last tour took me to the swamps. The temperature started to be warm enough for turtles, water snakes and alligators to come out of their hiding places and to enjoy the sun. I even managed to catch one!Finally, I must admit that during these three days, I did not see any scars left by Hurricane Kathrina. It might be that I did not go to the right neighborhood, but I would tend to believe that the authorities have done a good job at rehabilitating the city. Still, the 2010 census shows that the city's population has dropped compared to 2000.

Ski

After the first snow in Washington, I figured out if was the perfect time to go and ski. So we headed off to the Whitetail resort in Pennsylvania, less than two hours north of the capital. We arrive at a very compact place. The parking is situated just below the main entrance, where tickets for ski-lifts and equipment can be bought. Just on the opposite side are all the ski-lifts for the 23 trails.
I must admit that the slopes were not that big, with the largest difference in altitude being 285 meters. There was quite a huge crowd with long queues. Quite funny to hear fellow skiers speak Russian or Portuguese.
Still it was lots of fun to put skis on and to start again, first with the easy slopes. And then quite happy to do the "sidewinder". But I am definitely not ready to try the "Bold Decision"...
This place is very customer friendly. The cherry on the cake, we can ski under the lights.
Finally, a little video. You will obviously see that I slowed the speed of the video so you could still see me ski for a few seconds...

So far ... 26 % !

First happy new year! It did start very well. 2011 will certainly be rich in many more discoveries.
Indeed, the start of a new year is the occasion to look forward, and also backward. On this website: http://www.world66.com/myworld66/login?test=1&redirecturl=/community , you can generate your own map of the countries you visited. So I did tick the little boxes accordingly and this world map appeared.
The legend read: visited countries 58, which corresponds to 26% of the world total. Since the system does not weight countries according to their size, population, GDP or any complicated formula, it might seem little. There is lots of red on my map, but still there is a long way to go! This is fantastic - so much to look forward to.
The European map looks good indeed, except for the stretch from Poland to Bulgaria. It might take time to go there, especially when there are so many interesting and enjoyable European destinations to go back to.
The last map is the US states map. I concede that it looks pretty empty. Well then, it is a great coincidence that I am now in the USA. I already have plenty of ideas of places to visit. I will make sure to keep you posted. If I remember, I will post an updated map at the beginning of next year, and we will see which states have become "red states". For those who follow American politics, do not take this as an early indicator of Democratic success in upcoming elections.

Christmas in Switzerland

The test is done: Geneva is indeed just seven hours away from here, that is when airports are open... I arrived while it was snowing, so I scraped through. And when it was time to return, the flight to New York was cancelled, due to snowfalls on the other side... In Geneva, I experienced a "white Christmas". The festive spirit was all around to feel, but the best place to see it was by the lake. The trees were illuminated with lots of classy and fancy lighting. That was brilliant...
The spiderweb-like lighting was particularly well done. Unfortunately, like a spiderweb, it is too elusive to photography.
In this spot, you had to ride the bicycle to get the trees colored accordingly. With the cold temperature outside, it was no problem to ride fast.
And then the organisers certainly wanted to have fun by including pacman !! Good memories for a whole generation who started exercising their fingers on this very basic videogame. I was just missing the music. What would Christmas be without the Christmas tree... and the gifts underneath it... Not the same! The good thing this year is that the violin strings were broken, so not much singing.
Being in Switzerland for four days resulted in me trying to fit the best into my program.
The best includes a cheese fondue. This time we were treated to a very special and secretive mixture. And it was excellent!
How ironic, that I am gaining weight when I am Switzerland, and not in the USA... But I mean with food and desserts as good as these, who could resist. That's definitely the best black forest one could dream of!
So as not to feel bad about indulging, nothing better than a game of tennis. A great sweat. And I am looking forward to trying my new tennis racket - a good Christmas indeed.

Christmas party

Oups... it should actually read "Holiday party" - that is the official and politically correct wording here. So no talking about a Christmas party.
It all started with a fancy invitation via e-mail with a link to a website and a page to register. The work ID gave the right to one single extra ticket (still more than 2000 people attended). A leaflet described all what would be on offer all over the two main buildings. Did I mention the party took place on a Saturday?
Quite strange then to go to the workplace on a Saturday evening. Even stranger to see how the place had been made over. In particular, the lighting was great. Still stranger to see colleagues partying and socialising in the very same place where we usually have very formal meetings. The place filled quickly and people rushed to enjoy various types of food. As to the drinks, the waiters were very generous. Never had such strong vodkas... even in Russia and Belarus! The "Christmas" tree was standing in the main lobby. I did not get it why there were presents below it and especially who they were for? We moved around to enjoy listening to live music from oriental, Jamaican, classical, international bands. The quiet and thoughtful meeting rooms were turned into sweaty and loud dancefloors. Let's see if the festive spirit is still there on Monday.
All in all, it was great to see that the IMF is truly an efficient and international organization. Everything was well managed and people from all over the world mingled and interacted. A colorful evening !

Basketball

After having enjoyed great games at the Maracana Stadium in Rio (football), Roland Garros in Paris (tennis), Newlands in Cape Town (cricket), the Velodrome in Marseilles (rugby) and the Arena in Berne (ice hockey), it is time to experience a great game of basketball in the Verizon center in Washington. This evening, the Washington Wizards were playing the Charlotte bobcats. Suspense suspense, not really, since the Wizards lost 85-93, after having led at some stage by 6 points. Their shoot success rate let them down. Still there were some impressive combination and rapid play. In the end, this is not enough to help their standing in the league.
The match is not the whole experience though, with almost as much activity during the breaks and off the field. Very striking is the live singing of the national anthem at the start of the match as well as two reminders to the audience to stand up and cheer for the war veterans.
Then there was the crowd... the super noisy crowd. Behind us was seating a big group of young African-American ladies who would continuously shout, whistle and woo for their team. My seven co-spectators said that I should not be so cheap (did I ever hear that before...) and have gotten better seats! I just looked at them like some sort of local vuvuzela! Finally, there were also the cheer-leading ladies, the beers and the hot-dogs - all what the crowd needs to leave happy.