Genève

We went to Genève where it was extremely cold... Not the temperature was the problem but the wind was blowing and blowing... Yes this was the real Switzerland!! It was not freezing, no that not. But we never expected it to be so cold so we weren't wearing the clothing for that. I went with 2 Spanish friends, Sergi and Victor, and the reason was of course to visit the city but also because Sergi and I, we're doing a project for the course Urban Theories about the areas next to the river Rhône. I can't show any pictures because my batteries weren't charged (stupid me!), so I'm hoping I can get some from the the Catalan friends to put them also on the blog!

Victor promoting the 'L'!

The watch is famous they told me...

Spanish power? ;)

La Crémaillère

La Crémaillère aka Housewarming party... Yesterday we had a party at our place. Well, no broken glasses and the apartment is still okay, not brand new but new let's say. I live with 2 German-speaking (Katrin & Sylvan) and one french-speaking (Josephine) Swiss persons. For the moment I don't have a picture of Josephine, so sorry Jo! As you can imagine there were a lot of suisse-allemands! Well, I'm all the time joking about them, but I have to confess, even if they speak a very strange German dialect, that they are nice persons. I also invited a group of musicians to play. One of them, Lucas, is from the same province of Spain where I always go in the summer. Last Friday I met him at another party where they were playing. The movie is of them. We live in an apartment building and we're the only students here. We warned them there was going to be a party, but in Switzerland a party is till 12 pm!!!! The caretaker, normally a very nice women, came to complain a couple of times about the noise. I will have to talk with here later... So the party at our place was over at 3 am and with a group we decided to go downtown!



Katrin and her boyfriend

Sylvan (in front) with his Basel-friends :)

my old coloc Pierre-Jean and me

bART...

Erasmus Mundus!

Project

Maybe very short some words over the project itself. In a small village next to the lake called Morges, we have to build a new form of railway-station. It has to be not only for the trains but also lodging, commerces and offices. The program is approx. 30 000 square meters! Anyway it's a very interesting project but we also have to work very hard because they are very demanding! Thursday and friday we had the first intermediate presentation. Some people already had to do a 'nuit blanche' (means no sleeping), I was luckier and got some sleep. My presentation went quite allright so I am very happy about that. Other people weren't so lucky and the teachers/professors are a lot harder than in Belgium! Our professor likes to break models where you put
so many hours of work in...

Victor presenting and Jaccaud (prof) listening....

Olivier happy as always!

the 'Atelier'

my model scale 1/200

scale 1/500

Belgian quality

Some people asked me already for pictures of my room. Till this weekend I didn't even have a room, it was just the dining room but connected to the living room. With Bart we went to the bricolage-store OBI, bought the material, rented a van and invented a 'Belgian wall'... Well the result looks pretty good I think and the quality Belgian... :)

Los Españoles II

This happens a lot lately, working for deadlines and taking the last metro back home. Of course I'm not the only one...

erasmus-archis (the only ones in the metro...)

los españoles (xavi, sergi, victor)

In love with Barça

Well, I went this weekend to Barcelona and it was wonderful! I arrived Friday already in the morning and went to check for the hostel because Liga was arriving later... When I booked it on the Internet, the reviews told me it was in the prostitute area. But I was already happy I found a room, because Barcelona is nowadays really impossible to find cheap available rooms in a weekend. Anyway it was not so bad as expected the area, the room was just a bed and some centimeters around to manoeuvre! :) For me it was already the 4th time I was in Barcelona, so I was going to play the guide. The first day we saw the port area and the Ramblas. Okay, maybe it's extremely touristic, but still it's extremely beautiful and relaxing. The second day became a very busy touristic day because we got up too late... In a couple of hours we saw Parc Güell and Sagrada Familia and the Gaudi-houses (we didn't go in that day, but one day later). We also met with a couple (friends of Liga) that just got married and was doing the honeymoon in Barcelona. Nice people and from here I wish you a lot of happiness and health in your future life. This couple is also very fanatic in climbing and on Sunday they went climbing the fortress of Montjuïc, we paid them a visit and tried ourselves some climbing. At night I saw Pol again. I met him one year ago in New York where he was doing stage. Finally he came back to his beloved city to work and live there and of course he's working for a Swiss company. I'm afraid a lot of people work for the Swiss... :) Last remark: Once I will go back to this city to live there a part of my life, I'm really in love with Barcelona!!

bicing (not for tourists!)

still not finished of course...

forum, herzog & de meuron

exhibiton forum

pol and his 'fan'

belgian girl? :P

new camp nou, foster & partners

Place Chauderon by night

Anniversary dinner

It was the anniversary dinner of an collegue-erasmus student of us, Céline...