Heaven on Earth

My grand parents have a cottage in the South of the Alps.
I used to go there every summer and during winter time as well. But since a few years it doesn't happen that often, and it's always for a very short time.

Here is the view from the cottage at sunset...


I LOVE it... This is the place where I feel good, serene and calm.

Just wanted to share with you what's a little piece of Heaven of Earth to me :)

Challenge !

Right now, I'm having quite a tough time at work, or maybe I should say I'm facing some big challenges.
Indeed, it's budget time, and it's my first "real" budget.

And the thing is that I'm in charge of the budget at 3 different levels, which is not the case of most of my colleagues (who only have one or 2 things to take care of).
First of all, I am responsible of one of the traffic areas, and of course I have to do the budget for it. That's the hardest for me because it's a very complex and detailed work.
Then I'm responsible for budgeting the financing of the bus fleet for the whole company (not only for my traffic area).
And finally I'm responsible for all the investments (whether they are buses, or IT systems or even machineries for the workshops...).

This is A LOT to deal with, especially that everything is due at the same time... ! And life doesn't stop during the budget time. So there are also all the "daily" tasks that you cannot completely put aside.
Yesterday I had a meeting with my boss to see how to plan the work, and after a while, he just said : "well, it's just not feasible...". Of course there is no solution, so I have no other choice than to make it !!!

So I'm kinda stressed since a few days... The challenge is quite big.
But at the same time it means that my bosses trust me and think that I'm doing a good job. So it's very flattering and very motivating as well. That's why, even though I'm a bit stressed, I'm also excited.
And I like challenges, in all ways.

Here is the place where I'm gonna spend most of my time and probably some late evenings in the coming 7 or 8 weeks... With much more mess on it of course hehe ! (actually it didn't look like that a long time...)


Nice huh ?!

Wish me luck !

Hejdå !

I've just said goodbye to Leonore, who is one of my very good French friends here.

She arrived in Stockholm at the same time as me about one year ago, and now she's returning to France...

I'm gonna miss her very much because she is the very first person I met when I came here, so she was really part of this experience - together with Leonard, her bf and Eleonore and Samba. We've discovered and shared a lot of things together.

Actually, I'm the only one staying in Sweden. All of them have decided to go back to France... So Leonore and Leonard are leaving now, and Eleonore and Samba are leaving in 1,5 months... Feels quite strange. It's definitely not going to be the same anymore without them. I'm not saying worse or better, but different that's for sure.

Here are Leonard and Leonore - "the Leo" as we used to call them - at their farewell party last Saturday.

I wish them good luck in the future and hope to see them very soon again, in Stockholm or Paris :)

Miss you already !

Warning : Hard disk almost full !

As many of you know, I'm a very organized person and I DO love to plan things.

I'm usually the kind of person that plans her vacations one year in advance for example. Well ok, maybe not one year, but not far ;)

I think that's why I feel quite comfortable in the Swedish environment. Even though I think that sometimes, the Swedes (I know I might be generalizing a bit...) are missing some spontaneity. Like for example, it's almost impossible to invite a Swedish friend to a party or to go for dinner at the last minute...!

Ok, how did I come to talk about this ? That was not the purpose of the post actually...

So, back to the subject :)

Even if I'm a very organized person, I've almost never been using any diary or organizer, I've never wrote down anything... and I've always felt like I could fit everything in my head and remember it. And so far, it was worked pretty well I should say.

But I don't know why, since a few days, I feel quite overwhelmed and I don't think I'll be able to handle it much longer... Many things are going on at the moment - especially at work. Plus there are lots of things I'd like to do, I have some visitors coming soon and in the coming weeks, I'm invited to quite many parties (feels like everybody has something to celebrate right now !!)... Well, my hard disk is almost full as my computer would say ;)

And as it's not really time for a break, I think it's time for me to start using an organizer OR... to find a personal assistant !!

Anyone interested ? ;)

Well, this is kind of me right now... !!

Missing New York...

... like hell today...

It's raining like crazy in Stockholm, nothing much to do... and I would give everything I have to be on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, dancing.

I WANNA GO BAAAAACK !!!!!!

Happy song

We all have some songs that make us smile or being happy, because they remind us of somebody that we like, a special moment in our life, happy times... And the opposite as well, of course.

I have one that I can't stop listening to since a few days... it's "Smooth Criminal" from MJ.

I like most of MJ's songs because I grew up with him, and I have some very good dance memories on some of his songs - especially "Dangerous", when we were dancing on the chairs a "few" years ago ;)

I know the picture is blurry but I like it, and I think we kinda recognize that it's a MJ's choreo lol.

Anyway, "my" song at the moment is "Smooth Criminal". It reminds of one of the best dance class I had in New York, which is also one of the best class I've ever had. If you remember, it's the one I told you I took with Luam at BDC. You know it's the kind of class, where everytime the teacher is adding an 8 (counts), you're like "woohhhoooo" and you can't just stop smiling (like I'm doing right now, just when writing it lol).

Well, this song reminds me this class, how much fun I had taking it with my 2 friends Klara and Jenny, and now when I listen to it, it simply makes me smile and feel happy :) The worst is when I'm listening to it while waiting for the bus cuz I wanna dance so much !! But I would feel quite ridiculous doing it I would say haha.

And you, what are the songs that make you smile at the moment ? Or in general ?

TOP 3

Today, I told my friend Julia that she entered my TOP 3 of the best dance instructors, for me. Actually that was just a way to tell her that I found her class was great. And then I started to think : "But who would I put in this TOP 3 if it really existed ?". Well, of course I would put Åsa, Julia then... and for the 3rd one I don't know. Maybe Robert ? Or Josefin ? I don't know really...

Anyway, I thought it was a good occasion to tell you about my TOP 3 of the best dance teachers I had in New York, and at BDC especially.

Actually, it took me a few days before I found the classes that were suiting me the best, but after I had discover those 3 teachers, it was just pure fun !

The first one, is the one I have taken the most (6 times in total !). Her name is Chio, and she is teaching a Jazz Funk class. I took her class in both levels : beginner and advanced beginner. She is doing the same choreo for both levels but teaching it more or less fast then. That was not an easy class I think (but I don't think there is really an easy class at BDC lol, for me at least) but the 2 choreo I did were both great and I had very much fun. When I say it was not easy, I don't really mean technically. It's more a matter of pace during the class, how fast you have to learn the movements. And also I thought they were not easy to remember. But maybe that's also because I was not so used to her style and her steps then, and also because I've been learning many many many [......] many steps in a very short time.

But anyway, here are 2 videos of the 2 choreos I've done with her if you wanna have a look.

The first one : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mt4gBFFEcY

And the second one : http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=0qNdyq27bNE&feature=related

The second teacher was Heather Rigg. She was teaching a quite "old school" jazz class. It loved it because I felt like back almost 10 years ago when I was taking jazz classes in high school. With all the technical exercises, stretching and so on. At the beginning I felt quite bad because it was a long time since I had not done that kind of exercises, but I took the classe different times and I could really feel that I got better each time. It was the same for the choreo. Actually it was funny because I already had danced on this music with Åsa. But it was not the same style at all. And it was even kinda confusing at the beginning ! But I really liked the choreo, and I like the fact that there was some technical difficulties (especially on turns and jumps), that I could work on through the different classes.

And the 3rd teacher was Luam, a hip-hop teacher, quite famous in the US actually. In the dance industry I mean. I took her class once only but I had SOOO much fun. I was supposed to take it a first time, in an advanced beginner level, but she was not there and it was somebody else teaching. So even though the class was good, I was kind of frustrated. Because my 2 friends who took her class before were so enthusiastic about it (can I even say hysterical ?!), that I thought it would be crazy. So I decided to take another of her classes. But the lowest level I could get was Intermediate, which means professional level over there. That's what they say at least... But it was the end of my journey there, and I really wanted to not have anything to regret (like "oh, I should have tried that..."), so I said "Ok ! Let's give it a chance ! You're strong, you're good, you can do it !". Well, I don't know if I'm strong or good lol, but you know what ? I did it ! And OMG it was so great. The choreo was on "Smooth Criminal" of M. Jackson and.... Oh, I loved it ! And it felt like a big victory to manage to take this class and not to be lost from the beginning until the end...!

So next time I go back (because yes, I'm seriously thinking of going back there in a few months), I'll definitely take those classes again.

But there are some more that I would love to try. Like Derek Mitchell in street jazz, Jermaine Brown in street as well, and also Sheila Barker and Debbie Wilson in jazz. And Sheryl Murakami in funk :) Well, that's a pretty nice program I have there !! Maybe next time I should stay one month ! Or if I can't (which is much probably going to be the case !), that could be a good reason to go back even another time ;)