new home...

i've decided to pull the trigger...(finally) register a domain name and move to a new location....

http://www.cazadelsoul.com (intentionally spelled wrong cause some !@#$ has been camping on casadelsoul.com since like '98...bastard)

guitare et laverie et yoga = balance

It's Sunday morning in La Ciotat and having conquered rond-points and the supermarché it's time to do some laundry. It's the little conveniences in life that can really throw you off balance...and finding that balance again is very comforting.

As for my balancing act, I'm mostly there. Mostly only because I haven't ventured away from La Citoat...yet. Well ventured away from La Ciotat on purpose. La Ciotat, I have come to learn, is a sleepy little tourist town. Inhabited mostly by retirees year round and fueled by tourism during the summer months. I suppose it could be compared to Florida in a sense...but only in the place where people come to spend their retirement years...not in the special-kind-of-redneck-found-nowhere-else-but-in-the-dong-of-america kind of way.

The only items that I brought with me that could be classified as non-essential are my yoga mat and my travel guitar (cameras are an essential as far as I'm concerned). However, not speaking the language and being here for just over a month these items have become very essential to helping me find my balance. Yoga, well what can I say about yoga...you either understand or you don't...I understand.

Music, however, everyone understa

nds.

Earlier this week, my colleague is showing me where the break room is located. Cool...French break rooms are no different than American break rooms....vending machines for soft drinks, sandwhiches, etc all in place. Cork board with various postings of things for sale, compan

y announcements, and music something or other. Umm, wait a second. I *think* that one says something about a practice room and "do you play an instrument? if so, come join us..."

Ok, wait a second. Monday I noticed a portable building in the visitors' parking lot. Then around lunch when I'm back up there I hear music coming from inside. Could it be?? Can this gig get any cooler?!?

Sure enough, my company has a portable building specifically set up for band pract

ice and is typically completely reserved every day and night of the week for the various musical groups to use for practice. That's right, these geeks also jam AND the company promotes it!!!

Back to the break room tour. I ask my colleague what that sign says. He confirms my rough attempt at a translation AND goes as far to tell me the one of our team mates plays guitar in one of the bands that practices on Wednesday...would you like an introduction?

wh-wha-WHAT!? HELL YES!!!

So, first band practice with my new found French amis is this Wenesday....and we'll see if music can overcome language barriers...w00t!!!

Day...oh hell i quit counting...

So I'm half way through my first week and today was the first day that not only have I not made wrong turns, but have also conquered these damn rond-points (roundabouts for those non-french-speaking types). I have no idea what the French fascination is with these damn things but they're EVERYWHERE! I mean I get the narrow streets and small car thing...but rond-points...really?!? Don't get me wrong...they are kinda fun once you get the hang of them.

The big accomplishment of the day yesterday was the supermarché. Not only was I able to successfully locate it, but was also able to find sustenance (aka pain / fromage / et vin) and make it back home all in one shot. Probably the strangest item I came across was frozen octopus. However, La Ciotat is a sea side town so I suppose that does make sense.

Anyway, the first week is almost over and that has me thinking about what this weekend will bring. I think I'll stay in town this weekend and go on a photo excursion...

Day 2: must...find...food...

Thinking I would get up at 8a was wishful at best. Jet lag won out and I finally rolled out of bed around 1p.

Ok, so breakfast didn't happen...lunch was a cup of coffee and a quick check of my city map to make sure I could get back down to the city center.

Gather the cameras, keys, passport, euros and I'm off.

One thing that is going to take some getting used to is the difference in placement of street signs. I can read just enough French to get the gist of the signs, but it wasn't until this afternoon that I was able to get a handle on placement...small and on the buildings...not on a post.

That makes for a challenging drive. Finding my way back to the city center was easy enough...parking was different story. My first thought was to drive around a bit and try to find a place to park and walk back down to the sea side. After many twists, turns, and roundabouts I figured it was probably best to head back down to the Tourism Center since I knew there was parking there and walk back up the boardwalk to find a place to eat.

Well, instead of walking back up the boulevard I decided to hang out around the docks and take some pictures.

One thing that hit me while wandering around was how isolated you feel when you don't speak the native language. I suppose to some this would be unsettling at best. I like the challenge. Between listening to my colleagues speak French on a daily basis and google translate I speak enough French (combined with crude sign language) to not be completely lost.

Anyway, I've only managed to explore a small portion of La Ciotat so far...and I completely lost track of time while I was busy hitting the shutter release...oops!

La Ciotat is a small town and like most small towns it starts to shutdown around 5p. Guess that's why the waiters...uh, servuers that is...are starting to take in the chairs and clear their tables...crap.

Must. Find. Food. NOW!

Luckily, not all the restaurants...brasseries...glaciers...were closing. I found a really cool place near the waters edge. And what else would you get for le dîner in a seaside town???

Day 1: l'arrivée

So after leaving Austin in a flurry of 24* weather and icy roads, rushing through the ATL airport to catch the connection through Schiphol (Amsterdam...yes Amsterdam...no it was only a two hour layover) I finally arrived in Marseille around noon local time.

That was the easy part.

My colleague and I pick up our cars and head off on our marry way...he near Nice...me off to La Ciotat. I wish I could say I drove directly from the airport to my hotel...but that wasn't the case. Two hours later and more wrong turns than I care to admit to and I finally make it! Ah well, I suppose there are worse places to get lost...

and so the adventure begins...

Back in September of 2010 I scored a new gig with a French company in their global services group. The project I'm on is the first one I will have been a part of that is in the telecom sector...which is one of the more exciting and enticing points for me.

Some time in the next couple of weeks I'll find out when I'm going to be sent to France to start with the hands on part of the project. Man I don't know what I'm more excited about...the project or working in France. All I know is I'm gonna be burnin up the the film in my mini diana.

excuse me while i whip this out

i've been re-visting movies from my younger days and recently watched blazing saddles for the i-have-no-idea-nth-time and damn...mel brooks is a genius!

when i was a kid i loved blazing saddles for the the fart jokes, slap stick, and superficial humor that tickles the funny bone of any american teenage boy. watching it again as a "grown-up" i've caught more of the underlying message that is still pertinent today. i get it...and have a new found respect for mr brooks. but i still love the fart jokes...