"Vibi... or Veebee... and mostly V.B." vibi68's Profile

Some say I'm strange, others that I have spunk and and originality.
One thing's for sure: I'm not your average redhead.
What attracted me to traveling, therefor to VT, is the discovery of unknown places, the embrace of different cultures, the meeting of new friends and my parents' heritage (read below to find out how my parents played a great role in that influence).
Being a translator, makes me very inclined to always go further in understanding what I discover, as to completely embody or personnify what I am living at a given time: when one translates, the rendered work has to be completely clear, fluid, exempt of any conotation containted in the starting language, it has to feel in total synchronicity with the arrival language, but translating is also about culture, body language, facial expressions, dreams and emotions... as Grisha so nicely noted.
So applied to my traveling experience, it means you will never find me in a luxurious hotel with conditionned air, room service and bell boys, nor will you see me running for major touristic attrations or cheering in five stars restaurants; I'm what you could call an "anti-polished traveler". I don't despise such travelers, just have learned from past experiences that the best trips are the ones where I was able to melt myself in with the real people, breathe the same air they do.
I look for the people's true way of life, try to learn the language before I visit, experience foreign cooking before leaving home, learn about customs and manners to adopt once at my hosts, listen to their music, even brush against different ethnic crowds before I leave; thank goodness, the multi-ethnic city I live in allows me to do so.
All of this still doesn't make me a rugged traveler, I am not a sports or nature buff, I enjoy great sceneries and fresh air, but like saving my feet and back for the next day's visit.
I am a fan of music, cooking, gatherings and frienship,
Flamenco, Jazz, Grunge, Disco revival, Gregorian chanting even Hari Krishna; my taste in music is as ecletic as my character.
Indian food, Thai cuisine, Foie-gras or a good cabane a sucre meal, anything goes as long as doesn't come from the sea. I love cooking, I think I do it well, I'm creative and daring and it always just magicaly ends up being great. One thing I miss is the real taste of some foods, as if with time and worldwide commercialisation, some fruits, vegetables and different other foods don't taste as they did when I was young, so one should not be surprised when on vacation, to see me have an "orgasmic" reaction to a bite or a simple sniff of a regional fruit!
I don't like crowds too much and tend to look for the more private way of meeting and celebrating with people, rather than huge social event, I will seek the little celebrations that end in the wee hours of the morning, the ones in which you often make friends for life.
The most important aspects of my life are translated into love, hapiness, originality, discovery, sensuality and the most important one, that embodies all of the above: my daughter.

I am human and let nothing human be strange to me
Terence

It was when he was in his early twenties that my father, born in Manitoba, Canada, decided to join the R.C.M.P. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Since the R.C.M.P. has a strict rule never to train rouky officers in their home province, my father was drafted to Quebec for his internship; that is where he met my mom. A year after they met, once my father had graduated to first officer, they got married... and again drafted, to Europe this time. For his ability to work with discretion and wisdom, my father had been chosen to represent the Canadian embassy abroad. So, many years and a few languages later they came back to their native land with my oldest brother in hand and an infinite amount of stories about their journeys. I was born a couple of years after their return... and never asked more than to hear about all of those far away lands they had so luckily visited. They had had a house in Paris for a few years, then one on Belgium for longer... but had visited, often for business matters of my dad's, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, England, Portugal, obviously France and Belgium. So my bedtime stories were not about Pussin' Boots or Cinderella, but about how when my mom in her first Parisian week, had asked for oranges to a market's place vendor... and never got them because unable to pronounce the words with enough of a French accent to be understood! ...and she is francophone, from Quebec but still very francophone! Then there was the story about losing my brother in a olive oil mill, actually never got lost, just hid between olive barrels... munching on! I would hear all kinds of amazing stories about the beatifull windmills of Holland, the calm and soothing beaches of Ostende, the lady who absolutely wanted to read my mom's palm in Sevilla! Nevertheless, I got bit by the travel bug! I guess I'm better off wanting to visit all those countries for myself, than waiting for prince charming to take me there, or believing cats can talk... I'm now on my way, late but well on my way; started to really travel in my thirties, but intend to catch up on lost times. I have been to many places in France and barely touched Italy, spent a week in Portugal, which was truly not enough and explored Andalucia to my heart's content. My trips are never long enough... I should work for a travel guide editor or something. I really love it, I'd live in suitcases for the rest of my life if I could. I bring my daughter wherever I go, since I believe traveling brodens ones horizons, and is also the best school of life... which I didn't get.

The world is a book and those who do not travel only read the cover
Augustine

For all of you who love traveling our blue marble, if you are concerned by its severe climate change like the worst drought season in Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany, etc.) in the passed 60 years, If the planet loosing 35% of its permafrost within the next 75 years thus liberating 455 million tons of carbonic gas in our atmosphere, rings a bell... if you are scared for your children's future, for the polar bear race, for drinking water and breathable air... if you are enraged at U.S. for not signing the Kyoto protocol as 84 other countries did, if you value environment more than reality TV, as it is far more a personal and global reality than any futile show will ever be, if you are furious for things that are not well explained, hidden from you concerning the health of our planet, therefor our health... please, take up the Dr. David Suzuki's Nature Challenge! BECAUSE YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT ALL THIS, just as over 170 000 people have already started doing! I have to admit, I don't really believe in a God, nor a superior power, but I do believe in Man: alone he is his own power but together we are all power. This Nature Challenge applied to only one single person for one whole year, can reduce Greenhouse gas emission of over 6658kg: the weight of 3 Ford Explorer trucks, Air polluants over 216kg, Water polluants over 352kg: representing 93 paint buckets pourred in a river. It also saves water usage of over 1487L a day: like flushing your toilet 124 times, it prevents 4105sm of Farm and Wetlands' loss: the same size as 26 homes... All that when you decide to pick 3 things to change among these 10:
1. Reduce home energy use by 10%
2. Choose an energy-efficient home & appliances
3. Don't use pesticides
4. Eat meat-free meals one day a week
5. Buy locally grown and produced food
6. Choose a fuel-efficient vehicle
7. Walk, bike, carpool or take transit
8. Choose a home close to work or school
9. Support alternative transportation
10. Learn more and share with others
It is an easy task, far more easy than living in a polluted world, and such a small effort to make this beautiful Earth a better, cleaner and safer place to leave to our traveling children. The Dr. David Suzuki website is a Canadian site, but the Nature Challenge can obviously be met by people around the world, as only all together can we succeed.

Travelography

1968 : Born at Hotel-Dieu in St-Jerome, Quebec Canada, on December 7th
1973 : First family trip to visit relatives in Wisconsin, U.S.A.
1973 : Family trip to Gaspesie, Quebec, Canada
1974 : Family summer trip in Wildwood, New Jersey, U.S.A.
1976 : Last family trip to Wildwood, New Jersey, U.S.A.
1977 : Elementary school exchange in Katana, Ontario, Canada
1980 : First solo airplane trip to visit relatives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (13 days)
1981 : Second solo airplane trip to visit relatives in Seattle, Washington D.C. U.S.A. (2 weeks)
1987 : College trip to New York, New York, U.S.A. (4 days)
1988 : Camping trip to Wildwood, New Jersey, U.S.A. (8 days)
1989 : Visiting with friend in Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. (10 days)
1990 : Super bowl trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A. (10 days)
1997 : Camping trip to Portland Maine, U.S.A. (1 week)
2001 : First solo overseas trip to France (Ile de France, Basse-Normandie, Poitou-Charentes, Aquitaine, Auvergne), Europe (1 month)
2004 : Family trip to France (Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur) & North of Italy (Liguria), Europe (23 days)
2005 : Family trip to Portugal (Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais) & Andalucia (Huelva, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Cadiz), Europe (1 month)
2005 : New Year's Family trip to Pompano Beach, Florida, U.S. including a short stay in Orlando's WDW (2 weeks)

Many more week-end and short stays in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - Quebec City, Quebec, Canada - Eastern Townships, Quebec, Canada - New York, New York, U.S.A - Eastern Coast, Maine, U.S.A. - Addirondaks, Vermont, U.S.A.

PROJECTION

July 2006 : Family trip to France (Paris, Normandy and the Loire Valley)

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Gandhi

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You must be the change you wish to see in the world

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Aristotle

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A true friend is one soul in two bodies.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

The soul never thinks without a picture.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

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To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

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Eldridge Cleaver

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If you are not part of the solution then you become part of the problem.

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.

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Steven Wright

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Last night I fell asleep in a satelite dish... this morning my dreams were showing on national T.V.

If I were in a spaceship traveling at the speed of light, and turned on the headlights, would anything happen?

When they asked George Washington for ID, I wonder if he just whipped out a quarter?

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Cyril Connolly

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For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?

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Next Friday, June 17th, I will be attending a Cirque du Soleil representation, I'm very anxious to see what everyone has been raving about for the last 20 years, as even if the Cirque du Soleil is a Quebequers' concept, I've never had the chance to go, nor such money to put on tickets (mostly over $100CAD), but this was a great present my parents gave to my partner and my daughter for their respective birthdays... I only get to tag along! eheheh! The presentation we will taking place under the immense Montreal Old Port's circus tent, right next to the St-Laurent river and is called "Corteo" which is the Italian word for "cort?ge" in French, or "procession" in English. It should be sublime, especially because I've never seen a circus act before and attending the spectable with my 6 years old, her oohs! and aahs! should draw enough tears from me, to want to tell the world about it... So coming soon (for the interested): A surely sappy resum? of the Cirque du Soleil - Corteo show! ...and perhaps pictures, if they are allowed of course, but for now, the Cirque du Soleil describes the show as follows: Corteo, which means "cortege" in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. The show brings together the actors' passion with the acrobats' grace and power, plunging the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.
The clown pictures his own funeral taking place in a carnival atmosphere, watched over by quiet and caring angels. Juxtaposing the large with the small, the ridiculous with the tragic and the magic of perfection with the charm of imperfection, the show highlights the clown's strength and fragility, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is within each of us. The music, sometimes lyrical, sometimes playful, carries Corteo through a timeless celebration in which illusion teases reality.

Braving the pourring rain, we entered the big tent in a furious frenzy; a couple of minutes later, a booster seat for my daughter and a forbiden shoot later (as pictures are a big "NO! NO!", I was still able to sneek a couple without flash)... the show started. In the purest tradition of circus acts the costumes, make-ups, decors, music and displays were perfect! With an Italian, Gypsy, Romanian flair, the show opens on girls dressed in French "turn of the century" under garnements danggled from gigantic crystal chandeliers and through the air, as a bitter sweet clown was being visited on last time by friends and family, on his death bed. Angels floating in the air, along with the clown's bed, acrobats spinning in "body" hoops and the Culbutos man, were all reminders of the crazy whirl of death. In a mix of mute colors, dimmed lighting and the smell of burnt wax and insense... the Cirque du Soleil came out of its traditional "anti-traditional" way of presenting its acts. As most already know, owner Guy Lalibert?, is always on the look out for untraditionnal and modern ways of presenting his circus acts, from the costumes, to the music and choreographies; other Cirque du Soleil performances are usually very pseudo-neo-modern creations. In this case... nothing could be further from the truth. Everything gave into the purest tradition of an amazing baroque and grotesque circus act. Jugglers, wire walking, the tallest ring master and shortest balerina, all that was missing was the bearded lady and half snake man... but I'm sure if he could have found them, Lalibert? would have incorporated them into this particular act! Live music performed by costumed musician in a "corbeille" next to the stage included sad violinists, "tortured" saxophonists and amongst many others, an absolutely tear jerking opera singer. Along with everything else, the songs and rythms accompanying the circus troup were as lyrical and plaintive as a cry for memorable lost times. Strange how funny and sad can so easily be intertwined, into such a show.

The road was long and strenuous... but we finally found our exchange for the summer of 2007 in a little town up in the Northern part of Spain: Miami Playa, kind of ironic to be living in North America and have to go all the way to Spain, to find a place to stay called... Miami Beach! Miami Playa is situated about 20 minutes from Tarragona, a town mostly known for its many archeological sites and spectacular "human towers" contests taking place around the month of October.
We had a hard time dealing with our future exchangers since I can get around Spanish, but Catalan is a different story. Actually, these people aren't from Miami Playa but Andorra. We are anxious to see how things develop between us, throughout the year.
We have already planed our itinerary and of course, intend to spend a whole week in Barcelona... the rest is yet to come!