Trip to Curacao
A few weeks ago I went down to Curacao to attend my friends’ wedding. Below are the pictures. Felicitaciones Jennefer y Fernando!
Tools for raising awareness about climate change
A few weeks ago I helped to organize a workshop in the Dominican Republic to help governments in the region share best experiences in the fields of education, outreach and public participation in climate change. All of this is enshrined in Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). See the presentation/animation that I put together for the event:
I was also impressed with a video shared by the representative from Jamaica. It really leverages the power that music can play in raising the general public’s awareness about climate change. See below:
Pretty cool, eh?
Thoughts on the April 2010 Bonn meetings
Image by hoder via Flickr
By the time I got around to writing about the Bonn April 2010 meetings, I found out that a lot of people have already written a lot about it, so I’m just going to list a few pieces that I thought are worth-reading:
– The Earth Negotiations Bulletin’s Summary and Analysis: Very good summary of history of the process, issues covered and short analysis at the end.
– The Guardian: extensive coverage on the Bonn April 2010 meetings and climate change international policy in general from a UK journalistic perspective.
– The New York Times and Dot Earth:Â extensive coverage on the Bonn April 2010 meetings and climate change international policy in general from a US journalistic perspective.
– The World Resource Institute: nice piece on the status of the state of play after COP 15.
Hope these are helpful! Don’t forget to check my blogroll on the right side of the blog for more interesting links!
My new crocs
For Eastern weekend I went to Amsterdam to visit friends and tour the sites. The visit included usual sights such as the Van Gough Museum, Anna Frank‘s house and a canal tour. We also walked around the Jordaan neighborhood, which we liked a lot (reminded us of NYC a little bit). Seeing old friends was great and we shared stories from days in Curacao.
However, I must say that one surprisingly great part of my trip was my discovery of the Crocs. Yes, the weird-looking sandals. I stopped by a Crocs store in Amsterdam and after trying a few pairs decided to go for a brand new pair. Now I can’t stop wearing them! They are really nice! See picture below:
Visit to Idstein
A couple of weeks ago I visited Idstein in Germany to visit my friend Franziska Seel. Idstein was hosting a small music festival. We had a good time and learned about this nice looking town. I hope to visit again soon! Below some pictures!
Trying to catch Pearl Jam in Europe: Arras vs. Werchter vs. BBK Live?
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
As a newcomer to living in Europe, I am looking for possible venues to catch Pearl Jam at one of their stops during their European tour this summer. I seem to have already missed the window for the concert in Berlin but I am now trying to catch them somewhere else in Europe. My current options are: the Arras Festival in France, the Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium or the BBK Live Festival in Bilbao (I could also see them in the UK or in Italy, but the dates don’t work for me).
The Arras Festival seems like a good option given that it is relatively close by to Paris, so I could access it via train easily. The biggest plus is that Pearl Jam is playing with Ben Harper, so it would be a great opportunity to catch them both.
Rock Wechter is the closest to Germany and offers the opportunity to catch other bands and also spend some time in Belgium. It would be great to check out some chocolateries and breweries! I also haven’t been to Belgium in a while, and it would be good to visit, especially Ghent and Brugges!
Finally, the BBK Live Festival in Bilbao has its unique plus and minuses. The plus is that I could get to spend some days before and/or after the show in Bilbao and really spend the time learning about Basque culture. There is some great art and architecture, like the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry, and of course excellent food! The minus is that it would be more expensive to get to Spain.
I’ll try to make my decision this week, so I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted and eventually share pictures and insights from wherever I decide to go!
Le Anti-Cri: A comprehensive understanding of Munch’s work
Image via Wikipedia
I spent this past weekend in Paris after some work-related meetings. I decided to attend an exhibition on Eduard Munch’s work. I have been a Munch fan since a friend suggested I check out a traveling exhibit a few years back while studying abroad.
This exhibit was particularly interesting for two reasons; first it was upfront about the fact that Munch is primarily known by only one piece, the Scream. Thus, it purposely sought to look at Munch’s work beyond his masterpiece (the Scream is called “The Cri” in French, so check out the play on words in the title of the exhibit).
Secondly, the exhibit was not made up by pieces usually available to the public at the National Gallery of Oslo or the Munch Museum.
Instead, the exhibit was made up by a series of privately owned pieces, which are normally housed at collector’s homes. It really made it a unique experience!
For more information about the exhibit and for dates/times follow this link!
Carnival in Bonn!
I just came back from great times at the Bonn Carnival. We got to see a lot of revelers in crazy outfits and lots of candy thrown around!
We ended the night at Luxx, a bar in Alstad in Bonn. We checked out a Brazilian/World Music band called Crescenti. They rocked hard and the party was still going on by the time I left. I look forward to the Chinese New Year Party tomorrow evening!
Pictures are below!
Plant for the Planet: Learning from children
Yesterday, I learned about an initiative called Plant for the Planet. It is spearheaded by an organization called the Global Marshall Plan out of Germany. Their motto is “stop talking, start planting,” and has gained significant media exposure.
The face of the campaign is a 12-year old boy named Felix Finkbeiner, who has been able to convince politicians, activists and celebrities to let him take pictures of them with his hand over their mouths, as if he was shutting them up – it’s pretty nice 🙂
The group plans to do a big “tree planting party” at the next round of climate change negotiations in Bonn this coming May. They expect to bring thousands of children, who like Felix plan to tell the negotiators to shut up and start planting. It’ll be a sight to see!
I promise to take pictures, so stay tuned!
Hyperlocal sites – Is MyBonn.com a good idea?
After spending a few months in
As you can notice from stories in newspapers NY Times about hyperlocal news sites,
there is a growing movement of blogs/sites helping people find out what’s happening in their communities. I think these sites, contrary to the ones I’ve found in
accurate schedules for movies not dubbed to German).
In
I’ll keep looking into this and keep posting on the subject…
