Dog Wash

(FB users: this was originally posted on jyby.blogspot, where you can see the pictures...)

From Jérémy "Le JyBy"

	Last week I went to a friend's place to help washing her 6 or so dogs. Lots of fun and love was there to have!
	I am going back there next week on zancos to help her to collect the fruits of her garden...

From Jérémy "Le JyBy"

Figaro en boite

Figaro a trouvé une nouvelle cachette. Le plus fort c'est qu'il ferme lui-même la boîte!

Phone holders Bear and Lizard :)

(FB users: this was originally posted on jyby.blogspot)

From Jérémy "Le JyBy"

	I needed a holder (or more) for my android phone, so that not to look for the cable each time I need to connect it, and to keep the screen visible when I used it as a clock, a timer, a chronometer or a calendar. This is being Chile, and the android phone from Google being sold only to developers, I did not find one in any of the ten shops where I asked. But in the end I found that recycling studded animals in cell-phone stands worked even better :)
	In March I will need a phone holder for my office at the University. Any suggestion?

Figaro, topmodel.

(FB users: this was originally posted on jyby.blogspot)

From MyArt

Une photo très artistique de Figaro, par Daniela.	A very artistic picture of Figaro by Daniela.	Una foto muy artistica de Figaro, por Daniela.
Il n'est pas toujours aussi calme!	He is not always that nice!	El no esta siempre tan calma!

From MyArt

Message in a bottle

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea, oh
Another lonely day, with no one here but me, oh
More loneliness than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair, oh



A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together
Love can mend your life but
Love can break your heart



Walked out this morning, don't believe what I saw
Hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone in being alone
Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home




Sending out at an S.O.S.
Sending out at an S.O.S.
Sending out at an S.O.S.
Sending out at an S.O.S.
Sending out at an S.O.S.
Sending out at an S.O.S...

One hundred lives

(FB users: full text on jyby.blogspot)

	I am watching this movie, and I feel their pains and their hopes, and I cry and I laugh, and I live 100 lives, and I learn 1000 lessons, and I am one million better for it.
	I want seven lives! I want more time, I want more space, to the stars and to the heart, the path is so long, how can anyone see the end of it?
	I am making this drawing, and etching this glass, baking this cake, burning this spoon, sculpting this copper, writing this poem, recording this melody, learning this instrument, speaking this language, dreaming this new world, and this other one, to make it better, for the like of me, and for the other ones too...
	I want seven lives! I want more time, I want more space, to the stars and to the heart, the path is so long, how can anyone see the end of it?
	I am teaching this lesson, and organizing this game, gathering this group, cheering up this girl, pulling up this guy, consoling this kid, playing with this dog,

Figaro, my new flatmate :)

(FB users, see jyby.blogspot for the original post)

Je vous presente mon nouveau colocataire: Figaro!	Let me introduce you to my new flatmate: Figaro!	Tengo el placer de presentarlos mi nuevo compañero de departamento: Figaro!
Je le garde trois semaines pendant que sa maitresse est en vacance a Torres del Pine.	I am keeping it for three weeks while its owner is on hollidays in Torres del Pine.	Le guardo mientras su dueña es en vacacion a Torres del Pine.

Fourth year in Chile

Big Dog

I realized yesterday that it was the first day of my fourth year living in Chile: it has been three years since I arrived in Santiago, riding high on hopes of building something meaningful in a country that I knew (or expected) to be full of needs and opportunities. It is a good time for looking back, and maybe the first time in three years that I take the time to do it calmly and in writing. Time to share it too: the few previous times when I thought about doing so, I feared to be too negative and did not dare share my thoughts in writing. I feel more objective now: you be the judge.

My first thoughts were negative: I did even less world-changing than usual. I did not manage to reach students the way I (think I) reached them back in Waterloo or Orsay, I did not manage to start the "boot strapping database" project (even though I "started" working on it with three distinct group of people), I did not finish writing by never-ending clarification/encyclopedia of adaptive algorithms. At the end of the first year I was feeling like I was "always sick". At the end of the second year I knew it to be true: my digital journal showed that my digestion was playing tricks on me roughly every two weeks, for events of one to five days. At the end of the third year, I know not to trust specialist doctors whose salary depends on telling you that your problem is of their specialty, and that I should indeed masticate better and not eat while walking from office to office.

The second thought, discovered and rediscovered in all ages, is that if I did not change the world, at least I changed myself: I knew it to be common for people with ideals when they start traveling, but I thought I had gone through this already when I moved from France to Canada and lived there for seven years. I learned Spanish. I learned a lot of psychology and physiology, a bit of neurology, of organization, and of diplomacy (for dealing with wild stray dogs and Chilean administrative staff). I learned that systems badly flawed can still work ok. I learned to manage my time even better than I manage my money, to invest more time implementing good ideas than having them, how to depend less of my environment, and to take less for granted. Once ashamed to reinvent myself in my thirties, I decided instead to be proud of the flexibility of my mind, half-way to my forties :)

Will it be, should it be, my last year in Chile? Ever since I left Normandy, I never lived very long in any place: 5 years in Orsay, 2 in Vancouver, 5 in Waterloo. But I learned to ignore such symbolism: I will stay if I find things of interest to do here, and I will go if I find more interesting things to do elsewhere. In any case, I have relearned to find happiness in what I do rather than in what I see, and will take this knowledge anywhere I go.