New (extra) flat

Photo taken by awk @ the Crowne Plaza Hotel
in Brussels (July 2008)

So after a month and some days staying at the hotel in Brussels, they finally decided it was time to find me an appartment. Well, they got me a cool studio in the last floor of a building with a nice view over the Cinquantenaire Parc in the European district.

This reliefs me of taking and bringing with me my bag every week but it adds additional hurdles like having to do the laundry and ironing myself. Sucks but I can’t complaint. I don’t know for how long I will be staying here but I hope it is not much.

The Darjeeling Limited

Arenberg Cinema

I have recently found and fell in love with the Arenberg Cinema in Brussels. Last week I had the opportunity to watch Calle Santa Fe, an excellent Chilean documentary about the MIR (movimiento de izquiera revolucionario) and how it managed to survive the dictatorship of Pinochet after Allende just to be pronounced as dead and dissolved a few time afterwards.

This week it was Darjeeling’s Limited turn. This film continues the same line and style of the Royal Tenenbaums (they even share actors). The soundtrack of the film is excellent. I specially enjoyed the Hotel Chevalier short film in the beginning with the “Where do you go to” song which was continually repeated throught the Darjeeling film. The “Aux Champs Elysees” at the end of the film drew an enormous smile on my face, and I can assure you it is still there today. The story is simple and the scenery in India is presented with no prentetious purpose. The photography is excellent and thanks to its mix with music it delivers its message sharp and clear. The story line turns somewhat boring at the end but the movie is conveniently ended on time.

To recommend: the soundtrack, specially “Aux Champs Elysees” and “Where do you go to.”
The scene I remember: from Hotel Chevalier, the last scene of the view of Paris.
What I didn’t like: the story ending. It turns out too slow and lost my interest.

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Photo taken by awk @ the Arenberg Cinema in Brussels (July 2008)

Talent concentration

I work for a big consulting firm in Paris and I currently began an interesting project in Brussels. I have worked for less than a week with my colleagues and I find all of them competent and talented. However, it seems that finding people like them in Belgium is not as simple. The post for which I was chosen has been vacant for more than one month and the client has refused several candidates. Meanwhile, in Paris, lots of consultants are “on the bench” waiting for a project to be staffed in, and I can guarantee that all of them are really talented. I would dare to say that the company for which I currently work for, really insists in choosing the right people.

In the end, it turns out that the best talents are concentrated in big capitals such as Paris, sitting on the desks waiting for the proper project, while smaller capitals such as Brussels have hard time finding the adequate profiles.

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Apparently, they really appreciate the capability of speaking Spanish, dealing with hard providers and employees, and like Mr. Gerente would say: “bitching the hell out of each and every inefficient worker”.