Working in Spain

After I left the Isle of Elba, I went to Genova, but not without stopping at Pisa, to visit the famous tower, quite impressing. In Genova I meet a friend, Massimo, and stayed with him the next days. We had an awesome time in Genova and went on a day trip to ‘5 terre’, a very cool place, where you can see 5 very little villages at the seaside! Unfortunately I couldn’t stay longer in Italy.

Now I’m in Spain, Mecina-Bombaron, for a field project about mountain ecosystems. The village we live in is quite small; there are 2 bars and nothing else, so not much about nightlife here. That’s why we basically watch Spanish TV at night, quite funny, because it is super badly dubbed, but mostly we’re watching sports, the only thing that makes sense if you don’t speak the language.

Working in the Sierra Nevada is quite hard, very physical, but fun too. We’re basically digging holes and analyzing the soil and vegetation to study effects of climate change. We’re also taking samples of plants for further analyze and working in a mapping campaign, for another research project. So far everything is as I expected it to be. The only unexpected is the weather, one would think of sun if you go to Spain, which there is, we had some sunny days. But we are having snow here as well. As proof there is picture of yesterday.

I’m gonna spent one more week here, before I will leave and go back to Malaga, for my last 3 day of holidays. After that my 7 week Euro trip is over and it is time to go back to Germany.

Eurotrip

I have reached my first destination of this spring's Eurotrip, Edinburgh. So far it’s good to be back here, again. The first day was quite laid back, just hanging around in the ISC and meeting some friends, playing Trivial Pursuit, with unanswerable questions. Later on we had some beers at the new Pubnight in the Greenmantle, quite a nice place, before I headed to a Flat Party with the funny theme 'Safari/Board games. Quite a good day first day... but today it's raining and sunny... so I'm undecided about what to do.

However I'm going to stay here until Wednesday and then flying to Rome to spend (and work) some time in Italy. Thereafter I'm off to Spain. Here is a map with the full route:

Vancouver International Film Festival

Since the VIFF has been in Vancouver while I was there, I used the chance to join it and watch some movies, unfortunately I don't have the time to watch all of the 'interesting' ones. Anyways those are my TOP 3 movies.

# 3

ARMADILLO (Denmark)

This movie is a documentation about a danish army platoon in Afghanistan. The movie follows all the events that happen during a 6 months period, while the platoon was serving in Afghanistan. Without objection the brutality of war is shown in this movie, and I mean it, you can see real combats and even the (dead) victims. The movie shows brilliantly how the charaters develop during their stay and what challenges they meet, all in the intention to help the people of Afghanistan.

If somebody wants to get an inside view on war (in Afghanistan) and somehow the reality over there is I would definitely recommend this movie, but be aware of some shocking footage.

The homepage can be found here, the trailer here.

# 2

CELL 211 (Spain)

The film is based on a novel by Francisco Gandul. The story is about a prisonguard that becomes trapped in a cellblock which has been overtaken by the prisoners, under the lead of a psychopath. The story follows the development of the prisonguard which pretends to be a prisoner himself. Wonderfully told story and brilliantly evolving all the time, with unforeseeable events, that make the prisonguard to a leader of the riot. The movie is filmed like a documentation and draws one into the storyline all the time.

A very exciting movie and splendid performances make this movie absolutely worth watching. The homepage, including a trailer, can be found here.

# 1

WASTE LAND (Brazil/UK)

Waste Land is a documentation by Lucy Walker about/with the artist Vik Muniz. That might sound boring, BUT this is a heart touching movie. Filmed on the biggest landfill in the world, in Rio de Janeiro, artist Vik Muniz tries to make art out of garbage. On the landfill he takes pictures of 'pickers'; people living!!! and picking up receycable materials on the waste dump (waste land), to make a living. Furthermore, the stories of those chosen people are shown, how they could end up in the position they are in. During the movie it is shown how the lives of the people change and how they are shown different opportunities to make a change to their life.

This film is very touching, and shows brutaly how life can be at the end of society, or basically, how people without opportunites make a living of what we are throwing away. Moreover, it is shown how Vik Muniz gives them a chance to do something valuable with their live to make a change.

I would absolut recommend to watch this movie to everyone, as it makes one think about how people live in the shadow of the society. Additionally, what is happening with you're garbage (especially Brazil) in regard to human and environemental issues.

The homepage of the movie can be found here, and the trailer can be seen here.