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Kontakt: Bernd Kugler

L’Ajuntament  aprova un conveni que tanca una llarga polèmica sobre el camí del Vilar. L’estiu del 2008, els propietaris de Mas Montells van modificar el camí que s’utilitza per anar a peu al Santuari del Vilar des del veïnat de Ca la Guidó. El camí passava pel centre de la finca i ara ho fa per un dels costats.

Aquest canvi va generar un ampli debat polític i social sobre quin era el camí tradicional i quin era el seu propietari. L’ajuntament no té un registre de camins, el que ha complicat encara més la situació.

En el Pla General d’Urbanisme, que també es va aprovar la setmana passada, els propietaris de Mas Montells fan una cessió anticipada de 22.000 metres quadrats per poder ampliar la Ciutat esportiva. Inicialment aquests terrenys s’havien d’aconseguir via expropiació. Ara no suposaran cap cost econòmic pel municipi.

Audio: Ave Maria

Fotos por: Eliot Santos

Symbiose

…die da so auf Mallorca unterwegs sind. Da haben wir beispielsweise eine Symbiose aus Vanessa und Marcel neulich unter einem feuchten Stein ausgegraben… .

hundefrauhund

Desweiteren begegnet uns diese “Hundefrau” oder ist es eher ein “Frauchenhund”?

Marcel & Vanessa bei der Arbeit

Während man sich bei einigen nicht ganz sicher sein kann, ob es sich hier um eine Effektspielerei der Kamera handelt, können wir durchaus versichern, daß es sich bei dem Vanessa-Marcel-Bildchen nur um eine digitale Symbiose handelt… . Echt hingegen waren die unendlichen Fleischbatzer, die Marcel gestern abend auf dem Juppi-Balkon der neuen Wohnung auf den Grill geschmissen hat. Nur gut, daß die Hamster in ihrer Finca geblieben sind, bei der gefährlichen Glut am Grill, die von stürmischen Wind angefächert wurde. Ein netter Abend – Thx an euch beide.

Hoy lunes, no tenia clases… yupi!! Y weno me levante con muchas ganas de ir a caminar así q me bañé y baje a saludar, la seño luci me dijo q me llevaría a Paute (pueblo hacia medio nor oriente de cuenca) luego de almorzar… y asi fue, luego del almuerzo nos fuimos pa paute, q chvr ese sito y q chvr es el campo caray!! Cada vez mas amo mas todo aquello q este lejos de un centro comercial o de un súper mercado.

Saben, desde q llegue aquí he superado varias cosas, desde tomar un avión sola!! Si io odio volar… y lo hice sola, claro obvio no flato el miedo pero aun así lo hice… incluso hubo momentos en q lo disfrute jaja, hoy vencí bueno no lo vencí pero x lo menos fui detrás de ese miedo y a voluntad propia, cruce un puentote como de 100 metros creo! Siiiiiiii y sola!!! Me tome una foto pa q vean jaja

Bueno luego de eso fuimos a la casa de la mama del mejor amigo de Pedro… allí estuvimos realmente q hermosa finca, caminamos un poco, conocimos otro tanto y naa, nos regresamos, compramos una tortilla pauteñas de choclo y de trigo y volvimos…

Al volver, io me puse a ver tele, y weno la seño se fue con su amiga x un café, io me quede y luego me fui a lavar la boca y a dormir… x cierto mi mama mi llamo y un fenómeno extraño paso jaja la tarjeta no se acababa!! Jaja si señores hablamos como media hora!! feliz me dormí hoy gracias mami y papi y millones de éxitos a mi satal y seguir dándole duro!!!

Ah, I think I have finally established a schedule here.  I like having some sort of routine so I don’t feel so frantic all the time.  My week is now set up where I teach with Tia Patti every day except Wednesdays.  On Wednesdays I head into Quito and volunteer with FINCA.  And then in the late afternoons Monday through Thursday I have my Spanish class at the university.  Perfectly filled days!

This was my first week really spending any time in the FINCA office.  Tuesday was mainly giving me information to read, looking over existing and future marketing creative and meeting some people in the office.  I’ll admit that Tuesday was HARD.  I was thinking maybe I’d be working more with the other two non-FINCA employees who speak English and Spanish fluently (one woman is from England here for 6 weeks, one guy is Canadian here as a contractor until at least May) so that I would have some help.  Nope.  As of right now I am only working with the Marketing Director who speaks only Spanish.  It took all my brain power to concentrate on what she was telling me and to try to respond in some reasonable fashion.  I was about done by lunch time. Ha.

Since Tuesday was more of a “set up” day I came back to FINCA on Wednesday, but actually had an opportunity to go out into the barrios and visit some bancos comunales (I wanted to include a photo of the meetings but my iPhoto doesn’t seem to be caught up with my uploaded photos.  Boo.  Another time).  FINCA uses the village banking system where they give a loan to a group of people and they are all held responsible to one another.  The meetings were really great and nicely enough the English woman was with us so she could translate things I wasn’t following. It was interesting hearing the loan officer from FINCA give her opinion on the village banking method, what she finds effective about microfinance and what she would improve.  And of course at each meeting they were super hospitable and made little snacks for us which I thought was nice.  I got to try my first colada morada and guagua de pan which are the traditional foods for the upcoming holiday on Monday – El Dia de los Muertos.

Speaking of the holiday, we get both Monday and Tuesday off here so it sounds like I’ll get a chance to go to Tena!  Tena is the jungle and where my cousin Marisa lives.  I didn’t get a chance to go there last time I was here so I’m looking forward to the trip.

In general everything is starting to feel a bit more familiar and I’m happy to have this opportunity.  Each day I feel a little more welcomed into the community.  This evening when I was walking home a car was driving past in the opposite direction when all of a sudden a loud, high voice called out “Hola Miss Lauren!!” and there was one of our students waving her little head and hand out the window at me.  It was great.

“Kill Doctor Lucky”

Game Description: Sort of a prequal to Clue. Or perhaps the opposite of Clue. Players attempt to kill Doctor Lucky by meeting him in room alone (where no one else can see). Doctor Lucky moves around the rooms of the mansion in a preset order, but players can move him by using the right card.

Players: Eric M, Tammy D, Charlie M, Joel

Eric won.

Tammy’s Back! Hurray! — I really do like this game, but it is one of those games where you can really be stalled out by just not getting the right card. I spent about half of the game with nothing but weapon cards in my hand and not being able to move into an advantageous spot. I’m not yet a skilled player, but still… not getting good cards is really a downer. Granted… out of the 6 or so games I’ve played, this is the first time this has happened.

“Finca”

Game Description: A Finca is ranch or farm in Spain. This game is all about growing fruit on the island of Mallorca and delivering it to the nearby community. The most successful farmer wins the game.

Players: Eric M, Tammy D, Charlie M, Joel

Joel won. — I really like this game. The movement mechanic is not very thematic, but it is really interesting to see how your plans can get destroyed when someone else moves off your “windmill blade”. I think you really have to give up the notion of long-term planning on this game… there isn’t a good “strategy”… but rather focus on good short-term “tactics”.

Ugh.  This morning did not go well.  My FINCA meeting was scheduled for 9:30am and I was very excited to learn what they would have me doing, but alas – the morning went terribly.  I shall explain.

So I woke up plenty early, had my juice and oatmeal and tea.  Felt all professional in my work clothes, had my directions to Quito all written out – it was going to be a great day!  I caught the bus to Quito at 8:15a expecting to be in Quito by 8:45am.  No real problems on the bus, but it took me much longer than 30 minutes…it ended up taking about 45 minutes.  So I was a little more stressed, but not too worried because I knew where to go once I got to Quito.

I got off the Valley bus and crossed the street over to the station that would connect me to the Trolebus.  Now this whole system is sort of confusing, but I understood what to do.  I need to take the shuttle to the Trolebus line.  Then I was going to take the Trolebus to “La Y” and walk to FINCA from there.  Que facil.  Well, I waited for the shuttle for about 15 minutes and it still hadn’t come so now I was starting to get uncomfortable.  For anyone who knows me, I absolutely despise being late.  It gives me an anxiety I can’t describe.  So I decide I better just take a taxi since I had the address and I didn’t want to chance being late and Tia Patti told me it was only $1.50 to get there.  I had the address and told the driver in my very best Spanish (which is not that great yet, but much better than it was even a week ago!) the address and he answered with a very long complicated answer.  This concerned me because that meant he didn’t know where to take me.  I kept trying to explain, telling him it was near “La Y”, etc.  He finally says ok and I assume we are on our way.  Now, as a side note to this story, not to share too much, but I also needed to use the restroom very badly so that added to my angst.

So we’re driving.  And I realize that the meter now says $3 and I think “hmm, this is taking too long…?” but what did I know, I forgot to bring my map but I drew him a very nice one that I had memorized from Google Maps so I didn’t think it would be a problem.  Wrong.  About 15 minutes later I finally call Tia Patti in distress.  “Please talk to the cab driver, he’s mad at me and I don’t know where to go and I’m late and I have to go to the bathroom – ” Commence hysterical crying.  At this point it’s about 9:40a so I’m in full panic mode.  Tia Patti and him talk for awhile and he finally turns around and we go almost all the way back!  I was having a full meltdown and he kept saying “No mio culpa, tu culpa.” But I really don’t think it was my fault..I mean yes a little, I don’t speak Spanish well, but I TOLD him “cerca la Y!!” so he shouldn’t have driven so far.

We eventually get to FINCA, it’s about 10am or later, I’m pretty sure my bladder is going to burst and I feel like a mess.  I go through the really complicated security system, go upstairs to FINCA and try to go to the restroom right away, but what do I find?  Locked!  Shoot, I need an electronic key and the receptionist is no where to be found.  At this point I think I’m going to cry again but I see a man who appears to work there and I beg him to open the women’s restroom.  He lets me in, I hurry along, straighten myself up and I’m ready for my meeting.  O, but what’s this?  Why am I locked in the bathroom?!?  Who locks the bathroom from the inside??  Help!!  I see the light switch, an emergency button and something that looks like a sensor.  So I desperately wave my hand in front of the sensor for a few minutes, nothing.  I then commence to bang on the door “Ayudame!!” and no one comes.  I end up being stuck in there for a full 5 minutes banging on the door until someone frees me.  I’m obviously embarrassed, but also sort of over this whole morning and he points at the “emergency” button like I’m an idiot.  I’m supposed to press that to get out??  Why wasn’t it labeled “Salida” or something practical.  Terrible.

SO.  I finally get to the receptionist, let her know I have a meeting and she shows me into Carola’s office.  I apologize profusely (Tia Patti had already called ahead to let them know a taxi driver had essentially kidnapped me and that I was very lost), and it turns out Carola speaks English pretty well.  And what does she say?  “Hello Lauren, it’s very nice to meet you.  I need to speak with you, but unfortunately I have meetings all the rest of the day.  And tomorrow I’ll be in Guayaquil.  Can you come back Friday morning?”

Sigh.

So it looks like it’ll be take 2 on Friday.  I got home fine (NOT using a taxi, using good ol’ reliable public transit) so I know I can navigate there on Friday, I just need to leave more time.

Lessons Learned:

• Leave twice as much time as I think I need.
• Bring maps with me.
• Don’t take taxis.
• Continue learning Spanish – I will remain semi-worthless in this country until my Spanish gets better.  Although, it was comforting that Tio Miguel told me today during lunch (in Spanish) that he thinks my Spanish has gotten MUCH better in just a week.  That was nice.

Off to study….hoping for un buen dia again tomorrow…

Today was my first day teaching class with Tia Patti.  Phew did those kids have energy!  I was so tired by the “end of the day” (we are only in school from 7:30 to 12:30) and this was our light day!  You would think that speaking in English to kids 8 and under wouldn´t be that hard, but you run out of things to do and it´s hard to keep their attention!  Tia Patti is really good at keeping the kids entertained.  They think she is so funny.  I on the other hand did not get as many laughs from the kids.

A few things came up right away and after watching just two classes, Tia had me teach 3 on my own!  One was a nursery class (2-3 year olds) which was really hard.  Those kids were not having me.  The 2nd class was primero de basica, which is essentially kindergarten.  I had watched Tia Patti do this class earlier so I felt a little better about it, but I still struggled.  By the time I got to segundo (or 1st grade) I was much better.  I sang songs in English and drew body parts on the board and asked them to name them.  Not too bad, but hard to keep their attention.

After teaching all the teachers eat almuerzo together.  I am still amazed at the cost of food … we get these HUGE lunches for only $1.50!  Seriously, I got sopa, rice, beans, meat and a little plantain all for a $1.50.  It’s much easier to eat out (and probably more affordable) than to cook at home.  It’s great.

I really like all the teachers although I don’t know everything they are saying.  They are nice to me and practice Spanish with me.  They are polite and don’t laugh too much at my Spanish and make a point of telling Tia Patti that I understand a lot.  Ha…I would be nice to my boss’ niece too. Hopefully hanging around them will be helpful for my Spanish.

We went into Quito today to run a few errands and scoped out the FINCA office.  It’s in a nice building so I’m really happy I brought dress clothes.  We thought maybe we’d catch the woman I’m supposed to be setting things up with but she was out of the office today.  Perhaps that’s why she didn’t email me back yet.  Patience, patience.

So that was generally my first work day.  My head sort of hurts and I think that’s because I’m still getting used to the elevation.  I think we are at about 10,000 feet so it’s an adjustment from flat, flat Chicago.  Add in the jumping around and singing and it makes sense my head is a little woozy.  Hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow.

Time for a Skype date with Justin!

Después de admirar la impresionante Sagrada Familia, recorrimos un poco el barrio en lo que hacíamos tiempo para abordar nueva mente el turibus, aprovechamos para tomar una coca y comprar algunos souvenirs que curiosamente estaban más económicos que en Las Ramblas. A la llegada de nuestro bus nos subimos y seguimos la misma ruta roja hacia Grácia, que fue un pueblo independiente hasta fines del siglo XIX e incluso en la actualidad su comunidad es pequeña y cerrada. De ahí el bus siguió al Parque Güell donde no bajamos para resérvanos el paseo al día siguiente, pero ya les cuento de este hermosos parque más adelante. El bus siguió su camino y llegamos a la zona de Balu Tibiadabo donde se asientan los grandes corporativos de la ciudad. El recorrido sigue y pasamos la Sarria de St. Gervasi, pasando el Monestir de Pedralbes hasta el Palau Reial Pavellons Güell, que es una gran y hermosa finca donde la familia pasaba los días de verano. Vaya que este Sr. Güell si que tenía gusto por los bienes raíces y era el dueño de casi toda Barcelona. www.rutadelmodernisme.com

Former President Bill Clinton, the first UN Special Envoy to Haiti, is headed there this week. He knows FINCA well, having visited our program in Uganda, and is a steadfast champion of microfinance. There is no question that he will help bring global attention to the plight of the Haitian people, who are struggling to rebuild lives that have been shattered by natural disaster, political strife and economic collapse.

The Finca is an Andalusia farm located in the heart of 6 hectares haven of peace, surrounded by olive, lemon and orange trees. We work out on a natural Harmony-Relax-Adventure settled philosophy to offer you a recovering stay out of time and stress

Der heutige Tipp des Tages kommt aus dem Themenbereich Reise/ Urlaub/ Flüge – Reiseziele/ Hotels: Spanien Mallorca/ Balearen: rund-um-santanyi.de – So beschreiben die Seitenbetreiber Ihr Angebot: “Unser Portal Rund um Santanyi informiert Sie über Hotel Apartment Ferienhaus Wohnung, Gastronomie und alles andere in dieser Gegend.”

Und das sagen andere über dieses Webangebot: “Sehr informativ – keine Werbung – gute Tips sehr schöne Fotos pp” (am 14.03.2009), “Insiderwissen und werbefrei-sher gut!” (am 23.09.2008),

Weitere Details über diese Website auf dem bunte-suche.de Webportal, ähnliche Webangebote finden Sie in dem bunte-suche.de Themenkatalog Reise/ Urlaub/ Flüge – Reiseziele/ Hotels: Spanien Mallorca/ Balearen.

“El refugio”, “The refuge” in English,  is a typical Spanish Finca, only five km from your costa blanca golf apartement.

There you can do many different and fun things: you can take riding lessons and accompanied rides in the beautiful countryside or at the beach. They also offer so called “star rides” at night. You can even learn how to ride in the traditional Spanish way.

On the Finca, they breed PRE (pura raza española, pure Spanish race) horses, also known as ‘Andalusian horse’ . They will happily help you find your own perfect horse to buy, as they know all the horse breeders of the region.

To book your horse riding trip or to get more information ask at the golf apartment.

I’ve always been a Natalie Portman fan.  Although she’s never been one of my all time favorites because she’s never done anything to make me loveher or hate her.  But I do love a lot of her movies.

Well, her interview in Interview magazine completely changed that.  I loveNatalie Portman after reading it.  She seems so funny, intelligent, and hopeful about the future of our country.  It was refreshing to read an interview of an actor in their twenties who isn’t complaining about the paparazzi and how they can’t just live their lives.  I loved how instead she talked about FINCA, her love of dirty rap music, and how there will be a female president one day.  Very inspiring and true. 

You can read the interview for yourself and see the beautiful pictures after the jump.

Natalie Portman

By Jake Gyllenhaal
Photography Vinoodh Matadin, Inez Van Lamsweerde

Yet, for all we’ve witnessed, watching her blossom into adulthood, go off to college, fall in love with Darth Vader, and come back a strong, self-assured young woman, what do we really know about Natalie Portman? That she was born in Israel? That she’s a vegetarian? We know that when Portman was 11 years old, a scout from Revlon approached her at a local pizza joint on Long Island and asked if she would be interested in pursuing a career in modeling. (Portman declined.) We know that she’s one of the most famous people to have an Erdös-Bacon number, an academic-entertainment industry designation bestowed upon the rare few who’ve published papers in the field of mathematics and are connected to Kevin Bacon by less than six degrees. (Portman’s number is five.) We know that she devotes a considerable amount of time to various social and political causes, including FINCA, an organization that promotes microcredit lending in developing countries. (We’ll let her explain how that shakes down.) We also know that she has campaigned for several Democratic political candidates. (People in red states might have actually hung up on her in the days leading up to the 2008 Presidential election, when she logged hours at the phone banks for the Obama campaign.)

But all of that is just information—valuable information, but information nonetheless. What we’re after is substance, some kind of material truth. There’s a common grumbling that we know too much about celebrities today, that the flow of data and images and the strange cult of online personality in the early 21st century has manifested a damaging transparency in the famous-people business—that celebrities aren’t what they used to be, that they wear flip-flops and buy groceries and post strange messages on the Internet, that they’re just like us, and who wants that? But maybe the real problem is that we thinkwe know more about celebrities today than people did in less media-saturated eras, when in actuality we really don’t know much about them at all. How else can one explain the fact that Natalie Portman, now 28, famous for more than half of her life, easy to spot and accessible to know, remains a veritable enigma to us? We’ve been able to fly to the moon for nearly 40 years (see this month’s Society page), but one of the best-known actresses in the world, we can’t seem to crack in any real way.

To that end, we asked Jake Gyllenhaal, Portman’s co-star this fall in the Jim Sheridan war drama Brothers (and a veritable riddle himself—he supports the ACLU and likes to run, but what else?), to find out something about her that we don’t already know, to secure for us a portrait of her that touches upon certain intangibles. After much deliberation, Gyllenhaal decided that he was up to the task. The two actors spoke recently in Los Angeles.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: I thought I would start off our interview with a little section that I’d like to call The Icebreaker. Are you sitting down?

NATALIE PORTMAN: No. Why? Should I be?

Los miles de lectores habituales que tengo recordarán aquel post que hice no hace mucho en el que una de las protagonistas era una pegote de mesa que nos habían encasquetado al resto de vecinos. (Véase el post de la zapatilla blanca). Bueno, pues de un día para otro, la susodicha mesa desapareció del mapa, y creo que para siempre.

Por otra parte, desde hace unas semanas me encuentro todas las mañanas la luz de la otra escalera encendida, y yo que no soy un ecologista nato, pero tampoco soy un derrochador de energía, la apagué una mañana. Pero sólo una. Día tras día, la misma luz aparecía encendida, y yo desistí en volver a apagarla, pero hoy cuando he llegado de trabajar me encuentro con esto…

Que cada uno juzgue a su antojo y semejanza, lo que si puedo deciros es que me he reído un montón. Vamos, que entre la niña que llora los sábados por la mañana, los vecinos de la panadería, el vecino que le ha dado por poner música chunga chunga… cada día encuentro una cosa nueva y no me da tiempo a aburrirme.

Lo próximo… sólo el destino lo sabe. Besitos.

La finca “LA MARÍA”  está ubicada a 1 hora del municipio de Tame-Arauca (Colombia), y tiene aproximadamente 400 hectáreas, y mantiene 6oo novillos de ceba (sin tecnificar).

Es una finca en su mayoría ganadera con variedad de pastos especialmente estrella africana, cuenta con buena agua, la bañan dos caños (quebradas) y tiene aproximadamente 30 hectáreas de montaña virgen, además de 10 hectáreas de plátano sembrado.

Valor Hectárea: $12′000.000 (pesos Colombianos)

Diese wunderbare Finca aus dem 17. Jahrhundert oberhalb des beeindruckenden Bergdorfes Puigpunyent auf Mallorca ist heute ein 5 Sterne Hotel und der Veranstaltungsort meines LiSA-Seminares exklusiv für Chefsekretätinnen. Die zweite Auflage folgt vom 12. – 15. März 2010.

Hier gibt es weitere Informationen und Teilnehmerstimmen

Seit 2009 haben wir folgende Häuser auf Ibiza neu im Angebot:

1. Finca Mabella in der Nähe von Ibiza Stadt
   
   Die im Landesinneren gelegene Finca mit Sicht auf Berge ist 4km von der Hauptstadt und 5km zum Strand entfernt. Neben dem privaten Pool verfügt das Haus über einen Garten mit Grill, Liegen und Sonnenschirmen.
2. Finca Esgolar
   
   Ebenfalls in der Nähe von Ibiza Stadt bietet dieses Haus Blick auf das Meer und die umliegende Landschaft. Auf dem Grundstück gibt es einen privaten Swimmingpool mit Sonnenliegen, Gartenmöbel und einer Grillzone.
3. Finca Yumbi
   
   Haus Yumbi hat eine Maximalbelegung von acht Personen wobei in den Monaten Mai, Juni und September auch nur das untere Stockwerk für 4 Personen angemietet werden kann. Ausstattung: Pool, Garten, Liegen, Sonnenschirm und Klimatisierung.
4. Cana Zypressa
   
   Ruhig gelegenes Chalet für sieben Personen ca. 600 m entfernt vom Strand Sa Caleta gelegen. Ausstattung: überdachte Terrasse, Gartenterrasse, großes Wohn- und Esszimmer, Safe, Deckenventilatoren, Swimmingpool , Grillzone, Gartenmöbel und Sonnenliegen.
5. Villa Muneca
   
   Eine fantastische Villa in einer der schönsten Gegend Ibizas mit privatem Pool und nur ein paar Meter von einem kleinen Strand entfernt. Ausstattung: Pool, Liegen, Sonnenschirm, Grill-Bereich, “chill-out” Bereich, …
6. Villa Puesta de Sol
   
   Traumhafte Villa für 8 Personen mit Blick auf die Bucht von Cala Conta, Klimaanlage im ganzen Haus, Meerblick von fast allen Schlafzimmern. Ausstattung: Pool, Plasma-Satelliten-TV, Liegen, Sonnenschirm, …
7. Ferienhaus Fien
   
   Das Ferienhaus Fien besteht aus zwei Doppelhaushälften für jeweils 6 und 4 Personen und liegt im Nordwesten Ibizas in der Gemeinde San Agustin mit einem 300m entfernten Sandstrand. Ausstattung: Pool, Grill, Garten, …
8. Finca Carmensa
   
   Carmensa ist ein ruhig, nahe Santa Eulalia del Rio, gelegenes Haus mit Blick auf die umliegende Landschaft. Ausstattung: Aussendusche, Pool, Planschbecken, tragbarer Grill, Sonnenliegen, Sonnenschirme, …