Ilyes Frikach Travel Writing in Angers Site

Angers, Sweet Angers

I have lived in this wonderful city for 23 years and what is hard to think about when you are about to leave it for another country is what you are going to miss the most. The first thing that would come out from my mind would be my own house, my family and my friends. But it would be too much cliché. I mean every normal person would miss these things. I want to be more original about my choice. Angers in its entire complexity is going to miss me because as ny native town, I have lived so many experiences in this place that I can’t even describe them all. I know this city so deeply that I can’t even be surprised by the events that occurs there.

From the people of this town like the famous homeless named Serge who looks like Santa Claus and adorable with people to every neighborhood inside and around the town in which I spent so many times with so many friends of mine celebrating birthdays and parties. So naturally I will miss all of theses things once leaving the city. It is the entire atmosphere in which I evolved since the first grade. Particularly during Summer because as you know Angers is the greenest city in France and so it is really healthy to live there with its big green spaces especially when you can enjoy it during hot temperatures.

My friends or my family and I used to have a walk near the Lac de Maine which the place where I lived 12 years ago before settling in La Meignanne, my current living place. The place is perfect to get some rest or entertain. There are a lot of activities you can practice there as basketball, soccer, swimming, sailing. We can call it a leisure park. Recently I saw a video tape of my family and I back in the days when I was probably around 5 years old. I was running everywhere with my sister and my closer cousin. We were jumping in bushes and making weird faces in front of the camera like it was a moment of glory. Even now, when I see theses images, I still feel some nostalgia. What I mean is that most of my childhood, I spent my time in the nature of my neighborhood playing hide-and-seek or building huts. We were like animals released in the jungle with nobody telling us what to do. The neighborhood was pretty big and ours parents let us a lot of freedom at this time. Finally I think it is this aspect of the city that left a mark on me and which I will miss the most : The Green Angers! And my mother’s dishes, of course ! What can I say ? All my life I’ve been raised by her cuisine, even now as a grown man I will lose a enormous part of the culinary education I have grown with. In fact, this final sentence is more like a tribute to my mother who is according to a lot of people including me the best cook of the entire planet.

An Experienced Claim

From the 4^th August to the 18^th August of the year 2013, I spent two weeks of my holidays with a group of trusty friends in Southern Europe, specifically in Italy for the first week and in Croatia for the second one. The point of travelling there was to extend our vision of the world, a world near our own country. A desire that we can find through the essay “Why We Travel” of Pico Iyer, a British essayist and novelist. In some sort, I’ve found myself in one of his claims. He affirms “Abroad is the place where we stay up late, follow impulse and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love”. I couldn’t stop thinking of my previous experience abroad after reading that sentence because it is exactly what I felt there. The first thing that comes up in this claim is the concept of staying up late. I mean who wants to get asleep at 8 p.m where he leaves for vacation in a country like Croatia where party is the order of the day for the youth. Not a day went by without us going out. The choice was ours to go to outdoor nightclubs or spending the night in ours mobile homes to play soccer or cards. I think it is essential that for some time we don’t have any restriction (not all the time because we also need limits).

But there is something in this quote that defines who I am in a trip. And this is the fact of following impulse. The thing about going in a place where nobody knows you is that you can do whatever you can’t without taking care of the look of others. That’s my point. It comes with the impulsiveness because of the refusal to content yourself. It happened to me in Croatia. We were on some sort of a boulevard along the seafront like the famous croisette in Cannes. People were walking on the tiny road; my group and I decided to go paddling. We were sitting on the rocks located near the water to contemplate the horizon in the morning. Lucky for us, we were also equipped with small inflatable boats. And I don’t know why but I felt a strange feeling of excitement at this very moment. With no hesitation, I grabbed one of the boats; I jumped on it and lay down like a kid. And I just sang with a powerful voice “I Will Always Love You” from Whitney Houston. Everyone around was looking at us, well, especially the man version of Whitney Houston I was. I could see their smiles appearing on their faces on by one. It was like a big reunion of people who didn’t know each other but having a great fun. It is true that the laughter is the same whatever the culture you are coming from, even if we don’t speak the same language we can still communicate with pleasure and fun.

And all of this lead us to the point of finding ourselves as wide open as when we are in love, well, except that I have never been in love, or not truly I mean. But I can say I felt several times in love with my real-life experience abroad. Maybe my desire of singing this love song on this inflatable boat was revealing about my feeling in this foreign place. We can find our true self in this kind of moment, far away from the stress and troubles of our lives because these ones hide who we really are. What I mean is a man may have never been angry or stressed one day if we wasn’t working or trying to pay his bills. Holiday exist for this purpose.

According to what I’ve lived abroad, Pico Iyer is right in his claim. But I think nobody can be right enough because it is hard to explain the entire dimension of our feelings in only one sentence. The nature of travelling is to forget about your life back home or specifically the negative side of it and to follow your drives, what you really want to do in order to be who you really are.

A Trip in Saumur

The underground of the castle of Breze we visited last Tuesday was really significant to the time it was built but honestly, it was not the most interesting place or “chateau” I ever observed in my existence. But there were some positives points about it. I mean I watched a lot of medieval movies so it was easy to picture this place in an older context. The underground was narrow and dark. In the first place, it felt kind of awkward to creep inside because as anyone in a small place, I can be claustrophobic. But inside the atmosphere was not that creepy. In fact, it was more like an amusement park (I am just talking about our presence in it, and not comparing it to a place full of activities because, well, it would be ironic). I did enjoy one room in the tunnel. The room where we could see the vines taking over the cave walls as if they were claiming their natural rights. The thing was we were all fulfilling the entire place so it was kind of hard to imagine myself at the old times (guess I have to thank the class for that). The air was also breathable because you did expect to be locked up in some sort of deep tunnel (especially when you see the entrance, even my buddy Ismael had to kneel to go in). But thanks to the wholes with the size of windows on the walls which were used as strategic positions during wars, you could really be comfortable with your lungs. You could also count on the transitions between the different tunnels going outside.

As I said before, that underground castle was not catchy enough. It lacks identity. I had the feeling that I was walking through a regular cave. Maybe because of the absence of details in the rock. That’s why it won’t be unforgettable.

We also continued the visit with the study of mushrooms where we observed them in what seemed to be a cavern. In some location, the ceiling was low (again I was sorry for Ismael). We had a French guide specialized in this domain who were explaining us the characteristics of several mushrooms exposed inside (which I won’t be able to spell the names). There, we had a great moment laughing with everyone even with the guide (who had a funny voice). I know that was not the objective of the visit but we all need to learn in a relaxed atmosphere, right?

My Youngest Uncle: Abdel Mjid

From the beginning of my life, this man has always been some sort of role model for me. Maybe because he is the youngest man of my father’s family. And so we, the “children’, have more facilities to identify ourselves to him. I don’t know why but each time he came in Angers from Paris, I needed to see him in order to share his vision of life, his experience, his humor. The place where we used to see each other was my grandparents’ apartment, his parents. Every time we saw him there, the atmosphere changed to become funnier and “younger”. He had this power to be the center of the attention without being arrogant and his presence was attracting me and the others like some kind of hypnosis. He had some charisma (I am talking with the past tense because these days, I barely see him like one time a year) and was a good looking man if I can say so. A tall man (1, 87 meters), redhead hair (which is kind of rare for a Moroccan or for an Arab), he looked like an occidental man but when he started to speak Arabic which he learn after learning French, you could tell his native culture.

I also really appreciate who he is and his presence because he is responsible from who I am today. He influences me since I was child especially concerning my love for the American culture. Being the youngest of his family, he had tastes in matter of music or movies than I could easily share with him (being close to his generation, he was in his twenties when I was 10 years old). He made me listen rap music since I was a little boy and nowadays this passion is still present. I remember a scene where my cousin, Marwann, and I were at my aunt’s apartment in her private office, and he was making us listen some music in his computer. I was like we were discussing with a good friend who didn’t take in count the fact that we were younger than him. He treated us like men and not “babies”. My cousin was more interested in the music at that moment and could easily argue with him about it. They talked about famous rappers as Snoop Dogg or Tupac, I was impressed how much knowledge my cousin had for his age at this time and I was jealous in a way because I wanted to destroy any barrier between him and me. I wanted to be like him, full of self-confidence, charismatic and having success with women (yes, he was too).

That’s why I respected him; he created a part of my identity as for the youngest people of the family (cousins, sister). I easily recognized him in myself, some key traits and even physicals ones. Some members of my family told me that there is a resemblance between us and I took it as a compliment. Even in our way of talking, we agree that we look like maybe because now I have much more self confidence than I had ten years ago. And I will always be grateful for educating me in some ways.

An Eternal Passion

Dancing, a passion that a lot of people probably share. In my case, it is a passion, which is surprising fro people who know me. I’m addicted to music and dancing. I can’t  remember a single day without dancing to some kind of music (hip-hop, pop, soul, rhythm and blues, even country but especially hip-hop). if the beat goes, you will never succeed to bring me back in your world.

Since my childhood, I’ve been truly influenced by the American culture. Thanks to one of my uncles who used to make me listen rap music in the 90’s. This period is often described as the golden age of hip-hop. And with music, dances were emerging like breakdance, popping, locking, smurf, etc. I don’t know where or when my desire of dancing emerged. I’m connected with the sounds that come out during the 90’s. When I’m in party or even in the street I dance no matter what. And I don’t want to show off but I’m pretty good at it. People keep saying that every time so I think I’m going ti believe them.

To be more specific, one of my recent memories about dancing occurred at the beginning of the school year. We were celebrating the birthday of two of my closest friends in a village hall. Everybody was there, family and friends. And then the music started and nobody wanted to do first so I went straight  to the dance floor with the mother of one of my friends. The atmosphere became warm and people were smiling. The mother told me that she loved my way of dancing (it is a big compliment from someone of another generation who doesn’t listen or dance to the same kind of music). I always knew I had a gift to make people good.

For me, dancing is a form of communication. I mean truly, I’ve met new friends thanks to dance. When you dance with other people, you create a good moment, everybody smiles and the relational distance is reduced. It’s like knows the name of the guys in front of them but they don’t care. There is no judgment, only fun. As I said previously, I always though I had a gift that allows me to break the ice in a party or even everywhere where nobody is enough motivated to dance first, to warm up the atmosphere and the audience, I still think I have it.

What more can I add? Dancing is part of who I am! And nobody can take it away from me!

“My Print in Austin”

The first time I’ve been to the United States and it was worth it. I can even explain the desire I had to go to America. Since my childhood, I’ve been influence by its culture through music, movies and the most important: the language.

The day before leaving at the airport, I went to Paul-William’s flat in Paris with Paul Barançon who are both of them student in St Edward’s. Paul was driving us from Angers. The road was exhausted, they could see me sleeping on the backseat with my mouth well opened (a very embarrassing moment). Once we arrived, we did have some fun playing video games and making jokes. It was a mean to feel comfortable before leaving our country to live the American dream.

The big day came and we were ready. The baggages were packed and ready to take place in the trunk. When we finally got there, the entire family (almost) of St Edward’s was waiting inside the airport. Once we took the plane, the length of the flight weren’t that bad. I mean of course the flight time lasted approximately eleven hours but time is flying when you are in pleasant company (Yes I know, I am playing on words). We spent time talking about the possible scenario in Austin and also watching movies. For me, it was Monster University (What can I say? I love school! ).

Finally, when we were able to put our feet on the American ground, It felt like a new beginning. I was already thinking “I’m going to make a new life here”. The country had already seduced me on that moment. The weather was warm, people seemed open minded, cool and it was just the view inside the airport. After that, we were taken to meet our new comrades or roommates at the different residences. Mine which is called Quicke was really a nice guy, always here to give me some advice about the course, the people in St Edward’s.

The things we did in Austin were amusing, we saw a football game. It’s kind of hard to assimilate the fact that those guys are only in high school when they are twice (even three times) bigger than you. The ambiance was awesome, the brass band, the cheerleaders, the mascot. It was America.

Halloween which is not that important in France takes a big place in America. The haunted mansion was crazy seeing that students were really involved in their job.

What was really positive in this trip was the American student. They were great with us. They invited us in their group as it was natural. We’ve been to parties where we were well received. All I can add is than I can’t wait until next time.