A lot has happened

A lot has happened since I last posted ... I quit my job, went in Europe for 2 weeks and started at a new place...

So unfortunately I had to leave this great place that was Eidos and leave good friends for many reasons that made my stay on Deus Ex unbearable. That is not too say that the game in the end will not be an awesome beast that everyone will want to buy cuz I truly believe that the people who really create it will be able to achieve such of a complex game (like Deus Ex 1 was).

I really enjoyed the work I did as a Living World Specialist for them and I really wish I could have continued my tasks, but ...

This is all I'm going to say about it since all that happened after was great and positive :)

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Europe

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So I decided to take some time off (2 weeks) and relax (as much as travelling in multiple cities can be) to see the world and experience something new since the opportunity to take some time off in this industry dont happen often.

I quit my job, buy a plane ticket and the next day I was on a plane to Paris without any sort of planning on my end ... my only plan was to go to Germany (frankfurt, Munich, Berlin), Amsterdam and Paris. Details like the when, where to stay, how to get there, etc... were not planned at all... all I had was a backpack and a will to explore and have fun!

I flew during the night to arrive in Paris at 10am. From there I wanted to get to a train to Frankfurt ... so I looked around and searched for a train ticket ... unfortunately I had to wait all day in Paris to get a train that wasnt filled up ... so I visited a little bit the 18 and 19th arrondissement of Paris in a really hot sunny day...ended up not drinking enough and kinda got sun sick ... a great way to start a trip ;)

Got on my train to Germany at 5:30pm and got in Frankfurt at 9pm and headed to a youth hostel.

No I dont speak German at all ... knew only 2-3 words. Fortunately for me, Germans are REALLY nice and speak English (most of them anyways) AND are happy to help tourists who are looking for their way... YES people actually came to me to help when I had a map in hands or I looked lost :D

Frankfurt which I visited for 2 days didnt had a lot to show, but I enjoyed the different types of architecture and old churches. My hostel was a great place to stay also.

Left by train to go to Munich 2 days later. Arrived in Munich and walked around a little bit without a map to discover by myself for the first night before entering my new hostel which was as crappy as ever with a welcoming flow of piss in front of the main door!! LOL

I stayed 3 days in Munich visited a lot to see as much as possible all the history that Munich had to tell about hitler and his movement, etc... I went to visit Neuschwanstein Castle which was one of King Ludwig II unfinished castle and who inspired Walt Disney to create his iconic Disney castle that you see in all Disney movies. This was a great site to experience.

It is unfinished but all rooms that are finished are just amazingly well made and most things were new inventions at the time. The visit didnt really last long since it is a big castle but only two stories are completed. I met fun people on this tour and we had a long time to talk since we had a 2 hour trip to get to the castle and another 2 hour to come back, but it was worth it and talking to other people about thier experience during their own trip was cool since I was all alone in Europe at least I could speak to someone here.

Also, I went on a tour of Hitler and Third Reich in Munich which showed us all the areas where they met and told us all that happened in Munich which was the capital of that movement. I took some time to go to a lot of bars, pubs, beer gardens to experience their incredible Municheen beer hmmmmmmmm :) Best beer I tasted in Europe by the way...

Then I went to Berlin where a lot has happened also (world war, Berlin Wall,...) There was a lot of history here to hear, to look at (the wall is still present in some areas), but Berlin unlike other cities in Germany has been rebuilt but modernly so we cannot see all the great buildings that were pre world wars, but it feels fresh and modern though. During my stay I took some time to go to a concentration camp which was a strange area to visit.

Left after a couple of days to get to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is different from what I had visited before since its a city built by men on some docks. I really liked how the Dutch created their city since the different canals makes it fresh to look at and offers a lot of ways to get lost like I did a couple of times with the many circular streets that go around town hehehe. Its a different language, but feels like it is still some kind of German language ... so I couldnt understand people and unfortunately people speak English but will not help you as the Germans did before so ... I had to find my way around town hence me getting lost sometimes trying to find my far away hostel. I had the opportunity to join a free tour of the city which was really interesting.

After a couple of days, I went back to Paris for three days before going back home. Visited almost all major attractions of Paris in one day which was sometimes incredibly hot sunny day then extremely rainy with a friend I met there. I was really happy to arrive in Paris since after more than a week and a half I could understand people around me and talk to them in French...even though some faked that they did not understand me and asked me to speak in English and slowly ... damn Parisians!!! But the fact that I could listen around was a great plus in this city. The second day I visited placed I didnt have time to go to the previous day like the Sacre-Coeur church in Montmartre where I attended church for the first time in more than 18 years, but there was something so great about this place and the fact that my feet hurt so much at his point that I stayed for something like 45 min.

I had the best ice cream ever in Paris and some great meals in some small restaurant around. The best meal I had during my trip was at a french restaurant in Amsterdam though.

Then I tried to come back to Montreal through Charles de Gaulle airport... I was unfortunately stuck during more than 3 hours in line at the customs since some Marocans whose flight was cancelled had decided that they were angry about it and blocked off all entry to everyone ... and since in France workers tend to go on lockouts as soon as possible well the customs officers didnt do anything and waited from 3am to 10am to do anything ... well in fact they called the police who came in mass, but decided not to do anything either ... until 10am !! at this moment they huffed and puffed and pushed people until they all were out of the customs lines ... finally I could go home ... well when everyone in line would be through which meant waiting in the airplane for more than 2 hours ... finally got back home :)

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This is becoming a long post ... but almost done here!

So I came back on Sunday and Monday I was starting at my new great job :)

YES I am back at Ubisoft Montreal on a great and huge project that will sell an incredible amount of copies due to its future status of game of the year when it comes out next year!!!

Just took over the map of another designer this week and starting to make magic again :)

Im happy to be back at Ubi with a positive attitude!! Im meeting so many people that I worked with before and friends I had not seen in years that Im really happy about this new adventure.

I will post later to talk more about my conviction that this project will be great.

have fun during this end of summer hot sunny days!