The Cosmopolitan Blog

So my european experience continues… on the tube… aaaah, the british tube!  Actually, i’ll be honest, it took me a while to remember, it wasn’t called the subway like in NYC, it wasn’t called the metro like in Montreal, or the T like in boston. it’s the underground, or the tube in good ol’ England.

I remember hating it when i was growing up here. I remember thinking the stations were dirty & old looking, the trains were run down, and i just remember wishing that something, anything! would change or get updated.

I got to montreal & thought, waow, now this is nice. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m starting to draw a mighty big list of cons, when it comes to technology. Surprising, considering it’s the field i work in… or not… i hear those who work in chocolate factories never want to eat another piece of chocolate ever again, so….

For something that’s supposed to make us more productive, have u ever counted how much time you spend fiddling with, fine-tuning that technology for it to ACTUALLY do what you want it to do? Settings new systems up, figuring out how to make them better, fixing something that doesn’t work, installing product updates, rebooting, watching progress bars… UGH. I’d love someone to actually study this and tell us if we’re actually more productive or if we’re just more… well… busy…

We complain that the computer is making jobs obsolete, but what about all those jobs created to make sure that technology actually works?

Today, as i continue my european experiment, i realize one thing… technology takes your attention away from life. When you’re watching tv, it’s time you’re NOT spending outside taking a walk, when you’re surfing the Read the rest of this entry »

So here I am. England. London. I grew up here. And i’m back, staying at my mom’s, taking care of her as she recovers from a knee operation. Translation: i have NOTHING to do for a week. And i’m not a tourist here. And i don’t particularly love this city (long story)… so what does one do? Return to my blog, for 1. But i had an idea for an experiment, you know me, ever the sociologist.

Let us compare european and north american cultures for a week. I grew up in the former and couldn’t deal with the laissez-faire attitude, I longed for the hyper-productive, go-go-go attitude of the latter, so i moved there. A decade later, and i look back at the other side of the pond and wonder if these europeans hadn’t actually figured something out. 5 weeks vacation is the norm. Good food. Historical patrimony and traditions. Sidewalk cafés…. hmm….

So this is my goal this week. Compare. Not to draw conclusions, after all, seeing the sizable population living in each, i’m thinking there’s no clear winner or looser. But to understand. Stay tuned…

In December, to get to my holiday destination, I spent over 30 continuous hours in various airports, each way. Considering the relative short distance (and the fact that we’re in the 21^st century), this was a very depressing fact…. all that to save $600 on the price of the fare.

I left before the attempted terrorist attack of December 25, 2009 (yes, the guy with the explosives in his underpants), so needless to say, airports, on my return, had become even more hectic, especially flights to, from and transiting through the US. Today, I am on my 3^rd airport. It’s been 1 security check and body search after another. And considering that my carry-on includes a laptop, an SLR camera and a purse full of “stuff”, and that on myself, I have jewellery and knee-high boots, I’m a security attendant’s worst nightmare.

As I stood in line for an hour and a half at Philadelphia immigration, I was reminded of a scene from The Godfather II. In the flashbacks, when young Vito Corleone first arrives on the ship from Sicily to Ellis Island in 1901, the immigration hall looked pretty much the same, people lining up for hours, tired and cranky. In those days, they’d just asked you your name and then checked your hair for lice. These days, there are many, many more questions, and the lice-checking has been replaced by full-body pat downs.

But now, this latest terrorist has just upped the ante, hasn’t he? Read the rest of this entry »

I’m so excited, i have my trip to Mexico coming up in less than 10 days! My boyfriend and I were looking to book this trip, while remaining on a very strict budget. Obviously, the 4-5 stars on the hotel strip where out of the question. So we looked at the hotels that were a little bit more removed, and we found this one place called the Imperial Laguna.

The great thing about this hotel was the location. It was actually ON the hotel strip, just at the very north of it, before the beaches start becoming really beautiful. Still, we would have woken up to ocean view and felt close to all the other hotels. But it was a 2 1/2 star only. And a 2 1/2 star in Mexico, well, i wasn’t really sure what that translated to.

So i decided to read up on this hotel before booking. And trust me, i think i’ve read every review that exists on this hotel. And can you believe it, out of maybe 400 reviews out there, there are about 200 people who loved it and 200 people who hated it. How can opinions differ so much? Some people told me it was clean, others dirty. Some said quiet, others noisy. I realize opinions differ, but to such extent?

I even tried to find a correlation between the time of the year, or even the year they stayed. I thought maybe the bad reviews were before renovations, or during busy seasons like Spring Break. But no, that wasn’t it either. Can you believe, people couldn’t even agree on whether or not there was an elevator in the hotel!! Most people said there wasn’t, and then there were maybe 10 reviews that said “you just didn’t know where to look for it, there was one, we used it”.

Well, finally, we booked somewhere else. Location less great, but at least all reviewers agreed on cleanliness, which, really, is my bottom line But, if anyone has an opinion on the Imperial Laguna Hotel, Quetzal N.11 Club De Golf | Boulevard Kukulcán Km. 2.5, Cancun 77500, Mexico, please comment below. Tell me also when you were there. I still want to know!! I will go and visit it while i’m there, just so i can report back!

Here are a few links to the place: Imperial Laguna – Imperial Laguna