| It
took me a long time to get used to my name, Marie-Aude Koiransky.
Only a small hundred of Marie-Aude born in a year (I happened to
meet one of her at school, we were both really surprised), the only
Koiransky in France are cousins, uncles and family... always spell
and correct the mistakes.…
It
even went worse when I started to work in foreign countries... unpronounceable,
I was even once called « Mister Mario »...
I get used to it. It's my own brand now !
I’m
40 years old, now for a large number of years ahead.
I have dark hair, I’m tall and big, generally smiling, I suffer
from a vertigo that prevents me from mountaineer, and a banana allergy,
but have all my teeth. |
|
|
I
lived most of my life in Paris, then, nearly 3 years ago, I left to
settle in a small town in North Germany, near Bielefeld, at the border
between Hanover and Westphalia. I go regurlarly to Marocco. |
 |
 |
What
to say ?
Around 1 year
old, I make my first strip-tease. One of my multiple career dreams
nipped in the bud. I also dreamed being a Queen-Saint-Farmer (before
hearing about Saint Louis and Marie-Antoinette), intergalactic cosmonaut
with Flash Gordon, horse breeder in the pampa, actress.
A childhood
without many stories, but lots of dreams, childhood, “cape et d’épées”
novel, I imagined myself as the fourth of the three Musketeers,
I fall in love with Aramis.
I even fenced a year or two.
did not like
school that much. Rather a good pupil, I took advantage of it to
read, read and read, and create some mayhem.
No brother nor
sister, but older cousins, I met regularly for summer Holidays in
Les Sables d’Olonne, I will never forget this light and the fragrance
of pines in the sand dunes, nor our endless games in the small bunker
that had been left to us by the German soldiers in my grand-mother’s
garden, a paradise for children.
The train took
5 long hours to bring us there, before TGV. I was always afrais
to miss it. We hurried as much as we could, my parents and I, with
luggage for two full months, the hamster or the canari, the dog,
the cat, the picnic... finally we get it !
I start to
dream, and like these long moments....
That’s where
I met Nicole Villoteau, when she rent some of the dependencies to
spend a few months there, with some of her snakes. She introduced
them to me, made me touch them, taught me not to fear them.
Quite obviously my mother, seeing me with a big snake around the
neck, was scared to death. |
I
wanted to play theatre. After my French O Levels, it was when the
first independent radios appeared, I pushed the door of one of the,
said I wanted to make a “show” on theatre, in 10 minutes I had my
time-slot, twice a week… I made the list of all theatres in Paris,
I had invitations, I was making criticisms, meeting actors, I had
fun.
My parents were
deeply worried for my future.
We made a deal,
I would present my exam and try to enter Sciences Po, if I passed…
I would make serious studies, if I failed I would go on working
at the radio-station, and pursue a theatrical career, and write,
also.
I unfortunatly
passed it, for 3/100 points.
Let me enjoy
the thrilling pleasures of history, accounting and international
tax laws. The writing of long essays, the theatrical performance
of the Big Oral Examination. Nevertheless, it was fun.
With some friends,
we created a Minitel Server “Blue”. As many servers, it was chatting
people up, but attention, classy and intellectual…
We did not make money out of it. On the contrary.
I think again about it from time to time, surfing on the Internet.
Then I started
to work. |
|
|
My
firsts missions were in Lorraine, when steel industry was closed down.
I will never forget some faces, with marks left by 30 years of hard
mining work, the voice suddenly broken, the dust in the eyes, looking
at the last chimneys smoking off. Nor the helpessness of these men,
their strentgh developped in factories and mines, and their confusion
facing the destruction of their very own world, so distraught that
they trusted the first kid who passed by (I was only 22) in finding
the magical solution. |
After,
I discovered IT, by Apple Computer, it was great. I became serious,
joined a consulting and auditing firm… I travelled a lot, went to
a new company, went more and more into IT.
To make it short, nowadays, I’m an IT Project Manage.
To perform my
duties, I moved to Germany. I discovered another way of life, and
went through a certain number of funny misunderstandings.
Now, I’d like to go farther away, Australia, New-Zealand or Canada.
|
|
 |
I
discovered diving. The pleasure to glide without constraints, in
all directions, to pass between fishes that do not even care about
you.
I saw whales
of the Saint Laurent River. Thrice, I marvelled in front of these
animals, and especially the curiosity of young belougas, which are
quite “smelling”, as say people there, and come very near to the
viewing zodiacs.
I travel heavy,
photo gear (with a six kilo tripod), diving gear and a big book
for the journey.
My personal record was in Africa, where I stayed 5 weeks with a
friend. When we came back, we had 60 kilos luggage over the limit.
|
|
I
dream of seeing one day white Oryx, free in the Rub-Al-Kâli.
A few of them are living in parks, and the sheiks try to re-introduce
them. Stupid men who decimate a specie for the sheer pleasure of hunting,
and try later to revive it. |
| I
have read, I read everyday and I will go on reading. Books boxes are
the heaviest and biggest part of my moves.
Since I needed 75 boxes just for my books, for my
last moving, I try, without success, to comply to the “one in, one
out” rule.
Some titles
I specially like :
|
- “The BlackWork”
and “Memoirs of Hadrian” by Marguerite Yourcenar,
- “Prospector”
by JMG le Clezio,
- “Seven riders
left the town at dusk, through the western door that was not anymore
watched” and “Who will remember the people” by Jean Raspail,
- “Dune” by
Franck Herbert,
- “Lord of
the Rings” by JRR Tolkien (did I need to point that?),
- “The Waves”,
by Virginia Woolf,
- “In Praise
of Shadows” by Junichiro Tanizaki,
- “Golem” by
Gustav Meyrink,
- “L’Aiglon”
and “Chantecleer” by Edmond Rostand,
- “The Man
Without Qualities” by Robert Musil,
- “Princes’
Nights”, “Square Fortune” and “The Riders” by Joseph Kessel,
|
- “The Farseers
Legend”, “Ships of Magic” and “The Fool’s Errand” by Robin Hobb,
- “My Friend
Flicka” b Mary O’Hara,
- “Life: A
User’s Manual” and “The Things” by Georges Pérec,
- “Phantom
Life” by Danielle Sallenave,
- “Darkover”
by Marion Zimmer Bradley,
- “Life is
a Dream” by Calderon,
- “The Passengers
of the Wind” and “Cyann, Daughter of the Stars” by Francis Bourgeon,
- “The Chevalier
Des Touches” and “The She-Devils” by Barbey d’Aurevilly,
- “Wild Sheep
Chase” by Haruki Murakami,
- “Flowers
for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes,
- “Staircases
in Chambord” and “Salon in Wurttemberg” by Pascal Quignard,
- “Chronicles
of Little Nicolas” by Sempé,
|
| And
many others.... |
I
have friends nearly all around the world.
I can speak
two languages and a half (the last being a lot of German, some Dutch
and Afrikaans, few words of Russian, Arabic and Berberic...)
I was always fascinated by Dumézil who could speak 40 languages.
Semantic and linguistic interest me a lot.
|
|
 |
For
example, what kind of a mental structure have the inhabitants of
the Vaupès Valley, in Columbia, who do not differentiate
between active and passive verbal modes, but between several level
of evidence (visual perception, non-visual perception, deduction
on evidences, hear-say, and simple hypothesis) ? Focusing on the
veracity of the statement, not on who did what…
And how can we understand ourselves, share these different structures,
beyond the words ?
How to share
our perceptions ? All non explicit assumptions that are included
in our words ?
I see the world flat, in two dimensions only… Is my world the same
as yours ?
One topic fascinates me, blind photographers, and especially Evgen
Bavcar…
|
When
I’m not deep into philosophy, I celebrate the Russian New Year,
on 13th of January, because it’s nice to celebrate twice. ´
And
I do adore to cook.
And
many other things.... |
|
With
some friends, we created an association to help nomadic berberic tribes
in South Morocco. We organise a truck drive to deliver around sixty
moving boxes filled with clothes and shoes to Djebel Saghro and Todghra
gorges. |
I
started to use Internet, more and more. I started “useful”, for
my genealogical searches, I continued for the fun, with newsgroups,
photo forums, people that you encounter in real life and become
friends…
And
I finally wanted to have my own site, that speaks about some of
my passions…
|
|
