Eugenio in USA

Breda and s-Hertogenbosch

2008-07-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Yesterday we took a train ti visit Breda and s-Hertogenbosch. Breda used to be a fortified Nassau city, which most Spanish people associate with a painting by Velazquez (“The surrender of Breda”). We were not able to visit the castle, but the main square with the city hall (where two couples got married while we were there) and the “Grote Kerk” was nice. I really liked the outside of the church, even though the inside was a bit disappointing. We went up to the top of the tower, from where the view was great.

On the way back we stopped in s-Hertogenbosch, mainly to visit St. John’s cathedral. St. John is supposed to be one the most beautiful (and the largest) cathedral in the country. However, it’s being deeply renovated, so we didn’t get the best impression. The rest of the city was nice, check out the pics at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30056&l=487af&id=653533084

Best,

/Eugenio

Nijmegen

2008-06-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I have already been one week in the Netherlands, and it's been a nice time, I have to say. I go to the university by bicycle every morning, which is something I miss since I moved to Los Angeles, and the atmosphere at work is very good; people work hard but are very nice and frequently take short coffee breaks.

The city itself is small but cozy. The river is definitely a plus and it has a pretty downtown, with the market square and St. Stephen's church, which is best viewed from the bridges over the river. By the way, we went in yesterday and they had a book market inside. I couldn't help thinking: "if my grandmother saw this... she'd probably feel like Jesus Christ in the market".

Apart from being bicycle friendly, as most of the Netherlands, Nijmegen is also a nice place for running. I'm lucky that we live just outside the city, so it's easy to find places to run away from civilization. Fresh air is something that you don't enjoy when you live in Los Angeles!

I have posted some pictures of Nijmegen in Facebook, at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29377&l=f73a2&id=653533084

Take care!

/Eugenio

Hoe gaat het met je?

2008-06-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

After a while without updating this blog due to my prelims, I'm back to writing but now from the Netherlands! I'm going to report from here for a couple of months, which is the time I'm going to spend working with a professor in Nijmegen, close to the German border. I've only been here for one day, but I can tell you that 1. I definitely appreciate the fact that I can go downtown by bike in 15 minutes without risking my life and 2. I don't really understand why toilets have such a weird shape :-)

I'll get back to you soon!

Best,

/Eugenio

Sequoia National Park

2008-05-15T00:24:00.000-07:00

Hi, once more!

Last weekend my friend Gabri from Italy / Sweden was here visiting me so I decided to go with him (and another Spanish friend) to Sequoia National Park. The timing was perfect because the weather is already pretty good but it's not officially summer season in the park yet, which means that the stores and restaurants are closed and therefore the park was not very crowded.

We stayed in Lodgepole, a campsite located over 2000m high. There was some snow left, and it was rather cold at night; nothing that people used to living in Madrid / Sweden couldn't handle, or so we said.

What did we do? We saw a couple of waterfalls, not as spectacular as in Yosemite, but still pretty good. We also visited the Crystal Cave, which is a marble cave. We obviously went to see sequoias as well, including the famous General Sherman, which is the heaviest tree in the World: 85m high, 1500 cubic meters, 2500 years old. Another great spot was Moro Rock, a granite dome with wonderful views. Still, the best thing about the trip was the fact that we could hike nearly for hours without bumping into people :-)

I have as usual posted some of my pics in Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25123&l=8e99c&id=653533084

Best,

/Eugenio

Yosemite

2008-04-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I had seen kind of similar landscapes before, but not with those gorgeous waterfalls. I don't have much time to write right now, but the pictures are in my opinion worth seeing...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23091&l=c8749&id=653533084
Have a good one!
/E
PS: the last 2 pictures are from the "moonbow", a rainbow created by the full moon on the waterfall at night. They are both very long exposures, so that's why the water looks blurry, I haven't modified them with Photoshop or anything!
PS2: the moonbow was almost invisible to the human eye, but the camera easily captured it.

Orange County

2008-04-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I had a Swedish friend on a visit, so yesterday we decided to rent a car and drive around the Orange County. We went to Anaheim first, where we visited the Crystal Cathedral. It’s a very new building that looks more like a convention centre, but still interesting to visit. It can host 3,000 people, and it offers the possibility of attending mass from your car.

Afterwards we headed to San Juan Capistrano, a very small town which is very famous for its mission. Even if the church was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1812, the rest is decently preserved and it is very interesting to visit. Finally we returned to Los Angeles along the coast, taking a couple of stops on Laguna beach and Huntington beach. The latter is supposed to have a huge surfing tradition, but we didn’t see so many people surfing from the pier, probably due to the low waves and also the late time at which we arrived.

Take a look at the pictures at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22450&l=ca0df&id=653533084

Have a good one!

/Eugenio

New York, New York

2008-04-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hi guys!

My sponsor arranged an enrichment seminar in New York to which ca 150 grantees (me among them) were invited. The purpose of the event was actually unclear, at least for me, but it ended up being very interesting. I met hella interesting people from all around the World. We even had a couple of guys from Iraq and Afghanistan, which is quite impressive considering all the c*_p going on between these countries and US, to be discussed elsewhere.

The activities consisted of a few talks, visits to high schools to tell the kids about the upcoming US elections from a foreign perspective (and also to talk about own countries), a US election simulation (the republicans won) and even nice social activities, including dining at homes of old grantees. We also had some time to walk around New York, but not much. I posted a few pictures at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22444&l=122f6&id=653533084

After the seminars, I spent a few more days in New York with my sister, my parents and a couple of friends of theirs. I had then much more time to walk around New York. I have posted a few pictures of the MoMA, the Natural History museum, a NBA game, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn bridge and other sights at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22447&l=b38ce&id=653533084

Nope, we didn’t go to the Metropolitan because we had the brilliant idea of showing up on a Monday. But it’s definitely a good excuse to come back :-)

Regarding my impression of New York: I would recommend the visit to anyone, but I don’t think I’d like to live there... too much stress in the air, people walking fast in all directions at all times through streets with high buildings on both sides resembling a canyon, and almost no place to take it easy except for Central Park (a.k.a. the lungs of the city). But it’s definitely a city with a lot of life and also beautiful sights and amazing museums. You should go at least once in your lives, if you can!

Have a good one,

/Eugenio

The quest for the Californian driving license (and III)

2008-04-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

I finally got it! It only took me 7 months!

I can finally use it instead of my passport as official ID! I feel so much integrated in California. Now I only have to get a car :-)

/Eugenio

Behind enemy lines

2008-03-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hi en gång till!

Yesterday I decided to go to the natural history museum by bike. No surprise that I didn't find anyone willing to join and risk their lives along with mine :-) The reason to go by bicycle was actually that they were expecting 100,000 people at the baseball match at the Coliseum, next to the museum, but that's another story.

The museum was OK; I was slightly disappointed though, probably cause I had heard a lot of good things about it. The collection of minerals and gemstones was very nice (Daniel, really, I miss you!), and some other parts were also interesting (I liked the bug collection a lot), but I somewhat missed the typical "dinosaur-ish" atmosphere that usually surrounds this kind of museums.

After the visit, I decided to go behind enemy lines, that is, to the USC campus. USC (University of Southern California) is the oldest private university in California. When it comes to sports, USC and UCLA are like Betis and Sevilla, Boca and River, Brøndby and København, Arsenal and Tottemham, Juventus and Torino, Ajax and Feyenoord, AIK Solna and Djurgården... you get the point :-) USC is private. UCLA is owned by the state of California. Both have around 40,000 students. Both were founded around 1880. USC charges four times as much tuition fees as UCLA :-) The symbol of USC is Tommy Trojan (a Trojan soldier, pretty geeky I would say), while UCLA has a bruin bear.

During the week of the football games between UCLA and USC, Tommy Trojan and the bruin bear at UCLA have been typically vandalized by fans of the other team. Painting in colors of the other university is the classical strategy. Since a few years ago, Tommy Trojan is covered in tape and the bear is put into a box during that week. Moreover, some volunteers watch the sculptures all night long to deter potential vandals.

However, the rivalry looks like a healthy one. It's not unusual to see people wearing USC gear at UCLA or the other way around, and nobody gets upset. And I must admit that the USC campus was very nice, especially the Mudd Memorial Hall and the Doheny Library. Check yourselves!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21343&l=a0542&id=653533084

Have a good one,

Eugenio

Yes, I am alive

2008-03-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

First of all, sorry for not having posted anything in five weeks. It's probably been the busiest month of my life, including visits, exams, and writing a conference paper in a very short time (the effort will have been worth it if I get to go to Washington DC in November).

- I ran LA marathon, which didn't go well. My very optimistic goal was to run in 2.55. The optimistic goal was under 3 hours, which I have done before. The realistic goal was more like 3.05. And the minimum expectation was 3.10, which should have been easy, and which is the qualifying time for running Boston marathon 2009. 3.10 should have been, as I said, quite easy. The problem is that I ran the 1st half under 1.26, which is something I honestly wasn't prepared for. After 19 miles my legs started cramping and I had a very hard time to finish the race in 3.20. Soooo I won't be able to sign up for Boston 2009, unless I run another marathon in between, which I don't really feel like right now. But we'll see!

- I finally got my Californian driving license! The behind-the-wheel test wasn't hard, so I was surprised when the examiner told me I had had 11 mistakes. Luckily, the limit is 15 so I got my license :-) By the way, the whole process has cost me 76 bucks, out of which 48 account for renting a car to take the test. That means that DMV only got $28 from me! That's (literally) pocket money compared to the 1000-1500 euros people spend in European countries. I don't agree on that it should be that expensive, but not so cheap either... It's funny how driving a car is made as cheap as possible (kind of) while our governator drastically reduces the budget of the University of California for next year...

- I even had time to rent a car with a couple of friends and get away from LA one weekend. The main spots we visited were Santa Barbara, Carrizo Plain National Monument and Los Padres National Forest. Santa Barbara and its "mission revival" style were OK. A very touristic place, but nice to take it easy for a while. We visited the mission, which was OK, and took a walk downtown and around the pier. We went to Carrizo because a given nerd (that is, me) wanted to check out the San Andreas fault (Daniel, I miss you!). We didn't really get to find a place from which the fault could be clearly distinguished, but we had fun by stepping on a dried-out lake in which your feet would sink in the mixture of mud and salt. The landscape was quite weird... Finally, we also spent some time in Los Padres national forest. I didn't really know what to expect because of the wildfires last summer, but a lot of areas were still severely affected :-( I have uploaded some pictures from the trip to Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20832&l=9c6c9&id=653533084

As I said, I'm sorry that I didn't post for a long time. I can't promise it won't happen again, but I do promise that I'll do my best so that it doesn't happen again!

Take care!

/E

A quick one

2008-02-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

Since I arrived here I have learnt that most of the stereotype of American people whe have in Europe is false (as it usually happens with stereotypes). But sometimes you hear stories like this:
- random American: so, where are you from?
- girl: I'm from Belgium.
- rA: What do you mean, the chocolate brand???
It's possible that many European people can't point (say) California on a US map, but I think that most of them at least know it's not just a type of nut...
Best,
/E

Super Bowl day

2008-02-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

(warning: long, boring post)

This morning, I went for one of my long runs on the road to LA marathon’08. It was kind of cold (for LA). The temperature was perfect for running, around 50 degrees, with a bit of thin rain. I left around 11.45. I ran down Wilshire, then San Vicente through Brentwood. It soon stopped raining, and while I ran past the Sunday market on Bundy, I could see many people who had decided to go shopping there in spite of the not so pleasant weather. I arrived on the beach, turned left, and ran down to and past the Santa Monica pier. The pier wasn’t as crowded as usual, and the beach was rather empty. It wasn’t only cold and rainy, but one could also feel the wind quite a bit next to the sea. There was hence almost noone strolling, just runners and people exercising on Muscle Beach. I went on towards Marina del Rey, took a loop around the harbor, and headed back home following exactly the same route.

It must have been around 14.30 when I run past the market on Bundy again. I don’t know what time they usually close, but there wasn’t anything left. 10-15 minutes later, almost no cars on Wilshire, which is a very busy street. You could definitely feel that it was only a quarter left for the beginning of the Super Bowl! It’s amazing how the city stops because of the game. It reminded me of Europe when they play the soccer World Cup final.

Since I had to take a shower (for obvious reasons) and have lunch (for reasons as obvious as for the shower), I arrived at my friend’s more than one and a half hour late. I’m actually happy that I did, because the match was FOUR hours long. Simply too much for me. Moreover, the first 3 quarters were rather boring, with almost no scoring. However, the commercials, even though far too many, were really cool. Many people watch the Super Bowl just because of them! Most of them are actually first shown in this game. If you’re curious about it, you can take a look at: http://www.myspace.com/superbowlads The Super Bowl also included a half-time performance by Tom Petty. Not my favourite kind of music, but still OK.

Regarding the game itself, the New England Patriots were supposed to defeat the New York Giants easily. They hadn’t lost a single match this season… until today. They lost on the day it really counts. The last quarter was really exciting, with as many as 3 changes of lead.

To sum it all up, it was nice to watch the match with a few friends, and the last part of the game and the commercials were fun to watch, but I’m happy it’s over. I was tired of the papers’ talking about how many degrees Tom Brady (the big star of the Patriots, who was kind of injured but ended up playing the game) could rotate his ankle without causing him pain. Or 'bout how many days his period had been delayed :-) The focus is now on the Super Tuesday!

On Tuesday, more (hopefully) and better.

/Eugenio

Anecdote / coincidence / story / history

2008-02-01T01:25:00.000-08:00

Malcolm Kerr, born in Beirut, studied International Relations at Princeton with specialization in Middle East. He did his PhD at the John Hopkins School if International Relations. He started teaching at the American University of Beirut (AUB), but after 3 years he went on to teach at UCLA, where he spent 20 years. In 1982, he was asked to be the president of the AUB, which he did in spite of the ongoing civil war. On January 18, 1984, Malcolm was shot outside his office by two gunmen. Later, Islamic Jihad made a call to claim that they had been responsible...

Malcom's wonderful wife, Ann, is the coordinator of my grant program in Los Angeles. She invited us to lunch at her place in Pacific Palisades in December. And she's arranged a seminar dinner in the same place next week. I'll do my best to attend, even though it collides with a half marathon I want to run in San Diego.

Finally, for basketball fans, do you know who Malcolm and Ann's son is? He's won a World Championship and 5 NBA titles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxNc89NjsDI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Z4KjVeWsU

Hasta luego!

Long Beach and Naples

2008-01-21T02:28:00.000-08:00

Hello again, guys!

I have been to Long Beach today, aka “Iowa by the sea”. It’s a nice area for shopping and dining, and also to go for a swim in the summer. I liked the atmosphere on Pine Avenue, the main street, lined with cafés and stores. And I also liked Shoreline Village a lot. It is just a set of shops and restaurants next to the water, but there’s something charming with it. Besides, it’s a good place to view the Queen Mary.

The Queen Mary is a huuuuuge boat that used to run between UK and New York. At some point in the sixties, Long Beach decided to buy it (cause they’re worth it) and turn it into a tourist attraction. It’s cool to see, but I didn’t take any pictures from the inside (I didn’t like the faces I saw when I took out my “pocket-size” camera…).

Afterwards I walked to Naples, which is the same concept as Venice (see http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15234&l=8a3d4&id=653533084). The guy who created it was intelligent enough not to repeat the mistakes they made in Venice; this time they made sure that tides would naturally clean the water in the canals. I actually liked it more than Venice.

I have as usual uploaded the pictures to Facebook. The link is:

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16533&l=63719&id=653533084

Thank you!

/Eugenio

Andalusian universities

2008-01-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

(warning, long post)

A month and a half ago, I was interviewed by a very friendly girl from an Andalusian magazine that made me some questions about my studies abroad. A couple of them were related to the differences between the American and Spanish higher education systems. She told me that, since the magazine is sponsored by the Andalusian regional government, she couldn’t publish some of my answers because they criticized some aspects of Andalusian universities.

One of the nicest things of blogs is that you can publish (almost) whatever you want, even though the number of readers is usually not very high, especially in this blog :o) Anyway, here’s MY opinion on this topic, based on my own experience at the University of Seville, the Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm, the University of Copenhagen, UCLA, and also the opinions I have collected from friends from all around the World.

Let’s start with the most typical problem: the money. The money spent per student is rather low in Andalusia. I think it’s great that higher education is accessible to everybody, as it is in Spain, but tax money cannot provide so many students with a high-quality education. That’s only possible in countries where taxes are much higher, like Scandinavian countries. In US, on the other hand, students (or their parents) pay a large part of the cost of their education. This turns higher education into a privilege, but it’s also true that really good high school students always have the chance of getting a grant, even though it’s much harder than in Spain.

How does the lack of money affect the quality of education and research at the university? First of all, the labs in Sweden, Denmark and USA are simply at another level. I remember spending two hours with 3 other students, a teacher and an experimental PET scanner in Sweden. Or another lab with another student, the teacher, and a scanning electron microscope. Or those data communication labs with a Cisco router per pair of students…

Another consequence of the low budgets is a low teacher/student ratio. In Seville, in my first years, we used to be between 50 and 170 students in my classroom, depending on how good the teacher was :o) In other places, lectures are also given to many students at the same time, but exercises are taught to much smaller groups (10-15 people, sometimes fewer), so that students get the chance of participating a lot.

Another difference between Spain and US is that students and researchers are much more encouraged to take the initiative, expose their ideas and look for funding to carry them out. Many more students do internships in companies over the summer, for example. The situation is the same when it comes to research; universities are much closer to companies than in Spain, which helps them to stay tuned to “the real World”.

Anyways, what really hurts me as an Andalusian are the huge differences at the organizational level. If resources, apart from being scarce, are also awfully administered, what can you expect :o( Problems such as the lack of support from administrative personnel or the confrontations (instead of collaboration) between research groups happen everywhere, but much more often in my country and, especially, in my region (unfortunately).

Honorable mention, of course, to the “endogamy” at university departments. I think it’s amazing how people pull strings to get friends and relatives positions at the university. Universities are public institutions, financed by tax payers, and being a teacher is a huge responsibility, since it’s a position that influences the education of the new generations. How is it possible that these positions are gotten by “B, who is A’s daughter” instead of those who really deserve them?

Being selfish, I can talk about my own situation. It’s funny how having a nice CV has allowed me to enrich myself by studying and working abroad and, if I want to come back, my return would likely be blocked by those who have remained working at the department (and most time buttering up, too), even if they are less qualified than me.

Being unselfish, I can talk about a brilliant foreign scholar who finished his PhD, found a position in Spain, built a good group in a very short time in a very impressive manner, and will have to wait God knows how long to become a professor. Is this how brilliant researchers are encouraged to come to our country and contribute their experience?

Finally, I also have to tell good things about the Spanish system :o) Spanish students usually have a much stronger theoretical background than American, Swedish or Danish students. Theoretical training is the grounding upon which practical knowledge is built. Unfortunately, we are heavily burdened by the lack of the latter, including the teaching of foreign languages.

Wow, that was a long one :o) What do YOU think???

Mañana más (y mejor)

/Eugenio

PS: by the way, Americans are in general rather bad at foreign languages too, but they’re lucky that they speak English. Danish and Swedish people are on the other hand really good at it; most of them, including bus drivers, supermarket clerks, etc, speak English fluently, and many of them speak a third language as well.

Christmas break

2008-01-02T23:58:00.000-08:00

Dear all,

first of all, happy new year! :-) I haven't posted for a while, but I have been extremely busy with traveling and having fun around California. For the first time I didn't go back home for Christmas, and I must admit that I missed (apart from my family, of course) the Christmas feeling you get in other parts of the World, especially in Scandinavian countries. There were almost no Xmas lights or decoration here, except for shopping malls. The weather was quite good, sunny most of the days, and you could see many people on the beach (not swimming, though). But I missed the Xmas songs, the Xmas trees, the Swedish Santa Lucia, the lussekatter, the warm glögg, the Danish Xmas hearts and Xmas beer (launched the first Friday in November, a.k.a. J-day, exactly at 8.59PM)... and especially the dinners and the time I usually spend with my family. Anyways, my Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and even Danish friends, who often complain about how cold and dark it is there, might have a different opinion :-)

Since I don't want to write a 2000-line post, I'll just write the elevator story of my holidays and leave the links to the pictures in Facebook, as usual.

First we (where "we" is me and a random girl I happened to meet at some point, but that's another story) spent a weekend visiting my cousin in San Diego. We took it easy and did some re-visiting. We went to La Jolla, Pacific Beach and Balboa Park. Here are the pics:
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15228&l=ddcbd&id=653533084

Afterwards, we spent a couple of days in LA, where, among other things, we took a stroll in Beverly Hills. Not so much to tell, it's simply a world you don't belong to. The fact that we couldn't even get in the shops, since it would have looked very weird, made it actually quite boring. As an anecdote, I saw a nice necklace behind a display and told the random girl: "I think I could afford this one". I had mistaken 500,000 dollars for 500.00 (in Spain we use ',' for decimals and '.' for thousands, the other way around than here). Still, a couple of photographs:
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15229&l=c695e&id=653533084

Since I only have funding for 3 years, and my PhD program consists of 5... the solution is pretty obvious; "should I go for red or for black?" Next stop, Las Vegas! Some people had told me that it wasn't worth it to go there, but we gave it a try along with Death Valley. My opinion is that it's something you have to do at least once. I wouldn't spend more than 1/2 nights, but it was kind of interesting to see the completely over-the-top hotel-casinos. Besides, I won 30 bucks, which is not much, but at least paid the hotel :-)
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15230&l=72d71&id=653533084

Death Valley, right after Las Vegas, was fantastic! It's a desert in which you can find a set of quite unique, bizarre landscapes: collections of colorful rocks due to oxidation, the lowest elevation in North America (completely covered by salt), sand dunes, and even a volcanic crater (yes, we went to the bottom!). Don't miss the pics at:
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15231&l=34091&id=653533084

Afterwards we spent another couple of days in LA, and we went for walks in Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice beach:
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15234&l=8a3d4&id=653533084

The next trip was to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree national park. In Palm Springs we didn't do much more than taking the aerial tramway to San Jacinto Peak. A bit overpriced, but very nice. They claim that you go over five different landscapes/life zones during the 11-minute trip. It was very cold on the top, so we didn't dare to go for a long hike. But it was nice to see snow again (first time since last winter in Denmark!):
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15236&l=11461&id=653533084

I liked Joshua Tree a lot. The landscape is quite curious; basically a desert with a lot of Joshua trees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_tree):
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15237&l=8f6e0&id=653533084

After another couple of days in LA, in which we visited the Getty museum (wonderful building and location, a not so wonderful but still OK collection, check http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15238&l=058ea&id=653533084), we spent New Year's Eve in San Diego. This time we visited Coronado, Seaworld and Tijuana. I didn't bring my camera to Mexico, but the photographs from Coronado and Seaworld can be seen at:
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15239&l=d9dba&id=653533084

Well, I think that was it. My elevator story ended up being a quite long one. I didn't go back to Europe, and I didn't celebrate Christmas with my family for the first time in my life, but at least I made quite a lot of my time here! I really hope that you all had a great time in these special dates and I wish you the best for 2008!

Un abrazo,

/Eugenio

PS: I will post more often from now on, I promise :-)

Midnight Yell & Undie Run

2007-12-13T00:53:00.000-08:00

Hi, people!

I have a final tomorrow and I'm rather stressed, but I couldn't skip the main event of the finals week: the Undie Run. It consists basically of 10.000 stressed students who meet on Wednesday at midnight and run a couple of Km on campus in their underwear. It's a relatively new tradition; it began in 2001 with just one student.

I didn't have time to take many pictures, but here are some:

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13770&l=06093&id=653533084

Apart from the Undie run, there's another funny tradition in finals week called the Midnight Yell. Every day at midnight, students yell for one minute to release some stress. It reminds me of the dorm-like neighborhood where I lived in Stockholm, with the difference that in Sweden we did it weekly, every Tuesday from 22.00 to 22.05. I leave a couple of links to videos:
Stockholm: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_N9QDsdE0Q
UCLA: http://youtube.com/watch?v=D617oFydncg

A seguir bien!

/Eugenio

Pacific Palisades

2007-12-09T21:31:00.001-08:00

Hi again!

The coordinator of my grant program in Los Angeles arranged a lunch at her place in Pacific Palisades earlier today. Somewhere between Santa Monica and Malibu, it's a beautiful residential district. The coordinator has her house on the top of the hills, so the views from the garden are simply gorgeous. Since the weather was fantastic and we had a pretty clear day, one could see from Malibu to Santa Monica, LAX and downtown L.A.

At 4 o'clock we went down to the beach for the sunset. I love the colors of the sunset on the beach! It was one of those afternoons when, no matter the settings of your camera or where you point, pictures look always great. Check them out!
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13504&l=32129&id=653533084

Mañana más, y mejor.

/Eugenio

Curiosities about Swedish and English

2007-12-07T03:29:00.000-08:00

Hi guys!

I haven't been posting much recently; I am very busy with my studies cause the academic term is coming to a close. Anyways, in Spain we have this saying: "you'll never go to bed without having learnt something new". I simply wanted to share my "today's new knowledge" with you. I learnt from some Swedish people that there are some words in English that clearly have Swedish origins. For example:

- Minnesota - ett minne = memory, söt(a) = sweet (did you know that there's a huge Swedish community in Minnesota?)

- resort - resa = travel, ort = locality

If any of you speaks Swedish or have lived in Sweden (as I have), you might find this interesting.

This was just a short, boring post. I promise pictures from Pacific Palisades soon (like in the song "Surfing USA") :-)

Cheers

/Eugenio

Thanksgiving in San Francisco

2007-11-26T02:05:00.001-08:00

Hi again!

Rigth after a big exam and right before the final 3 weeks of my first quarter at UCLA, Thanksgiving gave me the opportunity of traveling to San Francisco. I have only spent three and a half days there, but I think it's among the two/three nicest cities I have ever visited. The fact that it lies on a set of hills gives it a very special flavour, with very steep streets and magnificient views from the top of many of them. And the sea/bay, with all the bridges, also represents an important contribution to its beauty. Besides, it is also much more European than Los Angeles in the sense that the main landmarks are within walking/biking distance, and the public transportation results much more efficient. I have uploaded the pictures here:

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12505&l=188a4&id=653533084
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12506&l=f06b8&id=653533084
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12507&l=e52f8&id=653533084

I hope that you like them!

All the best,

/Eugenio

The quest for the Californian driving license (II)

2007-11-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

Today, I have been once more defeated by the evil American administration. But I will be back. I am always back. If I fall down N times, I stand up N+1. For large values of N. And no, I didn't fail the exam. After cycling 10K (being ill, BTW), I wasn't allowed to take it because of an inconsistency of my (long) name across my official documents. And the worst part, once more, was to be treated like c-r-_-_. When I (politely) asked the clerk if she knew what I was supposed to do to fix the problem, a question that is probably out of her typical set, she went really rude at me, insisting on that I wouldn't get a driving license there today...

The ironic thing here is that, in order to fix the problem, and among other things, I will have to go to... the Social Security Number office. When you think the bad guy's finally dead, he always has a last shot. The best part of the story is yet to come. I'll keep you updated.

Cheers,

/Eugenio

P.S: don't you recall this one? http://youtube.com/watch?v=u5vxnBvWXO8

The quest for the Californian driving license

2007-11-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

After getting my social security number (see chapters I and II), getting a Californian driving license looks like the next logical step towards my integration in the American society. So I scheduled an appointment online last weekend and tomorrow I will sit the written exam. Since they say that it is very easy, since one has three opportunities to pass without having to pay again, and since I'm very busy with my courses and social life, I didn't open the handbook until this afternoon.

In the first page of the booklet I found a message from our beloved "govenator" (the right hand side of the picture might not be very accurate):

I know he's already been the governor for a while, but I simply don't get used to it... Anyways, it was very funny to encounter this rule:

Shall I assume that I am allowed to shoot firearms on freeways, or when I don't see any traffic signs?

OK, I have to continue studying now. Wish me luck for the exam!

All the best!

/Eugenio

P.S: I forgot to upload my unidentified SSN card :-)

Walk of Fame @ Hollywood

2007-11-12T17:51:00.000-08:00

Hi, my friends!

Since I spent 10 days in Australia, I am quite busy with catching up at school, but I still had time to go for a quick walk in Hollywood with an old friend from my corridor in Sweden. The Walk of Fame, which is the famous street with the stars on the sidewalks, is... ugly. I hope I don't end up there many more times, even though I know that I probably will, since all my future visits will (I guess) want to go there to see the Hollywood signs and the famous signatures in front of Mann's Chinese Theatre. Here are the pics!

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11524&l=e4390&id=653533084

Have a good one!

/Eugenio

Conference in Brisbane, Australia

2007-11-08T01:38:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

I'm back from Australia, and here are the promised pictures:

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11150&l=f8382&id=653533084

They are not that many because I was there only six complete days, out of which four were for the conference. And when we were done with the sessions every day, it was almost dark... No, the sessions didn't last until 9PM, but it was dark at 6PM because of the Australian farmers. Yes, the farmers.

The day length is over 13 hours in Brisbane right now. The sun rises around 5AM and sets around 6PM. Had it been up to me, I would have chosen something like 8AM to 9PM, so I could have enjoyed the evenings with daylight. But they apparently keep the 5AM-6PM because the farmers like to work in the morning...

Anyway, I still had time to visit Brisbane, and even to take a couple of day trips. On Friday we hiked in the Brisbane Forest Park. I must say that, even if it was a nice place, I wasn't really impressed by the scenery. But I really enjoyed it in the sense that the trees, sounds (especially the sounds) and even smells were completely different from those I am used to in Spain and Scandinavia. We were warned about the beginning of the snake season: they told us to check where we stepped, but we didn't encounter any serpents.

On Saturday we spent the day on North Stradbroke Island, a large, beautiful sand island where they have nearly everything, from amazing landscapes and beaches to snakes and shark attacks. The weather was great so we went for a swim in the blue ocean. I really loved the "surf lifesaving" concept they have there :-) These guys have been saving drowning people for 100 years!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_lifesaving
Afterwards we went for a walk along the coast and the landscapes were simply gorgeous (check the pictures!). And we finally encountered our first and last snake. You can see the end of the 20cm-thick tail in the pictures (really, check out the pictures!). And yes, if it hadn't disappeared almost completely in the bushes so quickly, it would have been rather scary.

Regarding Brisbane... there's not much to say. We strolled around the city centre several times, but it's not especially beautiful (once more, check the pictures). The best thing about it is definitely the river (also called Brisbane). I enjoyed running along it quite a bit :-)

Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you about the visit to the Lone Pine koala sanctuary. I learnt that koalas sleep 19 hours a day, and that they spend the other 5 being lazy on top of trees. I didn’t like them that much, although I must admit that they are very cute. I preferred the kangaroos, which were free along with the emus on a large field open to the public. It was really cool to be able to walk among them. The kangaroos were very friendly, and they’d even let you cuddle them (did I tell you to check the pictures?). I didn’t dare to get very close to the emus…

Oh, and as I said in the beginning, I even attended a conference. But that's something I'm not going to bore you with...

All the best!

Australia, fires, and reasons to be proud of being a bruin

2007-10-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hej igen!

I guess most of you have heard about the wildfires in California. UCLA and its sorroundings haven't been affected, even though one notices that the air quality is rather poor. But most of the American people I know here have friends or relatives who have been evacuated. The situation is crazy...

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I won't be posting here for 10 days because I'm going to Australia to attend a conference (well, that's the official excuse; you can think of one million extraofficial ones). But I will be back with tons of pictures and (hopefully) stories to tell :-)

Well, I leave you with a funny list of reasons to be proud of being a bruin (that is, a member of the UCLA community). I found it in Facebook; they're meant to be 101 but they only have 94 so far. I like number 3, 22, 23, 33, 38, 41, 51, 54, 73, 77, and especially the last one (94).

101 reasons to be a bruin

By the way, Microsoft is spending $240 million for 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. Well, if you divide 240M by 1.6 and then you multiply it by 100, that means that Facebook is valued at $15 billion. I think it's far too much; I agree that it's becoming HUGE but, won't users migrate to other networks when Microsoft starts introducing ad banners? Time will tell...

Have a good one! Ha det godt! Ha det bra! Happy trails!

Football: CAL at UCLA

2007-10-21T00:34:00.000-07:00

Hej mina vänner!

Today I went to the football match the UCLA Bruins were playing against the CAL Golden Bears (Berkeley, near San Francisco). The match itself was very exciting; UCLA won 30-21, but they were trailing by one with only three minutes to play. However, the interesting part were all the things that happened around the game.

First of all, 84,500 people attended the game. 84,500! That's like filling the two soccer stadiums in my hometown (Seville) at the same time. And it's not even professional football, but college! I don't see this happening in Europe. Most of the crowd were young people and UCLA students (there are over 35,000 at the university...), most of them wearing UCLA colors, and they were very cheerful. The bands were fanstastic, and they kept playing throught the whole game. They also played on the field during halftime, which was great. The UCLA band was insanely large (check the video), and they filled almost the whole pitch! As a picture is word a thousand words, you should check the images and videos below:

The pics can be found here:

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9746&l=14219&id=653533084

I also recorded some videos:

UCLA band (the size is ridiculous):

CAL band:

UCLA Cheerleaders:

The experience has definitely been fantastic; the match was a bit too long but time went quite quickly. The worst part was that it took us a long time to get to the arena, because it is 45Km away from where I live...

Nos vemos!

The quest for the Social Security number (II)

2007-10-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

So, there I was this morning again, in the SS office, convinced that this time I would get my SSN. There were NNN open counters; my old b-friend was sitting behind number XXX. But this time I was helped in number YYY.

The first thing I told the clerk was that I had been there yesterday and that I had "spoken" (bark would probably be more accurate) with her mate. She smiled when she replied: "oh, so you are the famous J-1 guy". Good sign. I gave her my new letter, she input all the data in her computer in five minutes, and then she told me: "OK, you're fine, you'll get it at home in two weeks; call us if you don't". It wasn't that complicated, was it?

And no, I didn't go to counter number XXX to brag about my getting a SSN. But, while I was biking back to UCLA, I thought about yesterday's B... I got the impression that her issuing me a SSN was kind of a defeat for her. She looked as though she was going to start crying when her boss told me I was right! (I'm not kidding, this is really true). Why did she take it kind of personal? Why did she treat me (and other J-1s) like cXXX? Is it because she regards us as XXXX that steal their jobs, as aestepa pointed in the comments of my previous post? Is her job very boring and she has to find ways of making it funnier? I'd love to hear your opinions...

BTW, some people has told me that I have been too tough on her on my previous post. For the sake of politeness I decided to remove the B-word. I've decided not to use swear words in this blog. But that's all. She deserves everything I wrote and more; besides, I never provided any name...

Happy trails! (for those of you who run :-)

The quest for the Social Security number (I)

2007-10-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

Three posts in a one-evening span... This is definitely not going to be the usual publication frequency here. Anyway, the first two don't count, since they were just intended to open the blog.

(Warning: long post; those who know me know how long my stories can become...)

This morning I went to get my Social Security number (SSN). Since I have a grant from the US Department of State I have to pay taxes over, I need a SSN. There is a SSN office relatively near where I live, but a guy that got the same grant a couple of years ago warned me that it was impossible to get the number there, and that I'd better go to another one which is a bit farther away but in which the clerks are very friendly and issue the SSN without any problems. But that office was unfortunately closed a few months ago, so I had to go the "difficult" one, ready to fight against bureaucracy.

I showed up this morning at 8AM, cause they open at 9 and the line is usually quite long. I was among the first people being helped (my thoughts are in red):

Eugenio (from now on E, for Eugenio): Hi, good morning!
Clerk (from now on B, for... well... say bxxxx): Hi.
E: I'm a Ph.D. student at UCLA... ... ... I'd like to apply for a SSN.
B:You cannot apply for a SSN. It's impossible.
E: (I'm not only allowed, but demanded to have one... so OK, let's start over) OK, let's see, my representative at the Department of State told me to come here with this letter... ... ...
B: I haven't issued a SSN to a J-1 visa in my 15 years here. I'm not going to do it for you.
E:(you know I'm usually very patient... OK, let's start over, bxxxx) OK, let's see... (loads of polite explanations)
B: If you don't work here, you cannot get a SSN.
E: But I DO work here.
B: No, you don't. I mean work. Like I'm doing right now.
E:(oh, maybe you meant working from 9 to 2 every day; in that case, no, I don't) Well, I'm at my desk at 8 every morning, same as you, I get money for what I do every month, same as you...
B: So, I want a letter from UCLA saying that they pay you.
E: But they DON't pay me. I get my money from the DoS! And you already got the letter from them saying that they DO pay me!
B: But then you're not employed, it's just a grant, it's not the salary you live on (unfortunately it is...) so you cannot get your SSN. You don't get a salary.
E: OK, I got XXXX bucks every month in my account, I pay taxes over them, and you say it's not a salary? What (the fxxx) is a salary then?
B: WHAT I GET is a salary (she probably got this definition from Merriam-Webster)
...
... start over ...
...
... already half an hour conversation ...
...
E: OK, may I talk to your supervisor?
B: She's busy right now, you talk to me.
E: Excuse, but I think that talking to you is not leading anywhere (,bxxxx). That's within my rights, isn't it? Besides, how do you know she's busy right now if we've already been talking for half an hour?
B: (visibly angry) She's not available right now, I've told you!.
E: Oh, I can wait (, bxxxx)
B: But she's going to tell you exactly the same.
E: Well, whatever it is, I want to hear it from her.
B: OK, wait a second...
...10 min later...
Supervisor (from now on S): hello, you got a J-1 visa, right?
E: Yes!
S: And, do you have a document from your sponsor explaining your situation?
B: But he's a student, he cannot get a SSN! (shut up, you BXXXX!!!)
E: (finally, a conversation with a rational life form) Yes, I do!
S: And you got a letter from UCLA saying that you're actually doing your Ph.D. there.
E: No I don't! The guys at the DoS told me that it was enough with my passport, visa, DS-2019 (this sounds like a MOSFET transistor model), and this letter! Besides, the letter states clearly that I've got a grant for doing my Ph.D. at UCLA!
S: Yes, but you might be spending the money from your grant in something else. I need proof that you're actually sitting at UCLA.
E: (OK, let's admit it, I'm not getting a SSN today... but it's definitely a partial victory) OK, that sounds reasonable. Thank you very much. I'll be back tomorrow... Will you also be here, just in case I need you again?
S: Yes, I'll be here.
E: Thank you! See you tomorrow then!
S: Bye
E: Bye

And no, I didn't go to the (bxxxx) to tell her that she was going to issue her first SSN to a J-1 in 15 years. I'll maybe do it tomorrow,if I'm not in a good mood. I'll let you know what tomorrow's outcome is. It should be easy, but you should never underestimate bureaucracy...

Mañana más... ¡y mejor!

Updating

2007-10-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

I should have started this blog upon arrival in US, but I didn't... A quick summary: I arrived, I met many wonderful people from all over the World, I had a lot of fun, I started my PhD... and that's roughly all! So, you didn't miss that much! Anyway, here are the links to my first albums (in Facebook):

Weyburn, UCLA, Santa Monica
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7383&l=27a63&id=653533084
International picnic
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7701&l=07e5a&id=653533084
San Diego - La Jolla
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8180&l=b9946&id=653533084
San Diego - harbour, Balboa park
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8182&l=d1d2d&id=653533084
Venice Beach, Santa Monica 3rd st. promenade
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8713&l=ed539&id=653533084
Biomedical Engineering Society picnic - baseball!
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9145&l=cfcdb&id=653533084
Walk in Downtown LA
http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9510&l=27a70&id=653533084

I warn you about how boring my pictures can be; I tend to photograph buildings and landscapes and ignore human beings...

By the way, I don't like Facebook, especially when it comes to uploading pictures. I think it's not well structured and that it has too much useless stuff. But, since everyone here uses it, it's the most convenient choice...

The beginning

2007-10-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

I don't know who "everyone" is yet; actually I don't even know what this is supposed to be, or who is going to read it. I have never liked blogs, I don't really know why, maybe it's simply cause I'm too lazy to keep reading them... Anyway, a friendly, handsome and not so tall guy whose identity I won't reveal, convinced me to start posting my pictures and stories from US online so that everybody could take a look at them.

Sooooooo I don't know what this is supposed to be, or what it's expected to be, but it will probably become a completely incoherent compilation of pictures, anecdotes and who knows what else. I don't know whether I'll get tired in two weeks, or if I will keep posting forever. Time will tell!

By the way, I guess I should have introduced myself earlier but, as I said, this blog is going to be a mess, so I'd better stick to that from the very beginning. My name is Eugenio, I'm Spanish and I moved to Los Angeles to do a Ph.D. at the University of California - Los Angeles. I'm a bit of I nerd; I'm crazy about traveling, reading, running, eating, sleeping, ice cream and many other things. I'm wide open to any kind of criticism (constructive or massively destructive), insults, suggestions, comments, and even donations.

OK, I think it's enough to start with... welcome to my blog!