On-the-move

After a few days off in the middle of nowhere, now I start a week here in Santander. More as I have more time online (now blogging from the street through public wifi right next to the dock of the city). The dream gets on the move, yeah!!!

Exam+the beginning of the end…

Today we’ve had the “final” exam. It wasn’t really important for the course as we had already got the certificates, but it did foster my will to study and that’s a good thing. I didn’t go into detail trhough all the proofs and demonstrations which I guess were beyond my both interest and level but I do think it made me learn more, which was the main point of coming to Rome.
Now I’ll be here untill thursday (the exams were supposed to take place until wed but for some reason compressed to only today), then I’ll fly back to Zgz but just for a short layover before I get on a bus straight down to Madrid where my good friend jorge will host me the night from thursday to friday. Friday morning visa interview, a bit of walk around and I guess I’ll stay there till sat that I’ll definitely get back home. DreamEssence’s on the move baby, yeah!!!

On a monday night walk…

Tonight, we’ve had a really nice dinner to celebrate one of the student’s birthday. It’s taken place at another group of student’s place, which turned out to be a really nice apartment in a peaceful and really italian district nearby the university. We ate outside at the terrace tomato and mozarella cheese and chatted for a while. Then I walked by myself back home through the streets of central Rome thinking how nice this opportunity is for me. Not only have I learnt (I still am, indeed) a lot of spatial stuff, but also I’ve had the chance to meet different people whose only common point is a very rare and specialized field in social science. And whenever very different people meet, there’s a huge lot to learn, both about what you like and what you don’t like from them; about what you’d like to become and what you’d not. All along this time here, that quote from My blueberry nights has come to me over and over again, and I think I couldn’t put it better myself…

“Sometimes, we depend on other people as a mirror to define us and tell us who we are, and each reflection make me like myself a little more.“

Lizz (Norah Jones).

Night walk+Street Art

After a hard and dense day at class, there’re very little things better than a night walk once the rain is over, encompassed by CC’s Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings. Enjoy a glimpse…

[Rome'08]Night walk around “La Sapienza”

By the way, the district I’m living in (San Lorenzo) is very lively and people seem to be very active in many ways. For sure a good index for that is the huge amount of street art that makes the area more human and let the pedestrian know there’re real people living aroung. I couldn’t but start shooting my camera, and here is a good bunch of examples of what you find when walking around (to be increased as I dicover more…)

[Rome'08]StreetArt…

Apart from that, today I had my first very serious class on spatial statistics by G. Arbia. Though it’s really hard stuff for me (last class on econometrics was 6 days ago, but on statistics was 6 years ago…), I do feel it’s a good chance to get an interesting background and understand where some things one usually assume as given when doing econometrics come from. But for that, i really need o review my notes, which i’m jumpin’ into right now…

main Rome!

Since there was a change in the schedule and Jean Paeling couldn’t come to Rome (great pity…), we don’t have much to study yet. Moreover, the weather in Rome these days is gorgeous. All together, my flatmates and I felt like we had to go out for a tour around the main Rome. Since the main Rome means the touristic Rome, we dressed up (honestly, a japanese with a digital camera, a french with a guide from Michelin in his hands and a spaniard taking pictures all around do look like tourists…) as for the occassion and headed downtown. Nice weather, nice ambiance and amazing ice-cream… main Rome!

[Rome'08]Touristic walk…

First day of course+walk around…

Today I started the course by having the presentation, then a couple of hours of spatial statistics and finally 3 hours of location theory. Apart from the academic side (not that much so far as it was only the begining, so still tracktable), we got to know lunch and dinner is covered by the course fee, which will cut down the food expenditure and will allow us to go luxury when it comes to ice-creams…

By 7:00pm we were done with classes had already had dinner. My flatmates wanted to go home but, since the day was just perfect, I felt the call of Rome. So I dropped the class-stuff, plugged my ears to my headphones, where a blended mix of “My Blueberry Nights’” OST, CC’s “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings” and Maria Callas’ “Best of” was spinning around, grabbed my camera and went for a walk which ended up (as usual) in getting lost then found thanks to the kindness of people and to a bus this time. Here are the results you can see (the more important outcome of the walk cannot be shown as it’s only in my mind, much more peaceful now I guess…). Enjoy them.

[Rome'08]First walk around…

Last day+Rome

I’m finally in Rome. I got here today after a crazy and really fast friday fixing everything for the US visa, a farewell dinner with my friends from the uni, party night, shower (notice i didn’t mention sleep) and a 2 hours plane-sleep. Ago picked me up@the airport (thanks god) and took me “home” where I dropped the luggage and headed for a slide of pizza (Italian food rules).

So far, really good weather and a nice area next to the uni, not much more. More to come after I get a real sleep, rest and puzzle out all the feelings and thoughts running around right now… it’s been too much in too little time.

Rome’08

I finally was accepted to La Sapienza’s SEAI‘08, to be held from May 25th. to June 25th in Rome (Italy). This is something really cool because, though it might feel like really boring (it actually is if one’s not interested in the topic), it has three nice points:

1. First and most important, it was the best excuse to spend one month in the italian capital, a city where I still keep very good friends fom Sweden and where I’ve been a couple of times but never really get to know well. I hope by late june I can’t stand for the latter
2. Second, the stuff I’m gonna learn is really important for my PhD. and not that easy to pick up at my department, since there’s no one working on it, so you need to read by yourself (as I’ve been doing all over this year).
3. Last and by far the least important, there’s also something to do with my little honour: when I applied in winter, we were all required to send some more info about our academic background and perspectives in order to make a little bit of selection, as there were only 30 vacancies and 100 applications. I wasn’t accepted. Instead, I received the typical “you are on a list, just un case someone fails, we’ll take you into account, next year…”. I never thought that was gonna be true: a couple of months later I received another mail from the guy at La Sapienza saying I could go. Yeah!

So, once I was in, it started the process of looking for a place to stay. Not that easy, provided I was in Spain and had no idea of how to look for an appartment there. Luckily, I found two partners attending the SEAI as well and in something like a week we were done (the process of looking for it was kind of funny as they both live in the States right now and me in Spain). So if anyone is thinking of coming around Rome next June and feels like sharing a coffee (capuccino, of course), just let me know

Pix from Morocco + a few lines

After a loooooooooong wait for uploading the pix (don’t know if due to my connection, to some problems in my Ubuntu or to the Picasa’s beta version), here is the link to the pix from Morocco. As I said it’s been such a great trip: really delicious food, amazing landscapes and such lovely people (both locals and folks). Seriously, for a (southern) European Morocco is the easiest way to get to a very different place (sometimes I felt a bit like being in an taiwanese night market but for men faces…) within the standard European flight distance and by exploiting low-cost companies. Go there before it’s too late!!!

It’s also been a nice opportunity to meet some spanish friends from Sweden, share tea-cups, chat with them and get to know about their lives now almost 2 years have passed since the big Circus came to an end. Yet one more thing, this trip has given me the opportunity to discover a bit more about how International Cooperation for development is carried out in real world (my friend is working for the spanish agency for international cooperation) as well as the chance to meet really interesting people and unusual life-paths. Still learning a lot on the road!!!

What else can one ask for, all in just 10 days???

Morocco’08

Back home

Already back home, sweet home. Really goooooooooooooooooood days, almost as sweet as the tons of sugar I’ve eaten over this trip :)  Pix and more coming soon.