sLogs01&02

I’ve just uploaded the first and the second sLog from the trip, those covering the first days (NY, Chicago and the road in between). I know they are a bit long (about 10 minutes each), I’ll try to make them shorter so knowing about me don’t take you more than 3 or four minutes a day. Any problem found when trying to listen to them or feedback is big welcome (post it here). Enjoy them!

Acabo de subir las dos primeras grabaciones de los Sound Logs, las que cubren Nueva York, Chicago y toda la carretera que conlleva. Sé que son algo largos (unos diez minutos cada uno), intentaré hacerlos más cortos para que saber de mi no os lleve más de 3 o 4 minutos al día. Cualquier problema que tengais para escucharlos o comentario que os sugieran son bienvenidos. Espero que los disfruteis tanto como yo cuando los grabé.

d/

sLogs

After many problems, I’ve decided to set up a new site for the Sound Logs. From now on, I’ll upload them there so you can directly listen to them from the page (and subscribe to them if desired). However, I’ll keep on posting here whenever a new one is online so just by checking this blog you’ll stay tuned!!!

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Después de ciertos problemas, he decidido crear una nueva página en la que subir los Sound Logs. Así que a partir de ahora, podeis escucharme directamente desde ahí. Sin embargo, cada vez que cuelgue uno nuevo, lo anunciaré aquí, por lo que consultando este blog podreis estar siempre al loro!!!

Running out of net+sLog’s

Posting this from my friend’s laptop just to say I’m having problems to get my laptop online for free (damn non-free WiFi’s) in the US. That’s why I cannot write mails, hardly even read them… However, today I’ve stared to record some audio pieces I’ll call sound logs (sLog’s) where i’ll talk a bit about the trip and i’ll upload as soon as posible. They’re intended to be in spanish as most of my family (grandpas specially) barely speak english, however, if you are interested in listening to me and are not spanish speakers, please leave a post in here and i’ll seriously consider that.

Apart from the internet problems, so far so good. NY was amazing, a day and a half of road (M80) and now in Chicago, which seems great. More to come, now I’m off to a jazz concert somewhere downtown…

Leavin’ home…

So here I am, 6:10 am (Spanish time yet), sit in front of the desk number 306 at Barajas Airport waiting for it to open and let me check-in. In a few hours I’ll be “hubbin’” in Zurich and, after a few more hours, landing at the JFK airport in New York. But before I jump into myself and dive through my feelings, let me do little bit of update: after a weird and feelings-mixed week in Santander, attending a course on history of economic thought at the summer university, I was driven directly to the Pyrenees mountains where, after a few adventures to finally get to the place, I enjoyed one of the most magic nights lately: a reggae concert by a lake, completely surrounded by nature and backed by my very close friends. Just the breath of fresh air I needed in the middle of this crazy time which started a couple of months ago and will finish when I finally settle in Tempe, AZ, by mid-August. After the concert I came back home for the last week, where the clock was not slow enough to let me fit within that time all the things, people and events I wanted to meet. However, I think I did all the paperwork I needed to, I met a good bunch of friends I won’t till Christmas and even got some uni-work done.

Back to the desk at the airport, it sounds like it should feel like Something starting or Something coming to an end; at least a break point. But actually it doesn’t. Unlike in Sweden, where I was expecting the take-off for a long time before it happened, these last days at home have been many things but waiting for something to come: I have tried to delay everything dealing with this trip till the last-minute (I started packing up 3 hours before leaving my room…) and tried to grab “home’s joys” while possible. this doesn’t imply I won’t miss my broad Family (I’m sure I will indeed) but just that I’ve tried to keep my mind busy so I can’t say I didn’t seized the moment. Personally, I I’d like to believe it’s a sign proving I’m “learning” how to travel and how to leave places where I’ve been happy: while two years ago I’d start missing places I’d enojyed before I’d left them, now I focus on enjoying them till there’s no more to enjoy. Easy to tell, getting easier to do… Yet I can’t say I’ve learned how to say goodbye (still hating them).

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!!!

Pura droga sin cortar

“Yo no buscaba escribir la super rima, el super flow o la super polla“

-Xhelazz-

C2C update

So I got a car. Well, we got a rented car. I had been somehow nervous seeing the day coming closer and closer and not doing anything, but getting more nervous. So on tuesday we decided to finally get rid of this pain. After a really nice italian lunch under some trees as umbrella and an improvised siesta (the heat was really pushing us to the couch) we sat in front of the computer and started scooping rental car websites. After a while, a few shocks due to the numbers we were seeing and some deeper search, we came out with the final choice: a Chevrolet from Alamo through a british web-operator I guess it couldn’t have been anything better than a Chevie for my Coast2Coast.

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).

Update: week 2

First update after a week without passing by this place… Time here is turning great and almost everyday there’s something new to tell about. Anway, I’ll try to zoom out and just put down the most relevant highlights of the week. For now, just two of them…

Certainly, I’ve cut down my amount of walks and pictures, I guess it has to do with the fact I feel more comfortable. Once a friend of mine told me the first days are always somewhat more sad because one tends to feel more lone but they are also those you usually learn the most from. I guess I’ve already get used to San Lorenzo and somehow Rome and don’t feel anymore the need to go out in the street, walk while listening to music and shoot pictures to fill that “empty space”…

Last week, we had Harry Kelejian for the theoretical part. I did learn a lot about spatial econometrics but specially it was the non-tangible part the best. As we say in Spain, “más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo” (it’d go something like “devil is wiser because of his age than because of his status as devil”): he is very young in mind but full of experience and I believe that’s what really makes the difference when it comes to teaching. Analytical stuff and models themselves can be found in a book or a .pdf (of course it’s far better if someone shows you the key parts) but I’m pretty sure the most important and interesting thing I’ll keep from the week with Kelejian will be the last one hour and a half he started by saying: “you know, this stuff I’m gonna tell you about is not in the lecture notes, nor in any book, so you can take it as an extra for your own human capital…“