Happy New Year 2009

Another year is gone and without being asked, we have just been thrown into another one!! :P

Last holidays have been amazing! although I traveled too much! In the last month, I have roadtripped in California, from LA to San Francisco, visited Malta and Gozo, come back to Spain and there, enjoyed good Spanish food with family and friends and visited Gerona, Sevilla and Cordoba! Quite a lot in just a few weeks.

These last weeks have also been important for me to think about my future. It is time to define a clear project with my supervisor. It will have to be in space applications, in spite that he was a bit reluctant about that lately. If not, I will simply change supervisor or even leave US and try to settle down in Japan or Spain. But before, it is time to get my MSc in Caltech. A master from one of the top 5 universities in the world can always come in handy!!

Last year, I read quite a lot until I came to US. I don't know the exact number of books I read, but the exact figure is between 20 and 30 books. I became a great fan of Haruki Murakami and have read most of his books. Some of them (e.g. Norwegian Wood) are already among my all-time-favorite books and I have read them a couple times and even in more than one language! I hope I can read him in Japanese in the future! :)

2008 has been though my traveling year. Several circumstances occurred that throw me into this traveling whirlpool. First of all, I was told I was going to go for a PhD out of Europe. Secondly, my work in ESTEC was in a difficult situation after my supervisor's lack of interest. And last but not least, I had some holidays accumulated from the previous year, when I was working pretty hard. As a result, I decided it was time to visit most of Europe before I left.

Now, I have been to 35 countries, but as I have already mentioned some time, most of those countries are in Europe and I have not set foot on the Southern Hemisphere yet!!! That is something that has to change soon!!! Hopefully this year :)

I always talk about figures of visited countries, but what are the actual countries I have visited and when? There we go:

- I have lived in the Netherlands, Spain and United States this year.
- Dec: Germany
- Jan: Portugal
- Feb: Denmark, Turkey, UK (Northern Ireland), Ireland
- March: Egypt, Austria, Hungary
- April: Czech Republic, USA, UK (London), France
- May: Poland, Norway
- June: Greece, Bulgaria
- July: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Italy
- August: Morocco, Japan, Thailand
- Sept: Thailand
- Oct: short trips around LA and weekends at Las Vegas/ San Diego
- Nov: Hawaii, Mexico
- Dec: road-trip to San Francisco, Malta & Gozo, trips to Gerona, Sevilla and Cordoba in Spain

That makes 27 countries! Good record :) My current map of visited countries looks like this:



This year, I wont travel so much, but it would be nice if I could go to Korea, China or Central/South America or why not, Australia!