Italian Halloween Dinner

Yesterday, it was Halloween and Carolina and Maurizio invited me to their place to enjoy a nice Italian dinner together with Salvatore, Ilaria and Mireia. Carolina and Ilaria prepared pasta from scratch and they used squid ink to make it look black! Have a look at what Carolina has in her hands! the black tagliatelle came from that after using the machine to make pasta which is below in the photo.




And here, Salvatore pretending to help in the kitchen! XD



Of course, all the menu was Halloween oriented... didn't we only have black tagliatelle but also witch shaped ravioli and pumpkin resembling desserts!






And after dinner, some Wii among friends! Here, Salva and Mau were too focused on the game! ;-)



In short, a very nice evening with really good and imaginative food!!

Running

During my university years in Valencia(2000-2005) and in Toulouse (2005), I used to go running with friends, such as Toni or Pedro. If I didn't go running at least twice a week I really felt something in my life was missing ;-)

However, in Strasbourg, life became more complex and it was really cold. I ran a couple times (I even ran once the distance from ISU to Strasbourg, around 10 km, because the tram was not running any more at that time at night). Here in Leiden, I tried to start over again several times but it is usually rainy and windy and I didn't feel like running while getting drenched. But now, things have changed!

Last thursday, I bought a pair of good running shoes, Mizuno Wave Genesis and plan to go running quite often:



For the moment, since last Thursday evening, when I bought my brand new running shoes, I have ran twice, that same Thursday evening and this morning. I am following the same track, which is the ring of outer canals around Leiden. Today I checked in the Internet and found out it is 6.1 km long. That makes 12.2 km in 4 days... and with respect to the pace, the first time I just checked in my watch the starting and ending time, which was around 29-30 minutes; this morning, I used the chronograph and stopped it after 29min 4sec. That means 4min 46sec per km... I don't know if it is good or not, but this morning I was happy. It is only the beginning and my legs could recover properly after a 6 km run on Thursday, after such a long time without running.



My plan from now on is to run this path three times a week, which makes 18.3 km, and to try to improve the time per km progressively. I know it'll be tough when it becomes rainy and windy... which will happen in a few days or weeks...

Some advice from any veteran runner? ;-)

Halloween Party in Leiden

Yesterday, there was a nice Halloween party in Witte Singel 53, the kind of official ESTEC party house. ;-)

Everybody was dressed up with nightmare customs. Of course, I also got some make-up, mainly blood, in order to look like an undead for some hours! and this is the result!



I looked scary didn't I? XD

Sueño de una tarde de otoño

Mis ojos se cierran bajo el influjo del estupor de la tarde. El sofá me atrae hacia su interior y mi cuerpo se hunde en él … caigo… el sol radiante en el horizonte me ilumina la cara y me ciega… es un calor agobiante, creo que me evaporo… un rato más y pasaré a formar parte de las nubes que llegarán al caer la tarde… esas nubes que del calor que soportan andan teñidas de rojo, como tez quemada al sol… o heridas por el tiempo lento de una tarde de verano… esas nubes que viniendo una y otra vez recuerdan la ciclicidad del tiempo… la felicidad pasajera, la brevedad del gozo… nubes que sabemos se irán al cabo de un rato, cuando el tiempo imparable, como flecha envenenada, dicte la llegada de la noche. Las nubes se irán y con ellas el sol que las hiere, persiguiéndolas por el horizonte, en una carrera sin final. La pálida luna, temerosa que de los rayos del sol dañen el blanco de su rostro, asomará tímidamente por el horizonte. ¡Ánimo Luna, puedes salir, el Sol se fue! Las flechas del tiempo, rasgarán la bóveda celeste y harán que aparezcan las estrellas, titilantes en la oscuridad de la noche, una por cada pensamiento agradable que pasó fugaz por nuestra mente… La arena de la playa, el canto de las aves marinas, la brisa del mar, me susurra al oído palabras que no alcanzo a comprender… Mi mano llena de arena, grano a grano cayendo al lugar de donde procede… polvo eres y polvo te convertirás… los granos de arena que parten de mi mano, siguen trayectorias dispares, el viento juega azaroso con ellos… se creen dueños de su destino, de su caída, pero no son más que juguetes de la brisa del mar… ¡cuán parecidos a nuestras vidas! Poco a poco gano consciencia y me encuentro tendido sobre el sofá… sus ganas de tragarme han pasado y el sueño me deja escapar de sus fauces. Me incorporo, es el final del sueño, la vida comienza otra vez.

My birthday celebration in Leiden

It can sound weird, but I celebrated my birthday in Leiden with my friends just yesterday night!!



I had tried much before but everybody was leaving for holidays or the city was on celebrations... so finally, I decided one month after was already too much and fixed the dinner date for yesterday. Finally, many of my friends could make it and we enjoyed a very nice dinner at a Greek restaurant.




And I got two nice presents with their respective birthday cards! Those were a doogi to practice karate and a squash racket!!

News about space

These days there is a lot of interesting stuff going on up there!!

With respect to the ISS (International Space Station), a new Shuttle launch (STS-120) is scheduled for today at 17.38 (ECT) with an Italian ESA Astronaut and Node-2, the necessary node to connect the European and Japanese labs, Columbus and Kibo, to the ISS. You can check that launch on-line at NASA TV!



Ariane 5 also performed a required experiment for the launch of the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) at the end of the year. It consisted of the reignition of the upper stage engine and it was succesful. The ATV will provided the ISS with supplies for the crew and maintainance of the installations and will reach the ISS without any crew!!

Finally, ESA made public the candidate missions for the "Cosmic Vision 2015-2020". Two of these nice missions will be selected and flown to unveil some misteries of the space. You can check the detailed information here. They introduce some concepts as formation flying and the use of the Lagrangian point which are quite novel. Some deal with planetary exploration and some with basic science... but all present a high complexity and are challenging.



And at the same time, Selene is already around the moon and will start taking really valuable scientific data from December!

Good luck for all these missions!!

Inside a spherical mirrored ball

Raikkonen, F1 World Champion!!

Incredible but true!! Congratulations to Raikkonen and Ferrari for a great season!!

Alonso couldn't make it this time but Raikkonen winning is fair enough for me! The miracle ocurred! Ron Dennis, Hamilton, his famous father and all the whole McLaren Mercedes team got what they deserved. They have being showing such an hypocritical behaviour all these months... and don't forget they stole Ferrari's designs for this year's car! And made Alonso's life impossible! I hope Fernando moves to a new team next year and can enjoy again as so many drivers did before. Raikkonen couldn't do anything for that team and has won his first championship in his first year in Ferrari!! Montoya left and he is doing fine in Nascar races... There is something rotten within the English team... Alonso vete de ahi ya!!

I know what I am going to say is cruel but they really deserve it: One year watching formula one, one year seeing how Alonso's performance was compromised for the stupidity of his own team, one final race with three pilots being able to win... Hamilton and McLaren losing everything... PRICELESS!!!!!

My future

Well, I promised some time ago in a comment that I would soon talk about how my future looked like. Actually, things appear to be becoming clearer and clearer. Let me explain a bit the background...

First of all, I decided at the beginning of the year that I would apply for a PhD program somewhere in the world: US, Japan or Europe. For the US, I applied for the Fulbright Scholarship in Spain; for Japan, I contacted a professor through my former supervisor in JAXA; and for Europe, I talked to people in ESTEC. After that, the Spanish Fulbright commision contacted me and asked me if I was interested in applying for an international award given by the US Department of State. Of course I agreed and prepared the required GRE exam. Months passed by and the first bad news arrived... I could not go to the Fulbright scholarship interview in Madrid, coz it was coincident in time with my trip to New York, Chicago and Washington...

After that, I was really sure I would end up in Japan. However, on 23rd September, yes, on my birthday, I received an email saying I had been awarded the prestigious International Fulbright Science and Technology Award 2008!! That means the US Department of State will pay for all my PhD and I will go to one of the best universities in the country! For this award, the national commisions of 109 countries proposed their candidates and only 40 people were selected. And I was amongst them!! I had had the honour of representing Spain in such a prestigious prize and I had got through!! Therefore, they will apply on my behalf to 5 universities I chose this week: CalTech (JPL), MIT, Stanford, UCLA and Ohio State University.

In parallel, I still continue with the application for Japan, for Tokyo Institute of Technology, just in case I don't get accepted in Caltech... in that case, I would possibly have to reconsider US or Japan... but it is hard to turn down a fully funded PhD in the US.

So that is how things are at the moment! So don't be surprised if I move to California next September (Caltech, Stanford or UCLA)!!

The "other" trip to Brussels

Yesterday, I told you about my trip to Brussels last Sunday. I showed to you the monuments and important places and customs of the city... So, what is missing? What is missing is what the great Spanish writter Miguel de Unamuno called the "intrahistory", the small moments than compose an experience and which help to create the overview picture of what something was, the small elements behind the scenes.

On Sunday, not only did i have fun taking photos of the monuments, but also of the people and circunstances around. And these pictures are also very nice!!

Here we are trying to find our way in Brussels... we tried even with a GPS receiver...



Laura with her tripod and trying to explain how we should position to get a nice picture taken.



A random mother playing with her son in a park in a sunny Sunday.



And us in the same place, trying to recover from all the morning walk...



Andrea was really interested in the street musician and took some videos.



It was a long time since I last saw a clown in the street!



On Sunday morning, it had been Brussels' Marathon and some people were checking later their results in the race. However someone from the organization came and retired the panels where the results had been put... the result was people on their knees reading the papers on the ground...



Wow, that is a huge waffle! Sure it is!



And on the way back home... enjoying a beautiful sunset after such a nice day!