April is over (and May is going fast!)

It has been a busy month. Things are getting interesting at work. Some deadlines are approaching and there is the general feeling that we have to get really good results in these times of uncertainty

Also... I moved to a new apartment! The nice thing about it is that I got a small attic! I always wanted to have a crazy room where to set a small lab. It's a tiny space where to read, listen to music and, who knows, maybe in the future, play drums :)


Also the new house has a small patio where we are trying to grow tomatoes. It's fun and, given how much I like gazpacho, it's going to be a big help in my domestic economy :)

The patio seems to be a nice place for picnics ... when it's not raining. I haven't tried the 'typical American' barbecue yet, but I'm considering buying a grill, what do you think?

Talking about food we had the annual Spanish tapas competition. This time was out of control, more than a hundred people was there... By the way, our pulpo didn't win :)

In the mean time I got some time to travel to Philadelphia/Washington. I liked both cities a lot... They made me remember how small my world is in Pittsburgh :)

These are the only cities I have visited in the USA in the last two years, apart of New York... and I would recommend them. The museums in Washington are amazing and Phillie still keeps that special charm of the old times capital. I was able to watch one NBA game at the end: cavaliers vs 76ers. I couldn't resist the temptation of taking this photo for the patanegras , but I forgot to show at least part of the arena... so they won't believe I was there :)

Latest book acquisitions: "Marathon: the ultimate training guide" and "Flatland: A romance of many dimensions"... Did I say I want to run a marathon? but preferably over flat terrain :) I 'd like to have time to train during these warm months...let's see

Still not warm

We are now in April but still no warm weather in Pittsburgh. And today it's snowing again!

I guess it has been some weeks of contrasts lately. I had to go to Florida during 10 days for a data collection project in my job. It was an interesting place: a orange field with nice weather and some friendly alligators :o) So many hours of experiments... but a good way to remember real engineering work after the PhD!

Then, after returning to Pittsburgh, more changes. We have decided to move to another apartment in Lawrenceville, a quite peculiar neighborhood in Pit. It's one of the more dynamic areas in the city, and it's growing really quickly (in part due to the construction of the new and huge Children's Hospital in this zone).


-By the way, the photo above was taken in the limits of Lawrenceville but pointing towards downtown... so don't worry, I'm not moving into a skyscraper yet :) -

Finally, but not less important... I bought a bike! It is gonna make commuting way easier now that (hopefully) warm weather is close. Do you like it?


For all of you in Spain: Enjoy the Holy Week! I miss the massive vacations, even if they cause traffic jams :)

Nice weekend...

This weekend something new... I tried "american" food at the end! Those pierogies are not bad!!








And a good play for desserts!

Paella

I have to say that I cannot complain about anything in my life in Pittsburgh...

But sometimes I miss Spain... I've heard that space is relative, and things cannot travel faster than light. But maybe in Malaga space is bigger and light is brighter :)

So those days in which I find myself thinking about Spain I cook... and it works!! It makes me feel closer to the Mediterranean...

Today I cooked a paella. It wasn't bad considering how difficult it is to find good ingredients :)

One music recommendation for today: Weather with you. Enjoy the Sunday!

The adventure starts.... again

Well, this is my first post after a while...

Many things've happened in the meantime. Too many to tell now :)

The result is I'm back in the USA, this time as a worker in here (it's not bad to work after 30 years studying, right? :) ). Pittsburgh, the IRON city. Plenty of excitement, challenges... and dreams!

I'll let you know all the new things around here. But, by the moment, here there is a couple of books that helped me in this part of my live trip:

• The last lecture... How much possitive energy in just one person. Thanks Pausch for teaching us what a true professor does.
• A cien millas de Manhattan. Never underestimate what a open-minded person willing to talk with people and curious about a new culture can manage to do. I never read a better description of the pleasure in discovering a different world than yours. Thanks, to this Gomaespuma man again (even if the gomaspuenglish lessons weren't very helpful :D).
  

I also have to say that I continue missing my friends an family!! :)

See you here soon!

EDITED: Happy Día de Andalucía to everybody!

Still here :-)

Today I realized that it has been more than one month since I don't send any post to my blog. Time goes too far!! I've spent more than 1/3 of the time I'm gonna be in Pittsburgh...

Lot of things happened in this period of time. For example, Saint Patrick's day, the most known Irish party, also here. I went to a Irish pub, with live Celtic music... and a lot of guiness! :-) I also visited the Heinz Theatre to listen to a concert called "Viva España" (funny, I had to came USA to listen El Concierto de Aranjuez -among other Spanish music- interpreted by a guitar player from Malaga) The theatre is amazing, I'd like to go again...

But now time to work arrived... I've a deadline next Friday. It's for an important conference and... it's gonna be in Rio de Janeiro! It would be nice to go there, isn't it? But I don't now if I'll be on time. The new stuff I'm working on here still needs some improvements.

So... sorry for not writing a lot... I'll get more free time soon to tell you all my adventures in this city, the one with the most strange weather I've ever seen :o) We got a 25 celcius degrees drop in one day this week (sunny into snowing...in April!)

Hope it was a great Holly Week (Easter) for everybody there.

Weekend!

Just because in my last posts I was talking to much about books, maths and other non-important stuff, I don't want my friends/family to think I'm getting ill, old or something like that...

So here they are some notes about my activities this weekend...

First, let me talk about the W. Penn Tavern . It has been our meeting point for the spanish guys since I arrived. Here you can have a beer (I prefer yuengling by the moment :-)) , have dinner or spend your time in an interesting conversation with some natives :-)














You can easily recognize spanish people in the photos: they are not watching basketball on TVs. Thanks to Xavi and Nuria, they were the only posing for the photo.

Later we went to ... the firehouse! A disco where to dance a lot and recover energy for the next week. It's a nice place (but I still prefer some places in Malaga). The ride was thanks to a Pitt friend (whose name I can't spell yet) He is one the nice persons we met here, who knows more about spanish soccer and painters than me. Like an european born in USA, he has a volkswagen. In the photo, he is thinking the police is coming after seing the flash... But no, we didn't finish in jail. Anyway I'm not going to publish photos of what the spanish squad did in the disco later :-) Good parties remain secret...

I hope all of you are OK in Spain... Family, I know it was a hard week; I miss you. Take care :-)