It is hot! (well, it was)

I must post this image:

It's a temperature graph of The Netherlands, yesterday. It was a hot way with feels like temperatures of 37°C, a once in a long time experience (I had a similar experience a time ago).

As you may have noticed, I call 'experience' the occurrence of such events, so it must be understood that such weather conditions are extremely weird in here.

I must say that by today the weather is 'normal', it was a 'one-day experience'.

Image source: buienradar.nl

Pro photography, an initial attempt

Recently, I started being a bit more involved with the subject of professional photography. Even though I reckon that I'm very far to getting there, I have to ever start.

A few weeks ago we bought a new DSLR camera (aka big cameras looking like the professional ones) Nikon D5000 with a AF-S VR 18/105 lens. I must admit once more that I'm still getting to know all the meanings of all the abbreviations and what is their role when taking a picture...

So let me start with one of my first shots.

This picture was taken with the afore-mentioned beast, and post-processed with GIMP 2.6 on my desktop computer running Ubuntu. It was at a barbecue last weekend. Looks good, although it could have been better :)

Shivery weather

It is true that in Romania, last Christmas, I experienced temperatures bordering the -20°C. It's difficult to explain what it feels like to go out and one of the sudden experience a drop in the temperature of at least 40°C. Imagine that someone is trying to pinch some needles on your forehead, and this is more or less what you feel.

Even though it seems like the end of the world to be at -20°C, is not. The body gets used to it quite fast. For me it was a matter of 4 or 5 days to get to the point where I felt comfortable in such conditions. There are other factors as well: the floor in a open sky location gets a layer of ice that sometimes may be deadly slippery, the cars become slays and if it snows you cannot watch up unless you wear a suitable cap.

Getting used to this cold is relative, as I was wearing underpants all the time. Only once I didn't and I regretted. It's like the needling sensation on throughout your legs! Never try to go without a cap or scarf, after a while you'll be regretting. But the body gets comfortable at some point, and you don't look scared.

Right after this cold training, the polar cold wave entered Western Europe. This meant some snow at the beginning which is fun somehow(1), but later the skies clear and the real fun starts. In Eindhoven, we got 4 days with temperatures hitting the -18°C mark. I thought I was used to it, after the Romania experience, and so bravely I decided to ride my bike and go to the university. What a suffering! The freaking cold enters every single minuscule pore of your clothing, feeling like hundreds of needles pushing in you!

I went back and forth to the u, and I'll never repeat the experience that cost me a contracted back. The following map illustrates how the temperature figures were one of the shivery days.


Source: Buienradar.nl Eindhoven is at the south with -14°C.

(1) Except if you have to drive a car with 15cm of fresh snow and drive 500m in 30'. We experience that :(

A bent weekend

A combination of nice and warm weather (sunny, 28°C), a good place (an amusement park), good friends and colleagues were indications for a very spectacular weekend. In fact, it wasn't for me at all :( This would be a perfect post for the fish's blues...

This weekend, we went to Efteling, an amusement park near Eindhoven with all kind of attractions: roller coasters, boat raft, and all kind of kermis-like things. Great! I enjoyed a lot until I got off the Python (plattegrond -> Ruigrijk -> Phyton), a very nice roller coaster. Everything went well, despite some natural fear before riding it, I enjoy the ride very much. I was even thinking of doing it once more! But when I tried to turn my neck to the right, oh oh a pain started to disturb me a little bit. It continued extending quite fast actually, so just for precaution, I made a visit to the emergency service at the park. I wasn't in a happy situation, but they didn't help quickly either! I had to wait for about one hour to get to a doctor who did some checking on my neck, and confirmed a muscular contraction in its right side. It was something like a torticollis but much worse. So imagine that I had to keep my neck completely turned to my left without even being able to turn it a little bit to the left, with a very limited up and down motion. The doctor just prescribed me some painkillers and basicly send me home to have rest.

Okay, okay, I don't blame them for my bad luck, but at least, they could have more staff to solve more quickly these kinds of situations, and for example, let my friends continuing enjoying the day as they were waiting for the diagnose of my apparently serious problem.

Anyway, after it, I was condemn to wait seated while my friends were in the attractions which I couldn't join, as I basically was unmobilized... Even though this very bad experience, I appreciate that they kept watching at me, taking care of me. And somehow, I acknowledge that I spoil such a nice day a little bit...

After the come back home, an open pharmacy needed to be found. The one opened was next to the emergency entrance of the Máxima medisch centrum, a local hospital. As the painkiller I had taken didn't make much effect on me, I went to visit a doctor there. The very same story as before: I took about one hour to get a diagnose (the same as before, luckily). Feel forms, answer questions to the receptionist, and bear the jokes of the nurse who knew I got my bent neck in an amusement park. Thankfully, I was with a friend, and we had the time to talk and get update for the hour I had to wait for the doctor to come and just tell me go home and take these pills...

As a mental note: what would have happened if my injure was something really serious that required quick action? Nothing, the Dutch way of acting in this kind of situation would've condemned me to the worst... I'm not saying it based on this single incident, but on the many I've heard of...

In a nutshell, financially speaking, I have lost 27€ for the entrance to the park, 15€ in food inside the park, and around 71€ in medicines which aren't covered by my insurance company because of the new regulations in Netherlands(1). That is, I spent 100+€ for a bent neck, but there was good weather(2)... Of course, I should tell you that I slept on Sunday until 4pm because of one of the muscular relaxing pill. A wasted weekend...

(1) The first 150€ that you spend in health services are from this year under your account, this is the new regulation. But they were good enough to not to raise the monthly fee (100+€ in my case). Isn't it an implicit cost raise?

(2) I quote someone say of today: "It seems that summer started this year on August 30th!!" to what I replied "... and it didn't lasted more than 3 days..." Yesterday already started to be chilly and today it's raining like crazy (current temperature is 12°C)

Pictures soon, so you can laugh with me, not at me...

Update: One photo of my bent neck, taking it with some humor. Thanks Kathie for it!!

Hup Holland Hup!

Let's party! The Dutch football team is performing quite well in the UEFA European Championship, (Euro Cup 2008). It defeated Italy, France and Romania with very good scores. Remember that Italy and France were the two best teams in the last World Football Championship! Of course, the excuse for celebrating is just there. For every match people gather in a pub, at home next to a barbecue or with some pizzas. Tons of beers and the very good mood that characterize Dutch people.

It is so high the excitement that they even reflect their happiness in the food. At the canteens of the university even the food becomes orange, the national color! Something that caught my attention was that the healthy sandwiches (gezond broodjes) which normally have cheese, lettuce, tomato, boiled egg and ham, this time they had mandarins! So, I was curious and decided to try one of them. And this is how they look like.

Unfortunately, I didn't find it delicious at all :( But at least I joined the celebration in some sense...

PSV kampioen

Así es, por (al menos) tres veces consecutivas, PSV Eindhoven resultó campeón de la liga holandesa de fútbol. Justo pasábamos con un grupo de amigos por el centro de la ciudad cuando el partido decisivo se iba a jugar. Lo vimos y, como no podría ser menos, celebramos! Boeren!, boeren!, boeren!(1)

Actualización: Natalia mandó su reporte periodístico a La Gaceta de Tucumán. La nota está aquí.

Indeed, for (at least) the third consecutive year, PSV Eindhoven has resulted champion of the Dutch football league. It happened that together with some friends I passed trough the city center when the deciding match was going to be played. We watched it and, of course, join the celebrations! Boeren! boeren! boeren! (1)

(1) Boeren (se lee buren) significa campesino en holandés, y es la forma en la que los fanas de otros equipos emplean para referirse a los seguidores del PSV. Comenzó como un insulto, pero los del PSV se lo tomaron con humor, y es una forma muy orgullosa de identificarse...
(1) Boeren means farmer in Dutch, and that is how the team is informally addressed by other fans from other teams like Ajax. It started as an insult but PSV followers took it as a proud way to identify themselves...

El PSV apoya a la Feria del CLO = PSV supports the CLO's fair

La semana pasada fui a un entrenamiento del equipo de fútbol del PSV. Nos juntamos con gente del CLO para hacer algo de propaganda a la Feria Latinoamérica, que será en junio.

No fue nada especial, ya que esperamos mucho sufriendo el clima bien frío, pero al final todos los jugadores latinoamericanos salieron en ropas bien veraniegas para tomarse algunas fotos con nosotros.

Más allá de la lluvia y del resfriado que me gané, la pasamos muy bien. A propósito, hay un artículo en la página oficial del club PSV.

Last week I went to a PSV soccer team training. We gather together with the CLO to advertise the Latin American Fair, coming in June.

This was nothing special, as we waited outside suffering an extreme cold weather, and in the end all Latin American players came out in very summery clothes to take some pictures with us.

The most important news was that all these players gather some money to sponsor the fair which is a very nice thing to highlight from them.

Despite the rain and the cold I got, we enjoyed ourselves a lot! BTW, there is an article at the official PSV webpage.

Trabajar en casa = Working at home

Ser un doctorando (o estudiante de doctorado) tiene sus cosas buenas y malas como en cualquier otra ocupación o profesión. Esto es algo de lo que quiero hablar en un par de posts desde ahora.

En este post, voy a hablar sobre algo que está bueno desde mi punto de vista. Como el trabajo es mayormente intelectual, no importa adónde está uno, es cuestión de producir resultado en una forma más o menos eficiente. El parámetro de eficiencia es determinado por uno mismo, y es posible que haya algo de presión de un supervisor o algunos colegas, si es que hay alguna actividad conjunta.

Como este es el caso, tengo alguna libertad para quedarme en casa y trabajar desde allí directamente, junto con los pros y contras que eso implica.

Entre los contras está que no hay con quién hablar durante las pausas necesarias, y que no hay obligación de respirar el aire fresco en la mañana.

Las ventajas, por lo menos desde mi punto de vista, compensan a las desventajas. Por ejemplo, no hay que vestir algo decente, un piyama es suficiente, junto con algunas pantuflas bien cómodas, y un peinado bien descuidado. Puedo escuchar la música que quiero y al volúmen que se me antoja. Y más importante, puedo tener mis almuerzos bien lujosos como estos.

Being a PhD candidate has different good and bad things, as in any other occupation or profession. This is something I want to talk about in a couple of posts from now on.

In this post, I'll talk about something is good from my point of view. As the work is mainly intellectual, it does not matter where you are, it's just a matter of producing your results in a somewhat efficient way. The efficiency parameter is mainly set by oneself, and it is possible to get some pressure from an advisor, or colleagues, if there is some joint activity.

As that's the case, I have some freedom to stay at home, and work from there directly, along with all the disadvantages and advantages that implies.

As disadvantage you have that there is no other people to talk with during the necessary breaks, and that there is no obligation to breath the fresh air in the morning.

The pros are, at least, for me, compensating the cons. For example, you don't have to wear something decent, a pyjama is good enough, along with some comfortable slippers, and a completely careless hair style. I can listen to music I like, and at the volume I want. And most importantly, I can have my own luxury lunch like this.


Trabajar en casa es una posibilidad que no todo el mundo tiene. Y si me aparto de lo académico, esto es algo que voy a extrañar mucho.

Working at home is a possibility we have that not everybody has. And if I quit academia, this is something I'll really miss.

Reporte del clima = Weather report

De un tiempo a esta parte no he posteado nada relacionado con el clima. En líneas general, este invierno es bastante lindo, más calentito que los promedios, pero no mucho más que el año pasado.

Desde hace una semana y media no ha llovido, y esto está buenísimo. Muchos de estos días han sido demasiado soleados de hecho con temperaturas rozando los 14°C el pasado fin de semana.

It has been a long time since I didn't post something related to the weather. In general lines, this winter is quite mild, warmer than average, but not much as last year.

Since one and a half week there has been no rain, and that is excellent. Most of these days have been very sunny indeed. The temperature rose up to 14°C last weekend.Luego, vinieron tres días de una neblina bastante pesada. La visibilidad se redujo a sólo unos metros, pero más notable fue a temperatura que bajó hasta 1°C de máxima.

After that, three days of a very heavy fog came. The visibility was reduced to just a few meters, but more noticeable, the temperature drop off to 1°C the high.

Luego, el sol de nuevo pero muy frío. La temperatura cayó hasta los -7°C este domingo, y durante el día se mantiene debajo de los 5°C. Pero bueno, no está lloviendo y eso me hace feliz desde el punto de vista climático :)

After the fog, sun again, but also very cold. The temperature went down to -7°C on Sunday! And during the day it stays below 5°C. But anyway, it is not rainy and that makes me happy weather-wise :)

Un banco de arte = An art bank

Hace un tiempo intercambiamos oficinas para estar cerca del grupo de códigos y criptografía de la universidad. Toda esta mudanza significó mover todo el mobiliario de las oficinas. Por supuesto que los ex-ocupantes de mi actual oficina se llevaron todo con ellos: cuadros en la pared, una planta y hasta creo que un par de pizarras. El punto es que la pared de mi oficina quedó llena de agujeros como si hubiera sido baleada.

Mi colega y yo no nos preocupamos mucho en la decoración, ya que nos sentíamos bien, tan pronto como pudiéramos trabajar tranquilamente. Sin embargo, más de una vez tuve que ver las caras de la gente viniendo a mi oficina como diciendo que 'esos agujeros no se ven bien'. Luego de hacer este comentario a una colega, ella me dijo que podríamos decorar un poco la oficina pidiendo prestado un poco de arte del banco de arte de la universidad. ¿Qué?, ¿un banco de arte? Sí. Fue cuestión de hacer una simple llamada y arreglar una cita para ir y elegir algunos cuadros para colgar en la pared, con la motivación original de disimular los balazos. Y no nos arrepentimos ya que la oficina luce un poco más acogedora y como si fuera una oficina.

Con la idea de publicitar el banco de arte, la revista Cursor publica esta semana un artículo en la página en inglés sobre el tema. Fui entrevistado y pueden leer la entrevista aquí. Es muy divertido cómo varía el concepto de arte y su propósito entre diferente gente. Diviértanse con el artículo y también con mi imagen de 'hombre mirando al sudeste'. Aquí se puede bajar una versión pdf del ejemplar del Cursor.

A time ago, I swapped office to be closer to the coding and crypto group of the university. All this movement meant also to move all the furniture in the rooms. Of course, the ex-inhabitants my current office took with them: frames on the wall, a plant and I guess also some whiteboards. The point is that the wall of my room really ended up full of holes looking like gun shots.

My colleague and I didn't care too much in the decoration of the room, as we feel nice, as soon as we are able to work peacefully. Nevertheless, more than one I have to see the faces of people coming to my room like saying 'those holes don't look good'. After doing this comment to an colleague she told me that I could decorate a bit the wall by borrowing some art from the bank of art of the university. What? An art bank? Yes. It just was a matter of calling them and make an appointment to go and choose some frames to hang in our wall, with the original idea of dissimulate the bullet holes on it. We didn't regret as the room looks a bit more cozy and like an office!!

Advertising the art bank, the Cursor this week publishes an article in the English page about it. I was interviewed and it can be read here. It is very funny how the concept of art and its purpose varies from different people. Have fun with the article and also with my picture of 'man watching to the south-east'. You can also get a o pdf version of the newspaper here.

Otoño = Autumn

Hace un par de días, estaba andando mi bicicleta y encontré este fantástica vista.

A couple of days ago, I was cycling the bike and found this fantastic spot for a picture.

Así es como el otoño es aquí, ¡aunque ahora está bastante frío! Días más cortos, más fríos, nos preparamos para el invierno largo, oscuro y frío :(

This is how autumn looks like over here, although now is rather cold! Shorter and colder days, we are preparing ourselves for the very large, dark and cold winter :(

Lichtjesroute

Hace un par de semanas, Franca, la editora de la página en inglés del periódico semanal de la universidad, invitó a algunos estudiantes y empleados internacionales de la universidad a seguir la lichtjesroute en bicicleta. Esta ruta consiste en muchas figuras armadas con bombillas en la calle, puestas de forma tal que arman un circuito que puede hacerse en auto o bici. Este evento ha sido una tradición en Eindhoven desde 1948, como una manera de levantar el ánimo a la gente justo después de la segunda guerra mundial.

Así lo hicimos, y seguimos la ruta completa en bicicleta, un total de 23 km. Por supuesto, hubo una nota al respecto, y aquí hay un link con la versión electrónica:

http://www.tue.nl/cursor/internet/jaargang50/cursor04/news/news.php?page=e1

Hay algunos comentarios que le hice a Franca que se incluyen en la nota. También hay dos fotos, en las que yo aparezco en una! ¡Los desafío a encontrarme!

A couple of weeks ago, Franca, the editor of the page in English of the university newspaper, invited some international students and employees from the university to follow the lichtjesroute by bike. This route consist of plenty of figures made with bulb lamps on the street, all of them arranged in a circuit that can be done by car or by bike. This the event has been a tradition in Eindhoven since 1948, as a way of making people happier just after the world war II.

So did we, we follow the entire route by bike, a total of 23 km. Of course, there was a report out of it, and here is the link of the electronic version:

http://www.tue.nl/cursor/internet/jaargang50/cursor04/news/news.php?page=e1

Some comments I made to Franca are in the report. And two pictures, I am in one of them! I challenge you to find me!



Actualización 1/11: Aquí va la solución:

De museos = About musea

Este fin de semana hice una vuelta de museos organizada por la Asociación de Estudiantes Internacionales de Eindhoven (ISN/e). Junto a alrededor de otros 20 estudiantes fuimos a tres museos. Por supuesto, fuimos de uno a otro en nuestras bicicletas.

La primera parada fue en el Museo de la DAF. DAF es una fábrica bien conocida de camiones, autos y ómnibus. El museo lo lleva a uno a través de la historia de la compañía desde sus comienzos en la década de 1920 hasta la actualidad.

This weekend I went to a Musea-tour organized by the International Students Association Eindhoven (ISN/e). Together with around 20 other students we went to three musea. Naturally, we commute between them riding our bikes.

The first stop was at the DAF Museum. DAF is a very well known maker of trucks, cars and buses. The museum brings one to trough the history of the company, from its beginnings in the 1920's to the current days.

La segunda parada fue el Museo de Philips, también conocido como fabriekje (la fabriquita). Ubicada en el lugar donde Philips empezó la elaboración de las primeras bombillas, la visita guiada nos introduce en el proceso primitivo de desarrollo de las bombillas hasta llegar a nuestros días.

The second stop was at the Philips Museum, also known as the fabriekje (the little factory). Located at the place where Philips started producing his first lamp bulbs, the guided visit introduces us from the primitive development process of them, to the one employed nowadays.

Y al último, pero no por eso menos, el Museo Medieval. Este museo está en el medio de los Genneperparken. Hay un grupo de actores quienes constantemente muestran cómo se vivía en la edad de hierro y en el siglo XII. Es un concepto diferente de museo.

And lately but not least, the Medieval Museum. This museum is in the middle of the Genneperparken. There is a staff of actors who perform as they were living in the iron age and in the 12th century. It is a very different concept of a museum.

Allí, encontré algo que disfruté un montón. Luego de más de 15 años me subí a unos zancos. Descubrí que aprender a caminar con ellos es como aprender a montar una bicicleta: tenés que desarrolar la habilidad de hacerlo y nunca lo vas a olvidar. Muchos intentaron caminar con ellos, pero fallaron porque no es tan fácil como parece :)

There, I found something I enjoyed a lot. After more than 15 years I walked on stilts! I found out that learning to walk on them is like learning to ride a bike: you have to develop the ability of doing and you never forget it. Many tried to stilt, but failed because it is not as easy as it seems :)


Actualización (20/10): Aquí está el link con nota en Cursor, el periódico semanal de la universidad:
Update (20/10): Here is the link with the report in the Cursor, the university newspaper:

http://www.tue.nl/cursor/internet/jaargang50/cursor06/news/news.php?page=e1

A 'relative' week = Una semana familiar

Last week, Encarni, Alex, Rosa and Rafa came to visit Holland. They stayed at home of course, and during the day traveled through the surroundings. Namely, day 1, Eindhoven; day 2, Amsterdam; day 3, The Hague, Delft and Rotterdam; day 4, Antwerp (see picture below), Brussels and Brugges; day 5, Maastricht, Drielandenpunt, and Aachen. Besides that, we went on Thursday night at the city center, on Friday evening to follow the lichtjesroute, and because we (specially them) were so tired skipped pubbing on Friday night. Finally, they went back on Saturday morning, and it was really a pity that for some reasons they couldn't stay on Saturday and Sunday.

I enjoyed a lot, so did they. For me was a sort of routine breaker, as I had a very busy week work-wise. But in the evenings, we spent very nice moments. Thanks a lot for your good humor sense, and if I couldn't give you more, it is because it was out of my possibilities. Thanks a again, and I hope to see you again and enjoy ourselves again. I'm content!!!

La semana pasada, Encarni, Alex, Rosa y Rafa vinieron a visitar Holanda. Estuvieron parando en casa por supuesto, y durante el día viajaron a través de los alrededores. Es decir, día 1, Eindhoven; día 2, Ámsterdam; día 3, La Haya, Delft, y Rotterdam; día 4, Amberes (ver foto arriba), Bruselas y Brujas; día 5, Maastricht, Drielandenpunt y Aquisgrán(1). Además de esto, fuimos juntos a la noche del jueves por la noche en el centro de Eindhoven, el viernes a la tarde/noche a seguir la lichtesroute, y por porque nuestros cuerpos (especialmente los de ellos) no daban más, no fuimos de bares el viernes a la noche. Finalmente, se volvieron a España el sábado por la mañana, y fue una verdadera pena que por diversos motivos no pudieron quedarse ese sábado y domingo.

Yo la pasé muy bien, lo mismo ellos. Y para mí fue una especie de rompedor de rutinas, porque tuve una semana muy complicada y ocupada en el trabajo. Pero en las noches, la pasamos muy bien. Muchas gracias por su buen sentido del humor, y si no les pude dar más es porque no pude. Gracias de nuevo, y espero verlos pronto y que la pasemos bien de nuevo. ¡¡Estoy contento!!




(1) Esta ciudad se llama Aachen en alemán e inglés (creo). Aken en holandés y Aquisgrán en español, y Aix-la-Chapelle en francés... un día de estos pongo un post al respecto...

The busy month

As I anticipated, these weeks have been very busy for me. What I can tell is that the Dutch course is on the way, getting struggled with the synopsis of the language, but going on. Also, my bathroom at home was reformed, with three pictures are the before, during and after construction.



Personally, I didn't enjoy at all this two weeks: my provisional bathroom was at the first floor of my building (I live at the fifth), and I had to share with I don't know who besides the guys working on the construction. My complaints about that were in vain, nobody from the housing company care about the not so nice situation I lived... but in any case they reacted and gave me a very practical solution:

Of course, I didn't use this, and note this is just at my kitchen and living room...

But not all are bad news! I got a visit last weekend. Carolina, a friend from Colombia I met in Chile who now is doing her PhD in Bonn. We just went out Friday night where we danced a lot! On Saturday time for a walk in Amsterdam, and on Sunday, just a relaxing bike tour around Eindhoven. I know she didn't enjoy much this tour, as she is not used to bike, and specially she is not used to bike 30km at once! I hope she overall liked her visit down here. This self-portrait was taken at the Dam Square in Amsterdam.

And this weekend it is time to tidy up things at home, while also helping some friends to move. And as if these were not enough, yesterday I went on biking tour of the 'lichtjesroute' (lights route) which I'm planning to repeat by car with my cousins from Spain who will visit me next week. I exhausted, that's why I'm lazy and owe the translation to Spanish :)

Update (29/09): Carolina sent me an album with her pictures.

Una agenda apretada = A busy agenda

¡La hora de trabajar ha llegado! :) en realidad, voy a tener más actividades que las usuales tareas de investigación. De hecho esta semana ya empecé a dar clases: la asignatura es matemáticas básicas (algo como Análisis I para los de la UNSa), y por supuesto que lo tengo que ahcer en inglés aunque tengo que responder las preguntas en holandés de mis estudiantes que a veces entiendo. El curso durará un mes, los contenidos son bastantes densos, pero veremos cómo nos va.

La segunda actividad tiene que ver con el inicio de mi curso de holandés: luego de más de un año y medio creo que me siento lo suficientemente seguro como para comenzar a jugar con el idioma local. En general, puedo entender a un muy alto nivel de lo que tratan que las conversaciones o los textos escritos. Por supuesto que ni confío en mí en la mayoría de los casos, especialmente cuando se trata de cartas importantes. Pero en general me doy maña para entender. ¿Hablar? Ni una palabra, dificilmente puedo decir goedemorgen (buenos días) o doei (como el chau nuestro). Aunque hoy aprendí que un tasje es una bolsa de plástico :) No es un idioma fácil y no es fácil de aprender cuando la gente cambia a inglés ni bien sospecha de tu acento o cuando estás sudando porque no podés decir ni una palabra... Vamos a ver cómo va. En lo personal, voy a experimentar el aprender un idioma mientras vivo en el país en el que se habla. De más está decir que va a ser una forma muy importante de sentirme más de este país...

Y bueno, esos son los nuevos eventos en mi agenda que van a tenerme un poco más ocupados que lo normal }:)

Actualización (08/09): Los invito a leer los comentarios de este post, se hacen varias reflexiones interesantes...

Time to work has arrived :) Actually, now I'll have more activities to do than my usual research tasks. I already stated teaching: the subject is basic mathematics (mainly concentrated in calculus), and of course I must do it in English although I have to deal with some questions in Dutch which sometimes I understand. It will last one month this course, the contents are quite dense, but we'll see how it is going on. The second main activity will be that I'll start studying the Dutch language: after more than 1,5 years I think I feel confident enough to start playing with the local language. In general, I can understand at the very high level what a conversation in Dutch is about, the same for a written text. Of course, I cannot trust myself in most of cases, specially with letters I got, but in general I can manage to understand. Talking? Any word yet, I hardly can say goedemorgen (good morning) and doei (Brabants word for bye). Although today I learned that tasje is a plastic bag :) It is not an easy language and it is not easy to learn as many people just switch to English when they detect on you some accent or that you're being struggled to speak... We will see how this goes. Personally, I will experience learning a language while leaving in the country where it is spoken. It is not necessary to mention that will be an opportunity to have a belonging feeling to this country...

And that are essentially my new items in my agenda which will really make me more busy than usual }:)

Update (08/09): There has been an interesting discussion on the comments. Unfortunately, they are in Spanish, but I'll post a spare thread on that matter soon.

Cycling tour

In our daily chats at the university during lunch, the idea of doing a cycling tour came up a couple of weeks ago. We started exchanging some emails and putting ideas on where, when we could go, etc. This is the final email from Jan telling all details of it:

Dear all,

Over lunch we've discussed the plans for a bicycle tour this Sunday.
We settled on a tour along the "Malpie" heath to the south of Eindhoven.
Bring your own lunch, which we will have somewhere along the route.

date: 26 August
time: we leave at _exactly_ 11:00 from ******* (my address),
where you can have coffee between 10:00 and 11:00.

If you join but haven't confirmed so (neither orally nor by e-mail),
then please mail or tell me. If you'd like to include others in this
invitation, please forward this mail to them.

Address: find "********" on http://maps.google.nl/
it's in a black flat (one of four) called "Zomer"
(guess the other names :-)
phone: 040-########
cell phone: 06-########

Rianne, should we pick you up in Waalre?

Best,

Jan

And so did we. Let me tell you that the weather was kind of good (heavy fog in the morning, mostly clouded in the afternoon, temperatures averaging 20°C), the path we followed was very nice (some forests and heaths) and very nice routes.

We did some stops, just to drink some liquid and continue, one stop for having lunch and very in the end of the trip, we ended up into the Fiets Café near Aalst.

We enjoyed ourselves and a promise that we will do a new cycling tour in the future has been widely accepted. Of course, we will regret a bit tomorrow, as we will notice some pain after cycling about 57km...

Cambio de look = Look change

Hoy fui a la peluquería. Este es el antes:
Today I went to the hair saloon. This is the before:

Y este es el después:
And this is the after:

¿Estoy loco? Seee, un poquitito :P
Am I crazy? Yeah, a little bit :P

Actualización (29/08): Algunas cosas han cambiado: está fresco allá arriba, y el champú no hace espuma...

Actualización (01/09): Aunque no lo parezca, muchos ni me reconocen y me tengo que volver a presentar... está bueno porque a veces quedo de incógnito :D

Update (29/08): Things have changed: it's cold up there! and the shampoo doesn't make any foam!

Update (01/09): It is unbelievable! many cannot recognize me and I have to re-introduce myself... it's kind of cool 'cause sometimes I'm an unknown :D

Give me the money back!

Some weeks ago I went with some friends to the beach and we went by car. As we cannot go to the beach with the car we have to park it in a parking lot. After two hours of traffic jams we managed to find a place and come to the beach to enjoy. After all fun and joy we return to the parking lot to take the car and come back home.

So, after queuing a quarter of an hour to pay, I decided to do so with my credit card, just to make it fast. And indeed it was faster than we had imagined: the machine took the card and put it out in nothing of time. But the parking was paid. We were happy.

A time after, checking my financial situation, I checked my credit card balance too: Surprise! the parking had been charged twice. So, I started with all the bureaucratic circuit to claim my money back.

First I called the credit card bank. They asked me to contact the company that charged twice and ask them gently to reimburse the money incorrectly charged. If after this inquire I didn't have a satisfactory reply, we could start a formal reimbursement claim.

Second, I tried to find out which company is managing the parking lot, or at least the automatic payment machines. I googled, and googled and didn't find anything. So, as a intermediate step, I decided to make a complaint to the municipality, asking for the information I was looking for.

Some days past and no response. Some further googling and no luck, no way to get in touch with the parking company. Therefore, I asked to proceed with the reimbursement complain from the bank. They sent me by post the forms to fill in and initiate the complaint.

The days I got such forms, I got a response from the municipality:

Dear Mr. Villegas,

You posted a message at www.denhaag.nl about paying for parking in the corner of the Zwolsestraat and Harstenhoekweg. The pay & display machines outdoors in this area don't accept payment by credit card. For this reason it is difficult to address your question properly.

This brings me to the following. An explanation might be that you parked your car in the indoor car park Parking Scheveningen Bad. You may find this facility on the Internet at: www.parkerenscheveningen.nl . The company operating this car park is:

(...)

I got a phone number to contact the company. So did I, and surprisingly I talk to a guy who was in charge of the reimbursement of all affected people by the machines. They were going to credit the money back in a couple of days, I just had to wait and the money had to get back.

And, guess what, the money got back. The credit the second (and wrong) charge and the procedure was in practice finished.

This is just an example of how the problems must be carried out.

* You have to be patient, very patient. It took me three weeks in total to get what I wanted to.

* In all moments, the involved people just tried to make me happy, especially the guy from the guilty company. No excuses, just recognized their error.

* The drawback: I spent some time searching, talking on the phone and stressing myself thinking about how stupid I was by using this automatic payment machines.

* It was only for 10€... but finally I got what it was the correct thing.

La burocracia = The bureaucracy

Desde que vine aquí he escuchado muchas quejas sobre la burocracia por todos lados de este país. También me he quejado en su momento al principio, tal vez por el choque cultural, pero de un tiempo a esta parte me acostumbré. Simplemente tenés que hacer todo a como se dice y más o menos se hará así.

Mucha gente se queja sobre esto. Se quiere más flexibilidad y que las cosas se hagan de una manera más simple, con sentido común más que aferrarse a las reglas. Esto es bueno, especialmente para mí, ya que vengo de un país donde las reglas son un mero adorno y todo el mundo hace lo que se le viene en gana.

El problema aquí es que muchas veces nadie tiene conocimiento de las reglas, y se empieza a aplicar la regla como se piensa que es. Y luego, los problemas empiezan porque generalmente la interpretación de la regla es por lejos irracional.

Ahora les contaré algo que me pasó hoy, es un simple e inofensivo ejemplo. Tenía algunos problemas con mi cuenta de usuario en la universidad así que fui a la mesa de ayuda de informática, conocido como BCF. La principal razón de mi vista estaba resuelta (como un ejemplo más a las leyes de Murphy), y aprovechando la visita a esta oficina me acordé de otro problemilla en el que me podrían ayudar.

El tema es el siguiente: tengo una cuenta de usuario que es jvillega y quería que me la cambiaran a algo con más sentido, como josevillegas o simplemente jvillegas como para tener una buena dirección de email con ese nombre de usuario. Aquí es donde las contradicciones empiezan.

El chavón que me atendió me dijo que no hay problema, que lo podíamos hacer en ese mismo momento. Sólo me preguntó que si estaba seguro porque todos mis datos actuales se iban a borrar. Le dije que no estaba bien seguro pero que me diera unos minutos para chequearlo y luego proceder con el cambio.

Ahí apareció una especie-de-jefe a quien el chavón le comentó lo que iba a hacer. ¡Imposible! dijo. Aquí es donde las hilachas holandesas aparecen: "El reglamento dice que el nombre de usuario debe estar compuesto por la primera inicial del nombre más siete caracteres como máximo del apellido". Luego de explicarle que el nombre de usuario actual suena estúpido como para una dirección de email, y que es sólo una estúpida letra la que marca la diferencia y bla bla... sólo se limitó a justificar la regla... no hay forma de saltarla. Luego de unos minutos de absurdas explicaciones y justificaciones dije ma' sí, hacé lo que quieras...

Sólo un pensamiento de mi parte: este es de hecho un ejemplo insignificante y estúpido en el que las reglas sólo generan problemas. Para ellos es simplemente apretar un par de teclas para hacerlo y todo el mundo está contento. Además no es un gran problema administrativo el que se genera como se lo estaba pintando. Sin embargo, porque el reglamento está ahí, lo tenemos que acatar. Es un ejemplo muy boludo, pero en próximos posts voy a contarles algunas situaciones vividas por mis amigos que son completamente locas.

Luego voy a tratar de nuevo: Voy a ir cuando haya otro chavón atentendiendo, pidiéndole que lo haga bien rápido porque lo necesito urgente. Nadie se va a dar cuenta luego y voy a lograr mi cometido. Desafortunadamente esta parace ser la única manera de lograrlo :)

Actualización (16/8): Obtuve un nombre de usuario más decente para mi página personal http://www.win.tue.nl/~villegas Parece que la webmaster no es tan quisquillosa aplicando las reglas...

Since I'm here I've been hearing complains from people about the bureaucracy, everywhere in this country. I have complained too at the beginning of my stay but from some months to now I somehow got used to it. You have to follow what the rule says and generally everything will be carried out according to the plan.

Many people, though, cannot stand this. They require more flexibility and that all things should be carried out with common sense more than everything sticked to the rules. That is good, especially for me as I came from a country where the rules are a mere decoration and everybody does whatever he/she wants.

The problem here is that many times nobody knows how the rules are, and they start applying them to what they think the rules are. And then, problems start, generally because this understanding is far from a rational one.

In this post I tell you something that happened today actually: after some troubles with my user account at the University I went to the Bureau of Computers Facilities, a.k.a. BCF. The main reason for my visit was solved (Murphy laws always hold in this situations), and taking advantage of my visit to that office I remember another issue on which they could certainly help me.

The thing is the following. I have a user name which is jvillega and I wanted to change it to something more meaningful, like josevillegas, or simply jvillegas in order to have a nice email address with that user name. Here the contradictions start:

The guy who first attended me told me no problem, we can do it right now! Just asked me whether in my current account I have any sensitive data (because they were going to be erased). I wasn't so sure, so I asked him to give some minutes to check it, and then proceed with the change.

Then a kind-of-supervisor showed up, to whom the guy commented what he was going to do. He said impossible! Here is where the Dutch bureaucratic felling appears: "The rule says that the user name must be composed by the first initial followed by seven letters of the family name." After explaining that the current user name for an email address sounds silly, that is only a stupid letter which makes the difference and bla bla... he just attached himself to the rule... there is no way to jump it. After a few minutes of absurd explanations and justifications I gave up...

Only a thought from my side: This is a very stupid example when the rules are only generating problems. For them is a key stroke away to have everybody happy. Moreover it is not a big administrative issue as he tried to paint it. However, because the rule is there, we have to stick to it. This is a very stupid example, I'll start in coming posts to enumerate some others situations experienced by some friends which are really silly.

After this I'll make a new attempt: I'll go when some other guy is behind the counter and ask him to do it very quickly that I need the change asap. Then nobody will realize and that is, I'll accomplish my desire. Unfortunately this seems to be the only way out :)

Update (16/8): Finally I got a more decent user name for my web page account: It's http://www.win.tue.nl/~villegas It seems they aren't so strict applying rules...