İstanbul

What a wonderful city! Between Europe and Asia, Istanbul is the city I went lately. A treasure for humanity, three cultures shaped it to make it unique. I still can't find the words to describe how beautiful the city is. To this, I should add all the wonderful people that inhabits it: just a mixture of cuteness, politeness and trickiness. The monuments it holds are just impressive and far unique for a city. Its traffic is also a mix of adventure, irritation and illegality. Of course, this trip couldn't have been the same without the companion of two of my colleagues at the university, Peter and Sebastiaan. To give some impressions, let me elaborate more in some experiences I had, in a somewhat chronological order.

* Sleepy taxi driver.
Just arrived, after some waiting, going to our hostel, our first adventure starts. I wanted to look at the city with more details, I decide to go to the front seat of the van that transported us. After some minutes in a traffic jam, the driver starts falling asleep, to what I reacted giving some conversation. After pointing out that he looked tired, he asked whether I had a driver license and after my positive answer, he offered me to drive the van to the hostel! I scarily denied, and after all, we safely arrived!

* Attracting/sticky sellers.
Every time we walked in front of a bar/restaurant/shop someone standing outside will persuade to sell something... the game was to convince the prospective customer with different techniques. One of them will explain us everything he had to offer in the restaurant in everyone's language: Dutch, Spanish (in our case) but also French, English, Italian... not only that, the spontaneousness to make a topic conversation.

* Tulips all the city around.
Do you think that Holland is the paradise of tulips? Well, yes, but the only one place! During our stay they were celebrating the tulip festival with different kind of tulips, figures made with them everywhere! Most of tulips were imported from Holland though :)

* Topkapı Palace.
Main residence of the sultans during the Ottoman regime, it holds many antiquities, and beautiful building as well.



* Basilica Cistern.
A cistern basilica-shaped, ordered by a Byzantine emperor. Very well restored and a nice atmosphere. Two Medusas were used as support of one of the pillars.

* Grand Bazaar.
It's a big market place, a mixture of a flea market and some tend shops. The structure of the building is unique, and sellers quite smart: bargaining is mandatory, and giving up early would follow by some subtle teasing... Even more surprising is that *all* sellers will address me in Spanish, without opening my mouth at all!


* Black sea.
Istanbul is just 30km away from the Black sea which at a first glance seems to be close and easily reachable. It is indeed a short distance, but took us 5 hours to get there. First, because noboby really knows how to get there, specially by public transport. After figuring out how to get closer and closer, we didn't count on the traffic jams: we were going for nearly 2 hours at walking speed. By chance in one of the intermediate stops, we saw a bus with a sign to go to Kylios. After some time, we finally arrived. It was a dreams made true for me, although the beach isn't the great thing. In any case, I could dip my toes into its sand...


* Cheating taxi drivers.
When you take a taxi, you would definitively be fooled. They will, for example, magically make the tachometer run up very fast and sudden. Also change the banknotes when you pay them. Fortunately, we were aware of this issue and we weren't teased. In a sense, we tried to avoid taxis to avoid stressing situations...

* Taksim square and Beyoğlu district.
This is the very city center in the European side. Woohh I can't explain how vivid is this part of the city: full of people at any time! Bars, discos, pubs, restaurants all over this portion of the city, the indisputable heart of it. BTW, going to discos is quite expensive: 5€ for a 330cl bottle of normal beer!

* Golden Horn and Bosporus strait.
We also took a boat trip to have a view of the city from the sea side. We crossed under the two bridges that communicate both continents. Under the bridges on the Golden Horn there are fishermen getting some fresh fish, I think as a hobby.


* Aya Sofya.
This is a Christian church converted into a mosque by the Ottoman occupation. Interestingly, from inside it looks like a church, but full of Islamic symbols. Aya Sofya means Holy Worship, not Saint Sofia as sometimes is translated into.


* Blue mosque.
Situated in front of the Aya Sofya. It has very beautiful internal decoration with blue tiles. Its yards are just huge and imposing.


* Time to pray.
One thing that really makes this city to belong to a Muslim religion are the praying songs played 5 times a day across the city from (I guess) each mosque. Here I recorded a video to make you feel what it is like. People, though, don't pay much attention to it, a few really go into the mosques to pray, getting cleaned at the faucets located outside some mosques before entering to pray.

* Turkish bath.
We couldn't have left Istanbul without taking a hamam. First 15 minutes in a hot room (86ºC, 30% humidity) and a shock slump into cool water. Later, lay on a marble bed, receiving splashes of cold and warm water and a scratchy massage. After we are covered by foam and a complete corporal massage follows. Finally, you are so relaxed that you must go to bed!

* Nargile (Shisha, hooka or water pipe)
Nothing compares to sit on a street of Beyoğlu district and enjoy a water pipe. This usually comes with some flavoured tobacco, like apple, banana, orange among others. It is a quite relaxing activity, accompanied playing black gammon. It would be strange that some strangers join you at the table to tell all their adventures in Istanbul.

* One city, two continents.
This is yet another magic thing about Istanbul: it is divided by the Bosporus strait which separates Europe and Asia. It is all an experience to cross a bridge and being in another continent.


Just to make a summary: the best city I have ever visited! It defeated clearly to Barcelona who was among my favourite cities.

BTW, and although it is not mentioned, this was a business trip, but we took some days off to do some sightseen. And this explain why I went to a workshop in another continent and came back to Europe in a few hours :)

I'd like to thank Peter and Sebastiaan for providing most of the pictures in this post and their very nice humor sense, kindness, support and companionship.

Una experiencia rara = A rare experience

Hoy hice algo que no se puede hacer todos los días: estuve en el continente asiático por 10 horas presenciando un workshop, y me regresé a Europa inmediatamente...

Today I did something that one cannot do everyday: I was in Asiatic continent for 10 hours attending a workshop, and came back to Europe strait away...

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.

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.

Una escapadita = A getaway

Actualmente en mi carrera de doctorado es muy común que tenga que planear viajes fugaces a workshops o conferencias relativamente cerca en Europa. Esta vez fui a una reunión de un grupo de trabajo financiado por la UE donde algunos especialistas discuten sobre temas de investigación en mi área, hacen una tormenta de ideas y tratan de obtener resultados a partir de esto. Además de eso, el vínculo social se hace fuerte y se convierte en la base que favorece los trabajos conjuntos de excelencia. Y no es un demagogia, es cierto.

No hablaré mucho de los tecnicismos pero sí de los lugares que he visitado. La reunión fue en Salerno. No es una ciudad grande, en el sur de Italia, no muy turística en donde el estilo de vida típico de los italianos puede percibirse tan sólo caminando entre sus calles.

Currently, in my PhD career it is pretty common to have to plan rush trips to workshops or conferences somehow close in Europe. This time I went to a meeting of a working group financed by the EU where some specialists discuss research issues, brainstorm a little bit and try to get results out of that. Beyond that, the social link becomes strong and is the basis towards joint work of excellence. And this is not a lobby, it is true.

I won't talk too much on the technicalities but about the places I visited. The meeting was held in Salerno. This is a not so big city, in the south of Italy, not so touristic, rather, not so full of tourists, where the typical Italian lifestyle can be perceived by just wandering through its streets.

Luego que las reuniones terminaron, tuve algo de tiempo para visitar algunos lugares. Primeramente, fui a Pompeya y visité, por supuesto, las ruinas de la antigua Pompeya. Me quedé atónito de ver todo lo que esta gente había logrado en el año 79 de nuestra era cristiana.

After the meetings finished, I had some time to visit some other places. Firstly, I went to Pompei and visited, of course, the ancient Pompei's ruins. I just was astonished to see all what these people had achieved by the year 79 of the Christian era.

Luego de eso, seguí la ruta hacia mi destino final, pasando por Nápoles que solamente conozco desde las vías y su estación, en donde tuve que correr para alcanzar mi tren a Roma. Las vías entre Pompeya y Nápoles es espectacular, van pegadas a la costa.

After that, I followed the way to my final destination, passing by Naples which I only know from the railways and its station, where I had to rush to get my train to Rome. The way between Pompei and Naples is just spectacular, the railways go just next to the beach.

Roma dije, sí. Pasé una noche distinta porque por primera vez estuve en un hostal, compartiendo un cuarto mixto con otros 5, adolescentes en su mayoría :S De todos modos, el día siguiente, caminé todo el día en Roma: el coliseo, y la Basílica de San Pedro. Sin palabras para describir estas maravillas arquitectónicas y todo lo que Roma tiene para ofrecer. Millares de turistas, construcciones antiguas por todos lados.

Rome I said, yes. I spent a night, rather particular for me because I stayed at a hostal, sharing a mixed room with other 5 people, teenagers most of them :S Anyway, the day after, I just wandered in Rome: colliseum, and Saint Peter basilica. No words to describe these and all what Rome has to offer. Plenty of tourists, ancient constructions everywhere.


Y para hablar un poco de Italia, sólo puedo decir que me sentí como en casa. La gente habla como nosotros lo hacemos, en italiano pero no es el problema para nosotros. Solamente me dediqué a hablar con un acento argentino bien acentuado y pasé desapercibido. La pasé bien en este viaje, aunque como siempre digo, no me termina de convencer tener que ir solitariamente por todos lados.

And as for Italy, I just can say that I felt at home. People just speaks as we do, with the same intonation therefore it is not a big issue for us. Just speak with a very stressed Argentinean accent, and we are Italians. I just got a lot fun with this trip, although I was alone, thing that still doesn't convince me at all.

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.

Listo para publicar = Camera-ready

Finalmente, ayer terminamos y enviamos la versión publicable de nuestro artículo para ISC'07. Sólo para ilustrar lo complicado de lo que pensamos, esta es una foto de la pizarra en mi oficina. Explicaciones a pedido :P

Finally, yesterday we finished and sent the camera-ready version of our paper for ISC'07. Just to illustrate how hard we have to think, this is a picture of the whiteboard in my office. Explanations on request :P

Mi primera publicación = My first publication

Desde octubre del año pasado, estuve bastante ocupado con algunas cosas en la universidad. De hecho, la mayoría de este tiempo lo estuve ocupando en la finalización de un artículo, no cualquier artículo, sino mi primer artículo. El título del mismo es "Practical and Secure Solutions for Integer Comparison", que es un trabajo conjunto con Juan Garay y Berry Schoenmakers. A finales de octubre, lo enviamos a una conferencia, y fue aceptado. Seee, esta es mi primer publicación.

La conferencia se llama "Public Key Cryptography", este año será en Pekín, China. Aquí vas a encontrar la página oficial de PKC 2007. Algunos puntos que quiero resaltar:

* Además de ser mi primera publicación, es muy especial, en el sentido que los co-autores son mi actual supervisor, y mi supervisor de tesis de licenciatura.

* Tengo que admitir que los resultado no son totalmente de mi creación, pero hay unas ideas muy pequeñas y fundamentales en el artículo de mi parte.

* Me ayudó a comenzar a aprender cómo escribir un artículo, expresar ideas de manera clara, jugar con los deadlines y estar trabajando hasta el último instante haciendo modificaciones.

Para los que son un poquito vagos y no quieren buscar el artículo en la lista de los aceptados, este es el vínculo donde buscarnos http://pkc07.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/accepted.html

Finalmente, quiero dejar claro que esto NO significa que vaya a ir a China, pero aún hay una muy pequeña posibilidad :)

Since last October I was saying I was busy with some dues at the university. Indeed, most of that time was spent in finishing a paper, not any paper, but my first paper. The title of the paper is "Practical and Secure Solutions for Integer Comparison" which is co-authored by Juan Garay, Berry Schoenmakers and myself. At the end of October, we submitted it to a conference, and it got accepted. Yeah, this is my first publication.

The conference is called "Public Key Cryptography", this year will be held in Beijing, China. Here you will find the official webpage of PKC 2007. Some points I'd like to point out:

* Besides of being my first publication, it is very special for me. The co-authors are my current supervisor and my master's thesis supervisor.

* I have to admit that the results are not of my creation, but there are very few and fundamental ideas in the paper from myself.

* It helped me to start learning how to write a paper, express ideas in a clear way, play with deadlines, and being working until the very last minute doing modifications.

For those that are lazy and don't want to find the paper in the list of accepted ones, this is the page that you have to look for us: http://pkc07.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/accepted.html

Lastly, I want to say that it does not mean I will go to China, but there is still a very small probability of doing so.