But now I am back to chronicle. Unfortunately, my laptop has crashed and I am in the process of getting my data extracted from a fried hard drive....so no pictures just yet.
September and the first part of October saw me do the following
- Go to Vina Del Mar and Valparaiso with my friend Mariela. It is a city about an hour and a half west of Santiago, right on the ocean (first time I have seen the Pacific) and I spent most of the time walking around, looking at sights, hanging out at the sea, visiting a very cool place called LaSebastiana (the house and museum of famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda) and a few other things
- After this, a whirlwind trip to Europe ensued. I traveled to Heidelberg, Germany for 4 days to participate in a conference for Edinburgh University (the Bright Europe Conference). The conference brings together post-graduate students from 12 universities from across Europe, once a year, to discuss different political, economic and social issues that are currently facing the EU member countries. I saw 2 of my friends from Edinburgh at the conference -- Shahed and Anne -- and really enjoyed myself there. My contribution to the conference had to deal with growth problems....I really didn´t have much prior knowledge on this so was excited to learn at least a little bit about the subject. The town was very pretty. The conference was quite fun. All in all, a good time.
- I traveled to Budapest for work for about 11 days after the conference. Budapest is officially the farthest East I have been and the city is very old, very pretty, has an absolute ton of history (I only learned a little, however) and is very, very inexpensive. Quite cool. I spent a lot of my free time walking around (pretty easy to get around) and taking pictures. There is a castle district which is quite cool, and there is no shortage of fantastic looking buildings and enticing little coffee shops.
So now I am back in Chile, where it is officially Spring, and I am getting more into my work at NESsT. I am beginning a few projects, getting ready to start my dissertation and all in all liking the experience. I have played tennis a few times, on red clay nontheless, and that has been a small highlight. One of the people that I am staying with in Chile, Patricio, is the head of a tennis academy in Santiago and he allows me to play on the courts of his academy. It is quite cool. In the background are the snowy Andes mountains. I will post a picture when I get one.
It´s time for the real time job search, and that is what is up next on my plate. I would like to get around in Chile a little bit now that my Spanish is somewhat passable.
Until next time.
