Bcn days@Pompeu Fabra

This week I´m attending the Macroeconomics Summer School at Pompeu Fabra University, in Barcelona. Though it might seem hard to follow, it´s only a couple of hours a day (9:00/11:00). Then I go to the library to read a bit, I have lunch at the "campus" (it´s only a couple of buildings with a yard inside each), read or play with the computer for another while and go for a walk around, a coffee or whatever leisure activity till supper time.
Although I´ve been many times in the city, this one has some differences: first, it´s the first time I come here for "work´s issues". It´s only a couple of hours a day, but in addition to the time I spend in the library it allows me to get the taste of the environment of probably the best university for economics in Spain. And travelling for work feels good, too: it´s basically about getting to know people who spend at least as many hours as I do in touch with economics and urban stuff, with people who is really into this topics and from whom I can learn tons of things... and that is a pretty nice feeling. In a not far future, I´d like to fill my life with many of trips like this one (you know, not only for fun but also for work), so this could be considered the first of a longer list. At least that´s what I hope...

The way I´m living here it´s also different from past times. I´m living in a very close friend of my mum´s house, which is located very far from the center, what forces me to commute everyday about 45 minutes each way. Being used to bike to the uni in less than 20 minutes, this' a huge change.

And at last, but definitely not least, the way that family is treating me is taking this week to a much higher grade. They´ve open the door and said: guy, come in and feel home :) Moreover, it´s thanks to them (specially Ana) that I got to know what Sant Joan festivity really is and how is understood in Catalonia, just in three words: firecrackers, firecrackers and firecrackers...

Calma antes de la tormenta

Acabo de volver de cuatro días (desde el lunes tarde hasta hoy jueves) en Biescas, Pirineo aragonés. Me fui sin más pretensión que encontrar la calma necesaria para poder concentrarme y repasar uno de los modelos principales de geografía económica (Modelo Centro-Periferia, Krugman 1991), lo que me será bastante útil en mis proyectos académicos venideros.
La verdad es que han sido cuatro días de estupenda calma, relajación y armonia espiritual :) He avanzado mucho en el modelo, me ha dado tiempo a leer más cosas, y he podido salir a correr por los montes de alrededor todos los días un rato por la tarde.
Tranquilidad, reposo, alimentación sana y buenas conversaciones gracias a mi amigo Kaste que me ha acompañado dos días. Aunque mi intención inicial era de aislamiento total, me he dado cuenta que si hubiera sido así habría llegado a rayar la locura (no aguanto 4 días callado...).
Y, con diferencia, de lo mejor de estos días han sido las charlas con Kaste en torno a un té y con las montañas por testigo: desde las tonterías más estúpidas, hasta lo más profundo ha pasado por los descansos de estudio y las sobremesas de la comida... y eso es algo que para mi no tiene precio.

Así que cuatro días fantásticos de los que vuelvo con la agradable sensación de haber hecho buena parte de lo propuesto al principio. Y, desde luego, cuatro días de calma total en contraposición con lo que está por venir: la semana que viene estaré ocupado con un par de examenes, después dos semanas en Barcelona con el intermedio del ZaragozaCiudad (ver "Follow Me on the Move!!!"), una semana de vacaciones familiares, y luz verde a la aventura asiática :)

Dream Essence On Tour '07!!!

Why korea???

Many people (first of all of them my grandma) could wonder: why is a spaniard heading Korea??? Well, first I´d say: why not? Adventure and uncertainty are always good reasons when it comes to travel. Yet, they´re not the only ones now...

I spent last year as an opening-eye one studying in Stockholm (Sweden). During my time there, I had the chance to get to know a lot of people from all over the world and meeting many different circumstances (included my italian neighbor and his passion about Eastern Asia...): born in a country and living in a different one, parents from different countries, years off travelling the world around... Till then I thought I had travelled something during my life, but when I got to know all those personal stories I wondered: dani, what have you done while they were travelling??? Afterwards I realised I knew more or less well Europe but I had no clue of what was going on outside "Fort Europa": why not to take that step?

At the same time, I started feeling attracted by the East, the Far Orient, don´t know why but I did. All of a sudden, I found myself eating with chopsticks, downloading chinese movies and loving "Lost in Translation" (a movie a few months before I´d have considered as boring for sure). Then, one morning having lunch in the garden in Sweden I got the light: why couldn´t I go to eastern Asia??? It may seem very obvious, but it was such an important mental step forward.

I came back from Sweden but the will still remained. I started looking for ways to go there next summer: convincing friends to go to China, applying for workcamps in Japan, etc. But no results. Finally, a friend of mine told me if we found any university course there, he´d join me. I went through many asian universities' websites: Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei... But nothing. Nothing till I reached the University of Seoul: I found they had and International Summer School program which could fit our demands very well. Thereafter, life circumstances and some duties made my friend not to come but, by that time, it was too late: I mailed them and, after some standard bureaucracy, I got the chance to attend it.

It might seem too venturesome to justify such a long flight, it truly is. But sometimes life is just this way and I feel very happy about my journey into asian culture. Moreover, as Steve Jobs puts it: you can only connect dots looking backwards; which means you never really know what your current actions may mean to you in the future.

So, now grandma you can consider all your questions about Korea answered and next time you ask me, I can send you to this post...