Into Thin Air...

We finished Geneva strong. We wandered the town, took in the festival, listened to the French's take on "Shake, Rattle and Roll", posed with the huge water fountain and split a 5 L beer. The Swiss do a great job with there cheese, chocolate and general precision. Overall a good finish to a nice town.

Next, we took the train to the French Alps. Our destination was Chamonix, a valley town sitting below Mount Blanc. The town is beautiful and the mountain is gorgeous. After arriving, we went for a short hike through the town and around the hills.

The next day we rented mountain bikes and explored the area. During 2 treks, we covered 30 Km around the valley. The ride provided for a great work out and many great sights. As we made the turn home, we got cooled off by a light drizzle, which was a good ending six hours on the bike. As we walked through the town, we remarked how we had not bumped into anyone else we knew from the states. Not one minute later, a man runs after Jesse; it turns out Jesse's third cousin is also here in the Alsp. Who knew? Two more days here and then off to Zurich.

Midnight in Monaco

After a great afternoon wandering around and exploring Nice, we spent the evening relaxing at a local bar. Ironically, the live music was all classic US rock and an assortment of other musicincluding Tenacions-D. We filled our time with many games of hearts and Guiness.

The next day we took a day trip to Monaco. This tiny country probably has the highest concentration of wealth anywhere in the world. I have never seen to many amazing cars in one place. The city is designed in many vertical levels, which took some time to learn to navigate. We walked along the port and took in the amazing scenery of the coastal town. On our walk to the palace, we were followed by what appeared to be a choir of teenagers that sang harmonous French melodies as we meandered through the narrow, cobbled stone streets. It seemed like something out of a movie and made for an enjoyable walk.

Next we found the Monte-Carlo casino. Out front was every cool car one could imagine. We walked into the casino feeling like we were in some scene from James Bond. Unfortunately, we do not have the Bond -like bank roll to pay for the entrance fee to the main (ultra extravagent) gaming room, so instead settled for 5 euro of Jacks or higher in the common area. All and all, a great time. At midnight, we boarded our train back to Nice.

The next morning we left for Geneva, Switzerland, where we have already seen the UN, had some great chocolate and saw the largest water fountain in Europe. Tomorrow we are off to the French Alps.

Four Minutes of Bull

We hopped on an Ave train to Madrid (super fast) to meet Aaron and continued on to Pamplona. We arrived at 11 PM on the 13. The 14th of July is the last day of the Festival of San Fermin (aka, the running of the bulls, reference link ). Luckily, we were able to arrange for a single room to keep our luggage for the 12 hours we were in the city.

Fireworks were lighting the sky as we walked out of the train station. We got in a taxi and drove to our room at the local university. Unknown to us, there are two universities in Pamplona with the same name, one public and one private. Our first stop (at the public institution), brought us to a locked sports complex with no sign of a place to stay. At this point our taxi driver told us "tienes problemas" (you have problems). After some discussion, we went to the appropriate location and dropped our bags off.

We walked to the center of town where we found two drastically different scenes. The first was plaza with many older people (50-80 yrs) at 1 AM dancing to live music and enjoying the evening. We joined the dancing to the band's rendition of "I Will Survive". Second, we meandered to the path of the running of the bulls. This narrow, cobbled stone street was PACKED with thousands of 15-24 year olds drinking and running around like crazy. The streets were trashed with garbage and smelled like a seven day long party. At this point we realized that the bulls are not the dangerous part of the festival's main attraction, but rather the hundreds of other people running in the streets.

We needed to be at the festival route at 6 AM for a good view, so we obviously had to stay up all night. This required multiple coffees and some games of hearts to make it to the sunrise. When we arrived in the morning, the street was mostly empty. By 6:30 AM, fences were up and we straddled them for optimal run viewing.

At 8 AM, a rocket marks the start of the race and the bull's are released into the streets. We were at the end of the path, so it was calm for 2 minutes. Then, it was like a scene from a 9-11 documentary when you see tons of people running away from a single location. After 4 minutes, the run was over and the crowds cleared. We returned for our bags, a quick shower and were off again to the train station for a overnight train to Nice. Thus far, Nice has been very nice.

"So Big They Will Think We Are Crazy!"

...said the architect of Seville's cathedral.

We finished off Granada with another amazing Schwarma meal (I tried for one the night before, but no meet was left for my consumption) and a few drinks at a great Irish bar (yes, even in Spain). The funny thing about bars there is they typically only stock one type of beer, so it was nice to grab a Guinness. Also, I am really taking a liking to the Spanish music with its great beats and all its required clapping.

We woke the next morning, ran to the train and left for Seville. The trains in Spain in amazing: quiet and fast with science fiction-like sliding bathroom doors. Seville is a quiet town with narrow streets and intense heat. We wandered the city for a bit, getting lost occasionally and took in the sites: the tower of gold, the cathedral (it's big) and the river. A siesta was essential come the mid-afternoon.

Our hostel was a very cool little place that provided free internet (always welcome), good company (Brazilian roommates), and a free bar crawl. We visited five locations: two tapas bars, a dive bar, a flamenco bar and a discoteca. The live flamenco music was different and great, in contrast to the luxurious, loud and large club. It was fun to see the extremes.

Hello Mother, Hello Father, I am here at Camp...Granada!

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We have arrived in Granada after a great 3 days in Barcelona. Barcelona was amazing, a cool little town with great art (picaso), good food (tapas, paella), great beaches and a nice atmosphere. We then took an overnight train to Granada where we have been since. We ended up sharing the sleeper cabin with the loudest snoorer I have ever seen. Made for a fun sleeping time.

We have explored the city since. We saw the Alhambra, got some great Schwarma, and even visited the local science museum. Averaging a solid 5 plus miles a day. During a late night beer with some acetuna (sp? - olives), we randomly bumped into some ucla folk doing a study program here. Small world. I am averaging 100 photo per city, so those pictures will tell a better story than my words. The city is definitely calmer than Barcelona, but also has a great feeling to it. I could definitely spend some more time here relaxing.

Otherwise, we leave tomorrow morning for Seville and then Pamplona.

Hola de Barcelona

Flight arrived at 8 AM and spent the day travelling the city. Wanted to fall asleep throughout the day, but ended up keeping busy so that we slept from 12-10AM and woke up feeling good. The hotel is nice, it is an old catherderal next to the city hall. We shared a room with two Brasilian guys who are travelling as well.

The town is amazing. We pretty much walked around town for six hours seeing everything from the park with classic fountains, the familia cathederal and the port. We have stopped at many of the little shops interlaced among the many old fashion streets for cafe con leche and bocadillo con jamon. I think we will be living off that stuff for a while. Today we made a stop at the beaches which are awesome, but there are warnings of jellyfish, so there was limited time spent in the water. My spanish has been holding pretty well. I can manage fluent converstations and can ask for directions and even understand the response.

Tomorrow we leave for Granada on an overnight train.

Vale!

Hmm

Blinded By Busyness
Amygdala Override
Solitary Mental Confinement

Fork

Pick a rode and go.

Detroit Auto Show

Life Lessons

Yet here, Laertes! Aboard, aboard for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for.
There ... my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg’d comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in,
Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

-- William Shakespeare

It's A Little Cold Outside

Apparently there is an arctic front coming in making it a little cold outside.

Indian Kanoon

My friend created this cool website called Indian Kanoon that allows you to easily search Indian laws.

Winter Break (not very wintery)

Home for the holiday (left: the beach). Definitely different from the foot of snow I left in Michigan.

The break was nice. Some time was spent at home eating great food. One weekend was dedicated to a Las Vegas trip with the old UCLA friends to watch the Vegas Bowl and play craps. The rest of the time was spent relaxing, watching TV and taking a break from the waves of life. Visited Paul for New Years since I do not know many people in the area (good times!).

Home is amazing. I remember how it took some time to develop that feeling in LA. Hopefully Michigan will become more homey in the coming months.

The View Out of My Window

Mighigan Life

Michigan. Life continues in the mid west with some small changes. For example, 30 degrees is the new 65. Besides the need to dress in layers and the leaves changing, I still go to class/work, go to football games (left: the walk from the stadium on campus) and do the other random things I do. Even though I am in an engineering program, most of my time is spent reading and writing, who knew.

I have been here for about 11 weeks. I can not believe it at all. Many days I think back to the past, the friends I saw on a daily basis and the fun we had. Moving across the country definitely changes some things.

Michigan

5 weeks into grad school. Time has flown by. More later.

Friends in NY

Jen visited NY from DC this last weekend. Definitely nice to see old friends in the city. We had a good time hanging out and doing the tourist thing. We traveled around Wall Street where we saw the New York Stock Exchange (left) and the 'bull' (below). I also took them to Ulysses' bar for an afternoon Guinness.

On a funny note, as Jen and I were leaving from a good BBQ dinner, I bumped into two friends from high school. We ended up hanging out the next day/evening. It was good to catch up, especially at my first club where I, unfortunately, had to pay my first cover to get into a bar in NY.

On a side note, wings and ribs are very big around here (or at least with the people I hang out with). My group introduced me to an amazing bar (Mudville 9) that serves wings ranging in flavors of mild, medium, wow and super wow along side of half racks of ribs. The meat on the ribs fell right off.

NY Subway

It started like a normal day: shower, got dressed and walked out of the building. I then found out the subway was closed (the image is of the MTA website showing all the trains were stopped). All of them. Apparently it rained hard enough/quick enough to flood the system. That meant that I had to find a way to get to work. I started walking on the east side looking for buses or a ferry, but neither worked. Then, I took a bus across town to the west side, where I took a ferry to Jersey City. Overall, it took about three hours to get to work where it normally takes 30-45 minutes.

The ride home was the exact opposite. On the subway, a group of three guys turned on a boom-box, while the car was in motion, and began an amazing break dance show that including flips off the vertical bars and a two-man wheel that rolled down the length of the subway car. It was definitely a good show and was one of the enjoyable diversions on my commute.

Week ... I lost count

The weather in NY is definitely different than California. In particular, the humidity and the occasional thunder storm always add some excitement to the day. Even with the sporadic downpours, the city and its people are prepared. Fortuitously, I walked out into the rain from the subway to find a man selling $3 umbrellas that were worth every penny.

One benefit of working the long hours is occasionally I get food and transportation. I am still engrossed by the work and want to make my project work.

The last week was one of the toughest weeks for the market in five years. All that action and volatility led to huge amounts of volume.

The interns had a volunteer day on Friday in which we all went to clean up a beach. Picking up garbage and dealing with the mosquitoes was not terribly fun, but I enjoyed dipping my feet in the Atlantic and playing soccer on the beach.

I saw Avenue Q over the weekend. It was a good show and I really enjoyed the cast and the puppets.

Life in NY is very expensive, but I figure I might as well enjoy it while I am here.

It is official: my family has moved to souther California.

A couple weeks later

Only in New York can the bar you went to the previous night end up on the front page of Yahoo.

The night life in NY is amazing. In particular, the fact that the bars close at 4 AM and then after a short diner visit, you can see the sunrise over the east river. Quite amazing.

Work is going well. Still keeping busy and teaching me many things.

The last weekend I had a very nice time going out with friends to bars, the MOMA, central park and one of the best Texes BBQs imaginable.

If you are interested in a fun and beautiful movie, I highly suggest Ratatouille. The visuals are amazing and it is simply enjoyable to watch. After the movie we happened to come across a book store at midnight. Normally it would have been closed; instead, hundreds of people were packed into the store to pick up the final book in the Harry Potter series. I picked my own copy up the next day and began reading it while in a small park looking over the east river.

A fellow intern and I proceeded to purchase Broadway tickets. Our first picks of Wicked, Spamalot and Avenue Q were sold out and we were only able to get Phantom of the Opera. At first I was hesitant to see the show, not knowing if I would like it, but it turned out to be amazing. The entire production, the lighting, the music were tremendous. I will definitely be seeing more shows.

I did have Yankee tickets, however, due to a broken steam pipe, the subways were shut down and I was not able to attend. The event though was a crazy experience to be part of with people running through the streets and a large cloud of steam rising from midtown Manhattan. Video below.