They said NO: start line again

Hello people!

Well, something bad had to happen in 2006, right? I didn't win the Spanish lotery and they company that I was hoping for they said NO to me. The company with the balloon exercise.

I don't want to bitch about them (after two months selection process) or about me, but I don't want to hide it either. They just don't want me. Again.

I'm at the starting line again, a new year is coming, and my CV is going to start moving a lot again, to Spain and to Finland, again. Patience.

People who are working basically complain about the work, people who we are looking for a job are complaining about not having a work. I think that the world is designed to make people complain and to be not happy with what we have. I am a bit against the world then, I am really happy about what I do have; I just want a job because I'll need money to survive soon!

A hug people, and... well, enjoy what you have!

PD: if someone from Finland or Catalonia wants to hire a MSc. in Telecommunications Engineering leave a comment, e-mail me or call me. Kiitos i/ja gràcies.

This is what happens when you are bored...

Hello people, how is it going?

I’m sorry, this is not a Christmas Card yet, I just want to share with you my boredom. And yes, I am still waiting for a company to call me. I already said no to one company and I had the third interview in the same company and I think that that it went fine.

And besides that... computer, internet, to play guitar, to read, to go to the gym... Of course that the best moment of everyday it happens in front of the computer and through the webcam; you don’t need more details, do you? (... don't think bad you people!).

And here they go some pictures that describe something else that I have been doing. The skeleton is from a book collection when I was a kid. I don’t know the English name, but in Spanish it is: “Érase una vez el cuerpo humano”. They also had another one called “Érase una vez el mundo”, and if I could whistle the main theme (afterwards they were TV series) you would recognize it immediately.

The black Stratocaster was a gift from my mom, it’s cute isn’t it? The sunburst Stratocaster was handmade by me... just carton and a printed picture from the real one.

The amplifier, a Marshall JCM800 (probably too big, or too small, or too something) is hand made too (using a cool golden pen).

Yep, I am a nerd; yep, I am guitar obsessed; yep, I need a job.

Don't hate me but... it is not cool to have too much free time. So. enjoy the one that you have!

Ungreatful Christmas Song / Nadala Ingrata

Hello people!

I’m not saying Merry Christmas yet, I’ll save that for later on. But I guess that you all agree that Christmas is coming! Lots of Christmas advertisements on TV, Christmas lights, buying cards and thinking about gifts...

I like Christmas, a lot, and this one is going to be even more special than usually (so much more). But I want to share with you something. I have a CD (in Catalan) called “Altres cançons de Nadal” (Other Christmas Songs) and I’ll write down the lyrics of one of them. The music is funny, and the lyrics are “different”. Here it goes in Catalan and after it in English.

The song is from Mesclat and the lyrics from Francesc Ribera a.k.a. Titot.

A Betlem en un portal
Jesús neix a una banqueta
i per Via Digital
en directe ho retransmeten.

Al bell mig de l’erol
Sant Josep d’això en té idea,
li ha muntat un bressol
que ha comprat en el Ikea.

En Jesús dorm abrigat
amb una tovallola
que té un gran estampat
on hi posa Coca-Cola.

La Maria, com hi ha món,
unes mantes compraria,
però ha fos la Visa Electron
allà la perfumeria.

El messies ha nascut,
el Nadal a tots conforta,
i el Producte Interior Brut,
creix i això és el que importa.

Els pastors van arribant
en potents 4x4
i li duen a l’infant
jocs de guerra i de combatre.

Ha nascut el fill de Déu
el carrer tot s’engalana
i per cada llum encès
al món un nen mor de gana.

Menja neules el botxí,
pau als homes i a la terra
que demà de bon matí
ja continuarà la guerra.

N’ha marxat el caganer,
en aquest lloc ell no hi entra
no fos que el fessin pagar
fins i tot per anar de ventre.

In Bethlehem in a hall
Jesus is born in a bench
and at CNN worldwide
it is live broadcasted.

In the middle of barn
Saint Joseph knows about it
he has built a cradle
he bought from Ikea.

Jesus sleeps covered
with a towel
which has a big pattern
that says Coca-Cola.

Maria, why not,
some blankets would buy
but she melted the Visa Electron
there at the perfumery.

The messiah has been born
Christmas comforts everyone,
and the Gross Domestic Product
grows, and that is what matters.

The shepherds are arriving,
in powerful 4x4
and they bring to the kid
war and fighting games.

God Son has been born
the streets are fully decorated
and for each shiny light,
a little kid dies of hunger.

The executioner eats cookies
peace for men and at the earth,
and tomorrow in the morning
the war will continue.

The “shitting man” is gone,
he doesn’t go in it
they might make him pay
even to have a crap.

I must tell you that the "shitting man" is a Catalan tradition. When you do the little Nativity Scene one of the figures is a shepherd which is shitting. And soon you will know more about the "El Tió Màgic" which I would translate as "The Magic Log" and... well, you'll see soon.

Enjoy your time, think about the world, and try to think how lucky you are, how happy are you or could you be compared to lots of other people. Be happy! See you soon!

Books: 3rd Part

Mika Waltari, “Sinuhé el egipcio” (Sinuhe, Egyptilainen)

This book is really special for me, because is a gift; and not only a gift, a gift from the most special person ever. Mika Waltari is one of the most important Finnish authors and he had written several historical novels. “Sinuhé el Egipcio” is one of his master pieces and we found it in Helsinki (Stockman), and we found it in Spanish!

It has the problem of lots of books: lack of rhythm in the beginning, but after a while is really addictive! Maybe it is because of the Spanish translation (my Finnish doesn’t allow me to check the original version, anteksi) but it seems to be written in a really old style. It might be because Sinuhé is writing (not telling) his own story, and it is supposed to be written thousands of years ago.

Anyway, it tells the story of Sinuhe, born in a poor district and son (adopted) of a doctor. His life, as doctor and more, is full of pain and adventures through the known world. The old Egypt, the pharaohs, kings, power fights and Sinuhe himself involved in all of them are the main topics in the book.

It is a really good historical novel, a master piece of an important Finnish author, it is easy to find in Spain (in Spanish) at least and I read it with special attention because of the meaning that the book has for me.

Books: 2nd part

Tom Clancy, “Clave Red Rabbit” (Red Rabbit)

Fortunately my Belgian social life grew a lot, and I didn’t even have time to read. A bit because of the thesis, a bit because of hanging out with friends and of course because I was busy being happy. We left Belgium to Finland and Emma suggested me to bring a couple of books to the summer cottage and my parents brought me three books when they came to visit me. This is the first one.

It took really long to finish it, and I am usually quite fast. The fact is that even though in the summer cottage we had plenty of time, we were having so much fun and I enjoyed so much the company, the landscape, the natural sauna, the food, the resting, the silence that I wasn’t almost reading at all.

Ignoring that it took so long, I liked the book. In this book we know the beginnings of Jack Ryan (you’ve seen Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck at the role of that character in movies) as analyst at the CIA. The plot is based on a menace to the Pope’s life. Still in the cold war, Wojtila says that he’s going to come back to Poland and he is against comunism, and well... I won’t give more information. It is a good spy book.

Frederick Forsyth, “El manifiesto negro” (Icon)

This author writes it is quite similar to Tom Clancy except in one little detail. Tom Clancy usually writes about the official agencies (CIA, NSA and FBI) and Forsyth more about covered operations or “special undeclared agents”. In this case, we are in the contemporary times and Russia is having political troubles (surprise surprise). There is this guy who is leading a right party but... he is too in the right. Actually he is a kind of nazi. The bad thing as that the “good” countries, discover that he is so bad by chance and they can make it public. So this covered organization (filled with important people from the 90’s) is going to somehow screw that guy and save the world.

Again, a really good spy with authority problems is going to be the right man to do the job. Politics, spies and action!

Tom Clancy, “Sin remordimientos” (Without Remorse)

Yes... spies and action again. I won’t tell again about the author, and about the plot just tell that there are drugs involved and vengeance. The good thing about this book (for me at least) is that you discover who is John Clark! He is the commander of Rainbow Six (read the books or play de games) and he has a quite “original” beginnings. I read somewhere that Joaquin Phoenix is going to play the role of him in a movie based on this book in 2007. I really think that he doesn’t fit in the role but... I didn’t expect anything of Daniel Craig as James Bond, as he is already my favourite one!

About people playing John Clark in movies we have: Willem Dafoe, horrible election in “Patriot Game”, where Harrison Ford was playing Jack Ryan; and Liev Schreiber who played John Clark when Ben Affleck was playing Jack Ryan in “The Sum of all Fears”. (Sorry if the English titles are wrong..., you know we Spaniards).

I really liked the book because of the main character, but it is not that great... anyway, if you like Tom Clancy's book, you'll like it.

PD: sorry for the size (or lack of it) of the covers. They're tough to find in internet and I am too lazy to scan them.

Flying there and back

It has been a short but great trip to Finland. I decided it (with Emma’s permission and willing) a week and a half ago, the 18^th and 19^th of November and I booked the tickets at the same day.

I have been in Finland four days (three nights). I arrived there on Saturday the 25^th around half past three in Finnish time. And as always... it’s so great to see her again!! We had great time, couple of saunas, I bought a new pair of boots, and basically we have been hanging around just two of us. Wonderful!!

Maybe you are wondering why I am posting to tell this obvious things, and it is just to show you a couple of pictures that I took from the airplane, flying from Barcelona to Helsinki over the Alps.

Aren’t they nice?

And besides that, I am happy; I am going to have another interview (the third one in the company where I had the first group dynamics), and...

...my school finally gave me (convalidate or something like that) the two credits that I had left so... I have to sign in for them and the thesis and I am going to be: Master of Science in Telecommunications Engineering!

See you soon, hug people you love a lot, and be happy!

PD: I miss you so much, but it is a nice missing, and... so soon!

Books: intro and 1st part

Hello again everybody!

Nobody commented the last post about the group dynamics... I am a bit sad about it, because when I had the cool neocounter I had lots of people reading! Anyway, I hope that you people are still reading what I’m writing.

This post is about books (not a surprise after the title) but I would like to inform you that I have been invited to another interview after the second group dynamics!

I guess that it is going to be a boring post again so I will split it in sundries parts just in case. I am not a professional literary critic but as a reader I have the right to give my opinion. I will tell you about the books that I have read since February. I want to write my opinion about the book, but I would like to explain the context as well, where did I read those books, and the influence that my mood had on the books, and the books on my mood.

I write the author, the title of the book in the language that I read the book and in brackets the original title of the book.

Jonathan Stroud, “El amuleto de Samarkanda” (The Amulet of Samarkand)

It happened to me something funny! I bought first “El amuleto de Samarkanda”, because there is a continuity between them. I was loving it but... at some point I had a sort of dejà vu. What I was reading was too familiar to me. Oh no! There were some missing pages and some other pages were repeated! It is the first time that I see something like that. I had “El ojo del Golem” and I read that one first, before going to Belgium I went to pick a correct version of my book and I read them both fast but with the wrong order.

I would like to compare it with Harry Potter, but I can’t because I haven’t read them. Anyway, I think that it can compete with those but somehow it won’t.

The main character is a boy (then a guy) called Nathaniel and he is learning to be a wizard. His name as a wizard is John Mandrake. He is better than the usual wizards (maybe that’s why he is the main character). He is able to summon powerful spirits like Bartimeo (definitely the funniest character in the books, and only because of him/it it worth read the books!). Nathaniel teachers kind of disrespect him. The main action happens in England and it tells an alternative story where the wizards are powerful and basically rule the world (the Czechs were powerful too, for example) but I don’t want to tell the plot because maybe some of you are going to read it.

In general lines, the first book “El amuleto de Samarkanda” tells how the kid starts to learn magic and becomes the favourite of the powerful wizards. Revenge, luck and extraordinary magic skills bring him to success in his task. And Bartimeo is just hilarious.

Jonathan Stroud, “El ojo del Golem” (Golem’s Eye)

In “El ojo del Golem” John Mandrake is already a young member of the government and again, he is the responsible to solve a huge magic problem. At the same time he fights against the resistance. The point of the book is the girl in the resistance, and the attraction between her and Nathaniel, and who is the bad one? It is a readable book with Bartimeo being hilarious again.

If you like magic but don’t want to read Harry Potter let’s go and pick them!

Aturo Pérez Reverte, “No me cogereis vivo”

When I finished “El amuleto de Samarkanda” in Belgium I didn’t have that much social life (it was in the first week still) and I didn’t have any other book. That is one of the reasons why I started writing my diary (small social life, no internet, no books). Fortunately I met Eric (I’m glad to consider him as a friend now) and I borrowed this book from him.

Arturo Pérez Reverte is a Spanish reporter. He has been for thirty years war reporter and has been around the world seeing... maybe too many things. You probably know him because of Alatriste. The movie with Viggo Mortensen as main character is based in five novels of Arturo Pérez Reverte telling the adventures of that Spanish captain. Anyway, he has been writing lots of things including one article every week in a small (sorry) newspaper.

This book is a compilation of some of those articles. He is definitely the most bitching reporter that I’ve ever read. He has no problems to bitch about the government, the right politicians, the left politicians, the peace movements, the army, the immigrants, the intolerance, the love, the stupid people. If you agree with him you enjoy a lot what he is saying, if you disagree you suffer and start to hate him. But reading that book I learned, thought, laughed, got mad and enjoyed my time!

I would like to read the other article compilations of Pérez Reverte: “Con ánimo de ofender” and “Patente de Corso”. I'm pretty sure that they are great.

Group Dynamics

Hello again people! I suppose that you’re guessing that I don’t have a job yet, otherwise I would’ve posted it previously with big capital letters!

So yeah, I’m still involved in some selection process (only in Spain... DAMN IT!). Yesterday I went to another group dynamics and it was so much better than the first time. Everybody was talking a lot, without hesitating at all an I can say that we almost had fun there! I am going to tell you how did it go, and I would like to ask you to do a group dynamics here! You know, with your comments you can help us to find the solution (whether we can or not).

The story

Maria is married to a manager of an important company who travels a lot and doesn’t spend as much time as he (and she) wishes home. One night, Maria was feeling lonely and she decides to go and visit Luis, who was pretending her before. After having sex, Maria goes home to arrive there before her husband, but to come back home she has to go through a bridge. In the middle of the bridge there is a crazy guy who looks dangerous

She has to cross the river and there is a boat with a guy and his job is to bring people from one shore to the other one, but Maria has no money. So, he doesn’t cross her. Then she goes and ask help to Luis, but he does nothing to help her. Then she goes to Mario’s place, ex-boyfriend and now friend, but after hearing the story he doesn’t help her neither. She asks for help again to the “boat man” but he doesn’t help her.

She decides to go through the bridge and the crazy guy kills her.

The exercise

Try to decide who is more responsible about what had happened, MARIA, the HUSBAND, LUIS, the CRAZY, the BOAT-MAN or MARIO.

And yes, we (nine people) had to discuss it to try to have a technical job...

Regards and be happy! I have the best reason ever to be happy (more than I ever dreamt), but still: try to be happy!

Situation: patience

I’m happy but sad, and but bored but excited, and sleepy but not tired at all.

* Emma left 6 days ago (almost 7 because of the delay!) and that’s why I am happy (she was here) and sad (I'm waiting for her again).

* I’m waiting for answers from companies, especially one who interviewed me last week and that’s why I am bored (basically doing nothing) and excited (expecting answers).

* I almost woke up at 8 (actually at 9) this morning, even though I don’t have too, and I’ve been doing nothing during the whole day and that’s why I am sleepy but not tired at all.

The late late flight...

This is something that Emma suffered, not me, but I’m going to tell here part of the experience. We went to the Barcelona’s airport, to the baggage-thing at 22:30 and the flight was supposed to leave at 23:45 but... they told us that the flight was delayed at least two hours and that more information is going to be given at 23:30 next to the boarding gate. Shit. It wasn’t enough that it was a night flight.

The boarding gates are after the security control and you have to show the ticket to go through it, but I wanted to wait (at least a bit) with Emma. I asked to the security guard if I can just go through the security control and wait with her. And the security guard called the “Guardia Civil” who was there. At this point I want to demonstrate that they wear the ugliest hats ever (the guy at the airport was only wearing a regular cap):

He was kind and I could wait with Emma for couple of hours there... and then I left to Igualada again, to the lonely Igualada. Emma boarded about 3:00 (Spanish time) and she got home almost at 9:00 (Finnish time)! I really hope that the Blue One company efficiency is going to be better the next time that one of us is flying. And now, internet for a while.

We don’t deserve that, and I know: it’s just a question of patience!

The interview

I had an interview last Wednesday but it already was the second step of the selection process. It was quite a regular interview so I am going to explain just a bit the group dynamics that we had couple of weeks ago.

We were seven people, four girls and three guys. An electronic engineer (still at the 4^th year) from Venezuela, an industrial engineer, and the rest of us were telecommunications engineers (one from La Salle, and the rest from UPC). After introducing a bit to the rest of the people they told us about the group dynamics exercise. We had to imagine that we were doing a trip in a balloon (you know, inflatable balloon). Then the balloon has some troubles and to avoid the accident we had to throw down one of us. Every one had a little card telling us our job, and we had to defend our position to survive if we land in an island. I was a hair-dresser. Tough one! The rest of the people were: bank director, housewife, model, taxi driver, mail woman and fashion designer. I am glad to say that we killed the fashion designer. Sorry...

And well, I won’t extend this explanation and just tell you that I am waiting for them to call me and invite me to an interview with a manager or... say to me this thing that lots of companies (especially from Suomi) have already told me: thank you for you kind interest towards our company but we don’t have any vacancies right now that fit your skills; best luck with your job seeking / career. Patience again.

And now here I am again, writing and writing, missing Emma, applying to jobs, and making noise (aka playing guitar). I have a couple of do-it-yourself projects in mind, related to my hobby-obsession and I’ll tell you if I go on with them.

And people, we’re here to enjoy life and if you can read this (and think about the whole planet) you’re already quite lucky. Think about the really good things surrounding you (they’re only really good, I have the best one, sorry) and smile... and of course: BE PATIENT!

The Catalan elections

The elections to the Catalan Parliament are coming! They are almost here! Are you scared? You should be! Are you uninformed? Lucky you!

I would like to start introducing the candidates to you, and at the same time I will say something of their paries, to let you know... them. In a future post you can find how did the debate go, and a personal view of the politeness of our political class. I must warn you that this is going to be a long and non funny post... I hope that I’ll keep your interest somehow, or that you are going to read me in the future!

The candidates are organized in order of members in the current parliament: CiU (46), PSC-CPC (42), ERC (23), PPC (15), ICV-EUA (9). Let’s remember that CiU has been in the government for 23 years, from 1980 to 2003 with the President Jordi Pujol i Soley. From 2003 to 2006 the government was composed by PSC, ERC and ICV-EUA and dissolved last May (if I remember it correctly), and the President has been Pasqual Maragall i Mira from PSC-CPC.

Convergència i Unió: Artur Mas i Gavarró.

This is a Catalan and nationalist party; actually is the addition of two parties: Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya and Unió Democràtica de Catalunya. Convergència is the bigger one, and Unió (self called demo-cristians) the smaller. If you ask them, they are a centre party; if you ask the average people, they are a centre-right party, if you ask to ICV-EUA they are a right-right party. Anyway, they are not a communist party and they are Catalan nationalist. But, they have been having pacts and agreements with PP (and you’ll know after a while that this is... shocking).

The candidate was really rude during the debate (only the PP candidate was ruder) and treating all the others with condescension. He is arrogant, big headed and completely confident that he is going to win. The statistics are saying that he is going to win. They won the last elections but not with enough people in the parliament, and if we follow the statistics, they are going to have better results than the last time.

Partit Socialista de Catalunya – Ciutadans pel Canvi: José Montilla y Aguilera.

This is the Catalan part of the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español). They are independant of PSOE, but they are not, but they are, but they are not. Ask them if you didn’t get that. They say that they are “catalanistes” but they want a federal vision of Spain. Everything is a bit blurry because inside the PSOE there are some people fighting for the rights of the Catalans, and some people who really want to fuck the Catalans in the ass. Then... what is the PSC saying when receiving attacks from PSOE, considering that they are the same party but not?

The candidate was really polite, really silent, almost hypnotic. Charisma is not the word that comes to your mind looking at him. He was born in the south of Spain and moved to Catalonia several years ago. He has been the mayor of Cornellà and speaks Catalan. He doesn’t have the C-level of Catalan that is asked to work for the government, and he wants to be the president. Where is the problem? Ask to the other parties then!
Note: the look-alike-guy is a famous Catalan humorist.

Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya: Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira.

The name of the party comes from lots of years ago... Esquerra means left in Catalan, but there is the doubt about the name... they doesn’t seem to be that on the left. Hearing them maybe they are... who knows. They want the independence of Catalonia, and knowing that this is basically impossible (at least in the near future) they try to have the best for Catalonia, do they? At least they say it... Some actions were... (you can write disappointing words here): Perpignan, Jerusalem (with the PSC involved too).

The candidate was really polite during the debate. Probably to avoid attacks to the actions that he did being in the government. He studied philology and he knows how to talk (but he doesn’t know how to pronounce the “r” sounds).

Partit Popular de Catalunya: Josep Piqué i Camps.

If they ask to them, they are going to say that they are a centre-right party. If you ask to anybody else (including the people who vote them) they are a right-right party. The previous name of the party was Alianza Popular, and the members of that party came directly from the people next to Franco (it says a lot, doesn’t it?). After approving the Catalan Estatut (a kind of constitution) at the Catalan Parliament, at the Spanish Parliament and by public referendum, the PP party has been doing a campaign along the whole Spain against it. They are against homosexual marriages and rights, they wanted to put more religion in school and took off some maths, their government (in Spain) was giving money to the Francisco Franco Fundation. Enough?

The candidate is a weird example of opportunist. He was in the PSUC (communist party) when he was young. Then he studied economy and changed to the right. When the PP was in the power in Spain, he joined them and became minister (Science and Technology and something else too). From left to right and being the ruder one. He interrupted everybody in the debate, sitting in really rude way, holding his head and touching everybody else. Unbelievable.

Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds – Esquerra Unida i Alternativa:

Joan Saura i Laporta. The party was the Catalan version of the Izquierda Unida, but then they split it, and IC was alone, and the Catalan version of IU was EU. But they were a few people only. After it, IC joined the Greens (Verds) and EU became Alternativa, and after it they joined all together... ICV-EUiA. They are in the left and in the green side of the Catalan politics, that is true! And they have been in the last three years government.

The candidate was the only one who wasn’t wearing a tie, it is not sustainable probably. One line of the 2003 campaign was: “the tomatoes are going to have tomato taste again!”. But he is informed, and polite. They have been working for ecological stuff, historical memory and promoting the estatut.

I will save for the next post the summary and opinions of the debate. See you soon people!!!

Butifarra amb bolets

Wow! The autumn is definitely here people. I want to share with you the experience of a quite typical autumn Catalan meal: Butifarra amb bolets!

Some really nice bolets, concretely rovellons!

I don’t know how many of you usually eat mushrooms (and I don’t count the champignons that everybody more or less eats, because that is the main point of the meal. The mushrooms that we ate for lunch were: in Catalan “rovellons”, in Spanish “níscalos”, in English “milk cap” (I don’t trust this version) and in Finnish “männynleppärousku” (I know that this is the singular version only). The other kind of mushrooms that we ate today I only know their name in Catalan, “llanegues”.

A box filled with yummy rovellons, ready to be washed

And here we have the rovellons after being washed


The ready llanegues

Some of they are so cute, aren't they?

You can only find this kind of mushrooms in autumn and you have to go to the woods to pick them. Don’t worry, we didn’t go there! Fortunately there are some people who like to go there and pick them, and after it they sell the mushrooms to the small fruit-vegetables shops. We bought them from there (and my grand dad brought some more to us, great!).

If they are good, they don’t need much to do. And believe me, they were really good! We cooked them (ok, my mum did them) in the oven: oil, salt, garlic and parsley (not perse!, I know you Finns...).

Almost ready to be eaten... these rovellons look so good...

... and the llanegues too!

When they aren’t that good you can use them to make a kind of sauce to dress meat for example. But use the mushrooms that we had today to make just a sauce would be to spoil them!

So the next question is what to eat with the “llanegues i rovellons”?, typical solution: “butifarra”. It is just a sausage made with pork minced meat but we like it a lot, and after being in Belgium and Finland for a couple of whiles I must say that I haven’t fund the same kind of “butifarra” abroad. I like our “butifarra”.

An almost ready plate, before the llanegues

The only little mistake that we made was about the amount of them! I finished my lunch six hours ago and I still feel full!

So people, if you have the chance to try them, do it!

Bon profit and hyvää ruokahalua!

Home (sweet home? ...)

I feel home, but something is wrong here. It’s nice to be here, but not that much. I have my family here, but I feel lonely. Does anybody need more details?

Igualada's coat of arms or shield... I don't know the English word for it!

I need a bit of patience the following days, patience and luck. I will (hopefully) receive news from the company during this week, and I hope that they are going to be nice news.

But I don’t want to write a sad or complaining post. Today I’m meeting Toni. He’s a good friend, polyglot and he lives in Belgium. This fact makes that is quite difficult to meet him often here in Igualada (where we are from). He is spending some days here, and I am back from Finland just right now, it is going to be nice to meet him! He received me in Belgium and helped me a lot during my first day in Louvain-la-Neuve (he lives in Brussels).

What else? I met my guitars again! Now I just need to learn how to play them. I must confess... that I bought a new one when Emma and me where in Andorra.

The Catalan, The Belgian, The Andorran

Oh god! Last summer has been THE summer, definitely. If I think about all the places where we have been, and the really good time that we spent around Europe... amazing. I don’t need to tell anything about the company, do I?

I’ve already explained to you people how the interview went, and I hope that I’ll explain to you how is the moving thing going soon!

PD: I might write about Spanish or Catalan jobs and companies soon too... but I don't want!

Maybe a chance!

And here we are! Right now, if you haven’t noticed yet I am in Finland.

Some of you maybe are wondering “why the hell am I in Finland?” Come on… or you really know only a bit about me or you haven’t read the previous post!

I am here because I had a job interview yesterday! They didn’t hire me, but didn’t refuse me… It went well, but I don’t know anything… Weird feelings people, but I’m going to share them with you.

The best thing of being in Finland… well, everybody knows it. And I am having a good time here, and not only with her, also with her friends, and she is so taking care of me. Emma drove me to the interview and picked me up after it; it helped a lot because I was a bit (okay, really) nervous.

The company is a consultant company from Espoo and (hopefully and hypothetically) I would join them as a beginner test engineer or something like that. Apparently I would fit perfectly in the company as a person (personality and non-education skills) but of course I don’t have experience in the field. That is the bad part always! They want a 22 years old guy, with freedom to travel, two university degrees and 15 years of experience in the exact field that they are trying to fill. So, life is hard… use a helmet.

I am officially waiting for an answer from the company, and it will depend on the projects that they have if they will hire me in the near future or not. At least this is what they told me! I still have some hope.

By now, I just can tell that I am coming back to Spain next Monday. It is going to be fucking sad and hard (I haven’t done it yet… to leave) but I am surer than ever about managing the situation. I might be pissed and disappointed with myself because I WANT A JOB IN FINLAND, and I WANT TO MOVE THERE, because my life is there (sorry, HERE) now.

Anyway, it is nice to be here I am satisfied about the interview (I can’t do it better… which is sad because I now that it is probably not good enough). I am having good time, and I am going to concentrate on enjoying my time here and stop worrying and being down. I'll do that in Spain.

Life is nice, we’re here to be happy, so let’s do that!!

Hi to everybody!

The Jobseeker

So here I am, in Catalonia and trying to find a job... in Finland. I guess that it is going to be tough, but I want to still try it. I just started a week and a half ago. I have been receiving some automatic replies some “no” replies and some “thank you, if you fit here we’ll contact you”. I received one interview invitation and I would like to figure out if I can go there, and see Emma again!

I am starting to be fed up with myself. I am spending everyday with me, all hours of day... and I am quite boring. Probably I am going to start to look for jobs here in Catalonia soon. I wanted to try before there, in Finland, but if it doesn’t work... I have to work here.

I am a bit afraid about everything! I really want to work, but after 7 years studying I feel that I don’t know anything. And I have to learn a new language and work in English. Of course... first of all I have to go through a selection process and interviews in English too.

I don't know if anybody trust me... I still have some hope.

And I am really happy to inform you people that I have an interview next week, Wednesday the 4th of October. Maybe it is only an interview, but it gives me the chance to travel to Finland and spend a week there with Emma!

Patience Roger... just a bit of patience!

Finland (II): the Summer Cottage

Hello again people of the world! I hope that soon I will have interesting news to tell you but before: “lo prometido es deuda” which means “the promised stuff is a debt”!

We, Emma and me, took the train from Helsinki to Imatra. The place where we spent that amazing week is between Mikkeli and Imatra, and the distance between Helsinki and that place is more or less the same. Why Imatra? I’m going to give you a good reason:

The Imatra dam

This dam reminds usually closed, but time to time they open it. And not only open it, they perform a nice show with music while the water is running. You can book it and have your own show paying a quite huge amount of money... but we were just lucky and the show happened while we where there.

Anne and Hermanni picked us up from the train station and we did a little tour through Imatra. After it we saw the show and then, let’s drive (Hermanni) to the cottage!

Emma, Anne and Hermanni having a nice walk

Driving for half an hour, use a ferry and at the end dirt track with a tricky phase at the end. Basically we were in the middle of nowhere. The first thing that I notice there is the landscape...

This is what you see just jumping out of the cottage

It is just amazing, the lake, the trees... everything is nice, quite, silent and calm. And here we have the summer cottage!

And this is the cottage

I forgot to thank Anne and Hermanni to invite us to spend that amazing week there. Amazing landscape, amazing environment, amazing food and amazing company, what else can I ask for? Running water! (I had to say it). They are so funny the Finns. They have cell phone signal everywhere, but no running water. That was a new experience for me, new and cold at some points.

The smoked sauna!

I discovered the natural sauna and the smoked sauna. I discovered the sensation of running from the sauna (80 degrees) to the lake (water at 16 degrees). I saw Hermanni smoking Salmon! And Anne made a delicious berries cake. Plus the burgers, the pork, and my omelette (hehehe).

It looks good... but i tastes better

The word that describes better that week is relax. Reading a lot (Emma more than anyone), having naps, eating, waking up late... At some point people start missing the civilization, but everything was so new for me that I didn’t miss it a lot. And here I should say again how well Anne, Hermanni and of course Emma treated me there... you are just amazing people! I helped a bit, but not much...

Me, helping a bit ...

After it, let's pack and come back to Espoo to spend some time before going to Catalonia!

And that's it!

I hate UCL Logement, Louvain-la-Neuve

Hello people !

I know that some of you are going to have the same feelings that I am suffering right now. I just received a letter from Louvain-la-Neuve (I admit that I was excited about it) and... surprise surprise! They are giving me back the deposit of the apartment! For the UCL places is 100,00 euros.

Yes, I am quite happy but... they are giving me back 16,42 euros, only. How come? Well, first of all I have to pay 28,86 euros in concept of my own room. When they checked it they only wrote 3 things on the list... I don’t want to know how much are going to pay the people which rooms were in bad shape. And now, the funny part: I have to pay 54,72 euros for the common rooms! I hope that you people remember how was my place in LLN. First of all it is not big enough to pay 191,00 euros (all the people, so dividing by 4 it’s the 54,72) in concept of... what? It wasn’t dirty, or spoiled... I just can’t understand them.

I am just pissed with them. I don’t miss UCL, and I think that I don’t miss Louvain-la-Neuve... I miss cheap beer, and I miss YOU PEOPLE!

Fuck UCL Service des Logement.

Roger.

FINLAND (I): first week

I know that it is a bit late, but I am going to write about this absolutely amazing summer, which after Paris continues in Finland.

And I am going to start from the beginning. We arrived at the Helsinki-Vanta airport and Emma’s sister and almost-brother-in-law were there waiting for us, and I met her mother too. All her family were and has been and are being still really nice to me.

Helsinki from the air.

We spent the first week between Emma’s parents place and her sister’s place, because they were on holidays and just lend it to us: I know, really nice! I had my first sauna experience, my first swimming in the lake experience, and tasted the first Finnish beers (and missing the Belgian beers). We hang out with some of Emma’s friends and again, all of them were really nice to me! Sometimes the language barrier was there, but all of them speak amazing English, so no communication problems! We had one dinner with Anna (a Finnish girl) and her boyfriend Guifré (a Catalan guy friend of mine) and it was really nice too.

And now, less people and more Finland. The summer weather is great. They were telling me that the summer was nice and hot. Fortunately for the Finns, the meaning of “hot” summer is 27 degrees (maximum) and no humidity. Then the light thing, I have to explain it. The week when we reached Finland the sunset was approximately between 11 and 12 pm, and the sun was already rising again between 3 and 4 am! The first couple of nights I woke up for a minute thinking... “oh, I’m still sleepy and it’s already 11 or 12 am”, but no, it was only 4 in the morning! The sea is nice and it doesn’t smell bad (as de Mediterranean does) and it was sunny almost all the time.

Check the Helsinki sky! So sunny, no clouds, perfect temperature and humidity...

More amazing things: you can ride a bike inside of Helsinki and you can feel like in a forest! There are lots of trees, and everything is so spread and wide. It seems that the Finns don’t like each other and they respect a lot the vital space. And they don’t like to line at all, they are silent, and quite calm while driving. A different culture!

Riding a bike through Helsinki: the capital of Suomi, and feeling the nature, great.

Let’s talk about the sauna experience then! I am going to talk here about the electric one (which we were using at Emma’s parents place) and I am saving the natural one for the next post. For me sauna made no sense: I don’t need help to sweat! But I wasn’t sweating at all there, so... The point is not to sweat, or take care of the skin-thingies (I bet that it helps) as some non-Finnish-fake-saunas pretend to. The point is to enjoy it. Good company (I had the best one, Emma), cold beer, a shower between... you have to experience it to give your opinion! It is a bit scary to be inside of a room at 80 degrees and creating steam. The steam cools down the average temperature but is the thing that it makes you feel really hot and sometimes almost burning.

Helsinki is a nice city. It doesn’t feel like a huge metropolis because of the surface, the same happens with Espoo. I am going to use the same example that I have told to everybody. Comparing Finland and Catalonia we found Espoo and Sabadell, two cities with 200.000 habitants. But, Espoo has 528 squared kilometres of surface and Sabadell only 37! It can give you and idea about the “spread” thing that I am talking about. And in Spain we don’t have a huge population density, we are quite civilized.

The fortress of Suommelinna.

We visited Suommelinna as well. That is an island in front of Helsinki where we can find a fortress. This fortress has been used by the Russians against the Swedish and by the Sweds against the Russians too. It is related to the story of this country with its neighbours. Now it’s a touristy place and we had a really nice walk there, sunbathing a bit and having fun with the old canons.

We spent the next week at Hermanni’s summer cottage!

Back to (the lonely) Catalonia

Well, well, well...

I should be sad, and I am really sad in a certain way, because I miss Emma, and I miss her a lot. But it is not that bad, come on! I am going to try to not be corny (good luck Roger!)

You know what people? I am already waiting for her again. She is coming soon! As you know, we have spent an amazing summer. For me it has been the best summer ever (without any kind of doubt) and I hope that it has been special for her. We said goodbye almost to everybody in Louvain-la-Neuve, which was sad and then we started our official holidays.

We went to Paris, and if someone hasn’t notice it just read it in the previous post. And after that, to Finland! We spend there three amazing weeks, and then we flew back (back for me) to Catalonia, and another four weeks are already gone. I am going to share that with you people soon, but this post is not to talk about our holidays.

I just want to express happiness again. Just tell to the world that I have never been that happy, and that it is because my amazing girlfriend (too corny?). Now we have to fight against the distance and it is not extremely nice, but I assure you that we are going to manage it.

And now, let’s finish the fucking 1.5 credits because I want to be officially a Master of Science people!!!

PD: your Catalan donkey is missing you babe.

Paris

What can we say about Paris… let’s start from the beginning.

Eurolines: quite cheap, quite comfortable, quite fast; conclusion: really good selection.
Hotel: Bercy Gare du Lyon. It is a small three star hotel in the east of Paris. Nice room (maybe a bit small), breakfast included, and the best feature of the hotel is that it is situated at only 20 or maybe 21 meters of a metro station!

Booking the hotel: we used the Spanish website http://www.atrapalo.com/. It is a good thing if you want to practice your Spanish there. We paid for the room les that half price! You can use the website to find hotels, flights and spectacles tickets (at least in Spain) and I bet that all of them are going to be cheaper than booking in the regular way.

And now I can describe a bit the trip. Let’s go. It is not going to be a long post considering that we were there two days. We left Louvain-la-Neuve on Sunday morning, reached Paris on Sunday noon, and left Paris on Tuesday afternoon, so two days.

After reaching the hotel and leave the stuff there we started our tour. The first stop (quite obvious) was the Tour Eiffel. It is huge, it is metallic and it has awful queues to climb on! Considering that we didn’t have that much time we decided to not climb and just admire it: under it, and far away from it. It is beautiful and impressive. After it we followed a nice park and went to see something called “Ecole Militaire” or something like that. The building is really nice, again, and we didn’t visit the inside of it.

Let’s check the map: the Hôtel des Invalides, a really nice building again. Napoleon built it for the Invalides of the war (he was really nice… sometimes) and his tomb is there.

Let’s jump to the metro and go to the next checkpoint. L’Arc du Triomphe. Sorry for the spelling… Huge and… how to say it in a nice way: useless! There were quite used to build impressive things with the purpose of… impress! So basically that’s all. Oh, and we walked through les Champs Elisées which is really nice, but we started to get tired. Cheap solution, especially in Paris: McDonald’s. We were thinking about taking a beer but we realized that we were not in Belgium. In that lovely country you can order half litre of good beer for 3 euros, in Paris you have to pay 6 euros for 25 cl of mediocre beer. Great.

The next Checkpoint was la Place de la Concorde which shows again how nice are French. I don’t want to be rude but it is a monument which says: “hey, we robbed you this huge stone! aren’t we nice?”. The obelisk is impressive, that’s true.

And after it, our last event in Paris, a really nice one. We walked to Musée du Louvre where we met our friend Kristof! It was really nice to see him again and we had a beer and dinner together. It is weird but nice to meet you people outside Louvain-la-Neuve, it is a good way to realize that we made real and good friends there.

And bon nuit, and see you tomorrow!

The second day started at Musée du Louvre. The building is huge, and nice. Inside… we visited the “modern paintings” avoiding the stone age and the sculptures from Babilonia and bla bla. What can we say… they are so French in that sense. Lots of paintings, just to demonstrate that they have lots of paintings. No history (meaning explanations) and the Gioconda, surrounded of rude tourists taking pictures even though there were two guys (at least) shouting “no pictures, please!”. For me was particularly interesting to see the Hammurabi Code, the first “written language” ever. Ok, basically it is an ugly stone with weird symbols on it, but I liked it! And we also visited the “Nordic countries paintings”, which they fill a little room. I think that again is a French thing. They have lots of French, Italian and Spanish paintings but forget about the rest of the world, just in case. We had the lunch at the Louvre’s restaurant and it was quite nice, and quite cheap (which was a big surprise).

After it, let’s go to the Islands in the Seine. Nice ones! Specially, of course, “l’Ile de la Cité” where there is Notredame. Spectacular, what can I say… and everybody knows that I am not really fan of Catholic churches! Huge, and… beautiful from some points of view. (After it we needed a siesta, specially me!).

And now the best part for me, and I think that Emma agrees with it: Montmartre. It feels like a different Paris, even though is obvious a tourist place they hide it with elegance and seems that you are walking through the real Paris. The up and down hills, the drawers, the crèpes and Sacré Coeur. It feels a bit fake church because it was built at the beginning of the XXth century, but it is still quite cool. And the nicest part of that place are the views from Paris. And here ends our second day in Paris!

We planned to go to Musée d’Orsay on Tuesday, our last day in Paris but surprise, surprise, there is a huge line to go in and we haven’t got that much time. So the next stop is Musée Rodin. Here there is the Thinker, well-known sculpture. And some other stuff. There is the Hotel Rodin, where that man was living and basically the exposition is organized in the next way: some little indoor sculptures and the same sculptures in big scale outdoor. If you take a look at the map that they give you it seem huge and something like the little Louvre, but it is not…

And then, lunch and come back to Louvain-la-Neuve!

Weeee are the Champions!

17th of May, 2006. The second best thing that could happen that day, happened! F.C. Barcelona is the winner of the UEFA Champions League!
The second time of its history, maybe the rising of the Dream Team II.

We went to Centre Sportif here, in Louvain-la-Neuve with some friends and with lots of “people”. As someone said, “here there are many people but only a few persons”. Really lovely people like Pelotilla a.k.a. Facha-man, with his bull-spanish flag made the night a bit more interesting. People shouting against Barcelona, against Catalan, against Catalonia. It is really funny. I’m not a great football fan, but I will never go to watch a Real Madrid game to shout against them and show Catalan flags, or stuff like that... a bit of respect!

And the match... the referee was one of the protagonists of the match. Minute 17, Lehmann makes a fault to Eto’o just out of the area, and Giuly scores the goal. It was the perfect example of the “advantage rule” (or whatever that is the English name for it) but the referee decided to annule the legal goal. Great... 20 minutes later Campbell scored a goal.

And I’m not really a football fan, so I’ll try to summarise: Larsson is SO GOOD, he made two incredible assistances and Eto’o and Belletti scored the goals. And yep, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!
PD: the best thing of the 17th of May is that I’ve spend the two best months of my life!

11th May, THANK YOU

The speech that I didn’t do

Well people... I’m so moved about it. I really don’t know what to say...

This is the best birthday of my life, and I’m not being exaggerated. My sister has come from Catalunya to visit me today, my friends are here and Emma, my lovely girlfriend, has arranged everything. It is my first birthday party with my friends since... 1993.

Andras, Wojtek, Rasmus and Kiran

Kristof and Myriam

Eric!

Shilpa, Katja and Maija

I was guessing and hoping something from Emma and the others, of course... I’m a bit hard to surprise, but still all of you are here. I’m shacking people, I’m really moved.

Kristof, Katia, Maija, Shilpa, Wojtek, Sonia, Myriam, Gemma, Eric, Rasmus, Kiran, Andras, and (who called me later) Peter, Katia and Sami. Thank you for being my friends, for me is something spectacular that all of you have been here (or called me) to say Happy Birthday to me. I’m not exaggerating if say (again) that this is the best birthday of my life and you guys are one of the reasons.

My lovely sister Mireia

Another reason is my sister, everybody here knows how important is my sister for me. I talk about her quite often and I always talk good stuff about her! And she came here, to Louvain-la-Neuve on my birthday! A nice present.

And the other reason (I hope that anybody will be mad because of it), the most important one, is Emma. I won’t explain to you guys what I think about her. She knows it, and I think that most of you can guess it. I really love you Emma.

Emma and Roger

So, thank you very much to everybody (including my family who sent me a couple of really nice presents) for making me happy!

Your 25 years old friend, son, brother and boyfriend,

ROGER CARULLA BOVÉ

PD: sorry Gemma, Sonia and Sami, Katja, but I don't have pictures of you, but I know that you were there ;)