Changes

I am not really sure what I’ve told to you already, because I’m writing this without Reading what I wrote… anyway, there’s some to tell so, let’s go!

I’m changing job. Already? I’ve been there just a month and a half! I don’t even have time to complain properly about that, isn’t it? I agree with this, but a (it seems to be) better chance crossed in front of me, and I took it.

As you (maybe) know, I was working for a consulting company. Everybody knows that this kind of employers require lots of effort in time (even though I haven’t suffered because of it at all). Besides this, even being a technical consulting company, the required technical knowledge is poor. I have to admit that I have learnt lots of stuff in this little time that I’ve been there, but the goal, the finality of what I was doing is really lame. I can’t tell it to you, or write about it because of a confidentiality clause in my contract, but believe me that it is not challenging. The technical side has been new and interesting, but the technical stuff has to be applied to something, and “that” something was really uninteresting.

I admit too, that this was my first job ever and it came to me after the Erasmus experience in Belgium, the longest and most amazing summer ever and five months of job-hunting and doing-nothing. This means that I jumped from an easy life: wake up, be lazy, play guitar, internet, send applications and go to interviews, to a real life: wake up early, work all day long, be tired… I know that “this is life” but I wasn’t used to it at all and it happened to be even harder to me than I was expecting. I’m just acknowledging that I’ve been extra negative about this job and I shouldn’t be…

During the first days there the new company called me (I applied there earlier). It hasn’t been a problem for them that I’m already working, and they told me what they do. The job it’s going to be based on programming (to) with a much more motivating goal, which is related to my studies. It’s almost hard to admit that I kind of liked some of the stuff that I’ve studied! I might be, also, that I feel that those seven years at the university are worth of doing something related to them now! I have a friend who is working in that company since December and he’s really glad to be there. I’m going to save one hour every day in the trip to work and back. The wage is better. The timings are better (including one month of intensive work time in summer).

Everything seems to be better than in the other job, plus I’ve been feeling that the first job was not at all my place to be. Of course that I don’t expect the new one to be “the job”, and I know that I’m going to have an adaptation week (at least) again, but I know a bit what to expect. And I am looking very forward to start there. Oh, I haven’t told that yet: I’m starting next Monday! And I quit the other job last Monday. I haven’t said that, but both jobs are here, in Spain. I’m going to have to wait a bit before a Finnish company decides to hire me!

I have lots of expectations on next week. Starting a new job is exciting, and at the end of the week… eastern holidays and trip to Finland! It will be a short trip there, but I am already waiting for it.

Take it easy, be happy and live the life!

Best regards!

A short update!

Hi people!

I've been away from the blog for a while... I didn't know that the fact that I'm working means that I have so little time to do other things. So... yes, exactly, I'm working.

I have already been working three weeks, as a consultant. This means that I wear a suit and a tie every day, looking so serious and expert and I am learning so many new things. That's good because is nice to learn, but it's bad because it means that I don't know anything (have I been studying seven years without learning?... no, I'm sure I learnt something).

There's a privacy policy in my contract and I better not break it so I won't give more details about what I am doing... I am just gonna tell you that I've been suprised, screwed, mad, almost happy, just reading, typing code, listening a lot and summarizing: everything is so new!

Next week will be really interesting. First of all, Emma is coming to visit me! I really hope that we'll manage fine with my work and her free time, but I am so sure that it's worth it. She is arriving on Tuesday night and leaving the following Monday morning, which means that we have five days and six nights to be together. That is just great. That is the main point, the nicer one, and the most important one of next week.

The second point... I am a bit afraid about talking about it so, I'm just giving a couple of clues. By the way, these clues are not going to give you almost any idea about anything... sorry. I am waiting for some news from somebody who knows a friend of mine who was studying with me at the University and now is working in Barcelona. Depending on those news I'll tell you soon a story or another. Don't worry, if anything changes it is going to change towards good (this expression works in Catalan, and if it doesn't work in English, take the good intentions).

If you are working, make good use of your free time! If you are studying, enjoy it (even though it sucks a bit...). If you are neither studying nor working... what are you doing? Enjoy your time too while jobhunting! Believe me!

I hope it'll take more little time to write again. Salut!

I felt warm at -20º

I flew to Finland last Saturday, 3rd of February. When I left Barcelona it was quite sunny and around 10º. I was sitting next to a Catalan woman, who apparently had been working in the election campaign of the current FC Barcelona president. She also told me that they (they were to couples) to visit their offspring in China. Well... I was entertained during the flight at least.

When we were flying over Finland already everything seemed so white to me! But not everything... oh, the trees. It was really sunny, over the clouds, so with the feet on the ground was really cloudy, but around 0º, so it wasn’t really cold. And then the feeling, the thing that I feel in my stomach, the special sensations I have when I meet her again.

Espoo snowy-looking

Another shocking thing for me is how warm the Finns keep their places. My sister, who has been in Denmark, was telling me the same about Danish people. The question is... is it a Scandinavian thing? Is it a latino thing? Anyway, during winter is much colder inside a Spanish home than a Finnish home. I think I already told about the non-wearing shoes inside a Finnish home too. It is nice to be surprised for cultural differences.

Parking lot and sea view from Otaniemi

On Sunday was a sort of the same weather than Saturday; Monday was cooler and then...

On Tuesday was really sunny. The snow (it is white, as you probably know) reflects the light of the sun and it is really cool! And then let’s check the temperature... around MINUS TWENTY degrees! The Finns could be used to it, but they still recognize that is freaking cold. Good people. But that’s not all.

We went to Otaniemi and Emma showed me the sea, the Baltic Sea. The sea is frozen! It is not a bit icy, or kind of maybe frozen a bit: it is frozen. People do activities there, like skiing and a mix of skating with a sort-of-parachute.

The frozen Baltic Sea from Helsinki's Westend

I spent five amazing days in Finland and I hope I’ll go there soon; actually I just want to meet Emma soon. And after those five days...

I am going to start working on Monday. I have got a job as a consultant at Everis. Is a Spanish consultant company and... I hope that I am going to have time to tell you guys more about it soon.

Take care, and enjoy the good moments. They are worth to wait for.

I have a job!

Hello everybody!

Well, I am really glad to inform you that I do have a job! A Spanish consultant company hired me. After some tests and two interviews with a manager and someone in a higher rank than a manager, they sent me the offer. And today I said yes. So, I'll work as a consultant in Barcelona.

Of course that I would rather work in Finland (the reasons are well known), but it was becoming too difficult. Now I am having a job here in Spain, I can get some experience, I can save some money, I can learn a lot and I am going to be busy. I’m starting with it in the 12^th of February.

Before that, I’m flying to Finland to see my girlfriend Emma, who I’m missing so much. It is going to be so cool to meet here just before start working, my energies will be ready to rock! I’ll stay in Suomi for five days, and then I have four days to get ready to begin working.

And if you want to hear something nice about my university... The company which hired me are asking me to bring them some documents (id, taxes, ...) and a copy of my degree (or a paper saying that I’m done). But, oh my god, I’m not done. How come? Well, as you know I did my thesis in Belgium and I defended it on the 22^nd of June. I have the Belgian mark of it, but they have to check it again in Spain (or something like that). In Spain, they have my thesis since October, and they don’t have my marks yet... I already paid the credits of the thesis (around 500 euros) but I don’t have the papers. Since mid-December they keep on telling me something like: “next week it is going to be done”. Fortunately I can give some other documents to the company until I don’t have the proper ones. Does the Belgian administration sucks? The Spanish does!

Hey, I’m going to start packing, because in 23 hours the plane is landing at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport!

Take care and... patience, everything need patience!

Guitar repair

Hello again people!

First of all: I’ve got a job! I’ll tell you details and everything else soon. Now let me show you the repair of my guitar. The luthier has done what he told me, and it will hopefully work properly. Right now it stays tuned, it sounds fine and it feels a bit weird because the neck has been polished. Here are some pictures.

And you know what... I’m flying to Finland in three days!!!!

Guitar accidents: they happen

Anything that you can solve with money is never a big deal. But you might feel so stupid about it. And here is my little experience with it... lots of pictures and only little text. Sorry.

I was playing the guitar at home, sitting down. I stood up to adjust one of the knobs of my amplifier. When I was touching it, the strap went loose and the guitar stomped to the floor. It crashed by the tuners and the neck just broke. The images are talking for me, aren’t they?

Bad thing of this kind of guitar, against bolt-on neck guitars: it is fucking expensive and difficult to replace the neck. If it would be bolt-on instead of set, you just take out the screws, replace the neck for a new one (you can choose the quality of it) and it’s done. But it had to happen to the set neck guitar.

I brought it to a luthier in Barcelona, and after opening the case...

Fuck, shit... wow, what a hit!, it looks horrible. Let me see... oh, no... look at the fibres of the wood... oh no... and the soul (metallic piece which keeps the shape of the neck)...


Well, he told me that there is a good solution, definitive and I won’t notice anything afterwards. They’ve done it with another guitar already (same type than mine but much better quality) and he showed me the pictures. Ok, it looks cool but... the price of the repair is more than double price of the guitar itself. The other possible solution doesn’t give any guarantee that it will work properly but it is quite “cheap” to try...



So now my Andorran guitar is in Barcelona, and let’s hope that the luthiers glue is gonna do magic!

If you have a guitar, buy security strap-locks, they cost les than 15 euros and are going to save the life of your guitars!

Nice meal at “Restaurant Gotic”, in Torà

Torà is a small village on the way from Igualada (where I live nowadays) to Andorra. My dad discovered this restaurant a few months ago and wanted to bring us, the whole family (including Emma, of course), there.

Even though the name is Gotic, it looks a bit more Romanesque (Romanic in Catalan, I hope the English word is fine). It is cool, cute and the food excellent. I took some pictures of all the dishes we were eating, but some of them look disgusting in the pictures... and they were SO good.

Me and Emma in the "Dungeon looking" restaurant

This was what I was eating as second dish, “magret d’ànec” or “magret du canard” or “something of duck”. Emma had the same, and it was really good!

Magret du Canard, little onions and something else

But if I have to highlight something of that restaurant is, without any doubts, the dessert I took, “Queen of Saba”. It is a small dark chocolate cake, filled with dark chocolate and covered by dark chocolate. I admit that I love dark chocolate...

Queen of Saba: chocolate, chocolate and a bit of chocolate

Bon apétit people!

“Fer Cagar el Tió”

If anybody knows enough Catalan to translate it, or is enough bored to translate the title, will notice the the straight translation to English sounds something like: “To make the log to shit”. And now you’re thinking, “this guy is sick” or “the Catalans have some mental issues”. Don’t hurry and let me explain!

I’ve tried already to explain it to some of you, and Emma has almost experienced this nice (for us) tradition. In the ancient times (and not that ancient) the wood was used to warm the houses and cook –while burning, of course. Then, it has a sense of nice stuff during winter, the wood brings you heat, the wood gives you the chance to eat warm, to eat properly. That is the beginning of “almost-worshiping” the wood.

The tradition told us that a magic log will come home in Christmas time. The magic log will bring lots of things to the whole family. We know that we have to take care of the log, and feed him, usually with fruits and vegetables. This is the job of the kids. They eat usually once a day, during night. I remember when I was a kid and it was my job to feed our “Magic Log” every night he had something to eat, and in the morning they were gone!

And then, in the Christmas Eve (night of 24^th) or during Christmas day (depending on the family) me “make the log to shit”. The thing is: you cover the log with a blanket, then go to your bedroom to pray (all the kids pray together) and after praying, you hit the log with a wooden thing (usually cooking tools) and sing this song:

Caga tió, d’avellana i de pinyó,
pixa vi blanc, per les festes de Nadal,
ara vénen festes, festes glorioses,
menjarem conill i llebre si en tenim,
caga tió, caga tió, sinó et donarem un cop de bastó!

The song varies in each village, even in each family along Catalonia.

The pictures that you are watching are from my family’s Tió. It was already my dad’s Tió when he was a kid and I hope that it will be close to my family for lots of years still.

I’m going to share with you the Igualadan thing about the “Three Wise Men”.

Take care everybody!

My babe flew to Finland...

... and I am already missing her.

We have spent two amazing weeks together, here in Catalonia. I am going to avoid too much corny stuff here so... unbelievable.

The Christmas is gone, the Three Wise Men were nice, the Magic Log too, ...

I am going to write in the following days about the Catalan Christmas Night, about a nice Igualadan bar called "Encanteri", about the trip that Emma and me made to Girona, and the Three Wise Men night (La Nit de Reis). And of course, with some pictures of everything.

Take care, and take care of people you love, and take care of people who love you. They are the best you have.