Evaluación

¿Por qué en inglés de nuevo? Creo que de los pocos lectores que aún miran esto, son más lo que no entienden cuando escribo en español que quienes no lo hacen cuando escribo en inglés.

While in Cambridge most of the people that went to school with me came from places other than the Boston. A good number of them came from somewhere in the other side of the country, the other coast. Those from Los Angeles, San Francisco and thereabouts kept complaining about the weather, the fruit, the vegetables... people's moods. Mainly they kept saying the west coast was nicer than the east. Better places to live in, I guess. I just didn't care much; after all, Boston was all I knew of the U. S. Now, after having been in Portland and Ashland in Oregon, and The San Francisco Bay area for a few days at a time, I can only say they are... different, the east and west coasts.
I'd rather have the Ashland or San Francisco summers, that the ones in Boston and New York. I just don't like a pig all day long there even though it is pretty hot. Hot and dry. I even enjoyed the hot weather. Well, that's easy. The weather.
That was not the only big difference. The general feeling of the area was somewhat different. It seemed more relaxed. It might also have been that I was there on vacation, though. But it did somehow feel more relaxed. I went to the Standfor ed school, and people around were nice. Not that in HGSE they weren't, especially in the admissions office where I went. It looked like a place I could spend 5 years in, at first look. HGSE definitely does too. Now it's all about finding a school that takes me, hopefully one of those two.
The Spanish speaking population was, doh, sort of a shock. It had already been in New York and somehow in Boston, where the T has signs in Spanish. But in San Francisco tons of people spoke or understook Spanish. Arwen's family didn't officially speak Spanish, in Ashland, but when they did, they used perfect grammar. I think this is an exception, a "family-fluke". When I first met her she spoke little Spanish, but also did with perfect grammar most of the time, and understood non-idiomatic language pretty well.
Ashland was, certainly, a surprise. I had really imagined a different town. It's cultural life amazed me. I'd read a review of the Shakespeare Festival, but I guess it is just bigger than it looks online ;-). I think I would rather live closer to a bigger city, but it was friendly, warm, laid-back.

Ya sabíamos que Archibaldo se casa... creo haber escrito un blog al respecto. Si no, fue un comentario en el blog secreto (:

Gracias a la generosidad de esta fabulosa pareja y a lo ocupado que anda Sagon, mañana estaré viajando a asistir a la ceremonia, no sólo como invitado, sino como "best man". Honrado, creo que fue la palabra que usé cuando me lo propusieron. Así es, honrado.

El viaje será largo en el vuelo lechero: Bogotá-Miami-Los Angeles-Medford-Ashland.

Abusando de la generosidad de todos, luego me iré unos días a San Francisco a visitar a la chica del color rosa y abusar de la generosidad de su familia, donde me hospedaré.

A eso de las 12:00 de la noche de mañana estaré siguiendo la ruta trazada en este Google Map para ir al matrimonio de Archibaldo. Será un día largo pues toca llegaré a convencer a Rabbi de que improvisemos algo que pase por despedida de soltero.
Será, además, una semana de descanso de la rutina y las carreras del trabajo. Trataré de viaje-bloguear y dejar cosas en el Flickr.

(En español que hace rato no escribo en español)
Acabo de llegar de una visita al nuevo edificio del ICA /'ai-si-ei/ junto al mar en Boston. Cuando viví aquí nunca fui realmente consciente de que Boston es un puerto. Creo que nunca vi el mar. Hoy en el ICA pude ver algunos muelles desde lejos, vi y oí pasar las gaviotas y sentí el inmemorable olor del mar.

El edificio del ICA es muy bonito, aunque el sitio no es increíble. Está rodeado de parqueadero. Pero una vez se llega al edificio mismo, se olvidan los carros y el diseño es suficientemente interesante para olvidar que desde el otro lado se ve como un cubo de vidrio en medio de muchos carros. Tiene una terraza que da al mar, con vista a la bahía y en la distancia se ven los edificios del centro de la ciudad, nunca tan imponentes como los de Nueva York o incluso el distrito financiero de Bogotá (de pronto es chauvinismo criollo). Apenas llegue a la casa bajo algunas fotos de la cámara y las pongo en el Flickr. Obvio, estaba prohibido tomar fotos adentro, pero si les interesa, pueden ver algunas cosas en el sitio del museo: ICA Online.

La exhibición actual se llama Super Vision y me hizo pensar en Elsa y algunas de las cosas que ella hace. Como siempre con el arte contemporáneo (y todo arte), algunas cosas me gustaron mucho, otras no tanto y otras no las entendí, ni con explicación de por medio. Como para tantas otras cosas soy un poco lento para el arte.

Esto, por ejemplo, me pareció genial (aunque no se parece nada a lo que hace Elsa, je je). Está hecho con papel pintado con algas, cortado en tiras, perforado y luego pegado con ganchos de cosedora. La dimensión se pierde en la foto, pero debe tener unos 2x2 metros. Además tiene un volúmen fantástico.

Tam Van Tran, "Beetle Manifesto XIII (Genesis)," 2006. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer. Courtesy Cohan and Leslie, New York

Fotografía tomada de ICA Boston, exposición ¨Super Vision¨, marzo 2007: http://www.icaboston.org/photo-album/supervision/view-photo?image_id=28245

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Esto es sólo un ejemplo, en el sitio web referenciado atrás encuentran más fotos de esa exposición.

Otro que me encantó, este de la exhibición permanente, fue uno llamado Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson), de Cornelia Parker. Es una escultura hecha con pedazos de carbón de un incendio, colgados de una estructura en el techo con hilos de nylon. ¡Increíble!

Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson), 1999 Wire mesh, charcoal, wire, pins, nails 144 x 60 x 72 in. (365.8 x 152.4 x 182.9 cm) Gift of Barbara Lee

Fotografía tomada de ICA Boston, exposición ¨Super Vision¨, marzo 2007: http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/permanent-collection/artists/parker/

Probablemente muchos de ustedes ya lo sabían. Para mi fue un gran shock. Tower records quebró y se convertirá en una tienda solamente en línea. iTunes Store, Amazon y demás acabaron con el modelo de negocio de los vendedores de discos que tienen tiendas en las calles. Supongo que en Colombia, donde todavía no es muy popular el comercio electrónico, seguirá existiendo por un tiempo.

Aquí quedaba Tower en Harvard Square:

Unas cuantas fotos de Portland... vean mi Flickr que ahora si le estoy poniendo fotos... por lo menos hoy.

A few pictures from Portland. Check out my Flickr. I am actually putting pictures in it... at least tonight.

Una casa muy bonita a la orilla del río (cuyo nombre no recuerdo) que pasa por Portland:
La rueda que mueve el teleférico de Portland... me gustó como quedó la foto:
Con Juan Manuel, el gerente de gobierno y educación de Intel para el cono norte de Sur América:
En la ¨entrada¨ a Chinatown, en Portland, OR:

I had some computer trouble, so the previous post, dated march 5th, is actually from the 3rd.

I hadn't updated my Wireless driver, and that caused a "blue screen of death" type of error. Fortunately the people at Intel were able to fix it. I wasn't the only one.

I got to Portland at around 10PM, after a 4-hour flight from Houston. I slept most of it. There was a van waiting for us... correct... I waited with John Woodrow, from the UK, for our van to arrive and got the hotel a little past 11pm.

They were out of rooms in the smoking area, so I'm stuck in a suite where I can't smoke. That kind'a sucks. I didn't remember how much it sucks to smoke in this country.

Now that the first day of the roundtable is over (it was Sunday), we are taking a look at the new version of the Intel Teach Essentials course (the one we do in Colombia). It looks pretty cool, with more pedagogical content, new materials and the use of collaborative online tools such as Google docs, blogs and a wiki.

It's time for lunch, so I'll run there and post some more later.

So far it's been real interesting and fun. I hope we can bring this new version to Colombia soon (this year) and hopefully one of the other programs.

I didn't get much sleep last night. There was a party with the new group of Senior Trainers from the Intel Teach program and I was there until around 1AM dancing like a maniac… with a maniac. I hadn't even packed and if it weren't for my dad's help I wouldn't even have bought dollars for the trip. When I got home, the Ogre was half awake and she kept me company while I packed. We talked until around 4AM. I had to be at the airport at 6:30.
Other than being only half awake, things went smoothly at the airport. Security checks were mostly quick, as well as check-in. There is a great smokers' area in the airport in Bogotá, and I spent most of my time in it, sleeping and smoking, and people-watching. When I guessed it was time to board I went to the gate, and it worked great: My seat in the back of the plane, next to a lady and her daughter (I'm guessing daughter). The younger one had a very annoying tone of voice: something similar to the Ogre's sister-in-law's… that very high pitch that almost hurts your ears. Fortunately I slept most of the flight and didn't hear their unending chatter but for short whiles.
The plane took off almost on time, at around 9:30AM and we were landing in Houston at around 2PM local time (1PM Colombian time).
Immigration was pretty quick and I didn't have any trouble there. Then the customs people decided they wanted to manually check my bags, and the poor lady who had to do it was unable to put everything back in. It took us a little while to manage, but all went well. I left my bag at the connections thingy and starting walking around the airport looking for a smoker's bar I had been told about by the maniac girl. It doesn't exist anymore, but looking for it I walked around most terminals… and this is a huge airport. Finally I just went outside, stood 25 ft. away from the entrance with the other cool people, got a match from a real friendly Texan who ended up giving a whole book of matches, chain-smoked two cigarettes, and went back inside.
Now I'm sitting at the Fox Sports Skybox, watching like 7 different sports at the same time and drinking a Sam Adams (they didn't have the winter brew tho). I hope they don't lose my bags on the way to Portland. It's been a long day, with very little nicotine, but I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I don't have to think about the bureaucracy, draft letters or put off fires and answer urgent calls for a couple weeks. I'm excited about the Roundtable in Portland, and very excited about meeting good old friends in Boston next week.
Kalina will be coming up from NYC next Saturday to do lunch and maybe just chat and walk around Boston in this cozy March weather. I'll ask her to help me shop for some herbs and stuff I wanna bring back… she must know the Chinese market pretty well.
Well… I'll finish my beer and figure out how to kill one more hour of this unending layover in Houston… maybe just another beer and more American sports. Maybe I'll look for a bookstore and try to find Jenkin's Convergence to have some reading for the plane. That's the one thing I've already realized I forgot: airplane reading stuff. I didn't even get to load enough new podcasts on my Palm to be entertained

I spent about 6 hours today at the American embassy. Mostly waiting to be called for fingerprints and then for the interview. I got a consular officer that didn't seem to nice. She denied the applications of the 4 people in front of me. I wasn't worried, though. I had an invitation from Intel. It all worked out well. I got the visa.

Now it is certain: I'll go to Portland on May 3 and fly to Boston on the 9th. I'll be there until the 17!

I logged on to Continental and got a flight. I'll be arriving in Boston, the evening of March 9, and leaving March 17 in the morning. I haven't yet done the visa stuff.