Last swiss summer saturday

This is my last saturday in Basel. I guess there will be lots of last things during this last week in Switzerland. Unfortunately, there won't be a last weekend trip, since I am writing this from my appartment in Basel. This implies there would be no post with pics from the mountains this week. Appart from the economic reasons of staying here this weekend, we have also academic reasons. Next week is the deadline for around 8 full-time positions in the healthcare industry for next year, and I should better start writing cover letters like crazy if I do not want to spend my last evenings in Basel closed at home writing why I would love to work for this or that other company, and how I really think I fit into their culture, values.etc etc etc. (I find writing cover letters one of the most boring activities ever, and I have been procrastinating this enough during last week) Now its time to write! The thing is, if you procrastinate the writing of a CL, or any other thing, it means that you are not really anxious for that right? The conclusion for me is that I have decided to apply only to the positions which I really want to be in. I remember I did not procrastinate the essay writing when applying to B-school because I really wanted to go there. ok enough work-related writing.

Yesterday I had diner with Paco at my place and then Josh, Fernanda, and Cythia joined. Both Fernanda and Paco have left already. Myself (together with Ignacio) will be remembered as "the last intern". In this moment I guess Fernanda may be already reading cases for next week in LBS, and Paco in his way to Chicago to join the B-school with the funniest name: Kellogg.

Another thing, if you are a tourist (or just arrived to the city) in Barcelona next weekend, recall that we will be celebrating "LaMerce". the official party of Barcelona. Lots of concerts and activities around the city, plus a music festival that, well, some years its ok and some others not so ok, but always good enough to have fun. Barcelona Accio Musical. I guess I did not mention that before, but unconciously that would be another reason for staying a bit quiet this weekend and save some energy for next saturday and sunday. I have downloaded the poster of "LaMerce" for this year. As always, exteremely awful. With all my respects to the designer of this year, I think there is a conspiration in Barcelona to choose every year the most awful design that they can find, and then use it as a model for the fashion and design that you can find in the city. Well, maybe you like it. I think....ok here is it.

Mmmm, to contradict a bit myself (this is good, sometimes) I would say this year's poster, in fact, is not that bad, I would even say I kinda like it........

Music for today, dedicated to Fernanda (This song with some samba drums in the back):

La vaca es un animal, todo forrado de cueeeeero, todo forrado de cueeeero,

Tiene las patas tan largas, tiene las paaaaaaaaaatas tan laaaaaaaargas,

Que le llegan hasta el sueeeeelo!!!!

One week to go...plus a dinner and a friday

Yes, only one more week plus two extra days and I will be back in Barcelona. That is the time left until this internship (together with this blog) is decalred officially finished. Last weekend in Madrid has been also "officially declared" something. It has been officially declared "killing weekend", because I feel still not 100% recovered from the wedding and today is wednesday already. Tomorrow we have the goodbye dinner for Ali and Fernanda, and a leaving party on Friday.....oh well....I guess that, as the song says..."I will survive".
An example of our state on Sunday is that I forgot to close my bag with the small locker in the airport, when comming back to Basel. I realized just before the check in, and after half an hour of "pajarreo" looking for the keys I managed to close the bag. Then, two minutes after that, the keys dissapeared. Yes, I swear they dissapeared from my hand or my pocket or wherever. Anyway, I was aware of that once inside the boarding zone. That was after a small incident with the security guy in Madrid´s airport. I thought he was talking in german to me (my mind was already in basel), because he asked to open my arms and turn back for inspection, and I did just the oppposite (I mean that I didn't turn back). Then he was going to proceed and then I realized and turned (remember my arms were opened). Then he looked at me with an expression that we can qualify as bizarre, and I said...Man, I come from a saturady night wedding. No problem.

By the way, given that we are talking about airports, maybe you have time to read this article from "the economist" about the fear of flying. I read it in the plane and I liked it.

Ok, we are now on Monday morning, and the main thing is: Openning the bag. This is going to be very easy. I have my multifunctional "Topeak McGuyver XS" (this is the name written on it) that appart from solving any mountain bike mechanical problem you can have, opens lockers in the blink of an eye. In my case must be in the blink of two milion eyes because the McGyver strategy didn´t work. If you want security mini-lockers....just Samsonite. Then, under the influence of too many movies, I had my bed lamp in my right hand and the bag on the left one, ready to use force with the locker, when I saw myself in the mirrow and start thinking "this is not going to work either and you don´t want to break the bag". Fortunately, I am a creative man and a 10 min walk to the closest department store (where they sell the same samsonite bag) turned out to be better than the movie strategy. Now I know that I can open any samsonite bag that looks the same as mine with my keys, in teh case I have not lost them.

Other things. Yesterday I received in my mail box 2 sets of plastic bags full of indications in german that obviously I can't understand. The bags came together with a booklet to join the swiss police corp. These booklets look the same everywhere, so I am still not very convinced of the advantages of joining. Anyway, going back to the plastic bags, I don't know why but I was convinced they were a very civic initiative so that pet owners can collect the shit of their animals when going out in the street. Maybe they should implement that in Barcelona also, but my opinion is that in my city the problem is not in the "available resources" in the form of plastic bags to collect animals' waste, but in the "available resources" in the brains of some pet owners. So I was curious about the bags and started to look the indications up in my german dictionary (my beloved yellow german dictionary, which is the most unamortised investment I have ever made in a summer period). By looking at the dictionary I start to connect words such as "leather, women, cautious, take care, children, clothes". 2 possible explanations. First: I am not only unable to learn this language but also unable to use a mini-german-spanish yellow dictionary. Second: I don't think the plastic bags are for your dogs' shit. The thing is I still don't know hat are they for. In my case I think I will put some dirty clothes in next week. Maybe they send those bags to any person that has worked in the country and is leaving soon. That would be something like "It has been a pleasure for Basel city to have you in Switzerland, but please, take your thrash home".

I leave you with some pics from tuesday's dinner in the cool appartment that josh has found in the city center. It turned out to be a kind of party, but I was comming from a too hard weekend and left around 11, before things got dangerous agin.

Fernanda unable to decide among the hundreds of things Ali cooked in the afternoonThe music for the evening came from hereMusic for Thursday: Wolf Parade-Grounds for divorce (just to put a little of black humor in this wedding environment we have been experiencing this summer)

Alberto se nos ha casado...parte1

Por peticion popular este va a ser el unico post en espanol del verano. En espanol cutre hay que decir por que este teclado no tiene ni idea de acentos y menos de la letra N con un garabato encima. (Sorry for those who do not understand but I promised to write this one in Spanish).

Madrid, 8 de Setiembre. Llego al aeropuerto y espero a Queca y David que se debieron creer que me habia equivocado de dia de la boda al verme en traje y corbata (venia de trabajar directo). Como cambian las cosas eh!! En fin. Lo mejor de llegar a Madrid, sentir un poco de calor y sol despues del mes que hemos pasado en Basel. Por cierto, aqui sigue lloviendo.
Despues de que me cambiara en casa de David y Queca vamos a recoger al abuelo aka Miguel Alvarez aka Miki aka "el hombre domado para las tareas domesticas" (explicacion mas abajo). Miki se esta tomando una cana sin dinero en el aeropuerto esperandonos. Luego llega Chesco de Mallorca que seguro que con el horario ajustado que tiene le ha dado tiempo a pegarse un bano en la playa antes de venir. Juntos, alguien pregunta por Oscar, y Miki tarda 5.3 seg en decirnos que esta en valladolid por "trabajo", y se le escapa la risa claro.
Despues nos juntamos todos en casa de Maria, cena, una copa, y una segunda y ultima por que manana hay que estar frescos para la boda.
En casa de Maria dormimos un servidor con Miki y Chesco. Pudimos descansar mucho, sobretodo gracias al sonido nasal de Miki y la habilidad de Chesco para regular el aire acondicionado por la noche ("Estoy acostumbrado a regular el aire acondicionado por la noche", que gran frase).
Por la manana descubrimos el motivo por el que Oscar ha estado viviendo con Miki todo este tiempo. Maria lo descubre vamos. Miki, quien te ha visto y quien te ve. Mujer, pon un Miki en tu casa y olvidate de todo.

Antes de ir al hotel en Bohadilla por la tarde, decidimos tomar unas canas y comer algo en la Latina. Durante la manana del sabado me doy cuenta de que realmente tengo ya ganas de volver de suiza para disfrutar de cosas como esta:


Siete de la tarde encuentro con las chicas en el hotel. Estan cabreadas por que nosotros no estamos fuera del hotel dentro del coche con el motor encendido ya. Para hacer honor a la verdad fue mejor dejar las cervezas pre-ceremonia sin terminar y llegar a tiempo para saludar a Alberto antes del...momento.

Guapas, muy guapas

Companeros de piso hace ya 6 anos (veis como queda mal escribir en castellano con este teclado!!). De compartir el piso-sala de reuniones y fiestas varias- en Pisa a firmar como testigo de la Boda. Fer y el novio:
Luego garbamos unos videos de felicitacion para Alberto en la puerta de la Iglesia si no recuerdo mal. Aqui aprovechare para aclarar mis palabras en uno de ellos, por lo menos depues de ver la cara que puso Amparo cuando lo dije. Alberto, la frase es"yo en Italia ya sabia que aguantarias"...Sabes que llevo un tiermpo fuera de espana y se me esta oxidando el idioma. Sustituimos la ultima palabra por "seguiriais juntos y os casariais ok? Puedes dar el ok cuando vuelvas de Birmania, no hay problema.

Las chicas
Los chicos
Y bueno, pues al final se casaron claro, para eso estuvimos en Madrid este fin de semana. Y pudimos tirar un poco de arroz y todo. Lo podeis ver aqui (Jose, como buen valenciano, antes de que salgan los novios suelta un..."que ya va que ya va", como si por la puerta de la iglesia fuese a salir un toro para embolar o algo asi).

Lo que erasmus ha unido.....parte2

Recien casados. A estas alturas de la noche (antes del pastel era esto creo) Alberto ya estaba de fotos hasta....Bueno igual no. Hay que decir que ahsta que sus colegas de trabajo no el hicieron poner la corbata en la cabeza y bailar el trenecito con "la gasolina" de fondo, el novio no perdio la compostura en toda la noche.La mafia. Los unicos contactos que tuvo Fer con gente del Pais cuando estuvo en Pisa fueron basicamente del sur del pais. Fer, suerte que al final te has vuelto un hombre honrado y trabajador. Miki en cambio, de honrado no tiene nada y como buen gitanillo gallego se robo unas botellas de la mesa de los suegros. Este es el momento en que las estava subiendo a la habitacion antes del baile.
Amaya, esta foto la pongo por que asi cuando me pregunten en suiza sobre la boda los que no saben leer castellano les digo que la chica de azul fue mi ligue del fin de semana.
Maria y Amparo, o Amparo y Maria, como querais.
Alberto perdiendo la compostura
A partir de aqui ya todo el mundo habia perdido la compostura
Miki, hay que decir que una vez analizadas las fotos y los videos de la boda, este fin de semana has estado antologico. Una muestra mas de las dotes de Miki
Mas perdidas de compostura
Los novios con menda
Hector y Dani los reporteros de la noche, con "il padrino". El humo de la foto, por la tonalidad del blanco, yo diria que debe de provenir de la mano derecha de Fer escondida detras de Dani.
Sin comentarios. Ultima foto que tengo de la noche.
Y la ultima foto para Jose. La imagen es despues de que desayunaramos con Alberto y Julia antes de que se vayan a Birmania, y despues de que Miki le dijera a la de recepcion con toda normalidad que se lo cargaran todo a la habitacion de Julio Salinas, la 151. No colo ni de broma Miki, por que la chica te habia visto ya el dia anterior por la noche cantando Camilo Sesto con los labios pintados de rosa. La foto: Jose (con cara falsa de sorprendido), mostrando parte de lo que habia en nuestra habitacion a la manana siguiente. El dice que no sabe ni de quien era ni como llego hasta alli. Yo por supuesto me fui a dormir antes que el y tampoco se nada. Misterios de las bodas no Jose?

Ha sido un placer estar de nuevo con vosotros celebrando la boda de Alberto. Me guardo un fin de semana en Noviembre para nuestro proximo encuentro, esta vez espero que para darnos un atracon de marisco por alli arriba. Ciao!!