12.6.08

Mount Tamalpais


El Mount Tamalpais, el parc natural per el qual el nen i jo em decidit exercitar les nostres cames, és el pic més alt d'aquesta zona de Califòrnia (784m sobre nivell del mar). De moment ja hem fet dos dels trails dels més de 50 que hi ha preparats per trisquejar i sembla que encara ens ha de donar molt per descobrir!





Aquest ha estat un dels canvis inesperats del fet de venir-nos a viure als USA: el descobriment de la natura ... se que no és necessari canviar de continent per a això, però és que a Califòrnia la natura t'envolta..no te'n pots escapar encara que visquis en una àrea urbana. Aquí la terra és molt gran, encara hi ha molta molta zona sense urbanitzar i només a mitja hora de casa tens enormes parcs naturals i un oceà per descobrir. Suposo que és per això que hi ha tantíssima gent en forma per aquests vorals! Aquí qui més qui menys escala, o fa montanyisme o surf o jogging...i no com jo, que cada dos mesos decideixo anar al gimnàs, no no, aquí és més com una filosofia de vida...sembla que ni tan sols necessiten la tant valorada força de voluntat! ...els hi deu sortir de natural! hehe a veure si per osmosis o algo se'm enganxa una mica aquest ritme :). Aquí us poso algunes fotos més que vaig fer fa dues setmanes, no són el reportatge més exhaustiu del parc, però ja en vindran més!



11.6.08

Keeping people posted!

My mother is going to visit me soon!!!!! Yehaaaa! And in her honor I am going to write this message in English so she can practice hehe! I am excited about her coming. I feel nervous and happy to be able to share with her what Diego and I are building here...I just feel raw happiness!!!!

Also I want to let people now that I am not forgetting them…as always I do not respond emails (I am sorry Cristina!!! But I will do it this week!), I skip to greet b-days (felicitats Oscar!!!!) and so on…but I DO NOT FORGET ANY OF YOU!!!! In fact I am missing you badly…but I feel I just have to get over it until I can come by to BCN and hug you all! I really have to keep these feelings under control or, otherwise, I will be overwhelmed by them…

Just a short catching up: classes have ended. This second year has been a total and absolute different experience from the previous one. When I changed from the MA to the PhD, with the consequent prolongation of our stay here, my participation in University social and academic life increased steadily. I am now part of a research group with whom I have been designing a project to work with Latino families with children that have some kind of cognitive disability (yeah! That was exactly my plan when I came here two years ago! I did it!  ). Also I have analyzed some of my data from Spain (remember me going to collect data with deaf children at their families homes?) and I have presented some of these results on two conferences …which has been a total accomplishment: I have talked in public about my data!!! Amazing!!!! :P Now that is Summer time here at Berkeley, I have an even longer list of things to do: by the end of next academic year I have my Qualifying Exams…which is like: you become an expert scholar in 3 areas of your choice and then you take three professors in your three areas and they evaluate you (they grill you with questions) for 3-4 hours….nice, uh? A part from that I am fine, thank you.

Since I do not have had real vacations yet, Diego and I are trying to do some hiking around. California is such an amazing land! I think one of the aspects that most impresses me is how big the horizons are. You go to Big Sur or to Mount Tamalpais (really a short distance from the city) and you are in the middle of nowhere, lost in the woods, with huge forests and mountains close to the ocean. Hiking here is really common. Diego and I were flipping the other day when in our way through the Mount Tamalpais –walking- we were passed by an impressive amount of people, many of them much older than us, jogging or by bike as if the exercise was just a little stretching out for them….what do they eat for breakfast? Uh? Did they have fallen on the Obelix cauldron??? Uh? Anyways, here I am including one of the photos of this hiking, for you to enjoy! Hugs everybody!