Oral Defense Scheduled

Everything is ready now burocracy-wise for my oral defense. It's going to be Monday November 28, 2011, in room 808 Leacock Building at McGill. Come if you want watching students being grilled by mean professors ;)

Update (Nov 30, 2011): Everything went as expected, grilling included. I passed my defense and now I just need to make some revisions and corrections and submit the final version to finish.

Website Reset

My old website is no more, here's the new one now in Posterous. The author, however, is still experiencing major difficulties when it comes to posting anything. Please stand by...

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Mi website anterior desapareció, aquí está el nuevo, esta vez en Posterous. El autor, por otro lado, está todavía muy ocupado para poner nada. Paciencia, por favor....

Japanese Cats — Gatos japoneses

Sydney Opera House

This was taken during our trip around the world in 2009. Just another proof that it's good to carry a tripod everywhere.

Esta foto fue tomada durante nuestro viaje alrededor del mundo en el 2009. Una prueba más de que es bueno andar cargando el trípode en todo lado

富士山 — Mt. Fuji

Taken from the Shinkansen en route from Tokyo to Kyoto

Tomada desde el Shinkansen en ruta de Tokio a Kioto

上野公園 — Ueno Park

Köln (ATW2009 - Day 32)

Only one day more to go in our trip before going back to Montreal. On Sunday, May 24, 2009, we went to Cologne (Köln) for the day. One of Ivannia's former high school classmates and her Dutch husband was meeting us there. It was a fun day with a nice train ride along the Rhine, a beautiful day in Köln, great Kölsch beer, and good company. I even got the chance to finish the roll on my pinhole camera with a vertical shot of the great cathedral; I almost got it all within the frame!

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Darmstadt (ATW 2009 - Day 31)

We got only two full days in Germany, were already tired of travelling and wanted to spend some time with the German friends that had us at their home, so we decided to spend this Saturday May 23, 2009 in Darmstadt.

Part of the morning and part of the evening we spent with our friends at Mathilde Höhe, a nice area in which it just so happened that there was a festival going on.

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Egypt to Germany (ATW 2009 - Day 30)

After 30 days on the road, the time came to start heading back home. On Friday May 22, 2009, we flew from Cairo to Frankfurt and came back to Western culture with a vengeance. From the big Egyptian mess we jumped to order-obsessed Germany. It was really like descending into another planet with some things, after 3 weeks in Asia and the Middle East, bordering on the absurd.

For instance, when we were waiting for our luggage in Frankfurt (we had to check in by backpack because of the heavy books I bought in Cairo) there were signs indicating with 10 second precision how long would we have to wait for the luggage conveyor belt to start moving. I mean, who really needs to know that his or her luggage is 50 seconds away from (maybe) appearing? Who in his or her sane mind would really be worried about a 10 second delay in these circumstances?

Of course, German people seem to be just used to all that. I couldn't believe either when our German friend told us he found that signalization at the airport's parking lot was poorly designed. At least they have clear maps and drawings everywhere; in Cairo every map I saw was as misleading as the street signs and signals (which no Egyptian has ever cared to obey ever).

So, we were back into our sanitized environment, almost feeling like the trip was already over.

Nile Crossing (ATW 2009 - Day 29)

Another day in Cairo and we were already feeling like locals, crossing the 8 lane streets under heavy traffic as if nothing happened, never minding the heat, not being at all disturbed by the noise, the dust and the sand, being nice to people. My Egyptian look and the 10 words of Arabic I know and used really went a long way into having locals treat me really well.

As good locals, this day we decided to cross the Nile by local ferry. It was a bit hard to find the docks amidst all the tourist ferries but we did it. We paid 1 pound ($0.20) for a 20 minute ride from near Tahrir square to the Giza neighbourhood, and another pound for the trip back.