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.

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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....

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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

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Taken from the Shinkansen en route from Tokyo to Kyoto

Tomada desde el Shinkansen en ruta de Tokio a Kioto

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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!

See the full gallery on Posterous

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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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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.

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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.

In the afternoon we just walked around the city, this time to the Zamalek area, crossing the Nile again but on foot:

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One day after the Pyramids it was time to know more of Cairo, so we walked a lot that day, specially because when wanting to go to the Azhar Mosque from our downtown hotel we got lost and at some point were off by 3 or 4 km from the place!

The most incredible thing that day was hearing the evening call to prayer from al-Azhar park. The park is on a hill and you hear the muazzin's chant from thousands of mosques starting at slightly different times all over the city. The resulting audio effect is amazing.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Some pinholes pictures I missed from previous days: Petra and the Pyramids

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So, this was the day I got to see the pyramids in person: Tuesday, May 19, 2009.  I had dreamt of this day ever since I was a kid. Once I talked to my mom about the pyramids and she told me she was actually surprised that I hadn't gone to Egypt before; when I was 6 o 7 years old apparently that was all I talked about back then. Thirty one or thirty two years later I still had a lot of excitement left and so the day was really fantastic:

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Our first full day in Cairo we went to the Egyptian Museum. I didn't bring my camera because they confiscate cameras at the entrance and I didn't want to risk losing it. In any case, once inside it's dark, dusty and ugly, so there's not much to photograph in spite of all the interesting things they have.

We spent many hours walking around rooms and rooms of statues of all shapes and sizes and all sorts of artifacts thrown together without much in the way of order or explanation. Some objects had pieces of papers with descriptions written in the 1930s, some in English, some in French. Some of the biggest objects in the first floor are already half a meter deep into the floor, which obviously was not designed for their weight. All in all is a big mess.

The rest of the day we spent walking in downtown Cairo and setting up our visit to the Pyramids the next day.

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Our 25th day into the trip we left Jordan for Egypt. When we got off the plane it was scorching at 38°C. Our taxi driver, a very nice guy sent by our hotel, told us that it was starting to feel a bit like summer, unlike the day the before in which was fresh at 30°C.

At night, when it was a bit less hot, we had our first walk along the Nile. We also went to the bar at the top of the Nile Hotel to have a drink and enjoy the views. The views were wonderful, as you can see from the pictures; the drinks we didn't have because nobody actually came to serve us. I suppose that's the downside of looking like a local. On the other hand, nobody harassed us to sell us stuff during our stay in Cairo.

This is the famous Tahrir Square:

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One day after the Dea Sea fiasco we again took one of the taxi-tours offered by our hotel and spent the day visiting three ancient sites: Umm Qais, an old Roman town; Ajlun, an impressive old castle on top of a hill and Jerash, the ruins of a very important city of Roman times.

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This was the day when we were supposed to go to the Dead Sea. We took one of the tours arranged by our hotel, which was actually just a shared taxi along a route touching on Madaba, Mt Nebo, some sort of theme park they have on the alleged site of Jesus' baptism, and then, the Dead Sea. Madaba was very nice, Mt. Nebo would have been much better if the fog would have let us see past 10 meters and. we passed on the Jesus' baptism scam. The Dead Sea was unreachable: the IMF had big event that day in one of the big hotels near the Dead Sea and the Jordan government decided not to risk it and close up 100 km of highway around the hotel.

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On Thursday, May 14, 2009, we left Wadi Mousa, the town near Petra for Amman in the morning in a taxi we shared with an Australian young guy (on a 1 year trip, typically Aussie) and a somewhat annoying guy from New Zealand. At some point during the 3 hour trip, the guy from New Zealand suggested we paid our taxi driver a little bit extra to take the more scenic route near the Dead Sea. We decided not to do it because we had planned to do a day trip to the Dead Sea and other places the next day. As it turned out, we never got to see the Dead Sea. We continued to Amman and stayed there the rest of the day at a hotel downtown.

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Our second day in Petra, Wednesday May 13, 2009, Ivannia was still hurting from the her ankle injury the day before and decided to rest up and see if she could make it later. If she was able to make it we were going to meet up a steep climb at 5pm. So I went to Petra alone in the morning and climbed another steep hill to get some nice views:

At 4 p.m. I started my climb towards the Monastery. I found very hard, specially after all the walking in the morning. As I was getting near and already thinking that it was almost impossible for Ivannia to walk up that much, there she appeared riding a donkey:

Some more pictures:

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The 20th day of our trip we visited Petra, one of the most amazing places in the world. Again, I will just let the pictures mostly speak for themselves:

The best Arabic coffee of the trip, at the top of the Movenpick Hotel, worth every cent of the $4 they charge for it (in most places in Jordan a coffee costs no more than $0.75)

A donkey rooting for Cruz Azul in Jordan!

Ivannia making friends:

Ivannia had a little accident while we were having lunch and was not really able to walk that much in the afternoon. She had to ride a horse on the way back:

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