I love the internet

Isn't it great to talk with people who live thousand miles away? I really think it is. I don't quite know if it's just me or others also experience it, but there's a feeling I love. You know, when you're a bit down after a crappy day at uni, work or wherever and you get home. You start your laptop, without which you couldn't live and sign in to skype, messenger or the like. And, oh yeah! someone talks to you. You haven't talked to that person in a while and, at least me, after the chat I feel really excited. I usually even go clapping and cheering if the conversation deserved it. Sometimes it really makes my day. I mean, isn't it a great feeling you get. I don't know, it's just that I love knowing that those people are still there and care about you. And the fact that they don't live close to you makes the sporadic chats even more special. Well, and all this is possible thanks to the world wide web, created in Switzerland (at CERN, Geneva by Sir Tim Berners-Lee), despite what a lot of Americans might think.
I'm telling this because in the last weeks I've had the chance to talk with some of my dearest international friends. And god, it just feels so good! First it was Adrian, the crazy Swiss guy (with all my respects); then Helene with her lovely sense of humour; Anita, my little sister and most recently Anneke with whom I hadn't talked for so long.
So this short post goes for everyone who feels the same way I do. I wouldn't change that great excitement I get for anything.

Madness in Conil!!

Today I didn't have anything to talk or discuss about, so I figured it was the right time to tell a bit about the crazy week I had in Conil with my classmates. I just arrived in Pamplona from my South American trip and my classmates invited me right away to go with them to Conil, a beach town in the South of Spain. I hesitated at first because I was already going to the Balkans and didn't have that much money. But after cutting some expenses here and there, I decided I could go. I don't regret it at all. In fact, I'm really glad I did it. It was madness there with all the crew: Etxarri, Asin, Kike, Rober, Beruete, Victorcito, Corta, Gartxen, Asiercito, Berrio, Davidin and me. Of course we missed the rest, but they had the opportunity to come if they had wanted to, so screw them!!! no, just kidding (oh god, I really love this expression that enables you to say whatever you want and then do as if you didn't mean it).
We had a great time because not only did we party a lot, but we went to a different beach everyday; visited places like Cadiz, Tarifa, Gibraltar, Zahara de los atunes, etc; and of course had fun the whole time. True we ended up exhausted, but we can tell we got the most out of everything there. There's so many stories and anecdotes. Like Berrio climbing the wall to enter the apartment when some guys apparently wanted to kick his ass; some others stealing bread and getting caught; meeting Julio Salinas in a bar there; playing the musical chair game; climbing to the fountain in downtown Conil and so more.
Yeah, I think I will remember this trip forever. It was awesome (yes, I finally found a spot to put this great word in my blog) to spend this time with my old classmates after not having seen them for almost a year. I believe we should do it again this year. What do you think guys?

why is life so hard? just because!

Seated in my small computer lab, looking at a computer screen and wondering: why do I feel like shit? that's what's happening right now. Let me explain myself a bit more. I went yesterday to a classmate's house to have a couple of beers and then go home rest after the exhausting project which kept me from sleeping the previous days. But you already know how this nights end up. You go like, just for a little bit and you appear at home at 5.30 in the morning and pretty wasted. Well, that's ok if you don't have to work in the computer lab at 11 in the morning. So after sleeping for about nothing, I got my bike and came here. So while the lab is full with people yelling at each other I have to stay here and deal with it. This is when I wonder why is life so hard? And the only explanation I find is just because! Some of you might say I deserve it and that is my fault because I went out knowing I had to work. Well, I respect those opinions but prefer the just because way of not blaming anyone. So enjoy your day while I die in this small class full of computers and noisy people.
P.S: Excuse me if my spelling or grammar is not its best, but I'm not in my best moment either

The Balkans tour

Now that I finally finished my project, I'm gonna write a short post about one of my trips. I could write page after page about this trip. Well, in fact we did in Julen's diary. But instead I'll just write a short description and let whoever wants to visit the Balkans discover them by him/herself.
It all started when I was in Patagonia, in that beautiful country named Argentina. After some days without internet, I manage to get a wireless connection and check my email. And there it was, some emails from Mauro and Julen inviting me to go with them to a Balkans trip in July. It took me like ten seconds to make up my mind and send them an email saying that they could count me in. But just going there didn't seem enough, so I suggested them to come spent couple of days before leaving at my place. I think they hesitated for like about another ten seconds. I mean, how are you gonna refuse an invitation to the world famous festivities of my marvelous city. Yeah, some might have already guessed I'm talking about the San Fermines in Pamplona.
So with a huge hangover and pretty tired after two days of partying we got on a train, then a taxi, then a plane, then a bus and so much more to finally get to that lovely place: the Balkans. We did a wonderful tour visiting every country in the area and not spending too much time in the really touristic and crowed places of Croatia. I loved all of them, but the one that surprised me the most was Bosnia i Herzegovina. I don't know, I think I just didn't expect it too be so gorgeous. We started in Italy and went to Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro (which I believe it was the youngest country in the world, just 1 year old) and Slovenia. There was time for everything. We visited the cities, got relaxed in the beaches, swam in the warm and clear waters and of course explored the nightlife.
I went on this trip with two amazing guys and friends. Sometimes we were like, what the fuck! we have been traveling together for a week and we hadn't argue at all about anything. So we'll just pretend to argue about some random thing. And we wrote a really interesting travel diary which by the way I still hadn't seen since then. I just wanna say: thank you guys!!
Well, in the end I didn't talk much about what we saw during the trip, but I believe this is much more interesting than reading about an itinerary. There's travel guides for that. And the anecdotes of the adventure are kept in the diary and maybe one day they'll be revealed.

This project's gonna kill me!!!

I know, it's been a while since the last time I wrote something here. But the thing is I didn't have much time. As I mentioned in my previous post, last Friday the Carpa took place. I'm not gonna loose time here explaining what is it about because I already did before and if you wanna know more, just check the internet! Well, it went really well and we had a lot of fun during the whole day. There were some hilarious moments. You can follow all we did in one of my classmates' blog:
http://borrachosylocos.wordpress.com/
The only problem for some of you would be that it is in Spanish. Well, you can practice some.
But after the fun, the commitments come. Now I have to hand in a project on Thursday and of course it's not even close to be finished. Always leaving everything for the last minute. Oh yeah, we love it! So what waits ahead of us is some nights with few or even no sleep and lots of hours in front of the computer. And then they might wonder why more and more people need glasses. I mean, isn't that obvious?
Shit! I don't know what's happening to my posts, but they get worse and worse each day.I struggle to find topics for them and when I find one it just sucks. I believe the explanation is that my brain is drying up from schoolwork. From now on I'll try to water it a little so that I get back my inspiration. However, I'm pleased because one of my purposes is achieved, I'm writing in English and I freaking love it!
Take care out there friends

"All around the world"

Like the Oasis song goes, "all around the world". You may already know by now that one of my passions is traveling. I love discovering new places and cultures. And till now, you can say I've done a pretty good job. I've been in many places in different trips done during the years. It all started with my first trip to the US when I was just 14 years old. I stayed with an american family for a month, you know, one of these summer exchanges people usually do. Well, after that I went somewhere every summer for a month and staying with a local family. I've traveled with different people each time, but there's two people I've gone with more often. The thing is that both of them, Julen and Mauro, share this passion. As Mauro wisely commented on the blog, I'll post something about almost each trip starting from the latest one. I'll add some pictures so that you can have an idea of how places look like and the kind of trip we did.
But this will have to wait for a while because as some of you may know, on Friday we have this great party at my university called Karpa. And of course, I'll post something about it and about what happened in it. For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, and I think it'll be most of you since few are from Pamplona, here's a short explanation: Third year students always go to a trip as a class to have fun and as part of a tradition well established in our uni. Well, in order to do that they need money so they organize this festival in which each major has a small bar. They raise the cash by selling drinks to people who go to it. And it lasts 22 hours or so. It starts early in the morning and ends early in the next morning. And the whole university goes there, even some professors attend (and a couple of them even get wasted, hehe. no, seriously, they do).
Well, I'm sorry if this was a bit long or boring. I know a lot of people won't give a shit about all that Karpa issue, but I just had to at least mention it. For those who are attending it, ENJOY IT!

"Bullshiting"

This post is about that, saying some bullshit here. As so many things, I discovered this in the States. You know, americans, as much as I love them, tend to do this in class quite often. I don't know the reason of it, but in countless occasions a guy will interrupt the professor and just talk nonsense. When people do this, I'm like, so after all that, what did you wanna say? I've been listening to someone for like ten minutes and I still don't get his point. Me myself, I'm not very good at bullshiting around. I don't know, when I wanna say something I just say it, and if I don't wanna say anything, I just shut the fuck up. But today is different, I'm feeling like messing around a little bit. As you can see, the post is getting longer and longer and I hadn't really said anything yet. Well, that's partly because I wanted to write something but didn't know what. So this is what I came up with. I admit it doesn't have the quality of my previous posts. It's basically because nothing interesting happened in the last two or three days. Except that I finally got some news from my dear friend Julen. Incredible! oh, and also got a phonecall from Sebastian. It was really nice talking to him and discovering that the facebook application to call cellphones in other countries does work.
I think this was enough randomness for today. I promiss my next posts will be more interesting and I'll actually talk about something. Maybe I'll even post pictures someday.

Busy in Herre

"It's gettin' busy in herre, so lets get all to work", hehe. Do you like my new version of Nelly's song? yeah, I know it's not as good as the one Virgil and I used to sing in Burlington. But it's the best I could come up with given the topic. Well, the thing is that we're starting to get pretty busy here. I nearly forgot what it was to have a considerably big workload. Used to UVM where schoolwork wasn't a problem, now I'm overwhelmed by all the projects and studies I have to do these days and till the end of the semester. But well, those of you who know me well can tell I don't usually get too worried. I mean, it's not like I don't do what I have to do, but I simply don't start complaining about not having enough time or the like. I will just try to do it and if at the end I didn't have enough time, well, I did all I could.
All this thinking occurred to me yesterday after spending what seemed to be half my life at university. I was trapped there for at least 12 hours. Even had to eat there! After a month of calm, now professors start asking for projects, attendance to lab classes, exams,... and they all do it at the same time. So I guess it's gonna be a harsh month of November and part of December. But don't worry, I'll survive. And if not, you know I love you all!

Missing the States

These days something is going on at my university. It's the period for students to apply if they wanna go study abroad next year. Everyone is considering their chances of being selected for a program, people are studying english for like the first time in years so that they can get a good grade in the language exam, etc. All this makes me remember my good times at UVM. Even more when younger friends of mine who wanna go to the US ask me about my stay there. Then all the memories come and I can't help to feel nostalgic. I get really excited telling them some of the adventures and stories that happened there. I could be talking for hours about what I did and the people I met. I made really good friends who I hope will last forever. Some of them I hope to see pretty soon and some others time will tell. But that's the great thing about internet. Just using Skype I can talk with some of those friends that live to far to go and visit. And if I don't meet them on Skype, I use another fabulous tool called Facebook. I discovered it in Vermont and I'm now addicted to it.
I wish I could be back at UVM now. Here it's like getting back to normal boring life. Although this year seems to be more interesting, nothing compared with last year. I miss skiing with that crazy Swiss guy and yelling: "Go Swiss go" like a madman. I also miss working at Bailey/Howe Library with Torsten and others, going out wiht the impredictible group of internationals, or the amazing trips we did. And of course, I miss my sweet roommates (and suitmates). Both mexicans but so different from each other.
Well, I think that's enough moaning. If there's something I learnt during my US adventure is that the importance of things is relevant, and what we have to focus on is enjoying the moment and the people we are with each time. So that's what I'm gonna do. Enjoy Pamplona and then go to Switzerland to meet my international folks during easter. And let's be optimistic, maybe I go do my Final Project abroad next year. Wish me luck!

My first blog ever

Hey you there!!!
This is the very first blog I've ever created or written on. I don't really know why I did it, but as I learnt in the US, you don't always have to answer this question. As the title of the blog says. While I was in Vermont, I found really funny and enjoyed how I would ask why? to someone and he/she would only say: just because. I was like, you didn't answer my question. But I got used to it and even started using it.
I have to admit I'm not a blog reader or anythin', but I just like the idea of writing about whatever you want whenever you feel like it. It was my dear friend Anita who inspired my to do it. I read her brand new blog and said: why not? it looks like fun. But of course, there's another reason. I miss english. I love the language and as you can imagine, there's not many chances to practice it here in Pamplona. So I like the idea of writing a blog in english, so that my international fellows can understand it.
I'm not sure what I would be writing about in the future in this blog, but I guess I will just comment on things that happen to me or my people or on things that I'll consider important about the world.
Well, I think that's enough for my first post. I'll try to post often but I don't promiss anythin'. Oh, and comments are very welcome.

Cya around