Paco´s Life: Madrid

New sub-blog

And the decision I finally took was the big trip! So, as long as I am away, I wont write here but in Paco in America.

Sitting, waiting, wishing

Sitting, waiting, wishing… Borrowing Jack Johnson Word although with a very different meaning tan the song with the same name, I start this post which, I warn you, means the back to the philosophical and personal style of In these uncertain days and In these not so uncertain days.

Sitting, waiting, wishing. Sitting here in my office doing nothing, waitting for news that will push my next professional / personal move, wishing a different future every five seconds. Two weeks ago I was said that my contract as Software Developer in Buongiorno will expire on the 31st of December. In other words, I will become unemployed. The new, that I have managed to assimilate in the last days, was originally not welcome at all. I guess the absence of this kind of post in this blog is probably a good indicator of how good I was feeling lately both with my professional and personal life. Buongiorno was, specially during the first months, the best job I ever had: plenty of money, nice people, total flexibility, non-limited holidays. These are the big advantages of been a freelance that I was talking about in my last personal post, the disadvantage has just arrived. When there is no more work to do we are the first people for the company to get rid of. And, to be honest, I find it totally right, it had already been a few weeks I was doing nothing at work and I was feeling guilty

So, as a life irony, for one time I am forced to take the very likely decision of leaving a place. After so much time willingy jumping from one to another, this time they are pushing me. First days after receiving the news were a bit hard, I created quite a nice world here in Madrid, I had a perfect job, a perfect flat and a perfect social life. I am losing the first one for sure and very likely the other too. And I am so sure about this because I believe it is quite difficult that I can get a job like then one I am loosing here in Madrid. I have got this certain feeling of knowing that whatever I may find out there is going to be worse, specially in terms of salary and flexibility. Sure, there are jobs around and, actually they are calling me almost daily but I know what it is about… I see the uncomfortable ties, the business rigid atmosphere, the client is always right and all that shit IT consultancies are based on. This is something I have already lived and I will do again if there is no other chance but I will do my best to get something better. And if that means leaving Madrid so be it.

I have to say, to be honest, that I am writing this a few days after the initial moment and in this time I have started to feel better about moving. This globetrotter who lives inside me and was dying lately due to my stable life has been resurrected by the news. I have started to think of my chances and the first still only “possible” opportunities in Netherlands or Germany made me realize that I am still very motivated about leaving my current life behind and build a new one. So, the situation is not a drama, whatever is coming in my future sounds good and I am probably still as unestable and “moving-ass” as always.

So here I am then. Sitting, waiting, wishing… Planning the next move, something that other times just meant sending a lot of CVs to find a new job. Well, I am definitely doing that but this time there is a second alternative. And this time the unresponsible plan is really unresponsible…if am not offered something I like very much or maybe even in that case, I plan to go travelling. And when I speak of travelling I mean real travelling not the amateur things I have been doing till now. The plan is to get a big pack in my back and spend between 4 and 7 months going all over one a continent I have never been so far: South America

Obviously it is a decision involving plenty of things. And the first and most important one is whether I really want to do it, if I would really enjoy a trip like that. The truth is that I don’t know if I am made for it. I mean, it is not lack of confidence nor fear of the dangers involved. It is rather the fear to the boreness, to find myself alone, going from one place to the next without enjoying what I see. Not having travel mates for this trip, makes me think about these issues. I get bored easily and my short lonely traveler experiences were not too satisfactory (I specially remember those 4 days alone in Phillipine Islands). I would not like to cancel the trip after one month because I am fucking bored. I would like to know for sure that it will be a great experience but I have doubts. Due to this, the decision is not 100% sure and leaves the door open to continue working if something really good comes up.

It is due to this, that days pass by in what seems to be and endless wait. Sitting, waiting, wishing, in this “expecting” state, without knowing what it is going to be, attending interviews for jobs I don’t want, sending CVs to jobs I want, looking at South America maps, travelers blogs… With the feeling that there is not much I can do right now and the issue will solved itself on its time. Sitting, waiting, wishing…

Mercenario del Silicio / IT Mercenary

Well, I finally made it, here we are, stuck into this train heading back from a course I have been teaching in Cartagena and having nothing else to do apart from using my new laptop to produce this new entry for my blog, an entry I owed to him after the last events in my life. As usual, I will continue the story where I left it: Paco the messy was living a bit less uncertain days in which he was committed to give up the list of various and diverse personal projects in order to achieve the precious treasure called stability. June was the date I was marking as the minimum stay period en Madrid and here we are. Aleluya!, we made it, I am still in Madrid but actually I have cheated… it´s been more than a month I have been looking for that thing attracting me so much called “new challenges”. I guess, one always look for perfection and, having a deep analysis of my current professional situation I found out a few things likely to be improved.

In fact, I was not asking for that much, my new job should give me a) more money b) a more international environment c) possibility of using a different technology d) more flexibility e) fuck the tie. At this point, and surprisingly for me, I realized that changing the country was not the main issue here even though I would lie if I would say I was not attracted by that possibility too. I will come back to this in the future, the thing is that there is a small dwarf inside me who thinks I am not done with my living abroad yet and he takes advantage of every occasion to make his point. There is even a more radical one who says working is a pain in the ass and I should save, no matter how, a big amount of money, enough to travel all around the world.

Circumstances have made them both wait for the time been. In this search I have been doing there was certainly possibilities of moving away from Spain: Germany, Utrech (Netherlands), London and even Nigeria, the most weird one I didn’t share with anyone but, for one reason or another, none of this plans went ahead. In most of the cases simply because I didn’t have the experience required. Finally, the Oscar went to Madrid. I will have to start giving more credibility to my stability speech because, in the end, voluntarily or not, I end up staying here. I signed a one year contract to develop software in Java for a Madrid based company.

This, therefore, marks the end of my career at “Oficina de Cooperación Universitaria” so, before talking about the new challenge, it is probably worth it to look back and review this professional experience. Ties and rigid time tables apart, I am pretty satisfied of my 14 months working here. For starting, is my personal professional stability record but, more important, it meant a very positive evolution concerning my professional attitude. I could say that, by the time I got back to Madrid in April 2007, I was nearly a complete useless. Three years grabbing my balls first at Cardiff and then at Stockholm had nearly removed both my concentration ability and my technical knowledge, gained while I was studying. Been focused on a computer eight hours a day doing something that, besides, was extremely boring most of the time, was a real pain and I (and some of you by listening to my complains) have suffered many professional crisis through this period .

After these 14 months I believe this situation has changed. I am not going to say I love working in IT nor that I enjoy 100% of my working time, there are periods in which time goes faster and periods in which this job is still fucking boring but, at least now, I believe I am more efficient in what I am doing, more professional and I even feel happy many times when I see something finished correctly. I have learnt a lot in OUC, in a technical way and also concerning professional attitude and that’s definitely thanks to the people I have been working with. As opposite as it happened in Stockholm, working here has been a great experience I would definitely recommend to anyone.

Why am I leaving then? A few reasons as I said before, first the miss of a more international environment. Since I am no longer an expatriate and became a common “madrileño”, I needed to keep that feeling alive somehow. Almería and Cartagena have been the more far away places I have been sent by OCU and that was not likely to change. The company is what it is and has it business locally. If something I got out of all that time living abroad it was a decent level of English and I wanted to take advantage of that.

Second reason: Money, Money, Money. I spend a lot, there is hole in my pocket since I came back from Stockholm and I have spent all this time paying bills with the credit card next month`s receipt and many times I ended up with red numbers by the end of the month. Well, now I am going to get paid almost twice, hopefully enough to get back to travelling and gain some savings. Most of my life I didn’t have to worry about money so this last year it´s been sort of stressing. The new job is $$$$ and therefore I am

Let`s add as well that I have gained time flexibility and nobody is going to force to wear this uncomfortable piece of silk around my neck and suddenly we can realize we matched all the points listed at the beginning of this entry. So what the hell am I going to be doing? Well, I have started a professional path not too explored by my classmates nor the people I know but very popular among IT European professionals: I am going to be a freelance developer. I will produce my own bills and will not be attached to a particular company but, in theory, I will go from contract to contract, ideal for my stability isn’t it? I have been hired by a London IT consultancy company that places me in a client in Madrid. Funny business this way of hiring, the londiners charge the Madrid client and then pay me. I work in this client´s site but paid by someone else. That probably means the London company is putting a high commission for the client on top of my salary in exchange for just putting an add on Internet and make the first interview. I understand the client does not want to have permanent staff in order to save costs but why don’t they just post the add themselves? Anyway, I don’t really give a flying fuck, with or without the agency commission you get much more money working like than via the usual permanent contract with a regular company. You could make a point of the fact that, in exchange of this better salary, I loose stability and can easily find myself unemployed but, again, I am unstable so this sort of fits me very well…

So, I will be working for an international Italian company with business in Madrid and many other countries in the world. I will be developing in Java in collaboration with company staff located in various places such as UK, Netherlandas, South Africa and Australia. And….yes, good guess, the travelling dwarf inside me is already elaborating plans to make them send me to any of these places. Time will tell if this is possible. For the time been (June 2008), my ass remains in Madrid, no movement in a short therm.

There is still a bunch of other things to talk about but I think this speech got too big and probably nobody kept reading so long neither I feel like writing. One of the things I was aiming with this entry, apart from the usual mental clarification exercise, was to tell about this professional alternative to my class and workmates. If I am not too lazy, I will keep talking about this in future posts and if it ends up been a bullshit you will know. Enough for today then, I leave not before saying this change made me fucking happy, I have got this good vibration telling me I scored a big hit with this. My sentimental life is still a different issue but, my professional life is definitely going well

En estos días algo menos inciertos / In these not so uncertain days

Hello friends and readers. What a mental mess I wrote in the last post didnt I? I should stop writing while drinking a beer… It wasnt that bad. Well, there was a moment it was but already in the last post you could see some signals of recovery. There have been a few decisions these last weeks; the most important one is that, for the time been, I am not going anywhere. This is a sort of personal challenge called “Paco piece of shit, be a bit more stable”. Madrid is cool and my job is OK, I have to stop been so unsatisfied. Apart from the fact that I hate waking up early and working, everything goes very well here. Right, it is true that every time I speak with someone who is abroad or about to be, I feel this need of leaving but fuck it, STABILITY please.Having said all this, I dont discard fruther adventures but, for the time been and at least till June my ass will stay in Madrid. Maybe then I will feel the powerfull call of the danish fishes, who knows…

Right, I said it and, after this, I havent got too much stuff to talk about, thats the problem about not writing while drinking a beer. Not many news here, new flatmate, Mika is out and Loreto in, spanish girl from Burgos. The flatmate search was kind of funny, we post the add and we had to remove it the same afternoon cause so many people were calling. Apparently the situation is complicated in Madrid when it comes to look for a flat. A couple of funny stories related to the search, like this sucker calling and saying:

Sucker: Is the room still available?

Paco: No, sorry its been taken

Sucker: OK but, anyway, would you like to hook up with me?

Paco: sorry? Sucker: I said if you wanna fuck with me

Patethic, the guy called again in the afternoon using a private number and saying the same shit. Good he stopped it or I would have had to get a new number. Or this woman calling on behalf of his brother, surprising thing isnt it? Is he so shy he cant call himself? So, afer a long conversation about the state of the room and stuff like that, she says she is just looking for a good place for her 17 years old brother jajaja I had to tell her we are too old in this flat for him. Having a second thought maybe this was a mistake, we should have taken charge of this kid to educate him and make him become a real night punisher. Giving him Brugal for breakfast and partying with him every nigth. He would be our creature, our little Frankestein…

So we had to do the casting thing, writing down names and saying “we will call you if we like you”. I dont like this at all but it was the only way when so many people were visiting the house. In the end, we didnt really complicate the situation and chosen Loreto, a girl we all liked. She will need to be very patient to deal with three guys like us

More things, I finally upload some pictures to my rather forgoten web page, the ICEX meeting in Madrid, the trip to Moscow, the Heroes gig in Zaragoza and some Hospitality Club visits. Here they are. I would also like to mention the Fito & Fitipaldis concert the dane and me attended in Murcia.  Those 6 guys offered an excellent show. The night afterwards was outstanding too, we partied till very late with these Murcian girls who hosted us. We definitely have to repeat this kind of thing.

Coming soon, some exciting projects. Starting with our huge New Years Eve party at the flat, so far 36 people and 11 nationalities will show up. If they dont kick us out of the building this time they will never do. The idea is to have dinner with the visitors and then join the rest of our friends for the party. Much better than spending 70 euros for drinking shitty alcohol in a disco party.

And, for the next month, a bit more of ICEX traveller spirit. We will go to Geneva, beautiful city but supposed to be not much fun. We will need to have a look at that. Afer that, it will be Koln carnival turn. After the big success last year we repeat this one and this will probably become an usual even every year. Big party…

All right, time to finish this (I hope) more optimistic post. The streaks, good and bad, come and go. That bad one I was writing about its probably gone. Some mental mess is still in my head but I guess this is something I will never get rid off. In any case, the current feeling is more possitive. Therefore, happy christmas and new year to everybody and see you around

En estos días inciertos / In these uncertain days

Good afternoon my dear friends and readers. Waiting for this boring Saturday afternoon to finally become night and, since I have nothing better to do, I decided to write a few lines here. Last weeks have been very intense and problematic. I am not going to break my rule about not writing very personal stuff here, basically cause I consider nobody is likely to give a fuck about it, but, just for spending some time, I am gonna write down a few personal thoughts.The word contradictory is starting to be not enough to describe me. In this last period of my life I have gone through every possible state of mind and I have had all sorts of ideas, plans and projects. For some reason I dont manage to understand, full hapinesses runs away from me and, in the search of this desired stability I become more and more unstable. When I have something I dont want it, when I loose it I want it back. What I want to do with my life today tomorrow will be different than what I want to do today. The fact is that I get bored too easily, both in my professsional and my personal life and I am always focusing more in the future than in the present.

I have built this good life in Madrid, based on a good job, plenty of friends and amazing social life and I still find myself thinking of moving to another place, leaving all behind and starting again. A place that is not likely to improve what I have here but that it would be a new challenge, a new experience. In these last days, I have moved from feeling totally unhappy with my job and convinced I should finally send this computer career to hell, to feel more satisfied with the stuff I am doing and happier with my profession. Its also been a period of changes in my personal life, full of party and witouth any control. Sometimes I wonder where is the alcoholism border cause I gotta be real close.I have had weeks of daily drunken nights, sleeping three hours and showing up at work totally wasted. It is funny how your body can get used to that, accept it as normal and be happy with this diet based on drinks and sandwiches. It is worrying to discover that, only in that moment, with a drink in my hand and friends or only people I have just met around, is when I feel totally happy. If I could get paid for that I would be the happiest guy in the world, drinking solutions as my danish flatmate would say. I wish my work would give me half the hapiness I get partying or travelling. Because all this issue about crazy life might be very cool but it is NOT what a guy in my age should consider priority number one. The older I get the more unresponsible I become. This sort of permament Erasmus feeling I have does not change and nothing and nobody seems to be able to lead me to a settled down life.

So I make up planes every day, many of them absolutely crazy and if they finally become real you will defintely know about it. The thing is that a week ago I was sure I would leave Madrid but in the last days I dont see it so clear, the feeling I am having these last days is more possitive. However, maybe next week everything will turn around. It is, lets call it like this, an uncertain period which eventually will lead here or there but that it has to finish at some point. If the truth is that I am a moving ass maybe I will finally have to accept it and live in consequence with that. Lets give it some time to see what happens…

As far as I remember, in my last personal post I was talking about that wonderful flat we had set here in Madrid. I think I was saying how promising it was. Well, six months later I can say it really fullfilt all my expectations. And I am speaking in past tense cause I feel it like a period about to finish, each of us seems to be taking a different path, uncertain in some cases, but definitely far way from this great atmosphere we have had here all these months. It’s been, no doubt about it, the best place I have ever lived and I will always remember it very happily, even though the very dramatic moments we also had. This Mika-Anders-Andrés-Me constellation is about to loose its light but it was a great one. Lets drink for it

Just another thing and I finish this personal post which is actually more a try to make my mind up rather than an attemp to communicate anything. I just want to say how much I like Hospitality Club. Related with this party life I mentioned before, this website has played its small role. HC is exactly what its name suggest, a community with people whose only link is to be willing to wellcome foreign travellers for one or few nights in their place, to make them feel at home and, the most important, to enjoy doing that. Money is not an issue here, is just to lend your sofa to travellers you dont know at all, not just your sofa but also a pice of your life. To make possible for other people that visiting a city be more than stay in a cheap hostel and walk around looking for places to see. To make possible to them to have a real taste of the country they are visiting. I suggested this idea to the others flatmates some time ago and, since then, we have had portuguesses, hungarians, chinesse, brazilian, germans and finish people around. Maybe someone might feel reluctant to host unknown people but, believe me, the experience is very rewarding.

Anyway, I think its been enough of this shit. It is already time to have a few beers. I have no clue how my life is going to evolve in the next weeks, the uncertain period is still here and it does not seem likely to go away soon. I will have to coexist with it.

Back online

How can you get back to a blog after 5 months and when so many things happened? I feel kinda lazy, I dont really know what I am going to do with this, it is quite likely that I stop the updates, basically cause I dont think my life will be interesting enough from now on. Anyway, let´s start from the beginning. What was I talking about the last time?? About trip plans wasnt it? Well, some of them worked out and happened to be amazing and some others could not be made. Remarkables were the parties at the Carnival in Dusseldorf and St Patriks Day in Dublin. More cultural trips were Krakow and Paris and the big plan for the Eastern, an egyptian tour which happened to be one of the most interesting trips I ever made. These are the main headlines and soon I hope to have pictures, unfortunately, I am too lazy for writing detailed posts about them after so much time.

So let´s go straight to the main new which I guess most of the people reading this know; I had enough of ICEX and its useless work and left Stockholm. I had been thinking about this for a long time but the decision suddently came in March, why? I am not even sure myself. Because at this point my social life in Stockholm was improving very much with the arrival of the new interns, finally I had a great night punisher to support me and plans were starting to appear more often. But I had already started to send CVs. Mainly for working in Eruope, at that point that idea of coming back to Spain wasnt still in my thoughts. There was some chances in Amsterdam and Copenhagen but they finally did not work out… and some day I got into infojobs and applied for a couple of interesting jobs in Madrid. The answer was inmediate and I decided I wouldnt loose anything having a look. So I flew to Madrid to do the interviews taking advantage of a medical problem that the useless health coverage provided by ICEX was not managing to solve in Sweden. I also used the trip to get some tickets for the Heroes del Silencio gig in Zaragoza:-) I did 3 interviews and got 2 job offers and… I picked the most interesting and financially attractive. Froom the 16th of April I am a Web Portals Analyst at the Universities Cooperation Office.

It wasnt hard to make my mind up and this definitely proves how unsatisfied I was feeling towards Sweden in general and the ICEX in particular. It is not that I felt they were not threating me well at the office, specially if you compare with what some other interns are suffering in other destinations. It was, in fact, a total dissapoint with my professional development there. Yes, I knew it was gonna be like that in advance but I guess I got to a point I had to say enough. I have spent the last three years doing nothing productive and so many rejections to my european applications made me think I should start learning something or nobody would hire me. More reasons: the lack of connection with my bosses at the office, again, is not that I was totally unhappy there but the fact is that I crashed with the strict hierarchy existing in this organization, where those who has the authority keep using it all the time, always making clear who is the “intern”. Having a so unmotivating job and also having to assume you are the lowest in the pyramid is not exactly nice. I guess in fact the problem was a) I am too old for been an intern b) I got used to work in other countries where professional relations are seen in a different way. So my leaving of Stockholm was not the best, something I regret since it is not nice to leave a job like that but the truth is that I was not happy with them and they were not happy with me.

All this would not have been so relevant if, as it happened with other people doing this internship, I would have loved to live in the country I was asigned to. But the fact is that I didnt. This is just a personal opinion, absolutely subjective but I dont think Stockholm is a nice city to live in. I guess I was very affected by the party issue, bouncers kicking you out of the bars with no reasons, constant queues and waiting lists… Partying is an important part of my life and I can tell you the swedish capital is the worst place for doing this that I ever was. Again, this my personal experience, maybe you go there and have a lot of fun. But I got tired of hearing sentences like “this is great in summer”, “the city changes, the sweds get a better character”. Dudes, summer last two months, you also have to live the rest of the year. So finally I wont enjoy that wonderful summer, maybe I should have waited till the end but I took that quick decision and time proved it to be the right one. Apart from some initial low moments I havent regreted at all. But I dont wanna be too negative, my leaving was not only a consequence neither of the job nor of Stockholm but of a combination of both. If any of them would have enterily satisfied me I would have stood the other.

So here I am, back in Madrid, doing an interesting job that pays well and dont demand me to work overtime. That is already enough, taking into account the situation in our lovely country. And the fact is that, even though I was kinda reluctant to it, been back here is happening to be great. Becase I am, lets say “rediscovering my country”. Enjoying nice and cheap food and drinks, sunny days, buying good rum anytime I want Just an important financial crisis, courthesy of my ICEX friends who made me return a lot of money has been limiting my activities a bit. But now I am not broke anymore and plans start to appear again. The main one is my new independence move, after a month and a half living with my parents (by the way it was not so hard as I expected) I am emancipated again. And this time I properly did it: a good friend of mine and I just got a huge flat at Orense Street, next to Nuevos Ministerios. That´s an area of Madrid, very well connected and full of leisure possibilities. These last weeks have been frenetic: we had to find flatmates, get furniture for the place… And the first issue is sorted out, to keep the international atmosphere we “hired” a danish guy and an indian-british girl to fill the two rooms we had available. First of June we start our sharing experience which looks very promising. Untill them, IKEA is our second home!

Finally, after a forced period of travel absence I am back to the air. National scapades such as “la Feria de Sevilla” or Albacete will give way in Junio to new ICEX meetings, the second weekend I will visit Athens and the third one a massive reunion in Treviso, home of the spagethi punisher. Coming soon is August when, if my budget allows it, an old dream will come true: the asian tour I was denied by the ICEX. The itinerary is still to be decided, Beijing, Saigon, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei are the candidate cities.

Conclussion, I stopped been an expatriate to be a common Spanish but… I am happy. Life can be wonderful…

There we go again / Allá vamos otra vez

Hi folks,

I know I owe a few updates to this blog that I have left quite appart lately. There is plenty to say, about Asia, Norway, a few guests I had, the extraordinary ICEX meeting in Granda. Septiembre was just crazy, a non-stop sequence of trips and parties which partially destroyed my health. When all this get back to normality I would like to post about all these issues, right now the most important thing is the beggining of a new stage in my life, tomorrow I am leaving to Stockholm where I will spend the next year. As it happened before with England, Germnay or Denmark, I start from scrach. New country, new friends, everything new, the truth is that… I love it. I write this in companion of my last glass of Brugal in this apartment I talked about so much , waitting for my friend Tomás, who is visiting me for a short time, to finish his shower, waitting to enjoy danish night for the last time (in a while). I dont pretend this to sound too intelligent, I already talked before about these feelings I am having now. Whoever never had this feeling of departing for the unknown, leaving home, the usual places, good friends, get away of what “everybody else does”… according to my modest opinion he is not making the most of his life. This way of living, my friends, becomes addictive, is pretty hard to explain with words why is so cool to live in different places, to build a life in a new place just to destroy it and start again later on. It is not that I believe myself to be better than these people which consider going to the same local beach year after year to be the big adventure but, honestly folks, what I do is worth it. Becouse through all these trips you gain experiences, get to know people, open your mind.. Because of course the moment to settled down in a fixed place will come in the end but life is so long that I dont see any need to speed up this. And I like to think that, when the time comes and I look back, I wont regret of what I didnt do. So, what do I keep from Denmark? Well, quite a few even though I havent spend too much time here because of so many trips. I have the feeling this is a country I would not mind to live in, I felt more comfortable in two months here than in two years in England. It is definitely a nice place. No offence but I honestly believe Spain is worse than people usually believe. Sure we have good weather and great food but quality of living is a wider concept, it includes wroking conditions, how easy is to get independent, friendliness of people..and if you tell me about that “spanish party” topic, let me reply that here in Copenhagen is not too different. I was in Madrid this week and I felt totally out of place, the why is hard to explain in words, is more about feelings, maybe because the capital is not the best place in our country. People go fast all the time, the environment is different, dont ask me exactly why but it is, anyone who had lived in Copenhagen would understand me. Concerning the social circle, in this experience it has been more reduced but, as it happened to me some other times, every new experience add a couple of characters to the bunch of people I consider unconditional friends. Obviously, among all these people I got to know over all these years, I only keep in touch with a few of them. And it does not mean that the others are less valuable, is just the way life is. But there are certain guys I know they will always be there whenever the circumstances make a meeting possible. I could mention Sergio or Lolo from Newcastle, Álex, Ángel or Paul from Cardiff, a lot of people from Icex… Copenhagen left Giorgos and Iván, two great guys I have been hanging arround with this summer. I know their door will be always open for me the same way mine is for them, and whoever knows me also knows I am serious when I say these kind of things. And this is the really nice thing about this way of living, you keep adding different characters to the cocktail of the friends, maybe you wont see some of them anymore but the experiences remain.

Anyway, big Tomi is ready to go out and the Brugal empty. I depart to say bye to the vikings land and I get ready for the swedish one. Cheers…

El punto de no retorno

Para el que quiera entretenerse leyendo un rato. He aqui un gran post de Hugo, el ICEX de Helsinki, que creo que resume muy bien una determinada forma de ver la vida con la que yo desde luego me siento muy identificado. Por lo que a mi respecta el punto de no retorno quedo atras hace mucho tiempo…

http://ivayodeperegrinoymecogistedelamano.blogspot.com/2006/02/el-punto-de-no-retorno.html

Hit the Road Jack

And the ICEX training is finished, after the last speech offered by the unique Washington this unforgetable Madrid experience is over. It could have not been better, these weeks passed away really fast, with plenty of lectures, parties and a grat environment. I guess this is the same year after year but I can tell you, this one was enormous. Such a meeting of so nice people seems hard to find in the future. Anyway, the thing is that this period is over and now is time to move forward, Denmark is waitting there. Tomorrow is time to drive, 2500 km of solitude until Copenhagen to think about why I have chosen this way of living, always changing friends, keeping distance between my old friends, family, and that person that, after all, is still so important for me… The truth is that sometimes is fucking hard but dude, I think in the end is worthy or, at least, when I am in my thirties and comfortably settled down raising my kids, I would like to look back and remember all those places I lived in and all these people I met. Many times I say this is an issue about opportunity, this is the time for doing these things, is now or never. Which one is the alternative? Finish the degree, get a job and spend the whole life in Madrid? Well, there will be time for doing this, life is very long. If I had done this when I had the chance, I had never met all these people I found in Newcastle, Cardiff, Aachen, at the ICEX. I know that, in the end, I will only keep some of them but all those good moments will never go away. However, the truth is that now I fell sad and I dont pretend to drop all this sadness here but it pisses me off that I can´t have everything, I have to give up some things. Well, I guess you can never be 100% happy, specially in my case. Is it worthy? I dont know, 2500 km to think about it..

Bye bye Wales

Hello people,

Well, finaly my future got clear, I am leaving Cardiff, it was already the time for a change. Finally it is going to be a great deal, I dont have to give up the Phd since these friendly brits are happy with me doing it as a part-time student from… Sweden. Yes, I applied for an internship at the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (www.icex.es) which maninly consists on been the IT officer in one of its offices all over the world and they gave me Stockholm. I will be there for a year. I have to say that I am a little pissed since they completely ignored my much more exotic preferred destinations (Hong Kong, Singapur and these kind of places..) and sent me to suffer this cold weather but, anyway, I guess it willl also be fun there. Furthermore, to make my nordic experience more complete, I have been assigned by my Phd supervisor to a project which requires me to spend a couple of months in Denmark, Copenhagen so I can start getting used to the weather before the Swedish experience. Finally, before all that I have to spend a month and a half in Madrid doing some trainning. I know, confusing (see summary below). Anyway, as usual, you are all wellcome to pay me a visit in any of these 3 places.I will try to extend the Captain Flint religion in these cold lands… Hugs!PACO´s LIFE IN THE NEXT 15 MONTHS4 June 06 - 15 July 06: Madrid
15 July 06 - 1 October 06: Copenhagen
1 October 06 - 1 October 07: Stockholm