Stephen Hawking coming to Santiago de Compostela

Population and press are collectively very excited to have Stephen Hawking coming to visit Santiago for a week of events, culminating in a public seminar next Saturday for an audience of around 1500. He is primarily coming to receive the Fonseca Prize. He's also going to be spending some time in our department where he will give a talk on Wednesday afternoon. On top of this there will be a press conference and various public events which the people of the city and surrounding area are extremely excited about.

A couple of weeks back we had the cameras in our department from the local news channels, interviewing various students and researchers about what Stephen Hawking meant for them. As an Englishman, I had to give my take on what he means to me, as a compatriot. I have to admit that my two minutes or so was probably not terribly impressive, and I usually feel more comfortable giving an hour seminar than a short sound-bite. Anyway, another learning experience for me.

On top of all this, my intensive Spanish course draws to an exhausting close with a couple of exams on Wednesday. In fact these exams don't matter in any academic sense, but I'm still going to take the opportunity to do my best...we'll see! Finishing off the homework from the lessons on top of a regular day in the office has been taking its toll and I'm feeling pretty shattered right now - this weekend has given me a good chance to see how my Spanish is coming on though, which has been pretty pleasing on average. On top of all this and cooking a large meal last week for a group of friends, I kinda need a rest, though this may have to wait until Christmas!