Saturday, April 16, 2011

Back in Santiago

Time in Munich has been passing quickly but relatively uneventfully, the sunshine comes and goes and we have hints of summer between the cold snaps in which walks through the elegant streets of Schwabing and into the English garden are really lovely. I've been meeting a few new friends here and there but I'm keeping to myself a little more than I was in Spain, mostly in order to not drown in the various piles which are taking up the rest of my life, the three active projects are going pretty well, though on the language front I'm finding motivation a little hard with the German given how easy life is without it. I discovered the main university library a week or so ago though which looks like it may be my refuge in which I can't escape from the study.

Right now I'm back in Santiago after an exhausting day on the road yesterday - a 4.30 alarm clock followed by a 7am flight to Barcelona and then arriving in Santiago at 3pm, only to give a talk at 4pm. The talk itself was on my last paper and while I'd spent a long time getting the slides ready, the computer breaking down half way through meant that most of the talk was given on the black board. I still need a lot of practice with blackboard talks!

Today is a wonderful sunny day in Santiago and I'm about to head off to the wedding of a couple of good friends, a Colombian and a Galician. Hugely looking forward to seeing lots of good friends again! This will be a super-traditional Galician wedding and I'll be dressed up in something akin to a medieval monks outfit which could be interesting, given the soaring temperatures. Photos of me perspiring are likely to follow.

Next week I'm in the office here for a couple of days before popping down South to the university of Braga in Portugal where I'll be giving a talk (though I can't quite decide what it's going to be on as the group there isn't stringy so yesterday's talk would certainly not work). I'm also hoping to start a collaboration with a friend there as we've been discussing a possible calculation for a year or so now.

Anyway, that's where life is up to at the moment. After I get back to Munich I have a couple of weeks and then the annual silly-season begins with too many travels to even think about, but we'll cross that boarding gate when we come to it....

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