OK, I know it comes with a small delay, but… what to do :D

Things I wanted to do that I’ve accomplished:

• Continue reading in English: I had less time than other years to read, but my list of books read (mostly in English) keeps growing steadily.
• Continue writing in English (and improve my skills!): Although you haven’t seen it here, I’ve written a lot in English, and I can say that my skills are still improving :D
• Continue doing exercise regularly: It hasn’t been completely regularly, but I can say that I have done a lot of exercise during this year.
• Begin a Master of Science in a foreign country (preferably, Sweden :D ): Well, I began a 2-year Master of Science in Systems, Controls and Robotics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) of Stockholm!
• Travel to at least one foreign country I haven’t been in yet (this is getting harder each year, hehe):
• Spain.
• Italy.
• Netherlands (New).
• France.
• Austria.
• Slovakia.
• Hungary.
• Sweden.

Be at least as happy as in 2007: Or more :).

Things I wanted to do that I haven’t accomplished:

• Do some windsurfing: I’m a disaster :D
• Do some scuba diving: See previous comment.
• Study seriously a language (Spanish and English are not valid): I tried to go back to French and toyed a little bit with Hungarian, but I couldn’t do much.
• Get a certificate of that language: Nope.
• Get the ITIL: I didn’t have time.
• Get a license for driving motorcycles: If you have been in my car, you’ll be happy I didn’t tried to get this one :D Also, with the car driving license I have I can drive small motorcycles in Spain :D

Unexpected extras:
I don’t know… lots of stuff, but I feel lazy to try to write down :D

Related links:

• mrithail.com: This Year’s Objectives.
• mrithail.com: To Do List 2010.
• mrithail.com: To Do List 2009.
• mrithail.com: Things Accomplished in 2008.
• mrithail.com: To Do List 2008.
• mrithail.com: Things Accomplished in 2007.
• mrithail.com: Cosas Para Hacer en el Año 2007 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Hechas en el Año 2006 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Para Hacer en el Año 2006 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Hechas en el Año 2005 .

So… why has mrithail.com been abandoned all this time? Well, the answer to that question basically is that I’ve been really busy with my real life. And this doesn’t mean that I will post regularly, just that I felt that I wanted to write again a little bit, but we will see how this goes :)

You know that I have always written with a real huge delay, some times even of half year or so, so I don’t really know if I will go in depth about the events that have happened since my trip to Amsterdam, so I guess I’ll just do a quick comment in here.

In the travelling part, I have gone to Paris (France), Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia) and like 5 or 6 times to Budapest (Hungary). Oh, and in August I moved to Stockholm (Sweden).

The reason why I moved to Stockholm, and why I’ve been too busy to write, is that I got selected at the Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska högskolan) to study a 2-years Master of Science in Systems, Control and Robotics. And I have to say that I’m very happy about this, although it meant leaving behind family, friends, even my job, and beginning from scratch in a new place.

And… well, once again, this is all for now :D

Maybe, one of the few things you don’t want to hear while traveling to Stockholm, is “Mr. Hernandez your luggage is at Amsterdam”. Anyway, this kind of things happens sometimes, and you have to cope with them.

While hearing this, I was also handed a survival kit from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. By the way, I don’t think I’m as big as for getting a XXL t-shirt, but…

The kit contains the following:

• A blue bag containing the rest or the items.
• A white t-shirt.
• A pair of blue socks.
• A comb.
• A safety razor.
• Shaving cream.
• Moisturiser.
• A tooth brush.
• Tooth paste.
• Deodorant.
• Make-up remover.
• Laundry washing liquid.

It surprises me that the pack doesn’t include any kind of briefs. But at least it has the nice detail of including liquid for doing the laundry.

Fortunately in my hand luggage I was carrying clothes for 2 days (like always) and anyway, they brought my luggage from the airport to my new home that same night, at 23:00.

Maybe soon, I’ll explain also how to deal with a completely unusable bed. It was like that when I arrived, I promise, it has nothing to do with the XXL t-shirt :D

By the way, I’m already in Stockholm… neat beginning, eh? :P

It’s been more than a year since the last time I wrote a post of this kind. More precisely, since April 2008, but I think it’s a nice idea to take them back, as it’s a great way for me to keep track on how my life is evolving and what things I’m doing.

So, July for me began in Bratislava (Slovakia) where I was, exactly as last year in those same dates (June 28 – July 11), in a BEST Summer Course at the Slovak University of Technology, although this time it was on urban planning instead of robotics, and I was an organizer instead of an student (I love you all, LBG Bratislava :D ). And of course, It was a really crazy event, like every BEST event :D

After such a hard work in Bratislava, I spent 4 days relaxing in Vienna (Austria), visiting the city with some of the participants from the course (Olga, Camilla, Karin and Greg!) and visiting an Austrian participant (Markus!) from my BEST Spring Course in Madrid (Spain).

Then, 4 days gathering energies at home, and then 8 consecutive days of work mixed with partying (amazing birthday, Pablo :) ). It was also a sad week, as I began to say farewell to some colleagues from Overon (the company I work for) I won’t see again before moving to Stockholm (Sweden).

But after some much suffering, a great reward, which consisted on ending the month with a week enjoying Budapest and Nagykovácsi (Hungary) and the marvelous Hungarian people with the help of Olga! :D

As a preview for August’s report… well, there will be my last working shift and moving to Stockholm! So, stay tuned for more!

So, the Summer keeps going on, and plans and travels are just popping out from everywhere.

After spending two great great weeks in Bratislava and 4 amazing days in Vienna, I’m slowly getting back to my regular life. But not for long, as in just 6 days I’ll visit beautiful Budapest again (I’m really waiting for it :) ) and in less than one month I’ll move to Stockholm… I already found a place to live in there!

So, arranging all of this, combined with having a life, and having to work as hard as ever, is not letting me much free time for the blog, but I really hope I’m able to recover part of my previous writing rhythm. If not, well, in a couple of weeks you’ll see another post like this one, or like the one I published 3 posts ago, haha.

Anyway, I’m still alive. And happy :)

Well, so it seems that again I left this blog a little bit unattended, hehe. But I have to say that I had good reasons to do so, or at least that’s what I think :P. The truth is that I was really busy both with my job and my personal life. And also with a new project that will begin from mid August.

This project will involve me leaving behind my job, my family, my friends and my home country again. And for that I will have to go back to live in Sweden, although this time in Stockholm instead of Karlskrona.

The thing is that I got a seat at the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (The Royal Institute of Technology) of Stockholm, to study a 2-years Master of Science in Systems, Control and Robotics. This is something I had been planning for a long time, and that has been guiding my steps for, at least, a couple of years. So I guess that right now I can say I’m incredibly happy, as everything is going almost perfectly :D

Although I have already arranged almost everything, there’s still one thing left. And it’s a thing that is as important as getting the seat aat the university! That thing is… getting a place to live in! That’s right, I have nowhere to sleep in, but I hope I’ll fix that soon (Anyway, If you think you can help me, just contact me :P ).

Aside from all that… well, I wanted you to know that I haven’t forgotten about mrithail.com, and that soon I’ll be posting again in a more or less regular way. And I say more or less because I have some trips scheduled, like, for example, going again 2 weeks to Slovakia (and Austria) by the end of the month, hehe.

Soon (like in a couple of days) you’ll have more posts to read in here. And I hope I’ll get to speed soon, because I still have some trips pending from last year (and of course, from this one).

So… see you soon!

In this occasion, I’m bringing to you a short film made by, along with others, a friend of mine who is currently studying Digital Media in Bremen (Hi Vane!).

The narration of the short is in English, but for those of you who doesn’t understand it, luckily you have subtitles in German, hehe.

Credits:

• Director: Hu Ran.
• Music and screenplay: Shen Xiaoli.
• Cast: Vanesa Cortés Rodríguez, Lee Minghay, Ahmad Saleh.
• Camera: Lee Minghay, Li Shushi.
• German subtitles: Andre Hoffmann.

I particularly like the sadness and deep insight of real life it shows… I don’t know, I find it really touching. But well, I don’t want to write any spoilers, so…

Just enjoy it!

Last update: 2009-01-19.

Well, it’s time to officially launch year 2009 in mrithail.com with my traditional To Do List for the year.

• Do some windsurfing.
• Do some scuba diving.
• Continue reading in English.
• Continue writing in English (and improve my skills!).
• Continue doing exercise regularly.
• Begin a Master of Science in a foreign country (preferably, Sweden :D ).
• Travel to at least one foreign country I haven’t been in yet (this is getting harder each year, hehe): Done! :D.
• Study seriously a language (Spanish and English are not valid).
• Get a certificate of that language.
• Get the ITIL.
• Get a license for driving motorcycles.
• Be at least as happy as in 2007 (as happy as in 2008 would be really difficult… ).

Will I be able to do all of them? sincerely, I doubt it, hehe, but life is for dreaming it, and making those dreams real.

And here, the List of Countries I’ve set foot on this year. The ones to which it was my first time will have a (New) next to it:

• Spain.
• Italy.
• Netherlands (New).

Will I be able to do all of them? sincerely, I doubt it, hehe, but life is for dreaming it, and making those dreams real.

I’ll maintain a copy of the contents of this post in this link, as I’ve been doing for the past few years…

Happy New Year to everybody!

Related links:

• mrithail.com: This Year’s Objectives.
• mrithail.com: To Do List 2009.
• mrithail.com: Things Accomplished in 2008.
• mrithail.com: To Do List 2008.
• mrithail.com: Things Accomplished in 2007.
• mrithail.com: Cosas Para Hacer en el Año 2007 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Hechas en el Año 2006 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Para Hacer en el Año 2006 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Hechas en el Año 2005 .

Again a new unscheduled stop in the blog… I’m sorry, but it’s just that I’ve been incredibly busy (and sick) this last month. I promise I’ll try to work a little bit on it during this days.

Things I wanted to do that I’ve accomplished:

• Continue reading in English: Done, as you can check here.
• Continue writing in English (and improve it!): Done, I think, although lately I’m not writing much in here, hehe.
• Finish my degree project: Yeah! I finished my degree, at last!.
• Travel to at least two foreign countries I haven’t been in yet: Here I have had a brutal success! Here’s a list of the countries I’ve been to this year. The ones to which it was my first time have a (New) next to it:
• Spain.
• Germany.
• Denmark.
• Sweden.
• Turkey (New).
• Estonia (New).
• Latvia (New).
• Lithuania (New).
• Poland.
• Hungary (New).
• Slovakia (New).
• Austria (New).
• Macedonia (New).
• Switzerland (New).
• France (New).
• Belgium (New).
• Italy.
• Get another certificate of English: I took the TOEFL iBT test, getting a 105 / 120, which is not bad.
• Get a real job: I began 2 months ago, but finally I got a real job (paid with real money, too!).
• Be at least as happy as in 2007: Despite some really hard times I have lived this year, I can say that, overall, it may have been the time of my life :).

Things I wanted to do that I haven’t accomplished:

• Do some windsurfing: I haven’t had much time with all that studying, traveling and working….
• Do some scuba diving: For this, is just that I haven’t had the chance to do it.
• Get the GRE: The same as the previous two.

Unexpected extras:

• To do exercise regularly.
• I dyed my hair in red: In Milano, on December 31, hehe.
• Nothing else that could be written in here :P

By the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! Specially to all the people that actually reads the blog :P

Enjoy this new year!

Related links:

• mrithail.com: This Year’s Objectives.
• mrithail.com: To Do List 2009.
• mrithail.com: Things Accomplished in 2008.
• mrithail.com: To Do List 2008.
• mrithail.com: Things Accomplished in 2007.
• mrithail.com: Cosas Para Hacer en el Año 2007 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Hechas en el Año 2006 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Para Hacer en el Año 2006 .
• mrithail.com: Cosas Hechas en el Año 2005 .

Imagine living in a strange, dark city for twenty years.
There are some dismal dwellings on the east side
and one of them is yours. On the landing, you hear
your foreign accent echo down the stairs. You think
in a language of your own and talk in theirs.

Then you are writing home. The voice in your head
recites the letter in a local dialect; behind that
is the sound of your mother singing to you,
all that time ago, and now you do not know
why your eyes are watering and what’s the word for this.

You use the public transport. Work. Sleep. Imagine one night
you saw a name for yourself sprayed in red
against a brick wall. A hate name. Red like blood.
It is snowing on the streets, under the neon lights,
as if this place were coming to bits before your eyes.

And in the delicatessen, from time to time, the coins
in your palm will not translate. Inarticulate,
because this is not home, you point at fruit. Imagine
that one of you says Me not know what these people mean.
It like they only go to bed and dream. Imagine that.

– Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy

• mrithail.com: Selling Manhattan.
• mrithail.com: Foreign.
• mrithail.com: The World’s Wife.