Week started off well. I played in a soccer game with a group of 10 other guys. They were all quite good and I enjoyed just trying to keep up with them. The problem is that I couldn't. As you know, Americans suck at soccer. The Spaniards, on the other hand, can dribble like the ball is glued to their feet. When I tried to imitate them, bad things happened. The first time I passed it to other team. The second time I ran into my own player, and, the third time, I pulled my groin. That ended that.
If you remember this time last year, The Dark Knight was finally winding down from grossing the buckets of money it did over the summer. A year later it is not forgotten, but it is certainly old news except to me. I love it and watch it every chance I get. So I was quite excited this week when the TA that I work with announced that he was going to put The Dark Knight on his projector and make a movie night out of it. He lives with a Spaniard who has girlfriend visiting quite often. The four of us got together and watched the movie. With his projector, the screen was nearly the size of all. We were all in lounge chairs. It is effectively a home theater. I was in heaven.
The morning after the movie I was really excited. A friend of mine from AMR, Jason, told me that he was coming to Madrid for the weekend and that I should come to meet up with him. An old friend + weekend in Madrid was a no brainer to me. So I went ahead and bought bus ticket and booked a hotel room for the night. I worked the rest of the day very much anticipating how much fun it would be.
But the following day my boss came in and told me that it was going to be a long weekend because we had to crank out a proposal to submit to the university. I was a bit annoyed that I had burned my money...that's life though.
I sucked it up and worked quite hard during the entire weekend. On Saturday, my boss took me to lunch at one of the nicest restaurants in Pamplona. Red meat, red wine and sorbet. Wasn't a bad lunch break. Also, because I worked with him all weekend I learned a lot more about what he was going to need me to do and what his plans are for the center. It reaffirmed some of the things I thought when I first took the job. I am going to be in touch with phd's all over the world and try to coordinate research efforts. I am going to be expected to explain sophisticated research to senior level people at foundations and governments who just don't have the time to listen. I also being playing with PowerPoint quite a bit. I am content though. Everything is very interesting and I am happy to be here.
It is only a question of time before I go back out to Madrid.
Hasta luego...
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