Rio de Janeiro

Last week I attended the Congress of the Latin American Studies Association in Rio de Janeiro. It was my first Brazil experience and I loved it. The people, the food, the scenery were all outstanding. The weather could have been a bit warmer, but since I was working, there wasn't much tme for hanging out on the beach anyway.

Here are some more vistas:

Will you still be here tomorrow?

A good part of my new job involves retooling an institute of the University of Chile that has not fuctioned well for several years. One of the reasons has been resistance to the interdisciplinary appraoch that the institute itself was supposed to encourage. Now this article appears in the New York Times, basically confirming that ours is the way of the future.

On a less positive note, it also seems to suggest that all of us eggheads are headed for extinction.

The end of summer

I have a friend who says that there are only two cities in Latin America, Mexico City and Buenos Aires.

I just got back from one of them. Here are some pictures.

As many of you know, I started a new job at the University of Chile. It's a big responsibility, but a good opportunity.

Paris

I decided to take a few days and go to Paris with my friend and colleague, Rodrigo. It was cold and rainy, but still magical, as Paris always is. Without our previous knowledge, we booked a hotel located on a street that is one of the gastronomic centres of Paris, with a market and stalls and bakeries and fromageries all over the place. This is not that street, but a little alley where one of my favourite Paris restaurants is, Le Procope -- presumably frequented by Voltaire and Ben Franklin. I did not see them.

The rest of the time was spent walking around, mostly in the rain, looking for things that tourists don't normally see, like these:

I particularly like the jack-in-the-box above for its incongruity.

Right after I took the picture below, as we were getting ready to check out of the hotel and head to the Eurostar, someone on the street says hello, and it was a colleague from York University in Toronto. Small monde.

London

Besides the snow, I managed to catch up with some friends in London -- both british friends and some Chileans studying and working in Britain (and also Italy). It was great

Snow in London

Here in Lovely London, where it never ever ever snows. Excpet for the week I decide to visit.