Happy Chanukah

I just realised that about five months have gone by since I last logged on. I don't know where the time went. So in the way of an illustrated udpate, here are some bits and bobs:

In November the Chilean Political Science Association held elections, so fortunately I am no longer president. But I am still very busy as part of the team that's organizing the World Congress of Political Science, which will be held here in July.

Here I am at the end of year dinner with our guest of honour, the Secretary General of the Presidency (a kind of Primer Minister position).






In December several friends dropped by. Salo and Jane from New Jersey were in town, and we took a field trip to a mountain resevoir called Embalse del Yeso, which is about 3000 metres up in the Andes. You get there by leaving the main road in Cajon del Maipo (Maipo Canyon) and then driving about 25 km on a gravel road along a river valley. The lake has an emerald green colour, which I presume comes from the minerals in the water.







My friend Alex was here with his family. As he was kind enough to do last year, his father invited me to their country house where we spent a nice afternoon by the pool.






And Chrismukkah was spent with assorted family, including my godson, Benjamin:






Plans for the new year include a trip to Europe, a conference in Rio de Janeiro and the World Congress of Political Science which we are organising here, which will be in July. That -- and a major carreer move, more on which as plans solidify.

In the meantime, happy Chrismukkah to all, merry New Year, eat your share, don't drink and drive, a puppy isn't just for Christmas, and feed the world.

Brown

Well, I made it to the Ivy Leagues. But only for three days.

I am in Providence Rhode Island, which is very small, very New England, and very liberal. But it's nothing compared to the folks I have to put up with at Brown University -- a bunch of Chavez luvin radicals.

The hotel I am staying in is very cool, built as a Masonic Temple in the 1920s, but never finished, so it stood empty for decades until Marriot boought it. Looking out my room window is a framed view of the Rhode Island capitol building.

I presented a paper today, which went well, and now I have to put up with two more days of propaganda. Oh well, I will just have to feign interest and look forward to the excellent chocolate chip cookies they serve at the coffee breaks.

Panizza

Good to know the LSE academics remember me.........

I promised pictures

Here are some pictures of my trip to Costa Rica. Now a bit of down time before my next trip to the US next week.

Do you know the way to San José?

I remember when some friends travelled to Costa Rica some ten or twelve years ago, and when the returned they wouldn't shut up about how great it was.

I don't remember the details, but I presume they didn't spend much time in San José, becuase it's really a dump. I guess there must be nice parts, but I am staying downtown and it is not nice.

Plus, it is what they call winter here, which means it's 27 and humid and it rains all day. The difference with summer, which is during winter, if you get my drift, is that it doesn't rain all day. But right now, it's raining all day, which makes my weeks of anticipation for a mini summer break rather misplaced.

Anyway, I am hoping to get out into the rain forest (I am really clear now on where that name comes from) before heading back to Santiago. If I do, I'll try to take pictures. And if I do, I will try to upload them.

Day Off

With classes out, and not yet having begun to mark the big honkin stack of final exams before me, I had to go downtown to pick up a document, and took my camera along. These are the pics of Robbie's Day Off, with apologies to Ferris Bueller.

My friend's Flickr

My friend Luis, who works for the Minister of Public Works, took a picture of me as we were leaving a meeting at the Presidential Palace last week. Then I presume he did some editing, since I don't recall the street looking quite like this: