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.

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.