Away in Spain

Home Again

2006-07-07T20:43:00.000+02:00

Just in case anyone is still checking this, I am back in Seattle again having taken a job with a Seattle based company called Jonova as a consultant.

San Sebastian

2006-03-06T18:22:00.000+01:00

Melissa and I went with some of my classmates to San Sebastian. This is a photo of us at a cidareria where we ate a nice lunch with all you can drink cidar. The food was great although the main course was steak, so Melissa didn't appreciate it much. The cidar was very much an aquired taste, as in after a couple glasses it didn't taste that bad.
Overall, the city of San Sebastian was gorgeous. The have a beautiful protected bay with very nice sandy beaches. There were tons of bars serving great tapas and serving lots of good wine and beer. I highly recommend going, although I might wait until it was a bit warmer.

Mel's Birthday

2006-02-28T18:41:00.000+01:00

Well, it was Melissa's birthday this past Friday. Without the usual friends and family around it was up to me to provide all the entertainment Melissa expects on her day. I cooked, cleaned, provided presents, waited on her hand and foot, bought a cool Spanish cream cake (seen in photo), and even dressed up in Melissa and Heather's birthday tradition. Melissa thoroughly enjoyed herself. Although I think she was a little disappointed with my poor rendition of "Feliz Cumpleaños." Somehow I managed to never learn to sing well.....

Keeping busy

2006-02-12T14:35:00.000+01:00

Well I can tell the weather here is starting to turn towards Spring. Not quite there yet, but I have shed the gloves and hat while keeping the big coat. This is good, because it gives Melissa and I a chance to do more things outside. Still waiting for the real nice weather to come though.

Anyway, life for me is pretty smooth. I am most concerned with the whole job search. So if any of you reading this happen to be looking (or know someone who is) for a supply chain analyst/manager with experience in the high tech industry be sure to give me an email (Especially in or around the Seattle area). Beyond that I have this thesis to write. It is looking pretty good so far. I think I talked at length about it in a past post.

As for life in Europe, Melissa and I are trying to plan a trip up to Amsterdam to visit my sister. We are looking at going in mid-march before tourist season, but after the cold season. We also want to go down to Seville at some point.

Back in Zaragoza

2006-01-30T14:21:00.000+01:00

Well I am back in Zaragoza again, so I decided to end my hiatus of blog entries. Maybe people will even start reading this again.

Anyway to fill everyone in on the past month or so, I spent Christmas in Paris with my parents, sister, and wife. We had a great time, although Paris was a little colder then expected. I especially liked the Louve and crepes with Nutilla. I have some pictures, and will post some here soon. We rented an apartment for the 8 days we were there. It was a couple blocks from Notre Dame and right in the middle of a good shopping and eating district. My dad took us out to an exceptionally nice dinner at Taillevent, probably the best meal I ever had. The most interesting part was the wine parings with each course. We had Sauternes with every course, which I never would have imagined doing myself. Sauternes with a spicy lobster, Sauternes with duck, Sauternes with fromage...

I could go on about Paris, but I'll move on to the next event.

After Paris, I went to Boston for the part of my program at MIT. Melissa got to go back home and visit family and friends. MIT was interesting. It doesn't have the classic college campus you would expect for such a well known university. We did recruiting visits with a couple dozen companies, which was pretty exhausting. It was a bit tough for me, because I really want a job on the west coast. Most of the companies there were recruiting for East Coast, Europe, or Asia. Beyond that we played the most complex computer simulation game I have been involved in. Of course I thoroughly enjoyed that. We still have one more round of the game before I find out if my team won.

Anyway I am back here in Zaragoza.

Valencia

2005-12-13T11:47:00.000+01:00

I had a whole weekend free so Melissa and I thought we would try to explore a bit of Spain. The allure of a bit of warm weather and oranges brought us to Valencia. We had a great time there. It was warm enough to shed our coats for a couple of days and go see some of the things the city has to offer.

I was impressed by the nice beaches there and they had a couple of good museums. Melissa and I really enjoyed ourselves and plan on visiting again soon. Although we will probably go during a warmer month when Melissa can lay on the beach. It was a fairly touristy city. Not as bad as Barcelona, but you could easily get by there speaking only English as every waiter and receptionist spoke good English. Apparently it is a big tourist city with a look of UK tourists.

Finals Over, so I went Bowling

2005-12-08T16:09:00.000+01:00

Finals are over! So I did what any American would do... I went bowling. I was very shocked last week when I found a bowling alley. After informing my classmates we soon made plans to go bowling at the next opportunity, which was the day we finished finals. So after a day with 6 hours of testing we proceeded to go directly to the bowling alley and paid way too much for a couple games of bowling. Melissa overcame her fear of bowling to join us as well (She ended up beating several of my classmates). It was a good way to relax after the finals.

Christmas is rapidly approaching which means I actually get to see my family for a little bit. My sister and parents are coming into town in less then two weeks.

The job search is continuing as well. I have an interview with Accenture, which would be good because I should be able to be in Seattle. Also have a bunch of interviews in January while I am at MIT.

Don't Run into Trees

2005-12-01T16:03:00.000+01:00

A piece of advice, don't play American football on a field with trees in the center. It really hurts when you run into them while running full speed. Of course most people would just avoid the trees....

But as many people who have known me for awhile would know, I do have a tendency to do somewhat clumsy things on occasion. So it is not that suprising that I collided with a tree in the center of a field. I was wide open too...

Don't worry I am not hurt that badly besides my pride. Finished out the game, although I wasn't quite the same after that.

Mel's First Turkey

2005-11-28T13:28:00.000+01:00

So Thanksgiving went pretty well. There was a very good turnout at the event I went to. Melissa made her very first turkey that was enjoyed by all who attended. It turned out really well. There were a bunch of non-Americans there who we explained the history of Thanksgiving to. It is kind of an odd holiday once explained, but it is very true to its roots of being all about the food.

Thanksgiving in Spain

2005-11-25T14:19:00.000+01:00

Well there is no Thanksgiving in Spain, no big surprise there.

Several members of my class have put together a Thanksgiving feast none the less. Although we are doing it on Friday instead of Thursday. We are even playing a little touch football on Saturday.

The interesting part of this is going to pick up the turkey. As Melissa and I have one of the few working ovens among the students, we were selected for cooking one of the three turkeys for the feast. Turkeys are hard to find in Spain, especially ones of a large size like you might find in the states. Anyway I went to pick up the turkey at this pretty random butcher shop near the center of town. My friend who was with me, and who thankfully speaks fluent Spanish, talks to them for a bit and then they bring out the birds...

Its a whole damn turkey with a good amount of feathers still on it. We watch as they cut off the head, neck, feet, pluck some feathers, and debate over which part of the wing to remove. It is a bloody affair conducted with an extremely large butcher knife (roughly the size of sword from my pirate costume).

Melissa is going to try and cook this thing some how. We shall see how it goes...

Quick Photo, in fancy new style

2005-11-21T18:59:00.000+01:00

Eric, and I exploring the courtyard of the castle near Mel and mine apartment. This is the only way to get Eric on film, by having Melissa take sneak shots from behind.

Heading towards Finals

2005-11-21T18:38:00.000+01:00

This semester has flown by, hard to believe I have finals in a couple of weeks. I still am buried under all the work I have, but it is not too bad. Not too much new has happened since I last wrote. Melissa has been working several nights a week now as an English teacher for a couple group of kids and one group of adults. She is not loving the work, but it makes the money situation a lot better for us.

Looking forward to my parents visiting us in less then a month now. I am looking forward to showing them around the city, and having lots of good meals and wine. We are then off to Paris after my classes get out and spending Christmas and New Year's there. After that I fly off to Boston for my month at Cambridge. That will be an interesting month as I should be interviewing a lot as we have a bunch of companies coming to recruit us and our counterparts at MIT proper.

I really need to get better at Spanish..... Melissa's dad is already studying hard so he will be better then me at Spanish by the time he visits in April. I think he is still mad I beat him at Ping Pong...

Busy Busy

2005-11-17T17:38:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Busy time of year in Zaragoza. I found out that Chinese food here is cheaper then going to the grocery store. My friend Eric Kleven was in town for almost a week, and he, Melissa, and I went out to Chinese food close to our apartment. For under thirty euros we had a 7 course meal, a bottle of wine, a bottle of plum wine, sparkling water, still water, and got a calendar. For those that know me and Eric, there was so much food that even we couldn't come close to finishing all the food. Not that is was the best Chinese food I have ever had, but it was good enough that I wanted to keep eating.

Beyond going out to Chinese food it was fun having Eric around for the week. Gave me a chance to get all my business talk out of me for awhile. Now Melissa can go at least a week or two without having to pretend to find my conversation (or is lecture a better word) about various business topics interesting. I think Eric had fun here, we showed him around a bit, drank way too much wine, and watched his collection of films and TV shows that were in English. I hadn't seen TV or a movie in English in almost three months, Melissa and I are now total Scrub addicts.

I'll try to write more for the next couple weeks to make up for this horrible dry spell.

2005-10-31T10:25:00.000+01:00

Melissa and Jon on Halloween.

2005-10-31T10:20:00.000+01:00

The big flower arrangement for Pilar. For the offering of the flowers on the day of Pilar, everyone gives flowers and they make this huge pyramid right in front of Basilica de Pilar.

Nothing Overly Exciting

2005-10-27T21:51:00.000+02:00

Had a mostly boring week sad to say. Did a lot of reading and homework mostly. Melissa signed up for a 5K race in Zaragoza. They give you over an hour to finish the race! Melissa will be seeing people on their first kilometer when she finishes...

My program is going to Barcelona next week to visit the port there and see how incoming shipments from China and other far away places works. Should be interesting and I get to go to Barcelona for the day.

Still trying to work out what I am doing between the 2nd and 7th of January. I have to be at MIT in Boston starting the morning of the 8th. Melissa is going home to Seattle the 4th or so for a month, so I don't know if I should try to work on my thesis or go visit someone.

Speaking of that thesis, right now it looks like I am going to try and model the cost and benefit of improved read ranges in RFID inventory systems. That could still change though.

Pilar Over..

2005-10-17T16:00:00.000+02:00

The nine day festivities of Pilar are finally over. Melissa and I can now sleep through the night without being woken up by a brass band at 3am and then again at 6am....

It was lots of fun, so I shouldn't complain too much.

Mel and I are hosting a wine tasting party/competition for my classmates where people have to tell the difference between a good wine and a box wine. I am going to make it pretty hard...
We did this for our friends back when Melissa lived in Bellevue, and only 1 person out of ten got it right.

Beyond that I am still studying hard, but having time for time.

Pilar Update

2005-10-11T12:44:00.001+02:00

Well Pilar is in full swing here in Zaragoza. I posted a few pictures of things that have happened so far. The strangest thing so far is the parade of the giant heads. Basically, a bunch of people dress up in costume wearing giant heads. All the kids and their parents walk with them in the parade. The Giant Heads then chase the kids around.... and hit them with huge whips!! They hit parents, young kids, and, their favorite to whip, preteens. They never hit too hard, and it is all in fun. Still they whip the children. It looked almost like a running of the children....

Well also went to a big Ocktober Fest. We misunderstood the schedule and showed up over an hour before it started though. So we were the first ones there, and got to take some good photos.

Besides that we have seen some other interesting things, lots of human statutes, parades of drunk people, random concerts, mini fairs of cheese and chorizo, traditional Aragonese singing and dancing, and lots of small parades of brass bands for various drinking clubs (peña) across the city.

I'll write more about it after it is all over.

2005-10-11T12:44:00.000+02:00

Melissa enjoys a very large beer at Ocktoberfest for Pilar.

2005-10-11T12:42:00.000+02:00

The Giant Heads chase the children at a parade for Pilar.

A couple of photos

2005-10-06T16:40:00.000+02:00

I posted a couple of photos below. They deserve a little more explanation.

First the photo of the Indian head. Our apartment has several rather odd decorations, but this one takes the prize for weirdest. For some reason the very nice people who rent us our apartment (and provided the furniture and decor) are really into native Americans, Japanese culture, clowns, and various nick-nacks from family events. I personally would remove such items from an apartment I was renting....

The photo from the patio is looking northeast. You can't see much, but a sea of rooftops and antennas and the street below. It looks nice at night, which is great since we love hanging out on our patio.

I went to the grand opening of Plaza yesterday. Plaza is the giant logistic park that my school is associated with. Find out more here: http://www.plazadosmil.com/

They threw a pretty good party for it. Lots of good food and lots of wine and beer. In the US I can not imagine so many professionals drinking midday on a Wednesday.

2005-10-06T16:39:00.001+02:00

The view from our big patio.

2005-10-06T16:39:00.000+02:00

The lovely decorations that adorn our walls.

Pilar plans

2005-10-03T15:35:00.000+02:00

Pilar is approaching fast for me. This is the big festival in Zaragoza every year. Most people get three days off for it, and it is suppose to be one big crazy party for an entire week. It starts this Friday, so I will take lots of pictures and have some good stories from that, hopefully.

The weather here has taken a sudden turn for the colder. It is not that the air temperature is that cold, it is still around 20 degrees C, but the wind is now blowing a very constant 10-15 mph. This makes it feel quite cold, I imagine it will get even more so as the air temperature slowly drops.

I will post some pictures, and stories about Melissa and mine very interestingly decorated apartment later this week.

Dog shows and markets

2005-09-26T10:43:00.000+02:00

Had another good weekend in Zaragoza. Melissa and I went to the very big open area market down by the soccer stadium. An amazing array of goods are sold there at very cheap prices. Imagine Pike Place Market, but every place selling either discontinued or fake brand clothes. They only have it on Sundays and Wednesdays though.

We also went to a dog show (Melissa's idea). A bit interesting to see the differences between shows in the US and here. Much less formal here, and a couple of very different breeds. Everyone wore jeans to show their dogs instead of skirts and slacks as in the US. We saw a very interesting version of a mastiff. Looked like a cross between a Mastiff and a Saint Bernard. Probably weighed close to 200 pounds....

The Haircut

2005-09-23T17:58:00.000+02:00

Another week, another adventure. This week's adventure: trying to get your haircut when you don't speak the language of the person cutting your hair. Let's just say it didn't go as planned. Before people probably could have picked me out as American from 20-30 meters. Now they will think I am in the Marine core from about 100....

It will grow out before my first interview.
It will grow out before my first interview.

Went to another soccer game (pre-haircut). As great as last time. One of the guys I went with took some photos, and I'll try to post some.

2005-09-19T10:27:00.000+02:00

The bull ring in Zaragoza. We are near the end of bull fighting season, but I don't think Melissa and I will be going to any bull fights. There are quite a few bull fights in Zaragoza.

2005-09-19T10:24:00.000+02:00

Melissa took this photo from a park in the southern part of Zaragoza looking back towards the city.

Leadership and future fun

2005-09-17T12:43:00.000+02:00

Spent all of Friday in a seminar taking several different personality tests. Apparently I don't like it when other people attempt to tell me what to do......

Anyway, Melissa and I are thinking of heading up to Rioja next weekend for the Rioja Wine Harvest Festival. People might have heard of it before, it is the big festival where everyone crushes the grapes with their feet. Suppose to be a good time, and is only a couple hour bus ride away for us. Don't know how long we can stay though, and still have to get a hotel room for the night. Hopefully it will all come through.

The first signs of Pilar are starting to appear in Zaragoza. Melissa and I are so curious to see how big of a party this will be. Friday and Saturday nights on Plaza de Pilar are already crazy enough.

Quickie

2005-09-15T09:48:00.000+02:00

Intense week of class this week. Have more hours of class then I did of work! That is not how this is suppose to work. Been having more dealings with the Spanish government, so of course it is slow going. I have to register with the police in order to be able to stay for more then 90 days. So I registered, and now they have had my passport for a week..... The problem with that being you have to show your ID to use any credit card.

Melissa has been going around and taking lots of photos. I'll try to get her to post them sometime.

Another Week

2005-09-12T11:04:00.000+02:00

Last week was very good to me. Melissa got into town finally. I saw my first European football match in person. Had another good week of classes, and saw a really cool castle.

A little more detail on those. Melissa got in on Tuesday, she had two ridiculously heavy bags, but luckily the apartment is only 5 blocks or so away from the bus station. It took her most of the week to adjust to Spanish time. By Spanish time I mean not just the 9 hour time difference between Seattle and here, but also the completely different schedule people have here. Eight in the morning is like six in the morning in Seattle. Dinner is had at 10 at night, and you can do business until then. Although nothing gets done between 2 and 4. It is considered the afternoon until 8pm. Basically whenever you are hungry nothing is open....

Went to the big Valencia versus Real Zaragoza football match last night. It was great. The home fans were singing a good portion of the time, and Zaragoza played very well, Valencia got a break away goal in the 85th minute to make it a 2-2 draw. I bought a Real Zaragoza jersey before the match, but apparently a bought the wrong one somehow, since nobody else at the stadium was wearing the same one as me.

Classes are still going well, have started on some good group projects. Hard to explain but much easier then explaining what I did at Virage.

Pictures of Melissa and my trip to the castle are below, it was a very interesting place both in terms of architecture and history. I also showed her Pilar. We both can't wait for the big Pilar festival in early October.

I'll try to write again soon. Feel free to leave comments, especially family and friends.

-Jon

2005-09-10T12:50:00.000+02:00

The inside courtyard of the palace. The highly geometric structures are very typical of Moorish architecture. It is amazing the constant level of detail throughout the palace, although of course much has faded over the nearly 1000 years since it was built.

2005-09-10T12:48:00.000+02:00

Aljaferia Palace in Zaragoza, the traditional seat of power in Aragon. The regional government actually still meets here. Originally built by the Moors in about 1050. The original castle was added to by various rulers over the ages.

2005-09-10T12:43:00.000+02:00

The fountain near Pilar. As you can see my fashion sense has not improved since leaving Seattle.

2005-09-10T12:41:00.000+02:00

The Piliar Basilica In Zaragoza, the biggest landmark in Zaragoza. It's huge, and the plaza around it is one of the main hangouts in the city. They light it up at night, I'll try to get some photos of that later.

First Week

2005-09-03T19:51:00.000+02:00

So I have been here a week now, so I thought I should add to this again. I have found and moved into an apartment that is only a ten minute walk from my school. It is a two bedroom apartment so I have an extra bed if anyone decides to visit. It is a bit old, but it has this nice patio that looks out over the city.

Melissa gets here on Tuesday, I have found some Spanish classes for her to take, although I don't know when she wants to start them up.

I got a chance to tour around the city a bit. The city center is just gorgeous, especially at night. The basilica pilar, the big church in Zaragoza, has a huge plaza in front of it with a interesting waterfall and the river flowing behind it and they light it all up at night.

I will try to post some pictures soon.

FINALLY!!!

2005-08-25T09:33:00.000+02:00

So I got word today that my visa has been approved and I now get to leave for Spain on Saturday, exactly 2 weeks after I was suppose to leave....

Of course this give me all of one day to get adjusted to life in a new apartment, city, and country. Oh well, I don't think too many people wold feel sorry for me.

Why I hate bureaucracy

2005-08-16T04:27:00.000+02:00

So I am still in Seattle.... This really sucks. Apparently there was some slow down with my student visa and I am forced to wait until they get it taken care of until I can go to Spain. Hopefully I will get out of here some time this week. I will keep people updated.

First post

2005-08-03T19:19:00.000+02:00

Less than two weeks until I leave for Spain. Getting some last minute things taken care of before I depart. Still waiting for the visa to arrive in the mail. It should be here any day now. Packing needs to start happening, but I know I will probably just hastely throw things in my bags on Friday night before I leave.