Monday, April 26, 2010

I am world famous :)

Today I woke up, checked my e-mail and got not one but two good news.The first one is that my second article was accepted, which was good but not surprising. After all I`ve made all the corrections they have asked for. So, I need just one more published article to finish my PhD.

But the second e-mail was even better. I have been awarded a prize for the article I sent at IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)last year !!!!!!!!!!!!

"The GRS-S established the Interactive Session Prize Paper Award to recognize the author(s) who posted at the GRS-S Symposium (IGARSS) an exceptional paper in terms of content and impact on the GRS-S. In selecting the paper, other factors considered are originality, clarity and timeliness of the paper...... "

From all ~1800 papers 2 were selected for the SPPA and ISPPA awards and..... one of them was mine :)). At the end somebody is reading what I am doing and think is good. So I will have to go to receive my award at IGARSS this year which is in.........Hawaii...


I Can Do Science Me

Saturday, April 17, 2010

El pais de las ovejas

Nueva Zelanda,

un país de 266.940 km2 (aproximandamente la mitad que España), con 4 millones de habitantes y 40 millones de ovejas. Dividida en dos grandes islas, la mayoría de la población se concentra en la isla norte, mientras que la isla sur, donde he estado viviendo durante tres meses está practicamente despoblada, siendo Christchurch la ciudad con mayor número de habitantes (300.000).

Sorprendente es la amabilidad de los neozelandejes, jamás vi cosa igual. Siempre dispuestos a ayudar, nunca te dan una mala respuesta ni hacen un mal gesto. Cordiales y educados sin excepción. Recuerdo una vez, que nos compramos un helado y al ir a pagar la terjeta falló y no teníamos dinero suelto. Y cuando me preparaba para devolver mi helado, la chica dijo: "no, no, quedátelo". Y así, sin motivo alguno, nos invitó.

Se rigen por lo que llaman " política de honestidad", que consite en fiarse a ciegas de la honestidad del prójimo. Así, en la cafetería podías encontrar una bandeja llena de galletas, barritas de cereales, carametlos etc y junto a ellos, una bolsita donde se depositaba el dólar que te costaba la barrita. Y, por si en ese momento no llevaras direno suelo, también había un papel donde te puntabas, confirmando que lo pagarías más tarde.
Esta "política de honestidad" aparecía también se aplicaba en las zonas de acampada, donde nadie te controlaba cuando entrabas o salías. Tan solo habia una cajita donde dejabas la pasta que costaba. O cuando te alquilaban un barquito, y el tio, sin mayor problema y sin haberte pedido ni un sólo dato te daba las llaves del barco y te decía:"ya hacemos el pago cuando volvais".... Increible, vamos.

Aunque la mayoría son de origen inglés o maorí, la población asiática cada vez es mayor. Asi las calles están pagas de restaurantes de comida asiatica-tailandesa, vietnamita,china, koreana, japonesa- para llevar. Super buena y baratísima!!! Asi que a estas alturas manejo los palillos con una soltura...

Algo alarmante, desde mi punto de vista, en el gran número de madres jóvenes (menores de 18) y solteras. Al parecer el gobierno les da todo tipo de facilidades:
un subsidio de 1000€ al mes, ayudas para el transporte, educación gratuita para la madre y el niño, institutos de bachillerato con horarios especiales, y servicio de niñeras grauito. Total, que alklí a tonta es la queno se queda preñada. Muchas toman esta alternativa como una via para salir de casa de sus padres, y muchas de ellas también como medio para subsistir, de modo que te encuentras chavalas de 25 años que han tenido ya 3 niños, cada uno con un tio distinto, y viven de ello.

Parece como si el gobierno, de alguna manera, fomentara este comportamiento. Será que ven cómo la inmigración asiática les desborda, e intentan recuperar la mayoría poblacional a costa de una generación de niños sin padre.

Nueva Zelanda se encuentra situada entre dos placas tectónicas que se mueven constantemente, generando miles de temblores queno percibimos y algú que otro terremoto de mayor importancia. Por eso, allí no hay edificios altos y poca gente vive en un piso. Allí todos tienen una casita de una planta y de madera (si en algún momento se te cae la casa encima, mejor que sea madera que ladrillos, no?), con su jardincito detrás. Asi, cuando llegas a casa despues del trabajo, te sientas un ratito en el jardín y de pronto, es como si estuvieras de vacaciones. Claro, este tipo de edificaciones hace que la ciudad se extienda enormemente y que neceites un coche para desplazarte. Pero como son tan pocos, tampoco hay atascos.
Asi que en general, es un gran sitio para vivir. El único problema es lo lejísimos que está... pero quizás ese el motivo de que sea un sitio tan especial.







New Zealand

a country of 266,940 km2 (half Spain), with 4 millions inhabitants and 40 million sheeps. Divided into two large islands, most of the population is concentrated in the North Island, while the South Island, where I lived for three months is almost deserted, with Christchurch, the main city, having 300,000 inhabitants.

Surprising is the friendliness of the newzelanders (also called kiwis), I never saw anything like it. Always willing to help, never give a bad answer or make a bad gesture. Kind and polite without exception. I remember once, we bought an ice cream and when we were going to pay the credit card failed and we had no more cash. So when I was about to return my ice cream, the girl said "no, no, keep it." And so, she invited us. Amazing.

They are ruled by what they call "honesty policy" that consists in blindly trust the honesty of others. Thus, in the cafeteria you could find a tray of cookies, granola bars, sweets etc and beside them a bag where you leave the money that the sweet costed. And if at that time you happened to have no cash there was also a piece of paper where you would write your name stating that you would pay later.
This "honesty policy" was also applied in the camping areas, where no one controlled who entered or left. There was just had a box where you would leave the money. Or when renting a boat, the guy, without even asking for our names, gave us the keys of the boat and said: "Ok, you will pay when you come back ".... Incredible.

Although most kiwis have English or Maori origin , the Asian population is increasing. So the streets are full of Asian restaurants, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese. Super good and very cheap!

Somewhat alarming, from my point of view, is the large number of young (under 18) single mothers. Apparently the government gives them a lot of facilities: a salary of 1,000 € per month, transport aid, free education for the mother and child, high schools with special schedules and babysitters free. Total, every teenager wants to get pregnant!!. And mano of them do as a way of being independent from their parents, and many of them also as a means to survive. So it´s easy to find a 25years old girl with two or three kids born from different fathers.

It seems as if the government somehow, encouraged this behaviour, maybe as a way of fighting the increasing asian immigration, at the expenses of a generation of fatherless children.

New Zealand is located between two tectonic plates constantly moving, generating thousands of tremors and some major earthquakes. Therefore, there are not tall buildings and few people live in a flat. They all have a wooden one storey house (if at any time you hous falls on you, wood is better than bricks, isn´t it?), with a backyard. So, when you get home after work, sit a while in the garden and suddenly, it's like you're on vacation.
So in general, is a great place to live. The only problem is that it os so far way... but maybe that is why it is such an special place.

Monday, April 12, 2010

New Zealand holidays

So ...we have just finished our holidays on these remote islands. The first impressions: a country roughly the size of Romania with 5 times less people which results in huge areas without anything else but sheep and/or cow farms. The villages scattered around the country are mostly formed by a couple of houses and most of the towns are quite small (couple of hundred to couple of thousand people). We just visited the south island but I suppose the northern one should be similar. We drove around the island starting from Christchurch (were Cris did her 3 months internship)towards south in the Catlins, then heading north on the west coast passing trough Te Anau - Milford, Queenstown, and back south visiting the Abel National Park and Marlborough region. Before reaching Christchurch we stopped in Kaikoura for a meeting with the whales and dolphins. Around 3200 km on the wrong side of the road (left side) sleeping in our campervan Lollie. All in all it was a nice trip despite of the weather issues (rain) on the west coast. Although we did not see anything spectacular (like the Perito Moreno glacier and Iguazu falls in Argentina or the Kilauea active volcano in Hawaii) the whole south island was nice starting with the native rain-forests, the beaches,the mountains and finishing with the incredible reach marine wildlife (we saw penguins and seals almost everywhere). Also the people were nice and helpful. We did not need to confirm and re-confirm everything twice like in Argentina. Actually, last day we went for some ice-cream and wanted to pay with the credit card...for some reason they were accepting only the local cards (at the end it was a small shop) and we did not have enough cash to pay for both so they just charged us one ice cream instead of two.

All in all it was a nice holidays. One day we have to go back to see the famous Milford sound on a clear day and to visit the north island as well.



P.S. Cris promised to post a more detailed version of the trip ....let`s see when :)