Akaroa

El pasado sábado, aprovechando que hacía un tiempo esplédido, nos fuimos a pasar el día a Akaroa, un pequeño pueblecito costero próximo a Christchurch. Para llegad hasta allí dicidimos alquilar un coche.... baratísimo!! Por 25euros nos alquilaron un cochecito estupendo. Automático, menos mal, ideal para mi primera experiencia conduciendo por el lado contrario!!

Aqui os dejo unas fotos

Arthur's pass

El domingo nos fuimos de excursión por Arthur´s pass, uno de los puertos de montaña que cruzan los Alpes neozelandeses. Allí visitamos loas Castle rock, unas rocas enormes que aparecen por sorpresa en medio del valle. También anduvimos hasta una de las cataratas que se pueden ver por la zona: Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall.

Continuamos el viaje hasta la costa oeste, para luego regresar por otro de los puertos de montaña más al sur: Lewis pass.

Aqui os dejo unas fotos

National Air and Space Museum

Today was kind of cultural day since I went to visit one of the Smithsonian museums. Most of them are located together so in theory one could spend an entire day seeing things. However after finishing the Air and Space Museum I got too tired to go to any other. And this one was quite small compared to the Museum of Natural History which I plan to visit next week. Anyway I still have to visit the second facility were most of the good things are exposed ..like the space shuttle and the SR 71 ...but that is far way, next to Dulles airport and I will need a car to go there. A good thing is that all of them are free not like in Europe where you have to pay to enter almost everywhere.

More of the same

...yes today was snowing...... again ...another 25-30 cm of snow. So as you guess by now ...no transport --> no school since last Thursday. Apparently the entire week UMD will be closed. Tomorrow we will have one week of in-door life. Is getting a little bit boring although it was good for my PhD since I have finished a lot of work these days. The problem is that soon I will not have anything left to work on at home and it will really get boring.

For photos just look again the ones from the anterior post ...nothing`s changed except the height of the snow.

The real snow day !!!!

Now we talk about snow day. In one day we had 60-70 cm of snowfall....the highest since 1922...so everything is closed although the roads are quite Ok. They have worked hard and clean most of them (at least in my neighborhood). It seems that a lot of houses do not have electricity and the city hall doesn`t know what to do with the snow so they are dumping it in the Potomac River.
So like good citizens we woke up and clear the snow in front of our house...and of course dig out the cars. It was not that hard and after 2 hours we finished more or less. Then we went to the 7 eleven to have a coffee and check what the others are doing.

So I leave you with some photos ..... and I thought it will be spring here already :(

Snow day

Today I learned (the hard way) what is a snow day:
I woke up around 6 AM (still did not get use with the local time)and at 8.25 I went to take the UMD bus.... which did not arrive. So I took the regular bus (after waiting more tan 40 minutes) to arrive at UMD at around 9.15 Of course everything was closed and since I did not have a key I had to wait until 10.00. And all of these because of the "snow day". So what is a snow day ...well apparently each time the meteo forecast predicts a certain quantity of snowfall they close the schools/UNI or they open it late ..at 10.00 AM instead of 8.30. But what I learned is that is the same in autumn with rainfall and in summer with the heat... so they barely work around here:)

At 10 I went to the orientation course were we got 2 hours of "how to do this ....how to do that ...bla bla . So I finally started working at 12.00 ...after being awake since 6 !!!! Very eficient !

The good part is that I got a provisional card so I can enter the lab without bothering other people. Hopefully tomorrow I will get my student card ...

First days in DC

After a relatively short flight (3 movies a lunch and a "merienda") I arrived in DC were it was snowing like hell. Of course Air France did not manage to change my luggage from a plain to the next one in Paris. Csilla waited for me at the airport and we went slowly slowly to her flat because the road was full of snow. Then we went to my new home in College Park were I met my house mates.

On Sunday after receiving my luggage I took the metro to DC and we spent couple of hours site seeing ...the White House, Capitol, The Smithsonian (we did not see Bones)and the Washington Monument (enjoy the 'white' pictures below). Then I went back home.....which is quite far .... it took me almost 1 hour.
The first impression was good and DC seems a nice place ...if you live in the center. Of course if you live far away then you need a car....and this is more evident in College Park were the University of Maryland is located. You need a car even to buy bread. Thanks God my flat mates have all cars so I can go shopping with them.

Today was my first day at UMD. I met my boss and my new colleagues (....most of them girls and pregnant or with small children). We discussed a little about what I am going to do and then I started doing my things because we do not have yet the SAR images I have to process. Next week I will receive the brand new PC they have ordered so I could work properly :) ....I feel very important :)