More Audiobooks: Arthur C. Clarke

Now I am listening to some short stories by Arthur C. Clarke, read by the author. I have never read anything by him before, and I am impressed! I usually don't like Science Fiction, because I think it is too contrived, specially the pseudo-scientific explanations on how future technology works, and the way some stories try to explain paranormal events with made-up science (think of the microorganisms inside people that generate the "Force" in "Star Wars: Episode I"). In Clarke's tales, at least so far, no attempt is made in either way: he doesn't make up explanations for technology and phenomena that he couldn't possible explain, nor does he attempt to frame paranormal events in made-up science, he prefers to leave them in the realm of mysticism. In fact, that's what I like the most so far in his short stories - there is a pervasive mystical aspect to them, be in the Tibetan Monks that try to rush the Apocalypse by using a computer to "calculate" all true names of God, or in the Super-Computer that creates a new Universe ("Let There Be Light!") while trying to calculate the answer to the Big Bang, just as our Universe dies "of entropy". So although science and mysticism are featured in his stories, they are kept separated, each playing its part in grand scheme of things.

Edit (March 1st, 2006) - I had previously attributed these stories to Isaac Asimov, due to some unexplained brain fart. Now I give credit to the correct author.

NYC

 Ines came to meet me here in New York and we went to spend the Saturday in the City. First stop was the Empire State building. The day was windy with perfectly clear skies, and afforded spectacular views of the City. Unfortunately, it also meant that it was extremely cold, specially up on the Empire State, so it was hard to just stand around and enjoy the views. But we managed. Afterwards, we went to see the skating ring at the Rockefeller Center, then had lunch on Chinatown at a little, very packed place called New Wonton (tip: don't get the soups with noodles, it's a waste when the wontons are so good). Later we went to the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art), where we discovered, for the first time, reasonable prices for cultural attractions/events in the US - $10 for students. Plus, they are recommended fees, so if we wanted, we could have paid less (no, I paid full price!). We were in the Met only a little over one hour, and didn't see much. But I did see the Egyptian collection, which was cool, and the installation for the Temple of Dendur (see picture in Photo Album), which was awesome! They reconstructed this little Egyptian temple in a large, beautiful room, with Egyptian ornaments spread around in a sensible manner. It was very impressive. 

Podcasts, Audiobooks and "Coraline"

After the recent discovery of GOOD podcasts, I have fallen in love all over again with my iPod. I had played with them before a few months back, right before Apple introduced them to its music store, but they were only mildly amusing and not worth the trouble. A few weeks back, though, I listened on my iPod to a lecture series on Poetry given by Jorge Luis Borges at Harvard, and it left me hungering for more. I wanted more philosophy, more literature, more history. It is hard these days to have the time to sit down and enjoy a good short story or magazine article. I used to devour them, but these days I only make time for headlines and short newspaper articles. No more philosophy, anthropology, archeology, or all these things that I also enjoy reading about. Thus I set out to find other audiobooks like the Borges lectures.

My first find was the Stanford iTunes sites, where I discovered the podcast of the "Philosophy Talk", the radio show that "questions everything, except your intelligence" (they are good with slogans - on their website: "cogito, ergo blog"). Although they are short and usually superficial, they have provided a good Philosophy fix for me. I later found the Nature podcast, produced by the journal, and with excellent content about all the other science - biology, geology, astronomy, even some anthropology and paleontology. It is definitely my favorite thus far. I will look for more like it when I have more time.

I am also having a good time listening to my Audiobooks, which have make the 3 hours commute to the Nevis Lab in NY a very pleasant trip.

I am currently "reading" Coraline (not a misspelling), by Neil Gaiman (the author of "American Gods" and "Sandman"), and it is a surprisingly good book. Surprising because its subtitle is "A Fairy Tale", and it seems to be children's book. The problem is, I still don't know if this is children's book or not. On one hand, the story is centered around the adventures of a little girl, and told in a manner that would appeal to little girls. This is specially effective in the audio version, because the author narrates the book as if he was reading a bedtime story to hildren, including silly names and funny noises. On the other hand, Neil Gaiman uses the exact same style present in his Sandman comics, a twisted yet easy plot, with obscure yet rich and vaguely familiar mythology, and a subtle horror or nightmare hidden in childish things. This is a very "Neil Gaiman" book, with a feel much closer to Sandman than American Gods. To me it shows the skill that Neil Gaiman has of creating stories that aren't simply about magical things, but told from a magical point of view - in this case, from a little girl's point of view.

But if you plan to start listening to Audiobooks, or would just like to read some Neil Gaiman, I highly recommend "Anansi Boys". It is the story of the sons of Anansi, an African God that emigrated to the United States, and that has just died. It is a very funny book, and a departure from the usual Neil Gaiman style. It reads a little like a Douglas Adams novel, although it is about magic and mythology rather than science fiction.

Brownzilian's Carnaval, 2006

Last night was the Brownzilians' Carnival Party. It was early for Carnival (not until the end of February), but better early than never. The party was at the Graduate Student Lounge at Brown, organized by Daniel, Yeung and Sérgio (new Brownzilian, he is a Professor at Brown). There wasn't enough people to fill the room but there were definitely enough people for a fun party. Surprisingly, there were more Americans (at least non-Brazilians) than Brazilians. Strong Portuguese presence, most notably Catarina, a new Portuguese Grad student, with whom I danced since Ines was hiding in a conversation about String Theory and Portuguese Poetry most of the night.

The excellent music was provided by none other than me. I connected my laptop to the lounge's gigantic TV and stereo. I started and maximized iTunes, connected an external mouse and hid the laptop, so people couldn't spill beer on it. The idea was to have an interface to let people select songs during the party - you just used the mouse to select the song you wanted played next on the TV, and the music was routed to the stereo system, which was very loud. The whole system was pretty cool, too bad I didn't think of taking a picture of it. And needless to say, I had a great selection of songs to satisfy to everyone's tastes, from Samba to Salsa!

Click on the picture above or here for the pictures. (Pictures taken by Artur)

Chinese New Year, 2006

Ines and I went to Boston for Dim Sum this past Sunday, and we had a very pleasant surprise - apparently The Chinese New Year's celebration in Chinatown was this weekend!
We first saw that the streets in Chinatown were blocked, and littered with lettuce and vegetables (like what you see after some farmer's market). On the way to the restaurant saw several groups of people dressed in martial arts clothes, carrying weapons like swords and spears (I don't know if they were real), and flags. While eating, a group came in, and they had a Chinese Dragon that walked and danced between the tables. That's when we realized that this must be the Chinese New Year.
The best was when we left the restaurant, and were stopped by a group of people that started blocking the street with their staffs and opening a large circle. The a Couple of Chinese Dragons come in and start dancing, while some people play the drums in the back of small truck. After a little while, an "altar" made of boxes was set up in front of a grocery store, and the grocer brought out some fruit and lettuce, then a bucket with live lobsters, and another with live fish. The Dragons then made a show of accepting the "sacrifices" and eating them, to the intensifying sound of drums. The person at the head would stick out a hand and pick up the vegetables, smashing them and tossing them all over, and then pick up the lobster and fish and wave them as if the dragon was shaking them with their mouths. It was neat. But then the grocer started throwing fireworks, small clusters of little bombs, that would jump and blow up all over the place - this lasted some 5 min, and was not that neat. After watching this, we went to some Chinese stores, where we bought a ton of frozen Dim Sum and a sugar cane, which we just ate last night.
The whole day was pretty cool! 

Portugal, 2005 [English]

This is a little summary of my recent trip to Portugal with Ines. This should help English speakers understand the Portugal Photo Album. Note that it has ~50 pictures, and the legends are all in Portuguese. Click here for the larger album (>100 pictures).

To me the best thing about the trip was seeing all the Old World stuff: the Metropolis of the Portuguese empire, the medieval castles, the fortress-like churches, the Gothic monasteries, the entire country rich with old history.

The trip lasted about 3 weeks, and we visited the following places:

- Lisboa (Lisbon): The capital of Portugal. Ines has an apartment in the city, so we spent a lot of time there. The city is relatively new (as compared to the rest of the country), because an earthquake in 1755 destroyed the city and most of it had to be rebuilt afterwards (it is considered the "most disastrous" earthquake in history). The city was decorated for christmas, and that was very pretty, especially in the hiscoric downtown ("Baixa"). The city itself had its ups and downs: it was an even mix of a old buildings and streets (a couple of centuries old) with modern third-world buildings (the kind you see in any third-world large city these days). Lisbon is famed for its nightlive (featured recently on the NYTimes), but we only went out once while there (and it was cool, just like the Times said). One of my personal highlights of Lisbon is the district of Belém, where some impressive architeture is found in the "Torre de Belém" (a tower) and the "Mosteiro dos Jerônimos" (a monastery). These building are made in the Manueline style, from the 16th century, which is a evolution of the Gothic celebrating the Discoveries. Food Highlight: Rabbit (delicious, in the mall!) and fish (Tamboril - some ugly fish, don't ask). The food is otherwise average, leaning to homemade brazilian food, nothing spetacular.

- Setúbal: Portugal's third largest city, where Ines mother lives. The downtown was very pretty, narrow cobbled streets filled with nice old buildings which happened to house modern stores. It also had a couple of mediavel fortresses nearby: the Castle of Sao Filipe and the Palmela Castle, which were pretty cool. Setúbal is a fish city - people come all the way from Lisbon just to eat fish there. I thought the grilled fish was average (the Tamboril in Lisbon was much better), but I am told this is because it is not the right season.Food Highlight: Squid with Ink (the squid is fried with the ink! your mouth gets all black).

- Évora: where Ines's father lives, and where we spent Christmas Eve and New Year's. It is in the South, in the countryside. Évora is a town inside large, imposing medieval walls, while inside there is a labyrinth of narrow cobbled streets. There we also saw Diana's Temple (a Roman Temple) and the "Capela dos Ossos", a church of human bones and skulls. Nearby there are some pre-historic sites: a circle of stones, a dolmen, and more, all dating to about 5000-6000 B.C. Food highlight: the Meat Fondue at New Year's, with several sauces for dipping - really tasty! Also, the enormous variety of sweets at Christmas, although I only really liked the Farofias (egg whites cooked on milk, with sauce) that I made.

- Coimbra: Famous for its University, one of the oldest in Europe. We went to Cantanhede, a suburb of Coimbra, for Christmas Day with the family of Ines's mother. In the end, we didn't really have time to see Coimbra, we just had a peek at the University and at Downtown (seemed pretty, though). Food highlight: roasted piglet (not sure that's the right word). It is the specialty of the region - there is a long street lined with dozens of restaurants specialized on it.

- Porto: In the North of Portugal, it is a really beautiful city. The city has a very old feel to it. The area around downtown has a lot of old, large buildings, with interesting arquiteture. It is common to see churches covered in blue Portuguese tiles. The area next to the River Douro is full of restaurants and bars, and it is the nightlife center of the town. The area is called "Ribeira" and it is very cool. Right accross the river are the Wine cellars. I did not try any of the wine (don't really like it), and didn't even visit the Wine cellars, due to lack of time. The city is very hilly and there are plenty of fantastic views. I joked with Ines that only after seeing Porto I discoverer how beautiful Portugal really is. She is from Lisbon, she didn't like that at all. Food highlight: none. I guess Lisbon is still better for some things... :)

- Batalha: The "Mosteiro da Batalha", a gigantic Monastery in the middle of nowhere. It is an impressive building, built in the Gothic-Manueline style, overflowing with detailed decorations.

- Sintra: A village near Lisbon, in a region full of hills. There is a palace in the village, but is ugly outside and boring inside. The village itself is very charming, with small, steep, cobbled streets. The hills around are full of Gothic houses and mansions around. There is an awesome view of the village, forest and houses around from the "Castelo dos Mouros" (Muslim Castle), perched right above the village. The castle itself is cool; it was conquered by the Portuguese in the 12th Century.

And that's it. It was a great trip! :)

Portugal, 2005 - Fotos/Pictures

Eu coloquei 2 álbuns com fotos da viagem pra Portugal na página de fotos (Photo Album): um pequeno (~50 fotos) e um grande (>100 fotos). O álbum pequeno contém as melhores fotos - o melhor de Portugal. Todas as fotos do álbum pequeno estão incluídas no grande.

I have posted 2 albums with pictures from the Portugal trip in my Photo Album Page: a small (~50 pictures) and a large (>100 pictures). The small album is a quick selection of the best pictures. All pictures from the small album are included in the large one

Portugal, 2005 - Part 3: Ano Novo, Sintra e Volta para os EUA

Depois do Natal fomos para Évora para o Ano Novo na casa do pai da Ines. A comida foi boa - Fondue de carne, com vários tipos de molho. Só foi um pouco desanimado - faltou barulho, bagunça e animação na meia-noite. Só para terem uma idéia, eu fui o único que fez contagem regressiva para a meia noite - os outros estavam enrolados tentando descobir qual relógio/canal tinha a hora certa.
O único passeio que fizemos depois foi ir para Sintra, uma vila perto de Lisboa que é o centro Romântico de Portugal - quer dizer, do estilo Romântico. O Castelo dos Mouros, um castelo medieval de origem moura conquistado pelos Portugueses no Século XII, foi muito legal.
Depois disso, relaxamos em Lisboa, e voltamos para Providence.
Eu coloquei todas as fotos num único álbum - clique na foto ao lado para vê-lo. 

Portugal, 2005 - Part 2: Natal, Porto e o Estilo Manuelino

O Natal foi dividido: o dia 24 nós passamos com o pai da Ines, em Évora (no Sul de Portugal), e o dia 25 nós passamos em Coimbra (no Norte de Portugal). Logo depois nós fomos mais um pouco ao Norte e vimos o Porto, que na minha opnião é a cidade mais bonita de Portugal. As fotos foram adicionadas ao Álbum - clique na foto ao lado para vê-lo.

Évora é uma cidade dentro de muralhas - muralhas antigas, tipo forte/castelo, construída para proteção da cidade no Século XIV. Por causa do confinamento, as ruas são estreitas e parecem um labirinto - é muito legal. A cidade fica na região do Alentejo, no Sul de Portugal, uma região pobre e mal desenvolvida, considerada o "interior" (quer dizer, onde o povo é caipira). Para se ter uma idéia do que pensam da região, dizem que as piadas que os brasileiros fazem sobre Portugueses, os Portugueses fazem com Alentejanos. É uma região de oliveiras (de onde vêm as azeitonas) e sombreiros (de onde vêm as cortiças).

O dia 24 foi na casa do pai da Ines. O mais interessante foi a quandidade e variedade de dôces para sobremesa (vejam as fotos). Eu fiz um deles, as Farófias (claras de ovos cozidas no leite, com cobertura), que ficaram ótimas!

O dia 25 foi em Castanheda, pertinho de Coimbra, com a família da mãe da Inês. Tentamos ir a Coimbra no dia 26, mas não tivemos tempo lá porque o almoço tomou a tarde inteira. O almoço foi leitão assado, a especialidade da região - tem uma rua com dezenas de restaurantes oferecendo leitão assado.

Depois de Coimbra fomos ao Porto - cidade lindíssima. Os prédios são antigos, grandes, e com arquitetura imponente. É comum ver igrejas cobertas de Azuleijos azuis. Eu achei a cidade muito mais bonita do que Lisboa, mas não posso mais dizer isto porque a Ines já me ameaçou me mandar de volta! (Ela é Lisboeta)

Na volta do Porto para Lisboa, paramos para ver o Mosteiro da Batalha, um mosteiro/palácio gigante e extravagante construído no meio do nada no Século XIV, para celebrar a vitória dos Portugueses contra os Espanhóis em 1385. O Mosteiro é incrível, ricamente trabalhado, o supersumo do estilo Gótico em Portugal, com detalhes em estilo Manuelino adicionados no Século XV e XVI. Vale a pena ver.

Uma coisa legal destas viagens: de vez em quando, eu vou dirigindo, olhando pra estrada, e de repente, a gente vê um castelo - bem ali, na beira da estrada! Um castelo medieval! Como se não fosse nada demais.

Sobre o Estilo Manuelino: Foi um estilo arquitetônico desenvolvido durante o reinado de Dom Manuel I (reinado: 1495-1521), uma evolução Portuguesa do Gótico, com leve influência Mouriscas. O estilo é um retrato do período de expansão colonialista que o Império português conhece no século XV, e inclui motivos marítimos, que ornamentam as construções: cordas entrançadas, cabos, âncoras e corais. Eu diria que sua maior característica é a riquesa de detalhes na ornamentação de elementos menores da arquitetura (arcos, janelas, portas), enquanto que as paredes são nuas e a desenho geral dos prédios são Góticos.

Um dos arquitetos do estilo Manuelino foi Diogo de Boitac, que iniciou sua carreira criando o Convento de Jesus em Setúbal (que só vi de fora), mas ficou famoso pelo seu trabalho no Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, onde foi o primeiro arquiteto, e no Mosteiro da Batalha.

Íamos pra Espanha, mas não acho que vai dar tempo. Depois digo mais. 

Portugal, 2005

Estou em Portugal! Eu vim pro Portugal passar o Natal e fim-de-ano com a Ines. Clique na foto ao lado para ver as fotos (legendas em português).
Destaques:
- Lisboa: Está toda enfeitada pra natal. O centro histórico está muito bonito: há luzes nas árvores e penduradas sobre as ruas.
- Azuleijos: A cidade se parece um pouco com São Luís - só que muito maior. Aliás, para se ter noção de como é Lisboa, imagine o Projeto Reviver, adicione o Renascença II, multiplique por 30, e espalhe alguns castelos medievais = Lisboa!
- Bancos: Há um banco em cada quarteirão. No centro, é banco, loja, banco, loja, banco...
- Pastelarias: Não têm pastéis! São centenas de Pastelarias por toda cidade, mas não consigo achar um simples pastel de queijo! Algumas têm algo que chamam de pastel, mas é um doce, nada a ver com o que conhecemos.
- Setúbal: Terceira maior cidade de Portugal, onde mora a mãe da Inês. O centro histórico é legal: as ruas são estreitas, todos os prédios têm fachadas antigas muito bem conservadas, e com lojas novas dentro - e internacionais!
- Serra da Arrábida: A serra vai até o mar, com paredões, precipícios e vistas muito bonitas. Pena que não deu pra ver muito por causa da neblina...
- Castelos da Idade Média! Já vi castelos dos Séculos XV e XVI, em condições muito boas. Também vi catedrais antigas, moinhos-de-vento, e a famosíssima Torre de Belém!
- Comida: Coelho (uma delícia) e Chocos com Tinta (Chocos são parecidos com lulas, só que menores; os chocos são fritos e misturados com a própria tinta).
- Natal: Para o dia 24 nós vamos a Évora, uma cidade dentro de muralhas, onde mora o pai da Ines. No dia 25 vamos para Coimbra, passar o Natal com a família da mãe da Ines. Antes de voltarmos a Lisboa iremos também ao Porto.

Istanbul, 2005

Finalmente arrumei as fotos de Istanbul! As legendas estão em Inglês. Clique aqui ou na foto para ver o Album!
Eu e a Naama (ex-namorada) fomos a Istanbul em Julho de 2005, e passamos 4 dias lá. Nós estávamos em Israel, e decidimos fazer uma viagem a Istanbul, porque é perto e barato: U$200 por pessoa, incluindo passagem e hotel por 3 noites!
A comida em Istanbul é bem melhor do que em Israel, foi a melhor comida tipo Árabe que tive (nota: a Turquia não é Árabe; apesar de ser um país mulçumano, o povo é diferente). O melhor de todos foi um Doner Kebab, um "gyro" com carne de carneiro, num restaurante perto do hotel, longe da área turística, que nao aparentava ser grande coisa, mas que estava sempre cheio. Quando eu vi o tamanho do espeto (ver fotos), nao pude resistir: tínhamos que experimentar. E ainda bem - foi a melhor refeição que tive no Oriente Médio!
A cidade é bem moderna, e em geral se parece com qualquer cidade de terceiro mundo, com prédios velhos mas ainda deste século (a área moderna se parece um pouco com São Paulo). Só que no meio deste prédios feios, se acham inúmeros prédios da Antigüidade: Mesquitas, cemitérios, mercados... E são muito bonitos. A arquitetura das mesquitas é muito detalhada, dando a estas estruturas gigantescas um aspecto delicado, que não se vê em Mesquitas modernas. Outra grande diferença é o povo, super amistoso e bem humorado (bem diferente do que eu vi em Israel).
Outro dia eu termino de colocar as fotos da viagem e faço o album sobre Israel. 

Philadelphia

Semana passada eu fui pra Philadelphia com a Inês. Nós aproveitamos o fim de semana prolongado (Ação de Graças), e fomos na sexta de manhã, e voltamos no sábado de noite. Nós fomos no carro dela, mas eu que dirigi, tanto na ida como na volta! A cidade é mais ou menos a 5 horas de distância, fica um pouco mais de hora depois de NY. A cidade estava incrivelmente fria - pelo menos estava fazendo Sol. O centro (histórico) é construido entre dois rios, e fica a uns 100km do litoral. A maior atração da cidade é histórica - ela foi palco de eventos importantes para a Independência Americana, e é cheia de monumentos a Independência e aos "fundadores" dos Estados Unidos (como o Ben Franklin, que tem vários monumentos e institutos lá). A cidade estava cheia de turistas, principalmente famílias levando os filhos para ver os monumentos dos heróis Americanos. A "peregrinação" aos lugares históricos parece ser parte fundamental para a endoutrinação dos filhos no Patriotismo Americano. (A gente fazia viagens desse tipo quando eu estava com a minha família americana no intercambio, indo para Washington e outras cidades historicas.) Como nem eu nem a Inês estávamos interessados nisso, a gente evitou as filas gigantes nos monumentos e aproveitou para andar e ver a cidade. O mais interessante da cidade é a arquitetura, que é dominada por prédios-quateirões: prédios tão grandes que ocupam um quarteirão, dos grandes. Esses prédios sao altos, mas não arranha-céus, têm só alguns andares. Por isso eles tem uma aparencia de caixa de sapato. Mas sapatos finos: os prédios têm columas de mármore, entradas com lobby espaçoso, façada bem detalhada - são muito bonitos. O prédio do correio parece um templo romano. A prefeiture (City Hall) é lindíssima. E as lojas de departamento (Lord & Taylor) são muito chiques!

Clique Aqui ou na Foto Acima para ver o Album!

"Gold Digger" featuring Jamie Foxx

I am deeply disturbed with the song Gold Digger. The problem is, I kinda like it. It is a song by some rapper, Kanye West, and it has backup vocals by Jamie Foxx, using his Ray Charles voice (he played Ray Charles in the biographical movie "Ray"). While the foreground is this standard rap, therefore bad, the background is this melodic, catchy, blues-like "song", a la Ray Charles. And it is good. I have enourmous respect for Jamie Foxx after seeing "Ray", and hearing of how he was actually trained by the Ray Charles himself to play the part, and did a lot of the singing on the movie. So if anyone can do something like this and not be accused of ripping Ray off, it's him. To top if off, while entranced by the great background vocals, I started listening to the foreground, and it is funny! Anyway, I guess I like the song, but I am still felling guilty about it...

Here are the Lyrics for Jamie Foxx's vocals:

[Jamie Foxx]
She take my money / when I'm in need
Yea she's a trifflin / friend indeed
Oh she's a gold digga / way over town
That dig's on me

[Chorus:]
(She takes my money)
(When I'm Need)
******
(I gotta leave)

Assassination Vacation

I have just finished "reading" Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, and it was an excellent book! I actually had it in Audiobook format, one of the two free Audiobooks I got by getting a trial subscription to Audible.com (if they still give away free books, you should definetely try it). The book was read by Sarah herself, who has a childish voice, but not in an annoying way - she has a cute voice actually. She reminds me of Samantha Bee, from the Daily Show.
The book is about her trips to places related to the 3 American presidential assassinations of the 19th century, most importantly Lincoln's. She also tells little side stories about the characters: the Presidents, the Assassins, and others involved. Most notoriously, she talks a bit about the one person present at all the Assassinations: Robert Todd Lincoln, the President's son.
In spite of the somber topic, the book is very amusing. Rather than a straight forward historical account of facts, it is peppered with "human interest pieces", and funny tales about the historical charcaters and about her own trip.
This book was quite a find, as I was getting bored of listening to Al Franken "Liars" book on my trips to NY. It was a good book, initially, but somewhere in the middle it started talking about Bush's election and I have heard about it so much that it was just boring at this point. That's when I decided to listen to whatever other books I had, and Sarah's book just captured my attention from the beginning. She gets extra points from also talking about Bush and drawing historical parallels to past political turmoils, and concluding with a foreboding "History Repeats Itself".

Ação de Graças

Semana passada foi Ação de Graças aqui nos Estados Unidos, e eu fui com a Inês para o jantar na Casa do Josh, que a gente conhece do clube de Salsa. OJosh é o rapaz de camisa azul e barbicha no fundo. Também foram o Marc-André (o Canadense, também da física, de vermelho) e o Michael ("roommate" da Inês, do lado dela).

O jantar foi enorme e longo (umas 5 horas comendo), bem típico de um "Thanksgiving"americano! 

First Post

Hi

This is my first attempt at a Blog, so it probably won't have much content for a while. Still, I have no illusions that anyone but me will ever bother to read this blog regularly, and thus its main reason for existing if for me to post notes for myself. I will occasionally post pictures I want to share with my family, though.