Lab romance

Un video divertido para empezar manana a trabajar, especialmente para todos aquellos que trabajan en un laboratorio :). Que tengais buena semana!!!

Today I have a funny movie to show you, especially for those ones who work in a lab. I hope you have a great week!! :)

The doggie bag, analogy with the Spanish weddings. "La bolsa del perrito" y la analogia con la bolsa de las bodas :)

Despues de un dia estresante y cansado, hemos llegado a casa sin muchas ganas de cocina, con lo que solo cruzando la carretera hemos ido a "Dave's Italian kitchen", un restaurante donde por un precio muy economico puedes comerte un gigante plato de pasta. Esta vez no tengo fotos...lo bueno de todo esto es que te puedes llevar a casa todo lo que te sobra, asi que despues de hartarnos a comer, nos hemos llevado nuestros dos tuppers con la pasta sobrante, lista para comer manana! Esta idea me parece genial, no hay ninguna necesidad de tirar la comida y ademas, si te gusta lo que has pedido, lo puedes comer dos veces :) Espero que esta costumbre se extienda poco a poco en otros paises, aunque las porciones quiza no sean tan grandes como para llevarte lo que queda ;).
Toda esta historia me ha hecho recordar las tipicas "bolsas de las bodas", lo que es considerado paleto y de pueblo en Espana. Lo cierto es que yo prefiero las bodas en las que las cantidades de comida no son desorbitadas, pero ante una boda de las de entrante, primero, segundo, sorbete, carne, pescado, postre y repostre, donde es imposible comerse todo...que mejor que llevarse la bolsa?? La sabiduria de la gente de pueblo es infinita y lo que alli es considerado "paleto", aqui es de lo mas normal, solo que aqui lo hace todo el mundo y en Espana son las senoras de pueblo, las mas listas sin duda! Lo que mas me gusta de todo es que no hay que tirar nada!! nada de desperdiciar!! eso es genial!
Today after a busy and stressful day we arrived home and we didn't feel like cooking at all, so we just crossed the street to to to "Dave's Italian kitchen". It is a very cheap place where you can eat a huge plate of pasta for a few bucks. This time I don't have pictures...the good thing of these places is that you can take home the rest of the food you can't eat, so after stuffing ourselves with pasta bolognesa and carbonara we took two boxes with the rest of the pasta, ready for tomorrow lunch! This idea is really great because there is no need of throwing anything away! and also, if you like what you have ordered you can eat it twice :) I hope this concept can be extended in other countries, even though the portions in other countries are not so big.
This story reminds me of some Spanish weddings, especially the ones of people from small villages. The weddings in Spain are normally huge, lots of guests and also long and big dinners, 5 courses dinners or more. Some people take a plastic bag in their handbags and take things they can't eat anymore (stuff you can put inside a handbag, of course). This is not considered very "refined", but actually these people are right, why are they going to throw away all that food when you can take it home? What in Spain is considered "things that village people do" here is the most common thing. The most important thing is not throwing all the food away and waste it!!

Tour de nuestro apartamento. Tour of our apartment

Hoy me gustaria ensenaros a todos nuestro apartamento en Evanston. Creo que la mayoria de vosotros ha visto algunas fotos, pero ahora tenemos los muebles y parece una casa :)
Aun no tenemos nada de decoracion, las paredes estan vacias y no hay nada en las mesas o en el dormitorio, por lo que ire pensando en un par de cosas pequenas que alegren la casa y tambien pondre fotos de la familia y amigos.
En este video os enseno el apartamento en si, aunque tambien tenemos otras zonas comunes como la piscina, el gimnasio, la sala de reuniones, tintoreria y arreglo de ropa, garage para bicis, etc. El edificio ademas tiene la sala de lavadoras y secadoras, una habitacion de invitados, ascensores especiales para hacer mudanzas y un portero las 24 horas del dia, bueno en realidad 3 porteros, jeje!
Espero que os guste la casa y sobre todo que sepais que estais invitados a venir y disfrutar de Evanston y de Chicago!!! uooohhh!!!
Today I'd like to show you our new apartment in Evanston. I think most of you have already seen some pictures, but now we have all the furniture and it looks like a real house :)
We still don't have any decorative items around, the walls are empty, the tables, etc, so I have to think of a couple of small things to give some light to the house. I also would like to have pictures of my family and friends around the house.
In this movie I show you the apartment, but we also have some other common places like the swimming pool, the gym, the meetings room, the laundy room, valet, guest room, special elevators for movings, a 24 hours door person (actually 3, hehe!)...
I hope you like our house and I want you to know that you all are invited to come and enjoy Evanston and Chicago with us!!! uoooohhh!!!


Aqui teneis el link del video y algunas fotos. Here you have the link to watch the movie and some pictures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA1u2BZ4QDw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Entrada al edificio. Entrance to the building

Mesa del portero. Door person's desk

Pasillo hacia los ascensores. Going to the elevators

Sala de lavadoras y secadoras. Laundry room

Gimnasio. Gym

Gimasio. Gym

Piscina. Swimming pool

Vistas desde la piscina, al fondo Chicago. View from the swimming pool, Chicago in the distance.

Prof. Stupp and Lady Gaga

Prof. Stupp

Lady Gaga

Que tienen en comun? What do they have in common?

Hola a todos! No os asusteis por el titulo de este texto, de momento mi jefe Prof. Stupp no va a hacer un duo con Lady Gaga. Desafortunadamente, ella no es tan buena investigando :) Pero si que tienen algo en comun y es que ambos estan en la lista de las 100 personas mas creativas en los negocios del agno 2010. El puesto numero uno ha recaido en la excentrica cantante y Prof. Stupp esta en el numero 32, no esta nada mal!!
Durante nuestra reunion de grupo, habia una escritora del "New York times" entre nosotros. Ella es la encargada de escribir sobre las actividades en el grupo, etc y dar una vision de la originalidad de los proyectos y del motivo por el cual se considera a Samuel Stupp una de las personas mas creativas. Me encanta llevarme sorpresas durante estas reuniones!!
Os dejo los links para que veais la lista de las 100 personas mas creativas de este agno y el link del numero 32, es decir, Prof. Stupp. Espero que tengais tiempo para verlo :) Hi!! Don't be scared about the title! It is not that Lady Gaga and Stupp are going to make a duo. Unfortunately, she is not so good at research :) but they both have something in common: they are among the 100 most creative people in business in 2010. Number one is for the excentric singer and number 32 for Prof. Stupp, that's not bad!! During our group meeting in Chicago campus, there was a writer working for NY times and she is the responsible of writing about Prof. Stupp, so she came to the meeting to have an idea about the originality of the projects, how he works and to have a clear idea about the reason why he is considered one of the most creative persons in US. I like how I'm surprised every time we have a group meeting!! Here you have the links to the list of the 100 most creative people in 2010 and the link for the 32nd position, Prof. Stupp. I hope you have time to look at it :)

http://www.fastcompany.com/100/2010/32/samuel-stupp http://www.fastcompany.com/100/2010

MOV04360

The air and water show

El domingo pasado fuimos a Chicago de nuevo para ver el "Air and water show". Es una demostracion que hace el ejercito americano, los marines, la armada, etc, con sus helicopteros y sus aviones supersonicos.
El espectaculo comenzo a las 11 de la manana y termino sobre las 4 de la tarde, todo ello en la playa de Chicago, junto al lago Michigan, asi que la gente paso alli el dia dandose un banito, mientras veian el espectaculo.
La verdad es que fue impresionante y aunque hizo mucho calor, nos lo pasamos muy bien.
Hice varios videos, el primero y el segundo son de un piloto que hizo toda clase de piruetas con su avion, una locura, impresionante. Al mismo tiempo hablaba por la radio y decia cosas como: "Oh yeah, baby, que Dios bendiga a America" jaja!! fue muy divertido.
El ultimo son los "Angeles azules" de la marina americana y son la "crem de la crem". El sonido era alucinante y fue sorprendente como iban a esa velocidad entre los rascacielos de Chicago.
Last Sunday we went to Chicago again to see the "Air and water show". The US army and navy fly over the city with their incredible choppers and supersonic planes. The show started at 11 am and finished around 16. Everyone is in the beach spending the day while looking at the loopings and movements of the planes. It was quite impressive and even though it was really warm, we could still enjoy the show. I made some movies for you, the first and the second are about a crazy pilot who made all kind of crazy and fast things while talking through the radio: "Oh yeah baby, God bless America" and things like that. It was hilarious. The third is a video showing the planes of the "Blue angels" from the US Navy. These ones were really impressive and the way they flew between the skyscrapers was absolutely breathtaking.

Inspirational Stupp. Charla de mi jefe en espanol, motivante

Hola a todos! Hoy hemos tenido reunion de grupo. Aqui en Chicago son mas o menos una vez a la semana, hay dos personas que presentan y muestran su trabajo de los ultimos meses en una presentacion bastante formal, con preguntas, etc. Cada presentacion lleva mas o menos 1,5 horas.
Hoy despues de la presentacion de uno de mis companeros, mi jefe queria hablar sobre cosas importantes para el grupo, requisitos para obtener el doctorado, etc. Otro dia me gustaria hablar sobre esto, aunque parezca duro, al menos la gente que acaba aqui el doctorado tiene una estupenda base cientifica y un curriculum que sirve para encontrar un buen trabajo despues y sinceramente, me gustaria decir todo lo que siento sobre este asunto y lo decepcionada que puedo llegar a estar con mi doctorado en mi grupo...no voy a decir en Espana porque no quiero generalizar, pero este tema me dara seguramente para otro texto.
Despues de hablar de estos asuntos, el Prof. Stupp nos ha ensenado un video de una charla que dio en Costa Rica, su pais de origen y que iba dirigida a un publico general, no cientifico. Aqui os dejo el link, la charla esta en espanol y asi, todos mis amigos y familia que no estan en el mundo de la ciencia, podreis ver y entender algunas de las cosas preciosas que se hacen en este grupo. Desafortunadamente, yo no trabajo en este area :) por lo que no creo que sea yo la que descubra el remedio contra el parkinson o el alzheimer. Otro dia, os explicare un poco en que consisten mis proyectos :) Espero que os de tiempo a ver la charla, merece la pena. Yo ya conocia este trabajo, porque en el mundo cientifico la reputacion de este grupo es muy buena y por cierto, bien merecida, pero ahora vosotros tambien podreis conocer este trabajo :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-u7y3Uygwo

Hi everyone! Today we had the weekly big group meeting, this time in Chicago campus. Normally there are two speakers who present the work they've been doing in the last months in a very formal presentation. Including questions, each contribution can take around 1.5 hours.
Today after the presentation of one of my colleagues, my boss wanted to talk about some important issues for the group, such as the requirements to get your PhD, etc. I would like to talk also about this issue. Even though it seems to be hard to get your PhD here, once you finish, everyone has a great scientific background and a nice CV to help you find a good job and to be honest, I'd like to talk about how disappointed I can be when I think about my PhD in my group, I'm not going to say in Spain because generalizing wouldn't be fair.
After finishing with this, Prof. Stupp has shown us a video about a talk he gave recently in Costa Rica, his country of origin. It is directed to a non scientific public, so it is very easy to understand and see the nice work that is being done in the group. It is in Spanish, hehe! but probably you can follow it and also, for the ones in science, you'll probably know everything about it. I hope my friends and family that are far from the scientific world can understand more in detail what can be done about illnesses such as alzheimer or parkinson. Unfortunately, this is not the field where I'm currently working, so I don't think I'll be the person who discovers the final clues to solve these illnesses.
Anyway, I hope you find some time to watch the talk, it is worth it.

Chicago stuffed pizza

Este fin de semana ha sido probablemente el unico en el que tengamos sabado y domingo libre Thomas y yo, asi que queriamos aprovecharlo para hace un monton de cosas aqui en Chicago. Desafortunadamente, Thomas tiene una infeccion de oido y el medico le ha mandado antibioticos y con ellos, evitar el sol. Esto parecia limitarnos las actividades que queriamos hacer: ir al lago, a la piscina, una excursion en bus y en barco en Chicago, subir a los edificios mas altos, etc. Pero pensadolo bien, aun teniamos un monton de cosas que hacer "indoor".
This weekend has been probably one of the few weekends that we are going to be free in the whole year and we wanted to do as many things as possible here in Chicago. Unfortunately, Thomas has an ear infection and he is taking antibiotics to treat it. The doctor also told him to avoid the sun while taking this medication. This wasn't cool for all the activities we were planning: go to the lake, the swimming pool, bus and boat tour in Chicago, go to the top of the highest buildings, etc, but thinking it again, we still had many things to do indoor.
El sabado me levante de buen humor :) y me fui directamente al gimnasio, despues hicimos un estupendo "brunch" y nos fuimos en autobus a "The old orchard" in Skokie, un centro comercial gigante, al mas puro estilo americano. La idea era pasar el dia alli, mas bien la tarde y al volver, ir a "Giordano's" , el sitio que mis companeros nos recomendaron para probar la pizza rellena estilo Chicago.
On Saturday I got up in a very good mood, I went to the gym for one hour and then we prepared a really nice brunch. After that, we took the bus to "The old orchard" a giant shopping mall in Skoki, real Amercian style. The idea was spending there the afternoon and in our way back, stop at "Giordano's", a place my colleagues recommended us to try the stuffed pizza Chicago style.

Esta pizza es de unos 3-4 dedos de grosor, es una especie de tarta, con los bordes de masa gruesos y lleva mucho queso y es como a capas, masa, queso, ingredientes, etc.
Pensaba que no me iba a gustar y creia que iba a ser grasienta y pringosa, pero no fue asi, seguramente tenga mucha grasa, pero al menos, cuando la comes no lo parece :). Pedimos la pizza mas pequena de la carta para los dos (para una o dos raciones) y fue mas que suficiente. Nos pedimos la pizza especial de la casa, llevaba toda clase de verduras y salchicha. Al principio, no me hizo mucha gracia lo de la salchicha, pero los trozos eran tan pequenos que ni siquiera me di cuenta de que habia salchicha y la verdad es que la pizza me parecio muy, pero que muy rica, aunque no creo que la coma con mucha asiduidad.

This pizza is about 3-4 fingers wide, kind of cake with thick dough sides and it is loaded with cheese. It is prepared in a multilayer structure, dough, cheese, ingredients and so on. I thought I wouldn't like it because I pictured it in my mind as greasy, but it was not like that at all. I'm sure it has a lot of fat, but at least it doesn't look like that when you ear it or taste it :) We ordered the smallest pizza on the menu cart for the two of us (suggested for one or two servings) and it was more than enough. It was the special pizza of the house, with all kind of veggies and sausages. At the beginning, I didn't like much the idea of the sausages, but the pieces were so small that I couldn't even notice it. To be honest, I really liked the pizza, I thought it was delicious, even though I don't think I'm going to eat if very often.

Thomas se comio la pizza tres veces mas rapido que yo. El encontro la tecnica correcta para comersela usando cuchillo y tenedor. Yo me lo pase mucho mejor tirando de las interminables tiras de queso, un trozo, corta, tira, intenta morderlo, se alarga, tira y asi varias veces, jeje!!
Nos fuimos a casa con la tripita llena y nos relajamos viendo una peli. Domingo, sin pensarlo mucho, nos fuimos al acuario Shedd de Chicago, todo ello en el proximo texto :)
Thomas ate the pizza three times faster than me. He found the correct technique to eat it using fork and knife. I had a lot more fun pulling the endless threads of cheese, taking a piece, pulling, trying to cut it, it becomes longer, you eat it and pull it again, hehe!!
We went back home with our bellies really full and we watched a nice movie. Today, Sunday without thinking it much, we've been in Shedd aquarium in Chicago, everything in the next post :)

Thomas cogiendo la pizza y yo tirando del queso :)
Thomas trying to get the piece of pizza and me pulling the threads of cheese

The Cheesecake factory :)

Voy muy retrasada escribiendo todas las miles de cosas que he hecho y he visto desde que he llegado a USA, pero aunque lo ire haciendo poco a poco, hoy os voy a contar lo que hice el viernes pasado para cenar, realmente una experiencia americana ;)I'm really delayed writing all the things I've done and seen since I'm here in the US, but even though I'll do it soon, today I'll tell you what we did last Friday for dinner, a real American experiences.Mis companeros me hablaron de un sitio llamado "The Cheesecake factory", un restaurante cuya especialidad son las tartas de queso con todo tipo de cosas, tartas de al menos 25 cm de altura, con cremas, mantequilla de cacahuete, caramelo, brownie, etc. My lab colleagues told me about a place called "The Cheesecake factory", a restaurant specialized in cheese cakes with all kind of flavours. The cakes are around 25 cm high with cream, peanut butter, brownie, etc.

Habiamos hablado sobre este sitio durante la semana y finalmente el viernes, mi companera Jessica propuso ir alli a cenar. Jessica e Yves, mi compi frances, nos iban contando a Thomas y a mi como eran las raciones en este sitio y la gran cantidad de comida, por lo que pedir un menu entero mas la tarta de queso, es casi imposible.We've been talking during the week about this place and finally, on Friday my lab mate Jessica suggested going there for dinner. Jessica and Yves, my French colleague told us about the portions of this place and the huge amounts of food, so ordering a whole menu there is almost impossible.
Llegamos a este sitio que esta a unos 10 minutos de Evanston, en un centro comercial enorme. Habia mucha gente y entre ellos, algunas personas de grandes dimensiones :) y al llegar, pude ver en un mostrador las clases de tartas que tenian (foto).
The restaurant is in a huge shopping mall 10 minutes driving far from Evanston. There were a lot of people there, some of them really big :) and when we arrived there, I could see the different kinds of cake they have (picture).
Thomas pidio una hamburguesa, yo un plato de pasta con verdura, gambas y pollo, el plato era gigante y solo me pude comer una pequena parte. El resto me lo lleve a casa en una "doggie bag" un concepto que realmente me gusta. Mi otro companero, Yves, solo pidio un pequeno entrante, haciendo hueco para el trozo de tarta, el sabia muy bien como funcionaba el asunto, jeje!
Thomas ordered a burger and I ordered pasta with veggies, shrimp and chickent. It was huge and I couldn't eat everything, so I took the rest in a doggie bag, a concept I really like. My other colleague, Yves, ordered a small appetizer because he knew how big the pieces of cake were, hehe!

Yo lo estaba flipando cada vez que veia al camarero traer y llevar esos trozos de tarta gigante, como podeis ver en la foto, por no mencionar los enormes vasos de bebida que incluyen un segundo vaso gratis. Solo pude beber el primero y fue bastante, jeje!
Thomas pidio un trozo de tarta llamado "Reese's cheese cake" que tenia mantequilla de cacahuete, tarta de queso, chocolate, etc en varias capas. Era pesadisimo y nos reimos un monton. Yo me pedi un "Brownie Sundae Cheesecake" con una guinda encima y crema de chocolate por si era poco dulce, madre mia! Antonia e Yves optaron por algo mas ligero, las variedades de crema de vainilla y tiramisu. Jessica pidio tarta de queso con crema de coco, estaba muy bueno. I was freaking out every time I saw the waiters bringing those huge pieces of cake as you can see in the picture and also when I saw the giant glasses of cola or other drinks. A refill is included in the price, but I didn't ask for it, it was already too much for me, hehe! Thomas ordered a piece of cake called "Reese's cheesecake" with peanut butter, cheese cake and chocolate in layers. It was really heavy and we laughed a lot. I took a "Brownie Sundae Cheesecake" with a cherry on top and chocolate sauce just in case it didn't have enough sugar :) Oh my God! Antonia and Yves chose something lighter, the vanilla cheesecake and the tiramisu option. Jessica took a cake with coconut cream, really delicious.

La experiencia estuvo genial, lo pase muy bien, nos reimos mucho y comimos y bebimos aun mas!! Al final de la cena de broma pensamos que nos deberian haber ofrecido un chupito de insulina para metabolizar todo el azucar que habiamos consumido, jajajajaja!! Fue una noche muy dulce, en coclusion. Al llegar a casa, Thomas y yo nos fuimos una hora al gimnasio...se puede hacer todo en esta vida, no?
The experience was great, I had a nice time there, we laughed a lot and we drank and ate even more!! At the end of the night we joked about having an insuline shot to metabolize the big amount of sugar we consumed, hahaha!! It was a very sweet night. When we arrived home, Thomas and I did one hour sport in the gym of our building...you can do everything in life, right? Lo cierto es que me lo pase genial y como experiencia americana me gusto bastante, hoy he terminado de comerme el trozo de tarta que tenia en casa.