17 de Octubre, cafes. October 17th, coffee.

Asi es como me sirvieron el domingo pasado el cafe aguadito que se toma por estas tierras, con 6 sobres de azucar y 4 de leche. Este cafe te lo van rellenando, asi que esta muy diluido, probablemente me pusieron tanta azucar para ir endulzando los consecutivos "refillings", jeje!

This is how my coffee was served last Sunday in Chicago, with 6 bags of sugar and 4 of milk. I guess it was thinking for the refills, but to be honest it is so watery and dilute that I normally don't take them :)

Por otra parte, el martes fui a una charla de un profesor de Northwestern. Siempre se sirve cafe y galletas, mirad que pinta mas horrible tiene el cafe, argg! Nada como nuestra cafetera pequeñita, de ahi si que sale un cafe exquisito, sin Nespresso y sin alta maquinaria :)

Yesterday I went to a tenure lecture of a professor of Northwestern. Coffee and cookies are normally served and look how ugly the coffee looks, argg! There is nothing like our small percolator, delicious and strong coffee comes out of it, there is no need of Nespresso or other sophisticated machinery :)

El otro dia me hacia falta azucar, tuve un dia estresante y estaba muerta. Cogi una "galletita", aunque no lo suelo hacer por el motivo que veis en la foto, casi no tienen grasa...
I really needed sugar the other day, I had a stressing and busy day, I was dead. I took a cookie even though I normally don't eat them because they are "kind of greasy"...

Mi triste cafe y mi galleta grasienta :)

My sad coffee and my greasy cookie :)

Sin embargo, no todo es malo, claro que no!! El cafe de Starbucks y en especial de Peets esta riquisimo. Al principio me parecia estupido pedir cafe de esa forma tan freaky: "double tall non fat latte" o "venti decaf caramel fredo soyccino" hehe! Pero hay cafes que estan buenisimos, como por ejemplo, el cafe de esta temporada, con especias de calabaza, uhmmm!

However, not everything is bad, of course not!! Starbucks coffee and the great coffee of Peets are delicious. At the beginning I though it was stupid to order coffee in such a difficult way: "double tall non fat latte" or "veni decaf caramel fredo soyccino", hehe! but to be honest, there are some coffees that are nice, as for example the seasonal coffee like the "pumpkin" spiced coffee, uhhmm!

Cambios. Changes.

Cada vez que pienso el poco tiempo que nos queda en Chicago me entra muuuucho miedo!!! Tambien pena y una sensacion rara al pensar que estos dos años y medio se estan terminando :( Lo echaremos mucho de menos, profesionalmente ha sido muy duro, pero ahora si que hemos visto el lado cientifico desde todos los angulos y paises. Personalmente, ha sido una etapa maravillosa que no me gustaria cambiar, pero quien sabe si lo que nos espera no es aun mejor? Al menos, sera mas cerca de casa y de los nuestros. Por desgracia, no vamos a España, pero estaremos mucho mas cerca, en Europa :) con conexion directa y cortita.

Me encantaria hacer mil reflexiones sobre este tiempo aqui y posiblemente las hare cuando no me sienta tan afectada como ahora mismo, pero lo que he pensado de momento y para vivir al maximo nuestros ultimos meses aqui, voy a contar algo diariamente sobre cosas que me gustan de aqui y para ilustrarlo mejor, con foto! De momento, quiero reflejar algunas cosas que hemos hecho ultimamente por aqui y que quiero tener en el blog.
Every time I think we are about to leave Chicago I feel veeeery scared!! I also feel sad and I have a strange feeling when I think how fast these two and a half years went by so fast :( We will greatly miss it. It was an awesome professional experience, but very hard. At least, we can now say that we know the research world from every angle and country. It has been an awesome personal experience that I wouldn't like to change. However, who knows if what is coming next will be even better? We'll be closer to our families, not in Spain unfortunately but with good direct flights and pretty short.
I'd love to express many ideas and things about all these time and I'll probably do it once I feel more relaxed and not so affected by the big change. For now, I'll write something daily about things we like here or things we do. Everything will be illustrated with a picture at least :) Today I just leave here some pictures of things we've done in the last days/weeks and that I'd like to have in the blog.

Cumple de Carson en Bat17 con la torre de cerveza. Carson's bday in Bat17 with a beer tower.

Tonterias con mis compañeros, lo echare mucho de menos! Stupid things with colleagues, I'll miss it so much!

Cenando con Olga. Su historia para encontrar piso fue curiosa :) Salimos a cenar y no pudo tomar vino porque no llevaba su carnet de identidad, jeje! Tiene 25 años y nosotros 30!!! Esto es la leche!

Eating with Olga. Her story about finding an apartment was a bit frustrating :) We went out for dinner and she couldn't drink wine because she forgot her ID, even though she is 25 and we are 30!!! Incredible!

Soy madridista y en Chicago, tambien!!

I'm a fan of Real Madrid, also in Chicago!!

Visita del padre de Thomas!! Regalo por su 60 cumpleaños. Aqui estamos en el templo Bahai. Podeis ver el post anterior aqui.

Thomas' dad visit!! The trip was his present for his 60th birthday. Here we are at the Bahai temple in Evanston. You can watch the Bahai post here.

Visita al Art Institue of Chicago con el padre de Thomas, el post viene pronto!

Visit to the Art Institute of Chicago with Thomas' dad. The post about it is coming!

Eating dinner at "The Cellar", our favorite restaurant in Evanston. Here Lyle is drinking Kwak, a great Belgian beer.

Cenando en "The Cellar", nuestro restaurante favorito en Evanston. Aqui esta nuestro amigo Lyle bebiendo Kwak, una cerveza belga muy rica.