My window in Bologna

A week to remember – Part II: "So much power locked up in one little sweaty room"

2008-10-10T10:44:00.007+02:00

My sister Bebis left for Rome and that wonderful vacation week together ended. I was glad to know that she would keep travelling around Italy and Spain, but I also felt a little bit sad because only God knows when I will see her again. I said goodbye to her at the train station and came back to my everyday life in Bologna. Little did I know that right after her departure, a really cool surprise would change the rest of that week…

Back at home I gladly found this e-mail from some American girl telling me that soon she would be on her way to Bologna and that she had found my blog while looking for info about Shotokan Karate-Do in the city! Awesome! Google made me famous! (I’m kidding). She said she would love to know about the chances of training here, for the week she would be in town. Fantastic! Immediately I replied and told her about Italian Traditional Shotokan Karate-Do and, of course, about “Musokan”, the dojo where I train, Master Perlatti’s dojo in Bologna.

My girlfriend Sara and I met her. Rachelle is her name and she is such a cool girl. She came here with her good friend Meredith. They are so sweet and nice, and showed a great will to learn as much as possible about Italy and its culture. I wish we had had more time together, to show them more and more things about the city and surrounding towns! Too bad Sara and I had to work so much in those days and couldn't get more free time for them!

I can tell you that just a few minutes after meeting Rachelle and Meredith, Sara and I felt this great chemistry among us! We talked so much and it was fun. We had a drink at “Le stanze” (The Rooms), a famous pub in Bologna and walked a little bit around the city. It was great talking about the city and checking places on the map for them to see the following day! Sara and I felt as if we were spending the time with people we have known for years! Long time friends! Amazing!

I talked to Master Perlati about them and their will to train in Musokan. He was more than glad to “open the doors of the dojo for them”. The girls, Sara and I went to training together. Training was hard, as usual, and Bologna’s hot summer weather made things “worse” which in karateka’s language means “more interesting”! (Hey, that sounds great, doesn’t it?). Our Masters and everybody else were so excited about meeting these karatekas from Maine, USA. Unfortunately Master Perlati was not in town that week, yet the girls got to meet Master Vignoli (who has been training under Master Perlati for decades!), Master Carlo Casarini (member of the Italian kumite team that won the world championships in 2002 and 2003) and Master Nicola Artese, who is my and Sara's coach; Nicola is another mighty karateka, known in Italy and Europe, and also one of Master Casarini’s best friends ever.

We had some tough training sessions that week! I’m glad the girls met Musokan and “felt its spirit”. Musokan is not only another dojo in Italy, but the place I feel my “Italian family” lives in. I’m so glad for the good impression Musokan caused on them. In Rachelle’s words : “so much power locked up in one little sweaty room”. It’s been already months since their visit to the dojo and the guys still ask me about Rachelle and Meredith!When are they coming back?

On their last night in Bologna the girls came to my home for dinner together with Chiara, one of the girls from Musokan. Sara cooked some nice pasta and “prosciutto and melone” and we had so much talk, so much fun, again. Sara and I do hope some day we can see them soon, either here or in America. They are another confirmation of the fact that students of traditional martial arts are simply among the best people we have ever met. I dream so much about going to America, and about living there for some time. I hope I can have the chance to do it, and I hope that if we make it to live there, it is at some place quite nearby our new friends Rachelle and Meredith, and the dojo where they train.

Hope to see you again soon girls! Oss!!

A week to remember – Part I: “A picture worth a 200-km train ride”

2008-07-19T11:38:00.006+02:00

It would be the second time I would see my sister Bebis in the last four years so I couldn’t just wait for her in Bologna: I went to the train station and got myself into a 200-km train ride to meet her. I guess that’s not that much in the end but, when you live long enough in Italy even just 20 km away from your home seem like a big deal! It’s easy to get just too used to Italy’s “La bella vita” way of leaving.

My sister would land in Pisa after a flight from the UK, where she’s currently living. Then, of course, she would rush towards Pisa’s Leaning Tower and would spend some time there before going north towards Padova and Venice by train. I wanted to see her the same day she’d land but people around me told me to take it easy , not to go there and waste two hours in a train and money just to get to the city and be there for a couple of hours. It was not worthy. I sadly recognize that I gave this a thought.

Too good I didn’t listen to them in the end! I took the train (two trains, actually), met my sister and her friends and, although the whole afternoon ended up in no time, we had so much fun together before we got to the train to Padova! We walked the city’s streets, ate together (sorry, at a McDonald’s, they were starving and didn't want to wait: hamburgers and a bottle of Bolognese wine I brought…); we spend some time admiring the city’s famous tower and took so many pictures! She’s my sister, and it was just too good to se her again!

Only God knows if there will ever be another time in which the two of us will have the chance to be right there at that wonderful place. This is my favourite picture from that day, taken as we were approaching the tower and saw it for the first time. Gee, we were excited! I clearly remember stopping my walk and looking at it. I was some meters away from Bebis and saw the tower before she did. I called her and she saw 5t t66, standing right next to me. We hug with some big smiles in our face and ask the guys to take this picture. What a wonderful moment it was! Every time I see this picture I tell myself that it was definitively worthy, that it would be worthy spending more hours and much more money in reaching her or anyone in my family, even if it is for sharing just a few hours.

We could spend just a week together. At this time of the year I have to work a lot and so does she, so we couldn’t have that much time for the two of us, just a five-day vacation. Anyway in those few days we had so much fun, talked, and travelled to places I have never been to, even after being in Italy for seven years! I feel embarrassed about this. I think I have forgotten so much of my Colombian soul and tend to forget one basic principle of martial arts: “there’s just one thing that truly exists: THIS MOMENT.” All this time I haven’t been to many places, I have always found a good excuse not to travel and not to do many other things I was meant to do years ago. This is terrible but, thank God, Bebis came here to make me notice this big mistake, and to remind me that life must be lived with as much intensity as possible, that we, the “Guzman De La Hoz Family”, are one family of “no-complainers”. “No-complaining” and “Always Moving Forward”, always, trying to be better, trying to learn something every single day: these are the lessons we’ve learned from our parents, I’d better keep them in my mind and soul, and behave and live coherently with these teachings.

In just a few days we managed to spend some time in Maranello (Ferrari’s hometown!!), Modena, Padova, Venice, and a place at the seaside named Sottomarina. She even went to Prato, Florence and Rome, and planned to spend another couple of days in Madrid and Barcelona, even if it meant to, basically, sleep on trains and buses while reaching those places; long hours to reach a place and enjoy it for just a little bit of time, and take some pictures of it all. As many as possible! A very “Zen” thing, after all, isn’t that what I do all the time at the dojo? Train hard for hours and hours so that I can do well one single kick or punch, just one! My sweet sister Bebis is amazing and it seems nothing can stop her! I wish I could see her more often… I hope to see her again the soonest possible.

Fragility

2008-06-14T22:41:00.000+02:00

After being so many years far away from home, there has finally come the time when I have begun to think a lot about the moment in which people I love the most will finally pass away. I have come to think a lot about my passing moment as well. It just has come naturally, while riding my motorbike everyday to work and back. It’s dangerous, no question about it. Yet, I do it everyday and pray for the worst not to happen to me. I take it easy when I ride and it feels weird to see people drive their cars and ride their bikes in such irresponsible way. Hell yeah I love speed, but at least I try to make it “safely” anytime I feel like pushing the envelope, and then I choose some “quite empty” long and wide street. It’s fun, but it’s dangerous, and I find it stupid to forget this fact. It takes nothing to get killed and this is something I have learned from karate, from my dad’s job, from my passion for the two wheels and from my life in Colombia. Life is so fragile and we tend to forget this cruel but real fact and that’s why we should just try to make everyday count, kiss as many times as possible, enjoy that cup of coffee in the morning, just like I did today, looking at my girlfriends eyes, those big blue eyes are so beautiful. You should call the ones you love, tell them you love them, because if there’s one thing you can be sure of, it is that soon or later this mysterious thing called “life” will end, and maybe those you didn’t phone in the last years, well, they will simply not be there anymore for you.

Movies I like: Invincible (2006)

2008-03-23T11:22:00.004+01:00

Some people I know would say “This is just another one of those ‘Forrest Gump movies’ you love, Eduardo”, and someone would even dare saying “Get real! These things don’t happen at all!” Well, this time, again, they’re wrong. This time we are talking about true events, and a true hero. “Invincible” tells the story of Vince Papale, the oldest rookie in the history of NFL. He made it to the Philadelphia Eagles at the age of 30 (without having previous college football experience at all!) and played for three seasons!

Last night I watched this movie for the second time, it's so beautiful. If you are a big fan or an occasional follower of NFL then you’re gonna love the photography which, in my opinion, is excellent. The takes at the stadium are amazing, and you feel you’re there yourself, on the very same “sacred ground” where such players like Papale have played. The soundtrack is a good compilation of music from the time events happened (the 70’s) and it truly cheers you up! It’s the kind of movie you must watch whenever you’re going through a tough time and events around you (and even some people close to you…) seem to tell you to give up your dreams, get real and do what most people do: keep working in the same boring place, stop studying, buy a car, and live "a normal life"… Life so far has shown me that stubbornness and tenacity can be good things in times like these, and this movie, I think, is a reminder of it, a reminder of the good there is in working hard, risking, trying, and dreaming. Not everybody can make it, and this is the saddest truth in life, but you definitively must give it a try. Few people reach the summit, while most fail… but how can you be so sure you’ll never be among “the few” if you just give up the fight?

By the way... I'm not giving up. Not yet. Not yet...

Those good old Bell 47's roaming above Palmira

2008-02-25T11:03:00.006+01:00

It was the homecoming of a true hero every evening my dad came back from work. He would whistle as soon as he entered the house and then my two sisters and I would run towards him. I remember his big smile, his skin darkened by long hours working at the helipad, under the sun. I remember his cap: he loves caps with aviation logos! I remember his uniform, and his big watch! Aviation men love big watches! I remember Dad’s small metal ruler kept in his left shirt pocket, and his weary hands carrying those aviation manuals I would learn to love as if they were masterpieces of literature. I remember the way he smelled: after a long work journey, Dad would smell like aircraft! I guess I shouldn’t wonder why I love the way aircraft smell! I just grew up surrounded by it! And my biggest hero often smells a lot like it!

My sisters and I would hug my dad in cherish and he would hug us back and laugh, while asking us how we were and what we had done in the afternoon. He would spend some minutes asking us about school. Mom then would reach us all as well, and would kiss dad and ask him about his journey. Those were such beautiful moments, such tender ones, and they repeated themselves day after day for years, before we left Palmira, in the south of Colombia, and moved to Bogotá. We were such a poor family back then while living in Palmira, but we were so incredibly happy. We didn’t have much in our little house in Palmira… and yet, we had it all.

Back then in those years in Palmira, my dad used to work full time with helicopters for the very first time. After finishing his technical high school studies he worked here and there, some months in aviation and later on doing different odd things such as driving taxis. But aviation was his life long dream and finally he was reaching for it, under the sun in Palmira. He always wanted to be a helicopter pilot, but studying to become a pilot is a very expensive thing and he couldn’t make it. Luckily, he managed to apply to one of the few high schools in Colombia where you could get aviation education and then he became one tough technician. You should see his old notebooks! Everything is beautifully written, with so much care, and there are pictures here and there, pictures by his own hand, of course! I would stare for hours at his notes and his books!

When I was a little kid in Palmira, I would spend my afternoons among my dad’s notebooks, his manuals, and his beloved aviation encyclopaedia. I would also play (and argue!) with my sisters and nothing would be better than our dad’s welcoming every evening. Mom remembers those days with so much joy and thinks of them as the best time ever in our lives. They definitively were. Life was just too easy. It was all about dreaming, playing, and watching my dad soar above the sky onboard good old Bell 47's helicopters. That was fantastic: as soon as mum heard the helicopter roaming approaching home she would rush to the front door and call us! “Come here, hurry! Your dad is coming!”. We would gaze at the sky and enjoy the view of our dad flying above the house. I remember seeing him pretty well through the big open canopy of the Bell 47’s he used to test fly with his friends at work. His big smile full of joy would shine more than the sun itself. And we, mom, my sisters and I, would all cherish at that, would love it all!

Movies I like: "I am Legend"

2008-02-25T10:38:00.001+01:00

So there's this movie which is meant to be "serious" but happens to be based on the funny idea that some cure for cancer ends up turning human beings into some sort of violent zombies eager to dine your flesh and blood... Well, I guess you might not expect that much from such a movie, but I have to say that it was worth watching it. My girlfriend fell completely asleep in a matter of minutes (all right, it was too late at night when I decided to watch it!) but I watched and enjoyed the whole movie.

Seems I'm talking about a sequel to "Resident Evil" but I'm not. It's "I am Legend". It's a nice movie if you manage to focus your attention on Will Smith's acting and in a desperately act of self control decide to completely forget about the poor special effects of these “zombies” wandering everywhere. Smith’s acting in this movie is fantastic and you do feel his anxiety, his solitude, his despair, his deep sadness. It’s the story of a warrior, someone who has lost everything in the fight and yet is strong enough to keep fighting. Yeah, typical “American superhero” movie, but it’s fun!

The depiction of a world almost emptied of human beings is astonishing: it’s made pretty well because it doesn’t look like a typical apocalyptic movie with dark skies and little sunlight, it all takes place in beautiful sunny days, and seeing no one around NY in such “perfect” days is just amazing! In these days in which scientists grow more and more sceptical about the future of mankind, well, having such a good “closer look “ at what might be those empty streets of future Earth is quite touching.

Back there at home in Colombia my family and I used to love Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince Of Bell-Air”. It was just too funny! My mum is someone who hardly watches TV, she’d rather spend her free time reading a book or knitting, or simply cooking something special. That’s my mom. And yet, when it comes to Will Smith she would find the time to watch him! I have hardly seen my mum laugh so much with a TV program! Time has gone by and Will Smith has turned to more serious stuff, and he’s doing well. If you enjoy his acting you’d better watch this movie.

Holly Cow! I desperately need 200.000 Euros!

2008-02-02T01:25:00.000+01:00

On top: my "Mojave Dreamer", something that I just drew someday
Below from left to right: Burt Rutan and Sir Branson with SpaceShipTwo,
next a previously released version of the launch system, and far on the right there's Rutan's "Boomerang".

Think about it: what would you do if woke up one day and found some 200.000 Euros in your pocket? You may think that I’m nuts but, right after taking a cold shower (in order to make sure that I’m not dreaming!) I would immediately call Virgin Galactic in the UK! I’d phone them the soonest possible! I would buy myself a ticket for my own suborbital flight! All right, maybe my mum and dad would convince me to save some of that money… but most of it would be just for that flight… and they would understand it! They just know me too well! Forget about buying a home in Bologna: I would book my flight! No questions about it!

To anyone in love with air and space, and eager to take part of amazing adventures, a “ride up there” would be worth spending all that money and even more. Ask Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Anousheh Ansari and Charles Simonyi: they all have spent more than 20 million dollars in their own dream spaceflight… and I’m sure if they could come back in time… they would simply do it again! No regrets. At all!

On January 23rd 2008 Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson unveiled White Knight Two and SpaceShipTwo, and by doing so a moment we space geeks have been waiting for so long finally came true: for the first time since Sputnik, “Space Tourism” truly seems to be on the way of becoming a reality in the near future, and a new revolution in spaceflight might take place sooner than you think…

White Knight Two and SpaceShipTwo are together a revolutionary launch system that will carry six paying passengers into a suborbital flight. Up there, at some 110 km above Earth, passengers will have a few minutes of low gravity (they will “float” for some 5 minutes…) and will also have a breath taking view of the Earth from the windows of SpaceShipTwo... a view so far enjoyed just by tough professional astronauts and very few space tourists who have spend millions of dollars for a ride onboard Russian spacecrafts.

View from SpaceShipOne. Photo by pilot Brian Binnie.

SpaceShipTwo is the evolution of SpaceShipOne, which is a vehicle designed by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites. SpaceShipOne won the X-Prize in 2004. The X-Prize was an inspiring competition in which many teams were tasked to reach space with a vehicle capable of carrying two paying passengers and a pilot, twice in a two-week period. The winning team, Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites, got a 10 million-dollar prize for doing so, in the same very spirit that many decades ago moved Charles Lindberg to fly solo across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 1927 (for a 25000-dollar prize!), an act of bravery that pushed the limits of aviation of its time and helped grow interest in intercontinental flight. Back then they had “The Lone Eagle” (that is Lindberg), a mighty small airplane named “The Spirit of St. Louis”, a courageous engineer named Donald Hall and aircraft builder "Ryan Aeronautical Company" of San Diego, California. In 2004 we had two great pilots, Brian Binie and Mike Melvill, great entrepreneurs such as Sir Richard Branson and Paul Allen supporting them, and visionary designer Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites in Mojave, California.

If you think the launch system looks weird… have a look at the picture far on the right: that’s “Boomerang”, another one of Rutan’s designs! Now that’s weird! And yet they say it flies smoothly, just like the wind itself! Do you wanna get even more scared? SpaceShipTwo is not even made of metal: just “fabric and glue”, some materials known as “composites”! Something closer to fibreglass rather than to metal… It has work in Burt Rutan’s flying inventions for decades, it has work perfectly with SpaceShipOne and I’m sure it’s gonna work even better in this new vehicle! Just fabric and glue… This is just too exciting, isn’t it?

Many people would ban the whole thing by saying that it’s just another rich people’s leisure (“expect to see Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan up there soon…” Holly Shi@#!!!!), and that the whole thing is just too expensive for ordinary guys (like me). Well, it is, but if you read a little bit of history you’ll see that so many things we have for granted nowadays and can buy without that much of an effort, from cool bicycles, cellphones, TVs, stereos, and Laptop PCs to a car or even an ultralight airplane, were all things that once were reachable just by the richest people. Some of these inventions became reachable in just a few decades to most of us and currently many more companies prepare to enter the spacetourism business, so we can expect prices to go downwards… in time. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to save that much money in my lifetime but I’m sure the whole thing will be reachable to many more people, maybe even my children and grandchildren someday. The whole thing, in the words of Sir Branson “can lead to orbital travel, it can lead to the most incredible kinds of hotels in space, it can lead to small little spaceships going around the moon and being able to view the moon from a 100 or 200 foot above the surface”. The whole thing can lead to amazing things…

Thank God, while there are so many people trying to ruin the world (e.g. Bush, Mastela, Berlusconi, among others…) there are some others who try to make it a better place. In a time when youngsters are getting more and more lazy, in which interest in science and technology drops, in which just too many entrepreneurs prefer to complain rather than to improve and compete, in which everything is either too difficult or even impossible to accomplish… there come people like Burt Rutan, his team at Scaled Composites and entrepreneurs like Sir Branson who show us that it is possible to dream, that there’s a price in blood, sweat and tears to pay, and even the risk of not accomplishing it at all… but that you‘ve got to try! Whatever it is that make us a different species in this planet, it’s sure about our capability to risk, try new things, invent. Let’s pay attention to the future events at Virgin Galactic and that dusty place called Mojave, in California. Let’s take those events as an inspiration to our own lives. Good people have already sacrificed their lives fighting for this space dream, and I’m sure they would say “Let’s risk, let’s risk it all, because live is more than just living it!”

Cantare d'amore: an unspoken truth of this Italy of my dreams.

2008-01-14T11:13:00.000+01:00

Sometimes it happens, it truly happens: life seems just like a movie… even with its own soundtrack! I thought about this some day a few weeks ago when one of my coworkers left the company... It was a very sad moment. He got fired, and while he was leaving and saying goodbye to me there came from the radio “Cantare d’amore”, a song by Amadeo Minghi, a song that may not say that much to an Italian born, but that means so much to me. I heard this sweet song for the very first time just by chance in Colombia, in the months before my departure to Italy. Back then it was so beautiful to me, and it still is. As soon as I reach Italy and got myself some free time after finding somewhere to sleep, I bought one of Minghi’s CD with this song! My Italian friends will laugh at this but I just love the dammed song! Deal with it!

“Cantare d’amore” kept my spirit high and made me dream. It was a source of inspiration while I was trying not to get crazy with my studies of Italian grammar before coming to Italy. It’s another love song but to me it also spoke about the Italy of my dreams: this bucolic place of amazingly beautiful landscapes and architecture, full of echoes from ancient civilizations everywhere, a place where people would sing, enjoy good long meals, chat, drink the best wine there is, chat, love and care their families and their land, chat… and keep chatting! Funny thing: most Italians DO CHAT A LOT! It's something you cantruly enjoy if you're surrounded by smart people. Luckily I am, most times.

To me, “Cantare d’amore” spoke about this wonderful Italy where time seemed to stop so you could enjoy simple things of live as much as possible… Unfortunately this “dreamland” is in great danger, and among its biggest problems there’s what is happening nowadays to small companies, the so called PMI (Piccole e Mediane Imprese, ‘small and middle-size companies’): too many of them are just falling apart! Very quickly (too quickly) and everywhere in Italy! It’s a big problem because Italian economy depends on these small companies! Certainly there’s a worldwide “wave” of economic crisis and sure it has its effects here, but after living in Italy for six years and meeting so many businessmen, through my work and at conferences I have attended, well, I have come to think that much of the responsibility for what is happening here lies within this nation’s borders and not anywhere abroad.

It’s just too easy to blame the Chinese, or terrorists, or even Prime Minister Prodi (as if he had been in charge for the last ten years…) for what is happening here, and that’s what too many of these PMI entrepreneurs do. You should listen to them, repeating and repeating the same crap all the time… And this is just as boring as it can be! Yeah, It’s just too obvious that China and its economy are moving at a pace no one can follow (for reasons I would not dare to discuss here), and it’s also true that terrorism has also influenced world economy, and even that Prodi’s government could be much better, but too many of these entrepreneurs are people who still think they are living in the Italy of 1990’s, where the “MADE IN ITALY” brand would easily sell itself worldwide. Thinking this way then a change in the way these entrepreneurs would manage their companies wouldn’t be necessary. They could just do the same old things in the same way they had been doing and take it easy, “survive”, as they love to say, earn a lot of money simply by doing the same things they had been doing for the last couple of decades, and then spend some precious time showing off with their Rolex watches and their fancy cars, have long vacations (a little bit too often), completely forget about spending money in research and certification, or in learning and encouraging their workers to learn other languages (at least some good English, come on!) or improve their working techniques. Research? Marketing? Good websites and improvements in customer care and quality controls? Information Technology, “what the hell is that?” some would say! These things wouldn’t be important, and some would dare say things like “all this is not necessary, our products are so good, they are the Ferrari’s of the market, people will keep buying them”. Can you believe that?

Many of these entrepreneurs have completely forgotten that in a changing world you have to improve yourself in order to “survive”, and only then you can improve your company, you can ask more from your workers! PMI’s are usually made of a very small staff and often the owner “folds up the sleeves of its shirt” and works hand by hand with its employees. An entrepreneur in a PMI should be an example to its workers! Then, it’s just too important that change in the PMI begins in the boss! It’s just too important for the boss to realize that the world is a different place, that investment should no just be made in new fancy facilities and furniture but in self-education and education of the workers, certifications, quality control, Information Technology, marketing (above all e-marketing!) and customer care so your company can still “be in the game”. Clients are not stupid people, they MUST BE TREATED WITH RESPECT, ALL OF THEM, INCLUDING THOSE WHO DON’T BUY THAT MUCH! CLIENTS, ALL OF THEM, ARE FREE PUBLICITY AD’s, THEY SPREAD A GOOD WORD ABOUT THE COMPANY! The company might not get immediate results after making consistent investments in these weak fields I’m talking about, at least not as quickly as “these entrepreneurs” would like it to, but at least the company will have effective tools to give a good fight!

Well… maybe that’s the problem: TO GIVE A GOOD FIGHT! Maybe just too many PMI entrepreneurs find it easy not to fight and just chat, complain… Lets just pray for that people to change their minds, otherwise I’m sure these “Italy of my dreams” will soon vanish and “Cantare d’amore” will just become another song without meaning, a song that, when I’ll get old, would bring memories of a land that may have never existed at all…

Just as good as being there myself..

2007-09-19T19:41:00.000+02:00

My sister Bebis is in Florida in these days enjoying a well deserved vacation before coming to

England

in order to start her year-long English course. She's been to one of the greatest places in the world: THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER. To someone who "easily gets lost in time and space" while watching starry nights (that would be me of course!), this space center is sort of a pilgrimage site, and therefore going there has been a whole life dream to me.

Leaving aside for a moment all the political intricacies and controversies about manned spaceflight I think space centers are a living homage to people who have believed so much in dreams and exploration and have given everything, sometimes even their own lives, in the name of the progress spaceflight can bring. Space centers are places boldly built with sacrifice, sweat and blood, and it's up to the governments to use them for their own benefit or instead for the benefit of “all mankind”.

Space centers are very meaningful places to many people, not just to me, and thousands of them gather around them whenever there’s a chance to see a launch. It’s all about people going to the skies, few people, extremely well selected and special people. Astronauts are special people, and seeing them reaching the skies must be a wonderful sight. Special yet ordinary people flying higher and faster than anyone else: it sounds like a religion to me… and it certainly is!!

Watching the pictures my sister e-mailed me I just can't believe that it's been already three years since last time we met.. Watching her smile in every picture is simply as good as being there in the space center myself. I just can't wait to see her again. I have been waiting for three years to do it! Three years! Welcome to Europe, dear sister of mine. I’m looking forward to seeing you soon. I love you Bebis.

My building process 1: Modelart's SpaceShipOne - First Post

2007-07-15T11:08:00.000+02:00

Just as if working, studying, training and “taking care of my girlfriend” weren’t enough to keep me busy, I decided that somehow -even if it meant spending on it just a few minutes per day- I would come back to one of my favorite hobbies ever: paper modelling!

What’s this about? Well, as you may know Japanese people make amazing things with card and paper. I’m sure everybody has heard about Origami. Well, card modelling is a little bit different from it but upholds the same basic principle: having fun with just paper (and glue). The point is that you can build real cool 3D paper models of almost anything: houses, skyscrapers, cars, airplanes, rockets and even helicopters! Not to mention Mecha and Anime characters!

Today’s plastic models are extremely beautiful, I love them, I have a couple of them at home in Colombia! They are highly detailed but the best ones often require real high expertise in, for instance, brush painting. Moreover some are expensive. Of course you can buy pre-assembled ones but it’s not the same, you miss some of the fun of having the model at all: building it!!

An alternative to plastic models is paper modelling. There are so many on-line stores that sell you, for a very convenient price, the pdf files that later on you may print on thick paper. And that’s it! The rest is up to you and in order to assemble and stick together one of them you just need a little bit of patience, some nice scissors, glue and lots of coffee! And if you just don’t want to pay for the model that's all right: there are so many free on-line models which are as beautiful as the ones you pay for. One of my favourite sources is definitively The Lower Hudson Valley Paper Model Giftshop. Another one is Currell Graphics. Please, have a look at them!

I will keep writing about this in the incoming “My building process” posts. I will tell you about my Modelart^® SpaceShipOne model. The designer of this 1/32 scale model suggests to print most of the pages on 160 g/m² paper and some pages on "normal" 80 g/m² paper (common white paper you use for your photocopies). I printed mine a few weeks ago and I’m really happy about it! But I’m also concerned about the fact that I printed pages on 170 g/m² paper instead… Hope this will not make the assembly process too difficult! So far I have been so busy that I haven’t even completed a single piece of it. But in next post about it I expect to tell you that I’m making progress on it, and will sure post some pictures and comments about it!

I also need to find time to answer my friend's e-mails... I promess I will! :)

A book: Astronaut Umberto Guidoni's "Un passo fuori"

2007-07-10T17:01:00.000+02:00

The book on my desk together with some astronauts and the shuttle

Astronaut Umberto Guidoni on board ISS - April 23rd 2001

A few days ago I've finished reading astronaut Umberto Guidoni's "Un passo fuori" (A Step Outside), a beautifully written book about his life. It was published by Editori Laterza GLF, Italy, in 2006. Up to this date there seems to be no English version of it, at least in Amazon.com. Sorry English speaking "space geeks", you will have to learn Italian!

To those who have no idea about him -too many Italians don’t- he is not only one of Italy's first astronauts but also the first European to “step on” the International Space Station. He’s a family man and a scientist with a degree in Physics from “La Sapienza” University Of Rome and, as far as I can see, he’s got the same passion for science and exploration he’s got for Italy and its finest traditions. He is a man Italians should feel real proud of, someone people should pay so much attention to.

I gladly think of him as "our neighbourhood astronaut" (il nostro astronauta del quartiere!) because that's the impression I had first time I saw him. Quiet, still, almost as if he was trying to be completely invisible to the people around him, just an ordinary guy calmly taking every step. And yet he had soared above the sky at 28000 km/h and climbed as high as 350 km above the Earth, towards the realm of space!

It was in Rome where I met him, a few years ago, at that peace demonstration that happened simultaneously in big cities all around the planet, when the second war in Iraq began. I met him just by chance in a journey with so many mixed feelings and a lot of deception for seeing some Italian people carrying huge placards asking for support to “revolutionary movements” in Colombia. I was born in Colombia, I'm sure most of these Italian guys (if not all of them) had never been there and yet they arrogantly defended their slogans, as if they'd ever seen what is happening down there. Their attitude made no sense to me, and seeing them and their behavior, made me really sad.

Luckily, something better was about to happen to me that day: at some point of the demonstration -in which thank God there were plenty of people with more brains than those idiots whose display really disturbed me- I found myself walking aside one of my greatest living heroes! Holy cow! I was walking on the streets of Rome aside Astronaut Umberto Guidoni! I got so excited I’m sure I must have said so many stupid things to him when I shoke his hand! A twenty-something year-old “kid” meeting one of his favourite heroes! Imagine that! I still remeber my excitement! I guess I will never grow up!

His book is more than you could imagine. For “space geeks” like me it is a mandatory book because it’s a very good description of his adventure as an astronaut, magically depicting his experience using the simplest words and often letting the writer know his opinions as a foreigner in the American space program. It’s so well written that there are moments you do feel you are sitting right there in the cockpit of the shuttle, stuffed in the space suit, seeing with your own eyes all those screens and computers of the flight deck around you.

For normal people (that is, “non space geeks”) it’s a fun and inspiring book to read. I would give this book to kids or youngsters, it could be very encouraging, it can truly touch you! I think Dr. Guidoni is truly an ordinary man, the guy next to you at the bar having a cup of coffee or someone you just see on the train. In the book he shows that he’s got the heart of a dreamer and a stubborn determination to accomplish goals while dealing with everyday issues and problems we all have to deal with. He accomplished goals that most people in these days consider impossible, completely useless to try or even to think about.

As we approach the end of the book he details his new experiences back in Europe –after more than ten years living in America- and the beginning of a political career as an Italian representative at the European Parliament. When I first saw his campaign ads I was quite confused to know which political party he was representing. But as I read about his job in the book and after truly studying his ideas, political points of view, opinions, and dreams in it, I have to say that I have an even better opinion about him. His ideas are clearly based in historical facts, and his scientific background definitively seems to be at the core of his opinions. I do not like pretty much the fact that he represents a political party I have so many doubts about but I guess you just can get “up there” in the world of politics on your own. I truly hope –and pray- his compromises with that political party will never blind that wonderful view he has about the world, its problems, and the dreams of a unified “Spaceship Earth”. He appears to me as an individual with great coherent ideas, let’s just hope he can put to work as many of them as possible!

Dress Code

2007-06-08T16:56:00.000+02:00

My good friend René Hernandez, a Medieval Literature super-geek currently living in Padova with his wife Genoveva (and their “stepchild” Juan Pablo Valenzuela*), would agree with me when I say that there’s hardly anything better than a very well ironed long-sleeves white shirt and a nice tie. Yeah, it just can get any better than that!

Today I dressed up formal for work, without the tie though. I love wearing formal attire, with nice well-ironed pants and shining shoes! Tidy! There were some very important people coming from abroad that wanted to have a look at the company and therefore everything, including the guy responsible for foreign affairs (that would be me!), had to be perfect. It’s a funny thing to get so many compliments and charming gazes as I walk on the street dressed formal, here, in Italy, the land of fashion! What is this thing about? Well, back there in Colombia wearing a tie is not a big deal (almost everyone wears a tie for work) but here in Italy, well, at least in Bologna, you don’t do it often. I guess the city is just “the coolest of the cool” and then people hardly dress formal. Jeans and comfortable sneakers rule!

The day I went looking for a job here in Bologna for the first time (a couple of weeks after my arrival, almost six years ago...) I also had an appointment with one of my new Italian students (I was already teaching English then). Silvana is her name and we met at a bar in "Via delle belle arti" for a cup of coffee and some tutoring for her upcomming English exam. You should have seen her face when she saw me! “What the hell are you doing? Are you getting married or something? What’s the tie for?” she said. I told her that I was looking for a job. She smiled and then asked me: “How is it going so far?” She laughed. I told her that I was amazed by the fact that no one had offer me a job though I was telling potential employers that even working in McDonald’s “as a French-Fries expert” (A rather idealized way to describe the sad truth of such a job…) would be OK. She laughed again and explained to me that dressed that way I would never find a job like that in Bologna, that people would think that I was someone so important seeking for a huge salary, etc. I had certainly seen people staring at me and looking kind of surprised that day, even kind of inquisitive to me… Funny! Thanks to Silvana I finally got to understand this “local dress code”. Next day I wore jeans and sneakers, and things got better: I was offered potential jobs in teaching and a job at a hotel. I first took the job at the hotel (making beds, cleaning bathrooms…) and a few weeks later I left it for my current job at the factory and some teaching hours at an English school :)

I don’t know, today I just felt like talking about this.

*I think Genoveva would prefer calling Juan Pablo “Mischievous Parasite” rather than "stepchild". My dear Geno has such a sweet way of telling things...

Right under my nose...

2007-06-01T10:12:00.000+02:00

I could see one of the injured guys from my window, in front of that videogames store on the corner of Via del Borgo San Pietro and Via Irnerio. There was already some guy in uniform, a security guard, having a look around. There were also some people. I guess I just couldn't believe it! It was really happening here, on Via Irnerio: gun shooting right below my apartment, below my beloved window! I went to the kitchen so I could have another view of the street... and there he was: the other guy, still inside the car, a car with its windshields torn to pieces by the gunshots. Amazing. First thought: "Holly Cow! Davide, he went out tonight! Where the hell is he?”

Some five minutes later Davide came back to our apartment. He was OK and had no idea about it all! I didn't tell him but I was so relieved to see him back home. Davide has become like a little brother to me, and I was really worried about him.

We watch in awe the time passing by while paramedics tried desperately to keep the guy alive, that guy in front of our kitchen window. Not that we really knew how he was doing but Davide made me realize that they were taking too long before moving him, and surely this was 'cause he was so badly injured it was just too dangerous to lift him from the ground and set him in the ambulance. Paramedics were working so much on the guy and police cars kept coming. Finally they took him to the hospital. We would later know from the news, the day after, that the guy had injures in his head. Davide was right: that guy was barely alive when we saw him that night. That guy was trapped in between life and death. Up to this day, according to the news, he still is…

The view from my window...

2007-05-30T16:29:00.001+02:00

I’m taking a break. I have been studying Nuclear Physics all day long and for a moment I'll just take it easy. I'm watching through my window, having something to drink, looking at the sky, praying and dreaming.

On my desk, among my notes, there’s this beautiful picture of White Knight and SpaceShipOne, flying together, reaching that wonderful place that I think “is just the best place ON Earth”: THE SKY. I’m listening to “Ethereal”, my favourite track from Odonata, an album by Amethystium, artistic name of a Norwegian musician named Øystein Ramfjord. I wonder what he had in mind when he wrote it, and what he felt first time he listened to it. I just can’t think of something different while listening to it: White Knight and SpaceShipOne soaring above the sky, pushing SpaceShipOne to the edge of space...

So it’s a cool moment, and I tell myself “It couldn’t be better”. Yeah, I forget for a moment all my troubles and the things that are happening here, around me, and think that this precise moment of daydreaming and a glass of soda, while watching people passing by under my window and the skies above it, well, it’s just perfect. I love my room in Bologna and I’m definitively gonna miss it. This great view from my window will be left to someone else, and I hope he or she will enjoy it as much as I have. It’s a wonderful place.