Greetings from Malaga!

This is the first day of the ESSLLI summerschool and I´m already having a great time. The first course this morning (An empirical view on semantic roles within and across languages) was pretty OK, though the rooms are a bit echo-y. The campus is very ugly, but there´s airconditioning, and there are internet rooms. There´s also a wireless network, but so far I haven´t been able to connect to it. I have the proxy server information, but according to the helpdesk here connecting a mac to it is difficult (but he couldn´t explain me why or help me out). So if anyone reading this has an idea, please tell me, and I will reward you with posting some pics ;)

The University Residence where I´m staying is a very, very good one. I have a private room, and a shared bathroom with a bath and a shower. Both have marble floors and are very clean. But the best thing about the residence is the swimming pool!!! Yesterday I had it all to myself!

Life is good :)

Back home

Only for two days though, as I will be leaving for Paris on Monday. The last two days have been quite tiring, but good. Thursday was my last full day in San Francisco, where the public transport was trying to get commuters to not take their cars by offering free public transport in the Bay Area. We took advantage of it by going to Palo Alto for a talk at PARC about the social aspect of MMORPGs, after strolling around in Palo Alto and on the Stanford University campus for a while, in the blazing heat. The talk was really cool, with lots of eye-candy, it was a shame it was a lot of bits of information on different aspects, I would have liked some more in-depth discussions of certain things. But the speaker only had an hour, and a lot to tell so I guess I'll just have to read his stuff :).

After Palo Alto we went to the Golden Gate bridge, which seemed to disappear in the fog and with cars driving into nowhere, quite spectacular. Before we got home we had a quick stop at Extreme Pizza to get some take-away dinner, which we enjoyed at home, from a card board box, served with white wine, as one is supposed to.

At 5am the alarm woke me up, because I had to get to the airport in time to catch my 8.15 flight, to start my 22 hour journey (that's including travelling to the airport, and in the Netherlands from the airport to my parents in Brabant, which took longer than usual due to work on the tracks). I arrived safely, but tired, and managed to save most photos from my bad memory card. After formatting it, it seems to work fine again. It's good to be home again, even though I do miss Rowan, the Pacific, the Apple Store around the corner, and Abercrombie and Fitch (my 'Zara' in the States). On the other hand, I'm happy to see my family again, my apartment (though I've only been there for about an hour, and won't see it for another three weeks) and get some proper Dutch food again. Not that the food wasn't good, just the gigantic portions it's served in, and the silly doggy bags afterwards. But I guess everything is big in the US; people, cars, plates, and roads. But it has been a great ride all along :)

San Francisco by night

Last night was one of the first nights in San Francisco that I didn't fall asleep at 7 due to my jetlag. So we went out for dinner to a Vietnamese fastfood restaurant on sleazy Sixth Street. The place looks not so good from the outside, nor from the inside, but it's one of the best in town (not just according to me). Anyway, you can see the cooks doing their thing, other people doing the dishes etc., big plates, great taste. After stuffing our faces we had to hurry to get to the cinema near First Street, the one place in the city where 'A Scanner Darkly' is on. It's a great film, but I can see why it's not a blockbuster. Walking back from the Embarcadero to Rowan's house near Fifth was very cool as well, there are some lovely gardens and pieces of art to be found on the way, which after the weird movie gave San Francisco a little surreal touch.

Surf-and-hike-roadtripping

It's been nearly a week since I've been online now, and that's due to a little roadtrip through California in a lovely Volkswagen camper van. Here's a short account of my travel adventures from the past week.

On Wednesday July 12 we set out south of San Francisco to Santa Cruz. We arrived there sometime in the evening, where we first stopped at a little sandy, but smelly beach. It was nice to see pelicans in the wild though (and there were lots of them). Then we drove through the city to find a nice organic restaurant that Rowan had been to before. Eventually we found it and they served a salad with Dutch strawberries, so it was good!
But then we had to find a place to sleep, unfortunately wild camping alongside the road is not allowed in California. But we did it anyway. In Santa Cruz we asked a surfer if he knew a nice spot, and indeed he did. About 20 miles north of Santa Cruz there's a little parking right at the beach of the Pacific, so we slept there with the sweet sound of the waves and under a beautiful starry sky.

The next day we had to get up early because I booked a surf lesson (it never hurts to learn more) in Santa Cruz at 8. The ocean was very friendly and I had a few extremely good long rides. After a nice three-hour session, in which I even saw a seal enjoying a little swim, it was time for brunch, in the shape of a big shrimp salad on the beach :)
After that we were off south to Monterey and Big Sur. Near Big Sur we found a very nice campsite, near the river and with a lot of shade as it was (and still is) pretty hot. Though in the shade of the mountains it cooled down pretty soon so Rowan lit a campfire on which we cooked. The next morning we set out to Pismo Beach. Though before we got there we visited three State Parks (you only need to pay once per day :)) First in we went to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park where we visited the Pfeiffer waterfalls, and then up to the Valley View which was gorgeous. On the way down we saw a snake in the grass!! State parks are dangerous! ;)
The next Park along the absolutely magnificent Highway 1 was Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. It's not as big as the Big Sur State Park. Actually, it's only one waterfall, but a good one. Then we hit the road again, further south. However, the little brake indicator light on the dashboard came up. After 50 miles we decided to check the manual what that could mean, and it was bad, it meant that we were running out of brake fluid. Fortunately the van has two brake circuits, although using the secondary one made the coolant light come up :S. The next few towns didn't have the kind of brake fluid we needed, so on to 'Autozone' in Morrow Bay. Then on with full brakes again we did the last few miles to Pismo Beach. But not before we visited yet another State Park, Montana de Oro! Which wasn't quite a golden mountain, more a cold and foggy beach, but at least we can say we've been there. Pismo beach was crazy, every campsite was full, and there were no quiet little roads to park our van like the first night, so we went back north a little to Avila Springs, where we found a hideously expensive, and smelly campsite. But with good showers, which made up for a lot. We also had electricity there, so we watched a DVD on Rowan's MacBook. The next day we drove up to Pismo beach again, and rented some surfboards, for 1 dollar per hour, which is extremely cheap, but the boards were definitely OK. However, after friendly Santa Cruz, the ocean put me right back into place with some powerful wipe-outs, blocked ears for hours etc. But that's all part of the fun. After a few liters of salty water it was time for a proper lunch, so we went to the local Chinese take-away and got some chow mein and rice to eat on the beach. We spent the rest of the day lazily reading books in our couch-potatoe-fold-out chairs :).

Around 5 we hit the road again, not south this time but northeast, towards Yosemite National Park. We managed to get to Oakhurst, about 10 miles south of Yosemite. On that journey we saw fluffy hills, cities that are so small that they're not supposed to be called cities, like Kettleman City, which is just three houses, a shell petrol station and a McDonald's, and finally woods. Around 8 we got to Fresno, which looks like a reasonably big town on the map, but it was utterly deserted. We finally found a supermarket that was still open and bought some ice-cream because we were boiling, it had been scalding hot on the road, and the bottles of water had heated up so much that you'd only have to put a teabag in it to get a nice hot cup of tea. We got bored with Fresno pretty soon so we went on again. The petrol got cheaper and cheaper along the way so we filled it up for $ 3.07 per Gallon, which got us a long way. When we got to Oakhurst it was too late to find a campsite, but plenty of nice and quiet streets...campers are great! :)

The next morning we had breakfast at Starbucks and we drove into Yosemite. There we found a nice first come-first serve campsite at an altitude of 7200 ft. (the highest place on land I've ever slept at). We nearly immediately went for a hike to Taft Point, the sign on the campsite said it would only be a 1 mile hike, so very easy, as it was still quite hot. However, at the campsite they meant drive up to some parking lot somewhere in the park, and hike from there. So we did a trail of about 6 miles, and then ended up at a parking space some 6 miles away from the campsite. Whoops. Usually 6 miles isn't too bad, but it was hot, very hilly, and we were running out of water, so we hitchhiked back to our campsite :) The hike itself was very good, just walking for 3 hours without meeting anyone, through various landscapes, with the lookout point over the gorgeous valley at the end of it.

In the evening we went to Glacier point to listen to a Park Ranger's sunset talk. It felt very schoolcamp-y, but we learnt a lot (of course). On the way back I nearly ran over a deer that had decided to cross the road right in front of my van, but no-one got hurt.

The next morning we went down into Yosemite valley to buy some more brake fluid, food and a new memory card for my camera, as the other ones were either full or giving memory card errors (I'll retrieve them though). The road to the valley is great, we got some great views of the Yosemite Waterfall that drops about 1.5 kms. Because it was very hot in the valley we went back up again as soon as possible to the Mariposa Grove of big trees, where the famous Grizzly Giant Sequoia is found, as well as the tree with the tunnel through it :).
In the evening we had a campfire with the park ranger telling stories about bears, which was good, but would have been better if we'd thought of getting marshmellows.

On Tuesday morning we left the campsite rather early, because bugs we're determined to get our blood (though Rowan's more than mine :)) and we had a long way to go to San Francisco. The 140 was closed so we took the 120 which led us on some really winding roads with a speed limit of only 20 mph near the San Pedro Lake. We even found some cheaper petrol, 2.99 per Gallon! And then we just raced for the shower, because our campsite in Yosemite didn't have any showers (real camping is what that's called :)). In the evening when we felt all nice and clean again we went to a sushi bar with some friends of Rowan's. Where I got initiated in the rituals of eating sushi properly (so not with a fork from the plastic box that you got it in from the supermarket) and it was good :).

Today we had to return the van, but not until three so we took it to Pacifica for a short surf session, among bird poo and jellyfish. But it definitely helped digest the heavy brunch we had at a diner in SF. That's about it for my adventures up until now. Photos will follow soon. Byeeeeee!

San Francisco, first impressions

After a 16 hour journey with little sleep I arrived in San Francisco yesterday evening (evening in this time-zone, night in the Netherlands). Flying with Continental is OK, although the time to make it to my second flight was very, very short, so I've only seen a bit of Houston George Bush International Airport while I was running to the customs and immigration desks, then to the luggage belt to get my bag, then to the luggage check-in to get it to my next plane, and then to the gate. But I made it, and during my flight I could sit back and relax, see a lot of desert beneath me, and got a little tour from the sky over Yosemite Park. Our plane had to stay in the air for a bit before it got assigned a gate so the pilot thought it nice to circle over Yosemite for a bit, instead of near the airport. He also pointed out some valleys, mountains and waterfalls, so I already know the way when I'm going there later this week ;)

Rowan picked me up at the airport and together we took the train to the centre of San Francisco. I insisted I wasn't tired, but as soon as I saw the bed I was lost and I fell asleep, though it was already early in the evening, so it wasn't too bad. Today I woke up around 8 and after some breakfast and a shower we were off to behave like tourists in San Francisco. The first stop was at the Apple Store :) Then we just walked along Market Street to the old ferry harbour, which is now a market place. Then we walked back trough the financial district (with the pyramid building that's mentioned in The Da Vinci Code) to China town. In China town we took a cable car to Fisherman's wharf, where I bought a jacket, since I need some more warm clothes. Someone told me that San Francisco is a warm place, so I packed only one jumper, but I'm going to be fine now. I also bought some rechargeable batteries and a plug converter, but both are pretty useless as my telephone charger and battery charger have a different voltage. Silly Americans with their weird plugs and voltages. After the touristy atmosphere at Fisherman's Wharf it was nice to get into a quieter residential place. The architecture here is really nice, though the houses are probably unaffordable. After a stroll down Haight Street we wanted to walk through Golden Gate Park to the sea. Though not even halfway (5 pm) we gave up because we were too tired. We did go to the Shakespeare Garden in which they have planted every kind of plant that is mentioned by Shakespeare, and the beautiful botanical garden. I've uploaded some pics to merpel.nl.

Now it's time for some food.

Sunny and hot Holland

The weekend started Friday after our six-weekly CATCH programme meeting, this time in Rotterdam. Everyone working on CATCH projects was invited to a dinner afterwards, but as it turned out there are only 7 hardcore CATCH people who attended the dinner (the full MITCH team, I'm proud to announce, a SCRATCH person and a CHORAL project leader, the other people at the table were CATCH committee members, the director of one of the cultural heritage institutions and one of the invited speakers of that day). The food was OK, the company entertaining and the bill shocking (at least, for PhD Student standards, but the liqueur soothed that). After that 2/3 of the MITCH team plus the SCRATCH die-hard went out to find a nice pub, but as it happens we didn't know anything about nightlife in Rotterdam so we ended up on a bench near a canal with a bottle of rose from a nightshop :)

Waking up Saturday was OK, apart from the heat. Later that day Steve's family would come from England with a van to bring his stuff, but first we went to the beach with my dad, sister and brother. The water was pretty cold, but warm enough to swim a little. I also took out my surfboard to let my sister get used to balancing a bit on it and paddling. I also got a new key for my container at the surfclub, and found out that someone has been using my towel and my wax had gone, grmbl! Fortunately, the rest of my stuff was still there and in good order.

Around 3:30pm we went back to Leiden where dad put up my new blinds, and wow that makes such a difference!! It still gets hot in here, but less, and it just looks much and much better than the mucky curtains I had before this. Now I just need to finish painting and then my room is really done. After most of my blinds were up we went to help Dave, Heather, Sophie and Steve with getting stuff up to his apartment, although a lot had been done already. This seriously wasn't a good weekend for moving stuff up two staircases, but at least Steve's sort of got a home now (even though he wants to change the pink walls in his bedroom and he still hasn't got a fridge yet). Around 20:00 I discovered the limitations of my kitchen: I can cook for 8 people because I don't have any more cutlery or crockery or pans large enough for more people.


This morning we had breakfast in my garden where it was very nice and cool until the sun turned and the shade was gone. After Dave, Heather and Sophie had left I even dozed off for a little while. The rest of the day I played some guitar, read a little, dozed off again, got ice-cream and cooked some quick and dirty pasta. Steve picked some really good peche melba ice-cream so we ate the whole box. And now it's time to go to sleep, and get rested for my last week until the big summer holidays :)