Anywayssssss, on to more topical things. Xmas with Werner and José was, as expected, great! We had a lot of fun together and of course a great xmas meal. Particularly the Portuguese [i]vongole[/i] (ie clams or cockles), using the recipe of my friend Marta, were AMAZING! I think I am officially a vongole-fan... anyways, after xmas, there were a few days of work (at home, as the university was closed), before flying to San Francisco, via NYC and Salt Lake City. Unexpectedly, everything went well and I actually made it to SF in time for New Years Eve. however, I was completely exhausted and didnt do much. Also, the friends I was staying with were very, very pregnant (which reminds me: happy day of birth to little Robert who arrived in the world today! We are having a little baby-boom around us. With 3 kids born in the past 2 weeks and 3 new people telling us they were pregnant as well....).
San Francisco was, of course, beautiful as ever before.
However, I wasn't there for its beauty, but instead for its Job Market. The annual American Economic Association meeting took place in SF this year and the annual Job Market is directly associated with that. I had number of interviews, some of which went better than others, and it was all quite stressfull and unsettling. Visiting university representatives in their hotel suites, where the interviews were taking place, and running through the city, meeting up at the Hilton with lots of random acquaintances: it was crazy! However, it has sorted to some effect already, having already been called back by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin, who invited me to Berlin in February for the next (and supposedly final) stage of the application process. So maaaaaybe, we might end up moving to Berlino!
Anyways, at the end of the job market, I had rented a car with which I drove to Yosemite National Park (my 34th wonder from the Hillman List), which is absolutely stunning!
I had two days of driving through the park and doing lots and lots of hiking and it was great. F.ing cold, but great. Lots of snow and all, but great... The hotel I had was also very pleasant, with 2 large double beds and free internet (for less than 50€ per night), so it was a great success. Driving back to San Francisco wasn't much fun (very small car between lots of big trucks + I hate driving + it was really busy around SF), but at least I survived. Quite cool is the fact that fuel really is ridiculously underpriced in the US. For my nearly 1000km of travel in really mountainous (fuel-burning) areas, I only spent about 25€ of fuel!!!
After that nice experience, I took a night flight to New York City, where I had the day to spend. Of course, i started of with collecting my 35th wonder: the New York Skyline:
Seen here from the Top of The Rock (ie the Rockefeller Center). I then went to Time Square and to meet up with my cousin Juli, her husband and their newborn (about 6 months old: jeepers creepers, we really are in the middle of a baby-boom). Then Central Park and back to the Airport for my night flight back to Milano. Obviously, by the time I got home I was veeeeerrrry happy to see Fedor, but also verrrrrryyyy jetlagged. But by the time I could go to Uni again (Monday) I had mostly gotten over that (the jetlag, that is).
So this week has been all about work, work, work, continuing to try and finish the aforementioned analysis and preparing my poster presentation for the London Job Market, which is where we'll be going on Friday. London Hilton, here we come!!!
Ciao,
OJ
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