Life

This post is simply an homage to my new Spanish friends. The story is straightforward. As often happens, I found myself in Brussels for work. This time it was only for one day, so I arrived the evening before the meeting and wandered around the city on my own. I went for a beer at the wonderful Delirium Café, where I met three Spanish people. It was very easy to start talking with them. We Italians and Spaniards do not usually have much trouble connecting with other people and starting a conversation. On the contrary, the problem is often making us stop talking, but that is another story. ...

This post is just an homage to my new Spanish friends. The story is pretty simple. I’ve found myself in Brussels because of my job, as it often happens. This time it was for one day only, so I got to Brussels the evening before the meeting, and I was around, alone. I then went for a beer (at the wonderful Delirium Café ) were I stumbled upon 3 Spanish people. You know, it was quite simple to get in touch with them. We - the Italians - and the Spanishes don’t have any particular probelm in gettin in touch with others and talk (on the contrary, often the problem is to make us stop talking… but that’s another story…). So, to make the long story short, the three Spanishes were part of a bigger group, coming mainly from Madrid and Extremadura (Merida). A group of friends who - once each year - take some days off in the Carnival period and go to one European city. Wonderful! Simply wonderful. I could practice my Spanish (which is not dead actually, even though the real mystery remains: where the heck did I learn Spanish? I can’t remember… but it doesn’t matter…). In the end we had a dinner together, and they were so nice that they even offered the dinner. Great! ...

I have various friends and acquaintances outside my work circle with whom I often end up talking about my activities. Every time, surprisingly, I discover how hard it is to explain what happens at these conferences or meetings I sometimes attend. Having already given up on answering the fatal question “what do you do for a living?” when asked by non-specialists over 70, I now try to explain how a congress such as EGU works. I once tried saying: “I work in EPOS, a European project dealing with the integration of research infrastructures for Earth sciences; now I work on metadata collection for the creation of a catalogue that will allow data discovery and integration.” The result was bewildered looks, mechanical “ah, interesting” replies, and other scenes I will spare you. ...