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Filed as General with 2 replies
While I was in Spain, I was learning Spanish on the fly and one of my more winning attributes is a devil-may-care attitude that lets me look like an idiot without it bothering me too much. That helps me get some practice in, but it also guarantees the people around me no end of amusement as I mangle the language. Here are some of the more amusing failures I have had trying to speak the language in Madrid translated as they would appear in English:
“Do you speak Sangria? I would like to speak Sangria please.”
To me “habla” sounds like “have” in English so I just swapped them.
“I have lived in Madrid for two tables this year.”
tables = mesas
months = meses
This is pretty easy to do, but some of our customers from Columbia gave me a little smile when I pulled this one.
“I am an electrical January from the United States.”
engineer = ingeniero
January = enero
Seriously, can anybody tell the difference here? It’s like “In-He-NEE-ero” versus “A-nairo” and I think it should count anyway.
“For lunch I would like to eat the ribs of a Chinese man.”
It’s very easy to get these mixed up, but it’s a good way to horrify the waitress and amuse your work colleagues.
That’s it from your friendly neighborhood Sangria-speaking, cannibalistic electric January.
P.
Filed as General with 5 replies
12/3/2008
My life is basically a sappy love story with a lot of background noise. My wife is an amazing, intelligent, beautiful lady with amazing drive, and a heart big enough to forgive all my many flaws. She is studying Spanish at one of the top universities in the country and even there she excels. She’s currently in Spain doing research on a Fulbright grant for Spanish swordplay and honor in Golden Age Spain.
A pretty girl with a sword and a fencing book... Yep... I'm lucky!
We had always intended that I would spend the year with her in Spain, and my company (Digi International) has been really wonderful working with me to try and get a work permit and visa to enter Spain. It’s unprecedented how much they have done to assist in this goal of spending time in Spain with her while she digs through the libraries of Spain looking for clues.
Everything was going very well and in November, I returned to vote in the election and finish the final stages of the paperwork for my work visa. Unfortunately, between the time I submitted my application and November 4th, the global economy went into a rocketsled-powered deathspiral into the nether regions of Hell. Spain already had a huge population surge due to immigration and they stopped issuing any new work permits for foreign workers.
Article on European Work Visa Restrictions
On Friday, November 14, 2008 my work permit was denied. My company asked for another meeting and an appeal with special consideration.
On Friday, November 21, 2008 that appeal was also denied, which triggered a new plan to travel there on tourist visas for up to 90 days in any single 6 month period.
On Wednesday, December 3, 2008 I was informed that this also could be an issue and Digi didn’t want me to do this. In the space of three weeks I’ve gone from spending my dream year with my wife in Spain, to being:
- wifeless
- homeless
- dogless
- carless
It’s a tough break for us and I’m a bit glum about the whole thing. Seriously, I married pretty well and when you get to go home to a girl like that, losing her for 10 months is pretty painful. Fortunately, my life is a cheesy love story so if the boy loses the girl, we know how it is going to end.
P.
Filed as General with 1 reply
11/24/2008
Madrid
In September and October, I lived in Madrid which is a city of stone. The central part of the city looks traditionally Spanish with tall 4-story buildings dating back to the 17th century (or even older). Most buildings are constructed of large stone blocks and the open spaces are typically paved courtyards lined with cafes. There are green parts of the city, but they tend to be an exception rather than a rule where we live.
Calle de Fomento
The little old ladies will stand out on the balconies to watch the people walking around below and occasionally scold them. It’s an older and prettier part of the city and we’re right across from a police station so I’m guessing we’re pretty safe. The apartment is near the Plaza de España which is a bustling part with lots of tourists. (You can spot a touristy area easily by looking for a nearby Starbucks.)
Don Quixote in the Plaza de España
To get a sense of Madrid, imagine moving to New York except that nobody speaks English. The city is old and has spent a lot of money over the course of its history to build monuments and palaces. It has statues, parks, and museums and all sorts of big and impressive things. One of the most significant is their metro which at times feels like it continues to descend forever. I have a 40 minute ride on it in the mornings to get to the Matrix office. The crew working for Matrix is very friendly and they’ve been helping me with my Spanish and inviting me out to lunch.
Lunches and Cafe con Leche
Spanish lunches are big and different from what Yankees are used to. They start at 2PM and typically have at least two courses with a desert. The most interesting of these was probably the one I had with the little fish coiled up biting their own tails. I’m not use to my lunch looking at me but I’m making do with it.
Coffee at the plaza de Santa Domingo in Madrid
The Spanish coffee makes up for any number of slightly odd lunches. Even the best Starbucks coffee is a mooncast shadow compared to what you get from any corner bar in Madrid. That’s been the biggest culture shock returning to the United States. American coffee bars can’t make anything but bitter coffee. Spanish coffee is thick, strong, but also very smooth. I have been religiously trying to find a coffee house in the U.S. that makes anything close but whenever I try to explain this to a barrista, I always end up disappointed.
I also found out a dirty secret. While Starbucks may offer 98 million different coffee drinks on their menu, they all use the same bitter espresso beans. That means if one of their coffees is bitter and yucky there won’t be any other drinks you can get that will be any better. The worst part is that this is probably true for any place that serves espresso-based drinks. You can coach your server 9 ways from Sunday, but the largest difference between good coffee and bad is the beans and the roasting technique. I have to admit that this was a serious blow to me when I got back and I may have to give up drinking coffee from Starbucks and others of the same ilk. I think the only real solution is to call up a specialized coffee distributor and get something I can make at the house.
The city goes crazy…
After Mary and I got to Madrid there was a big festival in Europe for the full moon and the city went a bit crazy with fireworks, street theater and all sorts of wild things. Imagine walking around the city at 1 AM and the streets are packed with adults, kids, and even people pushing babies in strollers.
The Royal Palace was lit pink by placing red gels over all the nearby street lights.
The Royal Palace in Red and a Giant Ruby with a trapped Celloist
They were projecting giant lips on the wall of one large building and playing loud kissing noises over the plaza.
Showering us with Kisses and Blurry Ghosts
They filled the fountain of Poseidon with giant rubber ducks.
Mary and the Enormous Ducks
The world goes crazy…
The global economic collapse has meant that my work permit paperwork hit a brick wall. In order to get a work visa, you need a work permit, proof that you aren’t a criminal, proof that you are healthy, proof that you aren’t a drug user, and enough organizational talent to leap through a series of bureaucratic hurdles that are intended to discourage anyone who isn’t seriously dedicated.
Unfortunately, Spain isn’t issuing any new work permits to foreign workers, is paying people to leave, and is one step away from just kicking foreign workers out. That leaves me in a very strange position. In California, I am homeless, wifeless, dog-less, and car-less. I’ve been staying with friends who have been great and very sympathetic.
The rule is that a European Union “no questions asked” tourist visa is good for up to 90 days in any single 6 month period which is how I was in Spain for two months while I was waiting for the work permit to clear. Now it looks like I’ll be doing a “3 months there, 3 months back” migration pattern.
The current plan is:
- United States — November 3, 2008 – February 3, 2009
- Spain — February 4, 2009 – May 5, 2009
- United States — May 6, 2009 – August 5, 2009
- Spain — August 6, 2009 – ??
That provides me with a 3 month break between visits which refreshes the tourist visa. It is not great, but if this is my sob story from the Great Depression 2.0, I can live with it. Mary and I are regularly chatting on Skype and while it sucks, we’re getting through things well enough.
I blame my enforced monastic lifestyle on George W. Bush and all the other Republicans that happily deregulated the banking industry. The moment deregulation interfered with my marital relations, it became painfully local politics and if I wasn’t already a crazy liberal, this would have pushed me over the top for sure. As it is, I train 5 nights a week for my fencing exam and I still feel the need to hit someone more often than not.
~P
Filed as General with no replies
11/5/2008
One of the conditions I made when work rescheduled my flight home was that I be back in the U. S. in time to vote in the Presidential election. I arrived in Sacramento at 7:30 PM the night before the vote after about 20 hours of traveling and the next morning I walked to my polling station.
Davis Polling Station
I cast my ballot and and then that night I watched election returns on the Internet during a conference call with my wife, my brother, and our friend Johnny.
Voting for Obama
Filed as Fencing, Geek Stuff, General with no replies
11/4/2008
Hola Amigos y Amigas!
My name is Puck Curtis and I am an electrical engineer and fencing teacher.
Behold the Geekness of Me
As far as the geek side goes, I specialize in embedded systems and I work for Rabbit Semiconductor. Embedded systems tend to be very small computers that don’t require much power and specialize in a bang-for-buck rather than processing power. If you stack a Rabbit device up against the latest ATI Radeon 4870×2 you will notice the following things:
ATI Radeon 4870×2
ATI Radeon 4870x2
Review at Guru3D.com
- 2 processors at 750 MHz each
- 2 Gigabytes of GDDR5 memory
- 2 x 256-bit memory bus
- 2.4 terraflops per second
- ~160 Watts of power consumption
- $539
Rabbit RCM5400W
RCM5400W WiFi computer, webserver, and all around cool thingy
It’s easy to see that the little Rabbit loses when it comes to sheer number crunching, but this little guy will work as a WiFi device with encryption, serve web pages, and act as the brain of a robot all at once while only pulling just a bit of power. If you shut down the WiFi the power consumption drops even more. This is why I consider embedded design part of the Green Economy. Lower power means lower carbon footprint and the world is a bit better off for it.
Fencing
When it comes to fencing, I’m trained as an Italian classical fencer and I currently hold the teaching title of Provost at Arms through the San Jose Fencing Master’s Program. This title is specific to classical Italian foil, epee, and sabre. On December 13, 2008 I will take the fencing master’s exam and if I pass and present an acceptable thesis, I will be able to call myself a Maestro of classical Italian fencing.
I also teach historical fencing and sit on the board of the Tattershall School of Defense and I am a historical fencing coach at the Davis Fencing Academy. I have been fencing within the SCA since 1992 and my current interests are Italian rapier, Italian longsword, and Iberian swordplay from Montante (greatsword) to sidesword. I am one of the two people responsible for maintaining the Destreza Translation and Research Project.
I spent the last two months in Spain training with the historical group of Spain, La Asociación Española de Esgrima Antigua (AEEA).
Welcome to the blog,
Puck
