Monthly Archives: August 2012

Wednesday night – feliz cumpleaños a mi Papa

Leave a comment

Busy and fun day here in Mexico City.. Let me start by wishing my Dad a happy 82nd birthday. I was able to catch my mom and dad on Facetime this afternoon to wish him a happy birthday

feliz cumpleaños (Happy Birthday)  Pa.. you’re an inspiration to me.. and I love you very much !

Beautiful day here today..

began with guanaba juice.. how cool s that ?

I gave tow university talks today which involved multiple hour long drives in the car with Friends Javier, Selene and Ed.. the traffic here is terrible.. which is ironic.. because one of the things I’m here to discuss is traffic prediction.

first talk was at Monterrey Tech , Mexico campus.. I was here last year as well. there were about 800 (!!!!) ollege and high school kids tfor my talk.. Despite some early equipment problems (my laptop wouldn’t sart) the talk went pretty well.  I got a chance to talk to a bunch of the kids after my talk. I’m SO impressed with the students.. and the engineers here in Mexico. they are smart.. an they have… heart… it’s the ‘calor humano’. i  think it’s really a special blend. I think these guys are going to make a big difference in the world.

Here’s the student committee that organized the talk.. They were really great hosts.

Between talks, Javier took us to a restaurant that specialized in regional food.. We had huitalachoche (corn fungus) crepes, Hybiscus flower enchiladas, enchiladas in walnut creme sauce (in the colors of the Mexican flag) an enchaladas con mole (chocolate spice sauce).. all really good.. I wanted to roll in the sauces.

Then talk number 2 at ITAM..   I visted here last year as well. Again a really warm welcome, really smart kids.. great questions. I left feeling really happy that the world is getting these new nerds !

Javiear’s faterh even came to see the talk. It was a real pleasure getting to meet him. Youreally build connections with these visits.

Here are the ITAM organizers.

Then a quick (never quick here)  drive home. then out for dinner with my IBM posse.   First a quick view out my window. Mexico city is surprisingly green and lush !

First stop was the museum of folk art.

there was a great exhibit of glass there.. we go to meet the designer..

then we looked around at the folkart.


the building itself was an art piece !


here’s our dinner crew.

We went to Tacuba. downtown . the same place that Diane and i ate at last time we were in Mexico city a year ago.. great place.. !


Selene and Holy with matching shirts.

Mauricio and Gabriel

huge portions.. These were really good cheese Rellenos

When I walked in tongiht, I noticed the waitress that had served diane and me last year. she was very helpful.. trying to find vegitarian stuff on the menu via my lousy spanish.. I asked Selene to help me ask her if she was the same person. even before we did, she told us she rememeberd me.. and was glad to see me back..now thats’ pretty cool .. no ?

 

ok. almost 2 AM and I just finished up work for the day.. time to get some sleep. More tomorrow

Happy birthday again Dad.. I love you

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – Tres tristes tigres

2 Comments

Just got to my hotel room in Mexico city after a fun and long day in Guadalajara.. or ‘Guad’ as the local call it. I just love that city.. lots of cool people great food.. nice weather.. i’ll go back there whenever they need me.
Im here as part of an “RTLE’ which is like an in-service training days for the technical leaders here. They’re treated to (subjected to) a bunch of talks and workshops given by folks from their own technical leaders and other leaders from other parts of the company . I’m here i think as comic relief. My assignment was to give a career development talk.. instead I gave a talk on the importance of Play and fun in your job. Its a theme that keeps coming up in my life these days.. same kind of thing I discussed with the high school kids at MMU when I accidentally set off the fire alarm back in May. Isn’t it funny that when we talk to others we’re really talking to ourselves sometime ? This talk was about reminding myself to remember to have fun in my job.. to make a plan to be brave to not worry so much and to do rather than talk.. i hope other folks enjoyed it because I really did..

I did learn a great new tongue twister in spanish last night.. or trabalinguas as they call them here.

Tres tristres tigres, tragaban trigo en tres tristes trascos sentado en un trigal, en tres tristes trasto, tragaban trigo tres tristes tigres.

that means.. three sad tigers carry wheat in three sad bowls sitting in a field  en three sad bowlst hree sad tigers carry wheat.

which goes along with my other favorite :

Pancha plancha con quatros planchas quantos panchas Pancha plancha ?

which means Plancha irons with 4 irons how many irons does plancha iron with ?

Not too many pictures from the day because I was talking the whole time.. Here’s what I have. I really need a new camera..

The crowd looking enthralled (?)

 

 

My friends Manuel and Gabrial getting inventors awards (congrats guys !)

Our eminent  imminent panel..

La Jeffa Selene

the very nice coms folks.. they helped us record the whole event and helped us speak with the journalists.. (My spanish is getting better.. but not so great that I’d want to be interviewed in spanish )

Cool demos of traffic prediction stuff !

it’s only 3 PM ? ? ? !

A panel of women.. I snuck in like a ninja to take this picture.. I escaped before they kicked me out.

our krewe aiting at the airportfor our flight to MEX> (Christy dale Selene and Holly)

Holly’s ubercolorful luggage.

ok.. im happy and beat…

more tomorrow..

nite all nite sam

-me

 

Monday night – guadalajajajajara

Leave a comment

Good day in gadalajajajajajajara.. I saw many old friends, met lots of nice new people.. and  got some very useful work done in the bargain. The people here are so warm and friendly that my smile muscles hurt form smiling at them..

 

The day was busy with meetings, thoguh the main event is tomorrow (wish me luck).. I did have one quick excursion out mid day with Sergio and Carlos to buy supplies for a demo (not sure what demo yet) for my talk tomorrow.

we ate a late lunch after an emloyee meeting in the giant room full of smiling people

i loved lunch.. there’s a hot sauce bar..

and multiple choices of types of hot peppers.

i had tuna (not the fish.. but cactus fruit) for desert..

here’s fernando and sergio at lucnh

the rest of our lunch crowd

I ran into this guy that tied this band around my wrist laast time I was here (1 year and a week ago) .. the band is about volunteering at hospitals.. For some made up superstition, I never remove things from my wrist until they fall off.. so I showed him I was still wearing it !

After work we went downtown to Tlaquepaque. the old part of town.. very beautiful streets and stores..


great public art outside the galleries …. everywhere !

here’s katrina.. the lady of death.. her image is everywhere.. they bring them out on  El Dia de los Muertos  in November

Here we are in the town square .. thats ana and John.. John’s from Indiana.. ana’s from here.

Ana took us to a cool candy store.. here are chili covered mango pieces

When Holly,and Romilla’s plane got in, we all met at Casa Fuerte for an excellent dinner..

I had grilled cactus and cheese rellenos.. the best I think I’ve ever had

even the sinks are pretty !

Ajhhh Sr. Cantinflas.. nice to see you again !  Lookign pretty good for 101 years old .

here’s our blurry good bye (I need a new camera, quick.. it’ll be my 7th 🙁 )

Then back to the hotel to try and invent soemthign for tomorrow.. I don’t think the hotel would want to know what I mad or how I made it.. .. we’ll see if it works.

OK.. folks.. time for sleep..

Thanks mexico for making me feel so welcome as always .

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – inside Guadalajara

Leave a comment

Hello from Guadalajara Mexico..I’m down here for some business meetings for the next couple of days. It’s been a lonnnnnng day. I found it was much cheaper to fly here out of montreal than it was to fly out of Burlington. I figured it woul d take me an hour and a half to get to Trudeau airport.. But it took nearly twice that due to 15 north being closed around Montreal. Luckily wonderful Diane convinced me to leave lots of extra time to make my flight.. So I di.. But that meant waking before 5 am.
I spent the entire day on a plane.. But it’s basically north south.. So no jet lag.. It was Ctually a great time to get things done. Finished my talk, worked on a study I’m doing (and enjoying) .. And Petty much cleared my in box.. Which is a huge feat !
I got to GDL at around 6 .. My friend Selene and her daughter marinando met me at the airport and dropped me at my hotel. I’ve had the whole evening to myself and used it pretty well on work. I’m going to have plenty of socializing the next couple of days.. So another several hours of work in a small clean,well lit and air conditioned space was a treat . Here’s the view from the room


Also a treat was the very cool room service dinner I just finished,l I rarely eat out when I’m Lone.l I prefer to by food and cook it in a room (ever cooked a grilled cheese with an iron ? I haven’t yet.. But going to try) tonight, though, I splurged and ordered traditional jalisco Specialties.. I had grilled paella cheese with green tomato sauce and worm seeds (huh ?) and pumpkin flower, corn land poblano soup.. It came with corn tortillas, guacamole and beans. All vegetarian and all delicious


Since I don’t have anything rally exciting here.. Let me tell you two interesting blog relate stories that have occurred in the last week. Both are kind of bittersweet

In the first .. While Diane, gabe, max and I were hiking a week and a half back, we spent a night at Taylor lodge. I noted in my blog that the lodge was dedicated to Debo Laplante , an old friend of ours that used to play soccer with Diane . Debo died in 2007. A few days after I posted that. I got a note from Debos sister J,. She’d just been randomly googling her sisters same day I wrote my post. She was happy to hear we were thinking of her sister. There’s more here though.. Just last night Diane and I were at our friend Dana’s going away celebration and we began talking to a guy R who we quickly recognized as Diane and Debos soccer coach from the early 1980’s. He was actually dating debo when she died…and was glad to hear about our recent resonance with Debos memory

The other story also has a sad twist. A woman L, who’s a songwriter wrote to tell me that a friend of here’s had recently died suddenly. She was looking for a recording of a song she’d written called “we do not die’. She found my blog because my friend Sybil, had sent me that song after Sam died. Sybil had gotten it when her boyfriend Darius died. Darius was a good friend of lynda’s

It’s a small world and our spirits keep swirling around in it..it seems

Ok.. Gotta sleep off those worm seeds
Nite all, nite Sam
-me

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad