Theory 1: The Gym - Resemblance to a big city

Theory 1: The Gym - Resemblance to a big city

After having turned my knee while skiing in the Alpes, I spent the past month trying to walk, stretch, bend and rotate it. But this week I decided that I've had enough and I felt well enough to go to the gym. And focused on my knee "test-drive", I went to the gym alone. And here comes my theory. The same people go to the gym the same hours every day, every other day. You see them again and again. The faces are familiar, the people alien. Because we have this unsigned agreement that we are in the gym to exercise, with the earphones, the iPods, the TVs that decorate the space. Not to talk. I even felt bad that I poked the girl next to me to ask the time. She looked at me scared and bothered, as if she was ignorant of my presence, as if I was an intruder in the iPod life.
This situation reminds me of the bus in the big cities. Every day everyone takes the same bus to work, at the same time, with the same people. But the understood agreement is that we don't talk, we don't ask how each person is doing, although we do know when someone is sick, when someone has not slept well, when someone is happy. And we observe.

Does this bother me? Maybe. Somehow it is reflecting the world we live in. Which I wish were a bit friendlier.

The Return

The Return

This past two months have been crazy: decision making, traveling, learning and no time to write. But here is a summary of all the crazy things going on
1. Eurovision 2007 is starting. Don't miss it. It is a great way to exercise your abs by laughing. I liked the Finish guys, since they made the great break-through. And now what? Back to pop? Boring.
2. I'm starting a new cycle of my life in New York. Very exciting. My opinions about NY though are very unsure. It is a cultural capital, it is alive 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it is _the_ city. Highly unlikely to get bored. Not to mention that I love jazz, and it is the metropolis of jazz music. On the other hand, it is impersonal, dirty, expensive and you cannot see the sky. Unless you go to Central Park. And it's cold, but I'm almost getting used to this after all these years in Boston...Bottom line: I'm excited to be going to NY. I think that independent of the research choices I've made which are the main reason for the move, a chance of scenery, people and research community will be highly stimulating.
3. I traveled to Santa Barbara, CA and also to France. Both of them are excellent places to live and work, and I think that in the far future I would like to live in California or Germany or France. California is much closer to Greece, more laid back, nice people, outdoors activities and great start-up and academic research opportunities. Germany and France have a European feeling, which I'm not sure how to define it. It seems that the daily quality of life is more relaxed, while the quality of work is excellent. I'm not planning anything, but since I just came back from Europe, the comparisons were unwillingly done in my head.

4. DJ Armin Van Buuren. We went to dance with this DJ spinning (he apparently is number 2 in the world) and he had tons of fun, danced non-stop, were happy. If you ever find a club where he's playing, give him a try!

5. Troubles with Turkey. I still do not understand why a country that wants to join the E.U. does not behave friendly to the current E.U. members. Why does the General have to say that there is no need to show flight plans when warcrafts are entering the FIR under Greek control? Don't both countries have more constructive things to do? It is an open question.