NBA

Tonight starts again the NBA! I have been waiting for a long time, I really miss it! I already paid my subscription to the ILP of the NBA (http://ilp.nba.com) and I can watch every single game at home, whenever I want within 24 hours, I love it. I recognise it's somehow a "vice", but everybody needs them, right? :)

In Germany it's not that easy to watch the games, and the interest is basically limited to Nowitzki and no more. In Sky the broadcast some games, at least the y did so last season, but usually just "live", that is, from 1am to 5am. No way...

Let's see what happens, I'm looking forward to seeing how Heat is playing with James, if Lakers keep on being the team to beat, if Thunders are improving even more... The regular season is apparently not such a great show, but I like it as well. But of course the Playoffs are great!

I don't like Heat or Dallas, I love Celtics, Bulls and San Antonio. Not that much Lakers, but they are likely the best team. Personally I would like that the final of 2010 were repeated, but I think it's pretty difficult...

Tip-off tonight in your a few hours!!! We'll see what happens!!!

Busy week

I have spent the whole week attending an Intelectual Property course at work. It's been interesting, since you can see very different people related with this matter, patent attorneys, judges, politicians... but I was really exhausted on Friday. Besides, apart from that, I keep trying to study a little bit German in the evening, the exam is in a couple of weeks, so I'm pretty much tired altogether.

Apart from that, weather is getting worse and worse. Temperature is falling down, we are around 6-8 degrees now and it's raining. I just checked and I saw the weather forecast for the next week... and it could already snow on next Saturday!!

This week there were holidays in Spain... of course not in Bavaria! The celebrations are basically in Zaragoza, since the patron saint of this city is Pilar and the holiday is on this day. There is an offering of flowers to the Virgin, and of course, people from Laredo were also in there in the offering! As you see, people in Laredo are everywhere (whenever there is party!)

Weekend without Oktoberfest

Well, this is certainly true, it's the first weekend without Oktoberfest in about a month... but not in Laredo!! Don't you believe me? Just check this picture!


So not only Oktoberfest in Laredo, but the Emperor Charles V himself in there to inagurate it! Well, it's funny to think about it, I can't figure out how Oktoberfest in Laredo could be! I guess it's not like in Munich, at least not that big, jeje, but this is the second year they celebrate it and, apparently, it has been a great success. Well, I think party, alcohol and fun are always a great success everywhere, aren't they?

On the other hand, this weekend I did nothing special apart from preparing the KDS, but I went this morning to run for a while, and I just realized that today was the Munich Marathon, because when I was coming back home I saw Rosenheimer Straße with the runners.

Well, I guess I'll never run a Marathon, but I usually run a very nice path along the Isar that is not that bad. I just checked the length using, of course, jeje, Google maps, and it states that it's 3.2 km long, which means that every time I run around 5.8-6 km.

Taking into account the time I need to run this distance, it means I could maybe run the Marathon in around 4h:45m... could I?? Well, I guess my knees would complain, and not only my knees, jeje, and I'm probably very optimistic, after several kilometers your rythm always drops... You need training and motivation and also being a little bit crazy. Well, I'm probably more than a little bit, but not (so far) in this way! But who knows, maybe one day in the future! :)

Buying an appartment in Germany

Well, I'm pretty sure it's the same in any country, but my first experience with buying an apartment has been in Munich, and since I somehow don't feel 100% sure with my German, I always feel I could have missed something, made a mistake, forgotten a detail...

Actually my German is more than OK, but the specific language used for bureaucratic stuff drives me crazy sometimes. And of course, every country has different regulations, procedures... it's not only a question of language, it's also a question of finding out how it works in here.

Right now I already received a "Meldung" (communication) from the real estate telling me that works already started, by the way, with four months of delay (bureaucratic problems, they claim). No problem, it's fine, but they tell me to make the first payment before the end of October, and what happens? I should also receive a communication for the notary to confirm that everything is fine... but I didn't so far!!

I just gave a call and they told me it could take long, later than in October (bureaucratic problems... again) and it could even be solved in longer than a month. I'm not in any hurry to pay, at all, but I'd rather be said just one thing and not have to talk to the real estate to explain this situation!

Well, as you see, these stories are basically the same everywhere, and somehow all these situations make life "funny". What could I speak about if not?? :)

Oktoberfest is over, Fall is already here...

Yesterday it was the last day of the Munich Oktoberfest. Weather was pretty good during these last weeks, which helped a lot the Oktoberfest to get new records in attendance... and beer! But as though somebody had planified this, the Oktoberfest was yesterday over and weather has already changed today. The day's been rainy, it already seems to be much shorter, plenty of leaves are lying on the floor, no more crowds walking around in the street... Fall is already here! The worst is still to come, at the end of October we'll get again the Winter time, days will get extremely short and in some more weeks snow will likely arrive... C'est la vie... à Munich ! Well, one must always be optimistic, it's not that bad, even nice when it's not that long. And you can always keep nice memories from these last days!!

German exam

I'm pretty busy these last weeks, since at the end of October and beginning of November I will do the KDS (Kleines Deutsches Sprachdiplom) exam, a German exam from the Goethe Institut, equivalent to Proficiency in English. I hope this will be my last German exam, there is nothing else apart from exams for language specialists, it's not my case.
And the funny question that arises is, when can I practice my German?? Yes, I live in Germany, but at work most of the tasks are done in English, and most of my colleagues are also foreigners, so we can speak either English or French, even Spanish! And outside, most of my friends are also foreigners, or Germans who speak Spanish, same situation!
Of course I can watch TV, read newspapers and, being surrounded by the language, you get a lot every day without notice, but you really have to make an effort to read, watch TV and speak German. Nowadays it's so easy to keep in touch with other places and people, to have access to international channels, newspapers, books... You can really forget that you are living abroad, not good if you want to improve the language!
Doing these exams has somehow become my only way to force myself to do so :)

Back again!

Well, here I'm again. It's been almost a year since I last wrote anything. Just my fault, I have always something to write, I can't say "I have nothing to tell"... I'm just lazy...
Today I was just changing a little bit the appearance of the blog, trying to make it a little bit more beautiful, using a very nice picture of mine, taken last year in Laredo. I hope you like it.
I also decided to write only in one language, basically in English. Too much work if I have to translate everything I write. It doesn't mean I won't write anymore in Spanish or any other language. Just a question of being practical!
I will also try to link it together with the facebook, so that people can access from one to the other. I have to adapt myself. I don't like very much the facebook, it's kind of "big brother" to me, but it became the best way to keep in touch or catch up with many friends.
Well, we'll see if I'm not lazy again in some weeks, I'll try to keep it updated!!