Competitions

In my life, I have participated in a lot of competitions (comics, illustrations, tales, grants, posters, ...). I think they are a very good way to make yourself DO things that otherwise you would delay for the future and probably never do. Competitions have two good things: a deadline and an award. If you are like me, the closer the deadline is the more productive you become :). And although the award can be the main motivation, you will soon understand that the work you DO there is always worth even if you don't win them. I also like extending the concept to real life and working with both short and long-term goals.

During the last few months I have participated in several competitions that I would like to list here:

• CAM Creacomic 2008 (comic competition): I wrote and draw a comic about nuclear accidents that happened in Russia after the second world war (check this entry). I won a consolation prize of 500 Euros plus a return flight to Barcelona to attend the Barcelona's Comic festival and get the award in a ceremony. In the picture bellow you can see me in that ceremony.
  
  
  You can read the eight pages of the comic here:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Portugalete 2008 (comic competition): I started this comic during my trip to the comic festival in Angoulême 2008, then I went on with it during a drawjam session with my friends and finished for the Portugalete's comic competition. I have to admit that I didn't put much effort in the comic so I understand why I didn't win any prize. You can read the four pages of the comic here:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Basauri 2008 (comic competition): I drew this comic during my trip to Jaca in Easter for the Basauri's comic competition. When I got back home I added color with my computer. I didn't win any award :(. You can read the four pages of the comic here:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Alhondiga 2008 (comic grant): I applied for this grant which was really good. I didn't get the grant but I think I was close to. The grant consisted of one year working on a comic in the Maison des Auteurs (Angoulême, France) and it was a very nice opportunity to consider the comic as a possible way to earn a living. You can see here the project that I presented with a lot of drawings:
  
  proyecto-comic-alhondiga-daniel-sang.pdf
  


• Lingua Comica 2008 (comic grant): I have just applied for this grant which consists of a collaborative on-line work on a comic with an Asian person during two months and then a trip to Japan to finish it and take part in an exhibition. The grant sounds really good and interesting and it's open to any European and Asian person.
  


• Monbukagakusho 2008 (scholarship): .. and I reserved for the end of the post this great opportunity that life has just brought to me. I have won a Monbukagakusho scholarship and I will go to Japan in April 2009 (for at least two years) to work as a research student at the Center for Embedded Computing systems, University of Nagoya.
  

Paella and Bolos

It is tradition in the place where I work to organize a picnic every year during the beginning of summer.


We usually go to a beautiful part of Cantabria called Ucieda, which is very close to the escudo de cabuérniga (there is a post about a hiking route there).


We typically have "Paella" for lunch (probably the most famous dish of the Spanish cuisine). In the picture above you can see the two delicious Paellas that we had this year. You can also see me pretending to be cooking while the actual cooker, Michael, is taking care that I don't ruin everything! :D


After lunch, we went to play a local game called Bolos (Cantabrian Bowling). In the graphic above I tried to gather a picture of each person that came to this year's picnic. It was a nice day, good for team building!

Larisa in Santander and hill "La Picota"

This weekend my romanian friend Larisa came to visit Santander from Madrid. As she was only staying here for two days we decided to go for the coast on the first day and the next day go to see some hills.

These are Larisa and me in the wonderful beach of Mataleñas, situated between the golf field and the light house. She took a walk along the seashore and felt the cold of the Cantabrian sea on her feet :).

I had to take lots of pics of her because somehow she always had her eyes closed on them! It must be a curse or something hehe.

For the hiking day, we took a FEVE train to Mortera-Mompía. After following the Camino de Santiago for some minutes, the route to the hill "La Picota" starts in the village of Mortera.

Although this is a very low hill, the views you can get from La Picota are remarkable. I took a panoramic photo so you can check what you see from there.

Up in the hill "Monte Torio" I tried to emulate the Atlantean Sword Kata by CONAN, hehe.

On the way back home I got on and off in train stops which lacked of ticket vending machines. As the ticket officer didn't show up, the journey was for free!! haha, I love trains, not only they are comfortable, ecologic and cheap but sometimes even free!! I took this funny picture of a house which had an advertisment literally written onto its wall. It says: "Day menu.. Meals and dinners by order... beds... takeaway paella", haha, I wonder who would choose that place to spend a night.

AEGEE meeting Santander-Madrid

AEGEE is one of the largest student organizations in Europe and it has numerous local groups (aka antennae), and luckily one of them is in my town, Santander. A few months ago I decided to join this organization attracted by one of its killer activities, the so-called Summer Universities. These Summer Universities, SU for shortness, are organized by each local antennae every summer and they consist of a program of different activities spread along two weeks and ranging from language courses to hiking routes for instance. In my case I have been very lucky: this year, first fortnight of September, I will go to the "Inspiring SU", organized by AEGEE-Warszawa.

"It will take place in wildest mountains in central Europe, in place where wolves still are running in woods. This place is called Bieszczady Mountains. You won't find here any SPA hotels or 5 stars restaurants. Only students who are seeking for a real adventure!"

Apart from a few local activities, like the weekly AEGEE meetings and parties, I hadn't participated in any cross-antennae AEGEE activity until a few weeks ago when I went to a meeting with Madrid's antennae. My friend Jorge, which is also the president of AEGEE-Santander and was my partner during my studies on Telecommunications Engineering, took me and another girl to Madrid by car.

The first day, I was on my own because Jorge and others were going to go to a music festival and they already had somewhere to sleep. Fortunately, I could contact with two of my friends who are living and working in Madrid, Gonzalo and Andrés (thank you very much to both of them!!). After walking the streets of Madrid for a while, I met Andrés and he took me to a very nice restaurant in the Real Madrid's stadium, Santiago Bernabeu. We had a great talk there and then we went to have a drink and meet my other friend Gonzalo, who was having dinner with his girlfriend and girlfriend's sister. We all went together to chat in a cafe at Malasaña, an area of Madrid which seems to have a lot of bars. After that, I spent the night in Gonzalo's home where we were watching a horrible movie "Almost 300" until late at night hahaha!! In the morning, Gonzalo gave me a great breakfast and accompanied me until Andrés came.

Then, it was time to meet the first persons from AEGEE-Madrid, Coral and Pilar, in Mostoles. They were very nice and I got the impression that they were used to meet new people all the time. That's one of the good points of this organization. After the presentations, we went to a big commercial center called Xanadú which had lots of shops, restaurants, and even KARTS and a HUGE artificial skii resort!! At night, there was a dinner with the rest of AEGEE-Madrid people which was very funny and noisy. Lots of jokes, songs, laughter.. Then we all went to party until very late. Actually, Andrés and me went back to his home at 9 am in the morning after being walking for a while so he could recover from the alcohol XD.