Musica

Don't worry: I will get back to posting about food. The decrease in number of food-related posts is due to both too much work and job applications to do, and to the fact that cooking for myself is not as much fun as cooking for somebody else too. However, last night I did make something nice, which I will post about soon. And I did throw some nice dinner parties in the past few weeks, so they will be the subject of a few more posts.

But for now, I wanted to post something about.. music! In the past weekend, I went out almost every night to participate to some art-related event. Most of them were related to music, and I really enjoyed them. Here I would like to share what represented a completely new discovery for me: Eldar!
Eldar is a 21 year old pianist, who plays jazz in a way that is just breathtakingly beautiful, amazing, moving, touching, energizing.. I don't have enough words to praise him. He played mostly pieces that he composed himself. The sounds coming from him and his trio just completely filled me with joy and awe. I really didn't want him to leave the stage. I bought his last CD, and it's great, even though some of his energy is missing compared to being in the same room with him.
If you like jazz (and even if you think you don't), please visit his website. You can listen to some of his songs online.

Plus, here you can actually see him play!!!

If I wasn't thirty years old, I would say I'm in love with a music star. :)

Eldar's concert was part of the SF Jazz festival. I love jazz, and I enjoyed the concert so much, that I'm going to try to listen to at least a few more before the festival is over.

Premio 'Arte y pico'

Today I received a blog-award! I'm very happy. :) The award is related to creativity, which is one of the things I care for the most. So, this makes me even happier. :)
I was given this wonderful award by Food Hunter. Thank you so much!
The award originates from Uruguay, and the dolls are made by the Eseya, who writes the 'Arte y pico' blog. Now, I'm going to choose five more bloggers who will receive this award. If you're one of them, please follow the following rules:

1) Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, for creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2) Advertise name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) Share these rules.

The bloggers who will receive the award are..

Simona at briciole

Elena at comidademama

Rosa at Rosa's Yummy Yums

Ruth at Once Upon a Feast

Mansi at Fun and Food

Congratulations :)

Ode a San Francisco

My application season is slowing down a little this week, so I'm taking the occasion to look at my old pictures and see how many wonderful things I have to write about. This year has been full of really unexpected things, and I will for sure remember it for the rest of my life. Here I want to record some of the impressions of the really good things that happened.. and since a lot of them has happened in San Francisco, I want to dedicate this post to this wonderful city. If I were a director, I would set a movie here. The landscapes are just unbeatable. So here are a few snapshots for you, my dear readers, from the non super-touristic places of the city. Imagine some nice music in the background while you start this tour.

We begin with the symbol of the city: the Golden Gate bridge, in all its beauty, from Baker beach. Brave people actually go for swims here. I just had a walk and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. If you look around, you can also find reasons to giggle a little... Baker's beach, close to the bridge in particular, is populated by people who don't like too many clothes on. :)
Here instead is the Palace of Fine Arts. It's a really nice area of the city, and the Exploratorium is there: amazing science museum full of hands-on activities that captivated me. I've actually learned a lot of things by playing around in the museum for a few hours, and managed to visit only about 1/4 of it. Definitely recommended to visit if you have time.

This is the Conservatory of Flowers, in the Golden Gate Park. Beautiful building. I still have to visit inside, I think it's going to be as wonderful as the outside.

And this is another beach, the French beach, close to Lincoln Park: looking west..
.. and East, another view of the bridge:
The fog is coming! This part of the city is almost always foggy.
This is the Thinker, a statue outside the Legion of Honor, another beautiful museum in this part of the city:
If you go on Sunday (at least in Summer time), you'll listen to a free organ lesson-concert. Well, this is my post for today. I will leave you with this last picture of SF by night. This shot is taken from the top of Twin Peaks. Notice the Bay Bridge, on the right side of the picture. It's so beautiful, both during the day and at night. The view at night from this hill is just amazing, my picture is just a very reduced part of it. Going up Twin Peaks is unbelievable: it's like suddenly going in the country side, and it's in the middle of San Francisco!
Obviously, there is a lot more to see of this wonderful city. I hope I captured your attention - I will try to write more about it soon.

Una specie di riassunto

Hello everybody! I'm happy the blog hasn't completely died in these past few months. My intense activity of job applications and finishing up with my projects is still going on at its peak. However, I have at this point a strong desire of writing about something other than chemistry for once.
The title of this post is rather ambitious: 'an attempt of a summary', which obviously won't include all the *** no adjective here *** events of my recent life, but at least will give a few snapshots of the good parts of it.. because in the end, that's what's worth trying to remember, right?

So here we are. The first thing really worth writing about is my trip to Mexico. Mexico is an amazing place and I'm thinking to write a post specifically about it. However, this is a summary-post, so I'll just pinpoint a few things.
Mexico city: crowded, full of life.
(this dance was performed in the main square - El Zocalo -. The square and all the huge surrounding area was filled with people).

European-looking architecture mixed with skyscrapers.

Wonderful food at every corner.
(here are some typical stands: tortas=mexican sandwiches, and aguas frescas are the best fruit juices ever. I tried to resist the temptation at the beginning, then started to try them after a while - I didn't die, so I guess there weren't too many bacteria in the ice that they used. :) )

Best archeological museum in the world.
(Melynda and I spent an afternoon in this museum, and were overwhelmed with awe at each room)

Filled with spirituality
(this was in the Cathedral)

Close to Teotihuacan, the most amazing place ever. This is a view of the pyramid of the Moon from the top of the pyramid of the Sun.
And these are the people climbing on top of the pyramid of the Sun.
It was rather tiring, but getting on the top was an unbelievable experience, which made me feel strangely powerful and close to the Sun. :)

Tulum: AAAHHHH.. I so much want to go back and be there now! The place is the most amazing place I've been in my whole life. We had a 'cabana' on the beach, which meant that I could enjoy this any time of the day and of the night:
In fact, I could fulfill my dream of swimming in the ocean at midnight, and of seeing the sunrise on the ocean.
Both experiences - the stars in the sky and the white foam as the only thing visible around you, at night, and the sun slowly lighting the whole sky on fire, in the morning - were the most unforgettable experiences of the trip, for me.

The other amazing thing of Tulum are the ruins, which we saw at night. Another unbelievable experience: everything was dark and silent, except for the waves hitting against the rocks, and we were immersed in this city of the past, lit with changing colors.
It was truly another experience for the soul.

Two more things were amazing of Tulum: snorkeling at the reef, where we were able to swim with a sea turtle, an amazingly elegant creature, and see wonderfully colored fish, which I had seen only in aquariums before; and swimming in the 'cenotes', natural caves formed by the rain in the carsic terrain of the Yucatan. The water is rather cold, and the landscape is surreal: a castle of stalactites and stalagmites under the water.
(this was part of the complex 'Dos Ojos', highly recommended)

More in the Yucatan: Chichen-Itza. Impressive. Although, a little too touristic. I couldn't feel the same atmosphere as in Teotihuacan, for the huge amount of tourists and vendors that were all around.
However, the big pyramid was amazing. Clapping against the center of each wall create a really strange echo, which I never heard anywhere else, sort of like a bird.

The last memories from the trip are the wonderful people I was with:
My dearest friends Jorge and Luisa, who hosted us in the Yucatan (in Merida)
And of course, my wonderful friend Melynda (here in the 'blue house' in Mexico City).

There are a lot more places I visited in these past few months, for a shorter time (day trips, or weekends), which I would have liked to post about. So again, just one picture per trip:

Point Reyes
Point Reyes is a _huge_ park very close to Berkeley. I really recommend anybody in the area to go there. I've been there only once and really want to go back. This was the ocean view path, in the south side of the park. You can walk miles, close to the ocean. The view is breath taking. And there are small lakes, where one can go swim or canoe, and small waterfalls on the beach, too.

Visit at my friends Simona and Robert, in Trinidad.
Trinidad is in North California, very close to National Redwood Park. Simona and Robert have an amazing house, with a view on the ocean that's just unimaginable. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it. It's even more beautiful than this, which is the view that you have from the light house at Trinidad:
And this is a picture of the redwoods, on my first hike with Simona:
It's hard to capture the atmosphere of this amazing park in a picture.
Last picture for this summary:
I had never seen these beautiful animals before, in 'real life'!

Ok, this is it for now. I still have to show a picture of myself with my newest and shortest haircut. I'll do it as soon as I have a good occasion to take a picture. :)
Also, I'll try to upload all the pictures of the trips on my web album, so there will be a lot more to see. Last but not least, I will try to publish at least some of my recent culinary creations and explorations.. looking forward to finding some time to blog again. :)