This is almost my last day of being in Brazil but it is really hard for me to leave here and come back to Miami. I learned a lot of things, made a lot of friends, and started interesting researches here. In last three weeks, I’ve edited one paper and finished the other one and also we start to work on the other topic on software engineering.  I’ve visited many places in Rio de Janeiro and enjoyed the food and coffee of Brazil. Brazilian people are so kind and friendly and you can start conversation with all Brazilians (if they know English). There are many places you can visit but you need to have friends here to learn how you can reach. I can say they have really good public transportation, and you can use boats, buses and subway to reach to everyplace, but the problem is the language and in most places it is only Portuguese which is a little bit annoying.

Beside the people and country, I really enjoyed working at the university, everything and everyone is friendly and also, you have free coffee. My advisor, Professor Clua and his students are really friendly and they invited me to many places. Last day, I and Professor Clua went to sailing and it was first time of me to be in the ocean, I really enjoyed the trip over the ocean and I am very thankful to him to help me to enjoy my time and doing strong research in Brazil.

I am pretty sure that I will return to Brazil to visit other places, I really enjoyed the trip and find many friends, but three weeks isn’t enough to visit everywhere and know the whole country.

 

Week 2 – Brazil

This week was amazing; I’ve just visited Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf.  Christ status is on the top of the tallest mountain of Rio and it is possible to see the whole city from there. But Sugar Loaf is beautiful for another reason. It has a great view over a lake, ocean and the city and also it is a wonderful place for rock climbers. In this week I need to finish a paper before 15^th of this month, so I just attach some pictures from my trip to Rio. I will add more information by next week.

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I am pretty sure this trip will be one of the most important experiences of my life.  Brazil is really beautiful country with kind and friendly people and of course delicious foods.

After arriving to Niteroi, Professor Clua picked me up from Rio airport and he brought me to my current place in Niteroi. My place is quite close to the university (5 – 10 minutes’ walk). After that we went to the place near university for lunch and it was my first delicious meal in Brazil. They do have an amazing system for their restaurants, you must go there and pick a plate and put whatever you want in the plate (rice, meat, salad and …) then you should pay according to the weight of your food.

From the day after it, I just started my work in the university but in the weekend I go to Rio by using a boat which takes 20 – 30 minutes to reach Rio. And I don’t need to say Rio is one of the most beautiful places of the world with a lot of places for visiting including lot of catholic churches and beautiful beaches. For first week I’ve just visited some art museums and beaches which you can see some pictures from it.

The other important thing about Brazil is their people; they are really kind and friendly. I’ve got many friends in last week and they helped me a lot and have shown a lot of places to me.  

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Last week was like other weeks, I need to wrap up everything and finish my project here. So I spent a lot of time on lab and tried to install open virtual switch on ESX hypervisors. For this reason, I needed to install 2 hypervisors and make a physical connection among them, after that I used a windows machine to manage these hypervisors. After installing OS on VMs, I had difficulties to give internet access to these VMs but after several hours of working, I just used my laptop as a bridge and passed firewalls.

I was working really hard and I got tired. On Saturday, I just slept for 12 hours for recovery. 

What I really miss about Raleigh is the great nature of North Carolina. This place is best for camping and enjoys jungles.

 

In last week, I was working hard to make a final note on possible changes in VCL code to get a confirmation from people who are working on VCL at NCSU before leaving. So I spent like 10-12 hours per day on working, but the problem was the lack of coffee. I work at NCSU engineering building and unfortunately there is just one coffee store around this building which closes at 3 pm. So it was hard for me to work after 6 pm and I was so sleepy.

On Friday, I had a meeting with Doctor Vouk and Doctor Wright about my project and he told me to do some experiment on tunneling side and configure a network topology manually. So, last two days I was working on this side and tried to make a connection among these virtual machines. I hope to finish experiments by end of this week and start coding at first days of the next week.

I spent all week working on a conference paper and making arrangements for my travels back to the US. This week concludes a very challenging yet valuable journey for me both academically and culturally.  I appreciate the support received from the graduate students, staff and professors at UNIMI, they made my stay productive, culturally rich and enjoyable. I will absolutely miss the people, coffee and Gelato, if only I could take back Gelato to last a year!

Although it’s time to sojourn home, I leave with a strong foundation set for research to continue and enough happy memories to last a life time. Saluti!

I took a short trip to Lake Como. Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It is the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over 400 m (1320 ft) deep it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe and the bottom of the lake is more than 200 metres (656 ft) below sea-level.

Lake Como is surrounded by gigantic mountains. The mountain sides are adorned with beautiful villas that extend towards the lake shores, it was amazingly beautiful! Breathtaking!  I took a boat ride from Lecco to Bellagio, then from there to Varenna. Despite the forecast of perfect weather, sure enough, rain fell for most of my trip. Either way, Lake Como is a definite must see in any weather.

See pictures below:

  

 

 

That’s it for this week, Ciao!

 

That’s what’s going on here at Bordeaux. Plenty of fiesta! It is all what this week is been about.

Bordeaux fête le fleuve

Every other year it is celebrated the Bordeaux River Fest, alternating with “Bordeaux fête le vin” (Bordeaux Wine Fest). A variety of theme related activities take place at La Garonne riverbank. There is music, fireworks, expo, etc. The main activities last the weekend, but some activities like expos may stay for a couple of weeks. Although I missed the weekend activities (didn’t find out about it until after it), I was able to attend the expo at La Garonne. The expo is a set of containers, each one with a different topic related to the life of the river: economics, sea life, etc. It’s a simple yet effective way to educate about both biological and economical impact of the river on Bordelaises’ life. Next year it’s the turn for the wine, so for those of you with such taste, save the date!

La Garonne River, the subject of the celebration 

 

 Pont de pierre, over La Garonne

 

 Miroir d'eau (Mirror of water) at Place de la Bourse

 

Containers at the Expo "Le bonheur est dans le fleuve" (Happiness is on the river)

Bordeaux fête la musique

June 21^st marks the beginning of the summer. This solstice is quite an event, because every year this day the Music Fest takes place around the world. It was initiated here in France a while ago, and many cities have joined the initiative. The event is like a sampler of every musical genre and style on existence. There are different music-related groups spread on the city center, on the streets. So you can literally walk from one genre to the other. This one I missed because something with a higher priority came in at last moment.

Les épicuriales

Every year, a display of the gastronomy of Bordeaux takes place on this sort of “food fair”. For around 2 weeks, one street lodges around 20 locations where chefs of the area offer the best of their cuisine. So in one street you go from seafood to Basque plates to ice cream and bakeries, all of them side by side. I can call this Paradise!

My office mate Hugo at Les Épicuriales

But, Whyyyy?????!!!!!!!

As those of you who have read me before may have notice, I’m on a quest for healthy food. This pursue took me to a far away commercial center where the presence of a big supermarket carried the promise of variety and –maybe- the fulfillment of my request. As this wasn’t really accomplished, I left with 2 moderately heavy bags. When I got to the tram station, I noticed nobody was there. Ah! I remembered on my way there, a banner on the tram said something like the service would be stopped at 8:00 PM. It was 10:00 PM already. So, I walked to the station where I should get the other tram. I thought it was a matter of the connecting tram and no the whole line. As I arrived there, some people were gathered. But I saw the banner again at the stop. I asked somebody if that means the service for this tram is stopped and he said yes. But, why?! Aren’t they supposed to service until 1:00 AM? Yes, they are, but drivers are on strike! I faced two options. Option #1: walk home. I know the tram doesn’t take that long and it is slow, so maybe I can make it. Option #2: take a bike. Most tram stations allow you to take a bike for free if you return it within half an hour, or for 1€/hr. Yeay! I love biking, so this is it. It turns that my credit card wasn’t accepted by the system (you need a credit card to withdraw the bike, and it needs a special local code). So walking it is. It took me 53 minutes under a cold-wind 54° night… without a jacket. A lesson for you, my readers: when abroad, try to stay up to date of the news, it could spare you a bad time. I guess that being buried under papers the whole week didn’t inspire me to read anything else, and I don’t have TV here.

More fun at the job!

Please, PIRE people: don’t you go and think we don’t work here. It just happens there is a lot of fun at workplace these days. Every year, INRIA welcomes the summer with a “pique-nique”. They offer a lunch and the participants are asked to bring their specialties for dessert. The purpose is a social gathering for the institution members to interact in a relaxed way.

 

 

 

Also, every month there is an activity called “Unithé ou café?” (“A tea (united)” or a coffee?). These gatherings have the purpose that all the teams working at INRIA get to know each other and their respective lines of work in a festive yet educative way. This month it was the turn for MAGNOME, the team that I’m working with here. Below is a flyer of the event.

 

From left to right: Students Razanne (Syria), Laetitia (France), Nicolás (Chile); MAGNOME team’s Director Dr. David Sherman (USA), students Rodrigo (Chile), me, Natalia (behind me – Russia), MAGNOME team’s assistant Anne-Laure (France), Tiphaine (France).

Hi!

Well, it seems that I've been posting to my personal blog while I should be posting here! To see my previous posts, please go to this link. Also, you can view them from the "View all posts" link above. From now on, I'll post here.

 Thanks!

The weather has improved much this week, with sunny skies and comfortable walking temperatures. So on Sunday,  I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went north to Mantavo (formally Mantua).

Mantua’s historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the whole country itself. Mantua is noted for its significant role in the history of opera, and the city is known for its several architectural treasures and artifacts, elegant palaces or palazzi, and its medieval and Renaissance cityscape.

 
On my arrival, I was lucky to stumble upon a lively road march in the streets. I later found out that the celebration was associated with their independence. Lots of musical bands played while the locals cheered them on through the streets.

 

The Road March:             

I visited the Palazzo del Te, Palazzo Ducale and the San Sebastian museum (which was also once a palace). The palaces were well persevered, most rooms had their own theme, with breathtaking ceilings. The workmanship was impeccable, lots of gold included and the murals were out of this world. Should I even mention the paintings, incredible!

 

Unfortunately, pictures are not permitted inside the palaces and museums but I managed to snap a few pictures outside. 

Palazzo del Te:

Palazzo Ducale Square:

 

 

Museum San Sebastian:

 

That’s it for this week, Ciao!