TEDxIC

This weekend Imperial College hosted the annual Imperial College TEDx conference. I don't know how many of you know the TED talks, but they are quite famous and really, really interesting.

For those of you who are new to this concept: TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is a series of conferences with the slogan "ideas worth spreading". Even though it has gained a lot of fame over the last years, probably due to the easy propagation over the internet (through Youtube and their web-site), TED has been around for a while (the first conference being held in 1984 in California featuring a demonstration of the first macintosh computer). And as it usually is, these events are impossible to get access to. To be part of the audience you have to be INVITED by TED and then pay a ticket that usually costs around 6000 USD. This is where TEDx comes in handy for the rest of us mortals (for those of you who had forgotten about the little x at the beginning and were wondering how the hell I got in). TEDx are independently organised events from TED, which basically means that any institution that gets a licence from them can host them. And Imperial happens to have one. 

One of the main characteristics of TED/TEDx speakers is their excellence in giving a talk and this was the case at TEDx Imperial College, too. Despite the fact that we did not get to see the worlds macintosh premiere, the speakers were really good and covered a variety of topics ranging from bottom-up social change to emotional artificial intelligence. 

I recommend that you check out some other talks from this series, as they are quite educative and also mostly very interesting!

£50 Toilet Paper

In case you are not able to spend all of your money on regular London prices there is still a chance for you to get your regular groceries and shoppings while spending ALL of your (dad's) salary on it. It is one of London's biggest icons and definitely worth a visit: Harrods.

Harrods has been around for a while (it was founded in 1834, so we will get to witness the 200th anniversary soon) and while it is admittedly very pricy it is beautiful up to the tiniest detail. It is organised in sections and each room is decorated in a different theme, which makes it really interesting to walk around. This, for example is the fish section:

It is truly impressive. The workers, of course are dressed appropriately.

And look at all the sweets!

The motto of this place (Harrods that is, not the confectionery section) is "Omnia Omnibus Ubique"which means something along the lines of "All Things for All People, Everywhere". A motto that does indeed suit this place as is sells electronics, food, clothing and all kinds of wishes that an oil sheikh can have.

Beautiful ceilings and very impressive fruit section:

It was really amusing to see how they sold these spiky fruits (official name) for £35 a kilo while in Singapore I got two huge bags for about £0.5 (I agree that it must be a bit more expensive given that it is a tropical fruit, but this might be a bit too much).

Everything is so proper! At this point I want to refer you to the "Dress code" section of the Wikipedia article about Harrods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods). Apparently quite a number of people have been denied entry, because of their improper looks (mohawks, tracksuits, apparently even big people…). 

I am sorry for the tilted picture, but it is the last shot I could get before the door closed. That right there are the elevators. Not bad, huh?

Of course the staircase is decorated in egyptian style.

It is overall really beautiful and really big. It is like a posh version of Singapore's Mustafa (the huge mall, fans will know).

This is the old Harrods building (the new is shown on the first picture). 

These people must be tired of getting tourist all around the clock. To be honest most of the people there probably just go to see what it looks like (who can blame them, the place is quite stunning), but I guess that is good advertising, too. I'll make sure I get all my groceries from here once I marry into the royal family.

Back in the game

When I moved to London I decided to stop writing the blog, because I thought it might be harder to get exotic pictures in a modern city to be able to post everyday. This last week I clicked on the images of my Google+ account by chance and a wall of pictures from Singapore and Cambridge (and Cambodia and Thailand, Germany, Spain, USA, Japan...) popped up. Just by scrolling down these images I was reminded of all the amazing moments that were behind them and that is when I realised just how valuable these memories are. This was the last push that I needed to go back to writing this.

Updates: I am currently at Imperial College in London and I am busy. Very busy. But I will try to blog every couple of days and give you a flavor of what it is like to live in Europe's capital. 

PS:The building above is the Royal Albert Hall, but I'll tell you about this one soon enough. 

Feels good to be back.

De Madrid al cielo

I am back in town!

After a year around the world I finally get to spend a couple of weeks in my home country Spain! You will hear more from this wonderful place during the next days! Stay tuned! :)

Rock and Roll (literally)

A very fascinating landscape we saw during our Ireland trip was the Burren. It's a region in the West of the island that is covered in karst, like this:

It's mainly made out of limestone and it is such a special environment, that it hosts arctic, Mediterranean and alpine plants all together. 

As you can see in the picture above, the valleys are green and farmed by the owners of the grounds. The top of the hills are covered in the karst (you can see the beginning in the lower and the upper right side of the picture). The small rock walls were built from the stones in the Burren and, according to our guide, this was one of the strategies of the English to keep the Irish busy. 

On top of one of the hills there was this wishing tree. If you tie something to it while wishing something it becomes true (kind of reminds me of the wishing tree in Singapore where you had to throw the coins). :)

The stone formations are really amazing!!

Very diverse landscapes. Good job, Eire!

Tenth College: Darwin College

I know I am a bit behind on the College challenge, BUT since I will be on this island for another year I can come back to Cambridge in case I don't manage to see all of the Colleges in the days I have left...

More good news: today I'll show you one of the Colleges I grew to love the most. A very good friend of mine is a student there which is why I have spent quite some time on its grounds! I give you:

Darwin College!

A very cool thing about Darwin College is the fact that it has an island (with a cute little bridge to cross over). Also the river you can see on the picture ends at one of the punting stations, so people can punt around the island as well.

I assumed that this college was one of the old batch, but 'tis not so! Darwin College was founded in 1976 by no other than the three colleges Gonville and Caius, St' Johns and Trinity and named after one of Cambridge's most famous alumni: Charles Darwin.

Part of the land conveniently belonged to the Darwin family already, so I can see where the name is coming from (not that these theories Darwin was formulating were reason enough to name anything after him, of course...). Darwin College is the first graduate-only college and also the first one to accept both male and female students (at this point I want to add that female students were not regarded as full university members until 1948!! I am in shock! And this is not even that bad! Harvard only accepted women from 1977 on. I would have never guessed that it was that late!)

The island has a very nice path above the water - it's like going on an adventure!

One of the coolest features this college has to offer are the incredibly fancy interior decorations. The room above is where we very casually had tea after lunch once. Does it not look great?

And it's mostly like that (from what I have seen). This is where I was waiting for my friend the other day reading the paper:

In this college you don't feel like a knight (like at King's and co.), you feel like a Sir! 

I'm back!

And this time I don't have any travel excuse!

I know it has been a while, but things have been quite crazy lately! Good news: my next destination is confirmed now. I will be staying in London for the next year doing my Master's at Imperial College so you'll read about this city starting October. Whoop!

Also, the count-down is on! I have a week left here (pretty much exactly) before I fly back to Spain (I will finally be able to include some pictures with the sun here...). So lots of stress packing and preparing... the time here has gone by so fast! A lot of people are leaving apart from me and I have to make the most of the little time I have left with them.

I know I cannot completely make up for the neglect but I hope this picture helps:

Just when you thought you had seen it all...