Christmas Family Florida Life Miami USA

This is the third year I'm spending the holiday season with my family in Miami, Florida. On the 24th we went to one of my cousins' house and we had typical Cuban food: lechón asado (roast suckling pig), black beans, rice, Cuban bread, and yucca. Although it's Winter here in Miami, we always eat outside because the temperature hardly ever drops below 68°F / 20°C. Also, since I have a huge family, our dinner is more like buffet-style, we have to serve ourselves and carry our own plates. We exchanged gifts on the 25th and had another dinner at my other cousins' house (she made lasagna this year!). After that, we sat outside and all my cousins played different instruments and sang happy songs.

Hope you guys are having a wonderful holiday season! :)

California Google Silicon Valley

Two weeks ago I visited the Google's Headquarters in Mountain View for the second time and would like to share with you guys some of the cool stuff I saw inside. From the outside the headquarters look like a regular American college campus.

Ok, maybe not so regular.

When you go inside things get a bit crazy. It feels like a mixture of a science museum, college dorm, playground, the smart house that falls in love with Marge from The Simpsons, and a hippie commune. 

A full-scale replica version of the SpaceShipOne

180 degree screen with images from Google Street View. Who knows where that is? :)

A Google Maps camera car

A giant Android phone that lets you play games

One of the meeting rooms

A micro-kitchen, which has free coffee, drinks and snacks. Most of the things they have are healthy and organic. 

Chewing gums at the micro-kitchen (for free too)

You can never forget you are at Google because you can see its logo EVERYWHERE!

You can do your laundry while at work... For free, of course!

If you need to take a power nap you can use this nap pod

One of the cafeterias where Google workers can have lunch and dinner. Also,
every Thursday they do here an one-hour internal presentation with Q&A hosted by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in which they show some products that are being developed by Google. Only Google workers can attend those presentations though

One of the Google building's lobby. And yes, that thing on the right side is a slide!

The slide in more detail

After the slide you can just go and play snooker

England Europe Friends London Travel

Last month I went to London for the first time in my life. I was possibly the only European person who had never set foot in the UK before! Since I didn't have that much time, I had to squeeze this trip in my only free week while I was in Europe, so I ended up being there for a little bit more than 48 hours. I was lucky enough to have very close friends living there, who showed me around and offered me accommodation (thank you, Sara!). I tried to walk as much as I could because for me that's always the best way to "feel" the city. There were a lot of places that I didn't go to because two days wasn't enough to see a huge capital with so many attractions like London, but at least I got a taste of it.

I loved the city, it was so cosmopolitan and there are so many different things you could do there! I think this is best about Europe: you can take a cheap flight with Ryanair (or any other low-cost airline company) and in one or two hours you're in a completely different place with a completely different culture. And you can do this with a very tight budget! I think this is something I took for granted until I moved to the United States. 

I'm going to show you some of my favorite pictures of this trip. My Italian friend Sara is in most of them since I spent most of the time there with her. We met in my year abroad in Tallinn, Estonia, and we were inseparable! I also met up with two close English friends, Lissy and Mikey, that I met in my (other) year abroad in San Diego. I guess that's the good thing of living abroad, you get to make good friends from all around the world and have this little reunions afterwards! 

DAY 1

Before starting our day in London

The financial district

Poppy installation in the Tower London which commemorates the World War I centennial. The poppies represent Commonwealth soldiers who died during the WWI 

The Natural History Museum - it looks like Hogwarts

My friend Lissy :)

Piccadilly Circus

One of the streets in Soho district

DAY 2

The markets in Camden Town

On our way to Hampstead Village

Wise words!

People everywhere!

Tip: never try to meet a friend in front of King's Cross Station if you don't have a cellphone or any other way to reach that person. It took us more than 30 minutes to find each other!

My friend Mikey inside the station