Hi everyone,

again, yes, it’s been too long. After my last post, there was at the college university of engineering something they call “Intensive Programme”, or IP, which lasted 2 weeks. There were a lot of IT-students from different countries present, taking courses in network security. Also 6 students from XIOS. It was nice talking to them and spending some time with them.

Also, I got a visit from my tutor. She visited my workplace and had a talk to my Spanish tutor. I think so far, they are both happy with my performance here.

Last Thursday, the Erasmus people threw a party at “COOL”, a local disco here. Very nice party and also a nice way to say goodbye to all the IP-participants.

After Thursday, I got a little sick. I was throwing up all Friday, and Saturdag I felt better, but still no 100%. On Sunday I felt like I was having a cold, and on Monday, I had a sore throat. I feared for the worst. And indeed, on Thuesday evening, I was shivering, not feeling good at all! I think I had fever, but as I don’t have a thermometer, I can’t say for sure.

On Wednesday, I still didn’t feel too good, but the University organized a trip to San Sebastian. First, a 1 and a half hour drive to San Sebastian, then we had to listen to some speeches and after that, there was a guy talking about local music instruments. Quite nice, but I didn’t understand too much of it, as all was spoken Spanish. After all this boring stuff, we had lunch (some pintxos, Basque for Tapas) and we had 4 hours of free time in San Sebastian. We decided to go to the beach, and relax. We played some volleyball, football and had fun with the frisbee.
I got a little sun-burned, but not too much, so that’s ok.

When we got back in Vitoria, I started feeling sick again. I went back to my room as soon as possible and got to bed. Again shivering, but also headache, pain in the lower back, a stiff neck and a sore throat.

When I woke up on Thursday, I felt better. A good thing. I didn’t go to the University, because some teachers told us that it might be a good thing to stay home, to avoid any trouble for the people participating in the general strike that was organized. Maybe a good thing, because I could stay at my room to get a bit better.

I’ll be returning home at 24 June, I am looking forward to it. I really start missing some things. However, I am going to try to enjoy the last month, because who knows how long it takes to experience something like this again!

I hope to write to you soon!

Yes I know, it has been quite a while since my last blog-entry. The reason is quite simple: I’ve been quite busy the last 2 weeks.
This week, my girlfriend came over to Vitoria for a week. Cool huh? We visited the city, went to the party of “San Prudencio”, did some shopping, and all the good stuff! It was really great, too bad it is allready over! Now it will last until the end of June that I see her again. Something I look forward to. She also brought me 18 (!!) bottles of Duvel, one of my favourite Belgian beers! Great!

At the university, things are all good. We managed to get the first part working, which is a good thing. The 2nd part is different: I have everything that I need (code, Simulink model, …) but I still get a few errors that I can’t seem to solve. As my tutor here said: “We are basicly f****ed then, no?”
Last time I saw him he gave me an explanation of “Artificial Neural Networks”. Say what? Indeed, the explanation was quite mathematical, quite difficult indeed. I have no idea what to do with that, but I’m sure that he’ll tell me soon, at least, I hope.

My Spanish is getting better, too! Speaking it myself is not going good, however I manage to make a small and basic conversation with the people here (if they speak slowly :P). Also, understanding it gets better every day!

Next 2 weeks there is something called the “Intensive Programme” of Erasmus in Vitoria-Gasteiz. My school sends 6 students who are attending the Programme. Also 1 teacher, and another one next week. I should be able to attend some of their activities, when my shedule allows it.

I’ll try to upload the latest pictures in a few days!

For now, that’s all I have to share! I promise that it won’t take as long as this time before the next post!

Greetz!

Hello again,

I figured it was time for a new update! Yesterday, the weather was superb, so I figured it was best to go out for a walk. There were some places in Vitoria that I hadn’t visited, so I wanted to do that first. I went to the 2 sports centers the city has. The first one, Mendizorroza, is the place where the local football team has its stadium. That’s all I’m going to mention about the football team, because they are not that good, and they play in the 2nd division.
Apart from that, there was a large outdoor park where there where a lot of sports being played. Also a indoor sports center where they play something called “Pelote”. Best way to describe it is to look at the pictures. There were also a few outdoor swimming pools, but they only open at the end of June, and that’s a little late for me ;-).
After that walk, I went to my room and had something to eat. The weather was still sweet, so I decided to go for another walk, this time to the Gamarra sports center. That wasn’t what I expected from it, so you will find no pictures from that place.
When I got back to my room, I took a book and found a spot in the sun at the square that is right outside. I sat there for … I don’t know how long (I lost track of time). When I got back to my room, I noticed that I gained a little colour. Estupendo! (Wich is “great” in Spanish by the way)
In the evening we (Benjamin, Tim and me) made plans to go to Vitoria the day after (which is today).

Today we took the bus to Bilbao. Not too early, we figured that if we liked it a lot, we could spend the night at a hostel. When we arrived in Bilbao, our first objective was to find the city center, and a tourist information office. Afterwards, we went to visit the old city center and we found a restaurant to eat (Primero, Secundo y Postre, Vin/Agua y Pan inclusivo: €12). I had “Marmitako”, which is a local dish with fish and potatoes, and afterwards a nice piece of pork meat, as dessert I had something I cannot describe, but it was good.

After we had lunch, we went to visit the Guggenheim Museum. Unfortunatly, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum. But it is definitely worth the visit!

I also uploaded the pictures that I took the last days. You can watch them by clicking on “Pictures taken during the internship” on the right. For those who don’t manage to see the pictures, or who don’t understand that webside: in the right uppercorner, you can select “Slideshow”. That should to the trick!

Well, I guess that’s all I wanted to share ;-)

Bye!

Again, a new load of pictures has arrived! Check them out by clicking on the right side -> pictures taken during the internship

Hello everybody!
In Spain the Easter weekend starts at Thursday. And after Easter, schools are closed for one week, so I have a week and a half off. Quite relax indeed.
On Thursday the weather was very nice and I took a walk from my room all the way to the basketball statium of “Ceramica Tau”. When I arrived there, I found a natural park next to it, so I walked there for a while. Then I decides to go back to my room, but when I got there, I wanted to do something, so I left again and I walked a little more :P
On Friday, the weather was … terrible! I know that in Belgium the weather is now probably the best we’ll ever have the rest of the year, but I will laugh back when you are in the rain and over here, the sun shines!
Ah well, it seems that today is another grey day with lots of clouds and some rain. I guess I’ll have to get used to it!
Weather forecast tells me that all week there will be some rain. Tuesday will be the best day. Maybe a good day to go to Bilbao? I don’t know yet.

I wish everybody a Happy Easter and (in Belgium) enjoy the weather, while it lasts!

It’s picture time!
Click on the link on the right, and you can watch some pictures of the county, some cities, …

Yesterday we visited a Bodegas in the Rioja. We were invited by the university.
We visited Ysios, which has a spectacular design. Bodegas stands for wine-cellar, but at Ysios it is a “fake” cellar. It is a building above the ground, and inside, they fake the circumstances of a wine-cellar.
We had a good guide, who explained the entire process to us. And afterwards, we could taste one of their wines. It was a Ysios Reserve 2004, really a magnificent wine, I’m going to try to find out where they sell it, and I’ll take a few bottles home.
After the visit, we we to a small village, I don’t know the name, where we first visited a small local wine-cellar. The cook from the restaurant where we had lunch, made his own wine. Also very good, but you could taste the difference with the Rioja wine from an hour earlier.
After that quick visit (again, I will try to get some pictures online) we went to the restaurant where we had a, at least I think, typical spanish lunch. Also with a lot of wine. And afterwards, we had a glass of Cava, and a digestif, but I don’t remember the name. It tasted a little like “Jagermeister” but it was different.

Here at the university, I ended the fist program I had to make. I’ve managed to get the data from the MotionTrackers and read them in Matlab. Next step: to do the same thing in Simulink. This is not working like I expected, and there a lot of things you have to consider (what COM-port, what frequency, …). All stuff I don’t really understand and I don’t know how to do this either. I hope that the company that manufactures the device, can help me a little bit. I’m lucky that they are from the Nederlands, so I can write to them in Dutch.

In a few hours I have Spanish courses. I think that I made some progression, but it’s harder than I taught.

Tomorrow is the day that Jesus had his “last dinner”, White Thursday. Spain is a very catholic country, and they have this day as a national holiday. Easter Monday is the same. The university is closed from tomorrow untill Sunday 19th. I don’t know what to do in these days, maybe I’ll visit Bilbao and San-Sebastian. I don’t know yet.

I guess that’s all for now, folks!

Last night was the first night at the residence where I’m going to stay for the next 3 months. Everything went allright. As from now, I can use the internet whenever I am at my residence. Therefore, I can try to make more posts on this blog, and I will be more available on Live Messenger and Skype.
This morning I went to the bakery to get some bread. The bread over here has a way better taste than the ones we have at home.
I don’t know yet what I’m going to today, probably in the afternoon, I’ll be watching the “Tour of Flanders”.

Anyway, I think that’s all for the moment, I will try to post some pictures of the previous week today, and if not, tomorrow.

Bye!

Hello again!

Now I have received more detailled information about my project.
I have to connect the Xbus Master to my laptop, and use “Matlab” to get the data off the motion trackers. More information I cannot give, because this is the first part of the project. The project itself is not really easy. It comprises mostly programming in Matlab, and as I’m more in favour of computer networks, this was not a funny surprise. However, the more I’m working with it, the more I enjoy it.

Everyone here is really great! People are very social and friendly. Also my tutor, Ekaitz, is a very nice person. I’m sure that he has to have a lot of patience with me.
The weather is getting better. The first days were quite cold and there was a lot of wind. The next days, temperature will rise, however, it will rain! Ah well, I’m still used to it.

I guess this is all for now, I think I’ll get back to blogging on Sunday!

Here I am again!

The first days here in the Basque Country have been really great. Burgos was a nice city, the Cathedral is very nice to visit, too.
The weather however, is strange. In Burgos, it was very cold. Best way to describe it would be: like a winterday next to the beach in Ostend. There was some snow too!

Today, the first day at the university. When I arrived, I discovered that there are 2 other XIOS students here. One of them I know for a while. For other (former) XIOS students: you might know him as “Rita” from ASG. The project I’m working on is with the “XBus Master B” from a company from the Netherlands called “Xsens Technologies”. First task for me is to read the users manual, because it seems like a difficult system.

I’m taking Spanish classes as well. First impressions are that it is not very easy, but then again, not very hard to learn either. Ah well, we will see.

¡Hasta luego!