Un Spinarak apareció de la nada caminando en el manubrio de la bicicleta. Yo me puse inmediatamente en guardia. El Spinarak había empezado a tejer unos amenazantes hilos desde el manubrio hasta el asiento. Me alejé unos metros para tener una buena perspectiva de la situación. Inmediatamente le lancé un ataque rápido e hice que se caiga. Pero a pesar del golpe logró equilibrarse en la rueda delantera. Desde ahí empezó un imprevisto ataque que me hizo retroceder unos pasos, por lo que, para no perder la posesión de la bicicleta preparé mi boca y le lancé un chorro de agua, y luego otro y luego otro, hasta que empezó a replegarse. Fue super efectivo. En ese momento le lancé otro ataque rápido con el que finalmente conseguí que se cayera al suelo, así que aproveché esos instantes para jalar la bicicleta de la parrilla y alejarme rápido del lugar. Así es como gané esa batalla y obtuve 500 puntos de experiencia.

Antes de venir a Harvard, Vikas no había salido nunca de su país, India. Ha vivido la mayor parte de su vida en Aryana y ha estudiado también en Bombai. Ha trabajado en temas de tecnología agrícola, y tiene la intención de trabajar en temas de desarrollo y políticas públicas. Justamente está haciendo el Master in Public Policy en Harvard Kennedy School. Desde que nos hemos conocido ha intentado una y otra vez convencerme de ir a escuchar alguna de sus clases, de ir a la biblioteca de la Kennedy School o de ir a algún evento por allá. Lo intenté un día cuando todavía eran los shopping days, los días en que los alumnos prueban las clases para ver si se inscriben en ellas. Traté de llegar a la clase de Larry Summers, pero salí demasiado tarde de mis propias clases. Siempre he sentido eso en mis amigos de India, una hospitalidad bien especial como el de la gente de la sierra de Perú. Hoy por fin he podido ir a un workshop en la Kennedy School, uno sobre técnicas de escritura persuasiva, lleno a reventar. Tuve que salirme un poco antes para volver al GSD a trabajar el problem set de Quantitative. Se sintió bien terminar con esos ejercicios. Más de 3 años estudiando Economía y no había aprendido tanto excel como en esta tarde.

It was a trade-up. We could have put more content and reduce the impact, but there will be opportunity to reach a better balance. For the moment, we probably made sure that the instructor will remember us. Besides that, it was incredible to have a very fast overview of the development of Boston and of some international plans around the world coming from my classmates. As expected, you could immediately tell how good were all of them and also how bad everybody was waiting for this first exercise to be over. That is why you can understand that once we were back in the desks a bottle of champagne and some food appeared to celebrate that we are done with our first studio exercise (in many cases of our entire lives).

Right across from the Gund Hall is Memorial Hall. A pretty traditional design with some beautiful windows. You go out of Gund through the Quincy St. door, cross the street and pass by the building in order to buy some food in the food trucks that park in front of the Science Center or in order to go to Harvard Yard for having lunch in Dudley Cafe. On this day, a tiny flag forest has been arranged just next to the building as a memorial to the 9/11 victims.

People playing hockey near Peabody. On the other side some guys playing basketball and, of course, with some music as a background. Hip hop, hip hop, a little regueton. And a soccer playing German architect married to a girl that is doing her second PHD in Harvard. As for watching sports, NFL season has already begun and I took the difficult decision of not watching any of it since it has been a really intense start of classes. Probably it is good that Cardinals are doing bad and that David Johnson is almost out for the season. It would have been even harder to miss a successful season. Hopefully sun will go away soon in Boston.

A very intelligent girl from South Africa explained to me that literacy was the field were you deal with the teaching of a language, primarily to children. She also had knowledge that there were plenty of different languages in Peru. She didn’t know where the barbecue was going to take place.

Event at GSD. Professor Jerold Kayden gathered some amazing people including professor of urban planning Diane Davis and the director of the Planning and Development Office of the City of Houston, Patrick Walsh. The topic of the event was the first learnings of the situation caused in Houston by hurricane Harvey. Many things to discuss, but maybe the most amazing is the similarity of the matters that arise from this disaster and the ones that were discussed at the beginning of the year in Peru, due to the floods that our country suffered. Only to name a few, the fact that the same regularity of the huaycos in the Peruvian coast is also found in the floods that Houston faces every year. The participation of the central Government (FEMA and the ministries) for responding to the situation. Also, the discussion about what could the Government and the City have done in relation to the building regulations and the location of the urban settlements. At the same time, the immediate priorities after the disaster when the fire departments and police stations start to collapse, and the way events like these produce an enormous “social capital” by getting the people together to help each other. And the fact that these disasters turned the streets in actual rivers over which people started to use water means of transportation with the only difference that in Houston they were using yachts and jet-skies while in Piura we were using dinosaur shaped pool floats.

You are a child, you have a home, you have some family, some friends and a neighborhood. You have never traveled to another city, nor even to another county. You are kicked out from the country because United States is not your home.

Quote of Dean of GSD: “In response to President Trump, Harvard University President Drew Faust circulated a note to the Harvard community to denounce these actions and to summarize the university’s efforts to mitigate their effects. In this time of uncertainty and anxiety about DACA’s future, I urge you to read President Faust’s response and be assured that Harvard stands against the current administration’s decision to rescind the program. At the GSD, the rich breadth of our pedagogy thrives on welcoming and cultivating a diversity of people and ideas. This is a core value that we will continue striving to uphold”.

Se olvida de la chimenea, Andres Sevtsuk lo toma como ejemplo.

Pd. Resulta que Andres Sevtsuk está casado con Lily Song.

Acababa de terminar studio y me despedía de mi grupo de trabajo cuando escuché un estruendoso “GOOOL” que sonó por toda la parte superior de los desks en el GSD. Rápidamente lo atribuí a que si Perú estaba jugando, seguro que también otras selecciones y el numeroso grupo de mexicanos se habría juntado seguramente en un desk a mirar el partido. No podía ser Perú. Me desmintió inmediatamente el celular con las decenas de whatsapp en todos los grupos en los que estoy exclamando GOL, GOL, GOL. Los del grupo de Harvard Perú deseando estar en Lima y los del grupo de becarios deseando haber escogido una maestría en Moscú. Entonces dije por qué no y subí las escaleras a buscar de dónde habían venido los gritos. Era de los desks del quinto piso. Ahí en el espacio de Gustavo y prácticamente aplastando a su compañero oriental estaban 3 peruanos, 2 ecuatorianos y 1 colombiano mirando atentamente por internet la realidad paralela de que Perú le estuviera ganando en Ecuador a Ecuador por 2 a 0. Ha pasado un día entero y seguimos en esa realidad paralela. Y lo más increíble de todo es que el gato encerrado le acertó al resultado en la polla de su trabajo. Algo más?