Rural House in Spain

I Died

...and now I´m in Heaven

I Die a Little

Kiitos

After two years in Finland I know for certain that the experience has been overall very positive. I feel that I am more mature, more experienced and more prudent. I have met wonderful people and lived unforgettable experiences. I love my girlfriend, relatives and friends more than ever. To all of you, who have contributed to make out of me a better person:

KIITOS, THANK YOU, GRACIAS AMIGOS!!!!

Living abroad

By living in Finland I have learnt to love and hate Finland as I love and hate my own country: Spain. There is one reason why I have this mixture of opposite feelings: I feel Finland as an important place for me and enjoying the good things becomes as important as criticizing what you think is wrong. By living abroad you learn to appreciate those good things from your own country (that might have gone unnoticed for you so far) and realised those good things about the country in which you are living as a foreigner. Both countries (Spain and Finland) have numerous things to learn from each other. I have sometimes felt that a human touch is needed in some Finns. Nobody should be left behind and that usually happens in this country. It is not only receiving a pension from Kela: love, respect and dignity are more precious than money. Loneliness is so common that becomes sometimes a general rule. By living in Spain, Finns will find that Spanish hospitals are newer, cleaner and more comfortable than Finnish ones. The staff is in general kinder and everything is for free (totally for free: you receive prescriptions, never invoices!!!!). They might also find, to their surprise, that public transportation and some infrastructures in Spain are more advanced (Tv in metro, high-speed trains, more free high-way kms than anywhere else in Europe) while the cultural and gastronomic offer in this southern country is overwhelming. We have much more than beaches!!! And the state is not nicking us money in the form of extraordinary high taxes. Finns could learn that it is possible to work hard and become a good scientist in Spain. We are not dancing and drinking sangría all the time!!!! Finns could get used to smile more often, to not be afraid of showing feelings to their closest friends and relatives, to share, share and share, as a sign of generosity toward those you care of. Finns will find themselves like kings sorrounded by Spaniards who know nothing but creating generously a comfortable hospitality for the foreigner visitor.

Spaniards, on the other hand, would learn what is to have respect towards nature and every single living animal. We should learn from Finn's sensitivity towards mother earth. We have to learn that it is possible to enjoy natural resources without spoiling them (I have seen that in Finland! Believe me!). We have to learn that people's private lives are private and be respectful with that. In Finland, nobody is criticized because of the way they look, their outfit, their appearance, or their personal condition, whatever it is. A dose of honesty and sense of responsability is needed for most Spaniards and Finns can provide a bit of that to us. From Finns we could take that extraordinary ability for learning languages and still love their own language and culture. Finns should teach us how to live in peace and create a better country, without violence: a safe place like Finland. We have to learn from that: "take it easy". To find the beauty and the pleasure in the little things, like Finns know how to do. Spanish girls will be jealous at knowing that Finnish moms can dedicate full time to the new-born babies for three years without loosing their jobs. That the Finnish state takes care of children and their moms from the very beginning. A great part of the Spanish society is rotten and spoiled with absurd, disgusting and extremist ideas about nation, religion and unlimited greed. Finnish society is well-balanced and almost nobody knows what covet is. Nobody aspires to be rich and nobody dream of possesing mountains of useless things. In Spain that is usual and become rich by taking advantage of somebody else is not rare. Finns are enemies of taking what is not theirs and they show endless respect to other people's belongings and lives.

Mixing genes and cultures in a globalised world is the only solution for this puzzle.

Finalizing the Pox-MUSCLE project

Today it was my last working day in Finland. I am happy. I think I can look back in time and be proud of what I have done. Hard work anyway. And fruitful. 4 papers and 4 communications to congresses.

M. Estévez, P. Kylli, E. Puolanne, R. Kivikari, M. Heinonen. Fluorescence spectroscopy as a novel approach for the assessment of myofibrillar protein oxidation in oil-in-water emulsions. Meat Science, 80, 1290-1296, 2008.

M. Estévez, P. Kylli, E. Puolanne, R. Kivikari, M. Heinonen. Oxidation of skeletal porcine myofibrillar proteins in oil-in-water emulsions: interactions with lipids and effect of selected phenolic compounds. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 56, 10933-10940, 2008.

M. Armenteros, M. Heinonen, F. Toldrá, V. Ollilainen, M. Estévez. Analysis of protein carbonyls in meat products by using the DNPH method, fluorescence spectroscopy and Liquid-chromatography-Electrospray Ionisation-Mass spectroscopy (LC-ESI-MS). Meat Science, in press.
M. Estévez, V. Ollilainen, M. Heinonen. Analysis of protein oxidation markers α-aminoadipic and g-glutamic semialdehydes in food proteins by using LC-ESI-Multi Stage Tandem MS. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 57, 3901-3910, 2009.

I expect to write another two and probably a review about protein oxidation. I did all this with efficient contributors. They were helpful and in some cases (Mónica Armenteros) made good part of the experimental work. In the picture you can see some of them.

The lady in the middle is the group leader. Marina has been a wonderful supervisor. She comprises, from my point of view, all kinds of good skills for supervising research work: intelligent and full of expertise, helpful and eager to help, patient, kind, prudent, generous and reasonable person. She trusted me by giving me the freedom I needed to develop my own ideas. She contributed by giving wise advice and logistic assistance. Just perfect for me. She's a big name in Food Chemistry worldwide and she deserves it absolutely. The other ladies, Riitta (Senior researcher), Tuuli (PhD student), Marjo (Postdoc), Hanna and Johanna (Research students) have been nice colleagues at work. Amongst the men (not invited to the above picture), Velimatti was my guiadance with the LC-MS; Miikka Olin the skilful technician every researcher would dream of and Petri Kylli my closest collaborator at the beginning in the lab who is now looking for a more profitable life in Orion company. Kirsti and Maija assisted me in the lab while Ritva, Anna-Liisa, Taina and the cheerful and smily Hillu helped me with the boring bourocratic issues. But perfect is nothing and I might comment a couple of tricky issues. To be classist/snob is an endemic disease, not only at University but actually everywhere in this country. They might not even know about it if some roles are common and in a way, well established in the Finnish society. But it appears very clear to me. I hate talking generally cause I have met people who are the opposite to that...But that is my feeling: too much talk about that "everyone is the same (no ranks)" but the social status is noticiable quite often. I personally hate titles when those are used to put yourself in an upper position and look down on somebody else. I never said I was a postdoc while working in the lab and I worked myself as a PhD student doing every single experiment and cleaning every single test-tube (that is not always common for postdocs). Usually, those who know less, think they are much better that they actually are while advanced minds (like my supervisor aforementioned) are usually modest and prudent. Both situations are found here. But this is the same everywhere. Finns and Spaniards who think that Finland and Spain are the best countries to live (respectively) usually consider that they have nothing to learn abroad. They should travel more to realise that they are totally wrong.

I will miss all of them but maybe, particularly, the youngsters because of the social life we shared outside University and the last person I mentioned: Hillu. I wish you the best and the doors of our house in Spain are fully open for you whenever you want. Your kindness and endless attention will be forever remembered and appreciated. It is just that I cannot forget a single thing you did for me. Like, for instance, when you did not bother to call and find out everything about my health insurance in Finland when I did not even know where to go or whom to call in case of emergency. In Finland, a sincere and naive smile like yours is sometimes as wonderful as finding shelter under the hard rain. Never change!

Farewell party

Thank you for coming and to all those who participated in the wonderful presents we recieved: YOU ARE SUPERB!