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About meI was born in Bilbao, a fascinating city that have been experiencing a radical transformation for the last 25 years. In some way there is a connection between my city's reshaping, its new way to be linked to a global and connected world and my own personal career. Bilbao has a unique strong local character which comes from its own history and its role as a port city in the Atlantic coast, surrounded by green smooth hills and mountains. However, its privileged geolocation favored commerce for centuries and the development of a successful industry which opened the city to a broader and international frame. Unfortunately, during early 90s its economical model entered in a deep crisis.
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That was the moment when I took an important decision in my life–I enrolled in Universidad de Deusto to get my BA degree in Hispanic Philology. During those crucial years local, regional, national governments along with the European Union started to rebuild infrastructures in our damaged land. I first traveled to live abroad for the first time short after the subway designed by Norman Foster started to work, when Frank Geary finished its architectural masterpiece, the Guggenheim Museum, which is located in front of my University. For three years I lived in Szeged (Hungary), where I had the opportunity to collaborate with the Department of Hispanic Studies to organize cultural events and activities for the students at the University of Szeged. Also, I started to teach my first courses under the supervision of Zsuzsanna Csikós as Intern. In addition, those years in Szeged provided me the chance to learn from Hungarians about their language and culture, their country and its history, and opened a secret door in my soul. Through this first experience I understood that teaching means sharing knowledge with others and receiving more knowledge in return. Teaching is exploring while connecting disseminated pieces to build something in collaboration with others. Teaching is a traveling mind facing challenges, enjoying intersections, helping others. And more important, teaching is always learning. There was no doubt for me. As Bilbao was moving faster and faster from an industrial economic model to a cultural-services and business economical model through a reconfiguration of its urbanism based on the international connections and the development of the local, I traveled to the US to pursuit my Master's degree in Spanish. Once I got my degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, I kept moving forward and in 2012 I got my Spanish Ph.D degree at the University of California, Davis. Although the financial crisis was bursting in Spain, Bilbao was able to manage the complex situation. Currently, Bilbao is a total new capital city, modern, traditional, always in search of new connections between tradition and modernity, between the local and the global. This year, Bilbao won the European City of the Year at the 2018 Urbanism awards, and just last night the announcement of Bilbao as the city chosen to celebrate the MTV European Awards in 2019 shows how consolidated these connections are. Concurrently, a new and promising time has came to me with the chance to live in Norway.