The second week of January I flew to Lima (Peru) for an important business meeting. It was a hard trip: overnight flight from New York, straight to meeting, and overnight flight back. But there was no other way to fit the trip in my schedule.

A few days later I flew with my fiancée to Valencia both for business and for pleasure.It was a cloudy and “cold” week (for Valencia anyway, because 58ºF could hardly count as “cold”, considering it is 11ºF now in New York).

I realised how much of our culture and society revolves around food. Excellent and affordable food. We tried everything, from the home made paella, to the most sophisticated and interesting restaurant I have had the pleasure to try: the wonderful Restaurante Samsha. Truly amazing.

It was also quite interesting to notice the first words she learned in Spain: crisis (crisis), paro (unemployment), corrupción (corruption), and ñam-ñam (yummy). Another symptomatic anecdote: we were invited to have dinner at the Restaurante Rosmarino (The Westin Hotel where the Real Madrid soccer club and Honda Team happen to be staying that night), and there as a large table with customized menus for Bankia (the troubled savings bank inmersed in a huge corruption scandal). WTF!

We`ll be back soon.