A long time since I last wrote here, too long... Maybe I'll try to make up for this with many contributions in the next weeks...







November was a travelling month again. Two short work trips: one to New York and one to Urbino. Two cities that could hardly be more different! Five days in a multimillion city is really something else than a weekend in a city of less than 20,000 people... A city moreover which still looks a lot like you would be making a time machine trip back to the good old Renaissance days. Small but beautiful with everything you would expect in an lod monumental city. It's still completely walled, there is a castle, a cathedral, narrow streets, squares etc. But it is hypermodern at the same time because of the thousands of students living and studying here. Unbelievable that such a small city has such a big university. Urbino is pretty trouistic too of course, maybe a bit too shiny and polished because of that, but it's not mass tourism like Florence or Siena. Maybe because it's not that easy to reach, it's not close to large cities with airports or railway stations and it's ' at save distance' (about half an hour drive) of the nearest highway.







Working in the weekend? Yes, but fortunately only half a day. I was part of the exam committee of an international master of comparative urban studies. We heard student's presentations of their master thesis , asked critical questions and decided on their grades. Unfortunately this master is stopping after only two years, mainly because of lack of money to finance it. But maybe we try again with subsidies from the EU or other sources. Such a master is very hard to organise with people from different cultures and national university systems, even if they are all from within that small continent called Europe that is supposed to integrate. But it is definitely worth the effort since it is an enriching experience for all involved, not only the students but certainly also the teaching staff! I was happy to be part of it and hope to be part of it in the future again.