From time to time, aún arde Madrid en su memoria, as Porretas would sing. Madrid, the capital of the cats and the lighted nights, saw Ana born, enjoyed her teenage years and grew up as a woman.
There she studied engineering in telecommunication technologies and services at the Universidad Politécnica. Also a master’s degree in the same field of expertise, during which she did an Erasmus in Copenhagen, where she remembers being very happy. It was a year full of hygge people and moments. An endless number of unforgettable experiences that she lived accompanied by a bike.
Ana has been living in Geneva for almost two years now. It was a bit of an unusual relationship with CERN that brought her here: she is the Spanish Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO) at CERN. But, what is an ILO? What is their day-to-day life like?
As CERN has many Member States contributing to its budget, CERN tries to repay these contributions in a proportionate manner through different mechanisms, such as contracts with their industries. “We are the link between our country’s industry and CERN’s needs. What we try to do is to get the people at CERN to know the companies in our local regions, what they can do, their capabilities… We facilitate those exchanges”, explains Ana.
As an ILO, she has many meetings at CERN, which means going from one building to another. In pre-pandemic times, when this was possible, Ana used to move around on her faithful bicycle companion. “It was a pleasure, with the views in this area, the mountains, the lake…”.
The nature and the possibility of cycling everywhere is, without a doubt, what she would take with her to Madrid, which is also the capital of traffic jams. But, in addition, it is the capital of missing because it has an enviable social and cultural life. “There are always people, happy people, in the streets, even if it is three o’clock in the morning”. Ana is a little lacking in that non-stop movida.
When she was a child and asked her parents how to do something (“should I colour this green or blue?”), they always told her, follow your instinct. “To me, that did not sound helpful at all because they were not giving me the solution. But, as I grew up, I realized how that response empowered me to make decisions or deal with difficult situations. It is something I remember very often”.
And that is what Ana will continue to do, to follow her instinct, to trust herself. Here, in Madrid or in any other city, but always close to a bike and higgy people.