Social Identity

I’ve been in Spain for four weeks now, so I guess I have some ethos when it comes to talking about the culture and social life here. I’m basically a veteran of Spain now, let’s be real. I was born a Panamanian, but grew up Texan. I have basically spent my whole life in a city environment, where people drive cars everywhere and stuff is open twenty-four hours a day. That’s one pretty big difference I’ve noticed about Spain. If you want a burger at 3 AM, you better be prepared to make it yourself. Public transportation is also very big. I had honestly never been on a subway/tram until I came to Valencia. I’m going to get a kick out of driving for the first time in six weeks when I get back home.

Coming on this trip I sort of had expectations that the culture and social aspects of Spain would be similar to how life is like in my motherland, Panama. I definitely knew it would not be the same as living in Texas. As far as the day-to-day lifestyle, or the details per se, I did not really know what to expect. Now that I have been here for a while, I have had more time to observe, in depth, the lifestyle and social aspects of Spain. Before landing in Valencia, I imagined life here to be more social and festive. And I haven’t been wrong in that assumption. People here have a lot of energy. A few nights ago I went out to dinner with a few of our mentors. Being the youngest in the group, I guess I figured I had the most energy. Wrong.  These guys have no problem with going hard until 5 AM... on a Thursday night. So that’s how engineers and professors live it up in Spain. I couldn’t keep up even if I wanted to.

Everything in Spain really does seem more laid back. Life seems to move at a slower pace. In my opinion, probably one of the biggest day-to-day differences in Spain, compared to the US, would be the daily schedules. Back home, the day-to-day routine looks like: Wake up around 6 and eat breakfast before 7. If it is a workday, you’ll work your 9-5, with maybe a little lunch break at noon. Dinner time usually happens around 6-7. In Spain, work also starts at 9; however, people don’t really have breakfast until 10. Here at the university, everyone takes a thirty minute coffee break where they usually have their first meal of the day. After that glorious coffee break, people work until about 2. From 2-4, basically like half of the city shuts down for their lunch break and daily siestas (which are amazing by the way). After taking a lunch break, people usually work until maybe 6 or 7, at which point they go home. Dinner time in Spain usually starts around 9.  

Overall, life really isn’t too different aside from small modifications in the day-to-day schedule. I’m sure people like to party it up back at home, but that’s not really my scene so I wouldn’t really know. In general, I feel like life in Valencia is more talkative. Whereas inside a Wal Mart, people usually keep to themselves and probably don’t converse much with strangers, here in Valencia, I’m sure I’ve made many new old lady friends in the grocery stores. And in the elevators. Life here is fun. I am excited to take a little bit of this Spanish culture back home with me and try it out on the day-to-day routine. 

Paris

Hey guys. I spent the weekend in Paris. How fancy does that sound? I had a great time with Alkali and Kameron. Before heading out to the airport on Friday, I am glad I made the impulse decision to bring my hoodie along. Paris was chilly. Felt like a Texas November (when it is cold, not hot).

Getting to Paris, we wasted no time. We arrived around 6 PM; and around 7 PM we were already snapping pictures of a pretty famous structure here that they called the Eiffel Tower. Maybe you have heard of it. Seriously though, I was kind of taken away. The Eiffel Tower has always been one of those things that I’ve heard about or seen on cool HD Wallpaper websites; but I never thought it would be something I would actually stand in front of. What a majestic sight. 

As Friday got darker, we grabbed dinner at some nice little restaurant. Once we filled our energy meters, we walked to l'Arc de Triomphe, which was another really massive structure and really pretty to look at. At this point, we decided to head back to the Eiffel Tower. Looking at the lit-up tower was so cool and felt very surreal. That is how we wrapped up our Friday. 

Saturday was a day of croissants and expensive espresso. We started our day by visiting the Catacombes. What a slightly unsettling place… but still really cool to walk through. After spending probably like an hour and a half underground, we finally surfaced again and made our way through the city, towards Notre Dame.  

The Louvre was the next cool place we walked to. It would have been nice to go in and see my buddy Mona, but the three hour wait was a bit much. Instead I snapped this sick pano in one of the courtyards.

After hitting up The Louvre, we grabbed a well-needed espresso… maybe two. We went to a coffee bar pretty close to Picasso’s art studio (Le Bateau-Lavoir). That was neat to see. I think my creative side was enlightened after that visit. 

Around 5 PM, we decided to take on one of the main events… How can you go to Paris without climbing the Eiffel? Well that is exactly what we did. Look at this view. Wow. 

That was really how we topped our day off. We took a nice little sight-seeing cruise down the river afterwards. It was fun to just wave at people and look at the sights of Paris. Finishing up our Paris adventure, we had to go out with a bang. And out with a bang we went. Food in Paris was yummy. And so expensive. But so worth it. 

Going to Paris this weekend was such an amazing time. So far, this IRES research experience has been a great engineering and cultural learning opportunity. I am excited to add all of these experiences to my professional and personal collection of memories. I feel very fortunate to be spending time on this side of the world with these guys. 

Au revoir mis amis. 

Career Aspirations

What do I want to be when I grow up? Wow what a big question. I honestly don’t think that is a question I can answer, because I don’t want to be anything when I grow up. Maybe I’ll be a guy that practices civil engineering during the day. Maybe I won’t. That’s about that.

Really though, right now I am pursuing a degree in civil engineering. I don’t know why. Like I’ve mentioned before, I was sort of just placed here. I’ve completed about four years of college time right now and it has been a great ride. When I first started college, I was so captivated by the fact that I could apply myself and actually like learn stuff. I was so thrilled when I was taking differential equations and statics. To me, I felt like I was taking some really hard courses and I felt like a super genius. That’s currently one of my thrills. I like learning stuff and gaining deep perspective on basically anything I can.

As an ambitious college student, I’ve always felt like my education shouldn’t stop at a bachelor’s degree. Life is long. Why not take in as much knowledge as you can? I’ve always been intrigued by research professors. Like as far as civil engineering is concerned, I think that is the goal. Be that cool professor that wears cardigans and spends an excessive amount of money each week on Starbucks. And I’ll teach great too, duh. That’s one cool thing that this research internship has exposed me to. Other than a few engineering lab courses, I have never been exposed to a working lab environment. Like people in this lab actually use white boards and design stuff with some heavy calculations. These guys are smart and busy.

Through this internship, I have been exposed to what life may be like working inside a lab. It’s also cool to watch nervous students approach some of these professors when they turn in their final project. I think that working in a university environment would provide an excellent opportunity to continue expanding my knowledge. And really that is what I want to do. I want to continue my education so that I can get a job that allows me to continue my education.

Heading back home, once this trip is over, I want to keep doing what I have been doing. Finish college. Then probably start working on a Masters immediately after… because why not? Then I’ll slowly work my way to becoming like Tony Stark and become a super cool Doctor. So far this international research experience has sort of opened my perspective on what research and university work is like. I want to finish my last year of undergraduate school with energy and a new take on how great education is. So yeah. Those are my goals for civil engineering. 

Peace.

Barcelona

Hit up Barcelona this weekend. What a colorful city. Seriously so big. I was taken by surprise how huge Barcelona is. Syed and I sort of just didn’t even plan this trip. We just went. We got to Barcelona around 8 PM Friday; and around 8:30 PM Friday we started looking for a place to sleep. No itinerary or plan. It was great.

Really, that’s how the story starts. We carpooled to Barcelona with four complete strangers and it was great and totally different. Syed and I were dropped off at the Port of Barcelona. Then we just sort of started walking… We had no idea where to even get settled to search for a place to sleep. We were so lost and it was so much fun. Anyways, we found our way. We had some fast food chicken (good stuff) and used the free WiFi in the restaurant and found a crash pad.

Alright, so I have been in Valencia for two weeks now and I guess I got used to the subway system here. It’s fairly quiet and peaceful inside the subways of Valencia. I thought the same would apply in Barcelona… and I was taken by surprise. The subways in Barcelona are a monster. I mean these subways were jam-packed. The train itself is definitely on a mission to try to knock you down. The subway in Barcelona was a fun and different experience.

So obviously we didn’t go to Barcelona to ride the subway and eat cheap chicken fingers. Saturday was a day of exploring. Again, we didn’t have an itinerary. Syed and I woke up and just sort of walked out of the house. The first place we walked to was Park Guell. What a view. Later we slowly made our way to the Sagrada Familia plaza where we saw a monster of a cathedral. Seriously such an introspective piece of art.

After taking on a good couple of miles in the city, we decided to hit up the beach. And what a high tide that was. So peaceful. It was nice baking under the sun. I think I got maybe half a shade darker this weekend. Success.

Once we were done at the beach we decided to just sort of walk through the outskirts of the city. We encountered some cool looking buildings. #2modern4me. I'm sure we got lost at some point, but somehow we ended up in El Bario Gotico. A neighborhood like I’ve never seen before.

As it started getting dark, we kept walking away from the city towards this huge mountain. We finally got to a pretty high place in the mountain and we were able to watch Barcelona light up in the night time.

That’s when we decided that we should probably get some sleep. Sunday was a calm day. We started our day off with an exotic local breakfast here that they call “McDonalds.” Afterwards we made way to Camp Nou, FCB soccer stadium. We then topped our Barcelona adventure by hitting up the beach again. It’s always nice to get lost on the sand. Barcelona was such a pretty time. Such a colorful and wavy city with amazing architecture. Loved it.

Barça was chill. 

Culture in Spain

Who knew life could be so different 5000 miles away from home? I know that sounds cliché, but like seriously. I guess I’ve always heard of how life in some places is like: “Oh you walk everywhere”, “People drink beer for breakfast”, “The scenery is sooo different than what you’re used to”, etc.; but I guess I have never really been able to grasp what 'a different lifestyle' is like until my rocket ship landed in Spain.

Alright so first off: I think I can confidently say I speak Spanish fluently. Like I usually take people by surprise when I bust out that Español (impressive right?). But anyways, yeah. Speaking to people here keeps me on my toes. Some people here can talk really fast. It’s impressive. Overall, the way people speak is not necessarily different. But as I said, some people can talk really fast. That’s when our other bilingual buddy picks up with the translating. Carlos comes in whenever I can’t figure out how to translate “connect the working electrode to the steel reinforcement bar and the control electrode to the wire mesh.” Translating Chemistry in another language is not the most basic process.

Communicating with people here is so exciting. I get to participate in people’s lives here in Spain. Too cool. Pre-trip, I was honestly pretty nervous that the Spanish would be too different. Really though, other than a few in-a-hurry waiters, communication feels pretty normal and at ease. I’m not going to lie though… in the lab, I have definitely learned a lot of new science words in Spanish. Overall, it is great to be able to talk to people from this area. To hear the stories from my neighbors 5000 miles away.

The people and the way-of-life here is also so different than what I am used to in Tejas. People here seem more sociable. It’s very easy to have conversations with random people. People actually try to talk to you on elevators here. It’s like whoa. Honestly though, the people here are just normal people like you and me. Just observing a different culture, however, is so interesting. Another unique thing that stands out about Spain, compared to America, is the way-of-life. Everything seems so much more relaxed. Like, we get to work at nine. Then like all of our mentors just drop everything around ten for a forty-five minute coffee break. Too chill. Everything kind of feels timeless in Spain; but that’s probably because life is totally different right now living here. Either way, I get relaxed vibes from Spain. 

I guess that is sort of how the culture differs here. Life doesn’t seem corporate. Like I’ve been here two weeks now and I have only seen one Burger King… and it was in a tourist area. Not gonna lie though I did hit that BK up. The culture here seems sort of ‘be free’, in a way. Do what you have to do, but don’t sweat yourself while doing it. Our lab mentors are way laid back; but they still invent and design such advanced technologies. Outside of work, every night is a late night here in Spain. Like seriously though dinner at midnight isn’t abnormal. I actually just pulled sort of an all-nighter while typing this section of blog so I can now say I’ve seen a sunrise in Spain. In the states, streets usually start getting packed around six in the morning. Here the streets are dead at six in the morning. Life kind of picks up a little later here in Valencia. That is probably what I like most about this culture.

So to say the least: I love being immersed in this Spanish culture. So far, I really do not think I have encountered any major cultural problems. Except, of course, when I have to ask someone to repeat themselves like three times. But that happens. Overall, I think life in Valencia is super cool. Currently we are wrapping up week two. I am excited to see what the coming weeks bring. Maybe I’ll visit that tall triangle tower in Paris.

Civil Engineering

Growing up as a kid, I loved playing ‘The Sims’. I remember waking up super early on the weekends and spending hours creating my dream homes. To me, that was the main concept of the game. I wasn’t really interested in controlling my little computer human as much as I was interested in populating Sim City with my beautiful homes. One day, my dad, a concrete contractor, brought home a pad of grid paper. A little light bulb sparked in my head… What if I could draw the floor plans of my houses on paper and perfect them with pencil and eraser, and then transfer that concept into my game? It was brilliant. Suddenly, sketches of houses started appearing all over my house (my real one). Production reached an all-time high and it was great. This is probably where the young engineer in me sparked.   

Real talk though. In high school, I really didn’t have a clue what was going to happen after graduation. I was a kid. I knew college was something I was going to do because “everyone does it after they graduate.” Basically I think I was put into civil engineering because my parents thought it was what I was supposed to do. That’s cool. I went with it. Fast forward past freshman year… Guess what? I was digging my Statics and Drafting courses. Wow… I went from being a World of Warcraft addict to digging Calculus. Who would have known? Honestly I think that is why I am pursuing civil engineering. I was just sort of placed here. And I liked it. Without a clue of what I was getting into, I jumped into something and well… I didn’t hate it. I sort of appreciated every aspect of it. It really all started with me liking the classes I was taking. I actually liked the homework assignments (what in the world right?).

Anyways. I thought I knew what was civil engineering was until I jumped into my internship position at Baird, Hampton & Brown. I’ll never forget my first day as an intern. KB, boy did you throw me into the deep end. My boss threw words at me that I’d never heard before. “Underground utilities” and “Plats”… What in the world?  Anyways. My first day of being an intern made me not want to be an intern. I was so lost. I didn’t even know how to send stuff to the printer. No joke though... I love the company I am interning for. Great people with great stories and super experience. DH, you always crack me up with your stories. Interning has shown me a great deal of what civil engineering is about… Hard work and team work is what moves the planet forward. I never thought that so much thought and effort was put into designing a single roadway. But yeah. A lot of thought and effort is put into designing a single roadway. GC you know all about that.  

I think the cool thing about civil engineering is that it is so under appreciated. How many people actually think about how their roadways got there? Or how their house was designed? I sure didn’t think about any of that until I started studying/interning. Now every time I see a curb inlet I freak out and wonder what the discharge is in that thing during the hundred year storm. Civil engineering is actually kind of cool because whatever we design (as civil engineers) stays there for a really long time… and a lot of people use whatever it is we designed. The things that civil engineers design are things that are so…. ordinary. We don’t really take time to appreciate our surroundings because we see it all the time; but our built environment is actually very complex and well planned. Moving forward into a civil engineering career, I would want to have a complex job. One of those jobs that people don’t really know exist. In order to have a job title with like eight words in it, I want to continue my education past a bachelor’s degree. It is nice to know that I can actually impact society. Even if it is something as ordinary as a two-lane roadway… that will be a two-lane roadway that probably thousands of people will use in its lifetime (maybe hopefully a million, but I have always  been an optimist).  

Anyways. I told myself I wouldn’t write walls of text for my blog. But I guess I really got into this one. Civil engineering is cool. Sometimes monotonous; but nevertheless important and absolutely impactful. I think that, under the right guidance, I can really have an impact on society; and that is something I look forward to. Civil engineering is also pretty neat because I am allowed the opportunity to work here:

Spain

Wow. It is such an amazing opportunity to be in Spain right now. I remember when I was notified by Dr. Yazdani that I was selected to participate in this research internship, my thoughts were along the lines of “Okay cool… I guess I am going to Spain this summer.” I don’t think it actually hit me that I was going to Spain until I was boarding a 767 headed for Spain.

First thing is first: Jet lag is real. I always made fun of people when they griped about having jet lag. Like what’s the big deal right? Well… It is safe to say that myself and all my group mates slept a good 14 hours our first night (day?) in Valencia. It definitely took a couple days to adjust to our new sleeping and eating schedules (dinner isn't at 6 PM ... it is at like 10 PM). 

So far Spain is great. We have been here about one week already, and we are all realizing just how much there is to explore. What a change of pace it is to go from driving around everywhere to walking everywhere and catching subways and trams. Another thing I never see back in the States is how live this city is at oddly late hours. 12 AM Monday? Full restaurants. It is very exciting to be able to experience the culture here and I am excited to share my experience! In the meantime, check out this mean view from the rooftop of our apartment complex.