Career Aspirations

     This week is other week that is full of adventure. We went to the Malvarrosa beach on the night of June 23th to the festival, Noche de San Juan (Night of Saint Juan), aka the Night of the Witches. It is a celebration of both San Juan and the coming of Summer in Valencia. On the beach, people were making small bonfires, sat around it and making some barbecue. We didn't prepare for it. So, we just sat there in the cold on our beach towel... watching people having a greatest time of their life! Around midnight, people started to go to the ocean and jump over the small bonfires because it is the tradition that they believe if you wash your feet in the water and jump over the bonfires, your wishes will come true. Luckily, one family was about to leave, so we claimed the bonfire that they built after they left. Then, we started to have fun... We jumped over the fire. Everybody did that successfully, but of course I fail to do so as you guys can see in the video below. I wish my Spain Family the best luck in all of y'all future!!

      Study abroad in Spain is the great experience, and I couldn't ask for a better experience! It exposes me into research area that I had never experienced before. I have always studied in classes, read from books and practiced problems from the book, but now, I get to apply my knowledge and get hands-on experience in the research area. Since the project that I work on is started from zero, I have to do a lot of research and reading to have a better understanding of what I am doing. The project that I am working on it is about blasting and how it will effect on the object like concrete. Since we have no idea about the project, I have to understand more about the blast wave (pressure wave), and then we will try to understand blast mitigation techniques via readily available materials.
      I plan to use this international education experience to help assisted on my senior project that I will be working on after I return to campus. Even though it's not going to be the same project, but I can use all the research methods that I learned from this experience to lend a helping hand to the project that I will be working on on my last semester in UTA.
     For my future career, this international experience will most definitely impact on my decisions as I focus on future career. In the real world, you will have to be working with people that may have differences and opinions. Cross-cultural is very common in engineering field. The cultural mix within project teams and management ranks create a challenge on working with others. Different way of thinking, life, and opinion will impact on communication and teamwork. However, gaining experience from studying abroad in Spain has helping me with cultural differences. In the future, I might have to work at division located in other states/countries or people, that are working with, speak English as a second language, but it will not be a problem for me at all because it will be much more easier for me to adapt since I already experienced it in Spain.

Culture

While we are landing in Valencia

The map is our friend!

     It has been 2 weeks since I flew to Valencia, Spain. The first day when we landed to Valencia was on Saturday afternoon. Erik, Omar, Jose, Amanda, Prapti and I carried our luggages, carry-ons and backpacks and clearly we looked like tourists. We asked the direction from the locals on how to get to out flats. Somehow, we ended up walking around the same block and ended up at where we started. Clearly, we were so lost. Then, we ran-in to Ana, who will be helping us and taking care of us while we're here, she guided us to our flats. Everyone was tried from the long flight and hungry! But at that time, all restaurants were closed because it was not lunch hours anymore. Luckily, we found one, that does not close during the day, called Fec A Foc. It is the family owned restaurant, everybody is so nice and the food is to die for! And most importantly, they gave us WiFi password!!! After I filled up my tummy with delicious food, then we went to the market to grocery shopping because food is very important! Later in the evening, we went to check out the beach. We didn't know to far the beach was from our flats, but we decided to walk to the beach. It was a very long walk! It took us almost an hour to get there. My feet were killing me!! However, I saw all people were walking and running. People here are very active and walk everywhere. That is one thing that I need to get used to it every quick because I mostly drive all the time in United States. When I walked to the beach, it was nearly killed me to walk a million mile! ( Sorry, I'm just being so dramatic) The beach is very beautiful and the group love it so much and plan to chill here everyday... I was kind of dying inside because it means I need to walk to the beach again... everyday ... an hour ... walking ... everyday ... I'm death! Just kidding though. I love the beach! and I get to exercise more too because when I was in United States,  I was so busy with school and life and rarely had time to exercise. 

      We cooked something for our first dinner here. It was fun because the kitchen is very small and we tried to fit 6 people in it. We got some fishes, potatoes, breads and salad. The the dinner was great and we enjoyed our company because we didn't have WiFi in the girls' flat yet!

We visit Torres De Serranos

      After 2 weeks in Valencia, I think I have gain enough experience of communication here. We got lucky that 3 people from our group are speaking Spanish fluently, which are all the boys. They've been helping us a lot. Whenever the locals speak kind of very quick to us, I will call one of the boys real quick! "Um I need help over here". In Valencia, there are 2 official languages spoken in the city which are Spanish and Valencian, a dialect of Catalan. So, if the locals speck in Valencian, the boys will have a bit of hard time understanding the locals. So many time that I've asked one of the boys about the menu, and their response was "I don't know that word"... So, I ended up experiencing all the new food, which is great! I'm  not complaining about it because I love food! Imagine the boys who speak Spanish fluently having some troubles with the language and communication... Don't even get me started! The girls, who have little to zero knowledge about the language, are not feeling it! The locals speak very fast, sometime I catch some word that I learned from my Spanish 1 and 2 in high school, sometime I don't and blank out... But, I'm happy to say that I can order food in Spanish which is good enough for me right now. So, I'm not starving over here. I think I did good hahaha.

Plaza De La Virgen

      The sights are amazing. We are traveling as a group. So, six of us always explore and get lost together... But even when we lost, I didn't feel like that at all. I think of it as I got to explore where the people are actually lived, not just the tourist places. Mostly, I just followed the group wherever they wanted to go. All I do is taking pictures. It seems like my job here because I brought my Canon with me and I like to take random pictures of places and people. I don't have anything to say much about the sights and places that we went. Except, AMAZING! As you can see on the pictures I posted.

Watch out guys!

     The way of life in Valencia is very chill. They love to enjoy the moment instead of looking at the tiny screen and being on the phone all the time! From my observation, during breakfast, lunch and dinner, people are living the moment and enjoy their food and company. They do not on the phone the whole time or taking picture of food before they eat (well, that's me). They are taking their time, sitting and enjoying their company. What a life! I feel great to put down the phone and living life. I'm loving it! Other thing that I learned here is they don't have togo cup for my tea or coffee. I was ordering a cup of tea at a cafe while I was waiting for my group to get their stuff done, but they finished their business early, walked up to me and said that they 're ready. So, I was asking Omar to help me communicate with the lady who works at the cafe. He went to ask her for togo cup and she confused and looked at him like, he said and I quote, "he left from the mental asylum and she knew at the instant that he's not from Spain". That was the funniest moment! People are very nice and very patient with me, with my broken Spanish that I speak like 3 years old. The menu that I don't know what it calls, they tell me what it is and teach me some words or phases. Also, people walk their dogs everywhere here. Mostly, they don't pick up stuff that their dogs left behind (poopy), unlike America, people pick it up and throw it away. So, we have to watch out where we step our feet on. Sadly, Amanda and Omar stepped on the poopy bomb... and it was the same bomb. I don't know how they manage to step on the SAME BOMB!! After that, they seem like to have some sort of radar that can detect the bomb and warn the rest of us before we step on it. It's very helpful! The only thing that I don't like it here is people smoke everywhere! It's hard for me to breath and make me caught all the time. Also, cerveza and vino are very common here but I don't mind it hehe.

Parroquia De San Nicolas

     Overall, Valencia is great. I love the weather here (if I don't walk in the sun for too long). The wind is pretty chilly for me but the sun makes it hot! Sometime, I got confused and not sure what to wear. If I wear short, it will be perfect when I'm walking around in the sun but will make me cold under the shade. If I were pants, I'll die in the sun but perfectly fine in the shade. Also, during the day, it's so hot but in the evening, it's getting chilly for me. So, I'm a bit confused on how to dress here. The beach is fun! We got to play beach volleyball with locals and of course against each other too. We have been chilling at the beach a lot, after work. Just to relax and enjoying the moment. So far, Valencia has been great for the group and I.

La Ciudad De Las Artes y Las Ciencias

Civil Engineering

Christopher in Austin, TX

       Imagine a home of your own with a great architecture, nice interior design, beautiful garden and perhaps swimming pool... It's all started from here, "my dream home". I wanted to be able to design and build my own home and that is why I am pursuing a degree in civil engineering. Also, seeing all the beautiful architectures is an inspiration for "my dream home". Of course, I will live with my lovely pets in "my dream home". As it shows in Figure on the left, the church behind Christopher the Hedgehog is my inspiration of having a beautiful architectural design for "my dream home", but of course, in the figure on the left, Christoper seems like the focus of the photo and he is not happy about it.

       

       Even though beautiful home is what I want, safety structural is also very important factor to me too. Home should not be just aesthetics, it should have a good structural support to carry all the loads from roof, upper floors, and other weight bearing loads down to the ground to support "my dream home". Choosing civil engineering as the profession is the best way to understand how to design beam, column, foundation, wall, and etc. to make sure that "my dream home" will be perfect in every way: aesthetic, safety, and cost-effectiveness. As shown in the video below, the group and I visited the Cathedral, on Sunday, June 5, 2016, and it has very beautiful design of columns and every details are perfect. It was breathtaking. If you have a chance to be in Valencia, Spain, then this is the place to be! The inside on the church has very stunning paints display throughout. In terms of safety, there is no doubt about it because all the buildings in here had been built more than a century ago and it is still standing today.

       

     

       I expect to contribute all the knowledge that I collected throughout school and experience of this research program to my profession. Technical and subject-specific knowledge, science, mathematics and technology will help in design, create and build structures efficiently to improve the community or even a world. Hopefully, becoming a civil engineer will appoint me to apply all these skills to make an impact on society and hope some of my future work will make people's lives much better and easier. Also, I wish that my future creations will stand strong as the time goes by and be as beautiful as all the buildings in picture below.