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.