Keeping Up with Spain Crew

       December 17th was a very important day for Eric, Luis, Prapti and me. It was our graduation! We had been working out butt off during last semester. Finally, we are done!!! The tassel was worth the hassle. I wish all of us well and succeed in anything we do! Also, for anyone who is reading this, learning is one of the most modest possessions someone can acquire. Do not stop learning now; keep wisdom the rest of our life. Then you will graduate life with admiration. Your hard work, commitment, and obedience will pay off.

       After graduation, I went off the radar and studied for civil FE Exam (Civil Fundamentals of Engineering Exam). I was locking myself in the house for 2 weeks! I didn't go anywhere or do anything else, except studying.  I literally got little more pale because I did not step outside of my house for awhile.  I even studied during Christmas and New Year.  It was intense for me. Then, I took a test... I had a mixed feeling about it.  I did not feel like I did bad but I did not feel good about it neither haha.  After I got out from the testing center, I needed to reward myself with wings!! LOTS OF WINGS!! I was super hungry too after sitting in the testing center for 6 hours straight.  I waited for a week, then received my result.  It said... I PASSED!! It was the first thing I did after I woke up. I didn't even get out of bed yet.  I turned on my phone and checked. After I found out that I passed, I screamed very loud (I kind of woke up the whole house haha).  My grandmother called from Thailand to ask me how it was.  She was very happy to hear that I passed.  She sounded very excited and I think she was happier than me.  Since I haven't seen her for about 4 years, I am thinking to go to Thailand to visit my grandmother before I start working.

       Lastly, I want everyone to know that always remember you are braver than you believe, strong than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you know... <3

Outcome

       Last weekend, the Spain Family had been traveling to Barcelona!! But, we got separated because of our schedule and budget. The boys were together to do their own adventure. Prapti and I were together to do our own thing because we couldn't keep up with the boys. Basically, two lady, that speak none to little Spanish, tried to survive in foreign country for 2 days without the boys help! Well, we did survive because we got back to our home safe and sound. We walked around so much, according to my Health App on iPhone, we walked about 14+ miles on Saturday. I felt like my legs would give up on me and fell off. It was the most walking distance that I've never done it in years! There are so much places to visit. We couldn't make it in 3 days. We got to Barcelona on Friday night, around 9 pm. It was dark already, so we just ate dinner and walked around a bit. Then, we went back to Valencia on Sunday evening. If I ever have a chance to come back to Spain again in the future, I will need as much time as possible to visit all these beautiful places in Spain, whether it be Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, and some other places. 

The food I cooked.

        Overall, being here in Spain taught me a lot of things. First of all, I've never lived with roommate before. So, this is first time ever! Living with someone that you've never knew them before was challenging. You got to learn how to get along, learn about their culture too because each one of us is different, and help and lookout for each other. Also, I cook so much more here. Normally, in America, I only cook when I really really really want to eat something that is not available anywhere. It's easier just to grab something to eat in America because the restaurants open all the time. I ended up cooking a lot of things that I've never cooked before. Our fellow Spain Family is the guinea pigs to try my cooking, which they said it was good. I don't know if it's actually good or they just want to make me feel better about it hahaha, but I know for sure it's eatable... 

       Also, I have learned and be able to use public transportation in here. I have used public transportation in Bangkok, Thailand and Chicago, USA. before, but in Spain is different.  We took metro, tram, taxi and train. It was very cool. I would be so scared to drive here, I was scared even in the blablacar ride. They drive manual, which I don't know how to drive haha. Recently, Prapti and I went to Barcelona by train, Renfe. It was our first time riding the train for both of us. We were exciting! The train was very nice and comfortable. It was like we were riding on a mini airplane trip. It has AC, which I love it very much, little television,  which it shows us some movies, outlet, which we can charge our phones,  and etc. I love the train ride here very much, and I enjoy the scenery along the way very much!

Valencia Estacio del Nord Railway Station

       Most importantly, I have learned how to enjoy life while working. Let me remind you guys again that I'm here to do the research on Containing Shock Waves Generated in Explosion! The culture here is so relax and lay back. They do not live the rush life like us, in United States. For example, I was so stressed out about the presentation that I have to do at the end of this week. So, I met with my mentor, talked about it, and told him that I will read on some materials during my train ride to Barcelona. He said "No no no, don't do that! Enjoy your trip, your weekend. We will figure it out when you come back." I was like, "Really? Are you sure?" "Yeah, you should visit Cathedral for sure!", he said. I was like, "Aw, Thank you!"  I was so impressed!! He is my favorite mentor ever!!!! Even though he was so busy with everything else, he still had time for us to meet and talk about what's going on on the research. He wanted to show us around, but he couldn't because he has so much to deal with right now. It's totally understandable for me. I was so impressed that he still managed sometime for us too.      My prior educational background impacted my ability to perform on my project so much. Luckily, I took elective class, which is Construction Management, Equipment and Method, before I came here. There was a chapter about blasting rock, so I have a little knowledge about explosive, shock energy, and gas energy. Since we just started about the project that I'm working on right now, understanding the shock waves and how it behaves is the good first step on the research.

     The challenge did I faced during my educational training is that the difficulty on how to research about explosive. Some stuff that I found it's out of dated, and the most recently one is from US Army and they keep some stuff confidential. So, I only touched on the surface of it. Again, we only have  6 weeks to do the research, which is very short period of time, it's not much that I can get done in  6 weeks. Unfortunately, my mentor went through some difficult time with his family. So, he wasn't have much time for us, but he still manages to help us in every way the he possibly can. He earned so much respect from me.

     Overall, IRES Hazard Mitigation of Civil Infrastructure Project has been very great opportunity and experience for me. I have got to apply my knowledge that I've learned throughout school in the real world applications by doing the research and working with people in the field. I am forever thankful for this amazing opportunity. Thank you to Dr. Nur Yazdani, Dr. Liza Thompson, Ana Barella, Dr. Luis Pallares Rubio, Dr. Miguel Carrion and all of the stuff that have been helping me throughout the program. Also, a big thanks to my "Spain Fam", Prapty Sharma, Omar Rubio, Eric Chavez, Amanda Quisenberry and Jose Leyva, who make this trip full of adventure and fun!

Spain Fam!

Social Identity

Bangkok, Thailand

     If you haven't already know, I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand. The population is very high in such a small city, so it is full of skyscrapers. It is very lively! Later on, I moved to Texas, United States of America when I was 14 years old. From urban area to rural area, it was sudden change for me. I had to adjust my life style and it was not bad at all. I have lived in America for almost 10 years now. They are totally different but I love both countries and appreciate the positive in each and I am very proud of my foothold and background in both nations. 

   Luckily, I have a great opportunity to do the research with IRES program in Spain. The cultural in Spain is different from America and Thailand. Food transitions of America and Thailand are similar. We eat breakfast around 8 - 9 am. before we are going out to work/school. Then, lunch is around 12 - 1 pm. and go back to work after. Dinner is around 6 - 7 pm. However in Spain, I have "breakfast #1" when I wake up in the morning before I leave to work, some cereal with milk or piece of bread with jam. Then around 10 am., there's almuerzo  (brunch) break, or I call it "breakfast #2". I normally have some orange juice and some sort of pastry. 2 pm. is lunch time! If I have it at work's cafeteria, I will often have 3 courses: salad of some sort, main dish, and some dessert. The food is delicious and cheap too! Most of the time, I come home to cook some lunch and then take some siesta (nap) afterward. Dinner time is around 9 pm. I try to eat light but my Spain fam is not eating light dinner! So, I just eat huge dinner with them. But, if we don't eat dinner together (all 6 of us), I will just eat light dinner.

      Now that y'all are familiar with "Siesta", which is my favorite thing ever! It's not just me that love to nap after lunch, the locals love it too. Siesta affects life in here! In here, most businesses are shutting down from 2 - 5 pm. 

with Business hour. I was not used to this at all. In America, I am used to the businesses that open all day everyday, in Thailand also. I can go eat or shopping whenever I want to eat, but in Spain, if you come out before or after the lunch our, your life will be much harder now because it's so hard to find the restaurant to eat! We ran into that problem once when we couldn't find anywhere to eat, but TBG (The Good Burger, so American! I know) saved us! So, TGB is the goto restaurant for us from thereon. Also, Mercadona, our goto market, is open while other places are closed. So, we are always went to grocery shopping to stock on the food. I mean we can't survive with out food! However, sometime I still not considered that most of the places are closed during the napping hour. I make plans and then realizing... damn it! it's closed!! It can be really inconvenient at times, but when it's super hot, I won't feel guilty hiding out inside the apartment because nothing is open anyway.

   

Unintended group picture

 Language learning is very important. Knowing few words or sentences are very helpful in here. But, if even you don't know any, the locals will help you as much as they can. People in here are very nice. I was talking to one of our mentors. He was talking about how they are fighting for free college tuition, which I think it's very nice idea if American education will be like that too because I know a lot of people that unfortunate enough to go to college and some that have lots of loan after they graduated. Also, he was writing the book for his students by combining all the book that he had read and wrote the book that is cheaper and easier to understand for his students. I think it's very nice. 

     The video above is shown that parallel parking is everywhere in here, same as Bangkok, Thailand. However, it's not that often for me to do parallel parking in Texas. If I'm ever gonna be living in here, this is the only thing that I can't do. I would be hitting the cars in front and behind me, but I witnessed , several times, the car was backup into cars behind and pulled up to the one in front while it tried to fit in the parking spot. The driver didn't freak out or anything! I guess it's just normal in here...

     We have it easier in America. We should appreciate what we have, before it becomes what we had.

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.