mis amigos de la vida Valenciana

Quite possibly the most important aspect of my life here is the people... because despite being enrolled in a interesting and demanding Master's program and living in a beautiful city, my life would be lacking if I didn't have friends with whom I could share the experience.

Here's a brief rundown of my new friends:

Adriana- the first person I met here! I asked to couchsurf with Adriana in the first few days that I was in Valencia while I was looking for apartments. Super friendly and super chill girls... Adriana does fire dancing too! Here's a picture of Adriana, a couchsurfer from Georgia, me, and her other flatmate Gregory (from Venezuela):



Here's my flatmates, Leo, Paul and Julia:




Leo is in his first year at UPV studying informatics, Paul is a grad student studying informatics, and Julia is a Master's student studying architecture.

Here I am with a group of international students I met (at the on campus bank, nonetheless!). I started talking to Diego and Sarka while in line at Bancaja, and they invited me on their weekend trip to Puig, a nearby town where there's a castle. We were all prepared for the day trip, with bicycles we rented for a mere 2.5euro for the day, but our (cheap) decision soon caught up with us as there were problems with Sarka's bike pedal. At one point it literally came off the bike! Obviously we didn't make it to Puig but we spent the afternoon at the beach and exploring the port of Valencia.



And here I am with Sarka, enjoying free kebab in Benimaclet!

I've survived my first week as a grad student!

Here's what my schedule looks like:
Monday, 4-6pm: Energy Markets & Regulations
Monday, 6-8pm: Intro to Energy Technology

Tuesday, 4-6pm: The Energy Problem and Sustainable Development
Tuesday, 6-8pm: Distribution Networks

Wednesday, 4-6pm: Wind Energy
Wednesday, 6-8pm: Intro to Energy Technology

Thursday, 4-6pm: Solar Energy
Thursday, 6-8pm: Energy Auditing

Friday: Labs (prácticas)



Right now I'm in the "Primer Cuatrimestre" schedule. The way the Master is organized is that there are 3 options: Renewable Energy, Efficiency, and Nuclear Energy (mine is Renewables). Out of the 2 options that I didn't choose, I had to choose one as my "optativa"; from this subject I take 2 courses (I chose Efficiency).

Language
Yes, all of my courses are in Spanish. So far, this hasn't posed too much of a problem although I was exhausted on Monday after 4 hours of class. My Wind Energy professor didn't speak very clearly and on top of that a lot of the subject matter was very new for me, so that course was definitely the most challenging. Needless to say, the next day I did a lot of reading on types of generators and the internal components of generators.

Classmates
There's about 35-45 people in the program right now. (The number is still changing because people are enrolling.) The majority of students are Spanish although there seem to be quite a few from Latin America (Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica that I know of so far). Maybe 10-20% of the class works so I guess that's why our courses are all in the afternoon. There's also a few students from other European countries, but otherwise everybody speaks Spanish fluently.

Classes
Everything is structured relatively similar to the US and the courses I've taken at UCLA... the professors post all of their notes and presentations online, have office hours (tutorías), etc.

Here are some differences:
*One big difference is that there are no assigned textbooks, so in terms of cost this is huge.
*The grading system in Spain is from 1-10, where 10 is the highest. However, the passing grade depends on the professor and it's usually around 3.5 or 4 (whereas you would imagine it to be around 5 or 6 as it would be in the US). Since there's no curves though, I guess this helps a lot.
*No TA's!

I'll leave you with a little anecdote from my first day of class... the professor was discussing energy consumption and the very high per capita energy consumption in the US. A girl said something like "Well, that must be the case since everyone drives huge cars over there!" and he replied "Things are changing, and they're civilizing."

1st day of class and 1st Rotary Valencia meeting

First day of class...it´s been awhile since I´ve had those first day butterflies! My classes run from 4-8pm Monday thru Thrusday, with labs on Friday. (I think a lot of Masters classes are in the afternoon to accomodate people who work.) There were about 35 people in the classroom, although people are matriculating still so there will probably be around 45 or 50. We also learned that roughly 300 people applied in the first application period, and about 50 students were admitted and 35 enrolled. I had no idea that it was so competitive! After a 30 minute introductory presentation about our Masters, and talking about the Thesis, possible internships, etc., we had 2 courses: Energy Markets and Regulations, and Introduction to Energy Technology.

Last night I attended my first Rotary Valencia meeting. They meet on Mondays at 9pm, and after the one hour meeting they eat dinner together in the hotel. Because I was coming from class, I arrived a bit late to Hotel Valencia Palace. The club has in total about 35 members, and 16 were present at last night´s meeting. After they read a summary of last week´s meeting and mentioned the bimonthly Rotary brochure that was distributed, I briefly introduced myself and then there was a very interesting discussion about their role in the community and what it means to be a Rotarian. A member brought up that, as a club, they should pursue small projects in which the Rotary name gets lost but rather focus on projects of a grander scale that have a big impact. A couple Rotarians were against this idea, saying that small things still make a difference and that large projects are often not feasible for a club of their size. It´s very difficult to collaborate with the 6 other Rotary Clubs in Valencia to contribute something large. After this, the oldest Rotarian in the district, Ignacio, spoke about his experience with Rotary and the history of Rotary in Valencia. He has been a member since 1980 and has held virtually all of the district positions except District Governor (because it requires the Governor and his/her spouse to travel to various clubs, and his wife was against this). He mentioned that friendship is the most important part of Rotary, and that eating together, socializing, and getting to know one another´s families should not be overlooked. For this reason, clubs that are too large lose some of Rotary, because the members don´t know each other. Ignacio also spoke about the type of people who are Rotarians, and the way Rotary is viewed (''Rotary is often thought to be elitist, and I agree- we are elitists in that we look for individuals who have the right qualities and want to contribute to the community.'') Anyways, he had some great insights that allowed me to see how the Rotarian spirit is very well alive in Valencia. The meeting finished late (around 10:45) and afterwards, they invited me to stay to eat dinner with them. I met my mentor/host counselor, Carlos Cases, who is a Civil Engineering professor at UPV as well as the President and other members. Our dinner consisted of gazpacho with bread, then salmon baked with olive oil and peas, and finally fruit for dessert. I was able to catch a ride back to Benimaclet with a member Vicente, who just like the other members was extremely welcoming and told me to ask for help whenever I needed it. Anyways, I´ll be making a longer, more formal presentation to the club in the next couple weeks. More to come!

First week in Valencia

It´s hard to imagine that Í´ve already been here a week! Time certainly flies when you´re busy. Anyways I´ll give a summary of what my first week´s been like here.

My flight from LAX to Valencia on Tuesday was pretty uneventful. After arriving in Valencia, I was directed to a separate area to wait for my luggage because my country of origin was outside the EU (turns out that I was the only person). The Valencia airport is very small, so I waited in an empty part of baggage claim until it came. As it turns out, there were no customs officers at the airport so I was just free to go after that. Anyways, I found Isidoro Ales (the District 2203 Assistant Governor) holding up a Rotary sign with my name. He was very kind and drove me to my friend Adriana´s place; I stayed with her for 3 days while I was apartment hunting in Valencia.

The next 3 days were spent going to the police station to the Foreigners Office to get my NIE (an ID for foreigners living in Spain), looking for an apartment, and going to UPV. Everything was pretty exhausting... the Foreigners Office was on the other side of town, while the secretary for UPV was only open 2 hours a day and 40+ students waiting in line when it opened, etc etc. In the end everything worked out well and I successfully submitted my application for a NIE, and I found a place to live. I´m living in a shared flat (piso compartido) that has 3 bedrooms. In one room is a married couple, Paul and Julia, who are both graduate students at UPV. They´re the ones who showed me the apartment and because they were extremely friendly and easy to get along with, I had no doubts that they would be good flatmates. Also, in a weird twist of fate, Paul is actually from Santa Clarita (and was the first American I met in Valencia)! In the other room is Leo, who just started his first year at UPV.

Here's some photos of the flat:



My weekend was spent getting settled into my apartment, buying some things for my room, and seeing the city. I visited the historic city center (there was a lot of great street art!) as well as the Jardín Turia (a green space in the middle of the city) and the Ciudad de Ciencias y Bellas Artes (known for the super modern and sea-inspired architecture, designed by Calatrava).

More about the Ambassadorial Scholarship

From 2011-2012, this blog will be dedicated to my year of studies in Valencia, Spain as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. I will be proudly representing District 5280 & Westwood Village Rotary Club while studying a Master's in Energy Technology for Sustainable Development at UPV (La Universidad Politècnica de València). I'm interested in how clean technology can be applied to improve the standard of living in developing countries, and the methods in which international collaborations between governmental agencies, NGOs, and the private sector may facilitate sustainable development. My ambassadorial scholar year will also involve serving as a liaison between Rotary clubs and promoting international understanding and tolerance. Of course, I plan to do my fair share of traveling to see more of my host country and understand what can be learned from their way of life.

The Ambassadorial Scholarship is a 3-year commitment. My pre-departure year (last year) was spent participating in Rotary activities, getting to know Rotarians and other scholars, and making presentations to Rotary and Rotaract clubs in the Los Angeles District. I saw some great speakers at the District Breakfasts (including LA's own Father Boyle), met Pam Shriver at the Beverly Hills Hotel, attempted to hide my awful singing voice when Rotarians started singing, and was treated to some delicious meals. I was assigned a counselor, Gordon Fell, from the Westwood Village Rotary Club who helped me with my attendance at all of these meetings, and I was just assigned a host counselor from the Valencia Rotary Club in District 2203 who will help me during my study year. In the last year of the scholarship, I will return to District 5280 and give presentations about my experience abroad.

Here I am with inbound & outbound Ambassadorial Scholars, Rotary Peace Scholars, and 2010-2011 RI President Ray Klinginsmith:

The end of my LA summer

After graduating from UCLA in June, I stayed around the LA area for a summer internship with the Southern California Gas Company. Although I've worked in the private sector as well as in research facilities, I've never had exposure to a utilities company. My duties the Process Engineering group involved visiting gas storage fields, developing process screens to assist field operators in monitoring gas flow, and supporting engineers by editing drawings and creating a tag database. In an effort to offset the numerous transatlantic and transpacific flights that I've taken in past couple years, I commuted to downtown LA from Westwood by public transportation every day. Sitting on either the Commuter Express 431 or the Metro Rapid 720 was often loud, uncomfortable, and bumpy, yet it gave me a different perspective on Angelenos. And despite the fact that I usually dozed off or was engrossed in a book during the commute, I do appreciate the few interactions I had with the other bus-riders.

So to my home for the last 4 years, I'd like to say thanks- for introducing me to great places and more importantly, great friends. And instead of goodbye, see ya later- this isn't the last you've seen of me!


With my mom at graduation:


With friends, standing under the columns of Royce Hall:


At the engineering commencement:


My UCLA throughout the decades collage:


With my friend Marie at the LACMA:


Central Library in downtown LA:


Saying goodbye to EWB friends at Shamshiri:


With Warren and the delicious tres leches cake he made for me: