Rotary Barcelona Pedralbes & Rotary Berlin Kurfürstendamm

I really need to catch up on my meeting attendance posts!


During my travels in April I was able to visit two Rotary clubs: first Rotary Barcelona Pedralbes and then Rotary Berlin Kurfürstendamm. When I visited Barcelona Pedralbes, it was the Thursday before Easter weekend and they didn't have a regular meeting. Instead they hosted just a casual lunch because so many members were out of town. I introduced myself to the members who were present, and since they didn't have the club banner they promised to mail it to me!


The Berlin Kurfürstendamm meeting was quite busy and much more similar to the meetings that I had attended in the U.S. because of the nametags, attendance sheet, and lunch payments (I haven't yet witnessed any of these Rotary institutions in Spain yet). The speaker's presentation was on mergers and acquisitions... at the beginning I attempted to understand the few German words that jumped out to me but after 15 minutes I just tuned it out (I probably would have done it if I was listening to a speech on mergers and acquisitions in English as well). The definite highlight of the meeting was meeting Berliners and hearing their personal stories about what Berlin was like before the wall came down. As I have already expressed (profusely), Berlin has such a rich culture, and its recent history ensures that it is an ever-evolving city.

Rotary Barcelona Pedralbes

The fancy Kempinski Hotel in Berlin where Kurfürstendamm has their meetings 

Flag exchange with the President of Berlin Kurfürstendamm

Andalucian puente

At the end of an epic April of many university holidays and trips, I went to Andalucia: first to the Feria de Abril in Sevilla and then to Granada.

The Feria is a big 'fair' that originated from horse trading. (In more modern times, it's more about dancing Sevillanas, showing off your feria dress, and drinking Manzanilla). The main part of th fair is composed of 'casetas' which have dancing, music, food and drinks. The majority of the casetas are private and you need some kind of connection to get in. Basically, a group of people (could be a company, university, labor union, public institution or just some friends) hire a bar for their own caseta where they can enjoy a good fiesta with their friends.  There are a few public casetas, some put on by neighborhoods in Sevilla and others by the political parties.

As for the Feria dress, the majority of the girls are dressed in flamenco dresses, with a hair comb, flower, huge earrings, and shawl. Each one is quite costly and the fashion does evolve, although it's difficult to tell for a foreigner which trends are newer or older. 

I was lucky enough to borrow my friend Kirstie's second feria dress, since she had bought two dresses second-hand from her boss. We were invited to the caseta of her (other) boss' family and it was great to have a local experience and see the Sevillanas being danced by Sevillanos. (The Sevillana is a type of flamenco that has many complicated steps. It's quite different from the very soulful, sorrowful flamenco dances.) Afterward, Kirstie and her friends left because they had had such a long day after work and I met up with another friend Begona, who took me to two more casetas. Without local connections, I think you could still have a good time at the Feria but it's so much more fun to be able to check out different private casetas!

Here's the PP caseta (PP is basically the conservative party)... true to its nature, it was luxurious, bougie, and was more of a 5-star restaurant with waiter service than a bar. Everybody was sitting down and eating and nobody was dancing! (Kind of defeats the purpose of feria, I thought). 

PSOE, the more liberal party, seemed like a pretty ordinary caseta. And then there was the communist party´s caseta, which is known to have a great party. And as expected, they had cheaper food and drinks (and even communist paraphanelia).

 After my two days of Feria, I headed to Granada by train. I met up with Jamie, a former Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar who is currently getting a Master's in Public Health in Granada, as well as Vicki, a Rotarian who is extremely passionate about her involvement in the community and who has been extremely supportive of all of the Ambassadorial Scholars. It was great to catch up with both of them and quite flattering that Vicki used her frequent flier miles to take a crazy flight to visit us from Los Angeles! Despite some cold rainy weather, we still had a good time in Granada, visiting El Albaicín (the old Moorish quarter famous for its white houses) and La Alhambra.


With Jamie, we had a nice Master-comparing session... her program is well-organized but she feels that the students aren't so motivated as many of them already have careers. I actually feel the complete opposite about my program! The organization is lacking, we don't get much support, and it can be a huge pain to find the right perosn to get help from, but the students are quite motivated and passionate about our subjects especially when they see the immediate applications of what we're learning. I also learned some interesting facts from her and what she is passionate about- how epidemiologic studies can be used to increase funding for public health. For one, there hasn't been a single public campaign to combat obesity that has been successful. And, in all countries in the world, obesity is increasing (just at different rates). It's so difficult to judge how today's policies will affect society in the future but that's why Jamie is interested in using the epidemiologic studies to increase the necessary funding for disease prevention, which will improve the quality of life now and decrease the costs in the future.


Catching up with Vicki, both Jamie and I were extremely moved by her updates on her work in the community. Vicki is the most dedicated Rotarian I know, to a wide range of causes... promoting peace with young people, the Ambassadorial Scholarship, Youth Exchanges, mentorships, and peace within the community. Lately she's become extremely involved as a mentor for a troubled teen. I won't get into the details, but Vicki has gone way beyond the call of duty as a support-system, teacher, mentor, and friend for this young man. I think in some way, Vicki has become a mentor for all of the Ambassadorial Scholars and she is truly passionate and dedicated to what she believes in.

Rotary Valencia

Yesterday I visited my host club, Rotary Valencia, to make my presentation there. It seems they've been keeping quite busy- they recently sponsored community awards (Premios Servicio a la Comunidad), granting 4 awards to local community members who made a contribution in Economics, Science, Painting, and Sculpture. The award presentation was featured on local TV as well as an interview with a Rotarian. Last weekend Rotary Valencia also organized an info session, in which university students were invited to ask questions to business and industry professionals about entering the workforce.

After the meeting, I was invited to stay for dinner and I performed the flag exchange with the President.

The Rotary Valencia flag is very nice- the Rotarians told me that it's made of real silk (the same material used in the Falleras' dressed)


And here I am with Celia, a Rotarian who happens to be the founder and owner of Café Valiente! (It's very well-known in Spain)

Rotary Valencia Centro

Yesterday I spoke at Rotary Valencia Centro, the biggest Rotary club in Spain. It was certainly the meeting most similar to the American meetings that I've attended... they were more down to business and organized in their agenda, and used multimedia (twice!). I learned about one of their annual projects- visiting a elderly persons' home on the Día de los Reyes Magos, armed with costumes, gifts and, of course, a giant paella. There were also quite a few guests- friends of Rotarians as well as a visiting Rotarian from Sao Paulo.

Finally, we also heard a presentation from a Rotary Youth Exchange participant who just returned from his year living in Texas. Let me say, it was quite interesting to hear a 17 year old Spanish boy's take on American high schools... some things that he seemed to emphasize were how big a role sports have in high schools, as well as how big and elaborate the actual school itself seemed (he said it looked like a university to him rather than a high school, and actually I agree... superficially, the high school did in fact have everything that UPV has). The Rotarians were curious about everything from the level of education and religion to the relationship he had with his host family to the Rotary clubs in Texas. Anyways, what a wonderful opportunity it was that Rotary gave him!

Visiting Rotary Tanger Détroit

Later in my trip, I attended a Rotary Tanger Detroit meeting. Something interesting I should bring up is that in total I contacted 15 Rotary clubs in Morocco, in the various cities that I knew that I'd visit, yet Tanger Detroit is the only one that responded to my email! Some Rotary clubs have embraced technology with open arms and utilize it to their every need, but I think others have little need for keeping an updated website or email.

This club is one of two in the city of Tanger (also known as Tangier or Tangiers), and true to the unique history of Tangier the club was diverse in the nationality of the members as there were members present from Morocco, Britain, France, and the U.S. The entire meeting was conducted in French, but several of the English-speaking members provided translation for me and my mom. President Azeddine Bousfiha first gave a summary of the projects in 2011 that Rotary Tangier Detroit funded, which are:
a kitchen that serves thousands (a partnership with the Ceuta club)
raincoat donations to children who walk in the rain to attend primary school
a deaf society's sign language conference that provided resources and training to both deaf people and their families
an association for single mothers in Morocco to help them find jobs and keep their babies

All very relevant and, I'm sure, deserving causes. Next I gave my presentation (also with translation into French provided by the American Rotarian, Jerry Loftus) and presented Azeddine with the Westwood Village Rotary Club banner.


After this, the meeting proceeded with discussion about the creation of a Rotaract club in Tangier, and the upcoming District Conference.

Compared to the Casablanca Al Manar club, Tangier Detroit was much more traditional; although women members are allowed, they do not currently have any. The other Tangier Rotary club apparently still does not allow women, which came as quite a surprise to me. A controversial topic that has come up is the creation of a third Rotary club in Tangier that would be limited to females. On one hand, Moroccan women may not be entirely comfortable in a male-dominated club especially as the stereotype of Rotary as an all-male smoking club persists, and an all-female club could be geared toward their needs and causes. On the other hand this negative stereotype of Rotary needs to be changed as it affects the perception of Rotary worldwide, and it will never be changed if there remain clubs separated by gender. Furthermore, if the slogan of Rotary is 'Service above Self', gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are certainly a part of 'Self' and should not be a determination for membership. This is the power of Rotary- uniting unique and different individuals by their passion for service.

Rotary Club Casablanca Al Manar

Feliz año nuevo to all!

I'm back in Valencia, but I'll be posting periodically about my trip to Morocco. There's so much I want to share!

I'll start with my experience with Rotary Club Casablanca Al Manar.

Before I left for Morocco, I contacted Rotary clubs in the cities that I would be visiting to see if I could be a guest at their meetings, and I was able to meet with Rotarians in both Casablanca and Tangier. Because some clubs did not provide an email and only a phone number, I also called a few clubs after arriving in Morocco. Luckily, Anouar Zyne responded kindly to my phone call (and extremely broken French), and he and Najat Buchmann Kamal of the Casablanca Al Manar club offered to meet with my mom and me despite the fact that there was no official meeting because of the holiday.

There are quite a few Rotary clubs in Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco, and Al Manar (which means lighthouse in Arabic) is the newest club, just having been accepted in December 2011. Al Manar is quite a modern club than the typical; about half of the members are women and most of the Rotarians are middle-aged, under 50 years old. Also true to Rotarian tradition friendship and famous Moroccan hospitality, Anouar and Najat were great hosts. Even though Rotary almost always operates in French in Morocco, Anouar and Najat were kind enough to do their best with communicating in English. They spoke proudly of their city but also offered a cosmopolitan worldview. I could definitely sense an enthusiasm that Anouar and Najat exuded for the first year of their club and what they planned to accomplish, and there's no doubt in my mind that Rotary Club Al Manar will succeed in lighting the way in Casablanca!

Dessert shop opening, philosophical talk, and artisan glass exhibit- all with Rotary!

In the past 24 hours, I've gone to 3 Rotary events! Each one was quite unique, and Brianna (another Ambassadorial Scholar in Valencia) and I were invited by a different club each time, but each of the events allowed us to see a different side of Rotary.

Thursday night we attended the opening of a dessert shop called Torreblanca, which also happened to coincide with Valencia's Fashion Night Out. The streets of Colón were filled with extremely well-dressed and, well, fashionable individuals. The shop was absolutely filled! I guess who wouldn't want to grab some free champagne and delicious pastries?



After that died down, the three members of Rotary Feria Mediterraneo took Brianna and I to a restaurant by the port, owned by a friend of the president Sergio. As an appetizer we had "foie" which is like the French foie gras but the kind we had was extremely smooth and buttery. For dinner I had fish grilled in olive oil..simple and fresh.


Today, we attended a talk that was part of the University of Valencia's "Week of Solidarity for Cooperation." The presentation was called "Further from a society of high consumption: the thought alphabet and cosmosociety." The talk was given by a professor of economics, although the topic was extremely philosophical. We were invited by Pascual, a member of Rotary Cid, who helped organize the event. Here's a photo:



After the talk, Brianna and I went straight to an exhibition held by Rotary Rey Don Jaime for Fet de Vidre. This is an artisan workshop that employs disabled people, and the Rotary Club held this event to promote their work and help them sell some of their glass products.





After the exhibition, Rotary Rey Don Jaime invited the guests (Brianna and me, the representatives of Fet de Vidre, and a representative from the Ayuntamiento) to lunch, and we were treated to more great food. Here's the dessert:

Desfile de alta moda-

A couple weeks ago, I was invited by R.C. Valencia-Cid to Rotary Valencia's "Cena y desfile a beneficio de LORCA." In May 2011 the city of Lorca (which is located in the Comunitat Valenciana) suffered a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, which damaged many public buildings, homes, and the historic center. The event was organized by Rotary Club Valencia but members from all of the Rotary Clubs, as well as their friends, attended the event to support the cause.

At the event, we ate dinner and then there was a "fashion show" of winter coats (all of very high quality I'm sure but a bit disturbing to me as an American to see so much animal fur). All in all, it was a very pleasant evening and it was very nice to see the Rotarians very active and supportive of a local cause.

Rotary Club Valencia-Cid

Last week I visited another R.C. of Valencia, Rotary Club Valencia-Cid. Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay for the meeting, because I had to leave for class (we met at 2pm, lunch started around 2:45pm, and I had to leave at 3:45). The members were extremely welcoming and accomodating of my schedule; they've also invited me to a Rotary event next week which is a fashion show fundraiser. Sounds like fun!

Here I am with the members, at the Hotel Westin:


And here's some lunch:

Rotary Rey Don Jaime

Last Friday I visited Rotary Club Valencia Rey Don Jaime, one of several in Valencia. This was my first official visit and talk to a Rotary Club in Spain. Anyways, they were very kind and invited me to their meeting, which took place at the Westin Hotel on Friday afternoon. I arrived at 2:30, and after a very long and delicious meal (which was about one and a half hours), they conducted the meeting. The meeting itself didn't take too long; I spoke for about 10 minutes, and the members asked me some questions, and they also welcomed a new member to the club. After the meeting, we sat in the hotel garden area and drank coffee. Because the club is small, there was a very friendly and intimate atmosphere. I was able to talk to all the members and learn at least a little bit about them. Norma, the secretary, is actually from Argentina and she works as an event planner; the other members asked her about her daughter who was starting dance and music lessons. The club wouldn't be holding a meeting the next week because Elias, the president, would be attending his daughter's wedding. The other members held a variety of occupations in law and business.

One aspect I enjoyed was the presence of family which made the club very personable; even though only 7 members were present at the meeting, the son of one member was the chef at the restaurant and came by before our meal to chat about the menu and Elias' daughter stopped by during lunch to say hi.

Here I am with the club:




Rotarians enjoying coffee:


Here's a few photos of lunch. First we had bread and olive oil, then appetizers which consisted of jamón iberico and cheese, mozarella and tomate valenciano, and salad. Of course at this point I was full, since the appetizers were extremely tasty. But of course, we still had the main course (either fish or meat), and then a strawberry mousse for dessert.

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!

A Rotary-filled week

4 events within 6 days!

The first was last Thursday, when I attended a Westwood Village Rotary Club meeting. I usually can't make it because of class, but lecture was canceled this week! Gordon, my counselor, is actually the WVRC President and it was the first that I've attended a meeting that he's led. Anyways, I made a short speech about myself and my plans for the future with the Scholarship to the club. It's a bit disconcerting when you're presenting to people who are eating, because I never know if they're actually listening or not. It's definitely a bigger mistake to assume they're not listening when they actually are, though. At least I have plenty of experience from CBE 104A & B when everybody in the class is doing homework and a few people are listening keenly to my presentation.

The next event was SCOTS in Palos Verdes, which was orientation and training for outbound scholars. There were 4 inbound Scholars (Ikumi from Japan, Ari from Korea, Rahel from Zurich, and Marco from Bologna), 3 outbound Ambassadorial Scholars (Dave from USC going to Cambridge, Amber from Smith College going to Zimbabwe, and me; the fourth girl couldn't make it), and 1 Peace Scholar (Pani going to Brisbane). We all made a short speech about ourselves, and it was really great to hear about everyone and their great plans for the future. Especially the outbound scholars were all very international- volunteering in places like India and Honduras, and studying in places like Argentina. Pani works a lot with Nobel Peace Laureates through her job at a non-profit, and even mentioned the advice that Archbishop Tutu gave her! Anyways, various members of the Committee went over parts of the Scholar Handbook and we even had a quiz.

Main components of my pre-departure year (i.e. 2010-2011):
*Make 8 short talks introducing myself to the clubs of District 5280
*Attend various Rotary events and functions, like District Breakfasts and the District Conference
*Submit monthly progress reports to my counselor (Gordon) and the Ambassadorial Committee Chair (Dave)
*Obtain admission to my assigned institution
*Arrange my visa, bank account, housing
*Contact my host counselor in Valencia

The third event was the Paul Harris Foundation Celebration. There were over 500 attendees to this event, which serves to raise money for the Rotary Foundation projects. There was a silent auction and raffle, and of course music, drinks, and food. Unfortunately, it was a bit loud to hold long conversations, but I still talked to Miloni about her experiences in Singapore which was great.

This morning was the District Breakfast. There's always short announcements promoting the next Conference (either International or District), and a distinguished speaker, Father Boyle. At first my mind kept wandering during his talk, but when he used more humor and real anecdotes from his work with former gang members (Homeboy Industries is his organization's name) it really caught everybody's attention.