a summer update

It's definitely been awhile since my last post, and a lot has happened!

First of all, I'm proud to say that I (just) turned in my Master's Thesis! As with any project, it was frustrating and illuminating at times. I can't say that the subject matter is my passion, but I did learn a lot and I am proud of the work I've done. The next step is preparing a kick-ass powerpoint and presenting it in 2 weeks! The next two weeks are gonna be tough... I'll not only be defending my thesis but also packing all of my things and saying goodbye to Valencia and all my friends here.

About my UNIDO internship in China, everything has been going smoothly. I've received all the materials I need to get my F visa, which is for visiting scholars, businesspeople, etc. My official position is Research Fellow at the UNIDO Regional Office in Beijing, China. I'm also going to apply for a scholarship for internships abroad from UPV, which would be a big financial help.

And as for what's happened in the last couple months, it's involved lots of travel and seeing old friends. I spent the first part of the summer June and the first half of July working on my thesis. During the last half of July, I traveled to London for the USE Efficiency course on energy efficiency in sports buildings. Afterwards, I traveled to Greece, Lebanon, Denmark, AND Sweden! More details and travel stories are to come.

June & July happenings

The last month has generally consisted of working on my thesis and the energy audit that we will present in the energy efficiency course in London, as well as fiestas and despedidas as many friends are leaving Valencia. 

out of town visitors

I was extremely excited to receive some out of town visitors! The first were two of my mom's college friends who came to Valencia for an applied mathematics conference. They were here on the day of my birthday so I showed them around the city and they also treated me to a nice birthday dinner. Later that week, my friend Liz from UCLA came down from Madrid, and it just happened to be a crazy weekend in Valencia. We managed to celebrate 3 birthdays, San Juan and the Spanish semifinal victory (not to mention see all the important sights in Valencia, go to the beach, and hear the racecars whiz by for the Formula 1). The next week, my friend Ishita from high school came as well! She was only here on a day-trip from Barcelona but it was great to see her and we also managed to see all the important sights in Valencia AND get her some vegetarian paella to try.  

Ishita and I at Plaza de la Virgen

Two California girls reunited at Valencia's beach

Independence Day

My fellow Ambassadorial Scholar held a 4th of July celebration in a very traditional and ambassadorial way which involved pigs in a blanket, chips and dip, mini hamburgers, ketchup and mustard (the American kind that you douse your food with, not the insanely strong and more authentic French kind) and a delicious red white and blue decorated lemon cake. We were the only two Americans there, along with friends from France, Serbia, Poland, Spain, Colombia, China, and other places around the world. Oddly enough, it's always when you're outside of your home country that you're feeling more patriotic and sentimental. 

delicious red white and blue cake

With my very glittery American flag

Eurocup 2012

"No hay 2 sin 3" was the anthem, as Spain has won the last 2 Eurocups (2008 and 2012) as well as the last Worldcup (2010). My friends (from Spain, Italy, and other countries as well) watched the game in the student area where there was quite a big Italian representation. Again, I think they were feeling much more Italian outside of Italy (although probably more so before the match than after). Here's some photos of the game and the celebration that followed.

Spanish pride

the 2nd out of 4 goals

Celebrating in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento

Festivals

Summer, just like almost any other time of year, is a time of many festivals in Spain. I'll start by explaining Noche de San Juan, which celebrates the shortest night of the year. Since this year it fell on a Saturday and on the same weekend as the Eurocup semifinal and the Formula 1, the beaches were full of people and bonfires and music throughout the night. There's many many traditions, but the most famous ones are to jump into the ocean at midnight and to jump over the 7 waves backwards. Other traditions include jumping over the bonfire twice and writing down three wishes and burning them in the bonfire, or writing down wishes and putting them under your pillow and burning them the next day. The Spanish tend to get quite creative.

¡Vamos España!

Jumping the flame

The next is the most famous fiesta in Spain... the San Fermines de Pamplona. The running of the bulls is the most well-known, but there's also concerts, parades, and other events throughout the city. It was incredible to see people from all over the world dressed in the San Fermin uniform of a white shirt and pants, with a red pañuelo or bandana scarf and red cinturón or belt. We saw some performances by Spanish punk bands, spontaneous percussion bands, constant parades through the narrow streets of Pamplona, and even joined the Basques in their traditional dance. (All of what I mentioned was fun, but I didn't expect to have so much fun dancing with the Basques!) 

Here's a link to the song we learned with the percussion band (quite easy to learn as we just sang along "Saaanchoooo, Quixote!": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F6ck6qZRjY

Unfortunately we overslept and didn't see the encierro which occurs at 8am. We were all very disappointed, but I definitely have San Fermin on my list for the next trip to Spain.

Ayuntamiento de Pamplona

A sea of red and white

Dancing with the Basques

A bit more laid-back was the Feria de Julio in Valencia, which lasts the entire month of July. It consisted of various concerts (free and not free), markets, and the most important day which was the Gran Nit in which we saw parades, more concerts, and performances. Museums stayed open until 2am, although the fireworks were cancelled because of budget cuts.

A performance of "The Blisters," a Spanish band that sang Beatles songs

The sparklers came out for "Hey Jude"

Huge inflatable monsters came marching down Calle de la Paz during el Gran Nit... the reason? I have no idea.

 

An  Addam's Family performance, also during the Gran Nit

Valencia in June means...

spontaneous water gun fights in the River Turia!

new exhibits at the City of Arts and Sciences

the flowers are blooming

Eurocup madness

goodbyes

markets

religious festivities

beach

more reflections

Two weeks ago, I finished my last exam.  In a month, I expect to be pretty much done with my thesis. These last 8 months have really just flown by that it's hard to express my feelings... gratitude? relief? amazement? disappointment? joy? fear? I suppose all of the above. 

I'll start with the language. I'm still continuing to learn every single day. Some days I am amazed by my fluency and other days, at my lack thereof. Every day I discover new things about peninsular Spanish and the crazy colloquialisms (MANDAHUEVOS!). A few months ago I also reached the point where I need to translate a Spanish word or phrase into English, just because I'm so used to it, and I get frustrated because there isn't an English equivalent that has the same ring. This is a really odd feeling when it's not even your native language!

Another obvious yet still notable accomplishment is establishing friendships that are based solely in Spanish. I mean, I've had tons of hispanohablante friends, and when I traveled to Central America with Engineers Without Borders we only used Spanish. But, in the first case there was always English to fall back on and in the second case there was always somebody with a higher Spanish ability who could translate. Here I've made friends who are native Spanish speakers who speak nil English, native Spanish speakers who have a relatively high English level, and non-native speakers... but we always communicate in Spanish. It was only the other day when I brought an Australian couchsurfer to watch the Eurocup game with my friends that I realized how much I've taken the language for granted as the fact was that not only were my classmates from Spain literally incapable of communicating in English (they did understand our conversation, to a certain degree) but also that I've managed to socialize and work with them in solely their native language.

Next topic: my academic and professional pursuits. I'm several steps in the right direction towards my ever-evolving goal but I'm satisfied with everything so far. I really have struggled but learned a lot this year. Who thought that I would be able to learn engineering in Spanish? ELECTRICAL engineering, nonetheless? 

One of the biggest lifestyle changes I had was the bike. Started out with a reluctant, awkward relationship with the bike. Slowly I saw the advantages of biking in Valencia and I even started to enjoy using Valenbisi. The turning point came when I bought a bike... after that there was no turning back! Now I'm extremely dependent on my bike and it would be a tough adjustment to be without it.

Some things I really need to work on: being by myself and being ok with uncertainty. I always thought that growing up as an only child and being relatively mature for my age made me more independent. And it has. But being able to get around and take care of myself is way different from enjoying my own company all the time. I've realized that this happens to me because I'm generally very busy that I don't have time to realize it, but then I'll have some downtime and I'll feel quite alone. And about uncertainty... it's absolutely exciting and scary at the same time. Even if there isn't a specific person or entity pressuring me, I still feel the overall societal pressure to, well, succeed (however ambiguous that is). The biggest pressure is internal, as I know what I am capable of, I want to be challenged, and I want to make a difference. I'm proud to say that I remain an optimist and that things do turn out ok. 

Have I grown over these past 8 months? Absolutely. But I still remain (more or less) the same person, with (more or less) the same convictions and goals. I strong feel that my experiences in Valencia have given me a push in the right direction, brought me closer to and made me more sure of those goals.

l'albufera

 The latest bici excursion was last weekend to l'albufera. The Parque Nacional de la Albufera de Valencia is a protected region south of Valencia that is known for the freshwater lake, diverse wildlife, beach, and rice fields. It's also where paella was born!

There's a bike lane or path pretty much the entire way to the park as well as inside the park, which is extremely important in safety and comfort as I've learned from biking in the past months. The entire route is about 15 km or 9 miles (check out the here). The bike path took us under freeways, along the beach, across the freshwater lake, and through the small towns of l'albufera.

When we were pathing throuhg El Saler, a small problem occurred... Sarka got a flat tire. Turns out there's a thorn that is common to the area, and Sarka was not the only victim to its tire deflating properties. Anyways, we walked into the town and approach two abuelitos to ask where the nearest bike shop was. (They were chilling on a bench eating sunflower seeds, and it was obvious that they frequent the beach year-around.)  Apparently El Saler doesn't have any bike shops. But, as it turns out, one of the abuelitos had a magic Mary Poppins bag that was equipped with all kinds of bike-fixing tools! We were extremely lucky to have his help. He whipped out a bike pump, glue, tape, and other tools that I have never seen before and fixed the little tear! He explained that because of the thorns, flats are a very common occurrence - that's why he travels prepared.

After our break, we continued further south to the lake where we went on a boat tour and saw nesting birds and heard jumping fish around us.

With Johan (from Colombia) and Sarka (from the Czech Republic)

With the bike expert abuelito 

L'albufera boat tour 

The lake

At the end of the day, we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

music makes the people come together

Thank you, Madonna, for the ever-appropriate song lyrics!

Two weeks ago, UPV's architecture school celebrated a week of culture. I wasn't really aware of what was going on, but through a friend I found out that there was a piano in the school of architecture, free for anyone to play. So on Friday afternoon, I managed to find this piano at the end of a long hallway. There were two girls there and I found out that one of them, Belen, was the organizer of it all! It was great to see her passion for bringing music to UPV and she told me a little about the challenges she went through. She also designed this great poster that has a figure playing the piano with the caption: "Tócame, soy tuyo." (If you don't get it, it's a double-meaning since it means "Play me, I'm yours".)  Anyways they had to leave shortly after, so I started playing by myself, and after fifteen minutes another girl came to listen and we started chatting. Music really was a starting point for conversation, and we chatted for quite awhile. I found out that the entire week, passers-by were drawn to the piano as if it were a magnet. It was also pleasant just to chat with a stranger and have a glimpse into her world- she sings in a band, has always wanted to play piano, studies architecture because she used to spend hours drawing, and is going to Graz on Erasmus next year. Later some of her classmates arrived (with Amstel in hand, of course) and we sat around discussing music and architecture and taking turns playing the piano as well. Both the other guy playing and I were extremely rusty, but it didn't matter at all. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better Friday afternoon.

So that same weekend, Valencia was celebrating the Día de la Virgen de los Desamparados (Lady of the Foresaken) or Día de Mare de Deus (Mother of God). The biggest event is on Sunday, when they bring out the statue of the Virgen and huge crowds form near the Cathedral in an attempt to touch her. That sounds weird, but it's the best way I can describe the event. On Saturday night, I went with a friend to the Plaza de la Virgen where there was traditional dance and music. Unfortunately the fireworks were cancelled but we did see the concert from the Banda de Valencia. The first part was nice, classical music, but nothing spectacular. The most special part was in the last 5 minutes in which they played a song that was something like the national anthem of Valencia. (Here is a link to the song I'm referring to, and the better part is around minute 10 and 11.) The entire crowd was singing with tons of enthusiasm and emotion. Just another reminder of how important music is, whether you're sharing your love of an instrument or celebrating your cultural heritage.

some tourism in Valencia... ruins, monasteries, Port Saplaya

The past couple of weekends, my friends and I visited some tourist attractions in Valencia that we had overlooked in the past but are definitely worth visiting. We started off at the Museo de la Ciudad where there was an exhibit on traditional Valencian dress and its evolution. Then there was the Archaeological Center which explained the 1st Roman Valencia.



Oh yeah, we also ran into Juan Carlos Ferrero, a pro tennis player who won the French Open. He had been jogging in the city center.


We climbed the Torres de Serrano, one of the two city gates that are still standing.


Also hit up the Palacio de la Duquesa de Dos Aguas and saw its overwhelming display of wealth and overly decorated Baroque rooms.


Yesterday I went with Diego and Hannah to Monasterio San Miguel de los Reyes. Started as a monastery, then was abandoned and turned into a prison (used in the 19th and 20th centuries), and is now an academic library. It's very beautiful and I feel a special connection to it because I feel like I "discovered" it while jogging in October.




Since we were kiiind of in the area, we rode our bikes further up to Port Saplaya, known for its colorful houses and canals.






SO, even though Valencia isn't as famous as some other tourist destinations in Spain, there is still a lot of history and so much left to see for me!

more Fallas

First of all, I must explain that I had such an amazing time during Fallas. Valencia was a city transformed... Ninots around every corner, verbenas throughout the night, churros & buñuelos & chocolate, daily mascletas and nightly Castillos. I realize what I said probably made no sense so I'll show you what I mean!

Mascletas are daytime fireworks that take place in the Ayuntamiento (for about 3 weeks). Apparently each mascleta burns up 100 kg of gunpowder! The best part is at the end when the explosions get louder and louder, and you really feel the force of the mascleta. And I love that at this point crowd gets very animado, and everyone cheers and applauds like crazy.


Castillos are nighttime fireworks that take place in the Rio Turia for the 4 nights of Fallas. I have to say that I've never been so close to where the fireworks are, but it's an event to stand on the bridge with your friends and watch the Castillo.




The Ofrenda involves processions by the Fallas to Plaza de la Virgen in the city center, where they offer flower bouquets that are placed in the huge structure that becomes her dress. Here is the Virgen "half-dressed" and "fully dressed."






The processions went on for two days, and the Falleros were all in their traditional clothing. We came across the "pre-parade" area where the little girls were eating galletas and getting ready for the Ofrenda.


Babies are welcome to participate too!


I think bouquets are really an understatement for the offerings. Check out this flower-bike, celebrating Valencia's bike culture!


The Calbalgata del Fuego was another procession/parade which celebrated fire. Mystical creatures came around to scare the spectators and we were all impressed by the flames and sparks.




Buñuelos de calabaza are basically fried pastries made with a pumpkin dough (although there wasn't much pumpkin flavor at all). The best ones were the buñuelos de higo, which had a dried fig inside the pumpkin dough.


And of course, the biggest event was the Crema, which took place Monday night. First the Infantil is burned and about 2 hours later, the Ninot. Firefighters must be present at each burning, so even though the actual burning may not take that long, the setup and waiting for the firefighters does. The two kids were the main "Falleros" of the previous year and the Crema also symbolizes an end to their "reign." Although I didn't see that much crying, I did the boy cry.




The two lit the fuse, which set up off some fireworks and then the burning. This particular infantil did not burn that fast, after about 10 minutes one of the dolphins was still completely undamaged.


Surprisingly, the bigger structures burned much faster! Here you can see the bomberos hosting down the fire to make sure that the houses nearby didn't get burnt. It's actually amazing that there isn't much property damage during the Crema because some of those streets are extremely narrow.


And here are the ashes.


Something I should mention is that many local Valencianos escape during Fallas. There's too many people, streets get shut down and it's difficult to get around by car, there's loud music from the verbenas and partiers at night, despiertas in the morning (the bands of the Fallas go around at 8am playing obnoxiously and setting off firecrackers to wake up their neighborhood), and kids everywhere tirando petardos (throwing firecrackers on the sidewalks).

Anyways, another great part of Fallas is that it really unites people, whether through the humor of a Ninot, or the power of the mascleta. Until next year!