So this will be my final blog about my trip to Spain (sad,
yes I know). Here is where I wrap up all the things I encountered, lessons I’ve
learned, and adventures I have had. This study abroad experience has been
nothing but remarkable and I don’t know if I could have envisioned it going any
better. Six weeks is a significant amount of time, but it has gone by so so
fast and soon I’ll be back in the States and leaving this experience to be just
a memory. So without further ado, here are some of the things that I have
learned:
Self-navigate
Being thrown into a foreign country halfway across the world
was a little intimidating. You’re entering unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar
people, culture, and customs. We were supposed to have one of our professors,
Dr. Yazdani, come and guide us for the first week or so to help us get on our
feet but due to unforeseen circumstances, he was not able to come. This meant
that from day 1 we had very limited guidance and everything that we did was on
our own. And I honestly ended up loving that. We had a lot of moments of self-discovery
and every mistake we made we were able to learn from and make the correct decision
from there on out. We explored and asked questions over how to get to certain
locations or how to use the transportation system and it became very beneficial
for us as we began acclimating faster. Taking self-directed trips to other
cities and learning how to move around and continuously explore new places and
create new experiences became something I have never had to do but it made the
trip that much more memorable. This taught be that even when presented with a
new problem that doesn’t have many answers, that I now have the ability to
slowly analyze and dissect little by little until the picture becomes clear. I
also learned that making mistakes is okay and often is what ends up leading you
to an answer you never thought of before.
Embrace something brand new
The whole point of study abroad is to provide you with a
learning experience that extends far beyond the classroom. It is about becoming
culturally conscious of the world and realizing that other cultures exist very
different from yours and accepting them is the best thing that you can do. You don’t
go to other country to visit; you go to another country to live it. What I mean
is that if you travel somewhere else and spend all of your time fighting to
keep doing what you’re used to doing, then you’re wasting your time. The point
of the experience is to get out of your comfort zone and live life how they do
of where you’re visiting. This was something we all did and it allowed us to
engulf ourselves is what the Spanish life is all about. From eating the foods
that they eat and at the traditional time they eat it, to using their verbiage
and mannerisms it became very fun to learn how other people live. This allows
me to appreciate other cultures a lot more learn that all cultures are
beautiful. Being in the United States, it is a melting pot of hundreds of different
cultures and now going through this experience I have gained a brand new
respect and appreciation towards it.
Learn to live with others
A total of six of us went on this trip. Despite sharing
classes and recognizing certain faces, I didn’t really know the people that I
was going with. This means that I was going to have to create new relationships
with the other five people and share this experience with. This was especially
the case with the two other guys who I would ultimately end up rooming with,
Omar and Jose. I have never had a true roommate that was a complete stranger
and didn’t know what it would be like as now I would have two. It would be a
tough situation if we didn’t get along so I knew that we all had to make an
effort to be cordial with one another. This, however, was not the case and we
were able to live so comfortably together. It’s crazy how good of a relationship
you can create with a person over a six week period as you begin learning more
about them than some of the other friends you have had for years. I learned
that with the right attitude and the right teamwork, having these relationships
work is very easy. I can apply this for the future when it comes to working on
a project and being able to have the ability to rely on others and utilize each
other to get the job done.
There were certain aspects of my educational background that
made my research a little bit easier, but there were aspects of it that also
made it very challenging. It was challenging because my subject had to do with
fire and thermal engineering and I had never taken a thermal engineering class
before. This meant that I had to teach myself very basic concepts and learn
certain theories before I could even dive in to the actual research. And then
with it being all in Spanish, I began reading Spanish terms that I didn’t even
know existed in English! Became a little frustrating at times but at the end of
the day, really allowed me to learn a lot about my subject. On the positive side,
because I have assisted in prior research before, for me it became easier to
read a long research document and extract the relevant information I needed for
my project. Having taken those upper level engineering courses, I was able to
understand my mentor as he would explain concepts that required a certain level
of engineering knowledge.
So now in a week we will all be traveling back to the United States and resuming our lives as they once were. This experience will have a lasting impact on me as I learned more than I can imagine. I don't think it will be hard at all to get back to the way of life that I was once use to, but it definitely has allowed me to see another side and embrace that we are all a little different. Spain is a beautiful country and I will come back again to visit one day. There's no way I can only let this be a one time experience.
Eric Chavez
