Conclusion

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.

With performing this research, we were all assigned a mentor that would help and guide us to where we needed to be. For me, I had the pleasure of being with Antonio Hospitaler. He was a tremendous help for me as he explained concepts and tried to break them down in order for me to understand. Not only that, but he also provided us with a lot of pointers and recommendations for our stay. He was able to answer questions and give us lessons over the Spanish history. My professor’s expectations for me were to learn and understand the material presented but to also enjoy my time here. That really surprised me because I thought it was going to be a very serious environment and that we were going to be required to spend hours in the lab working over the project. But he created a very relaxed environment and would pop by every so often to check on our progress as well as provide advice. I had a very positive relationship with my mentor and he taught me a lot. 

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