Spring Break in Andalucia!

During Spring break my friends Justin, Maja, Joonas and I went on a road trip through the south of Spain. We visited La Alhambra in Grenada, went hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains, saw monkeys in Gibraltar, stopped to see the bridges in Ronda and toured La Mezquita in Cordoba before returning to Valencia. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll try to include as many as possible in this post (more pictures to come) while sharing some of the most entertaining stories of our trip.

Day 1 Driving and Getting Lost: 
After getting slightly turned around at the beginning of our trip, we headed south for Grenada stopping along the beach of Alicante to have lunch. The boys did all the driving, while Maja and I sat in the back providing snacks, and at times directions when needed. Thank goodness the Spanish roads have so many roundabouts. I think our highest count was when Joonas lapped the roundabout 5 times while Justin, Maja and I tried to decipher the many signs trying to figure out what exit to take. haha. Without too many more incidences we arrived to Grenada at dusk. We dropped our things off in our hostel and enjoyed a round of hearts on the terrace overlooking the city.

Day 2 Grenada and its Impermeable City walls: 
We spent the morning walking around the city of Grenada, touring churches, looking at all the varieties of tea on the market tables and listening to the sounds of a guitarist playing in one of the plazas. We later learned that he had studied classical guitar in Italy, and then come to Spain to study flamenco music. Justin and I bought his cd which we greatly enjoyed listening to throughout our trip. Much of the city was settled by the Moors, so we had a lot of fun walking through the winding streets. We found a little hole-in-wall cafe to have lunch, and later walked to the Mirador lookout to see the city. Walking further into the hills, we realized we had accidentally walked right out of the city when we came face to face with a 15 foot high city wall, and no immediately discernible way to reenter the city. With only an hour before our reservations to tour La Alhambra, we had to do some quick thinking to find a way back into the city, and to the top of the opposite hill where we were supposed to meet our group at La Alhambra. After 45 minutes of very brisk walking bordering on running, we made it with 15 minutes to spare. When our tour guide began to talk about how well La Alhambra was situated to defend from attacks, my friends and I had a new found appreciation, having experienced firsthand the difficulty in finding a weak spot with which we could penetrate the city wall.

Day 3 Hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains:
 After spending the morning in the markets of Grenada, we drove to the Sierra Nevada Mountains for an afternoon of hiking. The mountains were beautiful, and we even got above the tree line to see some snow. We enjoyed our packed lunch on the rocks, and Maja and Justin even got a picture of a mountain goat.

Day 4 Attack of the baby monkey in Gibraltar:
 After parking the car at the border, we walked into Gibraltar and took a taxi tour to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. On the way up, we stopped at a few caves that Gibraltar is famous for, and our taxi driver explicitly told us that this was not the monkey stop, and that even though we might see a few of the monkeys Gibraltar is famous for, we should wait to see the monkeys in the nature preserve that we would visit next. Well, after visiting the caves, Maja and I went to the restroom while the boys walked around a bit. While we were waiting for Maja, I pointed out to Joonas and Justin that there was a baby monkey behind them. They were so excited, and started taking pictures, calling for me and Maja to join them. Just as Maja and I reached the bottom of the stairs to join the boys, we heard a commotion and saw the boys jumping around. Justin was yelling, "Ah! Ah! move!" and Joonas was yelling, "No! baby monkey, no!". Justin comes running down the stairs as I seeing a flurry of fur around Joonas. Apparently, the baby monkey had jumped on Joonas' leg, and then the baby monkey's mom had come by to see Joonas trying to kick the baby monkey off  his leg. After the attack of the baby monkey, we kept a bit more distance from them. haha.

Day 5 The bridges in Ronda:
We spent a bit more of the day driving, stopping midday in Ronda, a small town in the middle of the mountains. We walked along the ruins of the city wall (this time being sure to stay within the city limits), and had lunch overlooking the bridge that spanned the gorge. That night we drove into Cordoba, and enjoyed delicious tapas with goat cheese and apricot sauce on toast.

Day 6 Mezquita:
We visited La Mezquita which was a mosque built on top of a church, which was again converted to a church. The columns inside were gorgeous, and it is probably one of the most beautiful buildings I have toured in Spain. The last day of our trip was fairly uneventful, except for driving past a 10 car pile up due to a bizarre hail storm that only stretched for a mile. We estimate that we just missed being in the accident by about 20 minutes because we took a longer lunch. Sometimes having that extra cup of coffee is almost a miracle in itself.

The spring break road trip is definitely one of my highlights on studying abroad. Not only did I get to see so many amazing parts of Spain, but I got to spend a week with some of my best friends making memories that will feed stories for years to come.

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for not sending an update sooner! The last month has been one of the best months yet, and I'm happy to say that I've settled in quite well to life in Spain. As I looked at the calendar this morning, I realized that I have just about 2 weeks left of my semester abroad before I head home on June 20th. Just a few short weeks left before I get to see family and friends at home!

I've settled into somewhat more of a normal routine as finals have begun. I've already completed 3 finals (Analysis of Industrial Competitiveness, Quality Management, and Food and Culture) and turned in my final paper for my film class elective, leaving me with just my final for Theory of Projects and Processes (my only class in English) to study for. Many of you have asked how I have liked taking engineering courses in Spanish so here is my response-I love it!

Like I said, all my courses except “Theory of Projects and Processes” were taught in Spanish, and while I was initially a bit nervous about studying engineering in Spanish, I found that I actually enjoyed my Spanish engineering courses more than my Spanish elective courses. The beauty of engineering, especially with the Quality Management course I took, is that the principles and models I learned here such as Kano's Model, PDCA, process mapping, functional analysis, etc are pretty universal and many are models I had seen previously in the US or used in my internship last summer. In contrast, the elective courses were outside my area of specialty so I didn't have as much background knowledge to draw on, making them tougher. Learning about engineering models in Spanish showed me just how universal engineering problem solving is, because regardless of language, the principles of the model or the objectives of the problem are the same. Engineering problem solving is used universally for things like improving quality of the product, designing for customer requirements, and increasing the competitiveness of the business by designing your product to capture a market niche. Once you have the problem solved, it’s just a matter of explaining your reasoning in whichever language you happen to be working in at the time. :)

One of my favorite things about studying engineering in Spain was realizing the ease with which I could collaborate with others because of our shared background in engineering. In my quality management course I worked with a group of 3 native Spaniards on case studies creating process maps to analyze how well companies met their customer needs. Even though it was challenging at times to not be working in my native language, I was still able to contribute to the group because I could point out gaps in user needs, drawing from what I learned completing my junior design project last fall. In another class, I completed labs with 2 students from Sweden and one from Austria. At one point, we all commented with amazement how easy it was to work together, especially when writing up the reports, because we had all learned the same format for engineering lab reports, even though we came from three different countries. I am very grateful to have had such positive international academic and collaborative experiences!

For now, I’m alternating studying for my last final by enjoying my time in Valencia. Coffee breaks with friends, time at the beach, tapas in the evening, and planning two more trips (Italy and the North of Spain) are what occupy my time when not studying. I’ll also be posting a few more blog entries about my spring break trip through Andalucia, and my other trips to London and Norway (my most favorite visit yet!). I’m excited to see everyone very soon!
Megan

Musical Barcelona

 A few weekends ago I visited Barcelona and also visited Professor Brennan who was doing her sabbatical here. Having worked for her for almost three years, she has become one of my most valued mentors and so I was very excited to visit her! It was so nice to see a friendly face from home!

The first day I arrived I visited La Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral designed by Gaudi. I had read so much about it growing up, so when I finally arrived I was about as excited to see it as a kid who is seeing Cinderella’s castle at Disney World for the first time. Haha. It was even more incredible than I had imagined! Every inch of the exterior was covered with carvings. On one side of the building they had carved the scene of Jesus’ birth. All of the biblical characters were there-Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Wisemen, etc, but what were most surprising were the angels. According to Gaudi, angels don’t just play the harp, they also play the bassoon!

One of the most pleasant surprises was getting to hear someone play the organ while I was touring the cathedral. The music was amazingly beautiful because the acoustics in the cathedral were incredible! Gaudi took special care to design the cathedral for the scattering of light and sound. I especially loved the wall that was a bank of windows to let in the natural light. Above the windows he built a choral loft with the capacity to hold a choir of 1000 people!

One of the things I loved the most about Barcelona was all of the music! Everywhere you walked there were street musicians performing, and music stores every few blocks! It was wonderful. On Saturday I met up with some friends and we went to Parque Guell that houses a bunch of sculptures by Gaudi. After seeing the view of the city from the top of the mountain we walked down, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a violin. Needless to say I rushed to find the source and met the violinist. I talked with him for a bit, exchanging names of composers and pieces we both liked, while I worked up the courage to ask him if I might play a song on his violin. Much to my surprise and delight, he said yes! It had been 2 months since I had last played (the longest I’ve ever gone in my life without playing the violin), and I was so excited! I never even imagined I would play the violin in Parque Guell of Barcelona, so I never thought to put it on my bucket list, but it definitely was an once-in-a-lifetime memory making moment.

The wonderful music of Barcelona continued as that night Professor Brennan and I saw the water fountain show at Montjuic, and the next morning listened to the Cataluna orchestra. Both were incredible! The music, lights and streams of water of the Montjuic water fountains were choreographed perfectly for an amazing show, and the music of the Cataluna orchestra was a cultural highlight of the weekend. On Sundays in a main plaza a live band of many reed instruments unique to the region, play and the locals will stand together in circles doing the traditional dance. Rather than try to explain it, I’ve posted a video that you can watch. 

Las Fallas 
It has been a few weeks since my last post, and needless to say a lot has happened! There was a huge festival in Valencia called Las Fallas which lasted about 4 days from March 15-19th. I guess one of the reasons I've been so slow to post about it is that I can hardly find words to describe and explain the magnitude of the festival, but I'll try!

I think the festival started a long time ago when carpenters would throw out their old scraps of wood and burn them to symbolize new beginnings. Eventually the burning of wood turned into the building and burning of satirical sculptures, called Fallas, criticizing everything from the government, to trends in popular culture. Now, the festival is a huge celebration and people come from all over Europe  to Valencia just to experience this event! The final day of the festival culminates in the burning of the Fallas sculptures! There are several different parts to the festival, but I'll start with the sculptures.

Las Fallas:
Each neighborhood in Valencia makes two sculptures, or Fallas for the festival and for the duration of the festival you will find a sculpture in almost every plaza, and main intersection in the different neighborhoods. There is a large sculpture, and also a smaller sculpture which is usually for the children. Some of the largest sculptures can be more than 5 stories tall! Although they say that the sculptures are made of paper mache and wood, many are made of painted Styrofoam which is not such a pleasant smell when they burn. That's right, at the end of the 4 day celebration people flock to the different Fallas sculptures throughout the city and they burn the sculptures to the ground! It was incredible to see! After spending four days wandering around Valencia hunting for our favorite Fallas, we finally decided on two to see burn. At midnight, we stood in a small plaza about 30 feet from the sculpture and watched as fireworks shot up the sides of the burning Fallas sculptures. I could feel the heat from the fire on my face as I was the flames devour the sculpture. It was really unique sight to see.

La Mascleta:
One of the most favorite traditions of the locals is La mascleta. Everyday at 2pm the whole city would crowd the main plaza to watch and mostly listen to a firework/firecracker show. The sounds of the fireworks were so loud you could feel the vibrations rumble in your chest and hear the sound from the gardens a few kilometers away. haha.

La Ofrenda:
This was one of my favorite parts! In Plaza de la Reina there was a large sculpture of the Virgin Mary, and for two or three days, beginning at 3pm there were parades of people dressed in traditional Valencian dress bringing flowers to the plaza to decorate the statue of the Virgin Mary. It was really fun to see the people in charge of decorating the sculpture climb to various points on the sculpture and toss up flowers to the decorators above them so that they could put the flowers in place. The whole plaza smelled amazing from all of the carnations!

El Castillo:

Every night beginning at midnight, or later, there was an amazing fireworks show! All of my friends from the US said that it was the best fireworks show they had ever seen-even better than the fireworks in Boston on the 4th of July! People would gather in La Turia, a long stretch of gardens on the edge of the center city, to watch the fireworks.

The Lights:
Another one of my favorites! There was one neighborhood that covered their buildings with lights to add to the drama of the Fallas. Their sculpture was roughly based on "Moulin Rouge", and so they had a small eiffel tower made of lights. On the last night as my friends and I were walking around, we went to this neighborhood and were slightly disappointed to see the lights turned off. Just as we were about to turn around music started playing and the decorative lights started flashing and changing colors-we had stumbled upon a light show! It was awesome!

The atmosphere:
I think the biggest thing about Las Fallas that I can't really explain is just the celebratory atmosphere. For this week of festivity the streets of Valencia were full of people. It was very common to see informal bands of musicians walking around the plazas were people were sitting and enjoying the sun while eating a churro (churro stands were everywhere during Fallas). Everyone played with fireworks and firecrackers-especially the young children. Even I got to try out a few when I spent one night hanging out with my mentor Alberto and his friends. It was so fun to see the city come alive!

Beautiful Sevilla

This weekend I traveled to Sevilla and had fantastic time! Sevilla is a beautiful city! My friends, Justin, Joonas, Maja, and I arrived early Saturday morning and after dropping our bags off at the hostel we headed to a coffee shop to enjoy cafe con leche before going to La Catedral.

The Cathedral of Seville is enormous and gorgeous! It's the largest Gothic cathedral still standing, and the third largest Cathedral in Europe. Inside we saw the tomb of Christopher Columbus, walked through the treasury room, and around the central gardens where there were, of course, orange trees. Then we walked up the bell tower, which used to be a Minaret from the Mosque that used to stand there before the Christians took over the city, and saw a beautiful 360 degree view of the city. Nothing in the city is allowed to be taller than this tower so the view was amazing.


After exploring the cathedral we had lunch at a charming cafe where a man playing the accordion serenaded us for a bit. Then we went on a tour of the city, learning about the history, myth and folklore about the buildings we passed. Before going to a Flamenco show (with a guitarist, singer and male and female dancer who were great!) , my friends and I played cards on the rooftop terrace of our hostel where we met a girl from Italy and a girl from Germany.

Being on the rooftop and seeing the view of all of the other roofs surrounding us, some with laundry hanging out to dry, reminded me of scenes from the Disney movie "Aladdin" so I started humming the song "A Whole New World". Much to my surprise when my humming died down, the girl from Italy started singing the song in Italian! And my friend, Maja, started singing it in Swedish! We all started reminiscing about our favorite Disney movies and I heard songs like "Hakuna Matata", "I just can't wait to be King" and "I want to be like You" in German, Italian and Swedish! It was pretty fun to realize that even though we all grew up in different parts of the world, we shared the memories of a Disney childhood.

The next day my friends and I went to Real Alcazar, a palace in Sevilla. Since its history began as   a Moorish fort and continued to used throughout the centuries it had decorations from almost every artistic era. While the palace was beautiful, my favorite part was exploring the gardens. My friends and I wandered around the gardens, stopping at the fountains that were placed almost every 10 feet. We juggled oranges, followed the peacocks trying to get a picture, and walked around the palace walls that were covered in vines, making me feel like I was walking through a scene from "The Secret Garden".

We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon exploring Sevilla, walking to Plaza Espana (where I'm told they filmed a scene from Star Wars), past the bull fighting ring, and along the river. While our visit to Sevilla was brief, we were able to see a lot of the city and I can definitely say it has been one of my most enjoyable trips in Spain so far!

Exploring Valencia

This weekend I spent time exploring Valencia and enjoying the sunny weather-It was 75 degrees Fahrenheit! On Friday my friends and I went to La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias. It's an amazing museum complex comprised of multiple beautiful, contemporary buildings. We went to the science museum, oceanographic center and saw the movie "Hubble" in imax! At the science museum we walked through a really cool optics exhibit where you could perform experiments that bend light. After the museum we went to the oceanographic center and saw a dolphin show. At the oceanographic center we walked in a tunnel through a shark tank aquarium, saw a beluga whale, looked a penguins swimming around, and saw many different types of fish I had never seen before.

On Saturday I spent time exploring the center of Valencia. The celebration of Las Fallas, a local festival, has begun and on Saturday, as I was walking past the Fallas museum, I saw two women wearing traditional Valencian dresses. Here is a picture. I continued walking and entered the Jardin de Turias- a garden that wraps around the center city of Valencia. The gardens were beautiful and full of people enjoying a lazy Saturday morning. As I approached the gardens I heard music and walked closer to discover two young adults playing a clarinet and snare drums. . I absolutely loved the gardens! From the orange trees, to fountains, to families having a picnic, it was a beautiful place to spend my Saturday morning.

That afternoon I walked past the gardens and into the city where I found an American grocery store called "Taste of America". haha. It has only been open since December and is the only store in Valencia that carries exclusively American food. There were Froot Loops, Capn Crunch cereal, a whole wall devoted to Betty Crocker cake and brownie mixes, Reeses peanut butter cups, Jiff peanut butter and more. It was really fun to watch the reactions of the native Spaniards as they walked in. One was really excited to try marshmallows. Another insisted that his wife buy Reeses Peanut butter cups because as he said, "Es mejor!" (they're the best). haha.

On Sunday my friend, Courtney, and I went to a church that was sponsored and supported by a church in Minnesota.  It was fun to meet the pastor and his wife and visit with other Americans who were living in Spain. After service they gave us toasted ham and cheese sandwiches to take with us. Courtney and I brought ours to the garden across the street and enjoyed lunch by a fountain. After walking through the gardens we reentered the city center of Valencia and saw La Catedral de Valencia and Torres Serranos.

Global Service Jam!-Spain

This weekend I participated in the Global Service Design Jam! My newest roommate (who is from Colombia) and I were talking about weekend plans last week when she mentioned that she was doing an intensive workshop in design. Curious, I looked it up to learn more. Basically, the Global Service Design jam is a weekend design challenge where teams in locations all around the world are given a theme and then the weekend to create a new and innovative service product. For those of you who know about my DI background you can imagine how excited I was to find an opportunity to participate in a weekend long Instant Challenge!

A Process Map that I made in Spanish!

With unlimited supplies of 6 different colors of post it notes and the theme words "Hidden Treasure" my team embarked on 3 day design challenge. For me, there was the added challenge of working in Spanish all weekend long. After putting in 3 hours on Friday, 10 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday we finally completed our concept named "CityAd" which is short for City Adventures. Basically, our observation was that there are so many places in the city where people live that they've never visited.  We created a website would provide thematic routes that could be tailored to the age of the children in the family and provide information about the stops as well as different activities so that the families could discover hidden spots in their city in a interactive manner that would promote family bonding. Here's a link to our project description http://planet.globalservicejam.org/gsj12/project/1824 as well as the website template we created http://www.wix.com/auribem/cityad

It was a pretty fun exercise and I really enjoyed the opportunity to put my conversational Spanish skills to the test! I helped create storyboards and summarize ideas as we created prototypes. One of the most unique experiences of the weekend was learning the value of knowing English. Since we were to upload our solution to the Jam website, sharing our ideas with jammers all over the world, my team really wanted to present our ideas in English so that more people would understand. As they recorded our design process in Spanish and explained our concept they gave me the task of translating everything into English! It was a fun responsibility and really was my first taste of what it must be like to be bilingual. We also made a final video pitching our idea which I can't find at the moment, but will be sure to share in a future post!

Design Team Members