Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thanksgiving week
Hard to believe that I am here three months exactly as of Thanksgiving day. Things have certainly moved at a dizzying pace even if I am not in New York anymore. The major news this week is in two developments. First, I have to grade nearly 250 student essays for a political economy course at the university, which is part of my job here at the center. It is about as exciting as it sounds. Do the math. 250 essays at 15 pages each and grading is not something you can skim. It requires attention to detail. I am trying to mow through as fast as I can no matter how painful it is. Second development is that the gentleman who helped me find my apartment here in Pamplona is back in town because he has to take exams. He is originally from Valladolid, which is close by Salamanca. When he finishes up with his exams, I think I am going to make the trip out West to go back to Salamanca and visit old friends on December 18th - 20th. My first weeks here I travelled a lot. I went to San Sebastian, Torreciudad, Barcelona and Madrid, but since then work has picked up as has my social life. So I haven't been out of Pamplona in six weeks or so. That trip to Salamanca will be very overdue. In the meantime, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving day because a bunch of Americans here are all going to congregate at somebody's apartment and have a gigantic pot luck Thanksgiving including a turkey. Everyone who is going is already very excited about it. The only thing that we will be missing is some sweet potato pie, but I am happy enough to have turkey on Thanksgiving day in Spain. There should be about 25 people over so it will be an absolute ton of fun. We are going to stream the football games too so it will be a proper Thanksgiving. I will be sure to let you know how it turns out...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Just who have I been meeting?
I have calmed down a bit with taking trips, and a nice routine has developed over the past month. I have written plenty about the types of work I am doing, but not so much about who I have met. I will try and do that some justice now. Problem is where to start. I met a Spaniard during some lecture I went to about different personality types here at the university. Over the course of the semester, I have hung out with him a bunch and play Padel (a Spanish sport that is a mix of raquetball and tennis) with him from time to time. He is due to graduate in December. There are a bunch of guys who live in a house here, YESA, that I also visit quite frequently. Besides that, the rest of who I am meeting tend to be international people. The guy that I work next to is from New Jersey and we have things in common. It is also nice when you are so far from home to have someone who knows exactly what you are talking about. There are also a couple of other Americans who are in the Master's program here or that are also research assistants at the university who drop in to talk to us from time to time. There is a long grocery list of other interesting people that I have met and talk to on a regular basis now. They range from a PhD candidate in Finance here at the university who was has Taiwanese parents, was born in Australia and has spent most of his life in Hong Kong. A Chilean studying a master's degree in psychology and higher education. A Peruvian doing a PhD at the very institute that I hope to get mine from and a Nicaraguan who has already completed her PhD and is now living in Pamplona for at least a year. The list does go on, but I don't want to be repetitive. I just hope to give you a flavor of who I meeting. What is more interesting is that I am starting to become friends with some of these people as well, but these things do take time...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Back on my feet
I am feeling 100% again, and so it is back to normal here in Pamplona. As promised, I am going to tell you all about the past month more or less. Between being busy here or sick, I have fallen behind a bit on the blog. Excuses aside, here is a proper if overdue entry.
A Spanish friend of mine made a very interesting comment to me this week. He said that I am very accustomed to results. I have lived my entire life in the Tri-State area or New York, and I am used to doing things by starting at point A and going to point B. I always have the end goal in mind. He went on to say that my challenge is to learn that Spain is not like that. People start from point A, but very often have no point B in mind. The process seems to matter more than the results.
In all of my activities of the past three months, nothing can be more true than what my Spanish friend had said to me. At work, I have been constantly looking for projects to get myself involved in and things to do. While there has been a sufficient stream of proposals to write, there are no projects. Building a research team and carrying through the project, is much more adventurous. Rather than doing specific tasks, my job is slowly - very slowly - evolving into more about forming and managing relationships with professors at the university, my boss and other researchers. Any projects like proposal writing take a backseat to the relationships.
Equally, in my collaboration at the foundation, I am trying to help them do some fundraising. My first questions were how much do they need and when. Their responses were as much as we need as long as it takes. As you can see, this is not the aggressive mentality of goal-setting that I have grown accustomed to. I am realizing that in the plans that I formulate for the foundation, they are more interested about how they are going to do it and the sustainability of the efforts rather than getting the money. Their time horizon is longer and so they aren't so short-sighted as to only worry about the money they need in the next three months.
Also, in trying to setup activities for doctorates here in Spain, I knew I was in over my head, but I was committed to creating a more social atmosphere. I am at this brilliant school. It would be a tragedy not to know the other brilliant minds here too. At the moment, there is no infrastructure to do that. There are no clubs for researchers or sports teams or excursions. Researchers have their computers and their coffees, but little else. To this end, I was focused on trying to develop infrastructure and create activities for the researchers in the form of happy hours (or at least the form of it that exists in Spain), lunches, sporting events, weekend trips, etc. After consulting a few people here though, I learned my approach was all wrong. To create a social atmosphere, it is first more important to form a group of five people who want to do the same activities just in the small group of five. Over time, the group will become more close-knit. As we become close-knit, we can invite more people into the group. Eventually, it reaches a size where we can organize larger events that will have the same close-knit spirit of the original group of five. Obviously, this isn't a very American mindset.
And so, the lessons keep piling up here in Spain. I have realized how fusing my very American ideas with some Spanish know-how is creating hopefully some interesting ideas. Doing all of these things, I haven't found much time to travel. I have been getting to know Pamplona as well as my friends more and more, but have been too busy to knock out an entire weekend in a city. I was going to with some friends to a mountain lodge this weekend to get away from the city, but I have to proctor an exam for a political economy course on Saturday (I feel really bad for the students, but they have Saturday exams here). I am hoping to make a trip to Salamanca to visit old friends sometime in December, but for now I am content to be working on these activities here in Pamplona.
One other bit of news is that I am almost sure that I am going to try and do a master's program here. The degree would be at the university's business and humanism, and would help me flesh out my ideas better about what the exact role should be between business, governments and the general public and the non-profit world. I would not start it until January 2011 at the earliest. After some years of study here, my hope is to come back to New York to put the ideas to good use.
There are two major barriers: financial obstacles and a language barrier. Time is on my side. I am hoping that in the 13 months I have, I will be able to be fluent in Spanish and find the necessary funds to make this hope a reality.
As of this writing, this is my 72nd day in Pamplona, and I am already amazed at what I have done, who I have met and what I have learned. There is no doubt that there are more people to meet and things to do. I just hope I can slow down enough/become Spanish enough to enjoy it.
(In case you are wondering, while I love it here I also love home and miss it dearly. I will be back from Dec. 22nd to Jan. 6th to do nothing but American things.)
A Spanish friend of mine made a very interesting comment to me this week. He said that I am very accustomed to results. I have lived my entire life in the Tri-State area or New York, and I am used to doing things by starting at point A and going to point B. I always have the end goal in mind. He went on to say that my challenge is to learn that Spain is not like that. People start from point A, but very often have no point B in mind. The process seems to matter more than the results.
In all of my activities of the past three months, nothing can be more true than what my Spanish friend had said to me. At work, I have been constantly looking for projects to get myself involved in and things to do. While there has been a sufficient stream of proposals to write, there are no projects. Building a research team and carrying through the project, is much more adventurous. Rather than doing specific tasks, my job is slowly - very slowly - evolving into more about forming and managing relationships with professors at the university, my boss and other researchers. Any projects like proposal writing take a backseat to the relationships.
Equally, in my collaboration at the foundation, I am trying to help them do some fundraising. My first questions were how much do they need and when. Their responses were as much as we need as long as it takes. As you can see, this is not the aggressive mentality of goal-setting that I have grown accustomed to. I am realizing that in the plans that I formulate for the foundation, they are more interested about how they are going to do it and the sustainability of the efforts rather than getting the money. Their time horizon is longer and so they aren't so short-sighted as to only worry about the money they need in the next three months.
Also, in trying to setup activities for doctorates here in Spain, I knew I was in over my head, but I was committed to creating a more social atmosphere. I am at this brilliant school. It would be a tragedy not to know the other brilliant minds here too. At the moment, there is no infrastructure to do that. There are no clubs for researchers or sports teams or excursions. Researchers have their computers and their coffees, but little else. To this end, I was focused on trying to develop infrastructure and create activities for the researchers in the form of happy hours (or at least the form of it that exists in Spain), lunches, sporting events, weekend trips, etc. After consulting a few people here though, I learned my approach was all wrong. To create a social atmosphere, it is first more important to form a group of five people who want to do the same activities just in the small group of five. Over time, the group will become more close-knit. As we become close-knit, we can invite more people into the group. Eventually, it reaches a size where we can organize larger events that will have the same close-knit spirit of the original group of five. Obviously, this isn't a very American mindset.
And so, the lessons keep piling up here in Spain. I have realized how fusing my very American ideas with some Spanish know-how is creating hopefully some interesting ideas. Doing all of these things, I haven't found much time to travel. I have been getting to know Pamplona as well as my friends more and more, but have been too busy to knock out an entire weekend in a city. I was going to with some friends to a mountain lodge this weekend to get away from the city, but I have to proctor an exam for a political economy course on Saturday (I feel really bad for the students, but they have Saturday exams here). I am hoping to make a trip to Salamanca to visit old friends sometime in December, but for now I am content to be working on these activities here in Pamplona.
One other bit of news is that I am almost sure that I am going to try and do a master's program here. The degree would be at the university's business and humanism, and would help me flesh out my ideas better about what the exact role should be between business, governments and the general public and the non-profit world. I would not start it until January 2011 at the earliest. After some years of study here, my hope is to come back to New York to put the ideas to good use.
There are two major barriers: financial obstacles and a language barrier. Time is on my side. I am hoping that in the 13 months I have, I will be able to be fluent in Spanish and find the necessary funds to make this hope a reality.
As of this writing, this is my 72nd day in Pamplona, and I am already amazed at what I have done, who I have met and what I have learned. There is no doubt that there are more people to meet and things to do. I just hope I can slow down enough/become Spanish enough to enjoy it.
(In case you are wondering, while I love it here I also love home and miss it dearly. I will be back from Dec. 22nd to Jan. 6th to do nothing but American things.)
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