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.)
Friday, October 30, 2009
A small bump in the road
As you can see from my previous entries, things are awesome here. The past two weeks I really came to appreciate how good I had it. Between work, the foundation that I hooked up with here as well as ever trying to meet people and learn more Spanish, I was never bored. Everyday had its own version of excitement. The excitement (as well as my luck) seems to have caught up with me though as I have spent all of this week fighting off a fever and other flu-like symptoms. Obviously, this explains my silence on the blog posts the past two weeks. When I bounce back to normal, I will have much more to tell as I am starting to envision a stay in Spain of maybe longer than just one year. However, all plans and activities are on hold until I can leave my bed without feeling like I am going to collapse - unfortunately, that last comment is not being dramatic either. It has only been today where I felt that walking more than 10 feet was detrimental to my health. I hate being weak...
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Comfort and discomfort
For the early part of the week, I took two stabs at meeting new people one of which was potentially successful and the other not so much.
First for the one that didn't go so well...my idea was that in volunteering with Ice Hockey in Harlem in New York I met many contacts while doing a good thing. I will always remember my time there and will definitely go back to it if I can. Having such a good experience I thought volunteering with kids here in Spain would also be a good idea. The university hooks people up with volunteer opportunities through its ayuda social program. I signed up for it, interviewed for it and was placed in a program at a rehabilitation school for kids. Little did I know but found out when I got there that the kids were severely mentally challenged and my task was to try and help them play a simple game with four other Spanish volunteers (university undergraduates). May I say first that it is an incredible thing that the university sets up. Those kids definitely enjoy the hour that is spent with them and they like the sport. That said, I was extremely uncomfortable because I'd never been around kids like that in my life before and really didn't know what to do. I felt like I was more of a waste than anything else. No when I feel like that my guy reaction is to persevere and get comfortable except my time is limited and I can only do one volunteer project and the other thing, the potentially successful one, has me much more excited so I am going to chase that up.
What is it? Fundacion de Profesionales Solidarios is a Spanish organization that tries to promote the cause of international development by hosting local culutral activities in Pamplona, conferences in Spain and runs international programs in the Congo and Nicaragua primarily. There is a staff of 6 people and a team of 60 collaborators. I was very interested not only in the cause, but also because it is the perfect complement to my job. My job is very top-down. It approaches poverty by trying to solve it on a policy level by affecting the lives of millions people. The organization is very bottom-up. It tries to life people out of poverty by affecting 100 or so lives directly. For that I think it is a perfect fit for me. I have an interview tomorrow to see exactly what a non-native Spanish speaker can do for them so I have my fingers crossed.
In other news, this weekend was a holiday weekend here in Spain as they celebrate their culture on October 12th. I spent the weekend in Barcelona which was great. We rented a car, saw cool sights even though we stayed for cheap overnight in a bungalo that was the equivalent of a trailer park. Still, pictures are the best way to tell how much fun a trip was and I hope you'll see from mine that I enjoyed Barcelona for the most part (except when I was hungry which is when I really look pissed in the photos because...I was). Anyway, I'll post the link to the photos soon. I haven't had a chance to upload all of them to Photobucket yet.
First for the one that didn't go so well...my idea was that in volunteering with Ice Hockey in Harlem in New York I met many contacts while doing a good thing. I will always remember my time there and will definitely go back to it if I can. Having such a good experience I thought volunteering with kids here in Spain would also be a good idea. The university hooks people up with volunteer opportunities through its ayuda social program. I signed up for it, interviewed for it and was placed in a program at a rehabilitation school for kids. Little did I know but found out when I got there that the kids were severely mentally challenged and my task was to try and help them play a simple game with four other Spanish volunteers (university undergraduates). May I say first that it is an incredible thing that the university sets up. Those kids definitely enjoy the hour that is spent with them and they like the sport. That said, I was extremely uncomfortable because I'd never been around kids like that in my life before and really didn't know what to do. I felt like I was more of a waste than anything else. No when I feel like that my guy reaction is to persevere and get comfortable except my time is limited and I can only do one volunteer project and the other thing, the potentially successful one, has me much more excited so I am going to chase that up.
What is it? Fundacion de Profesionales Solidarios is a Spanish organization that tries to promote the cause of international development by hosting local culutral activities in Pamplona, conferences in Spain and runs international programs in the Congo and Nicaragua primarily. There is a staff of 6 people and a team of 60 collaborators. I was very interested not only in the cause, but also because it is the perfect complement to my job. My job is very top-down. It approaches poverty by trying to solve it on a policy level by affecting the lives of millions people. The organization is very bottom-up. It tries to life people out of poverty by affecting 100 or so lives directly. For that I think it is a perfect fit for me. I have an interview tomorrow to see exactly what a non-native Spanish speaker can do for them so I have my fingers crossed.
In other news, this weekend was a holiday weekend here in Spain as they celebrate their culture on October 12th. I spent the weekend in Barcelona which was great. We rented a car, saw cool sights even though we stayed for cheap overnight in a bungalo that was the equivalent of a trailer park. Still, pictures are the best way to tell how much fun a trip was and I hope you'll see from mine that I enjoyed Barcelona for the most part (except when I was hungry which is when I really look pissed in the photos because...I was). Anyway, I'll post the link to the photos soon. I haven't had a chance to upload all of them to Photobucket yet.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Groin pulls, The Dark Knight, Madrid!, But not quite...
Week started off well. I played in a soccer game with a group of 10 other guys. They were all quite good and I enjoyed just trying to keep up with them. The problem is that I couldn't. As you know, Americans suck at soccer. The Spaniards, on the other hand, can dribble like the ball is glued to their feet. When I tried to imitate them, bad things happened. The first time I passed it to other team. The second time I ran into my own player, and, the third time, I pulled my groin. That ended that.
If you remember this time last year, The Dark Knight was finally winding down from grossing the buckets of money it did over the summer. A year later it is not forgotten, but it is certainly old news except to me. I love it and watch it every chance I get. So I was quite excited this week when the TA that I work with announced that he was going to put The Dark Knight on his projector and make a movie night out of it. He lives with a Spaniard who has girlfriend visiting quite often. The four of us got together and watched the movie. With his projector, the screen was nearly the size of all. We were all in lounge chairs. It is effectively a home theater. I was in heaven.
The morning after the movie I was really excited. A friend of mine from AMR, Jason, told me that he was coming to Madrid for the weekend and that I should come to meet up with him. An old friend + weekend in Madrid was a no brainer to me. So I went ahead and bought bus ticket and booked a hotel room for the night. I worked the rest of the day very much anticipating how much fun it would be.
But the following day my boss came in and told me that it was going to be a long weekend because we had to crank out a proposal to submit to the university. I was a bit annoyed that I had burned my money...that's life though.
I sucked it up and worked quite hard during the entire weekend. On Saturday, my boss took me to lunch at one of the nicest restaurants in Pamplona. Red meat, red wine and sorbet. Wasn't a bad lunch break. Also, because I worked with him all weekend I learned a lot more about what he was going to need me to do and what his plans are for the center. It reaffirmed some of the things I thought when I first took the job. I am going to be in touch with phd's all over the world and try to coordinate research efforts. I am going to be expected to explain sophisticated research to senior level people at foundations and governments who just don't have the time to listen. I also being playing with PowerPoint quite a bit. I am content though. Everything is very interesting and I am happy to be here.
It is only a question of time before I go back out to Madrid.
Hasta luego...
If you remember this time last year, The Dark Knight was finally winding down from grossing the buckets of money it did over the summer. A year later it is not forgotten, but it is certainly old news except to me. I love it and watch it every chance I get. So I was quite excited this week when the TA that I work with announced that he was going to put The Dark Knight on his projector and make a movie night out of it. He lives with a Spaniard who has girlfriend visiting quite often. The four of us got together and watched the movie. With his projector, the screen was nearly the size of all. We were all in lounge chairs. It is effectively a home theater. I was in heaven.
The morning after the movie I was really excited. A friend of mine from AMR, Jason, told me that he was coming to Madrid for the weekend and that I should come to meet up with him. An old friend + weekend in Madrid was a no brainer to me. So I went ahead and bought bus ticket and booked a hotel room for the night. I worked the rest of the day very much anticipating how much fun it would be.
But the following day my boss came in and told me that it was going to be a long weekend because we had to crank out a proposal to submit to the university. I was a bit annoyed that I had burned my money...that's life though.
I sucked it up and worked quite hard during the entire weekend. On Saturday, my boss took me to lunch at one of the nicest restaurants in Pamplona. Red meat, red wine and sorbet. Wasn't a bad lunch break. Also, because I worked with him all weekend I learned a lot more about what he was going to need me to do and what his plans are for the center. It reaffirmed some of the things I thought when I first took the job. I am going to be in touch with phd's all over the world and try to coordinate research efforts. I am going to be expected to explain sophisticated research to senior level people at foundations and governments who just don't have the time to listen. I also being playing with PowerPoint quite a bit. I am content though. Everything is very interesting and I am happy to be here.
It is only a question of time before I go back out to Madrid.
Hasta luego...
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