If you haven’t heard already, I’m running for EngSci Club Chair next year!
View my Facebook group, comment on this post (ask me questions), and vote in the EngSci Club Elections this Friday in the Common Room (if you’re on PEY, you can vote by e-mail).
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Here’s what I’ve done:
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EngSci Class Rep (twice)
Former Director of Communications for the EngSci Club
UTEK/OEC/CEC Champion for Engineering Communications
EngSci Leadership Working Group
Head F!rosh Leader and F!rosh Week Chair for Leadership Development
Faculty Representative for the National Engineering Summit
TA for Praxis I & II
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Here’s what I bring to the table:
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Strong relationships with key university administrators, professors and option chairs from the Division of EngSci as well as the Faculty of Engineering.
Loads of experience running and planning club events
Excellent leadership and communication skills
Enthusiasm, Creativity, and Spirit!
Fresh Ideas (see below)
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Here’s what I will do for the EngSci Club next year:
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Set Office Hours for Exec Members to be available in the Club Office
New Events to enhance the student experience for EngScis
Scheduling to ensure the Pop Machine is always full
Better collaboration with EngSci Student Groups including NScientia, the Leadership Working Group, and NSight
Creating new opportunities for student input and involvement on club decisions
IN SHORT: A more active, more fun, and more accessible EngSci Club!
Here are my posters, which have already been posted in the EngSci student space:
Raphael skiing in Sierra Nevada, Europe's southernmost ski resort, at an altitude of 3000 metres above sea level.
It’s sure been a while! Here’s what I’ve been busy doing over the past few weeks:
Spent Christmas and New Year’s with my family in Malta
Continuing to study Spanish (stay tuned for original Spanish content)
Weekend trip to Barcelona for Carnaval
Weekend trip to Granada to check out the city, eat tapas, and ski in Europe’s southernmost ski resort
More skiing fun in the Aragonese mountains near Teruel
Learned how to drive a manual car
The last item involved me getting stuck in a small town and having to reverse up a one-lane cobbled-stone street with a 15 degree pitch in front of an audience of smirking residents, touring my neighbourhood multiple times to find parking and eventually racing another car to a parking spot by reversing down a one-way street, and driving up a snowy mountain road in a car without snow tires or chains.
Raphael on Mount Tibidabo, with the city of Barcelona spread out below.
This weekend I’m heading off to nearby mountains to do a biking-mountain climbing race, and next week I’ll be heading off to Amsterdam and Geneva (including a skiing stopover in the Swiss Alps, of course).
That’s my quick update, as usual, stay tuned for more details! Don’t forget to check out photos.raphsammut.ca for new pictures!
Every country has their own Christmas traditions, but Spain is quite unique! Here’s a rundown of how Christmas and New Year’s Eve are celebrated here:
On December 22, the fun starts with the “Sorteo de Loteria Nacional de Navidad”. It is a day of anticipation when everyone in Spain tunes into a local radio or television station to watch the selection of prizes for Spain’s National Christmas Lottery. For three hours, children from an old private school in Madrid call out the winning lottery numbers and prizes. Everyone in Spain buys at least one ticket in the hopes of a big payout. The grand prize is 300,000 euros, but there are many, many prizes of smaller denominations as well. Each ticket is quite expensive, priced at 2o euros. It contains 5 numbers and there are at least ten tickets sold with the same number. If your ticket has the same last number as the ticket of the grand prize, you get your money back (20 euro prize). I don’t usually gamble, but I split three tickets with a friend of mine and have my fingers crossed. Here’s a video of last year’s Sorteo:
December 23 is the day of health, because when asked if someone won the lottery they most often reply “No, but at least I have my health”.
December 24 is “Noche Bueno”, Christmas Eve. It usually includes a big dinner. December 25 is Christmas Day and usually spent with family. A very typical Christmas treat in Spain is Turron. It comes in many different forms but usually always contains almonds.
Most interesting is the tradition of New Year’s Eve. People typically gather in the main square of their town and await the toll of the clock. When the moment arrives, everyone pops a grape into their mouth at the sound of each gong. Eating twelve grapes in rapid succession is a celebration of the twelve past months and provides good luck for the coming year. In the southern-most pueblo (town) in the Alicante province where I live, there are grapes very late in maturing, and it is from this region that everyone has their grapes for New Year’s Eve.
This year, on January 6, Spain celebrates Epiphany (the coming of the three kings bearing gifts for Jesus Christ). It is on this day that all the children in Spain receive their Christmas gifts and spend the day playing with them. The next day, similar to Boxing Day, marks the official start of the sale season.
That’s all for now. Two posts in one day to make up for my 10-week absence!
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends and family all over the world!
It’s been sixteen weeks since my arrival in Spain, and ten weeks since my last post! My primary excuse is that I’ve been travelling far too much! Since my last post, I’ve been to Paris, Valencia, Madrid, London, Barcelona, Venice, Milan, as well as the major cities in Northern Spain (Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Léon, Burgos, Bilbao, and Santander). In fact, every weekend for the past month I’ve been out of town. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m a little tired of all the travelling and am thoroughly enjoying sitting on a sofa in my apartment and writing a post for my neglected blog.
Raphael by the Seine River in Paris, France.
Let’s start with Paris. An absolutely beautiful city! Just walking by the Seine River, touching the Eiffel Tower, and gasping at the enormity of Notre Dame was more than fulfilling. It’s been my dream for many years to travel to Paris and finally I can say I’ve been there. To save some money, we opted to stay in an Etap hotel (a low-cast, just-the-essentials hotel chain) which was located just outside the “inner city” (the major part of the city enclosed by a circular freeway). Probably not the best choice! You might remember that Paris was in the news quite a bit in recent years because of the violence in the suburbs of the city. The root cause of the problem is that the French people are very proud and do not want to see their most beautiful city taken over by immigrants. Therefore, anyone not of French, or at least European descent, is discriminated against to the point where they cannot find work or make a living. The frustration of these people combined with a cultural mentality of violence has lead to a lot of tension between the French Parisians and the immigrants living in Paris’ suburbs. This violence, however, has not made the situation any better, but has pushed the groups farther from peace. As my high school French teacher used to say, “Violence begets Violence”. Should you go visit Beautiful Paris, do not stray far from the centre or you will encounter a cruel reality that may ruin your stay. When walking outside of the centre at night, it’s a little frightening. You have to walk very fast, and never stop for any reason. It’s easy for the locals to tell if you’re foreign and they will take advantage of you.
In stark contrast to Paris, and only a 2-3 hour train ride away, is the capital of the British Empire, London. What a difference it was to be in London! Whereas walking in Paris at night was so tense you’d jump at the sound of rustling leaves, London felt much better. Certainly London has had its fair share of problems, like most major European cities, but there is little racial or social tension there. London, as it stands, is the most multi-cultural city in the world, and anyone or everyone in London can find a job and earn a living. It makes me quite proud to live in Toronto, another great multi-cultural capital, because I have learned to see every human being equally. I never developed a mindset whereby I would classify a person’s personality based on their origin, and I feel that London is very similar in this regard.
Raphael in front of Big Ben in London, England.
Alas, I only stayed in London for one night, and I will surely have to return! After a whirlwind tour of all the major sights in London, I met up with two EngSci friends of mine for dinner (Toad-in-the-hole served with London Porter). I also ended up meeting a cousin of mine who’s living in London and ended up attending an all-Maltese house party (good times). My only beef with London is the long distance between its airports and the city centre (save Heathrow). The average door-to-plane time in Alicante is about 1 hour, but in London, it’s about three hours or more if you’re flying from Gatwick, Stansted, or Luton.
Now, how about Spain’s capital Madrid? To be honest, it’s very difficult to compare Madrid to Paris and London. While Madrid is a big city, it’s not nearly as big as other major European cities. In fact, after about two days (including visits to all the famous museums and galleries), it’s hard to find more things to do. I was in Madrid twice. The first was a day-trip with my grandmother (we took the first Ryanair flight out of Alicante at 6:30am and the last one back at 9:30pm). The royal palace and cathedral are certainly worth seeing, as well as the famous Plaza Mayor. An afternoon rest in one of Madrid’s parks (El Retiro or Casa del Campo) and then tasca-hopping (bars that sell little tid-bits of food called Tapas) and beer as it gets dark finishes off the day nicely.
Raphael outside of the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain.
Barcelona, the other big city in Spain, I enjoyed more than Madrid (even though I was there for only one day in between flights). Barcelona is famous for it’s old, Gothic neighbourhoods (barrios) where you can find some of the most interesting architecture in all of Spain. Gaudi’s famous structures here include Sagrada Familia, a large cathedral design that still, to this day, is under construction. I’m planning to re-visit Barcelona in February and will speak more of it after I’ve had a longer stay.
Venice was everything I’ve ever dreamed it would be, gondolas and all. My favourites of Venice included getting lost in a maze of bridges, thin streets, and plazas, taking a gondola tour, riding the water-bus, and dancing in Venice’s only nightclub. It was really cool to arrive in Venice and find water-buses and water-taxis. It was also a nice break from the other European cities which are quite crowded with cars. Milan was nothing too special, but it’s cathedral was certainly worth seeing. It’s also the headquarters of Prada, and the resting place for Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”.
Last, but certainly not least, was my road trip in Northern Spain! We started off in the old city of Santiago de Compostela and worked our way eastward through the Spanish countryside to Santander. The northern towns are distinctly different than Alicante. Northern Spain is very green and mountainous, while Alicante is quite yellow. The northern cuisine is very rustic and wholesome, and the seafood is extremely good and fresh. If I had to live in Spain it would most probably be in a small town outside of Santander.
Pictures for all these trips can be found in my blog’s gallery (http://photos.raphsammut.ca/).
A lot can happen in six weeks, especially when starting a new life in a new country.
It is not often that you have an opportunity to start afresh in a new place with people who know nothing about who you are and what you’ve done in the past. If you had to start your life anew today, how would you live it? What would you change?
To start off, I always thought I wasn’t any good at learning languages. I took enriched French in high school, but mostly because I wanted to finish grade 12 French a year earlier and study something else in my final year of school. However, I never really enjoyed taking French or really considered it of any value to me. Four years later, I found myself fresh off the plane in Spain speaking with my future landlord in the only language we had in common: French. A few days later, two Erasmus students from France moved in to my flat and suddenly I had an even greater interest in speaking French. Next Saturday, I’m travelling to Paris, and I am grateful for sticking to learning a language I had no interest in, because it is now of great value to me.
Even more importantly to me know is my education in Spanish. I never had any motivation whatsoever to learn a new language, let alone Spanish. However, after one week of living and working in Spain, I was yearning to learn more grammar and vocabulary so that I could communicate with others and express myself. While I still have people I can speak with in English, I feel like a young child, frustrated with not being able to communicate effectively and soaking everything up like a sponge. After 11 hours of work, including a 1-2 hour Spanish lesson, I can actually feel the language centres in my brain throbbing. However, the satisfaction of being able to talk to my co-workers in Spanish after just six weeks is incredibly rewarding. Thankfully, most of them have the patience to allow me to string together my sentences and correct me when I’m wrong.
I’ve noticed another big change in my new friendships here in Spain. For many years, I’ll admit, I was afraid of forming close relationships with people. Perhaps it is in fact true that people from Toronto are cold (no offense to anyone back at home, you’re all great people 😉 ), but after forming such good friendships with people in Spain in such a short period of time, I feel like I’ve been missing out a lot in this area of my life. Some of the people I’ve meet here, I’ve known for only a few short weeks, but it feels as if I’ve known them for years. In Canada, you’re someone’s best friend after ten years, but in Spain, you’re someone’s best friend after ten minutes.
Tonight is fiesta night! Which means I’ll get to practice my Spanish (which is always easier after everyone has had a few drinks) and my dancing (which I’ve actually heard good things about for once).
¡Hasta luego! Watch for my pictures from Paris later this month!
Just got back from an awesome trip to Italy! It was my first trip within Europe since moving to Spain and I will remember it forever. Italy is a beautiful country! The architecture, the food, the wine, the people, and the language combined make for an incredibly romantic and magical atmosphere that I have never encountered before.
I travelled with three other friends from work at CYPE, and we had a blast. We flew into Bolonia, rented a car and drove to Florence (Firenze) and Pisa. Here are the trip’s highlights:
Parking! It took us at least half an hour to find parking and it involved manoeuvring into impossibly tight spaces and bumping into both cars in the front and back. One parking job required the re-location of a dumpster.
Driving! Italian Drivers drive wherever there is space on the road without much regard for traffic rules or street markings. Mopeds are often seen tailgating ambulances and whizzing past gridlock by driving in the centre of the road.
“Tonight’s Going to be a Good Night” by the Black-Eyed Peas. We heard it at least 2 or 3 times a day.
Ordering 1 L of red house wine with dinner every night.
Finishing an entire bottle of Limone liquor on our first night.
Waiting for 2 hours to see a 20-metre… uh 6-metre tall statue of David.
Getting lost in the walled city of Lucca.
Always being the last ones to eat in restaurants at night, and always finding restaurants closed for lunch at 4pm.
You can also check out a multitude of pictures in my gallery.
Raphael overlooking the city of Florence at sunset.
Wow! Time flies. On Tuesday I will pass the three-week mark here in Spain. I just woke up not too long ago as last night was Fiesta Night! Wondering what a Fiesta is? It usually starts with a big dinner at around 10pm, followed by some drinks. At around 1 or 2 in the morning, you head to a few nightclubs and dance until around 6 or 7 in the morning. Afterwards, it is common for people to go for breakfast near the beach. Last night I only made it till 4 in the morning, but I still have plenty of time to build up my endurance.
A week ago, I had a dream that I left Spain still not speaking much Spanish. I made it my priority to find a way to take Spanish Lessons, and next week I’ll start with my first Spanish Lesson at a language school in downtown Alicante. It should work well as my current schedule at work allows for a 2-hour lunch break, and from now on, one of those hours will be a Spanish class. I hope to learn quickly since I’m always immersed in Spanish. All my co-workers speak Spanish, I have to occasionally read and translate Spanish documents, and the documents I produce are in Spanish as well.
Work at CYPE is really enjoyable so far! The working environment is great: everyone dresses casual, other engineers are always more than happy to help out when you run into problems, and the work is very self-driven. I am really surprised at how much responsibility and freedom I have after just two weeks here. I spent two days getting trained on how to use the software, was shown my desk, and was told to go through the American Steel Code (used to determine if steel structures in the USA are safe to build). CYPE’s software uses these codes to analyze CAD models of structures and report any problems to the user. In my first week, I found a few small errors in the code and began working with a programmer right away to fix them. In my second week, I was asked to train a new intern to use the same tools I was using to get his job done.
In other news, I’ve booked my first two trips!
From October 2-7, I’ll be travelling to Bologna, Pisa, and Florence with some co-workers. The round-trip flight from Alicante cost me 40 euros (although my friends got the fare for 20 euros), and we’ll be renting a car when we’re there so we can drive around and explore. Look for a post upon my return!
From November 21-24, I’ll be travelling to London and meeting up with some friends who are working in Switzerland. I managed to get this flight for only 20 euros with Ryanair 😉
While I haven’t booked it yet, I’m also planning to travel to Malta to spend Christmas with my family and friends for the first time in 18 years.
That’s all for now. Check back soon for more updates!
RaphSammut.ca has just moved to a new host! The site should be fully functional again by the end of September 15. During this period, some feautrues may not function properly.
Shortly before jetting off to Spain for a year, I stopped by Salt Lake City, Utah for an unforgettable 5-day business convention with people from all over the world who run a Usana business. Last year’s convention in 2008 clinched the first place prize for “Best Live Event” at the Stevie Awards, so I anticipated a really great event. I was not disappointed.
I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but here are the highlights:
Brand new formulation of USANA’s Essential Supplements. Vitamin D is now boosted to the highest possible amount (2000 IU – twice daily for the health pack, about 1000% of the DRV) to reflect new research indicating the importance of Vitamin D in the prevention of cancer.
USANA’s HealthPak and MyHealthPak now contain more Resveratrol, an antioxidant found in Red Wine, once again, to reflect cutting edge research about it’s preventative properties against coronary heart disease.
USANA’s HealthPak and MyHealthPak now look better than ever with their redesigned packaging.
USANA released a brand new supplement called Pure Rest, which contains the purest melatonin in the world, sourced directly from Switzerland. Melatonin supplementation helps people who suffer from insomnia, sleep apnea, and other sleep-depriving conditions to get a better night’s rest.
Wondering what your specific nutritional needs are? Take USANA’s brand new Health Assesment and Advisor and receive expert advice on which of USANA’s products are of most benefit to your health.
And by far, the absolute best part of the whole event was a surprise visit from Larry King! One of the most respected American icons, who has interviewed some of the most important figures in history, appeared on stage to interview Tim Sales (a successful network marketer, and spokesperson for the industry) about the merits of the network marketing industry. Many people are misinformed about the industry because it is often likened to Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Schemes which have financially ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of people like the recent scheme perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, which collapsed this summer.To see the official press conference with Larry King before his interview, check out this video. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the actual footage yet, but when I do, I’ll post the link here.
It’s been just over a week since I first arrived in Spain and I think I am finally settled in. With the help of Nicole, another EngSci student here on PEY, I was able to find a large room with a newly installed hardwood floor, TV, desk, and private ensuite bathroom for just 280 euros a month. Not only is the room nice, but it’s located right in downtown Alicante, just minutes away from the beach and nightlife, and it’s across the street from work! Here are some pictures:
A typical day in Spain goes something like this:
7:45am – Wake up after my cell phone alarm has gone off for the third time.
8:00am – Check my e-mail.
8:20am – Eat a quick breakfast.
8:28am – Leave home.
8:31am – Arrive at my desk at work. The mornings are usually not the most productive since I’m still tired, but I usually figure out what it is that I need to accomplish for the day.
11:30am – 2nd breakfast! In our office at CYPE, everyone works in “boxes” or clusters of 6 people. Every box tends to hang out together, except for my box which splits up and goes with people from other boxes. Since I’m new, everyone wants me to join them, so I tend to rotate which groups I eat with. 2nd Breakfast consists of walking to a nearby cafe and ordering a “tostada media con tomate y un cafe con leche” which is a toasted panini-like bun topped with olive oil and crushed tomatoes, usually seasoned with garlic, salt, and pepper. “Cafe con leche” is basically the Spanish equivalent of a cappucino. 2nd Breakfast costs anywhere in the range of 1.90 to 2.20 euros depending on where you go.
12:00pm – Back to work. I usually get the most work done in this period of time since I would have just had a coffee.
2:30pm – Lunch break! I typically go home for lunch since it’s just 2 minutes away. Sometimes people from work go out to eat at a nearby restaurant, and sometimes I’ll go to the supermarket to buy fresh bread with which to make a “bocadillo”.
3:30pm – Return to work. Sometimes I’ll take another hour for lunch and return to work at 4:30, but then I have to stay an extra hour at the end of the day.
6:30PM – Home time, unless I took a 2-hour lunch. Also, on Fridays, we skip lunch and leave at 3:00pm. During the summer months, we get out of work at 3:00pm every day.
7:00PM – Go for a run by the beach. There’s a nice 6K route along the water.
8:30PM – Start cooking dinner (unless Nicole is cooking for me… we tend to take turns cooking for each other).
10:00PM – Do stuff on my computer (like upload pictures, respond to e-mails, and update my blog).
12:00AM – Bed time.
As it’s now midnight, it’s time for me to go to bed.
Adios! Here are some pictures (I’m now experimenting with Flickr):
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