Dead week.. I hate the silence

So its the dead week now, and it's extremely silent in the residence hall lobbies'. I've always seen a couple of students hanging out in the lounge or playing ping-pong/pool or just video chatting with their families back home, but looks like last night I was the only one sitting there. It isn't surprising since I was studying there, but I expected some company. Anyways, talking about the finals, I'm not tensed. It's a really wierd fact about me but I never get scared when exams come. I'm just concerned about the work-load that I have, that almost everyone must be having as of now. I have to do the math, chem and psyc courses all over again, and I've just started math. So one week, 3 subjects.. I should get tensed soon, since this ain't high school anymore. Grades matter, realtime. Plus getting A's are really a big concern now, my dad loves A grades for some reason. And he somehow wants me to get good grades far more than I do. I really don't know how to fulfill parents' expectations at times. My mom is pretty cool about whatever grades I get, so I don't have much to worry over her wishes. So lets study, all of us, and get the grades our parents want ! Study hard people :)

What this class offered me..

I've learned many things in this class, heard many guest speakers enlighten us with their experiences and knowledge. I'm well-aware of the many opportunities that I have at my college time in Purdue, and out-of-Purdue as well. Inspired by this class, I'd really like to take up Spanish as a foreign language. I've always wanted to learn Spanish, but never focused on it. Hearing the guest speakers talk about how useful this could be makes me go for it now.

I'd love to study abroad, in Germany probably, since it has amazing aerospace programs for foreign students. I've mentioned about it too in one of my previous posts. My first step in engaging in global activities was to go to the call-outs of Purdue MUN team. I was selected in the interview and accepted in the team due to one single reason : my awareness of the global issues and problems that our world is facing. And being to an actual college MUN in November made me realize how big these issues are and how many people actually care about these things without any personal benefits.

The learning community gave me some really good friends. Sharing almost three classes together helped a lot. I barely know people from other classes, since its too hard to interact with them outside the classes. But the LC organizes social events too, which gives us a jolly time to spend together. I'm really thankful that I got friends like Dharna (who is also an amazing roommate), Karlyn, Daniel, Karan, Liang, Nick, Patrick, Justin, Mrigank. Moreover, it's always good to have friendly teachers like Anne, Veronica and Prof. Jesiek around. Allover, my decision of being in a learning community was truly worth it (thanks to Dharna who convinced me into it) .

What I Am Going to Take Away From this Class?

I learned a lot in this class. I found it very interesting, because I never would have thought that engineers think differently in different countries. I really want to do a lot with what I learned in this class. Next semester, I am taking French 3. I don't know how that is going to go, because I have not taken French in a while, so hopefully it goes alright. I am just nervous, because when I talk to people about taking a language they either say it is super easy or super hard. So we will see how that goes. I also plan to study abroad. I have already filled out an application. Studying abroad is something that I have wanted to do for so long. I, personally, want to go to Europe. I love the culture, because it is so rich and interesting. When I visited France, I could hardly stand how absolutely beautiful it was. Europe also has great opportunities in my major, because they do so much research there and the food culture is incredibly large. I know that I would absolutely love to have opportunities abroad in my career in the future. After listening to a speaker in engineering 194, she said if you would like to do this, then make it known. I will definitely make it know that I would love to work abroad. I would definitely enjoy this class if it lasted longer, like a whole year or multiple days a week. It is really interesting. I think that would just really allow this learning community to really expand.

Cultural differences..

The first thing that one learns after coming into a different country is that they have to acquaint themselves with the cultural differences of people, whether it is about living or talking or just the habits. Accents are way different as well. I'm friends with people of various cultures, and one thing that I've understood is that one has to accept and respect other's cultures to be friends with them. Their festivals matter, as much as ours do, and should be given equal importance. Plus I feel that the festivals here are fun and welcoming, and I loved participating in some of them.. I managed to get some thanksgiving food at dinner, which was delicious.

Thanksgiving break!

Happy thanksgiving everyone!
So this was my first thanksgiving break in the US, and even though I couldn't go home to meet my family, my break was fun! My break started off earlier than it was supposed to since I had almost no classes on tuesday. I slept off well that day, which almost covered up for the sleep that I missed so much! I called up all my family members on thanksgiving to wish them and thank them for every single thing that they did. Since it isn't a festival in India, my parents were unaware but were happy that I was thanking them for their efforts. It's sweet how one wish can brighten your day, since they seemed so much happier after that. On thanksgiving, it was crazy since we had nowhere to dine. All restaurants were closed and we had no food in our dorm rooms. So we walked through the lanes of Chauncey Village, hoping to find something. We walked into the only open place : Olive House, and the best part is that it was great! We found good Indian food when we weren;t even expecting it. Then we went to Vienna's cafe for some brownies and coffee. So I guess the day wasn't that bad. Plus I actually ate at different restaurants for five days in a row, which so far was the best food experience (but now I really miss dining courts.. ). Had a very soothing break :) 

Culture Observations at Purdue

This semester has been new and different for so many reasons. Getting acquainted to college was a big task and I had fun doing so. (I am ready for a break. Thanksgiving was nice, but I am ready for Christmas. Three more weeks!) I have experienced many different and new situations and grown quite a bit. This semester I have grown a lot in my knowledge on diversity. I have also got to meet many people of many different cultures. I really enjoyed learning about how they live. It is so funny when they ask questions about our lives that are second nature. It can often be hard to explain why we do things, because it is just a part of our lives, the same way their differences are just a part of their lives. I gone through these experiences in Engineering 103, Engineering 131, our Cross-Cultural Project in engr 131, OEPP Roundtables, and just in class and on campus. Even over the holidays, I had cross-cultural experiences! At Thanksgiving, my cousin and his fiancee (both former Purdue computer engineering grads) came. My cousin's fiancee is from France. It was really interesting to learn about her experiences in France and then to compare stories about Purdue. I would never expect to have experiences so many diverse experiences at college.

Yay! Thanksgiving

I am so excited for Thanksgiving! I am so excited that I just needed to write a post about it. For Thanksgiving, my family is coming from all over. My grandma and uncle are coming from the suburbs of Chicago. I have an aunt and uncle coming from Chicago. My cousin is coming from Iowa State. Her dad and younger twin siblings are coming from San Antonio, Texas. My uncle and his wife are coming with two of their kids, one who is married and bringing her two daughters. Her two daughters have to be like the cutest little girls on earth they are adorable. I love them! My cousin and his fiancee, who graduated from Purdue a few years ago, are coming. I can't wait to meet my cousin's fiancee. They are both computer engineers and work at Intel in California. This is the last time I will see my cousin for a year because he is going to work in Tokyo, Japan for the next year. She is from France and she how so many exciting stories. I love France and really want to study abroad there so she is getting me connected with her family and cousins. I am so excited! It's going to be so much fun! My mom is going to make so much delicious food and then the official Christmas season start and it is going to be an all around good time!

Africa

For english, i am writing on the topic of drinking water in Africa, so I know a little bit about the engineering issues. Some solutions that work in the west are not always good solutions for areas of africa because much of africa is still developing. Since the west is mostly already developed, the technology is more advanced. The underdeveloped regions of africa currently don't have the proper technology to either utilize or understand the western engineering solutions to their complete extent. This can also be part of the reason all of the wealth mentioned in the questions, is not being used. Possibly they dont have the technology to access these natural resources. The problem in generalizing the entire continent of africa, is that obviously there are developed areas and that the whole continent doesn't consist of only small, poor villages. The solutions from the west may work in the few developed regions of africa, but not majority of it.

Lots of possibilities and not enough time...

Ok, so this week we've been offered several interesting opportunities such as: Co-Op (Which sounds very good to me), study abroad (AWESOME!), community service (I really love it), EPICS (just interesting to me) and some more... The point is: I would really like to apply to them all, they sond very good; however, I've got a lot of work to do this week, and I don't have enough time to fill out applications (Community service in Boiler OUT! has an application due on friday!!!), I barely have time to attend my classes, and I really hope I can finish every single application by its deadline.
Moreover, I really want to study abroad and do a Co-Op, but I don't think there's enough time for both of them. College is only 4 years, or maybe 5, and all this activities plus common classes can't be done at the same time. What I mean is: you can do Co-Op and classes during your career, or study abroad and take classes, but I don't think it's possible to:
study abroad+Co-Op+classes
It sounds awesome but it's just that I haven't found the first student doing all at the same time. Nonetheless, GEARE can put all of them together, and it sounds very interesting, but we don't know much about it, I don't even know if we are supposed to apply as freshmen (the same way you do for Co-Op).
I'll just check all the possibilities and make time out of nowhere to see if I can do something...

Thanksgiving Break

Here we are ladies and gentlmen, the home stretch. In less than a week, I will home for Thanksgiving. Last night, I had my final math test (all that is left now is the final). I was an awful, awful test. Up until this point, I had been completely focused on this test and my poster presentation for chemistry. Now that is over I can just forget about and think about other things. I have some other things before break like a chemistry and engineering test, but these won't be too hard, so I am not worried. At least now I can get excited for the holidays. Up until this point I would not even let myself watch a Christmas commericial, because I knew I would get too distracted. Finally, that is over. This saturday is PUDM, which is going to be amazing. I am finally feeling better (not deathly ill anymore). Thanksgiving break is going to be great. I go home Tuesday night (none of my classes got canceled and I have a lab until 5:40 that day). I have so many family members I have not seen in forever. It will be my dad and mom, my brother and sister, my dog, my grandma, my uncle, my other uncle from Texas I only see once a year and his three kids (twins in high school and a sophomore at Iowa State), another aunt and uncle, another aunt and uncle their three kids one who is married and who is bringing her too daughter and another who is bringing his girlfriend, and another aunt and her two kids, and me! There are so many coming and I am so excited. I love being around family for the holidays. I love decorating, watching the parade, and just hanging out. I am so excited for home-cooked food. I cannot wait! I want to go right now!

TGB

I cannot wait for thanksgiving break! A break from classes is just what I need!. The homework keeps piling up, but that is due to my master skill of procrastinating. Tonight I have to write a paper for english, i have two math assignments due, an engineering assignment, and my chem pre lab to do. If I can get through all this and survive til the weekend, then it will be smooth sailing into the break since we only have two days of class next week and luckily I only have classes scheduled on monday. It will be nice leaving a day earlier than planned. My break is gonna be a nice getaway from school work, but it will consist of a lot of driving..ugh. I have a two and a half hour drive home. Then the next day we are going up to my grandparents home for the holidays in michigan, a four hour drive. Then the four hour drive home and another two and a half hours back to w. lafayette. thirteen hours of driving is not going to be fun, but on the other hand it will be better than being in class!

African Engineering

When I saw that Dr. IIeleji’s description, I was very interested to see that he was in Agricultural Engineering since I plan on going in ABE. I am really interested in food production. I will be interested to see what projects he has worked on in this area. I was also interested in his work in Slovakia. A good portion of my heritage is in Slovakia and so I have always had an interest in this country. At the beginning of the year, I listed it as a country I would want to visit. I will be very interested to here about his experiences and what he has done here. Finally, I will be interested to see what he has done as far as agriculture engineering in Africa. Engineering solutions must be different then they would be in the United States, because situations are completely different. It is a different society, different setting, different resources, different culture, different climate and so on. All these differences do not allow the ease of use of the same engineering solutions. Situations are different and a solution must meet the abilities of the setting. An advantage to Africa is all of their natural resources. These can help when choosing a solution. These resources are very wide in Africa, because of different challenges these are not utilized. Engineers can help to utilize these resources. One thing to keep in mind is not to make generalization, because there are always exceptions.

A tough week

This past week was definitely tough, I had a whole bunch of homework to do, I had 3 exams (math, German and engineering 131), and I have to study for my monday CHM 115 exam. I always went to bed at 2 or 3 AM, this is now usual (sometimes it just happens because I keep talking to some friends in Colombia). However, Thanksgiving break is now coming up, and I really hope I can take a little rest, study for the exams, and relax! By the way I am really really afraid of the finals, I know I will have to study extremely hard for Chemistry; I really hope all that time is worth, because I hate it when you study so much for some exam, and for some reason you just do very bad, that sucks! Going back to the tough week, I would like to remark the weather, it was not so bad, but it didn't really help. Nonetheless, I was very excited because I saw my first snow flakes, or something similar.

I hope that this upcoming week goes well, and that I don't have much homework, that would be a great approach for Thanksgiving break!

Study abroad programs

It was really interesting to see qualified people coming to the class and providing valuable knowledge about various kinds of study abroad programs and about the countries as well. My major is going to be aerospace engineering, and I am really interested in a study abroad-internship program in Germany (SIP). They have a one semester and a two semester program, specifically for aerospace engineering students, which interests me the most. The tuition is the same as that of Purdue. I'm interested in this since it will provide me an internship experience as well as a global prospective of things. Plus, I'd love to explore germany. I'd be more than happy to accept this opportunity.

I have been a little busy...

These past week or so has been quite busy. Last Saturday, we had our retreat for our sorority. Then on Sunday, I went to the Indiana Greek Leadership Conference, which I really enjoyed. They had some really great speakers. It was initiation week for my sorority. Each day we had a different event. I was initiated on Thursday night. So now I am an official member of Phi Mu. It is very exciting. Even though it was so exciting it was very tiring and I felt like I was getting really sick. So I went to PUSH on Friday and I have the flu and a bacterial infection and who knows what. Saturday was Dad's Day for our sorority. So my dad came. There was a tailgate and then you could go to the game with your dad. I felt sick so I went back to sleep and my dad went to the game with some of his friends. I feel so bad about not going. I came back later and I showed my dad Phi Mu and then there was a dinner. I was so glad I got to see my dad. I cannot wait for Thanksgiving. I found out we have a ton of relatives coming over and I am so excited. Other than all of that, I have had a ton of homework. So life has been kind of crazy.

International Opportunities

I have known I wanted to study abroad for quite a while now. It would be absolutely incredible to travel anywhere. If I had a choice though, I have always wanted to spend an extended amount of time in Europe. So, if I had the chance to go abroad I would love for it to be in Europe. I am very captivated by all of the European cultures. More specifically, I am obsessed with French culture. Their art, food, and even their way of life are so unique that it phenomenal experience to have one day. I find Europe incredibly interesting. I would be open to many different experiences, anything from going to school, to interning, or even working there. Right now, when I look at study abroad opportunities I am looking for something during the summer. As far as after college, I would be willing to stay for extended periods of time. There are what I had hoped for as far as personal goals and professionally, these opportunities would be great because there are so many opportunities associated with my major in Europe. In order to achieve this, I am planning applying for different study abroad programs or international opportunities available.

Life so far..

Writing a blog after so many days seems odd.. Well, last few weeks weren't the perfect ones for me, but I managed to sail across them and here I am, ready for a chemistry exam on Monday, ready for five extended math assignments due on Tuesday,for an english paper and lastly, for an engineering exam. Never had so many homeworks' and exams due, almost every other day. Engineering students have a real hard time, take my word for it. But in the end, it's worth it! I remember my dad asking me after the first month here if I want to leave Purdue and rush back to my hometown. My answer was a yes, which has transformed into a clear no at this point of time. I love Purdue, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because of the snow that I felt on me for the very first time here, or because of the new and exciting people I've met so far who make my life better, or maybe due to the amazing cakes that my friends got for me on my birthday! It gets better, and I'm learning things with time. I'm going to have a great semester, pretty sure about that !

International

Sitting through all the various presentations in class, one message has really stood out to me. Get international experience. It doesnt matter how you do it, for how long, or where. Just do it. Before even taking this course, I had thought about the possibility of studying abroad. I had gone to a few call out meetings and the study abroad fair earlier in the year and there was a spark of interest. The number one place I would want to go is Australia. One reason is because Australia is an English speaking country and English is the only language I speak. Another reason, is because my dad was in the navy and got to travel the world. He said Australia was his favorite place he went to, and told me all kinds of stories about it. I would probably do a semsters worth of studying while there, and at the same time get to see a new part of the world, for I have never left the country. This would be helping me academically by getting courses finished, and personally by giving me an unforgettable experience.

bittersweet.

Finally its the end of the week! Hello weekend. Ive been looking forward to sleeping in for a while now. The sleep may be the only good part about the weekend though. I have a few exams next week that need studying for. Especially chem. I am terrible in that class so a good grade on this exam is much needed. I also have quite a bit of homework to do. I have chem homework, a math assignment, engineering assignment, and an english paper to revise. The chem assignment should take about an hour or two, depending on how many problems. Math never lasts more than an hour. English and engineering combined should be about an hour as well. But studying...studying could take an unlimited amount of time and I still wouldnt have a great understanding of the material in chemistry. I just cant wait for the semester to be over and I dont have to take chem any more.

Engineering Options

Every continent is very different, so different approaches need to be taken in different situations. If the goal is for American engineers to implement a project in Latin America, the first thing that should be done is the group should go to go the area and see what they have to work with. The engineers need to see what supplies they have available. I think that the key is to see what the community wants and what is necessary. If the community is in search of a solution, then to find a solution the goal is to solve for that specific situation and not how it would be solved in other countries. As engineers, they must consider each situation as its own unique event. Not all resources are always available and this must be considered. Limited resources can effect energy policy because there is only so many energy resources that is available. So this does limit the options that are can be taken. Implementations of technology must follow these limitations, but they can help provide a solution. The articles addressed these issues, especially with article from Bohm it addresses how if finding a solution one of the key parts is finding a solution that is positive and will address problems with a solution beyond the standard calculations, but one that also is creative and ingenuitive.

Upcoming Challenges for Latin America

Okay, so first of all I want to remark that this is one of the blog posts that I've been looking forward to do, because I am from Latin America. Second of all I would like to focus on the main challenges that the continent faces concerning infrastructure. Brazil's geography is somehow similar to that of my native country Colombia. In both cases one of the main obstacles for developing transport, sanitation and electrical systems is the geography. We can notice that the IEA focuses a lot on the fact that rural areas in Brazil are isolated by the Amazon rainforest. This not only happens in Brazil, Colombia also has the Amazon, and the Andes, Peru has the Andes, Chile has the Atacama desert and the Andes and so on. As you can notice the geography in Latin America can be an advantage, because it provides high bio-diversity, as stated by the IEA; however, it also implies an obstacle for the development of infrastructure. Of course building electrical systems for isolated villages in the Amazon is a huge engineering challenge, as well as building roads in the Andes.

The next challenge that Latin America faces is poverty, some people in the continent are poor, specially in rural areas, this means that it is difficult for private and even public companies to develop infrastructure systems for small villages, because in some cases more money will be spent on the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure, than the money that will be earned by the enterprises that build these systems (outcome is higher than income).

Definitely these are the main two challenges, geography and poverty. According to my point of view, it is complex to overcome these barriers, my country has tried hard to find possible solutions to the problems; however, they are not simple and in some cases the governments have no disposition to spend on infrastructure systems.

Latin America

What influences energy policy from companies are limited resources. Since companies provide big portions of tax revenue, governments are concerned with what they want. Lobbyists try to convince politicians into passing energy policies that will give profit to the company. In Venezuela, we can see an example of how resources of higher need are taken up by the government. Chavez got his government mingle the country's oil industry. Poor nations don't get profit from the existence of limited natural resources, since they are usually too expensive for the rural people to afford. so, the companies get richer by the time and the local people tend to get poorer. There are issues with technology in rural Latin America. One of them that is a major issue is the culture and thoughts of the governments that are implementing the technologies in that area. It is a very distant place, and getting the new technologies and ideas to that place could be difficult and nevertheless, risky.

Anthropology and Culture in the Study of Engineering

Well after reading Dr. Nolan's reading, I really find funny the story of Tunisia, I felt so bad about Dr. Nolan's friend, who was shouting at the farmer for no reason, which could have never happened if they only knew that the word Tunis makes reference to two different places. The third case of study seemed very interesting, we could never imagine how a steel axe could change the social and cultural values of a society, especially because it is hard to think of a culture that was shaped around a tool like an axe. Nonetheless, it was the second case of study the one that I liked the most. I had never heard about the 'FulBe', my first impression about them when I began reading was that they were a little crazy, or that perhaps Dr. Grayzel had made a mistake, but then after concluding the reading, everything made sense to me. When thinking about money and basically in financial terms, the way the FulBe act is just ridiculous, but when we get to know their cultural values and their conception of the world we can easily understand that their actions are completely logical if you are focused on fulfilling their cultural values of course.

Well, anthropology is related to engineering because the way we understand other peoples and a society may affect the way engineering is performed. Culture and society have proved to be difficulties that an engineer must overcome. Although mathematics and physics are the same everywhere, the way they are applied are not, engineering and science really depend on the context. For some of us the Earth turns around the sun, but maybe for some other people the sun turns around the earth. For this reason understanding different cultures and societies affects engineering, because they need to be taken into account when making decisions inside different contexts.

I really liked the reading, hope the speaker is good as well!

communication.

Its kind of funny to me that Dr. Nolan and his colleague had the communicating issues that they did when first in Tunisia. If only they would have learned Arabic before they got there, they would have been fine. Now I know hindsight is 20/20, but to be honest, I would have probably done the same thing. The humor in the story is all due to the irony in it. Most people would assume that the city of Tunis and the country of Tunisia would go by different names. It just makes sense that way. If I were the developer with Dr. Nolan, I would have gotten very frustrated at the situation. He knew what he was looking for, and he was saying it correctly, but there were two meanings for the same word. There is something that can be learned from any experience, and I believe the obvious thing to be taken from case 1.1 is to study up about an area before you go there. Im not saying they didnt study, but when you think you know enough, try to learn more.

Roundtable Session

This has been long past due. Quite a while back I went to a Roundtable session. I didn't write about it then so I am doing so now. When I went, they gave us cookies first of all, which was a plus. Then we did icebreakers and started talking to some of the students. There was about two international graduate students for every undergraduate student. The icebreakers helped us become more acquainted with the situation. After that, we did introductions of ourselves and then we asked questions. The international students asked us questions about what it was like to be and undergraduate student here in America. There questions had two main focuses, basically “what is Greek life” and “what makes a good and bad teaching assistant”. Through this questions, they said they hoped to improve their teaching skills. The students asked the teacher’s assistants a lot about what it was like going to school in a different country. I had a lot of fun, because it was interesting to here everyone’s stories, just because some were so funny. It was a really fun way to do extra credit and something I recommend everyone should do. It is a great way to expand one’s global interactions!

Catch-up and some Tangents: Part 2

I decided to break this up into two week, so then it wasn't too long. Sunday, we had a cookout to raise money for the Phi Mu philanthropy. The money goes to PUDM, which it donated to Riley Children's Miracle Network. After that we had our regular weekly pledge meeting and I was the first one to memorized the creed of Phi Mu. Then after that we had another meeting. On Wednesday, I was supposed to go to PUSH, because I thought I felt better and I didn't want to walk across campus. Earlier that day, I had my interview with Professor Rickus for my English paper and it went really well. I learned so much. Thursday night we got our big sis and I love my big sis Kaila Butcher. She is going to be on SOC next year. We went to the Theta Chi/Delta Zeta Haunted House, which was fun. Then we came back opened presents, painted pumpkins, had Mad Mush and watched Hocus Pocus. Then we spent the night at the house. Friday was Greek Goddess competition, which is Farmhouse's philanthropy that is like a beauty pageant. Jillian Yanos from Phi Mu won!!!! Now today I have just been chilling, watching movies and doing homework. That brings everything up to date!