Last week was my first full week of work, and though there are still many uncertainties, I feel as though I’m starting to get the hang of things. I started the week working virtually, as I tried to finish up the tasks I was initially assigned before I met with my supervisor to show him the results of the analysis I had been doing. I had a list of about 17 different prompts to ask different models of AI. I only had about 2 more prompts left, so I was trying to get it all done before my meeting. I had a little trouble at this meeting, primarily with following the Spanish, but once I got the hang of it, I was able to properly engage in the meeting and provide my thoughts on the different models. Moving forward, we’re still testing those models, but now I’m organizing the information in the most efficient way possible so that we can make decisions on which model to use going forward. We also had to discuss and account for the costs of the different models. We then set another meeting for this upcoming Tuesday to keep discussing these things.
I do experience some uncertainty in my internship, especially with the language barrier. It honestly isn’t the language itself that I struggle with, it’s more the speed of talking. My coworkers tend to speak very fast, which makes it difficult for me to understand what’s happening sometimes, but I am hoping that with more practice I’ll get the hang of things.
Aside from working, I continued to explore the city and got to do some thrifting nearby. There was an entire street full of second-hand and vintage clothing that I got to visit.
This weekend, I also planned a trip to Valencia so that I could spend some time on the beach. I planned this trip with the rest of the EUSA interns, so on Saturday morning, 9 of us set off on a train to Valencia. It was only a 2 hour train ride, during which almost everyone fell asleep. I usually have trouble sleeping on trains/planes, etc unless I’m really exhausted, so I couldn’t really fall asleep.
I passed the time just looking out the window and admiring the views of the countryside. A lot of people don’t really talk about that part of Europe, but there does tend to be a lot of farmland in between all the major cities that people visit.
Once we got to Valencia, we had about 5 hours till we could check into the Airbnb, so we decided to go to the beach since we had all of our stuff with us and walking around would have been uncomfortable. I got to relax on the beach for some time, spend some time in the water, and walk along the shoreside. After the beach, we had to check into the Airbnb around 2pm, and then I attempted to gather everyone to go grab lunch before we hit what they call “happy hour, which wasn’t so happy for 9 hungry college students. Between about 3:30-7, most restaurants don’t serve food, but rather only serve drinks. So, as an alternative, we went to a supermarket to grab some bread, ham, cheese, etc so that we could all make some sandwiches for ourselves.
For dinner though, I got to try famous Paella, specifically Valencian Paella. Paella in Valencia was traditionally made by farmers, who would collect whatever was available in the rice fields.
This typically included rabbits more often than chicken because they were more common. They also included a lot of beans, tomatoes, and garlic. The paella was amazing, and was served in a combined pot with everyone’s servings in it.
The next day, we got to explore a little more of the city, and I got to see the Cathedral of Valencia. The architecture was one of the things that stood out to me the most. It’s in a style called “Valencian Gothic,” but also contains Romanesque, French Gothic, and Rennaissance styles.
Here, I also got to try Horchata and fartons. Horchata is made from chufa, which is a root that was brought over from Egypt. It reminded me a lot of this drink that they serve in India called chikku shake, which is also made from a root. I find it really interesting when I can draw connections between different cuisines, especially when the history of those cuisines is part of the reason that they have similarities.
Overall, I think this week has been fairly productive, and I am looking forward to learning more about the history and background of certain traditions in different parts of Spain.