Welcome back to my week 5 blog of a Puerto Rican student from Pitt working at a wine company abroad in the beautiful city of Madrid, Spain. This week I decided to stay in Madrid and cool down from previous trips. I explored various monuments and enjoyed the cool nights with relaxing dinners. If you have not had the opportunity to check out my other blogs, I encourage you to read them! I have talked about my trips to Valencia, Cuenca, Sotosalbos, Segovia, and my professional adaptability in a Spanish workplace.
To give an update about my resilience in the workplace, I would like to talk about more deeply about my soft and hard skills currently in development while I work. Some soft skills that I have developed throughout my experience in the Spanish workplace have been Communication, Teamwork, Adaptability, Emotional Intelligence, Critical Thinking, and Conflict Resolution. The communication, teamwork, and critical thinking I have developed primarily with my co-workers since we do tasks as a team and we have to finish them as a team. It involves a sense of strategy and communication to finish the task in time and what is the most efficient way of doing the task while being the most effective. At first, the capacity to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions, as well as those of others is something I had to be comfortable with. Also, having to seek a new task in my job because of some of it being very monotonous became a problem at some point. I had to communicate possible suggestions to my supervisor and step up for a change in my experience. I am still struggling with this problem today, but it’s improving more as I retaliate. Some strong skills I have developed have been my Microsoft Excel proficiency, internet research, data management, attention to detail, and organizational skills. Even though my Microsoft Excel proficiency has not improved drastically I am still becoming more efficient while using the tool. Not only that, but attention to detail being organized, and being manageable with your data is key to being as effective as possible on my job.
While dealing with a lot of work I realized that my global competencies have been crucial in my professional learning experience in the international workplace. I’ve honed communication and teamwork by collaborating with Spanish colleagues to complete tasks efficiently. Adaptability helped me adjust to a new workplace culture, while emotional intelligence allowed me to manage my emotions and understand others. Addressing monotonous tasks required critical thinking and effective communication with my supervisor to seek new challenges. Additionally, my proficiency in Microsoft Excel, data management, and organizational skills has enhanced my effectiveness. These skills have enabled me to navigate cross-cultural situations successfully, contributing positively to my team’s dynamics and productivity.
On the other hand, the relaxing time I spent this past weekend in Madrid was very amusing. I got to go out on a nightlife experience with a Spanish group and how they behave and converse is very entertaining especially since I can understand their Spanish and speak it very well. This group is one of my friends in the program brother and their friends. All I could experience from this was that these people were very extroverted and easygoing. It was an unreal experience to spend a night with the real gatos of Madrid. I am starting to use some of the words they use frequently such as “tío” which means bro in English or something to refer to a person that you know.
Apart from the nightlife, I and some friends went and explored the Temple of Debod. To give a little history about it, this temple was an Egyptian temple that is now located in Madrid. It was built during the 2nd century BC by King Adikhalamani of the Meroitic Kingdom of Kush. Dedicated to the gods Amun and Isis, the temple served as a center for religious worship and rituals. In the 20th century, the construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened the temple with submersion due to rising water levels from Lake Nasser. In a gesture of gratitude for Spanish assistance in saving other Nubian monuments, Egypt donated the Temple of Debod to Spain in 1968. The temple is located in the Parque del Oeste (West Park) next to the Royal Palace of Madrid. You could see a lot of people in that park enjoying the ambiance and the views of historic buildings, it was a phenomenal experience.
After that we went to Parque de El Retiro. This park reminds me of Central Park in New York. It is a huge park with a lot of trails, vegetation, tapa restaurants, fountains, and two interactive areas/buildings. The Estanque de la Rosaelda is one of the two areas that have the most tourist impact. It is a pond where you can ride small boats around and have a relaxing experience with great views of the park. I unfortunately did not experience the boat ride, but walking around the park and seeing the pond and its building behind was enough of a good experience.
The other area that was very impacting was the Cristal Palace. This building is made out of glass and it also had a small pond next to it. It has a beautiful placement and surroundings.
After that long day, we went to Manuel Becerra Plaza and decided to relax and enjoy the rest of the night with a nice cold beer and food on a terrace.
I appreciate you all for reading and going along with me in this experience, we’re halfway through the program and it has been a stupendous stay.
Nos vemos la semana que viene con mas cosas que contar.
Hasta Luego!