My First Two Months

Today marks exactly two months from the date I arrived here in Spain on the morning of April 3rd (about an hour earlier than the time I am writing this).  I am not sure what expectations I had for the first two months, mainly because I just wanted to do my best to get Jessica and me through our time apart, and I think we've done quite well!  It has been far more difficult than I imagined (not because I expected it to be easy but because there is NO way to properly prepare for being apart from your wife and family for so long, no matter how hard you imagine it will be) but we are close to the halfway point, and then we have a vacation scheduled for the second term!

With regards to work and living in Spain to experience the culture, I am learning a great deal and enjoying the chance to see a new way of life.  While I find the people here similar to people anywhere else (some smart, some funny, some whiny, etc.), the day-to-day life, environment, and culture is vastly different.  Each day, I am exposed to something new, whether it be an approach to problem-solving at work, an after work activity, or a food dish that I've never tasted or seen before.  With all of these, I think I gain both insight into the different ways people live throughout the world as well as my good fortune in having the life I do in Clayton with Jessica.  It's odd but I gain an appreciation of the experience here AND of what I am missing at home at the exact same time.

As far as personal goals here, I had three when I started:

1. Learn to speak, read, and understand Spanish - I am making progress with my Spanish classes, as well as in reading and writing emails at work.  I still have an exceptionally tough time understanding the spoken language, but as I build up vocabulary and identify more words as they race through my ears, I can at least know the main topic of a conversation!  My goal is to really make improvements in the final month before my trip home so that, in the second half of the assignment, I can speak mostly (or much more than I do) in Spanish.

2.  Work with the Spanish side of our company, learning their methods, their approaches to solving problems, and their general work habits to fit in and understand the differences between here and America - I think I've done fairly well with this goal; I feel comfortable contributing to the projects here and I have been able to reach out to other departments (with BASIC Spanish emails) to get additional information I need or am interested in to compare with my work in Clayton.  My office is quite friendly and I already benefit from making friends at work, leading to nice outings on the weekends and "taking beers" after work on Friday.  Most importantly, from a work perspective at least, I have a good insight into the work approach here and how it applies to project engineering.  I am looking forward to helping the two branches of our company work productively together now and when I return home.

3.  Try as much Spanish food as possible - This is another area where I am really excelling... to date, I have tried: pig trotters, octopus tentacles, many variations of croquettes, morro (fried pig snout as best I can tell), several duck preparations, pork cheeks, paella, shrimp heads, countless tapas, monkfish, fresh hams and sausages, bread with tomato and olive oil, and countless other items.  I've found a few things that I won't be trying again (cuttlefish being #1 on that list, anchovies soaked in olive oil as #2 probably) but overall, the quality and variety of food has been incredibly good!

A fourth "goal" that I've added since I arrived is to train for the Raleigh half-marathon in November.  Yesterday, I reached my farthest distance yet, running eight miles in ~ 9 minutes / mile, so that was quite an achievement for me.  I really struggled at the end so I have a long way to go before I'm ready for 13.1 miles, but at least I am getting the exercise and pushing myself more than I ever had running!

With four months or so remaining, my goal with the most work left is to speak and understand Spanish.  I am studying today and will continue to do my best putting in the time and effort to become better.  Learning a new language really is one of the hardest things I've done in my life, especially at this age when I am so set in my ways, but I suppose the challenge will make the reward so much better!