Written by Cristobal Cisneros

For week 1 there was only two days where I had to go the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV). On Tuesday the first day of work I helped set up a moisture sensor system with the nutsedge (chufa) plants in a drip water irrigation system. The system worked by placing a two pronged sensor vertically in the soil at different depths while facing the same direction as the flow of water. The sensor will be used to see how much water reaches that depth.

On Wednesday I talked with another professor on greenhouses wherein he was using the green house to graft different pepper plants with different roots in order to determine which plant combination produced the best in harsh environment ranging from bad soil to hot temperatures.

We ate fabulous foods of Valencia among which included patatas bravas which are chopped up potatoes with ketchup and mayonnaise, along with this we also ate mussels. On another day we ate an assortment of meats which included sausage, pig in oil, and extremely salted pig. On Saturday my brother Bartolome and I went into Valencia to explore and see the markets. There was markets of ceramics taking up the square outside the Catedral de Valencia. A small market that the doors were open for use but all the shops inside were closed. At the farthest into the city that we went there was a small but wonderful park that was new and had many different plants and areas to play or to walk in. On the way back there is a park that spans the entire area that was the old river where there could be seen a giant celebration for a soccer game happening later that night. Continuing along the park there was an African celebration with dancers and singers.