One Week in Riga (Latvia) International Staff Week 2011

The process of choosing the University was not easy, finally I decided to go to the University Stockholm of Economics in Riga. Then they were very receptive. Unfortunately our airport does not have many terminals and find a direct flight was impossible. At the end, the trip is in whole day to go and another day to return. With flights impressive how easy is to move 3,500 kilometers.

The weather is cold, it snowed 2 day of the 7 days. The city with light has a different perspective. People do not walk in the cold in the streets, at sunset the image is Mysterious . I must that they are so different from Valencia, has a special Charm!

In my opinion is that Communism has done much harm to this country.
The first impact is undoubtely the language, you get to change the chip and throw into the "pool". One of the most important lessons that I take is the necessity and importance to improve my English. For me it was very satisfying to have a conversation with people from another culture.

My first contact with the University was on Monday 14 March. I must admit I was nervous because I didn´t know how it would be everything. Evita Lûkina was responsible for cordinating all of my time there. She was with me the whole first day was tasked to introduce and teach people across the university.

The building is beautiful, would be equivalent to our "Palacio de Colomina" in Valencia. It is considered one of the largest representations of Art Noveau in Riga. It is small university, specializing in the subject of economy. They have about 300 students a year, but it is precisely where lies its charm, its size, layout and people makes it a very pleasant and welcoming. I sincerely recommend it as a university for a stay.

Meeting with Admissions International Affairs

On that first day I had the opportunity to meet with Diana Pauna Pro-rector of the university. We were talking about: the current situation in Spain, the number of students in our university, my relationship with the economics degree, the level of english of spanish youth, my work as computer engineer in university and the implementation of Social Media to the University.

Meeting with Denise Wirth IT Department

That same day I met with Evita Stankevica acting Head in Library. The library was on the top floor with fabulous views.

On the afternoon of the first day I went with the girls in a International relations to take a walking tour through the city. I recommend go to the tower of the Church of St.Peter because it offers a nice 360º degree view of the city. After dinner they invited me to a site well known because the Cooker has a TV program.

The second day was the attempt of the Three. I spent the whole morning with the department of new technologies, the director was a lovely girl named Diana Wirth of Florida (USA). The department was formed by her an another girl. They work with Moodle for online learning. In their department are currently trying to unify the corporate image of the different sites, this is the same problem we have had us and hopefully will close March 31 with the launch of the new web. Another of the big issues we address is the issues of migration, upgrade and maintanance of platforms. It was interesting to see how everyone working in IT, no matter the place, suffered the same problems to solve and seek the same answers.

That second afternoon, the university organized a workshop on social media offered by the company "Who Walks the Dog", I attended and I enjoyed with it. Once again I was glad to see that I understood everything perfectly and I could participate in class and contributing ideas for Spain.

Coffee with Arjan Turpan, teacher and owner "Who Walks the Dog"

The last day took me to Jurmala, beach freeze all Riga, is curious to see so many miles of snow. In the afternoon I got a coffee with the owner of the company "Who Walks the Dog" was very fruitful exchange of views. For this meeting I had prepared a Powerpoint presentation with case studies in Spain. Arjan Turpan congratulated me and the door was left open for future talks.

In conclussion, it has been a highly recommendable experience.It is very positive to discover new ways for working. Fluency in English is a growing need in our society. Internet and Social Media are platforms which becoming increasingly more important, this is a reality that is both our university like Riga are very clear. For my part I think that generate relationships with other universities provides great value to the employees.

Gallery with my picture of Riga