Valencia: a beautiful and enjoyable city to learn, have fun and to eat
On the 27th of February, I left Portugal with destination to Spain, for the city of Valencia, where I spent two remarkable months. I was very excited about this experience of living in a new country, learning Spanish, meeting new people, learning how to use a new equipment and more about electrohydrodynamic processing in BIOINICIA.
When I arrived to Valencia I was welcomed with a sunny day and with the preparations for Las Fallas, the biggest festivity of the city. From the first day of March until the big festivity weekend (17th, 18th and 19th of March), we can see and hear las mascletas every single day at 2 p.m. Valencian people really vibrate with the strong noise of the festive rockets and the fireworks. Additionally, during the festivities, the local artists make huge sculptures in each neighbourhood. After the competition, in the last day of the Las Fallas, it’s all burnt, which symbolises the end of festivities and is called La Cremà.
Having the opportunity to visit Valencia was a wonderful experience, nevertheless, the main aim of this secondment was to learn and improve my knowledge in electrohydrodynamic processes and optimize particles production by using the electrospray equipment in the company BIOINICIA. BIOINICIA is a company dedicated to the development and manufacture of micro and nanostructured materials using electrohydrodynamic processes, as well as responsible for the production of electrospray and electrospinning equipment.
During the secondment in BIOINICIA I had the opportunity to learn a lot about electrohydrodynamic encapsulation processes, about the electrospray equipment and how to use it to produce particles. Furthermore, I was able to obtain optimized conditions to produce particles with different materials for further encapsulation of bioactive compounds with health benefits for elderly people.
In BIOINICIA I felt very welcomed! I met people from different countries that were very friendly and made me feel at home. During work, they were very kind and helped me with all the questions and difficulties that I had. Also, they gave me a lot of tips and advices to live and to visit the city. We spent some time together sharing stories about our life and curiosities about our countries.
It was an amazing time that I had with the great team from BIOINICIA!
Spending two months in BIOINICIA was an amazing and enriching opportunity that I had and that I strongly recommend to everyone. It was such a pleasant and grateful experience that gave me the chance to learn about encapsulation processes, to gain skills and improve my knowledge, to meet good people that taught me a lot, and also, was one more confirmation that I am doing what I love.
Thank you for this amazing experience!