Hi From Barcelona!

Hello from BCN,

Following the lead of several other IESE students, I decided to start a blog. Hopefully I'll do a good job keeping this updated as I found the blog of a former IESEan (Anupam) quite helpful in my preparations for Spain and IESE.

Most of you will know that I moved here with my girlfriend of just over 3 years; Tessa. The move was stressful to say the least as we had a fully furnished house, two cars, and an endless supply of "stuff". Tess & I did not get along very well during this time period. Obviously we are here so we got things done, but without the help of Chad, Anna, both moms & dads, some very good friends & Craigslist, there is no way everything would have been completed. But as Tessa's dad said, "moving is one of the most stressful things you can do." He is right. The stress of moving did not subside until day 2 in Spain.

Tess & I have been here for 5 days now. We're staying in party central...the Barri Gotic. Holy crap do these guys know how to have fun and make noise! The place we're staying is on the third floor of a building off a super narrow street with a girl from Mississippi named Emily. She drops "y'alls" all the time. As with most southerners, Emily is very nice and accomodating.

The bell just rang twice which means its 30 after. There is a chuch bell located possibly 4 inches outside our window. It rings once, twice, three times during the hour and of course every hour. The first day we almost went nuts and woke up several times to the ringing. By the third day I wondered if the bell stopped ringing. Nope, just our natural ability to filter out influences.

Our home search has been steady. We have yet to find a place but are getting to know the areas around this wonderful city. I found a fantastic site this morning that offers virtual tours of Barcelona along with many other Spanish cities. For everyone back home who wondered why anyone would want to move to Spain or Barcelona, your questions will be answered by clicking below:

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/barcelona/index.html

If you have not done so yet, you need to download Skype. http://www.skype.com/ This is a way to make free phone calls from your computer to another computer. Downloading is a easy as clicking a button and making a phone call means you have to do a search for a friend and then click call. Could it be any easier? No it could not. Within the last week, Tessa's parents, sister, and Chad all got Skype along with webcams and now we make free video phone calls, the sound quality is the same as a phone, the video quality is good and depends on your webcam. If you don't have a webcam yet, you need to buy one. They cost as little as $30. Check the reviews by Cowboy Frank to help you decide which to buy:
http://cowboyfrank.net/webcams/index.htm#revews

I've been telling people they ought to buy the Logitech USB Silver QuickCam Ultra Vision because its supposed to be a very good camera and Buy.com had it for a very good price plus a nice rebate. Plus you save another $10 by using Google Checkout. Just go to buy.com and see which good webcams are for sale and buy one. Then start making phone calls for free. I now get to see Chad and his family every day and Tessa can see her entire family. Believe me, this has made this move easier for Tessa.

The bell just rang which means I better start preparing for the day. We may head to a beach south of Barcelona in a town called Sitges. If we make it we'll send some pics.