Monday, December 10, 2007

En ten days

To both of my fans, sorry that I suck so bad at blogging. Now you know how my mom feels about phone calls. In fact, now you know how everyone I know feels about phone calls. But I guess you already knew this about me didn't you?

Tess and I just returned from a beautimus four day weekend road trip. We spent two nights in Paradores and two nights in a little town on the coast named Llefranc. A Parador is basically a hotel that is run by the Spanish government and is located in a former home of a noble, a palace, a castle or some other extremely huge and cool building. Typically, they are located in the middle of nowhere so as not to compete against local businesses and instead bring business into the rural parts of the country. In the pic below, the parador is the big building near the end of the bluff. We began the trip north of Barcelona in the Pyrenees, then made our way to the northeast corner of Spain to the coast called The Costa Brava. We then went south down the craggy, rocky coast as it twisted and turned and revealed small beaches all over the place. We stayed in a cute little town named Llefranc and spent two days relaxing, hiking and sleeping. Luckily I was able to break up the peaceful atmosphere by slamming my thumb in the door to the hotel. OWWWWWWCH!
The nice thing about the Costa Brava in December is that no one is around. This town typically has 15 hotels open during the summer months and the beach is packed. While we were there only two spots were open and one cost over $300/night. Guess where we didn't stay? However, the restaurants were packed during the normal Spanish hours. Want to know a big difference between Spain and everywhere else? Eating habits. We tried to go to lunch at 2pm but the place was packed, we returned at 4pm, still packed. We waited until a table finally opened up and as everyone knows, we ordered a bottle of wine. Why? Because everyone else in the entire place was drinking wine. But lunch is nothing compared to dinner, the day before we were starving at 7pm, sorry, nothing open yet. 8pm things are open but no self respecting Spaniard would possibly eat so early. We waited until 8:30 to be on the safe side, the crooked looks we received from the wait staff told us everything we needed to know. We were the first in the restaurant, two 80 year old women arrived after us. Embarrassing? Yes, but they were some spry grandma's let me tell you. Luckily for us we were early because the waitress told us we could have a table but we would have to leave by 10pm as the place was booked. Of course we didn't believe it, in this tinny little town, how could the restaurant be booked so late? Guess who was heading out of a jam packed restaurant at 10pm? People were showing up with their babies in strollers like it was 5pm. We left the Grandma's behind to enjoy the beginning of what would apparently be a long night and walked around the little town. No pasa nada...
Now more about the road trip...We were envied by all as we flew past in probably the coolest pimpmobile you've ever seen. In fact, there were so many girls drooling over our wheels, we had to stack them in the back. Pimping ain't easy, son. Did you hear that? VROOOOOOOOOOOOOMsmart!

Believe it or not, we fit inside this baby with two rolling bags you would take on a plane, a back pack, a cooler, a few bags of food, water and 47 drooling girls. Not bad, eh? Once inside it feels no different from a big car except that there is no back seat. The smart was quick and the gas mileage fantastic.

Now I'm finishing my last regular week of the first semester. Finals are next week then Tess and I are going to the Christmas Ball at IESE then we're off to Italy for Xmas and New Years. 17 days in total for the trip. I expect to eat 300 pizzas. That's all for now, sorry for the crappy writing.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Another weekend

The days blow by so fast. Last week Tessa's mom Jody returned home after staying with us for 3 weeks. The trip was a great success! Of course it was sad to see her go but now she can start planning her next trip.

The mid-term results are back and I'm not crying. I guess that means I did okay. Glad to get those out of the way.

This week we need to send in our cover letters and resumes to all the companies that come to campus to recruit in January. We need to be clear now where we want to go for our internship next summer which seems a bit crazy because we've only finished half a semester. But that's the process so if we want to get a job at any investment bank, top consulting company or major company in industry that's the way it works.

One of the great things about this school is that because of its reputation all the biggest companies recruit here; Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Google, GE, McKinsey, Bain, BP...It opens doors that are closed to all but a handful of schools. Meanwhile I find myself in the position of wondering if its worth the time to prepare for an interview with a company that I would have had to kill somebody 6 months ago just so their HR person would spit on me. A good position to be in no doubt.

Tessa is as wonderful as ever. She misses her family and the adjustment to living so far away is proving to be a challenge. But she really likes Barcelona and she's doing a good job putting up with all my school activities. She's playing on the Rugby and Futbol teams. She also continues her Spanish studies which have been a big let down. But now that we know how things work around here, she'll get into the best language school in town after her semester is over and then we'll see rapid improvement in her fluency.

Here are some pictures of where we went last weekend, Valencia. We went by train and enjoyed every second of riding in first class (thanks again Jody) and watching the countryside go by. Valencia is one of the largest cities in Spain but actually not all that large. They have some fantastic new architecture including an extrememly modern aquarium. Take a look.





Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Two a day

I just finally read the comments left by some of my loyal readers. I actually never saw these before so I am sorry if you felt that I was ignoring your comments on purpose. In fact, I was ignoring out of sheer ignorance. Which as we know is much different and easier to forgive.

Yes, midterms are here. I have one tomorrow and one on Friday. Decision Analysis where we have to decide what to do given that one decision has a 50% probability of occuring, one has a 20% chance of occuring and one has a 30% chance of occuring. Given that these probabilities correlate with gaining $1mil, gaining $2mil or losing $3m, what would you choose? This class is supposed to help us take emotion out of our decisions and base them rather on rational thought. A novel concept, but if you're like me and Mr George W. you also like "going with your gut."

One of the interesting concepts to come from this class is that people were given a test and with each answer they gave they had to put a % certainty that they were correct. For instance, if the question was, "What year was Einstein born?" And you are given two answers, you would choose one of the answers and put that you are 50%, 60%, 70%....100% sure. What do the results show? That when people say they are 100% certain, where there is absolutely no chance of being incorrect, they are actually only right 89% of the time. Even more drastic, when people are 90% sure, they are correct only 67% of the time. This shows that people are overconfident about what they know and that even those who seem to be certain are still suspect. Interesting, no?

The other midterm will cover the most dreaded and downright godawful subject known to business, accounting. I wonder if my classic equation will get me any points on the exam; Accouting = Sucks. I think I will put this at the bottom of the balance sheet and see if my professor (who literally wrote the book) will be amused. I think he will debit my accrued hatred of accounting and credit my grade expense. A little accounting humor....can you hate it?

Here are some pics for your amusement.

Look kids, Big Ben.

Top of 2nd highest peak in Catalonia with the adventure club.
The HAWG!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Mid-terms are here!

I haven't blogged in a while now. Why? Because I suck at life. Actually I'm just really good at prioritizing which means the week is spent on school, school, school. All day long. And the weekends...the focus has been on having fun. We went hiking in the Pyrennes a few weeks ago. London about a month ago. One weekend was spent working on a paper for school. Jody is in town visiting so we spent last weekend going to all the cool places around town.

A few days ago I booked the holiday trip Tessa and I will take to Italy. The plan is to fly into Florence, travel in Tuscany including Siena and Pisa, then to walk the Cinque Terre. South to Rome, further on to Naples where we will eat about 5 million pizzas. Finishing up on the Amalfi coast with a quick aside to Capri. Sounds fun, right. Life is good. The dollar keeps dropping which means each day my money is worth less. Tess and I are getting along well and eating plenty of cheese and bread. The essentials for happiness!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

A real day?

After a few days in class, its time to reflect on how things are going. I wake up at 7am, leave by 7:45, drive my moto like a madman to arrive at school at 8:10, then its into the computer lab to print the results of my cases, a quick stop in the bathroom to gel my hair and I make the morning meeting by 8:15. Mas or menos 5 minutes. The group meeting is every morning from 8:15-9:15. This is where we discuss our three cases for 20 minutes each so we understand what's going on and don't need to ask stupid questions in class. 9:30 is the first class, it lets out at 10:45, the second class is 11-12:15, lunch is from 12:15-2pm, this is when you can work on a case or study, the third class is 2-3:15 and Spanish is from 3:30-5pm. Every evening we need to go home and prepare at least 1 case but this week the average has been two. Soon it will be three a night. You may ask yourself, what is a case and why do I care. To answer the first part last, you don't care and you shouldn't. I have to care, so I do. A case is simply a write up of a business situation where there is a problem and its up to us to figure out the problem and how to fix it. Some cases are very vague and we spend time figuring out what's happening and other cases give us tons of numbers to crunch. Each case is expected to take 1-3 hours to prepare thoroughly. Yesterday at lunch I asked a few classmates if they thought classes/professors were what they expected. Everyone said no. I admit that classes do not seem very structured but that is part of the case method. Its just like with a business, a million things are happening and you need to figure out what is important and why. You have to learn to cut through all the crap. At 5pm I usually head straight off campus, hop on the moto and arrive home around 5:30. That gives me enough time to check emails, make a call or two, spend time with Tessa, and do homework. I already learned that sleep is the most important thing so I'm trying to get 6-7 hours a night. I think this is way above the average.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

The beginning

Today is the first official day of school. Thus we arrive at 8:15 to meet with an assigned group of 8 people, attend classes from 9:30 - 3:00, then Spanish from 3:30 until 5pm and then we're done. Each night we complete a case analysis for all three classes and work on our Spanish. I met with the group last week. I think I am a lucky guy, the other members are very interesting and I think we will work together very well. There is a Canadian, Brazilian, Chilean, German, American, Indian, Spaniard, and a Polish girl. Can you determine who is who? All come from great backgrounds and have a unique perspective to add as we discuss our cases.



Last week we had our intro courses along with a lot of information about our personality types and we spent a vast amount of time thinking about our career paths and working on our CVs (Europeans call a resume a CV - basically they're the same thing).

I bought a moto two weeks ago and it has been running very well. Its a Honda Lead 100. Look up the reviews if you'd like. Its not super fancy but it is cool, quick, and agile allowing me to weave in and around just about everything on the road. On a given day, I break at least 500 American traffic laws. That translates into bending about 3 Spanish traffic laws. Apparently moto drivers can do just about whatever they want so long as we just keep moving forward. Too bad life doesn't work the same way.

More info on my personality test later, I was shocked at the accuracy. Tessa thought she might have written the same thing. But now time to prepare for classes.

By the way, we did go to Oktoberfest only 10 days ago. It was quite simply the largest drunkfest ever. Wow wow wow, did we have fun. It was all about beer, singing, pretzels, and fun.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Spanish Beginning

Yes Ikea finally arrived and delivered our goods but only after they forced us to pay for a redelivery! Those rotten bastards said we had missed the delivery and that if we didn't want to pay, they would just take the items back to Ikea and we could go pick everything up. I told the person, "thanks for nothing." She said, "you're welcome." I signed the form "Go2Hell". As if they need me to tell them where they're going. Now everything is assembled and looking good.

During our long wait for IKEA, Tessa and I painted the front of our building, it looks so much better now.

We did some other shopping and purchased a nice tv and home stereo. We rented a scooter for a month to make sure we want to make the purchase. After 10 days of riding the HOG I don't know why anyone would choose not to have so much fun everyday.

Intensive Spanish classes began on Friday. We took 8 hours of classes. Saturday was a half day. Tomorrow begins a full week of spanish. I'm in class with 7 others that tested at my level. Which level is that you may wonder? The level just above absolute beginner. Glad to see three years of high school Spanish paid off. Tessa also begins classes tomorrow. She is in the beginner classes and will easily be fluent way before me.

I'm currently fighting the cold Tessa had last week. Its making me tired and a whole lot less fun than normal. I hope to get over it soon as I need to speak all week and the sore throat makes that difficult. I'm taking lots of naps and drinking way too much water. I feel like I go to the bathroom every 5 minutes. Tessa is taking great care of me though. She's been making some wonderful teas and the meals have been unbelievable lately. She's also forcing me to take vitamins and other medicines which isn't easy because I'm very stubborn about that sort of thing. If you get sick, hopefully you're lucky enough to have someone like Tessa around to nurse you back to good health.

We have two roommates in our flat right now. We took on a few of my classmates just to make a little extra money while they are searching for a place to live. Miguel is from Lisbon, Portugal and Rai is from Tokyo, Japan. They are both very nice guys. I think Miguel is moving out on Monday and Rai on Wednesday. We are looking forward to having the place all to ourselves again. Even good roommates are still roommates. As a single person it would be fine but for a couple, its no good sharing a place.

Tess and I are doing well, we miss our friends at home and every baby we see reminds us of all the cute babies at home. Thank goodness for Skype.

If you haven't seen this clip of Miss Teen South Carolina yet, prepare to be shocked:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The place is here, the time is manana

Plenty of time on our hands. Do you have to ask why? Waiting for the blue devil’s posse.

After spending part of the morning prepping the exterior of our building to paint, we combed through some youtube highlights to bring you these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsNFxOOnjgw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojWJ6-XmeQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP3qL4UG1TI

The joke is on us, no IKEA today but don’t worry because tomorrow they’ll be here between 10-2. Just go ahead and wait around.

We watched the roast of Flavor Flav last night, if you haven’t seen it yet then its probably because you’re a little pimp in a thimble. I hope you enjoying beating all your bitches with a daffodil stem.

We also watched The Simpsons Movie. I would write about the parts I like but we’re too busy playing with our Spider Pig.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Who doesn't love a party?

And the Buddha said, "You are patience personified."

The IKEA saga continues. After finally reaching the devil's lair via telephone, my pathetic attempt at Spanish coupled with Satan's helper's valiant attempt at English resulted in massive strides forward for the delivery of our kitchen table.

After hearing that we missed the delivery and explaining how that couldn't happen because we waited for it ALL DAY LONG, I asked when the items could be redelivered. After confering with Lucifer, the helper responded, "un otro dia" (some other day). I said, "manana". She said "no es posible, manana fiesta" (its not possible, tomorrow fiesta).

And the Buddha laughed.

And so did I. Of course no deliveries can occur on a Wednesday because anyone with a brain realizes that Wednesday is a party. Thanks anyway stupid. See you on Thursday.

And the Buddha rubbed his belly and said, "What's to eat up in this bitch?"

And we said, "enchiladas."

And the Buddha said, "hook a brother up."

And we said, "chill Buddha, we'll start getting things ready."


If you haven't watched it yet, check out this youtube clip of Stephen Colbert roasting George Bush last year.
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa-4E8ZDj9s&mode=related&search=

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOYZF3It848&mode=related&search=

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAvFM4TYQKU&mode=related&search=

And if you want to see brilliance in comedy, check out Colbert on the show of his arch nemesis, Bill O'Reilly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJvY_RftA4I&mode=related&search=

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Hell has been renamed

What karmic holocaust have I perpetrated to deserve this? Was it the great bee mud wars of 1986 where all bees were systematically destroyed through crushing mud balls? Was it the wronging of those friendly and likeable "butt brothers" whose video games seemed to constantly disappear? Or was it the period of despair between Jr. High & High School that force me to admit that whatever happens to me is "well deserved?"

There are two great stampede's in Spain. One is well publicized, occurs every year in July and for an unlucky few, includes being trampeled or gorged. The other happens in a giant blue building, a happy fascade, a mazelike interior and has crushed more than one couple. Pamplona has nothing on Big Blue. Why so blue you ask, ever seen a really hot flame? Hell looks at IKEA and grins at its genius. After our first IKEA experience, I vowed never to return. In my book never means 6 days. Thus it was that yesterday Tessa and I, desperate but hopeful returned to face the masses of hell-spawn. They are not of this world. We went in with smiles, we left with tears. Mission partially accomplished. Purchases made, price paid, souls gone. Delivery time is today between 10-2. No problem we'll be here. But wait, its 5:30pm, the devil's delivery service sure takes its sweet ass time now that its got our souls. Hurry up you bastards (imagine shaking fist) hurry up!

Damn you devil, damn you straght to...um...IKEA!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Cats & Dogs

Its 11pm in Barcelona, the rain is dropping like my pants to relieve myself after enjoying an evening of revelry at Oktoberfest which by the way we booked our tickets to today and will witness in person the 21st through 24th of Sept ought 7. Terrible writing structure and style you say??? Who are you anyway? Leave a comment, otherwise I feel as though I am writing for myself and my self is not too concerned about grammar at this stage in the game. I'll just keep listening to the crooning of Van and Astral Weeks while watching the darkness flash to light amid millions of drops of the wet stuff. Our friend Magnum wishes you a good eve.

If you have the time, perhaps you can pass some of it while playing the simple yet excruciatingly intoxicating game at the site below. I have not beat 26 seconds but expect to soon.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html

The story behind the game is:

The object of the game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls. If you can go longer than 18 seconds you are phenomenal. It's been said that the US Air Force uses this for fighter pilots. They are expected to go for at least 2 minutes.

I don't believe for a second an Air Force pilot can go for 2 minutes but hey I'm just a guy heading to Oktoberfest, what do I know?

Trip to Montserrat

As Tessa is once again immersed in the last Harry Potter book and I find myself completely ignored, now is a great time to add a post. Two days ago my classmate Charles and his wife Laura went with Tessa and I on a gorgeous day trip 50km outside of Barcelona to the Monastery at Montserrat. Originally founded in 1050 and with an incredible history, Montserrat was carved into a narrow valley high above the surrounding plains.



The views from the monastery were good but a few hours of hiking took us to the highest peak in the area and into the depths of some great rock formations from where the view was spectacular.
Charles and Laura are both architects from New York but Laura is originally from Peurto Rico. They were both very interesting and have an appreciation for things that allows us to see a completely different perspective from our own.

This trip also served for info gathering as our climbing guide notes close to 200 climbs in the area. The pic below shows two climbers on seperate sides of the same huge rock. Can you see them?

Back at the Monastery, the main draw is the Black Madonna aka La Moreneta, or Black Virgin, she has a baby Jesus seated on her lap. The chambers leading to the statue are adorned with marble engravings, carvings and statues. For many reaching the Madonna is very special and a huge highlight religiously. I can see why, the time and effort required to build this structure and the beautiful condition of everything shows an attention to detail that one would expect of a monk.
Exterior of cathedral is shown above, note the exterior of the stained glass.

In addition to the multiple statues on the area leading into the cathedral, everything is painted beautifully and the floor is simply too nice to eat off. Not many can say that.



Can you say "Lord have mercy...Jesus have mercy?" If so, now's the time to say it. Don't forget to cross your heart at the right nanosecond or you will spend an eternity with some not very pleasant people.

The view of a virgin. Haven't seen that for a while have you? You hopeless sinners!

Is there really something up there? Tessa seeks the answer. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

So that's what they're for...

These Europeans have very crazy ideas about transportation. They use big metal boxes that are underground to transport people from one area of the city to another. They refer to this as "taking the metro". They also have very big metal boxes above ground that they call "buses". No one is afraid to ride these buses as the typical customers are usually completely without mental instability and free of a "shady" character. To be fair, the typical customer falls on the "not stinky" to "walking cadaver stench" spectrum closer to not stinky although we have had the unfortunate encounter on several occasions with specimens of walking cadaver stench.

We were further puzzled by the Europeans' use of things called "Legs". Apparently people use these legs to travel from one place to another. At first I thought they were playing a joke on me but after using my own legs for transport for an ENTIRE DAY, I knew there was no joke. I actually use MY OWN BODY for transportation. In fact, there is a direct correlation between using legs and eating cheese. The more legs one uses, the more cheese one eats. After visiting the grocery store's cheese section - which easily would take up a whole isle of an American grocery store - I see that there is very compelling rationale for utilizing my own legs. Blue cheese, I will see you soon.

In case you missed the moral of the story as you salivate over the cheese gamut, make sure you bring some good walking shoes as we walk everywhere out here. Especially if you're doing the tourist stuff, expect to be on your feet for hours and easily walk 5 miles a day. Good preparation is to go to the gym and walk on the treadmill until you can do at least 2 hours, make sure you include an incline as Europeans are big fans of steps. To give you an idea of how much they like steps, I had to walk up a step just to post this message.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Coming To Visit

For those considering a visit. You'll just need to tell us when you want to come and we'll make sure no one else has reserved the room. Don't even think about coming from the US for less than 7 days, it won't be worth it. The flight is almost 18 hours from Arizona but maybe around 12 from the East coast. 7-10 days is a good time frame. Just keep in mind that both Tessa and I will be in class during the week and I probably won't see you at all until Friday rolls around. But no matter, there are millions of things to do in this city and it is so easy to get around. You can take the metro everywhere you want to go.

For those interested in temperatures, follow the link below:
http://www.world66.com/europe/spain/catalonia/barcelona/lib/climate

July & August are supposedly the "hot" months but anyone coming from Arizona or Florida would kill to get weather like this. Yes it is a bit humid here but shorts in the summertime are fine. You'll get sweaty walking around but at least you can go outside without being incinerated. At night I wear jeans and a short sleeve shirt. How many in Arizona can say that? May is supposed to be lovely and the best beach months are May through October. That is also the peak tourist season and there are somewhere around 3 skillion people here. Those wanting to see the Bulls Run in Pamplona should come the first week of July.

But really just plan your trip around when you have time because there are festivities and events going on year round here and there is always something to do. And now its off for la cena (dinner) with some IESE class mates.

Put the cool in School

Many have shown an interest in the specifics of our schools. Hence I will give a synopsis of both programs.

Tessa is going to attend the University of Barcelona (UB) and study Spanish. She is going to take a full course load and all credits are transferable. She is enrolled for the entire year and classes begin around the end of August. She has never taken a Spanish course before but has been told that one year of studying Spanish all day should get her pretty fluent. The plan is to take Spanish courses the first year then do a masters degree while we are here our second year. Almost all masters degrees here are taught in Spanish. UB has 70,000 students and was founded in 1450. It commemorated its official foundation 555 years ago in 2005. The school has been moved several times but has been housed in the same buidling for over 135 years. Pictures of the building are below and a history follows if you're interested.







History of the Building
In the 1860s work began on Elies Rogent's splendid new building and 20 years later the building which houses the University today was completed. The first lectures were given in 1871. The clock and the iron bell housed in the tower in the Pati de Lletres - the Arts Court - were installed in 1881. Parallel to the building work, sculptures and paintings were commissioned either directly from artists of repute or awarded in open competition. The architectural work and the quality of the building's works of art meant that it was declared a national monument of historic and artistic interest in 1970. Yes it pales in comparison to Scottsdale Community College but its nice...if you like that sort of thing.


IESE: University of Navarra


Only one picture as we were not at the school long and the campus is actually quite small. Unlike UB's size of 70,000, IESE (pronounced like saying the letters "E" "S" "A") has only 440 students. Our campus could fit under one of UB's big arches. Our class is made up of 220 first year students and the same amount of second years. IESE is a Master's of Business Administration (MBA) school. No other degrees are offered.

Classes are given in Spanish if one is fluent, those not fluent take courses in English during the first year with Spanish language classes everyday from 3:30 to 5pm. Each month we are tested in Spanish to see if we should move up to the next level. Level 1 is for absolute beginners and those who complete level 12 can test to receive a bilingual degree. I've been told that if level 12 is completed by the end of year 1, I will be able to take courses during 2nd year in Spanish, if not, I will continue taking Spanish language courses every afternoon. The benefit of finishing the Spanish requirement is more free time every day + a number of our elective classes 2nd year are taught in Spanish. Only those fluent in Spanish may enroll in the classes.

Our schedule is quite intense as we have a group meeting every morning at 8:30 where we discuss the day's cases. Classes from 9:30 to 3:00, Spanish from 3:30 to 5pm, then we have to prepare 3 cases each night. A case is actually a case analysis where we study a 10-20 page synopsis of a business and what is occuring at the business then put together a summary of what we would do in that situation, why we would do it and have to back up our rationale with financial justification.

IESE is ranked the #16 MBA program in the world by The Financial Times (The international competitor to The Wall Street Journal). Outside the US, only 6 schools rank higher. In the US only 9 schools rank higher.

Here is the profile of last year's class:

Number of students 216
Average age 27 (Age Range, middle 80%: 25 - 31)
Average years of previous 4
work experience
Average GMAT 670 (GMAT Range, middle 80%: 620 - 750)
Percentage of women 25%
Percentage of international students 77%
Number of countries represented in student body 55
Countries most represented Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, UK, USA
Average number of languages spoken by a student 3.8

Spanish courses start at the beginning of September. Academic courses begin in October.

Classmates arrive everyday and Tessa and I have been joining them for dinner, drinks or at the beach. Some very interesting people so far.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Found a flat

After a solid week of checking Loquo.com and the plethora of websites attempting to help renters and rentees meet, Tessa and I have found a supercool and oh-so-hip flat. Yes it took longer than saying Peupty poopty pants but it was worth the wait. Great success! High-five. Worry not as there is plenty of space for guests and guests's guests. If you need to remember the address you can simply click on the link below and know that us finding this place is quite auspicious.

Our street is Septimania, our flat is number...you guessed it: schfifty five. Shout out to Matt's big head for sharing the movie - we knew before even entering that it had good things about it. What you say? Good things about it. Matt, your feet can stay in our flat but your head will need to stay out on the terrace.

Moving was easy as we simply moved 600 pounds of stuff down three flights of the narrowest staircase you ever saw. Want to live as our Barcelona cab driver for a second? See pic below.



Each bag weighed at least 40 pounds and represented one trip down (and up) the stairway from hell.

What is hip & super cool you ask? Come visit and see for yourself or else take the 5 cent tour below.


The flat is 3 bed / 2 bath & a loft + terrace. You will notice our kitchen is below the loft and is (read in a high pitched voice) very very tiny. But it is actually bigger in person than it looks in the picture. Also notice that our washing machine is in the kitchen. That is how they do it over here. No dryer as clothes are dried on a line. Also the way they do it.

Today we did our best to get moved in, we spent the morning at the huge market only 10 minutes by foot from our place, then we went to every broke college student's dream; IKEA. After 6 1/2 hours we were asked to pay rent for the building and instead decided to check out. We have all the candles, pillows, sheets, etc we will need for the duration of our lives. That is until next week when everything disintegrates as is known to happen with IKEA products. And now it is time to count fourteen teen Z's as its past midnight and time for bed. Hope everyone enjoys their evening as we know you like to do the sax.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The tears of Ben & Jerry

There is an ice cream taste explosion in Spain so potent Ben is reduced to tears and Jerry can only mop up the liquid base of his companion. Of course I'm speaking of the black eye to Ben, the hazzard to Haagen Dazs, the Jesus crying to Jerry and the Death of Dryers; Magnum Double Chocolate. Dark chocolate ice cream covered by a crispy dark chocolate smothered with a layer of fudge covered in yet more dark chocolate all conveniently placed on one popsicle stick. I believe my snack size snack was 3.2 billion calories. Worth every one.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Peoples Peoples Peoples

Today we walked to the beach. It is amazing how many people walk around here. Everyone walks or takes public transportation. This is a given in most parts of the world but coming from Phoenix where everything is spread out, everyone drives a car and the only people that walk end up bursting into flames, seeing so many people on the streets is still very strange for me.

I hadn't mentioned it yet, but the juice here is outstanding. I've tried 6 different types of juice so far and Pear is at the top of the list. Banana which I had this afternoon comes in second. Time for dinner. Its just past 9pm. Only tourists go to dinner before 9 in Barcelona.

Sitges & first IESE student meeting




Yesterday Tessa, our roommate Emily & her friend Tove took a train south of BCN to the "sleepy beach town" of Sitges. There were close to 5 zillion people on the beach. Europeans sure don't mind being in close proximity to one another. Sitges is known for its nice beaches and large gay population. I'm not sure about the gay population although really buff guys in speedo's walked past us unceasingly throughout the day. Another observation about Europeans is they do not have the same inhibitions as Americans. As with most if not all beaches in Europe, this one was topless and as Tessa mentioned "we are surrounded by boobies." Well, when in Rome...I am proud to say both Tessa and I went topless.








After returning home and enjoying a nice Siesta Tess & I went to have dinner with some IESE classmates. This was our first meeting with any of the other students and I was very happy with the outcome. We were told very important things about school (intense), workload (overwhelming) and nightlife. The comments about nightlife were very welcome..."Thursday night - Party! Friday night - Party! Saturday night - Party!" Such high expectations. I am 30 now, three nights of partying may be a bit much, but I will give it the old college try.




Prices here are higher than expected, at the bar we went to after dinner we paid 15 euros ($24) for a vodka/soda, water, and heineken. Then we bought another heineken & a water for 8 euros ($11.25). At this rate I will be out of money after one more night out which apparently means I better really enjoy heineken's.




Other comments about the classmates; diverse, interesting, intelligent, well-traveled, friendly, fun and open.


Saturday, July 28, 2007

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.