My first month in Barcelona! October 20, 2009

I arrived in Barcelona one month ago, time is flying by! I can finally call Barcelona home, I’ve settled into my flat, started school, found a job teaching English and I’ve meet some amazing people. Just to quickly summarize my first month here, below lists the top 10 highlights of my time here so far:

1. Going to my first Barca game!

2. Riding bikes though the streets of Amsterdam and admiring the gorgeous canals throughout the city.

3. Experiencing my first Merce and the all culture Barcelona has to offer.

4. Dipping my foot into the Mediterranean Sea for the first time.

5. Starting school at EADA and attending the opening ceremony at the Palacio de la Música Catalan.

6. Walking though the gorgeous streets of Barcelona and admiring all the breathtaking architecture.

7. Relaxing at el parque de la Ciutadella and people watching.

8. Meeting my EADA classmates from all over the world and getting to know them while learning about their cultures.

9. Trying new foods and being creative with my cooking (BTW - I found peanut butter last week, such a relief)!

10. Making new friends and enjoying the Barcelona nightlife.

Being exposed to so many different cultures and exploring Barcelona has definitely been a learning experience. I honestly learn something new everyday, here are a few of my favorite fun facts:

• Nudity is legal in Barcelona, people can walk around naked if they want to, but luckily, it’s very uncommon and not that many people do it.
• In Spain, when people say “tio/tia” it doesn’t mean aunt/uncle, it’s their word for dude, homie, etc.
• Pan con tomate was invented during the war because the soldiers  only had stale bread so they rubbed the tomato on the bread to make it moist. It’s still made the same way and is a popular tapa.
• Some of my favorite new words/phrases are: “guay” – so awesome/cool, “pijo” – posh, vale – okay or yes, “no pasa nada” – don’t worry about it, “me mola” – I really like this, “majo” – good person.
• When you order coffee or lunch at a cafe, you don’t have to pay right away – you enjoy your drink/meal first then pay (people are really trusting).
• When you ask for a tortilla, you get a tortilla Espanola.

Miss and love you all!

It just hit me, I’m a college student again! October 12, 2009

I completed my first week at Escuela de Alta Dirección y Administración EADA, I’m back to early morning lectures and late night studying. But I couldn’t be happier; EADA is the perfect university for me.

What I enjoy most about EADA is that there are people from all over the world, I’m surrounded by so many different cultures and languages. On my first day of International Marketing class, we all went around the room and introduced ourselves and said where we were from. I realized I was the only American and that I was the only native English speaker. That’s one thing I love about Europe, so many people speak multiple languages, I really respect my fellow classmates for challenging themselves.

My other favorite thing about my masters program is that it’s really focused on interactive learning. Everyday we are given a case study and related articles on the subject to read. Then that night, we are required to read and interpret the case and ready to discuss it in class the next day. Depending on the subject, it’s about 30 pages and can take up to four hours to get through all the reading, it’s a lot. When we get to class we are divided into small groups and we are given a set of questions to talk to our group about and analyze the case. Lastly, we all go back to the big lecture hall and slice and dice the case as a class. It’s really interesting to hear everyone’s ideas and problem solving tactics.

Well, anyways 30 percent of our grade is based on participation, which is why everyone is competing to get a word in during discussion. Okay so I have a little confession to make, I get really nervous talking in front of big groups and sharing my ideas. I think I’m just afraid of saying the wrong thing or having my ideas rejected. So it’s definitely been a challenge for me to participate in class, but since I know it’s a big part of my grade, I have to get over it. I made a promise to myself, I’m at least going to raise my hand and say at least two things a class, I’m starting off small, but my hope is that by the end of the year, I wont even think about it and I’ll get over this silly fear of mine. So ya, I participated in my first couple of classes and I realized that I do have ideas to share and experience to draw on, but that doesn’t stop the butterflies in my stomach from going crazy. It’s definitely a big help that I worked with such talented people at PainePR for two and a half years and I’m able to apply a lot of what I learned there to the business case studies we’re working on (thanks guys!).

I can’t believe I’ve only been going at it for a week, I almost forgot how much I love to learn. Tomorrow we’re off to our off-campus university for the night where we’ll work on team building and getting to know each other better. I’m really looking forward to meeting more people and growing as an individual, the learning is endless.