La Merce Festival

"La Mercè is the "most important festival" of Barcelona. It has been an official city holiday since 1871, when the local government first organized a program of special activities to observe the Roman Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Mercy." (Wikipedia)

So basically La Merce is just another excuse for the people of Barcelona to have fun and revel in the festive events. Can't blame them. La Merce was a pretty spectacular festival. I didn't get to see all of the events going on but the ones I did were awesome. Pictures below:

 

The La Merce Parade. It's basically a bunch of ginormous statues being carried by some poor guy. That giant one was carried by a very sweaty Catalan.

 

I don't know the cultural or historical important of this but it's a pigeon with boobs. I am hoping someone can explain to me why or how this ever came about. It just doesn't make sense to me but neither does the following event.

That is not a bomb going off in the crowd it is the impending doom brought about by the kind participants of the Correfoc aka Dragon Fire Run aka Why I almost got 1st degree burns. Basically it's firecrackers being shot into the crowd.

It's raining hot freaking fire. And just in case getting firebombed for about an hour wasn't enough for you there were real fireworks down by Barceloneta.

Sunday night marked the end of La Merce and the end of the biggest festival in Barcelona. I think my jeans still mess of gunpowder.

Pictorial Tour

Various pics I've taken and finally am uploading.

Pics in and around the neighborhood.

Plaza Catalunya.

The Spanish have beaten the Japanese in their usage of ridiculously awesome vending machines. This was basically a small 7-11 manned by robots. You chose an item and this reticulating arm would grab your item and dump it into a serving tray. How awesome is this. I'd rather have a bunch of these than some run down convenience store manned by angry, depressed teenagers. That is, until the machines develop intelligence and humans become their slaves. But at least until then we'd have cool vending machines.

My Vision

So for LEAD we are supposed to write down our Personal Vision; an idealized projection of our lives 10 years from now. I'm procrastinating with the completion of this introspective essay so I decided to post something.

My personal vision is conflicted to say the least. I want the success and financial security afforded by having a well-paying job. Unfortunately, such things don't come very easily or without sacrificing certain things and mainly the sacrifices come in the allocation of time.

I think most of my personal conflict comes in my upbringing. My grandfather got thrown into the family business and then grew it to a fairly successful enterprise. My dad has been an auditor for the past 25+ years slogging away up the corporate ladder. I admire what they've done and strive to accomplish as much, if not more, than what they have. Yet, I know what they've had to sacrifice and the affect it had on everybody around them. I know it's not easy. I know it's not gonna keep everyone happy all the time.

When I have kids (as a testament to my submission to getting older, I've moved from the "IF I have kids" or "Besides the kids I actually know about" to "When") I want to be the good father and family man and all my personal vision questionnaires pretty much back that up. But, at the same time I worry that my career ambition will have to be sacrificed and then maybe I can't give my kids all the experiences I got to enjoy growing up and then I've failed as a father.

It's a thin line that people walk all the time. You continually have to question what you want, what truly makes you happy and what you'll give up to be happy. I think after this post I've realized what my personal vision is: Win the $250M Mega Millions jackpot. Hey, those LEAD folks didn't say our vision had to be absolutely realistic.

Weekend Update

Was a fairly relaxing weekend for me. To kick start the weekend I met up with some out of town guests Friday night for some tapas and beer in Barceloneta. You know I love tapas and definitely do enjoy the beer but I'm pretty sure that 18 months from now I will be sick and tired of eating Spanish tapas.

To generalize tapas it is typically Meat/Vegetable with varying amounts of olive oil from Exxon/Valdez style oil spill to just plain greasy. Varying rations of garlic and salt is generally added to that mixture resulting in a gooey, salty, smelly mess that tricks your taste buds into thinking that what you are eating is actually quite delicious.

On Saturday I went grocery shopping at Caprabo and came across this wonderful looking thing.

When I saw this the only thing I could think of was this cinematic masterpiece.

I mean imagine how boring Night of the Living Dead would've been if they could just throw pig brains at them. Instead of the horrible massacre of human life at the hands of the living dead, we'd be stuck with zombies chilling out at the supermarket eating some pig brains.

*edit: according to my esteemed classmate, zombies only eat the brains of the living and do not feed on the dead so feeding them pig brains would do nothing*

Sunday night was another movie night for me. This time around watched Malditos Bastardos or Inglorious Basterds as it is known in English speaking territories.

My Spanish reading comprehension skills were put to the test as dialogue that was in Italian, French of German was subtitled in Spanish. It throws you off a bit when you hear German, read Spanish and translate it in your head in English. Definitely enjoyed the movie and especially liked the Christopher Waltz as Colonel Landa. You gotta give props to a guy who can act in German, English, French and Italian with barely a hint of an accent in either language. I'd say he's a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination. A classmate of mine forwarded me this article about him. New York Times Article: Christopher Waltz

And finally, I just wanted to share a link to my friend's beer blog. He's been homebrewing for some time now and his blog offers some cool news and links about everything related to beer and brewing your own batch. www.overcarbed.com Enjoy.

Hace un mes...

Made it to another Friday. Today marks the end of my first month in Barcelona and the realization that a lot of my titles have that ... in them. Usually I hate those because it leaves so much open to interpretation. Like, "Yeah that restaurant is good..." Yeah that place is good but what? Did some murder suicide happen there? Was there an outbreak of Hep A? Did you just happen to add two extra periods for emphasis? As I have reached my limit for tangents, back to the original intent of this post.

I've been here about a month now and overall the experience has been very positive. Yeah there have been annoyances like the fact that I still don't have internet at my apartment or that everything is closed on Sunday but there are way too many positives to outweigh the negatives.

I'm gonna keep this post short tonight because well it's Friday and I'm in Barcelona. Party on Wayne...Party on Garth.

Disconnected...

Disconnected, not with reality or my life back home. That's just too mopey even for me. My internet connection at my apartment has been out for the last 6 days. I'm actually writing this post from the beautiful Planta 1 of the ESADE building. Thanks to all those people who have let me come over to use their internet. You've let me satisfy my need for absolutely useless information like 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 or that Kanye West will do anything for attention. For those who hate reading I will summarize this post for you: IKEA and BBQ.

In any case, the weekend was quite eventful for me. Due to my lack of planning, I ended up necessitating another trip to IKEA. It was memorable for all the wrong reasons. A pictorial journey so that you can visualize the pain.

When you think of IKEA food you think of Swedish meatballs right? Apparently, that was too Swedish for the Spaniards and they've decided that the perfect representation of Swedish food would be hot dogs. Why? Was ground beef and gravy too foreign? Sadly, I couldn't say no to cheap hot dogs and unlimited refills. Sorry Swedes I tried to stand up for your country and proper representation but the American in me won.

I never thought it would be possible to make IKEA, which is basically a gigantic warehouse, feel cramped but thanks to the entire population of Catalunya coming out to support their goods and wares it was. Anyways, after a 3 hour trip there I ended up with about 8 items that I didn't really need but ended up buying because I wasn't coming home from all that empty handed. Thanks IKEA!

Saturday was a good ole American bbq at a classmate's place. Grillin' up some burgers and dogs on the terrace made me feel like I never left. It helped that the terrace had a great view.

The big building down on the bottom right is the Mercat d' Sant Antoni. If you want 8 Euro tank tops and 12 Euro jeans or rhinestone studded belts for 5 euros this place is for you. I'm sure there are other items there too but those were the only ones that interested me. I'm just kidding. Maybe.

My artsy sunset shot.

Blair witch style shot of classmates rocking out on Rock Band. A friend of mine commented that Rock Band is a universal language. I agree but you know what really is a universal language? Jon Freaking Bon Jovi. I swear there is some kid out there in some desert/jungle/industrial wasteland who doesn't know a lick of English but knows how to Live on a Prayer.

And with this.... it's my liiiiiiife and it's now or never. Damn you Bon Jovi.

Don't worry Mom, I'm feeding myself

Being the constant worrywart, my mom keeps telling me to make sure I eat properly and get enough sleep. The sleep part...well she may have reason to worry but the eating part I am definitely making sure I keep up that end of the promise.

Anyways, on to the pictures since my words tend to have this hypnotic effect of boring people.

Classmate of mine found this place down in Gracia. 4.5 Euros for a crepe, which is kinda expensive but there's really no price for dessert satisfaction.

Europe 1: America 0 when it comes to spreadable chocolate that can be applied to any fruits, crackers or pastries. 

 

We ate at this Italian restaurant called La Tagliatella for a classmates birthday. The portions were huge. For the first time since I got here I actually felt really stuffed after a restaurant meal. This was another classmate's dish but it gives you an idea of how much food there was. 

What's a birthday party without cake, which in the restaurant's case was this dessert with a candle on it. Happy birthday was sung in German, English and then Spanish.

So, yes mom, I am eating well.

The beatdown of life.

Typical of any American kid growing up, I had a dream of becoming an astronaut. Dreams of roaring past the clouds, through the atmosphere and into space. Those dreams quietly disappeared over the years as I went through junior high, high school and college. At each stage of my life I've had goals and dreams that had to be adjusted to reflect the reality of life.

As I joined the working world, my dreams and aspirations shifted again to reflect my perception of what I wanted to achieve in the corporate world. But in reality, looking back, those really weren't things that I wanted to do but instead were more things that I thought my parents, family, society and friends would approve of. My dreams weren't really dreams but just steps I felt I needed to take, completely eroding the pie in the sky feeling of having dreams.

One of the main topics today in the LEAD program was the concept of Visions and Dreams, our Ideal Self. Our professor mentioned that the goal of our personal development class is to truly reassess who we are and what are dreams are. 

Up, probably my favorite movie of 2009, was a story about fulfilling that dream you put aside for so many years. Our LEAD professor mentioned it and made me think about my MBA. The MBA for me is becoming a chance to once again reassess my priorities and my wants and needs. Stepping outside of the daily routine and the seemingly predetermined career track I was headed towards has allowed me to rethink who I am and what I want in life. We all know dreams get crushed and who knows, maybe I'll face the same fate. Still, feels nice to be able to have that feeling that anything is possible.  I'm  sure I'll look back on this post a year from now and just shake my head  at the optimism expressed.                                                                    

Te quiero mi carino

My blog will be my way to unwind from the day. Our classes ended at 12:30 today but after a meeting with my Career Advisor and a group meeting for our Project Management class, I didn't get home till 6:15 or so. Classes have ranged from really interesting to uhhh...interesting. The latter being my perception of the class' negative feeling towards the class. Just draw out the interesting to sound more like...iiiiiinnnnttteeerrresting and you'll get my drift.

Anyways, I started this post to write some meandering rant about accounting but I got sucked into watching this Spanish telenovela that I had to comment on it.

For those who have not watched a Spanish telenovela (soap opera) just imagine if mimes acted out a love story. Every movement is super exaggerated to emphasize the emotion of the character. Now allow the mimes to actually speak. That's what a Spanish telenovela is like. Just flailing arms, long drawn out stares or glances, and passionate embraces all over the place. It's reflective of the culture, I guess. Spaniards are known for their fire and passion. Por ejemplo, my Spanish teacher consistently would wave her arms around as though she was doing the backstroke. It's a visual smorgasbord.

Speaking of smorgasbord I need to feed myself. Another day another dolla. Holla!

It's not where you're from, it's where you're going

Saturday night was movie night for me. A couple of my classmates and I headed down to Gracia to check out Enemigos Publicos. I think watching movies will be my favorite way of learning Spanish due to the fact that the audio was in English but Spanish subtitles. From what I could tell the translation was pretty much spot on. 

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Now what we learned during movie night was a couple of things.

1) Concessions are fairly cheap. After continually getting ripped off by the American movie theater chains like AMC and Mann, it was nice to see popcorn and drinks priced fairly. 2 euros for a small and 2.50 for a medium. The medium size popcorn was pretty big too. Definitely enough for a grown man to feel content. 

2) THEY HAVE BEER IN VENDING MACHINES. I'll let the caps do the talking. 

3) When a movie says it will start at 7:20, it will actually start at 7:20. There are no trailers, previews and commercials that take up the first 20 minutes of the showtime. I find this absolutely hilarious because nothing is ever right on time in Spain. Even if there weren't trailers I totally expected the movie to start sometime around 7:30-7:45 with no real definite start time. I swear everyone operates on this 20-30 minute lag but for some reason they are super punctual about movie showtimes.

Mr. John Dillinger appropriately stated "It's not where you're from, it's where you're going". My past is my past and is an important aspect of my life but what lies ahead beyond ESADE is what really counts. How cliche.

Trip to IKEA

Although my apartment is fully furnished it was still missing certain items that I figured would be helpful in turning this place from a dorm-like residence to a home. So with that in mind, I decided to trek over to the IKEAin L'Hospitalet. The always useful TMB website told me that it would only take me 2 transfers and about 27 minutes to get there. This being Spain I added another 30 minutes to that. 

Now I haven't had the chance to take some pictures of my neighborhood so I thought why not take some on the way to IKEA.

To be honest I have no idea what these buildings are for. Commercial, residential, public? Who knows. It just looks cool.

Plaza de Lesseps. This giant intersection is where Carrer Gran Via de Gracia and Ronda General Mitre cross. The odd/interesting thing about this intersection is that there are these public art installations interspersed throughout the intersection. It creates this very Barcelona mixture of modern and old. It's kinda like your grandma teaching you how to hack your iPhone, slightly jarring but at the same time very cool.

The Lesseps train station.

The inside of a metro station. I've been to a good number of subways, tubes, underground, metros, 地下鉄 (for you japanese folks) but Barcelona may have one of the nicest metros around. It sure smells a lot better than the good ole NYC transit system and it actually works compared to the Los Angeles subway lines. You know I take that back. I won't even consider the LA subway lines as real subway lines. After something like 10 billion dollars spent it still blows.

I didn't take a picture of IKEA because well its exactly the same as any other IKEA. Bunch of Spaniards and other non-Swedes confused as to what the difference between the Swomming and the Dvala sheets were. I'm not dissing the Swedish language but it is kinda difficult to try to explain to the Spanish employee in Spanish that I was looking for the JaalTrend or whatever and not the JaalTrak. It's like I'm double translating myself, if that's even a word.

Anyways, total tally for the IKEA trip was a new set of sheets, a really thin duvet, a bunch of hangars, a ladle and some other household items. All for the graduate student financial pain inducing price of 48 euros.

First week of orientation...DONE!

I didn't think Orientation Week would be so exhausting but it was. My god. Within my last post I described in fairly great detail our first day, which primarily consisted of an introduction to the LEAD program.

The 2nd and 3rd day was spent offsite at La Mola Hotel and Conference Center about an hour outside of the city.

We were warned time and time again that the bus would leave EXACTLY at 8am. Of course this being Spain it left at 8:35am. Nothing ever happens on time in this country. One must know the concept of  "Spain time".

So the entire 2nd day was spent on Career Services, the coaching and mentoring available within the Career Services department and a variety of workshops on how to improve your CV. What I realized thanks to those workshops was that my CV sucked. Like really really sucked. The 2nd day at La Mola was our Team Effective Seminar. Thanks to the bright, beautiful and humid Barcelona weather this event was exhausting but totally fun. 

We were basically told to build a racecar with the limited number of supplies available to us. Design, construction and procurement of supplies was to stress teamwork. Here's our completed car. Looks fast doesn't it?

The car was powered by three person-power engine. Here we are putting the finishing touches.

Throughout the orientation week we've been utilizing the ESADE Forum for keynote speeches and presentations. The time in between some of the presentations was spent networking with our classmates. Getting to know my classmates has been really fun. You indirectly get to perfect your 30 second elevator pitch because the conversation usually starts with:

1) Your name
2) Country/City of origin
3) Pre-MBA background
4) Post-MBA aspirations

So next week classes start. It's go time.