A star is born...

First of all I have to give credit for the title to my German classmate. The first thing she said after what transpired was "you should title your blog A Star is Born", which I've done.

So anyways, Monday was our first day of Finance. Our Finance professor actually reviews the class list beforehand to identify those who worked in finance previously and those who had certain industry experience. 

Monday

8:40 A.M - Professor starts rattling off names. After acknowledging the person in question she confirms their industry experience i.e. " So XX you worked in commercial banking in Germany. So XX you worked in retail. So XX you worked in telecom" and so on and so forth. Timestamps below are approximate.

8:40 A.M. - She starts going around the class calling out select names and confirming their previous work experience. Things going somewhat smoothly as a cloud of unrest hovers over the class. This is affecting the whole class because she is not just picking out people with finance backgrounds.

8:45 A.M. - She calls my name and I figured she was just gonna acknowledge that I worked as an analyst at a Financial Advisory and Strategy firm. Seeing the sequence of events that transpired before me I was ready to say just say yes and have her move on.

8:46 A.M. - "So you worked as an analyst. You are our star then." W...T...F. I did not ask for this. Couple of things crossed my mind immediately.

1) I was gonna get called on at some point during lecture and most likely when I least expect it due to the cold calling system of the professor.

2) I know I'm gonna screw something up in front of the class to completely undermine that title.

3) I'm an idiot for touting my abilities on my resume. 

8:47 A.M. - I vehemently deny the fact that I know anything related to Finance or that I'm a star. Far from it but the teacher continues to push this expectation. She and I are gonna regret this later.

10:30 A.M. - Things are going smoothly. People are answering questions despite the cold calling. I have yet to be called upon and we have moved on to financial statement analysis.

11:05 A.M. - We start the discussion of what constitutes assets and liabilities for certain industries. For example, in a service industry such as marketing would you see significant fixed assets? No. You would see higher proportions of A/R and A/P compared to a steel manufacturer.

11:15 A.M. - I thought I was paying attention but apparently I was only halfway there because Murphy's Law kicked in. Professor asks me "In a bank what would be the current assets and what would be the current liabilities. Let's start off with current assets."

11:15:25 A.M - My mind churns and thinks. Okay so deposits and loans. Easy.

11:15:45: A.M. - I answer "Customer deposits should go there."

11:15:50 A.M. - Professor states "No we are talking about current assets and not current liabilities."

11:15:55 A.M. -*!@#$!%!&

11:16 A.M. - I somewhat recover and state loans are on the current assets side and then completely blank on what other assets a bank could have (inter-bank transfers).

11:17 A.M. - Epic failure over.

So my foreshadowing was absolutely correct. A star was born and then it immediately burned out. Serves her right for having high expectations.

O Canada! Our home and native land!

So I'm an American. Born and raised in the US of A. Any American, yours truly included,  will tell you that Thanksgiving is one of THE biggest holidays in America. It combines all the best aspects of America into one day. Ridiculous amounts of food, football and family squabbling.

The Americans in the ESADE MBA program have already started planning our Thanksgiving feast here in Barcelona and I've been looking forward to spending the day overdosing on tryptophan and gravy, with a sprinkling of steamed veggies thrown in to even out the nutritional content.

Thanksgiving came early for me this year as I got an invite to the Canadian Thanksgiving. Our neighbors up north give thanks to the bountiful harvest of the year a month earlier than the Yanks due to their colder climate. So as the Canadians love to say it's aboot time for the pictures, eh?

From what I learned about the Spanish turkey industry, large turkeys are typically grown so that they are ready by November to coincide with American Thanksgiving. Apparently there are enough ex-pats living out here that they cater to that. In any case, being that we are a month away the polloteria had to confirm with the turkey farm to make sure there was a turkey ready for slaughter. An unlucky turkey was and he was sacrificed for our gluttony the day of the feast. The poor girls who prepared the turkey had to chop off it's head, clean out the intestines and de-feather the thing. Gobble gobble.

Oh you sexy turkey with your brown skin. I could eat you up.

Fowl on the play. Illegal vegetable on the turkey. Do you like bad puns? I sure do. 

This was to go with the 4 bottles of wine we consumed even before dinner started. Yeah it was going to be one of those nights.

Stuffing and turkey like a fat kid and cake, a perfect match.

It's feasting time!!!

You don't know how hard I tried to get to at least 5 plates of food but I had to stop at 4 because I was gonna throw up. Plus I needed room for dessert. We (7 Canadians, an American and an Austrian) ended up only getting through half the 9 kilo turkey.

 

It took me a grand total of about 10 seconds to get through this slice of apple pie and 15 seconds to get through the slice of cherry pie. The extra five seconds due to my body needing to grow a second stomach to fit all the food.

Our poor showing in the eating of the turkey allowed for leftovers, which I was more than happy to take home. So thank you to my Canadian classmates. The meal was the best one I've had since I got here. Now I need to convince the Americans that I haven't pledged allegiance to the maple leaf, eh.

Marketing Mumbo Jumbo

Fun little exercise we performed in our Marketing class today. Our professor included a huge caveat that this is by no means scientific or completely accurate but still fun nonetheless.

Name the first thing that pops into your head when asked and three reasons why you chose it.

1) What is your favorite wild animal.
2) What is your favorite domesticated animal.
3) What is your favorite bird.
4) What is your favorite fruit.





My answers were
1) Grizzly Bear

• They eat well. (Salmon, berries, etc.)
• They get to hibernate
• They live in awesome environments. Alaskan/Canadian wilderness.
  

 2) Dog

• Loyal
• Obedient
• Fun

3) Eagle

• Awesome
• Top of the food chain
• Gets to live in awesome environments. 

4) Grapefruit

• I love sour things
• They are a fairly large fruit. More to eat in one sitting
• Available everywhere

So now you ask what's the point of this exercise? Million dollar question of course. So.....
1) Tells you what kind of person you think you are
2) Tells you what kind of person you really are
3) Tells you what kind of person you aspire to be
4) Tells you what you want in your life partner.

Given the results of the exercise I truly apologize to my life partner. I do not consider you sour, available everywhere or large. I really don't. I promise. Stupid marketing exercise.

Lost in Translation

Quick post to keep the flow going.

Today in Econ class our professor who probably doesn't have the best grasp of the English language was talking about the black market and the correlation between taxation and black markets. In the midst of his now weekly diatribe he stated "Once you go black..." and paused. I swear it took superhuman efforts for the entire class not to yell out "YOU NEVER GO BACK" and relegate it to a smattering of laughter and elbow nudges. I love how certain things are universal in this crazy world.

On a side note today was our second basketball practice and I must say our United Colors of Benetton team is pretty damn good. Our goal is the absolute demolition of all other business school basketball teams at MBAT in Paris. Cries of mercy will be heard from Paris, France come March.

Pictorial Tour #2

Feeling a bit lazy today so I'm just gonna let the pictures speak for themselves.

Spanish style architecture but this is actually a Chinese restaurant. The bottom floor kinda gives it away.

You really can't have enough knives. Even when you think, "Hey maybe 25 is enough" it really isn't.

The nicest H&M building I've seen in my life. Located off of Plaza Catalunya on Avinguda Portal De l'Àngel. 

 

Looking down Avinguda Portal De l'Àngel . It's basically a giant street flanked by clothing shops and other stores. The Spanish equivalent of the outdoor mall minus the* [insert your joke here].

*I had a joke lined up for that but my brain is feeling kinda fuzzy so forgot what I was going to write. Feel free to enjoy your own joke.

Avenida Diagonal near Maria Cristina. Europeans really know how to do avenues well and I love the wide open feel that these streets give you. They always say you can't really get lost in Barcelona because all you need to do is get yourself to one of the major roadways like Avenida Diagonal and then orient yourself from there. I'm sure I'll still find a way to get lost. 

Anyways, Career Week is coming up and internship deadlines are right around the corner. It's game time now.

Round 1a of 5 done

It's been a while since I've posted and it was all due to our Pre-Term exams. Just a little background information on the ESADE course structure. The 18 month full time course is divided into 5 terms of roughly 3.5 months. We also have a Pre-Term which is considered the catch-up month to provide everyone Intro to Accounting, Project Management, Econ 1 and Business Law. To everyone's detriment they've crammed about a semester's worth of material into 48 hours of lecture. Obviously a lot of the material was kept summary level to avoid peoples' heads from exploding but I'm sure for a lot of people it felt like there was a lot of info.

Anyways, as I have yet to receive the results from those exams I will call it the successful completion of Pre-Term. I honestly like the ESADE MBA culture because it is very collaborative in terms of learning and studying. Countless times we've been told that there is no bell curve and the intent of the program was not to weed out the bottom 10% but to provide an environment for learning and teamwork. In essence this fosters an environment where people want to help each other out with the goal being that everyone does well and not that you beat out the rest of your classmates. There's already enough competition amongst classmates for post MBA jobs why create a continual sentiment that you need to be better than anyone else. Maybe I don't have the killer attitude that enables me to crush my competition, but most people I know who've maintained that type of mentality are usually dicks.

Not all of the past week was spent poring over books. I actually got a chance to go to the Green Day concert at Palau Sant Jordi. Hats off to my classmate who got us down to the floor when we actually had reserved seats.

It's funny because Green Day has been around for so long that they've created two separate demographics amongst their fans. Those who first heard about them in the mid 90's when they were rocking out at Woodstock and every pop/alternative station was playing songs from Dookie (me and others in their mid-late20s)  and those who caught them in their later days (Warning/American Idiot) era (teens/early 20s). The concert was awesome but it was very interesting to see the waves of excitement and recognition as Green Day alternated between their older songs and newer songs. The oldies like me get excited when they play Welcome to Paradise and the teens would get excited when they played 21 guns.

The "God I am old" feeling was a double punch this time around as A) I saw a huge queue of parents in their cars waiting to pick up their kids after the concert and B) my body ached from 2 hours of being on the floor and the next day I was actually sore from standing. WTF.

It was well worth it though because I got to hear one of my favorite songs live. At times as I talk to people from back home and get updated on the ongoings of life and events I missed, I pause to wonder if getting an MBA in Spain was worth it. When you top that off with the anxiety of post MBA employment, stress and worry associated with classes, exams and time management it's hard not to doubt your decision. But then you look back at all the fun you've had with your classmates, what you've learned from everyone's experiences and what you've learned about yourself in such a short period of time that it's easy to realize that this was absolutely the best decision you've made. I keep waiting for the hammer of reality to knock me back into negative land but it hasn't happened yet. Until then in the immortal words of Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day....

Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don't ask why.

It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
ESADE MBA365.com

Momma's Boy

I am such a momma's boy and my mom spoils me rotten. My mom asked if I wanted anything from back home so I mentioned that some Japanese dried goods would be nice and the result was this:

Forgot how freaking large US trash bags were. This thing dwarfed my mini bags that I use. The mini bags are just absolutely a pain for a lazy person like me. If there's one thing America does well is create goods or services that allow for "efficiency".

So total haul for the delivery was about 6 packets of instant curry, two bags of seaweed, three bags of crackers, a box of vegetable soup, two instant noodle mixes, some fried rice mix, instant miso soup mix, a towel and some other random items. Last but not least....

Note from mom and a DVD of Japanese TV shows she recorded for me. She still treats me like I'm 10 but sometimes I can't complain.

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.