classes

So classes began on Monday.... I only have two. The first one is called IPDDAE ( Innovative Product Development, Demand Assessment and Entrepreneurship) with professor Ubeda. He is a really funny guy who likes to lead the class with lots of discussions and examples. His class is on Mondays 2-4pm and Thursdays 3-6pm. We made our groups in his class on Monday, I'm in a group with Emmeline, Margareth and Juan. The other class is GEBT ( Global Environment and Business Trends) with professor Moslares. His class is on Tuesdays 5:30-7pm and Wednesdays 3-6pm. He has an accent, so I have to listen to him carefully when he speaks and I can't take notes at the same time. He assigned us to read a 30 page case on Tuesday and a lot of the students from Taipei had a difficult time reading a long business paper in one night. Since Fu Jen is a linguistics school, not many of the students here have business degrees. For instance, Debbie my roommate has an undergrad in Spanish. On Wednesday after the quiz, he informed us that he only wanted to get an idea of where everyone was from the quiz results and that he won't be assigning a case due the next day anymore. I felt bad because lots of the students had been really stressed about reading/understanding it. But on the other hand, I came into the program thinking everyone was going to have a business background, and since that's not the case I think we are going to move at a slower pace which is not what I expected.

I know that this is the inaugural class and that the program is literally being written and decided around us as we continue, but so far there has been a big gap in communication between the directors and the students. For instance, we thought that we would have personal internships in each of the countries, but now we are doing consultancy projects instead. It seems like everyone got different information from the directors, and now that I am here, I'm trying to sort out everything. One of the students even decided to leave the program because it wasn't what she was expecting when she got here. The students seem to be separated into three groups now. The group that is worried about all the changes and trying to figure out exactly what they are getting and spending their time/money on. The group that is overwhelmed by the work but wants to stay, and the group that doesn't seem to care about changes or workload and wants to go with the flow. I'm in the concerned group, and have been asking a lot of questions, but now that I have more answers, I think I'm going to stay.

On a totally different note, Emme, Margareth and I have been trying to get used to how the Spanish pace their days. It's so different. Everything opens at 10 am and then closes at 2pm for lunch. At 4pm they open back up till around 8pm. Between 9 and 10pm everyone has dinner. It's weird going to dinner so late, and then coming back to do homework.

OH MY GOSH! On Thursday night we went to do our laundry down the street and when we came back after an hour to get our clothes from the washer and put them in the dryer, the store had closed! We had Emme's friend who lives in Madrid call the owner and talk to him in Spanish. The owner said it wouldn't be opened until Saturday because of a Spanish holiday on Friday. Today, ( Friday ) everything has been closed except for restaurants and guess what? The laundromat! The guy lied and said he wouldn't open the store until Saturday! Luckily all of our clothes were there and we stayed in the room until our clothes were done and safely back with us. We took the picture after. Emme is in the dryer and Margareth is on the left.

Hola!

Last night we had our program's orientation. It was nice to finally meet almost everyone (not all of the Spanish kids were there.) We met at six and went on a long walking tour of the city. During the tour we ran into one of the most unique protests I have ever seen. Recently the European governments have decided to ban fire, smoke and explosive things from street celebrations in mid Europe. So tonight, they had a big street protest where they paraded all the dragons and monsters used in celebrations in different countries down the street. This was accompanied by a ton of smoke, fire and fireworks. Think Chinese new years on crack. At 9 the Spanish director Mr. Juan Camillo Perez treated us all to a very nice welcome dinner. I may have had a little too much wine, but the evening was wonderful! Afterwards, some of the girls and I went on a hunt for a glass of wine at a restaurant, but ended up settling on ice cream and pringles from the grocery store. A lot of the other students went to a club on a rooftop for dancing. Last night it was clear that everyone wants to move out of the dorm and into a apartment. There is a Spanish Craigslist, so hopefully we can find something with at least a kitchen. I bought the extra plan for breakfast, but otherwise lunch and dinner are on our own, which is going to end up being extremely costly. Here at the dorms, there is one fridge for everyone to share, so it's not only packed but also smelly. There is a wonderful farmers market here off Las Ramblas that sells really fresh fish, meat, veggies and fruit so everyone is anxious to be able to buy stuff and have a place to store and cook it.

Today Margareth, Emmeline, Darlene, Tammy and I went to the Tutanchamun exhibit. The exhibit used free headsets and constructed sets, so we got to see what the tomb looked like when the architects unsealed it ( even though they think it was raided by grave robbers and they resealed it.) They also had everything that he was buried with including his sandals (which oddly looked like a modern pair) and his throne. Tonight I went to German food with the girls, I need to get used to this whole dinner at 9 or 10 thing.

The first day of school is tomorrow. They told us what number bus to get on, but not what stop to get off. We'll see how that goes!

Today is finally here!

I've arrived in Barcelona! After two long flights, Maureen( step-mom), dad and I are in the city of Gaudi and paella. We landed at 8:30 AM and started out on our day by checking into Maureen and dad's hotel. All three of us were excited to take a shower and change our clothes. Afterwards, we took a taxi to the dorms "Residencia Erasmus Gracia" The building is just for graduate students and there are over 100 rooms apparently. Back at the hotel the concierge said the location of the dorms is in one of the most desirable parts of the city. Which is true, the surrounding streets are filled with cute shops, restaurants and apartments with beautiful balconies. Where I'm staying however is truly a dorm. I've never lived in a dorm with a roommate, so we will have to see how this goes : ) Speaking of roommates, for the next 3 1/2 months I will be living with Debbie from Taiwan. She flew in today with the other 13 students from Taiwan. We haven't had a chance to talk yet, but we both agree that we will need another closet. I've run into a few people in the program, but Saturday night is the programs orientation with a tour of the city and dinner to follow. I am excited to meet everyone and find out where they are from. Well, I'm off to bed.. let's hope jet lag doesn't set in. Oh ya! I have uploaded Skype, so if anyone wants to talk, this is my username: katenice27 . Barcelona is 9 hours ahead of California so the best time to talk is around 1 PM or 11 PM pacific standard time. Good night!