Monday, March 31, 2008

Spring Fling!

The best thing about being an alumni in BCN (and a partner of a current student) is that you can still attend the coolest IESE events... and you earn a paycheck! Awesome.

This weekend was the annual Spring Fling, and this year's organizing committee did a tremendous job. Twice as many sports as last year, nearly three times as many attendees, two great parties, and a great atmosphere all around. Hats off!

IESE Rugby!

Victorious IESE chicas soccer

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Who needs a title?

It's 8:30 in the morning in Barcelona. The sun is shining. The coffee is gurgling. French music is playing, immediately following Michael Jackson. It's Wednesday but it should only be Tuesday because we had Monday off. Life is good.

Happy humpday, my friends.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Cadaques Weekend

At Dali's House in Port Lligat


And at the Dali museum in Figueres

One of the many egg's at Dali's house (Easter egg hunt, anyone?)


Found another one! Woo hoo!

Cadaques

Frenchy at breakfast

At Cadaques

Cap De Creus

Adventures in Flossing

Sometimes you just can't win. The other night in Cadaques, after a fantastic dinner at Can Rafa (I had monkfish and prawns, Frenchy had calamari) I was flossing my teeth and I told Frenchy he should probably do the same.

Frenchy: But I never get anything stuck in my teeth.
Noelle: Yeah but it's good because you get out the stuff that builds up that you don't even feel.
Frenchy: But I don't get anything there.
Noelle: BECAUSE YOU DON'T FEEL IT! But it's there.
Frenchy: Hmm, I don't know.
Noelle: Anyway it's good for your gums. It helps prevent gingivitis. But fine, do whatever you want.

I went back to my flossing. Frenchy admired himself in the mirror. After a long pause...

Frenchy: What's gums?

Oh, by the way, Cadaques was really beautiful.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Frenchy Calisthenics

This is why Frenchy will never get fat. (Even though he claims to be on a diet right now.) These photos were taken over the span of about 4 minutes of Frenchy dancing. So much action! Such drama! Such flair! So jazzy! So French!









Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Carbon Footprints on Giants Causeway

So recently I've been thinking about how my company could be more ecologically-minded and, more importantly, how I could be personally. Last week in a taxi in Paris I started talking to a colleague about it (Eugenio, who claims to be too boring to make a blog appearance - HA!) and found he was interested in the subject as well. He's also interested in lots of other things, like movies, music, literature... not very boring after all, eh?

But I digress. The point is that on Friday, when I was back from Paris, I decided to try one of those online carbon footprint calculators. Wow. I'm a pretty eco-friendly person overall: small apartment, no A/C, no car, minimal electrical appliance use... except for the air travel. Um, my air travel alone just for the first three months of the year brought me to 15 tons of CO2. Whoops!

Okay but hey, that's not gonna stop me from going to Ireland for Joanne's birthday. It was the perfect opportunity to catch up with some old IESE pals, see a lot of rain, check out the Giants Causeway, and drink Guinness. So off we went. Anyway, this was two weeks before I knew about my enormous feet of carbon.

Joanne's party had a 1920s theme and was held in a big old wacky house near Derry, way up north. Never one to shy away from a theme, I did the best I could with limited time to make a costume work. Anyway, that was Saturday night, following Friday night in a Derry pub and Saturday at the incredible Giants Causeway. I think it may officially qualify as one of the longest weekends of my life simply because I slept so little. But it was totally worth it to see everyone and dress up silly.

Getting some pre-party fresh air on Giants Causeway. (If you've never seen this, you really should. Incredible!)


The IESE crew at the beginning of the night, before we started doing the usual clothing swapping.... Ahem. David, Lindy, Francis, Moi, Juha, Birthday Girl Joanne, Diego, Ryan, Frenchy, and Alex.

Clothing (and facial hair) exchange started quite early... I think this was taken just a few minutes after the one above.

And this is around 4am... Devo dancing up a storm, that big dude taking up half the couch, and Juha and Frenchy having a heart-to-heart. Priceless.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Monday on Skype with George

I know it´s supposed to be Sunday in the Park with George, but as George and I no longer live in the same flat, let alone the same city, we can´t just wander off to the park and chat. We have to make do with Skype most of the time.

So I had just sat down with my afternoon coffee (the 5th of the day? hmm maybe I should slow down) when George´s message popped up on Skype:

EA offered 2Billion for Rockstar games! (I used to work at Rockstar.) And so the conversation continued:

[16:30:45] George says: EA offered 2Billion for Rockstar games!
[16:32:18] Noelle says: yes, last week
[16:32:24] Noelle says: for Take 2 Interactive
[16:32:35] Noelle says: a week ago sunday
[16:34:16] George says: : u are telling me i'm telling u very old stuff?
[16:34:25] Noelle says: yes! :)
[16:34:42] George says: did u know that brad pitt and jennifer aniston broke up?
[16:34:44] George says: :)
[16:34:49] Noelle says: WHAT?!?!?!
[16:34:51] Noelle says: NO!!!!
[16:34:55] George says: i'm not kidding
[16:35:03] George says: this news f*cked up my whole weekend
[16:35:08] George says: i was so sad for them! :)
[16:35:12] Noelle says: haha
[16:35:14] George says: :)
[16:35:25] George says: ok i'll go back to my old newspaper

So, unfortunately I don´t get to go home and have these same conversations with George in the living room at Calatrava, but at least we have Skype. I miss you, George. And La Dolce Vita!