Thank God for parents!

Mom and Dad couldn't have arrived at a better time. They have helped me through what have definitely been my hardest days here, and I will be very sad to see them go on Monday. In fact, I might try to convince them to take me with them!

Wednesday night I started to feel quite sick... aching muscles, sore throat, and general exhaustion. By Thursday morning, I was in hell. I couldn't swallow, my ears were blocked, and I knew I must have strep throat. Not having a doctor here yet, I ended up going to the hospital urgent care center. A doctor saw me within 10 minutes (amazing!) and confirmed my suspicions. He gave me two options. 1, take a 10-day course of penicillin orally. 2, get a penicillin injection immediately. I asked him for whatever would work faster, since I'm missing classes and feeling like death, and he said the injection. So that was that, and he left. 20 minutes later, a male nurse came in with a syringe and asked if I was ready. Of course I said yes, and just continued to sit there. Then he said, "No, en el culo." Hmmm okay. I was down to my last clean underwear that day because I had just started a load of laundry. They're very cute... yellow... but there's not not much TO them, if you know what I mean. Had I realized I'd be dropping trou that day, I'd probably have made an alternate selection. So I plopped onto the bed and pulled down my pants a little, then heard the guy giggle oh so slightly. Awesome. He gave me the shot, asked if I was okay, and I was out of there. There's a first time for everything, and October 27, 2005 was my first time getting an injection in the butt by a Spanish male nurse. Anyway, it hasn't seemed to do me much good so far, so now my heart hurts, my throat still hurts, and my left butt cheek hurts.

On the way home, I decided to try to get part of my paperwork in order to get my NIE number (which will give me temporary resident status here, I guess). My US student visa expires this weekend, and all week I had planned to take care of everything on Friday. So I stopped at the police station to get the "empadronamiento" which is I guess some sort of proof of residency. They said I was in the wrong place and gave me two alternate locations. So we stopped for lunch and afterward the kind restaurant manager told me the addresses I was given couldn't possibly be right. She called government information for me and found out where I should really be going, which was only 2 blocks away (rather than across town, like the police station told me). She spent at least 20 minutes helping me out, and I really appreciated it. My savior.

So we went to the Empadronamiento place, but I didn't know I needed to have the lease with me. Back to the house, where I fortunately found Marco, who had the lease, and then I had to go back up the hill to the office again. All this while feeling sick as hell, but I had to get it done. I finally had the darn thing in hand and I was able to go home and rest. That night I slept horribly. I woke up every hour, had terrible nightmares, and my throat just got worse and worse. By the morning I was extremely naseous. I had already told my professors I wouldn't be in that day because I was so ill, and I had planned to try to get the last part of my NIE paperwork done. Unfortunately, I woke up sicker than ever and could barely get out of bed. When I did, I had to run to the bathroom because I had to puke. Must be the penicillin.

Mom and Dad arrived at 8:15 and the plan was for mom and me to go to this NIE office and dad to stay and wait for Ikea, because they had ordered me some shelves the night before. It took me a little while to get going and by the time we arrived at the office, it was 8:45 and there were already enormous lines. There were two separate lines - one for people renewing their NIE stuff and one for first-timers. We had a 50% chance of picking the right line, and we chose wrong. I saw two friends from school, Roberto and Edgar and they told me to get in their line. Mom held a place for me while I chatted to them and sat on a bench. I could barely stand and I was feverish and chilled at the same time. Then this angry guy behind us said, "Maybe you should ask everyone in line behind you if they mind if you cut the line. Because I mind." I told him I'm really sick, and he said he was too. And so I told him not to worry about, that my place in line was behind him and that I would just stay chatting with my friends.

But then two lines suddenly became one as the renewal office closed without explanation. And then one of the two ladies from the new visa office left, and there was only one lady (with purple hair) taking care of everyone. There were hundreds of people in line! So at or around that time, I made the decision that I would take Edgar up on his offer to jump in front of him, because I simply couldn't wait four more hours in that state. So when he finally got to the front, I snuck into the office in front of him. I had to sit on a chair because I felt so ill, and apologized to the woman in the office and explained how sick I was feeling. Roberto and Edgar blocked the door. Finally, the girl she was helping was finished and I went to the desk. Right then the angry guy burst into the room and yelled in Spanish that I had cut the line and I shouldn't be there. The old lady yelled something along the lines of, "Calm down and get out of my office! This girl is very sick, and anyway she has all her paperwork ready so she won't take long!" Hee hee!

Unfortunately, she decided that the white background of my photos wasn't white enough. So she took care of everything else and sent me across the street to have new pictures taken. Never, ever, under any circumstances, have pictures taken for anything you'll be carrying around for a while when you're sick, with a bad haircut, and no makeup. In the picture I look very pale, pasty, and shiny, and my hair is sticking out in a weird way. Nevermind. I went back up to the office and gave the woman my photos and she told me to stop at the bank to pay something and then I could pick up my ID card in 5 weeks. After nearly 3 hours, I was outta there. Anyway, many thanks to Edgar and Roberto, my Mexican connection... they saved my life yesterday.

After the visa place I went to the bank, because it's also only open 8:30 to 2:30 (just like the visa place) and I didn't know when I'd have the chance to go there again once I'm back in school. I paid for my NIE form, whatever that was, and then told them that I still hadn't been able to access my bank account because the ATM always said my PIN was invalid. The woman reactivated my card and told me to try again. I went back to to the ATM, and it again told me my PIN was wrong. So I went back to the woman and she had to issue me a new PIN. Finally, after 2 months, I was able to withdraw money from my La Caixa account!

Then I went back home, where mom and dad were assembling the shelves they'd bought me. We cleaned my room all up and put everything away. Then I had to rest for a while, though I was feeling much better than I had in the morning. Mom and Dad went off to do some shopping and my roommates left to play soccer (George and Alex are on my team). I would've loved to have played yesterday, but there was just no way. Oh and I heard I was nominated for "Comment of the Week" for something I said in Accounting, but I didn't win. Really, it's an honor just to be nominated. Ha.

Last night, Mom and Dad took George, Marco, Alex, Huy and me to dinner down in Port Vell. We sat outside - the weather was beautiful yesterday - and had a really nice everning. The guys all went to the IESE Halloween party afterward, and I went home to bed. Now it's 11am. My throat is killing me and my heart is heavy today. Mom and Dad will be here soon and I may go back to the hospital because my whole mouth is hurting, along with my throat. I have some funky swollen glands I didn't even know existed. I can't wait until I feel better again, both emotionally and physically. Being heartbroken sucks.
Sorry for the uber-long post, but I was too sick to write the last few days.

Never thought I'd say it, but...

... I miss New York!

Last night at dinner they were playing Nat King Cole in the restaurant. How random to hear Nat in a restaurant in Barcelona. It made me think of NYC in the fall, which is my favorite time of year there. Halloween approaching, the leaves changing, then Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner. And then... January, February, March. Barf. Anyway, I do miss New York. Two months away has given me the time and perspective to appreciate the place again, and perhaps even feel some longing to be there. So, even though I was completely fed up with the place after 9 years, I will be happy to see it again on December 22!

Today was the second of the 2-day career forum. I went to more presentations, and spent all my time in between them (and afterward) studying. It took me hours to do this accounting review case, and I still haven't finished completely but I'm just too tired to do anymore. Fortunately I read the other cases for tomorrow yesterday.

It'll be nice to wear regular clothes again and just go to regular classes. And tomorrow I get to play soccer again! Always a bonus.

Career Forum Day 1

Here's my schedule for today:

8:30 - turn in rabbit skin case report
8:45-9:45 - Presentation by CitiGroup
10:00-11:00 - Presentation by Google
11:15-12:15 - Presentation by Merck
12:30-1:30 - Presentation by Airbus (but I went to eat lunch instead)
1:30- 2:30 - Presenation by Europraxis (had no idea what this company was until I arrived at the presentation)

Two of the presentations were in Spanish - Marck and Europraxis - which I actually preferred because I could practice my Spanish comprehension. CitiGroup had a cool video and I appreciated the production value. Google was Google... could be an ok place to work, if I have to work for someone else.

Anyway, after the presentations I came home and sat on the roof reading cases for a little while and fell asleep reading about marketing canned mushrooms. (No really, it was very exciting... really.) Tried to do an accounting case and failed miserably... though I also must consider it a victory because for once I didn't immediately burst into tears of frustration. Met mom and dad for dinner in El Born, and now it's midnight and I'm going to bed.

Tomorrow we have another career day and unfortunately I won't be finished by 2:30 this time. There's a big gap in the afternoon so I'll have to be at school from 10 till about 7. Then I'm having dinner with mom and dad and the cool dermatology couple who took me out to dinner with Casey several weeks back. Wednesday we go back to classes as normal, which will be great because I won't have to wear suits anymore or pretend to be interested in things I don't care about! Nice!

What a difference...

... a week makes.

My hair is a little longer. The sun has been shining. I finished that stupid rabbit fur report! Actually, I printed it at 5pm. A full 20 hours before it's due. Sweet.

Dad arrived last night and Mom arrived this morning. We spent a few hours at their hotel, lazing around, while I finished writing my paper. Went to IESE so I could print it out and so they could see the school. Then we went for dinner at Contraluz... very tasty.

Now it's late and I should really be in bed. Tomorrow... career forum. Career forum = business suit. Business suit = sucky. Good thing I only have to be there until 2pm. We are required to attend 5 presentations each day, which is a problem for me because none of the companies presenting interest me in the slightest. They're all banks or consulting firms or pharmaceutical companies. Oh and Phillip Morris. I'm sure mom would love it if I worked there.

So I'll sit in the back, bring some cases to read, and try to learn a little something. I should probably research some of the companies I signed up for actually... I have no clue what half of them are!

FRIDAY!!!!!!

Okay actually Friday is the greatest day. :) Today it's again sunny and beautiful and all is well.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night, which is strange because I was exhausted, so I just kept reviewing accounting and trying to figure out where I'd made a mistake. (I didn't find it till this morning in my team meeting, but oh well.) So I was a little shocked when my alarm went off after what seemed like 20 minutes. Usual drill... shower, dress, dance around room for 5 minutes while listening to music - this is very important if I want to start the day right - walk to bus and find I'm dressed EXACTLY the same as George, coffee and croissant at the cafe at school, then team meeting.

I was presenting my accounting answers this morning and got frustrated when it seemed like no one was paying attention because I suck at all this stuff. But it turned out I did it right, so even though I was mildly irritated after the meeting, I felt better in class. Then marketing, which was entertaining as usual. At lunch I had my career services meeting and I feel like I have a good handle on where I need to look for internships. My advisor is very understanding of what I want to do, and I think she'll be really helpful, even though I'll have to do most of the legwork myself since companies that interest me won't be coming to the school to shop for grads. After that I had a quick lunch with Madhur from my team and our decision analysis professor ended up joining us.

After lunch, organizational behavior, and then Spanish class, where I got my grade from Wednesday's test (fine, but not the highest score this time) and we learned our whole group would be progressing to modulo 9 together. Now it's 6 and I'm just back from school. In a few minutes I'll leave to play soccer with the boys, and then I guess I'll have an early night since Dad arrives tomorrow morning. Man, I'm glad it's Friday. And I'm even happier about playing FUTBOL!

Thursday is the greatest day

I was told on Tuesday that I'm only allowed to be sad until Thursday and that on Friday I must be happy again. So I'm going to hit the sack now, after several hours of accounting hell (I THINK maybe I kind of understand it a little bit, perhaps) and a bit of marketing limbo, and hopefully when I wake up I'll magically feel okay!

Anyway, today was long and busy, and that's a good thing. Usual morning meeting, then usual classes, had a little test in organizational behavior (I think I may have been fried by then), then a presentation by some dude who used a lot of very big words written in very small writing on too many slides. Had a nice walk home in the sunshine - yes it has finally stopped raining - and then attempted some accounting. Got a few phone calls, chatted with my roommates... it's too hard to start studying right away after a long day of classes. I went for a swim at 10, which was a good way to break up the evening, though I realized just how pale I have become in the last month since school started. Yikes.

Tomorrow is Friday, which is fantastic. That will mean three weeks of school have already passed. Seems like three years. And mom and dad arrive this weekend. I have a feeling they will see how thin I have become and force feed me... which is fine with me! I need some fancy dinners right about now! Just need to figure out how to get an appetite back...

Okay it's late, I'm talking nonsense, and it's time to go to bed. Six hours till the whole thing starts over. It's like Groundhog Day, except without Bill Murray. Which is too bad for me.

Theme song for the week: "I Want To Break Free" by Queen. Same theme song as nearly a year ago!

Humpday again

Well, I'm feeling a little better today... Okay, not really, but I'm trying. Last night was pretty brutal, but I'm lucky to be surrounded by friends here. A lot of people saw me upset after class yesterday, so I got a lot of phone calls and text messages wishing me well. After only two months, I feel like I've developed some really amazing friendships, and for that I'm very grateful.

This morning I woke up with what seems to be the start of a cold. Definitely related to staying up too late studying, plus effects of too much boo-hooing. Hopefully it will pass, like the last attempted cold. Had the usual team meeting this morning, then accounting. Everyone seemed confused in accounting today, and I actually felt like I knew what was going on. Strange.

Next we had marketing, with the case about the Sony EyeToy. Rockstar and Take 2 are mentioned in the case, which was cool, and so was I... just kidding. Carlos, the prof, brought a PS2 and the EyeToy to class and asked for a Playstation wizard and the class volunteered me. So I went up in front of everyone and made a tremendous fool of myself popping bubbles on a screen, standing in front of the class waving my arms around. I had seen people using the new version of the EyeToy at E3 in LA in May, and it was hilarious to watch, so I'm sure everyone got a kick out of watching me flail around. We then went on to actually discuss the case (too bad... EyeToy was fun) and since it happens to have been my business for the past 3 years, I was able to participate a ton. Much more than on the case about bubble wrap yesterday. Yeesh.

At lunch my team had a meeting with the professor in charge of our section (Section A) to see how we're doing and chit chat, etc etc. He's also our prof for Analysis of Business Problems. I asked him about resources for how to learn how to pull numbers from cases and he said that the school is working on a book and his chapter is actually the one on analysis, but that he hasn't started writing it yet. I asked him to please get on it! I should offer my proofreading services. After our lunch meeting, I studied for my Spanish test for a bit and then we had Organizational Behavior.

The Spanish test was next, and it seemed fine. I guess we'll get our results on Friday. Hopefully everyone passed because our class is too great to split up. Then, at 5, another team meeting to discuss a big analysis assignment we all have to turn in by Monday (I'm still lost on this one) and then I studied for a while. Played soccer at 9, got home around 10:45, and now I'm eating some food and writing this instead of finishing my homework. We have a test in Organizational Behavior tomorrow, and fortunately I prepared for that over the weekend. Plus some accounting which I again actually understood. And... ABP. Oops better read that.

Being busy is good. Keeps my mind away from other things.

Ouch

Today I officially got dumped. Over email. While I was in class, and just before I was supposed to give a little speech in front of my entire class. I shouldn't be suprised because (a) it has happened before and (b) I felt it coming, but it doesn't make it hurt any less.

I've been having trouble concentrating on my work the last few days because of all of this, and eating isn't really appealing either. I'm doing the best I can, but my mind keeps wandering to Casey and hoping he is okay. At the end of the day, I just want him to be happy and, while I wish that that could happen with me, I can only hope he'll start to feel better soon. I know my coming here was really hard for him, as well as for me, but I really didn't think it would end like this... or end at all. I'm sick over it. Casey, if you read this, I miss you a lot and I hope you're alright.

Mine is the latest in a string of IESE relationships to fall apart. Several people in my class have returned home for a weekend to try to fix a relationship, only to come back single, or get a phone call and find out the other person doesn't want to be with them anymore. I guess it's a risk you take when you go away, but I know I'm not the only one who wasn't expecting it at all and who had hoped theirs would be one of the ones that worked out.

Anyway, now it's 7:20 and I haven't started studying yet. I have to prepare a marketing case about the Sony EyeToy, which is a product for Playstation 2 that came out last year. Take 2 (my old parent company) is mentioned in the case, which is pretty funny. Of course there's also accounting to prepare, and a report due Monday for Analysis of Business Problems which scares me to death. And I need to finish it by Friday because my parents are arriving this weekend. Thank goodness for that. I really need a hug. Okay I'd better get to work. Have to stay busy and try not to think too much... otherwise I start to cry.

Hard times hit

I'm sad. Tough weekend. After the haircut from hell, I thought things couldn't possibly get worse, but I was wrong. I won't elaborate right now, but point is it looks like I'm definitely single again. I'm so stupid.

On to the keep-your-chin-up news. Let's see... Saturday night I went with my friend Kathy to this store opening that Genevieve from admissions invited us to. It was cool to be in a hip new store (very much like dozens in NYC) around non-business people. What a relief. Then we went for our girls night out, for dinner at a restaurant called La Canela. It was fun to get so many of the girls together (we were 25, so there were definitely many missing, but that was still the majority of the IESE women!) and just have a relaxing, fun dinner. We had also heard that the boys had made a list of the hottest IESE girls, so we agreed that we had to create our own. The guys all heard about girls' night of course, and about the upcoming List, so they were all looking forward to hearing the results afterward. Of course, it's not official till everyone gets to vote. :)

Yesterday I got up early and studied and did exciting things like laundry. Then, in the afternoon, horrible things happened and I couldn't study any more... or sleep, when the time came. This morning I woke up looking like I'd been punched in both eyes, which looked really good with the new haircut! Yikes. But it was nice to be at school again, surrounded by people, even with the scary haircut and puffy eyes, because at least I could take my mind off the heartbreak. For a little while anyway.

After Spanish today I heard about a presentation by L'Oreal and decided to go. Most of the companies that come to IESE are banks or consulting firms, which don't interest me, so I figured I should at least attend this one, since it's so different. It was interesting enough, but I'm exhausted and it's a little tough to get enthused about anything at the moment. So now it's just after 7, I've just arrived home, and I'm going to start to prepare my cases for tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to bed early and will feel better tomorrow. Hey, at least my hair will be a little longer tomorrow!

Never let a Spanish person near your hair with scissors

or... "Holy crap, what the hell just happened?!?!?!"

Um. Today I got the worst haircut of my entire life. I look like a 17 year old London punk. It's very very bad. I'm not sure I can go outside for the next month, but then I'll fail school for lack of attendance. Then again, when the business school people see my hair they may be forced to kick me out anyway.

I told the woman that I wanted it shorter in the back (because it was a shaggy mess) and keep it longer in the front, and nothing to hard or sharp. She came at me with the clippers, but that's normal because I have short hair and they usually do a little cleanup in the back with them. Next thing I knew, she had run them up the back of my head, all the way to the crown. Too much hair fell on my lap. I reached back and almost started to cry right then and there. She had buzzed a streak up the back of my head! I mean BUZZED. We're talking a 1/4 inch here, people.

I had explained to her that I'm in business school and should look presentable, particularly with interviews coming up next week. How exactly that translated into what I now have, I'm really not sure.

Anyway, she assured me that it would look great when she was done. Maybe I'd agree if she'd given me a paper bag to wear over it... I'm really not sure how I can go out tonight ... or any other time! I think I might still be in shock. I should've spent 800 bucks to fly back to NYC just for a haircut with Hanako. It would've been worth it.

See? Okay... looks a little normal here.


Still doing okay....


Looking a little... odd.


WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!?!?!

Didn't even have to use my AK...

... gotta say it was a good day.

Ahhh, Friday. Lovely. The best day of the week. Had our usual team meeting this morning to go through the cases for today. There were only two, because we had two sessions of ABP today, and one of accounting. It was nice to be in accounting class and actually know what was going on for a change, and know how to answer the questions. Thanks to Gabriel for that!

Classes were fine, and at lunch I tried to review an accounting case from last week in the library, but it was really noisy in there (I know, very strange for a library) and I got frustrated because I kept getting stuck on every single journal entry. I know that if I could just get the hang of it, I'd probably like almost(dare I say it?!) like accounting (I said it!) because you know when you've done it correctly. But for now, since I can't seem to do anything right, it's just frustrating. I need to practice more this weekend. Anyway, almost everyone is confused and lost.

After accounting and before Spanish, I was asked to play on one of the teams that has been formed for this IESE league. I was a little bummed that I hadn't been asked to play on any teams (aside from jokes about being a cheerleader) because I've played so much with everyone and they all know I don't suck. So even though I was planning to come straight home tonight and study and sleep, I really wanted to play soccer so I agreed to fill a spot on the team. I'm glad I did.

I had to race home (walking, because the traffic was too bad to take the bus) in the rain, change quickly, and then race back up the hill to the sports complex where we play. It was pouring by then, and it didn't let up the whole time. I played really well and scored a few goals and we won 11-4 (okay, so we had one extra player, but still). And now I officially have a team! Cool.

Tomorrow I'm thinking of trying to get a haircut because I'm starting to look like Shaggy, but without the stubble or the pot habit. I even slouch like Shaggy. And the rest of the weekend, more or less, will be devoted to studying. Hooray!

Week 2 nearly over

Well, I spent my Spanish holiday studying. Not that I was expecting to do otherwise... I also edited 8 more CVs, and went through one final one today. We have a heavy week ahead next week, so this weekend I plan to read as much as possible to get ahead.

Today we had accounting in the morning and then our first Organizational Behavior class. In fact, we had two in a row because we were the only section that hadn't had that class yet. The professor seems really nice, and I think everyone was relieved to have a class that isn't so numbers-driven. I don't think it makes it any easier, but it's definitely more my style.

We had a team meeting at lunch to discuss how we all felt the team was working. I've been really happy with our team, and I think I've really lucked out. Even so, it was nice to make sure everyone was feeling okay and get some feedback from the others. Apparently I'm not afraid to speak my mind.

After class I read today's accounting chapter in the library, and I found it difficult because every five minutes, someone would come up to me to say hi or ask what pages we had to read or if I was going out tonight, or all of the above. Next time I will put a sign on the desk that reads, "Hi. P. 436-459. No, I'm not going out tonight because I'm tired."

After reading the chapter, I went through our accounting case with my teammate Gabriel who is super good at math and accounting. I still know that I could never figure this crap out on my own, so I have no idea what I'll do on test day, but it was nice to have someone to walk me through it. And I (think I) understood it. We'll see tomorrow if our numbers were right!

Tomorrow we have 2 1/2 hours of Analysis of Business Problems and then another Accounting class after lunch. Then I have Spanish for 2 hours. Then I think I'll try to study for a while and go to bed. I have no interest in going out tomorrow night. I'm too tired and I have too much studying to do.

Hooray for holidays!

It's Tuesday evening and tomorrow we have no school. I love La Hispanidad! Whatever it is.

Today we had three really good classes. I met my group as usual at 8:30 in the morning and we went through everything for the day. I presented the case for Analysis of Business Problems, which went fine I guess. First class was Decision Analysis, in which we did a review of probability problems and then got some feedback on an intuitive decisions test we all took on Saturday. We'll be getting more feedback on this next week, and I'm interested to see how it all turns out. Basically, our professor told us that it's not a good idea to talk in probability terms because people usually get confused. Um, I could've told him that without any research at all!

Next we had Analysis of Business Problems, for which we had prepared a case about a German drugstore contemplating whether to create an online sales presence. I liked this case because there were few numbers to run (well, lots of them if you don't mind making a gazillion assumptions, but I'm not too big on assumptions) and I had already worked out my answer. In fact, I made a suggestion in class that the company might try and the professor said, "Hmmm that's good, I never thought of that before." We have to prepare a report in the coming week and a half on another case, so I'll definitely be looking to my team members for help on this one.

During lunch I reviewed my notes for my presentation. I made some changes to the outline I had prepared and tried to organize everything clearly. When it came time for the four victims to make our presentations, I got to go first (thought I'd be going 2nd) because, well, ladies first. Sweet. I like setting the bar and not having to worry about what anyone else has done. If other people can jump over my bar, that's cool. I just don't want to have to jump over anyone else's bar!

Anyway, it seemed to go really well. I don't think I looked at my outline or notes at all. I just looked around at everyone and chatted away as if I were talking to one person. I was definitely a little nervous, but it's really not so hard when you know everyone is friendly and supportive. And it's hard to not support someone who is really passionate and excited about something, like I am about having a film company. I finished up by saying I'm at business school to learn how to start my company and also to find a CFO and people who want to get into film finance. After my presentation, the professor asked if anyone had any comments, and someone said, "Yeah, where do I send my CV?" A few other students who I don't know as well also told me that they are interested in starting something similar, or know people who do... So I guess the company can start now!

After class I went through a bunch of CVs for people. I think I've edited a dozen of them now, and I still have more to do. But I'm happy to help because I know there will be plenty of times in the future when I'll need some serious help myself. This evening I had to go downtown to return the mobile phone Casey rented while he was here and also run some errands. Now I'm procrastinating by writing this instead of reading accounting.... Later I'm going to dinner with Huy (from yesterday's picture) and my teammate Gabriel and his girlfriend Mimi, who are both from the US. Then we may go to celebrate 3 IESE birthdays, but I'm planning to make it an early night because I want to get lots of work done tomorrow morning!

Monday Night... or is it Thursday?

First of all, there was NO marketing pop quiz today. Just a vicious rumor started by someone on my very own team I believe, and one which caused quite a furor... all of which was pretty funny in the end. So that was the first class. In our 2nd class, Decision Analysis, I got quite a bit of participation going. Oh yeah! My decion tree rocked, and I think it's because I watered it yesterday. After lunch we had Managerial Communications, and 4 people had to talk about themselves in front of the class as if they were being interviewed and had gotten the question, "Tell me about yourself." Which isn't really a question... Anyway, I have to do it tomorrow. Woo hoo.

After that we had Grupo 6 Spanish for an hour and a half and then I worked on cases for tomorrow at school while also trying to download some more photos from the bar crawl. Got home around 8:30 and now I'll do a little more studying and then maybe go to the gym for a swim. I need to go to bed early tonight because I'm feeling a little sick and I slept SO BADLY last night. I felt like I was awake almost all night and whenever I wasn't awake I was having horrible dreams about school. That's 2 nights in a row! This is not a good thing. Tonight can only be better, I hope.

Tomorrow is like Friday because we have Wednesday off for a holiday called La Hispanidad. My Spanish teammate Diego explained this holiday to me as "when all the spangolis around the world celebrate being spangolis." Or something like that. I think we have a name for it in the US too. It's called "Columbus Day."

So, tomorrow after class I'm going to do lots of errands while shops are still open (because NOTHING will be on Wednesday) and then do some homework. I need to get myself organized because at IESE you don't use books, but rather glue-bound packets of cases which fall apart after you open the first page. So I have cases all over my room. Maybe I should wallpaper the place. There are also two birthdays to be celebrated tomorrow night, but I think I'll have to see how I'm feeling before promising to venture out.

And, as promised, more photos from Friday night.

With my good friend Huy
Team B6. That's my roommate Marco with the glasses. He makes a great nerd.

Sunday night

I have now recovered (more or less) from Friday night's festivities. Yesterday I spent several hours preparing cases for this week, both on my own and then in an all-girl study group: Lindy, Carol, and Kathy from Chicago, Ali from UK, and Claudia from Colombia. Then I met my friend Francis for a cup of coffee and had a pretty relaxed and early night.

Today I woke up pretty early (by usual IESE weekend standards) and started right in on the marketing case we were told to further prepare. We started it on Thursday, and now the rumor is that we are having some sort of pop quiz on it tomorrow. Yikes. Francis came by to go through the Decision Analysis case and we got stuck partway through, and then I went to my teammate Diego's house and went through Marketing some more with he and his roommate Jay. THEN I went to meet the girls again, this time at Kathy's house, to compare the Decision Analysis case some more. Basically, it's nice to know that everyone is coming up with the same crap and no one knows what's going on. So even though I've been studying all weekend, I feel like I've accomplished almost nothing, but at least it's the same nothing as everyone else!

The only problem is that I'd hoped to go running or cycling today and I just never got around to it. But I did do laundry and dishes, so I guess that's sort of athletic. Oh and I walked a LOT to everyone's houses. Good to have a little walk between study sessions to chill out a bit. Now I have to try to figure out more ways to prepare for this potential pop quiz and then hopefully go to bed early. Thank goodness Wednesday is a holiday!

Bar Crawl!

After a weeklong, full-speed roller-coaster ride, we let off a little steam at the annual Bar Crawl, which 2nd year students organize for 1st years. We compete in our teams (A6, for me) and we are also organized by section. Section A had to dress as punks, Section B as nerds, and Section C as 70s disco. Each team captain (that would be yours truly) was given a map outlining what bar we were supposed to be at each hour, starting at 8pm and getting to the last bar at midnight. At each bar we had to play a little game and 2nd year judges would rate our performances on a scale of 1-10. Team A6 is awesome. Unfortunately, Matteo had to go home to Italy this weekend and Marcus went to the Pyrenees for a hiking trip, but the rest of us carried on. (Actually, Juan Ramon couldn't be convinced to join until we all called him after the 3rd bar and harrassed him.) It was a great bonding experience (especially making mohawks in Diego's bathroom!) even though we didn't win in the end. More photos to come as I receive them from friends. In this one: Madhur, me, Noshaba, Jan-Kees, and Gabriel.

Thursday was a pretty tough day for me. Classes were fine and all, but that night we had our first accounting cases and I just couldn't make them work. I worked on one for about 4 hours and finally had to give up, balance sheet still completely imbalanced, because A6 from last year had invited us to a 7:30 BBQ. At that point, the last thing I wanted to do was go to a barbecue, but it turned out to be the best possible thing I could've done. Besides going running, maybe. We met several 2nd year students who appear to have survived, and they all gave us some funny insight into the program. I got home at 11:30 and fell directly into bed, without even attempting to try to finish that accounting problem. Fortunately I didn't get called on in class because I wouldn't even have been able to explain the things I did get right, and I found out that I never would've figured out how to balance the darn thing on my own anyway. I need to hire an accountant.

Humpday

Day 3 is officially over, because it's 12:22am and I'm still reading my marketing case for tomorrow morning.

Today was a very VERY long day. Morning meeting, Marketing class (I participated again - and found the answer to everything: "Don't piss off the customer" - I have this class locked, except for the numbers part), Decision Analysis, Managerial Communications, then some usual Q/A BS for an hour about school policy, then SPANISH class (caramba!) with our new profesora, then I walked home and finally got in the door at 6pm.

So ...
Marketing - good.

Decision Analysis - so-so. My background in film was actually a hindrance here because I couldn't get my head around how weak the case was. Also, I got lost about 2/3 of the way through. But then I though that, 2 days ago, I had never seen any of this crap and now I can do 2/3 by myself. Maybe by Friday I'll be able to do the last 1/3 by myself... and then there will be a new 2/3 to learn. Oh God.

Lunch - n/a. I spent this time reading for the next class.

Managerial Communications - zzzzzz. Hey but this class is Pass/Fail! Awesome. One class I will automatically not fail. 5 more to go... I need to not fail 3 of them. I don't like these odds. Too bad I don't have time for a decision tree on this one. Actually, too bad I didn't know about the decision tree BEFORE deciding whether to try an MBA! Hmph! Anyway, in this class we have to do presentations and stuff. Easy. I've never been accused of shyness.

BS session - Sorry, but I'm really tired of hearing about school policy, and especially tired of listening to people ask dumb questions and then answers that don't pertain to anyone else. Frustrating. For section B, this session lasted 5 minutes. For us, an hour. And we were late to Spanish!

4-5pm Spanish. Our new profesora is Eugenia. She's nice, but I really miss Mama Maribel. Which reminds me, I still haven't posted my Spanish class pics. I will do that soon. They're on a friend's camera.

5pm - walk home. I decided to get some air and some exercise so I skipped the bus. I walked part way with my friend Andreas, who is also thinking he will fail. He has spent the first week also thinking maybe he shouldn't have come here. Maybe I should start a club called "What the hell am I doing here?!" I know of at least half a dozen definite members. And anyway, everyone else would join just because we're so cool.

6pm - attempt to start homework.

6:30pm - wake up with face on chapter 6 of accounting book. Hopefully I learned something about Annual Accounts through reverse osmosis. At this point, I'm willing to try anything.

7pm - now... Studying. Or, attempting to. Everyone is really tired tonight. No one seems to be able to buckle down and study. Marco also woke up with his face on his accounting homework. I guess that's the beauty of humpday.

I need to finish reading if I ever want to go to bed. The case for marketing is 25 pages and about something called Dominite that can be used for ceramic tiles and primer paint. Or something like that. I wish it were called Dolomite and was really a blaxploitation film. That would be much more interesting.

OH, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!!!!! One more year, and you can rent a car!

Day 2!

I think I'm feeling a little better today. Okay, a lot better. I don't have much time to write a lot because it's already 11:30, I've been studying since 4, and I still have more to do, so I'll do a little recap like yesterday:

7:45 - bus to school - SO crowded... I think I need to ride a bike instead

8:30 - team meeting. My team is turning out to be really cool. I hope they other members feel the same way! I had volunteered to "moderate" the marketing case today, which was a bit of a mistake. It was sooooo long and boring! Oil well motors in northern Canada. Yikes. Anyway, I was in the middle of that when our team advisor, Fede, walked in and introduced himself. It was great to finally meet him, and he was very reassuring about school and life and stress, etc. Apparently some French student couldn't find a place to live last year and stayed with Fede for 2 months, so obviously he goes out of his way for his students. Anyway, our meeting continued and then it was time to head to class.

9:45 - Decision Analysis. I like this class much more than I expected. It's very logical, and I especially like it now that I know how to do probability, more or less. We had to decide whether or not to harvest some grapes prematurely at our vineyard, and I opted to wait. Right answer. Cha-ching.

11:15 - Analysis of Business Problems. I noticed that one of my classmates is absent, so I switch to his seat in the 2nd row. Our professor for this class writes really small, so it's still very hard to read the board (I'm not the only one with problems here!) but at least I can sort of follow what's going on. Unfortunately I'm totally lost on this case - a 1950s drugstore that is debating whether or not to outsource their currently killer ice cream production - so sitting close doesn't help all that much. The weird thing is that I instinctually seem to pick the correct answer, and so the problem is just trying to explain and prove it. I mail fail this class, but at least in life I'll get the right answer and my business won't crap out. I'll have accountants to figure this stuff out for me anyway.

12:30 - Lunch. I'm discouraged after ABP, but I enjoy lunch with friends and try to eat something. I'm not doing very well in this regard, but I'm trying anyway!

2:00 - Marketing Management. I've decided that I like this professor, Carlos. He's funny. And this class today reminds me that I need to worry less about numbers (thank god!) and remember that there are people involved in all of these cases. I don't like any of the number-related options, but the one people-driven one is off-putting to me because I'm so obsessed with trying to become a numbers person. Why should I wear a hat that doesn't fit? Again, I'll find someone else to run the numbers for me. The problem will be that I can't do this on the test... Note to self - come up with short-term how-to-do numbers solution. Anyway, the class was good, Carlos was entertaining, and apparently I was too because after class when I went to ask him a question, he said, "Are you a comedian?" I took it as a compliment.

3:15 - Class is over! Whew! We have only 2 cases to prepare tonight, and one is about... A FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY! And it's for decision analysis, which means another probability problem (I really never thought I'd be happy about such a thing) and decision tree. The decision tree is my friend. I ran all the numbers and came up with the "right" answer, but my background tells me it's actually the wrong answer. Actually, my background tells me I need to see the script first, and then I need to cover most of the budget with international sales, but unfortunately neither of these options is available in the case. I might just have to bring it up in class anyway.

5pm - I arrived home after trying to do a little reading outside on the IESE campus. Too difficult. Worked on the movie case and then started on the marketing case, which is about an actual themepark in Tarragona, about an hour from Barcelona. The marketing cases are SOOOOO long. Oof. Fortunately, I'm in the half of the team that is focusing on the movie case tomorrow morning, so I can learn from the others on the marketing one.

It's now almost midnight and I'm hoping to get to bed soon. Last night I finally got to sleep around 2 I think. Even when I finally fell into bed, I couldn't sleep. I was too busy thinking about oil rig motors and starting torque and whether my northern Canadian motor company should produce a specialized motor. I mean really.

Oops, so much for a short update...

Day 1

A quick one to let you all know that I haven't taken my own life yet and that I have kind of survived the first day.

7:45 - left the house to catch the bus to school.

8:15 - met with my team to go over the cases. Had no clue on one of them, had a partial clue on the 2nd, and used my persuasion skills on the marketing one, even though it was all BS. I managed to convince Madhur to go with my plan to launch a particular toy, so this was a small victory. He's a tough one.

9:45 - 1st class: Marketing Management. This was ok except that the professor has the worst handwriting and I sit in the back. I think people aren't really up for switching around, so I'm not sure what to do. Tomorrow I'll bring my glasses AND wear my contacts. I figure it can't give me a headache that's any worse than the one I'll develop from squinting and getting frustrated. This class was ok. The professor has a policy that if you say something irrelevant, you must pay 1 euro and everyone in the class judges by yelling out ONE EURO or SAFE! This really isn't the best way to get people to participate, and class participation is the majority of our grade. I guess I should just have lots of change on hand.

11:05 - the dean welcomes us. He was in Japan last week and couldn't welcome us formally during the orientation days, so he went around to each section today. He seems nice. Very slim. I don't think Opus Dei-ers eat much.

11:15 - Analysis of Business Problems. One word - HUH? In fact, I'm not sure if that's even a word, but rather a gutteral reaction. This guy's handwriting is miniscule so I'm screwed. Especially because I wouldn't understand what he was putting on the board even if he wrote in a normal size. I'm doomed.

12:30 - Lunch. I announce to a few people that I won't be here much longer. They say I'm crazy. They just don't understand. I will now keep these pronouncements to myself. I couldn't eat much. At least I don't have to worry about getting fat here!

2:00 - Decision Analysis - Wow, this wasn't as bad as I thought. Finally a professor who actually explains things. In fact, he almost went too slowly (and I never thought I'd say that, particularly where probability is concerned) if only because we only went through the stuff I had already gotten right and didn't have time for the more complicated part of the case. I even participated... a little.

3:30 - mini team meeting to decide who will be the moderator for each case tomorrow morning. I'm moderating Marketing. Yikes. We have three cases to prepare again, and for the same classes as today. There's plenty of work to do. Fortunately, Spanish was cancelled (at the last minute, so I still lugged all my spanish stuff with me to school) so now I have a few extra hours to study.

At 7 I'm going to the girls' house... Joanne (Irelend) is really good at math, so she has been helping her Spanish roommate Nora, who apparently has an art history background. I'm going to get in on the study session tonigh as well, and they live just 2 blocks away, which is handy. I might even be able to make it to the gym at 10 for a swim, but that might be optimistic.

Tomorrow.... same thing all over, just in a different order. And Wednesday we'll finally have Spanish class, so we won't be done till 5pm. I heard we don't have the same teacher anymore, so we're all a little bummed about that. Hopefully the new Spanish profesora will be nice.

Big Mistake

I wish I had never come here. I am in way over my head. I'm going to fail out of school and have to return to the states, head hung in shame, with no job, no money, no apartment, no nothing. I am really regretting this decision. Oh and I have to study now.

Finally Saturday!

Yesterday was the end of a very long and often frustrating week. For those of us who are not interested in investment banking or consulting, the career sessions were quite useless. I tried my best to get as much as possible out of it all, but in the end I really just wished we could have had another week of pre-courses to review more accounting, math, and Spanish. Or at least I wish I could've studied it all more on my own!

Yesterday I met my team (A6) at school at 8:30. We had been given a practice case to read and prepare, and the point of the teams is to have people to discuss the cases with, bounce ideas off of, and sometimes do group projects together. I was a little nervous about how my team would work because I didn't know most of the people all that well, and I was still a little concerned after our first meeting. But it was over before we knew it because there was a mass scheduled for 9:15. I took the opportunity to review the case more and explore other options regarding my answers to the problem (whether to open a plant in one town or another) and I felt more prepared as a result when I walked into class at 10:15.

Our seats had been assigned for us for the first time and, as an S, I was relegated to the back row. Fortunately I'm in the middle, but I'm definitely going to have to get stronger contacts because I'm getting more blind by the minute. Apparently everyone will be swapped around after the first term, so I guess then I'll be in the front row. Goody.

So the first hour of class was easy enough. We just reviewed the case and everyone tried to participate, and I guess that's the way classes are going to be. At least for Analysis of Business Problems. For most classes, participation is the main grading criterium. For others, like Accounting, it's mostly based on the midterm and final exams. Yikes. Also, there's a forced curve, so a predetermined number of people will get a C, which is a failing grade. There's nothing lower. Three C's in a term and it's adios. Same if you get 4 C's in a year. I'm scared to death.

Anyway, one good thing that happened in the afternoon was that we had a very short period of time to get in our teams again and review another sample case and come up with a plan. We had to prepare a press release in response to a big Belgian gas explosion crisis. My team rocked. We got in there, worked together, respected each other, and came up with something halfway decent in a very short amount of time. I was pleased, and I think we all felt a lot better. We have 9 very smart people in our group, and I think we'll do really well together.

First Day of School

So I know it seems like I've had 3 first days of school, but I think today was the official first day. Then again, maybe Monday will be, since that's the first day of actual classes. It's all very confusing. We've had a lot of "Welcome Receptions" too, with lots of juice and snacks. Very strange. We're having yet another one tomorrow night, in fact!

Anyway, today we all had to wear full-on business attire to school. And tomorrow we have to do it again! I think they wanted us to act (and look) professional for a change, and we also had to take photos today for the school yearbook and the online recruiting service thing. So this morning got off to an awesome start as I hiked the 6 long uphill blocks to the bus stop in my heels and business suit. Fortunately I had stashed some sneakers in my bag, and I put those babies on while I was riding the bus. It made the 2nd hike (from the bus stop to the school) slightly more bearable and all the other girls who didn't plan ahead were jealous.

We started off in the auditorium at 10am (though they told us to arrive at 9:30 - awesome) with a welcome from one of the professors. Then we had a talk from another professor, Paddy Miller, about "The Problem of Management." Paddy Miller is hilarious and I wish he could talk to us about the problem of management every morning. After that, we had a presentation from the Associate Dean of the MBA Program, who told us we were going to have to study, study, study, and that the next 19 months will fly by. After that, another presentation, this time from the Associate Exec Director of the MBA Program, who told us similar stuff, but with some extra info about Student Affairs and how cool we are as a class. (That's what I got out of it, anyway.)

Then it was finally time for lunch, and our first meeting with our teams. Within each section (I'm in A, and there are 2 other sections), we are again divided into teams of 8 to 10 people. I'm in team A-6, and I am in one of very few teams with more than one female. I knew almost all of my team members already (one is my neighbor, another is in my Spanish group) but it was nice to sit down and chat with the people I'll be seeing every morning (and then some) every day of my first year. I will be meeting my team every morning at 8:15 to discuss the case studies we read the previous night to prepare for the upcoming day of classes. Tomorrow morning is our first official meeting. Each team also has a faculty advisor, but ours is unfortunately teaching in Madrid this week, so we had a stand-in and we'll meet our actual advisor next week.

After lunch, we had two more sessions. One hour regarding the administrative and academic policies of IESE, and the other giving background on the Case Study Method, which is how we will be doing all of our learning. At 4:30, the photographs started. As a person whose last name starts with 'S,' it seems I'll often get the Shaft in many regards. For instance, today I was in the last group to be photographed, so I had to wait until 6pm. I spent the time beforehand in the library preparing our first case, about a company deciding where to open a new manufacturing plant in the Midwest. These are exciting times.

Now I'm finally home and I have to finish preparing the case for tomorrow and also review some accounting and math stuff to prepare for next week. There is a BOW event tonight, but it starts at midnight so I'm currently not planning to go. We have a very long day ahead of us tomorrow.

To top everything off, Casey went back to New York today. In fact, he's on the plane to JFK as I write this. It's too bad he couldn't stay through the weekend as planned, because we were hoping to go to Menorca and enjoy my last weekend of freedom, but fortunately he has already booked his return ticket for the end of October, when we have a long holiday weekend. It was so nice to have him here, but I felt badly that I was in school most of the time and didn't get to see him as much as I would've liked. That's life at business school, I guess.

Career Week

Whew, I'm exhausted! We are nearly through day two of Career Week, and it has been a whirlwind. Yesterday we had a introduction to Career Services and then one of the professors gave the most charismatic talk so far. He's American (the first American professor I've met at IESE) and his talk was absolutely hilarious and very engaging. Unfortunately, he teaches in Section B, so he won't be teaching any of my classes.

After lunch, we had a big talk from the CEO of a company called Insights, which does personality testing and feedback. I suppose one could consider it a lot of mumbo-jumbo, but it was entertaining... for the first few hours anyway. By the end of the day, everyone was struggling to keep their eyes open. I found out that I'm a combination of "Sunshine Yellow" and "Earth Green," with the emphasis on the yellow. In other words, I'm the best. Really, did I need a personality test to tell me this? :)

Last night Casey and I went to dinner with a lovely couple I met through a friend of dad's. They took us too a very cool restaurant in El Borne, which is a newly-fashionable neighborhood not too far from mine. They are both dermatologists, so I'll know where to go if the MBA ruins my fabulous complexion.

So far today, we've been working solely on CVs. It's hard to work on a CV all day long! No wonder I've never tried it before... and never will again. We have been divided into small work groups for the afternoon (and we all met yesterday during the personality test thing) and all but one other person is Spanish. It's kind of fun to actually be helpful for a change, even if it's just for my translation abilities!

Casey has to return to NYC Thursday morning in order to take some meetings for a movie. I was really expecting to have him here till Monday so it's definitely a bummer, but at least I know he'll be back very soon.

Weekend

Casey arrived on Wednesday, safe and sound, but I was in class all day so I didn't get to see him until around 6pm. I skipped the last hour of Spanish class (because one of the other students was doing a "presenation" on wine... aka a wine tasting) and took the metro down to Placa Catalunya to meet him at his hotel. We wandered around La Rambla and had dinner nearby. And then I had to read accounting! Ugh.

Thursday was class as usual, and after school Casey and I had dinner with his cousin Catherine, who happened to be in town on business. We went to La Flauta, which had been highly recommended by George, and now I want to eat there every night. The food was fantastic! After dinner I had a phenomenal time preparing some accounting problems for yesterday's class, while all the other IESE students were at the Bar of the Week getting hammered. Even though I didn't really enjoy doing accounting homework and probably would've preferred the BOW, in the end I felt better having stayed home and studied. And I was able to answer questions in class yesterday. What a relief.

Yesterday was the start of the Festival de la Merce, which is a massive 3-day party in Barcelona. The whole city was closed yesterday, but we still had to go to class. The buses weren't running, but fortunately a nice IESE student picked me up as I was walking up the hill to school. Good thing, because my bag was HEAVY. Class yesterday was rather uneventful... the most annoying thing was that, even though we had to be there, a lot of the administrators and service people didn't. So the cafe closed early (and also didn't serve normal lunch, just ham and cheese sandwiches) and the library wasn't even open. Nor the computer rooms. Very frustrating.

Anyway, we were all just happy to be done with such a hard week. Casey and I went to dinner downtown and then wandered around for a while among the sea of people, checking out concerts and contemplating meeting up with my friends. Around midnight I was too tired to even walk anymore, so I crashed out. Tonight the festivities will continue, so there will be plenty more to see and do.

Today Casey and I went to Park Guell and took some photos. The weather is strange today... sometimes really sunny and then suddenly overcast. Right now it's... both. Weird. Tomorrow we're going to walk up to Tibidabo and also maybe check out the Sagrada Familia.

Back to accounting for now. I didn't even go to soccer today! Here are some photos from Park Guell:

Bank Cards and Middle Names - A Study

I finally got my ATM card from La Caixa (my Spanish bank) this morning, three weeks after I was supposed to receive it! They promised to call me when it arrived, but I never received a call, so this morning I just decided to go over there first thing. The guy told me he had the card, but said I had to wait for a little while... I'm not really sure why.

Finally he came back with the magic box that I've seen so many times, full of ATM cards, none of them mine. This time I knew it would be different. He asked me my last name ("apellido") so I said, "Sadler, con S-A-D..." He went through the S's. Nothing. One more try, still no Sadler.

In a sudden (and none-too-soon) moment of clarity, I understood the confusion. I asked him to look under "Robins." And there it was. Maybe it had been there all along!?

My middle name has caused me trouble since I arrived. People don't know what to do with it. It's not part of my first name (many Spaniards have first names like Juan Carlos or Maria Isabel) and it doesn't look like a first name... But I tell them it's not my last name either, and I feel like sometimes I can see the smoke coming out of their ears as they try to figure out what to do with it. At IESE everyone thought my name was Noellerobins until I finally just had to ask them to change my name. Maybe I should've asked them to change it to the name of someone who is very good at math....

Hell, Day 2

Still rather freaked out about accounting and math. Everyone is very reassuring and very kind in their offers to help me, but I think I might be beyond salvation. If I'm already lost after 2 days (actually I was lost before we started, but who's counting) I think there's no hope.

But I'll still do my homework tonight. Or try to, anyway.

Reality Sets In (aka Deep Mierda)

Well, it has been really nice being here in Barcelona for a month, and I'm really going to miss it when I fail out of school and have to leave.

Today was the first day of precourses. My schedule was as follows (and will be the same for the rest of the week):

9:45-12:30 - Introductory Accounting
1:00-2:00 - Lunch
2:00-3:15 - Basic Quantitative Methods (aka math review... though I hadn't seen a lot of this stuff before)
3:30 - 6:15 - Spanish

Accounting went okay. I had read everything and done the problems I was supposed to have prepared in advance. I followed what was going on in class. Lunch was short... our accounting professor really likes to talk and class was half an hour longer than scheduled.

After lunch, we had this math review course. As I said, I hadn't seen some of the material before (I never had to do Calculus, and I haven't taken math since I was 16) so when people started walking out because it was too easy I felt dumb. But I was also glad that so many people stayed behind. Unfortunately, the professor just wizzed through everything and I started to feel a knot growing in my chest. By the time class was over, I thought I might throw up. And I still had to sit through two hours of Spanish.

I have been trying to read the 4th chapter of my accounting book (we had to read 3 chapters before the first class) tonight and I just can't figure it out. Why is something called a "debit" when you are gaining assets and a "credit" when you're losing them? This makes no sense. And here I thought I'd at least have an advantage because I understand the English language. Clearly I was mistaken!

To everyone in the States... if you have missed me, fear not. I will be back sooner than you think.

!

I got the highest grade in the class on my Spanish test! I'd better enjoy this while it lasts because once the real classes start, I think I'll be the person at the bottom of the curve helping everyone else out.

It has been raining since last night around 10pm, but supposedly it will clear up after today. Soccer is still on for 5pm, but we'll see who actually shows up if it's still raining in 4 hours.

I have to run errands now while the stores are still open (nothing is open here on Sundays, and very few places are open Saturday afternoons, which makes going to class on Saturday even more unreasonable) and I think I also have to go to the police station because my friend Kathy had her wallet stolen on the bus last night and needs a translator. Always an adventure here in Spain.

Hot dates!

Wednesday night I had a really hot date:


I think I did a little better last night!


Last night, IESE organized a small concert for any 1st year students who were interested. It was at the Cercle del Liceu, which is a private opera club that is apparently very exclusive. I figured this would be my only chance to get in there, so I jumped at the opportunity. We had to be in evening wear, so everyone raced home from class at 6:15 to change and head down to La Rambla by 8pm. The concert only lasted about half an hour (a string quartet of young musicians played pieces by Mozart, Haydn, and Casals) which was a little disappointing. In fact, when it was over, we weren't sure if it was just a break between pieces or if we had seen the whole recital.




The usual Thursday night Bar of the Week event was also scheduled, but the bar didn't open until 10, so a group of us had tapas in Placa Real. The new director of Career Services happened to be with us, and picked up the tab! I should hang out around Career Services more often... if only for free food. Getting a job really isn't on my to-do list at the moment.

Around 10:30 we all went to the bar, Cafe Royal, which was empty. I think it started to get busy around 1am. It was a blast to be out in suits and dresses, mingling with people in jeans and t-shirts. The music was hilarious (40s-esque lounge style music) and it wasn't long before everyone was dancing. It's not very often that you can go from the snootiest place in Barcelona to a rocking club in the same evening, and it was well worth missing a little sleep!

Today we had our second spanish test. We'll get our results tomorrow morning, but we all know we passed because we moved onto the next module (8!) before we even took the test.

Tomorrow's plan: Spanish class from 9:45 to 12:30. Shopping for some school supplies (and.... clothes... which I also consider "school supplies") . Some fun fun fun accounting reading. Soccer from 5-7pm. And then dancing, of course!

R-O-L-A-I-D-S isn't the only way to spell relief

Another way is... MY PRESENTATION IS OVER!

Yes, now I can relax and rest easy. I did my presentation on the strange American perception that video games cause violence. I think I spoke for about 20 minutes, or maybe more, and then got the rest of the class involved, which was part of the assignment but also part of my plan when choosing a topic. I figured it would be one on which everyone would have an opinion, and I was right. I'm just glad it's done because now I can go back to doing other work without having it lurking in the back of my mind.

The weather is gorgeous today, but I wasn't outside much because I reviewed my presentation outline with my teacher at lunch. Hopefully it'll hold up for the rest of the week... and the weekend!

Presentations Galore

Last night, His Excellency Lee Kuan Yew, the Minister Mentor of Singapore, spoke about the role of Singapore in the Asian boom. The presentation was very dry until the end, when he answered questions from the audience and we could actually get a feel for his personality and his philosophies.

Another downpour started out of nowhere around 4pm yesterday and of course I was wearning flip flops. I have almost broken my butt many times, wearing those things in the rain or even just on wet pavement. The most dangerous areas for me are the fancy slippery tiles that the Spanish seem to be so fond of, and also the white painted crosswalk markings. Que peligroso! So I had to walk home clinging to George's arm and STILL slipped twice! Of course, I think it was partly because he was distracting me by asking me why girls don't fall in only 2 directions, like boys do. He said that, if a boy falls, he only falls either forward or backward, while girls seem to fall at strange angles. Right about then, my left foot slipped out at about a 90 degree angle and George said, "SEE?!?! How does this happen?!" I then asked George if he's this funny in Italian and he said that since his English is so bad, we are really only seeing half of his potential. Amazing.

Today I have to give my presentation in Spanish class. I'm talking about violence and video games. Easy, right? No. I've had to look up the most ridiculous things, like "Dutch codebreaker." I should've talked about cheese or something.

Ahem!

For those of you who read this and think I don´t study or do any work, I would like to clarify. I am in Spanish class for 8 hours per day and I study every night! I promise!

And that is the last I will say about studying. For now.

Thank you.

(There. Are you happy now Mom?)

:)

As promised, race day photos!

Before....


And after! ...


Man, word travels fast at IESE! This morning everyone was congratulating me on my excellent race finish. I'd better make sure I only do fantastic things, and nothing embarrassing. Sheesh!

Today we found out which sections we will be in for the first year. The first year students are divided into 2 English-speaking sections (A and B) and one Spanish-speaking section (C) and I'm in A. A for awesome. It'll be weird to only see certain students in all my classes, but I guess that's the way it goes. After I finish my Spanish course and pass the final exam (which, on my current course plan, will be in June), I will be eligible to take classes in the Spanish section. In order to get the Bilingual MBA (as opposed to a regular old boring MBA) I will have to take at least 2 courses in Spanish. So I'd better practice. Like right now.

Soy el spanish master!

We got our Spanish test results on Saturday morning, and I got 93%! Woo hoo! Our whole group did well enough to go on to the next level, which we started immediately after receiving our test results.

After class we played soccer for a couple of hours, which will hopefully be a weekly occurrance. This week we had 35 players, rather than 28, so we had 5 teams and had to rotate in and out. I think most of us didn't mind a little rest from time to time. I meant to take a nap after soccer on Saturday, but I just didn't seem to be able to make it happen. I studied for a little while and next thing I knew, people were over at our house and we were having a barbecue on the roof. From there, we went to Marco's second home, Danzatoria, and I don't think anyone was expecting the night we ended up having.

Not only were there dozens of IESE students there, no one could stop dancing. Usually people split off or go outside for a while, or get bored of dancing and sit down. But Saturday night was nonstop. We stayed at Danzatoria until it closed at 3am (at which time I really should have gone home to bed) and then walked up the hill to Mirablau, which stays open until 8 in the morning. Good thing I had my flip flops stashed in my bag, because walking up a steep hill in heels is no way to travel. At Mirablau (with heels back on of course!) the dancing continued, and we found out that one student, Benjamin from France, only APPEARS to be dorky. In reality he is lord of the dancefloor and was flinging and twirling girls around, while we all could only look on, open-mouthed, and clap and dance around him. I'll have to get a video of it next time, because I'm still not sure I believe it really happened.

I finally forced myself to go home around 5:30, but I couldn't find a cab, so I walked from Mirablau (at the top of Tibidabo) all the way home. The flip flops really got a workout Saturday night. George caught up with me on the last block, having taken a cab 1/2 an hour after Ieft. I fell asleep at 6am, and seemingly 1 second later, at 7:30, my alarm went off and I had to get up. Threw on my running clothes and met Edi on the corner and next thing I knew, I was sleeping in the passenger seat while we drove to a 5K race. I was very grumpy with myself for having agreed to do this race, but I really couldn't get out of it since I'd finked out last weekend. Another student, Ian, took photos of me zonked out in the car, which I'll have to get a hold of and post.

We arrived at the race about 45 minutes later and Edi said, "Noelle do you want to stay here and sleep or come and race?" and I grumpily said I'd race. Hmph. There were a handful of IESE students there, and Edi's friends from the last race, Pedro and Maria, and everyone was very entertained by my exhaustion as we sat in a little cafe and waited for the race to start. I thought it started at 9, but it didn't start till 10:30 (!!!!) so I could've slept at least another hour! Darn Edi and his promptness. I gradually started to wake up as we all sat around and by 10:15 it was finally warm out (it was very cold when we arrived at the race site) and we started to get ready for the run.

As we waited for the gun to go off, Edi and I realized that I'd probably had more than enough exercise in the past 12 hours... from 2 hours of soccer, 6 hours of dancing, walking all the way home, and now a race. But next thing I knew we were running up a hill (yes, the course also had to be very HILLY - yuck) and I passed the next 22 minutes mostly thinking, "Only (blank) minutes left!" depending on how long I'd been running. I finished faster than I thought... I certainly didn't think I'd do 7 1/2 minute mile splits.

Half an hour after the race, the results were posted and, suprise of the weekend:

Third place! Hahahahaha.

First exam

Yesterday we had our first Spanish exam. All the groups took it at the same time, at 5pm... when most people are the most sleepy. But it wasn't too difficult and I think I did just fine. I'll find out today, I guess.

After the test, IESE had a little welcome reception for us in the Chapel Garden, and no one knew where to find it. If they'd had it at Danzatoria we'd all know where to go, but no one had been to the chapel, let alone its garden. I might need to spend some time there when the going gets rough, praying to pass my exams. Maybe I should find out what the hours are...

Last night, Cary (from SF) and her roommate had a little party at their house. These get-togethers are funny because we spend so much time together that we mostly end up taking stupid photos and talking about the same silly things over and over again. You know you've had a fun night when you walk home taking more dumb photos.

Fiesta Italiana

It has been raining (hard) for three days, but it's supposed to stop tomorrow. Apparently, the storm we had yesterday was strong enough in the southern part of the city to qualify as Barcelona's first-ever tornado. It certainly has been interesting. This morning when I came back from the gym and was getting ready for class, it was somehow pouring rain but also brilliantly sunny. Had I known I'd be doing my MBA in Hawaii I would have brought a surfboard.

We are almost done with our first week of class, and we are all taking our first Spanish test tomorrow at 5pm to determine whether we move on to the next level. Group 6 is very entertaining and we always have a great time talking and laughing in class, and our teacher is seems pleased that she doesn't have to push us to talk. In fact, it's quite the opposite... What else would you expect from a class with 2 Italian guys and a Belgian feminist. Caramba!

Last night, Federico cooked pasta for our entire group of 10. He lives with Jill (the Belgian femenist) and Mikael from Russia. Mikael is in Group 1 - aka Absolute Beginners - so there were a few people there from his class as well. Jill and Federico are like an old married couple, always picking on each other and giving each other a hard time... but with Italian and Flemish accents, which makes it all so much more fun for everyone else. We had a great time eating and chatting and I managed to be back home by midnight. Federico and Francis (from the UK) managed to go out to a club till 4 am... and still stay awake all day. Impressive.

Here are our lovely hosts, Jill and Federico:


And el magnifico grupo 6 from left to right: Federico (Italy), Jan-Erik (Norway), Jill (Belgium), yours truly, Robain (Netherlands), Francis (UK), Andreas (Switzerland), Matteo (Italy), Carol (Chicago), and Mikael from Grupo 1(Russia):

The only one missing from our photo is Ali from the UK, who had already made plans for the evening, unfortunately.

Tonight, of course, there is a party. It's the usual Thursday Bar of the Week (BOW) event, and this week it's at a place called Justin. But it starts at 11:30 so I'm torn between going out and going to bed early so I can swim in the morning. I have four hours to decide, so let the countdown (and studying) begin!

Exhausted already!

Last night we had a massive thunderstorm, unlike anything I've ever experienced. I woke up at 3:45 to the loudest thunder I've ever heard, and the brightest lightning. I couldn't fall back to sleep at first because I was wondering if my poor bicycle was getting wet on the terrace (the covered one, not the rooftop one) but I thought that I got up I'd never fall asleep again. Of course, I couldn't sleep anyway because I was thinking about the bike and anyway it was too noisy.

I finally got up an hour later to check on things and found Marco in the living room, brining in the clothes that had been hanging on the terrace. We're lucky we didn't lose anything. I brought my bike into the living room, but I still couldn't sleep until sometime after 5 I guess. George woke up too and tried to take photos of the lightning but said he was never able to capture it.

At 6:45 my alarm went off for swimming and it felt like I'd only been asleep for 2 minutes. Tonight I'll sleep well!

Turns out everyone at IESE (and probably everyone in Barcelona) was awake for at least an hour. I've never seen a storm last for so long. It was still going at 7:30 when I was walking back to the apartment from the gym, but it stopped just before we walked to school, fortunately.

Today was another long day of Spanish class, from 9:45 to 6:15, and now I have to do homework. There is a party going on at someone's house, but I can't be bothered. I'm too tired!

More Pictures

A few more pictures from the weekend...

Marco doing what he does best. And that's Huy, who is Vietnamese but grew up in Germany.


Gustavo from Brazil. This guy is a party all by himself!


And a photo from after Friday's soccer match. We played from 5-7 and it was SO HOT. I think it finally started to cool down around 7:30 or 8pm. And we played on really hard turf so everyone's feet were hurting, including mine. The field was way up on the mountain so we had a beautiful view of the city, but I was looking for the goal the whole time of course. :) That's Kyle from Vancouver.

First Day of Spanish!

Today was the first day of Spanish class. I ended up in Group 6 (of 10), which is lower than I'd expected, but I figured it would be nice to have a review. My teacher is really nice, though I feel like I could definitely be in a higher group. However, I've heard that the teachers in the groups above mine aren't so great, so I think I'm happy to stick it out where I am.

My class has 10 people, including 4 women, which is unusual since the whole MBA program is apparently only about 20-25% female. We had another American, Carol from Chicago, Ali from London, and Jill from Belgium. Plus Federico and Matteo from Italy, Jan Erik from Norway, Francis from London, and Romain from the Netherlands. A very entertaining group.

We had a little intro session from 9:45 to 11 and then went straight into Spanish basically until 6:15, with a break for lunch at 1. We were all so exhausted at the end of the day! Actually, we were all so exhausted by lunch! And this is nothing compared to what is to come in October. God help me.

I finally got some photos from the party we had Saturday, so here they are. And no, our elevator still isn't fixed! They said hopefully they'd have it resolved by tomorrow morning. Whoops.

Here, Edi and I show off some of the beer we bought!


Marco and George prepared a fantastic tomato salad:


One student, Roy, has brought his wife and new baby with him from the US. His baby, Sophia, was thrilled to be hanging out with everyone:



Here I am with Alex and his girlfriend Natalia, who also helped a ton with the party setup:

Last Day Before School!!!

Today my body decided for me. It was a day of rest. And cleaning.

Yesterday afternoon we all went to an enormous supermarket and bought supplies for the party. We had three carts full of groceries - mostly soda, juice, beer, paper plates, etc. - 5 people, and 2 cars. We had all hoped to have a nap before the festivities began, but it wasn't to be. Once we got everything into the house, we started setting up for the party. The first guest arrived promptly at 9, and the party didn't end till we had to kick everyone out just before 3am. We had notified our neighbors about the party, and invited them, and we actually got to meet our next door neighbors as we were preparing everything around 7. We figure around 80 people came, but there may have been more.... we didn't really try to keep track!

Everything went well until the very end when someone thought it would be a good idea to fit 7 people in a 4-person elevator. It got stuck between floors and the people inside forced the doors open and somehow climbed out. Unfortunately, in doing so, they broke the elevator completely. We had to call the company this morning and they sent someone over who apparently couldn't fix it alone, so two guys are coming tomorrow. Hopefully we won't have to replace any parts. Aside from that, it was a great party and everyone seemed to have had a great time. I'll have pictures up later. They're all on Marco's camera.

I didn't run my 10K this morning. I woke up at 8:00 to drilling in the street, again (I can't believe they work on Sunday mornings!) and tried to go back to sleep but finally just dragged myself out of bed around 9. I didn't really want to be cleaning the terrace in the heat of the day, so I just got started right way. Marco got up a little while later and pitched in, and then Alex and Natalia, so it wasn't too bad by the end. George woke up just as we'd all finished, so he got stuck cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen floor.

It was too hot to go out during the day today, so I stayed in and studied some Spanish and tried to get organized for tomorrow. I got my Spanish results, and didn't get placed where I thought I would. It's very strange, because there are people in the group right above me who are completely freaked out over being placed so high.... Anyway, I'm in group 6 (of 10), and it's probably a good thing because I can always use a review.

This evening I finally took my bike out for a spin. It's making some funky noises so I'll have to take it to a shop at some point for a once-over, but it was great to finally get out and ride. I went up the hill past IESE, which is STEEP, and then got to enjoy the breeze on the way back down. I'll need to find some other riders to show me the good routes to take around town.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spanish class. We start at 9:45 with an intro and welcome thing for an hour or so and then we start our actual classes at 11:15. After that, we'll be in Spanish class from 9:45-6:15 Monday thru Friday and 9:45 to 2pm on Saturdays until Sept 17th, which is when we'll also add our pre-courses in finance and god knows what else. I shudder to think!

Now I'm still sweaty and gross from riding so I'd better take a shower. Party photos still to come!

Busy day!

First of all, I went to the bank AGAIN yesterday (4th time) to try to get my ATM card but it's still not ready and they don't know when it will be. Finally I just gave the lady my phone number and asked her to call me when it arrives. Marco said to took 3 weeks to get his. Awesome!

Yesterday morning Marco woke George and me up at 6:45 and we went to the gym to swim. Good thing, because when my alarm went off before he knocked on my door, I just felt like going back to sleep. But I would've felt like a sucker if I'd skipped out on swimming. I'm lucky that my roommates are active because we will keep each other motivated to stay in shape, even after classes start. Marco has decided that, like me, he wants to train for a triathlon, so he's going to buy a used road bike. I'm going to buy a second bike also, but a crappy one for riding around town since I can't lock up my road bike without losing all the parts to thieves.

After the gym, we went to the school and took our Spanish exam. We had a little intro and then we were broken into two big groups. My goup took the grammar test first, then had the oral exam. The grammar test was 90 questions on the computer and quite difficult. I think toward the end it got to areas I was never very good at in the first place, even in high school, but I'm sure I did well enough to be put into a decent level. Plus, the computer room was absolutely freezing and everyone was trying to warm up their hands. It's really hot in Barcelona right now and we were all warm from walking up the hill to school, so we wouldn't have been complaining if it wasn't exceptionally cold! Then I had my oral exam, for which I was in a smaller group of 5, and everyone was SO GOOD at Spanish. I the the groups may have been based on the little mini proficiency exam we did during the summer.... we had two people who were basically fluent, and then three (including me) who were decent and could contribute to the conversation. We were given a case and 2 problems to discuss... business stuff, so I'm sure I would've done much better had it been any other subject! Oh well, I'll find out how I did on Monday morning. At least my accent sounds good, though it's obvious I didn't learn Spanish in Spain!

After the test, Alex, George, Marco and I went to the sporting goods store to buy a soccer ball. I had to buy some turf shoes because I left mine in NYC and Marco had to find socks and shorts that would coordinate with his blue Italian jersey. At 5, a huge group of students went to a big recreation area way up the mountain for a soccer match. Since there were 28 of us, we split into teams of 7 and played 2 matches simultaneously going across the field. Despite being excruciatingly hot, it was really fun. It's great that my classmates are all very sporty and active. It's a perfect environment for me. (Mom - insert "I told you so" here.) Granted, I'm saying all of this before classes actually start. We'll see how I fare with microeconomics and the like!

After 2 hours of soccer, we all came home to get ready for the big BOW (bar of the week) party at Mirablau, which is a bar and disco at the top of Tibidabo. These are organized by 2nd year students and usually happen on Thursdays, but it was Friday this week because we had our test yesterday morning. Around 1am we got bored with Mirablau and decided to go down the hill to Danzatoria. Marco said, "I think there's a shortcut" and pointed to a little dirt path leading down the (very steep!) hill. Good thing I had my flip flops in my handbag, because we went down a windiing dirt road with rocks and tree roots in the dark. Fortunately, George was right in front of me, so anytime I saw him trip, I knew to be careful. Ha. Of course, Marco was right and we ended up right in front of Danzatoria (never argue with Marco about Danzatoria) and so I changed back to my heels and we rolled into the club. Unfortunately, I started losing my voice very early on last night, so I couldn't stay out for long. Especially knowing that a whole weekend still lies ahead!

Today we are going shopping for everything we'll need for tonight's barbecue party. I've put myself in charge of the music, since I'm pretty useless in the kitchen... I leave that to Marco. We are expecting anywhere from 60-120 people, so it should be a fun night! Good thing we had the smaller party (which got much bigger than expected) before Nicole left, because we figured out what we need to do for this one. PAPER PLATES. Among other things.

Tomorrow morning I'm supposedly running a 10K race at 10am.... ?!

And finally, George has been really curious about my peanut butter lately. He really wanted to try it and yesterday he finally did. I wasn't sure if he actually liked it, but he kept eating it, so I guess he must have! If it's all gone from my cupboard, I'll know what happened.

A day for studying

Yesterday I was pretty boring. After taking Nicole to the airport, I just came back to the house and studied Spanish most of the day. It didn't help that my stomach was upset (and still is, a bit) and that my throat was hurting. Too many late nights in loud places I guess.

Tomorrow I have to be at the school at 9am for my Spanish proficiency exam. Apparently, it's very quick - a 10 minute written test and a 5 minute oral one - but we've been told we will all be there until about 1pm. And on Monday, Spanish classes begin. I have heard there will be 10 sections based on fluency, and that you can jump to a higher section if you progress quickly. The top section (#10) has the option of taking the official proficiency exam at the end of the month. If you pass that, you don't have to take any more Spanish and you can get your bilingual degree. Otherwise, you have to take Spanish throughout the first year and THEN take your proficiency exam if you want the bilingual degree. I'm pretty rusty on my grammar so I'm sure I'll test somewhere in the middle, which I don't mind because I like language classes.

I just went to the bank to pick up my ATM card and they said to come back tomorrow. I think I've now been at the bank setting up my account as many times as I was at the Consulate trying to get my visa!

Here are some photos from the top of Tibidabo, where Nicole and I went on Tuesday morning. We walked all the way to the tram station near the top, and then took the tram (called the Funicular) to the very top and had these beautiful views of all of Barcelona.





And of course, one final George picture... from our party Tuesday night.