Hola Barcelona Part 1 – IESE MBA Summer School

(yes, the title rhymes on purpose :P)

Introduction

After a rather dreadful long haul flight (which I normally enjoy; the undisturbed self selected movies watching and books reading, but Air China didn’t have that luxury and I forgot to bring a book -_-), I landed into Barcelona again after 3.5 years under the blazing Catalunya heat! I promised to be back but indeed it has been too long… I barely remember the places I have been to but Barcelona’s food and culture has yet again imprinted a flavorful and charming impression in my heart. It was and still is one of my favorite Europe cities 🙂

Thieves, thieves everywhere

Nonetheless, a city with thieves…sometimes I just ponder, what life scenario must they go through, to convince and justify themselves to cheat and steal? Lucky enough, we only ALMOST got picked pocket. It wasn’t a pleasant experience of course, considering we were at that time walking in a rather wide street with passerbys at merely 10pm or so. However, I think it is worth recalling the details to learn their stealing patterns to be more alert next time round.

First he asked if we have fire for his cigarettes, then he quickly came close and asked if we’re Koreans. We tried to ignore him and walk quicker but he just leaned in and started doing random soccer kicks…and there it was, the moment of truth.

I saw the guy’s hand was on the wallet already! Then I shouted and he just laughed and said he was joking…at the moment it was hard to react because we were both shocked. Anyways, note to self: STAY ALERT when in Europe! Or basically just anywhere you go unless it’s Taiwan 😛

IESE MBA Summer School

More updates are coming up now that I have completed the primary reason on why I am in Spain: IESE MBA summer school! Sadly, the 5 days course flew by quickly, but the great thing is I have met new people, made new bonds and germinated new thoughts 🙂

It was also a long 2 years since I was in a classroom again so I really treasure the time I had in class: learning new thoughts from Professor (like the implications of Brexit from Econ and ethical motivation from management prof etc.); spending hours and hours on discussions that are otherwise meaningless if not for the case presentation (but I really enjoyed the collision of ideas with my team from different backgrounds). All these are luxuries that I simply do not have anymore now that I started working. So this week-long experience together with the career advisor of IESE go me thinking about “career”. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my job, but aside from that, there isn’t really anything else going on in my life.

I always knew that your 13730655_10155030589992785_1428188748_o life only really begin after you go through the set path of academics: Kindergarten to Primary School, to Secondary School and higher education. Because once you really graduated from your basic “teachings” and enter the real world, you are solely responsible for yourself. You are basically free to choose from anything and there is no one for you to follow behind anymore. I used to think that the hardest part is getting a job, then I know the toughest thing is finding a job you love. But now I realized, THE million dollar question is: what else are you gonna do for THE REST of your life? Because a job is only a part of it. I am thankful for this week of learning because now, I am beginning to have some idea and will continue to work towards it.

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Barcelona Day 5

As our flight was in late noon, we planned to go to camp nou to shop for souvenirs for my dear brothers (NOT LOL) but we got carried away by the shops and wet market nearby and went back to check out late! Good that the staff was so nice he still returned our deposits and offered to store our luggage for free.

For brunch I had cafe con leche (latte, I could finally not add sugar to my coffee :O does that make me a grown up now?!), a slice of honey cheese cake and croissant xocolat.

The moment I sat down with my tray of food. It hit me…this is the end of my first trip in Europe. I know I shouldn’t be sentimental, I am only 19 and there is plenty of time for me to come back. But rationally thinking, when will I afford this amount of time to come all the way to Spain? Life is an ongoing wheel and once something has happened, the next moment it is gone and you are still moving forward and forward. All that’s left is the tracks of shadow

I bought boots and ham and struggled to fit them all in my backpack. At the end I resorted to wearing most jackets on myself.

After that I had to adios Spain and bonzoir France again 😦 I will miss everything in Spain and the casual culture of eating whenever and however you want.

The next day I dealt with housing insurance, groceries, laundry, homework AND internship application. Then at night I embarked on another journey to BORDEAUX. 🙂

Who knows exchange actually made me worked more efficiently than back home? I am as busy as before, but this is the delightful kind of busy.

It also marked 1/5 of my exchange O.o what the heck?!

Barcelona Day 4

The tiredness from constantly walking and being hyper finally kicked in but that did not stop us from making the most out of our trip. We determinedly left hostel at 9am again and stuck to our plan. 🙂

First we took 1.5 hours up Montserrat Mountain. Legend has it that’s where Gaudi got his inspiration. The cable car was sadly under construction so we took a small train instead. It was quite pretty up there. The mountains did remind me of Gaudi’s design (or may be I was clouded by this piece of information 😛 and it distorted my filter – TOK)

Since this was off season, we got to explore the place quite thoroughly.

People who likes hiking would no doubt like this place, but as said before, we were exhausted so we just went directly to the famous boys choir. We climbed up a statue that says “No climbing” 😀

I was beaming in Spain everyday. Weather does have a huge impact on someone’s emotions. Food, Weather, People – make sure I take that into account when I choose where to work in the future ^^.

The old couple were holding each other’s hands… how loving and kind even after all these years. Perhaps being around Europe long enough would eventually make me believe that love is not a myth. It is true and is here to stay.

The church itself was quite impressive, especially the plaza area in front of it. There was also a black faced Virgin Mary inside.

The boys were really young and cute. I imagined if we get to hear Angels sing, they would have sounded like them.

Here the hawkers all sell the same products (I don’t understand how they survive, no differentiation point at all!) and I bought 6 flavors of honey ! They were from different flowers and have different healing power. 😉

We had lunch near the arena and the pork intestines tasted really good. The cheese risotto tasted way better than it looked. But we were too hungry, and forgot to take photos of it 😛

Finally we have seen most of Barcelona and decided to just shop and walk to the port vell beach. On the way I found MALTESERS lolly stick. It made my day!!! There were other flavors but my stomach refused to cooperate with my desire 😦

We wrapped the day with a last visit to a nearby plaza. I was rather sad that it was the last night I have with Spain. 😦 I will definitely be coming back.

Barcelona Day 2

It was yet another long day! We headed for Palau de Musica Catalana guided tour (11 euros an hour) This is again a UNESCO world heritage site which was welcoming and absolutely colorful.

The design is again closely linked to nature. As a theater, however, a lot of audio and visual conditions were also taken into account and apparently, even the type of materials that the chairs were made of can distort the concert experience!

The stage was designed where a local Catalan musician statue is on one side while Beethoven’s statue on another. Muses with instruments from all over the world were crafted at the background and roses were commonly used throughout the construction. The center ceiling was a transparent, color tinted glass that symbolizes the sun, where all things originated from.

When we left, we came across a car parade headingto Monte Carlo. So exciting, always something going on 🙂

We also passed by another gothic church which actually wasn’t that amusing anymore. It was like the 10th church we have seen so far. (I think in Europe, 90% of the tourist spots are plazas, palaces, fountains, churches, markets, and museums)

For lunch I got to meet up with Alice and we had an awesome brunch at milk with her roommates. It was nice to see familiar faces in a foreign country.

Afterwards, we went to Park Gueill, also a Gaudi product. It was very him and the absence of straight lines was again his signature.

There was also a lizard just randomly situated at the park. I got to say Gaudi’s children should sue Agnes b. for the lizard logo.

As we left, we ran into Priscilla and her friend! i mean come on, i know it’s a small world after all, but how did we just bump into the only person we know in a big city like Barcelona?

So it was time for dinner again but police told us that supermarkets were closed, right, it was a Sunday, I kept forgetting that. So no meat ball and we had to buy other things instead.

Note to self: yet again proven the importance of contingent planning.

It was still early so Annie and I went to a wax museum bar and had Cava and Moscatel in the jungle. There were waterfalls and floating nanny in the bar. ODD. Fundamentally though, the talk was really enjoyable as we turned out to have a lot in common 🙂

It finally rained on us on the way back but my mood was too good to be affected by mere raindrops.

Barcelona Day 1

Barcelona Day 1
First I have to talk about the hostel, cool and chic in Collblanc. It deserves perfect score. Despite the location, (around 15 mins away from most things) for 8 euros a night, it was beyond worthy.

1) really nice staff, we shopped until 12 but we were to check out at 11 but he still gave us our deposit back :’) and he showed us where to visit and helped us plan.
2) extremely clean and spacious room and toilet
3) full equipped kitchen and common area
4) for FC Barcelona Fans, you are 10 mins away from Camp Nou
5) the neighborhood was safe and there was a fresh market just nearby and many bakeries and stores!

All in all, we had a great time in the hostel.

For lunch we met with Annie and her friend, who happens to also know my friends. And her friend also knows another friend of mine who is on exchange in Pamplona. What a pequeno world 😉

I had salad, paella and dessert for 13 euros and it effectively quenched my desire for good food.

Then we strolled along Passeig de Garcia and visited one of the many Gaudi products: Casa Batillo.

I did not like it at first, but after the detailed description and the visit, I was extremely intrigued by the concept of the house.

Gaudi was greatly inspired by nature, and in the movie Prometheus, there was a quote when they landed on another planet: “god does not built in straight lines.” I wonder if it was a linkage to Gaudi.

There were no straight lines in the mansion and the way it interacted with natural light for both practical and aesthetic purpose was simply magical.

The monster looking mansion is like a living organism itself. It was so practical with all the air holes, use of space and to let light enter, but at the same time so emotional, with the use of distorted glass, flowery decorations, curves and shades of blue…it really moved me, at one point I almost teared up and I never knew architecture can be so overwhelming.

The windows are smallest on top and biggest at the bottom as light travels easiest to the top level. The shades of blue tiles are also darkest on top so the whole wall will look consistent under sunlight.

How can someone possibly be such a genius?

Note to self: make my kids architects

Along the streets there were many funky looking buildings too, like this, with its hair all messed up :p

Then we walked along another market where we shared scoops of Pistachio, kinder bueno n kit kat ice cream for 3.7 euros. 🙂 you could kind of tell I was in ecstasy :p