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 3

The 5th consecutive day of waking up before 8 (some days were 5am), this was even more intense than when I have to go to school haha.

Early morning we toured in Sagrada Familia, the only building that was named a UNESCO world heritage site before it was even completed. Third product of Gaudi, the Genius. Unfortunately he died in a car crash before he could finish this beautiful piece (it mattered to him a lot as he did have a close relationship with god.) strangely enough, it was STILL under progress up to date… The 18 euros we paid to get in was said to fund the completion of the cathedral. So I guess money well spent ?

The exterior should be nicer in summer where they don’t have all the annoying construction going on. Fascinatingly, the cathedral looked as though it was made of burning candles, of melted wax. I would not say the aura it emits was peaceful like most bright white churches elsewhere; rather it projects a solemn but strange and slightly dark emotions. Perhaps to Gaudi, religion isn’t always clean and white as sheets? Either way, the entire structure is again a flawless piece for sure.

Going up one of the tallest tower was faintly fearful and extremely windy. Going down the spiral staircases (remember how Gaudi didn’t like straight lines?) made me dizzy too.

Nonetheless, I got to really take in the finely designed interiors and observed the effect of shifting sunlights on tinted glasses. Unlike most other churches I have seen, the tinted glasses in this cathedral does not portray any bible stories; it was just resembling irregular shapes and juxtaposing colors that have a nice contrast.

JUST LOOK AT THAT, when you were inside this magnificent temple, it felt like anything can happen, all wishes can come true and nobody will ever leave you. It really was that magical.

Then we rushed to our second spot for today, mount montjuic.

It was a nice walk if you have the time, but if not I think it is skippable. The museum looked legit but if you are not into arts, like us, the montjunc is only fun for a stroll and taking funny photos.

Now I have to stress on lunch. We were recommended a place where you pay around 13 euros for buffet, including sushi, sashimi, grilled seafood and ice cream. I would say it definitely was worth the price if you can eat like we did. It was definitively the most filling meal I have had for the past month and although my stomach hasn’t been practicing much in France, it picked up my usual pace after some warm up 😉 There only limited sushi and sashimi but good enough to extinguish my thirst for jap food. The grilled shrimp, clams, fish and pork was good. I lost count after the 7 scoops of ice cream but it was unbelievable how hearty the favors are! It was just walls ice cream but of quite special flavors like local Katalan cake, coconut, cinnamon etc. on top of that I got to eat all usual ones like strawberry cheesecake, mango and lemon sorbet etc. I was on 200% full :p NOT healthy at all.

While one of our companion had to rest, I walked into an orange store with Annie because it says on SALE. After huge effort of opening the door, the sales lady asked how she can help us. As we turned around, we saw all the mannequins with a huge belly… OOOOhhh it’s a store for PREGNANT WOMEN. HAHAHAHA Embarrassing…

After that, we obviously needed some walking. So we started the longest marathon we have had in Barcelona so far, and made it to hospital de saint pau after 3 hours. Unfortunately we missed the opening hour by just a bit. Oh well that’s life.

Then we talked over mojito because it was still early, and we were too full for dinner.

This is an insider joke. One day we passed by a restaurant in Madrid, and there was a gentleman was holding a lady’s hand and you could really see sparks fly between lol. I love Spain.

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.

Madrid Day 2

We got up early and started our day with leftover tortilla. With Siu lee, we were finally free from reading maps. (And being lost) Spanish supermarkets made us realize how expensive chez moi is.

Museum del Romanticismo

Another market

Fountain 🙂 and some other things, problem with Spain is most buildings looked like they were meant to be touristic spots…

For lunch we had tapas again at an even cheaper place, 8.5 euros for a mojito, a beer and enough food for 2. I was literally in heaven. It was not just about the price, but the quality of the food the generous portions and sizzling heat. YES I burned my tongue…but the meal was oh so filling both literally and emotionally. My happy level spiked every time I eat in Spain and I was glad that I don’t live here, or else I might end up doubling my size.

Church: we got kicked out by the priest :p and I spilled water… Long story

Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, we were supposed to go to Prado too, but after 3 hours of seeing arts, I realized that’s just not my thing :p

Well there were tears in my eyes, perhaps the paintings touched my heart, or I was just yawning too much :p

We took a break for churros dipped with chocolate and I could not stop eating them despite how fattening they were. Spain IS heaven.

Then we shopped again and unfortunately men section was either on the top or bottom most floor and Siu lee was pissed off, I quote “so men do not need to wear clothes or shoes, right? They just go around naked.”

Walking for 12 hours straight was exhausting so it was time to go home at 10. But wait we haven’t had dinner! No worries, this is Spain, and we are in one of the largest cities, so after a miracle of fitting all I bought into my backpack, we went for dinner!

Note to all: make sure you come with luggage space, sale is EVERYWHERE and you can always buy ham 🙂

We went out for tapas again and frozen yogurt (I still haven’t seen any in Nice 😦 and since I have been living in a small town, I was so surprised to see so many cars at 12 am and 6 parallel lanes. And most importantly there were no dog shit here.

The next morning, we headed straight to airport, to our next destination – Barcelona! The hostel receptionist was kind enough to escort us to the check out place at 5:30 am 🙂

Feb 1 6:50 am stuck in airport for another 2.5 hours due to captain being sick, at least I got 5 euros free food

Madrid Day 1

After spending a night at Madrid airport, we were off to visit the Madrid Palace and Plaza de Oriente and it welcomed us with windy but sunny weather.

There were kids who saw us and started doing gang nam style dancing … Strange but it happened 4 times in our trip.

We stopped by a library (I managed to recognize biblioteca despite my extremely limited Spanish;)
Then we got kicked out for reasons that I did not understand because the grumpy lady refused to speak English. (Perhaps it’s for playing with their seemingly ancient books? :p)

Then we visited a really warm but rather expensive market, Parque de Retiro, and a nice church. (Well they kind of all looked the same after awhile, but still worth paying a visit 🙂 and I promised a dear friend to visit churches and take photos.

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It was already 2 pm and in Spain, that means lunch time! We finally joined my equally food loving friend Annie who is on exchange in Madrid for a Spanish tapas lunch. I had to eat 2 bread because well I wasn’t full with just one. It was 3.2 euros including a beer! I started liking Spain from that precise moment when I dive into the Jamon croissant along with a gulp of bubbly cold beer.

We also passed by Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Sol and witnessed a protest…That was when I realized Madrid is the capital of Spain.

Note to self: improve your poor geography.

The late afternoon was for shopping! Everywhere was rebajas. And I carefully spent just a bit :p
At night Siu lee(with a I can’t recognize him hairstyle) joined us from Valencia and impressed all of us with his Spanish (then we realized there were English on the menu.) xD