Turning the page on Barca...

Alright, so this is my last posting!

My exchange at ESADE was an incredible and unforgettable experience and this can only be because of the terrific people I met; to the ESADE administration, the full-time and exchange students: THANK YOU! And I guess being located in Barcelona definitely didn't hurt!!

On that note, I would like to wish you all good health and great success in your current/future careers.

Adios amigos,

JP

The outside was inside, get it?

Went to a nice "chill" bar on the week-end called El Bosc de les Fades. It's very nice as the inside looks like outside; it would definitely make the guys from the movie "A night at the Roxbury" very envious. It's a dark, warm/humid forest with trees and waterfalls. I felt like at any time we would see hobbits popping up from this "Lord of the ring" like decor. Anyways, it's a very nice place and would definitely recommend it for some relaxing drinking.

Alright, it's now "show time"! From now on (actually since Monday) it's raining presentations, papers, take home mid-terms and finals, etc. Sleeping time has been brought down to a minimum. It's actually not that bad, but still...gotta go!

JP

JP at the Opera? What???

Last Thursday I went to the opera...yes yes, you heard right, I went to the opera! Basically I was given good tickets to the premier of Boulevard Solitude at the Liceu theater in Barcelona. All the singing was in German, a language I am very familiar with (not!) but there were subtitles in English and Catalan. Although the piece itself was visually incredible and driven by good music, I found the story quite flat (boring!). But then again, please don't rely on my critic because although I went open minded for the possibility of having my negative perception about opera changed, I left halfway through as it was just too damn boring! Yeah yeah...I don't get it...I can "appreciate" classical music and theater, but opera is just not my thing. However, I must say that the theater Liceu is quite nice!!!

Considering the week was light in terms of workload, I thought the lyrical content of this song might summarize best what I ALMOST went through (I must add it was well deserved, of course). After the first few seconds you'll get the point (very repetitive); I apologize for the visual content that might offend some.

SPANDOX - TO THE CLUB


Alright, gotta go write papers...Have a good week...

JP

Lisbon: Underrated

So we spent a few days in Lisbon (capital of Portugal)...what a beautiful city! People listing Prague as their favorite probably haven't seen Lisbon yet; the architecture and the colors are simply incredible. So much to see and do, that 3 full days are not enough if you include the surrounding villages as part of your visit. We pretty much saw most of the capital in the first 2 days, and then spent a day in Sintra which is one of the many villages about 45 minutes away from central Lisbon by train and mainly known for its numerous castles. You'll literally feel like in a Robin Hood movie. Lisbon also has 1 main castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge), a nice cathedral (La Cattedrale Sé Patriarcal) and a popular monastery (Mosteiro dos Jeronimos), among other touristic sites (i.e.Torre de Belem, etc.). The night life requires some use to, as it starts in a neighborhood called Bairro Alto filled with very small bars requiring most people to drink outside, on the narrow streets. So that was weird. And then they go to the various night clubs...

Transportation to the main touristic attractions is quite easy. I would recommend staying in a hotel not to far from the downtown area (neighborhood: Baixa). From there you can pretty much see all the surrounding sites in one day (castle, the Santa Justa elevator, the cathedral, etc.), and the next day you can go to Belem (neigborhood about 20 minutes away by tramway) to visit the monastery, museums, another castle, and the river side, etc. As for the restaurant selection, I did not experience bad food; they were all good. Just don't visit the ones in the touristic areas; if you go to Bairro Alto you'll find some very good ones for instance. Compared to the rest of Europe, Lisbon is cheap.

Portuguese are not necessarily the most social, somewhat similar to Catalans, when it comes to the service industry (tourism, restaurants, public transportation, etc.). However we did meet some very friendly people and unlike the Spanish, most Portuguese speak English. One interesting note is that for some awkward reason all the drug dealers were chasing me to sell some of their "stuff". I don't know if it's because of the long hair, or the fact that I hadn't shaved that day, or the puffy eyes (lack of sleep...I told you there was too much to see) but I have never been so harassed in my life...they'd actually cross the street with me and continue whispering in my ears. One even offered to educate me about the BENEFITS of drugs, for free!! Awkwardly these guys are quite knowledgeable when it comes to speaking languages; no matter what language I would switch to (to make it clear that I don't speak their language), they'd follow. I guess being a translator doesn't pay as much.

Basically, Lisbon is a great city to visit, and this trip really made me want to explore Portugal further. If you are wondering between Lisbon and Prague, this might be shocking, but I'd recommend Lisbon. I truly believe the city is underrated; but then again, I don't want to boost your expectations. However, I can say you will not be disappointed. In winter might be better as there are less tourists and the weather is very acceptable (around 15 celcius), however in the summer you'd be able to also enjoy the beach...

Here are some pictures.

JP

Elevator story

Here's yet another example of Spanish engineering nonsense...

I'm in a land where inaccuracies and inefficiencies are part of everyday life, with 10 minutes being 30, 2 miles being 4, lenience towards speeding limits, difficulties in forming a straight line at a bus stop, and the list goes on (trust me). BUT, do not try to exceed the suggested maximum number of people permitted in an elevator, as a max of 4 is really a max of 4 (not 6)!!! You see where I am going with this...Yes, I got stuck in an elevator between 2 floors...but looking on the bright side of things, I was with 5 girls...(apparently it's some people's death wish). However, nobody outside the elevator gave me a high survival rate as they expected me to be the first one to be eaten, if it came to that and anyways according to my friend men cannot last as long as women without food...so there you go. Happy it only lasted 15 minutes!

Typical elevator sizes are 1x1 meter, so fitting more than 3 people is nearly impossible. So I was very surprised when I saw this very big (by Spanish standards) box that could easily and unnoticeably fit 8 people. Granted there was a small sticker indicating a max of 4 people, and granted my friend advised us not to be more than 4 people...I thought you could multiply every rule by at least 1.5 in Spain (just like the Euro to Canadian currency)!! So we were 6. But there was no buzzer indicating the maximum weight capacity was exceeded. So in a land where everything is negotiable, I recommend you do not mess with the maximum elevator weight capacity! Which is a weird contrast with North America, where they allow a max of 12 people, but really you'll never be able to get more than 10 people in (I tried it once).

Alright, enough elevator talk. Last night was the Barcelona FC vs Liverpool game. Needless to say it was pretty crazy here...unfortunately we lost the game. Also, Tuesday night was THE carnival day in Sitges, so of course we had to go...it was pretty insane. American students compared it to the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans...and Brazilians said it was 10 times smaller than their carnival. Does that give you an idea on the size? I'll try to post the latest pictures soon...

That's it for now, going to Lisbon (or Lisboa) for the week-end.

Ciao ciao,

JP

OK, so I lied...

I promised I would spend the week-end in Barcelona and I didn't. Let me explain...

In the spirit of self-development and quick decision making (a crucial element in management) we decided to be spontaneous, make a decision and go ahead with it. So we went to Sitges Saturday night! Sitges is a small village about 30 minutes away from Barcelona by train, and very popular in the summer as it is on the beach, but also in February because of its very famous carnival (15-21 February). The big day for the carnival parade is Tuesday (the 20th), but all week long it's like a big Halloween party (with alcohol and no candies, no kids at night, and no decorated houses...but aside of that, it's exactly like Halloween) in the whole village. At night the place becomes one giant nightclub...with some of the weirdest costumes you've seen, loud music everywhere, and animated by a somewhat large gay community, relatively speaking.

Sitges pictures: click here
Andorra pictures: click here (more to be added)

Andorra is...small!

Finally have some time to write!

Andorra
I got back from Andorra late Sunday night. There’s really not much to see there (sorry to all the Andorrans out there); it’s mainly for shopping (tax free) and/or skiing. The town itself is not so big and surrounded by mountains, so that’s nice. Andorra is a very small Principality (not a country!) between Spain and France with about 70,000 habitants. Skiing (or snowboarding in my case) conditions were great; not too cold and not too icy. As it was an activity organized by the MBA group, needless to say we had quite a party on Saturday night. It’s always easier to socialize and meet other students when everyone is drinking (water). The only problem is that you don’t necessarily remember all their names the next day and just refer to them as “yo” and “hey”. No but in all seriousness, we had a great time...and the snow and cold was a good way to remember what I was missing out on in Montreal (cough cough) :-)

Barcelona
Barcelona is the host of the COMVERSE telecommunication event for the whole week. So all the hotels are booked and unfortunately taking public transportation is somewhat a hassle now. The subway is always full, and the public transportation employees chose the best week to go on strike! By the way, when you don’t speak good Spanish and hence not really aware of what’s happening in the local news, it’s kinda hard to figure out there’s a strike; but after a while at the bus stop, alone, you get the hint…and understand why so many cabs drive by your bus stop and slow down stare and wave at you…!

Valentine’s Day
Guess what, Valentine’s Day is not such a big deal in Spain…isn’t that great!?! Instead they have another holiday that is somewhat similar in April where the girl gets the guy a book and the guy gets the girl a rose. Now although I strongly believe Spain is a land of inefficiencies, I must admit they pretty much nailed it down with this one. What a great, simple, clear and headache free concept.

This week-end I’ll take a vacation from vacation, and stay in Barcelona. The weather has been incredible and the days are getting longer. Alright, gotta go do some ironing, grocery shopping, and fix a button on my jacket. Yes yes, you heard right, I, JP will be doing those things!

Andorra pictures to be updated in the coming days...

Adios!

Prague: Not for the color blind!

Praha (in Czech)...beautiful and colorful city which for some reason looks better on a cloudy day. Luckily for us, it was cloudy most of the time; and this might be why most traveling books recommend to go to Prague during the fall or winter. It's as if the lack of light gives greater weight to the colors and architectures not to mention that feel of the communist era (not that I would remember). The city is filled with very nice sculptures and impressive churches, enough to fatigue any camera lens! So on that end, Prague is definitely the most architecturally beautiful city I've been to thus far. Food is generally very good and affordable, and can pretty much satisfy all tastes. I would definitely recommend staying somewhere near the old town square as it is walking distance to all the major attraction sites and nightlife.

We rented a flat instead of a hotel. What a great idea that was (thanks Jeremy). The location doesn't get better than that (5 steps from the Old Town Square), and the place was humongous with 165 square meters...all that for only 4 people. I'd get tired of walking to the bathroom (I had to plan my trips to the bathroom 5 minutes ahead of time, or else it'd be too late for you know what)! Nightlife was great once we figured out that Czechs hangout in pubs and lounges rather than nightclubs. I would like to give you more details, but what happens in Praha stays in Praha! We tried their specialty alcoholic drink: Absinthe. 80% alcohol served with a spoon of heated/melted sugar (for the acid punch)...quite nasty, but I had to do it to be able to tell you all about it! I did it for YOU!! This must be illegal in Canada...regardless, I'll try to sneak in a bottle; it does look like mouthwash liquid after all.

Almost halfway through this [busy/hectic] week...Leaving to Andorra for the week-end. The MBA association organized a ski trip...Andorra is tax-free by the way. Considering it's a 3-hour bus ride, I'm sure that in the MBA spirit we will be educated on how to place money in the country ;-)

Added a picture folder: Prague.

JP

This should make my Indian friends jealous!

Just in case you didn't recognize her, this is Soonu Kochar, ex-ambassador of India to The Netherlands, then Argentina, and later France. But I'm sure you already knew that. I hear the questions coming...She was my Geopolitics teacher. Great course, I would definitely recommend it...very insightful class, and it generated quite interesting debates allowing you to hear different perspectives from students all over the globe. And before you ask: the flowers were from all the classmates. Why did I take a picture with her? Come on, she's huge in India...what if one day I need to outsource over there! And...since other students took pictures with her, I didn't want to get penalized for not doing the same; ok fine, I was the first one in line... :-)

Predictions for the Super Bowl: Chicago Bears will win. Por que? They have a bigger franchise value (click here) than the Colts. Since 1999, the team with the highest franchise value won the Super Bowl. Except for Pittsburgh, but that doesn't really count because there was only an $8 million gap. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Alright, that's it for now...leaving to Prague in 3 hours.

JP

Barca 3 - Celta 1

I have now been officially baptized in Spain! Just got back from my first FC Barcelona game...Great match, with 90 000 people and 4 goals in total (2 of which were penalty shots). I was expecting tappas and wine during half-time, but to my surprise they actually had hot-dogs and beer!

I managed to tape the penalty kick taken by Ronaldinho, nothing great but still better than nothing (the camera was shaking quite a bit, so sorry if you throw-up watching it): click me!

Since we're on the topic, as a side note, we had a presentation from the Director of marketing for FC Barcelona in my "Sports Marketing" class. Although the whole presentation was interesting, what really got to me was when he said that FC Barcelona (like Madrid) is a non for profit organization. The whole freakin' team is NON FOR PROFIT!?!?! They are making 300 million in revenue, but the team is non for profit. Am I missing something here? So basically, you make a net income, and you just reinvest it in the team...there's nobody at the end of the line that collects, because there's 150,000 members. Incredible...sorry, I had to let it out. I guess my brain just got corrupted over the years with all those management courses, cause I really don't get it. That might also explains why they have UNICEF on their jersey. That spot is worth 20 million/year; they are giving it to them for free, for 5 years. 20 million? That's the salary of another superstar player...Ah well, good for them. It's very honorable...but non-for-profit? common...Maybe I did a smart move by taking Social Entrepreneurship this semester!

Just finished a hectic week and week-end having to work on a bunch of papers to submit for Monday. At least the next few days should be more easy going.

Looking forward to Thursday, as some of the guys and I will be heading to Prague until Sunday! The only bad news is the weather, but hopefully it'll have time to change by the time we get there.

Careful with the newspapers!

One initiative following another, I decided to practice my Spanish by reading the local newspaper. After a full day of reading and surprisingly understanding quite a bit considering the beginner that I am, I decided to put to use the learned words next morning in my Spanish class. Surprise surprise...I picked up Catalan! The reason I even understood some of the Catalan words is not because my Spanish was good but rather because of my French! Yes, Catalan is quite similar to french (to some extent). Not knowing either language that well, I now need a trick to differentiate both languages in the newspapers; as apparently in the same newspaper some pages are in Catalan and others in Spanish. Anything to make it harder...

Back to square one,

JP

Valencia, land of the Paella...and more!

Ahhh Valencia...wow!

A few students from the ESADE MBA exchange program and myself decided to put all academic responsibilities on the side and go for a little 3-4 hours road trip to Valencia. We were initially going to be 12 but we lost 2 soldiers Friday night (if you know what I mean) as they couldn't make it for the Saturday morning meeting point. So we rented 3 Opel cars from pepecar with pepecar.com stickers. Let me tell you we were THE touristic attraction in Valencia with those stickers. Good times...

What I thought to be a small city turned out to be the 3rd largest in Spain, so it was quite big. Valencia is somewhat divided in 2 parts, between the historical and modern architectures. Both very beautiful in their respective ways. Unfortunately pictures cannot capture the beauty of this city. Not trying to sound poetic, but honestly it's one of those things where you have to be there to be able to fully contemplate and appreciate.

The city also happens to be the host of the 32nd America's Cup, which is basically the biggest yachting event. Although we got to see one of the yachts, we weren't allowed to take pictures. Close to there, on the beach, we went to a paella restaurant as it is Valencia's specialty, and although I said earlier I wasn't a fan of this dish, I'm starting to like it. At night we visited the downtown area with some of the old architecture, which blends very well with the street lighting; some of the old churches are very nice! And we ate at a restaurant that literally changed my perception about tappas, as I had the best tappas ever. So I guess we can say this trip really changed my initial perception about Spanish dishes.

Finally, just before heading back home we stopped by the "modern" art complex of museums designed by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava; which is simply incredible, and probably even more appreciated by architects. The complex is a mix of many different museums from an aquarium to the museum of arts and science, etc. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go inside as it would have taken at least 4 hours just to visit the aquarium alone, according to an employee over there. But the good news is that I plan on going back in March for some big festival, so hopefully then I will get the chance to visit the museums!

As a side note, Valencians are very very friendly and more than willing to help lost tourists...not that we needed directions or anything...cough cough. But definitely friendlier than Barcelonians.

Now I have a crazy week ahead; probably the busiest of the semester: 2 presentation, 2 papers (including an exam), and a lot of reading to do!!! I guess that's the price to pay when you decide to take the week-end off...ah well...

Here are some pictures. More to come later as I am waiting for my friends to upload theirs.

JP

You see what happens when I leave!?!

I barely had time to leave the country and already 2 things happen:
1- Montreal Canadiens can't win a game (except for the last one)!!!
2- The weather goes ballistic!!!

I must admit, week-days have been much busier than anticipated with the classes and school work. But at least the week-end looks very promising; we rented 3 cars and will be heading towards Valencia for 2 days. Apparently it's a beautiful city and the drive along the east coast is interesting. I'll update you with some pictures once back...

Alright, so to answer some of the questions I've been getting, let me throw in some informal stuff...

Food
I hope no Spanish person will read the following, but I found out I'm not a big fan of their main dishes: paella and tappas; so I guess that makes me a Spanish food hater...However, I must say that on the other hand their Italian restaurants are very good! ;-) But in general most of the restaurants here are pretty good, with tasty food, extensive menus and very nice interior designs all this at affordable prices. Although I've mainly been to the ones in the "downtown" area (so Plaza Catalunya on La Ramblas and Ferran streets) I've tried some in the non-touristic neighborhoods, and the same applies, the food is even better!

Transportation
Plain and simple: very good! It's very easy to get anywhere. As good (if not better) than in Montreal, New York, and London; pretty much the only cities to which I can compare it too. But definitely better than Athens (sorry Jimmy). Taking a cab can also be a convenient and very affordable alternative!

Shopping
I must say I am disappointed thus far. Nothing special in the selection and prices are pretty much like in Montreal. However, the selection is there...there are many stores in the downtown area from the most normal brands to the most exclusive ones. Didn't get the chance to do some real shopping yet though...

So that's it for now, gotta go do some reading and get ready for the night!

JP

Interesting week-end!

Today (Monday) I had my first presentation, and I think my team kicked ass! It was definitely the best one...then again, I might be biased...but you can ask my teammates!

On Saturday I went to visit one of the main touristic attractions in Barcelona, it's the big church under construction since 1882 called Sagrada Familia (the Holy Family). It is definitely one of the most impressive infrastructures I have ever seen. It takes hours to fully enjoy and observe all the sculptures engraved on it; it's almost tiring for the eyes. You have to see it to understand, but it's really mind blowing and incredible how someone can not only design but build such a thing.

Also on Saturday (at night), Barcelona's 2 soccer teams (FC and Espanyol) were facing each other. It's always an interesting match-up when two local teams play one another. Unfortunately and surprisingly FC lost, leaving a lot of sad supporters as FC is the favored club in Barcelona. We went to watch the game at an Irish pub (cough cough) and then went out clubbing to try to forget about the heart breaking loss of course.

Sunday the battery was on charge ;-)

Finally, I would like to inform you that I've uploaded some pictures: click here
Here's a video I took of a Spanish Michael Jackson (you be the judge): click here
And here's some Spanish break dancers...pfff: click here

Alright, gotta go get some studyin' done!

Finally settled in!

Hola!

Sorry for not writing earlier, it has been a very busy week with school and finding an apartment...

I arrived the 4th and met with my friends from Montreal who actually left yesterday. We pretty much visited the whole city for the past few days. Also with my heavy school schedule and my search for an apartment I barely had time to reply to emails or update this blog.

Friday (yesterday) I finally moved in a room shared with another student and the owner. The greatest thing about this place is that I don't have to do laundry!! Some lady takes care of that every Saturday ;-)

The city is very beautiful, the architectural design of the buildings is incredible with a lot of details but yet blends very well with the scenery while remaining somewhat subtle. If you need to impress someone with your art knowledge it's pretty simple here...just answer "Gaudi" to everything and you'll have a 90% success rate!

As for the school and the other students, it's all great. ESADE has a very nice building apparently built by the Opus Dei. I don't know if still have ties with that group, but regardless it's pretty nice. There are lots of international students, comparable to McGill and probably even more. They are pretty much from everywhere around the globe, but obviously mainly from Europe. Because the building is also shared with undergrad students learning language, there are more girls than guys, which makes studying that much more pleasant...concentrating can be challenging.

We went to a nightclub last night, called Loft; which was pretty good. Unlike in Montreal, in Spain you start eating at 11PM, go to the clubs at 2AM and they close at around 6AM.

Finally, Barcelona might not be the best destination to learn Spanish, as you never know if they are speaking to you in Catalan or Spanish. But I am taking a Spanish course which will become very handy because there are very few people here that speak English; which makes it very hard for someone like me! You soon find how important a map of the city is, and you better become very familiar with it, I always keep it with me! I just hope I won't start having a Spanish accent when I speak English after my stay here...

OK, that's it for now...I'll try to post a link to some pictures later on.

Juan Pablo

About this blog...

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd create this blog to keep family and friends updated with news, pictures, and perhaps videos (if you're lucky). And saving me the trouble of writing emails... ;-)

I guess this could also be useful to anyone out there considering an MBA at ESADE and living in Barcelona. So I'll try to keep it informal as well.

So now, assuming I don't get lazy, you'll have something to fill your 10 minutes with every morning before you really start working, while having your coffee!

Leaving in a few hours...next blog will be from Spain! May the adventure begin...

JP