One month in Spain, Only one week in class

So as I promised, I am going to try and post more! This post I’ll dedicate to my classes (which by the way, it’s only the second week of classes and I’ve been here for a month!) and my weekend back in Barcelona.

My class schedule here is admittedly amazing. I have class only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and my Tuesday class doesn’t start to the beginning of March. This will give me time to travel on the weekends and do things here in Barcelona! I feel like I still haven’t done more than half of the things to do here in the city and I’m excited to start exploring it more.

Right now on Wednesdays I have Marketing in Spain and Social Marketing. In Marketing in Spain we have to observe the current market for a product group, let’s say frozen food or beer in Spain and introduce a new product. I think the class will be really insightful as to why Spain functions the way it does and why there are some things in America but not here. Social Marketing is in Spanish and I still haven’t figured out exactly what it is yet! It deals with marketing done for NGOs and other things, but I’ll be interested to learn more about the class.

Thursdays is my most difficult day of class. I have class from 9am-9pm. The first class is Invisible Organizations (it deals with organizational culture) and it’s from 9-2. Fortunately they give you half hour coffee breaks here for 3 hour classes, so I’m assuming we’ll at least have that and a bathroom break! At 3 I have Managing Services, which is exactly just that and at 6 I have Brand Management. This is the one I’m most excited for and nervous for! It’s also in Spanish but there are many more actual ESADE students in this class, not just exchange students who know how to speak Spanish. You create a team of 7 to come up with a brand, create a tangible product, and sell it on the streets of Barcelona! You are given 500 euros and are expected to recoup that money by selling your product. It’s such a practical and exciting course, but I have heard it’s hard and get pretty crazy towards the end. Within the first few minutes of class I thought about jumping ship, but I think it will be really good for me not only from the business side of things, but also from the immersion side of things. I am speaking a lot more English here than I expected and if I truly want to better my Spanish and get fluent I have to immerse myself here. Taking this class allows me to meet other Spanish students and to truly practice my Spanish. It may be hard, but I think it will totally be worth it! Talk to me in a month or two and see if I feel the same way though! Lol.

This past weekend was beautiful in Barcelona! My boys (the term I like to use now for the other UNC guys that I live with: Marcus, James, and Tyson) went on the skiing trip to Andorra so I had the place to myself. I hung out a lot with Amy, Prachi, Adar and Gilberto and it was a ton of fun! We explored a new park called Ciutadella and I can’t wait to go back and run there. Which reminds me, on Saturday I ran by the beach which was amazingly beautiful but I am amazingly out of shape! Hopefully I’ll get back to a point where I can run and enjoy the city instead of wincing in pain! Last night a bunch of the girls and I made a Valentine’s Day dinner. It was very delicious and fun and I’m glad I could spend it with them since I couldn’t spend it with Chris (who surprised me by the way by sending me a card that got he on Valentine's Day :] )

Well hopefully these posts will be shorter in the future as I update more frequently… until next time!