gnew closed the parentheses... or did she?

i met a lot of people in cairo. i even encountered myself.

2009-10-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

the last two weeks have been a whirlwind between excitement at work, the planned visit of my parents and the unplanned visit of david... all the quiet and anonymity i enjoyed during my first few weeks in cairo have disappeared.

having mom and dad in town was exceptional. we spent the mornings and early afternoons touring as much as we could manage in this heat. we saw relics from every time period and every religious background. we saw how the copts, muslims, jews and even pharoahs worshipped their gods. we went to the large markets around town and tried our hand at negotiating. i always thought i was pretty good at getting a fair price at these types of markets but the tourguide led me to believe otherwise. he said i overpaid for the nefertiti blanket that now adorns my bed. maybe he's right. but maybe he's dead wrong. for me, this blanket is priceless now :). mom and dad treated me to the nicest restaurants in cairo and they were absolutely delicious. the cuisines were varied from egyptian to lebanese to chinese to japanese. even though they were all amazing i think my favorite was the poolside cafe we frequented that served mezze and gin tonics with freshly squeezed lime juice (laurita, you would have swooned!). it was so tasty it even tempted mom to enjoy the g&t.

now my parents have left me... and i am back to work and running around at night for my photography class and meeting up with friends or people i like to think may one day be my friends :) my friend david, from iese, is here for work for a month so he's been a great partner in crime getting out in the city. he's one of those travelers that insists upon trying all the local fare (even the egyptians warn him that his stomach may ail the next day...) but he goes ahead and tries it!

he most interesting thing i've done this week was go to a shisha bar in the outskirts of town. one of david's colleagues brought us to a mens only bar. i was quite the spectacle when i arrived. everyone stopped talking when i actually entered the bar and sat down. surprisingly though they were very welcoming and taught me their clever games of backgammon and dominos. i say clever here because they add complexities to the normal games to make them more complicated. i managed to beat their socks off despite not really following how the rules worked. beginner's luck! i think they enjoyed the entertaining visit of a foreign woman for the evening but they made it clear the place was for men only when we left for the night. alas, i guess i won't be a regular...

ok, i'm off to photography class now. wish me luck as i hand in my assignment of overexposed blurs. i can feel the wrath of aladin already...

a living civilization creates; a dying, builds museums

2009-10-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

devote today to something so daring even you can’t believe you’re doing it - oprah

2009-09-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

i don't know if one would consider it daring... and honestly there isn't much i do these days that leaves me in disbelief (at least not that i would write about here...) but i have committed myself to three extra-curricular activities are worthy of mention.

i have joined a gym. not your typical gold's gym with adorable little 21 year old girls hoping to catch the eye of the marine lifting weights in the corner. no, i joined a gym for yoga. i joined a gym for women (come on...i live in the middle east now). each morning i go to mira's house where 8 women learn the breaths and poses of ashtanga yoga. it's a beautiful, peaceful way to begin the day. those few steps in the morning from my house to the studio are the only ones i walk alone in the streets of cairo. that in itself is worth waking up so early.

i am learning how to use a camera - on manual mode. for my birthday mom and dad gifted me a fancy camera which i am determined to learn how to use. so aladin is going to help me get there! he's a former photographer for reuters with incredible experiences all over the world and ends his stories with the phrase "if you tell anyone i'll deny it." the class i comprised of 10 egyptians and yours truly. and yet we all speak in english...

lastly, i joined a choir. i figure it's a kind of civilized karaoke? not a chance. this is serious business. about 40 people get together once a week to practice for 2.5 hours! this could be scrapped from the list of anne's evening activities but i haven't given up just yet... i mean, there is a cute dutch tenor in the back row ;)

every time I see an adult on a bicycle, i no longer despair for the future of the human race

2009-09-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

the time has come that muslims all over the world have been waiting for for almost a month now. depending on the moon ramadan will come to a close tomorrow or saturday and the days of feast and celebration will follow. this means no more short work days and no more hiding of your water bottle during sunlight hours. before it became too out of date i wanted to show this video i took one day while waiting for a friend outside. this is a glimpse into the traffic patterns for the hour preceding iftar. people are crazed and the noise is deafening. if you look carefully at the median you'll see tables set up for people to eat. these are sponsored tables by local restaurants that provide iftar meals for free to the less fortunate. these can be all over the city.

memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin

2009-09-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

i am alive!!! the egyptians have not traded me for camels - at least not yet! i have simply been swamped at the new job (which i LOVE!) and limited in access to personal internet time. i may just go ahead and bite the bullet and get internet at home. i have been enjoying the peace and quiet that comes without an internet connection but i'm dying to utilize my skype phone and it's impossible under these circumstances!

so here you have it ladies and gents - annefan's new digs. just a little background... i live on an island. an island in the middle of the nile to be exact. i don't want to brag or anything, but i would not fault you if you were just the teensy bit jealous. it's pretty spectacular. even nefertiti wouldn't mind living where i live... don't get me wrong, it's just like the rest of cairo - hot, dirty, full of egypt's operpopulation and sometimes yes, stinky. but i live on a lively street called brazil street - come on, it emits happy. this is an early morning snapshot of the street. you can see the sprinkly streamers that create a ceiling along the street. i thought it was in honor of the street's name but instead i have been disappointed to find out they are only there for ramadan and will be taken down next week... follow the street all the way to the end and that's where i work! what a sweet commute, eh!!!

this is the view from my window... i'm on the sixth floor of my building so i can see over most buildings but not this one... i love being able to see across and watch all the people hang their clothes and smoke on their porches. i feel like i'm in my own showing of "rear window".... well, not exactly...

here begins the inside tour of the abode de anne. you enter the apartment to the kitchen. you'll see i have all the nicest amenities - an oven, a microwave and a myriad of glasses! i want for nothing in cairo.

and of course where the magic happens! ahem. by magic i mean i am finally SLEEPING! ramadan has still not given me the opportunity to buy myself some pillows... it doesn't matter though - i have learned how to sleep without them. if i weren't having a visitor this weekend i probably would just go without them at all... alas, i will be a good hostess.

after having lived abroad for several years now in different places where i know no one when i first arrive and live in a place that is completely sanitary of my personality... i have learned to take a few things with me that i can place around my house as memories of my life. this time i brought the apron that margit gave me when i left paris, a photo of lindsay holding up a post-it that says "happy birthday anne"(from years ago...) to put on my mirror saturday, and then of course my christmas present from ashley - a calendar of barcelona's hot firemen. my mother said i shouldn't take it - that i should respect the more conservative culture i am entering... but i know she was just saying that as a facade. in reality i know she thought it was a great idea ;)

(and i think the cleaning lady likes it)

never be the first to arrive at a party or the last to go home, and never, ever be both

2009-09-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

i have completed my first egyptian weekend! and by weekend i mean friday and saturday. due to the religious week the muslim day of worship falls on friday therefore all the days are upsidedown for me. i had great ambitions to explore my new neighborhoods this weekend but a few kinks were thrown in...

first of all, i'm not sleeping. if i go to bed at 9 then i'm up at 2 for hours. if i go to bed at 1 i'm just laying in my bed pretending to be asleep. last night i literally laid in the dark for 3 hours hoping and praying sleep would take over... to no avail. i'm sure this is due in part to jetlag. and then there is the issue of ramadan. clearly the egyptians are not sleeping at night either. but maybe this is all because i do not have pillows. as hard as i try and as many people as i ask there is no vendor in all of zamalek that wishes to sell me a pillow. finally i found a store last night that told me they would have pillows sometime next week. really?

to battle my sleepless nights this weekend i did not set my alarm. if i can't sleep at night, then i'll sleep like the rest of this city - during the day.

friday morning around 9 the phone started ringing. my landlady was calling just to make sure i had everything i needed. i was half asleep and trying to appease her by making conversation. i said i didn't need anything but wondered if she knew of a place where i could have my laundry done. she told me to call her back when i was awake and she would give me the number of a cleaner whom i could call. around 11 the doorbell rang (mind you, i am still decadently sleeping....). they rang and rang the bell so i had no choice but to open. there stood a young man who could barely speak english motioning that he was here to pick up my laundry. really?

saturday morning wasn't much better... my landlord's assistant managed to stop by unannounced at 10.

i guess i'll have to get used to drop-by visitors. even late last night a man rang my doorbell saying he was here to pick up my trash. it didn't matter that my trash was sitting nicely outside the door well within his reach. he wanted a tip for his services...

not all my weekend was spent in bed - have no fear! i made it out for another iftar in the home of a woman with whom i work. it was a grand event with tables spread throughout her lavish apartment. we ate course after course of egyptian, lebanese and indian foods. the evening was followed by hours of conversation over endless desserts and teas. i love ramadan.

the egyptian days are short but the evenings are long...

2009-09-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

i had my first official day of work yesterday - which unforunately isn't saying much thanks to my home errands and ramadan. i didn't arrive until quite late from the hotel - had my kick off meeting with my counterpart here at the bookstore then rushed off to sign the contract on my apartment.

the scene for the signing of the contract went something like this: the driver, the man the bookstore generously donated to me to help me with language and the business matters and the two real estate agents came to pick me up at the office. however since my new apartment is less than 5 minutes walking down a small unparkable street i ended up walking with the translator and the two realtors. the driver waited until the contract was signed before driving to my apartment with the luggage. at the signing were the four of us, the landlady and her representative. the landlady spoke perfect english so in the end it was the two of conducting business with the four gentlemen sitting patiently. as it should be. once the contract was signed the landlady told me that she had two daughters before but now she has three...

once i was back to the office it was totally quiet. ramadan working hours are short so it's peaceful in the afternoon. my boss kindly lent me her driver again so that i could get some necessary things for my apartment. after signing the contract i realized there was nothing in the entire kitchen! when i went to the store it almost made me cry to see the selection of knives i had to choose from... knowing everything i bought would be given or thrown away in a matter of months i decided to go whimsical. i bought purple plates, glasses with etchings of russian buildings on them and my mugs say happy 30th! you know you want to come visit me now :)

after dropping off my new purchases i met back up with several of my new colleagues who had invited me to iftar, the meal after sundown during ramadan. we went for lebanese food - it was delicious! afterward a couple of us went to a poshy tent on the nile where the beautiful people of cairo go to smoke shisha late night. it was incredible! there is no doubt why the nile is so idolized by this country.

my apologies for no photos. i don't have internet at home so i'm using the office computer (shhh) to write this now. i will upload when i can!!

after nightfall, i wouldn't leave a burning building without an escort

2009-08-31T08:21:00.001-07:00

this morning i had grand ambitions of getting up early to enjoy the hotel's free breakfast and maybe read the local newspaper (if i could find one in english). but thanks to a sleepless night i could barely drag myself out of bed in time to meet my driver that would take me to the bookstore. after hurrying to get ready in the "air-conditioned" suite i have, the driver called me down. much to my surprise it was not a driver at all, but rather an escort. a gentleman was sent over to WALK me to the office. he walked a steady two feet in front of me for the 15 minutes it took to get to there.

once to the office i met my new boss and a few colleagues. the office seems very young and the bookstore is fantastic. my meetings were rushed so that i could meet with the broker to find an apartment. the broker showed up with HIS driver where we went from apartment to apartment to see what i thought and meet with the landlords. i'm not sure if this was their strategy but each apartment was just slightly worse than the apartment before. by the end i was exasperated and wanted the well-above-my-budget first apartment that i had seen. so i offered the guy 2/3 the price of what he was asking. he negotiated in the end a monthly rent slightly higher than what i proposed. i feel great about being able to knock so much off the price but have a sneaking suspicion i'm still paying more than average... c'est la vie. i am the proud lessee of an apartment in egypt with aircon, a washing machine AND an elevator - just three blocks from where i will work!!

my google now reads from right to left

2009-08-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

i made it across the pond once again...this time to a whole new continent. africa! after far too many hours on a plane we finally touched down in cairo, egypt. the city was densely populated, as expected. from the plane's windows there were apartment buildings as far as the eye could see.

the plane also took a trip over giza, the location of the infamous pyramids. from the plane they looked like nothing more than what we would have construed with sand at the outer banks. all the egyptians around me on the plane assured me it would be much more impressive in person.

a driver picked me up at the airport and brought me to my poshy new digs for the next few nights. the hotel is well equipped (with free wi-fi!) and a/c. it's hotter than H here so it was a pleasant surprise. i decided to stay in this evening because it got dark as soon as i arrived. i would rather do my exploring with the sunlight so touring will have to wait until tomorrow! in the meantime i am enjoying my last american treat - cheetos - while i try to brush up on my egyptian history to impress the bosses on tuesday.

my apologies for the brevity of this post, but i am exhausted and need to get up early tomorrow to find myself a decent apartment. until next time...

land of the free because of the brave...

2009-05-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

happy memorial day!!! see if you can spot the most patriotic of the bunch (hint: see flag in hair).

so ashley and i are off tomorrow to begin the camino de santiago. she and i are attempting to ride 211 kilometers by bike to follow in the path of the disciple saint james. some say it will be a trip of spiritual enlightenment. maybe... if not that it will certainly be a test of our friendship (and my physical prowess). ashley seems to believe we can ride 50+ kilometers a day and still be fine to walk across the finish line on saturday evening. we'll see about that. i am afraid she is about to see a side of annefan she never knew existed. it might not be pretty.

however, she did promise me that i could wear flip flops and a tube top for the entire ride. cause we're not going to glisten, right???

i had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world

2009-05-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

in between school and my job searching i was able to make my way home... yes, i do remember that i have one. it was a quick little trip where i got to see a falkey become a deutsch... it's still amazing to me that i'm close to the people that i met hmmmm.....17 years ago!

but that being said - here we are - the newbies. the two of us that still...that many years later...are still the mason "new" kids.

and then there is another little joy i have when i visit home... how cute can two little kids be? when i first arrived i went to meet jacob at kaiser because he wasn't feeling well. he saw me across the waiting room, ran into my arms and said very matter of factly (as all first children do) "TIA! we have not seen you in a very long time." my heart melted right then. if anyone hoped to get any part of my soon-to-earn wealth they are sorely mistaken. this kid has it all.

watch out world. my nephews are going to rule you one day.

i think you enjoy the game more if you don't know the rules

2009-05-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

so before the whole world forgets and doubts that i was ever a part of a rugby team i post here. yes, my dear sweet wholesome midwestern roommate helped to organize iese's largest sporting event in barcelona. in addition she is one of the captains of the rugby team. in return for the ginormous favor she did for us last year at mbat (yeah, that sunday morning when no one wanted to get out of their warm cozy bed, ahem)...let's just say i owed her. so i geared up and pretended to be a lean, mean fighting machine for a brief moment....

i did get the chick a starbucks though, and that's points i tell you.

if you look very carefully for the number 7 (i needed the help of the good lord for this one) you can find me...

my original contribution to the big event was not at all supposed to be a sporting one, but rather one of the domestic nature. i spent the day before knitting beer cozies for all those who chose not to participate in the physical events (i.e. non-sports people and chess players).

in mexico we have a word for sushi: bait

2009-05-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

nights in barcelona are long and beautiful. and now that there are no cases to read and no exams to cram for all we have is time...lots of time...

but as big important mba's we have quickly figured out how to enjoy this gift of time. the days are sunny and the beach calls our names. the siestas are cozy. the claras are cold. the nights are sweet. on one special evening we gathered ourselves on one of the most popular roof terraces in iese history for a sushi making fete. everyone did their part to make the tastiest, most attractive, most appealing sushi of the night.

alan managed to find a whole case of japanese beer. in a country that fights importing cerveza not made regionally this is quite the feat. oh canada!

i don't know how this guy got into the party. he's clearly no mba. opening his clara with a knife? uf.

we americans were pretty proud of our sushi making prowess so how better to celebrate than with a us photo???
after putting the asahi to good use and finding a us flag and some leftover canadian maple leaf unmentionables we found it necessary to celebrate YET again....

many of us who walk to and fro upon our usual tasks are prisoners drawing mental maps of escape

2009-05-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

in spain there is a pandemic. not one of the swine flu variety though. men and women alike are roaming the streets with their hands placed behind their backs in a manner that looks as if they are about to be handcuffed. it's unusual and rampant. some days when the weather is nice and people are driven out of their homes to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful barcelona scenery there are hundreds of these "handcuffs", if you will (and you will), littering the streets.

from a dog's point of view his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog

2009-05-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

two short years later and i have finally heard the pomp & circumstance and walked across the stage again... graduation from IESE was a magnificent event with families flying in from all over the world to see their little masters grab that coveted diploma. my parents were among them of course!

the day was beautiful in barcelona when 208 of us entered the aula magna. we were frustrated with administration because they moved the ceremony inside...however when we exited several hours later to find it had rained we realized the administration finally had the last laugh.

after graduation my parents treated me to a holiday to the north of spain, san sebastian. no, we didn't take my moto - but isn't he cute?

of course when traveling with mom a few sheep photos made it onto the camera...
here you can see team mario andretti. we had asked for the fastest rental car hertz could provide, which of course is a skoda, right?

the reason for traveling to san sebastian was to visit a three star michelin restaurant. several of my chefs trained at restaurants in the basque country (mostly on the french side though) so it was a perfect place to test our palette's. this was the view from our table:

one of the most innovative courses was this pasta made of egg whites and egg yolks. the mushrooms were amazing.

of course while we were in the north we had to taste some of the local wines... mom and dad are here trying to decide what is an "appropriate" number of bottles to have shipped home...

i fear the man who drinks water and so remembers this morning what the rest of us said last night

2009-03-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

this weekend the first official bierathlon was held at barceloneta beach... for those of you that don't know exactly what a bierathlon is:

Bierathlon or Kastenlauf (literally crate-running, beer crate-running, or equivalents) is a drinking game/sport that is popular in Germany and Switzerland. It is a competition among teams that consist of two people carrying a crate of beer while walking a fixed distance, the winner being the first team to cross the finish line having drunk the entire case of beer.

while officially a team should be two an exception was made for females. we were allowed teams of three. so of course laura, ashley and i signed up under the team name: DANGER. we had shirts made for the big event "danger can only be overcome by more danger." after spending saturday morning carb-loading and mentally preparing ourselves for the big 2 kilometer distance we walked to the beach. the day was gorgeous and everyone was in great spirits, it was going to be an amazing day!

each team was required to bring their own case to the event so we solicited the help of two very kind germans to carry our beers to the beach. the race hadn't even begun and already we were seeing some pretty frightening things on the beach. this young man didn't feel any need to cover his personals while changing. ashley loved it.

some of the teams were very serious in their pursuit of the finish line. here you can see two of the teams running with their cases. the onlookers thought we were all crazy!
we took a more relaxed strategy. we didn't want to ever go so quickly we lost the opportunity to take photos...

there was a fear that we would be somehow stopped by the police, but you note here the police behind us didn't even blink an eye..

this team definitely won for the funniest looking - the two men wore hula skirts and running shoes...

team danger was the first female team to cross the finish line!

this mixed team of three each represented a NAFTA country. man, doesn't pickle look like a hippie?

after all the teams completed the race everyone stayed down at the beach to enjoy the awesome weather. man, we have the best life. my guess would be 100 folks from school came and went throughout the day.

i think ashley and i may have gotten a little silly by the time the sun was beginning to set. who knows what provoked us to attempt bottle hunting?!

all in all it was a fantastic day. after the sun went down and it got chilly ashley and i invited everyone to our tiny little apartment. the masses arrived, i somehow managed to cook a pasta with vodka sauce (!?), and we had dance-offs for the rest of the night. there was enough fun at the party to help us get over the frat party smell we awoke to this morning...

clairee, you know I’d rather walk on my lips than criticize anybody...but...janice van meter…

2009-03-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

i just got back from jogging. this is a pastime i like to say i do regularly, but when i say that it is a lie. but the weather is improving and the school therapist says i need to schedule "making sport" into my agenda. apparently i let my mind wander too much in my life and therefore i need to create a schedule that will put things more in order in my brain. i'm being open-minded and taking his advice. and even if the running doesn't make me more sane it will at least help me prepare for barcelona beach time.

every time i walk out my door the temperature is warmer and the sun is shinier. studying is a struggle and sitting inside is pure torture. that being said it's still light-sweater weather. don't let these crazy tourists running around in their board shorts fool you. it's not THAT warm yet. they do get points for optimism though...

yesterday we had graduation practice. my partner is the same guy i sat next to all first term. the circle is about to close. actually walking in pairs down the aisles to our seats was a little too real for me. i'm definitely not ready to give up this life - particularly when i don't know where my next life is!

so tonight is lady's night in barca... several of us are getting together for a proper dinner with proper wine (no torres and nothing under 5 euro). we will speak of all things girly, quote steel magnolias on a whim, and of course laugh until our sides hurt. don't be surprised if your nose starts itching!

the life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another

2009-03-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

it is a travesty that i have let myself go like this. i have always loved looking back at my life on this blog, every time it helps me to remember a memory i may have otherwise forgotten... some little detail of this charmed experience i've had in europe. damn it. now i have let a term almost entirely pass me by.

three weeks remain in my mba life, and then a beautiful, schedule free month until graduation during which i will hopefully find myself a career and a little sanity.

i promise my dears to rectify this situation. i am vowing to again give a little insight into this lovely existence i am so fortunate to have. forgive me if i'm rusty, but i will get back on track. as a preliminary disclaimer: while out on the town, after a few celebratory beverages, i set my jacket down to better enjoy the publike atmosphere. unfortunately when i returned to said jacket it was nowhere to be found. within its pockets were a few missed euros, my house keys and my camera. so for now the blog will be words. i will instead describe for you all shenanigans until i can again bring to life my photography skills.

the abridged version of term 5:

this term i'm taking spanish classes - four in fact. these are the most expensive spanish lessons i have ever taken. i struggle everyday to; understand the argentine's accent, catch the outlandish conservative remarks, comprehend behavioral terminology and figure out just how one knows if they have made a good decision ---- all in spanish. ugh.
as mentioned before ashley and i have moved to the born right on the water. well, not right on, but closer than any of you live. it was by far the best decision i've made since moving to barcelona. wait, i take that back, wallejo was the best decision i ever made. i'll never forget you baby. we can run on the beach, walk to the best restaurants and stores easily and we have sunlight streaming in our windows. there is no complaining here.
my life was taken over by two things this term: dgdw and multi culti. i know, multi culti? the areas in my life that suffered because of higher than normal stress levels were: knitting, training for crossing the english channel, job searching, communication with the outside world... the list is longer but this is getting depressing.
now all my extracurriculars are over and my focus is on one thing. let's find this girl a job. and not just any job. one that pays enough to cover the bills (and by bills i mean my cuisine habits), one that stimulates me constantly, one that keeps me in europe or south america, and one that doesn't run my life. big requests for a little girl.

that's hardly an exhaustive list of the last two months, but it's a start...

may all your troubles last as long as your new year's resolutions

2009-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

in two days i will begin the last term of my MBA. it will be a short four months until i walk across the stage on the north campus and say goodbye to IESE forever as a student. from that point forward i will be an invited speaker, an endower, a legend in my own mind... but today, and for the next four months, i will be among people whom have become very close friends of mine. we will be savoring every moment - every case, every class comment, every bar-of-the-week, every clara shared after an interview... there will be very few days in the passing weeks that will not be cherished and enjoyed by each and every one of us.

i wish there were some tricks to slow this down, to help us not take for granted this experience we're having. but like life, it happens, and it happens without us ever knowing it.

2008 was a beautiful year, i met incredible people, i traveled the world over and i even took a few moments out to get know myself a little better. now it is 2009 and reality sets in a little bit more. i have to find a real job, i have to figure out a little more where i want my roots to grow, i have to figure out how someone "turns 30".... yes, i have great confidence that i will find each of these things, and i will find them only by jumping over hurdles and climbing through dark caves and mud filled swamps...

as i write this i hold a glass of wine even my father would be proud of, and i raise it to each of you that will walk through the caves with me this year - and all the years to follow...

looking at the other partners on the show, if we put you all in a go-go boy dance contest, which will your partner pick as the sexiest dancer?

2008-12-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

last weekend i had the honor and privilege of being invited to some friend's joint 30th birthday fete. andrew and vicki organized a weekend away in deep catalunya for some relaxation and celebration. ashley and i, and one lucky gentleman for one evening, were chosen to be the single representatives, while the other 16 folks were all part of a couple.

we took advantage of this outpouring of couple and created our own version of the dating game. we split the couples into three groups depending on their level of "love"...marriage, living in sin, just not there yet...

each group competed against each other answering questions like:

where did you first kiss your partner?
looking through both of your teenage pictures, who will your partner say was hit harder with the ugly stick?
as a player on the field of love, what penalty will your partner say you're most likely to get called on (a) motion in the backfield (b) rushing (c) illegal use of hands
what color pajamas did your partner wear last night?
when did your partner actually realize for the first time he was in love with you.

our contestants were great sports - answering all the questions and even allowing themselves to be embarrassed once or twice in front of the crowds. in the end there was a tie between the just not there and living in sin. we had to do a spontaneous kiss off to determine the winner... i guess living in sin has its perks!

the rest of the weekend was absolutely fabulous. each night a different nationality made dinner. the dutch started the first night and made sausages and kraut and taught us how to celebrate sinterklaas. the next night the italians made amazing pastas and the last night, true to form, the americans made burgers and fries.

in between all the festivities and eating we managed some bonding time and relaxation...

even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on christmas eve. yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age

2008-12-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

during the first year at IESE it's easy to miss what goes on in the city of barcelona. it's easy to stay too late at school studying. it's easy to get into a work-like routine which moves you from home to school to pinxo joint and back home only to start the whole thing over again the next morning. the craze of the first year caused me to miss the expectation vibe of christmas last year. the second year is so much better for appreciating it. of course life is stressful the second year too, especially with a recession in the works and high paying jobs that require you to travel first class from one exotic island to another "giving recommendations" to tiki huts on how to maximize revenues are hard to come by... group projects are plentiful, and if you're like i am, trying to move from one windowless apartment to another elevator-less apartment takes up a lot of time.

but regardless, this year i feel it. i walk as many streets as i can to see all the different lights barcelona has put up for our viewing pleasure. i've treated myself to endless pipe cleaners to make ornaments galore (you may think i make pipe cleaner ornaments because of my student budget, but come on... i'll make pipe cleaner ornaments when i'm a millionaire). i'm madly working on my highly personalized secret santa gift for the family exchange. everywhere i turn i'm getting ready for christmas.

tomorrow ashley and i will move into a small apartment on the mediterranean sea. we look out over one of the oldest churches in barcelona proper and are a stone's throw from hundreds of quaint bars and restaurants that will surely empty our pockets and fill our bellies unnecessarily. be thinking of us as we, along with as many 7-11 workers as we can find, carry box after box up four flights of narrow stairs.

i promise photos soon of our charming little castle, but for now take a peek at the latest family photos:

the road ahead will be long. our climb will be steep.

2008-11-23T14:35:00.000-08:00

as we all know, this election year was far more interesting and far more celebrated than recent years past. it was a very different experience for me to not be in or near our nation's capital. i was worried that in such an exciting election year i wouldn't be getting the full experience without being in the president-elect's future hometown. i was pleasantly surprised though. a fellow american organized an election viewing party in town where we could all watch the votes come in live. of course that means 4am for us... but it was worth the loss of sleep and the wait.

ashley and i broke out our finest american t's. i, with my vintage cherry blossom and ashley, with the twins!

an awesome addition to the usual election fete was that this year it was my friend, abhishek's birthday.... so before we headed off to see the votes come in he had us all over for dinner (which he had to cook!!!) he's been teaching me how to cook indian food for the last year - for which i will forever be grateful... here you can see me trying to get in on the cooking action...

if trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?

2008-11-21T13:53:00.000-08:00

if someone told you to start every sentence "i remember..."

2008-11-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

I remember when I hated you. I remember when the neighbor came over because he heard us fighting. I remember when we pretended we didn’t know each other in the halls. I remember when I graduated and I cried but didn’t make eye contact. I remember when I dressed in your uniform. I remember that day after the best day ever, wearing the letters and making wendy drive home. I remember how I jumped on that bed. I remember how through it all we did it together. I remember when he talked about his pride, the hopes he had for your tribe. I remember when neil said goodbye. I remember we said goodbye together. I remember the beer, the line, the love. I remember we did it together. I remember that night zach got jealous. I remember how it didn’t matter. I remember how we owned the place. I remember how I laughed. I remember how I always laughed. We always have laughter. I remember...

i feel ten feet tall and bullet proof.

2008-11-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

this morning when i woke up i thought for sure the day was going to be cursed. i got up after juan "i like to take a shower until the water runs cold" carlos... yep, as the temperatures drop in barcelona the need for a steamy shower is critical. an inverse relation, if you will. oh and you will. so i was forced to show juan carlos a new side of me when i came out of the shower in a rage... poor guy. he will be soooo ready to move out of the bunker!

alas, my curse was lifted quickly when the results for the DIEN came in this afternoon. i passed! all it took was living in caracas, sevilla, santiago and now barcelona...and of course years of high school spanish but i am not officially fluent according to the autonomous community of catalunya.

don't dance on a volcano

2008-10-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

i now have several weeks of second year under my belt and i can guarantee you this year is better than the first. i feel better prepared, i feel more relaxed and i feel more organized. it's been wonderful. i have a bizarre little schedule that gets me to school at 815 every morning but gets me out by 930 on monday and tuesday and not until 5 on thursday and friday! i'm taking full advantage of how awesome the weather is here and the free time that i do have.

the best purchase i have made this year thus far is a membership to bicing, the barcelona bikes you can rent and ride all around town. after school i've been riding to the mediterranean and jogging on the beach. jogging sometimes means walking to the chirinquito and getting a clara. you know how words can sometimes have more than one meaning...

this week was the career forum here at IESE. my partner in crime and i had tuesday and wednesday off thanks to a lack of panamanian tiki bars recruiting on campus so we decided it was time to get out of the bunker - and out of barcelona! ashley and i headed north in our smartly rented pepecar and didn't look back. the sun was shining, the gas tank was full and i had plenty of skeins to keep my idle hands busy for the ride. thank god minnesotans know how to drive stick!

after a few times too many around the round-abouts we finally made our way to the hotel ashley found - mas pau... a tuesday night in october meant great things for us at the hotel. we were the ONLY people there!

after a delicious dinner in our own country estate ashley and i ventured through all the nooks and crannies of the house posing for audience appropriate photos!

the next morning we awoke to the beautiful sunshine that we'd been missing in the bunker. thanks to far too many adult beverages ashley had to pretty much drag me out of the hotel but thank goodness she did!!! the day was perfect and we had (literally) tons of ground to cover!

ashley and i went north to one of the natural parks which housed over 40 volcanos. we were a little pressed for time so we didn't see a ton but we did manage to get to at least two of the volcanos. it was amazing!!! make sure to check out the volcano where we hiked to the top, then into the crater where a little church had been built...

after a day full of hiking and enjoying the catalan scenery ashley and i hunkered down for some much needed nutrients - a clara...

not to mince words, mr epstein, we don't like your boys' sound. groups of guitarists are on the way out

2008-10-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

living with roommates again has proven to be a brilliant idea... juan carlos (or more affectionately called jc by sus gringas), ashley and i have bonded over our new life in the bunker.

if you blink you might miss it... but here is where annefan gets her beauty sleep.

the first weekend out in barcelona we decided to venture out and find some live music. one of the local catalans recommended this bar - a beatles cover bar. when i was younger i found my parent's old beatles record albums. i used to play them when my friends came over and we would dance in that basement on hemlock... i was convinced i had discovered the coolest new band ever. man my parents must have had a good laugh over that one. anyway, i was thrilled at the idea of a night full of beatles sing-a-longs.

see how much i liked the idea???

throughout the evening we heard every beatles song imaginable sung by three catalans and a man from urugay. it was a far cry from paul, ringo, george and john but no less exciting. the guy from uruguay could do some mean sound effects for the yellow submarine. so much so it got david and jc to attempt a little deep sea diving.

god don't make no mistakes. that's how he got to be god - archie bunker

2008-10-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

the first week of the final year of the mba has come to a close... things started off well with only one class monday and tuesday. i audited a few classes as well but nothing perked my interest enough for me to change my existing schedule (despite its scheduling flaws). i have managed to sign myself up for 815 am classes every day, and 5 classes on thursday and friday. the beginning of my week feels like spring break in comparison to the latter.

the first week was great though. i've spoken up in every class and even gave a little presentation in our wealth management class. every person has to give a 60 second speech with an investment idea for the professor. i opened my 60 seconds with... "in 109 days barack obama will be the president of the US therefore you should invest in...." apparently i did well enough to get an "i like it" from the most hard ass of professors at IESE.

now for the good stuff. this year i made the leap to living with roommates again. this was not a decision taken lightly - after my mishap with the polish kleptomaniac - i certainly am hesitant to take on another individual in my living space. but this time things are different...i'm living with two of my closest confidants from first year, ashley and juan carlos. poor ashley was here first so she had the task of finding us a place to live. she found a great apartment with three big bedrooms each with double beds, a darling terrace and a huge kitchen in which to have lots of family time. unfortunately my room is lacking a fourth wall (and no, it is not a triangle) and we have a serious lack of natural light in the house. so now we affectionaly refer to the place as our own personal bunker and spend most of our time in the only room with an exterior window. we take great comfort in knowing should there be any sort of nuclear attack we will be safe though!

god asks no man whether he will accept life. that is not the choice. you must take it. the only question is how.

2008-09-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

you never thought it would happen...

annefan is back in action

my sincerest apologies to my unwavering fans - and an open armed welcome to those who seem to have stumbled upon this humble of little blogs. according to my trusty little google dashboard my fan base seems to have extended beyond the countries where i have previously resided to all over the globe. i hope something within these pages will strike your fancy and keep you coming back??

well summer (winter) went quickly. my internship in the south was exactly what an MBA dreams of. i spent the first half of the summer conducting a marketing survey where i analyzed all the nooks and crannies of the industry, the competitors, the suppliers, the pricing structures and of course all the little things that an advanced knitter looks for in a premium yarn... the second half was spent actually developing a new business plan for said business based on all the discoveries that had been made during my first few weeks. i learned a lot about business but even more about knitting. hmmm....

during my last week in chile i ventured as far south as i could manage. my chilean guide and i traveled to the "gateway" to patagonia where we rented a car and toured the lake region of chile, drove across the andes to argentina and experienced the lakes and beauty on the other side. it was a chilly and beautiful way to end my life so far south.

i had to hurry back up north though for the mannix wedding! i spent my first week back in the states in wisconsin. the weather was perfect, the company was divine and the bride was gorgeous. jason and lindsay got married right on lake michigan with the greenest background you could imagine and a perfect sunset that encouraged even the shyest of guests onto the dancefloor. with the exception of scottso's wild hands and the spilling of an entire glass of red wine on my dad the evening went off without a hitch ;)

the next month was busy in bryce, arlington and dc seeing old friends and spending time with the fam. it was much too short but oh so nice... my family spoiled me rotten and i fell in love with the US all over again.

sissyface and i made it to the cross...again!

sus and dad after devouring far too many hard shell crabs with me on my birthday! later that night....
and finally the last wedding that brought me home this summer. i had the honor of not only being a bridesmaid but also the "get her to the church on time" girl.

it was all far too much fun for one summer... but i'm sure my adventures will not stop there. tomorrow begins the first day of classes at IESE. wish me luck...i think i'm gonna need it.

nos vemos!

my doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. unless there are three other people.

2008-08-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

wow, summer surely has gone quickly... wednesday is my last day at work and then thursday i am off to the south for a quick tour of something chilean outside of santiago and then off to see the mannix nuptials!!!

its been a great summer here in santiago. unfortunately i havent been as snap happy with my camera as i would have hoped, but i will try to upload the few photos that i do have in the coming posts.

last weekend i attended my first once. the once is chile's version of teatime. it generally is a light meal served late in the day which can replace dinner for those without a heartier appetitite. rodrigo naser, a fellow IESEan, his wife and her family generously invited me over to share the once in a traditional chilean setting. here you can see me tasting my first manjar. manjar tastes like caramel but is made with milk instead of sugar. it was delicious.another fine dining experience was when the endeavor indians all invited us over for traditional indian fare. of course i never decline indian food!!! look at how precious hamida looks slicing and dicing our meal. unfortunately i bit into something a bit spicier than i would have liked. after two full minutes of almost choking and all my peers laughing and pointing i finally regained composure - but did remain red in the face for the rest of the evening!

in my own abode i made my first attempt at peruvian food. thanks to a recipe from a friend i made aji de gallina, a very typical peruvian dish. i think it turned out pretty well, but lacked some of the spices that id had too much of at the indian dinner. next time...

every wednesday night there is a party downtown called "after office" most of the folks from endeavor make their way up there to do a little networking or maybe just to hear their favorite song from the 80s... here we all are - dont we look high-impact?
my brilliant and dashingly handsome friend, phil, once said that if you arrive to a party with a nametag you are automatically going to have a better time than someone without a nametag. to test his theory we all donned nametags at hamida's previa. i played the role of the president of the republic for the night while hamida simply encouraged people to buy her pisco all night...

for the record, it was a really fun night.
finally you can see me catching a bit of futbol culture here. i went to my first chilean soccer game - university of chile versus cobreloa. the game was great - the fans cheered for 90 minutes straight. i would try to write some of the chants here but really they're just cuss words and racist remarks. i dont want to besmirch the good name of chileans everywhere by printing the text here.

it’s erotic if you’re using a feather. it’s kinky if you’re using the whole damn chicken

2008-07-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

i can still remember when i first moved to spain when people would talk to me they would refer to me as guapa (good looking).... i didn't even need to know the person, they would always just start conversations "hola guapa" "que tal guapa". i loved it. every time i heard the words it would put a smile on my face. i thought, man, i am so much better looking in europe! well, much to my disappointment using the word guapa when talking to someone is similar to a 16 year old american using the word "like." it is completely overused and by now really has no meaning...

i think i have found my "guapa" phrase here in chile. every day i go to the same cafeteria for lunch. we have zero options out here in the middle of quilicura so i eat the same thing every day of the week. fortunately routine is my friend, but pollo and arroz is nothing to get excited over.

well i have noticed that whenever you describe something, the person listening to the conversation replies to your description with "que rico" meaning "how rich"... at first i thought i was missing something in the spanish translation if the other person listening really thought the story was worthy of a "que rico" comment... but no, yesterday i was telling my friend how i get to pollo con arroz every day, to which they responded "que rico"!!!!

i grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain... - pablo neruda

2008-07-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

in an effort to get to know this town some of my chilean friends have been so kind as to guide me through the streets of santiago and its neighboring cities. this week i went to one of santiago's most beautiful viewpoints - san cristobal. this is basically the virgin on the mount. you take a gondola up to the top of the mountain where an imposing virgin stands watching over the city. it was of course a gray and cloudy day so there was little opportunity to see the beauty that santiago boasts, but it was a lovely tour nonetheless. while the virgin is quite beautiful, the small church at the top of the mountain is more impressive. it is small and simple, plays beautifully soothing music, and welcomes all who enter... here i am with my tour guide, felipe, in front of the virgin...

after viewing the virgin we walked down to bellavista, one of the more interesting neighborhoods in santiago. it is the most bohemian of the barrios in santiago. it's easy to find live music and great nightspots here. if you look carefully you'll even find a good karaoke bar or two. here you can see me with the good old american flag...

wednesday was a holiday in santiago, thanks to religious zealotry and the virgin carmen. i went with a few friends to vina del mar and valparaiso to tour some spots out of the smog and dreariness of santiago... i have seen the pacific ocean a few times in my life, but never with waves so grand and forceful. apparently its much too dangerous to swim in, but it was certainly beautiful.

we went to a palace in vina that housed a garden filled with trees from all over the world... this one of course caught my eye - the magnolia...

at the end of our trip we stopped at san sebastiana, pablo neruda's home. it was wonderful to see the home of one of my favorite poets... and even more wonderful to sit with him as you can see here...

on the other hand, if you live in the middle of north dakota, you might want to just reconsider the whole thing

2008-07-17T06:02:00.000-07:00

there are quite a few things that i still cant get used to here in santiago...

no one walks anywhere if they can help it. you could be going to a restaurant 6 blocks away where you will be required to search for parking for 10 minutes and then pay a street worker 500 pesos to ensure no one breaks into your car... but of course you drive, walking would just be silly.
conservation of electricity is critical . rarely do you find a warm and toasty atmosphere here. it is quite common to walk into an eating establishment to find everyone still wearing their coats. this is true as well at my office (and is probably one of the reasons i am constantly sick). anyway, i have acclimated to the situation and have learned to dress appropriately everywhere i go. but i still for the life of me cannot get used to the lack of hot water in the bathrooms. when you are already cold the last thing you want to do is wash your hands with colder water. ashley, i dont think i need to explain how this situation would affect the iese women's bathrooms...
santiago boasts many radio stations. i cant give you a figure of how many but certainly more that little dc has. interestingly enough each station is like listening to your favorite mix TAPE from 1991. i have heard so much kurt cobain in the last 4 weeks im actually considering buying doc martens again. but on a side note it does mean that hearing glory of love is not uncommon. thank god for pete cetera.
there are two things each person in santiago does daily: talk about the smog level and eat a palta haas. a day is not complete without both of these. sometimes the palta can be substituted with a hot dog, but only sometimes, cachai?
chile exports a lot of agriculture to the us. apparently, and i just cant imagine this to be true (dripping sarcasm), americans will not buy produce if it is not beautiful. anything asthetically pleasing chile has to offer, it exports. therefore the produce in the markets here is bruised and battered.
every night on television you can watch a show that basically shows video clips of "hurto." hurto are the people that steal from you without your knowing. the hurto here have hundreds of different methods of fingering your goods and you are none the wiser. im still not sure who the intended audience is for these shows, because lord knows everyone in santiago has memorized all the different tricks of trade, and found it necessary to tell them all to me... needless to say i do very little in this city alone...
when someone tells you a restaurant is fantastic in the city it is very important to consider the source. while i have found some great places to eat here, the definition of fine cuisine is relative... op, am i being a food snob??

taxi cab confession

2008-07-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

this morning my usual chauffer, my boss, had previous commitments and could not take me to work... the commute to the office is 40 minutes in a car, and 3 hours in public transportation so the only option without my boss is a taxi...

so here i am, on my way to work this morning in the back seat of a taxi. since i am accustomed to these long commutes in a passenger seat i have begun knitting whenever i am commuting. all of a sudden in the middle of a knit, purl the taxi driver pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of me knitting - he said he wanted to capture the moment where a gringa was knitting in his country...

what a nut.

god had a divine purpose in placing this land between two great oceans to be found by those who had a special love of freedom and courage

2008-07-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

happy independence day to my fellow compatriots. as i sit at my desk working diligently, i hope that everyone is celebrating this three day weekend in a true american fashion - with lots of food and drink, with lots of family and friends and with a gross amount of fireworks...

i had grand intentions of making a new t-shirt this year, this time with a photo of the queen and underneath the caption "thank god we got rid of her" to wear today... alas, time has gotten away from me. so instead i am sporting some blue denim, a red sweater and my handmade t from last fourth of july. it´s not the right language, but i think people still get the point...

so think of me tonight sitting in my apartment with a $10 budweiser, knitting a red white and blue bufanda and randomly jumping up to run around the room with sparklers in hand to commemorate the hard work our forefather´s put in making our country what it is today.

if I stitch fast enough, does it count as aerobic exercise?

2008-07-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

many of you doubted... and i don't blame you... but now you have it - a certified photo of yours truly in santiago de chile. if you can see through the hazey cloud of smog you can see the andes mountainrange that divides chile with argentina.
my days in santaigo are busy with work, study and a bit of your grandmother's favorite - knitting... here you can see the three different phases 1) the hank 2) the ball 3) the bufanda.
i have quickly become addicted to the relaxation that comes wih knitting, and the praise that i get from nora when i show her my work the next day so you can see i'm going pretty fast for a beginner. this will also tell you how exciting my social life is! i'm already done with four feet of my first scarf, which i'm really excited about because i'm dying to try a new color of yarn. (i can't believe i've officially made this a knitting projects blog).

you'll be happy to know that i am dining out with a colleague from endeavor tonight so i will have another dimension to my life even for just a short time!

there's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all

2008-06-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

in santiago there is a severe issue with pollution. the city is tucked into a valley between mountainranges. the smog just can´t seem to escape. so in an effort to decrease the pollution that is being emitted into the air the government has imposed driving restrictions. today if your license plate ends in 3, 4, 5 or 6 you are not allowed to be on the roads between 730 and 2100. since both rodrigo and nora have cars ending in one of those numbers, michelle drove all three of us to work today. it was quite the family affair! i felt like i was back in eighth grade when mom and dad took all of us to george mason in the morning.

when i learned to knit, i forgot how to cook

2008-06-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

for better or worse, i can still cook...

(read between the lines)

i like making a piece of string into something i can wear

2008-06-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

today was the first meeting of my own personal knitting club. while i have knit before it´s an art i quickly forgot... thankfully nora, the matriarch of the yarn company, has agreed to teach me for twenty minutes a day. those scarves are quickly becoming a reality my dears.

be very jealous... a cup of tea and twenty minutes of knitting relaxation in spanish...

i´ll bet they´re not getting that at the banking internships...

i started knitting 30 years ago and then stopped for 29. I started again a year ago because I love the new scarves. i love the new yarns and fibers.

2008-06-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

most days here in santiago during the winter are clouded over with a smog. it makes viewing anything farther than 100 feet difficult. but if you get through the morning fog and see the mountains before the smog cloud settles in the mid afternoon you can catch a glimpse of the andes. the mountains are absolutely gorgeous - i wish i'd had a camera while we were flying over them from buenos aires.

each morning and afternoon my bosses bring me to and take me home from work. it's a great opportunity for me to look out the window and try to sneak a peak at the mountain range.

when i have a free weekend i'm hoping to go into the andes to POSSIBLY ski, but probably just to see if a pisco sour tastes different in the snow :)

after a long week at work trying to get my hands around the issues that my yarn company is grappling with i got a chance to get my hands around the yarn! next week there is an outlet sale in the basement of our building to get rid of all excess inventories. that means any yarn that didn't mean quality expectations or is a discontinued color needs to go! i've got my eye on a few colors in particular but first i've got to remember how to knit... if you have faith in my craft abilities put your order in now! my commute to work is 45 minutes each way and michelle, my boss, is determined to make me a knitting fanatic on those rides.

here is michelle now putting out all the samples of yarn to be sold. the company sells almost 30 different kinds, each coming in almost 20 colors. so you can imagine it was a rainbow of cotton, wool and alpaca all afternoon. after touching over 500 skeins i think i can comfortably tell you which is which!

and finally...where i rest my head. in honor of pickle's birthday i post this photo of my keys to my new apartment. when the shepherd finally sweeps you off your feet this summer and you're forced to work with olives forever, you'll always have a baker's dozen of IESE key holders to help you remember where you came from! feliz cumpleanos lady!

my apartment is conveniently situated in one of the safest neighborhoods in santiago, el bosque. i live pretty high up, but not high enough to be able to see over my neighboring buildings. it's not as sexy as being able to see into the windows of the hauswmann architecture like i got to last summer in paris, but now i can see into office buildings and know who's working too late and...who's igniting an office romance...

let me guide you down my entrance hallway...

to where all the action happens... and by action i mean sleep and watching of horrible chilean sitcoms... or the futbol defeat of venezuela at the hands of chile last night!
behind those closet doors is my beautiful kitchen. i am well equipped with a microwave, toaster and four burners. i won't be making any souffles, but it's good enough for a single summer right?!

chilly chile

2008-06-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

sorry for the lack of information these days but i am only online at work and the last thing i should be doing is blogging... and the last thing i want to do after a full day of work is get back on the computer, particularly when it means an internet locale that will give me free internet only if i buy an overpriced coffee... wait a minute, i love overpriced coffee...

santiago de chile is pretty phenomenol so far. the job is exactly what i wanted for the summer, and really the best internship a summer mba could ask for. i´m seeing a real company deal with very real issues. the work that i do could actually make an impact on where this company decides to go in the future. the company was started by a mother and daughter, and is now run by the brother. all three still work here though. the production facility is comprised of a little over 20 employees. i´ll try to get some photos soon, there might be some proprietary issues there...

so the weather... i thought it was going to be like a beautiful virginia fall day every day. but alas...the temperatures are dropping daily and the skies seem to be opening up to cold and colder raindrops. so much for all the cute summer dresses i packed!

ok, i better get back to work but i promise loads of updates soon!

starlight coffee, a chilean company, opened its first store in 2002 with the idea and purpose of creating a new concept in drinking gourmet coffee

2008-06-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

looks can be deceiving...

the word aerobics came about when the gym instructors got together and said, "if we're going to charge $10/hour, we can't call it jumping up and down"

2008-06-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

it is yet another day where i have awoken earlier than god himself. i´m the first person to love an early morning but 430 am two days in a row is a little much... since i don´t know anyone in town yet i don´t really feel comfortable staying out late by myself and i don´t have the internet to keep me up until the wee hours so i read until i´m sleepy and fall asleep far too early... that being said i have been doing great with catching up on my spanish literature.

yesterday i met one of the owners of araucania yarns, she was inspriational to say the least. she´s a very passionate person and proceeded to convince me why. our short meeting made me even more excited to get started on the summer project. it´s going to be quite the learning experience.

my greatest achievement yesterday was joining the gym downstairs. with the smog and constant construction i really can´t run outside. and the gym is just toooo convenient. well i thought the spanish gyms were a treat, but they were nothing compared to this one. the gyms are filled with people looking for "partners". i think every women in the place had fake breasts and wore some sort of animal print spandex. needless to say, i did not fit in. one nice thing about the gym is 5 free personal training sessions. it was really hard to get through my first session because 1) i´m embarassingly out of shape and 2) of course i know no exercise words in spanish... but the end of the session was super embarassing... the trainer was teaching me elongation (stretching). they do this by actually doing the stretches for you with their bodies. i couldn´t stop laughing at the absurdity of it. midway through one of the darling little tarts in the gym came up and asked if she could go next...

ok, now i´m off to do a little chilean touring...

since chileans don't pronounce the letter 's' i never know if they're talking about me or that guy walking down the street...

2008-06-12T14:20:00.001-07:00

after 20 hours of flying and flying and flying i have arrived to santiago de chile. i was whisked away at the airport to my new piso en el bosque, a very nice neighborhood in the center of the town. i was met by the landlord's son who gave me a tour of the city on foot and by car. what service!

tomorrow i will meet my boss for the summer and a quick coffee. i don't start work until monday so i'm going to utilize these three days by touring the city inside and out.

my first chilean food experience was a hot dog with cheese on it. my chilean guide said it was very typical chilean, which i doubted at first, but after seeing a hot dog shop on every corner...

i promise to write more as soon as i can stay awake for more than ten minutes - and photos ASAP!

(for the record, that was 5 posts fontainer)

when you meet someone who can cook and do housework -- don't hesitate a minute -- marry him

2008-06-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

iese's campus is littered with computers so that students can check their email at a moment's notice... in order to use a computer each student logs in with their own account. if you forget to log out then the next person who uses that computer can either kindly log you out or....can send a humorous email from your name...

i've fallen victim once, twice...THREE times! i can't complain because i have had no qualms in sending an email from someone else's account on several occassions. but the latest email was sent with care and consideration... worthy of the "best SPAM email" prize...

at iese we have 9 chileans in the first year. they're all married, and with the exception of one couple they all have children or babies on the way... so in my small circle of friends it's been the joke that i will come back from santiago in the fall ready to walk down the aisle..

where am i going with all this?

the last SPAM sent from my account read like this:

_______________________

subject: SAVE THE DATE: My September wedding!!

Dear friends,

You are all cordially invited to my wedding this September in Chile. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I have been in the market for a Chilean husband for some time. However, as many of the Chileans at our school are already married, I have found it necessary to move to Chile for the summer to find the man of my dreams.

It is true that at this point in time I have neither the man nor the dress….but after 9 weeks in Chile working for a yarn company I am confident I will return with both.
Details will follow, but please reserve the weekend of the 20th of September for the celebration of my marriage!

Affectionately yours,

Anne

P.S. If you know any single men in Santiago, please pass along my contact information and attached photo.

P.P.S. I am registered at IKEA and Zara Home

come back soon

2008-06-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

the first year is behind me...officially. i have learned more about marketing & finance & operations & capital markets & quantitative methods & economics & decision analysis & strategy & the list goes on than i ever thought possible. i have read over 300 cases and technical notes detailing for me how i could become a better business leader, how i can handle this or that problem and how to think analytically so that whenever i start my own company, become a partner in a firm or just enter the workforce i can conquer everything put in front of me. yes, the first year of the MBA was a long one, but worth every minute (and every penny). i have made some remarkable friends that i will miss dearly over the next 4-7 months.

and i'll miss sangria sundays...

and i'll miss tuesday lunch dates...

i'll miss my american chicas...
but i'll look forward to my new roomies! and getting all my stuff back from bluespace!
i'll miss last minute cram session while sipping cava apertifs...

i'll miss my few moments of calatrava residence...
and the late night fetes thrown at a moment's notice...and the obsession with hats day or night...
so this is it for my barcelona blogs this spring. i am headed to santiago wednesday morning... next time you hear from me i'll be in the middle of winter braving the world of really speaking spanish!!!

the measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year

2008-06-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

exactly one year ago today i stepped foot on european soil not as a tourist but as an aspiring resident. my life is unrecognizable even to myself when compared to the early part of 2007... i've moved from paris to barcelona, from gracia to sarria, from culinary to business school... i've seen the most amazing places, learned more than i thought humanly possible and made some wonderful friends along the way.

and now today marks the last day of my first year at IESE. it's been a long long year, one of the best of my life... i still have three exams before i say goodbye and head to chile. so if you're reading this be sending me positive vibes the rest of the week!!

has sido robado?

2008-06-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

a sad fact of life here in barcelona is that pick-pocketing and petty thievery are rampant. tourists are common targets, but even the well versed resident falls victim to the hoodlum's antics.

after a long night out with the usual IESE crowd i was walking with a friend down the street. we were chatting and enjoying the lovely cool spring evening when all of a sudden a bike came speeding by and just grabbed her purse out of her hand. it was scary and awful, but to make matter's worse it was her third time getting robbed this month...

so we grabbed a taxi and took her safely home... after we'd dropped her i started telling the taxi driver in my cryptic spanish that this was her third time being robbed, that i thought it was so sad, that i couldn't get over how many people get pick-pocketed in the town... then i asked (or so i thought) him if he'd ever been robbed. he looked at me like i'd offended him and his whole family... turns out i had asked him if he'd ever robbed someone.

i guess i'm not as fluent as i had previously thought...

when i play sport my mind is full of doubts - who will finish second, who will finish third?

2008-05-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

if you're not sick of hearing about my travels i have another in store... this past weekend was the MBAT Olympics. it's basically a sporting event (startilingly similar to the real olympics) comprised of 15 european business school where we all compete for gold silver and bronze. the event is held on HEC's campus just south of paris. IESE had strong teams and dynamic acts for all the events. despite missing half the school thanks to the graduation being held on the same day we managed to pull off silver overall! everyone complained up to the event about how expensive it was for a 4 day trip to paris, but in the end i think we can all agree it was an experience worth every penny. based on the different experiences (and athletic successes) i would have paid any amount!

like any good school trip we socially regressed to an group of pre-american-21 year olds. we stocked up, in duty free of course, on our favorite adult beverages and mixers. these tasty beverages assured us of being despised by every flight attendent vueling had to offer. after getting to paris we hurried to HEC's campus to greet the other 1400 participants of the MBAT. it was a great venue with a live band, that i quickly endeared myself to. ashley and i became groupies in moments - just check out the t-shirts the band gave us.

friday morning came quickly. the hundred or so of us quickly dressed in IESE gear and prepared to conquer all the rest of the business nerds out there. here you can see pickle power speeding up the climbing wall. what you don't see here is the shirtless man that is spotting everyone. why else would katie have so carefully put her harness on to show off her finest assets?
why tug of war is not a sport in the real olympics is beyond me. not only is it fun and entertaining for spectators but if you're lucky paul bunyon will be the anchor - and who doesn't love paul bunyon?
so the genesis of my athletic career at IESE began with badmitton. at first i signed up because i had visions of my backyard at ridge place. the scenery is nice, the sport is easy and you don't sweat. well, things have changed. now you actually buy shoes specific to the sport, you practice inside (not on the beach while getting a suntan) and you definitely glow more than is desired. this was not at all a sport i was meant to play! but alas, i was the captain of the women's badmitton team and i had a responsibility to perform a role. fortunately that role turned out to be morale captain. i'm not sure if it was all those cheers i was doing or if it was those yellow shoes or simply ashish's agility - but whatever it was - IESE walked away with the badmitton bronze.

so now for my shining moment. again, i thought i would be going to MBAT as more of a spectator. but the excitement of those around me inspired me to sign up for yet another sport. so back to my days in apple valley community sports i decided to tap back into my soccer talent (or futbol rather, for those europeans reading). i missed the first game because of my other duties on the badmitton court. but i quickly ran down to the pitch where i hurried on field for game #2. our team was comprised of spaniards, italians and brits... and the americana.

but listen here folks - a miracle happened in the middle of game #2. the ball was kicked in my direction and i not only kicked it - it went in the GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL! if you look closely you can see my hand on the right hand side of the picture. that's just moments before my triumph! i saw the ball go into the goal but since there was no net i was still suspicious as to the validity of my action. but i glanced over to the sidelines to a sea of IESE maroon and white cheering their fool heads off. yes, i had scored a goal! we ended up winning the game 2-0. i'm still high from that experience. now i know why people play sports!!

as if one goal wasn't enough, i had to go and score another! this time the victory was a little less sweet as i lightly kicked the ball past a less-than-agressive defender straight through the legs of the goalie. it was like a slow motion cluster. but really, who cares... i, anne "the only time i run is when the orange slices come out during half time" agnew, scored two goals!!!

check out that victory dance.

after two full days of playing the IESE women walked away with the silver medal. the only team to beat us was LBS. and the only person to score more goals than i did was elena (rightfully so of course, i think she scored something like 15?!)
now that the sports were over it was time to have some fun and enjoy the beautiful weather.
HEC's campus was beautiful. they had this beautiful lago we all wanted so desperately to dip our toes into...
i'm still debating whether or not i make a better futbol player or spectator? i do look pretty happy in this one...
LBS came big time with their own double decker bus. their claim to fame all weekend was an endless supply of beer. in order to get a beer though you had to be tattooed... look at this group of tattoo suckers!

for the people who weren't too exhausted from the day's events there were plenty of parties to attend to at night. friday night there was the salsa competition, where again IESE won the silver. our team was exceptional. if i can get my hands on a video i'll upload. after the salsa competition there was a talent show. each of the school's had the opportunity to put on one act. one of my friend's from ESADE got up on stage to do a comedy routine. his routine turned out to be a lesson on how to pick up women. he asked for a volunteer from the audience, and of course it was c'est moi! he proceeded to do the napolean dynamite dance for me while i had to stand on stage! it was entertaining if nothing else!

so there we have it, another great weekend in paris...

until next time...

everyone is an explorer. how could you possibly live your life looking at a door and not open it?

2008-05-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

once midterms were over ashley and i bolted for the airport for a long weekend in sintra, portugal. it's located just outside of lisbon. one of our classmates, nuno, has a beautiful home there where he graciously hosted us for the weekend. here you can see their amazing house. it was filled with beautiful portuguese relics. the grounds were also amazing. there was a pool, a tennis court and even a private chapel.

during a horticultural tour of the grounds we were shown the garden where all the fruits and vegetables for the house were grown. nuno's mother proudly pointed out each of the different types of trees and flowers grown as well. we finally reached the back corner of the land where nuno and his siblings had played when they were little. playground equipment apparently never gets old regardless of how old you are!

early the next morning nuno and his mother took ashley and me around to various sites in sintra. located very near is the cabo da roca, the most western part of europe. it was a beautiful coastal part of portugal with many cliffs. the weather was beautiful and you felt you could see for miles. it was very reminiscent of when i went to sagres, the place where prince henry looked over the seas and thought the world was flat.
ashley and i took one day to discover the small town of cascais, another beautiful town very close to sintra. the town houses quite possibly the best ice cream in the entire world. the parlos is called santini. if you are ever anywhere close to lisbon it is worth the detour. we managed to make a few stops there. the rest of the day was spent walking the beautiful tiled streets of cascais and sitting on the edge of the sea drinking cold sangria eating fresh fish served by descendents of portuguese explorers. we'd just finished a hard week of exams, we deserved this, right?

nuno took us all to his favorite beach by night. we had drinks in a shack on the side of the beach and ate traditional portuguese fare.
during another day of touring we got to see the pena national palace. it's a beautiful palace in sintra that looks and feels like it could be in a shrek movie. the architecture was fun and stunning.

also visiting with us were a couple from our program from brazil. ricardo used to live in cascais so he was a great tour guide for everyone. we spent the day driving from one precious portuguese town to the next. we ate far too much food for four people, but it was well worth it!

all in all sintra, cascais and lisbon were beautiful cities. portugal remains my favorite european country.

toula. toula! you're engaged. you're engaged-we never think this would happen for you. never. never. taki, didn't we say that...

2008-04-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

sunday was ashley´s birthday so of course we had to celebrate in style for her big day - quarter of a century! the girls and i woke up early to head to sitges, a coastal town just south of barcelona. it was a pleasant 30 minute ride (gratis as well!) as soon as got to sitges we stopped at the market to fill our bags with the necessary nutrients for the day...vino...queso...chocolate... you know...
how gorgeous is this scene?

one of the wonderful thing about going to the beach here is the women that come around and offer massages. always one to want to try out the cultural experiences i partook in the festivities!

that night we continued to commemorate ashley´s 25th with an american style bbq... somehow this crazy hippy got into the party... someone said he´s from north of the border - could it be?
the pink wig of course had to make its appearance...
ashley and the latins, and some crazy mexican in the background...

laura and i decided to have a nice low key evening hosting one of the american visitors that has recently uprooted and come to barcelona to live... of course the first stop was a restaurant with a menu that had pictures and was written in 6 languages. after a delicious meal of fried goodness we debated where the next low key locale should be..

after much debate someone mentioned a piano bar, a bulgarian one nonetheless. of course i could not resist! we not only went and tasted a few of the popular vodkas on the top shelf but i also took over the mike for a few numbers. man, i miss karaoke!
a popular holiday here in barcelona, one i have been looking forward to all year, is the day of saint jordi. it´s a holiday where all the women get flowers and all the men get books. the streets are filled with flower and book stands... here you can see some of the flowers and a man who has just given his bride a rose...

finally... here we are studying for midterms...

send me a postcard, drop me a line; stating point of view; indicate precisely what you mean to say; yours sincerely, wasting away...

2008-04-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

this past week i had my first repeat visitor! angela was awesome enough to visit in paris and again in barcelona. thanks booz allen! she arrived late wednesday night so we ran right away to get some tasty tapas and study my spanish vocabulary for the midterm i would have thursday. her novice pronunciation was better than mine!
thursday angela made her way to bikram yoga while i had class and did some touring on her own. after school i rushed home so we could begin our touring together. we ate at my favorite tapas place where tony, the bartender, was working his last night. he treated us to some polish beverages.

after meeting up with a few friends we made it an early night (for spain at least) because we had to be on our best behavior for friday. angela was coming with me to school. she sat in on our global economics class which is taught by one of IESE's best professors, a future chilean neighbor of mine! at the beginning of class he announced we had a visitor and asked angela to introduce herself. the class, obviously after having consumed way too much sugar that day, proceeded to chant "sing". when you're late to class you have to sing to everyone. obviously this rule does not apply when you're going through introductions... regardless we both turned bright red.

the rest of the day was spent riding around barcelona taking in all of the sites. i know angela was a bit nervous at first riding wallejo but she got used to it by the end.

i'm posting a photo of angela with the sangria here only once. i could post several but would hate to give off the appearance of our holiday together being a lush filled one!

saturday night was amazing. we went to see gilberto gil in a tent set up in the northern part of barcelona. we walked in while gilberto was playing "when i'm 64", one of my favorite beatles songs... he then played a ton of originals and a few bob marley covers. it was a great concert.

sunday afternoon was a beautiful day spent on the beach eating and laughing. we managed to watch a bit of the IESE beach rugby practice. look at ashley go!

quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos

2008-04-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

just when i thought life couldn't get more exciting...it did...

the summer between the first and second year of business school is generally spent interning at a company that will help you use the skills you've been acquiring for the last 9 months. i was fortunate enough to get my top choice internship with an entrepreneurial company in santiago, chile. so come june you'll find me reading pablo neruda while sipping a pisco overlooking the andes! when you picture me there don't forget to dress me in a heavy parka and boots though, because it'll be the dead of winter...

different does not equal inferior

2008-04-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

uncle sam has taxed and not represented again... decreasing my income to zero and taking on far too much in student debt clearly wasn't enough - i had to do my taxes on a sunny day in barcelona. but thanks to an education credit i am a tad bit richer. and what did i do with the money that was burning a hole in my pocket?? yes, you guessed it, i joined a gym! i've gotten tired of running the streets in barcelona and being gawked at like i'm a carnie because i'm exercising outdoors. so i've hauled my a$$ back inside. there's a great gym close by with a pool, stellar facilities and most importantly, zumba classes! after the success elizabeth and i had at the arlington y i couldn't resist. so a girlfriend and i went to our first zumba experience in spain. there were quite a few differences of course. to name a few:

instead of being taught by the russian sophisticate this class was taught by two gay catalans that proceeded to gyrate on one another, hoping to pass it off as "dance moves." it was an excellent way to ensure the time went quickly. and the visuals certainly helped to explain what moves we were supposed to be doing since i don't understand a word of catalan!

instead of the class being filled with middle aged american women hopping on the latest trend it was filled with latinas that came out of the womb dancing. i was put to shame.

instead of coordinated adidas pants and tank tops outfits the women wore thong leotards and spandex. yikes.

instead of the cool down consisting of turning off the lights, slow yoga type movements and steady breathing we learned slow provocative dance moves.

anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain

2008-03-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

last night we celebrated the beginning of thilo's 30th year at the beautiful locale of mirabe. unfortunately the entire city view you usually get there was clouded over with miserably cold rain.... we all managed to have fun despite the weather though...

see how much fun i'm having with felix and raluca!!!

thelma: "louise, no matter what happens, i'm glad i came with you."

2008-03-22T05:48:00.000-07:00

early tuesday morning lindsay and i rented the cutest little black car ever and set off to regions unknown. our plan was to get in the car, head west and buy as much cava as possible along the way! the penedes region which is just west of barcelona is the largest producer of cava so there would be lots of vineyards to choose from.the only item on the itinerary that i booked was our hotel. i found this great place in alistair sadaway's book. for some reason i did not realize it was on the "romance route" through spain. so lindsay and i got a romantic little double bed with spicey red curtains that covered the bed. althought the weather was fantastic it still wasn't warm enough for a dip in the pool. but look how gorgeous it must be during the summer... here's lindsay planning out our routes for the day.

our first stop was a winery in villafranca. it was a medium sized vineyard producing 300,000 bottles of wine and cava annually. the owner, antoni, showed us every part of the vineyard including the entire bottling process. since it's just the beginning of spring there is no activity in the bottling areas so we had free reign around the place.
after our personalized tour antoni took us to the back for a tasting. we not only got a glass of cava but a lesson in life from him. he shared with us his philosophies on people and and what is important in life. at least i think that's what he was doing - he was speaking in spanish... we asked for a quick photo with him but he refused to smile, saying laughing is natural but smiling for a camera is not. if you look closely i think we got a smirk!

our next wine tour was through the miguel torres winery. it was a stark contrast from the previous tour. we bought tickets at the entrance and then were filed into a movie theatre where we watched in our language of choice a video on all the torres products. after the video we all got on a TRAM! the tram took us through all the vineyards, the cellars, the bottling facilities and finally the distribution center. the torres family has successfully made touring a vineyard an experience disneyland would be proud of. it was really cool but there were definitely times when lindsay and i were just laughing out loud. when the tram took us into a dark cave where we watched holigrams of monks it was the last straw...

despite the trippy wine tour we did buy a few bottles and break them open at our romantic inn that night with some yummy spanish cheese and bread!
the second half of the trip consisted of tours of small towns and old roman gems. we stumbled upon lots of great sites and even managed to stumble upon them on tuesday so anything we wanted to see was free. what luck we have!

to get off the beaten path we decided to stop through font-rubi. there were supposed to be some cava vineyards in the town. it was many kilometers up a windy road into the mountains. there was no one around and barely a livable house in the vicinity. we thought we'd lost all hope until we found in the middle of some cement square a large circle of small children. we tried to get out of there as fast as possible, it was borderline creepy...

then on the way out of town along a very deserted path we saw this sign...

????????????

for dinner on wednesday we went to a precious local catalan restaurant that served raclette. it was delicious!

say what you want about knock-offs....these dolce and cabanas are hot!
once we were back in barcelona lindsay and i whipped up homemade meals galore. we made a delicious aloo gobi, fantastic veggie lasagna and even deviled eggs! for anyone that knows our history they'll know what a big deal that was :)

it's hard to believe the week went so quickly, but it was a great one. i definitely needed the break from school but more importantly it was great to get so much lindsay/anne time before the big day... next time we see each other it'll be to celebrate the move to mannix!!!

mom, i'd like you to meet wallejo. wallejo, this is my mother...

2008-03-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

lindsay has arrived! after much anticipation lindsay flew in early sunday morning and was an absolute trooper. the first day was as action packed as last time she came to visit me in spain (an all night carnival in cadiz!!) but we managed to get a lot of QT in during a beautiful barcelona day. we walked up the brutal park guell hill and bought ourselves some sweet matching D&C sunglasses. hopefully i'll have an up close shot to show you later...

sunday morning was the procession of the palms. as we walked through the city we could see different traditions occuring outside of the churches. of course there were hordes of people holding and shaking their palms (there is no double entendre here). but also there were circles covering lots of the plazas where people gathered to do dances. here we see lindsay wishing she were part of one of those circles:

and of course we managed to get a lot of cafe time in. the weather in barcelona is amazing right now. it's almost like lindsay brought the springtime with her. let's hope it lasts!and then last but not least - here he his - my most beautiful ride... a couple of months ago i finally broke down and bought myself a scooter. it has improved my quality of life exponentially. and yes! lindsay was brave enough to ride on him with me.

grilling is not just about lighting a fire - bobby flay

2008-03-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

exams are over and the holiday has begun! to start the week off right i hosted a little bbq - american style... i bought myself a little charcoal grill and set to making all the delicious sides that have been popular at tailgates around the globe!

since thilo set the grill up he got the honorary first photo with it. he almost looks american doesn't he???

before the crowds arrived we warmed up the coals.

to make mom proud i served deviled eggs. i was fearful the europeans might think them a bit scary so i only made 40. i totally misjudged, they were gone within minutes...

and of course what is an american bbq without an american flag? since i couldn't buy a flag here i made a cake with the proper decor.

as soon as stefan walked in the door he helped prepare a great bucket o ice and estrella. those germans are so helpfl.

part of the invitation required each person to bring whatever meat they wanted to consume that night. kevin stopped at the argentinian beef store to pick up what looked alarmingly like a heart (he promises otherwise).

of course the pink wig had to come out along with the birthday lei... do you think jelle is falling for stefan's advances???

the parron comes out again, this time run by a bunch of americans. dominating the bbq and the catalan drinks all in one night?! no me digas!

each nationality had a turn at the grill - everyone wanted to show they could do it better than the us... here we see the germans having a bit of difficulty. in an effort to get the fire started they used paper (highly flamable) plates to fan the flames. smart? at least it was better than the frenchy's idea to use a hair dryer.

with the paper plates still not doing the trick jakob resorted to simply blowing on the coals.

"don't look at me, i'm eating the american flag!" said pickle power.

pressure pressing down on me, under pressure

2008-03-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

after much awaited anticipation the pressure cooker has finally arrived! we christened it with a veggie recipe of legumes and tomatoes but unfortunately it ended in only burned goodness... then our next attempt culminated in a potato and peas concoction that was a bit undercooked (but still edible.) clearly i need some practice with pressure...

back home everyone said I didn't have any talent. they might be saying the same thing over here but it sounds better in french...

2008-03-09T01:21:00.000-08:00

last weekend after mom and dad had finished their annual trip to geneve we all met up in paris. it was a great weekend away in the most amazing of cities. it was my first time back since living there last summer. the city was exactly as i remember - breath taking. i had forgotten how much i liked to stroll the bridges watching the people and taking in the beautiful scenery. we found plenty of time to wander despite the chills of the paris winds.

the weekend started off with a smooth landing and quick ride to the center city. i presented dad with his belated birthday gift - a fine bottle of cava! early saturday morning we started walking the streets. spring is bursting to come out everywhere you turn so dad was taking the time to point out all the horticulture i should be memorizing.

after touring saint chapelle and napolean's tomb these lovebirds were tired. fortunately in the city of love, smooching on a bench is hardly pda!

since this statue had no head i decided to help the artist out.

this is just one of a gazillion photos we have of each of us drinking in one of the many fine parisian street cafes. but i loved this one in particular because it looks like dad is chatting up gertrude stein...

while dad enjoyed his literary conversations mom and i did what we do best - gossiped about the people walking by and tasted fine cheeses! i do love me some manchego but france definitely knows how to do cheese best.

throughout all the touring and shopping we found time to have a bite with one of my iese colleagues. we went to this all souffle restuarant not far from where i used to live. it was divine. even the frenchy liked it!

all in all the weekend was lovely. it was great to see my parents, but very hard to see them go. i can't believe how long i go between seeing my family these days... i miss you!

it's important that this company celebrates its diversity. you know what, stanley? come kwanzaa time, i have got you covered, baby! - michael scott

2008-03-08T05:11:00.000-08:00

we have finals for the term so of course i've found the time to update my blog :)

so much has happened in the last several weeks that it is going to take a couple entries to fill you all in.

going way back in time... in early february almost the entire school hopped on some buses and headed north to andorra, the land where human life expectancy is the longest on earth. it's a small country in the middle of the pyranees famous for skiing and duty free shopping. two things i did not partake in unfortunately.

the bus ride there was reminiscent of collegiate overnight trips. everyone brought their preferred adult beverage to enjoy on the ride. as you can imagine the bus drivers hated us and the bus ride was over far too fast for these kids. once again we got suckered into the german tradition of putting bottlecaps on your nose before sipping our cocktails.

during the days while everyone was skiing i wandered around the beautiful country with the other height sissies. i got a chance to see all the fuss about the tax free shopping but still was not convinced a pair of gucci boots were in my price range just because VAT was out of the picture. so i enjoyed seeing the pyranees covered in snow and watching all my friends glide down the mountains on their skis & boards from the safety of the lodge with a hot cocoa in hand.

the evenings were expertly planned with traditional meals and even more traditional parties. saturday we all enjoyed a carnivore's dream dinner accompanied by porrón shows by anyone willing. here you can see me enjoying a bit of wine catalan style. it's scary (and messy) at first but well worth the effort.

and i'm not half bad at pouring it either!

do you think i had too many tries at the porron? it made me a little crazy with the chipmunk...but then again maybe this is my attempt to be kind to animals...

i meant to photoshop this picture to put the pyranees in the background instead of this skiside eatery. alas, my graphic design skills are worse than my quantitative methods ones, so you're getting to see the ski bunnies without the ski.

now back to barcelona. my friend and fellow group member, magdalena invited all of A2 for drinks to celebrate her internship offer from GS. unfortunately the whole group couldn't make it but victor and i managed to represent the team well - she looks happy right?

after drinks laura and i decided to head up north to our favorite divey spanish bar. it's small and hot and super crowded. but the music is great and the chance of meeting someone that speaks more spanish than english is exponentially higher than at the big clubs in the center. so we grabbed a taxi and off we went. along the way i was trying to teach laura how to do a taxi cab confession - as you will see here. unfortunately she still has a long way to go...

this photo is taken at the divey bar but does no justice to the bar itself. if it were representative of the big time we had you would see hundreds of people dancin in the background, waving their arms and jumping on the bar. alas, if only i had one of those photos of atop-a-bar-dancers...now another HUGE party at iese is called the multi-culti. it's supposedly the craziest party at iese. every country has a stand where they bring their nation's food and drink to share. the americans made PB&J, brought in KFC and budweiser and dressed as truckers or hooters servers. are you proud to be an american?

the native costumes were amazing and the fare provided was exceptional.

thank god for lederhosen.

canada, china, spain, mexico, america.

i'm wearing a traditional indian head piece here. am i on my way to bollywood or what???
the girl from australia managed to tattoo half the world with the australian flag. here you can romania, italy and america wearing them with pride! unfortunately i don't have a great photo of ashley and me but if you look closely you can see our handmade american flag tshirts!

just moments after the multi-culti ended my american visitors arrived from michigan! i had no choice but to rally and show them the hot spots in barcelona. i took them immediately to visit anton at gastrea where the boys enjoyed Txakolina, a sparkling wine from the basque country. the trick to making it sparkle is pouring it from very high. the boys each took their turn and did quite well...
not to neglect our own american traditions we followed up the spanish traditions with some old favorites. scotty, true to his roots, had a lovely beer pong table set up in the apartment to keep everyone entertained in those down moments... despite not having my other half of a-squared i did manage to get on a winning team!

for their last night we went to this great restaurant run by a chef that used to work with ferran adria. the food was exceptional and the company was better. hopefully the boys had a great time even if they were escorted by a bunch of americans all week!!!

everyone should live in paris once in their lives...

2008-03-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

this weekend was a beautiful little escape from reality...

look at the fantasy world i was brought into...

more tomorrow...

that being said i do love a cat in a party hat

2008-02-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

there is a fine line i walk with this blog. there are things i want to tell you all to keep you informed of my life from so far away, but of course at the same time i must retain a bit of privacy... and then there are the things that you just know or don't know about me based on how long we've known each other.

if you know me as an acquaintance you know i'm quiet when you first meet me, that the closer you get to me the shorter i become and that i have a tendency to look at your hair when i speak to you.

if you know me a little bit better you know i laugh more than i speak, sarcasm is my friend and i'm obsessed with restaurants.

and then for the few and proud that know me quite well they know loyalty is my favorite attribute, i will always stand on your right, and i have not one sensitive, loving, weak-in-the knees emotion for animals.

(there is nothing wrong with me)

soooo.... i have just spent the last hour reading and pondering our strategy case for tomorrow "cat fight in the pet food industry" we'll be discussing how the pet food industry is growing, how consumers often pay a high premium for their pet's food to compensate for the guilt they feel after leaving their animal all day (so why do you have an animal again?) and how a high quality pet food should be "a lumpy, frightening, bloody, stringy horror." this means lots of meat.

oh god.

can't wait to see who the animal lovers are in class tomorrow!

how can I control my life when I can't control my hair?

2008-02-13T12:58:00.000-08:00

just before midterms were completed we had to let off a little steam - so what better way than to recreate the best bus ride ever? instead of a pepe bus with mags and anton driving us around we opted for two red sofas and a real meal as the backdrop.

set the story: after trekking up and down a slight hill in the middle of the pyranees we were more than tired and were forced to play 10th grade drinking games (i know, that just doesn't make sense!) so we made the driver stop off to get us some warm estrellas and we proceeded to socially regress...

this time was a little different. there was no bus and the beer was cold but the games were the same and the hairstyles were for everyone this time - not just marijn...

i do not participate in any sport with ambulances at the bottom of the hill

2008-02-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

today is the last day of midterms and i can guarantee a great sigh of relief echoing the hallways of IESE this afternoon around 5pm. it's been a crazed few weeks here with the shortest term of our MBA and the fewest spanish holidays! we've actually had to work our asses off 5 days a week every week since we returned. it doesn't help matters that several of our classes are quantitatively based AND most of us have had to juggle school work with interviews. fortunately for me all my interviews have been on campus but for a lot of people they're traveling all over to see if they can get the opportunity of a summer internship.

life in barcelona is getting more and more beautiful every day though. it's going to get harder to go to class with the sun shining so bright.

tonight most of the school is off to andorra for some skiing. "apparently" the powder isn't that great because it's warm. i signed up to go in the hopes of getting some fresh air and hiking in - i have given up skiiing long ago thanks to an irrational fear of heights. now that it's so warm it looks like i'll have more friends with me in the chalet!

always keep a song in your heart - it's like karaoke for the voices in your head

2008-01-31T10:39:00.000-08:00

so much for keeping my new year's resolution of updating my blog more regularly! the last four weeks since i've been back in barca have been go go go. i've committed to studying my A off but at the same time keeping some sort of balance... so this post will be more about the "balance" i promise a more academically centric post next time!

the weather is getting really nice in barcelona, so nice that we can go to the beach at night and hang out. it's a dream come true! on one of these exceptionally warm evenings a bunch of us got together at a champagneria in barceloneta. if you bought two tapas you got a free bottle of cava. right up my alley...

when ashish got into IESE he ran out and bought this t-shirt. i thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever.

after drinks on the water we all decided to find a karaoke bar. after several failed attempts we found the most miserable karaoke bar on the planet. made me really miss the rhodeside grill!
last weekend laurita had us all over for an adult dinner... it was great fun - sitting at a long table with real silverware and lots of "intelligent" conversation. before the eating began though the germans treated us to a typical shot from their country. ritual says you must wear the screw cap on your nose though while sipping. i think we may have been tricked...
kevin's working on his artsy photography...
"wash faster!!!"
the party got a little out of control for a bit... pickle power couldn't get herself off the tables!
just to minimize the temptation jakob hauled the table out...
how's that for a serious pose?
finally after our delicious meal we headed to gracia to meet up with a bunch more iese kids. there turned out to be a huge festival in gracia where people had set up huge bonfires in the plazas and bbq'd. it was fantastic!

ok, that's it for now. i promise more information soon! i now OFFICIALLY have internet in my house!!!

pigs do fly

2008-01-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

New Kids On The Block Stage Comeback

After months of speculation and rumor, the Kids are coming back. A well-placed source tells PEOPLE exclusively that New Kids On The Block are indeed getting back together.

The band's Web site, http://www.nkotb.com/, which had been dormant, is now back up and running in anticipation of the official announcement, which the source says will be made in the next few weeks.

The site currently features a television graphic with a fuzzy, flickering photos of NKOTB in their heyday, and a link inviting fans to sign up for info.

The boy band, which made legions of tweens swoon in the early '90s, selling more than 50 million albums, became a worldwide phenomenon before calling it quits in 1994.

Eighteen years later, they're still "Hangin' Tough." The oldest "Kid," Jonathan Knight, now a real estate developer, will turn 40 later this year. Since the band's demise, former members Donnie Wahlberg, 38, and Joey McIntyre, 35, have seen acting success, while Danny Wood, 38, has worked as a music producer and Knight's brother, Jordan, 37, has continued to record.

if you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance

2008-01-07T15:50:00.000-08:00

ahhh what a wonderful speedy time home! well it wasn't too speedy... i managed to get quite a bit of relaxation in . my first full week was spent at the mountains doing nothing but eating all the familiar foods i'd missed, walking the ridge and spending time with my family. there were a few noteworthy highlights:

on one of my runs down the ridge i was attacked by some crazed (yet interestingly enough, domesticated dogs). and no, they were not chihuahuas! thankfully with my brute strength and my natural ways with animals i got away with only a few bruises. but now i'm beginning to understand why mountain folk carry guns...
as jacob fontaine still likes his beauty sleep and therefore sleeps in well past the sausage biscuits are all eaten jared went down to rouse him. jared kindly said "you know jacob, the family would really love it if you came up to hang out with them." jacob sarcastically replied "i'd really love it if the family came down to hang out with me." well fortunately for him we all LOVE getting invited places. so mom, dad, jared, rachel, jacob franklin, william and i packed up the board game we were playing and brought it all downstairs to jacob's room. how's that for overdelivering?
my favorite family tradition carried on this year with the family singing carols. there's just something so serene about singing together with only candlelight.
i still can't believe we didn't have a camera for this one but rachel and i made it to the cross! we began hiking the back roads of shrinemont to where we thought the right path was - unfortunately we lost our way and ended up just blindly going up the mountain atop fallen leaves. pretty good for two out of shape ol girls :)
christmas morning the boys and i made souffle for the family! jared had the egg whites - how devilish am i?!

sus getting william excited for christmas eve service:
dad getting us nice and toasty for the night:
dad and jacob franklin headed to the feed store:

back at home life was still full of my favorite cuisines but things were just a little less relaxed. i guess this is only to be expected once you head back to the city. there was much to be done and so many people to see - all of it such a treat for me! some highlights included:

apparently dc's new fad is wine bars - and being a former foodie i was eager to try whatever was the latest on the dc restaurant scene. so my fellow wine lovers alex, chris and myself headed to veritas for a flight and tastes of the kitchen's finest cheeses. and then what goes better after a posh evening of wine and cheese than BOWLING?! that's right folks....i went to a bowling alley. the story stops there.
there were lots of nights out with old masonites, old jmuers, old boozers and now old culinary school friends! i tried a new bar a faccia luna and fell in love with magic hat 9, was reminded of why exactly dremos is closing, ate movie theatre popcorn and even got a little deepwater time in!
i got TWO nights of karaoke in. the first night was a little too eminem for my country line tastes but rhodeside on wednesday nights was just up my alley. jared, jacob and i hit the town and conquered the floor. (although the west virginia fans would disagree...) jacob wowed the crowd with hero, i dedicated god bless texas to washington's favorite losers, and the three of us sang neil diamond's tribute to his 11 year old muse, caroline... all in all a good night.
there are so many more stories to tell, some that might be better reserved for a non-blog platform (like a boy who sips wine in his robe, like a girl that keeps an ashtray under her kitchen sink to hold the trash, like a boy that cries when the hokies just can't make it happen, like a boy who really has become that new person your momma is always telling you about, like a little boy who discovers pommade when he should be taking a nap, like a little girl who forgets her purse, forgets eggs, forgets vegetable oil but in the end finds out her crush can keep promises he never knew he made.)

here rachel and jacob franklin fix up one of my favorite meals!!! i love you haandi.

apparently the only night that i took more than one photo was new years eve... jon and amy hosted a little fete before the big she-bang at their house. everyone brought treats to munch on and there was a wii for a little entertainment on the side. it was so great to see everyone.
some things just never change. we're all in the elevator headed down some insane number of floors and ben breaks out into the worm.
how's that for a little deutschie sandwich??? go 2008
um, this is picture was just hysterical, i couldn't resist. elizabeth and meghan clearly got different messages about what the pose was :) regardless it's clear everyone had a great time!
and who is this dancing man??? jacob franklin turned two while i was home - and man was he excited. he was dancing all over the place! here is rocking out while mimi sings row row row your boat.

here's the legendary cake jared made jacob franklin!
mom and dad treated me to an adult night out at another one of dc's hottest tickets, proof. it was a great little restaurant that served spanish ham! of course we had to get several helpings of that - and waiter, can you bring us this lovely priorat??? (here it looks like dad is asking my opinion on the wine menu - i think he's just humoring me!!!)

i was a bit bummed i wasn't going to see more extended family before i left town but in the last few days it's like they just came out of the woodwork. on new year's day aunt becky and uncle greg stopped over. then the next day mom and i drove down 95 to visit grandma, auntie b and uncle jake. the next day mom, rachel and i got to see katie in the final countdown days before little porter is born (is he here yet?!)

the last few days before i left town mom and i were busy running around getting me all the last minute things i would need before heading back abroad (and before i had to pay in the euro again). i got only the bare necessities of course; hiking boots, razors, endless supply of kraft, you know...the necessities...

and finally my last day was filled with jacob franklin and william because their parents went off to the west coast. my mornings on wayne street had been great all week because mom, dad and i would get up to drink coffee and have our granola together. but it was definitely more fun (sorry mom and dad) to have a little boy run into your bed and scream "good morning tia!"

you must ascend a mountain to learn your relation to matter

2007-12-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

finals are over, the term is complete and spain 07 is a distant memory. on our way out the door ashley and i took a quick photo with one of the many nativity scenes on campus. a religious scene on the school grounds had to be captured.

after a quick nap and a bit of christmas shopping we got all gussied up and headed uptown for the chrismas ball. with all the exams finally over the vibe at the party was incredible. everyone was in the best mood ever!

in the end i didn't get home until past 8am - quite appropriate for my last barcelona 07 fete. less than 4 hours later ashley knocked on my door to hang out - how i don't know - but i rallied. it's amazing what adrenaline you have when there is nothing on your 'to do' list.

friday was a long long day. i packed in the middle of the night, grabbed a taxi just before 6 and headed to the airport. i was going HOME! the day seemed to go flawlessly. all my flights were on time, all my seats were great and the movie selection on the transatlantic flight was decent. the only bad part was that i could not sleep and there were many many little children screaming the whole way. but as katie said, screaming babies in economy class is the best birth control for the new year. thanks for that silver lining my dear!

rachel, jacob and william were right on time to pick me up. it was amazing. jacob called me tia, william smiled whenever i looked his way and rachel got me a starbucks with a straw upon arrival! we hurried home to wait for mom and dad to get there. they still didn't know i was coming home early - so it was great fun to open the door when they knocked. it took a few moments for it to register that it was i.

now i'm sitting in an overstuffed chair looking over the blue ridge mountains watching jacob franklin enjoy his second birthday, my mom make oatmeal cookies, my dad get ready for the truck store, jared fix the computers, rachel make william giggle and oh yeah...we're still waiting for jacob fontaine to wake up...

man, it's great to be home.

the secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age ~ lucille ball

2007-12-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

happy birthday sus! hope you have a day filled with spontaneous fun and surprises (and lots of doting on by all the boys in your life!)

my candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light

2007-12-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

the first term is over. i have officially survived the craze that is 1st term iese. then again, finals aren't over until wednesday so i should probably not speak too soon! it was a bittersweet last few days. wednesday we began to say goodbye to each of our professors. they did a beautiful job sending us off into the next term.

our decision analysis professor ended the term on a great note by strategically placing us all in small teams based on our answers to a particular survey. some teams were put together because they all answered the survey correctly, others were put together because their answers couldn't be more different. it was a great experiment showing us the impacts of dissenters to a group. our dissenter was so convinced she was right over others she left the room without compromise. don't think manel would have predicted that one....

next we said goodbye to our capital markets professor, one of my personal favorites over the term. during the 75 minutes we had with him that day he gave us an abridged version of his course - this included a mini synopsis of each of the 14 classes we had. this day he drew on the board a fat man, a skinny man and a built man (or woman depending on how you interpreted his drawings). the fat man represented all the information he threw at us all term, the skinny man represented the bare necessities we needed to know for the exam and the built man represented what he hoped was the middle ground we actually achieved. i liked the idea, but i was really hoping we'd get a new drawing of the river with all of us on the same side with him. to continue with his suprises he ended his class with a brief poem (see blog title). this was met with applause while he exited the classroom. yes, slightly cheesy, but you know i love that stuff.

marketing was a different beast. jorge went through the term's main learning points attaching advertisements to a lot of them. lots of the ad campaigns were interesting but his final one was the most enjoyable. jorge actually showed us all the WAZZUP commercials for budweiser. i felt like jared and jacob were sitting right in class with me!

even our accounting professor had a twist to his usual dry regime. after a full 75 minutes of reviewing debits and credits and tax implications and leasing options sutton presented us with a joke (i know, i couldn't believe it!) and it was funny! a british accountant tells a joke about accountants vs. managers. it was priceless.

the abp class was a different kind of priceless. we hurried through a bit of the typical...talked about alternatives and criterias and whatnot. but as a special treat franz gave us a debrief of the research he does on neuroeconomics. he got really excited about it and showed us pictures of brains. i was not at all surprised by his giddy nature while describing this stuff.

finally our day ended today with our managing people class. instead of devoting anymore time to the endless theory we've been getting we watched the team videos made over the term. each of the 9 groups was required to create a video with a people management issue. it was a great way to say adios to term one. each group's video was better than the last and in reality, our class is filled with unemployed comedians/actors!

that's all for now folks. accounting calls!

the architect of the future will build imitating nature, for it is the most rational, long-lasting and economical of all methods

2007-12-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

the last of my 2007 visitors have come and gone....what a whirlwind it's been. it's hard to believe trips that have been planned since june are really over. time has been flying.

kathleen and gene arrived mid day thursday so i came to their hotel to meet them. they were saying right on las ramblas in the most precious little room overlooking the busy and exciting street. they had a little balcony to sit on and watch the people from a safe distance of the third floor. at night it was even more exciting when they could look down and see all of the holiday decorations lighting the streets.

thursday we got right to work visiting as many of gaudi's works as we could. as luck would have it thursday and friday were holidays in spain so i was able to be with them for most of their visit. the visits to gaudi's houses were amazing. he was an amazing architect, but there must have been some sort of screw loose, or some special "medicine" he took that helped him come up with all his ideas.

friday morning they rose early and did a tour of the sagrada familia. then they (all on their own) took the metro to my house. i gave them a quick tour of my house and gracia before we headed back downtown to visit the cathedral and the very important shoe museum!

next we made our way over to montjuic to see the fountain. unfortunately because of the season or the time of day the fountain wasn't operating. so then we trekked straight up hill to poble espanyol which was again a minor disappointment. it was kind of expensive to go in and half the stuff was already closed! on the bright side we burned a lot of calories walking all around AND since there are things they haven't seen yet there's reason to come back to barcelona!

the highlight of the trip was friday night when gene and kathleen immediately gave into my request to be a part of the stolen moto photo series!!! check them out!

and one of me for good measure...

so friday night i bid aideu to my last visitors so they could depart on a 14 day cruise to puerto rico!!! and so i could get my a** in gear for finals. cross your fingers this week that accounting doesn't kill me and when push comes to shove i remember that queen victoria is dead!

un viaggiatore prudente non disprezza mai il suo paese

2007-12-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

i can't guarantee the accuracy of all the facts you're about to read, but i can promise it will be a fun little story to help you pass the time while you're sitting at work inbetween surfing the net and checking your fantasy team scores, or while you're sitting at the library inbetween looking for your school crush to walk through the door and plodding along through the latest case....

let's start with marni. marni and i officially met this summer on our first day of culinary school in paris. but i am convinced we have met a million times before, since we have lived four blocks from each other in washington for years! it could have been at bistro du coin, it could have been at the soviet safeway or of course it could have been at her favorite hang out, lula's...

marni came from paris for the weekend and we did what marni and i do best - cook, eat and walk it all off. i think i saw more of barcelona in 2 days with her here than i have in the whole three months i've been here. we followed, just like in paris, the flash card walks sus sent from the states. the great thing about the walks in barcelona is that instead of being littered with church after church (which i'm not dissing mind you) there is a tapas restaurant and signature drink bar on every street.

the weather was pretty perfect for marni's visit so we headed to the water and watched the boats and people pass by. marni got so excited she even tried to jump into the water!

wouldn't gaudi be proud?

a visit with my favorite culinary student wouldn't have been complete without a few home cooked meals. friday we threw together mini souffles with a side of shrimp. saturday we had some frenchies over to test our cuisine skills on. much to their chagrin the menu was indian instead of the beef bourgignon they were expecting. after a couple of tasty beverages later however they had no idea what the cuisine was!

after a full week of classes and barcelona enjoyment my next visitor arrived. unfortunately for margit she arrived the day after thanksgiving, an excessively enjoyed day on my part. so friday night was low key by all barcelona standards. in the end it was a good thing we saved up all our energy. saturday brought yet another visitor...abby... since abby came all the way from the states we had to let her sleep a bit on saturday. margit and i pretended we had lots of money and walked all over barcelona pointing out the beautiful things we were going to buy for each other. (i came home empty handed)

margit and i raced home to get abby up from her cat nap so we could all get ready for the iese sponsored thanksgiving dinner. the dinner was fabulous. one of the professors donated wine from his personal vineyard and the restaurant served a (slightly) typical thanksgiving feast. during dinner there was a talent show with lots of great acts, two inparticular were exceptional:

dmitry, one of my fellow students that was a magician in the russian circus in his former life played a few tricks on the crowd. one of them was actually removing jan simon's shirt from his body without removing his sweater. there were moments during the trick when i worried for dmitry's life. but he pulled it off, and it was PRICELESS. another great one was a full spanish band who sang a popular spanish song AND video killed the radio star. it was complete with a megaphone. i really wish i had a video for you all. it was perfect.

the next week was a total blur. with a spanish exam, an abp paper, 3 months of accounting to catch up on and the regular caseload abby had to fend for herself a lot during the week. thanks to guidebooks and a gregarious personality she managed to see the whole city and even meet a few crazy catalans to help her find her way...

while she was here we found this gem of a tapas bar, gastrea. john from jamaica, the server, made us feel right at home and made recommendations all night. after he served a hazelnut flavored cheese top smothered in a raspberry coulis i fell in love with him. what is it with men who serve me dairy products??

here's what happens to two girls when left alone with a tube of shiny lip gloss...here's abby's best rendition of a mojito face. i took her to this great little cuban bar down the street from my house. it's a great way to start the evening...and then there is the right way to end the evening... oh sprial mac and cheese, how i have missed you...after i'd been complaining about the lack of holiday cheer i've been feeling abby bought me some decorative stars to hang around the house. (or hang around my ear while opening my advent calendar) i look like christmas though, right?finally here are a few of my latest around barcelona shots. if you look carefully you'll be able to find me in between all the oompaloompas...who says i don't appreciate art?!for now i'm getting back to work. we have a week and a half left of classes before exams begin. then it's off to the states for two weeks! in the meantime i have one last set of visitors - stay tuned for their visit's abridged version!

and let us give thanks

2007-11-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

things have been busy - too busy! it's been far too long since my last entry...

barcelona is still beautiful, school is still challenging and life is still going too quickly. the last few weeks have been filled with visitors from paris and the us, projects and tests galore and a workload heavier than you can imagine.

but in between it all there was thanksgiving! and even in barcelona the americans managed to find a way to celebrate turkey day with several treats from home...

the highlight of the evening however was when we found out one of our professor's moonlights in a techno band. we all took turns watching him jam on his website!

this week is crammed with studying and papers and group projects AND a vistitor! i feel like i've abandoned her along with all my blog fans!! fortunately for her she's stuck in amazing barcelona with lots of catalans willing to be her guide... for those at home i'm sorry and can't wait to see you in less than a month! i promise you'll hear more from me soon.

since becoming a central banker, i have learned to mumble with great incoherence. if i seem unduly clear to you, you have misunderstood what i said.

2007-11-13T10:59:00.000-08:00

rest and relaxation was easily achieved this weekend post midterm stress. friday after the accounting exam was over i literally ran to a local pub to begin partaking in some tasty beverages. it's amazing how different life is when you get out of school at 1200. some friends and i had a long late lunch, sipped a few tasties and still had time to go home and enjoy the afternoon. i enjoyed my afternoon with my first trip to a spanish barber. fortunately language was not an issue like in paris so we didn't have any length miscommunications this time.

friday night a girlfriend and i went out on the town trolling as it were. in an effort to "learn spanish" we decided to go out and find us some men with whom to practice. unfortunately/fortunately we ran into a bunch of the exchange students here at iese so instead spoke english and had some tasty beverages with them. maybe learning spanish is just a lost cause! once we left all them we finally made it to dinner around 1230. how spanish are we?

saturday was amazing. i slept in ridiculously late. once i got up nicolas and andres called to see if i wanted to go to an air show. being a plane lover myself i jumped at the opportunity. we drove to a nearby town, sabadell, where the second oldest airport in spain is located. turns out i misunderstood what we were going to do. there was actually not an airshow but rather a little restaurant at the end of the tarmac where we were going to sit for hours to drink coffee, chat and watch the planes land. so even better than an air show! i felt like i was at lady bird park (minus watching the submarine races of course).

in terms of the rest of my weekend i don't want to go too in detail for fear i will make you all jealous! but saturday night i had homemade pasta by an italian and sunday i had beers outside before the espanol futbol game surrounded by singing fans and finally that afternoon i went to a bbq hosted by a cattle farmer. i contributed a couscous salad, but it paled in comparison to the meat we tasted!

and now we're on to monday. see how quickly the weekend went! monday morning brought mock interviews. the morning session was quite interesting despite it being far too long. the session was led by this hysterical british lady who kept telling horror stories about interviewees. i was keen to laugh all morning but had to hold my breath when it came my turn to be interviewed. the interviews were conducted in a room with one interviewer and four classmates. i got a great group but man, i botched up my interview. thank heavens it was just practice. after being completly deflated in front of my peers i decided to have one tasty beverage with a friend at one of the great plazas near my house. unfortunately what they say about pringles is true about a cerveza as well...once you pop...

so this morning i awoke exhausted and wanting nothing more than to parer my alarm clock and go back to bed. but no no....today we were to meet JAN SIMON, the most infamous of all of the iese professors. he would be teaching us about capital markets. i've never seen the guy but he's got a reputation like you wouldn't believe at school. he's a former big shot at goldman sachs with only a few rules and zero tolerance for those that break them. there is one requirement for his class - read two specific pages of the financial times. you either come prepared or don't come at all.

jan's class began at 1100am, we were all in our seats, dead silent 3 minutes before the bell rang (this NEVER happens). you could hear a pin drop. he began class by drawing a river on the board. he said that some students were on one side of the river with him, some were not, and then there were others that were swimming in the water with all the sharks and crocodiles. his one goal for the entire term was to make sure everyone ended up on the side of the river with him. the ones who were already on the side with him had the responsiblity of helping him pull everyone else over to that side. he was very specific that the people that already know a lot about capital markets are to help others in class and not be smart asses and intimidate anyone. but if one day they did decide to be a smart ass he would have no choice but to meet them at their level, bring them down, throw them into the river and make them drown.

he made his point.

as frightening as all this sounds i think the class is going to be great. i'm really looking forward to actually understanding all the stuff i read about in the financial papers.

after some more tittilating fun learning monte carlo simulation and a semi-private spanish class i reached the apex of my day.... in an effort to get over my intense fear of speaking in class i joined the public speaking club. there were about a dozen of us. we each were given a topic, 15 seconds to prepare our thoughts and then 1 minute to speak. i volunteered quite early on knowing if i waited too long i'd just become a barrel of nerves. my topic was "tell us how to make a new friend." i had three main points and a little summary. my nerves didn't go crazy and the audience said i did very well for a first timer. there's hope for me yet.

ok, now i'm off to make some fried zucchini and do some accounting. it's a wild and crazy night.

the only english words I saw in japan were sony and mitsubishi

2007-11-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

wel…it’s friday afternoon and my first round of b-school midterms are OVER! Hopefully now life will get back to normal! What is normal though??

is it learning about how to price contact lenses for chickens?

is it learning about how to market the sony eye toy?

these days, actually yes it is…

marketing class has been entertaining this term without a doubt. our professor, also my group mentor, is a local who graduated from IESE several years ago. he likes to engage us by sometimes bringing in the products we’re learning about. last week when we discussed the sony eye toy case jorge brought in the video game console for us to try out. basically the video game has a videocamera that tracks your moves which are then displayed on the videogame. being the eager class participant that i am volunteered to compete against another guy in our class. the two of us were placed in the front of the room with a digital obstacle course. we had to “run” “swim” “dig” “hang on monkey bars” in front of the whole class. it was a totally out of body experience. because if it had been an in body experience i would have been dying of embarrassment!!! check it out:

life is not all fun and games though… i’m still struggling with getting some small tasks accomplished around town and my house. being in school during all business hours is really trying. then we couple that with the Spanish manana manana mindset nothing gets accomplished! two of the three lightbulbs went out in my bathroom. putting on my makeup in the dark isn’t so bad, but when the third goes out and I have to attempt to shower without light it’s not going to be pretty! i would just buy some lightbulbs and change them myself but OF COURSE my landlord put some crazy bulbs in. donkey.

finally the social stuff! last weekend my friend shley hosted a bunch of us for a pseudo NAFTA dinner. it was meant to be a study break for all of us. the fare for the evening was Mexican courtesy all the first year mexicans. there were chicken enchiladas with mole, corona and even tequila! my contribution to the party was a big plate of nachos. with a smile Juan Carlos said only “nachos?? Come on anne, I’m offended!.” my response: “well get ready, because it’s two heavenly layers of offense!”

unfortunately there aren't any photos of my nachos-o-goodness but here's the prep that went into it!!!

christmas really does come earlier every year

2007-11-04T02:32:00.000-08:00

with a blog title like that you expect me to speak of nothing but presents and candy canes, no? if by presents you mean net present value and by candy canes you mean "do you want one candy cane now or two candy canes tomorrow?" then yes, i will speak of these fine things...

the midterm craze is well underway. i've spent the last 72 hours pushing aside all the common sense my brain has carried for the last twentysomething years to make room for the very important business tool-kit IESE is preparing for us. it's not been easy. life doesn't stop when midterms are scheduled. there are still cases to be done, group meetings to attend, cover letter workshops to sit through and, yeah, that thing called personal time...

wish me luck in the next few days... if you don't hear from me until friday you know why. if you don't hear from me until monday you know i'm just playing hard to balance out my working hard!

(all midterm jazz aside, christmas lights have started to go up around barcelona. since there is no thanksgiving to delay the onset of green and red the spanish get in the holiday spirit by the beginning of november! since i'm out of here right before santa comes to town it'll be nice to experience a bit of barcelona christmas before i go...)

i'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of halloween

2007-11-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

it's friday night....and thanks to pending exams, an over celebrated halloween and a wicked cough i'm sticking to the homefront. the week was nice and short because of thursday's all saint's day holiday. it was quite nice in fact because we were able to celebrate halloween properly. they say the europeans don't celebrate halloween - but they managed to come out full force in costume since no one had anywhere to be the next morning! i dressed in my le cordon bleu uniform and a grandious chef's hat. people loved it.

(thanks to jacob) my favorite costume was kevin dressed in lots of tacky jewelry and a sign on his shirt that said "antoni". when people asked what he was he said "i'm gaudy." after several hours of no one getting his costume he finally wrote gaudy on the name tag as well. still people didn't get it... guess our senses of humor are on a different level, eh?

felix dressed as a bunny and nibbled a carrot all night. magdalena was a three muskateer - but her other two aren't part of A2, so didn't get to be in our photo!
toward the end of the night a bunch of us checked out the halloween party at the rival business school in barcelona, esade. the fete was thrown by scotty, the robart's friend i'd been trying to meet since i moved to barcelona. he certainly didn't disappoint with a costume mandatory party in a private club in the elite part of town.

nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task

2007-10-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

well since i'm continuing to perfect the fine art of procrastination i thought i'd finally fill everyone in on the events of last weekend... friday night was the annual iese bar crawl where everyone dressed up as either (1) a policeman/woman (2) a school kid or (3) a medic. my team was assigned to policewear. armed with only badges and whistles we were by far the least dressed up. who knew 20-30 somethings enjoyed costume events so much? here are a few photos from the event...

what a pretty policewoman, no?
wes was here for the weekend (before he departed on a med cruise!!!) what a great weekend to get familiar with b-school life.
here's A2 protecting the streets of barcelona

saturday morning came very quickly. after too many tasty beverages and not enough sleep i struggled to meet the iese adventure club for our 4 hour drive to the pyrenees. i somehow was convinced that i could hike to the second highest peak in the spanish pyrenees - the day after the bar crawl! fortunately i had 4 hours to sleep and then a nice long evening to relax before we set off first thing sunday morning...
on our way to the mountains we stopped for a bit of a light lunch. on our way through one of the precious foothill towns we stopped in front of one of our favorite stores - SCHLECKER! this was one of the first companies we analyzed in school...

just a few of us getting jazzed for a pre-dinner hike to get our appetites roaring.

ok, so sunday morning arrives... i'm still a little bit nervous about what is about to happen. i know that we're supposed to be moving for 8 hours, up and then back down the mountain. i've been doing a little extra running/hiking around barca to prepare for this but i'm still not sure if i'm going to make it.

at the base of the hike there were all these huge cows. i just had to take a quick photo for lindsay - do you think it's going to rain?
here you can see us beginning our hike. a lot of people brought walking sticks with them. it was a major advantage. at one point i had to borrow one because i was slipping all over the rocks in my sneakers. it was so cool all day to see us walking up the mountains as if on a pilgrimage.

the terrain was rocky and very slippery. there were literally hours during the day where i was on all fours, using my arms more than my legs to scramble up the mountain.

once we got high enough up the mountain the sun was beginning to show. it was nice to finally walk with light, but it inhibited our views at points and made it hard to see exactly where our next step was.

here are james and margaret, our faithful second year guides.
here i am at one of the plateaus we reached. look at this amazing view! and we're not even close to the summit!

this is picture of pic de monteixo, the peak we climbed. this is the second highest peak in the spanish pyrenees. the picture here unfortunately does it no justice. the entire thing is covered with jagged rocks. there were points where i didn't think i'd make it to the top, and there were a few that didn't... but after so many hours of getting to this point there was no way i was turning around without seeing the top.
here were are at the top!!!

the way back down was just as difficult as the trek up. my thighs burned and i was continuing to slip down the rocks and grass. but we took our time and stopped at lots of beautiful little spots.

at the end of the day i was definitely in pain, but i still felt ten feet tall and bulletproof. the hike was completely worth the next three days of not being able to bend my legs!

on the way home we celebrated with cervezas and high school drinking games. ahhh, social regression. there's nothing like it!

the darkest day in a man's career is that wherein he fancies there is some easier way of getting a dollar than by squarely earning it

2007-10-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

right now i should be doing my accounting numbers

right now i should be reading 'the pharmacy'

right now i should be analyzing a decision

right now i should be preparing for my abp report

right now i should be cleaning my house for margit's arrival (tomorrow!)

so there you have my to do list...which despite my best efforts is not getting any shorter. every day it seems to grow and grow as a matter of fact. it doesn't help that i take my time coming home from school, stopping at all the precious little stores in gracia. it doesn't help that every day is a good day for a cana and tapas. it also doesn't help that instead of getting out of school at 315 i have 75 minutes of spanish 4 days a week - that in the final analysis is no better than the frequency of spanish lessons i got at mason. it also doesn't help that al gore invented the internet. how much more productive would i be if i didn't spend 30 minutes searching for someone willing to "share" their wireless with me, and if facebook weren't invented, and if email wasn't so damn easy to write, and if the IM were only for 16 year olds...

but enough griping. i'm in the throes of learning time management once again. fortunately this is nothing compared to the pressures of data collection under veera veera. but i certainly let myself get rusty after a summer of cooking. time has no real meaning in paris. actually, if you're not an iese student time has no real meaning in barcelona either. did i make the wrong choice here?

in other news we have just finished the first career forum as first year students. it was split into three parts (1) banking (2) consulting and (3) industry. as the open minded gal that i am i went to presentations in each of the segments. banking was as i expected - well groomed men and women salivating at the thought of long hours, financial formulas and oh yeah, a sh&*load of money. consulting was as i remembered - high academic achievers wanting to spend their time around other high academic achievers to "make businesses better" and (3) industry... well, i'm not sure if i can make a sweeping generalization yet other than to say here at iese there's a bizarre mix of opportunities. i'm definitely going for industry but am not quite sure the company of my dreams was present this week. i did go to quite a few presentations in spanish though. how's that for a little spanish lesson?

check out how awesome iese career forum looks:

back to the grind...

aloo gobi you say

2007-10-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

this week i got quite the treat... i've always wanted to learn a bit of indian cuisine, and thanks to anupam and abhishek that dream became a reality! the boys showed me how to make several traditional indian dishes...one being my most favorite - aloo gobi.

these were only a fraction of the spices we used:

here we see abhishek preparing the cauliflower for my aloo gobi:
anupam slices and dices his vegetables for the pressure cooker which he just couldn't stop bragging about! guess we know anupam and lara castro have something in common...
i'd like to think i made some sort of contribution to the cuisine but i really think all i did was stir a few pots...
but look at these amazing creations! i ate like a queen and loved every minute of it... now to see if i can recreate anything on my own...

inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened

2007-10-18T04:46:00.000-07:00

happy birthday sissyface!!!

Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant?? I’m halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my God....I could be eating a slow learner.

2007-10-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

i'm back i'm back! blogging gets away from you when there's a spanish holiday in the week! after a hard four day week of studying and casing the lovely country of spain gave us friday off - thanks columbus. never one to miss the opportunity for a little fun in the sun this past weekend i joined a bunch of my fellow students for a trip up the coast to cadaques, spain. it's a beautiful small town just south of the french border.

unfortunately we weren't the only people in spain with the idea of getting out of town for the weekend. this was the queue (like that??!) outside of the hertz rental car. an hour of waiting later we were given the keys to two beautiful BENZes for our spanish road trip.

we were barely through barcelona and already the map was out... it's harder to get out of the city than you think.
the traffic on friday was pretty miserable so our trip up north was a bit longer than expected. laura had made reservations at ferrán adriá's favorite restaurant, rafa's. the food was exceptional. everything had been caught from the sea in the last 24 hours and cooked moments before it hit our mouths. this restaurant is a must taste for anyone traveling in the north of spain.

the chef's wife brought out the fresh fish to show us...in case we didn't believe how fresh the catch was. once you tasted that food there was no doubt though.

what better way to tell a chef you love their food than requesting a group photo in front of his work space with him??

my fellow americans walking the streets of roses... we couldn't have had better weather if we'd ordered it.
that view! looking at this photo i feel relaxed and calm, but then i remember the drive up the side of these mountains - ack!
here is the little town of cadaques just before sunset:

here's my roommate-for-the-weekend, laura, preparing the bebidos for the night. a bottle of vino and some sprite to mix with...doesn't it sound delicious?

after the sunset we all hung out on the beach with our tasty beverages... even though the temperatures had dropped it was a beautiful night - and great fun with almost 20 people telling stories all night...

here is cadaques by day.

las americanas in pals, spain ashley and i veered off from the group and decided to walk the 6km to the beach instead of drive... because of that we had to get our coffee to go (you hear me complaining?!!)

here i am with a bunch of mexicans!

you see a bunch of american girls meeting the locals...i see a bunch of american girls and free tasty beverages :)

"the early bird" anne, what early bird? where is the early bird? what does the early bird do?

2007-10-10T11:18:00.001-07:00

this morning i woke up refreshed and in a great mood. i opened my eyes and thought 'man i feel well rested for waking up before my alarm clock!' my next thought was 'why is the sun so bright when i wake up at 6am? ACK. in my daze around 2am instead of turning my alarm clock on i turned it off. with my tail between my legs i arrived at school 90 minutes late. surprisingly the professor's attitude was not equivalent to the expectation i had after all the IESE speeches about absences.

after my embarassingly short day i hurried home for some anne time. i've been out to dinner with someone every night for the past week. i needed a little time to "recharge my batteries" as it were. the first step in doing that is what?? call a friend from home. so as i was doing my errands i walked home on the phone with lindsay. what a difference hearing a voice from home makes. then i stopped at the boulangerie for a baguette and the grocery for a bit of my favorite president brand cheese (stop cringing kc!)

once i got home i kicked off my shoes, opened all the doors so i could get some fresh air, put on some bob dylan and started cooking up a storm. i've been wanting to try this curry chicken with garbanzo beans and tomato recipe that rachel ray sent me.... the prep was easy and i finally cooked chicken that didn't get tough. but honestly it lacked a little pizazz. rachel must be cooking for some sensitive stomachs.

all those papers there...those are my case packets. don't i look organized?

now i'm off to finish my cases in time to meet a friend for drinks at the plaza... wish me luck!

(for those of you that have been waiting with bated breath...i made it to ikea last night and have finally purchased a full length mirror. it's annoyling curvy but at least i now know what the lower half of my body looks like again!)

they say that we are better educated than our parents' generation. what they mean is that we go to school longer. it is not the same thing.

2007-10-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

OFFICIALLY my first week of school is OVER!! i was trying to make comparisons between this first week and my undergrad first week but i think i blocked my academic freshmen year at jmu out of my mind. all i can recall is hillside, hairnets and running out of the football games after the marching band finished copa-cabana in order to make it to the harrisonburg mall. i more vividly remember instead that first day at george mason. being a little girl from minnesota and not knowing any better i teased my bangs, put on my most beautifully monochromatic pink outfit and rode to school with my ENTIRE family. ahhh...memories.

a typical IESE day:

because i'm a major proponent of mass transit i have vowed to take the bus to school (until of course it drives me completely insane because i have a door to door hour commute!!!) it's strange because already the sun is rising later in the morning. when i head out my door at 715 the sun is JUST beginning to show itself. i usually have to walk quikcly to make sure i can make the 730 bus - which if you've ever walked with me...is not an easy thing to do. our group meetings are every morning at 815 where we discuss the cases we read the night before. class begins at 930 followed by a break then another class at 11. at 1215 we all head to the cafeteria for lunch until 2 when our final class for the day begins. unless of course you still have to take spanish classes (which is me...) so then i have spanish from 330-5. at 5 i hurry down to the bus (if i can't bribe someone to give me a ride) and make my way home. once i make it to gracia i stop in the local stores to find food for the night. once all my errands are complete i make it home in time to meet yelena for a run or set right in on my cases for the next day. once dinner and cases are complete i walk up the street for a nightcap with a neighbor or just CRASH if i'm absolutely exhausted (which is more usually the case!)

"donde estan los jugares en tu vida??" you ask... of course there are many! i am a true believer in the work hard play hard lifestyle... this weekend was filled with bbqs and parties and gatherings and barcelona fun. the best part of it all is i think i'm finally getting the hang of these hours and not completely sleeping my daylight hours away! friday night a bunch of the second years had us over for a bbq. the view was great, the biryani was phenomenol and we even had showing from one of our professors. i went up to the professor and started talking to him about how sometimes i get nervous about speaking in class and that i need to work on motivating myself. he said "if you don't motivate yourself, i'll do it for you, don't worry." YIKES. the most important part of the friday night bbq was my tortilla espanol lesson from nani. she showed me the different steps of preparing the spanish delicacy but said the most important thing to remember when making a tortilla is to always have a glass of wine in your hand. now, that's my kind of cooking!

saturday night was another rager in the northern part of the city. an infamous student flat at IESE is calatrava. they have an incredible terrace with a huge bbq and an unreal view of tibidabo. i met up with a girlfriend for drinks beforehand and by the time we made it to the bbq it was packed. it's been really fun getting to meet the second year students. i'm continually amazed at the caliber of people IESE chose.

earlier this week i was somehow persuaded to sign up for the IESE hike next week. not only is it supposed to be a very strenuous 8 hour hike but it's the morning after the IESE bar crawl... do i have any idea what i've gotten myself into?! per the suggestion of the nice young man that persuaded me in the first place i got up early this morning and hiked up tibidabo. you'll recall that i went up tibidabo last week on a scooter and it took almost 30 minutes. while using your own two legs makes the trip 3 times as long it definitely makes getting to the top so much more rewarding. i think i'll try to do this hike a couple more times just to make sure i'm ready for pica d'estats. once i made it to the top nicholas called to see if i wanted a cold beverage out in the sun with him and his roommate. and as luck would have it they would come to me con un coche! i was saved from having to walk back down the mountain AND i got a beer with great company overlooking a beautiful city. wow...my life....

do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. they are where they should be. now put the foundations under them.

2007-09-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

life has continued to be busy with IESE pomp and circumstance. thursday and friday were two full days put on by the career services folks. the first day was filled with speakers telling us about career options, networking and then our "personality types." several weeks ago we all took myers-briggs type tests. the results were quite interesting - basically they pegged our personality types by color. i'm a yellow-green personality so i'm happy with a serene outlook. then on tuesday we were all split into three sections: banking, consulting or industry. i chose the industry path. our speakers were interesting and the advice they gave us for our resumes and career options was insightful.

friday night on my way home from school i decided to stop at the post office since i had a package waiting for me. to my surprise there was not one, but two packages! lindsay sent me a great birthday package filled with treats for each part of my house! then the other package was all my books and winter clothes from home. all of these were great wonderful things however i had to haul it all through town in my professional clothes and it was HEAVY...

after i managed to cool down from the strenuous arm exercises i wasn't expecting i rushed over to my friend's house for dinner. he made a yummy warm pear and walnut salad with pork covered in an orange sauce. it was delicious. after we'd finished eating around 2am it was time to hit the clubs! a bunch of IESE students were at this up & down club in a barrio up north. since it was free admission and a free drink then that's of course where we headed as well. apparently though the up & down refers to the different floors in the club. upstairs is the 25-35 crowd, while the downstairs is the 15-25 crowd. i must admit we did go down to check out the youngsters and it was a pretty surreal experience. have i really gotten that old that these people look like that young to me?!

here are some of us at the club (fortunately in the upper area):

as to be expected i didn't make it home until past 6 so saturday was pretty shot. thankfully it rained most of the day so i didn't miss too much. i did manage to make it out saturday night to meet up with some friends for tapas and a tour of the gothic area in town. i'm amazed how every time i go out in this city i encounter something totally new and exciting.

i managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour on saturday in order to maximize my sunday. thilo and i decided to take advantage of the sunshine day and head up to tibidabo, the mountain in the north of barcelona. it was a gorgeous day filled with nothing but blue skies and sunshine. i even managed to work on my tan a bit!

on top of the tibidabo mountain is this beautiful church and a huge amusement park. interesting juxtaposition, no?
this is the view of northern spain, barcelona is to my back.
atop the church is this figure of jesus. i can't believe i made it all the way to the top!on the way to the top you have climb a bazillion stairs. once you're to the top you can see the doorways were a bit small - or maybe thilo's too tall??

from the church you can see on for miles and miles. apparently on a clear day you can see the pyranees. we couldn't see that far, but it was still an unreal view.

and to finish off the day here i am reading one of my cases for class tomorrow. it's really going to be hard to do all this homework they expect from us if the sun is going to continue to shine as it is...

in my experience, men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire - da vinci code

2007-09-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

last night we had our first spanish dinner outing with pablo, our professor at this fabulous restaurant downtown, la flauta. amazingly with a group of 12 we ALL managed to attend. surely this will not be the case in the coming weeks... our schedules are filling up rapidly. heiko, of course got us the best table in the house filled with overflowing cava. (excuse the obnoxious red eye in the pictures... i must have some bizarre setting on my camera)

here i am with mark and thomas... mark and i were fortunate enough to get in the same spanish class and A2 group!
irina and marc from switzerland... irina and pablo (el profesor) and heiko always trying to get in the background...
i kind of missed how this disaster happened but clearly i felt like salt was the solution to the problem? wow - and what is that face?here was my lovely photo with pablo - soiled again by a peeping german!!! that better be the peace sign thilo!
and here it is - spanish class 4 after a night of catalan tapas and cava... don't we look fun?

so enough of the party...

this morning we woke up early and hurried to school for our first ever group meeting. we were assigned our first case and had to be prepared to discuss it first thing. the discussion was robust and everyone participated. i think A2 is going to be a great group this year. the day ahead was filled with case discussions and more IESE prep talks. the rules and policies on campus are plentiful. it seems like every time we turn around we're being told one more thing we can or cannot do... i guess we'll learn the meaning of all of this soon enough.

just before lunch the students were invited to an optional mass down the street to help bless the new school year. it was a lovely service done in several different languages. i was expecting a bit more pomp from the school since it's opus dei but it appeared to be a typical catholic ceremony to me. on the same lines of the opus dei subject - we spent several hours today learning the history and facts surrounding the prelature. we were given the opportunity to ask many of our professors, numeraries and supernumeraries of opus dei, questions about their path, the relationship IESE has with opus dei and about opus dei itself. it was a very open and honest session - they were quite clear any question was allowed - so it got pretty non-pc. it should be interesting to learn more throughout the next two years.

after several more hours of team building sessions it was time to go home. FINALLY! i'm still taking the bus most days but this week irina was kind enough to let me hitch a ride in her car. the difference in commute time is amazing... so after being cooped up in the bus for an hour i just HAD to get out. so my friend, yelena, and i decided to run off all the events of the day. so for any of you who have been to barcelona you'll appreciate this - we ran up to park guell from gracia! it was a feat meant for the record books. now i feel 10 feet tall and bulletprood - which is the perfect way to feel when you're about to start a case.

and with that i'm off...

men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own.

2007-09-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

i fear this may be the beginning of the end my dears. today we began our first full day of IESE with requirements all day every day until christmas. i kid you not. classes began at 945 and lasted until 1945. now i'm off to dinner with my spanish class and professor only to come home to our first case... i'm mentally drained - and we haven't done anything yet!!! i got assigned an awesome group though - A2.... (memories of beer bong with anna are coming back to me) our groups consists of

an american

an indian

a philipino

a brazilian

an italian

a german

a pole

what a great diverse group, no??? since it was our first day we all spent lunch time getting to know each other as well as our spanish mentor.

i should have appreciated this more when i was there - but here's the view of barcelona's beach from yesterday... it could have been my last glimpse at sunshine for a while!!!

"i am fascinated by your fastener" - denise horacek bridging the cultural divide

2007-09-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

what a weekend! months and months of anticipation and now it's all over - jessica and tom are married and europe reunion 2007 is just a memory... but what a beautiful memory it will be... hope you're sitting down with a big glass of diet coke and some rio chips and salsa. this one's going to take a while...

friday afternoon my "i will eternally be greatful for the ride to the airport" neighbor, irina drove me and several others of us to bcn so we could all escape the warm sunshine for the weekend... of course we arrived a bit too early for our flights so an in-airport tasty beverage was needed. once my flight was ready to depart i was raring to get to my friends in maidenhead! the flight from barcelona to london was less than 2 hours - i LOVE living in europe! once i landed in london i quickly learned the cold harsh reality of how expensive that city is. after paying $140 for a 20 minute cab drive i was ready for yet another tasty beverage (can you blame me?!) i checked into the thames hotel and waited for my fellow masonites to return to the hotel. unfortunately i didn't realize there was an hour time difference between barcelona and london so when i told everyone i would be landing at 12, i was really landing at 11. while i waited i decided to check my eyelids for holes.

just after midnight everyone arrived - bubbly and happy after spending the evening with some local brits at a club called PHATZ... since some people had flown in that morning there were dealing with serious jet lag. denise and elizabeth were troopers though. they filled me in on everything i'd missed in the last four months. it was so great seeing friends from the dawn of my life again.

denise was my bunkmate for the weekend. we had a precious little room that overlooked the thames (you had to careen yourself out the window to spot the thames, but i prefer saying overlooked). our room had two single beds - so i love lucy!

our room was next to meghan and donnies' on our way to breakfast we spotted this telling little sign. you're not newlyweds anymore!!!!
the wedding wasn't to begin until 3pm so we had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to get ready. denise and i walked around maidenhead for a while. the town was small, quaint and beautiful. we had exceptional british weather. only perfection for jessica's big day!

here denise is standing over the locks on the thames. watching them raise and lower the water level entertained us, and half of the town, for over a half hour. we were so captivated by the whole process that we lost track of time and barely made it back in time to get ready for the wedding.
here i am in front of the thames
here denise and i are trying to hurry and get ready for the event. with time being a scarcity we elicited a second hairdryer to combat denise's curls...we fortunately made it to the church on time! the bradshaws/erskines had arranged buses to take us to the lillibrooke manor, where the service and reception were being held. it was a beautiful countryside home in the middle of gorgeous fields that went on for miles. here you can see elizabeth and myself in front of the manor house.jessica and tom were married under this beautiful little building. there were a few chairs but for the most part we all stood in this lovely green area and watched.

mr and mrs erskine!

now the real fun begins... when we arrived at the barn where the reception was to be held we were welcomed by a huge seating chart that would determine our fates for the evening. of course i was seated with my date, denise, but separated by a nice gentleman, stuart. he had no idea what fun was in store for him between the two single americans! each table was named after a city that had significance in jessica and tom's lives. our table was lund, the name of the city where jessica studied in sweden. we sat next to the falls church table. of course marc and laurie got seated there - it was only appropriate!

just getting started!the evening's events were very well orchestrated - particularly since we were going to hear dozens of speeches all night.

the first speech began by saying "gentlemen, it is now official, jessica is off the market. if any of you still have a key to her flat, please bring it up now."

you can see here several men stood up to return their keys.

he then says "and ladies, tom also is off the market. if any of you still have a key to his flat, please bring it up now."

at this point two men stood up to return keys :)

i don't know who any of these people are, but they all tied their ribbons from our songsheets around their heads. hysterical. i think their table got extra bottles of champagne!speaking of song sheets... it is typical at a swedish wedding to sing wedding songs randomly throughout the evening. after each song the whole crowd toasts the bride and groom. we were all given song sheets with songs. of course 99% was in swedish. julia and jessica kindly "translated" all of the songs into english as well. and by translated i mean she wrote out all the songs phoenetically for the english speakers.

not to be outdone by all of the swedes in attendance i stood up to sing. luck would have it that i actually knew the song in english! daisy, daisy, give me your answer true....

here is my first attempt at movie producer... what it lacks in quality it makes up for in charm (i hope!)

after all our songs and speeches were over it was time to hit the dance floor! check out uncle benji in the background!making falls church proud!i think there is a direct correlation between how late it is and how wide open your mouth has to be for photos... clearly this was taken later in the evening...the bride and groom getting down.prom 1998 all over again!how priceless is this???rosie was a total trooper having to be a spectator in a field full of masonites. it's a fate worse than death sometimes! i will end the photos here from the reception here. at this point you are still left with a lovely image of all of us throughout the evening :) early sunday morning we got gussied up again to brunch with the erskines in henley. their home was absolutely gorgeous. they were situated atop rolling hills overlooking nothing buy greenery. the brunch was catered by a vegan restaurant from london - surprisngly everyone raved about it! i sure could get used to this lifestyle. the happy couple...
finally it was time for us all to be on our way. i drove to the airport with lots of masonites but had to leave them as soon as we got to heathrow. since i LIVE in europe my flight departed from a different terminal. i was so sad to see them all go. i can't remember the last time i laughed as hard and as much as this weekend.

she was dressed in a peignoir of beige lace with a blonde wig above false eyelashes - a kind of mt rushmore of the cosmetician's art.

2007-09-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

i know you all are dying to know - did she find ice? it's actually what i like to call "a miracle." 30 minutes before i needed to be DONE with party prepping i realized still no ice! so i put on my flip flops, grabbed some cash and prepared to walk around my neighborhood to search for ice. i was not looking forward to hauling it all back in my sunday best. well - wonder of wonders! just outside of my house was the heilo express truck. it was perfect timing. i quickly ran up and asked if i could buy ice (usually the heilo express is for restaurants). he said i could buy but that there is a minimum purchase of 5 bags. i was desperate (and hoping my party would be such a rager that 5 bags would be necessary). 10 euro later my freezer was full. exhale...

after my adventure with ice i ran up the street for sushi dinner with irina, my closest IESE neighbor, and heiko. it was delicious - a perfect little birthday dinner!
when i got home i found that my spanish class had delivered this beautiful huge bouquet of flowers. my house looked like a florist's shop for the party.
the other gift i got from my canadian guest, allen, was this lovely pink wig, a larger than life lei and bubbles. how outrageous is this thing?? i can guarantee we'll see this again.
here are some of my fabulous party guests hailing from herzegovina, canada, germany and france:
german sandwich!
holland, taiwan, us, us, us...as the evening progressed the wig came out a few more times... i'm not sure if mark should attempt the moto ride home with that hair. someone left some glasses at the house so of course we had to play around with them. (sorry irina!)

all in all the evening was a grand success... the last quest left around 3 and the clean up was pretty tolerable. and i hit the jackpot with this BYOB notion! now i'm off to london to see jessica and tom tie the knot. have a great weekend everyone!

last week the candle factory burned down. everyone just stood around and sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

2007-09-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

well it's certainly be a beautiful birthday so far. i was suprised by this amazing bouquet of flowers from my family, a membership to barcelona slow food, a subscription to cooks illustrated (to spain!!), a bottle of cava from my cat and an email from every single person i love. (and the first person to actually say happy birthday to me was my banker, my first true love in barcelona ;)!!)

so now i must run. i've invited my class over for a copa de whatever to help me celebrate 28 years of life. where can a girl buy ice in this town?!

a woman happily in love, she burns the souffle. a woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven

2007-09-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

i know you will all be glad to know that my souffle turned out DELICIOUS last night. i battled the convection oven and WON. how's that for a birthday week bonus?

currently i'm sitting on my front stoop looking like a hobo stealing wireless. why won't telefonica call me back?!

a preacher's wife proofread his sunday sermon and wrote next to one paragraph: "weak point - shout loud"

2007-09-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

sundays have definitely become my favorite day in barcelona. for so many reasons... first and foremost it's because it's the ONLY day we don't have class! which means i can sleep in to some embarassingly late hour and do whatever i want with my day. so today i did just that. i woke up mid-morning, had my tea and cereal, started reading a bit of our accounting homework and then what do you know - it was time for my siesta! after a beautiful long siesta i awoke to almost 30 degree temperatures and a bright shining sun. i had no choice but to take advantage by walking the very very empty barcelona streets. as i'm sure most of you know, nothing is open on spain on sundays. the only things you'll see are the tourist souvenier shops which there are none of in my neighborhood. so i was able to walk the streets in peace and observe all the beautiful facades and buildings in my local streets. next time i promise to bring my camera. the architecture here is amazing.

the last few days have been busy with spanish classes, but fortunately our long days of spanish are over. tomorrow begins pre-courses then next week the real fun begins. we still have spanish, but now it will be limited to 75 minutes a day. i'm excited for pre-term to begin because the native spanish speakers will all arrive. hopefully i'll finally get a chance to practice my spanish!

other than class i've been running around getting to know people and my neighborhood. friday night the very very organized german organized yet another group dinner. ~30 people went for typical catonese fare in the middle of town. the food was delicious and spicy. of course we didn't finish our final course until after 1am so that wrapped up my night. lots of people continued their evening at a club down the street but when we have class early the next morning i just can't bring myself to stay out until 5am (at least not yet!) saturday classes were entertaining and fast. everyone in class was ancey and wanted out because the weather was just unreal. as soon as class was over we all ran home to change and headed to the beach. it's already noticeable how many fewer people there are at the beach. with school having begun in europe the number of tourists has declined significantly. more sand for me!

after a few hours in the sunshine i went to a housewarming party thrown by three first years. they had a great flat with central air and some serious closet space! i was jealous. (not that i can complain...)

that's all for now - i'll write more soon! i'm off to make my second souffle attempt with this convection oven. wish me luck!