Study Abroad Blog

Going on exchange, in retrospect, has turned out to not only be the best decision I made during my undergrad, but also while here in Barcelona. It was a much more difficult decision to make this time, however, knowing that I would be leaving such an incredible city behind for about six months. Yet, considering my post-MBA goals, I knew it was the best thing for me to do. Now, I have finally found my way back to my dear Barcelona and, all things considered, I’m very happy to be back!

For a post after such a long break from posting this may be a disappointment (assuming anyone cares), but my time in Austin is quickly coming to an end and I wouldn’t even know where to begin to talk about everything that has happened over the past few months.  I will say in summary that this whole trip was quite worth it.  I have a job lined up for after graduation – which is really why I came here – and I had a good (but stressful) time throughout.  I will be heading back to California in a week and when I arrive, I have some writing to do and certainly look forward to sharing in more detail about my experiences as an American exchange student in the US.

I finally made it. I’ve been saying it for years now – that I wanted to move to Texas. Had never actually been, only heard real estate was cheap and jobs seemed aplenty. Well, here I am, I finally got my wish. We made our way here, as I mentioned in my last post, via a long road trip. The days leading up to the trip led me to believe someone was encouraging us not to make the voyage, as we had multiple, consecutive, uncharacteristic car problems – one after the other – but we persisted.

It all started three days prior to our leave date. Cruising in the car one afternoon on our way to my in-law’s place and what-do-ya-know, the AC just isn’t cooling the car at all. In the lovely 100+ degree Fresno summer heat, this is quite a noticeable and un-enjoyable realization to make, but there was no denying the lack of cool air spewing from our vents. Not willing to jeopardize our comfort throughout the sure-to-be toasty 1700 mile road trip we were about to embark upon, I immediately made some calls and setup an appointment to bring life back to our Civic’s AC.

Given the abruptness of the AC’s uncooperative antics, I was concerned there was something very wrong that a simple Freon refill wouldn’t remedy – thankfully I was wrong and the following morning our problems were solved for $78. We learned there is a small leak in one of the hoses that will likely lead to future refills if not fixed, but given our time constraints I didn’t opt to fix the surely expensive hose at this time.

So now we were cruising, right? Packing had begun, AC was working, hotel reservations were made and our move-in date was set for our new apartment in Austin – it’s all downhill from here, right? Not quite. The day before we were set to leave, I go to fill up the tank so we wouldn’t have to do so in the morning and I’m already itching to get on the road. Tank is full, hop in the car, turn the keys and what do I hear? *click* What was that? I’ll try again…*click* Um…no…please no…why won’t my car start?

I jumped out of the car, popped the hood and just stared in disbelief at what was going on…surely this is a prank or something, why in the world would this car, this 2001 Honda Civic with 95k miles on it with nary a problem, choose today, the day before our journey mid-way across the country, to call it quits? Well, at least the battery did, cause it was done and I had to get a jump just to get it the block and a half home, but not before all electric accessories, including the speedometer, tachometer, etc ceased to function. Excellent.

Pull up into the driveway, slap a charger on the battery and go online to locate the nearest Autozone so I could get my battery and alternator checked out. Run back outside, get the car at least running and cruise the three miles to Autozone without any sign the car was running from the inside, that battery was toast! Go ahead and get a new battery for $85 (I’m sure I could have done cheaper, but I wasn’t in the most sane state of mind at this point). Slap that puppy in there and have them give the ‘ol alternator a test and I’m told “It’s not showing bad or good, but it is pushing 12.6 volts so it might be ok.” Me being a novice to car electronics accepted this answer and headed back home to check online at what a normal civic alternator should put out and read, somewhere, that the “normal range should be between 12.5-14.5”. I saw higher ranges on other websites, but chose to accept this one, as I knew mine was putting out a voltage in this range and I was content…so on with the show!!!

Sunday morning – the day of the trip. All packed, Civic loaded with the essentials and I am feeling strange that “my life” could be packed into the back of a Civic…then again, I had it previously packed into two suitcases, so I was ok with that. Head on over to the in-laws again to pick up the other two party-goers accompanying us to Vegas as a sort of anniversary/end of summer trip and arrive a tad late, as packing our final few bits required more strategy and grunt force than was expected. Gather up the other half of our two car caravan and hit the road – next stop, Vegas!

Cruising fine, music jammin’, AC cold, we’re on the road and begin typical conversation about how it’s gonna be a long trip. Things going well, get a phone call from my dear amigo Evan at just over an hour into the trek and maybe two minutes into the conversation I notice something that makes my stomach sink…speedo, tachometer, gas gauge….all no longer functioning. Crimony!!! All I could think was that brand-stinking-new $85 battery was already used up and we just got on the road! There is no question now that the alternator really is shot, now I just need to find some way to not make the new battery go kaput.

Pulled into a gas station off the 99 somewhere just past Tulare (small towns) and after speaking with some locals, learn there is an Autozone back about ten miles that should be open. I whipped out my toolbox, tore out the battery, threw it in my sister-in-law’s corolla and now there are four of us cruising back toward Tulare in search of a charge, an alternator, and a place to get it installed…on a Sunday!

Guys at Autozone weren’t very helpful. They sold me a new alternator for $180 and at least they charged my battery, but they had apparently no means of contacting anyone from the outside world (not even other Autozones) to find where I could feasibly go to get my new alternator installed. I had to call friends and have them Google shops and finally I just decided to go back to pick up our deserted Civic, which contained all of my belongings, throw the now charged battery back in and hit the road toward Bakersfield in hopes of finding a shop that was open and willing to do the swap.

An hour later, we arrived in Bakersfield and, like a mirage on the horizon, we found a Pep Boys and got the car in just before a mob of other people showed up needing work done, and we headed off for a leisurely lunch while the car got fixed. Came back, only waited about another half hour and finally…yes, finally for real this time…the car was in good working order, with a new battery, new alternator, and a cold AC, and the total damage was somewhere in the ballpark of $500. This amount certainly wasn’t in my budget, which made me be a little more stingy than normal while in Vegas, but we were thankful that my brother-in-law gave Blanca a monetary gift of just about the total amount we ended up spending on the car, so we essentially broke even and I’d like to think we got a slightly more reliable car out of the deal; even if I really, really hated the car at that moment.

Vegas was fun, and the rest of the road trip was uneventful. Met up with a friend and ESADE classmate who gave us a place to stay in San Antonio. Made our way to Austin on our move-in date, and felt a little strange signing all the papers and handing over a check before ever even seeing the apartment. We had a number of problems right after moving in, but they’ve since, for the most part, been remedied and we are settling in nicely now over here. I have slowly begun to master the often-confusing highway system here, and putting up with the untimely public transportation is quite enraging at times, but I’ve wasted so much time putting this post together I will go ahead and save my school impressions for the next entry. My apologies, as always, for taking so long to post yet again, but now that I’m settled down at least for another short while I’m hopeful I’ll get back on track.

It is becoming borderline disturbing how quickly time has been moving. Have I really been home for a month? Have I really been away from all my new friends and classmates in Barcelona for a month!? Wow, I guess time really has flown, and I’m sure how unexpectedly busy I’ve been hasn’t helped much to slow things down. Well, at least I found time to write a little and share some updates on my happenings. So here goes.

First things first, the re-entry process wasn’t as difficult this time as it was after I returned from my first international voyage back in 03. I feel my age and experiences has a little to do with this, but also feel the degree of time I spent in a classroom this time also may have played a part, as my Spanish interaction was confined to small, manageable doses. A few things have definitely changed for me, however, and this has more to do with my perspective on sensitivity and, unexpectedly, social responsibility.

What I mean when I say sensitivity is not to say I have become a walking political correctness meter – this would be a shame. What I have learned, however, is a slightly higher level of maintaining respect for people’s differences. This is not to say I used to have issues with cultural or personal insensitivity and insulting people regularly. What it does mean, though, is there are ways in which how we communicate with individuals from different walks of life can be much more enriching. It is difficult to put into words the ideas I have on this topic, but basically, no matter how respectful you think you may be of people and their differences, you can always improve your communication skills by dealing with diverse groups…yeah, I think that’s my point.

On now with social responsibility – something I had never even heard of until I arrived at ESADE. This is again just a different way of looking at not only businesses, but actions we all take and our ability to always keep the “greater social good” in mind while questioning whether or not there are better ways of getting things done. One quick example of this was my surprise at being surprised that massive SUVs still rule the US streets and public transportation is still looked down upon by the general population…I don’t know why I would have actually expected things to have begun to change in as little as 10 months, but I guess being around all the sub-compacts in Europe and hearing the constant whining about high gas prices state side made me expect to see a difference by the time I got home. At any rate, I actually agree the there are a lot of whiners around these parts and not enough people stepping up and making change happen.

That said, time to switch gears quickly and share my plans for the upcoming weeks. Blanca and I will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary come the end of the month. The first week of August we will begin our road trip to Austin and will make stops in Las Vegas, Phoenix, El Paso, and San Antonio. Should be a long voyage, but interesting I’m sure. Class begins I believe the third week of August and I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running and starting my job hunt early so I can head back to Barcelona in January without the stress of finding a job! We will see, but in the meantime, aside from making all these plans, my internship has been quite interesting in this tumultuous market environment, but I think after all these banks’ earnings reports didn’t turn out as horrible as expected this week, we may be seeing the beginning of a turn-around for the economy yet…hope so!

That is all for now, and I’ll definitely be providing an update when I make my way to Texas after the road trip. Until then…

Well here I am, sitting at BCN International Airport waiting for my flight to Frankfurt to begin boarding, which is the first leg of my 20-some-odd hour journey back home. It is amazing to think about everything that has happened over the past ten months…has it really been ten months? Seems like just yesterday I had a job and was only beginning to talk to Blanca about my crazy idea of pursuing my MBA abroad. Now, I’m a second year heading home to do an internship with one of my favorite people in the world. I’m a lucky man – really, I am.

These last few days in particular have been interesting. I have gone out for dinner and drinks about every night since I took my last final. My body is ready to switch things up a bit and I really hope to be disciplined and stick to my word this summer. I want to get into “fighting shape” so I can head to Texas ready to rock-and-roll on the full-time job hunt. While doing my internship, I plan to box and do jiu-jitsu with friends as often as possible and ride my bike around when feasible to help save on gas (not looking forward to paying for that again!). We will see.

Ok, enough about that, it’s reflection time! So, what have I learned? Um…wow…well, more than I could ever put into words, that’s for sure. Regardless, let me try to see if I can’t share at least a few thoughts about my experiences after one year of being an international MBA student.

Living in a country different from your own is hard work!

This is true, but you should know that it gets easier over time. Also, once you realize why it is such hard work, you begin to see things in a new way. So, why is living in a country different from your own so hard? Well, of course there are going to be varying degrees of “difficulty” one would experience when throwing him or herself into a new country. Obviously if I were to have pursued my exchange in Canada it would have been a less intensive adaptation process. However, the reason things are so difficult really just boils down to the differences. Different norms, cultures, languages, etc. from what anyone is used to will naturally take time and effort to understand and cope with. The sooner these differences are accepted and resistance to adapt is realized as futile, the easier the transition will be. This is to say, as soon as I accepted that things are simply “done” differently in Spain than in the US, it became easier to not dwell on these things and waste energy resisting when that energy could be much better used elsewhere. Understanding this aspect of living abroad is absolutely key!

Intercultural communication is hard work!

Ok, it’s really not that hard, but we tend to make it hard with our own programming and preconceptions about what certain people should be like or how certain people should look and act. I know this is cliché, but an open mind is the best asset to have (in my opinion) in many of life’s situations, but in an international/inter-cultural setting, this is true even moreso. I could go on and on about different instances where my sarcasm fell on confused ears or where making sweeping generalizations has led to heated discussions, but again, I haven’t the time or space to do so. Just understand that sensitivity is vital and again, that open mind thing works wonders when in an international setting.

The first year of a top, global MBA program is hard work!!!

Come on, what kinda discussion would this be if I didn’t even mention the real reason I’m here – the school! This is very true, these last ten months have stretched me further and pushed me harder than I think anything ever has in my life. Regularly spending 12-15 hours a day at school only to come home and keep going for ten months straight makes you really take a new look at life and priorities. It was actually hard for me to snap myself out of “school mode” every day in an effort to pay attention to Blanca, which made me feel horrible regularly, but I like to think by the end of the year I began to improve on this and learned how to create school-free time when I got home – no matter how little time that was. I said before I got here that I’d never have been able to do this without Blanca, but now I can say with honesty that this is true – I could never have done this without her support. In the end, it was lots and lots of hard work, but it was all for a reason and I think that reason will continue to reveal itself to me more and more moving forward.

So in the end, I think this is a sufficiently brief summary of my findings at the end of year one. Although I will be spending the next few months state-side, I will certainly be making an effort (I say this, but have been so bad about keeping up, my apologies) to keep this updated and will hopefully have the chance to share my “re-entry” experience back into US culture. Until then, I guess I should get moving toward the boarding gate…

I’m in the heat of all sorts of things at the moment, but decided to pop my head up for some air right now while I have a few minutes of sweet procrastination in me between studying. Last week we had our final presentation for Corporate Finance in which we had to perform a valuation of Pfizer. It was actually an exciting project once we started really getting into it, but hard work at the same time. Anyway, the presentation was Thursday and I felt like my group did very well. After this, it was straight to studying for the Operations Strategy final, which was yesterday (Friday). Now that these two obstacles have been cleared, the ball is rolling on toward finals week, or next week, and it is sure to be rough, but I’ll survive.

I don’t know where the months go anymore, let alone the days. I had been putting off this post with the hope that the longer I waited, the more likely I would finally have an internship offer or at least some more interviews lined up to share with everyone. Not so, I’m afraid. One company I have been anxiously waiting to hear from pushed back their response time from a firm “within two weeks” to “by the end of the month.” Together, this has added over a month to my wait time. I’m not the most patient man when it comes to things like these, but I’m doing my best to sit tight and keep hope. Some of my classmates were just made offers nearly four months after their interviews, so yes, all is not lost.

During this waiting time I’ve begun to try to flex my creative muscle to conjure up ways in which I will most productively utilize my time over the summer if something more formal doesn’t work out. I have a few companies in mind that I am going to approach to pitch projects to, and if this yields no fruit I may very likely focus on my Spanish while working on a business plan for future use. In short, the summer is still very much on my mind and when I finally know what it is I will be doing, I’ll gleefully return to share the good news.

Read the rest of this entry »

Term two has come and gone, and Spring Break has finally arrived! I cannot believe how quickly the second term flew by, but it didn’t pass without its fair share of stress. We had a slightly lower workload than with the first term, but the lingering stress of finding an internship has added enough pressure to make the total load feel pretty much comparable. As it stands now, I have a number of outstanding applications, a few rejections, and at least one interview lined up in the upcoming week. It has been a rough road to say the least and I just hope that soon things will start happening (ie, more interviews and eventually offers!) so I can focus more fully on school. It is a hard situation to be in, but I know I am not alone and that the state of the economy is not helping things much. I don’t want to give any specifics to my hunt until later, but I will just say the world of banking isn’t looking to welcoming these days and I am anticipating possibly taking a stab at industry for the summer…but we will really just have to wait and see.

Back to school, I can say that overall the second term was a mixed bag and I don’t have any results yet, but I’m fairly confident I did not fail anything. The classes were not the most exciting ever, but in the end I think I developed an appreciation for the subject matter I hadn’t previously cared much for – such as International Taxation and Operations Management. International Taxation was every bit as complex as it sounds, but after the final I think I realized I actually found it interesting. Operations Management is something extremely important in business that I had previously zero exposure to, but that I developed a bit of an interest in by the end. The rest of my classes were all just fine and I really do not have much to share about them at this time.

Now, to Spring Break! When I finally completed my exam for Taxation last Wednesday afternoon, I was very ready to give my brain some much needed rest and come Thursday morning, Blanca and I headed anxiously to the airport to kick off our latest round of travels. First stop: Lisbon, Portugal.

I’d never been to Portugal, but had long wanted to visit. Blanca and I were blessed with beautiful weather and ample time to see the sights at an easygoing pace. The city itself felt much more like a busy little town and less like a Capital city, so I think this helped us to slow our pace a bit from life in Barcelona. The mosaic stones composing the walkways throughout town was what struck me first, as I found them to be among the most impressive things I have ever seen. The details in the patterns and designs are laid throughout the city and it is hard to appreciate it all while walking atop them all day. However, once you get to a point where you have an aerial view of some of the streets, you begin to see the artwork that are these walkways and you see just how incredible it all really is. Aside from this, the buildings were beautiful and, well, I’ll let some of my pictures do the rest of the talking.

After spending two days in Lisbon, we decided to take the advice of many folks and make a day-trip to Sintra to round out our stay in Portugal. Many Sintra tour packages were offered from Lisbon for as little as 35 euros per person…but we pulled off the trip for even cheaper. We walked into the train station and for a whopping 3.30 euros each, got round trip tickets to Sintra – the train leaves every ten minutes. After the 35 minute ride, we found ourselves in the quaint little town and began our tour with a quick snack and ventured our way through the historic centre. From here, we paid 4 euros each and got round trip tickets up the hill to the Moorish Castle overlooking town and spent a good three hours hiking the stairs and enjoying the views. Below are some of the pictures from our day in Sintra, which was well worth the journey and highly recommended!

Finally, we packed up and headed to Madrid for the last two days of our trip and hit the ground running once there. We navigated the subway from the airport and only spent 4 euros getting to our hotel – I’m certain the cab ride would have been at least 25 euros. Once checked in, we headed out and covered as much ground as we could and I took as many night shots as I could muster so we could take our last day easy as tourists. The end result was a pretty fast-paced visit, but since I had already visited back in 2003 I already kinda knew my way around. This helped a bit and although it was my second visit, the city was just as impressive this time around. Again, here are some pictures from our two-day flurry in Madrid.

Finally, we packed our bags and headed back home to Barcelona where we have essentially been recovering and planning how to spend the rest of our Spring Break. Overall it was a great trip and I’m looking forward to the next, as always. Hoping to visit Prague or Tenerife, but we will have to wait and see.

I’m not perfect – I’ve never claimed to be. I am proud to be an American – I would never deny to be. Nevertheless, I am getting tired of the apparent lack of respect, and I would say pride, many of my fellow, typically youthful, Americans seem to have when traveling abroad. Without fail, on every single trip I have taken within Europe it seems a regular occurrence to run into at least a few groups of young-adult Americans acting foolish. It saddens me to think that these individuals seem to take their behavior so lightly, and that they feel being in another country somehow obligates them to give everyone around them a show on just how ill mannered Americans “really” are. So, here’s to you, my dear Ugly American friends:

When you’re walking around an Iberian capital city on St. Patrick’s Day toting a 3 foot tall, green top-hat and Guinness T-Shirt pretending to know the words of an Irish drinking song – I’ve seen you. When you’re with a small group of friends taking a tour of a historic European landmark, speaking loudly about how much of your parent’s money you’ve spent on alcohol during your trip – I’ve heard you. When you begin speaking loudly to your friends about how cultured you are, and in the same breath begin to explain how the last city you visited “was like, a completely different city” from the one you are in now – I’ve tweaked my brow trying to understand your point. When you talk about how your American driver’s license makes you God’s gift to the world of personal travel and go on to explain how badly everyone else drives because you “like to speed” – I shake my head in wonder. When you don’t even make an inkling of an effort to learn basic phrases like “hola” or “cuanto cuesta?” and resort to speaking louder and slower English in an attempt to communicate with the locals – I sigh. When you just never seem to learn and continue to perform the aforementioned acts repeatedly in every single city I’ve visited – I’m baffled, perplexed, embarrassed and resort to writing posts dedicated to you.

My recommendation is simple:  Have some pride when you travel abroad. Recognize the opportunity you have to leave a positive impression of Americans to these people “you’re never going to see again.” And lastly, remember, you can still have fun and not act a fool. So please, next time you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit a new country, behave yourself. Because you never know who is watching, or listening, or cringing as a result of your actions. Thank you.

Warmest Regards,

Your Friend Abroad, Matt

Sometimes it hits me unexpectedly. I could be riding the metro in the morning on my way to school, maybe making my way through some obscure streets in Born after an evening out with a group of friends, or even just while going for a walk with Blanca – I’m living in Barcelona. Yeah, sounds simple enough right? I mean, afterall, that’s one of the original things that appealed to me when I decided to study at ESADE. Either way, it is funny how once you’re here, you don’t really walk around saying “Hey, I’m living in Barcelona,” although, I admit to having done so during these particular instances when it sneaks up on me and I realize just how lucky I am.

So, just what is it like, living in a big, metropolitan city off the coast of the Mediterranean? Well, after coming from somewhere like Fresno, in Central California, I would have to say the differences are pretty significant. So, the point of this post is really to describe, from my personal experiences and perspective, just what it is like to live in Barcelona.

I’ve only been here for six months so far, but that is already longer than I spent in Sweden while on exchange there. What have been some of the biggest differences for me so far? I would have to say the language, the living conditions, and the people – this about sums it up. Now, let me explain in a little more detail what I mean.

The language (or should I say, languages)
I knew coming in that Spain is separated into regions, and Barcelona happens to be part of Catalonia. As such, the folks who live in this region are called Catalan. These people are quite proud of their language…also called Catalan. In addition to this, there is of course, Castilian Spanish – the reason I wanted to study in Spain. Well, Catalan is extremely widely used around town, and often even if you speak to people in Spanish, they will respond to you in Catalan…just because. I would describe Catalan as a mix between French, Spanish, and English, leaving it sounding a little like deranged Portuguese being spoken by a German derelict…if you can imagine that. In short, it is not a very sexy language, in my humble opinion (nor is English, by the way), but it is all over around here, so it’s something I have to live with. My focus, however, remains on learning Spanish, so I am making efforts to speak when I can and hopefully soon will more quickly be able to tell the difference when someone is speaking in Spanish or Catalan!

Life and Living Conditions
Fresno is a big, flat, grid. It is dry, and very hot in the summer, and pretty cold in the winter. Most people live in homes or moderately sized apartment buildings. The only tourists who ever come to Fresno are simply passing through on their way to Yosemite, and the population is approaching half a million. Barcelona is not so big, not entirely flat, and has streets that weave around and turn to narrow alleys very quickly. It is humid, and pretty warm in the summer and moderately cool in the winter. People live in decently tall apartment buildings, unless you have money and can afford a house on the hill. The tourists are aplenty and the population is over 1.6 million.

Personally, I used to live in a single level, decently sized apartment. Everything was pretty new. Blanca and I had our own cars, and no matter what we needed or where we needed to go, we knew how to get there. In Barcelona, we live on the sixth floor of a 100+ year old building in an also decently sized apartment. Everything is very old. Blanca and I have our own metro cards, and quite often if we need/want something, we don’t know where to go or if it even exists in this country.

The US has a service culture – good customer service is taken seriously. Banks, for instance, offer a great number of services and the possibilities of things you can do with your money are abound. Spain seems to have a “what do you want and why should I help you?” service culture – good customer service seems non-existent. Banks, for instance, take your money, charge fees for just about everything imaginable, and getting returns on your money seems pretty much impossible…unless you’re expecting negative returns, that is.

I could go on with the comparisons, but really, I think you get the point. Life is definitely different, and I don’t mean that in a good or bad way, I mean it as simply that – it is different. It has been difficult learning how to cope with the differences, but that is one of the reasons I’m here, and I wouldn’t take back choosing here for anything. If I, as an American, can learn anything about Spanish living, I’d say “relax,” because sometimes…actually most of the time…I get so caught up in the Now Now Now, Me Me Me that I lose sight of the big picture.

Finally, The People
The US is diverse…sorta. Sure, we have cultural variations from location to location, but for the most part we speak the same language, and the biggest cultural changes we see is through migrating from suburban to urban living and vice-versa. Europe is just different. Picture a smaller version of the US, with lots of history, languages, cultures, etc., all within a short distance from each other. Now, exaggerate that scenario, ad a few dashes of people from the rest of the world, and you’ve got Barcelona (and if you want an even more exaggerated and concentrated scenario, you would get ESADE!). I believe Barcelona is pretty well representative of a big, metropolitan European city, and as such, it is truly a melting pot of cultural diversity.

With such diversity comes a very unique living experience, and there is nothing like going to a Mexican restaurant, ordering from a Catalan speaking immigrant from Honduras who places your order with his Peruvian cooks. While the end product typically leaves much to be desired, the process itself is rather impressive.

In the end, I again must reiterate I am daily reminded why I chose ESADE. I am surrounded by so many interesting people with different backgrounds, cultures and languages, all of which has contributed to each individual’s unique personal story…perhaps more interesting is that despite all these differences, life has brought us all to this same place, at the same time. I am thankful for having the opportunity to study here and hope that throughout the rest of my time in Barcelona, I never stop having those moments…on the metro, walking through obscure alleys with friends, or simply while going for a walk with Blanca…where I get to think to myself, “Hey, I’m living in Barcelona!”