Study Abroad Blog

I believe the digital camera is one of my favorite inventions in recent history, as it allows me to take as many pictures as I please and quickly share them with people all over. Well, after receiving various compliments lately, including in my last post, I decided to throw you two more photo albums / slideshows where you can take a look at a few of the beautiful things I have been so lucky to see during my time in Barcelona. There are many, many more where these came from, and certainly many, many more to come. Enjoy!

So, I’m finally a legal Spanish resident…even have the card to prove it! I must say it was a long and often frustrating process, but it is over now (for the first year) and I’m happy about that. I said before that I would describe the process I had to undergo in order to get this student resident card, so that is what this post is about.

First off, if you’re planning to study in Spain for longer than a visa will allow, you’ll probably have to go through this process. So, the first step for everyone will be, get a passport! After this, follow my tips in the “So You Want A Student Visa” post and be sure to check with your local consulate to ensure you don’t have different processes or required documents. Once you have your visa done, you’re on your way to becoming a temporary Spanish resident.

From here, I must say I was relatively annoyed that the Spanish government doesn’t seem to communicate well with its consular branches. At the consulate in San Francisco, there were two documents I was required to provide for my visa that were subsequently stamped and given back to me. This included the letter of clearance and the letter of good health. These were two of the more difficult documents to come by, so I was told to keep these safe and be sure to present them to the Spanish government upon my arrival in order to obtain my residence card…strange, because I haven’t had to touch these documents since my arrival – not requirements for the student resident card!!!

On the contrary, these were the documents I needed to obtain:

Evidence of housing
Basically, my landlord had to go to the local police station and get a document stating that I am living in his place…easy enough. If you wind up with a landlord who isn’t as helpful as mine, just take a copy of your contract to the police station and they’ll get you the document.

Evidence of funds
It was recommended to have a Spanish bank account with something like 4,000 Euros in it, but I heard they also accepted non-Spanish account information for the first year. Next year, when I have to renew the card (and re-do the process) a Spanish account will be required. This wasn’t a problem, but it was annoying having to pay seven euros just for a certificate stating my balance…couldn’t a statement just have sufficed?!

Copy of your visa and inbound passport stamp
Unfortunately, you cannot bypass the visa process, as you need to provide a copy of it to prove that you completed this step. Additionally, you need a copy of the page where your passport was stamped when you entered Spain. This actually was a problem for many folks, as not everyone had their passports stamped. So, people were having to get new copies of boarding passes and train tickets to prove when they entered the country. The reason is if you wait more than thirty days to apply after your arrival, you get fined…so try to get your passport stamped upon entry and apply within 30 days!

Four “DNI” sized photos
No, passport size will not be accepted, they are too big…I should know, mine were rejected. DNI is something like 3×4 cm and they will only accept this. It was frustrating finding a place to do this during the hours I am available, especially considering they don’t seem to do these on weekends for some reason, despite the stores being open. Only cost like four euros…well, seven if you count the money I wasted getting passport sized photos.

Proof of health insurance
Yeah, make sure you have evidence that you have insurance coverage, make copies of these, and you’re good to go.

In addition to this…
The only other thing I would have needed if Blanca were applying with me would have been a translated marriage certificate. Also, if I had children, a translated birth certificate would be required as well…I know personally one of my classmates had a lot of issues because they assumed, quite rationally, that his nine-month old baby’s visa would be sufficient to obtain her card…but leave it to the Spanish authorities to question that the child was even his, so they needed a birth certificate with his and his wife’s name on it, translated, as proof that their child was in fact theirs…glad I don’t have kids.

Other than that, I was thankful ESADE provided an attorney to do all the dirty work. It was pretty straight forward, just furnish the documents and he got it all done. It wouldn’t be impossible to do without an attorney, so don’t fear if you don’t have one, just make sure you know where to go and what to bring.

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful, and if anyone has endured this process as well, please share your experiences!

“Quotes are cool…but then again, if they weren’t, no one would quote them.” – Marabeth Madsen

Hola todos! Today I turned 26 years old and I figured it would be a nice gift for myself to set some time aside to finally make a new post! ‘Tis true, I really do enjoy posting, so here I go.

I can assure you I’ve been thinking about posting just about every day since my last post, however, finding time is quite another thing! But enough about that, lets move on to what is on most of my ESADE classmates’ minds – Career Week! I cannot say how many times I have heard various individuals make a complete 180 in the direction they want to head in their career, and I feel with Career Week starting Monday, there will only be even more of it to come.

Confusion is a pretty common feeling among my classmates, but I like to think it is a good type of confusion. We all want to make a good choice in our next career move and try to get into something that we are truly passionate about. Many people who pursue an MBA are doing so in order to make a career change. The problem often is, I don’t think any of us were prepared for the vast number of possibilities we would be confronted with! That said, I see the whole confusion thing as a good thing of sorts. I mean realistically, the “problem” is the amount of opportunity we are all being exposed to, so it can’t really be all that bad.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m posting bit later than I had expected, but hey, I’ve been a little busy. As of right now I’ve been in Barcelona for just over a month, so bear in mind as I discuss the El Montanya retreat that this happened three weeks ago.

Day three of introduction week felt a lot like my senior trip during high school when our whole class (and many, many other senior classes from all around) boarded a bus toward Disneyland for our last hurrah together. Only difference this time was the older and wiser (I hope) company, the destination, and the purpose. Yeah, so this trip was exactly the same…only completely different!

The El Montanya retreat is the big leadership/teambuilding trip up into some nearby mountains about an hour and a half outside of Barcelona. No one knew exactly what to expect upon our arrival, and about half the class (not my bus) got lost and had to wait even longer to figure out just where we were heading. When we reached our destination I think everyone was pretty pleased with the setting.

High atop this mountain we were situated in a respectable hotel and had all expenses paid *cough*tuition*cough*. After overcoming the obstacle of checking in, which took forever as the hotel surely wasn’t prepare to handle 118 eager MBA students at once, we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch with everything from smoked salmon to…I don’t know, just lots of great food! We needed to enjoy ourselves because shortly after lunch we were headed downstairs to be introduced to the folks who will be working with us over the next 18 months to help us learn more about ourselves and eachother.

The classroom stuff was fine. We had to fill out surveys in advance that were intended to show you about your specific learning style and explain a lot about your character. It was interesting, but I always take these things with a grain of salt because they often include gross generalizations while in reality no one fits perfectly into any of the nicely titled boxes we were placed in.

After all this we were grouped into a few teams of about twelve and herded outdoors to take on a very challenging group task. It will be hard to explain, but basically half the group was blindfolded, half was not. The blindfolded folks had no idea what was going on other than our attempts to describe the situation to them. No one was allowed to touch anyone and we all had very specific rules about who could communicate with whom.

Now for our task: There was a bucket, turned upside down, with three weighted balls sitting on top. At the top of the bucket’s rim (by the ground, since it was upside down) were drilled six holes where three very thin ropes were strung through and extended out about five feet or so. The task was to have our blindfolded friends hold these ropes and transport, together, this bucket without dropping any balls across a soccer field while overcoming obstacles – all while us non-blindfolded folks were desperately trying to make this happen without touching anyone or anything. Our group didn’t even make it half way, while other groups completed the entire task. It was a frustrating and humbling exercise and looking back I already see that I’ve learned a few things about teamwork from it.

The next day was more exciting and action packed as new teams were formed and we had to build makeshift “cars” that we would race around a track. The engineers really had a chance to shine here, but I like to think my car skills learnt from my father also helped me rise to the occasion. Everyone essentially made wagons of sorts and two team members had to pull or push their contraptions around the track while one other team member rode the “car.” Here’s a picture of my team’s creation and yours truly making the round.

While we didn’t win, it was a fun exercise and a great way to finish up the teambuilding shenanigans.

We returned to Barcelona (and reality) in the afternoon after the car building exercise and time has definitely not slowed down!

Introduction week as a whole was a blast – Lots of good food and great company mixed with high spirits created a wonderful atmosphere to kick off the program. This is not to say anyone’s spirits have been dashed ever since the onslaught of work began, but yeah, I think we have all been knocked down a few notches back into the realm of reality…which is probably a good thing.

ESADE! That’s who! Our second year in a row atop the Wall Street Journal International rankings, and we are all pretty happy! In fact, we just got word we will be having wine to kick off lunch with a little celebration, so that should be nice.

For those interested, the following is a quick excerpt from http://online.wsj.com discussing ESADE and one of the reasons they are still number one:

This year, ESADE was rated highest for students’ personal integrity, their teamwork abilities and the career-services office. “I like recruiting ESADE students because they have true internationalism and a teamwork orientation that are invaluable at my company and so difficult and time-consuming to develop,” says Sanae Parra, a survey respondent and business management associate for Adidas AG in Herzogenaurach, Germany. “The school does not promote cutthroat competition among peers.”

At any rate, I’m still working on my next post (or rather, trying to keep up with my pre-term classes and occassionally thinking about my next post) so hopefully we will be seeing that sometime this week. That is all for now!

I have to admit that I’ve lagged on making this post. I originally began writing after my first official “meet-n-greet” with a group of my fellow ESADE classmates, but suddenly the momentum just picked me up and here I am not only past introduction week, but one week into the pre-term! I apologize for this delay, but allow me a second to try to bring you up to speed.

First off, I have had to initiate very few introductions since my arrival, as I have lost count of the great number of not only classmates, but also faculty who have approached me and said, “Hey! You’re that guy from the video!” Oh dear, what have I done? Haha, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the attention, but man, I never expected such a response. At least everyone who has approached me has really liked it, so I suppose it’s a good thing.

My first impression of my classmates has been much like my first impression of the alumni I’ve met: very good! Everyone is super cool, down to earth and the class seems to be extremely diverse – which is exactly what I was looking for. The class is composed of 118 students representing 36 different countries and a potpourri of professional backgrounds. I can already tell I’m going to learn a lot from my cohort!

Since my arrival, I’ve successfully opened a bank account, got a cell phone, acquainted myself with the city a little, tried lots of new food and had a jolly good tyme with a lot of my new friends. I’ve made an effort to practice my Spanish, but I’ve been a tad discouraged when I walk into places and begin talking to someone and they immediately switch to English. I don’t know if they think they’re doing me a favor, but it kinda smarts knowing I must be that bad…but hey, I’m here to learn, and learn I will!

Introduction week was a blast for the most part. It was loaded with informational meetings and the highlight was our teambuilding trip up into the mountains about an hour outside of Barcelona. We got to participate in a few teambuilding exercises that were often extremely difficult, but overall a wonderful experience. (I’m still working on getting some pictures up, but I’ll make another post about the “El Montanya” retreat complete with pictures soon.)

Now we have just finished our first week of pre-term classes and, my goodness, it has been something! We all knew we would be busy when things got underway. I had been told by anyone and everyone that I’d have no life for the next 18 months, and I believed it. I also acknowledged that while I may accept this fate (afterall, I am paying good money for this!), I knew that until I got here it would be difficult to say I truly knew what I was getting myself into…I think I’m starting to understand.

Week one exposed us to financial accounting, economics, managerial statistics, business law, and information technologies. Nothing I haven’t seen before, but the demanding nature of each course really takes its toll. Classes run from 8:00am until 5:30pm and my typical day has me leaving my apartment before the sun rises and not stepping foot out of the school until after the sun has set…but even then, once I get back to the apartment there are still things to read and individual work to do. Today is Saturday and I was working on homework for statistics and accounting from 2:00pm until just past 9:00pm…yes, Saturday, and I still have more to do tomorrow to prepare for Monday. On top of all the class work, we have a leadership and development class to prepare 11 assignments for by the 15th in addition to resume editing and meetings with career services…again, this is week one!!!

So yeah, I’m a little busy these days, and while I’m absolutely ecstatic that Blanca is finally here, I’m hoping that she will find ample things to do to keep herself busy as I’m out trying to keep my sanity. I must say, I’ve always respected the MBA, but in one week’s time that respect has increased quite a bit and I have a strong feeling that level of respect will only move higher. I don’t know if other programs are this intense, but I would imagine that this is quite necessary considering it is an 18-month program versus the traditional two years. Maybe I’m speaking too soon on all this, cause in all likelihood I haven’t seen anything yet, but hey, I gotta vent sometime!

In my future posts I’m going to try to share a little about my experiences with my fellow students and the things I’ve been learning outside of the classroom. If anyone has questions or post recommendations I’d love to hear them. Otherwise, I’m just going to do this at my own pace and address things I choose to share when I feel inspired. With that, I suppose I will say hasta luego for now.

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” – Anonymous

Blanca!!! That’s right, she’s finally here with me in Barcelona. She left California Saturday afternoon and arrived here Sunday evening. I met her at the airport and had trouble holding back my tears of joy when I finally saw her. Thankfully she wasn’t too exhausted when we got into town so I was able to take her out a little before we turned in for the evening.

The bus dropped us off at the Plaza España, so she got to see that briefly before we dropped her things off at the apartment and headed out to Plaza Catalunya to find dinner on La Rambla. We settled for a small tapas spot somewhere in the middle of La Rambla and enjoyed a nice combination of interesting food and adult beverages.

I look forward to updating this post with pictures of us together, but will need a little time before I can pull that off. At any rate, Blanca is here and will be here for nearly two months before she has to go get her visa and she’ll be back for good! Guess that’s all my good news for now…

“I ran up the door, closed the stairs, said my pajamas and put on my prayers, turned off my bed and jumped into the light….all because you kissed me goodnight!” Anonymous

I just wanted to make a special shout out and give a big thank you to Stefan for thinking of me when he wound up with an extra ticket to the FC Barcelona vs Milan game the other day! By convenient timing everything worked out and I got to see, in person, BCN whoop on Milan in the presence of some 100,000 enthusiastic fans. The energy was excellent and it was everything I hoped it would be…and more…much like everything else has been since I’ve arrived here. So, thank you again Stefan, looking forward to meeting up with you again sometime soon – I still owe you a drink or two! Oh, and by the way, big thank you also to Keith, InternationalStudent.com president, for giving me the heads up on Stefan’s offer! Would have been clueless had you not stepped up and shot me an email, so thank you for being proactive!

Ok, now to change the subject, I need to provide a quick update. Blanca became a citizen two weeks ago and applied immediately for her passport. Some of you (not sure who makes up most of the audience here) may know about the mess/joke that the US passport process has become as of late. If you’re not familiar, basically homeland security decided to implement new laws affecting US citizens that require us to have a passport when traveling to areas that previously hadn’t required one. They decided to push this new law without ever taking the time to calculate the increased demand (which has nearly doubled) and see if they even had the staff in place to absorb such an increase. Heaven forbid they take such petty thoughts into consideration, but alas, the result has produced tens of thousands of horror stories, no doubt.

What happened was, as passport applications picked up speed, the people processing couldn’t keep up. This created a backlog, pushing normal processing times back from 1-2 months, to 2-3 months. Seeing this, most people then began applying for an expedited passport, which used to take only 1-2 weeks. Now that everyone essentially stopped applying the traditional way and has begun to only apply expedited, that process has also slowed to an average of 2-6 weeks…additionally pushing traditional processing back even further to 3-4 months. And all this just in time to catch Blanca when she needs her passport processed ASAP.

So, just what is my “New Quick Update?” Well, I don’t know if I need to attribute this to divine intervention or what (much like Blanca being allowed to take her oath of citizenship the day she took the test) but her passport processed, amid all this mess, in eleven days and she received it on Tuesday! How that happened, again, I don’t know, but we are oh so grateful that it did and now it is time for her to apply for her Spanish visa. I will provide another update after her appointment Friday, hope it will be a happy one!

Ok, thus concludes my “quick” update!

The Departure

I’m starting this post while wasting time in the Dublin International Airport during my seven-hour layover – only four hours to go! Yeah, so my trip started with a teary-eyed parting from my family at the Fresno airport, but I quickly grew concerned that I’d be seeing them much sooner than expected. I don’t know why, but it seems the last few planes I’ve gotten on have been delayed because they had to perform maintenance of some sort…well, this first leg from Fresno to Los Angeles was no exception and I prayed that they’d get done in time to allow me to catch my next flight to Dublin. Assuming you’ve been paying attention, I obviously made it in time, since I’m writing from Dublin.

What have I to say so far? I don’t understand luggage weight requirements, nor do I understand a lot of the procedures at airports. I arrived at FAT (Fresno, for those not in the know…or those in the ‘no who think they’re in the know by saying they’re in the ‘no, but really you’re just annoying) about two hours early to check in with United. When I mentioned my end destination was Barcelona I was told if I wanted United to forward my luggage all the way through to BCN it would cost me $381…or, I could check my bags when I got to LAX and only pay $50 – I would just have to deal with Aer Lingus when I arrived and potentially have to pay additional fees to them. I opted for the $50 and chose to take my chances at LAX.

Not sure how the fees work exactly, I always thought with an international end destination you were allotted more luggage (I had read up about Aer Lingus’ requirements, but hadn’t thought to check United’s!), but apparently it is cheaper to have overweight bags on a one-hour continental flight than a transatlantic flight with connections…may make sense, but didn’t really at the time, who knows?

Based on my decision I had to retrieve my luggage at LAX and lug all 120lbs of it from one end of the airport to the other where I then had to stand in the slowest moving line I’ve ever experienced. How slow was this line? Well, the flight was delayed 45 minutes because nearly half of the passengers weren’t even checked in by the time the plane was scheduled to leave. Anyway, the wait was sorta worth it, because in the end Aer Lingus didn’t even charge me excess weight fees on my luggage – so sucks to you United and your $381 charge!…perhaps Aer Lingus didn’t choose to charge me because they were going on strike two days later and simply didn’t care? I dunno, but hey, I didn’t complain.

After I finally checked in, I was then told I had to lug my bags about 50 yards further to a group of guys who were running around and joking with one another for fifteen minutes until I had a line of about 20 people behind me. I guess with the long line they decided they had built a sufficient pipeline of work and they finally called me to ask if my bags were locked. When I said no, I was told to set them by a few other bags and I was free to go through security…a pointless step, if I do say so…also a little disconcerting if these gentlemen were in charge of luggage security…but I digress.

We made up time in the air and actually landed about on time. I got my passport stamped and made my way through the maze that is the Dublin airport and now all I can do is sit around and wait for my flight to show up on a screen so I know which gate to go to. I’m so early the flight isn’t showing yet and probably won’t for another hour. Thankfully I have a new book and my mp3 player to kinda keep me occupied, however I’m so exhausted after getting about an hour of off and on sleep last night I’m just not in a very good mood.

So, how do I feel exactly? Well, sad for starters. I know it’s normal, I felt this way when I went to Sweden, but this time it is a little different because when I’m not thinking about how bad I’m missing Blanca and how we really don’t know how long it will be until I see her again, I start thinking about my dad and, well, it is just hard. I just wish he could have been there with me at the airport…and I need to stop or I’m going to start crying right here in the airport. *deep breaths* moving on…

When I arrive in Barcelona it will be about 9pm Spanish time, or about noon California time. I’ve been told customs will likely take a couple hours, so I’m hoping to make it to my new apartment by midnight Spanish time. My new landlord is kind enough to be picking me up from the airport, so that should help upon arrival. Once I reach the apartment I’m going to try to give Blanca a call and then will hopefully crash and won’t end up with too much jetlag, but we will see.

My objectives for the week are to apply for my residence card, open a bank account, figure out how to successfully get to and from the school, and maybe meet a few of my classmates before things kick off Monday. I really wish I wasn’t so beat right now. I feel like I should be super excited, but it is hard to feel that way with everything that is on my mind…the heartburn isn’t helping either. Oh well, traveling is stressful and exhausting, so hopefully once I get settled and have my communication abilities figured out I will start feeling better.

I guess that is all I have to say at the moment, I’ll continue this when I arrive at my apartment so I can post anything else that was noteworthy during the rest of the trip.

The Arrival!

IIIIIIII’mmmmm Heeeeerrrrreeeee!!! Barcelona that is, I made it! You know, that layover in Dublin was just so crappy, I really got worried there that I wasn’t going to fare so well once I got here. Not quite so, I started feeling the rush of excitement when we were about 500 feet off the ground coming in to land and I was looking out over the ocean thinking, “It’s really, finally happening…” I am here!

Getting off the plane wasn’t too bad, took about four minutes to get my passport stamped, then nearly a half hour to get my bags (got a lil nervous), then, just as I thought I had one more line to pass through I realized I was done. It wasn’t a line I had seen, but all the people waiting for loved ones getting off the plane. So, no two hour customs to deal with, just thirty minutes of waiting for luggage. As I walked on out to the main lobby I immediately saw my landlord and it just so happened there was another ESADE student who took the same flights I had, so she was kind enough to take both of us to our new homes.

I arrived at my new apartment about 11:30pm Spanish time, so not too bad, but I was wide awake and Mary (my landlord…I’m tired of calling her that!) gave me the grand tour and even walked me around outside, showed me a store, internet café, and even took the time to draw me a nice map on how to get to ESADE. If that’s not service then I dunno what is! By the way, Mary was also the woman who interviewed me for admission to ESADE. Why does that matter? I dunno, but do you think the new MBAs heading to Harvard get picked-up at the airport and driven to their apartment by the same folks who do their admissions interviews? I doubt it, then again, I have no proof, but it’s still pretty darn good service to me!

My apartment is cool, the layout will take some getting used to, especially when Blanca arrives, but we will certainly get used to it. It is very much fully furnished and I even had milk, juice, and water waiting for me in the fridge, which was nice. The terrace is beautiful and I would gladly be typing this from out there except within the last ten minutes some clouds just rolled in, thunder and all, and it started pouring…darn! At least it didn’t happen until now, cause I was just out walking a marathon all over, I went in search of a falafel shop I enjoyed back in the day…think I found it, falafel for 1,95 euros, not too shabby! ***Update*** That was not the falafel shop from back in the day, but I did find the right place today and I was about half a block off. I was sad to see the prices have more than doubled from 2003…but it was one darn good falafel…so I forgive them.

Anyway, I’m supposed to meet a classmate in about a half hour to grab some dinner, hope the rain lets up a little! I will try to get some pictures up somewhere soon so I can begin sharing photos. Guess that is all for now, intro week begins Monday! Adios!

“What’s the point of going out, we’re just going to end up back here anyway?” – Homer Simpson

During the last few days before I left, Blanca and I decided to get a few documents together that she will need for her Spanish visa whenever she gets her passport. The only reason I have decided to post about this is because we encountered a problem while getting the letter of clearance that I wrote so thoroughly about in my “So You Want A Student Visa…” post. Well, in light of the situation we encountered, I added to that post to hopefully help others out in the future, but I’ll discuss what went down here too.

When we got to the step where we go to the county clerks office for a certification of the notarized letter, we were told the notary needed to do more than simply stamp the document, we needed a full acknowledgement because according to the girl I spoke with they have no way to verify she is a real notary…because I guess it would be too hard to look at her number on the stamp and look it up herself, what with the county clerk and county recorder sharing the same office space, but really, what would I know? Anyway, when she told me I needed this acknowledgement I whipped out my document that had been completed months prior and went over it with her, just to clarify what she was telling me.

In my frustrated state, I asked her if she was telling me this document I had, which was notarized by a woman who has been a notary probably longer than I have been alive, had made it through the sheriffs department, her own clerks office, the secretary of the state’s office, and finally the Spanish consulate…all the while it was incorrect? She stared at my document for a few seconds, stumbled over her words a little and quickly walked to the back of the room. She came back a minute later and explained that yes, my document was wrong and she informed the approver not to do it again…then she gave me back my apparently incorrect document that somehow made it through four government agencies, yet was never caught…

Anywho, so we had to call the notary back and arranged to meet with her again so she could get us the acknowledgement form and she explained that for every employee in the clerks office you will get a different answer on how the document needs to be done. I wasn’t surprised, but we jumped through the extra hoop and got it done.

I just wanted to give a heads up to anyone else who may encounter a similar situation, so just to be safe, if you’re Sheriff’s department does as ours did and gave us two letters of clearance, have the notary do one with and one without an acknowledgement and just let the county clerk tell you which one they want to certify.

Oh, one last thing I’d like to mention, Blanca became a citizen on Wednesday the 15th! So, we applied for her passport the next day and now we are just waiting and praying that makes it through that mess relatively quickly so she can apply for her visa soon and come join lonely ol me over here in Barcelona! Can’t wait!!

That is all for now, will post again soon about the trip!

Adios