Two weeks back I arrived to a rather messy apartment and spent my first day cleaning and getting the place in order for my first room mate's arrival - Mareike from Germany. The same evening, we went out to a get together hosted by one of our Brazilian classmates, Fabio, on his nice rooftop terrace. On the way there, we learned that our third room mate would not be able to join our Spanish adventure. So in addition to trying to remember an avalanche of new names, faces and stories we suddenly had yet another mission for our first IESE get together: find a new fellow adventurer. To our great relief things went much more smoothly than expected and by the end of the following day we found ourselves with a cool new room mate: Shweta from Bombay! That same night my good friend Sandra arrived for a long weekend in her favorite city and a blur of activities started. To name just a few:
... the first dinner on our roof top terrace - delicious Thai curry cooked by Stephan, Mareike's boyfriend. Needless to say that we can't wait to welcome him back to Barcelona - and obviously also to the kitchen if he feels like it...
... the first pub crawl in El Born, sampling some fine cocktail bars supposedly mixing the best mojitos in town. Introducing the Muntaner roomies: Shweta, Mareike & moi.
... several trips to IKEA to stock up on vital things like salad bowls, bed linen and tea candles. And yes, we got some plants too. According to Mareike, a home is not a home without any green. So we have become proud parents of a palm tree, a banana tree and two sunflowers. Both roomies and plants have survived so far.
... extensive brunches on our terraza including our new family members, dear guests and...
... our temporary room mate Ralph from Canada.
Apart from that, Sandra introduced me to her favorite cafés and places in Barcelona (as a former Erasmus student in this town she is the best guide you could possibly imagine), Mareike and I legalized ourselves by applying for the NIE (foreigners' identification number) at the police station in Barceloneta, opened bank accounts, got Spanish mobile phones and ran a crazy number of errands to get stuff for our apartment. We attended our friend Thorsten's big birthday pool party followed by bar crawling/clubbing, lazed at the beach for an afternoon and went out for tapas with a big group of ESB friends (in town for Thorsten's party) and IESE class mates.
Unfortunately the time had then come for Sandra to leave Barcelona, so I was left without my friend and guide... However, I didn't have much time to mourn because the next event was waiting: a trip to La Tomatina with a group of 40 or so IESEans. Each year, in the small town of Bunol near Valencia, La Tomatina gathers 40,000 people that entertain themselves by throwing 120,000 kg of tomatoes at each other. Looking for the sense behind it? Don't. Was it fun? Definitely. We left the day before and headed to Valencia, where we spent the afternoon eating paella, exploring the city and stocking up on last Tomatina accessories (goggles, swim caps, etc.), followed by dinner in a nice restaurant and a bit of nightlife. The next morning, we continued towards Bunol, got ready for the fight - and were almost crushed by the masses of people before we could even come close to any tomatoes. In the end the tomato juice found its way to us though and left us soaked in tomato leftovers. Quite an experience. Would I go back? Hmmm... To Valencia definitely, into the tomato fight - maybe not. To the ensuing village fiesta: certainly.
Some pictures from before the fight - On the way to Bunol, our van getting ready: Shuchi, Shilpika and David
Ammar and Varun
Mareike and I
The day after La Tomatina, serious life started: our first day of school at IESE. Welcome, introductory presentations, Spanish language tests - and a sea of new faces. Just when I had started to at least memorize the group of people that had been to La Tomatina, I realized it had been only a fraction of our class... Never mind, one day I will stop being overwhelmed.
As a result of the Spanish test I was told I wouldn't have to take any Spanish classes now nor during the year. After my initial disappointment (how could they not see my gaps?) I decided to see the extra free time as a blessing and celebrated the news by going out. Three days in a row. Not easy, especially if you haven't been sleeping much over the last weeks... On Saturday night, we also had an inaugural BBQ on our roof top terrace with 25 people - a success! To be repeated soon.
With Matt from LA and Mia from Lebanon/Singapore
With Diana from Africa and Vikram from Alaska! No, just kidding - Venezuela and India
Mónica and Thorsten
Karl, Ayse, Slavka and Marissa
Zach, David, Matt and Karl
And eventually a picture of the entire BBQ group!
After so much entertainment I decided it was time for some seriousness again and spent Sunday evening writing my CV in preparation of all upcoming events with Career Services. I also went back to Campus today and attended Career Services presentations. And as I had convinced myself in the meantime that a bit of Spanish classes at least in September wouldn't hurt I went to talk to three different instances and begged to be allowed into a Spanish course. Without success. So I dedicated my afternoon to scooter hunting instead.
Since Barcelona's public transportation is good but rather time-consuming I have decided to follow the example of many locals and buy a scooter. As it turns out, you don't get a "moto" within a day but - surprise - need different papers to buy one. One of which I already have, but the other one I still need to get. In order to bridge the time in between I have spontaneously decided to rent a moto this afternoon, so here's my ride for the next week:
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