The Good, The Bad...THE BARCA

According to my “loyal readers” (aka: the friends of mine who tend to cane me when I write anything they don’t like- or don't understand), I’m being too philosophical about this experience and lacking in the details specific to the initial part of my time here. After all, I AM in Barcelona and not doing some typical MBA in Philly or Boston…(not that there’s anything wrong with Penn, it’s just not my thang.)

Being that I have only been here two weeks…I’m going to simplify this and then, hopefully one day, I’ll be far more equipped to justify my haughty “this is one of the best cities in the world” statement. 

Things I love about BCN;

-Pimientos de Padrón

-Siestas (even though I don’t take them- it’s the concept that gets me every time)

-Cava

-The fact that being 10 minutes late to everything really means that I’m about 20 minutes early.

-The proximity to some of the most beautiful cities and beaches in the world

-That I can get home when the sun has already risen and I’m far from being the only one

-The nightlife. Ah, the nightlife….

-That Bush isn’t President here

-The ease with which I am able to navigate the public transportation

-The fact that I can see the mountains from the sea, and vice-versa

-Tortilla Española

-Dinner at midnight

-Being in the minority as a tall blonde (or so I like to tell myself)

-The music

-The plazas (yes, all of them)

-Cortados

-Getting to the beach at 5:00 p.m. and still having over three hours of sunlight

-The diversity of my classmates

-Antoni Gaudí

-The weather (Barca, seriously, has to have the best climate in the world. No joke)

-Rioja

-The abundance of beautiful people

-Market juice

-Manchego

-The noise

-But most of all- I love the fact that I can’t even begin to imagine how long this list is going to be- that this is just the beginning- that it can only get better from here…

Things I don’t like so much (you knew there had to be a few…);

-The Euro-Dollar exchange rate (although anything is better than the British Pound)

-Trying to figure out where the accents and ñ’s are on my laptop

-Not having enough hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, and so on…

-Imperfecto vs. Indefinido

-Flat hunting (apartment searching) and the incompetent agencies/agents who seem to make all our lives far more complicated than need be

-The astonishing lack of bartenders capable of making a dirty martini 

-9:00 a.m. classes (and knowing that the hard stuff hasn’t even begun yet)

-The abundance of tourists (even though its August and I haven’t yet seen the half of it) And no- I’m not a tourist. Anywhere…