¡Hola!I don't think that anyone can complain about the last week we just spent in Barcelona. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and had time to get our bearings around the hotel and the city. For the first three days of the week we studied at the Barcelona campus of the Toulouse Business School and visited local companies.
On Monday we went to MRW which is a 100% Spanish, family owned logistics company with over 500 franchises. They believe strongly in social responsibility and have made their building fully sustainable even by using rainwater for the toilets. After our first company visit we attended a lecture on the Spanish economy to better understand why Spain's economy fell and how the country is handling it now.
On Tuesday we spent the full day visiting companies. In the morning we went to Barcelona Activa where they help entrepreneurs with a business idea actualize it into a business and they also offer struggling small businesses resources to grow; all at no cost. After learning about the Spanish economy the morning before, it was great to visit a company that is committed to helping the Spanish economy flourish once again. In the afternoon we went to El Pueblo Español. It is a private capital company that runs a spanish village that was founded in 1929 to explain Spain's cultural diversity through representative architecture, entertainment, food and shopping. Meeting with an executive gave us a unique perspective as to what factors are needed to make this company and village sustain themselves.
On Wednesday we enjoyed a full day of class from 8 am to 6 pm. In the morning we had a lecture on Spanish culture where we learned about what forms culture and then we experienced it. An opera singer from Barcelona came into the class and sang for us, explained her current occupational status as a struggling opera singer in a crowded market, and then we each in groups had the opportunity to come up with a business plan for how she could better market herself to stand out. The fun continued in the afternoon as we learned about management and team building. This was a great culmination to the management class we had taken earlier in the quarter. We had a team building exercise that ended in Chase Beckmann showing his extreme athletic ability to get through a hoop hanging from the ceiling without touching it- all for the team to accomplish the goal.
Once our classes were over we had plenty of time to explore the city of Barcelona. It was impossible not to learn about the great artist, Antonio Gaudi whose architecture and work is all over the city. He is most famous for designing La Sagrada Família; A cathedral that began construction in 1882 and is not expected to be complete until 2050. We enjoyed the beach, although most of us didn't get much more than our feet in the Mediterranean Sea because it was so cold! On Friday Matt Regnold, Regan, and Megan took a day trip to Porto, Portugal to see Coldplay in concert while another group of us went to the Olympic Stadium and saw Bruce Springsteen in concert. I never thought I would see so much red, white, and blue in Europe! Between the "tapas", shopping, La Boqueria, bus tours, parks, the pier and night life it is safe to say that Barcelona not a boring city and we now understand why it is called the city that never sleeps! We have had a great week together learning, laughing and enjoying Barcelona. Now we are ready to start full swing into classes in Toulouse and spend time with our host families!
By Lena Tome
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