A B-town reunion in Barcelona

Despite a few troubles – mainly a rather unpleasant sore throat most likely caused by a 15-hour delay in the Paris-Orly Airport on Wednesday and a broken (brand new!) camera on Thursday, I had an absolutely awesome weekend in Barcelona!

The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business sponsored my attendance at the Doing Good Doing Well Conference. For a full synopsis, check out kelleygoodwell.blogspot.com – where we give a more “official” synopsis of the experience. But in general, over the course of four days, I learned a lot, left inspired, and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful city along with 6 fellow Kelley/LAMP students – and some of my closest friends – Scott Berger, Melissa Frye, Liz Kitto, Aimee Light, and Nic Perfetti.



Like I said, my original flight out of Paris was cancelled due to the air traffic controller strike in France. They moved me to a flight 13 hours later, only to have that one delayed two hours! At least I got a lot of work done in the airport on Wednesday; and luckily I had a DVD of The Office in my computer, so that was a welcomed distraction. By the time I navigated the Barcelona air, bus, and taxi system - we had to fly around French airspace which made the flight increase from 1.5 to 3 hours – it was 3am by the time I arrived at my friend’s Aimee’s homestay. So kind of her host mom to let me stay there the night!

Thursday morning I checked out la Catedral de Barcelona while Amy was in class. While enjoying a café con leche at a nearby café, I discovered my camera was broken. Fantastico! Oh well – c’est la vie, oui? The day soon picked up though: As I was checking into my hotel, the man at the front desk told me: Your friend from Indiana is here , Scott; he is in the room next to you! Soon thereafter, we met up with another of my best friends (I realize I was spoiled this weekend), Missy, who is studying in Barcelona and was a wonderful guide throughout the weekend.

On a side note, I (surprisingly) didn't have as much trouble with Spanish as I thought I would! I certainly forgot a lot of vocabulary, but it came back relatively easily. And, unfortunately, I can understand spoken Spanish much better than spoken French so far. Je crois que j'ai besoin de rester a Rouen pour beaucoup de practiquer!

That afternoon, we explored Parc Guell, a Gaudi-designed masterpiece a bit outside the city, while enjoying the beautiful weather. It’s on average 20 degrees warmer in Barcelona than Rouen. As I’m writing this, I’m looking at the line to board the plane to Paris with dread: I’m going to miss this weather! Later on Thursday afternoon, we grabbed lunch at a restaurante along the Mediterranean with other friends studying in Barcelona, including my roommate Stacy! It was certainly a B-town reunion this weekend. The afternoon was capped by a visit to la Boqueria: Absolute heaven! A great fresh food market - I absolutely adored the fresh fruit juices. Apple & banana was my juice of choice.

Nic arrived later that evening and we all went out for dinner at a good restaurant not far from our hotel. I got (vegetarian) paella – a traditional Spanish meal – for the first time. Rice, eggs, veggies, etc all cooked together in a hot skillet – absolutely delicious!

Friday began the DGDW (Doing Good Doing Well) Conference. We soon learned that we were the only undergraduates there, but we all agreed that it was an extremely engaging and interesting conference. The keynote speaker that morning was the CEO of SimplySo, a company that helps NGOS, those of the government sector, etc, coordinate activities. His presentation was fantastic! Throughout the day, we each attended several breakout sessions and panels, all of which were equally impressive and brought in experts on a variety of topics. And being true college students, we devoured the fantastic food they provided throughout the day!

We were all quite exhausted after the first day of the conference, so after a decent nap we all went out for dinner for traditional tapas, essentially small dishes to be combined and shared. I enjoyed patatas bravas, pan tostada, a bean salad, and a few other dishes. Then it was off to bed to rest up for day number 2 of the DGDW Conference.

Day two was a more difficult start: College students simply aren’t accustomed to waking at 7 or 8am on a weekend! But my fatigue soon diminished after the CEO of Escuela Nueva delivered Day 2’s keynote address. Since I am extremely interested in education, hearing about the success this organization has had in Latin American rural areas was really exciting. Later on, we would find out that the speaker has a lot of ties to IU, so we’re going to try to bring her to speak at Kelley!

After attending few more panels, on topics such as the problems of urban slums and water scarcity, “Team CIBER” can very happily report that the conference was a great success, and one that we would recommend to other Kelley students abroad in the future. That night, after an even longer nap, we headed out for one last great meal. We met up with Stacy and her friend Maxi, a German exchange student we all know from IU. Sharing tapas and wine again with friends was certainly a great cap to the evening. And I even dared to break my vegetarianism for a small piece of squid. I say this quite shamefully: It was kind of tasty! Afterwards, we walked along the Mediterranean and explored the city a bit before heading to bed.

We were able to sleep in a bit before checking out of the hotel today, and a donut and a few munchies from Dunkin Coffee (same as Dunkin Donuts, different name) was the perfect start of the day. God bless Spain for having a Dunkin Donuts! Then, Liz, Nic, Scott and I headed to La Sagrada Familia, potentially Barcelona’s most famous spot. A modern, nature-inspired cathedral designed by Antonio Gaudi in the late 1880s, it’s completely unlike any church I have ever seen. It was his obsession for quite some time: He lived in the cathedral during the 1900s and died two days after some of the construction materials struck him. Now, over 100 years later, it’s still not completed. Its expected completion date is 2025.



After a grabbing a cookie and sandwich at Subway (Subway and Dunkin Donuts, who knew Barcelona would be such the culinary heaven?), I departed from the group because I had the earliest departure amongst the group. Now after 2 metro rides, 1 bus, 1 flight, 1 RER, another metro, and 1 train ride, I’m about 40 minutes from arriving in Rouen. It will feel good to be back at ma maison francaise!

Sending some Barcelona warmth and Parisian love your way! A bientot!