Weddings and rankings and pumpkins, oh my! September 19, 2007

So okay, before I can say anything at all about my last (insanely busy!) week, I have to throw a special shout out to Jen and Laurent, who just got engaged. Yay and congratulations and TONS of love from across the pond! For those of you who don’t know, Jen and Laurent are fellow banana slugs who, like me, were transplants from CA to that freakishly cold Northeastern City (an exodus that, admittedly, I now find nearly incomprehensible, given the effing awesomeness that is my current city, but I digress…). I spent a lot of time with Jen and Laurent in Boston—everything from 8-hour sits at the JJ to brunch on Sundays (often after aforementioned sit, clearly), voice lessons with Laurent, ice cream with Jen, dinner with exceptional sauces and desserts at their house, and a LOT of time talking in between (what can I say, we’re talkers). Obviously, they were a critical and beloved part of my Boston experience, and I could not possibly be more thrilled for them—or the party, for that matter, because if there’s one thing these people know, it’s how to freaking party. So, Bostonians, please!! do me a favor and buy them a congratulatory drink next time you see them!!

And on to the other big news of the week: ESADE is the #1 International Business School again in the Wall Street Journal’s annual rankings!!! Yippeeeee! This means that, according to one source, my school is the best international school in the world. And given that these results are pulled from a survey of 4000 recruiters around the world, I’d say my odds of getting hired after school look, well, exceptional. (Sorry, dad, no matter what you say about PSU, I’m pretty sure ESADE kicks its ass. Hence: Barcelona.) In true Spanish style, they treated everyone to a cup of celebratory cava at lunchtime when the news hit. (Sadly, I didn’t get to partake—I was busy not learning about accounting but trying anyway.) Here’s some more info about why my school rocks, though: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118960965927825185.html?mod=home_we_banner_left
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/MB_07_Scoreboard.pdf

Personally speaking, this last week has been busy busy busy. We had an accounting test yesterday, on top of a group homework assignment for accounting that we spent the bulk of the weekend working out. Have I mentioned how much distress this class is causing me? Because it’s causing me some distress. Big time. The test yesterday? Creating cash flow statements from balance sheets? Um, yeah, I’ll pretty much be psyched if I get any credit at all. When I’m with my group, I mostly understand the mechanics of these many and mysterious spreadsheets, but, uuuuugh, when left to my own devices, I’m apparently useless. I pretty much spent the hour scratching my head and staring really, really hard at the paper, as though the answers might somehow materialize before my eyes (aaaaah, so much the grown-up SCORE! kid, in sooooo many ways…). Clearly, the answers did not just materialize, so I only got about a quarter of the way through it, which is awesome. In better news, my professor was kind enough to check in with me after class and ask me how it had gone. I told him, in all honestly, that I felt like I bombed it, and it was totally reassuring to hear him say that it’s pretty normal for people to do poorly on the first quiz, because the learning curve is steep. Remarkably, he seems to be confident that I’ll catch up (based on what, I don’t know). I appreciated the vote of confidence, though, for sure. My other classes continue to cruise at breakneck speed, and econ and stats continue to be my favorite classes (I still can’t get over the fact that I really, genuinely like stats—so incongruent with my personality, right?). And if I’m truly thinking about consulting after the MBA, the econ stuff will be pretty useful, I think.

Right, the pumpkin. A group of friends and I have taken to doing Friday night dinners out (seems to be a consensus that we deserve a nice night out after back to back to back to back to back 12-16 hour days!). I’m hoping to post some brief reviews of these places soon, when I have time (more to keep track and avoid repeats and have ideas of stuff to do when you all come to visit than to actually take the review part seriously). Anyway, last Friday we went to a great little Italian place down the street from my piso, and imagine my surprise when my risotto came in an actual pumpkin! It was a very Laura-esque meal, and I enjoyed it all the better for that. Anyway, I’m enjoying the Friday night dinner groove, and the people with whom I share it. (I wanted to post a picture of said pumpkin, but am having problems uploading. I’ll post it as soon as I can. Sorry!)

One happy side of effect of mostly feeling fat, ugly, and, adding insult to injury, stupid, is that I finally got my act together and joined the (admittedly, kind of crappy) gym around the corner, and got groceries (real, actual food!) for my house. It was awesome to work out—I don’t know how I’ve been out of the gym for so long (3+ months—eek!)—and it feels good to actually stay home to eat food, even if the food I cook is a sad, sad comparison to the delicious meals that Laura makes at home. (Nostalgic sigh…) I’m hoping that these things, in tandem, help me get over the fat/ugly thing (I just feel SO provincial in my GAP pants here!). As an aside: I’m obviously speaking hyperbolically, as we know I am wont to do, and am NOT fishing for reassurances/validation (mom). Just saying living in Spain makes me feel, erm, conspicuous, I guess. Oh, and the stupid thing? Time, I think, is my only solution here. Unfortunately. To Laurent’s point, at least I can blame the Spanish for the perpetual feelings of intellectual inadequacy, and not, you know, my own inability to grasp, say, accounting, for one. And since I’m pretty full immersion with the Spanish, it’s only a matter of time before it starts to click, right?

This coming weekend is the Fiesta Mayor de Barcelona, celebrating something to do with the city’s Saint, San Merce. If I recall correctly, this means various plazas will have things like human castles (“castellers”) and the Corre Foc (catalan for “running fire”), which is a bunch of people running under a dragon-like thing (think Chinese New Year), and there’s a LOT of fire/pyrotechnic insanity involved, at the same time (hordes of kids with M80s and no supervision: always a good idea). I’m not sure how this correlates to whatever Merce was sainted for. I think Spaniards just like excuses to set sh** on fire. Also, the weekend includes free concerts and various parties in plazas and a serious amount of public drunkenness, I think. Perhaps the best part of this is that we get the day off on Monday—hurray! You know what I’m NOT going to do on Monday? That’s right, accounting. You know what I AM going to do on Monday? You guessed it, play with fire and drink beers in public during the day. (Noonan: wanna make a trip this weekend???)

One final note for this overly long entry: THANK YOU to everyone who’s completed or is about to complete that pinche survey for me. I realize it’s probably kind of obnoxious and irritatingly vague, and potentially feels like a waste of time, but the sum of all of your feedback is what matters, and I’ll be interested to hear the results (no pulling punches, got it?!—honest answers only, however brutal they might be!). I’m here to grow and learn, dammit! And this, sadly, is part of it. So: be as tough as you can, okay?

So, who’s up for some unsupervised amateur pyrotechnics and public drunkenness this coming weekend? Any takers? You’re tempted, I know…