Eve

It has been another week and we are loving the weather here. Saturdays are great for going to the zoo or the beach. Mark is very busy at school, but allows time for Eve and Tricia and we usually head to some great park. We have met another couple who have a baby just younger than Eve. Eve and Gracie (their little girl) have had a great time together at the zoo, the beach, and the mall (ok so Tricia and Jen liked the mall the best)
We look forward to spending lots of time with the other couples here at the school. The couples with children all happen to have girls (great times ahead!)


Our little family at the Zoo


So apparently the weather does get cool in December; here is Eve sporting one of her new hats.


Eve loved the hats for only a few minutes, then she was mad that she couldn't get them off with her mittens on her hands. She looked so cute!


Eve and Tricia trying to get a shot together; Eve cared more about grabbing the camera then taking a good photo.

Orientation week cont'd...

The main event was a grand prix racing derby. Everyone was divided into teams and given overalls and a budget. Together the teams had to make a design for a car that could be pushed or pulled and carry one driver. There were certain safety standards that each car (t) had to satisfy, as well as being within each team's budget.

Mark's team, aka "Mario Bros. Racing" (because of the overalls) built a sleek, quick, chariot-style cart. It proved itself in the qualifying laps on the race track, finishing in first place with the fastest time.

In the medal round, the lack of horsepower on the team caught up to them and Mario Bros. Racing finished with the Bronze medal in third place-still cause to celebrate with an open bottle of champagne (Mark felt like he was Michael Andretti).

This week was not quite so fun as the MBA students began their actual courses which are quite demanding and take up most of the time between 6:00AM and 12:00PM. We'll keep everyone posted as things continue...

Orientation Week...

Mark has now been in school for two weeks. His first week began with several presentations from the school (the generic orientation, student association, etc). Next the class was given a general presentation of each of the main sectors in which MBAs typically find themselves working: I-Banking, Consulting, or Industry. Next the students had seminars on CV writing and Interviewing skills. They even had mock interviews set up with real companies-less stressful than the real thing however, still very gruelling. Then the group was off for fun and games at "El Muntanya" resort where they participated in some get-to-know-you activities and some team-building games. Here are some pictures from the activities...

First Week of September

Eve and I have spent a few days touring around the local parks while Mark is in classes. His schooling keeps him very busy and that leaves Eve and I on our own to discover Barcelona.

There are so many gardens that the tourists don't know about. They are extremely hilly though.


Eve and I went to Parc Guell and had a lovely time. There were alot of people, but the park is so large that you aren't bothered by everyone.
We hiked through the hills and it tuckered Eve right out, she was exhausted from all that riding in her stroller. I, on the other hand, had to push the stroller back up to the top of the park where we had entered.

Festa Major de Gracia and Festa major de Tricia!

Last week, Tricia began an intensive spanish training course for students, spouses and partners from ESADE with little or no spanish exposure. It was a rough first few days (especially with the late nights and no sleep from Eve's teething). Things are starting to come along and Tricia has put in many hours studying. Mark has been the stay at home dad with Eve but has also been busy with a lot of homework-though the program hasn't even begun yet (preparing several drafts of resumes in spanish and english, career placement tests, learning style evaluations, etc.).

We've had fun getting to know some of the other students who have also arrived in Barcelona. Mary, the recruiter from ESADE, and her husband organized a social event for all of us to go on a walking tour of one of Barcelona's most famous festivals, the festa major de gracia. It was a lot of fun and actually a rare opportunity. The festival is in a very artistic part of town and as it only lasts serveral days, most tourists do not get the chance to see it. There were lots of decorations, music, firecrackers, human pyramids, and of course, the parade. In one of the pictures you can see the famous "giants" that the parade up and down the streets followed by many people in costume with firecrackers attached to their body that literally shoot out into the crowd.

One of the best parts was the amount of candy that was thrown out to the crowd during the parade. I have only ever seen this done in small town parades (Cardston) but the amount of candy here was much more impressive-bags and bags of candies... it was unbelievable. An even better part about the candy throwing was to watch the people go after it on the streets. In Cardston, usually only the young boys and girls go for the candy and anyone over 4 feet tall or over 12 years of age will get some nasty looks if they get involved. Here, little old ladies (who move very fast by the way) go after the candy as if it were the last few rations in the entire province of Catalunya! It was certainly a sight to see-the candy doesn't really taste very good either.

After walking around for a bit at the festival, all of the students went out to dinner. It was very nice.

A few nights later we celebrated the festa major de Tricia, her birthday! We went out for a nice italian dinner with some friends from the school and came back home for a delicious cake from a bakery on our block... mmmmm....

Other than that, Tricia continues to work hard with her spanish and Mark is enjoying his last few days before orientation week begins. Once again, thanks to everyone for the consistent emails. We love and appreciate you.

Love,

Mark, Tricia, and Eve!

Settling ourselves in Barcelona...

Well, our internet connection is still not a permanent one so that is why these posts have been delayed a little...
We settled into Barcelona about 2 weeks ago and are very glad to be in our apartment. Luckily for Mark, Tricia is pleased with our little, Ikea show-room of an apartment. It is clean with new outfittings all from Ikea. We are very well situated and within walking distance to some great tourist attractions (Plaza Catalunya, Font Montjuic, The Beaches and Port area too). The metro is literally steps from our door which will make it convenient for Mark to get to school. The apartment is in a very spanish part of town and everyone practices siesta which has been nice to have piece and quiet in the afternoons. Our apartment is right above an Audi dealership (I know that sounds strange) but it is very appealing because the dealership is very quiet and clean (not like living over a restaurant or bar where late night parties and mice abound). But enough about our great apartment...

We are really enjoying the time together as a family as we get to know Barcelona. We have had great weather for the most part and after settling in we have gone to the beach, the aquarium, had lunch at the port (a traditional Paella-because Tricia didn't believe me that you buy the heads of all your seafood), we have frequented Plaza Catalunya and Las Ramblas. Another day we went walking through the Gothic Quarters of Barcelona. Most of the pictures on this post are from there. As this is now tourist season, Barcelona is packed with people and we have decided to wait a few weeks before doing too much else in the tourist areas.

Pizza, Piazzas, and People!!! (Venice, Italy)

Italy is probably the only foreign country that you can visit, walk into an authentic restaurant, and not feel bad for just ordering pizza off of the menu. Venice was our next stop on the (long) adventure...

Mark loved Venice and not just because the main piazza is named after him... that is "piAzza" not "pizza". Ok, so the piazza is Piazza San Marcos and isn't really named after Mark but he still loved the scenery, shopping (amazing silk ties-cheap!) and delicious food. The canals in Venice are spectacular and there are gondolas everywhere. Venice is small enough that you can know your way around the maze of 24 inch streets, bridges and beaches in about 2 days. It also helps to get to know the city when you cannot find your hotel and end up walking around until 11:00 PM.

Most of this trip was simply about relaxing and walking around. That is the nice thing about Venice, we didn't feel rushed to see every tourist attraction in the little time that we had. There were a lot of people however, and on small streets weaving back and forth between the canals I am sure that we were not everyone's favourite tourists as we barged through with our big american stroller.

The port area was a lot of fun to walk around at night and enjoy a famous gelato or two, or three. Another repeated activity was to head to the Piazza San Marcos at night. The three main restaurants hired string quartets, wind ensembles and pianists to compete for audience attention outside in the square. We enjoyed the lively rivalry between bands and the spectacular classical music that was played.

One night we had a very romantic dinner on the banks of a canal with gondolas going by. An accordian player gave us a serenade and the weather was fantastic. It helped that our server gave us special attention as he tried to schedule a wedding date for his nephew Matthia and our little Eve!

Our last night we travelled to a nearby farming town, Treviso, and spent the night at a bed and breakfast at someone's villa. This allowed us to be closer to the airport as we had an early morning flight, it was a very pleasant experience as well. We are growing more and more tired of living out of suitcases though and looking forward to settling in. ***(We actually have already arrived in Barcelona and have been here a week but as we have limited internet access for the moment we are still updating our blog ex post) More pictures/updates to come...