DJ Hugo Goes a Dancing

Day 2 in Barcelona and what a day!

Woke up to our neighbors looking for a wifi password and playing some great rap.  And when I say great, I mean not really at all.  But it was fine because it was time to wake up soon anyways and our alarms went off shortly after at 7:30 (7:31) AM.  Then we received two wake up calls just to be sure we were really awake, got dressed in our business casual low attire, and headed down to breakfast.  Lots of yummy pastries and breakfast food and all of it paid for in the trips tuition. Hail yeah.  Then we took a lovely bus to the IQS School of Management where we had our first real class class with our director Hugo.  He teaches International IQ, a class all about learning your place in the world ish.  We talked all about the EU and the map and what our itinerary would be for the rest of the trip.  Sounds like the final for that class is gonna be loads of fun.  Then I had a break and went with some friends to a bakery near the school before heading back to my Cultural Intelligence class. I am a big fan of that one. My prof is really cool and his accent is super fun to listen to.  I can even understand it almost the entire time.  Look at me go.  After class we had a lunch break at a nearby restaurant.  

Then we had our first professional visit! Woohoo!  We went to the Codorníu Winery in Catalonia.  It was so beautiful and you can’t imagine how much wine is in those cellars.  People could get lost in there.  I felt like I was in the dungeons of Hogwarts with all of those dusty bottles.  Follow the spiders, right?  So first we listened to a lecture and watched a movie about the history of the company and all about their sparkling wine.  It was interesting, but my jet-lag was really kicking in and once my pen died and I couldn’t take notes or doodle wine glasses and grapes, I was falling down that slippery slope of sleepiness very quickly.  Then we had a tour of the vineyards and all the buildings and the cellars underneath.  And then, as per FN tradition, we had our wine tasting to start of the trip right!  We cheered and celebrated being in Europe before being forced to exit through the gift shop.  But hey, every place should really have a gift shop anyways.  Then we took our “party bus” back to the hotel.  Some people tried to open one of their new bottles of Cava, but the cork flew into the air and foam went everywhere as the bus driver immediately stopped and explained harshly that there was no drinking allowed on the bus. Oops for them.  

Then we got back and had the rest of the night to do whatever we wanted.  AKA go back to the room and chill and start some homework before dinner.  We went to dinner at a Japanese place down the road because we heard it was good and cheap.  It was pretty nice. They had some excellent fondue de chocolate.  Three people forgot to pay for their waters (Come on now, that’s not free like home guys.)  But the owner of the restaurant said that we were okay, which was extremely nice of her. 

Then we came back and talked about the rest of our trip, got ready for bed, and did/are doing some homework.

Overall, pretty amazing day in the lovely Barcelona!  See y’all tomorrow!

P.S. We asked a stylish woman for directions today and she helped us out the best she could with her broken English.  I tried  to compliment her on her outfit but she mostly spoke Catalan and in the end she replied with, “oh you like my look? Haha Americans”.  Not sure exactly what that means but I guess I’m just improving my International IQ every minute aren’t I.

P.P.S. Sorry these posts are super duper long. Get used to it or don’t read them.