BOW (Bar of the Week)

Que interesante el dia en Barcelona. Ayer me levante a las 6 de la manana para ir a la oficina de policia para hacer mis hueltas dactiles para el NIE… sorry. English. Yesterday morning I awoke at 6AM to visit the Police Station for fingerprinting for my residence card. After that, I had to go to a gubernatorial office to obtain a letter stating that I can re-enter Spain on my student visa (until I get my residence card) because I need to go to London in a month for a Banking presentation (that’s right, working in a bank is my back-up plan). This process was a bit of an administrative pain in the ass. As the Spanish call it, “Que lio!” or “Que rollo!”

After that I had a nice lunch at IESE. Did you know there is a traditional Spanish dish where it is basically seafood paella dowsed in calamari ink? It is completely black!! Bueno pues… despues de clases de castillano, me fui a casa en el moto de Felix. I absolutely love the feel of traveling in Barca by moto. It makes everything feel uniquely more European. We got home and quickly changed to visit the Roman Ruins museum, in the Gothic area of Barcelona.

It was a fun event. As we toured the stone passageways Marco seemed unimpressed. “In Italy we have tons of these things,” he said. Felix jokingly imitated his Italian accent; it was hilarious. After some Roman wine, we decided to visit a tapas bar en la esquina. Apparently in this Basque establishment, you take the “pinchas” you want and you pay by the number of sticks you have in the end, indicating the number of pinchas you had that night. Well my first thought would be that this is too easy to just throw some sticks out. Alejandro (from Peru) said that I was more Latin than he was…. Many beers later…. We headed out to BOW.



At Bilbao Berria

In IESE we have a tradition called BOW, or Bar of the Week. (We also have another IESE tradition where if a student forgets to log off a common computer, someone sends a mass email from his address saying something inappropriate to the entire student body..) The BOW this week was at OTTO, a dance club downtown. We all arrived around midnight and had a great time. There was samba music playing all night, and despite not knowing samba, Alejandro and I started to dance. Really no one else was dancing in that room but us. So one guy pointed to us and said “South Americans….” Me? Mistaken for a South American? Wow. There were other rooms at the club, mainly those that played hip hop. I had forgotten how to American dance, so I was a little awkward at first, but having lived in New Orleans I picked it up fast. It was a great, great time. I left early with my Spanish flat mate around 3AM. We had class in the morning…

I am excited about tonight. There is another Latin Party at Café Noir and I am excited to dance to more salsa, merengue, bachata & vallenato. It will feel like home again. And tomorrow morning, we leave for Madrid… and will be drinking on the train….