Saturday, August 27, 2005
My first few days in Barcelona
My wife Srijana and I are now in Barcelona. We arrived here fine
on Wednesday.We had some language issues in the airport when taking a taxi. The taxi drivers didn't know any English at all. So we had to ask a lady for help who knew both English and Spanish.
The first day, we were very tired. With our minimal language skills,
we were able to find a grocery store and an electronics shop. We bought juice and water from the store and a power socket that fits into the Spanish system from the electronics shop. We needed that power socket to hook our laptop. Luckily, this place is steup with wireless internet connection, so we were online by the same evening.
On thursday, we got our phone from the same place from where most of the IESE students get their phone. It has a minimum charge of 6 Euros a month and the simple Nokia phone is for free. We don't get charged for receiving calls. Outgoing calls are 5 cents a minute to same service users and 10 cents a minute to other users in Spain. In the evening, we went to the most happening place in Barcelona called La Rambla. It was a very crowded and fun street, reminded me of Harvard Square and the walkways near Charles river. The weather is perfect here. It is neither too hot or nor too cold. At 10 in the night, we went to the "Bar of the Week(BOW)" event organized by 2nd year students. We met some 2nd year students and many 1st year students there in a bar. Srijana also met some partners of the students going to IESE. It seemed like she was busy chatting with them and enjoying the talk.
on Wednesday.We had some language issues in the airport when taking a taxi. The taxi drivers didn't know any English at all. So we had to ask a lady for help who knew both English and Spanish.
The first day, we were very tired. With our minimal language skills,
we were able to find a grocery store and an electronics shop. We bought juice and water from the store and a power socket that fits into the Spanish system from the electronics shop. We needed that power socket to hook our laptop. Luckily, this place is steup with wireless internet connection, so we were online by the same evening.
On thursday, we got our phone from the same place from where most of the IESE students get their phone. It has a minimum charge of 6 Euros a month and the simple Nokia phone is for free. We don't get charged for receiving calls. Outgoing calls are 5 cents a minute to same service users and 10 cents a minute to other users in Spain. In the evening, we went to the most happening place in Barcelona called La Rambla. It was a very crowded and fun street, reminded me of Harvard Square and the walkways near Charles river. The weather is perfect here. It is neither too hot or nor too cold. At 10 in the night, we went to the "Bar of the Week(BOW)" event organized by 2nd year students. We met some 2nd year students and many 1st year students there in a bar. Srijana also met some partners of the students going to IESE. It seemed like she was busy chatting with them and enjoying the talk.
