One month in

One month ago today I was in the air on my flight(s) from New York to Pamplona. Work is getting more interesting and as The Center slowly develops, but the most exciting highlights this week are about the social scene in Pamplona. On Thursday night, I went to an international networking event and met all types of different people. From Honduras to Taiwan to Spain to the US, there were plenty of people to meet and I got a kick out of it all. Friday night was more of the same as I went to a house party that included people from Russia, Poland, Colombia and Canada. There is definitely a big international scene here and I am happy that I have been able to play a part in it. For the weekend, I went to San Sebastian with a group of Spaniards and Colombians - ten of us to be exact. One of the Spaniards is a member of a gastronomical society there in San Sebastian and so we enjoyed a big meal of pasta, steak and peppers. To boot, the weather has been perfect the past few days. I am enjoying it before the fall it begins to chilly. I know this is a short entry, but I plan to do some travelling the next few weekends so the next few posts should have more in the way of pictures and text. For now, the past week and the upcoming week have much the same theme...work and play as much as possible

HASTA LUEGO

Getting busy and making friends

The third week here (September 13 - 20) started off fantastically. I was able to deposit the first portion of my scholarship at the bank, finsish the last of my orientation at work, and, in the evening, I grabbed a few beers with a Colombian that I met here, Camilo. He got me very enthused for two reasons: 1) I was actually able to converse in Spanish with him without having to pause and ask him about what certain phrases or words meant (I love the Colombian accent >>> very neutral and much easier to understand than other Latin American countries), and 2) he told me all kinds of stories about how cheap it is to travel in Spain. Namely, one of his buddies rented a car during Easter season last year for 12 days driving from Madrid to Rome for 175 euros. Split between four people that is roughly 40 euros for a car for two weeks. I am going to look into it for sure...

The next highlight of the week came in the middle of the week. When I first got here, I joined an entrepreneurship club at the school. This week they had their first meeting and I attended. A Spanish entrepreneur was invited to come speak to us so that we could learn more about his business and ourselves at the same time. His name is Carlos Andreu, and, from what I understood in Spanish, he founded a business making all sorts of personality tests designed to teach people more about themselves. To demonstrate the effectiveness of his tests, he had everyone in the club take a test. The test was pretty simple. We answered eleven questions about ourselves regarding which character traits we had more of relative to other ones. After the questions, there is a scoring system to help you decode which personality you have. I scored an 11. That number is a Conductor Personality. Conductors are typically people who are very aggressive, demanding, active, energetic and ordered. To illustrate each personality there was an historical figure associated with it. The person most identified as a Conductor Personality is Adolf Hitler. Imagine my shock and the horror of those next to me when this was revealed. Regardless, I managed to play it down and make a friend...more on that in a moment

Week ended with a bang at the office, in the gym and at the bar. At the office, I found out what my first two projects are going to be. I have to find out a list of donors in the funding world who would be interested in giving our center money and I have to find out experts in international development who would be interested in collaborating with us. In short, I have to find strategies for getting money and making friends for the center. Additionally, I am a TA for a World Economy course, which is a bit of a chore, but hopefully I don't have to grade any papers. In the gym, I received an invitation to play soccer from my Colombian buddy and his friends who are a mix of people from South America and Spain. We played soccer for 2.5 hours in the gym and it was awesome. And I didn't suck as much as I thought relative to the Europeans. Also, I played a sport called Padel that same day(a version of tennis and raquetball - Youtube it if you are curious. At the bar I met up with the friend I made from the entrepreneurship club who showed me around Pamplona at night. Apparently, a typical Saturday night means dinner at 11, a coffee until 1, the bar from 1 to 4 and then a club from 4 to 6. We only stayed out until 2.30...I am going to have to build up my stamina.

Incredibly happy to be here...

HASTA LUEGO!!!!!!!

Pamplona - the first two weeks

Friday, August 28th 6:25pm
I arrive in Pamplona after taking Metronorth to Grand Central, a cab to Newark, a flight to Frankfurt, a two hour layover, flight to Madrid, crawling around Madrid's metro for an hour, and a final train ride from Madrid Atocha to Pamplona. I caught a cab from the train station in Pamplona to the dorm residence where I was going to be staying for the first week. That same evening, the first leg of the Champions League was about to begin and I got to watch Barcelona with the directors of the dorm residence (equivalent to RA's) as we ate tapas and pinchos. Fighting jet leg, I went to bed hoping to sleep.

Saturday, August 29th
I was in bad need of buying clothes as I had packed superlight. After I woke up and had breakfast, I went out to shop for some clothes. One of the guys who was living at the dorm had some free time and was nice enough to show me around the city and then take me to a department store. At the department store, he became a little bashful. When I asked him why he told me that it does not look very good in Spain when two guys go to a store together and one is buying underwear while the other one watches him. After shopping and trying to get as immediately comfortable as I could with Spanish, I had lunch and then met a friend of friend that I knew from NY and he was able to show me around Pamplona. He gave me a true tour showing me the historic parts as well as the newer ones. With all the shopping and walking and Spanish, I have dinner and go to bed early again craving sleep as jet lag has not fully worn off.

Sunday, August 30th
Here is what you have to love about Pamplona. Everything closes on Sundays. Today also was move-in day for the entire university so students were filtering in all day. Since I am staying in the dorm, I hung out by the pool that they have just outside the dorm and enjoyed a barbecue.

Monday, August 31st
The first day of what you can call work, but it isn't really work. My boss gave me a binder full of stuff to read and websites to visit and told me to get to know the development world. So I spend all day skimming through the binder and getting familiar with it. I also meet some of the professors I'll be working with and finish filling out paperwork for the research commission

Tuesday, September 1st
The first day of classes at the university so the beginning of the year buzz that comes with it is in full swing. For me, that beginning of the year buzz meant a bit of a culture shock. As students get oriented to classes, I got oriented to Pamplona - the hard way. I wanted to go and buy a cell phone, open a bank account and get my residence card. I wanted all these errands out of the way. After going to a bank and a cell phone store and getting rejected because I didn't have my residence card, I called the police station seeing if I needed an appointment or not. They told me that I had the wrong number and that I needed to go to the police station for immigrants and not Spanish nationals. Not knowing the difference or how to find the second one, the morning had already passed. I spend the afternoon at work deciding it was better to do something rather than nothing. That evening, my boss informs me that the apartment he arranged for me to have is ready for viewing. I make an appointment with the former tenant to view the apartment. I meet him at around 7pm. It turns out that he is an American citizen who grew up in Spain named Matthew. His father is a New Yorker, former Wall St. lawyer / banker, that moved to Spain after meeting a Spanish girl in The States. The result is that he spoke English quite well and while I was supposed to meet him to sign a contract we decided to go out for dinner and beers. The deal is that he signed a lease to live in the apartment in May. At that time, he and his girlfriend planned to get an LLM in law this year at the university. Over summer, things changed and they decided that they already spent 4 years at Navarra getting a bachelor's so it is best to get a master's elsewhere. He opted to go to Fordham (that's right, Fordham in NYC) and she opted for school back in Ecuador (her home country). By the time August came around, he needed someone to assume his portion of the lease. Enter me. The timing worked out beautifully and I was grateful to be able to speak in English so that I understood all details about the contract. He is leaving for NY in January and will live with his parents in Valladolid until then. With that out of the way, we had Flautas for dinner and then went to an Irish pub for some rum and coke.

Wednesday, September 2nd
Instead of running around Pamplona looking for a police station, I go to the university's international office to see what I did wrong yesterday. They told me that there is someone who can help me get a bank account, cell phone, and residence card without the headache it would take of me doing it by myself. The name of this someone is Aires Vaz. He tells me all that I need to do. I feel more relaxed after talking with him. That evening, I go out with my future roommates and Matthew.

Thursday, September 3rd
In the morning, I get a bank account and cell phone as well as signing the contract to the apartment. I move out of the dorm I was staying in and into the apartment. I stay up late moving things around in my new apartment.

Friday, September 4th
I got no sleep the previous night, but am happy to have an apartment, bank account and cell phone now. I spend the day getting to know different campus services as well as its gym. During the afternoon, I can continue reading the binder of information my boss gave me. I go to bed early.

Saturday, September 5th
More walking around the city trying to get to know it better. I buy some things for my apartment like bed sheets.

Sunday, September 6th
Feeling like the adventure of the first few days is over and enjoyed Skyping with family while recharging my batteries.

Monday, September 7th
I spend my first real morning at work. At this point, I have read everything and can try to start to digest it. My boss takes me out for lunch, and answers questions that I have as well as to see how I am adjusting. From him I find out that my major task of the next week is to figure out how the development world works in terms of who the major players are and how policy is influenced by research and idea generation. At least now I have a project.

Tuesday, September 8th
A routine is emerging at work. This morning though I am pleasantly surprised that instead of working by myself in an office there are two people that are going to be there as well. One is there only part-time. He is the web master for the Economics Department. The other is a TA from New Jersey at the university on a scholarship like myself. The TA is a nice guy despite his home state. That evening I go to the equivalent of a prayer group. The university is uber-Catholic since it is run by Opus Dei. There are several centers on and off campus. I go to one called YESA in the hopes of meeting people and because I like it.

Wednesday, September 9th
I go to Town Hall in the morning to register with the city. They give me a paper verifying my residence. I know have everything that I need for a residence card except a letter for the university and an appointment with the police station. I will spend the next few days chasing that letter in various offices to no avail. I will get it once I cut through all the university red tape. It is just proving difficult at the moment. That night I go out for beers and pinchos with the guy from New Jersey, Mike, and his roommates who are also all Spanish.

Thursday, September 10th
More running around trying to find get the letter I need from the university. I hate bureaucracies and now I know why. The university is closed tomorrow so I temporarily decide to stop chasing the letter until Monday. I finish reading a few things for work before calling it a day. I meet a Phillippina woman for lunch that I met while I was waiting online to go the international office the other day. She has worked in South Africa doing women's empowerment work for a foundation down there. She had lots of interesting stuff to say as well as advice about being an immigrant in Pamplona. I didn't get a bunch of sleep the previous night and decide to take advantage of the day off by not setting my alarm for bright and early like usual.

Friday, September 11th
It pisses me off that all the news channels here show footage from September 11th (quite graphic) of when the planes first hit. Regardless, the morning is a bit somber because of it. I shake it off after lunch and go out into Pamplona to take pictures of the city for all of you to see. Check 'em out:

http://s756.photobucket.com/albums/xx208/rbdesimone/Pamplona%20-%20first%20few%20weeks/?albumview=slideshow

Saturday, September 12th
Today I get up at 6.30am to meet a couple of guys that I have met at YESA. There are four of us and we are making a trip to Torreciudad for the 20th Marian Celebration for the Family. Basically, Torreciudad is a place where there is a 1000 year old shrine to the Virgin Mary and, in recent years, a sanctuary and seminary has been built around it. A ton of people go every year on the second Saturday in September with their family to celebrate just that - family. I get a big kick out of it. We drive from about 7.30am until 10.30am. We get there in time for snacks and to walk around the Sanctuary. Then there is a Mass. The Mass celebration is huge and is said by the Bishop of Burgos. In other words, it is a huge deal to the people around here. After Mass, there is tons of food. The Spanish guys brought a few Spanish pastries for me to try. I wouldn't say that they topped Cannoli's, but I would say that they were damn good. During the evening thousands of people gather around to say the Rosary and recite a closing prayer. You certainly won't find anything like this in New York unless the Pope comes to visit. As you can in the photos, it was very serene up there and I had a great time. We left at about 6pm, stopped off in the small town of Ayerbe for a coffee and got home at 10pm. It was just in time for me to watch Sevilla play Zaragoza in La Liga. Sevilla won 4 - 1. It was fun to watch though as each goal seemed more spectacular than the next. Check out the photos I took:

http://s756.photobucket.com/albums/xx208/rbdesimone/Torreciudad/?albumview=slideshow

Sunday, September 13th
I write this blog and begin downloading photos on my computer...I am not planning on doing an entry a day, but from this point forward blog about the happenings of each week. I just wanted to run down the first few days because they have been exciting, frustrating and a blur all at once. Now that the the year is fully underway and I am pretty much situated, I press onward with the intention of working hard while trying to meet as many people as I can.

HASTA LUEGO!!!!!!!