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!!!!!!!