My Blog

Hello All! I´m now in Madrid, Spain studying an international MBA at Instituto de Empresa (Institute of Business, literal translation). I arrived on October 17, 2006, and now, two weeks later have almost succesfully finished setting up life before classes start in two weeks. Many people asked me before I left Arkansas if I was excited about moving to Spain - my expression might have caught some offguard - as deep inside I knew with experience what the first weeks of relocating to a foreign country cosists of. The correct answer would have been, "Yes I´m excited to have a home, a phone, a bank account, acquaintances, etc". Now I have almost fully completed setting life up and therefore I´m now excited to be in Spain.

The first thing I have gotten accustomed to is the Spanish way of life...a nice thing to get used to. The time factor - lunch at 3pm, dinner at 10pm, normal bedtime around 1am or 2am. The diet - Spanish ham, olive oil, bread, pork any way imaginable, coffee to name a few. The attitude - fairly laid back but very straight forward. And most definitely the language - after two weeks I can understand much better than at the beginning but it will definitely be gradual. Although all my courses will be taught in English and all my classmates will be fluent in English, meaning we will most likely socialize in English, having three Spanish roomates will give me the opportunity to speak only Spanish at home.

Instituto de Empresa has several degree paths, but I´ll be in the International MBA program consisting of about 250 of the 700 or so students in the Institute. We come from around fifty to sixty countries and range greatly in discipline - lawyers, engineers, accountants, scientists, bankers and even doctors. I hope to keep you informed of the happenings over the next thirteen months. I hope you will keep in contact about yourself.