The Water's Fine

So after a long 7 1/2 hour flight from Washington DC I finally made it to Madrid!! But when I got there the airlines had misplaced one of my bags! So I placed a claim with the airport people and hopefully my bag will show up within a day or two. We finally got to our apartment after a couple of hours because one of the flights was delayed. But the apartment is so nice!! More on it later!

Since my last post two months ago a lot has happened and I have had so many wonderful experiences (and a few not so great ones also). I traveled to Europe, went to California and Florida, won three awards, found an apartment, attended a Ke$ha concert, survived final's week, moved out of my current apartment and many other things. But considering its 11:20 and I have yet to start my homework that is due in less than 12 hours I shall write in more detail about those events at a later time.

This past weekend I traveled to our nation's fine capital, Washington D.C. to watch the eight best bhangra teams from all over North America rip up the stage. Let me start out by saying that every team that came to the show brought their best and danced their hearts out on that stage. It was very inspiring to watch the best of the best showcase their talents. During this wonderful experience I also learned that while traveling things do not always go as planned. You have to learn to go with the flow and make do with what it available at the time. No matter how much you plan something is bound to go wrong , but you can't let it ruin your day! We had multiple problems with our GPS and it took us way longer than it should have to find our hotel, the show venue, etc. In the end we all had a good time and had many stories to tell afterward. Sometimes its not destination or goal that matters as much as the journey and the people accompanying you on your journey.

Last week I officially changed my major from Marketing to Global Management. Now I still really like marketing so I have decided to do a marketing concentration within my GM degree. My meeting with my wonderful advisor went really well and I found out that I can easily fit every class I need into my schedule and graduate in 4 years. I have enough room in my schedule to also do the Spanish minor and I only have to take 18 credits for one semester. This is so exciting!! We were also talking about my plans for the summer of 2012 between my junior and senior years. That is the main summer for business students to get a killer internship and then hopefully a job offer from that internship. We were talking about me doing another awesome internship abroad to cater to my new major and international interests. I am so excited!! I am hoping that everything will work out this summer and next summer!

This past weekend I met with some friends from CMU and their family for lunch and a movie. Their family was in town and they very nicely invited me to come along with them. This family has traveled near and far and are now settled in the US after moving from India a few years ago. The husband travels a lot for work and he told me about his experiences in Florence and Madrid. It was nice to hear the perspective of someone who has done business in foreign countries and dealt with the challenges of foreign business cultures. He talked of the markets in Florence and the slowed down lifestyle. He mentioned the knock-off rolex watches and designer handbags that the hawkers sold in the street market. They were apparently the best knock-offs he had ever seen and they were priced accordingly. (Paying 125 euros for a fake watch seems like a bit much, but when you compare that to the thousands needed to buy the real deal it doesn't seem as bad.) Another little fact that he mentioned reall...

For those of you that don't know me, I am a very cautious sort of person. Taking risks and pushing my limits are two things that I simply do not like to do. As a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh I have been given the opportunity to go way out of my comfort zone. This summer, I will be spending 12 weeks (3 whole months!) interning abroad in Madrid, Spain. As of now I have no idea where I will be doing my internship or where I will be living. All I can say is that I am super excited and very nervous to be living completely on my own in a foreign country. Before I go off and live in Europe for the entire summer I am taking a European spring break trip to visit my best friend Lindsay who is studying in Florence, Italy for the spring semester. While this trip will be a number of first's for me, it will be, first and foremost, my first time flying solo. Now don't get me wrong I've been on many, many airplanes across the country and across the world. But I've ne...