The group met in the lobby at 9:30am to walk over to the Facultad Informatica Barcelona, an Information Technology school whose facilities we would utilize during the final days of the program. Dr. Overby, my marketing professor from Belmont, was scheduled to join us the last couple of days of the program, he is the director of the International Business department at the Massey, Graduate School of Business at Belmont, and was in the lobby to meet us. It was good to see a familiar face, and I was excited to share the work we had been doing with one of Belmont’s representatives.
We received a welcome and introduction from the Facultad Informatica school’s representative, as well as an overview of the exchange programs offered, and then taken to the computer lab where we would have access to work over the next two days.
Our group wrote our quick summary paper to accompany the presentation and rehearsed until early afternoon. We were as ready as we could be, would do one last run through Tuesday evening, but had decided to take the afternoon to get out into Barcelona.
Many in the group were excited to go to the beach, as Barcelona’s man made beach is right in the midst of the city, easily accessible, and a very popular place. The palm trees along the boardwalk were brought in from Morocco, and the shoreline dug out to create the beach that is open 24/7 for every kind of social activity imaginable. The odd shaped building in the distance is a hotel.
On this afternoon, I opted to see more sights and do some shopping. It was blazing hot and dry, but I headed down the hill to the Maria Christina Metro station and set out for the famous Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s main boulevard in the old city. Las Ramblas begins at the Placa de Catalunya (pictured at the left), a vast central square that divides old and new Barcelona. North of the square is called Passeig de Graciaare, with all high end stores, and as you head south toward the beach, the entire atmosphere changes.
The grand boulevard changes from rich to rough, in a one mile stroll. It is said you can “raft the river of Barcelona life” past a grand opera house, elegant cafés, prostitutes, pickpockets, con men, artists, street mimes, outdoor bird market, great shopping, and people looking to charge more for a shoeshine than what you paid for the shoes. It is truly a unique walk down a crooked path that literally narrows as you go. Rambla means “stream” in Arabic, and The Ramblas used to be a drainage ditch along the medieval wall that once defined what’s now called the Gothic Quarter. I took in quite the sights during my walk, picked up some souvenirs along the way, and even a couple of great deals on boutiques engaged in sale season.
Our group met back at 9pm for a final run through of the presentation. We were confident that our preparation and hard work had paid off and we were ready for tomorrow – presentation and “oral defense” which is what the program called the Q&A we would have 20 minutes of from the jury. It was so hard to believe we had worked all this time and had been traveling together for almost a month. Many new friendships had been forged, and the knowledge and experiences gained in this short amount of time I will carry with me forever.
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