Class Time

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Ahh first day of class. We met in the lobby today for breakfast at 7:30, then headed to IQS University for class. We made the 20 minute walk to the school, and sat down in a very old building. Our teacher for the day was very funny and helpful, as he talked about Corporate Social Responsibility, and the importance of moral responsibility within companies. He told us a story about how Spain's largest producer of milk decided to stop using cows from Catalonia because they were believed to be of lower quality. Because of this, his grandma stopped buying milk from that company, just because they stopped using the Catalonian cows. The company's revenues dropped 15% as a result, and they were forced to start using those cows again. This shows how much pride these people have in their country and culture. This makes me wonder whether Americans would have the same thought process, or just not care enough for it to make a difference. My thoughts are that they stopped using Catalonian cows because of the poor quality, and they wanted to create a better product for their consumers; but the Catalan people obviously didn't think the same way.

Anyways, afterwards, we took a bus up into the mountains to go to L'Olivera, a wine and oil company. It was such a cool experience. It was a small vineyard with an old cellar, and a total of 15 workers. We got to see how their wine is made, and even got to taste the official wine of Barcelona. This little vineyard produces wine for sale, but also is located on government property, and therefore produces a certain type of wine that is exclusively for Barcelona City Hall, and is used for dinner parties and meetings with national leaders. This wine is not for sale to the public, but we were lucky enough to get to taste it. Both wines we tasted were awesome! (I'm visiting vineyards and tasting wine for class, I better be getting an A) http://www.olivera.org/php/index.php (here is the website to the winery) One other cool fact that I found out about this company is that the CEO makes only 3x what the lowest paid employee makes. I thought that was crazy compared to what we are used to in America.

The view from the mountains is probably the most amazing I have ever seen before. It overlooked the whole city and had mountains and the Mediterranean in the background.

We then made our way back, and a group of 6 of us split off and went to lunch. This was another experience, because unlike last night when our waiter spoke very little English, the lady of this little shop didn't speak a single word of English, while none of us understood Spanish. Luckily she was nice enough to go get samples of stuff to help us understand, and we were able to get a full meal and 2 glasses of wine for 9 Euro, what a steal!

One note, one of my friends has a thing on her computer where I can plug my camera card in and upload my pictures, so I will be able to upload some later on!

Lastly, to answer Aunt Shelly's question about our trip to La Rambla yesterday, there was a man wearing a full big black devil costume on the street. He was super creepy and just sat there. I decided to give him a Euro and try to stand next to him for a picture. He grunted and said no, and pointed in between his legs where he was sitting on a stool, telling me if I was going to have to get a picture with him, I needed to stand right there in front of him. Right as someone was about to take the picture he grabbed me with both arms and did a scary yell right in my ear. I about passed out, I was so surprised, but that soon turned to laughter! I will upload a picture of the two of us later on this week!

Well, siesta time for me yet again.

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Comments

[Terri Mamasita Young]

jimmy
We love reading your blogs. dad,Alex and I read it together in the evening. Dear God ,Jimmy, don't stand in front of another devil man, he was probably trying to pick your pocket. can't wait to see pictures. Stay safe, have fun and I love you lots. Mamasita