Day Four

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Today I actually woke up around 9 A.M., but I went to bed at like 4. So I was a little tired, but on the good side my body is finally getting past the jet lag. We started today off with a meeting downstairs with the Spanish film producer Simon de Santiago. So far this has been my favorite lecture. I am a huge movie watcher and just talking with someone who creates movie was exciting. As he was talking to us one of his biggest parts of his lecture is how a film is put together. It starts off with the writer/script. This will be the blueprint for the entire film. Then a producer must read the script and if he likes it he will be the coordinator for the movie. This includes budget, actors, director, design and so much more. I really never knew how much a producer had to do until that day. I think it might be appropriate to say that producing is the hardest part in the film industry. Lastly, is directing. This is the person who is going to take both of what the script says and the producer provides and makes the movie in his vision. A cool fact about Simon was that he attended the Oscar’s last year.

Once the meeting ended, the girls persuaded me and Ben to go shopping. What really sucks is that girls have a lot to chose from in clothes departments and guys have slim to none. The fashion here is pretty authentic though. Guys either dress formal or metro. There is a lot of brightly colored shirts and shirts and this is kind of funny, but underwear. On the formal side of their dressing they usually have a button-up, slacks, sweater vest or cardigans. I am not a big fan on the metro side, but the formal side is actually nice. I wouldn’t min dressing up like that.

After shopping and lunch, we headed back for our next guest speaker Samuel Martin-Barbero. He works at a University here in Spain. I wasn’t too fond of this speaker, but he did give us some good advice about getting job in the near future. His biggest point was to never think you have enough information to be successful. With today there is so much that changes in culture, media, business and electronic, so you always have to be learning new things. He also told us that learning another language would definitely help us get a job in the future. I have heard this before, but he gave us some of his life examples in how it has helped him. I think that is what made it stick form me. I have thinking about getting a minor in Spanish because in America, the Mexican population has grown exponentially and it would be a good tool. Also, I want to come back Spain again and be able to speak the language. I believe it would make the experience more enjoyable because I can then talk to new people and be able to not have any barriers while visiting.

Later that night we met with Jennifer for dinner. We went to a nice restaurant called Bazzar. It was similar to the restaurant from the night before, but the atmosphere was a little more up tempo. We order a nice bottle of sparkling wine. I decided to have a fettuccini dish. I thought it was going to be alfredo, but it ended up being like a marinara, but it was also like a soup dish. At first glance I thought I didn’t like it, but it ended up being really good. We finished up dinner, then headed to a little terrace and enjoyed a drink. I think it is awesome how they have a bunch of places to drink, but people don’t get drunk. People here seem to be accustomed to drinking and have it daily, but they drink good amounts. I honestly believe that has to deal with the drinking age being 18. If you can do something for so long it doesn’t seem as important or amazing. After drinks we headed back to hotel and now I am going to bed. Talk to you tomorrow.

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