Study Abroad Blog

I finally made it. I’ve been saying it for years now – that I wanted to move to Texas. Had never actually been, only heard real estate was cheap and jobs seemed aplenty. Well, here I am, I finally got my wish. We made our way here, as I mentioned in my last post, via a long road trip. The days leading up to the trip led me to believe someone was encouraging us not to make the voyage, as we had multiple, consecutive, uncharacteristic car problems – one after the other – but we persisted.

It all started three days prior to our leave date. Cruising in the car one afternoon on our way to my in-law’s place and what-do-ya-know, the AC just isn’t cooling the car at all. In the lovely 100+ degree Fresno summer heat, this is quite a noticeable and un-enjoyable realization to make, but there was no denying the lack of cool air spewing from our vents. Not willing to jeopardize our comfort throughout the sure-to-be toasty 1700 mile road trip we were about to embark upon, I immediately made some calls and setup an appointment to bring life back to our Civic’s AC.

Given the abruptness of the AC’s uncooperative antics, I was concerned there was something very wrong that a simple Freon refill wouldn’t remedy – thankfully I was wrong and the following morning our problems were solved for $78. We learned there is a small leak in one of the hoses that will likely lead to future refills if not fixed, but given our time constraints I didn’t opt to fix the surely expensive hose at this time.

So now we were cruising, right? Packing had begun, AC was working, hotel reservations were made and our move-in date was set for our new apartment in Austin – it’s all downhill from here, right? Not quite. The day before we were set to leave, I go to fill up the tank so we wouldn’t have to do so in the morning and I’m already itching to get on the road. Tank is full, hop in the car, turn the keys and what do I hear? *click* What was that? I’ll try again…*click* Um…no…please no…why won’t my car start?

I jumped out of the car, popped the hood and just stared in disbelief at what was going on…surely this is a prank or something, why in the world would this car, this 2001 Honda Civic with 95k miles on it with nary a problem, choose today, the day before our journey mid-way across the country, to call it quits? Well, at least the battery did, cause it was done and I had to get a jump just to get it the block and a half home, but not before all electric accessories, including the speedometer, tachometer, etc ceased to function. Excellent.

Pull up into the driveway, slap a charger on the battery and go online to locate the nearest Autozone so I could get my battery and alternator checked out. Run back outside, get the car at least running and cruise the three miles to Autozone without any sign the car was running from the inside, that battery was toast! Go ahead and get a new battery for $85 (I’m sure I could have done cheaper, but I wasn’t in the most sane state of mind at this point). Slap that puppy in there and have them give the ‘ol alternator a test and I’m told “It’s not showing bad or good, but it is pushing 12.6 volts so it might be ok.” Me being a novice to car electronics accepted this answer and headed back home to check online at what a normal civic alternator should put out and read, somewhere, that the “normal range should be between 12.5-14.5”. I saw higher ranges on other websites, but chose to accept this one, as I knew mine was putting out a voltage in this range and I was content…so on with the show!!!

Sunday morning – the day of the trip. All packed, Civic loaded with the essentials and I am feeling strange that “my life” could be packed into the back of a Civic…then again, I had it previously packed into two suitcases, so I was ok with that. Head on over to the in-laws again to pick up the other two party-goers accompanying us to Vegas as a sort of anniversary/end of summer trip and arrive a tad late, as packing our final few bits required more strategy and grunt force than was expected. Gather up the other half of our two car caravan and hit the road – next stop, Vegas!

Cruising fine, music jammin’, AC cold, we’re on the road and begin typical conversation about how it’s gonna be a long trip. Things going well, get a phone call from my dear amigo Evan at just over an hour into the trek and maybe two minutes into the conversation I notice something that makes my stomach sink…speedo, tachometer, gas gauge….all no longer functioning. Crimony!!! All I could think was that brand-stinking-new $85 battery was already used up and we just got on the road! There is no question now that the alternator really is shot, now I just need to find some way to not make the new battery go kaput.

Pulled into a gas station off the 99 somewhere just past Tulare (small towns) and after speaking with some locals, learn there is an Autozone back about ten miles that should be open. I whipped out my toolbox, tore out the battery, threw it in my sister-in-law’s corolla and now there are four of us cruising back toward Tulare in search of a charge, an alternator, and a place to get it installed…on a Sunday!

Guys at Autozone weren’t very helpful. They sold me a new alternator for $180 and at least they charged my battery, but they had apparently no means of contacting anyone from the outside world (not even other Autozones) to find where I could feasibly go to get my new alternator installed. I had to call friends and have them Google shops and finally I just decided to go back to pick up our deserted Civic, which contained all of my belongings, throw the now charged battery back in and hit the road toward Bakersfield in hopes of finding a shop that was open and willing to do the swap.

An hour later, we arrived in Bakersfield and, like a mirage on the horizon, we found a Pep Boys and got the car in just before a mob of other people showed up needing work done, and we headed off for a leisurely lunch while the car got fixed. Came back, only waited about another half hour and finally…yes, finally for real this time…the car was in good working order, with a new battery, new alternator, and a cold AC, and the total damage was somewhere in the ballpark of $500. This amount certainly wasn’t in my budget, which made me be a little more stingy than normal while in Vegas, but we were thankful that my brother-in-law gave Blanca a monetary gift of just about the total amount we ended up spending on the car, so we essentially broke even and I’d like to think we got a slightly more reliable car out of the deal; even if I really, really hated the car at that moment.

Vegas was fun, and the rest of the road trip was uneventful. Met up with a friend and ESADE classmate who gave us a place to stay in San Antonio. Made our way to Austin on our move-in date, and felt a little strange signing all the papers and handing over a check before ever even seeing the apartment. We had a number of problems right after moving in, but they’ve since, for the most part, been remedied and we are settling in nicely now over here. I have slowly begun to master the often-confusing highway system here, and putting up with the untimely public transportation is quite enraging at times, but I’ve wasted so much time putting this post together I will go ahead and save my school impressions for the next entry. My apologies, as always, for taking so long to post yet again, but now that I’m settled down at least for another short while I’m hopeful I’ll get back on track.

ландшафтIt is becoming borderline disturbing how quickly time has been moving. Have I really been home for a month? Have I really been away from all my new friends and classmates in Barcelona for a month!? Wow, I guess time really has flown, and I’m sure how unexpectedly busy I’ve been hasn’t helped much to slow things down. Well, at least I found time to write a little and share some updates on my happenings. So here goes.

Well here I am, sitting at BCN International Airport waiting for my flight to Frankfurt to begin boarding, which is the first leg of my 20-some-odd hour journey back home. It is amazing to think about everything that has happened over the past ten months…has it really been ten months? Seems like just yesterday I had a job and was only beginning to talk to Blanca about my crazy idea of pursuing my MBA abroad. Now, I’m a second year heading home to do an internship with one of my favorite people in the world. I’m a lucky man – really, I am.

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I’m in the heat of all sorts of things at the moment, but decided to pop my head up for some air right now while I have a few minutes of sweet procrastination in me between studying. Last week we had our final presentation for Corporate Finance in which we had to perform a valuation of Pfizer. It was actually an exciting project once we started really getting into it, but hard work at the same time. Anyway, the presentation was Thursday and I felt like my group did very well. After this, it was straight to studying for the Operations Strategy final, which was yesterday (Friday). Now that these two obstacles have been cleared, the ball is rolling on toward finals week, or next week, and it is sure to be rough, but I’ll survive.

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I don’t know where the months go anymore, let alone the days. I had been putting off this post with the hope that the longer I waited, the more likely I would finally have an internship offer or at least some more interviews lined up to share with everyone. Not so, I’m afraid. One company I have been anxiously waiting to hear from pushed back their response time from a firm “within two weeks” to “by the end of the month.” Together, this has added over a month to my wait time. I’m not the most patient man when it comes to things like these, but I’m doing my best to sit tight and keep hope. Some of my classmates were just made offers nearly four months after their interviews, so yes, all is not lost.

During this waiting time I’ve begun to try to flex my creative muscle to conjure up ways in which I will most productively utilize my time over the summer if something more formal doesn’t work out. I have a few companies in mind that I am going to approach to pitch projects to, and if this yields no fruit I may very likely focus on my Spanish while working on a business plan for future use. In short, the summer is still very much on my mind and when I finally know what it is I will be doing, I’ll gleefully return to share the good news.

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Term two has come and gone, and Spring Break has finally arrived! I cannot believe how quickly the second term flew by, but it didn’t pass without its fair share of stress. We had a slightly lower workload than with the first term, but the lingering stress of finding an internship has added enough pressure to make the total load feel pretty much comparable. As it stands now, I have a number of outstanding applications, a few rejections, and at least one interview lined up in the upcoming week. It has been a rough road to say the least and I just hope that soon things will start happening (ie, more interviews and eventually offers!) so I can focus more fully on school. It is a hard situation to be in, but I know I am not alone and that the state of the economy is not helping things much. I don’t want to give any specifics to my hunt until later, but I will just say the world of banking isn’t looking to welcoming these days and I am anticipating possibly taking a stab at industry for the summer…but we will really just have to wait and see.

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I’m not perfect - I’ve never claimed to be. I am proud to be an American - I would never deny to be. Nevertheless, I am getting tired of the apparent lack of respect, and I would say pride, many of my fellow, typically youthful, Americans seem to have when traveling abroad. Without fail, on every single trip I have taken within Europe it seems a regular occurrence to run into at least a few groups of young-adult Americans acting foolish. It saddens me to think that these individuals seem to take their behavior so lightly, and that they feel being in another country somehow obligates them to give everyone around them a show on just how ill mannered Americans “really” are. So, here’s to you, my dear Ugly American friends:

When you’re walking around an Iberian capital city on St. Patrick’s Day toting a 3 foot tall, green top-hat and Guinness T-Shirt pretending to know the words of an Irish drinking song – I’ve seen you. When you’re with a small group of friends taking a tour of a historic European landmark, speaking loudly about how much of your parent’s money you’ve spent on alcohol during your trip – I’ve heard you. When you begin speaking loudly to your friends about how cultured you are, and in the same breath begin to explain how the last city you visited “was like, a completely different city” from the one you are in now – I’ve tweaked my brow trying to understand your point. When you talk about how your American driver’s license makes you God’s gift to the world of personal travel and go on to explain how badly everyone else drives because you “like to speed” – I shake my head in wonder. When you don’t even make an inkling of an effort to learn basic phrases like “hola” or “cuanto cuesta?” and resort to speaking louder and slower English in an attempt to communicate with the locals – I sigh. When you just never seem to learn and continue to perform the aforementioned acts repeatedly in every single city I’ve visited – I’m baffled, perplexed, embarrassed and resort to writing posts dedicated to you.

My recommendation is simple:  Have some pride when you travel abroad. Recognize the opportunity you have to leave a positive impression of Americans to these people “you’re never going to see again.” And lastly, remember, you can still have fun and not act a fool. So please, next time you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit a new country, behave yourself. Because you never know who is watching, or listening, or cringing as a result of your actions. Thank you.

Warmest Regards,

Your Friend Abroad, Matt

Sometimes it hits me unexpectedly. I could be riding the metro in the morning on my way to school, maybe making my way through some obscure streets in Born after an evening out with a group of friends, or even just while going for a walk with Blanca - I’m living in Barcelona. Yeah, sounds simple enough right? I mean, afterall, that’s one of the original things that appealed to me when I decided to study at ESADE. Either way, it is funny how once you’re here, you don’t really walk around saying “Hey, I’m living in Barcelona,” although, I admit to having done so during these particular instances when it sneaks up on me and I realize just how lucky I am.

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So we have this grade non-disclosure policy here at ESADE, which basically means I’m not supposed to disclose (or I have a choice to disclose, I believe) my grades on campus. I’ve never had this before, but still, every interview I’ve had thus far the interviewer has asked about grades. Well, up until yesterday, we hadn’t even received our first term grades, so I really couldn’t say either way. But, as of late in the afternoon yesterday, the numbers are in, and while I’m not going to specifically “disclose” all my grades, I will share a few things now.

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I know, this is a sorry excuse for a post, but it has just been so long since I wrote that I feel like I at least need to write something! The quick and dirty is that after Malta was finals, after finals kicked my butt my mother and “little” sister visited Barcelona for three days, from there we went to Paris to bring in the New Year and after that we spent three days in Rome. As soon as we returned I had one day to catch my breath and it was back to the school grind with an intensive one-week class on Strategy, which we have the final for in two days, and I had an interview with Goldman Sachs, as well as a brief phone interview with Citi. I was waiting until all this interview stuff transpired so I could share my experiences, but it just took too long! So, I do plan to make another post soon with more details on my quest for an internship, but for now this is all I’m going to share.

And now, I leave you with a couple slideshows of some pictures I took in Paris and Rome over winter break. I know there is some redundancy, but like I said, I was just in a rush to get something up here so I don’t feel as much like a slacker! Enjoy!