Edinburgh

5/22/17

Today it was a bitter sweet because our time in London came to an end.  We woke up early and caught a train to Edinburgh, Scotland.  Once we got to Scotland, we dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then went out.  I must say I really like Edinburgh.  Surprisingly, all the places that I wasn’t as excited about to visit previous to the study abroad, turned out to be my favorite.  

We started off by hiking up Arthur’s Seat which is the high point of Edinburgh.  It was super windy at the top, but the view was beautiful.  You could see all of Edinburgh from up there.  We then took the backside of Arthur’s Seat back down and walked to the national monument and explored some of the structures there.  Their national monument looks like a small version of Zeus’s Temple in Greece.  It’s crazy because from far away it doesn’t look that big, but then when you get right up close to it, it’s HUGE!  After that as we headed back to the apartment we ended up passing by Scott’s Monument, which is this Cathedral looking thing.  It was pretty cool.  

As far as my cultural observation goes for today, coming to Scotland, I assumed that the people here would speak similar to the people in London.  However, I found out pretty quickly that they sound pretty different.  I thought it was actually harder for me to understand the people here rather than the people in London.  It’s crazy that even within English, there are so many different phrases and words that people use that may or may not be used in other parts of the world.  I assumed that I would at least understand from context what someone was trying to say, but I was wrong.  I’ve become fascinated with language and find it so interesting that each language is so different.  The cool thing is how everyone from a particular country can speak that given language and communicate.  

To end the night, seeing that it was raining, a handful of us bought trash bags, hiked back up to Arthur’s Seat and slid down.  Although I was freezing my butt off, it was probably one of the funnest things I did this whole trip.  It was just super spontaneous and it was just a lot of fun to be with everyone having a good time.  It’s crazy that the study abroad is almost over!    

5/23/17

Today we had our last business visit with a company called Royal London.  They were in the insurance industry, and it was really interesting to hear more about this industry seeing that majority of us students didn’t really know too much about it before.  A question was asked about how they verify whether or not a claim from the insured is valid or not, and the answer was that apparently they take the insured person’s word for it when a claim is filed.  With that being said, roughly 60-70 percent of all the claims that are filed normally don’t require extra evidence for validation, but the remaining 30-40 percent do.  Something that I thought about during the presentation was how this company makes money.  I would assume that you have a bunch of business’s/individuals who want insurance (e.g. life insurance) and so they pay premiums every month.  I would suppose that the actuaries working for the company figure out how likely it is for a claim to be filed, because it seems that in order to make money, the amount of premiums that they are receiving from customers is greater than the amount they are paying out for claims that are filed.  

My cultural observation for the day was that I’ve noticed that in the U.K., with every business visit that we’ve had, all the presenters to start have always told us what to do in case of an emergency (e.g. fire).  I feel like this is something that isn’t common in the U.S.  I don’t feel like presenters go over that before a presentation in the States.  Maybe it’s protocol, I’m not sure.  Just interesting to see the differences in cultures, whether they be big or small.  

After the business visit, and later on in the evening, we had our closing banquet.  It’s just crazy to think that we have come to the end of our study abroad.  It was nice to just be together as a group one last time and to recap our study abroad and reminisce about all the places that we had seen and to think about the experiences that we’d had.  The food was cherry as well.

We ended the night by doing a tour of some of the ancient tunnels in Edinburgh.  We heard stories about the ancient city and how part of the city was believed to be haunted.  We actually went down into some of the tunnels and they were pitch black only illuminated by candles.  Not gonna lie, but it was actually kind of creepy to be down there.  But nonetheless, it was a fun activity to do with some of the group.  Can’t believe I’m leaving tomorrow for Italy!  

5/24/17

Today was our last day in Edinburgh and we went as a group this morning to Edinburgh Castle.  It was huge and quite the structure.  It never ceases to amaze how old these structures are.  Coming from America, when I see all these structures in real life and learn about how old they are, it makes it seem that America doesn’t have any history and just puts into perspective just how old Europe and other parts of the world are compared to America.  

It’s pretty crazy that the study abroad has come to an end.  It’s weird, it feels like I’ve been away from home for a while, but at the same time, it feels like this past month flew by.  I’ve really enjoyed my time traveling all throughout Europe.  I think the biggest thing that I took away from this trip is that people all around the world are happy and I’ve realized how my upbringing in the U.S. has influenced the way I view the U.S.  For example, coming on this study abroad, I had this view that America is the best and that other countries in the world would love to come and visit the U.S.  I was completely wrong.  I’ve found that in the U.S. we are raised to believe and think that we are the best, however, throughout the whole world you can find people who are happy and content where they are.  It’s been a great experience for me so see and experience different cultures as well as give me a better idea if I would like to live and work abroad.  I’d say after this experience and in traveling to all the different countries, there is only one place that I could see myself living and working in and that is London.  

I’m really glad I was able to come on this study abroad and will always remember this experience!

London

5/15/17

Today was our first full day in the UK.  We started pretty early with heading to the Oxford at 6 in the morning.  We had a meeting with Mini Cooper where we were able to tour their plant where they produce the majority of Mini Coopers which are then exported worldwide.  It was interesting to note that 30 percent of the Mini Coopers produced are made with the steering wheel on the right.  In addition to this, something that was relevant to our coursework from this past year was that this plant that we visited uses Just In Time (JIT) production.  They only produce a car when they receive an order for it.  By walking through the production cycle, we were able to see how efficient they are at manufacturing each car.  Not too long ago they automated a lot of the processes and it was amazing to see a ton of robots that would pick up, weld, and put together these cars.

After that we had some time to explore Oxford.  We walked around the city and visited Christ’s Church and walked around the grounds a little bit.  It is crazy to think about how old Oxford is.  As we were walking through the town and caught public transportation, something that I noticed about British people is the way they talk.  First and foremost, although we both speak english, their english is a little bit different.  They use different phrases that we don’t use.  For example, on the bus today, we heard some kids talking as they were about to get off the bus.  One of the kids said to another kid, “Come on now, get a move on”.  Although I understood exactly what the kid meant when he said that, I found his word choice very interesting.  Another thing I noticed about the UK is that British people don’t really talk on public transportation.  Again just like the previous places we were at in Europe, I feel that Americans just tend to be a lot louder and more obnoxious when in public.  I would say that British people talk on public transportation more than other places we’ve been thus far, but they still maintain a whisper which is something that us Americans I feel tend to struggle with.

Once we returned from Oxford, a group of us went on a run to Hyde Park.  it was a couple miles away from our place, and the park itself is HUGE!  We ran to different parts of it and it was really pretty.  Overall I would say it was a very fun and eventful first day here in the UK.

5/16/17

Today we had a business visit with Bank of England in the morning.  It was cool to meet with the representative and hear about the history of the Bank and the function of the Bank in regards to the UK’s economy.  Something that I realized as I was sitting there during the presentation was the fact that no matter where you’re at in the world, the principles of economics are the same.  When it comes to controlling inflation and influencing consumer spending/behavior, the Bank of England or the Federal Reserve for the U.S. act the same way.  Also the concept of money was interesting to me.  Just how there has to be this system of trust that the money that you are using reflects accurately how much money you have and that the ability for outsiders to create counterfeits is hard.  After that we got to tour a museum there.

We then had lunch with Deloitte which was a cool experience to be able to meet with their professionals.  One thing that I learned that’s culturally a little different from the U.S. is the work culture.  Here in the U.K. people work less hours and actually have more vacation days.  With that being said, when deciding where I want to work abroad, this is definitely something to consider because in Japan, the work culture there is to work really long hours.  The work culture here seems a little more laid back than in the states.  

We ended the day by going to the play Les Miserables.  Lets just say I was miserable.. hahaha it was my first play, it was super hot, and i didn’t know what was going on.  With all these things combined, I struggled to stay awake.  With that being said, although I didn’t enjoy the play myself, I do have mad respect for the actors/actresses because they are very talented.  Also I have nothing against people who enjoy plays, however, I must say that I’m just not a fan.

5/17/17

Today was a pretty busy day.  We had two business visits.  One with the IASB and one with Fitch Ratings.  During the first business visit, we met with the IASB and were exposed a little bit to IFRS.  It was interesting to hear and learn about their standards which are principles based rather than rule based.  The presenter took us through a case study where we had to figure out depreciation for a certain fixed asset according to IFRS standards.  In debriefing the case, I was surprised to see how intuitive everything was.  You would think that with a principle based system that there would be a high possibility of variances, however it these principles have been very well thought out.  Learning U.S. GAAP (rule-based standards) throughout school, some of the standards were intuitive, but it seemed like a lot of the time, the standards were just a bunch of rules and it was very black and white.  With that being said, it was cool to see both types of systems.  I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other, but I definitely think there is pro’s and con’s for both and although in the past there was talk about convergence, I think taking some things from IFRS and adopting them to U.S. GAAP would be a good idea.

We also got to sit in at a deliberation meeting which was awesome.  I was expecting a bunch of English people to be a part of the board, but I was surprised when I saw that there were members from a bunch of other countries (e.g. Japan, India, Korea, Hong Kong, Europe).  With a board consisting of people from all over the world, I thought it was very beneficial for the group as a whole when deciding on a specific standard.  The viewpoints of the board member from Japan were different from other board members.  And although they were different it was cool to see the members deliberate and see things from the others perspective.  I thought it was an amazing experience because these are the people who set the accounting standards for 147 countries.  That’s a lot of power that is in their hands and so these people are incredibly smart.  They were talking about goodwill and it was cool to see that I was able to follow along for most of their meeting and know what they were talking about.

We then visited Fitch Ratings.  I’ll be honest, I was super tired and so I wasn’t able to fully pay attention, but rather was fighting to stay awake the whole time and thus I don’t really remember what happened during the presentation.  However, it was interesting to see that one of their presenters/employees was a former Big 4 accountant and now he was working there.  

One thing that I noticed about London compared to other big cities in the U.S. is how clean it is.  For how big London is, I haven’t really seen much trash out on the streets.  This is just a thought, but another thing that I’ve observed about the English is how nice they dress.  It seems that they care about their parks and preserving nature and so I think this has translated to them keeping their city clean.  Whatever the reason may be, I was surprised and honestly after today, I could see myself living here possibly for a foreign assignment.

5/18/17

Today was a free day and so I slept in.  It was nice to catch up on some rest.  We started the day by going to a nearby park and then walked around the city.  I’m not sure if this is just because there might be more tourists in London, but as we were walking through the park, something that I noticed was that here in London, there are a lot more people that are out and about in the park than in the U.S.  Some are feeding the ducks/birds, others are exercising, and then there are those that are just walking through the park or relaxing on a bench.  Well actually I guess what my cultural observation is that the British people seem to preserve their parks and wildlife more than I would say the Provo/Orem area does.  London is a huge city, but I have been surprised at how many big parks are in London.  This is something that I wish was more common in the U.S.  Being in Europe and the U.K. I’ve really enjoyed going to these parks and walking through and seeing a bunch of other people out and about as well.

At night we went to the Wicked play.  In my opinion, I thought this play was better than Les Miserables.  It was a combination of things, but I think the reason why I enjoyed this play more was for 3 reasons: 

(1) The theatre wasn’t blazing hot  

(2) I took an hour nap before the actual play  

(3) I was more familiar with the storyline than Les Miserables and it was easier to follow long

With that being said, I did enjoy this play a LOT more than I enjoyed Les Miserables.  However, I don’t think I would spend money to go again.  The only way I would spend money again to see a play would be if Erin wanted to go.  Other than that, I wouldn’t go again.  It was a good experience but yeah play’s just aren’t my thing.

5/19/17

Today we had a business visit with the Institute of Certified Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW).  During the first part of the visit, the presenter talked about how he thinks that eventually technology would replace most of all the accounting jobs.  He brought up how this is something that we need to be mindful of because it will impact us during our careers probably soon.  Honestly the presentation seemed pretty pessimistic.  For me these were my thoughts:

(1) I agree that to an extent that technology will replace certain mundane tasks, however I don’t think that technology will make accounting jobs completely obsolete.  The reason being is that at higher levels, certain questions require human judgement and even if you could program a robot or have technology do it for you, I just think that society would be more comfortable with knowing a human was thinking certain things through and then making the final call.  

With that being said, I could be wrong, but that is my opinion.  All in all it was a good mind stimulating presentation.  However my cultural observation deals with business visits/meetings in general here in Europe and the U.K.  I feel that in the U.S. we emphasize just getting to the point fast and because of that, business meetings are a lot shorter.  So far here in Europe and the U.K. a lot of our visits/meetings have been well over 1 hour and it has for the most part been a struggle to stay awake.  I wouldn’t say one is right or wrong, just differences in how we all do things.  

5/20/17

We started today off by going to Portobello Road.  There were a bunch of shops that sold antiques, food, and clothes.  During this time I was looking for presents for mom and Erin, the question was what should I get them.  As we were walking through the food area, we came across a booth/stand with a lady that was demoing some kitchen supply things.  She had a bunch of unique vegetable peelers that caught my eye.  Some of them would shave/peel vegetables into long skinny strands, she had other ones that chopped up the vegetables into cool looking flower things.  Anyways long story short, I decided to get mom these because they are very practical and I know mom would use them.  With Erin, and shopping for girls, I feel that it’s normally a risk to get antiques or jewelry, so I just got her an Oxford sweatshirt.

Anyways after that we headed to Dover.  Dover is an old part of the U.K. where during WWII British and French troops retreated to after the Germans drove them out of France.  It is directly across the English Channel.  We got to go on a tour that explained a lot of the history of the area during the war.  What I thought was amazing was that they had a tunnel system that in total was around 3 miles.  That’s a lot of digging and underground areas.  The tunnels were definitely my favorite part of the tour.  

As far as my cultural observation for the day, something that I’ve noticed about U.K. is it is very diverse.  I feel that my image of the U.K. and Britain was just white people.  However, while being here, I’ve found that there are a good amount of Blacks, Indians, and Asians.  I really like that aspect of U.K.  As we walked down portobello road, there were so many different cultures that were represented in each of the booths.  I think I could see myself living here if I needed to do a foreign assignment.      

5/21/17

Today we went to church here in London.  It felt so nice to go to church and listen in English.  During sacrament meeting there was a guy that was snoring SO loud!  We were sitting probably 4 or 5 rows up but we could all hear him snore.  And it wasn’t just a soft snore, it was super deep and loud.  It was really funny.  Also it was super random, but after sacrament meeting I was walking to sunday school and I ran into Sam Rosen and Maddie Crawley.  I hadn’t seen these two since high school which was 7 YEARS AGO!  It was just really random, because out of all the places to run into them, it was literally all the way on the other side of the world and it happened to be the same exact church building at the same time.  It was fun to catch up with them.  

One thing that was kind of a little bit of a shock that I hadn’t had since being back from my mission in Japan was that people have to travel sometimes a pretty decent length to get to church.  Being in Utah for a while now, you sometimes forget that other people elsewhere in the world have to travel a decent amount just to get to church.  Once again it put into perspective my faith and how important it is and how sometimes I take it for granted.  It was important for me to realize too that I shouldn’t complain about going to church or it shouldn’t be a burden for me to go because there are church buildings so close and everywhere in Provo.  All in all church was a great experience.  

On the way home we rented bikes and rode home.  The ride required that we go through Hyde Park and it was super nice weather out, so it felt so nice to be out and riding a bike.  This whole week it has been raining, so it was nice for a change to see the sun.  Something that I noticed about British people today compared to Americans is that they seem to be more outdoors-y or it just seems that more British people like to go out for walks and sit in the park and chill which I feel is rare in the states.  With that being said and with today being the last day in London, out of all the places that we’ve visited this study abroad, I have liked London the best.  If I had to live anywhere abroad out of the places that we’ve been, I would definitely choose London.  It’s been real London, but I’ll be back.

Paris

5/11/17

Today we left Spain to come to Paris, France.  Right when we landed, Professor Burton took us on a tour of the city.  We began immediately by going to eat.  We went and got lunch and some dessert and something that I noticed about France as we walked through the different food places, was the presentation of the food.  We passed several bakeries along the way, and the smells of french pastries were just overwhelming and smelled amazing.  Not only that, but they looked just as amazing as they smelt.  

We then continued to walk to the Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomf, and the Eiffel Tower.  In all of these locations, I observed that with everything that the French made, it seems that they prided themselves in making things look really nice and expensive.  I think this translates to the people as well because as we walked down the street from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomf, I felt that a lot of the french people that we came across were dressed very nicely.  The street was filled with nice and expensive shopping areas.  It seems that French people are concerned with outward appearance and that demonstrates social status.  

Going back to our Eiffel Tower experience, being at the top was amazing!  The view was incredible.  It was funny because at the top, there are signs that say “kiss here”.  Anyways, we were trying to get all of the single guys to go up to random girls and ask them if they would be willing to kiss them.  It was super funny and very entertaining.  Tanner ended up getting a kiss on the cheek from a random girl.  

5/12/17

Today we were able to attend the Paris Temple Open House.  It was a cool experience to be able to walk through and then to feel of the same spirit that is present in all of our temples/churches around the world.  It was cool to see that the stained glass contained a type of flower that is found here in France.  

We then had the privilege of going through the Palace of Versailles.  This palace was breathtaking and it was crazy to think that there was someone in history (King Henry XIV) who lived in this huge estate.  One thing that I noticed that was in this palace compared to the Madrid palace was the amount of gold.  We walked around the estate and then rented bikes and rode those around the gardens of the palace.  All in all, we did a lot of walking today.  

On the way home, we ran into something interesting on the train.  We saw someone try and pickpocket someone else and then get caught in the act.  For the most part an observation that I’ve made since being in France is that people here don’t really talk on trains.  I think the reason for that is because the locals are aware of pickpockets and so if you are talking with others, you are more likely to be distracted and not recognize those who may be potential predators.  Takeaway from today was to just be aware of those around you and to be mindful of talking with your friends so that you don’t get distracted.

5/13/17

Today we just had a free day to do whatever we wanted.  We started the day off with playing soccer.  We played on a dirt field because there wasn’t a grass field.  This was the first time I had played on a dirt field because in the U.S., most of the fields are all grass or turf.  It was hard to stop and everyone was sliding everywhere, but it was really fun!  

We also hit up the Louvre which was spectacular.  Seeing that the Louvre used to be a palace, it was interesting to compare the Louvre to the Palace of Versailles.  In thinking about France as a whole, it seems that there is a lot of focus on outward appearance and presentation.  The Louvre was stunning in that all the architecture and design of the building seemed to be perfect.  I feel like the French focused a lot on symmetry with their buildings/structures because everything seemed so perfect and equal.  

As a whole, it seems that French people still have a lot of pride in their culture/people which is really cool to see.  I feel like as time has gone on, more and more countries history and culture have been diminishing.  We also saw a bunch of street performers earlier and I was surprised that a lot of the donations that the performers received were from French people.  I would have expected less, but it’s cool to see that there was support for locals.  

Also one more cultural difference that I noticed was that when you are a tourist here as opposed to a tourist anywhere else in the U.S., you do a lot of walking!  I’ve never walked so much in my entire life.  My feet are sore, but Paris has been magnificent.

5/14/17

Today we attended church at a local French ward.  It was a very interesting experience.  I couldn’t understand anything and it brought me back to my mission in Japan, when I first arrived there.  I didn’t understand a word that was said at church.  I feel that between all the countries that we have visited, I have been the most surprised/shocked with France.  I felt that Greece and Spain, a good amount of people spoke english, and so I felt comfortable when we went out to eat.  Here in France, I feel that a lot of people don’t really speak english, or don’t really want to speak english.  In addition to this, I feel that French sounds so much more foreign than Spanish and Greek that I just felt really out of place here.  In the U.S. there is a handful of people that speak Spanish and so I was used to hearing certain words and phrases.  However, with French, I don’t really know any phrases or words other than “bonjour” or “merci”.  Often times, this made me feel uncomfortable.

I again noticed that while using public transportation, French people tend to keep to themselves and are more reserved.  I feel like it’s foreigners, like us Americans who tend to be loud and boisterous and very open to meeting new people.  This was a cultural difference that I noticed.  

With that being said, we are now on our way to London.  We’re catching a train that goes under the english channel and it connects the UK to France.  Pretty crazy!

Madrid

5/9/17

This morning we left Barcelona and headed to Madrid.  Once we got there, we dropped off our stuff at the Hotel and then headed out and ate and then walked around the town.  We went and saw some of the cathedrals that they had, but ever since seeing the La Sagrada Familia, everything else just seems so small and insignificant.  Right next to one of the cathedrals was the royal palace, but when we went to go in, they were closed.  The palace looked huge and looked really nice from the outside.  I wonder how it compares to the Palace of Versailles.  

After that we ended up walking to this huge park in Madrid.  It was a beautiful day and so there was a lot of people out walking, relaxing, and even some people who were running/exercising.  Once again, something that I’ve noticed about Spain thus far is the amount of parks and trees that they have in their cities.  I really wish America had more of this.  I’ve found that I really enjoy walking around in parks and just seeing others out and about walking and being outside as well.  They had a huge fountain area where we walked around and sat and just relaxed.  There’s also a big and famous museum nearby the park, but we decided to go another day.  

Honesty, the more I think about it, I don’t think you could run out of things to do/see here in Europe.  There is just so much stuff to do.  It’s been both a blessing and a curse.  I must say though, it seems that Madrid is less tourist-y than Barcelona was.  There seemed to be more locals around than tourists.  One thing that I’ve notice about Spanish people though, is that they are very friendly and helpful.  Today when we were trying to find a certain place in the park, we asked someone for directions.  At first the Spanish person didn’t really know where the place that we wanted to go was located, but he didn’t just say he didn’t know and then continue on his way, but rather, he went and asked someone else for us and eventually found the place that we wanted to go.  Spain is pretty tight!

5/10/17

This morning we had a business visit with BBVA.  Their presentation was very interesting because it wasn’t really about accounting/finance, but rather focused a lot on marketing, data analytics, and customer satisfaction reporting (CSR).  One thing however, that seems to be related to accounting was the opinion on working with others from other cultures.  Even in marketing, the presenters said that sometimes it is hard to work with foreigners who are also working on marketing for a given product.  They went on to say that in order to help with team collaboration/unity, colleagues will often go out to eat together to get to know each other on a more personal basis.  

Another thing the presenters mentioned were that Spaniards eat late lunch.  This was something that I didn’t know about the Spanish corporate world.  They also said that it is not common for employees’ to eat at their desks.  This goes to the point that colleagues tend to go out to eat together to establish and build relationships.  Because of this type of culture, the Spanish tend to work till later like around 7 p.m.  With that being the case, I don’t think I would want to live and work in Spain.  Number one, I really like to eat and so if I had to wait until later in the afternoon for lunch, it would be hard.  Also I’ve always been the type of person that likes to get things done if I have the energy to rather than take my time on a given task.  Thus I wouldn’t enjoy working till 7 p.m.  However, Spaniards definitely seemed like fun people to work with.  Overall today was a great day!

Barcelona

5/6/17

Today we left Rhodes and flew into Barcelona.  When we landed, It was just a way different environment.  I would say the biggest thing that stuck out to me was the design of the city.  The architecture was so much different than Greece.  Most of all the buildings were all connected (i.e. side by side).  Not only that, but there were a lot of trees that decorated the street.  It was nice for a change and it was actually a lot cooler there than Greece.  In comparing to the U.S., I feel that we the way our buildings are built are similar to those in Greece, built separate from other buildings.  There also isn’t really any trees and what not that run through the streets of a big city.  Personally I was a fan of this.

Then at night I was able to go to an FC Barcelona soccer game.  Let me just say that this was an unreal experience.  Just imagine a stadium filled with 100,000 plus fans.  The environment was awesome.  One thing that I noticed about sports fans here in Europe compared to the U.S. is that they seem to be more controlled than fans in the U.S.  For example, when there was a good play, the fans would clap rather than scream and go crazy, which is what they do in the U.S.  FC Barcelona won the game 4-1 and it was so cool to see some of the top players in the world (e.g. Neymar, Messi) play.  Although the ticket was super expensive, I don’t regret spending the money.  

5/7/17

This morning we attended church here in Barcelona.  Not gonna lie, it was pretty hard to stay awake.  It was super hot and it didn’t help that church was in a different language.  However that was my observation for the day, was the language.  I was expecting church to be in Spanish, but it was in a dialect called Catalan.  I thought that all of Spain spoke Spanish and only Spanish, but apparently this part of Spain (e.g. Barcelona) also speaks Catalan.  

After church we went back and took naps and rested up a little bit, but then went back out.  We went to go see the MNAC, which is this huge museum in Barcelona.  Unfortunately on Sunday’s, it’s closed, so we just walked around the grounds which is still really cool.  The museum is up on a hill that overlooks a lot of the city, so it was really nice to walk around.  Close to the museum they have an olympic park.  I didn’t know this, but apparently once upon a time, the olympics were held in Barcelona.  The grounds were very well taken care of and it was fun just to walk around and see people out and about on a Sunday afternoon just chilling and relaxing with their family and friends.  

After we ended up going down to the port/beach area for dinner.  We wanted to eat some local food, so we found a place and all ordered some Paella.  This is a famous Spanish dish that is like fried rice.  It was pretty pricey, but it tasted good and I did it for the experience.  You can’t go to Spain and not get Paella.  One thing that I found interesting while we were down there was that there were lots of locals out at these restaurants eating.  Normally I would have expected to see mostly tourists and hardly any locals here eating at night, but I was surprised.  Barcelona has been good to us thus far!  Another day down.  

5/8/17

Today was an awesome day.  We were able to meet with a travel agency and hear about their business.  It was interesting to note that Barcelona and Madrid don’t get along all that well because of cultural differences dating back several hundreds of years ago.  I learned that tourism has been a concern of the citizens of Barcelona.  However, I must say, I was pretty tired during the presentation and so it was hard for me to focus.  

After the business visit, we got to go tour the La Sagrada Familia.  That had to be one of the coolest things that I have ever seen.  It symbolized the sacred family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.  Symbolism was definitely a huge part of the architect’s, Gaudi’s, work.  I thought it was cool to hear about Gaudi’s purposes for all the various parts of the cathedral.  It will cool to see when they complete it.  One thing that stuck out to me that I was constantly thinking about was how did these people build this thing?!  This structure is huge and so tall, like how back in their time did they build it?  Something that I didn’t realize being in the states and then coming here to Europe, is just how old Europe is.  I think that’s what makes it so amazing to me.  There’s so much history here and it’s like, how did they build these things hundreds of years ago.  My eyes have been opened for sure.  

Later on we went to Park Guelle which apparently is a famous park in Barcelona.  It’s a really big park.  That’s something that I’ve noticed about Barcelona.  There are huge parks and there you will find a bunch of people, both tourists but also locals, out and about just walking, talking, and relaxing.  It was really enjoyable to be in the park and be surrounded by trees.  Nearby this park is this place called bunker hill.  It’s this huge hill that apparently seems to be the high point of the city of Barcelona.  Seeing that it was nearby, we decided to go there and hike up to the top.  There was an incredible view at the top of the whole city.  Once we were up there, I realized that our tour guide from earlier wasn’t lying when she said that when the La Sagrada Familia is finished, that it will be the tallest building in Barcelona.  From up at the top of the mountain, it’s crazy but yeah, La Sagrada Familia is HUGE!  It’s also crazy to note that the tallest part of the cathedral hasn’t even been built/completed yet and even with the shorter spires, it’s still one of the tallest buildings.  I would have to say that I think Barcelona is a really pretty city.  

Rhodes

5/4/17

We arrived in Rhodes this morning and soon after met with several different hotel managers.  Something that amazes me about people here is that even though english is their second language, so many people speak really good english.  This “business visit” was definitely the shortest one that we’ve had, but there were still things that I found valuable:

1. Being an effective communicator is the most important factor in managing people
2. Being able to work effectively on a team is the second most important factor in managing people

Something that surprised me was how good the managers’ english was.  It amazes me that we come to their country and speak english to them and they understand a lot of what we say.  So many people seem to be bilingual here.  

We then all went to the beach and swam/laid out.  The water was freezing, but it was refreshing!  It was nice to just relax and do nothing but chill at the beach.  Then after dinner we went and walked around the old town.  The castle of the knights was spectacular.  It was HUGE!  It’s hard to fathom that people built this huge castle back a several hundreds of years ago, and that it is still standing today.

Takeaway/highlight of the day was learning from the hotel managers.  What they said really rang true to me, and although I’ve heard that multiple times, I think it was important to hear again.

5/5/17

Today we had a tour or Rhodes and LIndo’s, which is a older part of Rhodes.  We learned the the Colossus of Rhodes symbolized freedom and democracy.  It’s size was comparable to the size of the U.S. Statue of Liberty.  Another fact about Rhodes that we learned was that it was given to Apollo, the God of the sun and it’s said that Apollo send down golden rain and this signifies the fact that Rhodes has plenty of water (i.e. Apollo blessed Rhodes with water).  

One thing that I took away from this tour was just how much pride Greeks take in their culture and history.  You would think that maybe after thousands of years, maybe their pride about their country’s history might decrease over time, but our tour guide showed none of this.  She definitely made it seem that Greeks are still very passionate about their history which I thought was really cool.

Lindo’s was definitely my favorite part of the tour.  It was an older part of Rhodes where there was a castle on top of the Acropolis.  The houses/village there were built into the hill/mountain.  The white houses made the city look beautiful.  We walked down to the beach front and then walked out to this dock/pier in the bay.  When we got there, there was a bunch of kids jumping off of the pier.  Watching them combined with he fact that it was super hot outside, Calvin decided that he was going to jump into the water even though he didn’t have boardshorts.  Lets just say FOMO is real, because I ended up jumping too!  We also convinced Sarah and Lindsay to jump.  It was definitely the highlight of the day.  The water was crystal clear and so refreshing.

Greece

4/30/17

Today was our first full day in Athen’s Greece.  Definitely not a Greek-y thing to do, but for lunch I went to McDonald’s.  I was interested to see if McDonalds would be a little different from McDonalds in the states.  They did offer a couple different menu items that were adapted to fit some of customs of Greece.  For example, they offered a burger that was wrapped in pita bread.  Other than that and a couple other menu items, everything was pretty much the same.  

Once everyone got in, I went with some of the other students to go eat dinner at a Greek cafe.  I ordered a chicken gyro, a kebab, and also ate a little bit of tzatziki.  This was my first Greek meal and let me just say, it was delicious.  I’ve seen gyro’s in the states, but I’ve never tried one.  As I observed, it seems that when it comes to vegetables, Greek’s eat a lot of tomatoes and olives.  Pork, chicken, and lamb seem to be the choice of meat here.  Greeks also eat a lot of pita bread, and it’s amazing!  

One thing that really stuck out from today was how we were charged for water when we went to eat dinner.  In the states, it’s standard to have water for free with your meal.  It was funny because when we sat down, the waiter poured us all glasses of water and then when the bill came, we saw that they had charged us for water.  They asked us at the beginning what we wanted to drink and we said water, but none of us knew that water wasn’t free.  

I would say the takeaway from today was that in the states, everything is bigger and comes in a bigger quantity or in other words, American’s consume a lot more than Greeks.

5/1/17

Today was a Greek holiday and most places were closed.  However we had a full-day tour of the surrounding areas around Athen’s.  The places we went to were Corinth, Mycenae, and Nafplio.  Today I also was able to have my first breakfast in Greece.  They had cheese and a bunch of meats with cucumbers, tomatoes, and olives, as well as a bunch of bread.  I really enjoyed it.  Definitely different from your standard American breakfast.  Culturally, it seems that Greeks tend to eat a lot of breads, cheeses, and meats for breakfast.  

As far as our tour goes, it was awesome to be able to tour some of the places where the apostle Paul ministered thousands of years ago.  Costa, who was our tour guide taught us a lot about some of the history of Greece.  One thing that struck me was how there are so many empty ship yards and factories.  Because of the struggling Greek economy over the years, many business’s have shut down.  It was a little sad to see how there are these huge factories and buildings that are still in great shape but they are desolate and empty.  

My favorite part of the tour was traveling to Nafplio.  While we were here, a group of us went and hiked up to the Acropolis of the city.  It was a 900 step hike up to a castle.  Once we got up to the top, there were some amazing views of the surrounding area.  

Takeaway for today was appreciating the beauty of Greece.

5/2/17

Today we started the day off with a business visit to the Bank of Greece which is the federal reserve for Greece.  We were able to listen to a presentation from the chief economist about the economic crisis that Greece has been going through.  As I was listening to the different reforms and changes that they have been implementing, it was crazy to see that the issues that they are facing aren’t an easy fix.  That there isn’t a quick fix or easy solution to the problems they are facing.  One thing that he talked about was how the reforms that are taking place are opening up more jobs which is a great thing, but because of an increase in taxes, people’s disposable income is low and that leads to less consumer spending which doesn’t stimulate their economy.  

I couldn’t help but be grateful for the U.S. and how blessed I am to live in a country that for the most part has a stable economy.  I can’t imagine graduating and not having a job.  #blessed

However, the highlight of today was being able to tour the Parthenon.  It amazes me that these structures that were built 2000+ years ago are still standing.  I constantly was asking myself, “How did these people haul all of these stones up this mountain?”  “How did they lift these huge stones up after they had shaped them?”  The history of this city is amazing and to be able to have seen the Parthenon in person was an experience that I’ll never forget!

5/3/17

This morning we met with Ernst & Young Athens.  The visit was very informative and I was able to draw several great insights from it:

1. Expose yourself to ALL opportunities and be open to everything.  This will lead to success.
2. Find/surround yourself with those that are going to help you and with those who are wanting to improve.
3. Take advantage of opportunities abroad offered by the firm that you will be working for.
4. Take what you want and make it bigger through taking risks!

I left that business meeting with more of an interest/drive to pursue opportunities abroad and to take advantage of any opportunities that might be rare to come by.   Another observation I made about the business visit was that in Greece, it seemed as if the working environment wasn’t as uptight or stressful as it is in America.  It seemed a lot slower pace.

After the business meeting we checked out of our hotel and then got on a ferry to Rhodes.  The ferry ride lasted for 12+ hours so we were all looking for things to do. 

Takeaway/highlight of the day was having the opportunity to meet with Ernst & Young and being able to gain some valuable insights from the Sophia (Partner).