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!