A new start - again
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Dear all,
just in case you are wondering what I
have been up to - here is it. The past few years I have been struggeling at QUT
to complete my BA in International Business (Marketing). My last year in
Brisbane was a total success, I got to catch up with a lot of you and made many,
many new friends, who I had to leave too soon.
A few months before I had to return to Europe I had a vague
idea of what I wanted to be doing. Home didn't seem like such a great option for
me. Although I love my parents, you know it can be tough to live with "the
Oldies" again if you haven't been home in a while. Where in Europe could I
possibly have sunshine and beaches? - Barcelona it was.
But before I could leave Brisbane, I met Shakir. It wasn't
hard to see that we made a good little team. 19.000km however can make any
couples' life miserable as you can imagine; so he sold everything, packed his
bags and... here he is :). YEY for romance!
Barcelona - It is dirty, dusty and rough. The Rock/Goth scene
is larger than large. People are beautiful and warm, as long you know them
personally, or they are a friend of a friend :) - Life is very tough around here.
A lot of people from Ghana, Marocco and Pakistan can get easily a Visa and make
a living here. Most of them are nice, but the ones who struggle the most are
perhaps the guys from Ghana. They deal drugs and whisper "Hash, Hash" in your
ear, every time you pass them. No, they don't WANT any of you, they are selling
some.
In general there must be some Whisper-Code here. When a female
passes a man (he may be in company of other men, by himself, with his dog, his
pram or even on the mobile phone) 9 times out of 10 he WILL whisper something in
your general direction,... HOPING you MIGHT perhaps be interested in him too.
You also get a lot of TSS TSS's and whistles. I can't shake the feeling I was a
dog in an other life...
Barcelonian's by the way treat their dogs very well and
preferably unleashed. Although there are hundreds of crossings here, seemingly
one every 20 meters, dogs wait by their Master. No cat can distract them - no
piece of saussage either... - I have never seen anything like it. - Nice though.
Approximately 10min with the subway from the beach direction
inland things look a lot different. I am staying in Gracia - the probably most
authentic place around, when it comes to non-English speaking Spaniards. Believe
me - it is a good thing. The streets are very narrow and generally the Balconies
seem to be so close together; you surely could jump from yours to one from an
apartment on the opposite side of the road...
I was lucky enough to get a beautiful little roof apartment
with Shakir. We enjoy each others company and have little couple-routines, which
I treassure. Every morning I get up 5am to do my readings for the day. Shakir
makes me coffee and works on his websites while I am studying - as moral support
so to speak.
At 8.30am I leave the house and walk to school. The business
school I am visiting is small, but beautiful.
I pass a really nice flower shop on the way, which sort of
keeps my spirtis up. Then ususally classes go for me until 7.30pm in the evening.
At this stage I have only decided not to take 1 class out of all courses offered.
Pretty good in my books. In the past 7 years I cannot remember being that tired
at the end of the day. But it feels great. I adore the students I am working
with. We are only 40 in total, most of the classes have less than 10 students...
and there is only one room we use for Masters students. Needless to say - I see
my friends A LOT. And I love them all. Most of them are from the Netherlands, a
few are from Belgium, one is from America, one from Iran, one from the Middle
East and the other from France - and then we have a few Eastern Europeans. A
nice mix.
If you end up studying in Barcelona, Spain - I recommend the
Barcelona Business School. www.bbs-edu.org.
They have branches all over Europe, so if you decide to go
there for a year, - why not do your Bachelor or Masters while you are at it. All
the courses are compatible, this way you get to see a lot of the main campuses
AND Europe AND you get to do you studies... not bad, eh?
The professors are really nice and all have given me advice
for my final thesis already. - If I get it out of the way early - who knows... I
just might come back to Australia. :)
Although I met Shakir in Melbourne - his hometown is actually
Perth. I hope it all works out. I miss you guys a lot. Brisbane was more so a
home to me than any other place I have lived in.
Would be nice to hear what's been up in Australia.
Keep in touch -
Love and Hugs, Christine