My MBA life in Barcelona...

Barcelona, with Torre Agbar

...would have been great. But like I said earlier, I opted for Plan B. A new career instead. It's hard to regret not having an MBA degree from one of the best business schools in the world in a great city like Barcelona if my plan after the MBA is to get to where I am now. So touche.

But before deciding the ultimate fate of my career back in June, I wallowed at the fact that I've been offered a slot in this year's class in IESE Business School. I've met great people (Tim, Cesca, and Aimee) who are now enjoying their first taste of the Barcelona life as 1st yr IESE MBA students. I've talked to a lot of people about my options, but it all boiled down to what I really need and what I can really afford. But I enjoyed looking at details about the school, the program (and don't worry, I knew most of the details about the program even before I was offered a slot as I should), Barcelona and everything it was advertised to be. 

IESE Business School, Barcelona

The IESE MBA is a bilingual MBA (English-Spanish) program. The school specializes on strategy, business economics, and entrepreneurship. Pretty much like any Ivy-league school in Eastern US right? But what makes IESE MBA different is its graduates are on average allegedly not paid as much as its US counterparts (like Harvard or Wharton). (well, this is partly true although this is not really the differential I would like to point out) Kidding aside, what makes IESE different is its corporate culture that emphasizes on business ethics and the social responsibility of business. Students are taught to focus on what they can do for society, while making reasonable profit, and not on obtaining the highest salaries and bonuses possible. This is, for me, the hook. Because seldom do business schools look outside the window and actually point out social responsibility as a core value of their curriculum and overall business school experience. Also 80% of the students are non-Spanish (talk about being international). Not to mention, Barcelona is a great city.

By European standards, living in Barcelona is relatively cheap. You can rent a really nice and decent 1Br flat by yourself at around 400-700EUR. Plus utilities and adsl (which are all I need), you'll probably have to cash in 800-1KEUR all in all. In Paris, London or Geneva, you'll probably pay at least double the amount for the same flat. So Barcelona was I guess okay. But that's around 60K pesos every month. Definitely way above my pay grade in Manila, but considering other European cities are even more expensive, Barcelona seems to be a great option for economically-challenged-developing-country-dwellers like Filipinos aspiring for first-world business education. 

ordinary night in Barca

So besides nice "cheap" flats, what else is interesting about Barcelona? It's filled with culture. And by culture I mean not just Gaudi and his La Sagrada de Familia church and Park Guel, not just the remnants of the 1992 Olympics, not just the beach (dubbed the best beach city by the National Geographic), not just architecture. Not just form, but more importantly the substance. I heard the parties and events are just sick. Music festivals, sports!!,! street dancing, parties!!!. I also want to learn how to play the Spanish guitar. 

I was excited to get around the city while driving a "moto," riding a bike, or taking the bus (like in most European cities, the moto is the best way to travel around the city with style). I imagine VickyCristinaBarcelona every time I day dream about how I wanted to explore the city during the first few months of my stay in Barcelona. Of course, I wouldn't mind having Scarlett Johansson show me around. I want to stroll down those brick-laden streets and eat some tapas en vino. Bocadillo y pollo. I heard the climate is not that harsh. And Spanish girls are also something. In parties.

Learning Spanish for my MBA should be easy since we Filipinos are exposed to many Spanish words everyday. And I earned a total of 12 units of Spanish language courses back in college, so I felt confident that I can adjust pretty well with the challenges of the tongue. That's until I found out that Barcelona speaks Catalan, which is more French than Spanish-sounding. Great. I bet it's going to be a struggle during the first few months. 

IESE Business School was ran and developed by guys from Harvard themselves. Top notch professors, case-studies that are hard to crack, personalized and mentorship approach to education, a very global mindset---these recipes are music to my ears. And IESE was by far my first choice for an MBA education. (other choices are INSEAD, HKUST, USC, UCLA, Chicago Booth). The city should be exactly what it was advertised to be. Admittedly in hindsight, my MBA in Barcelona would really have been great. In fact, I bet it would be awesome. The best business education in one of the best European cities, booze, culture, a mash of different people. What more can I ask for?

Barcelona would have been awesome. But staying and working here ain't bad either. No sighs. No regrets. What can I say, I still think Makati is the best city and the Philippines is the best country in the world. Because my whole life is here. And I wouldn't have it anywhere else.