FITUR

Hey everyone!!

So this week has been unbelievably intense! I almost don't know where to begin...

Monday:

I had my job interview at 10:30 a.m. at Junta Castilla y Leon, a small tourism office near the Retiro Park in Madrid that promotes traveling to the Castilla y Leon region of Spain. I arrived around 10:15 a.m. and by 10:30 my boss (Rafael) already had me walking out the door to a convention! This week happened to be the biggest week in the tourism industry for Spain. Every year Spain hosts a convention called FITUR where countries around the world set up booths to draw Spanish travelers to their country. This convention is by the most extravagant thing I have been to! They used about six exhibit halls, which took up about the size of the North Shore Mall. Below I've posted photos of some of my favorite booths.

Monday through Wednesday were also my classes. Normally I will work from 9:30-2 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then have class from 4-7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and from 5-8:30 Tuesdays. This week, however, with the convention I was working until 3/4ish and running to my classes! I will greatly enjoy my relaxation between work and class this week

Wednesday:

I walked into work on Wednesday and upon my arrival the four of us in the office had "breakfast" (a piece of toast and coffee or tea) over our daily meeting. (I also get breakfast at home before I head in. I eat two breakfasts, which is the only reason why I can make it to 2:30 p.m. until I lunch! lol) The meetings are slightly difficult for me to follow because they each randomly insert comments while other is talking. There was one major concept I did follow however. Wednesday, Rafa asked if it would be okay if he called my professors and excused me from class. They were going to have a meeting with a very big client from the US and they wanted me to translate for them! This piece of business alone was likely to bring in close to $7,000 and was extremely important. Now, of course, only being in Spain for less than a week, thinking of having to translate for a major business deal for them was rather frightening! They continued to discuss the plan in which they would approach the Americans (which I found rather amusing since it was a strategy to approach us on a cultural matter).

When we arrived at the convention, we walked over to the American booth. While waiting for the client I was informed that the client was not just any traveler, it was the United States ambassador (ambajedor) to Spain!! The ambassador, only having been in office for two weeks, speaks very little Spanish other than "hola" and "adios" haha so my job was rather important.

The ambassador eventually made it over to our booth to express interest in a particular religious walk, "Camino de Santiago" , that has turned into more of a tourism attraction than a religious ritual. Anyways, once at our booth, it became a big issue to have me meet the ambassador personally (being a US student studying in Spain) rather than discussing work matters! In fact, I was in nearly half of the photos with them! haha. Turns out the ambassador and his wife are from Boston, having lived in Brookline for a few years, and is a very big Sox fan! Fortunately the business transaction went just as well as far as my bosses were concerned, so that was a relief.

FITUR photos

America: (a little boring for me)

Colombia: (they were also giving out free coffee!!)
My bosses: (Rafael, Esther, & Augustin)
My company's stand area (we had the whole back rather than a single stand)
Esther and the Tucan at Costa Rica
Galicia: a region in Castilla y Leon
Argentina
Costa Rica

This weekend we hit up the Palacio Real and have done a little shopping =) I need to buy somethings in order to blend in around here...particularly boots! Tomorrow we are trying to go to the Real Madrid vs. Malaga game so hopefully that works out.

Hope all is well on the homefront! Love you all!