Cold and Executive Students

Hello from a very, very cold central Europe. All of this part of the world is undergoing sub-zero temperatures. Several of our nights have been down to -5F. Now, this is bad enough when you have a car to run you around. But when you rely on walking and waiting for buses and trams, it is damn miserable. Ever carry groceries 1/2 a mile in -5F weather? Neither had we.

Probably the worst part is that the family has really not left the house in days, and people are starting to wear on each other’s nerves.

That said, the forecast is to return to the 20s soon and maybe even get above freezing.

Even with the weather, life goes on.

I had a very unique teaching experience over the last several days. Our school has a special MBA program for adults who have significant work experience and are older (as opposed to a typical 22 year old student). In the US this would be similar to an Executive MBA program. My school usually invites lectures from around Europe to give the classes.

Since I was here they invited me to do one of the classes. There is a catch. Since the students and foreign lecturers have limited time, the entire 25 hour class is done over three straight days (Thursday-Saturday). So, I did three days, back to back to back of 8.5 hour classes. Normally, I would teach this class over 12 weeks, but had to do it for this group over three consecutive days.

I had 40 students who work full time for some of the largest companies in Poland (lots of them are US companies based in Poland). 40 is a rather large class for this type of format, but we managed. It was just a long three days and wiped me out. That said, I really enjoyed meeting these older students who have strong work experience. This was an “extra” class for me, but I enjoyed it and glad I took it.

Finals are just beginning here. I have three classes of finals to give over the next week. Then, I will have a great deal of grading to do before I have to turn in grades. I give these Polish students almost identical exams and homework assignment to what I give my US students. I like to compare the differences. So far, the Polish students compare very strongly with our US students.

We then get a small break and then my second (and final) semester begins on February 21st and ends June 25th.

As it is so cold, I have been watching TV on my computer a lot. I have discovered and downloaded some very good shows that play on the cable channels: Dexter, The Wire, MI-5 and Weeds. I am about to start a series called Mad Men. Frankly these cable shows are far, far superior to what plays on network TV. When I now watch a network show, it seems so poorly done and cheesy. I think the cable channels (like Showtime) have the right idea. I think The Sopranos started this trend. If you watch the award shows, you are seeing more and more of these shows win over their network competitors. Dexter and Mad Men just won several Golden Globes.

Barcelona Spain with Rockhurst

Not long after returning from a long Christmas holiday in central Europe, I went back to work for a few days and then headed off to the next adventure- Barcelona.

This trip actually had nothing to do with Fulbright, but rather with Rockhurst U (that other job). Prior to me leaving for Poland, I worked with two Professors: Turner White and Martin Stack (actually, they did most the work) to set up a two week study abroad trip for our undergraduate business students. We arranged a collaboration with a Jesuit school in Barcelona Spain, IQS. Turner and Martin left with 20 of our students for Barcelona after the New Year. All 20 students range in age from 20 to 22 and are juniors or seniors.

As I am still teaching in Poland, I was able to join them for only part of the trip. I flew through Munich, Germany and into Barcelona and met up my group. I have now been in five different countries and hearing eight different languages since December 25.

Our trip structure is simple. All 23 of us start each day about 7:30am with breakfast together, then go to IQS for an academic lecture provided by their faculty (Spanish Economy, Spanish Marketing, Spanish Logistics, etc). In the early afternoon, we go to some Spanish business for a look at the real business world in Spain and speak to some of their executives. The late afternoons are for cultural events and the evenings are free for the students to enjoy the city (they just have to be home for breakfast the next morning). All are “of age,” so we give them a reasonable degree of freedom for their time off.

This is an actual international class these students are taking for college credit. So, although we want the students to enjoy and get the most of this wonderful city- we are rather militant about how they spend their days and how they present themselves (so far, we are quite proud). This trip is coupled with pre and post work the student have to do.

Barcelona sits right on the Mediterranean sea; famous for its architecture, hosting of the Olympics in 1992, Mediterranean beaches and tourism. It is one of the most popular cities in Europe. It is located in the Catalonian area of Spain,which has its own language. Catalonian is a combination of Spanish, French and Italian. So most residents speak Catalonian, Spanish and many do speak English as well. I always thought Catalonian was just a regional dialect, but quickly found out it is its own language.

Like the rest of the world, even Barcelona was in a cold snap, now realizing this is a relative statement to those of you in sub zero weather. But it was in the low 40s for the entire trip. Considering that Barcelona is a Mediterranean coastal city, that is chilly! What is going on in the world??? The mountains just outside of the city got a heavy dose of snow.

My trip was the tale of two cities- the first part started off great. As noted above, we had a good academic schedule with the students each day. Then we toured some great businesses and even went to a Spanish Winery called Torres (look for some of their wines in your local liquor store- they are wonderful). After the students go on their way, Martin, Turner and I usually walked around to see the wonderful architecture. One of the famous architects from Barcelona is a gentleman named Antoni Gaudi. He created some of the most unique and wonderful buildings you have ever seen. This includes a Cathedral (Sagrada Família), which he started in the 1890s. It is so massive and ornate that it is not scheduled to be completed until 2026 (that is 130 years to build). Gaudi died in the 1920s, but his work and influences live on in the city.

Each night the three of us Professors went out to tapas restaurants (Spanish appetizers) and a bottle or two of Spanish wine. Basically you order a 1/2 dozen (or more) different tapas dishes and try everything. Everyone eats so late in Spain- we would have dinner about 8p and leave about 10:30. That was about the time the dinner rush was starting to come in. At 8pm, we were usually eating in an empty restaurant. It was only filling as we left.

We would typically return to the hotel and find our students in the lobby, who were all dressed up and ready to hit the town for the night. Most of the discos really don’t get going until midnight and stay open until 6 or 7am. Us old professors skipped those experiences (not that the students wanted us with them anyway).






Now for the other (unexpected) part of the trip. On Saturday, we did our normal routine with the students, and then Martin and I stopped at a small restaurant for a late lunch. I had the 1/2 chicken (start to see where this is headed?). By dinner time I was not feeling well, but assumed all my frequent travel was catching up with me. I planned an early night of rest. About 11 p.m. I started my second phase of my trip, where the only Barcelona sites I saw were my bathroom and the bed (TMI!, TMI!). I was horizontal for the next 48 hours. I survived on Sprite and Pringles (from the minibar). Martin brought me a baguette on Sunday. I never even left my room. Food poisoning is bad, but food poisoning while in a hotel room, in a foreign country, is really bad! I should have brought the mashed potato bowl.

I missed two days (out of six). One was supposed to be site seeing of some places I wanted to go, and the other was a academic trip down to the Barcelona port and harbor. Oh well... next time.

By Monday night I decided I needed to get out of the room (I really had not left it in 48 hours). Martin and Turner took me to another tapas place, and I ate some mild dishes (and no wine, nor meat).

On Tuesday morning, I had a 6am cab scheduled and flew back to Poland where I had to teach a late afternoon class.

Just to show you how unusually cold it is, our airplane sat on the Barcelona runway for over an hour waiting for planes that had just come down, and were going back up to be de-iced. I’ll bet the Barcelona airport had to look long and hard for their de-icing machine.

In retrospect, other than my 48 hours of solitude- I really enjoyed Barcelona and really enjoyed seeing and working with our Rockhurst students. As a plus, both Turner and Martin are great friends of mine who I will not see again until July. So this was great catching up. Martin, Turner and the students will be in Barcelona for another six days. I wish them all the best. I think they are really getting a lot out of this trip.

Back to Poland.....

Buda & Pest

Happy New Year!

I am quite late on this blog from a combination of being busy and lazy.

I last left you in Slovakia on St. Stephen’s Day. We then had a gorgeous train ride to our next destination in Budapest, Hungary. It took about 2.5 hours to get to the capital city along the Carpathian mountain range and Danube river.

Buda and Pest were actually two different cities that are separated by the Danube river. Buda is the old part which holds the castle and palace. Pest is the newer city, and these days the biggest section. Buda and Pest are connected by multiple bridges that span the Danube- each bridge is grander than the other.

Very quickly Budapest rose to my top five list of “most beautiful cities”. It really is a jewel. The city is a wonder to see and visit. I can’t say enough good things about it.


We had decent weather on most days, considering it was late December and early January. During our six days in Budapest we saw quite a bit and ate quite well.

Additionally, we had the great fortune of meeting some of our friends- The Keys: Barclay, Sonya and their two children plus Leanne. Barclay is a Fulbright Scholar of history and Leanne is on a Fulbright with Linguistics and also teaches English. So, you have never partied in Budapest until you have done it with a Historian, Linguist and an Economist!

We spent most days visiting the famous buildings of Budapest including the grand Parliament Building, Castle Hill, St. Stephen’s Church and all the gorgeous architecture. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Most nights we gorged ourselves on Hungarian food.

Hungary has a history similar to that of Poland (always being controlled by someone). The Ottoman Empire ran it for 150 years, then came the Austrian-Hungarian Empire (the Hapsburgs’), then the Communists. Actually Budapest was the site of one of the earliest and largest communist revolts.  In 1956, the citizens tried to break away from the Soviets. The Soviet tanks were sent in and 30,000 were killed on the streets.

Although Hungary is in the EU, it is not on Euro yet. It still uses its own national currency the Forint. What we found fun about the Forint are the denominations. 200 Forints equal $1. So, to stop at an ATM and get a few days of “walking around money,” I would get 100,000 Forints. For a decent dinner we would drop 40,000. It was fun to carry around 10,000 domination bills.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve in Budapest with our friends. It gets quite wild there. They have a main drag called the Vaci Utca. On New Year’s Eve it reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans (without the beads). Thousands of people, horns blowing, people drinking (and drinking). Our biggest problem were the fireworks. People would just shoot them off right in the middle of these packed crowds. It felt like a war zone when they landed next to you. Poor Trey and Abbie did not care at all for that. But it was certainly a memorable way in ring in 2010.

On New Year’s Day- our friends watched the kids, and I took Lisa out for a romantic dinner cruise up and down the Danube. We had a great time.

We said goodbye to our friends and headed home on January 2. It was a 17.5 hour train ride- but we scheduled the journey to be during the evening and night and we had two sleeping compartment. Therefore the trip was rather nice.

I look forward to returning to Budapest someday.