Ich liebe dich Deutschland!

A Monday off meant a long weekend and a chance to travel! So I did exactly that and decided to pay Radhika (A friend of mine from school) a visit in Germany. Vaiteesh and she have a lovely countryside house on the mountains about an hours drive from Stuttgart. This was my third trip to Germany, having done Munich and Hamburg before, and the more I get to discover this country the more I am starting to love it! So much so that I am even considering looking for an internship there :)!

Anyway, so the weekend got off to a great start as soon as I landed and got out of the Stuttgart airport in my nice-and-perfect-for-'sunny'-Barcelona jacket. It looked bright and sunny, but didn't feel anything like it. The board read -2 degrees,I almost got misguided in to walking a kilometer to get a train and  I coughed, shivered and froze until I finally boarded the bus and made my way out to Pfullingen!

An hour later I was so very happy to see Rads and she had the whole weekend planned for us. We spent most of Friday catching up, walking down the quaint streets, shopping at the town stores, driving through the mountain forests (and spotting Antilopes) and chilling (which also included watching the movie ROBOT, which btw has to be the worst movie EVER. Yes, it was my idea but in my defence it has Rajnikant. I mean we are talking about the guy who can kill 3 people with one bullet).

The next day, one of Rahika's friends joined us and the four of us drove down to the city, visited Vaiteesh's university (which he was very excited to show us :P), checked out a few palaces and ended the day at an awesome bar (I so love the European bar culture).

The Ludwigsburg palace was definitely the highlight of the day (after the bar :P). It is huge and has some stunningly beautiful arhictecture under one roof. We signed up for a two hour german tour (we missed the english one) of the entire palace which had about 120 rooms. We also found some 'interesting' facts about the king who weighed 200 kilos and drank 2 litres of coffee a day and the queen who had 5000 pairs of shoes! Surrounding the palace is a huge beatifully maintained garden and fountain. This place is amazing and totally worth a visit if you appreciate good architecture.

We spent most of the Sunday exploring Tubingen which has some quirky buildings, a lovely river and a beatiful park and walkway. It is dotted with many touristic stores (which were super expensive, but I didn't fall for it. I just got one shortglass...I mean just so it reminds me that I had been there. Oh and a calendar with such beautiful shots and some candles and a bag. Damn! These overpriced tourist stores...such a menace). There were also a bunch of bands playing the guitar by the street and entertaining people with some awesome music!

After scouting for almost an hour for a restaurant that had any vegetarian food at all (story of my life), we found the cutest Asian restaurant. It was done up in a mix of Thai, Chineese and Vietnamese style. Not counting the weird fried banana desert, this was pretty much the best Thai food I have tasted ever!

More walking, shopping (sometimes I feel like Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a shopaholiolic was inspired by me) and freezing (this time I had three layers on) later, we ended the day with a lovely dinner at an Indian restaurant and with mango schnapps!

Had sucha a good time. Loved hanging out and catching up and can't wait to go back to explore other parts of Germany!

Now back in Barca and back to the grind!

Ups and downs! Crash and(back with a) bang.....

This new years I made a resolution that I would blog more often....just because I want to pen down (metaphorically speaking) this whole exhilarating experience! Clearly it took me 2 whole months since to actually do it!

Anyway, 2010 has been one of the most eventful years in my life. Exactly one year back I remember going back and forth in my head, debating two options and running my pros/cons list by everyone who was willing to listen. I was confused and couldn't decide if I should accept my admit with ESADE or wait two years to go to INSEAD (which then was my dream school and I had received a strange sort of deferred letter from them...long story). After a lot of thinking, I decided I needed to do the MBA then..it felt like the right time in my life and ESADE sounded like a pretty good option plus one tiny thing...it "happened" to be in Barcelona!!!!! So here I am one year later and I have got to say I am glad I made that decision. It has been one helluva ride...ups, downs, good times,not-so-good times, fun times, crazy work load and living in one of the most charming cities ever does help :)!


The one thing I have come to love about this school and this experience is the amount of diversity I get to experience on campus. The first team that I worked in had one Japanese, Peruvian, Canadian, South Arabian and Indian. My current team has people from five other countries. I live with a German, Moroccan and a Pakistani-Canadian! It doesn't get better than this. I have learnt so much about so many countries and cultures. #Good times!!!

I have often heard of the cliched phrase 'Change is the only constant' and boy did I experience it! That was the mantra in 2010. Not just school and moving countries, it was a slightly overwhelming time on other fronts too. Last year felt like the end (not sure if that is the right word) of a really long and intense chapter of my life!

In a way it was such a mixed year - some super awesome times and some forgettable moments! Either way a milestone year!

This year has been great..maybe even super fantastico (as they would say it here)!

My only grouse is that I seem to be missing too many golden moments !I'm missing two weddings - both really close friends!

Oh and my darling of a niece, Antara is growing up too fast. Last time I spoke to her, she asked me why I did'nt have an Iphone and dissatisfied with my answer, she grumpily explained it is the world of the Ipad and the least I can do is  get an Iphone! She is 3.5  years old. I keep telling my sister, this kid is a prodigy, but she doesn't believe me ;)!




Anyway off to Germany this weekend to meet Radhika and Vaiteesh! Quite excited and looking forward to some fun times!