4TH Day in Barcelona

4th Day Barcelona Trip.

The King Video Games trip was one of the most exciting trips that I had a chance in participating. It was really great to learn how a foreign company that operated in Barcelona was structured and how it made its successful foot print globally by having a strong presence in Barcelona. King was great in answering all the questions about how it was run, how it was handling its HR hiring process and most importantly what it meant to be working for King. It gave me an understanding of a true cultural corporate environment that was basically kind of American like, yet there was a sense of ease in the company. The employees were not professionally dressed as they are usually required in United States. It felt like a very casual, very relaxed environment that sort of attracted creativity and creativity is what King based itself on, creativity and humbleness to be precise are one of their top values. I felt like King was a company not typical for Barcelona because of its world magnitude and the kind of presence that it has worldwide, yet the values that it brings to Barcelona transcend and maybe even change to some degree the local business culture. It really reinforced my understanding how important certain issues to King are such as the LGBTQ, women in the work place, and issues of social impact for Barcelona. It kind of distinguishes them from all he other firms that we have visited so far, as they are by far the most global firm on their own who have made it to the big leagues and are driving that culture of positive change and trying to bring people from all over the world to Barcelona to share it with them. They are not a Spanish company, not a Catalan company they are a true Global firm that is based in Barcelona.

The Visit to the Sagrada Familia really blew me away and especially all the religious history that was presented and the logic behind every single detail that was embedded in that Basilica. Other than that I also learned a lot about the Architect Gaudi before so I kind of expected to be blown, but not like that. The Basilica is something totally incredible with so much of unique and particular history and conflicts of individuals, governments, and different periods of time. Most importantly what was interesting to me is hos Gaudi himself envisioned for the Basilica to be completed by Young Generation using new techniques and technologies, how he really wanted that at the time of his passing away. This kind of clicks in with the Barcelona being a tech hub and so many new developments occurring here in all sides of the technology that it is almost like Destiny that it has to happen this way. Young generation finalizing the product of its master who envisioned it to be completed using technology in a tech hub of today, kind of even poetic.

I left the group at around 4:30 pm and came home at 2am. I walked for all this time, I walked everywhere, besides having dinner with my friend at the Nacional. By the way my friend is a builder here and he buys apartments in center city and refurbishes them and then rents and sells them. A great business with certain difficulties, but myself having interest in this was really nice to hear it from first hand. I later walked, and walked more, I walked through the Rambla, walked diagonal, all over the gothic quarter and kind of experienced the city first hand by looking at many stores, talking to many managers and workers of stores and asking them what it is like to live here. I was really surprised that none of them said anything negative about Barcelona. Unlike in New York where I live most people complain of rent, transportation, food, whatever you might think of, cost of living, anything that is somewhat negative and no one from service industry is going to be so positive like they are in Barcelona. This really put things in perspective for me and gave me a reason to perhaps think that it is not all about just work, but also about the social aspect of the actual life in Barcelona that seems to be attracting people. Overall I walked for more than 8 hours and pretty much covered all of the Gothic Quarter, I walked from the Gothic to the Residence of Esade and had a chance to just explore the whole city, really feeling the roads, the walk ways, the way it really is.