A Busy First Week!

First activity of LAUNCH: a basketball game!

LAUNCH is a pre-term part of the MBA program where the activities are meant to change individuals on a personal level. An hour after the briefing session at school, I suddenly found myself in a basketball court several miles away being coached by Pablo Martinez Arroyo, a professional Spanish basketball star from CB Estudiantes.

There were inter-group competitions and the ultimate objective was to have the shortest time possible in the relay. Here, I learned the value of teamwork in a very creative way. It was quite amazing actually.. during the first round we totally struggled. With ALL our effort we managed to finish the course in 3.5 mins. After a feedback session, we were told that we weren't working together well enough. The coach explained to us that we were paying too much attention to the rules and that we were creating personal boundaries for ourselves. We tried a second time... and we were all astonished that we finished the course in 2.35 mins! Just when I thought it wasn't possible... well, it was quite the opposite. For me, this will probably change my viewpoint towards doing things as a group~ that there are actually other creative ways to get things done better and faster.

Some hadn't touched a basketball in 10 years.. so it was amazing to see grown-up kids come alive again! 

I ran around so much during that morning that I worked up an appetite after the session. I took a train from the gym back to my neighborhood and decided to have lunch again at La Pan Quoditien. I heard some of the items on their lunch menu were pretty awesome... so I figured to see what the fuss was all about.

Possibly the best risotto I've tasted / my new benchmark
of what good risotto should taste like!

I ordered the risotto upon the recommendation of a fellow IE-er who had eaten it before and I was pleasantly surprised with what appeared on my table.

What can I say? It was awesome! I've had a lot of risottos before... but this was different. The rice was perfectly right - it seemed as if it absorbed all the flavorful goodness of all the ingredients to ensure that every bite you took packed a punch! WHAPOW! Like seriously!

The mushrooms that you see on the dish add another level of sharpness to the dish. Eating the rice was great.. and then you would feel like you can keep eating it forever. But when you thought you were having a good time, a mushroom makes its way into your spoon. Then KABLAM! You don't know this dish anymore. It was a better dish than what you were just eating a few seconds earlier. Anyway, it was a really good dish. I'd totally eat it again. In fact, I was also tempted to order more things during that sitting (of course, I came from a basketball game and I was hungry). But I said no... I was averaging 10km per day in terms of walking, I'm eating different / not-so-oily & fatty food and that I just burned some major calories. Couldn't just blow it off with another unnecessary meal. Maybe next time!!

Of course people will be hungry / thirsty from watching bull fights!

Although I had a major physical workout that day, I felt I still had to see some parts of the city. After all, it was only 3pm and I was already done for the day (I'm enjoying this while it lasts). Besides, daylight savings is an amazing phenomenon that basically extends your afternoon til 830pm. And so, I decided to wander around Madrid in hopes of extending my known perimeter of my neighborhood.

Plaza de Toros: the architecture was awesome!

Somehow, I had ventured to the eastern side of the map and found myself at Plaza de Toros. At first, I didn't realize I was there because I thought I was in this moorish-looking church or historical building.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that there were several sculptures and statues of matadors, bulls and flowers being thrown into the air. And true enough, when I hit the main front of the building, I saw the words "Plaza de Toros". I was like... "Whoa, I'm that far off the map!".

Personally, I didn't mind ending up there. It was a treat more than anything else to find myself in a cultural landmark in Madrid. After a few photos here and there I decided to move on. The area had a wide open space around the stadium, and I was getting really cold from the uninterrupted air breezing its way all around.

Police barricades everywhere!

After several minutes of walking, I found myself back to familiar ground but noticed something slightly amiss. The roads were blocked by police cars and barricades. It was probably one of the tightest-looking security details I've seen. I was thinking... is the king here or something? I personally thought it would be interesting if the king decided to eat in a specific restaurant on a whim, and decided to block off an entire road just so that he can have the privacy of the meal all to himself (that would be really cool actually).

But apparently that wasn't the case. I walked around the barricades and discovered there was a major demonstration going on.

Si Se Puede: Yes we can!

Normally, when you take a loan from the bank you sometimes use your house or other valuable possessions as collateral. There would be an interest that needs to be paid in addition to your mortgage. Should you default on your mortgage, the bank takes your house... and normally that should already take into consideration the interest as well.

In Spain, apparently, the banks not only take your house but also demand you to pay additional interest as well.

And so, this rally.

There were lots of people here and lots of news crew covering it too. But in general, people were voicing out that there weren't happy with the current system and wanted the government to do something about it. The crowd didn't seem violent at all.. in fact people were calm and spoke to others about their cause (I got to learn all these tidbits of information because I spoke to some folks there~).

There, I made friends with Paco~ one of the people in the rally. Amazingly, Paco has been to the Philippines before.

And so, my journey continued and I headed off to a tip-off I got from a Filipino waiter I met at 3am several weeks back. He told me of a Filipino restaurant just off Gran Via. I was personally curious to taste the food in hopes of bringing my classmates there to sample Philippine cuisine. But of course, I would need to filter it first to ensure it met my standards!

Sizzling Sisig from Chelly's

The sisig was okay. Of course it wasn't anything like Dencio's or Gerry's Grill but I found it a bit / slightly chewy. But before I recommend this place I need to check out 3 other restaurants the Philippine Embassy told me about. But anyway, this day was an interesting day!