Kick off lunch and research center 8.30.09

This afternoon was the annual kick off lunch for the faculty/dept. of economics and business administration . It was a huge success! Not only was there good food served, but I met some very interesting people and was able to practice a lot of Spanish. Dressed in my finest the lunch was formal attire. It was held in the university's main building in a lounge that would make you feel like you were sitting down to a grand medieval banquet. The room was aloft the general dining room area and accessible only by a wooden spiral staircase, walls were made of large stones with large shields with crests hanging throughout, I thought I'd be eating a giant turkey leg and drinking from a steel chalice. We had croquetas(small round balls of fried rice and cheese), followed by a light salad with thin slices of jamon iberico. The entree was a small steak with french fries(they do love patatas here), and desert, was cómo se dice, ridiculoussss, it was like crème brulée sandwich with a midsection of rich sweet, super, sweet, cream. Que rico!

I was joined at the table by other ayudantes and masters students from Indiana, China, Venezuela, Spain and England. I was very fortunate to sit next to the former dean of economics at the university of navarra. He was originally a professor than was dean for about 20 years. He still works within the faculty teaching some courses but predominantly coordinates bringing international students to Spain and sending Spaniards to the US for different types of work. He told me about his business plan near completion; to open a center for the study and research of global poverty, it would be the only one in Spain. The possibility for working with him is apparent and one aspect of this job would be to go to a poverty stricken country like Kenya for research. The intention of the trip would be to meet with locals and gather research and information to bring back to Spain. His objective or mission statement, in short, is to find ways to give people the tools to help them find their way out of extreme poverty. I will post any more information about this when it arises in the future. Is anyone actually reading this?