I too have been called out for not blogging ever, so here's a quick update of what's been going on the last few months.
Lee and I went to Morocco.
Lee and I celebrated birthdays in August - Lee threw me a surprise party at the new bar owned by the Comerc24 and Tapac24 guy, Carles Abellan. For Lee's birthday, we had a big brunch at our house and then went to Festa Major de Gracia. Alexa, our second most veteran employee, returned to the US for awhile. We hired Alfonso to replace her. He's been a great addition to the team.
Lee and I went to India.
Lee went home for a couple weeks to see family and friends, while I stayed behind to run the show here. I took my GMAT in September and have been applied to MBA programs at Harvard, Wharton and Kellogg (due today!). Cassie, our most veteran employee, left Barcelona to return home to the States. It was tough to lose her, but I'm sure she's got great things ahead of her. The hostel has been doing really well. September was almost as busy as August, and October's shaping up to be a pretty full month too.
Lee and I went to Munich to visit Monica and enjoy Oktoberfest.
Now we have no more trips planned until Thanksgiving, MBA applications are done (well almost- they will be done today), and we're buckling down to do some improvements at the hostel and work on finding hostel #2. We're closing down for a couple of days in early November to do some repairs, painting, etc. We hired an intern, Paulina, who is working on some graphic-design related projects for us now. Lee and I are essentially writing a Barcelona guidebook and walking tours for our guests. We also hired Alexander to work some night shifts while Ariel was on vacation. They've both been super helpful and all of the guests love them. Right now, we're scouring our neighborhood for another spot to open a hostel. We've seen quite a few places. The top pick so far is an old retirement home on Passeig de Gracia. It's two floors, about three times the size of the current hostel, and has a giant patio out back. Our idea is to do some minor fix-ups before opening, run the hostel for about a year, and then close one floor at a time to do a complete overhaul. We still need to look at a lot more places and figure out an exact budget for ourselves. We had a rather depressing meeting at our bank, Caja Navarra, the other day. Apparently they're not giving away free money anymore. Now, you essentially need a wealthy Spanish grandfather to secure any type of loan. The options we thought we had with them might be a little more limited.
I promise to be better about blogging and keeping you all updated with all of our trials and tribulations over here.
Lee and I went to Morocco.
Lee and I celebrated birthdays in August - Lee threw me a surprise party at the new bar owned by the Comerc24 and Tapac24 guy, Carles Abellan. For Lee's birthday, we had a big brunch at our house and then went to Festa Major de Gracia. Alexa, our second most veteran employee, returned to the US for awhile. We hired Alfonso to replace her. He's been a great addition to the team.
Lee and I went to India.
Lee went home for a couple weeks to see family and friends, while I stayed behind to run the show here. I took my GMAT in September and have been applied to MBA programs at Harvard, Wharton and Kellogg (due today!). Cassie, our most veteran employee, left Barcelona to return home to the States. It was tough to lose her, but I'm sure she's got great things ahead of her. The hostel has been doing really well. September was almost as busy as August, and October's shaping up to be a pretty full month too.
Lee and I went to Munich to visit Monica and enjoy Oktoberfest.
Now we have no more trips planned until Thanksgiving, MBA applications are done (well almost- they will be done today), and we're buckling down to do some improvements at the hostel and work on finding hostel #2. We're closing down for a couple of days in early November to do some repairs, painting, etc. We hired an intern, Paulina, who is working on some graphic-design related projects for us now. Lee and I are essentially writing a Barcelona guidebook and walking tours for our guests. We also hired Alexander to work some night shifts while Ariel was on vacation. They've both been super helpful and all of the guests love them. Right now, we're scouring our neighborhood for another spot to open a hostel. We've seen quite a few places. The top pick so far is an old retirement home on Passeig de Gracia. It's two floors, about three times the size of the current hostel, and has a giant patio out back. Our idea is to do some minor fix-ups before opening, run the hostel for about a year, and then close one floor at a time to do a complete overhaul. We still need to look at a lot more places and figure out an exact budget for ourselves. We had a rather depressing meeting at our bank, Caja Navarra, the other day. Apparently they're not giving away free money anymore. Now, you essentially need a wealthy Spanish grandfather to secure any type of loan. The options we thought we had with them might be a little more limited.
I promise to be better about blogging and keeping you all updated with all of our trials and tribulations over here.
posted by Lauren @ 12:56 PM
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