Independencia

El post anterior podrá parecer algo raro, pero fué algo que escribí para una entrevista de trabajo. Prueba superada. No sólo me han dado el trabajo, si no que por primera vez, hago algo que me gusta, y me pagan por ello. :)

El tiempo va pasando, y la vida cada vez me obliga a ser más “independiente”. Recuerdo cuándo hasta hace unos años, mi mayor preocupación era el sacar una buena nota en el cole y que mi madre me dijiese que me quería. Hasta cierto punto, era porque yo también quiero a mi madre que deseaba sacar la buena nota, ya que en ese momento no comprendía que era por mí, y pensaba que estudiaba para darle gusto a ella. Recuerdo a mi madre diciéndome que necesitaba ser una buena estudiante ya que aunque sólo fuera un pequeño paso en mi vida, era un paso necesario para seguir adelante.

Ahora me veo en un país extraño, en una situación que no me imaginaba, pero al intentar decifrar cómo he llegado hasta aquí, me viene a la mente aquél discurso de Seve Jobs en la graduación de la clase de 2005 de la Universidad de Stanford. “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart. Even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

Creo que ninguna frase me ha hecho reflexionar tanto como esta. Es verdad. Al estar aquí, puedo asegurar que no tengo la más remota idea de lo que voy a estar haciendo mañana, pero que viendo al pasado, me doy cuenta cómo cada decisión que fuí tomando en mi vida, me han puesto en este punto preciso de mi vida.

Con esto no quiero decir que todos hayan sido aciertos, porque en definitiva estaría mintiendo. Lo que intento decir es que los que en su momento me parecieron situaciones dolorosas, tristes, de fracaso, o simplemente difíciles, fueron necesarias para convertirme en lo que soy hoy y traerme hasta dónde estoy.

Una chica “independiente” viviendo en Barcelona, con un trabajo semi estable (porque sólo son prácticas... por ahora) del cual aprendo bastante y me da lo suficiente para subsistir. Es verdad que en este momento los lujos han quedado de lado, pero la experiencia de ir logrando cada vez más cosas, es inexplicable y espero muy pronto poder ser INDEPENDIENTE y poder gritarlo a los cuatro vientos con orgullo; dejaré de ser “independiente” y estaré conciente de cada paso que di para llegar ahí, como también reconoceré a cada persona que estuvo en mi camino ayudándome, o dándome lecciones para ser más fuerte.

Espero que este post sirva como reflexión para aquellas personas que no saben cómo han llegado hasta dónde están, ya que bueno o malo, es el resultado de los pasos que han dado, así que dejen de arrepentirse y aprendan de cada experiencia para llegar a dónde quieren. En mi caso, seguiré en busca de mi INDEPENDENCIA espiritual y económica.

Christmas with… the family?

Due to many different reasons, this year I was not able to spend Christmas with my family… again. Instead, I am spending the holidays with Mike’s family. This is the second year I come to Darlington and I must say I like it a lot. Of course it is always hard to spend the holidays away from home and in a place where everything is different, but his family just make me feel very warm and welcome.

This time I will speak about what Christmas is for me and what I have learned by spending the holidays away from home. In Mexico we celebrate Christmas in different ways, but in my family, we all get together in my grandparents ranch. We are about 100 people and we all find a way to spend as much time as possible together. Cooking for 100 people can be quite an experience, but when everyone pitches in, it is not that bad. In the ranch we all eat one meal a day, we say that because we all start cooking in the morning for breakfast, then we spend so much time talking and catching up that when we finish, it is time to eat lunch, and so on. I must point out that there is just one shower in the house, and on the 24^th it is a huge fight over who showers first, because it is 35 degrees Celsius, so we are all sweaty. The kitchen is a nightmare because even though we have been working on that night’s dinner for 2 days, things are still cooking. Around 9’o clock, the mirror is packed, we are all finishing getting ready and we go to church for Christmas mass.

When we get back home we all have dinner, at midnight we hug and we keep partying all night. The next day we all go to one of my uncle’s place and keep celebrating and so on.

Now I will describe Christmas for the last two years in Darlington. First, family of course is not as big, plus, they do not do anything on the night of the 24^th, the first time I even freaked out a little. One cool thing that we did was the card run, we went to everyone’s places to leave them Christmas cards, which I thought was awesome. On the morning of the 25^th, we woke up and run downstairs to open the presents, then went to Mike’s uncle’s house, everyone was there, we had a little finger food, said merry Christmas to everyone and then more presents time. After that we had lunch. A meal very different to what I am used to, but delicious still. Everything else is just like another day. It was weird, but nice. Now that it was the second year, it even felt better, because I know the family and it just feels a bit more like home (but do not tell my bf that :P) .

Anyway, I believe Christmas is not about the presents, but a time to spend with the family and either in Mexico or in the UK, as long as I get to share a good time with people, share some love and have something to write in the book of memories, I can say it is a great Christmas.

This year there was something else that was amazing. SNOW!!!!! For the first time in my life I got so see some. I finally had a WHITE CHRISTMAS! It was very exciting, I got to build my first snowman, and had a snow fight.

I believe you can never be to old to do something for the first time and based on this thought I enjoyed as if I had been 5 years old. I made snow angels, I ran around stepping on fresh snow, slipped on ice, all those things that for some people can be an every year experience, but for me, it was my first!

So, I just want you to know that Christmas is a time for love, that you can never be to old, and that different is not bad, find the good on everything you do.

Merry Christmas!

WeightWatchers

En España, cuando escuchamos sobre obesidad pensamos en países como Estados Unidos, porque nosotros seguimos “una dieta mediterránea” ¿cierto?, pues ya no más. Hoy en día, el 15% de los españoles son obesos y el 37% tienen sobrepeso. Pareciera que todos esos restaurantes de comida rápida a los que vamos, están influyendo un poco más en nuestras vidas de lo que pensábamos.

Hay quienes creen que el problema con la obesidad es que “la moda” es estar delgada, pero no es así. La obesidad es el detonante de muchas enfermedades cardiovasculares, hipertensión, infartos, enfermedades respiratorias, artritis y hasta algunos tipos de cáncer, sin embrgo, no se le da la importancia necesaria hasta que estas enfermedades aparecen y todo a causa de la falta de conocimiento. No estamos acostumbrados a pensar en lo que comemos y los efectos que esto puede tener en nuestro cuerpo.

No se trata de estar delgado u obeso, si no de estar “SALUDABLE”, y para esto, no es necesario pensar en aquella tan temida palabra “dieta”; ya que recurrir a estas famosas dietas, únicamente nos hará perder peso de manera rápida y en cuanto la dejemos, los kilos regresarán más rápido de lo que se fueron. Estamos hablando de un cambio en tu estilo de vida. Aprender a tomar decisiones correctas a la hora de comer. No se trata de comer lechuga todo el día, si no de saber ¿Qué? y ¿Cuándo? comer. Para ser saludables, necesitamos también ser activos, piensa en un coche, un clásico, precioso, con vestiduras de piel, ni un solo rasguño, pero que no has movido en años, puede ser que cuando al fin quieras usarlo, no funcione tan bien como esperabas. Pues algo así sucede con nuestro cuerpo. Es indispensable mantenernos activos y en movimiento para seguir funcionando correctamente.

Así que “cambiar tu estilo de vida”, suena ahora como una prioridad ¿no es así?, pero siempre encontraremos mil excusas: “No tengo tiempo”, “Llego muy cansado del trabajo”, “En mi cafetería no venden nada saludable”, “Necesito que alguien más empiece conmigo”, etc. Siendo sinceros ninguna de estas excusas es válida, porque WeightWatchers te lleva de la mano para que este cambio en tu estilo de vida no sea tan difícil. No sólo aprendes a tomar decisiones alimenticias con la ayuda de monitoras especializadas, además cuentas con apoyo de millones de personas en todo el mundo que te entienden y que no dudarán en apoyarte para seguir con el programa. Personas con intereses y actividades similares, que te pueden decir cómo han logrado llevar esta vida saludable en su entorno.

WeightWatchers ha cambiado la vida de muchas personas, que como tú, tenían una meta fija pero no sabían como llegar a ella. Roma no se hizo en un día, pero sí tuvieron que empezar un día. Empieza hoy a construir ese imperio de salud en tu cuerpo para verte y sentirte bien.

Calor de mamá

Este fin de semana vino mi mami a visitarme. Es impresionante cuanto puedes luchar por tener libertades que en casa no tenías, por tener ese sentimiento de independencia que muchas veces se pierde al estar en casa, pero una vez que la tienes, cuando estás con esa persona que tanto quieres, con la que tantas peleas has tenido y que tanto te prohibía, sientes una satisfacción, una seguridad y un amor, que nada puede reemplazar.

En mi blog he hablado mucho de lo importante que es conseguir tu sueños y luchar por lo que quieres y es mi obligación decir que esta mentalidad la he adquirido de mi ejemplo a seguir. La mujer que más admiro en ese mundo. Mi mamá.

Muchas veces escuchamos historias de personas que empezaron desde cero y fueron abriéndose camino por la vida. Pues bien, aunque sean historias inspiradoras, no puedo relacionarme mucho con ellas, después de todo, ¿qué es cero? Para algunas personas empezar de cero puede ser empezar sin ser millonario, pero con suficientes oportunidades, mientras que para otras empezar de cero puede significar otra cosa muy distinta.

El ejemplo que yo tengo es cercano y me ha afectado directamente, por lo cual, puedo decir con toda certeza que la persona que más amo y admiro en este mundo es mi madre. Puede que ella no sea perfecta, pero entre todos sus defectos y virtudes me ha demostrado lo mucho que me quiere y que haría cualquier cosa por ayudarme a cumplir mis sueños, lo cual me motiva a ser mejor cada día y tal vez algún día, ella esté tan orgullosa de mi como yo lo estoy de ella.

En fin, mucha independencia, pero no hay como estar con mamá.

The sport of job hunting

I have been here for a while now, and I need a job, waking everyday and having nothing to do is definitely not exciting at all. I hate house chores, and I don’t want to keep doing them, so I started searching for a job.

When doing so, there are several steps you need to follow, first, writing your resume, I had mine ready, because I am one of those geeks that follow instructions and I was once told you should always be updating your resume so that when you need it, it is ready. Anyway, my resume was ready, so I decided to post it in one of those websites for jobs, (infojobs), but they made me write it all over again with their format. Well, copying and pasting is not that bad I guess. Then I started applying to every single marketing internship that I found, which of course are not a lot.

Then I started receiving calls for the interviews, I will not mention the names, for respect to the companies. The first one was with an advertising company that worked with banks, but they said no because I had too much experience… excuse me? Did you not read my empty resume?... they said that the chores they wanted the intern to do were to basic, what was it? Serving coffee?, because if that is the case, then yeah, fair enough, I might be overqualified.

Second interview, a company that works in drinks and snacks, this one went great, HR in there are amazing and I fit their profile incredibly, we had some team exercises, and we talked about ourselves and watched a presentation, that of course made us want to work there. Then we had a one on one interview with someone from the HR department. That one went awesome as well. Everything was so good, that I got a call the same day to tell me to go back for an interview with the marketing team, so I did. Yeah… well that one didn’t go so well. I guess they didn’t like my vision, because they showed me some graphics, and asked me where would I invest, and that was it. Never heard from them again.

Third interview, with a company on pharmaceuticals, now this ones were mean, first they call me to go and have a test, with basic stuff, maths, reading comprehension, and things like that. This was just the first filter, which I pass, so I got a call saying that I could go the day after for an interview with someone from HR, so I did, and I passed. Then they called me again for another interview with the marketing department, and this time I think I did good, however, it ended up because they needed someone who knew Catalan, and of course I didn’t. Now, WHY would they make me go so many times if I said clearly since the very beginning that I do not speak Catalan?

Well, this have been my few experiences so far, but I am still working on it, on the mean time, here are some tips to prepare for your interviews:

Always dress for the occasion and watch your body language, these things say more than your mouth

Keep your answers concise, unless they ask you to develop

Include quantifiable data, saying that you helped increase sales is good, but if you say that you helped increase sales by 20% from last years revenue, it is even better. Go into detail when talking about accomplishments.

Repeat your strengths, and relate them to the department’s goals and how they can benefit from you.

Remember to prepare your strengths, but more important, situations where you have used them successfully

Do your research on the website, and when you are in the interview, visualize yourself as part of the team, and let them visualize you as part of it as well, use their names and products or services for examples. (Just be careful that they can’t be misunderstood)

Always ask questions. Prepare them in advance, and look for opportunities to ask them during the interview. DO NOT ASK ABOUT BENEFITS OR SALARY. The types of questions you ask and the way you ask them can make a huge impression on the interviewer.

Maintain a conversational flow.

Keep an interview journal, I know how this sounds, but it is a great way to write things down right after the interview that you might forget otherwise. Review your presentation, questions you wish you had asked, what you would do different next time, etc.

It is consider polite to send a brief, concise thank you letter to the person that interviewed you. Restate your skills in that letter and why they should hire you.

Studying in Spain

I came to Spain to do a master in marketing, and even though I love Barcelona, and its culture, it was hard finding a uni in here. First of all, when you are looking into coming to study in Barcelona you need to remember that in here they speak Catalan, yes I know, they also speak Spanish, but they prefer Catalan, and they expect you to learn it. With that said, the official universities have a lot of professors that will speak in Catalan, even when some of the students do not understand it. It is fair, it is their country, their rules, however if you don’t want to learn this language, you are better off going to a private school that will assure you the classes will be given to you in Spanish.

At first, I wanted to learn Catalan, to integrate better, but it is not that easy, plus, during class, it is CRAZY, yes, professors will talk in Spanish, but you can’t do anything about those students that want to speak in Catalan, even when they know you are not understanding. This is one of the problems some other girls from Latin America and I have been going through. At the beginning I thought it was EXTREMELY RUDE on their side, however, I understand now that they do not realize they are doing it, for them it is just normal. It is like when I am in a place where I am supposed to speak in English, but I know someone else in there speaks Spanish, and suddenly I will find myself speaking to him/her in Spanish, without noticing. Anyway, this is just one of the few problems I have been facing over here, especially during class.

It is funny how nowadays people with a master’s degree are just like people with a college degree a few years ago. It is still not a must, but in order to move forward, you need one, otherwise walls start appearing. It is sad though that due to the recession, that high level of education can’t be backed up with some experience at work. When we first started the master, only international students were looking for internships, but every time I find out that more classmates are looking for a job.

I know that a lot of girls study a master after college to give them some more time to live out of their parents until they find the perfect husband, but that is not me. I want a job, I like to work, and I want to. It is true that it is hard to find a job in Spain, but I need to admit its even harder back home, so all I can do for now is to keep looking, and prepare myself on the meantime so that when that opportunity appears, I will be ready for it.

Living in Spain

I said before that I would be moving back to Spain soon, and here I am, living in good old Barca, in a little nice apartment in the heart of the city. I am now living with my amazing boyfriend Mike, and I am extremely happy.

This last couple of weeks, we have been trying to buy everything that the apartment needs, because even though it is a furnished apartment, it doesn’t have everything we need.

The city is just what I remembered, full of people walking on the streets, with this smell of cigarette and coffe that kind of fades with the breeze from the beach, and of course the parties. This time, it was La Mercé, it lasts for around 5 days and it is a festival held in honour of Madre de Deu de la Merce, the Patron Saint of Barcelona.

During this festival, the streets have life day and night; loads of different concerts are held many plazas all over the city. There are parades, fireworks and a lot of fun. It is nice to walk around, and see everything; you can learn so much from different cultures. For example, Mike and I were walking around when we found this little plaza where people (mainly elder ppl) were dancing some traditional steps with some traditional music, and by this I mean stuff that was at least a hundred years old.

This is definitely a fabulous city, full of tradition and fun. It is weird though that I haven’t been out much, but I am hopping to change that soon.