Tuesday's adventure

Tuesday, Martes, started much smoother for me.  I found it much easier to wake up at 8:00 am here (2:00 am back home).  After a brief shower and a pleasant breakfast Dr. Vannoy rounded up the students to prepare us for our lecture by one of the Spanish professors.  She discussed entrepreneurship and what it takes to start a business.  She focused less on the international differences and more on the topic.  One of her teaching points that really stood out to me is that in order to be successful in something it has to interest you, you have to value it, and it has to be challenging.  According to her most people leave their job because it either holds no challenge, interest, or potential; only the minority (20%) leave a job due to financial reasons.  An interesting analogy she raised was between investing in a job and in a relationship.  Both should hold your interest, be challenging, and you should want something out of it; for example you might want to get married and have kids in a relationship and you might be after a promotion in a job.  An interesting exercise she tried to get my group and I involved in was stating 10 of our strengths and 10 of our weaknesses.  This can help to establish if people are a good fit together in acting as a team; for example if people have complimentary strengths and weaknesses this would be far better than if everyone shared the same strengths and weaknesses.

After our lecture we ventured out for a trip to the vineyard Pago de Tharsys.  The vineyard was located about 30 minutes out side the city and is a stark contrast to the bustling city of Valencia.  Starting our tour we were shown the bottling line of their Cava, which is a sparking wine (carbonated) variety that they make.  This was quite impressive to see starting with the bottles capped, with bottle caps, and ending with the bottle labeled and corked.  Next we were shown the vineyard itself, followed by the distillation room, where they turn wine into liquor and then several different products.  I found it very interesting they had developed a method to turn what would other be wasted wine into a product that is now a moneymaker.  Our tour guide informed us that they ship to 22 countries, United States included, and the 90% of their product was exported; knowing how much Spaniards enjoy their wine they must produce a lot of wine!  We journeyed to the cellar and viewed many barrels of wine, which remain in these barrels for 1 year, then in the bottle for 2.  We then journeyed through the ancient cellar, which resembled a jail of sorts, and it was on to most peoples’ favorite the tasting.  After making my selection and purchase we ventured back to the hostel.  Another enjoyable day in Spain, I look forward to tomorrows adventure!