The Balsells Reception

by ViTo • December 14, 2006 3 comments

Being the recipient of a fellowship implies a lot of responsability. Of course, I’m joking, but there is some part of truth in that statement. You know you have to work hard to earn what has been given to you, since not everybody has this special chance. However, at the same time, there are social events attached. The Balsells reception is one of them. This was my first official act as a Balsells fellow ; and we had the chance to go to Mr. Balsells’ house itself. Needless to say it was in a fancy private neighborhood next to the coastline. You may wanna take a look…

However, the event is not that formal, it is just a gathering so you get the chance to meet the other people involved in some way in the fellowship. The idea is to introduce the new fellows (us) to the others… previous fellows (which we already know since they are the ones that helped us all the way), people from the catalan Casal of California, Roger Rangel who is currently in charge of the fellowship, and obviously Pete and his wife. But all of this takes place in a relaxed atmosphere…

This event is hosted yearly so most likely the next fall I’ll be there again. However, in some editions there are special perks. For example, I think it was 3 years ago when the former president of the Generalitat attended to it. It would have been quite an honor to meet him! Again, the next year a well known catalan reporter was there working on a documentary known as Afers Exteriors (External Affairs) about catalan people living abroad. Actually, you can find this video in one of my other posts.

It was quite fun actually, we got to hang out in a very nice house, attended a hawaian show, and could eat all we wanted. By the way, we also had a quick bath in the jacuzzi . With no doubt, I can say that the hawaian thing was the central point of the event. We were all quite impressed, and some of us even joined the performers…

Awesome! What a rhythm Xavi! Who says engineers don’t know how to dance…