After the first week, we started to adopt the Spanish language, people and places around us. My work place is Peserpa, which is a property advisory company for a residential and commercial property sales and renting in Ceuta. The Peserpa office is located near the shopping centre, down the beach side. The staff are two really nice girls, who helped us to rent our apartments, as well as helping me to improve on my Spanish, and advised on nice tourist attractions in Ceuta.
The founder of Peserpa is Pedro, who is a very well known business man, who owns 3 supermarkets- one being Euroski as well as Nissan car salon. I met him only the second week, because he had a busy schedule due to his business trips. He was a really nice guy, and we had a long conversation about what I want to do in future etc. He saw that sitting in office would be boring for me the whole time, that's why he came up with the idea for me to work in one of his supermarkets. I agreed, and on Tuesday we went together to the supermarket Euroski. People were very nice and welcoming, all the staff already know's me and we enjoy talking to each other about many things, knowing that I am an international student excites people, and they want to know more. I was given a job in the administration office, to develop newspaper pages on photoshop, which includes all the latest products, cheap offers etc. I enjoyed it, and can't wait to see what will happen next. Apart from working we also enjoy ourselves, and go to different places everyday. On Monday and Tuesday we enjoyed the heat on the beach - Playa la Libera, and took some stunning pictures. -Max-
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Surprise, surprise...I have worked with Chigo on the company´s website and helped to translate it into English. We both worked at this in the morning. We were in the office with Monica, and she told me more about her studies for the accountancy course as he is interested in it. Monica doesn´t speak english at all, maybe a word or two and that's it. It was very difficult but we get by, by using google translator which was fun, especially as sometimes some words haven't been translate at all, so I had to think what she wanted from me.
We finished early as the company finish soon due to Isaac´s jewish background as Javies explained to me day before and it allows us to enjoy the amazing weather as a heatwave arrived in Ceuta. Before work, I have explored the city a little bit and the beach as well, but it was very cold and windy with heavy rain, so I did not spend much time there and rather spend time either doing shopping or just explore the wide variety of food they had. Wednesday was very interesting as I spent time with the girl who is in charge of finance. In the office they are using Sage program, and she explained to me how what work and she let me enter invoices into the system and I helped her to do bank reconcilliation. This is something I love. With every invoice there has to be additional papers as the bank transfer take very long time, up to 2 months. I was very surprised but she said that Ceuta is weird in that. We spoke about Ceuta more and she explained that the city has 7 fortresses because of the position of the city and it went throught rough times. They have 2 mountains, The Hacho and and other one which includes mountain called dead woman. The Girl´s name is Eva, and she is very nice, friendly and we tried our best, I mostly understand what she said in spanish and we also used google tranlator. She explained why not many people speak english. They have problems with pronounciation and they can´t wrap their mind about the fact that so 1 words could have so many meanings and it all depends on the context. Many people could speak just very little, few words in english, but they speak well french. As we finished entering invoices into the Sage, she let me print that and I have made copies of necessary documents. After we finished our work for a day, she offered me help any way I will need and she gave me her number in case and also offered me a ride whenever I need to go. Issac showed me the video which was made for the Ceuta TV and was published with politician in his office, where I work. Although I did not understand much about it, spanish was very fast and I am only begginer, it was very interesting and he was very proud about it. He also said that I finish this week afternoons and from Tuesday, next week I will be working on different things and it will be more active as after siesta the offices are very quite and employees usually spend doing things that they did not have time during the morning or different ones come in. Eva works only certain days and strictly afternoons. Staff Personal has more than 5 offices in the buildings I spend mosthly time withe Issac and Eva, so far, Chigo spent more time with day secretary Monica. This will change for me as well when I start working mornings. After work, as Mark was leaving to go back to Ireland, we scheduled the last dinner together and we opted to go to Chinese retaurant. It was quite as it was late and the waitress spoke english, which we were very surprised. We have almost feast, it was too much and first chinese food for me. :) - Patricia Monday morning we met with Javier, who took us to his work in school and he took us into our work places to and to meet our mentors. They were very nice in every workplace and mine is not far away, approximately 10 minutes walk. At the first day I met the girls I will be working with, Monica and other girl (I still can´t pronounce her name) and she told me my duties and that I will be working this week with my mentor Issac and Chigo (IT) will be working mornings on their website and next week I will be working mornings and he afternoons. I did not meet my mentor in the morning as he was in the business trip in Gibraltar as the company has many business connections with very popular companies and they supply employees to 24 countries in Europe.
After work I was browsing the city and some shops, which are very nice and many things are much cheaper than in Ireland. Ceuta has many designer shops such as Rolex, Zara, Mango, etc. Although we are not used to it, people here are used to eat very late, and at 8pm is imposssible to get anything to eat unless you are up to McDonald´s. However streets are buzzing at evenings as everyone is content to hang out at caffees and restaurants and simply enjoy themselves. Not many people speak english and if so, its very little and very broke, so spanish classes with Maria and the software duolingo definitely helped me to communicate with people here and I feel that I am learning more spanish every day and understand them as well. As was arranged I showed up at work afternoon at 4.50pm as I did not wanted to be late at the first day meeting my mentor. That´s not the way to make a first impression. I got lost on the streets and I was lucky he was waiting for me downstairs. We went into the office and he told me more about the business, how many offices they have, and they deal with companies such as Deloitte, Coca-cola, Proper & Gamble, Kellogs and so on.
We were talking what the firm does currently (business in Gibraltar) and we discussed business opportunities in Slovakia as he were considering to expand the business into other countries as well. I compiled information for him and he told me more about spain, where are good places for business, about their government and how does it work in the Ceuta. Ceuta has different VAT system and he explained to me about it it more details. Overall it was very quite in the office as we work on our things. As I explored the city, I think that the internet did not do Ceuta any justice. As I walked into the city and work, I have realised that many people stared at me, especially men, and I was very self-counscioness. I realised that at Ceuta, there are not tourists and I am so white that my skin was glowing practically when the sun came up. We notice many muslims as women wore different hijabs and different dresses. I was surprised that even in the heat, many people wore quite bulky jackets and long trousers and even wool sweaters and me and guys were practically melting from heat as we aclimatised to this weather. At the beginning we took a lot of taxies, untill we were confident that we know how to find our way to our appartment, to the town and around without getting lost. Spanish classes was priceless as it helped me to understand people, at least a little and get a grip when they point out direction, I knew how to order food properly, know a lot actually as I was surprised myself how much I have learned. Ceuta is a very far conclave belonging to Spain at the border with Morocco. At Saturday afternoon we got a bus to the Shannon airport with IT class and Mark Shaw. Everything was without problem, but weather could be better, I suppose. We flew with Aer Lingus and everything was very smooth and we arrived on time.When we arrived in Malága, it was very late but we've got our luggage in no time and we had taken taxi into our hotel where we were staying over night. Taxi driver was speaking only few words but we understand what was going on there. After we settled into our rooms, we went into the hotel restaurant, which was open up to midnight which was very good as get the dinner there.
At Sunday morning, after breakfast, we got pre-arranged transport ready to get us to Algezira port to catch ferry heading to Ceuta. The ride was around 2 hours and it was raining pretty badly unfortunately. We arrived into the port just in time to catch ferry into Ceuta. The ride was very smooth, and the view from it was absolutely stunning and weather was very good as it stopped raining for a while. When we departed from the ferry, Marco was waiting for us and together we went into the Persepa, letting office to get us into our apartments. Me, Max and Conor are staying very close to Promenade, approximately 10 minutes walk to the city center. Here are some pictures from our journey |
Business Management 2016Conor Gibbons
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