Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Celeb Cameo

Making a cameo at my dinner last night was Chef Morimoto himself! An excellent meal, some excellent cocktails, and an iron chef topped off an excellent day. Now I have to buy a bed, clean my apartment, and compete in an OPIM simulation.

Fun!

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

You're Invited










Thanks to everyone who emailed, called, texted, and carrier pigeoned me today. It was overwhelming and if I didn't get back to you it's because today has been a little crazy. The real celebration will be Thursday night-- and flights to Philly are cheap this time of year! So please join me and 200 of my closest friends I just met for a soiree in Old City. I hope to see you there. Mom, sorry about my outfit.

I Am Thirty

So far, it feels a lot like 29, only my laundry's dry.

Monday, November 28, 2005

And speaking of the sidewalk





I thought you might enjoy this snapshot of part of my bed waiting for the trashman.

Keep Your Mind on the Sidewalk

Last night at 3am my bed broke. As in crashing sound and half my mattress was angling down at about 20 degrees towards the floor.

I'm officially on the new bed market. IKEA seems to be able to offer me one for $130. What a deal. What a way to start the week where both digits in my age change.

Friday, November 25, 2005

I Love Glotz

In honor of him, Google's Word of the Day (today's is soporific, and I can use it in a sentence, "The accounting homework I just finished was soporific!"), and my beloved Bronco's Thanksgiving day performance:

Jake Plummer overcame the shame of throwing his first interception in many games and repast the ball to Ron Dayne for a game-winning run.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Cactus

I'm in sunny Palm Desert, beginning my Thanksgiving holiday a bit early (technically, I still have twenty minutes of OPIM left, sorry, Professor Zheng!). I'm sick though so I so far haven't dipped my toe into the delightfully warm air.

However, the cactus of the title does not refer to the flora at which I stare. Instead, it refers to the word for my cohort's inaugural game of 'word of the week.' Less complicated than BINGO (in which each cohortmate tries to complete an entire row or column of improbable phrases during class discussions, my favorite being, "Well at my boyfriend's high school...."), this just involves trying to use a pre-selected word in discussion. I decided cactus was a simple enough word that everyone would know it, yet weird to use in a business school setting.

We had an unexpected perosn break the seal on this, first by drawing a cactus on a transparency for a presentation he did, and then in the very next class describing one of his teammates as being, "Prickly, like a cactus." Ths would put him over the top for having used it twice (he did utter it aloud during the presentation), except a professor who was technically unaware of the game inadvertantly tied him by saying, "Cactus? What, is cactus the word of the day or something"

I woke up this morning to have two completely bizarre and off the wall emails from cohortmates sent out to all of us, and I've decided that word of the day has officially pushed us over the edge into full-fledged silliness. Anyone want to suggest other words of the day?

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

What I've Been Up To



Sorry it's been a while since I posted. I spent the whole weekend locked up at a writers' retreat for our Follies show. I have been trying to be on the writing staff since I got here, but found the actual writers' meetings depressingly boring, which is not good since their intention is to write a hilarious show skewering all things Wharton. However, I decided to give it one last shot by going on the retreat and I was pleasantly surprised. I've found a couple of good people with whom I write quite well, and the head writers are now sending me highly complimentary emails and begging me to stay involved (not to brag). And apparently I was specifically brought up several times in the production staff meeting they just had, because one of my cohortmates is an assistant producer and he was there. It's nice to be officially certified funny.

Above is a picture from our cohort dinner at Marrakesch, where we ate with our hands. Despite this, it was the most civilized cohort event we've had since we got here.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Are you kidding me?

Yesterday I left my apartment for class and it was 70 degrees.  By late afternoon, it was 40 degrees.  It seems the 70 was a joke, because today it’s once again in the 40’s.  So this whole seasons thing is for real? 

 

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

There's no accounting for it

OK, I’m going to seem like the girl who cried wolf again, but I beat the mean on that beastly accounting test by 10%.  Once again, I am dumbfounded.  I have to admit, I’m not even relieved.  I seriously got 10x the number of points I was expecting.  But I don’t really think that’s a good thing, to have muddled my way through and done so well.  I did hear a rumor that the TA’s took the midterm and couldn’t pass it, and so graded as generously as possible.  My grade would seem to indicate this is the case.

 

Maybe I should switch my major from Marketing to Accounting?  Anyone want me to do their taxes?

Monday, November 14, 2005

Outbid

Wharton offers three "Global Immersion Programs", monthlong trips immediately following finals (leaving you just enough time to pack, and then upon your return immediately start your internship to get a full summer of work in), one to China, one to South America, and one to Southeast Asia. I've been determined to go to China since I got here. I went once as a child, so some of the cultural excursions would be redundant. But I thought the ability to go there with Wharton to meet with business and political leaders and really get a sense of what's going on would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Unfortunately, my classmates agreed. You bid for these programs, and I thought my bid of 3001 points would be enough to get the trip since it went for 2001 last year. However, it cleared for over 3200. As a backup, I bid for the other trip which was tugging at my heart-- South America. This trip will be going to Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio, and Sao Paolo. My thought on this trip is (1) it would be incredible (b) as a marketer, the Latin American markets are important to understand and (iii) I've never been to South America. Also, a lot of my friends wanted to go on that trip. Well I won this one, so barring some unforeseen and unprecedented falling of the China price in later rounds, I'm headed down El Rio way come May.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Tailgating, East Coast Style

We tailgated for the Princeton/Penn game last Saturday. Unfortunately, the urban setting of Penn's campus means that tailgating is either (1) indoors, as in the 20 people who came to my apartment and finished off my entire liquor supply or (2) on top of a parking garage, where the strangers were quite generous with their beer. A few observations, and then the photos can just speak for themselves. No one goes to these games. This was homecoming and supposedly their big rivalry (Princeton folks claim to be unaware this is a rivalry, my friend Renos's t-shirt indicates how Penn feels about it), and yet the stands were empty. The football was also unbearably bad. It made Stanford look like USC.

The one cool tradition which we missed by not arriving to the game until the 4th quarter is that Penn kids throw toast into the air/at the cheerleaders during their school song, which includes the phrase, "So raise a toast to Old William Penn." I actually toasted an entire loaf of bread in preparation, but we were too late and I ended up sitting with the Princeton fans anyhow.




Cabbing back after a long day of tailgating Mike and I debate Orange vs. Blue, as I carry our toast












Go Stanford!


Thursday, November 10, 2005

Season's Greetings!

My camera battery is dead (new one is on the way, thanks, Dad!), so I am unable to post the pictures along this post which would make it better. But I looked around yesterday and realized I was experiencing something for the first time in my life: seasons.

It's been chillier. There's a bite in the wind. The air is a little bit drier. I know this is a harbinger of a scary winter to come. But for the past few days, it's also meant that my simple walk through campus is a color show like nothing I've ever seen. The leaves on the trees are bright yellow, deep amber, and dark red.

I would promise to photograph them for you when my new batteries arrive, but I quickly learned why "autumn" is more commonly referred to as "fall."

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Accounting, for those who wondered

That was the biggest trainwreck of my academic career, including a panic attack on a Calculus final while I was in high school.  Someone who took it during the 9am slot (I was at 10:30) told me on my way in that she imagined the mean would be around a 5.  I think I’m lucky if I got a 4.  It was out of 68.

 

We also did some experimentation with our OPIM (Operations Management class), which was after the test and lunch.  It turns out tequila does not make that class any more interesting.

 

 

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

I mean....

Im looking around this library, and everyone looks just as lost as I do.  This second accounting midterm is killing us all.  It was hard the first time, or so we thought.  This time, there is not a single topic we understand.  Accounts receivable, inventory, long term assets, and (bane of my life because I’m not taking finance yet so dont understand the fundamental concept let alone the accounting ramifications) bonds were all just little blips on our radar screen last time; now they are mighty topics to be delved into and addressed differently on every freaking balance sheet they toss us in the practice exams

Which means (1) those of you who think this is nothing but party all the time, live and learn!  (2) my recap of the day-Julie-hosted-a-tailgate-that-led-to-way-too-much-silliness-for-a-Saturday-afternoon and Rosss visit will have to wait until after my hopeful survival. 

Oh, and Ive surrendered the apartment to the mice for the time being. 

I forgot to mention

I am not in any of the photographs in this week’s Wharton Journal.  This represents the first time this has occurred in the 2005-2006 Wharton school year.  I believe the sky will be falling next.

 

Monday, November 07, 2005

EEEK

I have another mouse. I just got home from school, and I can hear it. It's in the living room. I want to cry. I have so much work to do tonight, I do NOT have time for a panic attack or rodenticide.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Tortilla Espanola




My friend Enrique from Madrid made paella and spanish omelettes for 18 of us on Friday night. Most delightful was the private cooking lesson he gave Shirin, me and a visiting Ross before the other guests arrived. You cannot imagine the deliciousness, you'll have to settle for the photos.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Naughty Nurses

Yes, those are lollipops in my thigh highs. Yes, I am turning thirty one month to the day from when this picture was taken


Halloween was out of control. Fortunately, I believe it was for all involved. First of all, my costume made its debut at a pre-party hosted by my cohortmate who happens to be an MD/MBA. The med school people loved the nurse outfits, and it prompted my favorite quote ever, from a (gay) doctor, "If Penn nurses really looked like that, I might still be straight." The costumes my classmates came up with were outstanding to outstandingly pervy, and as I suspected the "Penn" twist on my nursing uniform brought me to the level of 'funny though scandalous' as opposed to straight out 'scandalous.' It was pretty awesome that people believed that (1) these were actual Penn nursing uniforms (because nurses still wear dresses, especially ones this short, to work) or (b) they represented some sort of hand-embroidered crafty magic ($7 for an iron-on patch).

Other costumes were sketchier. One of my friends dressed as a breathalyzer with the intake pipe strategically placed over his... another one of my friends was a mammogram machine. This is all what I'm piecing together, a rather potent mix of shots means that not only I but nearly everyone there is a little fuzzy on the details. Scarily enough, I was working the door for a while in such a state. I was handcuffed at least once (by a partygoer, not a cop) as I worked the door.

Perhaps the most oustanding costume was the one below, because it was so unexpected. The gentleman in question is originally from Sweden, played professional hockey, is married, and rather normal overall. Granted, he's funny, but not even in the 'top five' of insane people in my cohort. And the costume he's wearing is completely homemade. Sadly, someone else attempted Mugatu (Mom and Dad, there's this movie called Zoolander, it's part of something called 'pop culture'... never mind) from my cohort, and had to drink his sadness away last night at being so completely shown up by the tremendous effort below. Enjoy.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Nerd Alert

OK, two academic postings. Halloween tomorrow:

1. I just got my first grade at Wharton, and it's a DS! BTW, we're not allowed to disclose our grades, but since you're not employers, it doesn't matter. A DS is the highest grade you can get (there's no a's, b's, and c's here). Granted, it's in speaking. But still, it's exciting and perhaps a good sign?

2. I kicked ass on my MGEC exam. Seriously, I did so well it's scary.