:Nintendo Widow

On the eve of our three-day, post-midterm weekend, my classmates and I had one thing on our minds: partying! By 10am, I had three different events lined up: margaritas on the water at 1:30, a planning session at a bar for my group’s Korea/Japan 2008 study tour, and dinner, drinks, and a bellydancing show at 7pm.

Just fyi, we have a three-day weekend because the C4C Sports Weekend at Stanford began on Thursday night. After classes ended at 12:30, about forty MBA’s caught flights to San Jose in order to make it to the welcome happy hour in Palo Alto. The UWers will be competing in everything from basketball, to ping-pong to cheerleading in order to defend our golden briefcase. I raise my glass to them and wish them the best. Hopefully I can attend next year.

Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had all year and it’s not just because of the copious amounts of alcohol I imbibed. It was one of the best days because I got to spend time with so many different groups of friends. My margarita party on the water was with my classmates who are about my age and come from a similar background as I do. We have plenty to gossip about and had fun just shooting the shit and enjoying the nice weather.

Next, I met with my good friends Yoshi and Jun. Yoshi is from Japan and Jun is from South Korea. Together we’re planning a student-led study tour to Japan and Korea next year. After our meeting, we met up with my former teammate Terry, also from South Korea, and the four of us wandered down to the Ave for happy hour. We shared a few pitchers of beer and had a great time talking about life in Seattle, our families, our goals post-graduation, and also the differences between living in Texas, Seattle, Tokyo, and Seoul.

After happy hour ended, Danny picked me up on campus and he and I went to The Capitol Club to meet another MBA, Johanna, and her husband to watch our friend’s bellydancing troupe perform. The club was in an area of town unfamiliar to me and Danny and I were both glad to see some scenery besides downtown and the university district. The club was very cool - middle-eastern inspired. Johanna and I are both big fans of Japan and I had fun learning about her recent visit there as well as telling her about my plans for next year’s study tour. The bellydancing show was great and everyone had a great time.

Now that I’ve been out and about I’m probably going to settle in and have a nice, boring, pajama-filled weekend at home. I know it may be boring but right now I need a little more boring and a lot more sleep.

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I’ve left this post blank for a couple of days because I knew I wanted to talk about it, but I wasn’t exactly sure what to say. I’m still not 100% sure what I want to say but I might as well take a crack at it.

On Wednesday, I had a good meeting with my friend and current MBAA president, Jonathan. He and I were meeting to discuss some of the issues facing the MBAA in the coming year as well as how to begin and manage a student blogging group. I have some very definite ideas about it as does he. Our administration does too. The only thing is none of us want to have an exact copy of an existing format, so we need to decide how to blend the different formats together. I’m more in favor of a student-led and managed group. From what I understand, the admissions office wants to be involved as well and might have the student blogs posted directly on one of their main pages. My main concern is the difference between blog posts displayed on a student site vs. the admissions page. I think we will have a bit of freedom once we finally decide on a format, but there are obviously still plenty of details to iron out.

The other big issue we discussed was school identity. Being writers, Jonathan and I try not to get hung up on semantics but we do! One example is the word “competitive.” To say our program is not competitive sends two very different messages. Compared to other programs, our curriculum is very competitive. However, we stay away from the word competitive because our program is very collaborative in nature. I don’t see why these two concepts must be mutually exclusive. We can have a competitive program filled with very collaborative students. To me, this is a clear distinction. However, if someone tells me that the program is not competitive, I assume that that means that the program is not challenging or is not on par with similar MBA programs. This is completely misleading.

Here’s my question: When you hear that a program is competitive, what does that mean to you? How would you rephrase it to mean both competitive and collaborative?

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I was completely overwhelmed last quarter and networking took a backseat to my academic obligations. This quarter I’m getting back into networking. Last week I attended the Japan-America Society’s annual dinner. It was a little overwhelming since they had over 300 people in attendance and I knew two of them. Still, I had a wonderful time and I began to feel more comfortable as the evening went on.

This past Tuesday, I attended a dinner/networking event called “Doing Business in Japan.” It was hosted by Hitachi Consulting and the World Trade Club of Seattle. The Japan-America society was one of the co-sponsors. Although I didn’t recognize anyone, I felt more comfortable in the smaller, more intimate setting. The dinner was at Wann Izakaya in downtown. The food was fantastic. I’m definitely going back.

Even though I was familiar with the advice the speakers had regarding doing business in Japan, I still have a lot to learn. The bottom line is that I had a really fun time and I made some great contacts as well. I need to just get over my nervousness and go to as many of these events as my schedule will allow. As my friend says, you just need to get your face out there and then these events won’t be so nerve-racking.

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I’ve been a slacker lately. Well, I really haven’t been slacking in life, but I have been blog-slacking. I’ve been busy, but it has been self-inflicted busy-ness. I’m beginning a 3-day weekend and I’m finally catching up on sleeping eating, more sleeping, and on getting my bearings in general.

Last weekend was UW admit weekend. All of the full-time admits who have or have not yet accepted a slot came to campus for three days of wining, dining, and getting overloaded on MBA info. I was part of the madness. As the incoming VP of Program Development, I work with the MBA Ambassador coordinator and the Admissions Office to assist visiting admits while they’re on campus. My duties are flexible, but it boils down to answering any and every question related to the program, the workload, and living in Seattle. Since I’ve only been in Seattle since August, I still have a lot to learn. I think I did provide some useful info to folks who will be moving to the area this summer.

The rest of my admit weekend duties involved schmoozing. I schmoozed at pub club on Thursday night. I schmoozed at the Friday TG after class and I schmoozed from 9am until 4pm on Saturday when Brooke, our MBA Ambassador coordinator and I took the admits on an outing to Bainbridge Island. After “schmoozing” until late at night on Friday, the 9am roll call was a bit early. We took about 12 students downtown and then to the ferry terminal. Even though a lot of our admits are local they still turned up for the Seattle sight-seeing. The weather was fantastic which made the ferry ride even better than expected. We stopped over in Winslow for an hour to wander around, shop, and grab some pre-lunch ice cream at a very good ice cream parlor. After that, we returned to Seattle where we reconvened for lunch at the Columbia Tower Club.

After three days of schmoozing, I was pooped. I got home around 4 and slept for four hours. I planned to work on my take-home accounting midterm but it just didn’t happen. The next day, I had Danny drop me off at the library when it opened and I plowed through my accounting and Qmeth assignments. Sunday wasn’t fun but it was productive. Now that midterms are over I can just sit, blog, and relax.

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Everyday a 2nd year asks me, “so, how is this quarter going?” I think they expect me to say “easier” or “much better.” In a lot of ways it is better. I think they can tell by the frequent smiles and empty MBA lounge that my fellow first-year’s are relaxing a little more and spending more time off-campus. Unlike many of them, I’m still very busy. I’m not complaining. It is self-inflicted busy-ness. I’m involved in a lot of clubs and extracurricular activities. I’m happiest when I’m busy, but not overwhelmed. I’m really active but I’m doing well.

This quarter is challenging for me academically. I’m not a quant jock so the spreadsheet modeling and theoretical operations activities are tough for me. I enjoy them because solving them is like solving a puzzle. I just wish I weren’t so lost in some of my team discussions. One of my teammates feels as lost as I do, so we’re pairing up to review the basics this Friday. I know that this quarter is cake for some of my classmates, but I’m still up late reviewing formulas and sample problems. I’m not the best student sometimes, but I seriously need to get my butt in gear if I want to get decent grades on my midterms.

On another note, C4C (MBA challenge for charity) weekend is coming up. I considered going but I just can’t bring myself to pay to “visit” where I used to live. I looked at the map and the hotel where everyone is staying is a 20 minute walk from my old apartment. I realize that the experience of going there with my classmates is different than when I lived there, but it would just be kind of strange. In a way, I’m done with Palo Alto. I really enjoyed my time there and I have some friends and lots of good memories there. It’s just that I’m done. I don’t want to hang out at Stanford for four days. I’ve been there so many times. Plus I have my favorites: favorite restaurant, favorite bike ride, favorite drive, favorite shopping, favorite bar. I’d just want to visit my favorites and not do anything else! I’d probably just end up renting a car, getting some really good fish ‘n chips, and driving out to Montara beach for the sunset. But that’s not my reason for going to Palo Alto. I don’t know. It’s just a blending of worlds, the pre-MBA Sarah and the current MBA Sarah, that I’m just not ready to face.

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I found out today that I won the NCAA Bracket pool that we did on our trip to China. Our trip started a couple of days before the tournament, so everyone pitched in 100 yuan and filled out a bracket. After tabulating the scores, it turns out that I was the only one to successfully pick the final four. I can tell you that I put a lot of hard work and effort into picking those teams…or not. I think I spent 10 minutes total. As one of my classmates said, “Yeah, we knew some girl who didn’t even watch basketball would win.”

3rd prize: $25
2nd prize: $50
My prize! $100

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I had an MBA weekend. This is because I participated in at least one MBA event starting on Friday night and continuing through Sunday morning.

Last quarter, the last thing I wanted to do was be at school or do MBA-related things in my free time. Even though a lot of them were fun, like the MBA winter party, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything additional that related to school. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, last quarter was hell. I’m through it and I learned a lot but my emotions and mental state were fried by the time I got on the plane for China. I’m much better now, but I’ve had time over the last two weeks to adjust and rest as necessary.

Anyway, this weekend was fun because I finally got to participate in some of the activities that I would have felt guilty, or uninspired, about joining last quarter.

On Friday, I went downtown and played poker at the MBA monthly poker night. We played Texas Hold’em and I suck. That’s okay though. I only lost $5 and I got to get in the hot tub and pool very soon after losing. The venue is fantastic and doing cannonballs in the pool was way more fun than trying to win the $45 pot. Of course I say that because there is no way I could have won. Still, chilling in the hot tub at the end of a long week was the best prize I could have received. Too bad I was so tired though. I think I got kind of grouchy at the end of the night when we were grabbing some pizza at midnight. I was ready for bed and no one was going to change my mind.

Yesterday morning I got in some volunteer hours for the boys and girls club. Jonathan and I proctored an SAT practice test for two teenagers. I’m sure we were totally lame to them but whatever. I loved doing this. I loved it mainly because I got 3.5 volunteer hours in and I finished my accounting homework, sifted through my email, and did some much-needed housekeeping regarding computer cleanup. I know it sounds thrilling but it was the most productive Saturday morning I’ve had in a long time.

This morning I went to the gym on campus and played volleyball for a couple of hours. I’m slightly bruised from diving for the ball but I had so much fun. I played volleyball in high school and I forgot how much I missed it. I need to work on my game, but my skills started coming back to me. My bad habits came back too so maybe we can do some hitting and digging drills before next week’s match.

I was supposed to go to a bbq on the beach today but it got rained out. It is supposed to be rainy and cold all week so I’ll have to put my shorts away for a few more days. I don’t mind though. Summer weather will be here soon enough.

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I’m feeling much better. I don’t know if it’s because I got over my cold and finally feel rested or because this week of school has actually been fun. Even though I haven’t gotten a lot accomplished homework-wise, I feel like I’ve done a lot and I have some fun stuff lined up for this weekend.

Since I missed a few days of school last week, I was feeling really stupid during my team meetings. I didn’t really know what was going on and I felt like I was slowing everyone down. I think I’m finally caught up and I can participate in the group discussions now. I’m struggling with spreadsheet modeling and operations management and I really don’t want to fall behind again especially since midterms start next week!

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