:Nintendo Widow

Last night, I attended the second-to last MBA Pub Club of the year. In two weeks, the class of 2007 will graduate. Some will stay in Seattle, but many of them will move on to lucrative jobs nationally and worldwide. I’m happy for them but damn I’ll really miss them! I couldn’t have made it through my first year without the reassuring words that no, I will not fail, yes, I’ll will make it past fall quarter and pay attention, it goes by too quickly.

I know that in a year I’ll most likely be more than ready to move on, but it really is going by so quickly.

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In the last couple of months, I’ve been the defacto host for a number of speakers events at school. Actually, it isn’t defacto since I hold some elected positions, but I’m more than happy to facilitate a meeting or host a panel.

Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to host a panel for a combined Women in Business and Finance Club lunch event. We had Mindy Mount, Microsoft VP and CFO of the Entertainment and Devices division, Jen Wallis, VP at HSBC Wells Fargo, and Samantha Brown, Managing Director of the Goldman Sachs Seattle office.

The speakers were amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better panel. They were approachable and willing to answer any question. Thanks to the diligent work of my co-VP of speaking events, Shanna, we were able to get such high-caliber speakers.

This event was not an unusual occurance. Last week, my good friend Kien hosted Cheryl Scott, COO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As expected, she was a fantastic speaker and provided some great insights into what it is like to manage the largest charitable endowment in the world.

The point is that we are really REALLY lucky to have such great speakers who are ready and willing to come to school and humbly answer the questions of MBA students.

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Here’s a breakdown of what kept me pleasantly busy this weekend.

Thursday:
Early birthday dinner for Danny at ZTejas

Friday:
Early morning executive breakfast in Bellevue (I’m the note taker/intern)
10:30am Grey’s Anatomy finale watching brunch at a classmate’s house

Saturday:
Shopping at the outlet mall
China study tour reunion dinner in the international district
China study tour after party

Sunday:
Dessert making and house cleaning
Welcome party for my Naomi’s sister Najin. They made some wonderful Korean dishes and I was lucky enough to be invited to Naomi’s home.

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Late last night I found out that my teammates and I have been selected to lead a study tour to Korea and Japan during spring break of next year. As you can guess, I’m extremely excited about this. I’ll have to brush up on my Japanese (and Korean) but it will be well worth it.

Even though we put together a solid proposal I was still concerned that we wouldn’t get picked. Out of the six trip proposals, the Global Business Center chose Korea-Japan, Indonesia-Singapore, India, and South Africa.

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This weekend was the UW MBA annual case competition. First year student teams have three days to analyze a business problem and prepare a 20 minute presentation regarding solutions to the case. My team did well but we did not make it to the final round. I’m sad but I’m also okay with it. We worked hard but we were pretty burned out after finals last week, not to mention coming to school on Saturday. The top three teams get prize money and the winning team gets a trip to Dallas to meet with the company’s executives. I would have enjoyed the trip to Dallas, but I plan to be there in August anyway to visit my family.

Now I’m at home in my pajamas catching up on email and reading. Life is good.

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Even though I finished my core classes earlier this week I’m still busy. However, as my friend Amy says, “everything looks different now.” She’s right. The sun is brighter. The flowers are more lovely. Everything is just…nicer.

And now for something completely different….a rundown of my “busy” day:

Took the time to stop at Starbucks on the way to school
Sat in the library and finished International Business homework for 2 hours
Met with someone in the MBA admissions office about the upcoming admitted student weekend
Met with the Business Communications club officers about next year’s goals and events
Went to Int. Biz class
Had a group interview for the proposed Korea/Japan study tour
Came home and changed
Went to planning meeting for next year’s Challenge for Charity events
Went to Pub Club for an hour
Got home at 11pm

See! I’m busy but not so stressed! It’s such a strange feeling!

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I’m now officially done with my core classes. I took my Operations and Managerial Accounting midterms on Monday and Tuesday. Today, I only had electives and an MBAA meeting. I am so relieved. My electives will keep me busy but the stress isn’t nearly as bad as it was for my last three core classes. I swear to God they kicked my ass. I found out that I passed Qmeth which is a relief. I shouldn’t be worried about passing classes, but trust me, I was stressed. I just didn’t know what to think.

I got home last night around 10. I got a ride home from Options class and found Danny asleep on the couch. I warmed up some leftovers and turned on a rerun of Arrested Development. I then proceeded to go through a bowl of strawberries and a few vodka tonics. Needless to say, I slept in this morning.

I started my bridge electives (short electives taken between the end of core and early June) and I’m enjoying them so far. Options Pricing is challenging but the teacher is funny and he keeps us going even through the 3.5 hour evening class. I also have International Business and Entrepreneurship.

I’m not the only one in a celebratory mood. After I got out of my entrepreneurship class tonight, I went to greenlake and met two of my classmates for dinner at a very very nice restaurant. It was the perfect end to a long day.

Tomorrow, I have some meetings and international business…..but no more exams.

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Today is Danny and my one-year wedding anniversary. It’s kind of strange to think that we’ve been married for a year. It doesn’t seem that long and yet it seems like a while since we’ve been living together for nearly four years anyway.

He and I don’t really do much in terms of traditional events. We had a small, non-traditional wedding. We don’t give each other extravagent gifts. Birthdays are special but other holidays are mentioned but not really observed.

For our anniversary this year, he made us reservations at ZTejas in Bellevue. This restaurant started in Austin and was where I had my 26th birthday party. I was really happy and surprised to find one in Bellevue and I’ve been bugging Danny to take me there. He surprised me by making the reservations and telling me we had a date on Saturday. I was thrilled. Not only did we have nice dinner plans but it was at one of my favorite places.

ZTejas did not disappoint. I had a REAL margarita and Danny got some real chips and queso. Everybody wins!

On a related note, I was talking to one of my classmates from Korea yesterday when we had this conversation.

Me: This weekend is my anniversary. Danny is so sweet. He’s made plans and he’s taking me out.

Classmate: Wow, you’ve been married for a year? So it is going well?

Me: Yes. Danny is so sweet. He never gets mad at me even when I steal his keys.

Classmate: You steal his keys?

Me: Yes, I forget that I have my keys in my backpack so I accidentally grab his. When he doesn’t have his keys he can’t leave the house. I feel so bad when I do it but he never gets mad at me.

Classmate: He never gets mad at you? Wow, he is really nice. You are a very bad wife.

Me: Yes, sometimes I am a very bad wife.

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Stuart Evey, the founder of ESPN, spoke at school today. Even though I know little about ESPN other than the fact that my cable provider gives me no less than six flavors of ESPN, I do respect it. Whoever thought that someone would pay for up to six channels that show nothing but sports is genius. Today, I listened to that genius tell his story.

It turns out that Stuart is a UW alum and is mentoring the amateur sports startup A to Z Sports. The founder of A-Z got Stuart to give a speech on entrepreneurship and how he turned a simple idea into a multi-billion dollar company. Stuart was great. I could listen to him all day. He was approachable, funny, and he realizes that success is a combination of great ideas, the right people, timing, and luck. He knew he had something good and he stuck with it but there were long periods of time when he didn’t know what was going to happen.

I like listening to entrepreneurs more than I used to. By nature, I am a very risk-averse person. I gamble when I go to Vegas, but this involves blowing maybe $40 at the $2 minimum craps tables downtown. In my entrepreneurship class, we listen to entrepreneurs talk about why they started their own business. Very few of them had a specific goal in mind and instead they acted on opportunities. I would like to think that I could just do that, but I think I would have to be much more financially secure to go through with something like that. I totally respect it, but I just don’t have the balls for that kind of work.

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Yesterday, two of my classmates and I submitted our proposal for a two-week study tour to South Korea and Japan next spring. It would follow the same format as my China study tour only I would be in charge! Scary, huh? We submitted our proposal complete with suggested companies, itinerary and budget and we find out at the end of the month if we’ve been approved. We also have to interview with the program staff next week.

There are a lot of great proposals this year so I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll get approved. If we do, then we’ll each spend part of this summer and next fall lining up flights, hotels, and company visits.

I’ve been to Japan several times and even arranged vacations there so I’m not too worried about the transportation part of it. Plus, the infrastructure is so good that even non-Japanese speakers can get around easily. I’ve never been to South Korea but I’m looking forward to it. We have a huge contingent of current first-year students from Korea so we shouldn’t have a problem arranging company visits.

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