All work and no blood...

The Smurfit Rugby team is the invincible force! So reputable is their glorious victories that when the sign up sheet for the MBA Rugby team was being filled, I couldn't resist the opportunity to put myself in harm's way.

Now I know what you're asking- simply because the Beady Eyed Friend already asked
"What are you thinking signing up for Rugby?? How do you have time for that? You don't have time for that! What the hell is wrong with you????"

And I am very glad you asked- There are a few reasons why I signed up.
1) Networking with my fellow MBA team mates- These guys are not only awesome people who I genuinely like- they're also very powerful networking contacts who I will need a strong relationship with for all of our careers after graduation.
2) I want to see if all of my speed training for running and strength training with weights and yoga actually has any useful purpose.
3) The MBA World Rugby Championships each year at Duke- yes Beady- the Duke University in the States. It will allow me to network with MBA's from other programs through out the world- including programs specifically in Canada- and of course- allow them to network with Irish Lads- and the Tournament isn't until April- so I have all of first semester to pass the hard part of the year.

Go Smurfs!

The Best Mysterious Guilt Tripped Group

Michael Crichton wrote a Murder Mystery novel while attending Harvard Medical School. What he wanted was a novel to pay for his schooling. What he got was a prize for the best new author.

Michael Crichton in his wisdom wrote the novel featuring characters who closely mirror the faculty at Harvard Med, so in his wisdom, he published it under the pseudenom of Jeffrey Hudson. As it turns out, Harvard Medical School and Smurfit Business School have something in common. EuroMBA! I just wanted to say that I have nothing to do with the Inquisition- nay WITCH HUNT that my most esteemed colleagues are undertaking! All I can say is- Hide yourself! Run for your life!!! I don't care who you are, but Samson will be as relentless as a Ontarian Pit Bull!!!

In other news entirely- I got SkypeOut, so I've been making calls. I got to hear The Beady-Eyed One's voice the day before however because she called me. Let me specify- She's the only one who ever called me including family- and she's also the only one who wrote me besides Corina.

/END GUILT TRIP

Anyways- I am now half way through the 3rd week. Barely able to breathe under the crippling amount of work- but luckily I have the best group in the program! YEAH! You heard me, Brendan! Yeah! Mine's better!!! So eat it! Yeah Samson- You're on my MIS team- so you're the best team for that- but at all other times- Sorry, your team just doesn't cut the mustard! And Alistair- Whooops- Wait- you're on my team. Dude- you're the best!

Good News, Bad News, and Ugly News

The good news first!
I am safe and working hard! I wouldn't say this is the time of my life- I am working too hard for that- but I'm survivng, and the first semester- the really really tough one is 1/6 done.
The bad news:
I have been a bad blogger, and my blogging neglect will probably continue- I just have other priorities right now- like not failing Principles of Finance, Financial Reporting, Management Accounting and Business Economics.
The ugly news:
I haven't slept more than 6 hours a night since I got here, and am putting in 90-100 hours each week. It's gruelling! (but the ultimate reward is worth it). Oh yeah- and I'm totally freaked out that although I know I can get a handle on the problem areas if I have enough time to devote to nuturing the skills- I don't know how I will get the time to nuture all skills! I'm going to try my utmost though.

The good news:
I am in class with really amazing people and it's a decidedly cooporative environment. We all help eachother out. I am helping out my classmates, and they are helping me out. I am making friends with everyone.
The bad news:
I miss some of my friends back in Toronto- like the Beady eyed one.
The Ugly news:
None of my friends I am making here are as pretty as the Beady Eyed one... Not that they're ugly, but my Beady Eyed friend is gorgeous!

The Good News:
The Economist Intelligence Unit applied their intelligence and ranked Smurfit MBA as 52 in the world.
The Bad News:
We didn't crack top 50.
The Ugly News:
Blue Skin and White hats makes for a weird looking class photo.

The Good News:
The mystery of Alicia Ross has coming to a close.
The Bad News:
The closure doesn't have a nice ending.
The Ugly News:
I'm not certain if a better fence would make a better neigbor in this instance, unless the fence was chain link and barbed wire, a la Gitmo.

The Good News:
Prices for flights to and hotel stays in Huston have dropped.
The Bad News:
Rita is going to be the main tourist this weekend.
The Ugly News:
This might be a Katrina all over again "If you're rich and white- you take a flight. Poor and black- you take flack..."

Day 3 and beyond

The more classes I take, the more that I am absolutely convinced that I have made the right choice coming to Europe for my MBA. Not just for the change of scenery, and the international exposure, but also because of the pace of the lectures and structure of them.

The European MBA has an older cohort with more experience- and particularly most have actual management experience. The Smurfit average age is 31, for example with 9 years experience. The classes are mostly case based, and seminar format instead of the teacher going on and on, as would be the case in North America to young classmembers who have little or no practical experience to place the information in context.

Anyways- nothing against the North American model, I'm just more and more sure that I made the right choice for me coming here.

Also- the one year out of commission didn't hurt either.

Student Life

It's strange adjusting to being a student again. Since I am now a Smurf, and a student again, I have had to make some lifestyle changes.

Not the least of which was that last night after my first day at school, I kinda felt like Pizza. Fine. I felt like pizza, but I didn't get pizza. I stayed home and heated up Chicken Korma which I ate while i read my marketing book.

Then I locked myself in my room and prepared for today's Organizational Behavior class. It's odd because it's really not Organizational Behavior; it's HUMAN behavior. It's not how organizations behave, it's how people behave. That's a rather misleading title, don't you think?

Currently I'm eating lunch between classes- This afternoon I have MIS, Managemenet of Information Systems. After spending 7 years in tech, with 3 of them as a developer, I'll be interested to know of what this course will cover and whether it will be new things, or just a different take on the stuff I already know. (A new perspective is always useful though)

Today we got adressed by the Dean of the Business School who introduced the new MBA Program Administrator. He's taken on Smurfit after being at INSEAD, so he has experience with really high ranking schools with excellent reputations, so his expertise will no doubt transfer to promoting the Smurfit Brand and reputation.

We've already had two people drop out of the course, and it's only the second day! No one has gone out in a blaze of glory. Nothing exciting like someone jumping out of their seat in the middle of Finance Class and crying "I don't care what Father says! I want to be a Jazz Musician!!!" and tearing out of the room cackling madly. As soon as the door closes behind the outburster, the professor says "... and if you'll see for the fiscal quarter of 3 in 2002, the Price to Earning ratio has increased by 13% over over previous quarters..."

Now if you'll excuse me before class, I have to practice my clarinet... You know... just in case.

Lazy Immigrant...

I am sitting in the immigration office on Saturday afternoon waiting en queue for my student visa. I am number 164 and it is now serving 98. Over the past hour they've served 49 people.

Here is the math problem for the GMAT:
If Mike is number 164 when he arrived at 1130, when there are 114 people in front of him, and there is now 66 in front of him at 1230 at what rate is the queue moving? Will Mike make it to the desk before they close at 1400? At what rate will Mike go mad?

Trick question: Beady eyed one can attest I went mad looooong ago! When I survive I'll update you. I'm meeting my friends at Trinity College at 1400 so I'll grab a bite then. This Irish (ding-dong! 54 more to go) dining habits has been great to me. I'm eating my fruits & veggies, but in far less quantity of food overall- as a result I can tell I'm going to lose my hard earned tub I developed over the past year... Not the beady eyed one ever complained. Not even when I pointed out my new belly and jiggled the jiggly. She never did complain, but I did cry as I watched her walk down the path to her office- I knew I'd miss her, and I do. Not just because she never complained about my tub, but because for a year she's been my best friend, my better half, my conscience, my greatest challenger, my death threat utterer, my frustration creator, my concubine, and the colour in my world.
Miss ya, kiddo. Love ya.

Lucky the Irish!

Everything that I was fearful about the Irish doesn't apply. I thought that they would disorganized and slow. This is not the case. I was shuttled to my room quickly after I arrived where I showerred and met my first MBA classmate. What a fellow! More on that later.

Everyone in Dublin is extremely friendly. Every one associated with the program is very friendly and helpful. They're curious about me, as I am about all of them, so I'm taking time to talk to and meet all 40 students. All people i meet are extremely responsive.

Last night I had my first real Irish experience. I went to a genuine Irish Pub (complete with Cricket Hooligans) and ate a Guiness Beef stew and chips. I wouldn't say it was great tasting, but it was certainly worth the experience!

This afternoon after the class photos and extremely informative lectures on CVs preparing us for our One -on-one CV consultations, I went for a quick run. It felt awesome! I then came back home and went to sleep. I have a dinner tonight with my classmates and am really looking forward to it.

I got my course materials for my case studies. I'll thumb through the accounting book and be sure to update you all on that.

It even rained today! Imagine that! Rain in Ireland!

Oh and my current events and political critique that you obviously are impressed and enamoured with will probably take a bit of a different turn- The news papers are plentiful here- at the lobby of the Smurfit School Main Entrance, and they are both papers! Financial Times and Wall Street Journal- European Edition!

So- let's give it a try- eBay announced toady it was intent on offering a bid to buy VOIP superstar Skype. Immediately- the stock reaction was falling 3.8%.




Could it be the valuation of Skype at $3 Billion???

Christie Blatchford couldn't have said it better.

Ireland has Arrived!

Good morning!

As I write this I am on a bus heading to Dublin City Centre and onwards to University College of Dublin which will become my new home. I waited in line oops- in queue for 10 minutes for the bank machine. I realized I needed cash for the bus to get from the airport, and then a cab afterwards to the Residence- and maybe a snack if I get hungry. Sushi anyone? As it turned out- the 10 Euros the Baron very generously gave me was sufficient to get the ticket and have enough over for bite. (probably- I don’t know bite prices here, but hopefully they’re as fun as bites from the Bead eyed one.

It was a fine flight. I nodded off quickly after a beef and rice dinner, and woke up to coffee and cold breakfast. I feel jetlagged and a little lost, but overall fantastic, and brilliantly confident that I made the right decision coming here!

Over the Atlantic somwhere....

Hey all!
Good news! I have left Toronto safely and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of Air Canada Business Class. My very friendly seat mate lamented that Air Canada is nothing like Japan Air Business Class, and that’s why AC is going down the tubes! LOL

My last couple of days as a Canadian has been a whirlwind of packing, getting prepared and overall mishigas that comes with moving to a new continent. Let’s start from the beginning.

I left work without a blaze of glory last week. My official last day was on Friday, but I stopped working on Thursday in order to get more errands done.

Friday- I got my haircut and then went to bank and jumped through some last minute hoops for my Student Loan- Very familiar hoops I might add as I was just in there last month doing the same things. I understand- things get lost- so it’s nothing that will raise my Ire.

Saturday I started getting really freaky messages in my laptop. My brand new laptop- like errors and registry trouble. So I did what any overcautious and slightly cagey somewhat technically inclined person would do- I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled everything! Unfortunately- because I’m only somewhat technically inclined and not a full fledged card carrying techie or geek- I didn’t reinstall- I did a repair job, which actually didn’t fix a thing But I didn’t know it immediately. So there I was reinstalling all my drivers… and then I look in Program Files and see that all my programs are still there- they just aren’t part of the start menu or desktop. And there they were- very pleased with themselves indeed, so much so that if I was as suspicious as the Beady Eyed one- I would say they were mocking me!

Sunday I went for my last Brunch on Queen West at Portobello- wicked grub, dirt cheap and fantastically friendly and genuine atmosphere- very funny and sweet host. And then- for a last latte at BullDog (yes- Pearl- I know you’d be proud).

The Beady Eyed One and I had several last dates. Saturday was supposed to be the last date- but she then asked what I was doing on Monday- I had plans with a friend of mine from the Gym that missed my going away party due to work obligations in Calgary- so she asked if she wanted to hang out during the day. Who was I to say no to the Beady Eyed one? So we had lunch and an ice cream. That evening- I went with my friend to the best and probably the coolest Chinese restaurant in the city. It’s called Kum Jug Yeun and it’s on Spadina a block south of College. Don’t let the ducks hanging in the window and the grubby appearance fool you- the joint is cool because the food is pure ambrosia. I was sharing the best spicy squid in town with my friend when a tall German approached from behind and helped himself to a plump crustacean. “What is this?” Sniffed the scraggly looking young man and popped the morsel into his mouth. “Mmmmm! That’s good!” he said as he chewed. “Uh- Waiter?” I queried as my dining partner looked on in incomprehension. The ruse was taken far enough as I greeted my sister and her tall scraggly German boyfriend!

The next two days were filled with packing and final preparations- including going back to bank one last time. In the end- I was shooting for the Air Canada limit for each bag of 50 Lbs. I came in at around 60-65 Lbs each. This is after all, my entire life stuffed into two bags. My sister warned of exorbitant overweight penalties. Until my father reminded her that he booked me on a Business Class flight. Then she shrugged and said “Oh yeah- they’ll have no problem.” And they didn’t- I got checked in easily and quickly and the very pleasant and helpful check in agent strapped”Overweight” stickers on the baggage with out charging me a single Euro. Huzzah!


So- here I am in mid flight about an hour and half into the flight- and blogging about it. More to come after I land! Night all- I’m going to try to get some sleep.

Closet Space

There was a fascinating little story of note in the papers this week- it seems a BC woman was denied a quick divorce from her husband because of a technicality in the law.

Adultery is grounds for immediate divorce, but it's defined in the text books as sexual contact between a man and woman where at least one party is married to another.

So- they changed the law.

But my blog is a guide to how to tell if you wife or husband is gay.

• Your husband starts collecting show tunes.
• Your wife starts following WNBA or women's golf.
• Your husband owns more shoes than you.
• Your wife owns fewer shoes than you, and they are all brown loafers.
• Your husband gets a mini-poodle and starts carrying it around with him where ever he goes. When you question him about it- he bursts into tears and locks himself in the bedroom for 3 hours.
• When in a disagreement with your wife- she challenges you to arm wrestle. She beats you. Easily.