oops

yeah, okay, so i realize it's been a while since i updated this thing. and you know what- i'm okay with that. want to know why? because i've been extremely busy and trying to remember every little thing i've done over the last few weeks is not the easiest thing to do when one spends most of the day researching whether the euro will survive the financial crisis and why middle market buyouts in the private equity sector in europe are such critical investments now. sounds like loads of fun, right? of course right.

so i went to ireland and had a blast. took loads of pictures. drank gallons of guinness. and went on two whiskey tours. good times. good people- i highly recommend the tour company i used, so if you're ever in need of a tour of ireland- looks up shamrockers. awesome group of people.

went to stonehenge last weekend and realized it's such a sham. it's a bunch of rocks people. that's all- nothing special about it except that they charge you the equivalent of $12 to walk around them, though you can only get about 25 yards or so away because they have it all roped off.

went to salisbury cathedral and saw the original magna carta. quite a pleasant experience.

went to bath and saw the roman baths. they told me not to touch the water since it was untreated. they clearly have never had dc water to bathe in/drink. in any event, i figured the romans used to bathe in this stuff, so touching it wouldn't hurt. so i did. i'm fine. thanks for asking.

um- what else. have begun to master the art of croquet. a lot harder than you'd think. it's all about the strategy actually. and that strategy is to never leave your teammate behind, since you can play off each other to get to the other team's balls and then play off them to send them all over the court. it's quite fun.

for the most part i've finished my classes- i only have each one one more time, but it's to present findings on our research and to have a final negotiation. fun times, let me tell you what.

um- what else is new? trying to find a job. the stress of that has returned. i wish people would just come to me with offers and i could decide. trying to figure out where i want to land for the next few years in an attempt to blast out as much of this debt as possible before i can focus on starting my own business is going to be quite a challenge. and yes, you heard right- starting my own business is definitely something i'm trying to work out. if anyone knows anything about this, let me know :)

sigh. okay- that was a good study break. i need to get back to research. hey- does anyone else think the euro will collapse? or is it just me?

safe and sound

so, i got back from my scotland trip last night. we had an amazing time- lots of walking around and good food and the best of company. i am fortunate to have met some incredible people my first time around in scotland and i always enjoy seeing them again.

i'd love to give you all a quick rundown of the trip, but let's just say the expected drive of 6 hours took about 8.5 on the way up in the pouring rain. nice. got lost once. stalled the car 3 times, only because the stupid thing would stall out if we were leaving the interstate in 6th gear and i dropped below a certain speed without shifting it to something closer to 3rd. this may sound elementary, but trust me, i drive stick at home and never stall, so i think it was the car's fault! ha ha!

we spent most of saturday walking around edinburgh in the rain- seeing the sights and eating the foods. i managed to drain my battery on my camera before i arrived in edinburgh, so i personally didn't get any pictures, though i am just going to steal the ones that omar, adam, and catie took. saturday night involved going to 5 or 6 different bars and being out until 3am at a place i used to work for. sunday morning was beautiful weather- and we had quite a nice drive out to rosslyn chapel and back into oxford. great weather on the first half of the trip and everyone got to see the awesomeness of the scottish border country. a few good mountains and some great pictures!

now it's back to the grindstone this week so that i can take my ireland trip next weekend! yipee!

organizational skills

so, after spending the last day researching and running around trying to book my "extended weekend" trip, i have decided to go on a tour of southern ireland with some friends. we're leaving dublin on friday next week and spending three days traveling around. then staying overnight in dublin sunday night and coming back late night monday (actually not getting back to oxford until tuesday morning, but that's due to the bus/ferry we're taking overnight).

i'd like to point out that i finally learned something in business school that was applicable to my life. and that was that when it's time to make a final decision, i'm very good at laying down the law and then organizing people around that law. granted some people are wimps and the prospect of spending two nights on a bus/ferry (since we're doing it overnight thursday/friday to get to ireland in the first place) scares them. but for me and 2 other guys- we're going to persevere through it all. especially since the bus/ferry portion of the trip is now free due to my newfound negotiating tactics. (so i suppose that's 2 things i've learned in business school that have been directly applicable to my life).

this weekend i'm headed up to scotland to visit some old friends. can't wait- it's been way too long and i miss scotland so much. for you long timers you'll recall how much i felt "at home" in scotland and how much i wanted to stay permanently. so, returning to scotland is going to be great, but probably bittersweet at the same time. in any event, it'll be worth it!

does anyone out here in blogo-land know the best way to post pictures online? is it still shutterfly or whatever that thing is called? i have about 89 pictures or so so far that i would love to share with the group. and, as i said before, the whole facebook way of doing it is annoying since many readers on this blog do not have a facebook account to begin with.

i'm off to the library for now. enjoy your thursday morning! tomorrow i'm going to the mini cooper plant- so that should be fun.

some pictures

hey everyone, so here are some photos for your perusal. the top left is one of the house boats i was telling you about. next to that is the trout inn. underneath that picture is another houseboat. the bottom left picture is of the front side of the trout inn. the bottom right picture is the roof of the dining hall we sit in. not too shabby huh? anyway- i need to find a better way to post pictures than the standard facebook thing, so i'm working on it. i have about 80 or so so far. :)

bad idea

so, yesterday i performed a feat the likes of which had never been seen here in oxford. (or at least, that's what i keep telling myself since it was a stupid idea to begin with). after spending most of the afternoon running and then playing ultimate frisbee, i was famished. i agreed to go with some of the group to "the mission" which is basically oxford's version of chipotle or qdoba (mom and dad- they are burrito shops in case you didn't know this). as i was getting ready i happened to check my email- one of the guys sent out to the entire group that i was going to participate in the "chipotle challenge" which is to eat 2 burritos and a bag of chips and queso. not only did he say i was going to do it, but he claimed that there's no way i could finish it all.

being a competitive person, i dropped to the ground and did as many crunches and situps as i could to try to get that famished feeling going for me. there's no way i was backing down from this challenge.

we get to the mission at about 8pm (already problematic for me since i don't like eating past 730 or so), and we proceed to order chips and salsa (no queso at this place. sign number 1 that this isn't a great place to eat- how can you be a burrito joint and not have queso dip?). well, it turns out that these burritos weren't all that large, so i ate mine and the chips and salsa and then the group decided to forgo the competition since it would have meant i needed to scarf 4 burritos to be successful, and at £6 per burrito, this just wasn't economical.

on the way back, however, we ran into a burger king, where it was decided that if i wanted to prove myself, i needed to eat a triple whopper. 3 minutes later, i had proved myself. and to top the evening off, i had some ice cream too!

so, now that i need to move to 2-a-days in an effort to run and get rid of all those excess calories, i feel completely satisfied that i accomplished my mission. so yes, this is the life of a summer oxford student. great fun, eh?

i have my first official class today- business in the european union or something like that. i still haven't come up with a paper topic yet, but i'm hoping i can in the next 1.5 hours. wish me luck with that. we are going on a tour of the mini cooper factory this friday, and then i am renting a car and heading up to scotland to visit some friends. can't wait!

hope all is well with everyone.

trout inn

so, i took a 5 hour walk today to the trout inn, which is where lewis carroll was inspired to write alice in wonderland. it was a gorgeous day, though a bit warm, and we walked along the towpath canal and through a large open pasture and by an old run-down nunnery. it was pretty awesome and i have some great pictures, which of course are on my camera and not my computer since i still can't get this damn thing to work.

i also had my first experience with the "boat people" of oxford. apparently people buy these long, flat bottom boats, and get mooring permits and then proceed to live in them like apartments. some are quite nice, and others are disgustingly filthy. let's just say there are more of the latter than former. an interesting sight to behold in west oxford (which is the posh section). it's quite a juxtaposition, as many of the homes along the canal are much like our mansion estates on the water (not quite as big, but definitely worth as much), and then out of their backyard windows are these boat people. nice, eh?

i also discovered the joys of baileys ice cream. yes, made with real baileys (and tasting much better than rum raisin [as if that's even possible!]), i managed to devour a cup. i also had quite a delicious korean bbq from one of the other students on the course here. whatever he marinated the chicken in was delicious!

anyway- that kind of sums up my weekend for the most part. i had a finance exam on saturday, but that wasn't too bad and i am pretty sure i rocked it. we'll see however.

hope everyone is well and safe. love and miss you all!

it's going

everyone's been asking me how things are going. so, in one word, great. we haven't technically started our "classes" per se, but we've been doing an intensive integrative on interpersonal management skills, politics in the eu, we're going to have a marketing day tomorrow and a finance day on friday.

i've met with two of my "professors" so far and i think i'm going to be doing a lot of work, which is fine, and i hope challenging. i need a topic for business in the eu, so i'm thinking of that in some manner. although i could do a paper on eu enlargement (ie, will turkey get in and should they, was the addition romania and bulgaria too much of a stretch on the finances of the eu, etc). and then my negotiations class could be fun. still to meet with my private equity and venture capital professor next week. yay!

tonight's the big dinner night at trinity college, so i'm sure we're in for a treat. speaking of which- i'd better go "suit up" and get ready to look nice and impress all the english lasses. oh wait- never mind.