AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That's how I've felt today. I don't know why, but at the same time I do...

1) Interviews are next week. While I've done OK practicing for the case part of my consulting interviews I still have the other typical prep like researching companies, figuring out good questions to ask, and recalling my examples of leadership, teamwork, etc...

2) Spring Break plans needed to come together this week. After being wishy-washy and trying to decide between some trips, I've settled on Peru where I'll get to hike Macchu Pichu. I think it should be awesome but it's been the rush to find a trip, pick one with friends, get your deposit in, and find flights etc. Thank goodness for AA miles, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone on the trip.

3) School work. While my classes are interesting, some of them can be hard and time-consuming - sometimes more than last semester. Especially this class on Business, Government, and International Economies - it's interesting to look at things like German hyperinflation, the Tax cut of 1964, Nixon's economic policy in 1969 and 1971, but gosh, it isn't easy to figure this stuff out when you don't really remember taking a economics class.

4) Trying to find time to relax. Today my free time composed of going to a prayer meeting for those of us looking for jobs, stopping by our fellowship for a quick 30 minute dinner, an unplanned 40 minute nap, and now the time it took me to write this entry (which won't be proofread - sorry). I'm hoping to have more free time tomorrow.

5) Preparing for tomorrow - I have a random phone interview and I need to do some research on another job I'm considering applying for. Plus because of my new seat in class, I'm partially responsible for putting together this presentation that makes fun of people in my class - random right?

It's really not that bad, but it just feels worse. I don't enjoy feeling like there's one of those '60 minutes' watches ticking away behind me waiting for me to finish all of my random tasks...

OK, I've vented now. Thanks for listening (reading)... :)

Back to School...

It's been a hectic couple of days as I landed in Boston Sunday night and promptly started class on Monday. I'm still tired, but I'm telling myself I've only got 2 days to go. Tomorrow will be a tougher day to prepare sadly so. Anyway, my trip was great! It was very cool to be in such a different location.

In Dubai we went on a sand dune off-roading safari which means drivers drive us around the dunes which in turn made me nauseous. It was cool to see, but I could have gone for a shorter ride. :)

This is the Burj al Arab - the fancy hotel built on a man-made island.

Seeing the Sphinx and pyramids was a definite highlight. While in Egypt we got to meet with the CEO of Egypt's largest business, the premier Egyptologist who told us about some of his discoveries etc, and spend a day at the Red Sea.

From the Colossi of Memnon and the Temple of Queen Hathsheput


Karnak Temple, in front of King Tut's tomb, while on a faluka, and sailing down the Nile.


At the Red Sea and in front of the Giza Pyramids.

We ended up having a free day in Egypt since our meetings were canceled for Islamic New Year. Some of thought it might be fun to go to the Red Sea, and it turns out the student who organized the Egypt part of the trip has a family beach house on the Red Sea. Even though it was pretty cold, I still swam in it for a bit just to say that I've swam in the Red Sea! The water is amazingly clear and pretty.

Well that's it for now since I need to get going on work... but hopefully I'll have time update with more soon.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi

After a fun 8 days in Austin, I had to rush back to Boston so that I could catch my group flight to Dubai for my Middle East immersion. The flight wasn't horrible - 6 hours from Boston to London and then 7 hours from London to Dubai. After arriving, we got a quick tour of the city by bus and then had lunch. After settling in I took a quick 1 hour nap which wasn't enough at all since I slept only 3-4 hours over the 2 flights and had only slept 3 hours the night before. But nevertheless, I went to the opening session for our trip and then headed to a New Year's Eve party on the beach.

After taking the early bus home I was confronted with a slight problem. My roommate who had decided to stay in had double locked the door so I couldn't get in. After about 1.5 hours, the hotel staff was finally able to find the master "master key" and let me in since my roommate was sleeping so soundly she didn't hear us repeatedly banging on the door, calling the room, and ringing the doorbell. Before the master "master key" was found, there was talk of breaking down the door since they were fearful that something bad had happened. It was a nice little bit of drama to cap off the evening.

Anyway, Dubai has been interesting so far - the way the city has been built up is crazy. While we're here, we will visit the famed sailboat hotel Burj Arab and tour the Palm Islands real estate development. It's also been really interesting to learn about Islamic finance and this growing sector.

We also made a day trip to Abu Dhabi today and went to the Emirates Palace Hotel. All I can say is it is amazing what oil money can make and buy. This place was so extravagant and we were there visiting Mubadala, an investment company for Abu Dhabi. Some of their recent investments have included buying a 7.5% share in AMD at the end of 2007. What blew me away was that they had all of this cash to spend so they just kept on investing in these capital intensive projects, like building the largest aluminum smelter in the world or helping bail AMD out of their cashflow problems.

Hopefully, at some point I'll have some time to post some photos so you can see what I'm talking about...