Why Stop Here?

US Exports

2006-06-16T08:42:00.000-05:00

It appears that the US is finally closing the gap on its trade deficit. Well, I guess this isn't the kind of export that many people will be happy about (unless you happen to be an "underpaid" European executive). I can't imagine that the unions, which are much more powerful in Europe, will let this situation progess the way it has in the US. But, the times they are a changin - maybe I'm choosing to come to Europe at the right time...

Happy Happy Joy Joy

2006-06-15T14:20:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while, but today certainly deserves a comment. I just received word that I was awarded an Annual Fund Scholarship! With the weak dollar, this is VERY good news. I will now be able to eat two meals a day rather than the one meal that I was planning on.

On a separate note, I tried to post last week about my recent vacation to Cancun, Mexico, but Blogger was not cooperating. I wrote a really long post only to see it erased. To give a quick recap, Mexico really was a blast, but I had forgotten that they got hit with a severe hurricane last October. Most of the hotels were closed, but we didn't really leave the resort much anyway. The water and weather were incredible. I could certainly see myself being a man of leisure.

I'm back in London next weekend for a wedding, Oregon the weekend after that for another wedding, Chicago the weekend after that, and then a one-way ticket to L...B...S! I paid my Reservation Fee today, so it is now official. Things are looking up.

13 days of work left...

What a week!

2006-05-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

Well, its taken me longer than expected to post about my week in London. To be honest, I'm just now recovering from the whirlwind that is my life. The picture at left was taken on the Saturday of Admits Weekend. Beautiful, isn't it? The funny thing is that it was raining ten minutes later. Ahh, London.

Okay, let's begin. I arrived at Heathrow on Wednesday morning. I'm exhibiting all the symptoms of a serious case of senioritis at work, so I decided to fly in a day earlier than expected. During the first day, I walked around town with my friend, trying not to be jetlagged, and met up with my other friend for some Lebanese food. Wednesday night, I hit Nobu. If I haven't mentioned this before, I LOVE sushi--and Nobu is like Mecca for sushi lovers. Anyway, Thursday had more walking, followed by the Radiohead concert that night. Holy crap! It was the best concert I've ever seen. If I requested a song in my head, they sang it. Unbelievable. One word: Idiotheque! I was so revved up from the show that I literally did not sleep on Thursday night, which was awful because Friday night was to be the first time I meet my fellow 2008ers. I really should have napped, but who has time for sleep when you're in London??

And now, the part you've all been waiting for--Admits Weekend! So, my cabbie decides to let me off in the inner circle of Regents Park rather than the outer circle. Not an auspicious beginning. Luckily I got some nice photos on the walk (see above). I just make it to the school by 6:30 to meet up with everyone, and I see a ton of students partying in the courtyard. I assume (read: ass out of u and me) that these are all fellow admits waiting to go to dinner. Wrong. Evidently Sundowners is on Friday night this week and almost everyone there was a current student. I proceed to walk around introducing myself at a lightning quick pace like I'm running for office. Again, not an auspicious beginning. I feel like a freshman in high school again. Totally clueless and awkward. Finally though, a ray of light. I walk to the front of the building and meet the Divine one, Miss N! As she mentioned in her post, I sort of bear-hugged her--could have been perceived as friendly, could've been perceived as psychotic and aggressive. Fortunately, I think she chose the former :) The tube was incredibly hot on the ride over, and I was actually sweating by the time I got to Kettners, in Soho. Yikes. Dinner was really cool though. The food wasn't great, but LBS was footing the bill and evidently about double the number of students showed up this year compared to last year. Thanks LBS! I love free meals.

During the three course meal, I spoke with a Turkish gentleman, a Mexican 2nd year, a couple of Brits and a Russian fellow among others. I met the lovely Angel Angie, Moe, and Al (very briefly--I sort of heard something he said and recognized him from his blog, and then proceeded to identify him from afar by yelling his name--sorry Al). As you'd expect, very diverse. I found a lot of very intelligent people having a lot of very intelligent conversations. I know, however, that people weren't yet letting loose, and that everyone was still feeling out the environment. That being said, a bunch of us went out to a pub next door after dinner. I thought I'd be responsible and leave around 12:30, but it was pouring rain by this point and I had to walk (without an umbrella--such a rookie move) about a half hour before I could find a cab.

Saturday was the big day of the week. We started with breakfast at 9am at the school. Here, we received a name tag and a goodie bag with a tee shirt, umbrella (a few hours too late), a London survival guide, and a few other helpful items. We heard Dean Tyson, Julia Tyler, and the president of the student association speak. It was at this point that it began to sink in: I was actually at business school (sort of). I was actually meeting my future classmates/friends/colleagues. Who would I end up being friends with? Who would I end up with in my study group? Who are the star students? Who are the slackers in the group? It suddenly became very real. It's quite a thing to finally get what you ask for.

We were split into two groups, blue and red. Miss N was our blue team leader and walked us to our first "class" with the Center for Career Development. I believe Angel Angie has a photo/description of this section. It was extremely informative. I have to admit though, I was a little "dry" from the night before. Next was a meeting in the main classroom to go over the proposed schedule changes and core classes for our year. Very cool. I can't wait to be a full-time student again. Next was a little time to meet some of the 100+ clubs that are on campus. I checked out the Rugby Club (I've been told, both by the members and other students, that the Rugby Club members secretly run the school--the word Mafia was used quite frequently), the Finance Club, the Private Equity Club (run by Rugby players), and the Energy Club. We met the clubs in the MBar, which I understand is where Sundowners generally takes place. After speaking with a member of the Rugby squad for a minute, he performed a Jedi mind trick on me and I found myself drinking a beer at 11am and signing up for the team.

By this point, I was looking at my watch rather frequently. I had to head back to Boston on the 6pm flight, and I hadn't packed yet. So, I grabbed a quick bite while everyone sat down to eat lunch, said goodbyes to everyone I met, and made my way back to the apartment to pack and be on my way. I had an amazing week! I met some truly incredible people, and I can't wait to see what's coming next.

Next up: Cancun, Mexico for a week of fun in the sun!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I was contacted by LBS because they are going to link my blog to the school MBA blog. Excellent.

"Holding most of the aces"

2006-05-14T09:25:00.000-05:00

This is the kind of news that I love to hear. Hopefully the situation will remain the same during the 2008ers recruiting season...

Showtime at the Apollo!

2006-05-12T09:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I can now reveal the mystery concert which I will be attending on Thursday---Radiohead at the Hammersmith Apollo! Yes! I just found out that my friend and I were the high bidders on eBay for a pair of tix. Radiohead in London?? How cool is that?

On a separate topic, congratulations to all the R3 admits! I can't wait to meet everyone next week.

Show me the money!

2006-05-11T12:17:00.000-05:00

It's official. I have sufficient funds to attend London Business School! I just checked the Sallie Mae website and my loans have been approved, both Stafford and MBA Private loans. It's weird, because the debt load doesn't scare me at all. These are some large figures, at less than generous interest rates, but I couldn't care less. Is it because I know (??) that I'll get a great job post-MBA and be able to service this debt effectively? Not entirely. Although I of course want to believe this (and do), the reason for my relative nonchalance stems from my strong belief that this is the right move for me. I've wanted an experience like this for so long that I'd be willing to donate my first born to have it.

I created a budget for the next year (starting August) with cash inflow and outflow forecasts based on the dates of my loan disbursements, tuition payments and estimated monthly expenses. I can definitely make it work on loans (without tapping into savings) as long as the dollar doesn't continue it's slide. I used a $1.8 to £1.0 exchange rate, which I 'm hoping is fairly accurate. Who am I kidding? I'll probably spend twice as much as I allocated for each expense. Travel costs could be huge, because I plan on taking full advantage of London's access to the world.

On to another LBS topic (am I going to have to learn to always say London Business School?), Admits Weekend is a week away! I'm taking the red-eye from Boston on Tuesday night. That gives me Wednesday and Thursday to get my clock adjusted. I think I'm attending an unbelievable concert on one of the nights, but I won't say which one because I don't have my tickets quite yet and I DO NOT welcome competition in scoring a pair. Friday night is a large group dinner in Soho where I will have the privilege of meeting the Divine Miss N (and hopefully some other LBS bloggers). Saturday is the formal day of meetings and presentations, although I have to bail at around 4pm to catch a ride to the airport. Wow, it's really happening. Less than two months of work left...

Practice for London

2006-05-03T12:10:00.000-05:00

Last night I met with some of my fellow admits, and once again, I had a great time. I'll give you the lineup: one gentleman MiF 2007, two young ladies in the MBA 2008, and one lad in the MBA 2008. I had suggested a bar that has a fantastic roofdeck, but I forgot where we lived and assumed the weather would be sunny and warm. Nope. It was cold and rainy. The benefit was that we all got some practice getting tipsy in a dark bar while it's rainy outside. Hmmm, for some reason, I can see a future in this...

Moving along, everyone was really cool. The diverse backgrounds of the people I've met at/through LBS continually amaze me. The conversation was intelligent and seemed to flow with ease. We went around the table and introduced ourselves, giving professional/academic/geographic backgrounds. We discussed some of the perceived hassles of moving to the UK (bank accounts, loans, living, etc.), but collectively acknowledged that we weren't stressed about them because we're just too excited about the benefits of life at LBS to allow ourselves to get lost in the details. I like being around optimists. Then we had a few more drinks and began to get into some great conversations ranging from summer travel plans to corruption in government to microfinancing. We shared some more drinks, had some food, laughed a lot, and decided we'd try to get together again before the start of school. I really liked knowing that I would be sharing some amazing experiences with these people for the next two years. The coming attractions that I've seen so far lead me to believe that business school will be a life-altering experience.

Next up...Admits Weekend!

Sin City

2006-05-02T09:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but I've had a lot going on. The next few months are going to be incredibly busy, but in a good way (I hope). I just got back yesterday from the infamous Las Vegas, aka Sin City. I went with twenty of my friends for a bachelor party (yikes). What an odd place! It looks like they arbitrarily built this adult playground in the middle of a random desert. I had been to Vegas for a few hours a couple of years ago, but this was my first time spending the weekend. First of all, there is an hour-long queue for everything. There must have been a thousand people waiting for a cab at the airport. But, we had an amazing outdoor table on the balcony of the club Pure. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay, I believe, only because it had the best swiming pool. I've learned that pools are very important in Vegas, because that's where everyone spends their time during the day (it was 95 degrees and sunny). That city is so outrageously expensive that I should be well acclimated to London by August. But, I actually won money for the first time! I'm a terrible gambler, so I don't do it very often. While my friends were winning or losing vast sums on the blackjack tables, I was off putting $1 into the slot machines (and being made fun of by aforementioned friends). Do you know who won more than anyone else??? Me! Two lucky slot pulls paid for the weekend. It's a good thing too, because I have so many trips coming up (Admits Weekend, Cancun, etc.). I also just found out yesterday that my friends in London are getting married in June.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, but I'm meeting up with a few fellow LBSers tonight for a drink! We've organized a meeting through Portal. I can't wait! I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Blizzard!

2006-04-05T09:58:00.000-05:00

Given the choice of the two on the left, I'd certainly choose the delicious Dairy Queen variety every time. Unfortunately, the former is the only blizzard that I see before me. Last week it was 72 degrees and sunny. Everyone was outside, in shorts and tee shirts (I was wearing a suit), and spring was in the air! What the hell happened?? It's a white-out condition. And while I may be slightly exaggerating the force of the snow (indeed perception=reality), it certainly feels like a nasty storm. Ah, New England... one last stick in the eye before I move across the pond and experience the always reliable London sunshine.

Paris demonstrations

2006-03-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

My apologies for using such a graphic image to start this post, but I want to make that point that people are getting injured in Paris while protesting a seemingly mild proposal by Dominique de Villepin. And whatever one's view on the CPE, I just don't see how it is being interpreted by so many as this oppressive measure which will engender discrimination against the young.

I know that Karibu has touched on this issue in some recent postings, but I find the demonstrations in Paris to be extremely troubling. Organized protests have a distinguished history in France (think 1968), but any sort of valid reasoning behind millions of people effectively shutting down an entire country today has escaped me. In Belarus, people are risking their lives to protest a rigged election by a dictator who routinely violates their civil rights. To me, that's a cause worth fighting for. To some Belarussians, it's worth dying for. But, taking to the streets, burning cars, throwing rocks at police, shutting down universities and high schools, and disrupting the public transit system in protest of Villepin's proposed employment law seems to fall short of rationality.

Maybe I'm biased in my opinion because workers in the US don't have contracts. In a free market economy, contracts and overly generous social safety nets don't provide the flexibility to sustain growth (think General Motors and its infamous Jobs Bank). France's social welfare model and rigidity in it's view on reform has created very high unemployment. New jobs created tend to be very low skilled. The sense of possibility and optimism among France's youth (especially poor, immigrant youth as witnessed by the riots last year) is ever diminishing. Hopelessness. Some estimate 25% youth unemployment nationwide and TWICE that figure in the banlieues.

I want to give the students and unions organizing these protests the benefit of the doubt. However, they are protesting (some rioting) to protect a status quo that simply does not jive with the realities of an open European Union. If you have a job, it's easy to see why you would want to keep these social welfare models alive and running. But, for the less fortunate, those not graduating from the grandes ecoles, jobs are scarce because employers are reluctant to hire due to the immense costs associated with those positions.

I certainly agree that Villepin erred severely by not coordinating his overhaul efforts with the unions, students and constituents. I do, however, give him credit for attempting to make some small change to stimulate growth in a flat economy. I still have a hard time believing that all of this is simply in response to a modest proposal such as he put forward. Germany has been facing the same issues, and similarly has incredibly powerful labor unions, but has somehow managed to put forth even stronger initiatives without experiencing the severe backlash witnessed in France. What does all of this mean for the future of France? Maybe it's the beginning of a change for the better, and these demonstrations are just frustrations with the growing pains of living in a global economy.

Why I'm going International

2006-03-23T14:10:00.000-05:00

There's something extremely cool happening today. I work for a boutique VC firm that invests in start-ups in Europe, and we're attempting to float one of our portfolio companies. It's incredible to see the inner workings of taking a start-up public, and the unique situations that arise when you have to take multiple countries' laws into account. Here's the interesting part for me: I'm coordinating the parent company/scientists in Belgium, the tax advisors/subsidiary in Ireland, our lawyers and bankers in London, and our investors and tax advisors in the US. It sort of reminds me of the Mittal-Arcelor debacle going on in real time. Deals across international borders seem to have a spice/flavor/twist/complexity that one-nation deals simply do not, or can not, have (I know that I'm completely generalizing here, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want!).

This got me thinking about why I chose London Business School. It's not that you can't, necessarily, get an international education at US schools. But at LBS, it's the norm. I always found it interesting during interviews at US schools that they constantly touted how "international" the students and curriculum were. Not even close. In my mind, if these top schools recognize how important that attribute is, why not just actually go to an international school? The US tends to lag behind sometimes with regards to acknowleding the importance of thinking outside its own borders. I honestly see this broader view becoming even more vital in the future. The world continues to get smaller (despite the protectionism that has suddenly reared it's ugly head in some places) and global economy is THE biggest opportunity for people my age. Schools like LBS have known this for years and are far ahead of the curve.

In desperate need of new iPod music!

2006-03-21T16:04:00.000-05:00

There's no other way to say it. I love my iPod. But, I'm getting really bored with my music. I only have something like 1300 songs, and room for another 6200. What I don't have is any idea what new music is out there that I'll like. Work takes up most of my time, and I'm really out of the loop as far as cool bands go. I'm looking for suggestions. Help! To give you an idea of what kind of music I like, I'll list a few bands/genres.

Quite possibly my favorite band of all time is Radiohead. Kid A, OK Computer, The Bends. I love it all. Thom Yorke is brilliant. I read today that he was going to meet Tony Blair regarding environmental issues, but backed out because he said Blair's "spin doctors" made him sick. Love it. I'm getting off track. I also love Beck, Gorillaz, Coldplay (although they are starting to sound kind of whiny/generic), Bright Eyes, Eliot Smith, Flaming Lips, and Kevin Shields. I also have this incredible attraction to the genre called "Shoegazers". It's basically early 1990s British dreampop. Ethereal, esoteric, etc. Slowdive, Ride, Verve, My Bloody Valentine, London Suede. Great stuff.

If someone (although I actually don't think anyone reads this blog) has any suggestions after seeing my taste in music, I can't tell you how appreciative I'd be!

Busy little bee

2006-03-16T16:06:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been extremely busy, and I don't see my schedule easing up in the months leading to matriculation. Besides a heavy workload at my job, my calendar seems to contain a never-ending series of commitments.

First of all, I just got back from my good friend's bachelor party in Amsterdam. Let me tell you something. Four days is too long to be traveling with ten guys for a bachelor party. And, of course, both legs of our flight home via Reykjavik were delayed, meaning that travel time was about fifteen hours (which is more than I slept over the four days!). Yikes.

From now until August, all I have to do is: sell my condo, sell my car, sell my furnishings, go to London for Admits weekend (and leave Saturday night to make it home for girlfriend's graduation from med school on Sunday morning), go to Cancun for a week, hit Portland, Oregon for a wedding, Aspen, Colorado for a wedding, NYC for a wedding, Las Vegas for another bachelor party, stay in Boston for yet another bachelor party (luckily don't have to travel far), try to find time to travel Europe for a month in July/August, and find an apartment in London. Time management at LBS should be a breeze after this! I realize that there isn't one item on this list that would garner me any sympathy, but it just feels slightly overwhelming at times. Why did my friends all decide to get married this year?? Man, it's expensive.

On another note, my girlfriend found out today that she has been accepted to a medical residency at Northwestern University in Chicago. Congratulations! Four years of hard work has definitely paid off!

Frosty drinks and sandy beaches

2006-02-17T11:09:00.000-05:00

My girlfriend and I just booked flights to Cancun for June! Hey, that rhymes (insert line about poet but didn't know it here). My girlfriend is graduating from medical school, so she's going to need some down-time before beginning residency. We'll be traveling with her sister and brother-in-law for a week of beaches, snorkeling, golf, massage and all around hedonistic fulfillment. The hotel is supposed to be amazing! And, the best part (well, the best is actually going) is that we get the rooms for staff rates because of a source that will remain undisclosed! Thus begins my agenda of travel and relaxation for the pre-MBA period. I see people question whether they should try to learn useful things like accounting or finance prior to beginning business school. I can assure everyone that I will brush up on these important topics in Cancun by trying to account for how many frosty beverages I consume poolside and figuring out how I will finance my life of leisure for the next few months.

Next on the agenda is planning my trip from Helsinki to Rome with my good friend in London. We want to take a month or so and work our way down the continent by train/car/skateboard. If anyone has any suggestions on places to stop along the way (through Latvia, Lithuania, etc.), I'd be very appreciative. Our reason for traveling by train and car is to hit some of the "off the beaten path" places.

Haunting

2006-02-09T10:59:00.000-05:00

That's the only way I can think of to describe the band that I saw on Tuesday night, Sigur Ros. Seeing the lead singer play the guitar with a bow was really something. His voice is different than anything I've heard, especially since he's singing in Icelandic. In actuality though, it's more the music that makes this band great, not the lyrics (which is a good thing because I can't understand them). They could have played nothing but instrumentals and it wouldn't have bothered me. It was very much like Radiohead in that way (Thom Yorke may as well be singing in Icelandic some times). Our seats were not great (partially obstructed), but it didn't matter. The music was really refreshing, in the sense that it's so complex and unique, without being pretentious. Always ambient, sometimes a little edgier. If you need some background music when your chilling or studying, this is the stuff for you. Two thumbs up.

I've been hit!

2006-01-30T08:50:00.000-05:00

Looks like I've been tagged! I'm sorta nervous, sorta excited. You see, it's my first time. Well, I guess it's sink or swim...

Four jobs I've had in my life:
*Paperboy
*Landscaper
*Lifeguard
*Gigolo (ahhh, if only this had any truth to it)

Four movies I love:
*Caddyshack
*Rudy (male chick-flick)
*Heat (Sunday afternoon classic)
*As Good As It Gets

Four places I've lived:
*Marblehead, US
*Boston, US
*Ithaca, US
*Paris (only for a few months)

Four TV shows I love:
*The Shield
*The Simpsons (who doesn't love this show?)
*Family Guy
*Sopranos

Four places I've been on vacation:
*Caracas, Venezuela
*Hong Kong
*Vienna
*Negril, Jamaica

Four websites I visit daily:
*WSJ.com
*FT.com
*thephatphree.com
*LBS Portal

Four of my favorite meals:
*Pick any four Mexican dishes!

Four places I would rather be right now:
*Taking the helicopter ride from Helsinki to Talinn
*Sipping a frozen drink in Jamaica
*On a train through Switzerland
*Playing golf anywhere

The only bloggers that I know are the other LBS people. I'll tag four LBSers that are yet to be tagged:
*Gaurav
*Al Martine
*being philosophical
*Futureguru

Guess who's coming to dinner?

2006-01-29T20:02:00.000-05:00

So, dinner was fantastic on Friday night! It was myself, another admit, two LBS students on exchange, and one really cool exchange student from HEC Paris. It was like a mini United Nations at the table! US, Myanmar, India, France and Russia. Great dinner and great conversation. I work at a boutique firm, and there is no one else my age there. It was exhilarating to be surrounded by intelligent, friendly peers again. It has really reinforced my decision to return to get my MBA.

From what I could gather, first term is a "head down" trudge through tons of schoolwork. It eases up for milk round, and if you can secure an internship early, the rest of first year isn't so bad. I totally forgot that I'm going to have Spring Break again! Wow, that brings back some memories...

The travel opportunities are a major bonus to LBS. I heard of ski trips to France and Italy, student organized trips to Japan and China, and a Spring Break trip to Brazil. I'm definitely going to try to go on every trip offered (although I am grudgingly aware that this isn't possible for many reasons).

In summary, dinner was amazing, the students at LBS sound amazing, and it will be truly amazing if I can make it through the next six months.

No such thing as a free lunch...

2006-01-25T13:15:00.000-05:00

But no one said anything about a free dinner!

The LBS red carpet continues to be unfurled. On Friday, myself and another local admit are being taken out for dinner and drinks (to the restaurant of our selection) on LBS's dime! Three second-year students who are on exchange at a nearby B school are driving down just to meet us. This is exactly why I've been so enthusiastic about LBS.

I can't wait for Friday night!

Like sands through the hourglass...

2006-01-20T14:03:00.000-05:00

Wow. Every stage of the B school application process has been excruciating. Currently, I'm in that grey area between admissions and matriculation. I never really gave this much thought while applying, but this is the latest in a long line of irritations. Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

First, I decided to "hedge" my chances of admission to a top MBA program by applying eight, that's right--EIGHT, schools. How was this awful?? Let me count the ways: These schools aren't your online-MBA-in-3 months-type places. The number of required essays has given me carpal tunnel, rheumatoid arthritis, and permanent indigestion. It wasn't just the vast quantity (which was indeed vast), it was the esoteric nature of these damn things. Harvard, being Harvard, thought it would be really informative if they knew your view on the following: "In your career, you will have to deal with many ethical issues. What are likely to be the most challenging and what is your plan for developing the competencies you will need to handle these issues effectively?" What type of question is this? God, it hurts. So, 40 non-overlapping essays later, we get to...

The application costs. Yikes. LBS actually set the bar with this one. Given the horrendously weak dollar, I think it was around $240. I basically endowed a professorship with my fee. When you add in seven other schools' applications, travel costs, GMAT, and GMAT score reporting, you end up spending the GDP of a small country. Don't even get me started on the human capital required.

Ahh, what's next? Yes, the waiting for an interview invite! Time slows down to a grinding halt during this period. Will I? Won't I? Why don't they want me? The whole idea of this application process is a litte sick. I have to present my life, education, and career in a nice little package, only to be judged on my worthiness by people I don't know. Sort of intimidating. Sort of infuriating. But, we roll with the punches and then...

You receive the invites! What questions should I prepare for? Do I know enough about the school? What's the Dean's name (yes, I've heard urban legends that this gets asked)? Why an MBA? Why now? Who am I? So, I consulted the all knowing Oracle of Delphi called the Businessweek Forums. Holy cow, these boards are filled with paranoid sociopaths . I mean, some of these people are truly insane. To be fair and balanced, like Fox News, I probably posted over 100 comments on the forums. Some people were actually helpful (almost exclusively the LBS crowd :-) Interviewing isn't that bad once you get the hang of it. I practiced by interviewing first with two schools which I had no interest in attending. Once all of the interviews are done...

You have at least another month of quiet time until the decision! My God, I could never do this again. I do understand the method behind the madness. Obviously, schools want to make sure you really want to attend, so they require enough minutiae on the applications to drive away the casual applicant. But, when that first acceptance rolls in, the feeling is indescribable (but I'll try to describe it nonetheless). Whenever you work really hard at something, and the effort pays off, it's incredibly satisfying. With B school acceptances, someone has just judged you worthy enough to become a member of their club. I first got accepted to Cornell, and I was really awestruck. But, after the initial euphoria wears off, you begin to think about what it would be like to ACTUALLY attend this institution. In this case, it would mean spending two years in upstate New York. Not a chance. So, I've been accepted to LBS, the school of my dreams, and I now have to...

Pay a big commitment deposit and wait eight months for classes to begin! Christ almighty. Who came up with this time frame? I'm useless in work right now. I spend all day looking at the LBS website. I must say, the amount of interaction that I've already had with the LBS community since getting accepted is really cool. I've been IM'ing a fellow admit from NYC, I've been invited to attend a dinner with students on exchange in the US, and I've spoken on the phone with an alum and a current student. August can't come soon enough!

Well, that's enough for now. My carpal tunnel and RA are acting up again.

First post!

2006-01-19T14:47:00.000-05:00

Man it feels good to stretch my legs on this thing! So, to all of my adoring fans who've been begging for me for months to write down every mundane, inconsequential thing that pops into my mind, here you go. Actually, I don't think anyone cares what I have to say. In fact, it makes me feel kind of narcissistic to have my own blog. Oh well. C'est la vie.

The purpose of this blog, like the other ten million blogs out there, is to record my thoughts, rants, raves, epiphanies, and hallucinations for posterity. When I'm 100 years old, I can point out to my great-grandchildren how little I knew about so much.

Have I piqued your interest??? Probably not.

A little about myself, which will give you some insight into what you can expect over the next few years: I am 27 years old and currently live in the beautiful, and increasingly boring, city of Boston in the US. I work in the finance industry (man that sounds generic) and have recently undergone one of the biggest challenges of my life: applying to business school. I'll get into more details later, but I will tell you that the big winner is : well, it's me, but only because I have been granted the honor of acceptance to the London Business School MBA class of 2008!

Stay tuned. Same bat time, same bat channel.