Another weekend

The days blow by so fast. Last week Tessa's mom Jody returned home after staying with us for 3 weeks. The trip was a great success! Of course it was sad to see her go but now she can start planning her next trip.

The mid-term results are back and I'm not crying. I guess that means I did okay. Glad to get those out of the way.

This week we need to send in our cover letters and resumes to all the companies that come to campus to recruit in January. We need to be clear now where we want to go for our internship next summer which seems a bit crazy because we've only finished half a semester. But that's the process so if we want to get a job at any investment bank, top consulting company or major company in industry that's the way it works.

One of the great things about this school is that because of its reputation all the biggest companies recruit here; Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Google, GE, McKinsey, Bain, BP...It opens doors that are closed to all but a handful of schools. Meanwhile I find myself in the position of wondering if its worth the time to prepare for an interview with a company that I would have had to kill somebody 6 months ago just so their HR person would spit on me. A good position to be in no doubt.

Tessa is as wonderful as ever. She misses her family and the adjustment to living so far away is proving to be a challenge. But she really likes Barcelona and she's doing a good job putting up with all my school activities. She's playing on the Rugby and Futbol teams. She also continues her Spanish studies which have been a big let down. But now that we know how things work around here, she'll get into the best language school in town after her semester is over and then we'll see rapid improvement in her fluency.

Here are some pictures of where we went last weekend, Valencia. We went by train and enjoyed every second of riding in first class (thanks again Jody) and watching the countryside go by. Valencia is one of the largest cities in Spain but actually not all that large. They have some fantastic new architecture including an extrememly modern aquarium. Take a look.

Two a day

I just finally read the comments left by some of my loyal readers. I actually never saw these before so I am sorry if you felt that I was ignoring your comments on purpose. In fact, I was ignoring out of sheer ignorance. Which as we know is much different and easier to forgive.

Yes, midterms are here. I have one tomorrow and one on Friday. Decision Analysis where we have to decide what to do given that one decision has a 50% probability of occuring, one has a 20% chance of occuring and one has a 30% chance of occuring. Given that these probabilities correlate with gaining $1mil, gaining $2mil or losing $3m, what would you choose? This class is supposed to help us take emotion out of our decisions and base them rather on rational thought. A novel concept, but if you're like me and Mr George W. you also like "going with your gut."

One of the interesting concepts to come from this class is that people were given a test and with each answer they gave they had to put a % certainty that they were correct. For instance, if the question was, "What year was Einstein born?" And you are given two answers, you would choose one of the answers and put that you are 50%, 60%, 70%....100% sure. What do the results show? That when people say they are 100% certain, where there is absolutely no chance of being incorrect, they are actually only right 89% of the time. Even more drastic, when people are 90% sure, they are correct only 67% of the time. This shows that people are overconfident about what they know and that even those who seem to be certain are still suspect. Interesting, no?

The other midterm will cover the most dreaded and downright godawful subject known to business, accounting. I wonder if my classic equation will get me any points on the exam; Accouting = Sucks. I think I will put this at the bottom of the balance sheet and see if my professor (who literally wrote the book) will be amused. I think he will debit my accrued hatred of accounting and credit my grade expense. A little accounting humor....can you hate it?

Here are some pics for your amusement.

Look kids, Big Ben.

Top of 2nd highest peak in Catalonia with the adventure club.
The HAWG!

Mid-terms are here!

I haven't blogged in a while now. Why? Because I suck at life. Actually I'm just really good at prioritizing which means the week is spent on school, school, school. All day long. And the weekends...the focus has been on having fun. We went hiking in the Pyrennes a few weeks ago. London about a month ago. One weekend was spent working on a paper for school. Jody is in town visiting so we spent last weekend going to all the cool places around town.

A few days ago I booked the holiday trip Tessa and I will take to Italy. The plan is to fly into Florence, travel in Tuscany including Siena and Pisa, then to walk the Cinque Terre. South to Rome, further on to Naples where we will eat about 5 million pizzas. Finishing up on the Amalfi coast with a quick aside to Capri. Sounds fun, right. Life is good. The dollar keeps dropping which means each day my money is worth less. Tess and I are getting along well and eating plenty of cheese and bread. The essentials for happiness!