FinanceFinanceFinanceFinanceFinanceFinance.....Thanksgiving..FinanceFinance

Hope everyone from back home enjoyed their Thanksgiving break. Reading the various Facebook status messages that were typed out as everyone gorged on turkey, stuffing and gravy it appears many achieved the goal of Thanksgiving; To stuff yourself so full of food that you question why you aren't wearing pants with an elastic waist. To those who actually wore pants with elastic waists to maximize food intake, I salute your gluttony and pity your coronary.

Anyways, it should be no surprise that they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in Spain. It should also be no surprise that as Americans we will never let that stop us from celebrating it in style. Because of our Finance project, which I'm sure most of you are sick of reading about it, Thanksgiving (observed) was Saturday and not Thursday. I pretty much spent the entire Saturday afternoon making my Mac and Cheese.

I was quite impressed by my own creation. It was four cheese Mac and Cheese with Mozzarella, Gouda and Cheddar, chopped bacon and grilled onions and topped with parmesan cheese. All placed inside the oven prior to serving to get the parmesan cheese nice and toasted.

Total food and drink tally for Thanksgiving:

• 2x  4.2kg turkeys
• Mac and Cheese
• Stuffing
• 2x bowls of salad
• Mashed potato and gravy
• 2 sweet potato pies
• 1 apple pie
• 18 bottles of wine
• 1 cheese and cracker platter

All eaten while watching some college football.

The moment I heard Al Michaels voice on the ESPN broadcast, I felt as though something tickled my brain. While I sat there stuffing my face with turkey and gravy and talking to my classmates about random stuff with the noise of the college football game in the background all I could think of was America F@!& Yeah.
 
Oh and Monday was the culmination of the countless hours spent on this cockamamie Finance project. Wow, I actually spelled cockamamie right on the first try. To be honest I screwed it up on the second one but anyways....Monday was our Finance presentation and it's a load off everyone's backs. I actually enjoyed the Finance class and felt that I learned a lot from it but really during some parts of this project I felt....

















So I'm off to London on Wednesday for a couple of days to visit some consulting firms with the Consulting Club. It'll be a chance to network and get a personal feel for the companies. Pip pip cheerio guv'nor.

They still talk like that right?   

Where do you stand?

*Looks out from under the pile of work for Finance*

We've been getting slaughtered here at ESADE due to a wonderfully unstructured Finance project we've been assigned to do. When the Project guidelines states, "Structure of the project: open to interpretation from the groups" you know you're in for a good time. Good actually meaning absolute crap. When a classmate of mine described the project as a "fun" project to the assistant professor it caused quite the uproar to those who overheard the conversation. Whether the uproar was due to everyone's disagreement or amazement that fun and finance project could be uttered within the same stratosphere I'm not quite sure. I imagine fun and finance being like Pluto and the Sun. Just chilling out in the far reaches of our galaxy.

Fear my awesome MS Paint skills. Clowns are even further outside the orbital pattern of Finance because I mean really who ever thinks they're fun.

Anyways, Monday is our presentation and then we'll be over the first big obstacle. Yes we can!

For the sake of charity?

So you just spent 3 seconds scanning the picture above. Notice anything? The t-shirt? Gift from the SO. I definitely am not huge in Japan. I'm very average-sized. The color brown doesn't suit my skin tone? Sorry Isaac Mizrahi. That moustache? Well thank you for noticing.

The month of November has been combined with moustaches to birth Movember. What is Movember you ask? From Movember.com  It's an actual charity event.

"Movember (the month formerly known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health." In the US donations will be split between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

In the spirit of Movember a group of us at ESADE have donated money to the event and have been growing out the 'staches since November 1st. Some have had to clean up due to interviews or meetings but the spirit lives on.

While it is fun to participate in an event like this there are some huge major drawbacks to rocking a 'stache. In no particular order:

1. It is itchy as hell. Damn hairs tickle my nose and I can feel the extra weight of the hairs. I have no idea how those Neanderthals did it but I'm sure they had more things to worry about like killing Mastodons or avoiding death via tar pits. 
2. Public perception is significantly altered. Have you ever been walking behind someone and then had that someone stop, clutch their bag and then let you walk past. Ah yes, the power of the 'stache. 
3. I have to be extra careful in the morning when shaving. I'm already bleary-eyed and half awake so to have to concentrate on the shaving has been annoying. I've almost shaved the thing off because I wasn't paying attention. At this point if I cut it shorter I'd just look like Hitler or Chaplin so I'd have to shave the whole thing off if I mess up. 

The end of Movember looms and I hope we've done our part to raise awareness. I've raised awarness in myself in that me+facial hair results in a stalker/molester/70s kung-fu/generally shady man look that should never be replicated. Ever.

Adventures in Spanish IT

We've been having problems with our wireless internet here at ESADE. One of my classmates went down to visit them to inquire about the problem. Unfortunately they were not able to fix the problem but they had this suggestion.

"The next time the internet is down just send us an e-mail."

As our econ professor loves to say...Think about it.

I went to Gastrofest and all I got was this.....

awesome opportunity to try the home cooking of my classmates' countries. Great food all around. Because I was busy manning the USA table I wasn't able to try all the different cuisines but those I did eat were spectacular.

Gastrofest winners with my commentary as follows:

Judge's choice: Japanese Traditional (sushi)

Honestly I didn't think they deserved to win. It was just sushi. I hate to go against my people but sushi isn't that difficult to make and it's not really cooking. A trained monkey can cook some rice and put some toppings on it. A trained monkey cannot bake a meatloaf or make Korean bbq or Indian curry. Although it can ride a Segway.

 

People's choice: Indian.

No complaints with this choice. I personally love Indian food and the amazing colon cleansing affect it has at times.

Best presentation: Mexico

Mexico decided to pull out all the stereotypes of Mexico and busted out the panchos, moustaches and sombreros. Their portrayal of the stereotypical Mexican was impressive and most likely only allowed because they were Mexicans. Viva Mexico.

Bestdrink: Peru (Pisco Sour)

The last time I drank Pisco Sour I was in Cuzco with major altitude sickness. Don't mix alcohol with 3,300 m (11,000 ft) elevation. I may have thrown up on a llama or it may have been a shag carpet.  Don't quite remember. Good times.

All in all a great time. It was Gastrotastic! I'm saddened that I can't use these Gastro terms for another year. 

An explosion of culinary delight on your tastebuds

This Friday is ESADE's Gastrofest 2009.

A gargantuan gastronomic gala guaranteeing gluttony. Alliterate that! Sentences like that are why my SO thinks I'm a major dork and why she shakes her head in shame when I proudly say stuff like that in public.

Anyways, as a testament to the school's diversity the following countries will be represented at Gastrofest.

1. Brazil
2. Canada
3. France
4. UK
5. Venezuela
6. Middle East
7. Peru
8. Northern India
9. Southern India
10. USA
11. Japan
12. Korea
13. Guatemala
14. Catalunya
15. Spain
16. Switzerland
17. Germany
18. Mexico
19. Russia

Team America, which I am proudly part of, will be serving a smorgasbord of American fine dining. It's our way of showing the world why Americans are so fat. Fat people say it's because of genes or a thyroid problem but it's really because we eat double patty chiliburgers with onion rings and a diet coke. I can say this because I used to be a fatty. All throughout my childhood I got to wear the "husky" size clothing. Whoever decided that husky was a nicer way of saying fat really needs to be drowned in lard.

I've hit my self imposed two tangent limit. The next post will either be a celebration of America's victory at Gastrofest or a plea for help in overcoming food poisoning. It's going to be GASTRONOMICAL!

(I won't say how long it took to come up with that.)  

Montserrat Part Mountain Deux

So that I can procrastinate further the rest of my trip from Montserrat.

Perfect spot to get ambushed by enemy who have positioned themselves on high ground. I think I've played too many videogames and watched too many movies.

After about an hour and a half of walking I'm thinking I must be fairly close to the summit and my body is hoping we're close to the summit. 

YES! Finally the summit. My legs are thanking this view.

Wait. I get to that wall and see this path ahead of me. What the hell? Who builds a lookout point like that? The guy who built that must relish the fact that he's crushing the hopes and dreams of the hikers. Sick bastard.

 

Still hating that guy who built that wall.

Finally made it to the summit. 1236 meters is about 4000 feet so it's not that high of a summit but apparently Sant Jerona is the highest peak in the Catalonian lowland.

Awesome views from the top. Somehow Barcelona keeps reminding me of LA. Like I could be looking at parts of the Valley with less porn and more trees.

Thinking about heading back now after enjoying the panaroma but before I do that....

Celebratory Japanese snack.

Am I the only one that looks at stained glass and just wants to throw a rock at it? Was that lightning that just struck outside? How odd. 

It's hard not to be impressed by the beauty of a church. A perfect place to remind the peasants the power of religion and the omnipotence of G-O-D. Oops my religious beliefs just showed.

Anyways, that was my Montserrat trip. Totally recommend everyone going out there. It's the perfect day trip from Barcelona and there's enough to fill a day of sightseeing. You can get your rocks off at Montserrat. Thank you I'll be here all week. Please tip your waitress.

Domino's

Domino's?

I say DomiYES!!!

*Back to your regularly scheduled programming*

Ugh

Back on the upward slope of the MBA course load. All of our presentations, research papers and normal HW is piling on top of each other and it's been a struggle to keep up let alone write my usual musings for the blog.

Being a lover of quality reality TV such as The Hills I am loving the side effect of all this coursework on my fellow classmates. Most of our work is done in groups. At the beginning of the term we were pre-assigned to teams of 6. Each team is typically broken down into 4 guys 2 girls and everyone from a different country and industry. Well that was what they tried for, at least. So for example my group consists of

1 French guy with an IT background

1 Dutch/American guy with a financial service background

1 Swiss/German with a financial service background

1 German girl with a project management background

1 Indian girl with an IT consulting background

Me

Most of the groups, mine included, have been working well and getting things done but there have been some awesome stories coming out of other groups.

People storming out of team meetings. Cups of water poured on people's heads. Yelling matches. It's just great entertainment overall. I really wish I could tape some of this and sell it to the CW or something. "B-school Blowouts" Okay so the title sucks but I promise great content. I'd follow up the success of that with "B-school Beauties" and "B-school Blend" -a Big Brother style show where MBA students from around the world are forced to live in a house and participate in some awesome challenges like financial modeling or marketing case studies. Man I'm just a goldmine of super awesome TV ideas. I'm just awesome. I'm sure my mom would agree. 
ESADE MBA365.com

Cowboys and Indians

This Indian costume looked pretty decent. It didn't scream YMCA to me when I bought it. If anything, based on the guy in the picture it looked pretty awesome for 10 euros. I even spiced it up with a scalp removing tomahawk to add just a tad bit more awesomeness.

Pocahontas. Yes, when I arrived at the ESADE/IESE Halloween party I ended up being called Pocahontas. Not once. Not twice. But like 20+ times by 20 different people. Somehow the costume lost its awesomeness factor when I wore it. I tried salvaging the name by correcting people by calling myself Pocahont-o but the damage was done. Oh well I thought I looked cool.

*I realized this morning that being known as Pocahontas actually was somewhat beneficial. You see, Pocahontas was an American. Sorry Canada I've regained my American citizenship*