Prologue: "When it Rains in Asia"

The gods of graduate school certainly look upon us second-years favorably: our classes and finals wrap up well before the undergrads start studying for theirs which provides us ample time to commit to some adventures prior to returning for our final semester of business school (5 weeks to be exact).

After celebrating the holidays with the fam, I trudged back from Kansas City to San Francisco to quickly pack for a trip to the Phillippines, Vietnam and Cambodia with some school friends. I won't bore you with the cancelled flights and Denver snowstorm that threatened a timely departure, yet, as seems to be the case with me, drama abounded.

So, after 3 weeks, 3 countries, 12 flights, 6 ferries, one hysterically funny drunk tuc-tuc driver, sketchy cabs, weird bug bites, one lost international plane ticket and one near-fatal expensive camera "misplace," I've made it back to San Francisco safe and sound.

And so the story begins ...

December 9, 2007: Big Game and the Holiday Party

Each year, the last football game of the season for Cal ends with a good old fashioned rivalry: that of Cal and Stanford. It's truly unfortunate for any red-shirt wearing Standford fan to enter the Cal student section, as they are often chided and harassed ("Take off that red shirt"). In full disclosure, I did not attend the actual game; instead I opted to watch the game on Emily Walling's flat screen TV in the comfort of her home.

We did, however, attend the Haas tailgate prior to the game. Unfortunately, Maiken and my alcohol content did not warrant a long stay, albeit long enough to witness our classmates recreate their college-day tailgating activities. It's extremely important to give these guys credit - a few of the old engineers managed to design and construct a Cal tailgate "wagon," complete with two keg spouts, two beer pong extension tables and a built-in TV. The "wagon" made its debut at the first home game, and has never disappointed. Somehow it has made it through a seven-hour rode trip to Pasadena to witness Cal's disappointing loss to UCLA (although I think it blew a flat) and was quite the spectacle outside of the Stanford stadium.

This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of "the play," and the first time that Cal has lost to Stanford in six or seven years. If you've never seen it, follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aCDfJH6eRY

While the Big Game signals the end of the football season, it also signals the beginning of finals (ew). However, the annual Haas holiday party marks the middle of finals, which often means that the pre-final jitters warrant a long evening of alcohol consumption in preparation for a rough week. This year's holiday party was at the Wax Museum in Fisherman's wharf; the long-time obsession I have had with Harrison Ford was slightly diminished due to this ghastly replica:

Until next time ...

November 20, 2007: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Even though Emily turned thirty nearly a year ago (seriously, it was only 2 months ago), the pictures finally resurfaced. Her parents were gracious enough to host a large number of Emily's friends at their home in Napa.

And here's the birthday girl with her husband, Jason -

At least her parents were entertained by our antics ... or at least they were mildly amused ... or tolerant. In all seriousness, they were incredibly generous - and have always been supportive of us crazy Haasites.

After some candle blowage, we were shamelessly willing to jump in the pool ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY!

November 17, 2007: It Never Rains in California

Although late to the blog (which I should be consistently updating; the public documentation of second year business school should be a requirement).

They say that one should relish in second year business school, as the work load mysteriously becomes lighter, the beer flows heavier and we transition to the second years we said we'd never become - the second years that continuously provide unwelcomed advice to the first years ("relax, grades don't matter") and are mysteriously absent from most school social functions.

By my second year, at least, I have learned what I like and what I don't like, although not evidenced by my choice of quantitative classes. While I may not able to calculate EBITDA, I fully understand the concept (and know exactly who to contact to figure it out for me). Not only that, I can successfully say that I can read a 10-K and identify issues with the financial reports (well ...)

My point is, the learning is amazing, and fun. No matter how you look at it, I have been able to meet incredibly intelligent and interesting people along this road - individuals I know will always be in my life.

That being said, we have been definitely finding ways to amuse ourselves. First, Emily's birthday up in Napa ... fortunately, pictures from that event have not quite surfaced; at least not the incrimating ones.

The beer mile ... Ken Wallace's annual beer mile, to celebrate his birthday. The event takes roughly 30-40 minutes, depending on how fast you can slam 4 beers, and how quickly you can run 1/4 of a mile in a random-ass outfit. Each lap around the track is followed by a beer chug. Although tempting, most of use decided to spectate ... and we helped the runners celebrate (provided that they could stand up straight). See James (Elisabeth's boyfriend), er, cat-in-the-hat to the upper left. We chose to cheer on from the sidelines while taking incrimating photos.

Homecoming came and went (with a horribly disappointing loss, after being ranked #2 in the country), then the big 32 (much to my dismay) a week later, and then Halloween. Embarassingly enough, I attempted to use the glasses as an inspiration point ...
Thanksgiving this year will take place in San Francisco for me, as I plan on heading home to KC for a week stint over the holidays. Then, on a trip with some classmates ... more on that later!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007: La-La Land Revisited

My Santa Monica ... I am about to start packing up and getting my act together to return to school. Here's a picture of Main Street, which is one of the cutest streets - it's kind of like a cross between Union Street and Fillmore Street in San Francisco, with a beach vibe. I really love this area - it's somewhat LA, without being totally LA. I feel like if the universe would combine a dash San Francisco and toss in a little Hawaii, it would pop out Santa Monica. The surf is a little lacking, but up and down the coast there are surfing options. The location is very central to most places - 20 minutes to work (barely any LA traffic), 20 minutes to the airport, 10 minutes to Westwood, 15-20 minutes to Brentwood. Hollywood I have steered clear from, as well as some of the other hotspots. I like where Elisabeth and I live - it's our quiet little space in a mad city. AND we are four blocks from the beach, which I try to get to at least once a weekend.

Here's a picture of the beach as you walk up - one thing that's great about it is the length and depth of the beaches - tons of sand ... lots of water. There's a path for bikers and for walkers/runners along the beach as well, which makes for lots of pleasant walks.

This weekend marks the last weekend I will be down here - I will be a little sad to leave ... just when you get used to your routine, you change it!

Michelle Tom (Amato) is in town visiting, as she is planning to move out here in September/October. Michelle and Alex couldn't stay away from the West Coast!

I leave to return to school on Sunday, which means a lot of packing and a lot of shopping required ...

July 22, 2007: Product Freak

I am about half-way through my Neutrogena Internship down in LA. I still can't believe that it's gone by so fast; I'm trying to wrap my head around that I only have three more weeks of normalcy before moving back up to Berkeley to start my second year of business school. What I wouldn't give to start all over at Haas as a first year!

I have been pleasantly surprised by LA - although, as I've learned, I'm technically not living in LA while in Santa Monica. Santa Monica has by far impressed me; I feel sort of like I'm in a beachier town of the Marina, with less pomp and circumstance.

I had a feeling that I would love working for Neutrogena, and Neutrogena as well has far surpassed my expectations in regards to the type of work, the products and the people. I definitely get excited to go to work in the morning! I'm working on the men's line as well as the regular hair line. Specifically with the men's line, I'm looking at the shave category and identify the strategy with the current men's shave products. A big step for a girl who hates to shave! (or at minimum am addicted to Intuition ...)

And then ... there's my obsession with product. I have managed to collect enough product through the company store as well as samples that we have. I have managed to load up a 2.5" x 2.5" shelf in our closet. Guess what everyone is getting for gifts!?!??!

I suppose that's it for now - I'll have more exciting news later!

June 27,2007: Look Kids, It's Big Ben!

A little late to the post ... I must admit, leaving Brazil was relatively anti-climactic. We were in a mad rush to complete our financial sustainability report on the Mamiraua Institute, our recommendations for becoming self-sustaining, and our presentation on our findings. We were down to the wire - thank goodness our presentation was pushed back ... and then back ... and then .... well, you get the idea. We were to present to our 4 main stakeholders, two of which were in Belem and were unable to attend in person, one didn't show up, and the fourth spoke only Portuguese ... which would have sucked for her, given that all of the materials and presentation were in English. We zipped up all of our materials and then shipped them off to somewhere. Anywhere. We were done!

Here are some amazing pictures Maiken took out of the window on our way back to Manaus -

Anyway, we ended up spending 1.5 days in Manaus, one of which was Stephan's birthday. Before I get to how we celebrated his birthday, I need to explain how frakking fantastic it was staying at the Ibis Hotel in Manaus. It had HOT, RUNNING WATER. CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING. And a RESTAURANT that served food prepared in ways OTHER THAN FRIED. Oh, and the Universal TV station which had movies in English.

When we arrived, we all took hot showers. I have never had a shower feel so amazing before in my life - I couldn't get out. And to sleep without a mosquito net was ... well, sad, as I loved my princess trap. But still, thinking about it now, I still get this warm, relaxed feeling.

So, Stephan's birthday. We had been all over Manaus already, so we ran a few errands, i.e., helping Steve purchase a hammock that his wife would like (I love the fact that Maiken couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase a hammock either - I don't think the two of us left anywhere without purchasing something).

We told Stephan that he could choose any activity that he wanted for his birthday; lucky for us, he wanted to go see the waterfalls. To make a long story short, we made a wrong turn out of the gate (right outside of Manaus) and ended up driving 2 hours in the wrong direction. And, here's the car, with Steve pissing in the background. I'm sure he was excited about this picture.

And the scenery along the way ... as you can tell, there were a crapload of potholes, so an entrepreneurial Brazilian spirit I'm sure is making a killing. Funny, yeah?

Anyway, our night ended up at the Pier, watching local Brazilian dance and eating fried mozarella and drinking beer. Ah, Stephan ... welcome to 31. It's a bit over-rated.

After a whirlwind 24 hours of travel, the bird has landed ... in LA ... somehow. Although now this news is old, I got into Berkeley on Saturday night at 1am on the 9th, packed up for LA until 3am, went to bed; woke up at 9am, got in the car at 1pm, picked up a freaked out Jackson at 3pm in San Francisco and started my road trip down to LA ... with a howling cat. I arrived at midnight, started work at 8am the next day ...