The Village is kickin'

Going to school in the middle of Greenwich Village is definitely an awesome experience. I spend Monday and Tuesday at Stern until midnight studying in the lounge area with all these other cool Sternies. On Wed we study but then around 10 me and my Stern girlz go to our lockers, get our goin' out clothez on, get our hair straighteners out, put on our makeup, and walk right out onto the street to all of these bars. Last night when we went out it was 11:30 and EVERYTHING was open! i'm not just talking about bars, but jewelry stores, clothing stores, everything! Thursdays are our beer blasts where MBA 1s and 2s talk, drink, and eat lotz of pizza together, which later leads to bar blasts, and for the last 3 weeks, has led to after-party blasts at the apts of those that were fortunate enough to find an apt. in the Village.

We have been having all the club kickoffs these past weeks. I won a couple leadership positions that i am extremely excited about. Last night one of the clubs had a mixer with the similar club at Columbia, so we got to meet some other b-school students who are in the same city. Today we had a business plan teammate hunt, where over 70 people--including students and external people--pitched their ideaz and tried to find a team to help develop their business plan with. Stern holds a business plan competition where the winners win $50,000, and if it is a socially beneficial idea, can win $100,000.

Things have really changed in the last month and a half. I started orientation on Aug. 17th and didn't know ANYTHING about NY, didn't know anyone, didn't know what to expect etc. now, I've met so many cool people, have explored so much already, and am really excited for the next 2 years (minus a month and a half).

Thanks for the comments, that is the thing that keeps me writing!

Business School is damn intense

Wow. I cannot believe this. I have so much stuff going on here! The first week of real school after orientation was cool...what a fool we all were. By Monday of the second week we were all SLAMMED with work--accounting, finance, stats, etc. I have been studying until midnight mon-wed, then going out thurs, fri, sat, chillin on Sunday. Also, we have all the student clubs starting, so we go to the kickoff meetings and submit officer apps if we want. Getting an MBA is a LIFE CONSUMING event. But the thing is, it is soooooo fun! Everyone studies together, and helps each other out with questions, and goes out together. The more I am here the more I am liking it, b/c I am getting to know people better and the school can feel like home.
ok, i got a stats and an econ problem set due, so i'm out. . .lata!

Orientation over--Studying begin!

This week was our second and final week of orientation. We learned about some more specializations, and I decided that I will probably specialize in finance and global business, because I want to stay in healthcare administration/planning, but possibly internationally, and finance is one of my skills that I would like to strenghten.

We had block talent shows this week, where each study group made up a skit or sang some kind of song, and performed in front of the rest of the block (my group of 70 students). It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I was really impressed at how Stern infuses fun into the business school culture, before getting too serious. We also had a panel on different community service opportunities in NY, and instead of it being optional to participate, they made it a competition between blocks, where each block will provide service for one organization, and the block that does the best will win. So this is another thing that I was impressed about, that they are trying to encourage the importance of community service. My block will be volunteering at the evening Leukemia Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.

On our final night of orientation the school took us out on a dinner cruise around Manhattan, otherwise known as the "Booze Cruise." Probably the best part for me, aside from the wild dancing, was when the ship cruised RIGHT in front of the Statue of Liberty, and we were outside, on the top deck of the ship. That was pretty amazing.

Today I had lunch in the West Village with a friend from the bay area, and tonight I went to Harlem to meet up with a friend from Stern and I went with her and a couple other girls to a barbecue in the Bronx. It was pretty interesting--they had speakers with music blaring sooo loud you could hear it from like 4 blocks away, but nobody complained. They were grillin' a LOT of chicken and having a lot of drinks.

On our way back, I took the subway back to my place, and this very nice guy came to talk to me and he ended up telling me he just got back from the bay area and he loved it, and we started talking about all this stuff. In the beginning I was very apprehensive to talk to him b/c there were all kinds of shady characters in the subway, but he was actually really cool. So it turned out that he lived one block away from me, so we walked home together, and then there was this dance place called in the Hudson Hotel open and we just went in and they were playing salsa music so we got our groove on for like 15 min. and then they closed. It was really fun!

I start school this week!

Orientation-Wk 2

Today was the start of week 2 in orientation. This past weekend was a nice time to chill at home at my friend's studio apt. in midtown. I went to look at some apts with my future roomate--no luck in the apt. hunting but we were next to Union Square and I had a lot of luck in the huge Forever 21 they have in there!

Today our day started with alumni that had specialized in statistics or related management science fields. One alum went from the construction field into Goldman Sachs or a similar org. where he is now a vice-president. Then we then had a really great talk on diversity where we explored all the different elements of people from different cultures--from things like how people from different countries greet each other, to how some cultures are low context (US,UK, etc) and just say what's needed and can be very direct. Whereas other cultures are high context (India, Brazil, Mexico), so they will be more robust with their conversations, and not as direct. I thought it was great to understand all the different elements of culture, especially being a first-generation Indian-American. Elements of culture play an indescribably HUGE rule in my life.

The day passed quickly, before I know it it is time to come home! My roomie for now Mo and I met up and got a nice piece of NY pizza and then watched yesterday's Entourage on demand. DAMN, this was an AWESOME episode! Ari got fired, and Vince got dumped. Vince is a cutey!

Also, the MTV awards were cool last night, but damn, can Diddy call anymore attention to himself? I have to give props to Missy for her tight video, "Lose Control," that won at least 2 awards last night.

2nd day of orientation done. ..6 more hours until 3rd

so it's after 3am and i just got back from some upper east side bars. . .our whole class went to the yankees game after our 2nd day of orientation. . .just when i was feeling exhausted from all the daily activities and didn't think I could go on, we all went to the yankees game, followed by after-game drinks. . .i had way too much fun at the bars and was convinced to sing Nelly's "It's getting hot in here" and "1-minute man" on karoake. . .

stern people are hella cool. or in NY style, I should say MAD cool. seriously, i am having a lot of fun here.

i have to get up in like 4 hours to get ready for day 3 oh my gosh can i do it?

1st Day of Orientation!

Today was our first day of orientation at Stern. We registered at the main plaza and our day started by getting free laptop backpacks and a flash drive! I was so excited, b/c those were the two things that were only my list to buy for school! We all gathered in the main auditorium to start the day with a welcome lecture. It was pretty cool to finally see all of my classmates, roughly about 350-400 people, all sitting in an auditorium together. The welcome lecture lecture was nice, and the most memorable comments that the dean made was when he said, and I quote as correctly as I possibly can, "Some people think that the purpose of business school is to prepare them for their first job. But that is not what business school is for. Business school is not a vocational school. It will teach you how to think analytically and critically. It will also teach you how to think historically and ethically. Business school will help you learn to solve incredibly complex situations for your professional career." I thought his comments were well-aligned with my purpose for b-school.

So after our welcome lecture we separated in different rooms into our blocks. Blocks are about 60 people who we will go through most of our 1st term core classes with. We did introductions and all that. Then we all got together again for a discussion on "The art of Small Talk" which was a nice talk. After that we had a wine and appetizers reception. It was really cool, and they had seriously fancy appetizers coming around. Anyway, I only knew a few people, so in the beginning I was thinking, "How am I going to get to know anyone?" But then everyone was so friendly, and people came up and introduced themselves, and I ended up having a lot of fun meeting people. A few surprises happened as well: someone came up to me and it was an old friend from my undergrad days at Berkeley! I didn't even know he went here, so it was a really nice surprise. Then, this girl came up to me and she saw my nametag and she was like, "Oh my gosh! I have been looking for you everywhere!" It turns out that I left my cell phone in the bathroom stall, where I had been checking my messages because it was the only place where it was quiet at all!

Right afterwards, I took the subway to meet up with some of my friends from Oakland who are in town, and it is so weird because I still feel like a visitor, but they treat me like I'm from here now! But I don't feel like it! They wanted to see a Broadway show so we went to see "Rent" on Times Square. It was my first time seeing a Broadway musical and it was pretty cool. When I was watching it I was thinking, "Wow! I really AM in NY!" After we went to have some drinks at this revolving restaraunt which overlooks Times Square, and also charges $13.95 for a martini. DAMN!

I just got home and it is almost 2am, and I haven't been home since this morning! This NY lifestyle is BUSY!

Apollo Theatre

My sister and I took a trip to Harlem the other day. The "trip" was very easy. . . we just took the subway and got off at 125th St.! I wanted to show her the Apollo Theater, where great perfomers like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Redd Foxx, and many many more have performed, along with the home of the famous show "Showtime at the Apollo" that I have been watching since I was a little girl.

So we walked over there, and they are doing so much renovation to it, which will last at least into next year. They are changing the outside face, and also changing all of the inside seating and decorum. My sis and I made friends with the security guard and the contractor. They usually don't let anyone in the actual theatre, but then we asked them if we could go in and they let us! The contractor was soooo funny, he said if we're going in, we have to do a show, so my sister conveniently volunteered that I would sing (which I do not do very well!). So my sister sat in the front row and the contractor went on stage and introduced me as "Madeline the Beautiful" (which nowhere resembles my name at all) and he made me rub the Tree of Hope which is this tree that performers rub for good luck and so they don't get boo'd off stage. So I went up on stage and I sang "I Believe I can Fly" as a joke and they started clapping and screaming. (If it were me I would have boo'd myself off.) Hahahahaha, it was really funny.