How I Spent My Spring Break: Monday

When I went to sleep on Sunday night, I had already expressed my desire to sleep in on Monday. Imagine my surprise when the only reason I woke up on Monday (at 11:30 am) was because Paulomi knocked on my door to make sure I had the keys to the apartment. By the time I was showered and dressed for the beach, there was only one carful of people waiting to leave the villa. For some theoretically intelligent MBAs, it took us a while to figure out that if 7 people were leaving, we were better off taking the 7-person Rondo than the 5-person sedan.

The plan was to go to the Farmer's Market, and of course we got lost. And I even had a former Army man as the navigator! When I told both Mom and Abuela we got lost, they each said: "La Plaze del Mercado in Santurce? That's so easy." Yes, well, if I knew we were going there, I would have been able to figure it out. Once we found it, I dropped everyone off and searched for parking. By the time I found a spot and we walked over to the Plaza, everyone was ready to go. So we headed back to Ocean Park, had lunch and went to Condado, where we spent the afternoon at the Marriot beach. While I have never been a fan of the sand and saltwater, it was great to be able to sit on a beach chair and do nothing for a few hours. Going in the water was also fun, but the sandy feet and sticky skin on the way home wasn't so great.

Once we headed to the villa and everyone got ready to go out, we went our separate ways for dinner. I drove a group to Buenos Ayres for yummy empanadas, churrasco and chimichurri sauce. Dinner was fun, but the evening afterwards got a little chaotic. First, we witnessed a guy in an SUV rear-end a police car. Then we met the other group and decided to go to Old San Juan. The first stop was a bar on San Sebastian. Apparently this wasn't good enough, so we wound up at a restaurant at Calle Fortaleza which was deader than the first place. There was some debate as to go elsewhere, but we stayed put for a while before heading home. But since I had parked the car all the way by Ballaja, and we were on the opposite corner of OSJ, we decided to take a cab up to the car, for which they tried to charge me $10. I was outraged and only paid the guy $5, so he was not happy. I picked everyone up on the way out and we headed back to the villa for more drinking. Meryl and I were tired, so we went to bed, but stayed up until 3 am talking.

Next update: Tuesday - cheap hair, free booze, touristing and the police

How I Spent My Spring Break: Sunday

My Spring Break vacation started extra early on Sunday. Since my flight was leaving at 6:40am on Sunday, and I have a nasty tendency to oversleep, I decided NOT to go to bed on Saturday night. I intended to spend the evening/morning packing, cleaning and paying bills. Instead, I wound up watching lots of tv, and before I realized it, it was 4am and I hadn't packed a thing. So I began to hustle, but the lack of sleep was definitely taking its toll. I didn't make it out of the house until 5:30am, so I was fairly concerned that I was going to miss my flight. Fortunately, the roads were empty so I made it safely and on-time - thank goodness I hadn't planned to check any bags!

Once I was on the plane, I kept an eye out for one of the other people making the trip. According to the spreadsheet, Byron was on my flight, but since I had never met him before, I just stared at all the males in their 20s-30s boarding the plane, trying to figure out who he was. I was kind of tired though, so I just hunched over with my hands over my eyes for a bit. After a few minutes, I sat up and was pretty much blinded by the plane lights, so I slumped back in my seat, but continued to look at everyone boarding the plane. At that moment there happened to be a bit of a traffic jam, and I notice this guy staring at me. So I look at his jacket and notice that it says "Michigan Ross School of Business." So I said: "Are you Byron?" to which he replied "Geraldine" and we did the polite handshake-thing that MBAs are so adept at. It wasn't until a little later that I found out that apparently I looked half-dead, with my mouth open and staring off into space when Byron first noticed me. Ask him for an imitation... he seems to love doing it.

Both flights went smoothly, although there was some questionable loud noise when we landed in Charlotte that I wasn't too thrilled with. I think our pilot had to use the emergency EMERGENCY brake to get us to stop before we ran out of runway. Byron and I chatted during our layover, and he seemed surprised I was Puerto Rican, because "I didn't have huge hoop earrings." I'm not sure where exactly he gets his information. After we landed at the SJU airport we headed our separate ways because I was going to visit Abuela. I hopped in my 7-person white Kia Rondo (which came very in handy during the week) and immediately started freaking out about the quality of driving. But I gathered my bearings quickly and enjoyed the sights on the way to Abuela's, including the ginormous Best Buy they built right by Plaza. Since I didn't have lunch, I stopped for a snack at TACO MAKER. Honestly? Just as good as I remembered. Once I made it to the neighborhood, I called Mom and sat outside our former house for a few minutes, dissecting every change they've made since it was sold. Holy crap, the house looked really good! I spent a few hours at Abuela's chatting about school and life and etc, and had dinner with her and Titi (arroz con gandules, biftec encebollado and amarillos).

Once I left Abuela's I headed to our rental house for the next four days. Byron was already there, and the next wave of arrivals (including our trip planners, Ginny and Lakshmi) were on their way. Once we were read the house rules, we all started claiming sleeping space and Meryl (fellow Section Sixer and the person I knew best on the trip) and I wound up in a bedroom in the upstairs villa. Everyone was starved, so 7 of us hopped in the Rondo, and headed to a restaurant recommended to us by the owners of the rental unit. After we sat down, we all took a look at the menu and had a collective heart attack. The prices were absurdly expensive and in no way close to what we wanted to spend. So I told our waiter a little white lie, claiming that due to a miscommunication, our group was elsewhere and we needed to meet them. So we headed out, but not before I spent $3 on a diet coke. Out of a can. Served in a plastic cup. After lots of driving around (and with random stops at Kasalta and Walgreens), we finally found a 24 hour diner by the house, and a mere 4 hours after we left the house in search of dinner, we finally finished eating. So we headed back to the villa for some relaxing, partying, and to top it all off, getting yelled at by our neighbor, a local who had to wake up for work at 5:30am the next morning. I guess it's really tough to shut up 28 MBA's who are boozing it up on Spring Break.

Next installment: Monday's Beach Mayhem

"Spring" Break

I'm finally done with classes for my first year. Hard to believe, but it's already been over 6 months since I set foot in Ann Arbor and began the insanity known as the MBA. And just like that, I'm done with classrooms and exams - at least until September. Once we do MAP, the core will be over. Just thinking about that is crazy. I feel like I just got here. How is it possible that I'm already 37.5% done with my degree?

Anyway, I had my last final today (or yesterday, since it's 2am right now). The term didn't go as well as I had hoped (considering I didn't have to deal with recruiting), but I'm just going to blame Managerial Accounting as to why I didn't fully enjoy Winter A. Now that all my work is done, I get 9 glorious days of vacation. I originally hadn't planned on doing anything during break in order to save money, but once I found out that I was staying in Ann Arbor for MAP, I had to get out of here. I'm pretty sick of winter at this point, so I'm headed down to Puerto Rico with a group of 25 other MBA1s. It's pretty insane that that many people are going, and it's not like PR is exotic (at least for me), but I'm looking forward to doing nothing for 4 days and being warm while doing that. Other things to look forward to? Sleeping in, seeing Abuela, maybe getting my hair done, and TACO MAKER! I know it's pretty sad that I'm excited about a fast food chain, but it's been so long!!!

At any rate, I fly out on Sunday and come back on Thursday. So I've made arrangements for Beasley to stay at the nearby PetsHotel. Crazy thing is, her boarding costs are about the same as my entire hotel expenses in PR. Scary - either I'm staying in a death trap, or Beasley is getting super swanky accommodations. Or maybe both? I don't think I'll have internet access while I am in PR, so I will catch you all on the other side of Spring Break. And yes, I know it's ridiculously early for Spring Break, but these people at Michigan are special. There's just something wrong about using the word "Spring" to talk about a vacation at the end of February!

Countdown again

It's here... the end of Winter A is fast approaching, so panic has begun to set in. I feel mostly okay about three of my classes, but I can help but wonder what I have learned in Managerial Accounting for the last 6 weeks.

Completed: MKT 613 Paper, BIT 512 Final, OMS 552 Final, ACC 552 Final, BIT 512 End-of-Course File
Remaining: DONE!!!

[Friday] night's alright (for fighting)

Or maybe not fighting... just arguing in the car, listening to music I've never heard before, and watching the Red Wings get their butts kicked. The Evening MBAs offered up Red Wings vs Blue Jackets tickets for Friday night, so Michelle put together a group of us to head to Detroit and enjoy the game. It seemed doomed from the start, as Michelle had to bow out due to a last-minute trip to Minneapolis. So I asked Nathalie to take Michelle's place, but 35 minutes before we were scheduled to leave, Nathalie had to cancel. Fifteen minutes later, I got a call from Anurag saying he wasn't going either. So we enlisted Hugh as a last minute replacement, and after spending two hours driving all around Ann Arbor, to Detroit, and sitting in a ridiculous parking line, we finally made it to the Joe Louis Arena.

We enjoyed a fabulous meal of overpriced hot dogs, sausages and beer (Diet Coke, in my case), and went all the way to top of the arena. It's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights! The game was never close, but the crowd reaction to the Red Wings only goal of the night was completely insane. There were some good sights, including one woman who had the most terrifying mullet I have ever seen. Sadly, I didn't get a picture. After the loss, no one was excited to go out (and we had spent all of our money on concessions at the game), so we just headed back to Ann Arbor. Thank goodness for the GPS, because we made it on to the highway in about 5 minutes while all the rest of the suckers were stuck in traffic following the signs for the freeways. The evening ended up at Matt J's apartment (again), where we did some more rocking out. Either Rock Band is the best game ever invented, or we are the most pathetic b-school people ever. Or maybe both? Regardless, I got in some solid drum practice, so I think I may be ready to take it to the big time!

Overall, I'm still not really impressed with hockey, but I did have a good time.

The view from our seats. Can you see the hockey players? No? Neither can I.

Matt P is clearly happy about the peanuts purchase.

Hugh is DEFINITELY loving the peanuts, but Matt J looks way too serious to be at a hockey game.

Matt P, ever the committed artiste, making the Rock Band vocals complete magic.

What are the odds?

I pretty much wear jeans and sneakers to school everyday. It's comfortable, and when it's crappy out, who really wants to get dressed up? Today after OMS, a large group of Sixers were standing in the lobby, bundling up and trying to figure out where we were all going for lunch. Matt J was asking me for some money I owed him, at which point we gave each other the once over. We were both wearing dark jeans, a navy/gray North Face jacket, and to top it all off, kelly green and navy sneakers (similar to those pictured, except mine were Pumas). Honestly, what were the odds?!? I started laughing, attracting the attention of our section-mates. There were lots of requests for cameras, and smart-ass Joe M said: "That doesn't happen by accident, kids!" Seriously, it seems like I'm going to have to make phone calls before dressing in the morning... we wouldn't want any more fashion faux-pas!

A.M. sprint

Right before leaving for class this morning I took Beasley out to do her business. It was still freakin' cold outside, plus I was running a little late, so I was trying to hurry Beasley along. As soon as she finished, I turned to go back to my apartment while Beasley tried to continue along with our stroll. My frozen fingers dropped the leash, and Beasley, immediately recognizing the bid for freedom, sprinted off, investigating the neighborhood. So I took off behind her, huffing and puffing. I finally caught up to her, picked her up, and jogged back to the apartment. By the time I deposited her safely in the kitchen, I was coughing like a former chain smoker and made it to class five minutes late. That Bease is a sly one!

It's frickin' freezing, Mr. Bigglesworth!

How cold is it, you ask? The temperature gauge in my car hit an all-time low... 2 degrees. Other signs that indicate it's completely freezing? The tears on my face caused by the wind freezing up, and poor Beasley moving as fast as a little old lady with a walker. I don't think I have ever seen her move so slow. I felt so bad that as soon as she finished her business, I picked her up and carried her back into the apartment. The poor thing was shaking like a leaf! I think it may be time to invest in a doggy sweater and some booties.

Matt Jung's Rockin' Super Bowl Sunday

After being sick all weekend (fever and sore throat), I finally made it out of my house on Sunday afternoon to watch the Super Bowl at Matt J's house. It was a pretty sad gathering of people, as half of us were either sick, getting sick, or almost over being sick, and some other people were still recovering from the night before. Add in an offensively challenged first half, and it was a pretty comatose group. The food kept us going - Matt J, former professional chef made mac and cheese and pulled pork, while the rest of us brought over chips and some form of dip (salsa! spinach and artichoke! seven-layer! guacamole!). Toss in a drinking game as incentive to pay attention to the game, and things eventually got a bit livelier, culminating in that very awesome last minute drive by the Giants. To cap the evening off, we participated in Rock Band, always a fantastic way to spend time. Somehow I felt progressively worse as the evening went on, until the Meijer Tylenol (Mei-Lynol) kicked in.

Still a pretty low-key group.

The Mei-Lynol hadn't kicked in yet. But some people were enjoying the effects of the Super Bowl Drinking game.

Clearly feeling sick. Who sits down when they should be rocking out?!?