Winter B - Week 2

Greetings from the Hoosier state! After I left the office today I drove down to IN to meet my brand new niece. Sonia is absolutely adorable and so tiny! I had forgotten how small and fragile babies are. Nadia looks like a complete giant next to her! While I enjoy some family time, here's a recap of the second week of MAP.

• Monday - We had our meeting with our faculty advisor at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am, so I was not quite alert at that hour... It's possible our advisor thinks I'm mute. Afterwards, we headed to Borders to get more insight on our project scope from our sponsor. We thought we knew what they wanted, so even though our sponsor was going to be out on Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided to meet with other Borders personnel to get as much info as possible. After spending pretty much a full day in the office, I thought I was going to break out into hives. It's crazy how much I don't miss cubicles! Per Section Six tradition, Meryl and I went to trivia at Connor O' Neil's that night. Unfortunately, with so many people gone for MAP, it was just the two of us... we totally got our asses handed to us. We came thisclose to getting our entry fee back (ie, last place).
• Tuesday - Meetings! With more Borders people! Meetings! To debrief the Meetings! Meetings! With the Admissions Office for UpClose weekend!
• Wednesday - We took the day off from the Borders office and met at school instead to talk about our Project Plan and Letter of Engagement. In my previous life as a government employee we never had documents about ANYTHING, so a Project Plan was definitely new to me. After our meeting, I had lunch with Nathalie and drove her to airport. Crazy enough, I won't see her until mid-April, and she won't have cellphone access either. So I will definitely NOT be going over my text limit this month! Once I got back to Ann Arbor, I met with our Team Process Coach, followed by Lauren coming over to my apartment to get acquainted with Beasley. She was nice enough (or naive enough) to agree to watch Beasley for the weekend while I'm in IN. She was concerned about the whole thing (and probably still is), but the first meeting went well enough that I am not worried. Wednesday night was spent at btb cantina for a fundraiser (Drink for Drugs! was a suggested tagline). After spending way too long at the bar (I was tired) and arguing way too much with some people (I think people doubt my memory), I finally headed home at 1am.
• Thursday - We met with our other faculty advisor at 9am (still ungodly early) to go over our proposed LOE. She was very enthusiastic and gave us some great feedback, so we were excited to get back to the office to hear from our sponsor. After a brief detour to the Sprint store, where I got a replacement grey razr since the LCD screen on my red once was busted, I headed into the office, only to learn that our sponsor was out sick. So we met with his boss instead, and they promised to get their remarks back to us by the next day. After work, Lauren came over for some more bonding time with Beasley and I eventually got my butt off the couch to head to Happy Hour (only 45 minutes late!). I was pleasantly surprised to see 7 Sixers there, but there were plenty of people I had never seen before in my life. After trading MAP horror stories (at least I wasn't driving anywhere in a blizzard), and somehow being accused of being a vampire, Lorraine and I headed to dinner with Meryl. The Last Supper before she was off to the rainforest!
• Friday - There was a lot of last minute cleaning to get my apartment ready for the "Dog Sitter." Also, last minute packing that led me to forget multiple things, including my toothbrush, my phone charger, and a DVD that I had promised Joe and Tatum. Oops! My stay in the office was brief (only 2 hours), but we got to meet the Borders data guy. I think we had a moment when I shared that I worked at the Census Bureau during my previous life, and I'm pretty sure one of my teammates called us "data nerds." Hey, play nice! Our meeting with the Data Dude went very well, so I left Borders in a positive mood and got on the road to IN. About 2 hours into my drive, I got a text message from Lauren. Surprise! They've changed our Project Scope! I'm still not clear what it is that they want us to do. But, I guess that's the consulting life... After a 4 hour drive, I got to Joe and Tatum's and got to hold Sonia. Again, so tiny! That was followed by a Russell Crowe-style phone throwing incident, which coupled with my faulty hand-eye coordination, led to a super sexy split lip. Despite my deformity, I'm looking forward to the weekend and spending time with the family.

Ooh, and some bonus fun! The weather for the past 2-3 days has been AWESOME. Not quite warm, but much better than normal! On my drive down, the temperature gauge hit 59. It's not going to last, but I will definitely take it as a promise of things to come!

First Images

Finally, here are the first pictures I received of Sonia. Check out the Perez/Ward link on the right for the latest. I will be heading down to Indianapolis this weekend to meet her. It's pretty amazing, but she looks exactly like big sister Nadia!

Winter B - Week 1

Winter B has been here for one week, and in standard b-school fashion, it has completely flown by!!! Here's a recap of my first week of "work" back from Spring Break.

• Monday - It started in Rackham Auditorium, bright and early at 8am. It was very reminiscent of RLI, except for the questions that were flying past. Back in August, all you could hear was: "Where are you from?," "What section are you in?, and "What field are you looking to get into?" This time around, the questions were along the following: "How was your Spring Break?," "Who's on your team?," and "When do you leave for MAP?" After our initial orientation, we met with our Team Process Coach, who's an MBA2. After lunch, we met with our Faculty Advisor, where I had the joy of learning that our weekly meetings with her are scheduled for Monday mornings at 8:30 am. Yay... It felt odd to be done early, like I was slacking off or something. That night we had Section Whirly Ball, the last section event we will have before the end of April on account of MAP.
• Tuesday - We met with our Communications Coach (a woman named, I kid you not, Cindy Crawford) at 10am to learn how to communicate effectively. I'm not sure a 50 minute presentation really covered much. Again, being done so early in the day was disconcerting. I wondered whether I should be taking another class this term, but I knew that once our project truly kicked in I would be busy, so I ultimately decided against it. That night, during another Ann Arbor snowstorm, I went to Gratzi, where we had our HLBSA transition dinner, followed by drinks at Connor O'Neil's.
• Wednesday - The day didn't start until 1pm, when I had a two-hour meeting with my MAP team. Afterwards, I met Nathalie and Fareshta at the mall, and came back to school at 5:30pm for a course bidding workshop. I was already in a bit of a cranky mood, and the fact that I was unable to find a seat at the workshop because for some reason they only scheduled 2 workshops for all the BBAs and MBAs didn't help. So I left in a bit of a huff, drove Nathalie home and came back to school to meet Michelle for dinner. After some sushi we went to Charley's for a fundraising event. I ordered a Diet Coke and the bartender refused to charge me, leading Michelle to spread the rumor that I had flashed him. Yeah, I think I would have asked for a little more than JUST a Diet Coke.
• Thursday - This MAP-free day was basically a total blur. I went from a Student Ambassadors feedback lunch, to a meeting with my Consumer Behavior professor, followed by an HLBSA meeting for the new leadership. After my full afternoon of meetings, Nathalie and I went scrapbook shopping, followed by dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and Happy Hour at S'keepers.
• Friday - I started my day off at 10am in a meeting to discuss the finances for HLBSA (I don't think I had mentioned that I was elected both HLBSA Treasurer and Co-chair for UpClose, Michigan's diversity weekend event for prospective students). Afterwards, I picked up Lauren, we grabbed lunch and headed off to the Borders HQs. According to Google Maps, the offices are only 3.4 miles from my house. Not quite the exotic MAP locale that so many of my classmates are getting to experience. Being at Borders was a bit surreal... it had been so long since I had been sitting in a cubicle. Talk about flashbacks! After our meeting, I ran back home and changed, picked up Nathalie, went to Dance Fusion, had dinner at Marnee Thai and headed over to Goodnight Gracie's for Jessica Goldberg's birthday. After an hour, I finally called it quits and headed home.

I feel like we didn't get too much accomplished this week, mostly because we're not sitting down with our sponsor until tomorrow morning. But, I did set a personal going-out record, however. It was an exhausting week, as the people who were leaving for long MAPs were trying to pack in as much fun as they could. As it currently stands, Michelle, Marlene and Shari are in Prague, but they will get back in a week. Xavier left for South Africa today (for 4 weeks), Alex and Matt J are headed to San Francisco for 10 days tomorrow, Nathalie flies out for 4 weeks on Wednesday, and Meryl leaves for her 3 week trip on Sunday. It's crazy how everyone keeps heading in and out... it's tough to keep track of everyone's whereabouts. The good thing, I guess, is that they all know that when they get back, I'll be here... only 3.4 miles from my apartment.

Welcome to the World!!!

Baby Sonia is HERE!!! After what seems like a pretty short labor process, Tatum and Joe welcomed Sonia into the world. I don't have any pictures yet, but here's what I know:

• Time of Birth: 10:53 PM
• Weight: 7 pounds and 8 ounces
• Length: 20.5 inches

Hopefully I will get pictures soon and will be able to post them. And, assuming I can rearrange my schedule, I will be heading down to Indianapolis next weekend to meet my new niece, help the new mom, and help Nadia adjust to being a big sister!

Congrats Perez family!!!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

I know I still have not provided the details for Week 1 of Winter B/MAP, and it's coming, I promise! But first, I'd like to let everyone know that Tatum is currently in labor, so baby Sonia (my third niece), should be making an appearance in the next few hours. I'm very excited, and wish Tatum the best of luck. I'll post more details and pictures as soon as I can!

How I Spent My Spring Break: Thursday

Since I had promised to take the early morning folks to the airport, my last day in PR started at 7:20am. I didn't have any plans for my last day, so I spent it driving folks around, packing, and more driving. When I got back from the airport, Amy was one of the few people awake and she wanted to get coffee. So we walked to Kassalta, where I had one last quesito. After we made it back to the villa and cooled off for a bit, I drove Amy and Meryl to the other villa so we could pick up Harveen, Shermeen and the remaining car, which was under Amy's name. They went back to Kassalta for more coffee while I headed back to our villa to start packing. Not surprisingly, I had done a pretty bad job of packing (I had WAY too much stuff with me), so it was quite the challenge to get everything into my bag.

While I was busy packing, showering, and blow drying my hair, everyone was busy moving out of the two apartments we were going to be giving up. Since my flight was at 3:20pm (and Emily and Eric were on the same flight), we packed up the Kia and headed out to lunch. Unfortunately, the people who were going to the beach showed up right as we left, so we didn't get to have lunch together. We were able to return the car with plenty of time and get to the airport, which was full, but not packed. As I went through security, the TSA agent who looked at my boarding pass saw my ID and said: "Virginia? Oof." I told him: "Actually, I'm headed to Michigan." He just looked at me and started to laugh! I did not really feel much sympathy coming from him...

Both flights were fairly uneventful, although I was delayed in Charlotte (our plane was broken and they had to try and find us a replacement). We were only about 45 mins late to MI, though, and it's not like I was in much of a rush to freeze my butt off. The temperature when I got in the car? 20 degrees. It certainly made me miss the PR weather.

My Spring Break trip was a little chaotic, way too short, but lots of fun. One of the best parts (aside from seeing Abuela, eating Taco Maker and quesitos, and getting my hair done) was probably meeting/getting to know a whole lot more of my classmates, especially since Section classes are no more. The one thing that I didn't like, though? Getting the taste of the awesome weather and then coming back to the crap-tastic Ann Arbor weather. And to think, I don't get to go anywhere for MAP!!!

How I Spent My Spring Break: Wednesday

Once again, I found myself sleeping in. Apparently my goal during vacation was to do the exact opposite of everyone else. Two groups had left early in the AM to go hiking in El Yunque and snorkeling in Icacos. Being that we were lazy bums, after waking up at 11am, I dropped Meryl off at the beach at the Intercontinental and I went to Abuela's house for one last visit. We spent a few hours chatting before I said good-bye. She cried, of course, because I wasn't going to be able to make it back before flying out. My friends, however, joked that she was crying because I'm still single. Well, it's possible!

Once I was done at Abuela's, I drove past the old house to take pictures, then past my old high school and stopped at the gas station. My shopping experience fully crystallized why living in PR used to drive me crazy. First, I tried to swipe my credit card at the pump. But I was forced to go inside. After waiting in line for 5 minutes, I tried to hand in my card, but they turned me away because I didn't have any ID. When I finally brought in the appropriate identification, I had to guesstimate how much gas I needed, because they couldn't let me fill the tank. I honestly was about to scream.

I stopped by Plaza to pick up some shorts and a tshirt for kayaking, and got stuck in a patented Expreso Las Americas traffic jam. I picked up a group from the beach and we made a pit stop at the villa so we could all get ready for bio luminescent baykayaking. The drive to Fajardo went smoothly, except for the fact that the radio stations in PR are all pretty awful. We met the others for dinner at a random roadside restaurant called La Estacion, which was just one mile past the entrance to El Conquistador. Ah, the memories!

Kayaking was lots of fun and very bio luminescent-y. Plus, it was dark enough that you could really notice the microorganisms in the water. However, since the last time I went, they had passed a law that you could no longer swim in the water, so we started a water fight instead. Meryl and I tried to stay neutral, but then the TOUR GUIDE totally soaked us, so that was the end of my nice hair. Much later on, I found out that the whole reason they banned people from getting in the water was because people were getting a little too frisky and disturbing the ecosystem. Lovely...

Since kayaking wasn't over until 10pm, and we had a 1.5 hour drive ahead of us, nobody wanted to go out that night. Mostly people went to sleep or relaxed. I did, however, manage to slip on the wet floor and almost take Harveen down. Later on, I also managed to kick and break a wineglass. All this, without any drinking. I didn't stay up too late, though, because I promised to drive the 9:30am flight people, meaning I had to wake up at 7:20. So much for a relaxing vacation...

Next: Thursday - moving out and heading home

How I Spent My Spring Break: Tuesday

One of the things I was most excited about while I was in PR was to be able to get my hair done. I know, everyone was excited about the warm weather and the sun and the sandy beaches. But I couldn't wait for my hair appointment. I hadn't gotten my hair cut since October, so I had split ends galore, and my highlights were halfway down my head. However, for reasons unknown, I scheduled my appointment for 9am. So, even though I hadn't gone to sleep until 3am, I was up at 7:45am. I snuck out of the house at 8:15am while everyone was still passed out. On the way to the salon, I stopped for a quesito at Cidrines, and then spent 90 minutes getting pampered by the woman who had done my hair since the 9th grade. It was great to see her, and I was extra happy at the fact that getting my hair done in PR is so cheap! At 10:30am I rolled back into our villa, hoping that I hadn't left anyone stranded while I was off being vain. Fortunately for me, everyone was still pretty much asleep.

Three different groups headed out for the day. While some people headed off to the Marriot beach, and others to the Seven Seas beach in Fajardo, 10 of us headed to the Bacardi Distillery and Old San Juan. In what I found to be a common theme during vacation, I had to stop and ask directions. However, I also realized that when I was giving the directions to my classmates, they seemed to be unable to follow them, so the other car was late to Bacardi. So we headed off on our tour, learning that SPOILER ALERT! the Bacardi bat represents family unity. Um, if they say so... Once we got done, we sat in the Pavilion enjoying our free drinks, waiting for the other group to finish their tour. Since it was getting kind of late and no one had eaten, we debated lunch options. And since I had been raving about Taco Maker all trip long, they all insisted we eat there. I asked the woman working the Welcome Desk if there was a TM nearby, and she gave me some fairly poor directions. I managed to get us partway there before becoming utterly confused, so I stopped at the police department to make sure we were headed in the right direction. The cop was trying to explain where we needed to go, and the blank look on my face was enough for him to hop in his cruiser and take us there himself. That's right ladies and gentlemen... I managed to get us a POLICE ESCORT to Taco Maker. Once we finally made it, I proceeded to translate everyone's orders. Except for the "brave" (i.e. stubborn) soul who insisted he could order without my help. Needless to say it didn't work. It seemed that everyone enjoyed the Taco Maker, but I think that no one could understand why I was so excited about it.

On our drive to OSJ, I treated everyone to an authentic PR driving experience... since I wasn't sure where I needed to be, there was a fair amount of last minute lane changes, sudden braking and u-turns. We made it to OSJ in one piece, thank goodness, and parked down by La Puntilla so we could walk along the water on the Paseo de la Princesa, through the Puerta de San Juan, and up to El Morro. When we were in the fort I started to feel a bit nostalgic while everyone was looking around and taking pictures. After stopping for a mantecado de coco, we proceeded down la Calle Cristo, while I pointed out all the important landmarks I could remember. So of course I mentioned the Plaza del Quinto Centenario and the Hotel El Convento, but by far, the most important tidbit I could impart was the following: "This is La Catedral. That's where my sister got married!" Not the kind of info they'd be getting on a regular tour! Once we made it to the bottom of the Calle Cristo, we stopped at a restaurant for Happy Hour. Trust a group of MBAs to find the nearest location for booze...

Xavi had decided that he was going to cook dinner that night, so after we dropped everyone off at the villa and he put the beans on the stove, we headed to the nearest Grande to stock up on dinner fixings, breakfast goods, and of course, alcohol. While everyone started prepping dinner and mixing their entries for the night's Drink Off, I headed upstairs to nap. Or at least try to, considering how loud everyone was downstairs. Once dinner was ready (at around 10pm), I went downstairs to eat (yum!) and preside over the Drink Off. As the only person who hadn't tried any of the four entries, it was up to me to tally the votes. The grand winner was the Peach Passion, a recipe that Meryl and Emily smartly learned from the Bacardi tour earlier that afternoon. For their efforts, they won a 10 pack of Gasolina, a rum-based beverage that, for some reason, is sold in pouches just like Capri Sun. Weird! Second though fourth place was a bit tougher, as it was a three way tie. So Matt S and Jen (sangria), Xavi (something made with Bacardi O) and Byron (Caribbean Lover) were forced to split the remaining prizes: a tin of Fancy Feast and a can of Easy Cheese. Not exactly some great prizes there...

Since it was ridiculously hot downstairs (there were about 20 people crammed in the downstairs suite), I went to our room to read. I had no idea how much time passed before Meryl burst in and said: "The cops are here!" I guess our neighbors weren't too happy with us, because they called the cops. Thankfully, Sherri had a Puerto Rican friend who was visiting, so he was chatting the cops up, making sure they understood that we weren't trying to be difficult. Once the cops left, Meryl and I went upstairs to get away from the insanity. Unfortunately, the level of noise started climbing again (and we had the A/C in the room on!), so I went downstairs to "regulate." Everyone apologized for keeping us up, and I said: "Not us, the neighbors!" Why we couldn't keep the volume low, heck if I know... After Xavi told me for the 5th time that day "Your hair looks amazing!" (and Byron felt the need to chime in: "Your skin is amazing!" and Jessica Goldberg pitched in: "Your personality is amazing!"), I finally went to sleep. Tuesday was a fun, cheap day, but lord was it long!

Next update: Wednesday - taxis and kayaks

Our police escort to Taco Maker

The lucky recipients of the Geraldine D Perez tour of Old San Juan. From L-R: Me, Meryl, Amy, Lakshmi, Sherri, Byron, Eric, Emily, Sara and Xavi