Queen of the Castle

Beasley has been here for about 72 hours, and as you can see, she hasn't hesitated to make herself at home. It's a no-brainer that my bed is pretty comfortable, so when she can, she just hops on. Aside from the first night, when she decided that my pillows would be a good place to sleep, she's been pretty good about making room for me!

MAP FAQ's

After I posted my MAP locale yesterday, I realized that I had never properly explained what MAP is all about. So, here's the 411.

Michigan's business program is all about "Action Based Learning." The idea is that classrooms are great for theory, but there's more to an education than sitting in a lecture hall talking about business cases. During the first three terms of the MBA program you are automatically placed into 9 core classes so you can get a broad, theoretical view of the business world. Once you complete these nine classes (Financial Accounting, Microeconomics, Business Statistics, Corporate Strategy, Corporate Finance, Marketing Management, Human Behavior and Organizations, Managerial Accounting and Operations Management), they figure you are ready to tackle Real World problems. But, much like learning how to ride a bike, our first Real World experience comes with training wheels. And this is where MAP comes in. The Multi-Disciplinary Action Project is the capstone course to our first year in b-school, tying in all our classroom theory ("Multi-Disciplinary") into a consulting project for a company ("Action Project"). Basically, you get the experience, but it's a lower risk environment than a summer internship because you can rely on your team members and faculty for help. MAP was essentially the reason I applied to Michigan to begin with (because it definitely wasn't the weather that made me want to come here!)

At the end of December they sent out a list of all the available projects, which ranged between Domestic vs International, and Corporate vs Nonprofit vs Entrepreneurial. We had 3 weeks to look over the list and rank our top 10 choices (the only stipulations were 1 domestic in your Top 5, and 3 domestic in your Top 10). After all our preferences were entered into a computer, and some overly complex algorithm, involving project preferences, country of origin, section, languages spoken, gender and shoe size (maybe not, but who knows what they include!), split the class of 420 into 90 to 100 teams.

I am excited for my project, which involves creating a strategy for Borders Gift Cards. I'm not sure what exactly we'll be doing, but given that I only found out what project I was on yesterday, that's not surprising. So, while some of my b-school friends are off to far-flung locations such as Spain, Czech Republic, India, California, I will be staying in Ann Arbor for the project (did you guys know that the first Borders store is located on the U of M campus?) At first I was a bit upset, but I did manage to come up with a list of reasons why staying here is going to be a good thing.

1. I get to sleep in my own bed.
2. If/When (knowing me, "when" is definitely the case) things get heated with my group members, we can each retreat to our separate homes.

3. I don’t have to pay for the doggie hotel.
4. When Tatum gives birth, I can drive down at my convenience to see my new niece.
5. I think the project I’m working on is going to be really interesting, because otherwise, I never would have ranked it.
6. If I’m overly ambitious, I can take another class.

All in all, I'm looking forward to the project. But, if any future MBA1s ask for my advice as to how to rank projects? "It doesn't matter how awesome the project is, if you don't want to stay in MI for MAP, don't rank any project in the area in your Top 10."

Where on the MAP?

The projects have been released. Drumroll please.... I'm headed to Ann Arbor, MI! Not exactly exotic, but oh well. We're doing a project for Borders, and that's really all I can say.

In the Cold, Cold Night

The cold weather sucks. When I was in my car today, the temperature gauge read anything between 8 and 15 degrees. And since it's usually reads 3-4 degrees higher than the actual outside temperature, this means I was dealing with anywhere between 4 and 12 degrees. Not factoring in the wind chill.

Since today was definitely NOT a day to be outside, I opted to watch movies for most of the day. First, I watched the end of Blade: Trinity, which I had been watching last night on TNT before I went to sleep (Ryan Reynolds is hot). Then, I watched Man in the Moon on E!, followed by a trip to the movie theater to watch Cloverfield (I REALLY liked it). To wrap up the day, Shari, Nathalie and I headed over to Lene's to eat wings and watch The Lives of Others (a foreign film that I actually liked... shocking!)

It was a much better way to spend my day than studying. Now, if only it were warm!

I'm still here!

Somehow, Winter A started, and I've managed to completely get wrapped up in school. With recruiting ramping up this week, and too many group projects to work on the first weekend of class, I've been pretty busy the last few days. So, a couple of quick updates for you all...

• Classes: With Week One officially in the books, my initial impressions are positive for OMS, MKT and BIT. Cost accounting? Not feeling the love.
• (Wo)man's best friend: In case you haven't been keeping up with the pipeline, I'm getting a dog! I've decided to take in Joe and Tatum's beagle, who doesn't always play well with others (if by others, we're talking about 18 month old babies). So, in about two weeks, they'll be headed up here to drop her off. I'm excited to have a "roommate," but I still need to Beasley-proof my apartment.
• MAPping the future: My MAP choices were due yesterday, and about 90 minutes before the deadline, I finally made my picks. I only chose two international projects, and my domestic choices weren't exactly too exotic (Ann Arbor! Arkansas! Reston, VA! Ohio! Woo!), but I'm pretty excited about my options. Regardless of where I end up, I know it's going to be interesting and challenging. Check back on the 23rd to see where I end up!

Welcome back!

Somehow my three week vacation has come to an end. No more sleeping in and being completely lazy, as Winter A kicks off tomorrow. I'm trying to be productive this term... I'm taking two electives on top of my two core classes. On my plate for the next 6 weeks? Operations management, Cost accounting, Consumer Behavior and Expert-Level Excel. The best news of all is the complete lack of 8am classes!!! Mondays and Wednesdays start at 10:20 am, and Tuesdays and Thursdays don't begin until 12:40pm. Thank goodness for that! Plus, I am lucky that I don't have to deal with the recruiting stress... I can't help but look at my classmates and admire them for all the hard work they're putting in. Best of luck to them in the upcoming weeks!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Indiana! The weather is just a bit colder than Florida, but it's nice to be able to spend time with the rest of the family. It's been a big 2007 for me, and hopefully 2008 will be just as good.

Be safe where ever you may be!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from warm Orlando, FL! I've been here for a week, and it's been nice to escape the chilly Midwest, if only for a while.

Things have been a bit nutty this week, what with family running around and shopping to do. Nevertheless, it's been nice to sleep in and not worry about studying.

As per Perez family holiday tradition, there was a trip to the ER on Christmas Eve. Mom, while seasoning the "pernil" (a big piece of pork), stabbed herself in the webbing between her pinky and ring finger on her left hand. Of course she played the injury down, but it was off to the hospital to get her skin glued back together. Thankfully everything is ok, and there was no damage.

As per more family tradition, we opened our gifts up on Christmas Eve. Santa was busy writing checks this year. I had asked for a Wii, which I can now afford, but might make some of my family members kind of upset. Apparently there's some concern that I can balance the studying with the Wii playing. I haven't decided what to buy yet. I should probably spend it on something practical, like schoolbooks and electric bills. But ha! There's no way that's going to happen!

I hope you all had a great Christmas, whereever in the world you may be!

Weapons down

So, the verdict is in. All my grades have been returned. Of the seven classes I took this semester, I did better in some, what I expected in others and worse than in expected in one (really, apparently I CANNOT deal with people). Overall, I'm very happy with my performance, which leads me to wonder how things would have gone in college if I had "applied" myself better the first two years. Oh, well, I'll guess we'll never know.

One other thing that has resulted from my current academic performance is the grumblings of me being a gunner. I had a vague idea of what this was (it's not a good thing), but I still had to look it up online. So, courtesy of Wikipedia, here is the definition of an academic gunner:

• In The United States a "gunner" is an overly competitive student, typically in law school or medical school. Calling someone a gunner is usually highly offensive. A gunner is also overly ambitious and often excitedly volunteers oral answers in class that are, by turns, incorrect, off-topic, or specifically designed to demonstrate the questionable "intellectual" prowess of the person supplying them. These questions are often prefaced with phrases like "A cursory literature search revealed . . . " A gunner will compromise his or her peer relationships in order to obtain recognition and praise from his or her instructors and superiors, often by directly harming or attempting to harm the academic well-being of said peers.

As soon as I saw the definition, I knew this wasn't me. Considering I rarely talk in class, it's pretty obvious I can't be called a gunner. But when I made this argument to some of my section-mates, one of them agreed, but then called me a sniper. Really? How is that any better?

TSA poster child

I'm at the airport waiting to board my flight to FL. Considering we're supposed to take off in 15 minutes, I'm willing to bet the flight's going to be delayed, regardless of what the monitor at the gate says.

Anyway, my drive to Indy went well. The only bad part was the chunks of icy snow that flew off a few of the semis on the road. There's something about having things flying directly at you when you are doing 79mph on the highway that just isn't pleasant. My 18 hour stay at the Perez household was fun. I got to practice some strumming action playing Guitar Hero, and Nadia got to open her Christmas gift from me. I think Tatum liked it more than Nadia did :)

And a quick story to explain the entry title... I went through security and my bin got pulled over by the TSA agent. There were about 5 of us waiting in line to have our things inspected, and the guy ahead of me got yelled at for not having his liquids and gels in a plastic bag. His TSA agent was explaining to him how he needed to pack his stuff, and then he grabbed my ziploc out of the bin and said: "See how she did it?" It's nice to be recognized for being such a rules follower... never mind that the last time I flew I was the one getting yelled about the by TSA rep at the Orlando airport!

Boarding has commenced... Florida weather awaits!