Clubs Sign-Up Day: Oh deary deary me

With the first classes having taken place and all the second years having returned, it was time for the 2005-6 Club season to be in motion. Now, everybody knows that in O-week in 1st year uni, you sign up for FAR too many things; such that you sign up for nothing in 2nd year and beyond. But, I thought, this time is different. I mean, these are clubs just for the 750 people at the Graduate School of Business, not 30,000 people in UNSW ... these people are my friends, my colleagues ...

Oh deary, deary, deary me.

Clubs I actually paid for (and how much - yes, this is US dollars)

• Eating Club. We basically take turns hosting dinners for 6-8 people throughout the year. You can pick which dinners to go to using a sophisticated "chocolate points bidding system". Thirty five dollars.
• Social ventures Club. This club is for people interesting in helping people (particularly in or around underpriviliged areas) set up businesses and become indepdendent. Ten dollars.
• Africa Club. For people, um, interested in working in Africa and African development issues. Twenty dollars.
• International Development Club. This is far too similar to the Africa Club, really, to justify joining. Fifteen dollars.
• Asian Club. For Asians?! (I got a free USB adaptor, OK!) Fifteen dollars.
• Greater China Club. For great Chinese people. OK, just kidding. Actually, I'm not sure what this is about, I've forgotten. Ten dollars.
• Health and fitness club. For people who are healthy and fit (or aspire to be?!), and/or want to work in the health industry. Five dollars.
• Marketing Club. For people interested in working in marketing jobs over summer of longer term. Twenty five dollars - but I got a coffee flask with "Marketing Club" written on it, OK ...!
• Product Design and Manufacturing Club. People interested in learning about brainstorming and design, and stuff ... Ten dollars.
• Entrepreneurship Club. For budding entrepreneurs, people wanting to start their own businesses, and talk to others who have. Thirty dollars (gee, I wish I had thought of this club as a business! But I got a FREE t-shirt!!)
• Futurist club. I have no idea why I enjoyed this club; I think it's got something to do with techie gadgets or something. Ten dollars.
• Real estate club. For people interesting in working in real estate investment (which I'm not, but hey). Twenty dollars.
• Government and politics club. A place to debate about what George Bush is doing, and all that stuff. Fifteen dollars.
• Partnerships for Education (P4E). Seeing I'm doing the combined MBA/MA (education) degree, I felt a sense of peer pressure to join. Twenty dollars.
• Europe Club. I want to work in London, OK?!! Oh, and for an extra ten dollars, you got a FREE subscription to the Financial Times! Including subsription: thirty dollars.
• Indian Club. The catch phrase line of their ad was "Have you wanted more of Indian culture beyond "Monsoon Wedding" and "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"?" And, apparently, it looks like my answer is YES. Ten dollars.
• Family business club. A club for people who own their own family businesses (ok, I admit, this is now getting pretty stupid!). Ten dollars.
• FOAM. This is some club that has free drinks every week from 9pm to midnight on Tuesday nights. The usual cost is $170 (free drinks for the year!) but a non-alcoholic membership was a bargain! Fifty dollars.

Total damage = $340 =(


Hey, but to make up for it - I joined all these other FREE clubs. These were fantastic value!

Clubs I didn't pay for

Leadership club, Card club, Net impact conference club, Admit Weekend club, touch rugby club, Christian club, Consulting club, Bases: entrepreneurs club, Stanford reporter, Stanford center for social innovation, Build: mentoring club, GSB show, Entrepeneurship Conference club, GSB band, Board Fellows ...


OK, so it's a lot of money!

True, and now I can't eat for a week. But only time will tell if this was a sound investment (or, if not, if I should take more finance classes ...) =)

Escape from Alcatraz: a night by San Fran's Fisherman's Wharf

One thing which all my favourite cities in the world (San Fran, Capetown, Rio de Janeiro and of course, Sydney) seem to have in common is a beautiful waterfront area(s). San Fran's, whilst not as slick as Sydney's Darling Harbour or as expansive as Rio's endless beachess, has a gorgeous, vibrant waterfront.

Tonight I went to visit a friend from Brazil who was passing through San Fran. We met near the famous Fisherman's Wharf, which is positioned close to a famous San Franciscan (?) bridge ...



We went for a walk around the bay, checking out the infamous Alcatraz Island ...



... and some spectacular historical sites on the waterfront. This hole thing was apprently some famous pier/tram thing (ok so I wasn't paying much attention). Anyway, I thought it made for a good photo ...



... along with the gorgeous San Fran waterfront, bustling with bright lights on the steep hills ...



(that's right, that's a large population of sea lions resting at the front of that photo!)

The highlight of Fisherman's wharf, however, is undoubtedly the clam chowder in a bread bowl. Basically, it's freshly made soup (There's about 10 shops in a row, outside on the water, making exactly the same thing at about the same price [note to economists: ah, perfect competition!*] and you can see them de-shelling the clams and steaming the soup fresh. Ah.) and you get this thick, meaty, creamy soup in a crusty sourdough bread roll. You drink the soup, then, break off the bread lid and dip ... and finally consume the soup-soaked bread bowl.

OK, I better do some of my class readings for tomorrow [or I could just keep stretching my improvisation skills =) ] ...

*sorry, am doing 2+ subjects of advanced economics this session ... =)

Cruising down a California lake in a houseboat, listening to Sweet Home Alabama ...

Well, this weekend we had our "Outdoor Adventures" - where we get into small groups of about 20 and go away for the weekend, along with a few second years, to bond, hang out, and, um, eat. Most people did something very active, like surfing, hiking, rock climbing, or white water rafting. I was feeling particularly lazy: so I chose option houseboat on beautiful Lake Shasta, about five hours' drive away.



You can see, the lake is gorgeous. We basically rented this houseboat, sailed it about an hour away, docked it, then that was it. The houseboat was pretty basic: just a big room with no walls, a small kitchenette, and 2 toilets (which filled up far too quickly) - certainly different to what had been advertised!



Due to traffic and all sorts of complications, we ended up not getting there until late Friday night, where we proceeded to hang out around the fire ...



... talk, and eat SMORES. (Smores is this American tradition: you toast two marshmallows, then heat up a small piece of chocolate and wedge it inbetween two honey biscuits. Mmmmmm. We would've had them both nights, but we left our supplies out and they were taken by bears during the night.) (!!!)



As for the trip itself? We really didn't do that much. Apart from set up camp ...



... sit around reading and eating (whilst some people waterskiied and swam) ...



... and cleaned up after ourselves ...



... well, that was it. Before we knew it, it was time to go - and it was my job to sail the ship back!



Which wasn't easy, but we got there ...

Blessings
john

Why you shouldn't do portraits of friends

(Context: We were playing this simulation in Organisational Behaviour class, trying to paint a huge mural (a group of 60 people) by dividing into 16 pieces! The sales department decided to make some (fake) money on the side by offering to the customer a "portrait drawing service". "Now," asked the manager, "who is good at drawing?". No one moved. I was bored. Oh dear ...)

Visit to Lytton Gardens - an old folks' home

Well, something a bit different today ... we had a day off, and about half the class went to visit companies in the area (such as eBay, McKinsey, EA, Goldmans, etc) and half of us went to do some volunteer work at a nearby location ...

... About 13 of us ended up going to Lytton Gardens, where 500 elderly people of all shapes and sizes are housed. We were to hang with them, make craft, and chat!

Firstly, I saw they had a piano! So at the first opportunity, whilst everyone was doing arts and crafts, I began playing (and I was getting ready to sing too!) when the staff informed me that background noise made it hard for them to hear what anyone else was saying ... whoops!

So I sat down next to Jenny (Hullo, Jenny) (sorry, obscure Forrest Gump reference) and began to do some arts and crafts. After having "glue issues" for a few minutes, I managed to start work on a butterfly thermometer thingy ...



... and then, with the remaining few minutes, I concocted a farmer/scarecrow/fridge magnet...



... by this time I was fairly impressed with myself! (I can dance too!)

Then, quite randomly, they asked us to debate about Stem Cell Research with some of the elderly who had come along for a thought provoking lunch?! That was random ...

Overall, a great day!



Blessings
john

A scavenger hunt around San Francisco

Part of the tradition for first year MBA students here is to run around for an afternoon, searching for cryptic clues about the city, take some creative photos at those places, in order to win some cool prizes. That's right - a good ol' fashioned scavenger hunt around the beautiful city of San Francisco ...



The first stop? China town. Ah, I had a bowl of cheap noodles and I felt right at home. The fact it was China town was a giveaway ... judging by the appearance of strange Asian men playing outdated instruments ...



And my personal favourite - $1 shops ... surrounded by 99 cent shops to beat the competition, and then, you guessed it ...



But soon, it was off to continue the scaveneger hunt. The winning team EACH received an iPod! So we had to go to really high places ... (it was just like Central Station in Sydney!)



... To all the way down the bottom of San Fran city's endless hills ... where there were lots of buskers and trams ...



... Stopping by candy shops, of course, in order to pick up suppliers for the afternoon, and cute photos!



How did we go? Out of 60 teams, I'm fairly sure we came in the bottom 10! But it was a great opportunity to see one of the great, bustling, quasi-Asian, waterfront, hilly, metropolises of the world ...

Take me out to the ball game ...! (2)

So, last Saturday night, after spending the afternoon shopping for Asian groceries (time very well spent! Ah ... my sweet little dumplings), it was time for my first LIVE college football game: The Stanford Cardinals versus the University of California: Davis (aka 'UC Davis'), um, dogs/whatever their mascot is.

Now Americans are CRAZY about football, and college football (not to be confused with 'collage football') is HUGE. Stanford alone has a stadium with a capacity well in excess of 75,000 people - though, because it was a low-key game on Saturday, the stadium was only half full. Still, it looked VERY impressive ...



... We were expected to thrash UC Davis, who, apart from having unbelievably small amounts of money to spend on their football team compared to us, aren't considered a "top division" team. Though both of our mascots are pretty unintimidating - compare the "Stanford tree" versus the "UC Davis, um, blue dog-type thing" ...



But a college football game in the US actually begins well before the game in the parking lot/areas surrounding outside. There everyone has "tailgate parties" (I know, I thought these sounded quite dangerous to when I heard them). At these parties people bring BBQs and eat food and drink for ... well, all afternoon leading up to the game. Yes, my kind of thing exactly!



As for the game itself? It was an incredible atmosphere (made all the more special by the cheap entry price!). There was a band ...



... cheerleaders ...



... fireworks (during half time, for no reason?!) ...



... lots of crunching tackles and "stacks ons" (and no, I don't understand the rules yet) ...



... and, lots and lots of standing around. Just see how big the entourages (players only!) of the two teams are, watching play continue!



In the end, we lost - our worst loss in a few decades (not my fault, honest!). But I was there for the journey, not the destination anyway ...

Take me out to the ball game ...!

Baseball. As I discovered tonight, thanks to the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, it is an incredibly boring game. 9 innings x 2 = 18 innings of sheer boredom, very few tactics (field placements? working on the batsman? All the associated drama that we have with cricket - which I've been copping lots of flack about from my English peers over the last few days?! All missing!!!) and a LOT of standing around.

How did I discover this? About 100 of us MBA students headed off to the very impressive SBC park (capacity: 40,000+) in the heart of San Fran to witness the two rivals battle it out in front of a capacity crowd ...



SBC is an extraordinary stadium. It is nestled on the water, right next to the Port of San Francisco ...



... and tonight the crowd was alive! boosted by the return of one of the most famous players in world baseball, Barry Bonds, the home crowd was electric!



Bonds delighted the crowd by hitting a ball right of the park - even into the harbour outside! Keen fans actually camp out there in the freezing water in kayaks waiting for balls such as this to land there ... amazing!



... but it didn't stop the Giants from losing 7-1 and this game from being very, very boring. Luckily there were other things to amuse me, such as EATING. Here are some world-famous Garlic Fries - $9 worth of fried goodness - which, along with hot dogs and sauerkraut, fairy floss (cotton candy) and chirros, satisfied my hunger and attention for the 4 hour marathon ...



... along with the usual entertainment of buskers playing the saxophone ...



... policemen making arrests (I'm not actually getting arrested in this muggy shot, just posing - I think!) ...



... and people tackily proposing to each other on the big screen! =)

Snapshots of Stanford (part 1)

Hey everyone,

It's amazing how, when we get the things we had only ever dreamed of, they can eventually become routine. I remember when I walked in for my first interview at McKinsey - I couldn't even imagine ever getting sick of coming into that office! People tell me that this is common with marriage too ... after time, we take things for granted.

In the hustle and bustle of my first (almost) two weeks here, I have begun to find myself taking Stanford for granted. The beautiful, large campus simply becomes extra walking distance, the big, old buildings more stairs to climb. So this afternoon I took my friend, Kermit the Kamera* (just kidding, he doesn't really have a name ... I mean, it) for a walk around to appreciate some of this amazing campus which I'm really privileged to even have the chance to be at, let alone study in!

Stanford is full of amazing, beautiful, old sandstone buildings with ludicrously long corridors ...



... here's another shot in colour! =)



Even the bins are sandstone covered! (I can see where some of my tuition fees are going!)



But it's not just all buildings. There are HEAPS of trees and greenery around (not like at UNSW where the few green spaces get all the advertising space!). Here is the view of the Stanford tower and some surrounding trees ...



... even the apartment block where I live is full of palm trees!



Really, you need a buggy to get around! =) (you can rent them! though most people make do with bikes ...)



Blessings
john

*on that note, I actually now have a camera on my phone - and a nice one too! (a lot of these photos are from it - 1.3 megapixel!). You can message me on +1 650 796 9303 ...!

The honeymoon is over ...

Well, after lots of fun and 101 parties, we were greeted on Monday morning with the news that term had begun (well, for the first years, anyway!).

After a presentation about what our course is about and why we were admitted (see photos of the admission committee below), some of us found we were in for one HECTIC day. Hundreds of pages of readings, excel courses at 100 miles an hour, assessments due straight away (I had a presentation due on Tuesday morning ... and just finished a big modelling project we had 24 hours to do using a $4000 queueing theory programme called "extend" ...)



... but the worst part is that they've stopped giving us free lunches! That's a sure fire sign that it's now the business end of business school (wow, I even found time to be funny!). =)

That being said, I'm glad that classes have started. They are really enjoyable, these case study discussions, where we spend hours arguing in class over some business-type thingy thing ...

Blessings
john