Yes?

Yes? Mustache Man, do you have a question?

...in your sleep? (in the middle of bird crap)

Sumatra

Warning - this is another long one, since I have a whole trip to catch up on. No pressure to read it.

The last five days were spent on the island of Sumatra - the northwest most island of Indonesia. When the tsunami hit, Aceh was one of the spots that we worst hit, and that is the most northern area of this island. You might remember hearing about it in the news.

Sumatra is the island where the Hildebrandt family lived from 1982 to 1984 - in the city of Medan. Fran and Tom were teachers in the international school, Matt was in kindergarden and grade one, and Mike was in pre-school and pre-kindergarden. Dan was in Fran's tummy for the second year.

We arrived on Monday night in the city of Medan - the third largest city in Indonesia. We stayed in a hotel in a village just outside the city. We really only were there for about eight hours, so we didn't get much of an impression. Tuesday, we woke up at the break of dawn to be on the road at five. We drove a couple of hours to reach the orangutan jungle of Bukit Lawang. This was our first major adventure.

I learned that Orangutan is really a Bahasa word (Bahasa means "language" in Indonesian and Malaysian, and it's sort of the name of the language they speak in those countries - and the languages are extremely similar to each other). Orang means people, and hutan means jungle, so orangutan means people of the jungle. Who knew??

We got to some random hotel at the end of a village - as they all seem to be, and the guy there asked if we wanted to do the jungle trek or just walk to the canoe to get to the feeding area. As many people used to "own" orangutans in Indonesia, they're still nursing some of the orangutans back into the wild, and they feed them twice a day. We chose the jungle trek, and boy was it a trek. First the highlights - we saw five orangutans, and they were amazing. They're bright orange, and they really look so much like people, and they have the coolest way of swinging through the jungle. It was mindblowing. One of our guides had passion fruit and bananas, and we handed them to the orangutans. You can see the movies and pictures. We even saw a mommy with her baby. Gorgeous. I could watch them for days. This was a highlight of my life. Really.

Now - the challenging parts - Fran had a hip replacement earlier this year, and there is no way they should have let her on that hike. There were many places with big steps down, a short steep climb at the beginning, and many places that had tons of mud that you had to either walk through and not slip on or walk around, and neither option is too simple. The trek that usually takes people 1.5 hours took us 3.5 hours. So...we know for next time. Luckily we all had a sense of humor about it(especially Fran!), and it was an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Back in the car and back to Medan...and past Medan to head to Berstagi - a small village in the mountains. We didn't see much of the village, but the surrounding areas were gorgeous - looked like a lot of SE Asia looks, and exactly what I love. Especially I enjoy the monkeys who sit on the road waiting for trash. The trash part is gross, but the monkeys are so cute. These were pig tail monkeys. They have pig tails.

Berstagi was our first experience seeing the Batak culture. The Batak people are the local tribe in the northern areas of Sumatra - below Aceh. They have super unique looking houses (see pictures when posted), and they live simple lives. Many are Muslim, but it seemed like more were Christian. Lots of churches.

When we finally got to Berstagi, I believe we had been in the car for seven hours, so I needed to walk. We went for a short walk in the village (we were staying outside of Berstagi itself). We were the whitest people to ever walk those streets. We got lots of "hello, mister!" s.

Next morning we woke up early to go up the Sibayak volcano. We drove up most of it, and then walked up the rest of the road. Finally we reached the near top, and we had a bit of a neat trek to the center of the volcano. There were tons of sulfur, hot springs, and one was even so pressurized it looked like it was shooting out water, and it might be doing that forever. It was loud. Then a girl puked. Our guide, Lily (a man) took us to the trekkier path, which we walked down - all we tried to do was not fall. It was super steep and really muddy. We all fell. Many times. It was quite a spectacle. Mike, Dan, Matt and I all loved the hike, though, and that was another highlight. My favorite part was when Mike did a 360 while one leg nearly slid out from under him - about five feet away, but he maintained his near-standing position.

Back in the car...visited villages, and other sites along the way, and we drove and drove and drove and finally we got to the small city of Parapat, where we could catch a ferry to Pulau Samosir. Samosir Island is in the middle of Lake Toba, which seems to be a volcanic lake, and it's HUGE. Apparently one of the five or ten biggest lakes in the world (can't remember. sorry). The views were spectacular. We got on a ferry with some outstanding LOUD music (which Dan bought the CD later), and we headed across to Tuk Tuk, on the island. At each point, Matt and I were figuring which side was closer just in case the boat didn't make it (which didn't seem like that far off of a possibility. You know those SE Asian boats...).

We finally got to Tabo, our hotel on Toba, and it was excellent. Matt and I had a little Batak house to share, with our own balcony and hammock. It was a super relaxing place on the lake. Oh, and the big bottles of beer were only $2 each. That's awesome.

Next day, back in the car, and we headed to the other side of the island to watch some super traditional, simple Batak dancing. Matt did a dance with them. He's a Batak superstar. There was also a HUGE banyon tree there. I love those. They seem really powerful (in Bali they think they have spirits in them!).


Back to the car, and we stopped in a village where women were weaving - that's one of the trades of choice up there. Really beautiful work with the loom. At another stop, I learned that the gecko is a sign of prosperity, and women's breasts are also, so there are literally buildings with pictures of geckos and breasts. Not women with breasts - just breasts. Also, the Batak put water buffalo heads on the top of their houses - on both sides - for strength. Apparently in the olden days when they would kill people, they would also put their heads on the four corners of their houses.

Off to some nostalgic places for the Hildebrandt family, and then ended up at the market downtown. We bought a beautiful woven piece from a woman with beetle-nut juice red stain all over hear teeth, face, chin, gums and ALL over. The piece we bought was nice, though.

Matt, Mike, Dan and I walked back to the hotel. A nice walk. Matt carried some lady's pot of soup for a while. No joke.

Settlers that night - I won twice and Dan took the third. Close games with a lot of beer.

The next morning was relaxing, and I basically read an entire book (Sarah's Key) - and then we got back on the boat to Parapat. We saw a little Piston's jersey for some reason in a shop there. My mouse exploded in my bag - it was annoying that it got all over my clothes, and now everything smells like coconut, but more annoying is that it's super expensive, and we can't even get it in Singapore! I am going to have to travel without curly hair until I get to the states next.

After driving and driving and driving (mom, I didn't complain - I swear) ...we finally arrived back in Medan. Matt and I went for a walk in the village we were staying in, just outside of Medan, and I don't think anyone white had ever walked there before. Nearly everyone (usually it's just the kids) stopped what they were doing and smiled and waved. It's so cute. Like we're celebrities. This one man talked to us for a while. He said he grew ubi, but I can't find what that might mean. He even showed us the plant, but I'm not familiar with it. He said they eat the plant and the roots. He was divorced, and he had a son, and he invited us into his house. We politely declined and walked on.

A highlight of our hotel outside of Medan were the frogs. For some reason, both times we stayed there we saw tons of frogs all over the dining room. Big ones, too! There was one, while we were having breakfast the last day, who was up on a table, and then he jumped onto the back of a chair, and he straddled the chair and just chilled for a while. While we were the only ones staying there the first night, this night there was one other room taken - a local guy with his "girl." Like he's married, and this wasn't his wife. Yuck.

Our day in Medan was a day of nostalgia for the family. We started by going downtown to a shop near a minimarket that they used to shop in. Toko Ben wasn't open, so we visited Toko Dahlia instead. They got their soy sauces, nasi goreng mixes, and everything else one can't really get in the states to make Indonesian food. Then we headed to the international school. The guy who worked in the office when Fran and Tom worked there had just retired last year, and he showed us around. Matt seemed to remember everything being much bigger. They all found their classrooms, and we saw the pool where Matt became the International Swimming Champion of the World (in Medan). It was super interesting to see that these kids learn the same stuff that we learned in our school (with a WAY more global perspective), but they're in some city in the middle of Indonesia. Pretty crazy. The man, Karina, said that there are now 80 students in the school, and it goes up to grade nine. Pretty small, but apparently Mobile Oil pulled out years ago, and they were the big company when the Hildebrandts lived there, and there just aren't many people coming in. After the school, we found the two houses that they had lived in (each for one year). One looked almost the same (after 25 years!), but it was now an office, and the other had been torn down and turned into an office building. An ugly office building. Both streets had apparently been much more residential before, and now they were definitely both busy business streets. Indonesia super developed in the early 80s until the crisis in 97, so the place had exploded...

We ate at the ex-pat restaurant in town - Tip Top (which had excellent food!), and we headed to do a bit of shopping, visit the Sultan's palace and then the grand mosque. Both gorgeous. Finally - after some hours in the one mall in town, we headed back home to our Kitty.

Overall, we loved the trip. It was to gorgeous places, eating great food, and seeing so much. It was only my third Hildebrandt vacation, and I also appreciated the time with Dan and Mike - whom I don't usually get to spend too much time with. Good guys.

To see more photos, click here.

Two more notes - I lost one more reader. Congrats to Lauren and Mo who bad a baby girl this week! And...I went to get my hair cut today, and Cedric, the hair designer (who has very great arms) said I have gray hairs that he hasn't noticed in the past! In the middle of my head. Matt has a few too...I guess we're getting old!

Where is Mike?

We have had an eventful few days. The Hidebrandt Clan arrived on Sunday night. After a wonderful weekend of cleaning, getting beaten in Settlers, seeing friends and relaxing, they arrived from Detroit, LA, Seoul, and finally to Singapore.

Monday I tried to hang with them, but I was unable to, because Matt's phone wouldn't receive my phone calls or text messages for some reason. I sat and waited for two hours, and finally I had to go home and cook. They, in the meanwhile, went to Bedok Centre for a bit of shopping, lunch in Holland Village, and a relaxing afternoon in the Botanical Gardens including the Orchid Gardens.

Monday night we had Gal and Ohad, Tali and Alon over for Hanukkah. We had latkas and some other food - including excellent desserts. Tali somehow found real sufganiot (jelly donuts). Excellent. Excellent.

Today was the Hildebrandt tour of Little India and Chinatown, but before that, I went with the mommy and daddy Hildebrandt to the wet market in our neighborhood. I was super white. I got the hot coffee in the bag (two, really), and I dropped on. On the floor. Hot, wet and all over the floor. The guy gave us a new one and just told us not to pay. As if to say, "just get out of here before you do anything else WHITE." Oops.

Then, we made it to Little India. We went to Mustafa Centre, which is NUTS (and you might remember it from other blog postings). We lost Mike. He wandered off in the biggest, most crowded (with people and stuff) store in the world. What was he thinking? He just wanted to look at the shirts downstairs. We looked for him for over an hour. He had no idea. Finally, mommy and daddy Hildebrandt had to pay $5 to have him paged. We found him.

I was hungry. We ate a big meal at Raj. Yum. Then we hit Chinatown. Then dinner in East Coast Park - satay and laksa. Yummy.

Nothing and Loving it

I haven't updated my blog since I finished exams, because there is absolutely nothing to write. I have done the cleaning that should have been done for the last four months...I have had the lunches with friends I should have had in the last four months...I have slept until 10:30 everyday (which I really don't deserve all the time)...I went to an okay museum, spent a lot of money on good food, new keens and tuna (it's hard to find in water, I swear), and played tetris. And I have loved every minute of it.

My life is filled with babies. For example, yesterday morning, I woke up, and I saw an email that our friend Laura, who lived below us in NYC, had a baby. I called to say mazal tov. Then I talked to Liba for two seconds. She just had her second baby a couple of weeks ago. Then I talked to Cristine (a long lost blog reader) who also just had a baby. I talked to Jo who is due somewhere in March or April (she seems to be not sure). Then I met Lauren for coffee. She's due next week. Then I had lunch, and spent the afternoon with Gal. She's due in March. It really feels like nearly all of my friends just had a baby or is pregnant. Then I got an email from my friend in NYC, and he said he and his partner are expecting (surrogate). It's out of control. The world is populating itself quickly, but at least it's with good people!

Done P2

It has been a rough ride, but the ride ended today. I won't mention that I was THROWN from the vehicle, I had my face driven over, and the vehicle backed up and went forward again and again just driving me into the ground. Whatever. It's all done.

I don't remember exams in college ever being this hard or this intense. I felt like we didn't have enough time to study, and somehow, at the same time, the exams went on forever! Six classes is a LOT!

After not studying that effectively this morning (and not studying at all last night...), I took my last exam - Operations. It was hard. I have never really left an exam early. I feel like I can always go back and check calculations, review answers, improve...something. Today, though, at twenty to four, when I still had twenty minutes left, I had to leave. I couldn't go through any more answers, and I left...

And then I started to drink. We had an ice sculpture that said INSEAD and something else, and it was a vodka luge. It was like a bar mitzva. Our dean did a shot on the ice luge. That was a personal highlight. Our very own class band played, and we drank. And drank, and it felt so good. I couldn't stop smiling.

After that, and a quick visit to a party, my group went to dinner - the last time we were together as a group. We went to Korean barbecue. I ate a lot of pork. The pork was so good. So tasty. All the little dishes were superb as well. It was really nice to hang out with them, and in the end, we were so good together. I will see them all again, but I'll miss our dynamic and all of our times together. For P3 Brian will be in Fonty, for P4 I will be in Wharton (unless I have to retake any of my P2 classes!), and P5 Luis will be in Fonty.

After that we went to the INSEAD party, and though I really don't usually like these, it was so much fun. I loved dancing to Vanilla Ice and "Push It" and just feeling so happy.

THEN - the weirdest thing happened. It was about 12:30, and I was walking by the pool to our door, and there was this couple sitting having a beer. It turns out that the guy is starting at INSEAD in January! So random.

SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

Update: Why Finance is way Harder than Gemara

It's confirmed.
The exam was way harder than anything I have ever done in Gemara.
Done deal.
Finance is way harder.
My brain hurts.
Only one more!

Why Finance is way Harder than Gemara

In Gemara, you have Jastrow and Frank to reference when you're lost. In finance, you're supposed to have the FT or something else, but I still don't understand those!

In Gemara you can have multiple answers. You're almost always right. In finance, there's one answer, and I never seem to find it.

Gemara is best studied in a loud room - with a partner. Finance is best in a super quiet room with absolutely no distractions - otherwise you don't even understand the question.

Three exams done three to go. Tomorrow I have marketing and finance. I haven't studied for marketing for more than an hour, but for some reason I'm not nervous about it. Just finance - where the exam is 100% of my grade. I heard last year the average was 17%. What a knock on my confidence.

Finals

They stink. In all the rest of my life, if you go to class, and you understand the material, you do well on the test. INSEAD is different. They ask you to apply the material in sixteen different hard ways that are sort of related to one think you may have learned in class. You're never asked the name of a framework or the details of some guru's dissertation. It's all case based, and it's all application. Well, that's hard. AND they need to make a distribution of our scores, so it's REALLY hard - otherwise we would all be stuck in the middle, and if you made a silly mistake you would fail. It must be spread out.

Yesterday was strategy - and we had to write about Toys R Us in 1992 - analyze the industry, their competitive advantage, how their competitive advantage changed from the 80s moving into the 90s, what course of action they should take next. I wrote 13 pages. My arm was honestly sore afterwards.

Today is managerial accounting and leading organizations. MA is probably the most important class we have taken yet. It's all about how to allocate costs appropriately - and it's really not obvious. In fact it's really hard, but really good to know. The exam will be a killer.

Leading Organizations will be a group exam (the last time I am working with my group...but only one is going to Fonty for next period, so the rest of us will be around). We will have to analyze a case from three different perspectives - political, cultural, strategic design - and then giev recommendations for them to move forward.

I will have EIGHT hours of exams today. Ouch.

But...then I'll be halfway done with P2 exams, and I'll be more on my way done with the hardest part of INSEAD.

PSA

Last week I went to the Singapore Port. I learned that it deals with 27 million cartons (those big 20 foot ones) per year. It's the busiest port in the world (though I have heard that argument elsewhere). It is a logistical nightmare...I mean challenge. It was really cool.

I also realized that the back of trucks are sometimes actually made out of shipping containers. That's cool.

Two weeks ago my club (really Robert and Miguel) organized a trip to Singapore's Newater Plant - it's where they make clean water from piss. Yup. They take toilet water and what not, and they clean it through reverse osmosis and uv rays and other things, and then it is even cleaner than normally cleaned water. Apparently Singapore has four sources for water. 1- Malaysia 2- desalination (which is super expensive) 3-capturing rain water 4- Newater. Apparently people have an issue with drinking their old piss, so this water doesn't actually go to homes, but industries use it, and some of it gets cleaned AGAIN to go to people's homes. Pretty cool.

I got a seal at PSA, and I gave it to the kitty. Please enjoy her meeting the seal. She has spent many a minute since then throwing it around the house and throwing it. Literally. I think this is how she loves it.

INSEAD Dash Pictures

These pictures are from the INSEAD dash - where a bunch of people got dressed up and ran from the apartments that most people live in to school. At 8:26 am. It was funny.














































The second to last photo is my group: Brian, me, Anna, Luis and Won. The last photo is sitting in class after the dash. It was marketing. A bit distracting.

Adoption

Since Mustache Man has come back to Casafina, he has spent a lot of time with us. He sleeps on our porch (in funny positions), and he comes to say hi at night. He is especially interested in checking out what our house looks like inside. When he comes in, for some reason he immediately runs and jumps onto the bookshelf among all of my b school course packs. Not sure what the draw is...

Yesterday Matt gave him flea treatment so he can come in and hang. Last night he slept with Matt on the couch for a few hours. Kitty doesn't love it, but she seems to be getting used to it a bit. Before she would pounce on him, and now she just sort of watches suspiciously. In fact when he was on the couch, she jumped up to see what was going on, and she was staring at him, and he just got up, shifted so his face was in the other direction and went back to sleep. It's pretty funny. I still think that he's her dad, and he knows it, but she doesn't.

Anyway - if he adopts us, we will take him, and it looks like he's on the way.

In other news in Casafina, I was doing some finance on the porch yesterday, and a very cute Jelly looking dog came by. Apparently the dog was abandoned, and he showed up at Casafina, and the management asked this family if they want him. They took him and they love him, but apparently they do NOT know how to care for dogs. They were asking why I liked cats, and I tried to explain that I didn't really like cats, I just like these two cats, but I really want a dog or two. I told her that I didn't feel like we could have a dog, because we go to work all day, and we wouldn't be able to let him out. When we have kids we will have dogs. She then got a worried look on her face, and she asked if it's okay that she only lets her dog out once per day - at 8pm each night. I told her that it is NOT okay to do that. I asked if she could let the dog out in the morning, and she said she is always late, and she doesn't have time. Maybe she shouldn't have a dog, then. Oy. Then our super neighbor Victoria offered to take him out when she gets home from school, but it's still 8pm until 4pm. So unfair for this poor dog's bladder!

Not much else going on over here. I have finals starting on Thursday, so I'm trying to learn what went on in classes this period. Yesterday I had a date with Starbucks for six hours focusing on managerial accounting and finance. Today I will revisit finance and have a chat with some operations.

Great News!!!

1. Christian and Lee Fong had a baby boy on Monday!!

2. Liba and Ethan had a baby boy today!!

3. The Stache is OKAY!!! Matt reached the shelter, and apparently today was his last day alive. Matt left work and went to the shelter and rescued him. He said that Mustache Man (or Mr. Mustache as dad calls him) was really scared and freaking out, but after a few minutes being back at our condo he was eating and playing. YAY!!! Now we just have to figure out how to keep him alive and near us without living in our house...

The Stache

Mustache Man has been captured. Matt and I feel so sad. Mustache Man is our friend from Casafina, where we live. We met him last year, and he grew to be one of our closest cat friends. He always tried to come inside our house and steal Kitty's food, but we mostly stopped him and limited him to our porch where he spent many hours. He was a super wonderfully tempered cat - we got to pet him and play with him a lot (though his nails were sharp...), and he was so friendly.

Last year he disappeared for two weeks and came back skinny with a big limp and no balls...and his ear clipped. So he got neutered and returned home. This time he apparently walked into a trap. We noticed he was missing on Sunday or Saturday, and Matt called and found out that he was indeed captured. He is calling the shelter today to see if they haven't killed him yet.

We are so sad. We loved the Stache.

Burping

I had two burping experiences today - which is too much to just ignore.

My Taiwanese groupmate (whom I love to pieces) burps. I think it's just what they do there - just in the middle of class, a conversation or whatever. Well - today in class we were actually talking about cultural assumptions and managing across cultures (since all of us speaks three languages, and we have almost all lived abroad at some point, and we will most likely work in an international environment...). In the middle of that discussion, he burped. Loud. People turned around, but it didn't bother him.

Then - on the way home tonight, in the taxi, the taxi driver burped literally at least once every ten seconds. It seems like every time he breathed out, he burped. They weren't just clean, airy burps. They were really icky sounding - liquidy, junky and just gross. I felt really sick by the end of the ride. I asked him to stop right when he got off the highway and I walked the rest of the way home. I thought I was going to throw up. I mean literally every ten seconds - AT LEAST!

Is it culturally insensitive of me to ask him to stop burping for the twenty minutes I'm in his car?

A1 vs. A2

While Mumbai has fallen apart and Bangkok is also a disaster...INSEAD P2s were at the beach today.

Today was the A1 vs. A2 Olympics (A1 and A2 are our sections). A2 (my section), lost in nearly everything...except four things.

Let me first state that I had nothing to do with any of the wins. I did contribute to a sore volleyball loss, though.

A2 won in:

• Sand castle building (which I believe was actually done by partners, not students)
• Some French game that starts with a "B" that seems like Bocce ball, but the balls are silver (and it's French and not Italian). They claim it's an olympic sport, but I have never heard of it
• Dodge ball (which is obviously the most important "F*%$ you" sport, which is crucial for business school students)
• Baywatch. We had to go save A1 "victims." I think there was mouth to mouth involved

Though four seems like a lot, A1 won in basketball, some water gun thing, arm wrestling, volleyball, soccer (football?), swimming, and probably a few more that I'm missing. They were just better than us. What can we say?

The day was fun, though. It was one of the few non-partying opportunities to connect with other students since I started. It was on Sentosa - which you might remember from when we first moved here. This time, though, I really appreciated it. Yes - you could see the ships, and yes it seems like the water must catch on fire if you get too close with a match, but it was really pretty, and it made for a really relaxing, fun, day.

Mumbai

There isn't really much I can add to what is being written about Mumbai. It's just totally crazy to me that something like this is happening...and that it's still happening after more than a day.

I have never been to Mumbai, but in the last few years I have developed quite a few relationships with the city, and all I can say is that I'm hoping and praying (in a Melanie sort of way) that things end soon and the damage is minimized. It seems like avoiding major damage is already far beyond an option.

My boss at Moody's stays at the Taj Mahal hotel, and I organized an event there a few months ago.
My co-worker from Moody's, Nidhi is from there.
My roommate, Zimra from Pardes is also from Mumbai. Her family is extremely involved in the Jewish community.
My former co-worker/friend Erin was working with the JDC for the last year in Mumbai. I'm sure she is well aware of the Chabad building and all of the people who live inside it.
I recently read Shantaram which made me fall in love even more with the city.

Basically - I'm thinking about these people in my life who are directly affected. It is constantly on my mind (instead of Finance, Strategy and Accounting, unfortunately).

All of this in the context of American Thanksgiving (which we did nothing to celebrate).
And the INSEAD Cabaret, which was last night and had a really fun atmosphere.
And preparing for finals.

Two INSEAD Traditions

This past week (so far) has been filled with random things at school.

This included (but is not limited to):
The INSEAD Dash
National Week Bidding

Friday, as is tradition in Singapore, the students all dressed up in costume and ran from one of the apartments where lots of people live - to school. There were huge birds, Aladdins, many "women" (I am still trying to figure out what to make of the fact that about 20% of the men dressed up as women), prisoners, Scottish warriors, Peter Pans, hula dancers, Mexicans, and I was an ipod, of course. People were in outrageous costumes, and it must have been quite a scene to see all of these people running to school.

I don't know if I have ever written about this on my blog, but it's sort of hot in Singapore (right...), so it was actually a hard thing to do - especially for those who were in huge costumes with big heads (like the Chuck ECheese Mouse). I have pictures, and I will post.

Part of me thinks it's silly, since basically everyone just went to a costume shop and paid $50-$100 to rent a random costume, but when you put the whole picture together, it's hilarious. Sitting in class afterwards was also really funny.

The second tradition was last night - the National Week Bidding. At INSEAD, we have six weeks per half year (Sept-Dec/Jan-June) that are designated National Weeks. Countries, or groups of people from similar countries get together and plan a week of activities that show us about life in their country. Last week was Desi week, and they had Desi music playing, dinner one night, dancing classes one afternoon and it all came to an end at the Kamasutra party. They each do different things, but they're all really fun and have lots of energy.

Last night was the bidding for the first half of 2009. Groups of people got together and put together movies and bids for their countries and what they would do. Other than more exploitation of women's bodies (it's seriously widespread here), it was just hilarious.

I enjoyed seeing my classmates dressed up like nuts (Toreador, in togas, in Chinese dress, flags on their backs), and the movies were great. We'll have to wait to see who won, but I have to say that the Iberians and the Italians had a strong showing. The same thing was happening in Fontainebleau, so we'll have to see what happens in the final voting. There was an American week bid, but it was totally done by the folks in Fonty, and I didn't get involved at all.

In other news - the babies are starting to flow again.
Congratulations to Greg and Cristine who had a baby on Friday - named Sam. He looks super cute from the two photos I have seen. I regret that this has lost me a reader, though, as Cristine was fairly committed, and now she might have other priorities.

Christian and Lee Fong are having their baby on Monday...
Liba and Ethan are having their (SECOND!) baby a week from Tuesday...
CRAZINESS!!!

Lunch

Successful:
GREAT roti prata.
Two kinds of otah - mackerel and chili crab (!)
Peanut pancake
Lime juice
Diet coke

Unsuccessful:
Buying the baby clothes that I went to the market to get
Buying watermelon
Buying hairbands
Eating healthy

I met Matt and Peter at the wet market this afternoon. I was super stressed this afternoon - realizing I have finals in 2.5 weeks - but Matt said the clothes guy was there in full force. This guy has Esprit, Gap, Eddie Bauer, Osh Kosh, Carters...all of these American brands that are produced somewhere in SE Asia, and then some make it to our wet market. The adult clothes are usually $5 per piece, and the babies' clothes are 3 for $10. Whoa. It's the real deal, also! I got a load of clothes for Christian and Lee Fong, who are having a baby in a week, and I went back today to get clothes for Lauren and Mo who are having a baby in a month, but by the time we finished lunch, he was gone.

The good news is that I had a really yummy lunch. I don't think it gets more unhealthy.

We have had a good weekend - Friday night dinner at Deeksha and Rajeev's, Saturday I tried to value options all day (that was really hard). Last night our friends organized a wine tasting thing for young people in the Jewish community. It was nice. Today was studying (by the pool, which was nice - I need my vitamin D) and a few games of Settlers. I won a lot today. Surprise wins - I conned people into trading with me so that I could win. Twice. SUCKERS!!!

Really? Ballsy?

I think you have to click on it to enlarge it to see...

Because People Will Pay

I have always been really cost conscious. Some people call this "cheap," but I'll just say that I have always paid close attention to prices.

From a young age, I always asked my dad why things were priced so high? He always said, "because people will pay."

I don't need this 50,000 euro degree!!! That's what we're learning about in school. In our Strategy class, we learned about how for an item there is a cost, and then (hopefully) above that is the price, and then above that is the willingness to pay. Apparently there is not a direct relationship between willingness to pay and price, but it's definitely closely related, and my dad taught me this when I was really young. Way to go, dad! The only difference is that it seems that "they" could actually charge higher, if they're actually charging what people will pay. But then we go into supply meeting demand and micro economics, and that was last period, so I won't go there.

In other classes...Operations, for example, we have been learning about how processes work inside a factory. We have learned about bottlenecks and capacity and pooling (so you have multiple people working on the same project rather than spreading one person's time out among many things). And today, we took a field trip to the Tiger Brewery. We got to see the bottleneck (which is apparently the filler, because it can only move SO fast), and we saw all of the processes and how it all works. Then we had free flow beer for a while. Pretty cool.

It's Coming...Beware

Obviously we have been hearing about the Financial Crisis that has been taking over the world. I still listen to NPR daily, and my husband works at JPMorgan. But...so far it has felt that it wasn't yet in Asia. I felt that the states are probably falling apart, and all of these homeowners are totally in a mess, but we're fine. They're still hiring in Singapore. Rent is still going up (remember - we pay what we paid in MANHATTAN, and we live in the suburbs here!). Ex-pats are moving in left and right, and all seemed to be normal.

But it doesn't feel that way anymore. Whenever we talk to our friends, everyone is worried about his job. People are making "Plan B"s all over the place. All of the banks have announced that they're cutting globally - there was a Wall Street Journal article that mentioned nearly every bank I know, including JPMorgan, and it said they're all cutting 10%-15% across the board (JPMorgan is cutting 15%).

Since we moved here we have heard about wait lists at ex-pat schools, and the American School has traditionally had a waiting list of over 400 students. Apparently that is gone.

People are saying their kids' friends are not showing up in school, because their parents lost their jobs.

I hadn't yet known anyone whom this affected, though, so even though I was hearing more about it lately, it really didn't feel that bad...until last night.

I heard from a friend that her husband lost a job (in the finance world), and they have three kids here - two enrolled in school. He had no warning. Just called into a meeting and escorted out of the office. I think this is the first of many that we're going to hear about, and it's really scary.

Considering the fact that I'm in one of the most expensive MBA programs in the world, and I have already come to the conclusion that I will be EXTREMELY lucky to find a job after I graduate, I definitely rely on Matt's income, and that's very scary right now.

Plus I read about what's happening with the cars in Detroit. Not only is my future worth at risk (the value of my parents' house and what not), it seems like it's going to be a total disaster. The "future worth" thing was a joke - don't worry, mom. Anyways, if one of those companies go down, it's gonna take a lot of the economy with it.

Scary stuff...

Dropping

Tomorrow will be my last program with the Jewish families in Singapore for a while. Pam and I started this program last year - where we have one program per month for progressive Jewish families in Singapore. We have had about 40-50 people at each session, and we have had eight (I think) so far. We have only focused on Jewish holidays up until now. I have absolutely loved doing them. I have loved getting to know the families, and I love the discussion that comes up and the community that is developing.

Unfortunately I am a bit over my head in commitments (which is no surprise if you know me), and I had to give this up until July. School (six classes) plus INDEVOR plus Matt and the Kitty are very demanding, and I have felt a bit lately like I haven't been succeeding at anything, because I have been spread too thin. So...I have dropped off the Steering Committee for the Jewish community until I graduate, and I have handed over the educating to Ilana (a newly arrived Jew from Chicago). They even asked me to read torah in December, and I said no (though I did it today, and I really miss it...AND it's my bat mitzva parsha...I must say NO!).

I feel sad about it, though, because it has been so rewarding, and I love it all! I'll be back after graduation...

I'm learning.

INDEVOR

INDEVOR is the club for social impact at INSEAD. It was established by crunchies in 1993, and it has survived (with more and less activity) since. While learning about finance, econ, and accounting by day, it provides students an outlet to talk/learn about ethics, social value, non-profit initiatives by night.

On the Singapore campus we have about 50 people who are on the list and are interested in the issues, and we have about 20 or 25 people who are at least somewhat active.

I was selected as president for the Singapore campus. I have two co-president counterparts in Fontainebleau.

We have had three events so far - an Indian man who works on energy and sustainable projects - for the UN, for the Indian government and many other places. He talked to us about measuring the value of the ecosystem (for example the honeybee does millions of dollars worth of work for us! Who knew!!?).

We had a careers workshop for people interested in careers in social impact (non-profit, foundation, CSR, etc.). It was done by INSEAD Career Services and really useful.

Wednesday night we had two speakers - one who is American and started a non-profit in Singapore educating maids about financial issues. This includes money management and how to save and execute a small entrepreneurial project when they get back to their home countries. The other is Singaporean and one of the biggest entrepreneurs to come out of this country. She has a retail chain (mostly for clothes for youth), and she actually donates a lot of her profits to social causes. Some are causes that are championed by others, and some she creates. She was really crucial in Singapore's winning the Youth Olympics bid for 2010.

The most interesting thing about the event for me was the difference in the two models - one is a sustainable business that is donating the profits, and the other is a non-profit that is figuring out ways to be more sustainable (through selling programs to institutions like banks, or corporate partnership). It was great to sit in the audience and hear people talk about this issue that I think about a lot. I have to say that most of the things I'm learning about in school are not that way - even if I have thought about them (marketing, strategy...), they're not my passion.

INDEVOR has introduced me to great people at INSEAD - all people who are interested in creating some amount of social value. We are working together to bring social impact issues to the school - through speakers, educational programs, discussions and curriculum, and we're also working together on projects that have social value.

One of the projects is spearheaded by my friend, Adonai, who was previously working in W. Africa with the UN. We are working on a project involving carbon credit trading and improved access to technology. When we move forward I can elaborate - we're just at the beginning.

Another student suggested a "brainstorming" program that we can do with local NGOs - that four international business school students can brainstorm with them for 2-4 hours on some of the issues/challenges that they're currently facing. It will provide new insights and hopefully help to guide them in a helpful direction. Since we have a whole bunch of real-life consultants (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, the works), they would basically get counseling/consulting for free.

Basically the club has given me a place for my passions, and I have loved being involved so far.

The only drawback is that it takes about 2-3 hours on an average day!! Who has time???

Women at INSEAD

Lately there have been many pictures of nearly naked women / sexual women on the big screen at INSEAD. When a group did a little power point (b school is all about power points) about Japan day, there were a lot of breasts, some ass and much of it was bare. When a group did a little power point about our section 1 vs. section 2 olympics, there was a lot of bare ass. Mostly when they showed the beach volleyball players. There were even sexual ads in marketing class.

Okay - we're in a school that is 70% male, and it usually feels like a testosterone playground - money, power, maleness. I'm used to totally PC NGOs and social work friends. I think it's just more shocking than anything else.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I do feel like it's putting women's bodies on display in a way that makes me uncomfortable, and it's all part of the mystification of the female body - the perfect female body, but for some reason it's not bothering me as much as I thought it would. Part of that is because I know the intentions are not malicious in any way...but still. I feel mixed. Oh - and also, it seems like much more is accepted in Europe than the US - there was literally a commercial that included implied falacio (sp?).

In other news, Matt and I attended the Monsoon Ball on Saturday night, which is INSEAD's big formal bash in Singapore. We got all fancy, hopped on a bus with the dean (by chance), and we mostly had a good time...again, though, I was reminded that we're not 25 anymore, as it literally took me two full days to recover.

Tonight my club also had a super presentation. I think I will save that for a separate post.

Grades

We got our P1 grades on Friday. It kind of feels like they were random.

I literally lost sleep over accounting. I was sure I miserably failed the exam, and I was dreading taking it again in a few months. I got my second highest grade in accounting.

I went to graduate school in social work. People skills is definitely my forte (much more than finance, accounting, econ and statistics). I got a VERY LOW grade in "Leading People and Groups." This one grade brought down my GPA .5 points.

The good news is that Matt and I have more in common now, because I got an extremely high grade in economics. Who knew?

See - I kind of think they're random.

Where were you when Obama was elected?

It really depends on where you live in the world. For East Coasters, probably they were at home, or maybe at a party if they're young. West Coasters were probably with friends and family. People in Europe and Israel were up all through the night. In Asia, we got to wake up in the morning as the stations started reporting. We are now 13 hours ahead of NY.

This morning I was up at 6:15, out the door by 6:45, at school by 7:45 (did a small bit of work for my club which I will talk about in another posting), and sat to watch the first polls report until class at 10:15. Let me tell you that figuring out how to value puts and calls (two year puts and calls - not just one year) was difficult. My brain was freaking out about the fact that Obama was ahead.

Immediately after class, we found out that Obama had 207 votes. The dean of INSEAD spoke to us at noon, and at 12:02 I got a text from Matt that said that McCain conceded and it was over. I felt blood rushing through my body, and I couldn't stop smiling - HARD. I hoped the dean didn't look at me too much, because I was smiling so inappropriately to his speech (the world is in turmoil...INSEAD could be doing better in the ranks...and I'm freaking out smiling).

Immediately after I had a meeting about a carbon finance project I'm working on with some other club members, but Obama was going to speak. I quickly plugged in my computer, logged into my parents' television in Michigan, and Tahira and I watched Obama's amazing speech. We both cried at parts, and we were just so excited. At some point, our friend Adonai came in, and he and I were on the floor, crouched to be able to see the whole thing.

Clearly my favorite part was when he mentioned the "people beyond the borders, huddling around radios listening to his speech." Okay, computers, but still! It was totally like that. We were so connected, and yet we're so far away.

Obviously Obama has to actually achieve things before this is "the best thing to happen to America," but I do NOT play down the racial aspect. I know the libs are sick of hearing about it, and people think the race thing is totally overplayed, but I believe it is the biggest deal about this election. I absolutely cannot believe that a black man will be our president. I am only 30 years old, and I never thought this would happen in my life time. I really feel proud.

I feel excited, because I have faith in Obama, and part of my faith is due to the way he ran his campaign. I feel that he showed America that he can absolutely maximize the use of the resources he has, and he does it in the most thoughtful way. He is going to be scrutinized more than most, but I believe because he is so conscious of what he says and does (and he has a wonderful intellect), he will succeed.

I also believe that he will not cause the change that we are seeing in America. It is not because of Obama that people are interested in volunteering more and interested in social justice. People are looking at CSR and sustainability. These were all things that were growing before Obama came to the forefront. He came at a perfect time, and he will take our country that is ready to accept more responsibility and ownership to a better place.

12 years ago was my first voting election. I voted for Clinton at Markley, where I lived.

Eight years ago I voted absentee. I was living in Israel and woke up to find out the results of the election. I was headed that day with the other girls from Detroit, on Otzma, to Migdal HaEmek, where we were going to live starting in three weeks. The taxi driver (whom I later "dated") told me that the election wasn't determined because of Florida. I did not understand.

Four years ago I voted absentee. I went over to Liba and Ethan's in the middle of the night. I sat on a cot in their living room and watched CNN with a bunch of Rabbis to be and Jewish scholars at Pardes. I felt a horrible pit in my stomach. I was literally to the point of tears and did not understand why our country, after living the previous four years, could re-elect this man. I was furious, and I felt sick. I remember it took a while to call Ohio, and it just dragged out the process longer. It was miserable, and I vowed to not really live in the US.

Finally - today, I really feel proud. I feel like we now at least have the opportunity to move in a good direction, and I am really excited to see how it all plays out.

One Morning King Melanie Awoke in Her Bed...

There were FROGS here!
FROGS there!

I was just on the phone with Fran, my mother-in-law, and the Kitty came in with something big in her mouth. She immediately ran to the kitchen (which is improvement from running to our dirty laundry pile or the spare bedroom). The thing was big, brown, and it had something hanging from it. We didn't know what it was, but we thought mouse.

Oh -also - it was making a HORRIBLE noise. Like it was dying or something (which it was).

She put it down, and it went running behind a chair. We still didn't catch a glimpse, but it was quick, squeaked, and it still had that thing hanging, so we thought "mouse" again.

She caught it, and when Matt tried to throw the baby out with the bathwater - I mean throw the Kitty out with the thing in her mouth - she dropped it, and it wend behind the cabinet. She tried to get it out, but she failed, so finally, after we got the broom, dustpan and had the Kitty nearby for backup - Matt figured out it was a frog, and he coerced it out the front door.

Also - I hung up on my mother in law.

Conflicts - Spa/Murders/Pudding

Friday night our friend Lisa organized a murder mystery night. We all came in (unrelated) costume, we were assigned characters, and there was a murder that we had to solve throughout the night. I have to say that I am very happy with the fact that we have nine friends who are willing to play funny games on Halloween night. And we're adults. It was extremely fun.

I got murdered. I came back to life. I drank a lot.

Saturday I had an opportunity to use a gift certificate at a spa. When I stayed with my friend, Pam's kids, she got me a gift certificate that is expiring. It was for two hours of amazing treatments at a fancy shmancy spa in Singapore. I made this appointment weeks ago, and I was so looking forward to it. If I did not use it on Saturday, I would not have had the opportunity to use it before it expired.

The spa had three parts: some crazy bath, a scrub and a massage. The bath was shaped like a person, and there were jets that came out from all places they were stronger and weaker at times. They sometimes had cold water, sometimes it was warm. It was nuts, and it was so relaxing. After the bath (in paper panties, which I had to ask four times before I understood the words "paper panties"), I had a full body scrub. It made me crave the Turkish bath that I have craved a few times since I started sweating in Singapore. Then there was an hour Balinese massage. It was awesome. I loved it all. I have never done anything like this in my life. Matt and I have had a few cheap Thai massages, but I have never been in a spa and done something like this. What a treat.

The reason I didn't enjoy either of those as much as I should was that I felt EXTREMELY guilty during both. Remember - If I didn't arrive at the murder mystery on time, I would not have died, and there would be no mystery to solve. If I did not use the gift certificate, hundreds of dollars of spa wonderfulness would be wasted. I didn't like those alternatives, so I chose to do them.

I chose that against the option to work with my group on a marketing assignment to analyze the pudding with topping market in Europe in 1999. When I left on Friday night I had already spent more than eight hours on it. I thought we were on our way to being done, but it turned out that they talked to the prof after we left, and they found out we were focusing on the wrong thing/s, so they re-did it all. They stayed there until late on Fri and then went back for hours on Saturday. I really felt horrible, and I worry that this will change the great dynamics of my group. Clearly I will pull my weight in other projects, and I haven't really ducked out on things before, but it's not a great feeling. I am just way more flexible on weekdays, when I try not to make any plans. Weekends are hard since I live so far from school, and I have a whole life in Singapore previous to INSEAD.

Rough decisions...

The good thing is that my group will benefit from a more relaxed Melanie on Monday (and hopefully Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.). It really did make me chill for a while.

The Question

I have done quite a bit of Jewish learning. Many times in Yeshiva or Jewish learning environments, the best answer to the question is another question. When might it be appropriate to start saying the shema in the morning...what does the talmud say? Well, what does the mishna say? What do you think they mean by "seeing"? It's just a lot of questions...and the answers aren't necessarily the important part (that is...for those of us who are interested in studying for studying's sake and not necessarily to get the halacha/law).

I love this type of learning. The questions are straightforward, and you can have long discussions about what the next most relevant question is and what the top ten relevant answers are.

Business school is totally different. Part of it is that I'm in school, and in school you have to have "correct" and "incorrect" answers. On exams, you get it right...or not.

I discovered today that my problem isn't necessarily answering the question. It's understanding the question in the first place. If they ask the question in terms that they explained in class, then I'm fine. I know how to answer it, because it fits into my very narrow framework of what I have learned in, let's say, finance. If they use a different word, however, I have no idea where to start, and I need it to be translated. Weird that finance is harder for me to understand than Aramaic. For the Aramaic, I can go to my Frank or my Jastrow, but for finance, I have wikipedia and husbands, but I still don't understand even their definitions!!

I just read an accounting case that we have to prepare for tomorrow. Though the case seemed to have a lot of information that is not relevant, and it was not so easy to read, I think I got it. Then I got to the question (really, it's just ONE question), and I have no idea what to do!

I definitely had this problem on the exam also...and in class today. "They need to cover their short position." HUH???

Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur

This was sort of the trip that wasn't meant to be great, but it was pretty and relaxing.

Matt and I always have a "machloket" (disagreement) about when it's appropriate to arrive at the airport. When we lived in NYC, we often met at the airport, because we couldn't agree on a good time to arrive. I'm a two hour lady, and Matt's a 45 minute man.

We decided we would go to the airport an hour and 15 minutes before our flight, but by the time we left, it was about 15 minutes late, and then we looked for a taxi or 15 minutes, realized we didn't have Matt's phone (which we needed to get a update on the Kitty), and went back to get it...we arrived at the airport 40 minutes before our flight, and the check in was closed. That did not make me happy.

We ended up going through, paying $5 to check my bag, and we were off to Kuala Lumpur (KL).

We arrived at the airport, and we quickly found out that we were not at the "airport." We were at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT), which is apparently not only a different terminal, but it's a separate airport. Ok. We changed some money and hopped on a bus to the city. We had an excellent Indian/Malay lunch (and only walked in on one man peeing). Then our bus was 1/2 hour late, and we jumped on to head up four hours to the Cameron Highlands. The ride was straight and fast for two hours and then nutsy, curvy, turny and crazy for two hours. But it was gorgeous. Nevermind that our air con broke on our bus. We just drove with the door open.

We arrived at our little town of Tanah Rata, and we were told to simply walk up this road to find our guest house. We walked up, and it got dark and didn't look like there was going to be a guest house. We went back down and re-asked. Same answer. Kept going up, and finally found the place (not ONE sign...). We got our room, and we were pumped to shower and go to bed. We turned on the water heater (it's COLD up there!), and we went to a great Indian dinner in town. We loved our banana leaf spread. When we returned, it was clear that the toilet would not flush. Nor would the faucets run, and nor would we have nice warm showers from a long ass day of traveling. Ok. We froze and slept (with a little cuddling mixed in).

We were assured sun in the morning. The morning will be the time to tour, and the afternoon will be the time to relax. Ok. We signed up for a tour. We woke up early, ate our western breakfast of eggs and toast, and we hopped in a Land Rover with three other people. Oops. There was so much fog, you couldn't barely see the road ahead of us. Luckily, our first stop was a view point, and our second stop was the highest peak in the Cameron Highlands. Well...for some reason the first view point actually was in the middle of clouds or something, because it was breathtaking, but the second one stank.

After a crazy muddy walk through a mossy forest, which was quite cool, we arrived at the tea factory. But...oops...the tea factory was closed because it was a public holiday (which is actually on Monday, NOT Friday, but whatever). The factory's shop was not closed, though, and our cup of tea overlooking the plantation was one of my favorites ever. It's just gorgeous there.

We got back to the town, grabbed a bite at a place with weird decor, and since there was sort of sun, we headed off to find a trail on the outskirts of town. We looked for trail 13 for about an hour. Nothing was marked on the map, so we gave up and went for number nine. Nine was accessible, and it was a long walk down a gorgeous waterfall. Only...it started POURING in the middle. Okay. Whatever. At least we would get back and have a nice, warm shower...

So we got back to our guest house, and Matt got in the shower...but there was still no water. We got into bed anyway, because we were freezing, wet, and it was still raining, and there was nothing else to do. Backgammon...There was also a sign that there would be no electricity from 4-7pm, but it was already 4:30 pm, so we weren't relying on that.

Finally, I literally shook the shower faucet enough to clean my important parts, and we headed off to dinner. This place put our choices in the microwave before putting them on our plate, and my vegetable murtabak was really an onion murtabak...and I really hate onions. This meal stank. So...we decided to change to the 8:45 bus from the 11 bus and head back to KL sooner.

All in all, we definitely want to go back to Cameron Highlands...not near the rainy season (which technically starts in Nov), and not stay in the same guest house. The area itself is unbelievably gorgeous, and the people were so chilled and relaxed. We loved the feel. It's funny, though, because it was started as a place for Europeans to escape from the city, so the architecture is pretty European. Totally weird in Malaysia...

After an uneventful bus ride back to KL (with air con) we arrived at an area near Chinatown. We grabbed a great lunch of two different kinds of nasi goreng (friend rice), and we had A&W root beer floats for dessert. We walked around Chinatown, but it wasn't as exciting as other citys' Chinatowns, and we had already eaten...so we walked and walked. We finally arrived at KL Tower, which is like the CN Tower, but it's in KL. We went to the top, and it was a great view of the city. It's amazing to see the contrast between the developed areas and the not so developed areas.

Finally, we jumped in a taxi and headed for our luxury Mandarin Oriental. Thank goodness. Hot showers, clean hair, beautiful pool and relaxation. We sat by the pool, read, did nothing. We ate amazing ex-pat food for dinner, we walked around to check out the night scene, and we finally went back to the hotel around 9 pm. We're such partiers. We actually just wanted to take advantage of good cable and a big comfy bed.

This morning Matt slept for hours and hours and I started my P2 reading. We went for a nice breakfast, sat by the pool and read, and then we headed to Kampung Bahru (new kampung/village/neighborhood). It's an old little village in the middle of a new city. It was pretty remarkable to see, but way too hot to enjoy walking around with all of our stuff...We headed off to KL Central to take a bus to our non-airport airport, and finally we headed back to Singapore.

Overall, we relaxed a lot. We ate mostly good food. We sweat a lot.

Click here for our pictures.

Muslim Presidents and Ignorant Americans

So I just posted a few minutes ago, but then I realized that I need to write something else of a completely different nature.

I listen to NPR on my ipod each day. I have been absolutely appalled and embarrassed about one thing I keep hearing again and again.

When they interview Americans about their choice for president, so many of them think that Barack Obama is Muslim, and that's why they wouldn't vote for him.

One woman said, "you know, Obama is Muslim, from one of those countries. And terrorists come from those countries."

First of all, it makes me sick to hear this, because it has been reported again and again that he is Christian and has always been Christian.

BUT, what pisses me off even more is that it is somehow understood that being a Muslim is bad and that there is no way a Muslim could be an American president, and that seems to be an okay opinion to hold in America right now. That is so not okay, and it actually makes me sick.

Done P1

Well, we're done.

After a Monday with Prices and Markets exam and then Leading People and Groups exam (3 hours and 3 hours and 45 minutes respectively)

After a Tuesday with Accounting and Finance exams (three hours each).

After a Wednesday of forgetting my coursepack halfway to school on the way to an open notes exam...and a three hour UDJ (stats) exam (three hours).

I'm DONE!!!!

And drunk.

I have never taken such difficult exams in my life. I guess they separate good from great, but I think I might have been separated into the "below-good" category. We will find out in three weeks...but WHOA, they were so hard. So hard. Especially Accounting.

But - lots of Japanese food and a lot of gin and tonics later...I'm off to four days of no reading/finance/accounting/thinking. YIPPEE!!!

Hawaiinomics

I believe I have mentioned my econ prof here before. He was an excellent guy from Ohio who now lives in Hawaii and teaches at a university there. He is a visiting prof at INSEAD, and he taught here six months ago as well. He taught us micro (Prices and Markets).

This man will remain nameless here so he doesn't get in trouble for anything. He is simply outstanding. He taught us in ways that make econ super interesting, and he was just hilarious. His humor was smart and educated and witty. It was definitely my favorite class, and I would guess that I'm not alone with this opinion. The classes were just fun - how could you not love learning about cotton subsidies, steel tariffs, Heinz and Hunts pricing, etc.?

The last class of P1 (first period) was last Friday. Our excellent social reps arranged for us all to have t-shirts with this prof's face on the front and "awesome" written on the back. They also arranged for the air con to go off (or almost off) towards the end of class. It got really hot. The prof started to call the tech people to turn up the air con, but we stopped him. Finally, one of my classmates said, "It's really hot in here. Do you mind if we take off our shirts?" People were prepared with bikinis, sun glasses, beach balls, etc. Another social rep showed up with bottles of beer. The prof said, "well, it is hot in here." His shirt came off too. The only problem was...he wasn't done teaching. He still had fifteen minutes of wrap up. So...the class sat there shirtless (I forgot my bathing suit, and I'm not sure I would sit there in a bikini if I did remember...but that's my thing), and he taught topless for the rest of class. Oh, and there was a lot of beer.

Finally the other section stormed the classroom with a boom box and a lot more beer, and there was a small chaotic gathering in an amphitheater.

Pictures are before, during and during. Please note that people are actually paying attention, taking notes (and drinking beer) with no shirts. Thanks to Guillaume for the photos. I sit right up where the prof is, the second person in the front row, but you can't see me in these pictures.

INSEAD does seem to be a bit of a party school (which is also not exactly my thing), but it is NOT usually like this. I swear. It's serious. It's MBA, man.

Daniel's Bar Mitzvah

Yesterday was Daniel's bar mitzvah. He was so super. I really felt proud.

I met Daniel last spring when he decided he wanted to have a bar mitzvah. I worked with him intensely over the summer to get him up to speed to have his bar mitzvah in October. (Not a lot of months of preparation...). It was challenging to do as much as we could in this short time, but it was also challenging, because Daniel has some pretty serious learning disabilities, and I am not trained and have no experience in working with these.

Daniel learned to read only four years ago. He struggled with transliteration (reading the Hebrew was clearly not an option), and we sang over and over and over again. I made a cd for him that he listened to as much as he could.

Daniel was so interested in everything Jewish. His torah portion was about sukkot, so we talked about that holiday in depth, the other pilgrimage holidays, the other holidays in Tishrei (the current Jewish month). We talked about the Jewish history timeline and the Temple. He was so interested, and I loved discussing it all with him.

He LOVED the Tanach. Each time he came over, he would go directly to the tanach and try to find his parsha. And he would ask me over and over again if I had read the entire book. He asked if it's like a novel, and we talked a lot about what's in there - including the book of Daniel (he got super pumped about that one - but we had a hard time understanding it together!).

Saturday morning, Daniel stood in front of his parents, sister, grandparents and community, and he said the Shema. He said the first paragraph of the amidah, he said the brachot before and after reading the torah and haftorah, and he delivered a great d'var torah (sermon). I know he was proud of himself. I was also so proud of him. He worked so hard to get there. And he so got there.

Mazal tov!!

Japanese Root Beer Floats

What I really want to write about is my last economics class of this period...but I'm waiting to get approval to post someone's picture, so I will post about that as soon as possible.

Tonight I went to a hilarious Japanese restaurant for the second time. Instead of reading a menu and choosing things, you walk around this little area and pick out things. Those things include (exclusively) popsicle sticks and plates of sushi.

The sushi is on conveyor belts going around the sushi chefs in the middle. The drinks are in one area, the skewers in another, the noodles in another and there is other stuff that I couldn't identify. Each plate of sushi is $1 (you don't get too much). Each popsicle stick has something on it, you put them in a cup, and you hand those in to be delivered to your table.

I chose three plates of sushi, vegetable curry udon and a root beer float. The last time I went to this place I had the root beer float, and I really couldn't think of anything else for a month or so. I had been craving one for months, and it just made me crave it again and more. Finally - I had it again, and it was just as good. The only problem is that it made me WAY too full. I should have had less udon - but definitely still should have finished the float.

One thing I don't like here that I'm seeing more often is charging for ice water. It was $.50 here, which is okay, but I don't like the idea that you have to pay for water that they're for sure wasting anyways. I think it's rude. Does that happen in the States?

Three Pictures Taken During the Same Minute on the way to Bali in August

Studying

Remember when I did interesting things in Singapore and had interesting things to say about them? Those days are over...for the next eight months.

We have finals next week, and I am studying. And studying. And studying.

I'm actually not sure what is entering my brain and what I'm just looking at...but I guess we'll see.

I seem to understand what we learned in the lectures (thanks to my handy power point slides!), and I can do all of the exercises just fine. When I take the practice exams, though, I'm stuck! These exams are super hard. I have talked to a few people about them (people who have already gone through this period), they say that they have to be hard in order to create a normal distribution of grades. Since we're all somewhat smart (you have to be to get into INSEAD) they really separate those who get it from those who GET it on the exams. Otherwise, if the mean is high, since we're graded with a Z score (in relation to everyone else and with regard to the standard deviation and the mean) you could get one or two points off and end up with a really bad grade. It's pretty intimidating to understand the material and then sit for an exam and totally not understand where to start. Hm...will be interesting.

I'm also trying to remember studying in school/grad school. I don't think we had exams in social work school, so I bet I didn't study too much there. For undergrad did we study for a whole week? I'm sure we went and had beers and hung out too, right? Basically this week and this weekend, it's studying...(with a few breaks that you will learn about soon).

Back to the econ...accounting...stats...finance...

The Crown Price of Bahrain

Yesterday evening the Crown Prince of Bahrain spoke at INSEAD. It seems as though he happened to be in town to meet with Singapore officials, and one of the students at INSEAD had some sort of connection and was able to get him to come to school. He and his HUGE entourage. There were tons of cars...and vans...and motorcycles.

He gave a speech that loosely talked about Bahrain's development compared to Singapore's. It was a really interesting perspective. He talked about corrupt development/leadership vs. responsible leadership. He talked about Bahrain in terms of the Middle East as well as where the Middle East is standing with the current financial crisis (the answer is that they're nearly unaffected).

His speech was interesting, but then he had time to answer questions, and he was excellent! (not just because he's an "Excellency"). He talked about ethical behaviors and policies with regard to foreign workers and their naturalization. He talked about his country's sustainable development - and training local talent for local leadership positions in the future. His responses were really realistic and really responsible. I was impressed.

I couldn't help but think about what it would have looked like if Mr. W. were the one speaking in that auditorium. I think the speech part would have been fine (other than a few mispronunciations and the fact that I wouldn't agree with anything he said), but I just couldn't imagine what it would look like if he were answering questions from INSEAD students. Oy - I would feel bad for him...which I can't believe. He just couldn't do it. Now - look at the influence and power of Bahrain compared to the US. So sad.

One more fact - this man is so young. His birthday is literally one day before Jer's. (21 Oct 1974).

My Spectacular Group

After my last post, I felt guilty that I wasn't doing anything, and during my last class of the day, I asked my group if they would mind if I cut out on that night's group meeting (finishing up our stats case) and went to UHC Yom Kippur services and break fast. They're amazing. No one minded, and I was off. I had a solid hour of services and then a great break fast for young adults in the community - planned by my friend Gal. I was really appreciative that I could be there. My deal was that I would do the final editing and putting the presentation together. Unfortunately it was too big and ended up crashing my computer, but I finished it on Friday morning.

So this is a small appreciation to my group.

At INSEAD we are all put in groups of five people. They try to put you with people who are different from you - culturally and in terms of experience. Though that might be hard to navigate in terms of working together, it's amazing, because each of us really does know a lot about some things, and not so much about others...but there's always someone to fill in.

As a side - we currently have five classes (Accounting, Micro Econ, Finance, Stats, Leading People and Groups), and there is literally one person who specializes in each of those areas. It's pretty great to always have one person who understands (especially when you're me, and you had never heard of a discount rate or a Cournot Equilibrium).

So...my group is diverse. We come from the US, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Portugal. Two have experience in finance/banking, and two have experience in consulting. When we did a presentation between us, I think we saw that we had eight university degrees and spoke more than ten languages and had visited more than 50 countries. I can't remember the stats, but it was pretty cool.

At the beginning we weren't the group that clicked right away and spent all of our time hanging out when not necessary. I think we all felt fine about each other, but we got our stuff done, and then we went our own ways. Over the past period (it's been nearly two months!), I have really grown to like each person individually, and we have grown together as a really functional team. We are super productive, and I think we even seem to come up with the right answers.

I'm sure there will be other related postings, but I just needed to share that I appreciate them at this time.

Two unrelated things:
What the hell was Michigan thinking? I'm so embarassed.
I have decided to study at Wharton at Penn for two months - mid-March to mid-May, so I hope to see many of you when I'm in the States! Unfortunately Matt and Kitty will have to hold down the fort in Singapore. I'm not too worried about Matt, but I hope Kitty remembers me and still wants to cuddle when I return.

The Yom Kippur that isn't

Today is Yom Kippur, but it's sort of passing me by this year.

Last night I had a stats tutorial until 7:15, so I couldn't make kol nidre at 7:30. I was at school until after midnight (which greatly increased my taxi price home).

We have a paper due today that is 30% of our Leading People and Groups grade.
We have a case due in finance tomorrow.
We have a case due in stats tomorrow.
We have accounting due just about everyday, and econ was due two days ago.

Next week we have a lighter schedule of classes, and then the week after is finals! So nuts that it's almost over...

With all of that, I feel that I cannot miss classes today. Since everything I'm learning is new, it puts me at a serious disadvantage to not be here. Maybe I should not care, since after all we have non-grade disclosure at INSEAD, but I'm an overachiever, so I do care.

So...I sit after econ and before leading people and I blog. And I will meet with my group in 20 minutes to go over all of our assignments that are due.

But at least I'm fasting (for now...).

I hope everyone else has a meaningful Yom Kippur - and if you have a minute, could you throw in a good word for me. Let Him know that it's just this year, okay?