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?

Diving - a bit more

So...there isn't much else to write about diving, since it was essentially the same as our other dive trips, but the dives were better, it was more fun to go with people we knew, and we had a better time - oh, and I didn't get sun burned (I'm pretty sure this is the first time).

Just one more comment on diving - if you watch the turtle video, and you listen REALLY well, you can hear me saying "turtle turtle" THROUGH my regulator, through the camera's crazy underwater case - ALL UNDERWATER! I was pumped to hear that.

In other news, this weekend was Kirsten's wedding, which was really hard to not be at. It's been a rough year missing all of the weddings and babies, and this was one of the rougher ones. When I met Kirsten in first grade, I didn't know we would be friends 25 years later. In fifth grade, Kirsten told me, "Melanie, if you don't like yourself, no one is going to like you." She read me better than anyone - at age ten! Once we went through high school and were finally in the same city when she was in dental school and I was in social work school, I did not think I would ever not be at her wedding. Especially since during those year she was convinced she would have a macabre wedding - with candelabras, black wedding dresses and other scary things. I wasn't there, but I don't think that's what it was like this past weekend.

CONGRATULATIONS, KIRSTEN! All the best to you and Chad.

Cuttlefish and Turtles

I don't have time to write right now, but Matt and I just got back from a great weekend of diving at Pulau Tioman in Malaysia. Click here, here, here, here, and here for other postings about our experiences diving in this area.

This time was different - we went with INSEAD people and with a different shop. The shop was fine, and it was really nice to go with people we sort of know, and nice to get to know them more. We had a super fun and nice group of divers, and somehow we saw three turtles and at least 7 or 8 cuttlefish. There were also a ton of pufferfish. We saw some sunken boats, a car...pretty random.

We especially enjoyed a fish that apparently attaches itself to sharks, but it attached itself to Gokce's thighs and her tank...and then chose me. It was cleaning me, which felt more like biting, and I wasn't too happy, but in retrospect - it's pretty funny.

I have uploaded two videos, and you can click here for the still pictures. I will post pictures here later this week.

Powerpoint

School now is so different than it was when I was in undergrad and even grad school the first time. The big difference is notebooks/powerpoint. It's amazing now - way better. You don't have to take notes. You get a copy of the notes at each class - and you just write down your extra notes. It's pretty amazing. I feel bad about the serious amount of paper, but other than that - it's definitely the way to go.

It probably makes profs work much harder...but I can handle that.

Finance

We have a finance quiz/midterm/exam today. It's going to be hard for me, since Finance isn't my forte (yet). We had a review session yesterday, and the prof went over a practice quiz that he had created. I answered all of the questions but two - because I could not figure out what they were asking for. One of them made absolutely no sense. The prof read it and said, "it's simple we have to...hang on." Then he read it again. Then he said, "this is proof that no one can make the perfect exam. If you come across a question like this on the exam, skip it, write this is bullshit, and then move on to the next question. Next..." I like that approach.