Shut Up and Sing

Went to the dixie chicks concert last friday and it was fantastic!

Free Speech Cafe - Amen

I keep discovering new and exciting things around campus, berkeley and the general bay area. Today I came across this little nugget of architectural and ambience joy on the UC Berkeley Campus, the UC Berkeley Free Speech Cafe. I have about a million pages of homework to get through today (chicago trip taking its toll...) and the joy of being able to study on a teak benched outdoor patio, partially shaded by pine trees from the california indian summer sun is almost overwhelming - long live berkeley - amen.

Viva Chicago & Welcome Fall B Semester

Just got back from the yearly Netimpact Conference at the Kellogg Scool of Management in Chicago - where we had a whale of time, both during the conference itself and on Saturday night where a Chicago native classmate took us out for some Halloween fun (hence the lovely get up seen in photo above!).

Netimpact is an organization of b-school students interested in making a positive social impact - in short people who want to make money while doing good at the same time.This is something I am pretty interested in at the moment and luckily something that is taken quite seriously here in Berkeley. For those who are all about the details: "double/triple bottom line ventures" is what really interests me personally - that is you only consider your company successful if it delivers: monetary value, social value and environmental value (hence the 3 bottom lines). Expect environmentally friendly iPods (or the like) made by well fed people in developing nations to be built by Maiken-Inc. in the very near future...

Other than that - we finally finished our Fall A semester! Done are Statistics, Micro Economics, Organizational Behavior & Leadership Communication. I won't go in to the details of how busy we were and how much our final weeks sucked - the very brief version is that it was a bitch - but hey it is done and I feel confident that i passed all my classes!

So, next up and already in full swing are: Accounting (homework for which I should be doing right now :), Corporate Finance (I'm finally learning what the bean counters do all day!), Marketing (fun stuff like selling 3 wheel scooters in India) and Leadership (how-not-to-be a micro manager among other things...)

In other good news, I have been admitted to Haas' International-Business-Development Program meaning that I'll get to go on a 3-4 week consulting gig 'someplace-in-the-world' next spring - check the website above for past projects and countries, they include places like Zambia, Madagascar & Tahiti (but also Finland & Germany) - I wont know until January where I get to go to, but still quite exciting.


On this note, back to accounting and hopefully more updates soon!

Berkeley!

Photos from home, school & life in Berkeley:

The Rose St Chateau: My room is the one window you can see on the (US) second floor to the right. Lots of green everywhere.

Enter the castle...

Dining room, access to deck, kicthen, living room from here.

Kitchen - this is where life, good food and great conversations happen.

My current room, I'll be moving downstairs in a few weeks when roomie Alberto returns from Mallorca, and other temp roomie Odile goes back home to France - you get the idea: there are lots of interesting people (coming & going) in this place. Also notice my new cat Shadow, he sort of comes with the room.

My favorite afternoon study spot - the deck.

Jane, my 'landlady', on the deck.

The roof deck, overlooking the bay.

Ok, time to go to school, this is from our first day of Orientation Week, when we had our class of 2008 photo taken - hooray.

Entering the Haas buildings from the east.

More Haas.

The UC Berkeley campus campanile.

View of the Haas School from said Campanile (in front of the stadium).

View of the SF Bay from said Campanile.

Campus sunset view of the Golden Gate bridge.

Pictures from Denmark

A few shots from my trip to Denmark this summer. I spent most of my time with my (extended) family while there: my mother had invited our '19 closest relatives' to share a week a vacation home on the Danish north sea coast with us, as her way of celebrating her 60th birthday. We were blessed with wonderful weather and lots of fun family times.

Enjoying a Danish Hot Dog during a brief Copenhagen stint - Note the Danes claim to have invented the Hot Dog, maybe that is why it has such a Danish name... hmmm...

The world famous canals of Nyhavn (Copenhagen) - My great grandfather had a restaurant (or bar, that is still debated among family members -- I am leaning towards the bar version...) just a few yards from here. If only he had kept it... (this place is now one of the most expensive places in CPH to own/run a business).

Danes love icecream - this is one of the favorites: three scoops of ice cream, smothered in whipped topping, jam and a cream puff thingy.

Copenhagen harbor navigation aid.

Danish Queen Margrethe's Yacht "Dannebrog" - this shot is from Sønderborg (close to where my parents live) which the Queen traveled to as part of her summer vacation. I did she her, however she was ant-sized in my pictures, due to the distance.



We've hit the beach in northwestern Jutland (Danish Northsea) - this is what a tiny, traditional Danish beach resort looks like.

Ahhh, beach.

Heading out for a sunset walk.





Shopping time - "Palmer" are my favorite Danish candies, and they are not easy to come buy. I found just one store selling them in the 3 weeks i was there, hence the photo documentation.

Mom chilling at the cabin.

The Møller-Hansen Family dressed up and ready for my mother's formal celebration dinner, which was a fish and seafood buffet, needless to say, it was delicious.

A tad bit of 'culture': on the way out of the country we made a brief stop a the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde - this is (was) a real Vikingship, made around year 750-800.

More facts about the good old vikings.

Finally, this is Kronborg, the castle in Helsingør/Elsinore where (according to Shakespeare) Hamlet lived (the real princess Hamlet or Hamled, if he did in fact exist, most likely lived in Jutland, roughly 1000 years before this castle was build...)

Danmark Dejligst

My cousin Sofie and I and another very famous young lady in Copenhagen on July 16th 2006.

To the Nicest Guys in East Asia... Thank You!

I realize that i have forgotten something very important so far: posting a shout out to the two "Nicest Guys in East Asia"*: Masaki from my house in Chiba and Makoto, an AMZN friend.

Masaki, thank you so much for making sure that not only I but also my, much too big & heavy, luggage made it back from Japan...

Makoto, thank you so much for making sure that I never felt entirely lost in translation, for giving me the chance to eat Fugu and for showing me the Shinto prayer ropes (I am now perfectly equipped for my future endeavors.)

You're both great people and friends, who helped make my time in Japan very special, thank you!!


*thank you Masaki, for kindly providing your own 'title'... :)