LANDSCAPE!?!?!?!

It's 4:30 in the morning, I'm working on the final marketing plan with 2 of the 4 other group members, and 1 question keeps coming up....who the #%*&!(#%$ types their part of a group paper in LANDSCAPE!?>!>!?!?!

I'm a slacker...

but here are some Turkey day things...I'll do details after my comprehensive final tomorrow... :D

How's School? Well.....

Barthelona

Jup, Finally!!! Better late than never, right..? :D
Had a blast in Barcelona. Not a ton of night life since it was off-season, but we were able to check out Gaudi's stuff--the park, Sagrada Familia, the Dragon House, we learned all about Ryan Air, hostels, muggings, and we found a perfect tapas bar and gellato place.
We had to take a train to the bus to the airport. Bus ride was about an hour and 15, and I sat next to a woman from France who now works in Ireland. Had a nice chat. Once we got to the airport, we did the check-in bit. The tickets were just receipts...very formal. Security was a little more on the ball since they did catch Dami trying to take all of her hair and facial products in her carry-on. Once we got on the plane (had to walk out to it, a 737) the fun began. :D They are very modest, and want to be sure you remember to keep your skirt from flying up if you have to make an emergency exit using the slide over the wing.

They make their money from sales ON the plane, so once you're aboard you're bombarded with offers for food, snacks, drinks, perfumes, clothes, lotto tickets, etc.....the seats don't recline, and they leave the lights on full blast so you have no choice but to listen to their pitches.
Then we landed. And had to take another hour long bus ride into Barcelona. By the time we got there the public transport had stopped so we grabbed a cab to the hostel. It was very fun and clean. We were supposed to have a private room but the heat wasn't working so the clerk put us in a room with 4 bunk beds.
The next day it was raining. We stopped for breakfast at a bakery next to the subway, then went into town. We walked Las Ramblas looking at everything. They have pet stores and tourist shops in kiosks in the middle of the street.

We went to the market--huge! All sorts of meat, produce, everything!



K., so I never finished this one...will do (once again, after the comprehensive final is over....)

Just so you know school isn't one big party....

Here is my first excel assignment. Feel free to send your completed efforts to: riss.gardner@gmail.com ;o) It's slightly more than annoying at this point....


Miss you all! Thanks for the emails and quick notes...they are appreciated more than you know.
Love you!!!

	Note that any questions about the substance of the assignment should either be asked in class or be emailed to me. The responses will be circulated by email, so you should check your messages regularly to see what clarifications other people have received. You are required to develop a spreadsheet capable of processing the payroll and taxation calculations for Harry's Hotel. This system should calculate each employee’s gross wages, taxation due and net wages for a single week (Monday to Sunday), and must also provide the summary management information detailed below. The system must take each of the following factors into account: The hotel can have a maximum of fifteen employees in any week. The system therefore should be capable of processing payroll for any number between one and fifteen people. The system should allow the person calculating the payroll to enter the starting and ending time of each employee for each day for the week. Employees can only work straight shifts - i.e. they must work for a continuous period of time each day, and can only work one shift per day. Each employee can work up to six days per week. Employees must have a break of at least eight hours between shifts. Each employee is paid an hourly rate based on their department. Front Office are paid 8 Euros per hour, F&B are paid 7 Euros per hour, Housekeeping are paid 6 Euros per hour and all others are paid 5.50 Euros per hour. There are three levels of positions. Workers receive the basic wage detailed above. Supervisors receive 1.25 times the hourly wage of their workers, and Managers receive 1.75 times the hourly wage of their workers. Therefore a Front Office manager would receive 8 * 1.75 = 14 Euros per hour. The standard working week is 37 hours. Any employees working more than this are paid overtime. Hours above 37 and below 42 are paid at one and a quarter times the employee's normal rate. Forty-two or more hours per week are paid at one and a half times the normal rate. Allow a space on the worksheet for the entry of the hotel’s weekly F&B sales figure. 8% of this should be distributed to the workers and supervisors in the F&B department (but not the managers) as service charge using the proportions explained below. Service charge should be distributed based on the number of hours that each employee has worked. For example, if a particular employee has worked 30 hours in a week, and the total number of hours worked by all employees was 300, then that employee should receive one tenth (300 divided by 30) of the service charge for that week. Managers receive a bonus as follows: if the hotel occupancy EACH day is less than 50%, they receive nothing; where it is between 50% and 70%, they receive 0.05% of sales; where it is between 70% and 90%, they receive 0.065% of sales, and where it is 90% or over, they get 0.085%. In all cases, the total bonus amount should be split equally between all the managers (if they worked at all that week, then they receive an equal share). Note however that the lowest occupancy in a week that determines the bonus. So if occupancy is as follows during the week 89%, 82%, 57%, 90%, 76%, 71%, 52% - they only receive a bonus of only 0.05%. Managers receive a additional bonus of Euro 200 each if the worker (i.e. non supervisor and non management) labour cost percentage (excluding service charge) is below 20% of sales during the week. Taxation information is as follows: Harry's Hotel is located in a country that uses the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system of income tax. As a result, the employer must calculate and deduct both income tax and social charges from each employee’s income and submit them to the collector of taxes. All income, including service charge and bonuses, is subject to both income tax and social charges. Income tax is calculated on "Taxable Income" – the gross income minus the tax-free allowance. Social charges are calculated on gross income. Thus someone who is single and earns 100,000 a year pays income tax on 97,000 (see below) and social charges on 100,000. All employees are assumed to work 50 weeks per year, and thus their tax-free allowances can be distributed equally through out the year using this number. Annual figures are shown in the tables below. Tax Free Allowances Single 3000 Married 6000 Divorced / Widowed 5500 Employees also receive an additional tax free allowance of 500 per dependent child. Income Tax Rates (on TAXABLE income) Rate Single Married 25% Up to 8000 Up to 16,500 37% Income of between 8000 and 13,000 Income of 16,500 and 25,000 43% Income over 13,000 Income over 25,000 (Note: The income tax rates for divorced and widowed is the same as for married employees). Social Charges Rates (on ALL income) Rate Limit 5.5% Up to 10,000 3.5% 10,000 and over When calculating both income tax and social charges, the second rate is only applied to the income above the cut off point. So, for example, a single person with a taxable income of 12000 per annum would pay 25% of the first 8000 and 37% of the remainder in income tax, as well as 5.5% of the 10,000 and 3.5% of 2000 in social charges. Your spreadsheet should present an easily understandable outline showing who has worked or not worked each day, along with all of the requested income and tax calculations. The following management information must also be available on a separate single printable page: Total Gross Wages Total Overtime at time and a quarter Total Overtime at time and a half Number of people who worked overtime Total Income Tax collected Total Social Charges collected Total Net Wages Gross Wages including service, bonuses etc as a percentage of sales Average Gross Wage (excluding overtime) Average Gross Wage (including overtime) Average Net Wage Highest Net Wage Lowest Net Wage On a single printable page means that if you select "File", "Print" and click "OK", the page (and just the page, will print with no further action on the part of the user! The printout should include the title "Harry's Hotel – Labour Cost Report" and display both the date of printing and your own name in the bottom right hand corner of the page. Required A VIRUS FREE file containing ONLY the completed Excel workbook. This should be saved with your student number as the filename. A PDF printout of your spreadsheet formulas. It is your responsibility to ensure that this readable, as this is effectively what will be used for grading purposes. This two files should be emailed tobefore the submission date / time. Your email's subject line must contain the words "End User Assignment One 2008" in order for your submission to be automatically acknowledged (obviously do not include the quotation marks and please do not use any other subject line). You should copy yourself on the email to make sure that it is sent successfully. Please do submit your assignments in any other way, or submit them from an email address other than the one you normally use

Today's Lesson

While I've learned all sorts of amazing things since I've been here (SWOT analysis, strategies in acquisitions and mergers, management contracts, IRR, NPV, in-depth IF statements, how to tell if a hotel is a room-based or resort-type just from the income statement percentages, etc. etc.), the most sobering lesson came today when Nico asked me to proof his Advanced English homework. Apparently I don't know English!
Although the most interesting lesson I learned today (but I have yet to research/snopes it) is that BMW implemented fire extinguishers on the exterior of their cars sold in South Africa so the driver can push a button and discharge them in the event of an attempted car jacking. Talk about a global education.... ;o) Miss you all!

How I spent my last Saturday in September

I studied. and studied. and studied. And then I went to Paris and played tourist. :D
We started off in the Jardin du Luxembourg, then headed over to the Seine by way of the Latin Quarter. We crossed over to the Ile de la Cite and walked around Notre Dame.

Here's a link to the pics till I can find time to finish writing this!!


http://picasaweb.google.com/riss.gardner/LastSaturdayInSeptember#

Here are some videos of the different street bands...

Parking in France

I've noticed the tight parking spaces around town (the pics are the front and back of the same car), and wondered how people manage to get in and out of them. I had the privilege of experiencing the parking first hand the other day. I went to the store with some friends after school, and there were several "kisses" given to each car in front and back of where we were parking. And no one seems to be bothered by this-----

McDonald's

Yes, I went to a MickeyD's in France....c'mon, you have to try EVERYthing, right? ;o) No Playplace...poor french kids are really deprived. It's more of a 'family' restaurant. There are kiosks where you can place your own order and pay with a cc, or you can give your order to a guest representative who is Not located behind the counter. Food is a little different, but I just got the good ol' 69cent cheeseburger. it was exactly the same, squirt of ketchup, squirt of mustard, minced onions, and the poor stray pickle that always seems to be added as an after thought. One minor difference--the beef came from France. One major difference...our 69 cent cheeseburger costs 1.70 Euros. Which is roughly$2.50. D'oh! And our 99cent coke? 2 Euros...over 5 bucks for a cheeseburger and coke! What did I learn from this experience? Don't go to McDonald's...anywhere in the world!! :D :D hehe Can't wait to see what KFC has to offer.....

Integration Weekend

We went to La Rochelle for our integration weekend. It was a lot of fun, and we really got to know each other. We left the residence at 5:30 am (ouch!) and took the RER to Paris, where we caught the metro to the train station, then took the train to La Rochelle, where we caught a bus to some other town about an hour away. Very long ride, but a lot of fun. After we unpacked we went to a vineyard. Beautiful country, crap wine. :D
The next day we went to the beach and had some team building exercises, including tug of war and team 'chants'...a little routine we made up in 15 minutes. A lame game of dodgeball (only 1 ball) and lots of fun in the sun.
The next day we went back to La Rochelle and toured the town until it was time for the train. There's the brief overview. Now for the nitty gritty....as we're approaching the 'camp site', they tell us that we're in bungalows (this is apparently french for tiny trailer) 6 of us in 4 beds, 4 boys and 2 girls. The first room I looked in had a queen bed, the next thing I saw was a tiny sleeping area similar to a tent trailer when you put the table away and turn it into a bed. I decided to opt for door number 3, just my luck!!! 2 twin beds. :D The girl and I took that bedroom and made the guys sleep together >:0) They weren't happy about that, but they got over it quickly.
Not much more to tell than that, lots of team building exercises and good times. Now for pictures....

My First French HairCut

I went for a hair cut last week, and fortunately Danielle came with me. No one in the salon spoke English, so Danielle got me set up and then took off. First thing I noticed, their 'capes' are MUCH better than the US--very flattering. They are just like a jacket, and tie in front. It's a little strange though, they don't use conditioner when they wash your hair. Maybe that's a quirk of the salon I went to, but it was a little strange. She grabbed a book of hairstyles and we agreed on something, just a basic cut. She took off 4 inches. Then she asked if I wanted it 'light'...me, silly me, thinking just a few layers. She took off another 4 inches in some places. Then, just when I'm starting to grasp how a dog feels ashamed when you cut all it's hair off, she grabs another type of scissors, and KEEPS cutting!!!! Whew, I survived, but I have a very French haircut now--about 2/3 of the girls in class have a similar cut.

My First International Bday Party--Redo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo Can't believe I forgot to add this link!! This was the music from last night's bday party... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo



Wow, we had a bday party for Mattius (guy in the middle who can't keep his eyes open), and if you can believe it, we can squeeze 20 people into our little dorm rooms!! :D This is where I learned that Lay's Potato Chips markets the nastiest chips ever, Poulet Rotis e Thyme or something. Yes, Chicken flavored potato chips. Gross!! Guy in the red is Nico, he hosted the party. I also learned that Coke and Malibu is NOT acceptable en Parie. Weirdos. Got to know a lot of people.
This party was Saturday night, and tonight (Wednesday) we had a bday party for Patrick Saade, a lebanese guy in the program. Everyone was dancing, but dances from their country. Lots of fun. 63 students, 12 months...that's a lot of birthdays to celebrate!!

Day one of School....

I survived! ;o)
They fed us coffee and croissants on our morning break, and a true french spread for lunch, complete with red wine. AT SCHOOL!!! :D It's going to be very challenging, but that's why I'm here, to bring my brain back from the state of mush it was in. There are actually 4 americans in the program--I met the other 2 today, then there's Dami and me. (Kristin, I'm sure you'll appreciate the pic--it's not 'thumbs up', it's our 'first day')
I spent Saturday in Paris with Max, (current student) Olivia, (alum that lives just down the street from the arc), and Dami. We had lunch at a cafe in Marais, next to the Place des Vosges. Later we went to Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre (pic of the church) and spent the rest of the day on the grass drinking wine, listening to a band and enjoying the view of all of Paris from high on the hill. After dark we went to Pegale and saw Moulin Rouge.
Today was school and now I'm tired and going to bed, but I wanted to send a quick update and pics.
XOXOXO
m

1st email, for those of you I missed.....sorry!

Good greif, I am here!!! It hasn't really sunk in, and as is obvious by my lack of communication things didn't go as planned. Missed the guy at the airport, not sure how that happened, but I did meet up with the other student. She is great, and we worked everything out together. Grabbed a random cab (she had 4 checked bags!!!) and my 2 plus my 2 carry on things, then got lost on the way to the school, at which point I tried to call but the phone is turned off until Sept 1 and I didn't have the calling card info with me at the point I was near a phone. I am SO SORRY for not being in touch sooner!!! I had to pick up the welcome packet that had the key to even access the internet before I could send this, and the wired connection isn't working (gotta get with Chad on that). But things are going very well and here's what I've learned so far:

-Chicago's airport has some very tacky decorations on the way from terminal B to C.

-Duty Free means you pick up your purchase from the gate BEFORE the flight takes off, not after it lands. And they don't like it if you make them call your last name 4 times and keep the plane waiting because you are clueless. :D hehe Oops.

-And then you survive the glares and the world is right.

-Never trade seats on the plane after you've secured the perfect window seat so that a family of 4 can sit together. The Asian lady in front of you will lean her seat back as far as she can the first chance she gets and won't put it up until she has to.

-And then you survive the flight and the world is right.

-It's very easy to follow the crowd through immigration to the baggage claim, esp since the entire airport is under construction and there's only One possibly direction to go.

-It's difficult to recognize other's suitcases that have been loaned to you, thank goodness for the bright orange 'heavy' tags!!!

-If you wander around looking clueless because the cab driver isn't there, the other student will recognize you.

-After an hour of waiting you realize it's ok to give up on the cab driver and get your own.

-The cab driver gets you to the school and you survive the ride.

-The school charges you 50 Euros for insurance, and then gives you your room keys.

-My room is on the 5th floor, the elevator only goes up to 4. I am going to be FIT when this is over!!! ;o)

-The room is a decent size, but I need a microwave if I'm going to survive. (see attached pics)

-It costs 3 Euros to take the train from my building to campus and back.

-I now have my school id and computer log-in so I can send this message!!

-We met Joelle Harris, and she gave us a brief run-down of campus, including where our first class will be on Monday and the requirement of dressing formally for the first day of class.

-There's a shopping center right when you get off the train at campus--and you bag your own groceries everywhere you go!!

-People hit on you in the super market in France. For Real!!! I have my first date lined up. hehe not really, but could have. And the ratio of men to women in the program is 3 to 1. Sorry mom, I might bring a frog home after all. ;o) Or all the sisters might move here. haha!!!

-Most importantly, I am going to survive this experience, and love nearly every minute of it.

It's quiet because not a lot of students are here yet, so it was nice to have a day to myself to acclimate without the craziness of having to deal with 300 students.

And I'm having dinner--red wine, morbier and a baguette. Won't be the usual by any means, but it's my first night in France, and I'm doing it right!!!!

I love you all very much. Thank you for all of your support and encouragement.

1st Week of Classes are Over....

and I ran my restaurant into the ground! ;o) We did an excercise called CRASE (Cornell Restaurant Administration Simulation Excercise) in which each of 7 groups develop a restaurant in the same market. We decide on menu, pricing, portions, staff and payroll, advertising, etc. (and there are A LOT of etc.s involved!). Each 'quarter' the instructor runs the figures and gives us our market standing. My group's restaurant sucked, but we came in 2nd place in the excercise because he measured the winner by how far off we were in estimating our last quarter net income. Since we knew we sucked and would have a loss, it was easy. hehe :)
I know about 20 people fairly well now, and 3 of them VERY well. This group work really forces you to get to know one another. I worked with Pierre-Edouard who is from France, about 2 hours away from Cergy, Jean-Christophe (JC) also from France, and Ning, from Japan. Today Ning fed us donkey. And cow tendon. Weird. He had little snack packs of the meat, and fed them to me before we had to do our presentation. Don't worry, I didn't ask what part of the animal it was until AFTER I ate it (thanks to all of you for that sound advice!!)
We start another course next week, and another after that. Then it should slow down for a bit. The administration so far has been incredible. Very professional and helpful, yet still light hearted.
For those of you who haven't seen them yet, I've attached photos of my dorm room.