Fire Fire Fire

Pics of us at our favorite hotel, Premier First Class. We managed to brave it, but had to take turns turning the hot water timer for each other when showering since it was outside of the bathroom.

So as many of you already know, I am without internet at home and have been since Jan 13th. We had a fire and it burned all the cables (see letter--or not, it won't upload right now). We had to stay the first night at the school, sleeping on benches and wherever else we could find. They gave us blankets and that was it. The next night Danielle and I grabbed a hotel because it was too cold the previous night and we were too tired to stay awake for classes. Fortunately they let us back in the 3rd night. And then I caught tonsilitis or a severe case of strep or something, couldn't eat for 4 days my throat was so swollen. Never walk around outside when there is snow on the ground and your hair is wet after you've inhaled smoke and your throat is already vulnerable. :D
Anyway, things are coming along well. Had my Real Estate midterm, my quantitative methods final, and my corporate finance midterm will be next Tuesday. Classes are much more interesting this term. Going to Italy next week....that's all the news I have! Love you guys!

Kindness

I had a great time surprising everyone at Christmas, and a ton of fun while sis was here, but those stories will come later. For now, just a quick note about today's adventure.
It was my (second) first day of school, and I was late. I ran all the way across the icy/snowy parking lot, icy/snowy sidewalk, driveway, and when I finally make it to the door I decide to trip over a metal plate and fall hard on my knee on a metal grate. My friend and I started laughing, and ran into the classroom just in time. It was about 20 minutes into class that I realized I had torn my jeans, and about 40 minutes into class that I realized my jeans were absorbing a fair amount of blood right below the sore spot on my knee. I went to clean it up at break, and my first thought when I looked at it was 'that might need stitches'. Then I got grossed out at the thought of cleaning it up myself so I went to the school nurse. Yes, I go to a small school, and they have a nurse just like elementary school. Except the nurse decided not to be there today. I went to the reception desk to ask when she would be back, and after looking at my torn and bloody pants Crystal (the receptionist) called someone to come take a look. We apparently have some ex-firemen/military guys on campus (no need for prison work release program jokes here...). He grabbed the first aid kit and took me into a room with an examination table. Crystal came with us since neither guy spoke English. She was very kind and helpful, filled out paperwork for me (I had to give them my age--first time since my birthday that I said that number out loud) and kept me distracted while they cleaned me up (I decided I liked them though, one of them said I could only be 23). They decided I would need stitches, so they called the ambulance. Crystal told me what I would need for the insurance, and told me I could take a bus or catch a taxi when I was done. She gave me her # to call if I needed a taxi.
Three paramedics came, only they were the 'frail French' type. Made it very awkward when they put me on a wheelchair 'dolly' and the little guy had to wheel me out to the ambulance. They were joking about taking me to the butcher, cutting off my leg, and silly things like that.
After the Xrays they took me to the doctor where he numbed my knee and gave me 9 stitches. 4 in one cut and 5 in the other. I watched him do one and that was enough. eww. Then he told me I could get dressed. Only he didn't leave the room--which wasn't a surprise from my previous medical visit where I had to have my chest xrayed and they expected me to just go topless in the process. So I went to pull on my pants, and my toes went right through the tear in the jeans. Yes, I was dancing around the room in my underwear trying to untangle my foot while the doctor was there. Beautiful picture (eye roll and a chuckle). Once I got my care-instructions and prescriptions I set off to find the bus or a taxi.
The doc took me to a phone first, so I called Crystal and asked her to call a taxi for me. She said she would give the driver my name. I went outside to wait for the taxi, and some guy pulled up a few minutes later and waived me over. I looked around to be sure it was me he wanted since he didn't have a taxi sign, and then went over to the car. It was the same guy that had helped out before at the school. He drove his own car over to pick me up. Highly awkward, since he doesn't speak english and my french is absolutely miniscule, but we survived. I bought him a coffee when we got back to school as a thank-you.
Then I went to my 2nd class where I learned that one of my guy friends that I talked to before I left thought the blood on my jeans was because I got my period....apparently he skipped anatomy class. He and two other friends offered to fill my prescrips for me after their last class so I wouldn't have to walk to the pharmacy.
When I got home I had a slip in my mailbox that I had a package from home. Alina and her two girls sent me an array of gifts, including a homemade puzzle with pics from the time we all went to SeaWorld. Perfect surprise to end a crazy day!
Thank you Crystal, guy who's name I can't remember, Laura, Shubham, JC, Poupon, Alina, Amanda, and Rachel!

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