My school

here are the halls of the school...but the part where I only walk through to get to classes. And yes, that is the bar (the room w/strobe light)

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=84583141278&h=h8IN0&u=RqDKo&ref=mf

Start in the main lobby, then goes down a hall...you can see the cubicles where we slept when we were kicked out of the residences because of the fire...how fun!!! :D :D

I go to school with a beauty queen!!

Virginia, from the Philippines....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrjHYXIMmMA

who knew!! Little Virginia, with her great sense of humor....

Sometimes I look at certain paintings and the clouds always look retarded. I realize now they are French clouds, and aren't retarded at all. The clouds really are that different over here.
And the homeless get to pitch tents where they want, and the train stations are patrolled by guys with automatics and german shepherds with muzzles. Different stuff, never seemed noteworthy til now. Strange...

Finally!!

I Finally got to complete a full circle on a roundabout!! Yes, we missed our turn, and yes, the driver got dizzy from it, but we did it!!
And there were more fireworks today...not only do they have a lot of holidays here, they make sure they celebrate them in style. And yet we still have class on holidays.

Speaking of Light Switches.....

Love the 2 or 3 way switches back in the states...set one in the middle, and the other(s) don't work. Beautiful way to annoy the hell out of someone. ;o) Also, the phone number that you could dial and it would call you back--turning the house phone into an intercom of sorts. hehehehehe....

ILVTOFU

No, not vegetarian, and not in love. But it would have been a great license plate, stupid Colorado!

I don't think I'll ever get used to the light switches in this country. Up is off and down is on. Still get it wrong 7 out of 10 times, in my own bathroom!!

Went into Paris yesterday after class (yes, on Saturday!). Met up with my friend Verena (German), had a beer with peach syrup, then went back to the apartment she's staying in. You have to go through a door, then a little alley (maybe 20 feet) into a courtyard, and then to the building where the apartment is. Pretty standard for france, but these courtyards can be so beautiful! We had dinner, then rode bikes down to the river and met with some friends. Everyone drinks in public here, and yes, I peed in a public park. As did a lot of others. Am almost French now, except the language issue.

Have been spending today trying to communicate with a group, very frustrating. One girl did all the work, then sent it to everyone. Unfortunately I was not at a computer during the day, and they had all divided the work before I had a chance to respond to the first email (22 by the time I checked my email!!!!) Now I've sent them some work and entirely revamped the power point as they like to put EVERYTHING on the slides and then just read them. Asked for input/opinions/disagreement, and everyone seems to have conveniently ignored the issue. Dorks.

Still need to write about the fun that was Italy, but first, Hotel Real Estate Finance problem sets, reading 10 chapters for the week, preparing 2 presentations, and 1 case study. Who says school isn't fun?!? ;o)

Torando T2

Wow, the second trimester is finally over, and I have a second to breathe!! I took my trip to Italy during our first break, and was supposed to have a class this week, but the instructor had a heart attack so they canceled the class. Thank heavens! This trimester was rumored to be easier than the first, but the rumors were false. Very false. Classes included quantitative methods, revenue management, corporate finance, real estate, entrepreneurship, tourism information systems, and project development. They were almost all very interesting, but a ton of hard work. The girls (Laura and Danielle) and I decided to start kickboxing to help us get through the trimester, so we grabbed my laptop, Danielle's speakers, and we went to the TV room. We did the warm up and got about 10 minutes into it, then Danielle decided to open the windows. The windows here are a little odd--you lift a lever and the window pivots at the bottom to create an open space of a few inches at the top. Only it turns out that the 2nd window she opened had a broken latch at the top, so the window swung all the way down and hit her on the head. It had to weigh at least 50 pounds, plus the momentum...she had a goose egg the size of a squash ball on her forehead within seconds. We got her some ice, and had JC take us to the hospital to make sure she didn't have a concusion. She turned out ok, but her eye was swollen shut for a few days and she had a nasty black eye for several weeks. And being the nice supportive friend I am, I just started laughing every time I saw her. hehehe.... We had several indian dinners together, other than that the time was full of studying. Oh, and I had a teacher that looked exactly like Kent Knowley, the owner of Port O'Call, but he had an Italian accent. Very odd man

We did manage to go to an Irish pub on St. Patti's day, and it was great!!! I really miss going out and being able to talk to strangers, so Laura, Shubham, Danielle, Dami and Sumati decided to humor me for the holiday. I met a professional cyclist who was willing to try his english to entertain me. Turns out he is a GB Packers fan, too. Luck o'the Irish! We had a great time.

As of last week all the interns left to the corners of the world to do their internships, so they won't even be around for graduation, and the apprentices started working full time so I won't see them either. Hopefully the third trimester will be a little lighter work load! Italy and Lyon stories later tonight--miss you all!!