Day 1

A quick one to let you all know that I haven't taken my own life yet and that I have kind of survived the first day.

7:45 - left the house to catch the bus to school.

8:15 - met with my team to go over the cases. Had no clue on one of them, had a partial clue on the 2nd, and used my persuasion skills on the marketing one, even though it was all BS. I managed to convince Madhur to go with my plan to launch a particular toy, so this was a small victory. He's a tough one.

9:45 - 1st class: Marketing Management. This was ok except that the professor has the worst handwriting and I sit in the back. I think people aren't really up for switching around, so I'm not sure what to do. Tomorrow I'll bring my glasses AND wear my contacts. I figure it can't give me a headache that's any worse than the one I'll develop from squinting and getting frustrated. This class was ok. The professor has a policy that if you say something irrelevant, you must pay 1 euro and everyone in the class judges by yelling out ONE EURO or SAFE! This really isn't the best way to get people to participate, and class participation is the majority of our grade. I guess I should just have lots of change on hand.

11:05 - the dean welcomes us. He was in Japan last week and couldn't welcome us formally during the orientation days, so he went around to each section today. He seems nice. Very slim. I don't think Opus Dei-ers eat much.

11:15 - Analysis of Business Problems. One word - HUH? In fact, I'm not sure if that's even a word, but rather a gutteral reaction. This guy's handwriting is miniscule so I'm screwed. Especially because I wouldn't understand what he was putting on the board even if he wrote in a normal size. I'm doomed.

12:30 - Lunch. I announce to a few people that I won't be here much longer. They say I'm crazy. They just don't understand. I will now keep these pronouncements to myself. I couldn't eat much. At least I don't have to worry about getting fat here!

2:00 - Decision Analysis - Wow, this wasn't as bad as I thought. Finally a professor who actually explains things. In fact, he almost went too slowly (and I never thought I'd say that, particularly where probability is concerned) if only because we only went through the stuff I had already gotten right and didn't have time for the more complicated part of the case. I even participated... a little.

3:30 - mini team meeting to decide who will be the moderator for each case tomorrow morning. I'm moderating Marketing. Yikes. We have three cases to prepare again, and for the same classes as today. There's plenty of work to do. Fortunately, Spanish was cancelled (at the last minute, so I still lugged all my spanish stuff with me to school) so now I have a few extra hours to study.

At 7 I'm going to the girls' house... Joanne (Irelend) is really good at math, so she has been helping her Spanish roommate Nora, who apparently has an art history background. I'm going to get in on the study session tonigh as well, and they live just 2 blocks away, which is handy. I might even be able to make it to the gym at 10 for a swim, but that might be optimistic.

Tomorrow.... same thing all over, just in a different order. And Wednesday we'll finally have Spanish class, so we won't be done till 5pm. I heard we don't have the same teacher anymore, so we're all a little bummed about that. Hopefully the new Spanish profesora will be nice.