What a day. What a week! WHAT A YEAR!

Whew... this was one of the busiest weeks of the year, and one of the toughest. We all really felt like we were back in the 1st term again, completely overwhelmed with work and concerned about failing classes. Well I'm concerned about failing classes... other people aren't concerned at all.

Anyway this week we had our big negotiation project for corporate finance, a massive group paper due tonight for operations strategy, our team projects for competitive strategy (Jan-Kees, Matteo and I were spared having to present in class), two submissions for quantitative methods, and the usual fun caseload. Oh and I took the DIEN today... the final Spanish exam. Nothing like a Spanish test to round out a week.

Fortunately we did get a bit of a respite today because quantitative methods was cancelled (it would have been at 9:30) because Franz went to Munich for the World Cup opener, the lucky dog. Thank goodness, because those of us who went to a Romania trip reunion dinner (at a Vietnamese restaurant - go figure) and then onto the BOW to see Alberto play the guitar were certainly appreciating the extra sleep this morning. We had econ at 11, and the case was about the increasing twin deficit in the US. At lunch Matteo and I took the spoken part of the Spanish test, and then did our final prep on our Blockbuster presentation in case we were chosen to go in front of the class. Immediately after strategy class he and I raced to another classroom to take the two-hour written portion of the DIEN.

We were under the gun because we had reserved seats with the German Business Club to watch the Germany/Costa Rica match at a beer garden on Diagonal. So we finished the test as quickly as possible and raced down the hill, arriving just in time to score seats and beers and watch the game. Germany won 4-2 and I somehow ended up in a Germany jersey and with little German flags painted on my face. This was all entirely forced upon me, since I can't truly support Germany... they kicked us out of the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup!






Then it was time to make some last-minute changes to our operations paper - Madhur! - and now we have emailed it in and I can finally go to bed. Tomorrow brings a fun-filled day of studying for my final exams. Oy.

It's hard to believe we are about to enter the last week of the first year. Some people are taking finals this weekend because they start their banking internships on Monday. George and Marco leave next weekend and I probably won't see them until I visit them in New York in early September. It's a strange and sad week. None of us can really get excited about finals being over because we know most people have to split soon afterward. Definitely a roller coaster of a week.