New Appreciation for Accountants

After 3 months and a 3 hour trama (the final) I officially have an appreciation and slight fear of accountants. It is honestly a bit scary that there are people who truly enjoy accounting, as I found it as close as I've ever been to hell. I will admit that this was compounded by the fact that since the rest of my class (definitely not me) performed better than expected on the mid-term so the final had to be made harder... good that the people I am going to school with are brilliant, but bad for the outlook of where I'll fall on the curve!

Either way, I am officially halfway done with the first week of finals of this degree - YEAH! Now it's on to Economics and Data Analysis.

It's Business Time!

So my Kiwi friend has introduced our class to this hilarious song by Flight of the Concords. As it has become a sort of class anthem I wanted to share it with all of you, plus it's extremely funny!! For the record these two are Kiwi not Aussie. Enjoy!!

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

Sorry I wasn't able to put the video directly on the blog... I'm showing my technical capabilities. :)

One down three to go...

Today marks the beginning of the end. I just finished the first final, which was 2 hours long in Organisational Behavior. Now I get to begin studying for the even better courses... tomorrow is Accounting (3 hours and 50% of my grade), Thursday is Economics (a measly 2 hours and 35%), and then the grand finale on Friday with Data Analysis (3 hours and 50%).

It is painful and I expect my hand to look like a mangled claw at the end from all the writing, but I must admit it feels good to be into it and that much closer to being done.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to post for a while as I'm going to be on vacation next week, but as soon as I get a chance I'll try to post at least little bits of what's going on.

Cheers,
-K

Vacation Here I Come!!

So it's not for another 11 days and I have finals and a party to throw before then... but I'm so excited for my vacation!!! I'm going to be going up to a set of islands called the Whitsunday's and spending 3 days and 2 nights on a 70 meter boat (pictured here). We'll go sea kayaking, island hopping, scuba diving, and just cruising around; plus make use of the on-board jacuzzi. The boat holds about 16 people and there are 6 people from my class going total so it should be good fun.

After the boat I'm going to go down the coast to an island called Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world. I'm wondering if it will be a bit of a flash back to all the islands that we had in the middle of the Columbia River back in good old Richland... Except this one is big enough to have fresh water lakes and streams, and has points where you can whale watch. The unfortunate part is that there are no accommodations on the island so it will be camping all the way... good thing I've adjusted back to the student lifestyle and will be able to bear it.

We have to rent a Land Cruiser and take all our food/water onto the island with us. Then it's driving on the beaches because there are only a couple of roads... should be fun! Now I know some of you are cringing at this, but if nothing else this will be an adventure and considering my lack of budget right now it gets me outside the city before the next session starts. (Which is supposed to be even harder and more work than this session... yippee!!)

OK, I have officially wasted enough time and need to get back to accounting studying. :( Cash flows here I come!!

A Sad Sad Day.....

Today marks the first time in I couldn't count how many years (at least 6) that I haven't had a proper Cinco de Mayo. No chips and salsa, no guacamole, no drinking cerveza.... and most importantly no margarita.

When I asked most people leading up to this day what there is to do in Sydney for Cinco de Mayo the majority of responses I received were "Cindo de what?!?" Needless to say there isn't as large of a Hispanic population here as in Washington or Arizona, or probably anywhere in the states for that matter... but I at least expected something! I've also learned that it is very much a Mexican thing as the Portuguese and Brazilian people I know didn't know about it either.

At the end of the day just know that I am officially missing the states today, and the fact that I wouldn't be able to sneeze without finding a margarita close at hand today.

A Day in the life of an MBA Student....

The time is now 9:45 PM.... I have been at school since 7:30 AM and am looking at another hour or so of work. As a momentary distraction I am turning to one of my many distractions... my blog. :) Today has been one of those very productive and long days where I think where has the time gone? As these days are becoming more and more frequent I thought I would give a brief outline so y'all would know what it feels like to be me. (and yes I did just use y'all in my blog)

• 6:00 AM - Alarm goes off and I reluctantly get out of bed and into the shower
• 7:15 - Leave the house after eating brekkie watching a bit of the news to allow my mind to begin functioning. Have to review a document before an 8AM meeting
• 8-9:25 - Group meeting to review our Econ assignment... the meeting wasn't as productive as we'd like so we will have to meet again at 4
• 9:30 - 12:30 Economics class... we luckily get a break half way through, but otherwise it's a very long class
• 12:30 - 1:30 arrange logistics for the class end of session party (pay deposit, find caterer, etc.)
• 1:30 - 2:30 eat lunch and book my vacation for the session break... am going to go sailing in the Whitsunday Islands and go to Fraser Island (more to come in a blog when I'm more coherent)
• 2:30 - 4:00 Data Analysis Class... which just reinforces how lost I am
• 4:00 - 5:00 Meet with team to finish reviewing assignment and identify next steps
• 5:00 Speaker Event w/ CEO of local Biotech firm (this acts more as a mental break than anything)
• 6:30 Speaker event ends and the studying begins...

In the last 3.5 hours I have managed to crank through a 8 page report and make sense of a 95%confidence intervals given the output information from a regression table (look at all those MBA words!!!) and am no longer feeling lost about data analysis. :)

Let me note that all this was done in a skirt and high heels, and I'm still standing!! :D

Next Up: the economic strategies of monopolies, oligopolies, and duopolies... I know you're really jealous!!!

My Home - Part 1

So I've been meaning to put pictures of where I live up, and have finally gotten around to taking the pictures. For the first post, I'll try to walk you through the place where I spend most of my time (usually around 12-14 hours a day...) which is the lovely AGSM building.

Now for those of you here in Australia you will hear my sarcasm, but I will explain it fully for those of you back in the states... however before I do that I will walk you through the building.

The Common Room is where we spend most of our time. It has very high fashion black leather couches, a 70's style kitchenette, our lockers, mail slots, and what which all MBA schools must have... a flat screen TV. (The school is over 75% men so that is a must have)

When I'm not procrastinating in the common room, I'm usually in one of the lecture theaters. This picture is of the largest room, where we have our lectures with the entire class. Now one theme of the entire building is that they are trying to keep us from overheating... and so even in the summer we were bringing in sweaters to keep warm in classes. Personally that just makes me want to fall asleep more, but I have managed to maintain consciousness so far... :)

Then there are the syndicate rooms. Now if there was a place where I would call home, it would be in one of these. This is where we have our meetings to discuss and work on the different assignments, or just as a quite place to study without other people and distractions. They are small, but they have white boards, computers, and very comfy chairs!

On a given day I would estimate I spend about 4 hours in lectures, 1.5 hours in the common room, and the other 8 or so hours in syndicate rooms. This is my life... are you jealous? ;)

Now the sarcasm comes in because while the pictures may seem very nice, the building has a couple features which we do not brag about... like the leaking roof where the glass ceiling is, or the climate control issues. Overall, they are just points for whinging and not really that bad. Then there is the fact that while the building is named for the school, we only use I'd say about half of the building (specifically the majority of the bottom two floors). The old library is now an empty space that will be used for god knows what, and the medical students have moved into a space in the offices while their building is being remodeled.

All in all it's good, and we even have a little cafe w/ sandwiches and coffee for those busy days. So this is where I spend most of my time, I'll post soon about where I actually live once I clean it and take some decent pictures. :)