Life is tough

These Happy Hours are killing me and yesterday was no exception. I guess that's why LBS keeps Sundowners from 6 to 8pm only... I'm glad I don't have classes on Friday, which allows me to fully develop my hangover vegetable existence at home.

Anyway, tomorrow I will meet my cluster (finally). There will be a dinner and after party with both 07 and 08 F clusters. Besides this cluster thing, the Italian club will also throw a party somewhere downtown and most exchangers will be there, which makes one dinner and (at least) two parties to attend. I guess that on Sunday I will be glad again for not having classes! The problem is that I will have to find some time to do my M&A write-up.

Oh! And I finally decided to put my photo on my blogger profile. I kinda miss KV nagging me all the time with "when do you get the courage to put your photo, man?". So, dude, here it is! Happy? ;-)

Ironic

As a true portuguese and passionate FC Porto fan, I wouldn't survive without finding a place in NY to see the Champion's League match today. Unfortunately, FC Porto lost. It seems that the day when they recently won the trophy was ages ago...

Anyway, what would be the best place to watch the match? Newark! And it was surreal. It was like a small Portuguese vilage just landed somewhere in the US. That's not America. That's not New York. That's... Portugal!! :-) Banks are portuguese, shops are portuguese, streets have portuguese names, everyone speaks portuguese, cops are portuguese, the sheriff is portuguese, portuguese flags are everywhere. Of course, since the game was on the afternoon, I had to eat some bacalhau and drink a couple of Super Bocks. I also couldn't miss the opportunity to buy some good portuguese wines (pictured above).

Talking about business school and my career. After spending one year thinking about my future, after applying for a few consulting firms for a summer internship and not being accepted, after rethinking everything and realizing that Media is really where I want to go... I just received an email from a top firm, inviting me for dinner in NY to discuss opportunities. Isn't life ironic?

Happy Birthday!

Last Friday I met my divine friend to celebrate her birthday. It was a great party and the bar was cool. Specially when they played the gong and offered free shots to everyone in the house! It was also interesting to mix NYU and Columbia exchangers. I love this thing about the start of classes, when you meet tons of new people every day.

On a side note, I still haven't felt that big rush that everyone mentions about the 'city that never sleeps'. I guess I've been clubbing to much in London... Or maybe I just haven't been to the right NY places yet. Fortunately I still have lots of time ahead of me to find out.

Today we went to the QS MBA World Tour Fair, at the NY Hilton Hotel, to represent the London Business School. It made me remember how excited I was a couple of years before, going to this kind of events and trying to find information about THE right school. I guess I prefer being on the side I was today, though... I'm in, I'm there, and it feels gooooooooooooood!

I'm also happy that the classes I'm taking are very good. I cannot stress how good the Strategic Management of Media professor, Bruce Greenwald, is. Of course there are some classes with huge workload (Mergers & Acquisitions) and others that seem more laidback (Managerial Decision Making).

Over & out.

Silence

New York!

After a very short holiday week in the end of August, I finally came to New York. I just arrived a couple of days ago so, between the jet lag and the shock of really being here, I'm feeling like I'm permanently hangover.

And it all started with an amazingly lucky story. For the ones who already know me, they would say that this is just one of my typical stories. In fact, similar things have happened many many times. And always with the same good outcome. Here's what happened:
- Arrived at JFK
- Took out the big A4 envelope with all my documents (passport, etc) to present at the Homeland Security desk
- In this envelope, I also had all my money for the next 4 months.
- Gave passport, visa, I-20, etc to the Homeland guy
- Everything was fine, so I went to pick up my luggage
- Went out, got a taxi, checked backpack for a map
- Noticed that big A4 envelope was missing... with the money in it!
- Yelled at the driver: "GO BACK!!!"
- Entered the airport running like crazy.
- Talked to the first police man "Hey! I need to get back in there! I left some papers at the Homeland desk!"
- Acknowledged that I had to find an airline (KLM) agent to escort me back in
- Tried to find a KLM agent. No one was there.
- Went to the information desk and said "Do something! Find me someone from KLM!"
- Got into ultimate desperate mode and started running everywhere, asking everyone to make a call, use the radio, etc... and get a KLM agent
- Almost losing hope, a girl comes in and asks "Can I help you?"
- Explained the story, she made 10 phone calls. No one could help her. WTF?!?
- Another guy comes in. "Hey, can you help this gentleman here?", she asked. "Sure!"
- The guy went back in
- After 5 minutes, he arrived with the big A4 envelope... and my money. 2 hours have gone by between losing it, and getting it back
- Gave him the biggest tip in my life.
- Went home, slept thinking "Shit! I'm really lucky!"

So, now it's business school time. Yesterday we (exchange people) had the orientation day, to go through the basic stuff and to configure our laptops. Today I had my first class (Advertising & Integrated Communications) and, although the subject is really interesting, the professor was not that good. I will probably drop this one. Later on, during the evening, I had my second class. Strategic Management of Media. And this one rocked! The subject is fantastic and the professor (Bruce Greenwald) is really good. Same quality level as Duncan Simester (my favourite professor at LBS... invited from MIT).

Here are some random thoughts about my New York / CBS experience so far:

- Cars: they're huge!!! Everyone drives an SUV or a car with a big trunk! It would be funny to see a Smart or a Yaris in here...

- The flag: it's everywhere. Every other building has an american flag. The underground trains have flags. Some buses too. These guys love their flag! :-)

- Clothes: Oversize is king. I've never seen so many people (guys, mostlly) wearing oversized t-shirts and baggy BAGGY pants. Man, I thought that was a 90s thing! And what about those nets these guys wear in their heads???? Funny stuff.

- Campus: it's a fantastic campus! My first thought when I saw it was how great it would have been doing my undergrad here. Big buildings, lots of people, nice green areas, I love the place. There's a Barnes&Noble bookstore on-campus with LOADS of school merchandising. Here's something for LBS to learn.

- School: Business School looks cool. Apparently, the main lobby went through some refurbishment works during the Summer. And it looks great. However, classrooms are not that great. Leg space is not enough for me ;-) and facilities / equipment is not as good as LBS. The room where I had the morning class even had a chalk board! Looks like primary school. I saw some better rooms, but it seems most are like the morning one. LBS is way better in this subject. Having said that, the campus completely compensates for these 'not-so-good' rooms. One curious thing is that, just like my friend Miss N, I still haven't figured out the logic behind the room numbers... Oh! Another important thing!! There's a CBS version of Sundowners! It's called Happy Hour and it's also on Thursdays. I don't know if I would survive my Thursdays without free drinks :-)

- New York: what can I say? I've only been to a few places but... what a city! It's very hard to describe how it feels to see New York for the first time. It's so... big, colourful, busy, cool... it's like being in a movie. And the fact that it is much cheaper than London also helps.

That's all for now. I will try to blog more frequently. About New York. And Columbia, of course. But more about New York ;-)

PS: Coming here was a great opportunity to go back to my favourite hobby: photography. If you guys know any hidden treasures and/or cool spots for taking some shots, please let me know!