The ceremony was dignified, despite the flaming red gowns and hideous brown velvet hoods we had to wear. I joked to my parents that had I known what the graduation regalia looked like when I was applying to schools, I would’ve had second thoughts about BU.  In all honesty, though, I am so glad to have gone to BU and made the connections that I did with all my dear friends who are now spiriting off to other corners of the country and globe. We keep having to remind ourselves that it is the end of a beginning, not the beginning of an end.

I’m trying not to be bitter that most of my classmates are jetting off to California, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Florida, and the like. Especially since if I were I would certainly be stressed out about all of the work that I have to do before the end of the semester. Still, it would be nice to come back in a week all sun-kissed and relaxed. My goals for this week are: work on super secret research project for a client for my directed study, work on my CSR (that’s corporate social responsibility to the rest of the world) consulting project for a local company, start working on getting that monkey off my back (i.e. job hunting), sleep in, play with the few remaining friends in town, do an apartment deep clean including doing the laundry that always gets stuffed to the bottom of the hamper and never done, get crafty with a couple of new projects, read for fun, and go to New York for a weekend. Gee, it kind of seems like I might need more than just a week to do all that. Good thing I’m not going anywhere!

This year’s holiday party planning proceeded as normal, with a small committee scouting venues. The lead venue that the committee returned to the Council with was the Cambridge Hyatt, a beautiful site on the other side of the river with high rise views of Boston and the most affordable price quote of the venues reviewed. However, I had caught a story in the local news recently about questionable business practices by the Cambridge Hyatt. The Hyatt had brought in a group of new employees at minimum wage, told their long-term (20+ years, living wage paycheck) employees that they were going to be their seasonal help to fill in for them during vacations. They had their existing employees train the new workers and then fired 98 of their older, higher earning workers without warning.

I brought my concerns to the Council and we discussed the issue, agreeing that we couldn’t do business with a company who acted so unethically. We informed our contact at the Hyatt of our concerns and moved to looking at other venues. The Hyatt, however, after incurring a (pardon my language) shitstorm in the media, realized the PR nightmare of their error and sent us a response letter telling us that they had rectified the situation. They promised to find jobs for the 98 fired employees and to continue their health benefits for six months. We corroborated their story with local news reports and decided that one of the important lessons in business is recovering from failure. We decided to extend them a second chance, particularly since the party committee was so favorable about the location’s suitability for our event and the fact that they were still the cheapest venue.

The semester continued and party planning continued on uneventfully. As VP of Marketing, I created posters for the party and we began publicizing the event and selling tickets. At this point, a classmate who had been following the case emailed a couple of council members to raise issue with holding the holiday party at the Hyatt. The recipients responded to his email with the information that the Hyatt had given us and considered the issue resolved. Then, however, other classmates began asking me about the Hyatt issue. I, too, reiterated the information that we had; however, I also went looking for more information from that great being in the ether – Google.

What I dug up was that the former Hyatt employees were dissatisfied with the concessions that the Hyatt had made. It turns out that the Hyatt had lived up to the literal words of their promise, but had still short changed their former employees. The jobs that they “found” for them were temporary, minimum wage positions with the very same staffing agency that had been used to replace them. Moreover, when one of the employees went to get medical care for her child, they were denied service. Due to a “clerical error” medical benefits had been cut-off for employees’ dependents.

Students who were aware of this situation were upset (and rightly so) about having our holiday party at the Hyatt, and thus breaking a boycott that the Governor had called against the hotel as well as essentially condoning the company’s behavior. We held a meeting to discuss the issue with concerned members of the student body, at which we decided to survey students regarding their thoughts on the matter. The survey was, in my opinion, unclearly worded. Regardless, the results showed that 60% of students would still attend the holiday party if it were held at the Hyatt (the wording did not give the opportunity to indicate preference for another venue over the Hyatt, nor did it explain that students could get refunds if they didn’t want to go to the Hyatt).

The Council held a second, emergency meeting (since the party date is so close) to vote on the issue. Again, we had impassioned speeches from people from either perspective. We discussed the earlier raised prospects of holding the event in January or holding it on the same date but at an alternative venue (other spaces had become available due to cancellations and vacancies and were offering extremely reasonable prices in order to fill their ballrooms at the last minute). We also discussed the $4,000 cancellation fee that we would incur for canceling our contract with the Hyatt.

I strongly favored moving the party to another venue or another date. In this era of ethical debate within the business world, with business schools jockeying for attention for signing (in my opinion, meaningless) oaths, I felt that it was an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment as a student body to being ethical business people. As a member of the MBA Council and a caretaker of student monies, I take my responsibility seriously, however my ethics don’t have a price tag.  To me, the $4,000 was a penalty worth paying if it meant that our school could make a statement of not condoning unethical practices by the Hyatt. (In addition, there were very real possibilities of reducing the budget gap due to the lower price quotes by other venues, among other means.)

The majority of the Council did not agree with me. They voted to keep the holiday party at the Hyatt.

So, if anyone needs me on Friday, I will be dressed up, sporting some sparkly jewelry, ready to party. I will be celebrating the end of the semester with about 30 of my closest friends and classmates. We will not be at the Hyatt with the rest of our peers. We will be enjoying drinks and music, and our integrity, somewhere else.

So, our networking was really interesting. We went to Sun (& got to hear interesting insights into the Oracle merger), VMWare, Chevron, Adobe (they’re undergoing some intense shifts right now, too), LinkedIn, and Ubisoft. The hiring market right now is tough, but I think our trip was helpful for inspiring my search.

Of course, it wasn’t all work. I got to see several friends and even squeezed in a trip to Napa! I’m posting a couple of photos from the week.

This was a storefront in Oakland. I still have no idea what kind of business this is, I just thought it was funny. My friends and I discovered it on our way home from an awesome dinner at Dona Tomas. Killer carnitas…highly recommended. This wasn’t the end of the oddness on the walk home, though…we also discovered some sort of nerdom medieval sword play going on in the Rockridge BART parking lot. Only in California!

And this is from Napa. It was an absolutely gorgeous day…the kind of day that makes you not want to leave! We had lunch at Mustards (good, but didn’t live up to the hype) and tasted at Cosentino, Sawyer, Elizabeth Spencer, and Alpha Omega (not including the link for that one, because it wasn’t good). I’d been to Sawyer before and it lived up to memory, but the other three were new to me. Had a great rose at Elizabeth Spencer, would’ve been tempted if it wasn’t so darn hard to get wine into Massachusetts. BUT, I did manage to pack two jars of my favorite jam into my luggage (strawberry chipotle jam from Tierra Vegetables at the SF Ferry Building Farmers Market). Yum!!

Just thinking about this week makes me miss California already. Good thing Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

I head back to Boston in less than three weeks and there is an astonishing amount of stuff to do between now and then, both personally and professionally. For starters, I’ve got a couple of big events at work for the projects that I’ve been working on this summer. Should be fun, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t stress out between now and then! I’ve got a to-do list a mile long and really want to knock out as much stuff as I can before I leave the fun/hectic/tasty environs of my internship.

In addition, a very close friend of mine is getting MARRIED the day before I fly back, which is tremendously exciting and adding to the busy-ness, as well. I’m a bridesmaid…thank goodness she’s a dream bride, super relaxed and easy. It must be love. :)

More later….hopefully *before* the summer is over. It’s a whirlwind kind of day and my Chinese takeout just showed up!

You can read it here.

9:27 am – Arrive at work after catching the late bus.
9:28 – Check email for the second time this morning (first time was from iPhone while waiting for said late bus)
9:32 – Rinse mug and make tea, while doing the “no whammies” chant that I won’t have to be the one to replace the water cooler bottle
9:37 – Chat with co-worker about her day out of the office yesterday
9:38 – Resume email reading – specifically a social media newsletter for businesses
9:45 – Check company twitter feed, RT interesting post, post a news article related to work project
9:55 – Re-read latest company newsletter, which went out yesterday
10:00 – Email web designer to fix a typo on one of our microsites brought to our attention after newsletter went out
10:05 – Check local news website
10:12 – Post wine article to twitter
10:14 – Read more wine articles
10:21 – Login to Facebook, check friend’s updates, join employer network, adjust privacy settings
10:38 – Decide that our user groups need updating, forming plan for doing so…
10:40 – Boss stops by desk to ask us to write copy for some new wine labels
10:46 – finally figure out where the tasting notes are for the wines we’re supposed to write about
10:50 – Commence wine label writing. Desirous of second cup of tea.
11:12 – Consult with other intern re: label style. We both have writers block after proofing a million labels yesterday.
11:15 – Nuke frozen burrito. Still undecided if this is brunch or lunch.
11:27 – Tweet a bit
11:29 – Play Mafia Wars – Underboss level, baby!
11:30 – Resume wine label writing
11:43 – Eat a boatload of almond M&Ms. Immediately both regret it and crave more.
12:03 – Chat with fellow intern about friends & family & chick lit, complain re: M&M overload.
12:15 – Send finished labels to boss for proofing
12:20 – Update my summer wine journal with tasting notes from yesterday’s restaurant meeting
12:40 – Respond to long, multi-part email from potential client
1:03 – Something smells weird in here. Who’s eating eggs??
1:05 – Edit fellow intern’s label copy
1:08 – Respond to wine peeps tweets
1:24 – Update personal twitter & FB feeds to mention BU blog guest post
1:26 – Update work FB groups and tweet about program updates
1:37 – G-chat with friend from school re: evening plans
1:48 – More tweeting (yes, I’m addicted and by default the twitter expert around here…supposed to give someone a tutorial later this week)
1:56 – Chat with another co-worker/friend about life & weekend plans
2:08 – Run to nearby sandwich joint for a Cobb salad after much discussion of bacon on twitter
2:25 – Back at my desk, re-visiting social networking sites while eating my lunch
2:27 – Overheard in the next cube cirle over: CW1: “Karl Malden died!” CW2: “Who’s Karl Malden?” CW1: “Oh my god, I just dated myself.” CW3: “You dated Karl Malden?”
2:35 – Read articles about wine: new shipping laws, food pairings; post to twitter
2:41 – Continue previous afternoon’s work on a volunteer application form
3:15 – Send application form to co-worker for ideas. Result = nada.
3:20 – Send application form to boss for proofing.
3:28 – Work on researching wine bloggers to have post our quiz widget on their sites
3:53 – Time for TicTacs…just noticed that the little box is cracked…guess I’m gonna have to finish them all now
4:12 – Trip down the hall to the SFIAD student lounge to raid their soda machine while feigning nonchalance.
4:18 – More M&Ms.
4:26 – Brief chat with fellow intern, who’s bailing b/c she’s tired. Take another big swig of caffeine (it was a late night last night and apparently the upstairs neighbor thought everyone in the building should get up at 5am when he got up).
4:30 – More blogger research
4:56 – Follow twitter link to adorable coin purse, brief bout of online shopping
5:00 – More blogger research, think I’ve just about found enough
5:16 – Check twitter, nothing interesting to post about or RT
5:19 – Still full from morning burrito/M&Ms/Cobb salad extravaganza of junk
5:20 – Call & leave VM for friend in Boston
5:37 – Pack up my stuff & get ready to head out…gotta get downtown to meet my school peeps for happy hour!

I’ll be back in the SF area in about 10 days. Just have to take care of some personal business here and then I’m on a jet plane back to the Golden State! I have a sweet internship lined up this summer (I’d share all about it, but I haven’t cleared it with my boss yet and I don’t want to get Dooce’d before I even start). I’m still looking for affordable housing in the Bay, so let me know if you have any leads!

By the way, you can’t tell it, but hungrycook.com has a new home! The site has been moved to a new server and looks brand spanking new on the back end. Thanks to Mike and Justin for making it happen!!

Right now, however, I’m taking a quiet moment before my next team meeting to drool over the following recipes:

Whipped Brie puffs

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Deep fried mac n’ cheese bacon bites (yeah, you read that right!)

This fall, I was all about tuna noodle casserole for some reason. The cheesy, starchy goodness was perfect for cold weather. Click here for my favorite tuna noodle casserole recipe.

Then, in January, in honor of my Inauguration birthday and our new President, I made these delicious red, white, & blue mini cheesecakes. My friend Candice dubbed them Liberty Cakes. I like it.

Soon after, I started craving more birthday-time, home-cooked food and made my all time favorite – chicken enchiladas.

The spring semester has been pretty busy, so I haven’t been doing much cooking lately except for some chicken noodle soup this past weekend (fresh pasta makes the difference!) and a few other dishes in recent weeks. Today, however, I decided to take a break from reading and made some treats:

online casino

Of course, I also made coconut macaroons for my friends who are celebrating Passover and have to miss out on all the candy-coated cupcake goodness. These are sure to be a hit at tomorrow’s MBA Council meeting!

Simply Recipes’s Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

See Dan Cook’s Pork Chili (a cook-off winner!)

Smitten Kitchen’s Whole Lemon Tart

Maybe I’ll actually have time to cook over break! In the meantime, I’m off to see Slum Dog Millionaire (finally!) and enjoy some delicious Indian food.

I’m staying here in Boston for vacation, so I made myself a spring break to-do list:

-Sleep

-Get a head start on research and reading for the rest of the semester

-Work more on finding a summer internship

-Eat yummy food in the North End

-Get a pedicure

-Do laundry

-Watch all the bad reality TV I can fit in

Thank goodness for a week of rest!

Anywhoo…Happy 2009!!! It seems so strange that it’s another year already…when did that happen? I had a nice mellow NYE last night with my girls in Oakland. I’ve been visiting my old housemates for the last couple of days and we’ve been having a ball together. I love being with people who make me laugh as much as we all do when we get together.

Before this, though, I had some nice family time in Stockton and in Bakersfield. And, I think I’m going to have more family visiting to celebrate my upcoming birthday before I head back to Boston. I’m trying to soak up all the California goodness while I can. :)

The end of last semester was pure insanity…I don’t think I’ve ever been so stressed in my life. But, I survived…just barely… and will start school again on the 12th. And then the whole crazy experience ramps back up! It’s a good thing b-school is only 2 years long; I don’t think my nerves could take any longer. Hopefully, though, this coming semester will be easier. The courseload is still heavy, but won’t be as much of a shock to the system and I’m all settled in with living in Boston and such. Of course, I’ve got to start my internship applications now, too, which will be particularly difficult this year given the current state of the economy and all the hiring freezes. Wish me luck!

And guess what….I’m almost done for the semester!! Woohoo! Over the last two weeks, I’ve taken 4 exams and written 2 papers. All that’s standing between me and vacation is a 20 minute presentation. So close to going home to (rainy) California and getting to sleep in and eat myself silly for two whole weeks. I am definitely looking forward to it!

Notice the Fall colors!

I was lucky enough to be on the banks when my personal favorite team went by. Can you guess who? The big “C”s on their chests should be a clue.

And, before I headed in from the cold, I caught this little guy trying to adjust to the change in weather, too.

This is from Boston’s Pumpkin Festival last weekend, which I didn’t get to go to because I was too busy. But, I did happen to wander through Government Center afterward and got to see all the thousands of jack’o'lanterns lit up. Pretty, no? This was after a delicious dinner in the North End, which is essentially the North Beach of Boston with tons of great Italian food. Mmm…

Anyway, I started a habit a couple of years ago that I still do every day…I carry my camera with me everywhere I go. Which means that I have more pictures to share! I may end up stooped from all the stuff in my backpack, but at least I’ll have photographic memories!

First, this little plaque is on the wall at one of the bars near campus. I laughed out loud when I read it during a mixer last week. Maybe I’ve just been in a competitive environment too long. :)

And guess who this is?  Don’t I clean up nice? This is after a networking event on campus (you know, where I practically live these days).

And, lastly…the gauntlet has been thrown! My friend Jen sent this sweet care package earlier this week. Yay! Thanks, J!

Here are the leaves changing! (I took this while waiting for the train to class.)

And here is the view out the window of the library. Notice the cool architecture and the Charles River in the background!

More rooftops… (yes, I spend most of my days inside!)

And finally, the “T” home after a long day:

My friend Sarah was here visiting me for the last few days. We had fun, but it was kind of a challenge getting out to do stuff in the rain. Plus, I just came down with a cold this week, too, which put a damper on things. But, we did go on a harbor cruise with my school on Friday night, and on Saturday managed to make it over to Cambridge for a little shopping. Last night, we had dinner at a yummy restaurant that someone else had recommended to her, and then spent some time with an old friend of hers (and his friends) who happens to be in med school at my school. I’m now making it my semester goal to have a mixer between the b-school and the med school. :)

School is intense. Have I mentioned that yet? I have seven classes (yes, 7), which is pretty insane if you ask me.  I’m taking five big classes (with high numbers of units, class hours, and grades) and two little ones (single units, pass/fail, infrequent meetings).  My biggies all have overly long names that totally mislead you about the actual content of the class, so I’ll tell them to you in english: Statistics, Finance, Marketing, Accounting, and Organizational Behavior. The little ones are a career development class and a class about making presentations.  I also have a portfolio group, which I’m actually still not clear on, so hopefully nothing is due soon. :P

Stats is actually pretty interesting, since my professor has decided that managers don’t need to know the mathematical formulas for statistical data and therefore teaches us how to analyze the end results of the data that someone else will one day present to us.  Thank goodness.  That doesn’t, however, mean that I’m at all confident about our midterm on Wednesday.

Finance is….interesting. I won’t go into it much, since we’ve only had two class sessions so far, but I hope it’ll be okay.  The content is totally relevant for what’s splashed all over the papers right now, so I definitely see the applicability of what we’re learning. (BTW, I just started subscribing to the Wall Street Journal…I feel so professional!)

Marketing is, hopefully, going to be good. We also just started that one, so I’m not sure how the rest of the semester will play out. But, I’m definitely interested in Marketing (I think I’m actually going to do the Marketing “Portfolio” when it comes time).  The class is all about analyzing case studies, which means a lot of reading and critical thinking (and a fair amount of cold calling – ack!).

Accounting is surprisingly entertaining while at the same time totally foreign.  Our professor is really passionate about teaching and gets into long conversations with us about business issues beyond accounting because he thinks it’s important for us to know about what’s going on in the real world. Which is awesome…a professor who really believes in teaching and learning. The material, on the other hand, is like a foreign language.  Yes, I’m hiring a tutor this week.

Lastly, Organizational Behavior (OB) is interesting but also challenging.  I completely get the course concepts but for some reason can’t crack above a B on the assignments. My English Major brain gets no respect around here. :)  The mandate for “business writing” will either be my failing or the end of my ability to write for real.  I’m yet not sure which is the lesser of two evils.

So there you have it, my main course work in a nutshell.  Sounds fun, no? Thank goodness for friends and the promise that it’ll all be over in two years! :)

Things I miss:

• you! (friends and family)
• free time
• Cheeseboard pizza
• real Mexican food
• CSA produce
• my car
• being able to buy beer/wine at any corner store
• my parents’ cats
• having a paycheck
• knowing which way is West
• the view from my old house
• card games at Kona
• Chinatown delicacies (bahn mi, dim sum, etc.)
• the Ferry Building
• predictable weather
• live Cal games (though, maybe not after yesterday)
• and about a million other things!

The last day of orientation was by far the most fun.  We went out to a 200+ acre conference site outside of Boston and did all sorts of team-building stuff, including games, ice breakers, raft-building, and a ropes course.  All capped off with a cocktail hour (MBAs are so predictible in what makes us happy). 

This weekend is super jam packed, though, and I’m still physically exhausted from the last week.  My furniture FINALLY arrived and I’ve been steadily building things, but I have a lot left to do.  Also, I had dreams of painting my bedroom, but that may not happen.  Plus, there’s reading and my first assignment to do for my Organizational Behavior class (very interesting), as well as continuing to bone up on Accounting.  Plus, of course, lots of socializing.  Last night was another freshman-style group outting to several bars/restaurants in Downtown Boston and Cambridge, and tonight is the Cal vs. Michigan State game (go Bears!) at a nearby pub with the local alumni group.  Now would be an excellent time to train my body to get by on much less sleep.

Seeing my apartment come together is gratifiying (especially when I’m struggling with all this DIY furniture and sweating and swearing my way through the umpteenth piece).  I can’t wait ’til it’s all done and I can play hostess and have people over.  Don’t forget – I have a fold-out couch if you want to come visit me and see it for yourself!  :)

It has been nice getting to know some of my classmates, though.  Maybe the intensity of the workload is like fraternity hell week…you know, tearing us down to build us into a better team.  Whatever the rationale, the best part has been meeting people and making new friends.  Now if only we had more time for those bar nights!

Wednesday was exhausting, I tell you what.  (Heidi, for some reason, that phrase makes me think of you.)  I got to my apartment and stood in the lobby with my ginormous suitcases for a little bit, hopping around anxiously, hoping the front desk person would show up two hours early for duty and let me in.  Fortunately, a maintenance guy wandered through and gave me my keys.  My apartment is still great.  It seemed smaller than I remembered at first, but the more I’ve paced around it it seems pretty good sized.  I guess it’s easy to feel cavernous when the only pieces of “furniture” I have are an inflatable bed and a standing fan.

I decided to just push through the red-eye tiredness on Wednesday and I ran a bunch of errands, including going downtown to pick up my ZipCar card.  I immediately rented a car and befuddled my way over to Target, where I did a SuperMarket Sweep-style shopping spree in order to get the car back on time (I hadn’t planned on getting lost for almost an hour, but on the bright side I now know the area a little better).  Have I mentioned how much I love Target?  I spent a fortune, but it saved my life (the air mattress is surprisingly comfy and I got a bunch of other necessities for the apartment). 

Here are the dishes I got:

And the silverware I picked out:

Isn’t it nice and modern?  Anyway, after Target and a couple of other stops, I had to rush to campus for my first Excel workshop.  Perhaps signing up for a class on my very first (red-eyed) evening here wasn’t such a good idea, but I did manage to follow along and stay awake the whole time.  And then, the best part of the day was getting off the T (a.k.a. the subway) at my apartment and picking up a burrito from the taqueria on the corner.  I also bought a bottle of wine at the liquor store, but was too delirious to remember that I didn’t have a corkscrew.  Oh well.  I still slept fantastically.

I didn’t really get to debrief after my trip, since I launched into a whirlwind of activity pretty much the minute I landed back at SFO (yay, Lair and visits with friends!). All in all, I had an awesome time. Jen was a fabulous travel partner and I learned that traveling alone isn’t as much fun as it sounds. I definitely need a partner in crime to crack all my sarcastic jokes to.

Thailand was my favorite part of the trip, I think. The beaches on Ko Samui were breathtaking and I loved every minute of our time down there. Snorkeling, amazing food on the beach, dry weather lightening… what more could you ask for? I also liked Bangkok, despite the fact that so many of my friends were not big fans of the city. Getting to spend a little extra time there really gave me a better perspective of the area than just the 24 hour Khao San Road experience that so many tourists have. And, of course, Chiang Mai in the north was just as cool as everyone promised.

As for Laos, my perspective was definitely influenced by our harrowing Mekong trip and the subsequent sickness (evil river water). What we saw, however, was still interesting and beautiful. I got to see real rice paddies, farm workers in triangle hats, butterflies as big as birds (gorgeous!), and some of the more traditional aspects of life in rural Southeast Asia. It was frustrating and funny that nothing could be accomplished without lots of dialog between locals and the occasional backtracking. Vietnam, too, had its own flavor, and I’d love to go back with a more thought-out itinerary and more time. Hanoi was cool, but I’d love to see Halong Bay, Hoi An, the beaches in central and southern Vietnam, and remnants of the American War in the areas around Saigon (I think I can skip the Mekong Delta).

I still don’t have all my pictures off my camera, but when I get to that I’ll try to figure out a way to post them (either by linking to a photo hosting site or putting them up here). I think I joked to someone that I’d try to have them up by Christmas. I was only halfway kidding. Seriously, the next couple of weeks (and months) are going to be insane. I can’t wait! If you’re in the Boston area in the next week and are handy with an Allen wrench, give me a buzz… I’m going to have lots of IKEA furniture to assemble very soon.