The Real Deal...

By the lack of communication, you probably guessed that things have gotten busy here in Ann Arbor!

Classes started September 8th which means I am five weeks into the six week "semester." The first week was fun, it was great to be back in school and meeting professors. The week ended with two events, the shout off, and the MBA Games (all day sports tournament) both of which Section Three won! The "Shout Off" sponsored by SC Johnson (note the products name) was a section competition where you come up with a cheer or dance or skit to show your section spirit. I'm happy to say that after approximately 7 hours of practicing our three minute song, we did actually win, with a version of the pre-war dance Haka (sample here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83U_Vg1GRvA) and a new version of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab." We won which meant that we got to eat first at the bbq (yeah!) and we now have $700 to spend at a local bar (famous for $5 pitchers).

The MBA Games involved soccer, sprints, football, frisbee, connect four and other such activities. We were trailing in fourth, but it came down to Tug O' War which I am proud to say I was a part of. Six of us dominated and brought our section into first place, winning a big trophy and the glory of beating our peers. My classmates thought it was a great idea to drink beer out of the trophy and coincidentally (!) the following two weeks were spent with rotating groups of people missing class due to H1N1. If you think I'm kidding you should have been here at 4:00am when my roommate would start coughing.

Football was going well until our first away game last weekend when we were beaten by Michigan State. Pretty humiliating, and apparently we have no defense so we need to work on that. I'm pretty sure it was because I wasn't there cheering. I do have to say though that having away games last week and this week have really helped my study habits!

The weekly themes so far have been:

Week One: Yay I'm back in school and it's fun!

Week Two: Hmm what have I gotten myself into?

Week Three: Crap.

Week Four: (No time to think of a theme, in panic mode)

Week Five: Ok, I think I can survive this.

Week Six: ????

Week Seven: Exams (if ever there was a time to pray...)

So things have gotten tough, unfortunately my sister was right (as always) and statistics is horrible and very easy to fall behind in. I also got sick in week Four and missed a few days of class and it took another week or so to start feeling better. Oh yeah and did I mention the rain has begun?

It's been an interesting transition from a California commute where I grabbed as much stuff as I wanted, jumped in my car and had to bare the sunny elements from my car door to various front doors. Here, I have become a human sherpa for the 15 minute walk, at least twice a day. I dress for the rain, meaning I roll up my pants, put on boots etc., get to school, do a quick costume change near my locker, changing into grown-up shoes, shedding umbrellas and stowing gym clothes and coats. After class, the process reverses and I pack up and re-dress for the walk home. I wouldn't say I travel light these days but I'm getting the job done (except for the day that I had to walk home in the rain wearing a skirt and flip flops at 11pm). I can say with pride that I haven't yet turned on the heat at home, or complained about being cold outside, I'm trying to pace myself. I did however panic on a particularly cold night and order a space heater and electric tea kettle, and yes, I feel better having these on hand just in case!

On a positive note, I actually saw a tree that was changing colors the other day. I stopped in my tracks and took a photo. My friend that I was walking with stopped and looked at me like I was crazy until she remembered that I'm from California and I don't know what seasons are.

Some other things that have been new for me:
I told a few friends that when I walk out of my apartment on my way to school I always see the most adorable squirrels and their baby squirrels that are so cute. These baby squirrels run around with these huge nuts in their mouth which is cute right!? Well turns out that these aren't baby squirrels but chipmunks. Did you know chipmunks were tiny? We don't have those in CALIFORNIA! (do we???)

And then there was the day that my gem of a friend Jessica drove my carless self to Trader Joe's. We were packing up the trunk and I said, "oh what's that cute little rakey thing?" Jessica turned around and gave me a look that said, "oh girl, you are in BIG trouble" and quietly responded with "Marissa, that's for getting the ice off of the windshield." (oops...)

Other than classes and constant studying, I've been getting into the career search and other activities. I was selected to be a Ross Ambassador which means I will host potential students, leading tours, info sessions and helping with recruiting events. As some of you may remember, I didn't have a great experience when I visited Ross so I'm committed to being a great Ambassador and have even thought about some ways I can improve the program overall (just in case they want my opinion). I was also selected to be the MBA1 representative for the Organizational Strategy Club. I'm really interested in organizational strategy, human resources and the like, so this is a great club for me and I'm looking forward to getting my classmates involved! It's small because this is not a common career path for B-school, but it's nice to meet people with similar interests and there are a few opportunities for on campus recruiting with bigger firms. I went to a corporate presentation for Cisco, and they have an interesting HR Leadership Development program, I also attended a Women in Leadership Conference today and have a Net Impact Conference next Friday so I'm trying to learn lots of things beyond the core classes (statistics, accounting, strategy and economics). It's been good to practice my networking (which I hate being forced to do almost as much as I hate statistics!)

So all is well here. I'm looking forward to being done with exams and my group strategy paper and have a week off at the end of October. My parents are visiting so that will be GREAT! I definitely am missing my friends and family and have felt very far away lately but I'm happy and well and making the most of every day.

I really look forward to hearing from all of you and staying in touch as always!

Here are some photos from the first week, primarily the shout-off, MBA games and the Notre Game WIN! enjoy: http://picasaweb.google.com/marissa.garfield/WeekOneOfBSchool?feat=directlink

Love,
Marissa

Getting Down to Business

School activities (beyond happy hours) officially began on August 24th for two days of what the Ross School of Business refers to as a Quantitative Skills Workshop. I refer to it as Math Bootcamp and if you know how I feel about either math or bootcamp, you can imagine how much I enjoyed two days of reviewing math concepts from high school/learning calculus for the first time. Unfortunately it would seem that PhD students are less skilled in the teaching arena than one might think but both of the lecturers are professors that I will have this fall and they were pretty decent. I decided that anything I may have actually absorbed is more than I knew before so that's progress, right?!

Last Thursday began the Ross Leadership Initiative (RLI) which is basically orientation, team building and competitions, all rolled into six very full days. The class of 2011 is made up of six sections of approximately 80 people and each section takes all of the core classes together so RLI is a chance for us to bond and create "section spirit." We began with low ropes course type activities, built egg catapults, worked with Second City Improv Group and progressed to a cooking competition on Friday afternoon.

Just imagine this reality show challenge: Cook a meal, decorate a cake, set up a display and create entertainment in three hours. We were judged on Finance (what ingredients we bought and bartered and how much money was left over) Marketing (what our display looked like and how our menu items were named) and then of course on the meal, cake and the skit we prepared. Now don't forget we had a whopping two burners, two barbeques and we had to cook enough food for 100 people. Oh, did I also mention that we were working outside in multiple tents and it was POURING RAIN? It required significant effort to slosh through what became a giant puddle under the tent and not fall right on your face (while carrying a knife!)

We didn't win that night but let's just say that the disqualification of the Taj Mahal Cake was bogus and the dean of the b-school was dancing with us on the stage during the skit. We did ultimately win the "entertainment" portion of the night which sets the bar high for future events. I will say though, that with 80 "type A" personalities this was the ultimate "too many cooks in the kitchen" scenario which as my sister says, "is B-school in a nutshell."

The rest of the week was spent in diversity training, learning about what constitutes plagiarism and a variety of other workshops plus fun tasks like buying more than $500 worth of books (for 6 weeks of classes) and other such organizational endeavors. We are currently preparing for classes tomorrow (with massive amounts of homework already due), planning for the MBA Games (sports competitions all day Friday), a Shout-Off on Thursday (cheers and chants for each section) and various other activities such as Meet the Clubs and a Hillel Grad Student Happy Hour. Needless to say, it's been pretty busy but fun!

A couple of random observations about me in Ann Arbor:

1) One guy said he remembered me as "the girl with all the cool earrings." For one thing, when did men start noticing earrings and for another, when did I become THAT girl??? For those of you that know my style (or lack thereof), I'm sure you are quite shocked and impressed with my ability to accessorize over the past week. (hooray for reinvention!)

2) Walking into parties and being the first girls in the room is NEVER bad for the egos. Let's be honest, the ratio of men to women is a plus at times.

3) I am most likely going to freeze here. Last weekend I was officially made fun of for wearing a winter coat and reminded that it was AUGUST (ok it was a wool coat, but it was short!) In my defense it was unusally chilly here (according to my Michigan-born roomie) and also, that guy was 6'10"- I'm sure it's warmer up there!

That's all for now, thank you for reading my posts! I've appreciated all your responses and suggestions and look forward to you continuing to update me on what you are up to as well.

Here are a few photos from the first few weeks!
http://picasaweb.google.com/marissa.garfield/AnnArborSeptember2009?feat=directlink

Love,
Marissa

Arrival in A2

Approximately 24 hours after returning from Alaska, I was re-packed and heading to Ann Arbor with my best friend (since we were 14!) Sofia. She travelled with me to help get me settled and make sure I had a few things for my room that matched and to ensure that I actually put something up on my walls.

During the week that Sofia was here we unpacked, shopped, decorated and explored. I should note here that I was in more of a finance/managerial role and Sofia The Great did the majority of the heavy lifting. You should see this girl with an electric drill... WOW! We also went on a long hike and rented a canoe at the local state park, less than 30 minutes away. One night we went to Main Street (downtown area that's slightly more upscale than the college areas) and decided to splurge on a nice dinner (even though we thought it was a little extravagant). We were sitting outside, enjoying the live music, people watching and classic car show when our waiter came by.
Waiter: Um....soo... your dinner has been taken care of.
Marissa: You're kidding.
Sofia: What?!
Waiter: Well... see that guy over there? Oh wait, maybe not. (and walks away)
Sofia and Marissa (sit for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what just happened and if they are going to have to go thank some creepy old man who just bought them dinner or not)
Waiter: So yeah, someone paid for your dinner but doesn't want me to tell you who he is.
Sofia and Marissa: So far Ann Arbor is ROCKING and thank you to the anonymous stranger who buys random girls dinner!

(Note: We tried to pay it forward by buying coffee for the car behind us at Starbucks the following day)

Sofia flew out a week later and I flew to Lincoln, Nebraska for my cousin (mom's side) Robert's wedding and visited my cousin (dad's side) Justin who is building a house and starting an organic farm when he isn't touring with several bands as a drummer. He and his wife are pretty impressive!

Said goodbye to Mom, Dad and Sister in Nebraska (tears were surprisingly scant) and headed back to my new home...

Denali, Moose and Bear, Oh My!

In Anchorage we rented a car and drove about five hours to Denali Park, a national park with 600 million acres of protected land. We stayed at this "quaint" little place in an effort to escape the most annoying of the tourists. The view was beautiful, of a lake, mountain and trees and the first night we were there, a female moose and her baby strolled past our window! They are huge and look like awkward horses with a weird thing hanging off their bottom jaw (see photos).

Beyond the view, the place was a bit creepy, had to go on a dirt road, past the guys drinking beer and renting ATVs and beyond all the trucks and buses that were parked but didn't actually run, to get to this place. In separate comments, we all remarked that it seemed like the kind of place where you would be murdered while you slept. It was cool seeing the plane take off and land from the lake though, and you can't beat the local liquor store (apparently there isn't much to do there BUT drink)

At Denali park we went for a gruelling 7+ hour bus ride (yes you read that right) and saw some amazing things while blocking out the constant exclamations of people seeing squirrels for the first time. We learned what to do when you see a bear, unfortunately it differs greatly depending on if it's a grizzly bear or a black bear so first you have to know how to identify them (ummmm....). Luckily, from the confines of the bus we saw a female grizzly bear and her two cubs (!) followed by another female bear and her two cubs. Did you know that male bears will kill the cubs to get the females.... "attention"? Explains that maternal instinct! We also saw caribou, a baby wolf wandering across the road and a clear view of Mount McKinley. Apparently only 20% of visitors get to see it's peak. At 20,000+ feet it is so tall and massive that it creates its own climate and the peak is covered in clouds most of the year. So with views of every kind of wildlife you could ask to see, and the 70-80 degree weather we've had on this trip and not a drop of rain, we feel pretty lucky!

The photos again: http://web.me.com/marisg321/Alaska

Princess Patter

In other cruise news...

One night after dinner, the captain started speaking over the loudspeaker which is played in every room and every corner of the ship. Was it another whale? Um no, apparently we had an outbreak of H1N1, that's right- 25 people had been quarantined with Swine Flu. Mom, Radu and I glared at my dad and sister, who were sniffling, coughing and sneezing, but they healed pretty fast, so apparently weren't the carrier monkeys.

Another night, during dinner at the fancy Italian restaurant for which there was a cover charge and where there were no vegetarian options (my sister received a look of utter shock and a stammer in response when she inquired) there was yet another announcement. "CODE ALPHA CODE ALPHA" and then a deck and floor number. We had a somewhat entertaining evening imagining how they deal with a dead body on board and the nightmare that must be the captain's life this week (and did later confirm that Code Alpha means a medical emergency)

Now imagine what could've happened if there was a 13th deck? Yes that's right, the ship's floors went from 12 to 14. Apparently American cruisers are superstitious...

Excursions Excite the Masses

The highlights of the cruise, and the opportunities to get off the ship and escape the thousands of couples in matching northface jackets were the excursions!

In Ketchikan we saw The Misty Fjords by boat... saw seals, bald eagles and lots of fjords. Did you know that glacial water is green because of all the silt that is carried along from the mountains? Also, we saw this tiny hut where rangers are allowed to stay after patrolling the national park by kayak since no motorized vehicles are allowed in the park. So after three weeks of camping in the snow and ice, they get to stay for two nights in this little hut that is literally on top of a tiny little island. I decided at that point to stick to recreational kayaking.

Next was Juneau where we saw the governor's mansion and learned that Sarah Palin (Bailin' Palin as she's known there) is the first governor to refuse to live in it (ahem) and surprisingly, no one seemed sorry to see her go. In Juneau we went kayaking where we saw more seals and bald eagles and got lots of information about Mendenhall Glacier which we could see in the distance. Did you know that glaciers are blue because they absorb every color except blue which they reflect and that's why we can see it?

That afternoon it was whale watching which was AMAZING! We saw about six orcas that were playing and jumping around in the water and then sevenish humpbacks bubblenetting. They literally circle around in the water blowing bubbles to pack the plankton in and then they swoop up and swallow tons of gallons of water. It was awesome! Birds are the clue to seeing this, because they hover nearby and then swoop in to grab fish once the whales push them up. In other words, they are freeriders, much like I was on this trip...

Next stop was Skagway where we rode a very old train for about four hours. It was beautiful with amazing views and tracked the trail that the goldrushers had created by foot and by horse back in the day.

After two more days at sea, we arrived in Whittier and we drove through the longest tunnel in North America, from Whittier to Anchorage. It's only one-way so if you miss your time slot, you have to wait another hour and a half to get through and it was the only route. Those tourists in matching jackets almost made our bus late... 10 seconds to spare!

The Princess is Whaling

The family trip to Alaska began with a day in Vancouver during which time I learned that I really like that city and think I might be ready to live internationally again (sorry Mom!) There is an amazing park in the middle of the city, but also right on the water, a perfect combo for a mostly urban/little bit nature kind of girl! We boarded the Sapphire Princess cruise ship and then there was all sorts of excitement when we began to pull out of the dock and it was discovered that there was a dead fin whale attached to the bow. Talk about bad P.R. Princess....

They "deeply regret(ted) the incident" but it was "not yet determined" whether the cruise ship killed the whale or simply impaled a dead whale. I guess time will tell (or the whale autopsy and investigation will!) So much for the conservationist mantra... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32146578/ns/travel/

Anyhow, we quickly learned that the free upgrade to the family suite (my own room and bathroom that was joined to my parents' with a huge balcony and lots of freebies) was free for a reason. While underway, it was without a doubt, the windest balcony on the ship, seeing as how it was in the very front, huge and unblocked by partitions. The chairs literally blew around the deck, one went overboard (oops) and the table almost took off my dad's head. However, we enjoyed the free laundry services, $1,200 worth of free internet use, chocolate covered strawberries and Nino, our on-call steward. When the ship wasn't moving, the balcony was fabulous and the views were even better throughout. Thanks Dre and Radu (sister and brother in law)!

Here are the photos from the trip, courtesy of my Dad and Radu: http://web.me.com/marisg321/Alaska

The Last Time I Was Unemployed...

I think I was 11 years old and had one key on my key ring-- to my parents' house (home home). Ever since I've been teaching horseback riding lessons, working as a receptionist at a hair salon, an intern at a law office and finally a "manager" at a community foundation. Today is Day One as a(an almost) grad student and a chance to reinvent myself... I'm just six short weeks away from actually starting classes, more than a year and half after I began working toward the goal of "B-school."

I left San Diego yesterday, fireworks to the west and amazing friends to the east. The last two weeks have been spent at intimate dinner parties, big casual get togethers and lots of lunches, dinners and cocktails. I feel amazingly lucky to have such a great group of friends and colleagues, who really became my family. I can't thank them enough for the amazing send-off but could only say "see you later" because I'm looking forward to visiting San Diego (home) again soon.

The next few weeks are family time... a week in Claremont, two weeks in Alaska and then A2! In addition to letting me be a freerider my wonderful parents have let me "borrow" a car for six months and now are preparing homegrown/made meals at regular intervals. Maybe there is something to the freedom of having only one key and several suitcases...