Places to Visit: Montreal

The drive to Montreal is just over three hours from Hanover and a good place to spend a weekend.  Crossing into Canada took about ten minutes and crossing back about thirty.  I’ve heard similar times from friends.   If you are in line longer than thirty minutes, don’t get mad at your government employee and don't blame me.  There is an organized trip to Montreal every year with about 200 students for those who would rather travel with a group.  This happens in January. 

You can't call yourself a tourist if you don't make at least one visit to a museum.  I chose the science museum.  

After waiting five hours I decide to leave because the artists never arrived.  Of course it was Monday morning and very cold.  

A view from my private helicopter.  Ignore the naysayers who think this is a view from the Montreal Tower Observatory.

Tuck Learning Expedition: Brazil

Students are spending some of spring break traveling and learning abroad. T'13 Katherine Bante shares her story about the Center for International Business-led learning expedition to Brazil on the CIB Blog.

White Cliffs

I finally handed in my last term paper of Winter Term on Monday afternoon - there's only one term left in my Tuck career, and fewer than 100 days until graduation!

My goal for Spring Term is to complete a triathlon. It's kind of a big deal to me. But just to prove that, at Tuck, there's always someone doing something much more impressive than you, I met a classmate in the Dartmouth pool yesterday who is training to swim the English Channel this summer! While I pat myself on the back for swimming a few hundred meters and cycling a few miles, he is hammering out 8,000 meters each day, six days per week - and that will increase as his training develops. Why bother? "It's something I've always wanted to do and I thought: What better time to train for it than in my last term at business school and the summer before starting work?" Wow. He will move to Dover in July and do the 35 kilometer swim in August.

I'll be thinking of him as I lay in my hammock next week looking into the Pacific waters off the Nicaraguan coast, sipping on cocktails.

What am I looking forward to in my final term at Tuck?

Academically, four classes:
- Corporate Responsibility with Professor Argenti, whose class I enjoyed in Fall A;
- Communicating With Impact, a class on applying dramatic techniques to the management of verbal communication - should be interesting;
- Managerial Accounting - which I took in 2002, but remember little of, and for which I've heard the professor is excellent;
- Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation - another quant-heavy class, but another highly recommended professor, so I'll take my chances.

Socially:
- Many festivities as we cling on to the last days of our time in Hanover, culminating in Disorientation (a three week period between classes ending and graduation);
- Duke's MBA Rugby World Cup. Tuck has finished sixth for the past two years and the weekend is the social highlight of many people's time at business school;
- Golf - and plenty of it (including the Tuck Lundy tournament). I am watching the snow melt drip from the rooftop outside the window of my study as I write, and have a lesson at the indoor driving range tomorrow. Hanover Country Club offers a $300 spring season membership, with unlimited tee times;
- Frosty Jester and Tuck Follies - the comedy and musical shows, respectively;
- The New Jersey Devilman triathlon (May 5th).

I'll be in no shape for swimming the Channel at the end of it all, but it's going to be good fun!

I survived the Winter Term (Off to Brazil!)

Before I update you on my life the last two weeks, let me first apologize for not yet giving you the VIP tour of La Chateau PV 440. Finals week + technical difficulties. I’m working on it, and hoping to have it up and ready for your viewing pleasure when I get back...

…back from where, you ask? SUNNY BRAZIL! Finals are over, Winter Term has passed by and it’s time to go on Spring Break Tuck style: Rio and Sao Paulo for a mix of pleasure and business. Every year, Tuck organizes trips to several destinations for students over Spring Break (destinations this year include Spain, South Africa and Brazil, and a non-school sponsored trek to Japan). Financial aid is available for school-sponsored treks, and they are thoroughly planned by both Tuck and a partnering travel agency. (The Tuck Center for International Business has a great blog that details Treks and more: https://tuckcib.wordpress.com/).

As mentioned before, the trek will start with 3 full days in Rio and end up with a week in Sao Paulo. While 3 “free” days and all nights on the trek are ours to do with as we please, we’ll also be visiting 10 (COUNT ‘EM!) huge companies in this exciting emerging economy. Armed with a few suits, pronunciation that would make a true Brasiliero proud (Ola, como vai? Obrigado pela atenção!), and an accompaniment of 14 Tuckies, I’m ready to tackle this trip! I’ve been thoroughly reading the Americas section of the Economist for the last few weeks familiarizing myself with the companies we’ll be touching base with as well as the country’s economy. When I get back, I’ll be sure to throw up a detailed post with pictures - along with the room tour I promised a couple of weeks back.

Speak to you all in a few weeks. I’ll be posting 3 or 4 updates my first week back. Have a fantastic couple of weeks!

Até mais tarde!

Places to Visit: Maine

Prior to Tuck, I had not spent too much time in New England and the surrounding areas.  Now that I'm in Hanover, it's the perfect time to visit nearby cities.  One of the places that I recently visited is Portland, Maine.  Portland is about 170 miles from Hanover and a nice place to spend a weekend.  Word on the street is that Maine serves up a mean lobster but I’m not much for crustaceans so I’ll believe this rumor.  Perhaps the only negative was that my smartphone was not so smart because almost every search for restaurants or streets kept sending me to Portland, Oregon. 

The obligatory visit to a lighthouse.  A trip to Maine isn't complete without one.  The lighthouse was closed this particular day so I used the flash on my phone to alert incoming ships from danger.

A nice view of the ocean.  If you look close enough you can probably see some of my classmates who are visiting Cape Town, assuming they are overlooking the Atlantic side.

A view of the marina.  My 70' yacht was not docked today but I'll make sure to take it out in the summer.