MBA World Cup 2012!

This weekend that has just gone by was another one of those times when things seemed to have come full circle for me.  I remember vetting schools and obtaining any information that I could and stumbling upon the Tuck MBA World Cup video on youtube.  I have played soccer for the 14 our of 30 years of my life so this tournament held at Tuck was appealing to me when I was applying.

Here at Johnson, I haven't been involved in the Soccer club at my school but when I saw the email come through that the team would be going to the World Cup tournament up at Tuck, I knew that I had to be a part of it because I remember watching the video and seeing how much fun it looked.  So yes, that's where I was this weekend - up at Tuck playing soccer!

I left with a friend of mine from Ithaca around 8:30 on Friday morning.  We got up to our hotel around hhmm 2:30 pm?  I then took a nap because I was exhausted.  I was exhausted because I was up the night before for my 30th birthday!  I didn't drink much because I knew that I had to play soccer over the weekend and I wanted to be fresh - but I was up late!

After I took my nap, it was time for us to go over to the school for a reception/pizza/meet and greet.  A bonus of the trip was that I was able to see all of my friends who are Tuckies.  Friends I've made through the Consortium and MLT.  (See posts from June 2011 to know what I'm referring too - click these hyperlinks -  MLT and Consortium)  But yeah I couldn't wait to catch up with them all!

After the reception my team and I went out for some dinner.  Needed to carbo load right?  I got to speak with a 2nd year who I had not really had much contact with throughout the year.  We just run in different circles and are going two different routes in terms of industry.  That's okay though because Johnson students are very much alike in that those differences don't matter.  He gave me some great insight into which classes I should take as a 2nd year.  Yes, that's what the conversations I have now revolve around - being a 2nd year!

We all pretty much just went to bed after that.  Our first game in the morning would be against MIT.  Then we would play a team from Mexico - IPADE, and then we were to play Tuck Black.  Tuck had four teams there, - one in each bracket.  

The first game against MIT was eye-opening to say the least.  I hadn't run around like that in 12 years so my body was telling me that I was crazy.  I definitely pushed through the pain though.  We ended up losing to MIT 3-1.  We had a handball in the box which resulted in a scored penalty kick.  

JOHNSON VS. MIT

After losing to MIT we had about an hour and a half long break before we would play IPADE.  We won our game against them 2-1.  I think the game against MIT warmed us up because we played very well against IPADE.  

JOHNSON VS. IPADE

Then we had another hour and a half long break and played Tuck Black.  By this time I think our bodies were telling us that they had had enough.  I know that mine definitely did!  Tuck Black ultimately went on to win the entire tournament, so I guess if we want to say that we lost to Tuck we can say that at least it was the team that won!  ;-)  

JOHNSON VS. TUCK BLACK

After the three games we all went back to the hotel and went in the hot tub!  I would say that a good amount of the teams in the tournament were staying in the hotel we stayed at.  I know this because in the morning at breakfast I saw many different school jersey's but also because after the games you would see a whole host of men walking around limping.  When passing one another in the hallways we would just smile and start laughing because we ALL felt exactly the same way.

Even though we were spent from the games, it was time to PARTY at the Tuck BBQ.  So we all heade d back over to the Tuck campus and enjoyed some beer and bbq food.  This is when I really got to catch up with a lot of people.  Then after the BBQ there was a Latin event where different latin countries made specialty drinks for everyone.  My intention was to try a drink from all 7 countries that were present, but I only made it to Peru and then went back to Pina Colada's!  

I think we were there for a couple of hours and then walked into town to go bar hopping.  What I didn't realize is that there wasn't much "hopping" involved.  We went to two bars total.  I had two shots at the first one and then one drink at the second one while I was talking to a couple of friends.  By that time I think the alcohol hit us all and we had to take a cab back to our hotel.  In hindsight, it was probably for the better because I needed to get food into my system.

So that was my experience at the MBA World Cup this weekend.  Here are some more pictures:

Another Busy Day in Business School

Hey Hey Hey...  I've been receiving a lot of messages about how I've been feeling these last couple of posts and I'm happy to report that I'm out of my FUNK!  So no more dwelling on that... on to the good stuff!

Today I have a very very very busy day.  Usually our student council meetings are at 7:30AM on Wednesday mornings, but today was had a special guest here at school so we had to move our meeting to Tuesday to accommodate him.  Who was our guest you ask?  It was our new Dean!  Dean Soumitra Dutta who was (I think still is) a Professor at Insead in France.  He will be taking over as Dean on July 1st of this year and we are definitely excited for him to come to Ithaca.  Here is his bio for those who are interested:  Dean Soumitra Dutta (yes it's a bit.ly link.  I'm just trying something out.  :-)  I won't go into too much detail about what we discussed but I would say there were about 26 students who were in attendance.  Last years' Student Council board (Class of 2012) was also in attendance which is why there were 26 students instead of 13 student.

After the student council meeting I had to do some running of errands and sending of emails!  That's always a fun part of my day because I get to knock off the "quick wins" from my To-Do list.  I'm sure you all know how that goes right?

Then I dropped into the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) to poke my head in and say hi to Nsombi Ricketts who is the Director of ODI.  Many people know of Nsombi from admissions events and through MLT and the Consortium.  I saw that her door was open and I hadn't seen her in a couple of days so I just wanted to say hello!  You can tell that my mood has changed because I'm now back to my old self - aka flitting about!

After visiting Nsombi I realized that I was almost late for my Competing with Social Networks class, so I said my goodbyes and ran to class.  Hhmm let's see... post class what did I do in what I'm calling a busy day?  Oh!  I went to my next class 15 minutes later haha.  There was an unusual amount of prospective students in that class today and I'm not too sure why.  I do think that they sat in on a great class though.  It's refreshing to see such bright-eyed prospective students.  I walked into the room and was like "WHOA"

After that class I had to run to the bookstore really quickly to pick up something and then run home because I had to set up for a Skype interview with Kaneisha Grayson who is an MBA/MPP Admissions Consulting for her own service - The Art of Applying!  Of course I will post the video on here once it's up.  I'm not exactly sure how long I've known Kaneisha for, but our paths crossed on Beat The GMAT when the advice she was giving to users echoed the comments I was making in my head.  We both enjoy blogging so it was natural that we would connect at some point.

So yeah, I did an interview with her for about..... thirty/forty minutes, which will probably turn out to be a 20 minute interview after it's edited.  It was definitely fun.  I always enjoy doing interviews.  Then we talked for another 20 minutes or so just getting to know one another better.  We have incredibly similar personalities as it turns out and we both watch Braxton Family Values.  I really admire the track that she's on and know that she'll end up being very successful in her future endeavors.  Definitely keep an eye out for her because there are big things to come in her camp.

You may just be thinking - oh he's just saying that because she's paying him or for whatever reason, but by now I think everyone should know that I don't do that.  If I support something I talk about it.  If I don't support something, I may talk about it but in a different voice and I'll let everyone know that I don't support it - although I don't think I've done that on my blog.  #Digressing  So yeah...

That was the bulk of my day then I had to of course do some reading for class tomorrow.  I also spent some time preparing for an interview that I have later in the afternoon.  Next week is DJ (Destination Johnson) our admitted students weekend and I'm thrilled to meet the potential Class of 2014!  I know they're going to have a blast.

Things that are coming up = DJ, my 30th birthday celebration, MBA World Cup @ Tuck, _______________  there's something else brewing that I don't want to mention just yet.  Stay Tuned!