I can't remember anything this long ago...

I do apologize for the long gap in posting to this blog. We have been pretty busy with our assignments for the past week or so. I've also been lazy =) Consequently, I can barely remember what was discussed on this day of class. Looking at the calendar, I know that it was Marketing class, so probably something to do with Market Objectives or Research. Okay, I had to look in the binder. Virgin Mobile, baby!! It's all about the pre-paid. Word.

Dinner Menu: Herb & Dill Brushed King Salmon, Balsamic Brushed & Fire Roasted Summer Vegetables, Wild Rice with Leeks & Currants, Caesar Salad, Rustic Breads. It's funny, but I do remember the meal. I'm a fan of seafood, and the tartar sauce that came with it was tasty. I also really like this rustic bread, which comes with a nice spread that's pretty good with....almost anything. =)

Education or Development?

This was the question and choice that was given to us by Bruce in our first Leadership class. Of course, we're gonna choose development since most of us want to get as much as possible out of the program. If we wanted to sit back, relax and just listen, we woulda stayed home and watched TV instead of paying to kill ourselves for 18 months through this intensive MBA program.

Breakfast menu: Assorted cereals (healthy/low-sugar) & non-fat or low-fat milk, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt, granola, toast, rice cakes. They forgot to mention the meat/cheese plate and the baked brie. The brie looked melted this time, so it may have been baked. However, it was still not warmed, so it was just ehh. I was still hungry after this plate, so I toasted a slice of bread and put crunchy peanut butter on it. YUM!

DOH! I apologize for the blank plate pic as I forgot to take a picture until it was too late =( I'm gonna blame it on Jerry since he sat down, and I started to talk to him and totally forgot about taking a picture. I think that's a run-on sentence, but I don't care =P Lunch menu: French Dip Sandwiches, potato salad, field greens salad with strawberries, goat cheese, and walnuts, chips, fresh fruit and cheese platter. That's a heck of a salad description, but it was pretty good. The "chips" were these oversized Fritos which you can still see on my plate. The French dip sandwich was okay. I'm not a French dip sandwich connoisseur, but the meat seemed slightly overcooked. Isn't the meat usually medium to medium rare for this?

Everything we do is a negotiation

I did not think of this much until Jerry pointed it out, but almost every time we communicate with others, it is some type of a negotiation. For meetings, emails, phone calls, at work, or at home, you are in some sort of negotiations with others. Wheather you realize it or not, there is always a give and take, favor, task, or whatever that needs to be completed.

Dinner menu: Penne Pasta w/ roasted vegetables, Stuffed Tortellini (vegetarian), Meatballs, baby greens salad, bread baskets. I remember that we've had this caterer previously, but last time, they had an linguine with alfredo sauce instead of the tortellini. I liked the tortellini more than the penne. The tortellini had a nutty favor with the cheese. A classmate said that he thought they put nutmeg in the tortellinis. I liked this meal as I'm a big fan of pasta and noodles. I know that Tom (my biggest and only fan of this blog) really enjoyed this meal as well.

BMW's are da suck

I forgot the exact phrase Dan used, but it was something about BMW's being the most suckage of all the sucks. Personally, I've never had a BMW (I'm not RRRICH!). Some close friends swear by them. One of my brother's friends only drives BMW's, and he has a few of them a.k.a rich. I believe BMW has a decent market share, so they're not doing too bad comparatively. However, Dan's story and experience showed an example of very poor responses and customer service from BMW, which most of this suckage resulted from. Oh BTW, I'm gonna love Marketing if we continue to watch commercials in every class!

Dinner menu: Chicken Breasts simmered in a Sweet Spicy Mole Sauce, Fiesta Green Salad, Corn with Diced Red Peppers, Spanish Rice, Beans. Vegetarian Entree. The chicken mole was okay. The sauce was good, but I thought the chicken was a little dry. I guess I'm not a big mole sauce person as I can't remember ever having a great mole dish or experience. Overall, the dinner was mediocre, but the pineapple upsidedown cake was great!

What? No Decision Support Models?

Yes, we had a switch-a-roo with our classes for Q3. Instead of the originally planned Decision Support Model class, we will be having Negotiations. Most see this as a good thing as Negotiations is a credit/no credit class. One the other hand, this could potentially make our future quarter that much harder. Only bad thing is that I was looking forward to working with Issariya again.

Breakfast. I was so hoping for a hot breakfast, but I ended up just settling for the microwave =( We had the typicaly breakfast setup with the yogurt, eggs, fruit, bread, etc. There were 2 new items that I noticed. One was a meat (ham/salami) and cheese (cheese/swiss/jack?) plate, and the other was the "baked" Brie. I made myself a ham,salami, and cheese sandwich with a bagel as shown in the pic above. I say "baked" brie because I think it was supposed to be baked, but it did not seem like it was. The cheese did not look melted. The bread around it was all cooked/baked, but it was not warm. I know it's difficult to keep things like this warm, so I was slightly disappointed with the baked brie.

Lunch menu: Sandwich buffet: Curried Chicken Salad, Grilled Garden Veggie, Turkey & Havarti, Thai Veggie Wrap; salad, fresh fruit, and mediterranean pasta salad. I did not have both of the plates pictured above. The first sandwich plate was mine as I got the curried chicken salad, which I thought was some mustard egg salad sandwich. It was good. I just wasn't in the mood to eat sandwiches. The second plate was from one of my classmates with the veggie wrap and pasta salad. I believe there was some confusion on which sandwiches had meat and which were vegetarian. Maybe it just wasn't properly labeled.

..And We're Back!

The two week break seemed long when you were in it, but looking back now, it was too short! =) Oh well, we're back into the thick of things in Q3 with Marketing, Leadership, and Negotiations classes. I'm excited about all three of these classes as I'm looking forward to gaining much knowledge from each of them.

Dinner time! Menu: Indian Buffet: Tandoori chicken, lamb curry, palak paneer, vegetarian curry, rice, salad, naan. The first meal back was a great one. I would say in general that most people in our class enjoy Indian food. I did not have the paneer, but the Tandoori chicken and lamb curry were both really good. I also enjoyed the naan and the fried vegetable thingys, which wasn't listed under the menu. I actually had a second helping of the curry and naan!

2 down, 4 to go!

As of writing this, we all should have completed our Econ final and be done with the second quarter of class. Yay! So, we're one third of the way there! It's moving along quite quickly, which I'm happy about, but they do keep you pretty busy. Oh yeah, the International Study Tour is going to be in Argentina and Chile! That's sweetness!! I really hope I'll be able to go.

Yes, the posting date doesn't match when I really posted the blog. I set the posting dates on the class days when we have the meals so I can tell what we had and when. It's easier for me, and that's what its all about =P

No menu listed for this meal on Blackboard. Man, this is crippling me. Oh BTW, sorry about the hazy bad pic. My regular phone ran outta batteries so I used my work phone to take the pic. I didn't know that my cheapy phone took better pics than the RIM Curve device I use for work. Anyways, for dinner, we had salmon, some salad, that grilled veggie plate with bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and some other stuff that I didn't get. We also had this rice pilaf thing with cranberries (I think). It was interesting. The salmon was really good. I had seconds =) Everything else was average. I think most of us are getting used to these side items. We also had blackberry cobbler for dessert. It was okay. I just felt there was alot more blackberries than the cobbler part or the breading part. Is that the cobbler part? What do you call that? The crust? Crusty parts? hahaha I will stop there.