1/31/09 Part 2: Patek Phillipe for second worst tour ever

From Geneva Trip

After a break of an hour something for lunch we headed to Patek Phillipe's museum, the Swiss watch maker. However, the museum was located in a different place than the store we were at, and so Davis had to scramble to try and lead us to the actual museum. We were kind of lost and while crossing the street a guy in a random car yelled something at Davis because the car almost hit him. Davis replied to us: "I think that guy just yelled at me in Swiss."

The tour was unbearable and after about 2 minutes I couldn't care less about the entire history of watch making forever, which was what we were getting. Our tour guide repeatedly talked about how it was amazing that they made such intricate, functional watches without any computers (not that I cared). She also talked about how much "complicate" the watches had, which is how much extra worthless crap was on the face of the watch, other than actually displaying the time.

From Geneva Trip

I headed to Coop afterwards and picked up some Smirnoff vodka and a carton of orange juice for later at night. The orange juice tasted really bad and it wasn't until after already having a couple drinks that I realized the orange juice was actually orange juice concentrate and I didn't actually read the label (which was in french). Needless to say it was really rough and didn't turn out too well. At least I got to sleep in the next morning.

1/31/09 Part 1: Carlos from Goldman Sachs, solving the financial crisis

Up at 6:30am again ugh. Headed over with the other SU kids to the Goldman Sachs office here in Geneva to see Carlos, a 1990s graduate from SU who works for Goldman Sachs in asset management for private clients in South America. He started off by talking about his personal experience studying abroad, moving from his home in Brazil to live in Selinsgrove, PA which is basically the biggest cultural shift someone could have. Carlos pointed out that studying abroad isn't for everyone, but it allows you the opportunity to rebuild yourself in a new place and really discover who you are. He also talked about the benefits of going to Susquehanna, a small university, which were great access to professors, and enhancing important communication skills.

Next he discussed his personal experience with the process of interviewing for competitive jobs like with Goldman Sachs was that you need to know the content well, maybe even study it ahead of time. More importantly, you need to be able to communicate well, which also helps if you don't know some content. Also if there is something listed on your resume, you better be ready to fully back it up and discuss it.

Then Carlos went into an overview of the structure of an investment bank, which is divided into 3 areas: Trading (proprietary, for clients), Investment Banking (IPOs, M&A, etc), and Asset Management (mutual funds, private clients). This was interesting because I got a quick tour of his trading desk office after his talk, where he pointed out the teams for different regions like France and South America, and where 6 people out of the 40 total had just gotten laid off.

I asked Carlos several very difficult questions about the financial crisis and his perspective on it, especially regarding potential government intervention and the solvency of banks. His opinion was that the US govt needs to step in and capitalize the banks more and create a bad bank to buy up troubled assets.

Carlos's position:
He elaborated that the US government needs to step in and make a market for troubled assets (like subprime) which currently do not allow for insitutions to purchase them, even if they wanted to. I asked him for his outlook on the stock market and he said he expected the government stimulus to create a market bottom in the first half of 2009.

My position:
This financial crisis will rival the Great Depression in scale and will take years to get through. The stock market will not bottom for years, and it will be at levels below DOW 5,000. Excessive borrowing, levaraging, and risk taking is what got us into this mess... so how can the government borrowing excessive amount of money to try and spend its way out of this depression work? You don't cure a heroin addict (market with extreme excess of borrowing) by giving him more heroin and telling him to take it all (govt borrowing excessively to stimulate economy).

This plan is inevitably doomed to fail... and despite what politicians and media would like you to think, the government does not have an infinite amount of money to constantly bailout the banks with. The US govt must borrow funds from somewhere, mainly China and other nations. We may reach a point of no return where the government can't borrow any more money... and then we are in big trouble. This could very well destroy the economic and political viability of the US govt, as it is unable to borrow money to finance its day to day activities.

The only way to resolve this crisis is to force the banks to stop lying about their losses and tell the truth about their financial state. Many banks will fail and many people will lose their jobs. However, this is much better than the collapse of the US govt, whose future is increasingly tied to that of the big banks as more and more taxpayer money is given to them.

I proposed that the government force banks be to mark their assets to market and admit their losses. If they go bankrupt because of it, than so be it. If necessary, the government could also use the $250 billion in leftover TARP bailout money to spin off new banks with a clean slate in order to get lending in the economy restarted.

We will not fix this crisis by just throwing money at these terribly managed banks and rewarding their bad business decisions with billion dollar bailouts. If we make the banks admit to their losses and they fail for their bad business decisions, just like capitalism is supposed to work, good banks will take over the business of the failed banks and the economy can get back on its way to recovery.

1/30/09 UN, and the Red Cross aka worst tour ever

Up at 6:30am and miserable again. After getting sort of lost after getting off the tram, we found our way to the United Nations in Geneva. The first speaker we had was decent, and I appreciated the way she tried to simplify the issues she talked about, such as aid to developing countries, into easy to understand examples.

From Geneva Trip

The second presenter about the European Economic something (I don't even know) was really bad. He was obviously a very intelligent person, but he was a horrible presenter. I really had trouble staying awake and figuring out what he was actually trying to get at, and I have a good understanding of economics. He kept talking off on random tangents constantly for these complicated issues, and when asked questions didn't actually answer them and talked about something else.

From Geneva Trip

We had a break for lunch, but the cafeteria was expensive, so JJ and I went on an adventure to find somewhere for cheap food. We walked by a protest about the war in Sri Lanka in front of the World Trade Organization building on the way there. We grabbed some sandwiches at Coop and headed back.

From Geneva Trip

The tour around the UN building was decent, and it was interesting to see the original part of the building that was used in the 1930s for the League of Nations.

From Geneva Trip

Next we headed over to the Red Cross building for a tour at 3pm. It was way too hot in the building as we walked around, and I was so tired from being up since 6:30. I just wanted to sleep in the worst way possible, but our tour guide kept talking and talking superfast and basically told us the entire history of everything forever. I was so incredibly pissed off that I had to waste my time sitting through that crap. Our tour was only supposed to last one hour, but it ended up being almost two hours, and the other half of our group that had a different tour guide had already been gone for 30 mins by the time we got done. Worst. Tour. Ever.

At like 3:30am, Andrew stumbled drunk into our room and woke me up asking some random unintelligible question which pissed me off. When I confronted him about it in the morning he got all defensive and started calling me a jerk for bringing it up... even though I was generous enough to try and wake him up for almost 10 minutes straight as he was unresponsive and wouldn't get out of bed for our morning tour. Not to mention he is unprepared and has to borrow stuff from me all the time.

1/29/09 rage over 9000, rondo doge

Had to wake up at 6am (which was actually 5am London time) in order to meet at the floor of the hotel by 7am to get breakfast and head to the bus. At 7:30 we took the bus to the train station, and then had to wait 45 minutes for our train... I was fairly pissed that we couldn't have just slept that much longer instead of sitting around doing nothing.

So we got on the train and headed to Burgdorf, which took about 2 hours, and I slept through most of it. We then were informed by Davis that we had two hours until our tour started at 1pm... 2 hours??? Why couldn't we have just slept in for another hour and a half??? At this point I was really pissed that I basically woke up early for nothing.

From Geneva Trip

The two hours consisted of JJ, Nate, and I wandering around the small town looking for food, and then realizing all the restaurants were way too expensive and buying some cheap bread from the grocery store. That took us about half an hour. Since the town was small and boring and it was too cold outside to do much of anything, we sat in the train station raging until the start of our tour.

Our tour took us around Bergdorf and into a castle that stood on top of a hill, with a great view of Bergdorf down below.

From Geneva Trip

Nest we took a tour of Rondo Doge, which is a market leader in equipment that mass produces bakery products from dough, such as croissants and doughnuts for Dunkin Donuts. I couldn't stay awake during their PowerPoint presentation because I was so tired from getting up at 6am, and the room was warm too. Walking around their factory was mediocre, but it was interesting to see the demonstration of their machines in action making some double decker pastries. The best part of the tour was when we got to eat several of the double decker pastries, which were tasty.

From Geneva Trip

We took the train and didn't get back to the hotel until after 5pm and I was wiped out. Got some food with JJ from the Coop grocery store and spent the rest of the night on the internet, lounging around, and then passing out after midnight.

1/28/09 flight to Geneva

All our other classes were cancelled, so after theatre class from noon to 1:30 I went back to flat and grabbed some food. I saw Andrew there, who apparently made it back to London after getting a temporary emergency passport from the US embassy in Amsterdam. I finished packing, and then rode the tube all the way to Heathrow Airport.

We all got to the airport early and wandered around for a while before getting on the plane. The flight to Geneva was only about 1.5 hrs. We stayed at the Century Hotel which was very nice. My room (shared with Andrew) had a big and comfy bed, lots of space, and a shower with great water pressure. Although my room also had random paintings of naked women, which was unexpected.

1/27/09 not much, 39 steps play

Not a whole lot going on today, class forever and worked out at the YMCA afterwards. At night we attended the play the 39 Steps, which was a parody of the movie of the same name. It started out kind of slow, but it picked up and was fairly funny and interesting by the end. I especially liked the way they used their props in ridiculous ways to make fun of the limitations of stage productions, such as moving around a door with their hands and then spinning it around several times to show that they went though several different doors.

My review of the Amsterdam Trip 1/23-1/26

My thoughts about Amsterdam:
Good:
- It is fun to ride around on bikes.

Bad:
- It is not nearly as awesome as my expectations, disappointed.
- The nightlife is fairly lame, and the ratio of girls to guys is really bad.

Other:
- It is a really touristy city in general.
- The city is quite small compared to other European cities I have visited.
- Since Dutch is the primary language, some stuff can be confusing.

What I did / Where I went:
Inner Amsterdam Hostel
A good place to stay for a cheap price. It is clean and has helpful staff, but there isn't much to do there.

Anne Frank House
There was a long line and it was fairly expensive, but it gives a good insight into the life of Anne Frank.

Heineken Tour
A little more expensive than other brewery tours at ~13E, but it was my favorite so far with a very modern feel.

Ultimate Party Pub Crawl
Make sure to pre-game or show up early for the free starter shots of vodka. For the price (~18E?) it was a decent value since you got a free drink at each bar and also shots of pre-mixed vodka in between. However, in our group it was mostly just guys which was lame.

What more I should have done:
Gone outside the city into the countryside of Holland to see some windmills and tulips.

1/26/09 not all of us made it back from Amsterdam

Andrew, JJ, and I left the hostel a little after 10:30 after breakfast and took the train to the airport. We were there 3 hours early so we sat around forever in the airport waiting for our flight. After going through security, Andrew realized that he didn't have his passport, so JJ and I waited while he retraced his steps back through the airport between passport control and the security gate.

Andrew couldn't find his passport and EasyJet wouldn't let him on the plane without it, so JJ and I had to get on the plane without him. I left Andrew with my phone since he lost his phone on the Easybus ride to the London Stansted airport before we even got to Amsterdam. JJ and I got back to our flat and informed everyone that Andrew was left behind, and I worked some more on our prague project. On the one hand I felt sorry for him... on the other hand he is incredibly irresponsible and it was bound to happen sooner or later lol.

1/25/09 Heineken tour, pub crawl

In the morning we went to the Heineken Factory tour. It was my favorite brewery tour that I have been on as it was very modern, had lots of stuff to do, and had a cool get brewed ride were you travel through the brewing process.

From Amsterdam Trip

Afterwards we stopped at McDonald's again and I had to wait in line for over 20 minutes behind some lady who ordered 40E worth of food and like 10 Happy Meals, which really pissed me off. While we waited for Andrew again, JJ and I went and took some nice pictures of the canals in Amsterdam.

From Amsterdam Trip

At night we met up with the other SU students to go on the Ultimate Party Amsterdam Pub Crawl. We got there late and missed the free starter shots so it sucked at first standing around waiting for the next bar. But at the next bar we got some vodka/cranberry mixed drink poured for us and by the third bar we were having a good time. JJ and I had fun dancing on stage and we ended up going to 6 different bars. However our group was mostly guys which sucked, but we still managed to have fun.

1/24/09 exploring and the red light district

At breakfast I had the chocolate and hazel nut spread called "Nutella" for the first time, which was really delicious. Andrew, JJ, and I rented bikes for the day and rode them to the Anne Frank house.

From Amsterdam Trip

Even though the original furniture was gone, the house gave a good representation of the cramped quarters and frightening atmosphere that Anne Frank had to endure while hiding their everyday from the Nazis. The museum also offered a fascinating insight into the side of Anne Frank that she only shared with her journal, her deepest thoughts, her own understanding of why her people were being oppressed, and her desire to run around outside and be free.

We met up with the rest of the SU students who came to Amsterdam on a different flight at 6am, and they were obviously wiped out from the early morning flight and lack of sleep, so we agreed to meet up with them later. After waiting for Andrew we wandered around the shopping areas for a while and then headed back to the hostel. We met up with the rest of the group at the Red Light Bar, but they were still wiped out so Andrew, JJ, and I wandered around the Red Light District.

The Red Light District had lots of porn stores, peep shows, and of course the girls in the windows. However, it really wasn't as cool as I expected it to be. The area was actually really small and super touristy and it was basically just a bunch of guys walking around. There were also a lot of older couples too which was kind of weird. On the way back someone randomly threw a coke bottle out of the window of a car as they drove by and hit Andrew with it. After that we went to McDonald's and I got a McBacon meal, 2 hamburgers, and the most tasty McFlurry I have ever had.

1/23/09 flight to Amsterdam

Took too long packing for our trip in the morning and ran through the streets of London since we had to take a different bus that dropped us off in the wrong place. For British History and Culture we went to the Imperial War Museum, which I had already gone to before.

JJ, Andrew, and I got to the airport early and played air hockey, but the puck kept flying off the table until it eventually went in between 2 arcade machines and we lost it. Once we got from the Amsterdam airport to the city center we took a tram towards our hostel, but we got off at the wrong stop because we couldn't understand what the driver was saying, who apparently said our stop name 3 times over.

Our hostel was nice with comfy beds and a good shower. We wandered around Amsterdam for a while almost getting hit by bikes several times.

From Amsterdam Trip

1/22/09 Farley's, prague proj nonsense

Got to Farely's way too early after Davis said we needed more than an hour to get there, so JJ and Nate and I grabbed some breakfast at a little diner/cafe. It looked kind of sketchy, but it was cheap and the sausage/eggs/chips were tasty. Farley's was basically a giant warehouse full of antiques and props organized by time period. Movie studios, museums, and others rent out the props, and props from Farley's have been in movies such as Harry Potter, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, and many more.

Got back and worked on the Prague Project with my group, we have to write a 12 page paper about the product portfolios and market coverage of two market leading tea sellers, one in the US, and one in Western Europe. We just got the assignment yesterday 1/21 and it is due by 1/30. This presents a little problem since most of our group is away in Amsterdam this weekend fri 1/23-mon 1/26 booked way before we found this out, and then we leave for Switzerland right after class on Wed 1/28. So we actually have 3 days to do it, not to mention LEROS (the company we are doing it for) has not given us the market product info we need, nor have they confirmed that our 2 company choices are good even though we need to know that before we can do the 12 page paper. It seems to me that LEROS really doesn't care very much about what my group is doing, so I don't know why we are expected to take these Prague Projects seriously. The whole thing seems like a joke.

1/21/09 class, clubbin

Class 9:30-1:45 and gym after. At night pre-gamed and then headed out to Leicester Square to go clubbing around midnight. We went to a club named Merta, it was fairly small with one main dance floor, but it had a decent song selection and DJ. Had fun dancing with random people and headed back to bed after two hours or so.

1/20/09 class, running though London, Roaring Trade

Class 9:30-4:45, ugh it is so hard to sit in that same small room for that long. Went to the YMCA gym on my lunch break. At night we had to go to the Soho Theatre to see the play Roaring Trade, so we left around 7ish, but the traffic on Oxford Street was ridiculous, our bus moved about 100ft in 10 minutes. So we decided to run down Oxford Street to make it to the play on time, dodging and weaving through the mass of people on the sidewalk as we frantically tried to figure out where the theatre was. We ended up running the wrong way past the theatre not once, but twice on different streets. And JJ ran into a trash can and rolled into the street when he wasn't looking forward as Londoners nearby laughed at him. We got there 5 minutes late panting and sweaty, and went in after the first scene was over. The play Roaring Trade was well executed and I enjoyed the story a lot, not to mention there was awesome dance techno music playing between scenes.

My review of the Dublin trip 1/16-1/19

My thoughts about Dublin, Ireland:
Good:
- Dublin has a large proportion of young people
- There are lots of bars and clubs, good nightlife
- The Irish countryside is beautiful

Bad:
- Everything is really expensive there
- The city is kind of dirty and depressing
- The public transportation is no where near as good as London's

What I did / Where I went:
Guinness Factory Tour
For ~10 Euros it was definitely worth it, there is a lot of interesting history and you can spend a lot of time on the 7 floors of your self guided tour. The view from the gravity bar on the top floor is great. You get a free pint of Guinness at the end.

Jameson Whiskey Tour
Similar price to Guinness tour but not nearly as good. The tour is guided and fairly short, but if you can volunteer to do the whiskey tasting at the end go for it. You get a free mixed drink with Jameson whiskey at the end.

Wicklow & Glendalough "Over the Top" tour
Most definitely worth the ~24 Euros for the tour, which lasts from 10am until 5pm. The views you get of the Irish countryside are absolutely incredible so make sure you bring a camera.

National Gallery
Had tons of paintings from all over the world. Not very exciting but it is something you can do for free.

Four Courts Hostel
Great location, cheap, clean and well maintained, and a helpful staff. There are lots of other young people and stuff to do like a big tv, Wii, and pool table downstairs. If you need somewhere to stay for cheap in Dublin, this is a great place.

Burdocks Fish & Chips
For ~9 Euros you get a huge fried and breaded fish and a huge helping of fries, I was stuffed and couldn't finish it all in one sitting. Great place to eat that you should check out.

Pubs:
Brazen Head "Oldest pub in Ireland" - You can go there just to say you were in the oldest pub in Ireland, but it isn't exciting.
Woolshed - They are jerks and won't let you in if you are under 21.
Friar's bar & grill - The manager was annoying.
O'Shea's - Seemed like a cool little pub to hang out at.
International Bar - Really small and lame.

What more I should have done:
I should have gone to some of the clubs or other pubs that are in Dublin and check out more of the nightlife.

1/19/09 flight back from Dublin, almost hit by car

Up for breakfast and I talked with Paul a bit about why we couldn't meet up with him the night before. I also met and talked with Julie, who I saw on a previous day in the hostel. It's a shame I didn't talk to her sooner because she seemed really cool. Andrew and I checked out and then wandered around Dublin looking for something to do before we headed out to the airport. We eventually found our way to the National Gallery and walked around looking at the hundreds of paintings that were housed there. I am not particularly interested in paintings but it was interesting enough and free.

From Ireland Trip

We left and went to our bus stop, where we waited for almost an hour in the freezing cold wind for the bus to the airport to finally get there. Dublin public transportation is pretty bad compared with London. It was a short flight home, and I was almost hit by a cab trying to beat a red light as I walked back on Edgeware Road to our flat. Andrew stuck out his arm to stop me from getting in its path. Even though I might have been ok otherwise, it still made me think quite a bit. Your life could end at any moment, so live with no regrets as if every day is your last.

1/18/09 Part 2: Irish pubbin

We got back to the hostel and met a guy named Paul who was from Temple University in Philadelphia. He was visiting Ireland at the end of his studying abroad in Germany for the fall semester. We talked for a while and then agreed to meet him at the Woolshed sports bar to watch the Eagles game and the Steelers game.

Andrew and I headed out to the “oldest bar in Ireland”, the Brazen Head, which was founded in 1198 and the pub even has its own history book. After a little while two Irish girls about our age, Mave and Laura, sat down next to us at the bar and started a conversation. They were from a town in central Ireland named Achlon(sp?), which they boasted had the real oldest bar in Ireland established sometime in the 800s.

I ordered a pint of Pauluner, a wheat beer, which tasted much sweeter than other beers and I didn't particularly care for. The girls were vary friendly and asked for an explanation of the concept of different “bases” (1st, 2nd, etc) and then gave a demonstration to make sure we knew that they understood it. Next they asked us what song had the lyrics “from the window... to the wall”, which they heard in a club the night before. I knew it was by Lil Jon' but couldn't remember the song title (Get Low). We recited as much of the song as we could recall, and then the Irish girls started singing along very loudly.

The Irish girls were obviously really drunk, and entertaining. They explained to Andrew and I how they party hardcore. Apparently the Irish girls had started drinking yesterday afternoon (Saturday), went out to a club, continued drinking late into the night and didn't go to bed until 7am. The girls woke up at noon and had a “traditional Irish breakfast” of Budweiser and sausages, followed by more drinking the rest of the day up until the point when we met them around 8pm Sunday night.

After a while their guy friends showed up at the pub and introduced themselves and we talked for a bit. I asked one of the guys to explain the game “snooker” which was playing on the TV. He explained that it is similar to pool, but the table is larger, the balls are smaller, the pockets are smaller, and players alternate hitting the red balls and other colored balls. We finished our beers, said our goodbyes, and after a hug and more from Mave, Andrew and I headed out to the Woolshed pub.

On the way there I realized I was completely out of toothpaste, so we wandered around looking for an open shop, but most were closed after 9pm. I never thought I would miss 24hr Walmart, but I guess I took it for granted in Selinsgrove. We finally found the Woolshed pub after asking for directions, but the bouncer wouldn't let us in, saying that we had to be “over 21” and that it was “house rules”. I didn't fly halfway across the world to be denied from drinking for the same bullshit reason that I am “under 21”. As if I would magically be a perfectly responsible person the moment I turn from a 20 year old to a 21 year old.

We headed to Friar's bar and grill to watch the game and sat for a while without any drinks, but then the manager bothered us about buying drinks, so I ordered a pint of Baulmer(sp?). It was a tasty cider, and I sipped on it while we watched the game. There were a couple college age students sitting behind us that we talked to. All of them were from Dublin except for one exchange student from New Jersey. They were really into American football, and we conversed during the Pittsburgh game up until we left at half time. We said our goodbyes and then ran back to the Four Courts Hostel in the pouring rain.

1/18/09 Part 1: Wicklow & Glendalough

Woke up at 8:30, got ready, and had breakfast at the hostel before our tour. Our tour leader was an elderly Irish gentleman named 'Ed' who was very knowledgeable on Irish history. The tour first headed up to the hills above Dublin where we stopped for a magnificent view of the entire city.

From Ireland Trip

Next we headed further up the Wicklow hillside, which at this elevation level was covered with light snow. We were about ½ the way up the mountain (300m above sea-level) when we stopped to get a view of a lake far below us at the base of the mountain. There was a huge snow squall right as we got there, and I tried to take a picture of the lake, but the wind was so strong that facing towards the edge was like getting hundreds of little needles whipped at my face as the snow and sleet swirled by. As we were leaving the snow squall calmed down, but we were forced to turn around and drive back down the mountain because there was too much snow on the narrow mountain passes ahead of our tour.

From Ireland Trip

We headed back down and into the town of Glendalough to stop for a quick lunch and then headed out to see a waterfall on the side of a cliff wall. It was an incredibly magnificent panoramic view of the Irish countryside, as in front of us were two mountains on either side of a green farmland valley below, with the top of the mountain behind us.

From Ireland Trip

Next we headed to an ancient 6th century monastery that was run by Saint Kevin. The monastery was torn down by King Henry VIII after he created the Church of England, and only a graveyard and ruins remain today.

From Ireland Trip

At this point we were allowed to take a walk to visit the two lakes a few minutes walk away. By this point the batteries had run out on my camera, and I ran back to the tour van to get new batteries, so I got separated from the group. I walked around the first lake but could only take one picture because it was so windy and rainy. My face was numb and my feet were freezing cold and soaked. Apparently I took the long way around the second lake, but I got a spectacular picture of the lake with two mountains on either side in the distance.

From Ireland Trip

I looked around for my tour van but they had just left to go back to the monastery without me. Luckily I found the other tour van for the Celtic tour (similar to ours), and they were very nice and drove me to meet the rest of my group. We headed back to Dublin with a quick stop at the ruins used as a set for the dragon movie “Reign of Fire” and the lake/river that is the water supply for Dublin.

1/17/09 Guinness, Jameson, and Swedes

Woke up around 10am, got ready and then headed out to the Guinness Factory. The tour was really good, and had us walking through 7 floors of Guinness history, brewing processes, and distribution. At the end of the tour we got a pint of Guinness in the gravity bar on the top floor which was packed with people, and had a spectacular view of Dublin.

From Ireland Trip

As soon as Andrew and I walked out of the factory, rain started pouring down along with huge gusts of wind. We were completely soaked and ran into the nearest Subway to scarf down two 6” ham subs, which were the cheapest food we could find at 1.99E each. We then headed back to the hostel and booked a tour for the next day (Sunday) to see the Irish countryside of Wicklow and Glendalough.

Around 5pm we headed to the Jameson Whiskey tour. Our tour guide spoke in a really monotone voice and cracked jokes with dry humor. The tour wasn't anything spectacular, and at the end I got a Jameson with Coke. Andrew got to do taste testing between Jameson Whiskey, Scotch Whiskey, and American Whiskey. Scotch has a smoky flavor and is distilled twice, while American Whiskey is distilled once and has a sweeter taste since it is made with corn. Jameson has a clean vanilla taste and is distilled three times.

From Ireland Trip

Andrew and I talked to some of the other people on the tour and met 2 Swedish guys, Cristoph and Frederick. Cristoph lived in Sweden's 2nd biggest city Guthenberg(sp?), and Frederick lived in the northern part of Sweden, almost in the Arctic Circle. We walked with them to O'Shea's, a pub near our hostel. I ordered a pint of Smithwick's beer, which was decent, and conversed more with our new Swedish friends. They were staying in Dublin for the weekend near the big needle structure on O'Connell Street (sp?). Then they headed to Jameson while their girlfriends were out shopping. Frederick was studying civil engineering, but in Sweden they don't have “college” per say, it is more like a continuation of their public school. All of their schooling is paid for by the government, and they even get a student allowance to live off of. However, they said taxes on the middle to upper class in Sweden is something like 56%.

The Swedes asked how many beers that I considered a “drunk” level, and I responded like 5-6 beers. They said their outlook on drinking was different, and for them it was more like 10-14 beers, and that they frequently switched between liquor, wine, and beer all on the same night. Their definition of “drunk” was right on the border of blacking out / passing out. When we brought up that we had planned a trip to Amsterdam, the Swedes said that smoking marijuana was frowned upon in their culture, despite having far fewer negative health effects, and yet it was socially acceptable to binge drink to or past the point of throwing up / passing out.

The Swedes used the phrase “stupid Americans” only in a general manner, since they didn't like our political actions and leaders (I didn't like Bush either), but liked most of the American individuals they had met. They wanted to better understand the “American dream” mentality, and asked us if a rich man is considered a “good man” just because he is wealthy. I didn't agree with that personally, but I could certainly see how other Americans can get caught up in the huge capitalist rat race and forget to enjoy other people and car for their fellow human beings. It was very interesting to compare the Swedish socialist culture and the American capitalist culture and where they have similarities and differences.

From Ireland Trip

We exchanged e-mail addresses with the Swedes and parted ways. Andrew and I headed to the Temple Bar area of the city and wandered around for a while looking for a good pub to hang out at. We ended up stopping at the “International Bar”, and I got a pint of Heineken for 5.10E, which is ridiculously expensive. The bar was lame and so we headed back to the hostel and went to bed around 2am.

1/16/09 class, flight to Dublin

For class we had a guest speaker who used to work for HSBC and is now a manager of an Islamic wealth fund that invests primarily in commercial real estate. I asked him some tough questions about the financial crisis and he seemed very knowledgeable. I enjoyed his perspective and experience in the finance sector.

Andrew and I went to Victoria station and found our easyBus to the airport and got to leave early since all the passengers were already there. The driver was speeding through the streets of London and we go to the airport around 6:30pm and sat around forever waiting for our flight. Our flight got delayed 40 mintues, and we didn't get into the air until 10:20pm. RyanAir's motto is "the on-time airline"... yeah whatever. It was a really short flight and it seems like we spent more time waiting in line to get on the plane than we actually did in the air. The landing was pretty rough with a big bounce upon hitting the runway, and while descending it was like that feeling you get in your gut when a roller coaster drops from its peak.

We didn't land until almost midnight, and then we had to wait 20 mins just to get through passport security. We couldn't get on the next bus to the city center because it was full, so we had to wait another 20 mins for the next one. The bus dropped us off on Grafton Street by Trinity College and we headed to McDonald's for some quick food. It was really expensive there and one double cheeseburger was 2E (~$2.60). We asked for directions to try and find the Four Courts Hostel, but we were lost in a foreign city walking the wrong way, so we hailed a cab and rode that to the hostel. The hostel was nice and clean, and we quickly passed out in bed.

1/15/09 wimbledon

Got to the Wimbledon complex and it was really cold and windy as we toured around the grounds. It was interesting to see the extreme measures they take to get the perfect grass for tennis, having a robot tester and even counting individual blades of grass. We went into Court 1 and also got to walk down the path that all the Wimbledon tennis players walk down and the press room they hold meetings inside. We also got to meet Wimbledon's CFO, who gave some good insights into Wimbledon's brand prestige and history. Unfortunately we couldn't see Center Court because it was under construction with a new automatic roof.

From London - January

1/14/09 sushi, wagamamas, and cider

Class in the morning for too long. Went and got some Salmon Nagiri (sp?) sushi from Pret for lunch, it was really good. Got most of the 2-3 page prague project put together. It is kind of rough with so many people on our team because some of the work by others wasn't all that relevant to what we needed for this planning stage, and the work overall wasn't very cohesive, but that is something that we can work on for the future.

Andrew and I also tried to sort out our airline booking situation. Apparently you aren't allowed to do the online check-in with RyanAir unless you are an EU citizen, so I got frustrated trying to find contact info on their crappy website but they didn't have an email address. What company doesn't have a customer service e-mail??? So we tried calling their reservation number with a phone card and after multiple tries I got fed up with it. We leave for Dublin friday night.

At night we drank some of that Hammersmith cider, which was pretty rough but it worked fairly well. Just hung out for the most part and then went to McDonald's for some late night food, which was very tasty.

1/13/09 not much goin on, roaring trade

Class at 9:30 again ugh. Went to a cool store called Pret a Manger to grab a sandwich to go for lunch. Later in the afternoon I read Roaring Trade for the British Theatre class. It was about a couple hotshot bond traders making millions of pounds trading. Since I have done a significant amount of stock trading myself, I could really relate to the book. It was factually accurate and the story was very compelling, as a hotshot trader lets his greed and arrogance get the best of him, and ultimately leads to his undoing.

1/12/09 monday food shopping, LME

Not a whole lot going on in the morning, just taking it easy after an eventful weekend. While standing in line for the checkout we realized that it was later than we thought and we had to make it to the London Metal Exchange for our tour, and we had to rush back to the flat. We ended up running down Edgeware Road to the tube stop. Running in dress shoes is not fun. We got to the Bank tube stop with about 10 minutes until our tour and asked a random police officer for directions. Apparently he sent us 3 blocks in the wrong direction, so we asked several other people on the street for direction and no one knew where the London Metal Exchange was located. We eventually found it 10 minutes late, but we made up the lost time watching the video. The LME was very small for an exchange, and it was interesting how they alternated trading different metals instead of trading them all at the same time.

1/11/09 church and football at the duke

Woke up around 9:30 to get ready for Church. The dance club, not the religious one. A lot of us went and we all dressed up different degrees of weird and crazy. We got there around 11:00 or so and got through the doors around noon. The club got packed pretty quick and we had a good time dancing. The music was more indie and rock music than other clubs I have been to, so it wasn't quite my style. The club offered some extra entertainment that we weren't quite prepared for, and all in all it was a really fun time.

Andrew and I left around 3pm or so and headed back to the flats and took a 2 hour nap. Later we went to the Duke of York to watch the Eagles play the Giants, and a lot of the students were really into it, but I don't really watch that much football, and I'm a Green Bay fan anyways.

1/10/09 aquarium, 80s night at the duke

Got up fairly early at 9:30 or so because I couldn't sleep any more. Andrew, Jill, Allison and I went to the London Aquarium next to the Thames River. It was right next to the London Eye and there was a great view of the Parliament Building and Big Ben. The shark and turtle tanks were cool, but the Aquarium was disappointing overall. Some parts were under construction and it was only about 3 floors of exhibits.

From London - January

We went out to the Duke of York for 80s night and the place was packed. Had a couple drinks and I talked to people from all over, including some British girls, an Australian girl, and some other American students from Chicago and California who are studying abroad in London. It was definitely a great time.

1/9/09 imperial war museum and running from chinese

Had class from 9-12 and travelled by bus for the first time, which seems like the easiest way to get to class from now on. Andrew, Dean, and I headed out to the Imperial War Museum by tube around 3ish. The museum was huge and had so much information about every armed conflict since World War I it was overwhelming.

From London - January

There was an interactive World War I trench that you could walk through, complete with wounded soldiers and shells exploding overhead, really put into perspective the claustrophobic living hell that is trench warfare.

From London - January

There was also an interactive exhibit that displayed the devastation of London during the blitz bombings of World War II, it really gave you a feel for the fear and helplessness felt by Londoners back then.

From London - January

There was a very extensive exhibit dedicated to the Holocaust that was particularly moving, it described in tremendous detail the socioeconomic pressures leading to Hitler's rise to power and his media manipulation that allowed him to turn the public against the Jews. There was a model recreation of a concentration camp that was so large it had its own room, as a harsh reminder of the terrible atrocities committed during Hitler's regime.

From London - January

We came back and found out the SU flats below us got a noise violation for last night and Davis was pretty livid about the whole thing. Poor Dean (who just arrived yesterday) got chewed out because apparently we were all living in the wrong flats, but Davis handed all the keys to us on the first day and gave us the wrong sets of keys. Andrew even bent the key in the door of flat 46 trying to get in because they were the wrong keys, so we just assumed Davis meant flat 45 as we were also listed that way on the contact info.

We headed out to Picadilly Circus and got kind of lost on the way to the club/bar O'Neal's. By the time we finally found it, I was tired as hell and just wanted to get some food and head back to the flats. JJ, Nate, and I really wanted Chinese food, but most of the restaurants were closed, and we wandered into some Chinese Restaurant that looked kind of fancy. We just wanted to see the menu, but we got seated right away, and then realized everything there was way too expensive so we went to the bathroom quick and then left. Apparently JJ and Nate got yelled at by some Chinese guy who wasn't too happy about it.

We went across the street to a "Sushi to go" place and grabbed some sushi that was fairly decent. We then hopped on the night bus back towards the flat, stopped at McDonald's for some more food, and then went back to the flats and to bed.

1/8/09 Bank of England, tired, booking trips

It was kind of rough getting up at 8am after getting only 4 hours of sleep or so, but we made it to the Bank of England early for our Thursday company tour. The representative from the bank was an economist and seemed knowledgeable. I asked him what the Bank of England plans to do to combat the credit crisis once they cut interest rates down to 0%. Needless to say he seemed hesitant and worried about the situation, but his response was that the Bank of England would inject money into the system and use "quantitative easing".

Headed back to the flat, ate some food, and then passed out for a nice afternoon nap. Andrew and I booked our flight and hostel for a trip to Dublin, Ireland next weekend. I didn't really feel like going out and was still tired, so I went to bed early and called it a night.

1/7/09 Prague Proj, Theatre Class, and Clubbin'

Class at 9:30 am again, ugh. Today we had our Prague Project initial consultation over skype, which was kind of hard because the connection was poor and kept cutting out on us. Apparently we are supposed to do market research for some Eastern European herbal tea company and the final deliverable is 20-30 pages. Our first idea page and initial choices for US and Europe market leaders is due Jan 16th and is 2-3 pages.

We also had our first theatre class with an orientation and discussed the play August: Osage County we saw last night. We have to read the play script for August and the next play Roaring Trade before a quiz on both next class. Instead of taking the tube back, we walked down Oxford Street back to the flats and wow that street is impressive. There are so many retail stores on that one street it is mind boggling, including all the high-end name brands like Gucci, Prada, Louis Batton, Doice & Gabbana, etc. There are 3 different H&M's on Oxford Street.

From London - January

I was so wiped out that I ended up taking a ~2 hour nap from 6 to 8. Then we did some pre-gaming in the flat and headed out to the club Penthouse in Leicester Square. When we got there apparently Penthouse was closed down, so we got a deal to go into a different club called the Sound for only a 5 pound cover charge. We made our way into our first London club experience. The club was moderately small, with one main dance floor, a bar on the one side, and a couple of other floors for bathrooms and some VIP areas.

We got there around 11:30 or so, and ended up dancing until almost 3am. The SU students basically owned the dancefloor for most of the night. The club was on the small side and the DJ annoyingly switched between songs too fast and overdid the stupid scratch sounds, but overall I had a good time. We went to McDonald's afterwards for some quick food and the took a cab back to Edgeware Road because we didn't want to figure out the bus system. Didn't get into bed until 4am and have to get up at 8am for a tour at the Bank of England from 10-12 tomorrow, ugh.

1/6/09 class, Miley Cyrus at the bar, play, bed

Orientation at 9:30am followed by our first Business Organization class and more class until 4:30 or so. In between classes we walked around Tottenham Court Road a bit and saw a cool buffet place that we should eat at in the future.

At night we went out to have some fish and chips at a bar called the Hole in the Wall before heading to the National Theatre for the play we had to see at 7:15. The bar was nice and served us fairly quickly, I ordered a pint of Leffe beer to go with my food. While we were sitting there See You Again by Miley Cyrus started playing and I couldn't help but laugh. Now keep in mind this bar was mostly filled with middle-aged men getting a pint of beer after work. I am pretty sure if Miley Cyrus played at an American bar, someone would get punched.

We made our way to the National Theatre on a walking bridge over the Thames River. The view from there was breathtaking at night, with Big Ben on the other side of the river from the giant ferris wheel (called the London Eye) and everything was lit up. I was pissed that I forgot my camera and that awesome photo opportunity, I will have to get it some other time I guess and remember to carry my camera around more often now.

(different picture during the day)

From London - January

The play August: Osage County was actually very good and I enjoyed it way more than I thought it would because I usually think plays are boring. It featured several famou actors, one of which was the guy who played the boss in Office Space. The human relationship dynamics of this one family in Oklahoma was very enthralling, with a crazy Grandma tricked out on tons of medication and a pedophile fiance to one of the sisters as well as some apparent incest love. It was basically just 3 hours of Jerry Springer episodes put together on a stage. We got back to our flats around 11:30 and I got a snack and then passed out.

1/5/09 first day of class

The day started out at 10am to the sound of my phone's alarm ringing. I made a full breakfast and showered before heading to the Marble Arch tube station. Had to buy another day pass because our Oyster cards still haven't arrived. After getting off the tube at Tottenham Court Road, we got lost and asked a random British guy for directions. He pulled out a map an apparently we were very close.

From London - January

Sat through orientation and was met with an unexpected extra British History and Culture class afterwards and only 10 mins for a break even though it was lunch time. So we ran to Burger King quick. In class we watched the movie "The Queen" and got an assignment. We went back to the flat on the tube.

From London - January

Andrew and I tried to cook some cheap spaghetti and sauce we bought the night before at Sommerfield's. It had a slimy texture and tasted pretty bad. Later we walked to the Marble Arch tube station and purchased pay-as-you-go Oyster cards. We walked down Oxford Street and stopped in the upscale store Selfridge's. It was full of really expensive designer clothes like Gucci, Prada, and Diesel. But we were there looking for notebooks and a mattress topper foam pad. We stopped at some random small Arabic store on our street for AA batteries and they charged us a ridiculous price of 4.50 for just 4 batteries. Lesson learned, don't buy stuff from those shops because they know you are dumb Americans and will take advantage of you.

On the way back I stopped at Subway and ordered a footlong sub. They didn't take credit cards so I had to bum some cash off JJ. We headed back to the flat and watched some British TV. There was this show called sexcetera at midnight that had some graphic nudity and featured some guy who used to be a girl. It is interesting how the British have a more liberal attitude towards sex and nudity.

1/4/09 Tours of London and first pub

Started our walking tour at 11am which featured many of the famous conspiracies that took place in the area of London we lived in, including the Cato Street Conspiracy. We saw some other interesting places like Madonna's old house and some monuments.

From London - January

Next we came back to the flats and started our bus tour at 1:30pm. We went all over London and saw tons of important sites. We walked around Buckingham Palace where the royal family resides and saw Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. We visited St Paul's cathedral, the interior of which was particularly beautiful, and a church service was in progress.

From London - January

From London - January

From London - January

At night we went to the pub around the corner from our flats named the Duke of York. It was small with a homely kind of atmosphere, and I had a decent tasting pint of some English ale that I don't remember the name of. The bartender poured everyone free welcome to London shots and mine was some licorice tasting liquor. Headed back to the flat and went to bed.

1/2/09 and 1/3/09 flying to London and first day

Got up at 8am and left with Nate to the airport a little after 10am. We got to the Philly airport around 2pm and had to wait for almost 2 hours before we could even check in. We got some food and hung around until we got on the plane at 6:50ish. I was kind of nervous as the plane was taking off because it was only my second time ever flying, and the first time was a trip to Disney World in Florida when I was 7 or something. The flight went fairly well, although my nose was irritated from the really dry air in the plane. I drifted in and out of sleep for most of the flight while listening to music. They served us dinner and breakfast mid-flight and the food wasn't too bad.

From London - January

We arrived at Heathrow around 1am PA time, which was 6am local London time (+5 hours). We had to go to baggage claim and wait for everyone so we didn't leave the airport until almost 8am local London time. Got to the flats and had a long orientation and all I wanted to do was sleep because I was so wiped out, being up for so long.

From London - January

After unpacking I took a quick nap. The flats are in a great location, with only a 5 minute walk to hyde park and oxford street. However, the flats are kind of old and some stuff is in need of repair, my bed is pretty uncomfortable, and I want to find a foam mattress topper to make it more comfortable. The sinks are weird in that the hot and cold water come out in separate streams, so your one hand is burning hot while the other is freezing cold. Whoever thought that was a good idea is an idiot.

From London - January

Then we had to head to Picadilly circus via the tube to get to the restaurant at 4:30pm for our welcome dinner. It was a little confusing using the Tube for the first time, but we figured it out without too much trouble. We had to buy day passes because our student Oyster cards haven't arrived. The restaurant was nice and I ordered salmon for my dinnner. I usually don't like seafood, but the salmon was tasty and the side of mash (potatoes) was decent. We headed back on the tube and then I passed out in bed after some more unpacking.