Episode VI: Return of Montezuma

Well, after a couple of extremely long weeks, I’m finally back, but I really don’t have too much to report. The week before last we were all put through the class from hell: Strategic Marketing Management. The fortunate thing about it was that the subject matter was actually very interesting and useful. The bad thing was that we were pulling 17+ hour days for about a week and a half, which is NOT the reason that I decided to stay in school!!! We also had a ton of work due last Monday, so after finishing all of that, I feel like a big weight is off my shoulders (at least until this week’s Financial Accounting course, which might as well be called “Shoot Me Now”).

Last Monday was also my 25th birthday (I still don’t know how I feel about that one...), so right after we dumped off almost all of this semester’s assignments so far, most of the class, naturally, came to the Frog and Princess to celebrate. The bar is becoming our home base in the neighborhood, so the manager knows us and treats us well, which sometimes has disastrous results. My friend from the American University of Paris, Sarah, took me out for Italian food afterwards, and then we watched what might be the most awful film I’ve ever seen: “Charade” with Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Walter Matthau and James Coburn. I won’t even get into it, it’s disgusting. The night was great, though, and so was our class last week, Business Economics. Our professor, Dermot McAleese, was an old, cheerful Irishman who was intent on making sure we weren’t too stressed out; he can be described as “Yin” to the “Yang” of last week’s insane professor. The subject matter of the class was unexpectedly very interesting, and the take-home exam he gave us on Friday for completion this weekend is an absolute joke, so everyone was extra happy at our Friday MBA Happy Hour. Unfortunately, we have a lot of work ahead of us in Financial Accounting, which is easily the worst class I took as an undergrad; hopefully the Irishman they’ve brought in this week is related to Professor McAleese in some way or another.

Otherwise, not much has happened over the last few weeks - I’ve mostly just been trying to get work done, but there is a study break coming up soon, so hopefully I can find some trouble to get into then. We have a big MBA Halloween party next Thursday, and AUP is also throwing a Halloween party on Friday, so I’m positive that some stories will come out of the mess that both of those will turn into... I’m in the throes of my first case of Montezuma’s (Napoleon’s???) Revenge since I’ve been here, which is delightful, as always. The best part was trying to describe to the pharmacist what I needed in my broken French/sign language - it wasn't pretty. I think bad fondue was the cause, but who knows. The place where we ate was cool, though; it was a tiny shack on Montmartre hill, where these ornery old guys fed us molten cheese in big pots and tons of wine in baby bottles, as weird as that sounds. Okay, it's time to analyze some balance sheets and income statements - AWESOME! I hope everyone’s doing well over there!