First Week of B-school

Hi Everyone!

It's Saturday morning. I made it through the first week of the ASU MBA. I had good moments and bad moments, but overall I'm determined to do better next week. Now, mostly for my mom's sake since she's probably the only one that really cares :), I thought maybe I'd run you through what will be a typical week for me. Maybe along the way I'll throw in a few specific experiences, but I'll try to keep it short.

Monday through Thursday:

5:10am - Alarm goes off.

5:11am - Stub my toe on something, turn off my alarm and go back to bed.

5:15am - Wake up to the second alarm and get on my knees and thank God for another new day.

5:20am - Go in our 400 degree bathroom and take a shower using ONLY the cold water (which isn't really cold).

5:55am - After getting all businessy, we head out to wait for my bus. I say "we" because Adria has been getting up with me, walking me to the bus stop and going to fitness classes that start at 6:10! I'm really proud of her, and she's having a lot of fun. This week she did a kick boxing class, a spin class (cycling), and a weight class (which she says she's never doing again, but I'll try to get her there).

6:05am - On the bus and off to school. I'm trying to use this time to review material for the days classes. I usually watch the sun rise from the bus. Once it comes up, there's no stopping that heat; it's 90 degrees almost immediately and it just gets hotter all day.

7:00am - Arrive at school and head to the Graduate Suite to study some more before class and shoot the breeze with some classmates.

The Graduate Suite is a card accessed section of the business building that is just for the graduate students. There's a lounge area, a quiet study room, a small kitchen, a classroom, the IT support center, and about 10 group conference rooms with big 40+" flat panel monitors on the wall. It's a cool area, but it can get crowded sometimes.

8:00 to 9:50am - Class starts. This is showtime. Monday and Wednesday I start the day with Strategic Theory and Tuesday and Thursday it's Organizational Behavior. These are the more "abstract" classes, but I think that's one thing that sets this program apart, the focus on managerial styles and company focus. These are the classes that require strict attention and heavy participation. Pretty much the entire class period is a group discussion led by the professor. Our comments are graded by another student (selected at random at the beginning of the class), and the sum of the points for each day is factored into our final grade. No pressure.

10:10am to 12pm - Let's call this the "drowsy hour" (or two hours). The second classes of the day are the more scientific courses. Mon and Wed we have Statistics and Tuesday and Thursday is Accounting. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy these subjects - or in the case of Accounting, at least understand its importance - but at this point I've been up since 5:15 and been nothing but focused. I live in constant fear of the "head-bob" during Accounting. Fortunately that's the only class of the week that doesn't have any sort of grade for class participation.

12pm to 3pm - By noon, I'm definitely ready for lunch. I'll usually either eat with a team member (they put us in teams of 4), or just sit down next to some other classmates in the lounge. I've made quite a few friends, but I'm REALLY struggling to remember names. Especially the international students names. It's one thing to try to remember Josh, Nate, Mike, etc, but for some of these international students I have to learn to bend my tongue in new ways! Just a sample of a couple of the names: Pongowtham, Nachiket, Guarav, Vineet, Praveen, Dipti, Nikhil (fortunately, he just lets people call him Nik). On the first day of Strategy, the professor had such a hard time with Nachiket that Nachiket just gave up and took his little name plate and shortened it to Nac. These are ALL great people, but it just makes the name thing that much harder. Actually, to make things worse, they all remember MY name. I hope "dude" isn't offensive in Indian, because that's what I've been calling all of them.

Anyway, after eating I try to find a place to study/sleep. It's not easy finding a place to dose off. The quiet study room is the obvious choice (it's a little cooler and it really is dead quiet), but there are times that the space is limited so they've actually put signs up that say you can't sleep in there. I've broken that rule once already. I'm going to start trying to use this time to go to the gym.

3:00 to 5pm - This is when our team gets together to review, prepare, and discuss. My teammates are great. Nate Bernosky is a former school teacher and college basketball player. Mike Stein's background is mostly in sales. And the aforementioned Pongowtham (Gowtham for short) comes from an engineering background, most recently at Honeywell. We get along well. I think at the moment our only hitch is just figuring out the group dynamic that will help us use our time most effectively.

5:15pm - If we finish our group stuff in time, this is the earliest shuttle I can catch. On Monday I didn't catch the shuttle until 6pm, but every other day I got on this one.

6:10pm - Home. The rest of the night is a struggle to stay focused. I did a pretty good job on Monday, but by Tuesday night I already felt like I needed a vacation. Adria certainly wants some attention and I'm more than happy to give it to her. Monday night she made my mom's chicken enchiladas. They were GREAT!! I ate the leftovers for dinner the next two nights. Tuesday Adria went out with the other MBA wives to go shopping, get frozen yogurt, and watch a movie. I was glad she did. I think she feels a little out of place with the group, but it's beneficial for her and me.

10:30pm - Bed time. It's a long day, and it gets longer and longer as the week goes on.

Friday I slept in until 7:15am and caught the 8am shuttle to campus. I met with the group from about 10am to 2pm. Then I went to the rec center and worked out and caught the 5:15pm shuttle home to spend some time with my poor lonely wife. When I told her I was going to be on campus all day Friday even though there were no classes, I couldn't tell if she wanted to cry or hit me. She was happy when I got home.

Now it's Saturday and I have nothing but reading ahead of me. Maybe I can do some of it by the pool.

Day before school...

Hi friends,

School starts tomorrow and I'm really not sure what to expect, so I thought I'd throw down one more blog entry in case things get a little crazy!

Maintenance finally brought an exterminator this week. We're not sure if it helped, though. They sprayed a perimeter around the walls inside the house that kills any bug that crosses it, but that just means that we have DEAD bugs all over the house. We're still sweeping up 10+ crickets a day. Last night I did battle with one that kept sneaking up into the cabinet under the sink and chirping, but it got away. At least we've only had one belly up cockroach and haven't seen any other live ones. They tell us you have to get them into the toilet quickly after they turn on their backs because that's when they release their egg. Sick.

I'll be riding the shuttle to school every morning at 6am, which is going to make for some EARLY days for me. It looks like I won't be catching it to head home until 6pm, so I won't get home until 7:15 or so. I rode it as a test on Friday. I got on with a Chinese boy so I thought I'd impress him a little with some Mandarin; he FREAKED out! He was so excited that he talked to me the entire way to the Tempe campus (over an hour) and took my number and email address before I got off. I'm still the man! Of course, when he asked me how I feel about the situation between China and Taiwan, I realized how much Chinese I've lost and how much more I have to learn.

Adria and I went to the Arizona Temple on Wednesday. We attended a 10:30 am session, but the place was still PACKED! Pretty amazing. Apparently they have plans to build 4 more Southern AZ temples, but they are a few years away. I bought my first set of temple clothes (finally); except for the pants. I'm still wearing Grandpa LeFevre's old temple pants.

Anyhoo, we're doing great down here. Adria is hot on the trail of some jobs, and I'm already super-interested in the things I'm studying. We're as happy as can be, but we're kind of dreading that first electricity bill!

rUss

Sunday Evening Bike

Adria and I went on a bike ride tonight to check out the Polytechnic campus that we're living on. Turns out the pool isn't half bad! The fitness center seems small, but we're thinking maybe there is a basement. While we were riding around a corner a skunk popped out from a bush! We had skunks around Bountiful all the time, but I NEVER actually saw one running around! I got a close look, but not too close. I couldn't imagine showing up to MBA orientation tomorrow and trying to explain why I smelled like I got sprayed by a skunk. The sunset on the way back to our house was amazing! Actually, EVERY sunset here is amazing.



Adria has taken to talking to the crickets in our kitchen and laundry room. Any time she's in there she starts saying things like, "Okay, I'm coming in there now, so you'd better not come out!" or "Who do you think you are, coming in my kitchen?" or "WHY ARE YOU MAKING NOISE RIGHT NOW??!! I'M IN THE KITCHEN!!!" I guess she thinks that she has some sort of deal with them. Even when she's not in the kitchen, she mumbles at them. "You'd better shut your..." or "If I have to come in there, you're gonna be..." At least I think she's talking to the crickets. Sometimes she might be talking to me. Anyway, our kids are going to have to be on edge.



rUss

ASU MBA First Impressions

Yesterday and today were the first two days of orientation for the WP Carey MBA program. So far I've been very impressed by what I've seen. I thought our graduating class was going to be about 160 students (2 cohorts of 80 students), but it turns out that the entire graduating class in only 91 students (2 cohorts of 45/46 people). The entire graduating class fit into one classroom for most of the orientation activities.

The class is very diverse. I've met students from China, Korea, Puerto Rico, New York, Boston, LA, Chicago, and a LOT from India! Like 30% of the class! Did you know that cricket is HUGE in India? Go figure! I've been learning a little about it from the students I've met in return for some information about baseball.

The faculty seem great. They've all been very approachable, and are extremely dedicated to making this a good experience for the students.

I was thinking today that it's probably been since 8th grade that I've been 100% focused on school. I'm really looking forward to giving this program everything I've got!

Funny/Maddening House Stories

I would be remiss if I didn't throw in a couple of stories of Adria adjusting to our new environment :) The first time I turned on the sink in the kitchen, I commented on how we weren't ever going to have cold water out of the tap like we were used to in Utah. She got a concerned look on her face and asked, "Is the water heater broken?" I told her that the hot water worked fine, it's the cold water that wasn't going to come. She still looked concerned and said, "Yeah, but... is the water cooler broken?" Ha ha, she didn't realize that "cold" water is just the temperature of the water in the pipes, and that in Arizona the pipes are always warm! Needless to say, we have a LOT of water bottles in the fridge. I also haven't used the hot water for a shower once!



We also have a little bug problem in the house. We didn't notice them the first night, but on our second night we killed about 10-15 crickets. I was trying to get some preparations done for the first day of orientation, but every 5 minutes Adria was yelling my name from the kitchen to come kill another one. She's sucked it up now to where she'll kill the small ones, but the 2-inch cockroach that crawled into the middle of our kitchen tonight has her a bit creeped out. Me too, to be honest; that thing was freaking HUGE! Good thing I have previous cockroach experience from Taiwan!

Blog Explanation

Hi friends!

Adria and I are now melting away in Mesa, AZ, and we've had a lot of fun things happen over the last several days. We're excited to share those things with our friends and family; unfortunately, there's just a bit too much to fit into a Facebook status or a tweet. No problem! It just so happens that before we left I started this nifty little blog. Everytime I make a new blog post, I'll post a link to Facebook and Twitter (@utesfanatic). I'll also be making posts about other things that I find interesting. If you also find them interesting, please hop on and make some comments. If we're lucky, every now and then we might spark up a sophisticated dialogue (even if it is about the top ten Simpson's episodes of all time).

Thanks everyone!

rUss