20.12.06 just what you'd expect

Latenight at the Taco Bell: an American Photo Essay

by Ean and Tasha

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19.12.06 Home for the holidays

I'm back in Seattle for a few days relaxing, staying with Tasha and Keith in their Ballard home. Reba is still in Oxford, because she doesn't have enough time off to come here for two whole weeks. I got home the day before yesterday, and have been doing all the requisite Seattle activities... eating burritos, going to the local coffee shop for a well made latte, etc. I stopped by to see mom and dad on Sunday night, and even went to a show downtown last night with Pat and Julie: El Vez. El Vez is the Mexican Elvis impersonator... wacky stuff. I didn't really realise that he was so political, but mostly he's a silly fag doing a kitchy sarcastic take on the Elvis theme with a goofy East LA latino bent. Oh yeah, and because it's Christmas, there was a heavy santa claus theme involved too. The upshot was a Mexican guy with a huge Elvis Pompadour in an array of shiny vinyl Christmas/fetish outfits singing weird punk rock Elvis song medleys with funny "Latino" title changes. Right on, whatever. Yesterday, I mostly just vegged out and watched The Office episodes on Tasha's couch. I even had a Snoqualmie Brewery Porter... nice stuff. Today I am up at 5:30am, because I can't sleep from the jet lag. I'm going to sushi lunch with pals today, and hopefully go out for beers with lo fi Bri tonight. I also need to finish some Christmas shopping and buy some wrapping paper. And get some clothes at Brooks Brothers... English fancy clothes are just too damn expensive. I decided not to go to France with the MBAs after all: Reba and I are going to have some chill time in the OX1 before school starts up again, and Ean/Reba QT will be good before diving back into the mayhem. This is a bummer because I won't be skiing in France, but it will be for the best. There's really not too much going on right now... just relaxing and enjoying the Seattle lifestyle a bit. Bagels and Javabean coffee today!!!!

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15.12.06 Aftermath

The MBAs played "pub golf" last night. It's big with the Anglo crowd (English, Australians, South Africans, Americans) and somehow involves dressing up like golfers and drinking specific drinks with rules at different pubs. And being really drunk. Highlights include:

• being asked to leave one bar


• being asked never to return to another bar


• One (anonymous) MBA managing to drop a 20 pence piece in her tights... it made it all the way to her foot before she noticed


• Another (anonymous) obliterated MBA being carried home over a mile by his pals, fighting and thanking them the whole way

...and the most brain splitting headache of my life. I didn't even drink that much. I (stupidly) pulled an all nighter Tuesday night, took two tests Wednesday, and then came home and slept until 2AM Thursday. I then got up and worked finance problems until 8AM. By 10PM, my brain just HURT. Reba and I went home early and crashed. Apparently I fell asleep before she finished brushing her teeth.

A word about Reba. Everybody knows how great she is and how much she means to me. But I think a lot of people back home don't know how much she's been supporting me over here, and I want you all to know how awesome she's been. As the term wrapped up and I was spending more and more time cramming on papers and assignments, she was making dinner every night, making sure I had clean clothes and the apartment was clean and livable, getting me coffee to stay awake, taking care of errands, cooking for study groups, and being really emotionally supportive to me when we did get a chance to just sit together and talk. And, holding down a full time job as well. And, while I've been a stressed out wreck. As things stretched into 9th week (exam review, no classes) I started doing 2 day review sessions per subject, 10AM to Midnight. As exam week came up, the really crazy schedule came into effect. Reba was supporting me the whole time, quietly working on her research on the other side of the room or giving me space if I needed it, making food, keeping the rest of my life together and never complaining while I focused on school. We didn't have one argument in the last 3 weeks, and I know it's not because I've been so reasonable and agreeable: I've been a basket case. She's been perfect, meeting me way more than halfway... I'd say she's been meeting me 80% of the way, picking up my slack. This would be a lot different without her, and I believe, a lot worse. I'm so lucky to have her in my life.

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14.12.06 EXAMS ARE DONE!

Exams are done. Yahoo!!! I believe I passed all of them. Finance, Statistics, and Economics, oddly, were the best. Probably because I had (mostly) never seen them before coming here, and spent lots of time on them. Organisational Behaviour was OK, Strategy was lame but passable, and Accounting was probably passable too. HOWEVER, the big point here is that I am done, and without any overt, stare at the page, freak out and hyperventilate disasters. We don't get our grades until mid February, so the proof will come then.

Exams here are totally totally weird. First, you have to wear subfusc, which sounds charming until you think about sitting for an exam wearing a tuxedo. For many hours at a time, four days in a row. Now imagine 214 monumentally stressed out people wearing tuxes for four days in a row, and that most of them DON'T OWN FOUR WHITE SHIRTS. That's right: funky subfusc. Not so damn charming now, is it?

Next, since we are MBAs and on the lowest rung of the totem pole, we don't get to go to the cool old 19th century official exam schools, we get to go to some 70s building in an Oxford suburb called Summertown. This means riding the bus, and also means hanging around in Summertown during the 3 or so hours between exams. Imagine 214 tuxedoed, stressed out, pushy MBAs all trying to cram in that last bit of studying in your quaint little coffee shop. We actually got kicked out of one for loitering. The exam schools won't let us sit in their building either, we get kicked out promptly after each exam. Further, all exams are done in pen, even math exams. What a pain. There are no notes to help you out, just you and your pen and your tuxedo. Add to this that you are not allowed to use your own calculator, but have to use a shitty one provided by the exam school. One guy, I SHIT YOU NOT, had a screwed up one in the row behind me, and every number came out in something like 10 digit exponential form. It was unusable, especially since these calculators only have 3 rows. He had to do all his crazy finance calculations by hand. In pen. The attitude of the exam school staff was, "you should know how to use our calculator". They even made an announcement about it at the end of the class, telling us to come to their "calculator seminar" next time. Poor fucking guy. I lost about 3 minutes from my test just feeling shitty for him. Exam school officials constantly pace the aisles checking and rechecking your ID (which must be sitting on the desk) every few minutes. The exam school concept is, I believe (Andy, correct me here) many hundreds of years old. Their big point is that there is no possible human way you could cheat, and that your papers get graded with total anonymity between students and profs... you just put a number on the booklet, never a name. Exam school staff are very picky about when you may stand, sit, drink water, go to the bathroom, etc. They dismiss us in rows, and yell at us not to speak until out of the building. They congratulate us when we get our exams all in the right slots after the test, and when we empty the room quickly without talking. They also hassle people for not wearing proper subfusc on the way in and out of the exam hall. Apparently, you can get turned away for not wearing it, but I haven't seen that happen. One really big fat guy reads from a pamphlet all about what to do, not to do, how long the exam is, etc., and then says "go". On the first day of exams, the fat guy told us that we didn't have to wear subfusc, there were several other universities in the UK that didn't require it and we were more than welcome to go to them instead of Oxford. The professor is present in the hall, just in case there is an error in the test, or something needs clarification. The have to wear subfusc too, but they get these bigger, fancier robes that are much more Dracula-like and even have a red hood. I've never seen a prof with his hood up, but it may happen in some secret rituals or whatever.

Ok, now it's time to get loaded with the MBAs.

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09.12.06 final stretch

I've spent the last week, 10 am to mindnight, studying at my desk. Financial Reporting, Finance, Statistics, Organizational Analysis, Strategy and Economics. I'm starting to feel somewhat OK-ishly prepared for exams, but sort of waver between assuredness and despair. Shelby says that I need a positive attitude, but she doesn't really understand how negativity and resolve fuse for me. I'd like to think that this is a Hernandez or maybe punky thing, but it's hard to say. Her concern is sweet nonetheless. Reba's been great: cooking, taking care of the apartment, typing away at her biotech and history research quietly while I curse my way through countless Skype calls to co-studiers and stacks of practice exams. FR and Stats exams are Monday AM. By Thursday it will be all over. Reba and I are going to Godstow meadow on Saturday, it's a very beautiful place, and I will take lots of pictures.

a nice view of Oxford: the rain swollen Thames rushing through

my view of Oxford, lately...

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03.12.06 open head and pluralism

Ok, this is going to be brief. We are studying for exams now, and that all begins one week from tomorrow. 6 exams in 4 days. No notes, no take home, no PENCILS, just me and my pen and my subfusc and whatever I can remember about these classes. Friday night was spent on organizing and getting my “developing effective managers” act together. I spent saturday, saturday night, and today going over practice finance problems. They are hard. I am not a math guy. But, the stuff is slowly creeping into my head. Reba is gone to London this weekend for a flamenco workshop, which is good: no one to talk to or distract me. There is a lot more review to go, but I’m making progress. Here’s the neat thing: this last 8 weeks, and especially the last 48 hours, have opened up my head. By this, I mean that I am beginning to be able to see new information, see the structure of it, and retain it in my brain. Normally, life sort of spoon feeds you what to do, what to say, etc., and you don’t have to actually crunch information very often. ESPECIALLY as an IT manager. Sort of like how you watch the history channel, see a bunch of facts and figures, nod your head and say, “that makes sense” and then forget it all 20 minutes later. That doesn’t work here, obviously.

I really noticed this today: I took a break for lunch, went to the Head of the River pub, and read my Oxford history book as a little switch from math. The author made a point about how many early Oxford colleges were founded by bishops, and how their foundation was really only possible because of pluralism and celibacy. I saw the structure there, noted the concepts, and now they’re stuck in my head. Previously, I would have just breezed by that info and couldn’t even tell you that I read it 20 minutes later, much less talked about what pluralism and celibacy meant to english bishops in the middle ages.

I think that the massive information overload coupled with the semi sadistic demands for retention are cracking my head open so that new stuff can go in, and maybe even stay there.

Ok now I will try to get more finance into my brain. CAPM and Portfolio Variance, you little bitches, I am coming back in: get ready.

Me and the Merton Men’s Crew C