Live Report

I have decided to try a special kind if post today. A Live report. Courtasy of my Blogger iPhone App.

18:15 First stop: Cold Call.

Walking there I can hear the music playing. Apparently today the LASA band is playing. Just got a phone call reporting that sone food has been set asside for me.


















Good Mexican food. Good friends. Good music. Makes me sad that we are leaving this place soon.

19:15 Marketing and martinis.
The annual marketing club event. You can guess the theme. My friend and i were champions of Cornhole a game i just learned last week.

20:15
Japan and Korea party at the Jefferson Ridge club house.













Saki Bombs, kareoki and Japan/Korean food. I never knew there was such a thing as octapus balls. There's a bet going on about what time the first person will go in the pool. Had the chance to mass sing "That loving feeling" before we left.

11:30
J's birthday party. LASA style. Had to give up TNDC tonight. Thankfully, prioritizing is one of the most important aspects you learn at Darden.

Whitewater Rafting

Twice a year our Outdoors Club organizes (among other things) a rafting trip in West Virginia. We left yesterday and arrived in our cabins at night. WV is an amazing state for those who like the outdoors and the scenery was breathtaking.

This whole week we had temperatures of 31 Celsius, but yesterday afternoon it started to get chilly and I spent the night locating and sealing the holes in my blanket wrap project.

We dressed up heavily with wetsuits and set out to explore New River - one of the two oldest rivers in the world.

We lost nobody although some people did end up swimming the waters. It was a lot of fun and good organization by the new First Year leadership of the club.

We were back in town just in time for the epic section D animal house party in an old (used to be) fraternity house.

And then there were only three weeks left...

From Military to Business

While it has been a while since I finished my military service and I had finished my transition to the business world a long time ago, some of my Darden friends will be taking their first steps in doing so in about a month.

Darden is one of a few schools, along with MIT and NYU that are exceptionally military friendly. The Darden Military Association (DMA) provides the support and experience required for a smooth transition to the private sector and civilian life. Part of the perks is getting to meet some of the more interesting people who have taken this track.

This week the DMA hosted a breakfast with Kevin Sharer - CEO of Amgen and had the opportunity to discuss the transition described above combined with Kevin's life story (he insists his name is Kevin and not Sir) and contrast it with some background reading.

I found Kevin to be an honest, straight to the point, what you see is what you get type of person. When asked about his transition and his life flow that led him to his current position, he replied that "this is usually the first question I get and what you meant is "this guy has a cool job. I want to be like him. If I find out what his formula was, maybe I can do the same"". He then continued and explained that if he told us his story, we'd conclude that he won the lottery. But if we hear other people at similar positions' stories, we'd conclude they wont the lottery as well.

The truth is that life just happens regardless of plans and what we may think they will look like for us. It was nice, however, to hear that he thought (not surprisingly) highly of our military experience that besides leadership traits, has provided us with a high tolerance for ambiguity and independent and adaptive thinking.

Farmer's Market

Today the Charlottesville Farmer's Market has finally returned. For me, this marks the official beginning of spring.

Fresh free-range farm eggs, cheese tastings and the wonderful smells followed by a stroll in the historic downtown mall sipping an iced- mocca on a warm sunny day.

No better way to start the weekend.