whoops!!

I did not update this little guy in well over a month. That changes.......now.

So the last two months found me doing a fair bit of traveling, finishing up my school, securing my internship and seeing quite a few friends. It has been a good time. I finished up my last 2 classes, Mergers and Acquisitions and Doing Business in China and Japan, at the very beginning of June. They were my two favorite classes while at CBS and the M & A class got me especially excited about things. So after these were done, I had time to do a bit of traveling.

I started it off with a weeklong visit to Paris to see my friends Jay and Laura. We were talking on Sunday and they said, "I thought you said you were coming to Paris, you ought to come." Well, I called their bluff, and was there by Tuesday afternoon. I had heard of Springtime in Paris being fantastic, and I found out firsthand it really is. I had been to Paris about 5 years ago and for one reason or another I did not find it to be my favorite spot. That opinion changed with this trip. It was beautiful weather, both Jay and Laura speak some French so we could get around, and pretty much all we did was walk around, look at sights, stop in and eat at great places (there are so many outdoor cafes that I can not come up with a good way to describe it.....just think of a number and then add some. That is the only way I can think of right now), go to different bars, shop around and just really take it easy. I really, really enjoyed myself and am happy that I got to catch up with those two as well.

If I can figure out how to post videos, I will do that. I have a couple from Paris.

After this, I came back to Copenhagen for about a week or so. Since I was done with classes I had plenty of time to walk around the city, go to a few movies (the Squid and the Whale was pretty good) and hang out with a few friends. My friend Shell had some time off as well so we got to hang out which was great. I will now brag on Shell a little bit. She secured an internship where she will be working for a large, thriving company based in Iceland that is looking to expand into China. They have asked her to target 5 - 10 companies to acquire and to have her be a big part of their expansion plans in China. Great job Shell!!

Next starts a small phase where I did a bit of traveling. For my internship, which I will mention a little later, I will be in a Spanish speaking country. So, I decided that I would start the learning process a bit earlier by going to language school in Spain. My friends Justin and Pedro suggested that I go to a school in El Puerto de Santa Maria which is in the Southwest corner of Spain (close to Sevilla and Cadiz). It was quite fun. I flew in on a Sunday and was taken to a local family's house where I would stay for 6 days. Ivan and Anna turned out to be absolutely great. The thinking behind staying with a local family is that you get immersed in the language as they speak it while at home. This was the case most of the time, but because of my very minimal Spanish skills, we also talked in English some. We went to a few bars, to the beach and around town while I was there.

The school was nice as well. Once I stepped foot in the school, English was strictly forbidden so I spent a lot of time making strange gestures and string together caveman-like sentences to get my points across. Rocio and Maria were my teachers and they were great and put up with me so I am very grateful to have had them.

After this was a whirlwind trip up to Oslo, Norway to see my long-time friend from Salem, Ben Sachs. Ben is doing some work up in Oslo and it worked out where I could go and visit him. I really like Oslo. It was clean, pretty, sunny (the sun sets...kind of....at about 2:00 am and then comes up at roughtly 2:26 am) and E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. Burger and a beer = $30 easy. Even though the pocketbook was hit a bit hard, it was well worth it. Ben and I went down to the harbor area (I ended up taking a boat trip around Oslo), watched England beat Ecuador in the World Cup at a huge outdoor TV screen / beer garden place, went to a huge park with sculptures by a famous guy I believe called Munch, and other things. It was good to see hang out there and see Ben.

After Oslo it was Edinburgh for a week to tie up some loose ends around town and to see some friends. I have become adept to paying for housing when not actually living there, and this trait came in handy during my Edinburgh trip because I still had an apartment available to me! It was good to be back to see friends, watch some football, go to a few parties, walk around town and just soak in the city. Hamutal let me crash at her new flat for a few days (as it were, my apartment lease ended during my trip..wierd!) and she lives in a lovely place near Morningside. I did some walking around, movie watching (Thank You For Smoking was great) and then it was back to the US for a month.

July 4th was my arrival date and my family was there to meet me at the airport! From here, it was a few days in St. Louis with Num and Justin, back down to Salem for a float trip !!!!!! on my birthday weekend which saw college friends Todd, Matt and Chrissy come down (along with friends from Salem the Holders, Ben Bradley, Jay Keeney and his girlfriend Shelly, the Gassons and a few others). People poked fun at my choice of beverage on the float trip, a football was thrown around a lot, I tipped 3 times, I lost a pair of sunglasses (they were Chrissy's), Todd fell down in front of a Park Ranger and blamed it on everyone else, and other fun stuff ensued.

The next couple of weeks saw me travel to Jefferson City to see my friend Katie Watts, Kansas City to hang out for a few days with old college friends, St. Louis for longtime friend Amber Gott's wedding, Madison, Wisconsin to check on another dwelling which I pay for but do not live in (my condo, which thankfully is rented out) and to see a few friends, and then back down to Salem to spend the rest of my time with my family. My pal Jody Farthing came down for a weekend also which was filled with golf and much debate on how quickly it takes to go from a 22 handicap to a 6 handicap, from two people that have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

Now, I am headed to Santiago, Chile. And I mean right now. I am in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia as I type because my flight was delayed and I had to spend the night down here. I am headed to Chile to do an internship that will fill my last requirement of my MBA at Edinburgh. I am working for a company called NESsT (www.nesst.org) that is a small consulting firm helping non-profits create a little money for themselves so they don't always have to rely on handouts and grants. That is what I think they do, anyway. It is my first time working with anything related to the non-profit sector so I am excited about the possibility to learn about something absolutely new to me. I got hooked up with the company from an Alum of the Edinburgh MBA program called Gonzalo San Martin. I am headed down for a month of language school (as my espanol es no muy bueno) and then 6 months with the internship. From the internship, I will also write a dissertation (much like a thesis paper) and then I will have my International MBA!!!

I am just hours away from heading to my 3rd continent, 16th country by my count, and a place probably unlike anything I have come across just yet. I do want to document that I really feel do feel fortunate for these neat things that I am getting to do and I'm doing my best to keep that in perspective and keep the "taking for grantedness" to a minimum.

All right. The airport calls, and I must answer!

Looks for updates more frequently! Until next time.