The MBA Student Voice

LA Love

I am now officially a resident of Los Angeles. Sure, I've gotten lost every day I've been here. Sure, I can't tell the difference between the 405 and the 10 (What is a freeway?!). But thus far, I am absolutely loving my new home.

This week I moved into an apartment with two other women from the class of 2014. Our apartment is huge compared to where I lived in New York, and we are all thrilled to decorate and spend time getting to know each other. We're living in the West LA/Brentwood area, so we've already discovered that we're close to many other Anderson students, which is great for socializing and making new friends. We are only 5-10 minutes away from school, so commuting will be super simple too.

I am still overwhelmed with how much I have to do. I'm still waiting for my bed to arrive, and I have a seemingly never-ending to-do list, which includes everything from the infamous accounting assignment to buying a new car. With so much to do, I've had full days, and I have realized my lifestyle of "funumployment" has come to an end.

It has been a long time since I have experience the "first day of school" jitters, but I am already starting to feel them setting in.

In my leisure time, I have been working hard on an hours-long Spotify playlist featuring every song ever made about California, so thankfully my long days have been full of tunes that get me more and more amped up about living in this gorgeous place. If you're interested, friend me on Spotify - I'm k8eddie there too :)

More to come in the next few weeks - don't forget to follow me on Twitter @k8eddie for lots of back to school insights.

Over and out, Kate :)

The Startup of Me

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my Pre-MBA summer reading list which included The Startup of You--mandatory reading for incoming Anderson students. Well, I just finished that book, which makes this a good time to tackle a topic that's been on my mind a lot lately: the MBA career search.

Now if you're reading this and not in an MBA program, it may seem odd that I'm preoccupied with the job search before I've even started school. Perhaps you're thinking what I used to think--that school would give me the time to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation.

Well, I realized soon after accepting my offer from UCLA Anderson that my perception of the MBA career search was way off the mark. As it turns out, the career search ramps up the summer before school begins and kicks off with the start of fall classes. In fact, on-campus recruiting starts right away with information sessions, cocktail hours, days on the job, academic internships... and students are expected to be ready to participate from Day One. This is completely different from my law school experience, where employers are prohibited from contacting first-year law students (and vice versa) until December 1st. 

So what does this mean for a career switcher like me? For one, it forces me to accelerate the process of analyzing my assets, aspirations, and market realities (see, I read the book!). Fortunately, the Parker Career Management Center at Anderson has provided plenty of guidance and tools along the way. I completed an assessment on Career Leader, re-formatted my resume, and signed up for a one-on-one advising session as well as a group info session.

Additionally, the process of mandatory career introspection has made me realize that I'm very risk averse--and I need to get over it! This revelation might surprise some who know me, because on the surface it seems I'm not afraid of risk: jumping out of airplanes, deploying to a combat zone, even leaving behind a military career to go back to school all seem to be pretty risky activities.

But the truth is, I have taken a rather safe path working for Uncle Sam for the past 10+ years. I'm realizing that making a radical career shift is going to be pretty scary for someone like me.

Where does this leave the Startup of Me? Well, I doubt I'll start school with a defined career path in hand. However, I am much closer than I was a few months ago. More importantly, I'm asking myself some tough questions to get an idea of both what I'd like to do and what I'm honestly capable of doing. It's a kick in the pants, but refreshing at the same time.

So maybe switching careers isn't the riskiest thing I've done...

 

 Stay posted to hear about my Parker CMC advising and info sessions!

-Ann Ching, '14

Follow me on Twitter: @annibbler 

 

 

Camping in Yosemite

I love camping in Yosemite. I love it so much I got up before dawn on a cold March morning to make campground reservations. I was glad I did since all the campgrounds sold out within 5 minutes.

 

Usually when people go to the park, they go to the Valley to see Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, etc., but since we had already done that several times we went to Tuolumne Meadows.

 

Were we glad we did! We had 3 days of great hiking, relaxing, and being in the great outdoors!

 

Hiking to see some giant sequoias! 

 

Almost nothing better than dipping your feet in water and changing your socks after a long day hiking.

Listening to a park ranger.

 

Dog Lake!

 

Hiking to the top of Lembert Dome (a mini Half Dome).

 

I'm really excited for my Anderson classmates going on a Pre-Orientation (or Pre-O) trip to Yosemite. Have lots of fun!

 

~Dwight Asuncion '14

Follow UCLA Anderson on Twitter!

 

Top Advice for Women MBAs from the 2012 Forte Conference at Anderson

This summer I attended the Forte Foundation Conference, held at Anderson this year, and I would highly recommend it to all other women MBAs. I've shared some of my favorite advice below from the powerful women business leaders at the conference, as well as the insight into the true highlight of the conference for me: meeting a fantastic group of other women MBAs and Forte Fellows, not just my future classmates from Anderson but also women from other leading Forte schools. The event brought together amazing, intelligent women from a variety of background interested in a variety fields so it was an amazing opportunities to share ideas, hear about their experiences, make friends and compare goals and prospects.

I have had the opportunity to work with with amazing, successful women in primarily female-dominated industry in New York, but it was extremely exciting to talk to women from a wide range of industries with diverse perspectives. While many attendees were on different trajectories than mine, we all had similar goals: career success, life balance, mutual respect, leadership. There was a strong contingency of my future Anderson classmates, as well as women pursuing MBAs from places as varied as Canada at Queen's School of Business and Berkley's Haas to Emory's Goiezueta and UVA's Darden to Northwestern's Kellogg and NYU's Stern. I had insightful conversations with women from international backgrounds, women interested in fields similar to my background and interests like marketing, tech & digital media, entertainment & fashion, entrepreneurship as well as women with more technically trained backgrounds like engineering, computer programming, environmental sciences or from totally different industries like non-profit, education and public policy.

Plus, it was inspiring to hear from successful, powerful women who are already successful in industries I am interested in, powerfully leading fortune 100 companies or starting exciting new, successful businesses of their own. Plus we met representatives from a variety of institutions from Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, AT&T to health-care and pharmaceutical companies (I had a great time at cocktail hour with two ladies from Lilly who were a delight) to energy and financial services (Chevron, Fidelity, Goldmans Sachs, Exxon, Deloitte are all big sponsors). Here is some of my favorite advice given at the conference.

TOP ADVICE FROM POWERFUL WOMEN BUSINESS LEADERS AT THE FORTE CONFERENCE:

 

Joyce Roche & Cathy Coughlin from AT&T, Luncheon Keynote

"Play the hand you are dealt with, and play to win"
    -Cathy Coughlin, SEVP & Global Marketing Officer AT&T 

 

"The difference between a manager & a leader is that leaders sign up up for outcomes"     -Cathy Coughlin, SEVP & Global Marketing Officer AT&T

"Be tough on issues & attack with everything you can, but don't be tough on & attack your people."
    -Joyce Roche, Board of Directors, AT&T & former CEO, Girls Inc.

"Visionary leadership is something that never goes out of style."
    -Joyce Roche, Board of Directors at AT&T & former CEO of Girls Inc.

"My most important advice is this: as a competent woman your voice can and SHOULD be heard. Assert it!"
-Patricia Yarrington, VP & CFO of Chevron

"Today is the most exciting time to work at intersection of small businesses and technology."
    -Cindy Bates, VP of Microsoft's US SMB Organization

"Have an informed viewpoint, and recognize your ability to lead and inspire"
    -Cindy Bates, VP of Microsoft's US SMB Organization

"To be a good leader you have to surround myself with people who bring something to the table that you don't and be comfortable with it. Different perspectives lead to different outcomes that are ultimately best for your company and your customer."
    -Cathy Coughlin, Senior Executive Vice President & Global Marketing Officer AT&T

 

Alison Pincus & Susan Feldman, co-founders of One King's Lane, with Anderson's Elaine Hagan

"Become an expert in something you care about, and then follow your dreams passionately but not recklessly"
     -Alison Pincus & Susan Feldman, co-founders of One King's Lane

"Our digital identity & brand can be more public & powerful than how we’re known & perceived in the physical world."
    -Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD, Principal Renaissance Strategic Solutions

 

"'Technology' is the new horizontal. It is no longer a vertical industry, but is instead horizontal across all industries"
    -Seema Kumar, salesforce.com 

"The most successful technology products are the ones that are most seductive & win your discretionary time"
    -Elisa Schreiber, Hulu (she invented TEDEX)

"The sweet spot for successful tech companies right now is their ability to analyze and translate data into what  the end user does with it in their everyday lives. We need the analytical capability to go beyond number crunching and draw out deep insights that other people can't necessarily see"
    -Jennifer Larson, IBM

"Mobile is the greatest place to be right now for new businesses"
    -Seema Kumar, salesforce.com

Everything said by Anderson's Dean Judy Olian, who opened the conference and moderated several keynotes. I am a huge fan of Dean Olian's & she is a great advocate for women in business. I've heard her speak many times about where women should be vs. where we are, and she has the facts and figures to back up her message that more intelligent women should be in positions of power in business. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, do it!

Ladies, if you haven't joined Forte Foundation already, I highly recommend it. Whether you are pre-MBA or MBA, a women in business or just considering a career in business, check out more about the organization here, and enjoy!

XO from Anderson,
Ashley

How To Move Cross Country NYC to LA: Top 3 Movers, Top 5 Tips & 3 Alternative Ideas

Packing up to leave NYC!

Oh Moving Day! How we loathe you. You always come with your boxes, tape guns and hard-to-reach dustbunnies to make the most emotionally & physically draining exodus of our most valued possessions. Now that my fiancée and I are moving from NYC to LA, we were determined to beat you at your own game and make the move quick and seamless so we could actually enjoy our last week in New York City. 

Here's how we made our move stress-free and are now just tracking the location of our stuff while sitting here on the beach...

I've compiled below my "Top 5 Moving Tips", "Top 3 Moving Companies" as well as "3 Alternative Moving Options" based on our research & experience. So good luck all you gorgeous wayward travelers. I hope this helps you with your move!

XO from Anderson,
Ashley

TOP 5 MOVING TIPS:

1. Pack up boxes with a friend to keep it upbeat & help get rid of clutter (I did it with a friend, a glass of wine and a lot Carly Rae Jepson sing-alongs)
2. Keep the moving hassle-factor low by finding a great moving company you are confident in to do the heavy lifting & answer all your questions
3. Give yourself a limited time period to do the bulk of the work so you force yourself to be efficient. We allotted 3 days to throw things out, sell or donate items not worth shipping and get packed up.
4. Number your boxes and keep an inventory list of key items in each in case you need to claim insurance.
5. Start by donating & sell extra items early so you have extra cash & space, less stuff to move & so you aren't scrambling last minute items. Arrange all your pick-ups in the same time window.

 

TOP 3 MOVING COMPANIES:

Here was our move criteria: Move 2 people's "stuff" and a couple pieces of furniture from New York City to LA (large sectional couch, dining table & chairs, TV & electronics, bookshelves and about 50 boxes of various size). We will pack our own boxes and the mover will do the rest professionally so we can be stress-free and confident that our items will arrive safely when we fly in next week. Our top 3 moving company options:

1) California New York Express
    www.moveeast.com
    888-680-7200
Our winning choice for movers was California New York Express. We had an easy seamless move, and got to spend time with our friends in New York and with family at the beach while our stuff is being driven to LA. Perfect! They were professional, friendly, available, easy to deal with, efficient and had the best rates of any of the legitimate movers we looked into. We dealt with Noel at the company  and he has been absolutely wonderful and available for all questions with an incredibly friendly, helpful attitude. CNYE was recommended by two friends who had used them before with great results. We packed our boxes and had them ready, so CNYE came and in less than 3 hours wrapped our furniture and moved out our items from two separate apartments. It was seamless and easy, and now we can check our email updates about where our stuff is while we are sitting here on the beach!
Delivery: 7-14 days delivery
Insurance: use Baker Insurance, $.60 per item per pound
Packing: They pack furniture and provide any moving supplies needed day-of. They don't charge for blankets, but do charge for bubble wrap, boxes, etc, as used
Pricing: They send someone to your apartment to do an on-site estimate & consultation. The final price was based on how much space your items take up in the truck. Phone estimate was around $2,000, in-person estimate was $3,000 and final cost based on actual volume around $3,500

2) Liffey Allied
    www.liffeyvanlines.com
    212-410-3500
We love this company and had a great experience with them, their staffers, advisors and would book them for another job, but this specific job was not the right fit for us and them. Definitely recommend working with this company, but this cross-country move of boxes and a few furniture pieces that were not highly valuable was not the best fit for us to work with them.  Great company, great people- we'd use them for a range of other scenarios, for example a bigger scale move, moving a whole house, moving more valuable items, etc.
Delivery: 9-17 days delivery
Insurance: Purchase extra insurance at additional cost
Packing: They pack w/ blankets
Pricing: Very professional but based on conversations about anticipated needs, estimated pricing was twice what the other phone estimates were coming in at.

3) Oz Moving
    http://www.ozmoving.com/
They had competitive rates with NYCE and seemed like a good option but came in slightly higher than NYCE in the phone estimate. I have a future classmate who used Oz moving for a similar move and has been happy so far. We felt move comfortable and confident in the movers we ultimately went with as NYCE was super-friendly and professional from the get-go.
Delivery: 8-18 days - 10 day window
Insurance: Baker International Insurance - 800-356-0099, www.bakerintl.com
Pricing: Phone Estimate was around $2200, slightly higher than NYCE

3 ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO MOVE:

Other New Yorkers moving to Los Angles for Anderson went with other moving options. Here are three :

Amtrak: if you only need to ship boxes (no furniture), have a limited budget and need storage at your end destination, Amtrak is a great option. Their service ships boxes incredibly affordably and will store them for about a month at your destination free of charge for you.

Cross-Country Drive: For anyone with only a few things or anyone looking to travel with a friend or see the states, this is a great option. One of my future Anderson class-mates loaded up a truck and drove out with her boyfriend and the reports (and photos) are fantastic. You can't put a price on those memories! I would have loved to make this trip, but had too limited time to enjoy it so we chose to go to the beach while out stuff was shipped instead of driving. Roughly estimating costs (we would have had to hire movers on both ends, rent a truck, stay at hotels) we thought we would end up spending twice what we paid our movers in the end.

Uship.com: Great for tight budgets! This website is wonderful for anyone who wants to get competitive bids and might be happy doing the move more informally. It is really easy to use and you get quotes from people willing to work with whatever specs you put out. I actually used this website to ship my apartment furniture from NYC to my friend in DC for only $300. It was super-cheap, I got a quote and set it up in one day and the delivery was in the exact narrow widow of time we needed. Great! This was definitely not a job by a professional mover and was not as efficient as professional movers, but our best bidder moved a couch, bookshelf, dresser & mirror, chest, armchair, side tabe all for $300 in one weekend. It took quite a while for the man to actually move the items into the truck on both ends, but my friend was thrilled to get the furniture and I was thrilled that it had a good home. 

Relaxing Before the Action Begins

Last time I checked in was on the way to Costa Rica, so this will be a short blog post about the value of a relaxing vacation (whether international or otherwise) prior to the pre-orientation trips, orientation, and school!

My trip to Costa Rica started out with a bang...when the hydraulic support for one of the engines on our plane decided not to start. Three hours later, after two mechanical fixes, two trips back to gate, a deplane and re-board, we departed LA.

A few hours after that we arrived in Houston just in time for me to miss my connection to Costa Rica. Who would have thought that three hours of a layover would turn into an overnight trip? Fortunately, my girlfriend still lives in Houston, so a disappointing flight experience turned into an unplanned visit with her and our dog Campbell. 

(Cam, as we call him, is an adopted terrier mix. Super friendly, super quiet, thinks he's a person.)

The next morning I was back at the airport and finally on my way to Costa Rica. I flew into Liberia, which is a smaller airport on the west side of the country, and significantly closer to Tamarindo (my final destination) than the main airport in San Jose. An hour's drive brought me from the airport to the cabina that I was renting for my trip, where I immediately dropped into a waiting hammock. 

(I love hammocks...perfect place to relax.)

Once I settled into my apartment, I wandered the town to get my bearings, and then proceeded to spend the rest of my trip hanging at the beach. 

 

(My attempt at a photographic shot of the beach through some palm trees.)

I'm a huge fan of the beach as a place to relax and take your mind off of things, which is why I chose Costa Rica as my getaway prior to school starting. I think it's important for people to have the chance to take a breather after they've moved, worked there way through some of the pre-orientation tasks, and the general stress/excitement that comes with starting a new thing. 

Apparently I'm not the only one who thought the beach would be a good place to relax and think... but as shown below, I prefer to do my relaxing with a beer in one hand and a book (or e-book) in the other. 

Having never been to Costa Rica before the trip, I was impressed with the general friendliness of the people in Tamarindo. I was also surprised that there were quite a few expatriates who owned/operated several restaurants, hostels, and surf schools in town - people who had come to visit and never left. 

(A crab tried to join the crew at a local bar one night during some Olympics watching. It made it out of the bar alive...I think. The bar did serve dishes with crab and this one was crawling towards the kitchen. Fate?)

While in Costa Rica, I finished reading The Start-Up of You, which offers a fascinating perspective about approaching your career in a similar fashion to how entrepreneurs establish start-up companies. For more on it, and other good books to read pre-MBA, check out fellow blogger Ann's post!

Right before leaving Costa Rica I found out that my pre-orientation trip had been cancelled (not enough people signed up) and I switched to another one. With the knowledge that I'd still be on the water (I went from canoeing to kayaking), I went down to the beach for one last sunset and mentally prepared myself for all that was about to start. 

I left Costa Rica refreshed and excited... and my excitement only continues to grow as we get closer to school starting. 

Next post will be about my pre-orientation trip!

~Kyle Forrest, follow on Twitter and follow UCLAMBA 

The pre-departure hustle

Just like everyone else, I too am busy packing my bags as the D-day finally comes close. I've been preparing since the last 2-3 months thinking I'll be relaxed during these last days I have at home. However, to my chagrine, I'm far from relaxed. My suitcases are out, patiently waiting to be loaded with everything I'll be carrying for the trip to LA, but I'm busy running around to cross out a few remaining crucial to-do items from my list. While I don't intend to bore you to death with all the minute details, I think it'll surely help to share a part of my list here for posterity. So here they go:

       (Source)

1. First and foremost, catching up with friends and relatives! While its ideal to meet as many people as you can before you leave, sometimes its not humanly possible, especially if like me, one has been working through the last month before departure. Since my last day was only last week and I fly in 4 days, I had to make a lot of compromises here - catching up with only the closest family members and friends who live somewhere close to where I am.

2. Completing post-resignation formalities is a an onerous task. In my case, it involved returning the company assets (laptops, etc.) back, submitting all pending travel claims and shooting off mails to expedite their payment, saying goodbye to colleagues and writing keep-in-touch emails, saving all the soft assets that till now were readily available on the corporate intranet, handing over tax-related documentation for the processing of the final settlement, and several small things I cannot even remember. Therefore,my advice is to resign as early as you can. Do not, i repeat do not, put off resignation till the last moment, and make sure your last working day is at least a month before your departure date.

3. Shopping!! I'm sure this is something almost everyone's busy doing at the last moment, no matter how much in advance you prepare a shopping list. And whew- what a tiring experience this been! Having lived away from home, I thought I won't need to shop a lot and I'll just carry whatever I have at present because thats what I mostly use. However, towards the end I realized I should leave the old things behind and take new stuff with me (literally and figuratively!). This meant I needed to buy a good number of clothes to refurbish my wardrobe, shoes to replace my worn off ones, medicines to replace the ones on the verge of expiry... and the list goes on. 

4. Getting the visa. While the formal process to apply for the visa and then go for the interview is pretty straightforward, its advisable to keep all bases covered. Therefore, before I could submit my application, I made sure I had tangible proofs of whatever I was gonna say during the interview - right from my high school marksheets to financial proofs showing how I proposed to cover the costs of the MBA. And since I claimed to get some portion of the funding from family savings, I had to nudge my dad to get his financial documents in order too!

5. Getting foreign exchange. If you're an international student, you'll have to carry US Dollars to cover your living expenses before your financial aid and fellowship kicks in. Credit cards work pretty well, but the downside of using them is the high conversion rates added to the final bill. There are some other options to offset these charges, such as wire transfer, traveller's cheques and travel/forex cards. Reading about all these, I found the travel cards to be the best and the most hassle-free. In India, you can get a travel card made from any major bank at a nominal one-time fee and at the US Dollar buying rate for that bank. Once you load this card with US Dollars, you can use it at any merchant in the US without incurring any additional charges. You can also withdraw cash from an ATM at a nominal fee for each withdrawal. They can be re-loaded on demand by anyone you authorize back home.

Ofcourse, there are a lot more things in the list and the whole of it won't fit in blogposts alone. For Indians, this is a very useful to-do list, that's reminded me of several things I'd forgotten about.

Phew! I'm almost done and I need to start packing. My next post will be from LA. Woohoo!! 

~Ayushman Jain, MBA '14 (Twitter @ayushman_jain. Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLA_MBA)

Tips to prepare for the move!

I am leaving for Los Angeles on Sunday morning and I have no idea how I will manage to get everything ready on time! I haven't even finished packing yet but I am very excited about moving!

According to google maps it takes 471 hours to walk from my house in Monterrey to Weyburn Terrace in Los Angeles. Good thing I am going by plane!

 Looking back there are a few tips I wish I would have known when I started preparing so I will now share them with all my lovely readers:

 - Inquire your cellphone service company about the procedure to cancel your mobile's phone number. It sounds silly but the cellphone company that provided me service required me to make an appointment to return in one month to cancel the mobile's number.

- Close all bank accounts and credit cards you will no longer be using and do so early. It's risky to even keep savings accounts open if you are not using and monitoring them because banks often change the account's minimum balance or the credit card's fees with just a small note in the account statement or e-mail. If you don't notice or are unable to act on the changes it could result in unwanted charges in your accounts. Your account's information can also be stolen and misused and it is difficult to discuss these problems with your bank if it resides outside the U.S. Some banks even refuse to cancel your accounts if you don't go to the banking center where the account was opened. Plan to do this with time because it can be a long process. I have been trying to close an account for two months and till no luck!

- For the bank accounts of credit cards you want to keep, check the expiration date on the card. You might find your card will expire soon after your arrival to the U.S. and they will probably only mail you the new card to an address in your home country. If you tell your bank you lost it they will send you a new one with a later expiration date.

- If there are funds you need to take with you to the U.S., research about banks in your home country that allow you to open a bank account in the U.S. Airports only let you take a limited amount of cash with you so this could greatly help you move your funds.

- Even if you won't pack till last minute start sorting your things early! It takes longer than you think specially if you have lived in your current place for long or if you are kind of a hoarder (like me). It took me two days just to sort through my accesories! Look at all the ones I gave away, I don't even know where all that came from:

Can you believe I used to wear that pink necklace during college? Yes believe it or not, it's a necklace! I even wore it with a tacky pink sweater and a pink hand bag! In the words of someone very dear to me "Ale, you just needed more pink".  It makes me wonder my judgement back then because I remember thinking I looked cool and stylish!

- If you are renting give proper notice that you are leaving to avoid losing part of your deposit as penalization.

- Make sure to cancel all services you have hired. Think internet, cable tv, newspaper, utilities, etc.

- For those buying a new laptop upon arrival to the U.S. move all your important documents to dropbox, a USB drive or any other storage device you prefer. I almost forgot to do this!

- Make a list of everything you need to buy when you arrive including furniture, appliances, school supplies, groceries, clothes, personal items, etc. This is especially important if you are renting a car to take care of buying these things. You are sure to forget a couple of them if you don't bring a list. It is also useful to research the prices for these items and including them in the list so you can avoid paying over the average price.

- If you are buying furnitre take a measuring tape with you, you will need to measure the space in your apartment and the furniture to know if what you are buying will fit.

- Check in google maps what stores are closest to your apartment or the school and take notes so you know where to head to when you need something. Some of you might not have a cellphone, laptop, or internet set up upon arrival so getting this information might be tricky and getting lost is not fun!


Good luck and if all else fails ask your classmates! Surely some of them are living close to you and happy to help!


-Alejandra Rodriguez '14
Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLAMBA

Making the leap, saying goodbye again and shaping up (?)

That's it tomorrow I'm flying out to LA, well not quite but slowly taking a step in that direction. I arrived in London from Brussels this afternoon and am flying out to Washington DC tomorrow morning. An undergrad friend of mine is working in the White House and offered to show me around the West Wing so I'm stopping over on my way to California for a week-end of catching up and hanging out in BO's house. And on Monday morning I'm leaving for the Best Coast to start the adventure.

This did mean that I had to say goodbye to my friends and family again which is always a bit sad although I should probably be used to it by now. I just spent 3 weeks at home which is the longest I've spent there since my first year of college and I must admit it felt great, I slept like a log in my childhood bed. I also came to appreciate the place I grew up a lot more having developed a much wider perspective on life over the past few years.

My family lives all over now so it gets harder and harder to see them (lil' sis in Montreal, big sis in London, Dad in Lausanne and Mom in Cape Town) and me moving to LA isn't making things any easier so it's been nice to spend a bit of time with them. I also said goodbye to my old roommate in London. He's also one of my best and oldest friends so we went out for dinner with another childhood friend living in London and it feels nice to know I'll always have my closest friends from back home even while I'm making new ones halfway across the world.

Good old Belgian meal - for me mustard crusted pork foot with "pomme frite", for my lovely companion "boudins blanc et noir" with apple and potato purée

Finally, I've been trying (with little success) to get back in shape these past three weeks. When the pre-orientation trips sign-ups were open back in June I was in China and just about to go on a 20km hike up a mountain in one day. I felt great and signed up for a 4 day camping trip in Yosemite to Hetch Hetchy (supposedly very intense). 2 months later after having lounged around a lot, I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge. With other people talking about marathons, triathlons and even ironmen (!!! good luck Kyle), I've been feeling a bit uh... lazy. On top of that I'm hoping to get back into soccer this year. So I started running. Not much but enough to make sure that while I might be the last one up Hetch Hetchy, at least nobody will be carying me up. Luckily for me, I live close to a forrest and fields in Linkebeek and my runs are done where nobody can see me and in a beautiful setting.

My running ground

That's all for now as I better shape up - I'm visiting the White House tomorrow. See you all in LA!

-Chris Varin, 14'

Follow UCLA on Twitter @UCLAMBA

Touring Tokyo

After a phenomenal eight days in Japan, I’m back in sunny Los Angeles and ready to get down to business preparing for Anderson. But first, a quick recap of the Tokyo chapter of my trip (see previous post for Part 1). My brother and I left Kyoto on a high note, meeting up with family friends from Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe for dinner and sake—really good sake. I probably learned more of the Japanese language in those few hours than ever before, including the most relevant word of the week, “atsui,” to describe the hot weather.

Great food, great sake... and peace signs!

The next morning we rode the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo and searched out our ryokan (Japanese-style inn) in a quaint section of town called Yanaka, which is known for it’s more traditional lifestyle and slow pace amid the hustle and bustle of the largest metropolitan area in the world. With home base established, we spent the next few days riding back and forth on the JR Yamanote line checking out each of the famous, and infamous, districts of Tokyo.

In Ikebukuro we found our favorite kaiten-zushi joint, where little plates of sushi move through the restaurant on a conveyor belt. Akihabara was an overload of electronics, arcades, comics and toys. The red light district of Shinjuku was wild, but that's another story for another blog! Harajuku lived up to its billing as a fashion and street style capital of the world. And we snapped a few photos at the famed Shibuya crossing, supposedly the busiest intersection in the world, before checking out the nightlife in that area.

 

Overlooking the city from the Tokyo Skytree.

Although I was unable to meet a couple Anderson alumni due to conflicting schedules, their advice was invaluable as we planned our days; it’s great to see the network in action. I’m particularly excited to get to know some of my international classmates from Japan and elsewhere. One of the great virtues of a business school like Anderson is the variety of backgrounds and diversity of experiences within the program... things you simply cannot replicate by Googling.

And speaking of diversity, in my next post I’ll share a little bit about two amazing programs with which Anderson has partnered to promote diversity and inclusion in MBA programs: Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) and the Consortium. These two organizations have helped me immensely in many ways, and I hope to pass on just a sliver of what I've learned.

Thanks for reading!

- Gregory Paige
  (Follow me on Twitter: @gregorypaige)