"The fancy cars…"

“…The women and the caviar/
They know who we are/
‘Cuz we’re pimpin’ all over the world!!!”

What’s up, y’all. I’m writing this entry from an email terminal in the Hong Kong airport, where I’m having my first layover on the way to Bangkok. I meant to write something up before leaving Palo Alto, but it was a mad dash at the end to get packed up in time to catch my ride to SFO. I swear this place has me buggin’ out and realizing that I need to get my culture game up in the near future. I’ve never been to a place where i’ve seen and heard both English used so prominently and interchangably. Prior to this trip, my only international travel had been to England and St. Martin, both of which required little stretching on my part to feel comfortable in their respective cultures…the next 2 weeks are going to have me like “WHOA!” I’ve always wanted to help kids reach their educational goals back home and I have a feeling that this trip will drive me to expand the scope of those efforts past Virginia and the US into places waaaaaaaaaaay across the oceans in other countries too.

Before I left, I got a chance to hang out with a bunch of my classmates and the kids who are about to start their first year and it got me re-energized about being at the GSB. When i left for the summer, I had enjoyed the experience, but, for some reason, I wasn’t as hype about being there as I was when i first arrived. Reconnecting in Palo Alto with some of my classmates and seeing how excited the soon-to-be MBA1’s were made me get that “I’m the luckiest guy in the world” feeling back again. Now, I’ve just got to get back in the classroom and be ready to throw down so that elation doesn’t turn into another year of “I’m so daggone tired from all this work”.

In addition to sight-seeing and soaking up some good ol’ Asian culture, I’ve got to get my mind back into school mode in preparation for two seminars that will start right after I get back to Cali. Although Fall quarter classes don’t start until the last week of September, the GSB offers 11 or 12 courses during the pre-term called “September session seminars). With the exception of the 4-unit pre-term Touchy Feely class that runs for 2 weeks starting Sept 12, the seminars run for 5 days from Sept 19 to Sept 23 and count for 2-units. These joints cover a wide range of material from women in entrepreneurship to management control and compensation and offer a chance to get a big bang of information in a short amount of time. I’m taking two of them in order to stack up on GSB credits and soften the blow of GSB classes that I’ll have to forgo in order to get all my Education school units in this school year. My seminars, “Understanding Cheating” and “Information in Markets”, should feed right into the leadership and management track that I’ve been trying to develop through the classes I’ve picked so far. Although I’m excited about the classes, each of them assigned a bunch of reading that needs to be done by the first day, so your boy will have to set aside some time from wyldin’ out to get it all done. I guess it’ll be good to give myself breaks from the ridiculousness every now and then.

I’ve got to jump off of this terminal so I don’t miss the next leg of my flight. I’d hate to be stuck here with nothing but the clothes on my back and the readings for my two September seminar classes. I’ll be sure to post another entry as soon as I can get to an Internet-connected computer. Before I go, I’ve got a couple of quick shout outs:

– a “Wow, this is the best airline ever” shout out goes to Singapore Airlines. I’d heard from my man Travis that this was a good airline, but seeing is definitely believing. I’ve never had service this good on an airline before, but that’s not the end of it. The female flight attendants are all DOPE!!!…seriously on some “could have been a model in a past life” stuff. And, the food is better than what I’ve had in some restaurants. Their tickets are hella pricey, but I wouldn’t fly any other airline in the future to come out to Asia

– an “I might have to move out here one day” shout out goes to Hong Kong. As I’ve walked around this airport, I’ve noticed that I’m one of the swolest dudes around this joint. I might have to drop out of Stanford GSB and start a new career in Hong Kong as an “enforcer” for some shady business characters out here 🙂 hahahahahahahahaha