Grad School Business

Today has been the first day of the hectic that will be my next few years. I have hardly had a moment to myself until now throughout today - two diagnostic exams, lots of powerpoints, lunch, visa check-in. Everyone is very laid back about things, which is good, and the full MBA1 class meets tomorrow. The diagnostic exams went OK - nearly all the answers I had marked incorrect on the accountancy exam are down to leaving a zero field blank, rather than populating it with the figure 0. Frustrating, but the multiple victims of this scorn are pretty confident the school will see past this and not require us to sit the prep course for that. Also, I lost 15 min on the exam because the network connection on the website didn’t like apple machines (tech support - “another apple giving us a problem here”). Cue one 45 minute exam in 30 minutes, though the time was extremely generous to accomodate my problems.

Anyway, right now is a reception with the International Students, beer blast, and true day 1 tomorrow. As everyone seems to say on day 1 - I picked the right school. These 400 or so people are going to be great company for the next 2 years. Who would have thought there would be five Brits? And when will I find Sudha?!?

As if calculus isn’t mindnumbing enough on a Sunday afternoon, I have found out that the GMAC MBA Quantitative Skills CD has the formula for the quotient rule wrong (but applied correctly in the answers). Because they show it as the product rule over the square, rather than with a minus between the terms.

Bound to be endless fun for the none-maths-types preparing for preterm, that. And if anyone wants to know why I only saw this the day before the exam? Well, I like things to be…er…fresh in my mind.

Which is why I am writing this, rather than studying the accountancy CD.

edit - I found that in the lessons section, which I only just looked at, they get it right. In the practice section that I went straight to, it was wrong when the rule flashed up. Pretty bad, all the same

Stern preterm starts tomorrow. We have spent the last few weeks with me visiting canada (visiting a friend and activating my student visa, rather than being a tourist), briefly holidaying, and then gathering items in the midwest to bring to NYC. This can be explained through my gf being from the US, Indiana to be precise, so the last few days have been spent within a 16ft Penske truck on a variety of interstates. My diet is shot, but I have seen some pretty interesting places along the way, and secured (on the fourth macstore!) my Macbook Pro. The one luxury I am allowed, bar two years off work and a masters degree…

To add to the past two months stress, the apartment doesn’t start till Sept 1st. Strangely, all the companies that advertise “1st month free storage” mean it, even if you are going to use the facility for just two weeks. So, the only money that changed hands was the admin fee (moving to the US makes you comfortable with such charges very quickly) and half the furniture rests in New Jersey for a while. They will be picked up two weeks, along with a trip to Ikea. The last time the gf and I visited Ikea our relationship nearly ended. Hopefully the past months have hardened us such that it will not threaten the same this time. Driving a truck through the Holland Tunnel will cause troubles though.

With all this going on I am thankful that Stern are helping with other issues I have to see to - namely photos for the column I will be writing over the next two years. The newspaper want pictures from around campus, and the school are being great in looking into what will work, noting themselves that I will be pressed for time over the next few weeks with pre-term. Not taking into account the waiver exam, and tomorrow being a days study for the accountancy and math prerequisite tests.

Following the last two months, I doubt my life can get busier, but I will just wait and see.

OK, the past week and a half has been crazy. A summary is as follows:

• Been told I couldn’t fly to the US at the gate
• Changed nothing, and entered the US
• Opened a Bank Account (easy as pie - proof of address & ID, away you go)
• Put a deposit on an apartment on the first day of looking -great studio, loft-style, in Chelsea
• Had said apartment fall through due to real estate company problems (nothing to do with me)
• Seen at least 15 apartments that fall into various negative catagories
  • Basements - dark basements
  • Come with the ability to touch all walls from one standing point
  • have a cabinet you have to climb over the get to the bathroom
  • Have the shower in the kitchen such that you could cook and wash at the same time (twice) - NYC multitasking
  • Built walls in studios to make them “one bedroom”
  • Been the shape of a piece of cheese that would allow only custom furniture
  • Been really nice but stretching the budget too far

• Found another apartment that we have (hopefully) rented
• Actually opened the accountancy CD and found out it isn’t that horrendous
• Spent way too much time eye-ing up the computerI am getting, and fully legitimised its purchase to myself
• Having beers with friends (some good times, thank god)

So, as you can probably imagine it has been chaos. Once the lease is signed, I am out of NYC for a little while to study Stats, Accountancy, look at that Math CD and generally try and prepare for preterm. I’ll try to catch up more tomorrow, but I have been running around about 10 miles a day in 90 degree heat to sort this all out, and have said “never again” more times than I would care to mention. But it is nearly, nearly all done now.

I have screwed some things up in my time, but not as spectacular as this.  I am still in UK.  Whole tale to follow, but there are several twists.  It will be sorted by the week being out - unfortunately this blog really can’t be my highest priority right now.  I will be back with the gory details.

It has been hard to find time to post in the past few days, and will remain that way for the next week or so. Last week I finished up at work, with a heavy time of handing over everything I have been working on, checking everything is up-to-date and generally being way too busy of a time when I should really winding down. Following lots of problems with the visa delivery, I got my passport back and promptly tried to open a US Dollar Current Account in the UK with Citi. Having identified an FX Broker that prices as close to market as a private individual could expect (HIFX) I have been looking to take advantage of the rates Cable is reaching. Obviously, not wanting the money to sit in a Nostro that would not accrue interest, I want a dollar account to place the funds.

Moving money to a UK citi account will at least position me with dollar funds to action other items (buy a laptop for one) , but I am still going to have to wait for the US Bank Account to get an apartment. As any future international student will find, you need to be in the US to open a US Bank Account. Common requirements for leases are to have a bank account that is in-state. A pain, but not one I can do anything about.

While I wait in hope that the citi UK dollar account is opened in time (not a sure thing), the past few days have been full of leaving drink. What is left before the flight on Wednesday is to drive my belongings back to my parents, where they will kindly store them. Including keeping the records in a suitable environment, books indoors, and other such requirements I have put upon them with no true entitlement (though of course thoroughly sensible requests). Dropping items round with friends (one is to inherit a decent kitchen armoury it would seem), trying to spend vouchers, completing the car sale, cleaning the flat… I think it is clear why I might not be posting till I get to NYC, and NYC will bring a whole host of actions and problems to solve itself.

The next week will pass quickly round Grad School Business Towers.   Normal service will be resumed shortly, please do not adjust your bookmarks.  It just might be a little slow on updates until a week or two’s time.   I haven’t even started work on that Data & Statistics waiver paper either.

From what I have read around about other blogs, noone has really ventured into the world of shipping items to the US. In my case I cannot face the idea of spending two years without my stereo, some of my books, music and other items that would prove too expensive to replace. Obviously, 2000 records is a bit excessive on the shipping so some moderation is required. Moderation that may or may not serve to help on this form.

If I understand it right, as a non-US citizen you only have to list household goods rather than personal effects. This makes a huge difference if I have it right. The difference between itemising huge amounts of clothes, CDs, records, books, miniature figurine Pete Fowler things, and a whole host of other things as opposed to just five items. Let’s just hope I have got it right.

Shipping will take about six weeks, and is not only quite expensive (though exhibits extraordinary economies of scale), but also shows an incredible variance in quoted prices (some carriers come in at half the price of others). So, if you do choose to ship items, check around. Oh, and 30 cubic feet sounds like an awful lot, but is actually less than one cubic meter. Which is obviously why they don’t use metric in a hope of preying on people with poor skills on volume. GMAC could do everyone a favour and include volume in the maths section. Carriers seem OK that you can change the address to ship to, which helps if you don’t actually know where you will be living quite yet.

In other matters, the Tour de France is looking like it will be the best in many years - going through the Alps early has kept the race wide open. The only disappointment is the peleton’s new found affection of chasing down breakaways in the last few kilometres, leaving viewers quite disappointed when acts of heroism like Bradley Wiggins’ on Friday burn out, and end up in a sprint. Tom Boonen won the stage, which was some consolation following his two year spell of somehow failing to win a sprint. Rasmussen has the yellow and polka dot jersey over the rest day following a phenomenal bit of climbing. We may not have a rider like Marco Pantani any more, but there are still some men who can manage the incredible in the mountain stages.

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Well, after three hours standing / sitting / questioning life in general whilst on the pavement outside the US embassy, an hour or so inside and some encounters with some very nice US Embassy people… it is done.

• F1 visa granted and probably being posted soon
• End to trauma of whether the forms and supporting docs were enough
• Pretty much the final hurdle completed

I will probably cover a bit more later today - I was too tired yesterday, and my shin splints were hurting (from way too much trekking on the TdF prologue day).  Fortunate it wasn’t raining, as it was a seriously long outdoor wait (”applicants are expected to queue outside, even in inclement conditions”).  I would have been better off if I had considered to take a pen, and some food and drink. 

 Pretty much the final thing sorted, except for being able to sort out the spacing on lists in wordpress, obviously.

Today and tomorrow we have the tour de France starting in London - an 8km prologue and then 120 mile stage tomorrow out to Canterbury.  Some colleagues did the preview ride last week, involving a colleague picking his boss out of a bush without knowing it was him.

I am off to Hyde Park to watch, and then will try my best to keep track of it over the rest of the tour.  There are well over half a million on the route to watch already - cycling has really picked up in the UK over the past few years for commuting.  Bike clubs seem to be on the up as the country seems to improve in only one sport, Track Cycling.

It is a good month for sport and events here.  Sadly I will be in NYC by the time that the Red Bull Air Race takes place over the Thames down at Greenwich /Canary Wharf.

Anyway - the first rider is off now.  I will be cheering for Bradley Wiggins.  A legend as a track cyclist over the past few years, he ought to be in with a good shot.  I hope noone hits one of the potholes on the route - there are some, and they hurt me at 20mph, let alone them at 35mph.