Jason's Daily Notes

• Schoolwork is at the forefront of my mind. With only 2.5 weeks left in the term, it is insane how quickly things are going right now. I just want to enjoy every moment that I’m here. And I am.
• Tuesday night, I joined the other exchange students for an evening at the ballpark. First, I joined Pierre, Christian, and a couple others for drinks at Tyler’s. Time was tight, so as the girls arrived, Pierre went ahead to get the tickets for everyone while the Finns and I finished our dinner. We went to see the Durham Bulls play Charlotte (the Bulls lost 5-0). We went to Tyler’s afterwards for a drink or three.
• Yesterday, I went to campus to go to an optional speaker for our Entrepreneurial Finance class. It was only slightly interesting, and only about 15 people were there anyway.
• It was cold overnight. There was a freeze warning in effect for the area; the first freeze since February. The heater was turned on, and it dried out the air in my room. I woke up and it was already 9:40. Stefano and Jonny had to get to campus for an exam, and Jonny’s car was getting fixed, so Christoph dropped them off while I was still getting ready! Ugh. I tried to rush to get ready too. So Christoph drove back and picked me up and dropped me off at school. Our Social Entrepreneurship class has a speaker from B Lab, which certifies companies as B Corps, showing they have a measure of social commitment. It’s interesting; he’s also speaking this evening, and I might consider going to his other speech.

It's Thursday night and I'm trying to cram my way through reading a case for tomorrow morning ASAP, while my flatmates are already drinking and ready to head out to Selcuk's birthday celebration. I'm also doing laundry, and I have to pack, because we leave for the Smoky Mountains tomorrow! Whew!

My life revolves around reading cases now. I have to read a case or two cases for each class meeting, and at 5 meetings that results in around 8 cases per week. It's draining, because I'm expected to analyze each case in depth right away, and every one is so unique that it simply challenges me. It's draining my energy.

The weather has become colder. I hope it's still pleasant when we're in the Smoky Mountains this weekend.

Today, for my Social Entrepreneurship class, we had the "Impact Investing Exercise." I was part of a social VC and my classmates pitched their business plans to me and my team. It was interesting and fun. Insightful, too. Between that class and my Entrepreneurial Finance class, I'm learning a lot about how startups obtain funding.

Speaking of obtaining funding, my housemate Jonny is currently in the process of trying to obtain additional capital for his own company, Nomos, in New Zealand. He calculated that his company should be worth $4-5 million. How insane is that?! As much as he annoys me, I can't help but feel jealous of his accomplishment. I wish I was lucky enough to be passionate about an idea to scale it up. Everyone is expecting me (or any MBA) to succeed BIG. So I can't just start a company, I have to scale that company up and sell it for multi-millions of dollars within 3-7 years. Pressure, eh?

I've been sort of detoxing all week, after much a massive hangover on Sunday. I'm 80% vegetarian (I had chicken from Chipotle yesterday).

Started the third week of classes in Spring 2 today.
Woke up early - 7:45. Made eggs for breakfast. Uploaded pictures to facebook. Suddenly it was 11am.
I walked to class, conscious that I'd been hogging the car from Christoph, especially since he was really annoyed that I took the car last Thursday. Anyway, walking to campus wasn't that bad all - it only took about 20 minutes!
Gave Gustavo his backpack back. Gave Mikael his jacket back. Gave Abhishek his plug/converter back.
There's so much I don't remember from the party on Saturday. But people keep saying they had fun. That's a good thing, right? Two glass panes on our house's doors were broken - I don't know how. But I for one didn't feel the need to be violent, I don't think.
Lunch at the Fox Center - Indian samosa combo. Not bad, but I'd like more spices please.
Had a behavioral lab appointment this afternoon. It was actually a group thing. Got paid $3.
Rushed through printing out some info for our Emerging Markets team meeting this evening, then rushed through revising our Social Entrepreneurship paper. It looks good, and it's not even due til Thursday!
Entrepreneurial Finance class today was a lecture about "Real Options" - since we weren't discussing a case as a class, I had a harder time than normal paying attention. Even though I was sitting close to the center of the classroom.
Team meeting with Henrik and Irene. We're going to write our term paper on Jollibee. Yay!

I've been hooked on playing Scramble on my phone lately. It's more exciting than draw something, faster than Family Feud, and not as mentally draining as sudoku. (Imagine what the Jason of a year ago would say about my phone obsession now!)

Blink-182 is playing in London in June! I wanna go. I want someone to go with me.
The LA Times website is not letting me access any more than 10 articles a month now. :/ and soon the NYT will do the same. Where will I get my news from?

Ok, gotta read my case for tomorrow...