Jason's Daily Notes

Short week. What have I been doing? Pretty much nothing. You'd think it feels good to be completely done with exams and everything... and it does. But I don't really have anything to make me get up in the morning. And I don't have many other connections in London to meet up with either. Life just seems really dull. Today I woke up at 8:30am and instead of going for a job, I decided to go out [I had decided that the earlier I do things, the more productive each day would be.]. I wanted to explore more parts of London, so I headed to Westminster at 9am. It wasn't too crowded, and I walked around the Houses of Parliament to Lambeth bridge and further south to the Tate Britain. But it was closed. So much for that plan. So I walked over to Vauxhall, and it began to rain. Sidebar: The weather has been absolutely horrible the last week or so. It's been raining almost everyday, and chilly and windy too. Today, it was especially windy and rain would spurt on every 30 minutes or so. Umbrellas were useless. I took a bus from Vauxhall to Peckham, with a goal of going to Primark to buy a couple things. Sitting behind me on the bus were two loud, shallow sounding American girls, they seemed to be around my age, and they were talking about all of their friends who were now getting married. I resisted the urge to talk to them and just pretended that I wasn't American. I made it to Peckham, and it was still cold and raining. I walked over to Primark, making sure to check in on Foursquare (I was doing that the whole morning. Guess I'm going through that overuse/addiction phase with it now. And it's a way to satisfy my urge to constantly use my iPhone while trying to limit the amount of data I use [I'm still on data roaming in the UK]. The Primark wasn't very crowded, not surprising considering it was 10:30am, and I was able to find some cheap undershirts easily. I also bought a cheap long-sleeve shirt, just because. [And also partially because I feel really underdressed in London. I'm trying to not let the peer pressure get to me, but it's hard. They have a different style here and you can't help but notice. I miss the really casual laid-back attitude of Americans in general.] Anyway, I had noticed that the P12 bus stopped right there in Peckham, so I waited for a few minutes for it, getting pelted with a strong wind and waves of rain showers that soaked my Primark shopping bag. The bus was filled mainly with older people and it took me all the way home in 20 minutes.

The pace of life in London is much faster than I'm used to. The people here walk really fast. Your personal space sometimes just doesn't exist. "Sorry"! My former flatmate was in an accident. She was riding her bike and got hit by a taxi. She broke her collar bone and was rushed to the A&E (hospital). I've visited her twice already, on Sunday and yesterday (Tuesday). It's amazing how quickly things can change in life. Glad she's ok, though! My cousin got married 2 weeks ago. Just thought I'd mention that. Ziva has been staying with us in London since last Friday. My first few days have been chill. Just settling in, and sleeping a lot! I've half-adjusted to the time difference, which means I sleep at a normal (London) time, say midnight, but I wake up at a North Carolina time, which would be around 11-12 London time. So 12 hours of sleep, not bad. My bed isn't that comfortable, though, and the noise from the road can be unbearable sometimes, but every night I've been really tired so it's ok. Everyone at LSE seems really stressed with exams. I haven't met anyone yet. :( I'm not even thinking about my exam, and I don't plan to until June (my one and only exam is on 6th June). I spent Monday in Cambridge. I found a post on CS from a guy (Ethan) that had 2 extra tickets to share. So I pounced on them and joined him (Ziva came too). We woke up early (before 7am) and headed to Victoria Coach Station, where Ethan met us. Ethan is from Taiwan, and he has been studying in Lille, France, for the last few months. The bus ride wasn't bad, it took over an hour just to get out of London. Luckily the bus was clean and there was a bathroom, which I enjoyed. Cambridge was pleasant, but there was much less to do than in London. You're not allowed to go into any of the colleges, which really sucks. For me, this ruins the destination. Thus, I do not recommend visiting Cambridge. The only other thing "to do" is to go punting on the river, and there are plenty of salesmen on the river to make you feel like a horrible tourist. I received my new SIM card on Monday. This meant that I should be able to finally use my iPhone in the UK. But, alas, if only things were that easy. I have to unlock the phone first. But it's still under contract with AT&T, and I'd have to pay the $300 cancellation fee to get it officially unlocked. So instead I could just jailbreak the phone and unlock it that way. However, there's no jailbreak yet for my version of the phone (technically, for the OS I'm running on my phone), but wait! There's supposed to be a new jailbreak released this week (Friday) that will work for my phone. SO BASICALLY I'm waiting for that to come out and I can finally get my phone working Friday. Hopefully. I'm pinning all my hopes on it. ARGH! Yesterday, after coming back with Swag from visiting Maria in the hospital, we decided against going to the movies as we had originally planned. Kristina ended up going by herself, with her friend Mandy (whom I met on Saturday at the O'Neills pub to watch the Champions League final).

I'm back in London. In fact, I've been back for 5 days already. And I haven't had much to do... but that doesn't mean that I haven't been doing much. Today's snapshot. London is cold and cloudy. It's about 13°C (55°F), and it's already the second half of May! I can see why people here complain about the weather. I belong someplace sunny and warm and dry. London is crowded. Really crowded. It's inconvenient. You can't even walk down the street. Going to McDonald's can be an ordeal in itself. London is exciting. There are so many things to do.

It's my birthday! Woot. I've been trying to put together a big celebration, but with everybody leaving Durham it's been hard to do. This past Saturday I joined 2 exchange mates and went to Carowinds, a theme park in Charlotte (actually on the NC/SC border!), and we had a blast! It was the first time on a roller coaster for one guy, which made it even more special. The rides, however, were not as big/extreme as those at Six Flags. Alas, I must be spoiled. Monday I had an eye exam in the morning. It was in North Durham. It was only a routine exam, but it took way too long, over 2 hours! And the doctor was warning me about a lot of things I had never heard before. It seems like she didn't know how to discern information well and was just repeating whatever news she had heard. Too bad that it took too long; I couldn't send Jonny and his girlfriend off to the airport. I did, however, have to sign over his car to the dealership so they can buy it on his behalf. Monday afternoon/evening was a pool party at the Belmont (Kristi and Claire's place). It was bittersweet to see all my exchange friends for one last time. Gaby was about to cry several times! The water in the pool was really cold. I ended up driving the Station 9 guys home.

• 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...

Spring Term 1 came and went really fast, as I might have expected.

Friday, March 2
Flew out from NC. The flight was very bumpy to Nashville, as we flew through severe thunderstorms. The "fasten seat belt" sign was on for the entire 1-hour flight, so not even the flight attendants got up. Nashville airport was nice, or at least the bathroom was; in the 45 minutes that I was there, I spent most of it re-charging my iPhone and iPod. The flight to LA was nice; I got a middle seat (luckily I wasn't the poor guy who had to take the seat next to an obese woman whose fat was flowing over the seat handles). My only entertainment option was to watch The Help on my laptop (it was the only movie I had), which was a good movie, but the noise of the plane made it hard to keep up with the dialogue. A few hours later we were descending into LA!

This was it. After 10 months away, I'd soon be home! The plane descended above the sprawling metropolis, and I pointed out places out the window to the woman sitting next to me (who was continuing onward to Sacramento). I gleefully walked off the plane and headed down to baggage claim to meet my mom, who was waiting for me. As we left LAX, it felt immediately weird to be home. This time, what was most weird was the cars. There were so many cars, everywhere! It was complete chaos. In North Carolina, you would never see as many cars in one place as I saw (and this was at 3pm on the 105 freeway - imagine the 405)!

I settled in to home and soon I was contacted by lots of friends who wanted to catch up immediately! I proposed that we go to the Bucket, and there I met a bunch of friends! It was great to see everyone, and almost overwhelming because none of them had any idea how much I had simply been through (and conversely, I had almost no idea what they were up). So I got a brief update on each of my friend's lives. Then, the waitress informed us that they were out of burgers! WHAT?! F this place, so we just went to Roscoe's in Pasadena. There, it was really crowded (restaurants simply don't get that crowded in North Carolina, and restaurants wouldn't have that much space to begin with in London). So we split up amongst two tables. More catching up - everyone was now working or making real progress with their degree. It was good to hear of everyone being so active. Fernand was driving!

The evening progressed from there to Lucky Baldwin's on East Colorado. We gathered around outside and played octopus into the evening. Then, after that, some people (Matt) went home while we headed to North Hollywood to meet Kevin, whose work friends were out at No Bar. The others should have joined, but some got sick and others simply went home. No worries, though. I met Todd and Patrick, some friends of Ang's. We stayed out til close to closing time, then finally, exhausted, I arrived home.