Done with Finals!

Section A Post-Finals Rooftop Celebration (gotta love that LA December weather)

I just got out of my last final a little while ago, putting an unofficial close to my first quarter at UCLA Anderson.  I'm not overly optimistic about my grades on the 3 exams this week, but the classes are all curved so hopefully it's alright.  Nothing I can do about it now, so might as well go out and celebrate.  Since Anderson canceled the post-finals mimosas for today (I think some electives still have finals left, so they didn't think it was appropriate) one of the girls in my class offered up her apartment's rooftop to host an afternoon section party.  Other sections are having similar events planned at bars in the area, so depending on our energy levels, we may meet up with other people out on the town later this afternoon/evening.

Another rooftop party picture

It's definitely a relief knowing my class responsibilities are done for the quarter, although unfortunately that doesn't mean I can shutdown on MBA-related activities for the next 3+ weeks. I have to write up stock analysis/recommendations for two assigned stock as part of my application to Anderson's Student Investment Fund, which is due on Wednesday.  There are also 3 summer internship applications due in the next week that I need to put together cover letters and applications for (and I think possibly a couple more due before winter quarter starts).  Additionally, there is a decent amount of follow-ups and logistical issues that need to be worked out for the Career Night I'm helping plan in early January.  And finally, I also should probably prep for interviews which (if I get interviewed for those internships I'm applying for) would take place in early to mid January.  But most importantly, of course, I have a ton of activities planned with friends and family in the DC and NY areas during that time too.  But otherwise, it's going to be a low-key vacation.

We Must Protect This House!

Gonna combine a few random things from the past week into this post.  Sorry, no pictures right now.

Last week Kevin Plank gave a talk at the business school.  I've heard him speak once before (he was the keynote speaker at my undergrad business school graduation), and knew it'd be an interesting talk.  For those who are unfamiliar with him, he's a Maryland alum, and the founder and CEO of Under Armour.  While playing for the Terps football team in the mid 90's he thought that the cotton t-shirts that athletes wore under their jerseys got too heavy and uncomfortable from sweat, and looked to create a new shirt.  He tested out a few prototypes, thought he had something that could work, and then using his grandmother's basement as a 2-man office, he set to start his business.  Fourteen years later, Under Armour is responsible for revolutionizing athletic apparel and has become an industry leader, clearing $1 billion in sales this year.

I always enjoy these type of entrepreneurial success stories, and find them pretty inspirational. Entrepreneurship is pretty big in MBA programs, and at Anderson in particular, so I hear people talk about this kind of stuff a decent amount.  It really makes me wish I had a brilliant idea.  Doesn't have to end up being a billion dollar company, but building up your own idea and turning it into something real, and being your own boss sounds really exciting to me.  But alas, I haven't found that idea quite yet.  (And I have to add the link for the ultra awesome Under Armour commercial from a few years ago, starring Ralph Friedgen)

So segueing into my current planned career path, I attended a nice little invite-only networking with PIMCO (largest bond manager in the world) on Tuesday.  I had attended their company presentation last month, and met with one of their reps for an informational interview a couple weeks ago, which is why I assume I was one of the people picked to attend this event.  The event was held in a lounge in the W Hotel here in Westwood and featured an open bar and some nice horsdevours.  Those perks are nice, but for two hours it felt like a pre-interview (with beer).  For the entire time I had to work the room, rotating around the various PIMCO reps by inserting and removing myself from "circles of death" (our nickname for group of students standing around a company representative at these type of events).  Ask intelligent questions, sell myself, sound eager about the position, rotate to the next person.  Rinse and repeat.  Very draining, and I just don't feel comfortable in this setting quite yet.  And after all that, I won't even know if I get invited to the first round interview until next month.

So that's my last career related event of the quarter (it's going to pick up big time in early January though), and I also had my last classes of the quarter last week.  Crazy how fast it went by.  To celebrate the end of classes, my section's C4C (Challenge For Charity = the big year-long volunteering and fund-raising competition b/w west coast MBA programs) reps organized a happy hour/charity event.  An Anderson alum from a few years ago bought a sandwich shop in Westwood and turned it into a sandwich shop/bar, and he agreed to have our section in for the event.  Two of my classmates guest-bartended, and all of their tips plus a % of all sales during the evening went to the charity.  It was a fun celebratory evening.  I shotgunned a beer inside of a bar for the first time, and better yet, sick children are going to be better off because I did.  That made me feel good inside.  Until I woke up the next morning, and didn't feel that good.  But I digress.  Also, at the end of the evening after the rest of my classmates had disappeared, I stuck around and chatted it up with the owner of the bar for awhile.  By the end of the conversation I really wanted to buy a bar.  Finance is quickly sliding down the list of career aspirations. 

And finally, I don't think I mentioned the update on the roommate situation on the blog.  It turns out since he's getting married in a couple weeks that he'll be moving out over winter break.  He's getting out of his housing contract, so I assume Weyburn will try to fill the spot as soon as they can, but not sure if that will happen right away or not since moving in and out of grad housing mid year is unusual.  Either way, I'm looking forward to it because it's going on 3 am right now, and I can still hear Call of Duty coming in through the walls.  It's been over 15 hours and counting today.

Sports in the Pacific Time Zone

O'Briens Irish Pub in Santa Monica, the local Giants bar

Besides bragging about the sunny weather, I think the LA topic I talked most about with friends before moving this summer was the adjustment to the start time of west coast sporting events.  Since my favorite teams play the majority of their games on the east coast, the consensus seemed to be that it would be really inconvenient to follow my teams on a Pacific Time Zone schedule.  Midweek baseball and basketball games would be starting while I'm still on campus.  Weekend football and college bball games would be kicking off at 9 or 10 am. 

The jury is still out on this one, but so far it's definitely hasn't been bad, and in fact, I might prefer it this way for a few reasons.  The weekdays are typically too busy for me to be watching entire games anyways, but if I get back home around dinnertime, the timing works out pretty well that I can get a bite to eat while watching the end of an east coast game.  I rarely used to watch entire Sunday and Monday night football games b/c they usually didn't end until near midnight, but now when those games end there's still a full night ahead.  Previously, if my teams were on west coast road trips, I wouldn't know if they won until the next morning, but now all games throughout the country are final before I go to bed.  And I've actually enjoyed this football season where the games start up in the morning.  I don't usually sleep in too much anyway, so it's not like I'm setting an alarm to watch football and it seems to clear up much of the rest of the day with the games front-loaded.

Staples Center for Knicks-Clippers

I think I anticipated going to sports bars more often to watch the Giants or other games (oh how I miss you Carpool), but that really hasn't been the case.  That's the one negative I've noticed; that if you want to go out to watch a morning game it's tougher to get yourself, and others, to go to a bar at 10 am.  I did recently find a Giants bar in Santa Monica which I went to last weekend.  That was pretty fun, since everyone there seemed to be transplant New Yorkers and were all rooting for the same team.  It also meant I got to order a breakfast burrito and Irish Coffee.  Not sure if I'll make it out there again with finals coming up and then winter break, but it's good to know for next year.

In other sports related news, I attended the Knicks-Clippers game here in LA a couple weeks ago.  The Clippers live deep in the shadow of the Lakers in this town, so tickets are real easy to come by (a ton of $5 tickets were available on Stubhub). I brought a couple of my friends from class, including one international student who had never been to an NBA game before, and it turned out to be a good one.  Despite it being a matchup between the 5-8 Knicks and the 1-12 Clippers, it was actually one of the most entertaining NBA games I've been to.  Blake Griffin, the Clippers' highly touted rookie, put on an absolute show, scoring 41 points including a variety of spectacular dunks, but more importantly to me, the Knicks had a good showing themselves, and got the victory.  I'm not sure if another Clippers game is going to top this one, so I might as well start saving up now for Lakers tickets.

A Non-Traditional Thanksgiving

Watching some football after our Thanksgiving dinner

Ever since I first went to college nine years ago, Thanksgiving has probably been my favorite holiday.  Whether I was in school or in the working world, that holiday weekend was typically the first time I would head back to NY after the summer and get to see my family and high school friends.  Good people, delicious food, and just the right amount of football is a pretty winning combination in my book.  So naturally after realizing that flights back east would be too expensive this weekend, I was a little sad that this would be the first Thanksgiving that I wouldn't spend in NY.

Since a lot of students aren't able to travel to see their family this weekend or are international students who have never experienced the holiday before, our section tried to match people up with local students to ensure that no one spent the day alone.  I didn't sign up for one of these matchups though since the act of returning to see friends and family in NY was what I enjoyed most about the holiday, so I wasn't interested in forcing some sort of Thanksgiving dinner with a random classmate's family just to say that I did something.  However, it turned out a few of my friends in the class didn't have plans either, so we made some tentative plans to celebrate together.

At least we used ground turkey in the tacos

It didn't get finalized until late this morning, but we managed to get enough people together to play some football.  6 of us (4 Anderson students, 1 roommate, and 1 Sig-O) started playing in Westwood Park around 1 and went for about an hour and a half before the first person had to leave for their Thanksgiving plans.  We played a little bit longer after he left before deciding to start moving on our own Thanksgiving plans.  Since we hadn't done any grocery shopping yet, we headed to the store to buy some food.  Realizing that we couldn't actually buy a whole turkey because of the time it would take to cook, we had to get a little creative.  We threw around a few ideas of meats to cook up but once we saw the ground turkey taco meat, we knew it was meant to be.  To help promote diversity on this American holiday, we picked up a few more taco ingredients, some mashed potatoes and gravy, Mexican beer, and some Canadian pumpkin pie.  We all came back to my apartment, cooked up some food, scarfed down our American-Mexican-Canadian feast, and then watched some football before calling it a night.  It was certainly the least traditional Thanksgiving I've ever had, but I'm glad I had some people to spend it with it and had a good time.

Too much turkey and football means its sleepy time

And I think its a law that you can't make a blog post on Thanksgiving without mentioning something that you're thankful for.  Skipping over some of the lifelong ones (family, friends, health, etc) and some of the obvious ones from the last year (getting into good schools, a safe 4,500 mile road trip, etc) I think I'll go with that I'm really thankful of how small my problems really are.  There is so much stuff going on in business school that stresses us out (and I probably allow some things to stress me more than I should), and so much pressure is put on us, but in the grand scheme of things most of these aren't really all that important.  For example, a week ago my single biggest worry was that I had to give my presentation for my Communications class.  Most people don't like oral presentations, but if my biggest problem at the time was that I had to stand up in front of 20 classmates and talk about college football for five minutes, I think things in my life are going pretty well.

Anyways, I'm still full, sore, and tired, so off to bed for me.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

If You Play With (gun)Fire, You're Gonna Get (wey)Burned

The usual reading material in my apartment

Don't worry, I realize that this title doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Anyways, I don't think I've written too much about living arrangements yet, so it's time to do that.

My room (it's not quite as small as it looks in this picture)

This quarter I've been living in a 2-BR, 2-BA townhouse in Weyburn Terrace, a graduate housing complex a few blocks from UCLA's campus in Westwood.  I didn't have the highest expectations when I moved in, but the unit itself really isn't too bad.  It's definitely small (something around 800 sq ft according to the website),  but it feels a little bigger because of the townhouse setup (bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, living/dining/kitchen area downstairs).  My unit was furnished with some pretty standard furniture, so that was one less thing to worry about when I moved in.

Part of Weyburn Terrace (my building is in the background)

The complex itself is pretty nice.  Mediterranean style housing (I might have completely made that up).  Some of the amenities include BBQ areas, laundry rooms, courtyards with seating and tables, and study lounges.  All utilities paid for.  Parking is extra and kinda expensive.  It's a little further to class than I anticipated (about 20 minute walk to the business school) although there is a free shuttle nearby (still takes 20 mins but saves a lot of walking).  Most of my classmates take that every day, but I prefer to walk except on days when the weather makes that unpleasant or if I have to get dressed up for something.

Living area, w/ stairs, storage area, and kitchen in background

Living area, taken from the stairs

I think I can add this living arrangement to the list of strange random roommate situations I've had in the past, a list that includes: freshman year Brad Rage; junior year with Lance, the high school boy wonder who drank an obsessive amount of Diet Coke and had other way more disturbing habits; and even senior year with Tim who only lasted a couple months in the apartment before dropping out of school.  I get along with new roommate Jeff (2nd year dental student) just fine, and he seems like a pretty normal, nice, easy-going guy during regular conversation, although we don't really hang out at all unless one of us is watching TV downstairs and the other one is eating dinner down there at the same time.  His forever memorable attribute besides the gun obsession (issues of Guns and Ammo and Handgun magazines are all over the apartment, along with plenty of gun paraphernalia) is the video game obsession (all of his video games seem to be gun-related too, btw).  Now I know plenty of people who love video games, but he really really loves them.  And he really really loves his sound system that's attached to the games, and he also really really loves to play online with other people so he's constantly yelling or singing or cackling into his headset, so volume is the main issue.  It doesn't help that Weyburn has really thin walls, but I was hearing gunshots and explosions for hours every day and night.  I've talked to him about it a few times but he seems to forget by the time the next day comes around and he's playing again at the same full volume.  I've had to knock on the wall or door at 1:30 am a few times to get him to turn it down so I could sleep.  I thought it was pretty bad, but it got worse when Call of Duty came out.  I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that he's played that game for 12+ hours every single day since it came out over a week and a half ago.  It doesn't matter what time I get home from class or what time of day it is.  If I'm in the apartment, if he's not asleep, I know with 100% certainty that I'm going to be hearing explosions while he yells commands to his army and complaints that his character keeps respawning in a bad spot.  How he hasn't flunked out of grad school yet I'm just not sure.

Well that's my rant.  In conclusion, Weyburn is nice and convenient, but I would have really preferred if I had gotten the studio apartment that I had applied for instead.

Surfs Up

Definitely not a picture of me

One of my biggest goals that I wanted to accomplish at some point during my stay in Los Angeles (in addition to the relatively less important items like getting a degree and a job) was to stand up on a large object made of foam in the Pacific Ocean.  I am happy to say I accomplished this when I went surfing last month.

Anderson has their own surf club who held a Beginners Surf Day at Manhattan Beach on a Saturday in October.  I figured there would be no better time to knock something off my to-do list, so I signed up and after picking up our rental equipment (wetsuit and a board) we were off to the beach.  A few of the 2nd years gave us about 1.5 minutes of instruction and then told us to get out in the water and like totally hang ten, dude.  It took a little while before I was able to push myself up at all (mostly in a kneeling position) while riding a wave, but over the course of about two hours I was able to get myself into an actual standing position riding small breaks toward the shore.  There were a bunch of dolphins swimming nearby us in the water too which made it extra gnarly.  The water was freezing, the weather was crummy, and I swallowed a lot of salt water, but it was a blast.  It's something I definitely would want to do again, but the rental fees seem expensive (~$45) so if I want to do it with any regularity I think I should purchase some cheap equipment.  I haven't really had a chance to look into it, so I haven't gotten back since, but hopefully I'll make a point of doing that soon. 

Hanging with Sponge Bob at Universal Studios

So that was the highlight of random activities I've done since I've been in LA.  I realize I haven't really described any other non-school related activities since orientation, so I might as well give a short, vague summary to fill in some blanks.  I've actually been using weekends more to relax because the weekdays are so hectic, and there's actually still a decent amount of work to do on weekends, but I've been having fun and seeing different people.  Scattered in the past couple months with classmates there have been various birthday parties, pool nights, bbqs, beach days, and Halloween festivities.  One of my old friends from Cambridge lives in Long Beach now, so I met up with her last weekend, which was especially nice since I hadn't seen her in more than a year.  Also, I've actually hung out with Reich a decent number of times.  A couple weekends ago we played some basketball (and somehow ended up in a 3-on-3 game with some drunk gang members in the middle of the afternoon), and yesterday we spent the day at Universal Studios.  We did their backstage tour first, and then rode the rides and watched most of the shows, pausing only to pose with various mascots. Good times all around. 

Halloween Party in West Hollywood

Business Students Need AA

Graduate students are always celebrating something

Since the last few posts have been rather dry (learning teams, classes and career resources), let's talk about something a little more wet.... like drinking.  Apparently it's a very important aspect of the business school experience.  So much so, that on UCLA's entire campus, the only place alcohol is allowed is in select portions of the business school.  I guess they figure with all the networking they tell us to do, that it would be a little easier if we weren't completely sober.

Most of the time when the school is providing the drinks it is directly for an evening networking event when recruiters are on campus.  The exception is Anderson Afternoons (Fun Fact: many years ago this event used to be called Beer Blast.  I think they changed the name to clean it up, but the initials AA still make it an interesting choice).  This weekly event begins at 4:30 on Thursdays, after most classes are done for the week (there are actually some Thursday evening and Friday electives, but they're rare b/c who would want to take those?).  Sometimes the event is sponsored by a company (so even this could be a recruiting event for some), but all students are invited to meet up in the North Lawn behind the business school to partake in food, kegs, and wine.  The food goes pretty quick, but there are usually still some drinks flowing a couple hours later.  It's a nice opportunity to catch up with students from other sections on events for the week, and start formulating some weekend plans.  Since the Anderson Afternoons during midterms week wasn't going to be attended too heavily, they let us celebrate on the Friday after our last exam.  It was only 11 am, so it featured brunch and a large quantity of mimosas.

The other regular, large scale, Anderson drinking event is the Lit Club on Wednesday nights at a random bar either in Westwood, Brentwood, or Santa Monica.  This isn't sponsored by the school, but all students are encouraged to attend.  Lit is short for "literature" (also cleverly slang for "not sober") and during each event there is a "reading."  Except the reading is actually a power point slide-show and narration roasting other students in the class, usually involving embarrassing photos pulled from Facebook.  The lesson is to avoid getting any compromising pictures taken of you, b/c you never know when you might become a victim of the Librarians.  It's all in good fun (I think), and a way to bring everyone together to have a laugh at yourselves and each other.  When I came to UCLA for A-Days (the admitted students weekend), they took us to a sample Lit Club event.  The event was hilarious and was one of the most memorable parts of that weekend.  I've kinda soured on it a bit since I've been here though, because its always so overcrowded which also makes it's tough to even hear or see the reading going on, and it hasn't been as funny lately anyway.  Also the reading usually goes from around 10:30-11, and I have 8 am classes on Thursdays.  But of course part of the draw is that you don't want to miss a hilarious show that everyone is talking about the next day (especially if you're in it).  These are the type of decisions that make business school so tough.

Career Resources, and How I Became the Director of Something

This is a picture of UCLA students wearing suits.  I don't know who they are, but they look pretty important.  Perhaps one day I'll be in an important looking group photo wearing a suit.

Classes really are just one part of the total equation at business school.  The job search often seems to be the top priority, both from students' perspectives and from faculty's emphasis.  It seemed a little weird to already be thinking about summer internships in September, and although they don't want us applying for jobs quite yet, career preparation started almost immediately which has been one of the toughest adjustments this quarter, but Anderson does seem to do a pretty good job at least letting us know our options, providing avenues to increase career knowledge, and setting up a lot of internal support.  Here's an exciting summary of career related stuff on campus.

One of the first groups we join is an Anderson Career Team (ACT Team).  These are groups of students interested in similar career verticals, who are coached by a couple 2nd year students who just completed their summer internships in that field.  During the two meetings I've had in my Investment Management (IM, for short) ACT group so far, we've discussed events going on in the markets and evaluated some of the biggest investment firms in the area, and our ACT coaches have given some tips on giving stock pitches (an important part of IM interviewing).  I've heard past students say these groups are really helpful, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we get out of it.

The Parker Career Management Center (CMC) is the main source of career related goodness on campus.  They provide career counselors appointments, career workshops and events, but probably most importantly, their website.  In addition to its robust student, industry, and alumni databases, there are calendars on the site of all companies coming on campus with descriptions and deadlines, and job postings for off campus recruiting too.

Every day after classes end there are usually a ton of career-related events going on.  These include professional club meetings, networking events, career workshops, guest speakers, and company presentations.  The hallways are usually a sea of people in the hallways dressed to the nine's getting ready to collect business cards or have their resume ripped to shreds by a career counselor.  I'll admit I probably haven't taken advantage of as many of these activities as I should, but that's mostly just because networking is so darn scary.

I did have one big accomplishment so far though, which is landing the title of "Director of Investment Management" for the Investment Finance Association (IFA) at Anderson.  Although Investment Management is only a relatively small vertical, the IFA is the largest club at the school, and I (along with the other 1st year director) will be responsible for pretty much all investment management-related campus activities, including bringing companies to campus, and setting up training or workshops.  Our big event is the IM Career Night in January, where we need to bring in guest speakers and a lot of alumni and other professionals in the industry to campus for a night of networking.  Most investment management firms don't really recruit on campus (because they usually are smaller and don't have a set recruiting schedule), which makes this event all the more important for people looking to get into the field. It sounds like it will be a lot of work, but it should be pretty rewarding, and it'll give me a head start on networking with alumni and other professionals by having to contact these people early.  And the school has certainly been pushing the buzzwords "leadership" and "networking" on us hardcore so far, so at least I've notched that leadership position early.  Now I just need to work on those networking skills.

I think that's a long enough overview for now of what kind of career resources the school has for us.  Hopefully in the next career update I'll have some exciting stories as I blaze down the recruiting trail.

The First 5 Weeks of Classes

Not the most interesting picture of UCLA campus, but I really liked the sky in this one.

I'm exactly halfway through the Fall Quarter so now that I'm done with midterms, it's a time for a recap.  I'll start with the boring academic stuff, since this is school we're talking about. 

Classes have been alright so far.  They definitely feel a lot more interactive than what I remember from undergrad, but I'll admit that I've been a little disappointed with the professors in the first batch of core classes.  Our Leadership Foundations professor in orientation set the bar real high so there was a noticeable drop off once the Fall Quarter began.  Hopefully the better instructors are hiding out in elective courses.  Our accounting professor makes things more confusing by talking and is kinda a jerk.  Our econ professor is a 20 something Brazilian guy, is probably my favorite because he's hilarious, but he's not really that good at explaining things.  Our marketing professor is a nice older woman who agrees with everything everyone says and since her class is almost entirely discussion based, I honestly feel like I haven't learned anything from her this quarter.  Our stats professor is actually pretty good, but its a pretty dry class.  We also have a communications class and a career class once a week each.  The comm professor actually seems really good, but that class scares me because he wants us to, like, talk in front of people.

The workload has certainly been keeping us busy, as I alluded to in the last post.  However, I think since I took business classes as an undergrad and had studied for CFA tests over the past few years that I have a bit of an advantage this quarter over students who are completely new to the subjects, have language barriers, or have not taken an exam in 5+ years.  Midterms definitely led to a long, tiring week, but I didn't find myself stressing out as much as a lot of other students, and my first couple grades that came in were pretty good. 

Although people found a lot of the exams more difficult than expected, the one test that had everyone talking afterward was the marketing final (it's only a 2-credit, 5-week class which is why we had a final, not a midterm, last week).  The class had been case based, and it was widely assumed that we would receive a new case for the final and have to prepare a write-up like we did for previous cases.  To make a long, not that interesting, story short, we were instead given the case that we were supposed to have read for homework two nights before.  Although this might seem like a gift, especially since it was an open-book, open-note test, we weren't told to bring our old cases or case notes with us to the exam.  Some people did, and already had extensive notes and calculations or summaries written up already.  Others didn't bring the case and had to wait for the professor to print off additional copies (which cut into exam time) and had to basically re-read (or read for the first time) the entire 30 page document before starting their exam.  Either way, people were pretty upset because it seemed to put way too much emphasis (45% of the course grade) basically on one homework reading which had been assigned while all other classes were having their midterms, and people started off the final with a very unlevel playing field.  (For full disclosure: I didn't bring the case or notes with me, spent an hour of exam time just reading it, and didn't create any suggested exhibits to support my write-up because of lack of time.  I'm not overly concerned about my grade though because the majority of people seemed to be in the same boat as me.)

And a final academic update, post-midterms: Our intro finance class started this week to replace the marketing time slot.  The professor actually seemed really awesome (he's head of the dept, I saw him interviewed on CNN the other day, etc).  I found out though that because I've passed the CFA I can automatically waive the course and since it's only a 2 credit course I don't have to replace the credits to graduate.  So rather than hearing the intro finance material for the hundredth time, I decided to drop the class after the first day.  And now my Mondays and Wednesdays consist of one class, starting at 12:45.  I'm going to try my best not to sleep in and be productive on those mornings, but we'll see how that goes, starting tomorrow.

UCLA campus

Team Efficiency

Team dinner at Katsuya in Brentwood

 One of the most important things that happened during orientation was our placement into "learning teams."  These groups of 5-6 students work together throughout the fall quarter on all group assignments and for studying purposes.  The groups were picked for us in a way that was supposed to create diversity (previous work experience and general demographics) so that everyone could contribute in different ways and could learn from one another.  Our team, for example, has two students who were born in Asia (including one who had never been to America before orientation started), and half the team had a more quantitative/financial background while the other half had more of a qualitative/marketing background. 

One of our many team study sessions after class

Anyway, I feel that I really lucked out with my group.  The six of us all have pretty laid back and easy going personalities, and seem like genuinely nice people, so we all get along real well.  It is a little unusual in a business school setting where there are so many A-Type personalities that there is no real headstrong, need-to-take-control members on our team.  In certain group situations that might be a bad thing, but for us the personalities have clicked well.  Even though none of us are too overly obsessed with grades, we've been really good at getting things done quickly and at a high level, which is where our self-given nickname Team Efficiency, came from.

The team dynamic is definitely important since so much time is spent together.  For the first few weeks of the quarter we were routinely meeting for a couple hours after classes 2-3 times a week.  Occasionally, when a lot of assignments were due at once, longer sessions became necessary or meeting up on weekends were advised.  The strength of our group became more evident as we continued to hear horror stories of other teams as the quarter went on, ranging from groups routinely meeting for 6 hours in a day to complete a single assignment, group imposed penalties for people showing up late to meetings, too many fiery personalities in one group leading to a lot of disagreements, or just a general dislike for other group members. Unfortunately the teams switch up each quarter, but for now its all good.  Last week to celebrate our awesomeness and a solid first month we organized a team dinner at a very tasty sushi restaurant in LA (pictured above).

Orientation (aka Camp Anderson)

Section A group shot on Game Day

So I had actually started this post a long time ago but hadn't gotten around to finishing it and then publishing it.

80s party pre-party

I have no idea how it compares to other business schools, but orientation at UCLA Anderson definitely was an interesting experience.  It was a bit of a marathon, lasting 2 and a half weeks with every day spanning from 8-5, and several days lasting a few hours longer into the evening. Amongst other activities, the orientation included icebreakers,  role-playing activities, computer simulations, presentations with Legos, section chant preparations, improv lessons, outdoors adventures, a Section Cup competition including a full day of outdoor games, a luau with lots of pie throwing, skits performances, teaching elementary school children about finances, beach days, free breakfast and lunches, and finally an 80s themed party.  Especially as we started to think about former coworkers who were slaving away in a cubicle while we played dodgeball, trying to win the coveted Section Cup, we wondered are we preparing for business school right now or are we at summer camp?

There is definitely something unusual about a group of 370 adults performing all the aforementioned activities, but oddly I think it all actually accomplished what the school intended it to.  Once the fall quarter starts we will mostly only be exposed to our section (the class is divided into 5 sections of approximately 75 students each who we take all of our fall classes with), so the mix of activities in orientation was a good way to build up section pride but also interact with students in other sections.  Every day's lunch had a different seating assignment to purposely mix us with different classmates, so that we had shared a meal with a large portion of the class by the end of the 2.5 weeks.  The other goal was to get us used to group work and to try to get us more comfortable when working out of our comfort zone (if that makes sense), and through plenty of activities that put us in the spotlight, I think it helped accomplish that too.

I really want to summarize the list of activities that I mentioned in the opening paragraph, but that would take way too much time and space, so I'll just add a few additional details to a couple of the highlights:

Odyssey - This was the outdoors adventure day.  One activity involved climbing up a narrow 3 story pole.  Climbing was easy, but pulling ourselves up to stand on top of it was really difficult.  Once at the top, we had to rotate 180 degrees on this rickety pole with nothing to hold on to and then finally jump off of it on to a trapeze suspended  above the ground.  Yes, we were harnessed in to avoid any real injury, but it was definitely a difficult and intimidating activity. 

Junior Achievement - This was our "volunteer" day where we were assigned an inner city elementary school to teach money lessons to.  Two of my classmates and I were assigned the pre-k class and we taught them about saving money.  It was actually a lot of fun and felt pretty rewarding to work with the kids.  Especially while I ran around with them (in business casual attire) during their recess period, it fondly reminded me of my old Crestwood days.

I haven't even discussed the fact that there was a 5-day, 2-credit class of Leadership Foundations mixed in here.  Our professor was actually really awesome (literally one of the funniest people I have ever met, and a great instructor as well).  Some of the group activities mentioned earlier were actually incorporated as part of this class and there was a lot of case study preparation and discussions too, which we'll be using in Anderson a lot.  Am I better leader because of it?  I'm not sure, but it was pretty fun 2.5 weeks either way.

80s party w/ one of the guys from my study group

The Return of the Blog

I said in the previous post that I had heard that "once business school starts it's a complete whirlwind," and the fact that it took me a month and a half to make this next post I guess that proves that correct.  

I really only advertised this to friends/family as a road trip blog, so with that in mind, and especially with the time elapsed since the last post, I would imagine that my audience has completely disappeared.  But that's alright, because as I said in my very first post back in July, I wanted to start this blog mostly for myself to chronicle the significant changes in lifestyle from my life as an east coast 9-5er to a west coast grad student.  My goal is to keep up the writing so I have something resembling more of a complete work to look back on years from now.  I know I'm going to continue to be super busy with schoolwork and other obligations, so if that means only adding a post a couple times a quarter, so be it.  It might lose some of its effectiveness because the posting won't be immediately after the actual events, but I still think that's better than nothing.

I think that's enough of a service announcement.  I have a month and a half of recapping to do!

Last Week of Freedom

From everything that I've heard, once business school starts it's a complete whirlwind.  The first quarter especially is supposed to be very intense with classes, getting involved in school clubs, recruiting and networking, and just getting acclimated to the student life again. Us first-year students have been warned by everyone in the know to take care of all of our business before orientation starts because free time will be at a premium after that. I think I've used the past week pretty well, both to take care of essentials and to mix in social events to meet a lot of students before everyone is thrown together in orientation.  The way lengthier than I intended summary of the week's events:

Monday
Made my second trip to Target to buy a bunch more apartment things and do my first batch of grocery shopping.  Installed a shelf into my bathroom which I'll probably be charged for two years from now.  One of the UCLA guys from DC that I had met at some of the DC happy hours back in the spring just got into town so we all met up for a quick drink at O'Hara's, the closest bar to my apartment in Westwood.

Tuesday
Made my third trip to Target.  I actually repurchased a bathroom rug which I had returned the day before.  Bought some more imporant kitchen appliances like a toaster oven and coffee maker.  Afterwards I met up with Reich who was at happy hour with a couple of his law school buddies at a wine bar in Culver City, and then got some food in the area.  One the way home I stopped at someone's place who was advertising a cheap TV and printer on Craigslist, the two most important remaining items on my list.  After I had dragged the heavy tube tv back to my aparment  I realized that the spot where the coaxial cable should connect was missing.  I'm still waiting for my refund check in the mail.

Wednesday

Worst DMV picture ever?

I headed to the DMV to get a California license and get my car registered in the state (mostly because this would allow me to get in-state tuition next year), and somehow this turned into a full day event.  I purposely got into Santa Monica early (at 8:45, 15 mins before the DMV opened), but had trouble finding parking.  By the time I got in line I must have been behind 150 people.  It took over an hour and a half just to get inside and get a number.  I was told I had to move my car to get it "verified."  I picked up the car, waited in another line, had it verified, and then found some street parking a good 6 blocks away.  When I got back to the DMV I waited for my number to be called and when it was, I was told I had to get my car inspected.  I brought the car a few blocks away for a smog inspection.  Turns out the trip hadn't treated my car so well, so I failed inspection (check engine light was on, gas knob was damaged, and some other made up problems).  I went back to the DMV anyway because I still wanted my license.  I waited on lines some more so I could be told to wait on another line where I could get my picture taken.  Since the computers at the DMV had broken down earlier in the day the line was quite long.  It took another hour to get my picture taken, and then I had to follow that up by taking a written drivers test, which was surprisingly difficult.  I figured the only way this day could get any worse was if I failed the written test and then had to make a return trip to the DMV to do it all again, but fortunately I passed.  I returned to my apartment 7 hours after I left it, a couple hundred dollars poorer, and still with some car repairs necessary before I could get it registered.

The evening was more fun because it was Wednesday and Anderson always has a Wednesday night get together.  This one was located in Santa Monica (about 5 miles from Westwood), so a girl from my Pre-O trip and I decided it would be a good time to figure out the LA mass transportation system and take the bus.  We had to wait a bit for it to arrive, but it seemed like a fairly efficient system.  Besides the vomit in the seat next to us, and the homeless people on board, it was quite the lovely ride.  It was a pretty fun night out, I ran into most of the people from my Pre-O trip, a good chunk of the DC crowd, and met a bunch of new people (who's names I don't remember, of course).

Thursday
In the morning/early afternoon I took care of some laundry, apartment cleaning, and a trip to the gym (got some serious deja vu/weird feelings about being back in a campus gym).  Later in the day it was time for the first Section A happy hour.  The Anderson class is divided into 5 "sections," where everyone in your section has the same class schedule as you.  These are the people you will be seeing every day, all day, and working together with the most during core classes in the first quarter.  So to help meet people before orientation began, someone organized a happy hour just for our section, Section A.  Around 20-30 people came out (there are roughly 75 in the section) to some bar named Arsenal.  The happy hour was fine, and people seemed nice, but I was a driver and got my very first LA parking ticket during the event.  Didn't read the fine print on the parking sign.  Not cool.  Our apartment complex (Weyburn Terrace) happened to be having a party in the courtyard when we returned so I went to that for a bit, but it was pretty poorly organized.  Beer lines were long, and you had to fight to get any of the pizza they promised to provide. 

Friday
Day 2 of car related activities brought be back to the scene of where I failed my inspection.  I had them fix whatever they could.  They said it would take an hour, but after wandering the neighborhood and coming back after that amount of time they hadn't even looked at it yet.  I decided to hop on a bus and take it down to the beach and killed sometime there, reading some of my orientation homework packet while there.  Finally they finished up the work so I returned to the shop and picked up the car.  The cost was actually not as high as I thought it would be, but they said I'd have to return again before I could pass inspection b/c they had just reset my check engine light and it needed to be driven for a little while first.  Whatever.  I think its healthy not to go out drinking at least one night a week, so I took the evening off.

Saturday
Went to the gym in the morning and then later a UCLA student's home to watch the first UCLA football game of the year.  I was impressed by how large their apartment was, just a couple miles from Westwood.  They're splitting the apartment 3 ways so it was pretty affordable too.  Seems like it might be a regular hangout spot.  UCLA lost a tight one.  I pretended to be really into the game. 

Sunday
I signed up for "The Amazing LA Race" which is basically a local event based on the show of a similar name.  16 Anderson students showed up, which we broke into 3 teams, and there were maybe another 10-15 non-Anderson participants broken into another 3-4 teams.    We were initially given a clue which led us to the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and then had to continually solve a series of puzzles to point us to our next destination and unlock our next set of clues.  The puzzles were surprisingly challenging, and since everyone was feeling pretty competitive we were running around a decent amount.  The game took place mostly in Hollywood, but we were also given two Metro tokens so we could go to Downtown LA and back.  I didn't know any of the other participants, so it was a good way of meeting people in a different setting, while seeing some sites in LA.  Our team rocked and we ended up winning the event, clocking in at around 3 hours.  At the final destination they had some free food and drinks for us, and also a free game of bowling at Lucky Strike, which a few of us stuck around for.  When I got back to Westwood I met one of the DC guys for a couple drinks at O'Haras, and then called it a night.

Monday
Hit up the gym, finally did my fantasy football research, and then tried again to get a cheap TV on Craigslist.  This TV was even bigger and more difficult to carry but at least it worked.  Somehow I was able to get it up all the stairs and into my room, and although its way too big for my tiny bedroom, I'm keeping it.  One of the girls in my section was having a Labor Day BBQ, so I went over to that.  It was a fairly small event, and I got back to the apartment with a few hours to take care of some final things (mostly just writing this blog) before starting up orientation tomorrow morning.

Weekend Kayaking Trip

The Anderson crew for my Pre-Orientation kayaking and camping trip

Fri-Sun (August 27-29)

Traffic jam on the Pacific Ocean

Last weekend's optional pre-orientation kayaking trip was definitely a highlight of my short stay in LA so far.  The roster ended up being 12 first-year students, 1 alumni who graduated last year, and 2 guides.  We met on campus at 7 am on Friday, fought LA rush hour traffic on a group bus ride to the marina, and then took a ferry to Catalina Island.  The ferry ride was a rocky 25 mile trip that left a lot of folks very queasy, but at least we got a scenic look along the way, passing by a bunch of dolphins and whales.  Once on the island we made lunch, packed up our dry bags for the trip and loaded up the kayaks.  I got matched up with one of the girls who had been freaking out at the trip meeting the day before because she was afraid of everything wildlife and camping related.  This made me a little nervous about how her kayaking abilities would be (not that I had any myself), but she ended up being able to hold her weight and was real entertaining to travel with.

View of our campsite from above

We kayaked 4 miles through the Pacific Ocean to our campsite, which was actually a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  There was one part with especially large waves and strong wind, which tried to push us into the rocks surrounding the island.  After 3-4 hours we arrived at our site.  Because of the steep incline on the beach and the strong surf, getting our kayaks to shore and dismounting was also a difficult task.  A lot of people wiped out getting off them, and dragging the kayaks up the shore to a safe spot was pretty strenuous.  Eventually we all made it to the beach, and we set up our campsite.  We started up a fire, cooked some dinner, and then had the expected getting-to-know-you icebreaker activities by the campfire and then went to bed (no tents, just sleeping bags on top of tarps).

After hiking to the top of one of the nearby peaks

We woke up at around 7:30 on Saturday morning, and since the weather was overcast and chilly, we postponed any kayaking/snorkeling activities for the morning and went on a hike instead.  That got the blood flowing, and once we returned to the beach, we went snorkeling for a little while.  Even in wetsuits, the Pacific Ocean is VERY cold.  There were more fish to see than I expected, but nothing overly exciting.  We had lunch and then a lot of people (including both guides) decided it was naptime.  One student is a part time magician, so he put on a short show (plug: for more information check out shahmagic.com).  Afterwards some of of us walked around the beach for awhile and then 4 of us decided to go for another hike.  We made it to a pretty high peak overlooking much of the island, which was really cool.  When we returned to the campsite it was just in time to play "2 Truths and a Lie" followed by what the guides called "The Greatest Game Ever."  It was some weird combination of Pictionary and Telephone.  For anyone in the family reading this, remind me to introduce this game at the next big family gathering over the holidays because it actually was a lot of fun.  We had "fried" mac and cheese for dinner which was surprisingly delicious, and then more campfire icebreaker games before bedtime.

Cooking on the beach

We had to wake up bright and early on Sunday (around 6:30) to eat and then clean up the whole campsite before heading out.  We played one more game (something reminiscent of Simon Says) to get energy levels high before kayaking from the beach.  We made one more stop at a nearby beach to snorkel some more, and then kayaked the rest of the way back to the marina at Two Harbors.  The return trip was considerably easier because the weather was calmer, and everyone was relieved to be back on solid ground in a location that had running water and most importantly, showers (the campsite only had a few portapotties, and no other amenities).  We all took 1.5 minute showers for 50 cents, and then bought some lunch and scarfed it down before the ferry ride back to LA.

Overall, the trip was a ton of fun and I'm very glad I did it.  It was a good opportunity to get to know a small group of other Anderson students very closely in a short period of time before being thrown into a huge group of people during orientation.  The students on the trip ended up being a really fun group and everyone had a good time with each other.  The experience was made better for some people who weren't outdoorsy because of the extra sense of accomplishment of roughing it on the kayaks and in the camp scene.  Although I've done plenty of camping over the previous few weeks, the kayaking was an interesting experience I have never really had before, and camping on a beach was a really cool, new experience for me too.  Waking up to hear the rush of waves, and going to bed without tents with a star filled sky above were definitely very nice aspects of the trip.

Snorkeling picture from underwater

Cross Country Road Trip Recap

I was planning on writing a big recap after the trip, but I've been pretty busy, and honestly not sure what more to write that I haven't said already.  Although I've had vacations that were more relaxing, or fun, or cultural, this is definitely up there with the most personally rewarding trips I've ever taken.  I think contributing to this is that I planned almost the entire thing myself, the activities and sites were so varied, there was a sense of accomplishment (the distance involved, the planning required, the strenuousness of the hikes, etc) and that it happened during a major transition point in my life.

A special shoutout goes to Mr. Kolko for taking two weeks off from work to travel through the middle of nowhere, splitting expenses and driving responsibilities, and hooking me up with baller hotel stays.  Although I actually really did enjoy the few days I had on my own, especially some solo hiking, I would have gone insane from boredom on the road if I was traveling alone, and all of the other activities wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable or memorable either.  Also, very glad that Mark and Tom were able to make it to Vegas to help me end my trip on a fun note.  And finally, thank you to Honda for making a car that even after 13 years was able to handle a cross country road trip without breaking down in the middle of the desert.

And just because I like pointless stats and lists, here are my random stats and favorite and least favorite aspects of the trip.  Honorable Mentions are listed in italics on the lists at the bottom.  If anyone still reads this and has any additional superlatives or stats I should throw in, feel free to post it in the comment section.  Either way, I'll probably add more stuff later if I think of fun categories. 

Days: 20
States: 15
Miles: 4,705

Citrix Comped Hotel Nights: 8 
Paid Hotels Nights: 6
Camping Nights: 5

Ballparks: 3
Amusement Parks: 1
Museums Dedicated to Corn and/or Spam: 2
National Parks: 6
National Monuments: 2 (Devils Tower, Jewel Cave)
National Memorials: 1 (Mt Rushmore)

Approximate Miles Hiked (organized trails): 36+
Gas Expense: Don't want to think about it
Motorcycles Seen: Millions
Times Pulled Over: 1

Favorite
Meal: Tamari in Pittsburgh; Fiddler's Roof in South Bend, IN and Perkins in Rapid City, SD
Bar: Church Brew Works, Longbranch in Pierre, SD
Ballpark: Wrigley Field
National Park: Arches; Zion
Hike: Angels Landing in Zion
Highway Drive: I-70 in Colorado
City: Denver; Chicago
Random Stop: Spam Museum; Notre Dame Stadium and Football Jesus
Hotel Employee: Girl at Rodeway Inn desk (mostly b/c she was hot)

Least Favorite
Meal: Our breakfast attempt at the Custer Campground
Hike: Devils Kitchen in Colorado National Monument (still enjoyable, but more boring than the others, and no great payoff at the end)
Highway Drive: 8.5 hrs from Hoover Dam to LA; Minnesota, Eastern South Dakota, and Wyoming for its boringness; From Kadoka to Pierre and back b/c of its pointlessness
Hotel Employee: Old Man at Dakota Inn in Kadoka (mostly b/c he was insane and a big stupid jerk)

First Few Days in LA

It's been a very busy, although not always the most exciting, first few days in Los Angeles.  I've been trying to balance the time between showing Tom around town while also taking care of some of the more important items on my continually growing To-Do List before Orientation begins in a couple weeks.  Getting fully unpacked and setting up the apartment has been a slow process that I don't think will be close to completion until next week after my Pre-Orientation trip.  Pictures will have to wait until then when things are more set up.

A summary of the activities so far with the first bullet being boring school/apartment related things and the second bullet being more fun LA activities:

Monday
- Unpacked the car; got my apartment keycard, parking keycard, and parking pass; 
- Throughout the day walked around Westwood Village, Hollywood, La Brea Tar Pits and some outdoor modern art exhibits; lunch at In N Out Burger; met up with Adam Reich for dinner at the Grove and then drinks at Little Bar, which was hosting a karaoke night and gay birthday party

Resting up after a hike to Griffith Observatory

Tuesday
- Got my Bruincard; did laundry; extensive shopping trip at Target for some essentials
- Finally made it all the way to the West Coast when we went to Venice Beach for lunch and an afternoon of sunbathing and dipping in the Pacific Ocean; dinner at the Chipotle in Westwood

The building holding the telescope at Griffith Observator

Wednesday
- Took my Debt Management Session/Entrance Exam online so I could complete the Financial Aid process (probably should have been done a long time ago). Also spent 1.5 hours on the phone between FedEx and AT&T to sort out why my iPhone never arrived.  Finally they put a new order in and said it should be here in 3-4 days.  We shall see.
- Sockos for lunch.  Went to Griffith Observatory with Adam and Tom, including a hike from the bottom.  We watched a movie in the planetarium, walked around the exhibits briefly, and took in some of the nice views. Afterward we went to happy hour at Cabo Cantina in Brentwood to meet up with some of the people going on my Pre-Orientation kayaking trip this weekend.  The happy hour was followed by a larger UCLA gathering at Westwood Brewery, where Tom put on his best grad student disguise and networked like crazy. 

Thursday

Santa Monica Pier

- Took my career assessment online tests which were due tomorrow; had a pre-orientation trip meeting at noon on campus, where it became obvious some of the girls in the group did not realize what camping entailed;
- Went to Santa Monica Pier where a 3-day Beatles tribute festival was beginning; walked around the 3rd Street Promenade, an area of Santa Monica that is closed off to traffic with a lot of higher end restaurants and stores, with a lot of street performers outside; had a delicious ice cream sandwich at the famous Westwood eatery Diddy Riese.

Eventually it was time for Tom and I to drive down to Laguna Hills (of MTV The Hills' fame), to meet up with Mark at BJ's Brewery for dinner and a farewell beer.  Tom left with Mark to head back to San Diego area and I made it back to Los Angeles a little after 10, where I had to start my career assessment assignments before heading to bed.  6 am wake up tomorrow for the trip.

Day 20: Hoover Dam and LA

Lake Mead, Nevada

 Sunday, August 22

Hoover Dam

Not a whole lot of details to go into for this day.  After lunch, Mark headed back toward San Diego while Tom and I drove over to Hoover Dam, around 30 miles east of Vegas.  We got stuck in some traffic about 5 miles outside of the entrance because they have an "inspection" stop point.  This really just involved a man pretending to look at your car from the outside and then waving you along, but it still slowed things down considerably.  We did the full guided tour of the dam which was really cool.  We got to see different parts inside, and then also get to peer out from inside of it.  Afterward we walked along the top of it and even further away from California by crossing back into Arizona.  The views from the area were really nice, but it was pretty brutally hot out (something like 110 degrees), so we cooled off by looking at some exhibits in the visitor center.

More Hoover Dam

Around 4:30ish we decided to head out.  The GPS said we'd make it to LA in about 4 hours but we figured we could make it under 3.5.  We were wrong.  Lesson learned is to never drive from Vegas to LA on a Sunday.  It took us 8.5 hours making this the longest drive of my entire road trip, and we didn't get to LA until 1 am (making it Day 21, and a full 3 week trip I suppose).  We only made one stop for dinner at Jack in the Box (we counted 12 of them on our drive from Vegas, so we decided we had to stop at one of them).  I felt bad because I couldn't get into the building without having my new roommate let me in, so I had to wake him up even though it was his finals week.  So much for a good first impression.  He was cool about it though and Tom and I settled in and went to bed quickly.  Tomorrow would be a good day for unpacking.

All smiles despite the extremely long final drive to LA

I was kinda too exhausted and frustrated from all of the day's traffic to let the whole thing soak in that the road trip was over and I had finally arrived in my new home of Los Angeles.  In hinesight from these past few days, it still feels like I'm on the road trip even in LA, because we've done a decent amount of touristy stuff.  It'll probably feel a little more official after Tom departs and I have to actually focus completely on school next week.  But either way, it was a great road trip.  The Civic survived 4,700+ miles on the road and I got a great mix of fun cities and amazing sites along the way.

Maybe I'll throw a bigger road trip recap post next week, but I just wanted to get these in before I head on my Pre-Orientation trip this weekend.

Total miles today: 335
Total miles for the trip: 4,705
States traveled through: 15

Days 18-19: Vegas

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Miles Traveled: 0


(Acknowledgments: Tom Wible contributed to the making of this post)
________________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE:  Ok, I guess some things that happen in Vegas don't have to stay in Vegas, so I'll give a short rundown of the couple days there.

Friday, August 20 - Saturday, August 21 (and a little bit of Sunday, August 22)

Relaxing on the moving sidewalk

Tom's flight had already landed in Vegas hours before I finished up at Zion and started my 3 hour drive to meet up with him.  In that time he managed to make himself a mini expert in the area by walking around multiple casinos, watching the Belagio fountain show 4 times, taking a nap in Caesar's Palace's Sports Book, refilling his Sbarro cup 6 times, and winning a dollar in video blackjack.

Sippin some Long Island's on the Strip

Eventually I made it to Bally's, checked in, and met up with Tom.  We were both exhausted so we took a group nap while we waited for Mark, who had worked a full day just outside of San Diego before driving into Vegas.  He got in at around 10 pm, and we immediately hit up an eatery in our hotel that had $2 hot dogs, and the bar next door which had $3 beers (who said everything in Vegas is crazy expensive?).  We played some blackjack in the next door casino, Paris, and then decided to walk the strip for a bit.  We found an outdoor bar area that served mixed drinks in giant souvenir glasses and found out that the $12 drink is reduced to $6 for all refills.  What a bargain.  One Long Island Iced Tea later (I always remember my roots), and everyone was feeling great as we continued around the strip, making stops at MGM Grand, Press Your Luck slot machines, and New York, New York (remembering my roots some more).  At no point in our trip around the strip or back to the room did anyone pass out nor start to randomly crave reuben sandwiches and soup, and I didn't take any pictures of them doing this. The ceiling was not leaking all over anyone's leg, and you definitely can't request copies of these pictures which may or may not be saved on my hard drive right now.

Atop the Stratosphere

On Saturday, Tom and I spent a quality day at the Paris pool which was quite lovely and was right next to the giant Eiffel Tower.  Mark spent some quality time napping and playing blackjack.  We met up at 5ish to wait in line for the Belagio dinner buffet.  It took us awhile to get in, but it was scrumptious.  We then took the metro to the north portion of the strip.  We first stopped at Sahara for dollar blackjack and some roulette (the only game all weekend I made some money on).  Then we headed to the Stratosphere and did two of the rides (Big Shot and Insanity) off the top of the tower overlooking the rest of the strip, which was pretty cool.  Then we got some dollar beers at Sahara, played some blackjack at Bally's, and then walked the strip some more to cash in on our $6 refills.  It had been a pretty tiring day so we relaxed in some random premium Planet Hollywood seating and people watched the drunk people for awhile before heading back to the hotel.

The Vegas portion of my trip went by fast.  We all lost some money, as almost everyone in Vegas does, but it was a great time.  It was good seeing some familiar faces again after spending the past 5+ days on my own, and the afternoon lounging at the pool was especially relaxing after days spent hiking.  Sunday morning we gathered our stuff and checked out.  Tom and I were headed to Hoover Dam as a sidestop before heading to LA.  Mark had work in the morning and wanted to head directly to San Diego. Either way, I realized the road trip was reaching its end. Also, I shaved Vacation Beard.  Recruiting season is just around the corner.

Final picture of Vacation Beard

Day 18: Zion National Park

Approaching the entrance to Zion National Park

Friday, August 20

Zion National Park

After a continental breakfast mostly consisting of Cheerios at the hotel and a quick gas station run, I made the drive out to Zion, for the final National Park stop of my trip.  Zion has very limited parking and driving options within the park, so they feature a pretty convenient shuttle system with two loops: one making six stops in the nearyby town of Springdale, and one which makes eight stops within the park itself.   I parked my car at the visitor center parking lot and then hopped on the shuttle to head to my first hiking destination, Angels Landing.

For the same reason that I neglected to let the family know I was planning on driving up the treacherous Mount Evans path earlier in the trip so they wouldn't worry, I neglected to describe the Angels Landing hike to them until after the fact (this blog post).  From everything I read about this hike ahead of time I knew that it sounded scary, dangerous, and intense but it was highly reviewed by everyone who had completed it.  I'm really glad how I ended up making this trek on my last day of hiking because this was by far the most fun hike I made on the trip.

The narrow hike up to Angel's Landing

One aspect that made Zion unique from the other parks I had visited was the diversity of habitats.  The Virgin River ran throughout the park and was often visible, and there were also areas of forest, swamp, desert, grassland, and mountains, with a variety of plant and wildlife throughout.  That was one thing that made the early part of my Angels Landing hike interesting, despite an intense uphill trek (the full trail moved up 1,500 feet in around 2.5 miles) in 98 degree weather.   The trail got really interesting though after the 2 mile mark, after reaching a great scenic overlook called Scout's Lookout.  This is where a lot of hikers finish up their path and turn around, because the final half mile or so to Angels Landing requires an extremely steep climb utilizing rock climbing techniques and paths that are in some places only 3-4 feet wide next to straight dropoffs all the way down the mountain.  Chain ropes had been added in recent years to help support climbers in the most uphill sections (not to guard the dropoffs though) because there have been multiple fatalities from people stumbling and falling off the mountain in the past.  After gathering enough courage to continue, I made the slow climb up the remainder of the mountain, and although intimidating it was an absolute blast.  It was definitely intense in the direct sun, and such a vertical climb required a lot of energy.  Also because in some areas two people couldn't fit next to each other, it was necessary to check for hikers returning from the top and plan a path accordingly.

From bottom to top it took about an hour and a half, and the views from the peak were stunning and extremely rewarding.  A nice bonus was that there was so much area at the top that hikers didn't need to just snap some photos and then immediately turn around, as in some lookout points on other trails.  There was a huge area to hang out and relax, and I did this for quite some time, eating my packed lunch while I was there.  The trek down was easier (although you were forced to look down throughout the intense portion of the climb, which was kinda scary too) and I made it back to the bottom about an hour later.

View from top of Angel's Landing

The only major problem I had during this hike was that the lunch really wasn't settling too well in the stomach and during the rope climbing portion of the descent I was getting pretty nervous about what extreme and possibly embarrassing measures might have to be taken to remedy the situation.  Luckily (I didn't notice this on my climb up) something that resembled a single bathroom was at Scout's Lookout.  The facility was extremely lacking to say the least so I had to be a little creative with it.  I don't really feel like getting into any more details here, let's leave this part of the trip in the past.

Narrows hike through a river

Once at the bottom I was pretty tired, and my blister that started the previous day during the Grand Canyon hike had been feeling worse, but I didn't feel like heading out of the park yet.  I shuttled around to the other stops and got off at the furthest point from the entrance to go on a short walk along the river.  Another interesting aspect of this park is that where the canyon narrows at the back of the park the roads and marked paths end and only the river continues further back.  There is one more trail that ambitious hikers can go through called the Narrows which is 60-70% in water, involving walking, wading, and swimming through parts of the river.  Sounded cool, but despite the heat was not something I was interested in for this trip.  I did the 2.2 mile loop that went to the start of the Narrows and back, watched a video at the Visitor Center, filled up some oil in my car, and then said farewell to my last National Park of the trip.  Tom's flight had landed several hours earlier and I still had a 3 hour drive ahead of me.  It was time to shift gears for the trip, and I was off to Vegas.

Here's a decent description of the Angels Landing trail with a lot of pictures better than mine if anyone is interested: http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-angels-landing-trail.htm

Including drive to Vegas:
Miles traveled today: 195
Miles traveled total: 4,370
States traveled through: 14