Pisco and Korean Food

I went to a party yesterday. I believe it was meant to celebrate Peru’s independence day but I did not see much related to it. I had a great time though. I met several friends of mine including a good friend who also shares my interest of taking pictures. He took a few pictures with his instant camera and I fall in love with that camera every time I use or see it.

I tried a drink called Pisco, which originally is from Peru. I thought it was okay actually but I only had two of them because it is nothing I would like to drink too much of. We got pretty hungry after the party so my Korean friend brought me to a great place in Korea Town in Manhattan.

The food was excellent and the restaurant was very welcoming. I am not sure what the dishes were called but it consisted of some kind of meat that was fried in the middle of the table. We also got several side dishes, including corn noodles, Korean pancakes, and various vegetables. I will definitely bring my fiancée there some day.

My class in professional selling is dealing with bridge-statements right now. It seems like more than half of the class have problems writing them. Most students are only describing the product and its features without actually adding benefits to it. I found it to be very easy but I guess it is not for some people.

I registered my classes for next quarter yesterday. I got a little upset this time actually. There is apparently a class that will be removed from the course list in two quarters. There would be a chance of me not being able to graduate unless I take it next quarter. The guy who assisted me in the registration problem is someone that always seems to be giving me problems.

I will talk to someone at Berkeley about this next week and I am sure my problems will be solved. I agreed to take the class online but since it is only a three-credit class, I would only take 15 credits, instead of 16, for that quarter. I told him that I would like to take a placement seminar class, which is a one-credit class so that I could save some money but he refused to do that for me and claimed that I would have to wait until the end of my education to take it.

I know this is not true since I have many friends who have taken that class. I am going to speak to the chairperson to have this issue solved. I am not worried about it because Berkeley College always helps me to work out these complications. However, it is time consuming and I am going to go to the bottom of this since this is the second time this person is bothering me. Also, my friend who also needs to take that class was not told she had to take it next quarter.

The weather is still extreme in New York. It was very warm today and right now there is a thunderstorm going on. It is getting less and less surprising and I am almost daily assuming there will be a thunderstorm at the end of the day.

I have been spending a considerable amount of time today doing research for my internship. I am having a lot of paperwork to sort out right now and I am quite confused about how to organize it. I am sure I will find a way though, I just need some time thinking about what information is truly important to the company.

Thunderstorm

I went to Manhattan today to get some sushi. I picked the worst time to do so though because the rain was pouring down. I actually do not think I have ever seen that much rain at the same time. The streets flooded in a couple of minutes and it felt like standing underneath a waterfall. It was very hot outside so the rain was quite warm. However, I started to get very cold when I got on the train because of the air-conditioning.

I hope I will not get sick. I do not get sick much at all actually, which I am happy about. I have had a small headache almost every day this week because of the weather. It has been thunder and high humidity for a while now and it is quite exhausting.

I was hoping I could finish my professional selling project today but I did not have the time to do so. I basically work three days a week because of my internship and I have to do a lot of research right now. However, I worked on my selling project this evening and I am getting pretty close to finishing it.

I made some ice cream today with my new ice-cream machine. It is working really well and the ice cream has so far been delicious. I tried to put Oreo cookies in the ice cream today and that is definitely something I will do again because it tasted great.

I felt my partner and I did pretty well in the management simulation program. However, I compared our results with a few other students and saw that a few students’ profits were much higher than ours. It has really confused me because I cannot find any way to reduce costs anymore. I am really trying to analyze the financial statements and other indicators but I guess I am missing something.

I will try to go over it one more time tonight. Our class will restart the simulation in tomorrow’s class because our professor wants us to try a second time now that we know how it works. I am a little nervous that I will not come up with better numbers, but I will discuss the situation with my partner tomorrow and I hope she has a few good ideas.

I do admit that I did not spend enough time on this class. It started off pretty slowly and I thought I would be able to handle it pretty well. I actually think that if the professor would let us run the business for a few more periods, I would be able to increase the profit significantly because I have made decisions that will affect my company in the long-term rather than in the short-run.

What I hope is that the students who have made huge profits so far has done it to the expense of the long-term profitability of their firms. Maybe their businesses will bankrupt in the future because of severe cut downs and layoffs. It will be a few more weeks before I know if that is the case.

Group Project

I never had the test in international trade. Instead, we will be tested on Thursday. I am not sure I trust my professor anymore but he is a very knowledgeable and intelligent person. I had to introduce my group’s project to him today and we were not very prepared for it. However, I managed to present it to him in a very detailed way.

My group has been quite passive. I emailed my group yesterday because we had to come up with a product and a target audience. After thinking for a few days I came up with a good idea to import instant cameras from Korea. I messaged my group about it and they agreed to it.

However, we did not have time to talk about it before class today so I was left out to explain to the class and to the professor what our idea was. My professor liked the idea and I think it will be a fun and interesting project to work on. I surprised myself when answering my professor’s questions actually, but I guess I picked up a lot in my marketing classes that I did not really think about.

I will have a test next week in ethics. It will cover a lot including utilitarianism, consequentialism, and virtue ethics. Our class discussions are extremely fun and my professor makes everything challenging with questions like: “is it right to torture a randomly chosen person for 50 years if it would lead to 100% happiness on earth?

I have started to work out again. I am using an exercise bike I bought online from Modell’s a few months ago. It is extremely hot inside my apartment because of the weather, but I guess it is a good thing since it helps me burn more calories.

I have not had the time to watch TV lately. However, there are two shows that I enjoy watching: Hell’s Kitchen and America’s Got Talent. Both are broadcasted on Tuesday’s so I try to find time to watch them. It is exceedingly comfortable to be able to take a few hours off from studying or working at least ones a week.

I need to register for next quarter this week. It feels like I just started this quarter but I guess it is good to prepare well in advance. I am not sure what classes I will take for next quarter but I will probably start planning for it later tonight or tomorrow. I would like to take political science but I am not sure it is available yet.

I will go to a party on Thursday to celebrate Peru’s independence day. My friend invited me and I have no idea of what to expect. It sounds like it could be fun though so I will go there to network and to meet some new people. I will see if I can take some picture to post on the blog.

Studying

Doing an internship at the same time as being a full-time student is pretty tough. I have reading and assignments to do seven days a week and I do not have much time over to do other things.

I have spent a considerable amount of time on my online class. Many people would assume that online classes are easier but I can assure that that is not the case. I am currently writing a paper for that class and it takes time to put everything down and to analyze decisions.

I was doing the weekly quiz online last night. It took me about an hour to read the chapters and after about 45 minutes of doing the test, the server went down. When this happens, students cannot finish the test because it is impossible to take it more than ones.

I contacted my professor and he let me answer the last questions via email, which was a relief since I had spent so much time on answering all the questions. I got 92% on the test, which I feel is perfectly okay. I also won a challenge together with five other classmates, boosting my worst score to a 100%.

I had to analyze people’s arguments from the Google discussion and pick the best five. It actually took a while to do it, but I thought it would be worth it since I only scored 86% on my first quiz. I currently have 98% average on all tests so I feel pretty safe on getting an A in this class.

I did a midterm in my management simulation class today. It was a take-home and covered everything in the first part of the book. It was not that easy but I think I have most answers right. It asks a lot about profit margins, management decisions, and how to interpret certain numbers. It is very interesting actually but I prefer doing the simulation instead of tests.

I picked up my suits from the store last Saturday. I was a little nervous about the tailoring at first but they fit perfectly. I would like to complement them with a pair of braces because I like the old fashioned look. However, I will wait buying it until I find a good opportunity to wear them.

I will have another test in international trade tomorrow. I hope the professor will give us a relevant test this time. It takes almost two hours to finish studying a chapter and it is a huge disappointment if the professor decides not to test us on that. I also have to come up with a product for the group project he assigned us. It is not that easy actually.

An Irrelevant Test

I had a test last Tuesday. I thought I had prepared for it by reading the chapter two times but I apparently was not. The reason was because the test simply did not cover the promised chapter.

The test felt like a marketing test and it presumably was. It felt misplaced and embarrassing and I could not connect it to international trade in any way. It instead dealt with the issue of violence occurring when playing too many violent video games.

The professor promised to see over the test before determining whether it would count in our grades. I hope he makes a wise decision and finds a more relevant test to give us. What was exceedingly frustrating was that I had to go to school and read the book since I had not received it in the mail yet.

This really took up a lot of my time. I spent two weekends going to school to read the book. The first time I did it because my professor told me we would be tested on chapter one. The second time I went there he had told us we would have chapter three.

I went to buy an ice-cream maker last weekend. It was my fiancée’s idea and I was quite skeptical about it at first. However, I changed my mind rather quickly when I noticed that we could get a pretty good deal on the machine.

The ice cream has so far tasted great. However, we have not successfully made it firm and creamy in the way ice cream should be. We actually exchanged our ice cream maker today because we thought something was wrong with it. We tried making ice cream again this evening but without satisfying results.

We now believe the freezer bowl does not get cold enough so we are going to put it in the freezer until tomorrow afternoon. I also set my freezer to the coldest level possible, which should make the bowl extremely cold.

I was assigned a project in my international trade class this week. I will work with two other people to set up a plan to export or import a product. The plan will have to include pricing, packaging, and much more. There seems to be a lot of marketing in this class, and I am glad I am a marketing major because that makes me feel well prepared to deal with projects like these.

I am really enjoying my internship. I believe it will be an extremely valuable experience. I currently work with analyzing markets and doing research. Not only do I learn about the things I am doing research about but also how it is to work in an office environment.

I will also have to start working on my project in professional selling. I still have two weeks to finish it but I would like to finish it this weekend. I will try to work as much as possible on it, and it should not be too hard to finish it since it covers a very interesting topic, to develop a successful win-win strategy.

New Suits

I have had a busy week. I went to an interview regarding an internship that I wanted and I have also purchased two new suits. I did this in collaboration with homework assignments for next week.

My professional selling class is still exceedingly interesting. I scored 100% for this week and the next week’s assignments have already been posted. I have done the quiz and half the task dealing with online discussions.

This week’s question asks whether it was right or wrong of Google to enter the Chinese market and agree to censor sensitive information. I am not going to discuss in detail what I said but I did oppose Google’s decision to censor.

It is very interesting to see what other students have to say about it and questions like this are always very hot. Online discussion can actually be much more informative than live conversations because people have time to look up facts and information before they answer questions. This is a huge advantage in taking online courses.

I went out with a friend to take pictures last Thursday. An international student beach party organized by Berkeley College was supposed to take place that day in Queens so we went there with our cameras.

We might have been a little early because we did not see any students there. It was remarkably warm outside so we did not stay long. The place is located just at the waterfront to East River and is called Water Taxi Beach. I was honestly not impressed by it, partially because there was a big fence making it hard to take pictures on Manhattan.

However, there is a park just five minutes away. I have been there before but we walked further north this time. The view is fantastic and people can see many famous buildings from there including the U.N. building.

I went to Men’s Warehouse to buy a few suits this weekend. The service is excellent, but I must say I feel somewhat deceived. I had to tailor it and they made all the preparations without telling me about the price. I ended up having to pay more than $100 for the tailoring and I still have to wait a week for them to finish the suits. I will not go back there because of this even though the suits are of good quality.

I also went out to see Harry Potter with my fiancée. I was very disappointed with the movie. They have advertised it to be the best Harry Potter movie so far, which raised everyone’s expectations. I guess the movie does not make much sense if you are not a big fan.

I am still waiting for a textbook I need for my international trade class. It has been more than a week now and I am getting quite impatient. I have a test on Tuesday on one of the chapters and I had to read it online because I have not had the time to go to Berkeley to do so. I am glad there is a rating system on Amazon.com because I am going to give the seller the worst score possible.

Dragon Fighters

I had to go to school today because I did not receive the book required for my international trade class today. I have a quiz on the first chapter tomorrow so I had to read it. It took about an hour to do so and the chapter was pretty straight forward.

It introduces the reader to international economics and trade and talks about topics concerning globalization, outsourcing, and terrorism’s affect on international business. I feel pretty updated concerning these subjects but that does not mean the quiz will be easy.

The quiz will be asking true or false questions and I always overanalyze these kinds of tests. In my opinion, many questions cannot be answered simply by saying true or false and this is a huge disadvantage to students.

I scored another A on this week’s quizzes in my online class in professional selling. I find this class very interesting and I dedicate many hours every week to study the material in the book and what is posted online. The professor liberally posts articles and links that are helpful to our learning process and this is something that I value to a great extent.

I believe that online classes will become increasingly popular. I am considering taking more online classes next quarter because of the convenience to do so. However, I still believe that some classes cannot be taught online such as communication and presentation courses.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. As I mentioned before, I read one chapter in my selling book today, one in my international trade book, and I have to read another chapter later today in my textbook for ethics. I find my selling book to be very interesting to read. The international trade book can be quite dull sometimes so I am honestly happy that I only have to read one chapter every week.

I have not opened my ethics book yet, but I really hope that it is an entertaining and interesting book to read. I actually have a feeling that it is a good book because ethics can be extremely attention-grabbing. However, there is a small chance that it talks too much about Aristotle and the old rules of conduct.

Something that New York is famous for is its diversity. I walked past a fire station in Chinatown a few days ago, which I found to be very unique. The gate said “Dragon Fighters,” and it obviously followed a very Chinese theme as seen on the picture. This is something that can only be found in New York and I find it quite fascinating.

A Challenging Online Class

I have enjoyed my first weekend since school started this quarter by studying professional selling. I have done three quizzes and discussed selling techniques online with my professor and classmates.

This online class is really taking up a lot of my time. However, I really love doing the assignments and discussing selling tactics. I am doing very well so far and have been able to score an A on the first week’s assignments so I have great expectations for this course so far.

There has also been posted a written assignment that is due in four weeks. I will probably start working on it tomorrow because I do not want to end up in the same situation as I did when I had finance where I struggled to finish my paper up to the very last day.

I went to IKEA today to buy some quality Swedish furniture. I had to buy an extra side table for my study room since I needed some extra space to do homework. It looks great and the table was, of course, very easy to assemble. I took a picture outside IKEA on the Swedish flag in case anyone is interested.

I will have to get used to extra long weekends now. I do not have school tomorrow, Monday because I only have classes on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. That is very convenient but it is easy to get bored if at staying home too much. I am glad I have an online class because that will keep me occupied during those days.

Berkeley College has excellent study areas and it is quite helpful to go there on days when you do not feel motivated to study. I need to read one chapter in preparation for a test in international trade and I am still waiting for the book. If I do not receive it in the mail tomorrow I will have to go to Berkeley College to read it. The library always keeps a copy of the course-required textbook.

The required books for this quarter have been quite expensive. My book in international trade is selling for $165. I was lucky and found one, which I hope is in excellent condition, for approximately $110. People who want to save money on textbooks should go to Amazon.com and Half.com. People can also set up selling accounts on these website in case they want to sell their used textbooks.

I am not sure about how much I have saved by selling my books online. I do know, however that it exceeds $800. In many cases I actually end up making a profit on my books. I usually sell them for a higher price than what I bought them for. This can be hard to maintain though since new editions severely decreases the value of older books. That is a good reason to sell them as soon as possible.

Most professors recommend students to keep their books. It can be the start of a personal library and the books hold information that may be very useful in the future. I agree with this, however, it may be hard for some students to afford keeping all their books. Also, when it comes to accounting, marketing, and a few other areas, books simply get old and become outdated rather quickly.