Enjoying the Beginning of the Fall Quarter
My classes begin in a couple of hours, and I'm pretty excited for them. It makes sense that, after the accounting class, this quarter seems like it will be pretty thrilling. My background is well suited to the management and marketing classes I'll be attending. I'm also looking forward to seeing classmates from previous quarters, and I expect to be working more closely with other students as we do our first group projects. I like collaboration, which is lucky, since group projects seem to be a core aspect of MBA education.
My enthusiasm also comes from the appreciation of a new and productive atmosphere, after months of spending most of my time at home. This is a great place to do studying and job-hunting, surrounded by rose gardens, palm trees, and air conditioned lounges. Even the drive is nice. Santa Clara is close to where my girlfriend works, so we get to carpool for about an hour each way. She gets out of driving, and it's not my daily commute, so we're both pretty cheerful during the trip. This morning, we stopped near our home, to pick up one of the best triple lattes in San Francisco. We shared it over the next hour, chatting about upcoming social plans and the "Forum" topic on NPR (commercial sponsorship of the GG Bridge). In a way, it reminds me of the classic image: a couple in a sunny breakfast nook, discussing the Sunday paper over freshly brewed coffee. News snippets made us slightly angry, before the coffee kicked in, and I drove fast in pretty heavy traffic, but it's still a romantic coffee ad in my recollection.
Now, I'm in the university lounge, looking over my books for the next quarter, and checking the upcoming activities. There's a tailgate party and A's game that I'm looking forward to. A winery event is happening South of campus, instead of up toward SF, so it's too far for me to drive. I'm not quite sure what to think about the Beer Pong tournament that some students are organizing. Really, I'm trying to wrap my head around it. My undergad program doesn't even have a football team any more, let alone a strong history of competitive drinking. Now that we're all adults, I'm a little curious to see what happens.
