Test anxiety 4-3-11

Tomorrow is the big day. I wonder if all the studying and money will pay off. After months of studying, taking practice test, and meeting with a tutor I do not know if I should be excited to be done or fear the outcome of my labors. Knowing that a 2-3 hours test will show the fruits of all my hours spent preparing. Wish me luck. A lot of my future decisions and possible open doors rely on the results of this single test-no pressure right :)----(the next day) Well it looks like I will be taking the test again. Back to studying.

Finally done!!! 6/10/11

I'm slow on getting back to my blog... I recently retook the GMAT for the gazillionith time. After taking the private tutor and not getting the results I had hope I was given a free classroom course tutor and took advantage of it this Spring and began the enjoyable process of studying for the test. I felt a lot more confident going into the test and rightfully so I got a decent score. One that I'm satisfied with and was hoping for. 620. Now it's on to applying for MBA school and deciding which schools.

One Month ~already

Time flies by too quickly. I enjoy learning new things which makes my classes enjoyable. Plus there are pretty much the same students in all my classes so we end up really getting to know each other. Lesson 1: I had applied to become a Laison for a Thunderbird event (Global Business Dialoge) and had filled out the required application form and submitted my resume by the deadline, or so I thought. It was not until other students were dressed in their spify, nice suits that I ask "what was the occasion?" and was told they were getting their pictures taken for the Laison, didn't I get the email? (I've heard that line before) After talking to the admin I learned that I was never on the list, their records did not show I ever submitted a resume. Going forward when applying for anything I will need to check with career management office to make sure everything went through properly. I meet another student that the same thing happened to him. Good ol' technology. Love it when it works but hate it when it doesn't. To back track, the Laison event is where 50+ top executive at various companies like: BP, Target, Walmart, GE, Johnson & Johnson, and many other global and domestic companies will be on campus and giving over 25 lectures over a 2 day period. And those that are selected will be a laison for one executive for the two days. What an opportunites to have a one-on-one time with a big company top executive. Oh, well. I'm still excited for the event, it will be an excellent learning opportunity and help refine my skills.
Next Week is the finals for the 1st module, it's that time already? The good news is that I have only one presentation and one test. The rest of my classes keep going till December so the final will be then.

I'm a newly converted longboarder, just bought my first longboard a few days ago and have been skating to school everyday since then. Here is a picture of my first ride down a hill. Days I've gone without crashing 6

On a different topic- I am an uncle again!-his name is Oliver and was born in Germany. There is no better news than that.

3rd week of School

I'm now about to start my 3rd week. I love being back at school and all the different knowledge there is to gain. I'm taking the following classes: Career Management, Global Political Economy, Accounting, Global Finance, Managing Global Business, Global Marketing, and Multicultural Teams & Leadership. With the classes being so diverse, I am learning new methods, ways to see issues and resolve problems that I never thought of before. There are people from every continent but Antarctica at my school. I'm now a minority and I love it.
The work load is keeping me quite busy along with all the networking and church service, I often think there is not enough time in a day to get everything done but somehow it gets done and I still have time to play soccer:-)

Back To School

Accepted to Thunderbird! Today was the first day of orientation. The DAY HAS FINALLY COME. The week of orientation is to help us get back into the routine of school and meet our fellow students. I love learning from different peoples cultures, experiences, and background.

Here is a pic of my Cohort group at Thunderbird (all accelerated MBA students)

Church History trip with Fam

In four days we went to Kirkland, Buffalo, Palmyra, Niagara Falls, and pretty much saw everything. The pageant was amazing and had really cool props. Wish I could have done white water rafting near Niagara but didn't have time to do everything. Instead we had to rescue a few damsels in distress. They had problems with their paddle boats so my bro and I had to row them to safety. Not to mention that 2 of the 3 damsels were pregnant which didn't make it any easier. The weather was hot and humid, so much for getting away from the heat. The scenery there was beautiful, I miss the green. All in all it was a lot of fun, we even were lucky to catch the babysitting flight. Everywhere you turned there were babies crying. At least they drugged the dog so it was out of it the whole flight till the landing.

Love it When Family Comes to Town

Ben n Jess and their kids came to visit from Germany for a month. We did about everything. Jet ski at Canyon Lake, watch a play at Hales, went swimming, played games, watched movies, chatted the nights away, hit a pinata, and played with nieces and nephew. A month that went by way too fast.

Devils Canyon

I've never been to this place but had some friends tell me they wanted to go. After looking on some online forums I found directions and some tidbits to help know what I was getting myself into. At the beginning all I knew was that the hike was a little over 2 miles before you got to the water falls and it was all at the bottom of a canyon in or near the river bed. Then you get to the 5 water falls, the first is about 15 feet, the second is a small pond, the 3rd is about 12 feet, the 4th is 60-70 feet and the 5th is about 40-50 feet. The hike was really hard going, not real trail, it was more of find your own route as you go whether going up/down rocks, crossing the river bed (mostly dry out river bed) or through bushes. To hike 2.2 miles it took us a good 2.5-3 hrs at a pretty good pace and little to no breaks. Along the way we made a pretty big rattle snake mad.

We finally got to the 1st waterfall which was good because we were about ready to turn around. Some jumped off the cliff others used a rope and climbed down. For the 3rd pool most didn't want to get back in the semi-cold water (the wind was blowing which made it a little colder) so Tyson and I created a zip-line so the others didn't have to get that wet. Finally we were to the 4th pool. We set-up the rope and rappelled the 60 foot fall. Unforunately the water level was not that high so the water fall was not really a waterfall. But there was a big pool at the bottom. After chillin for a bit in the 4th pool we got ready to leave but ended up having problems with the rope and at first since we couldn't climb out the only way out was to jump into the 5th pool which wasn't a good idea. After some time we found a way we could rock climb our way out back to the top of the 4th pool. Some were in bare feet and some in the group havent gone rock climbing before. Which made it very interesting.

It was a fun place to go to but for how long and hard the hike was don't think I'll be doing this one anytime soon. The scenery was gorgeous though. Didn't think I would say that while living in the desert.

Fam Campout

I haven't done one of these for a while but we as a family took a lot of family camp outs while in Utah but then life happened and we did other fun stuff. It was good to get out of the heat and enjoy nice mountain weather. Despite Walmart nor any other store (Payson doesn't know what a camping store is) having a dutch-oven.

White Germany Christmas with Ben n Jess Fam

Last minute decision and not having much time off left I left for Germany for a quick 5 day trip during the Christmas season to visit Ben n Jess and their Fam. ERSTAUNLICH!!! I had a blast, went to the Christmas market, ate Quark and many other delicious delights, played games, played house, neighborhood party, enjoyed evening conversations with each other, bought a Christmas tree in the middle of a forest (which is only a 10 min drive), ice skated, went off-roading in the snow , watched Charlies Brown Christmas with another American family, played Basketball, went to Primary, visited ruins of a castle covered in snow, Threw snow balls in the water and watched ducks, watched and joined with nieces dancing, nite tyme story - prayer - go through the days events before putting nieces to bed. You want a picture perfect feel on top of the world experience. I got it every night for those 5 days!!!

Las Vegas Trip with Fam

Knowing my family (especially Dad, Greg, & Bryan) we enjoy going to airshows. It was a fun airshow and after wards we went to see the Las Vegas Temple and went on the new Hoover Dam bridge.

Salome Jug

It was finally time to take a break. Enough with work, work, and studying. I saw a video of some of my friends going to Salome Jug and had to go, short hike with lots of water and waterfalls. Only 2.5 hrs away and after a 2 mile hike with Roosevelt Lake in view, you enter the Gorge. Once in, the only way out is back. The water was low and although it was not the most ideal time to go we still had a lot of fun. Once in the gorge, you either waded through the water, jumped rocks in the river bed and swam through the river. The video is me going down the rock slide. We saw spiders the size of a man's fist, moss everywhere, a dead dog floating in the pool below a 30' water fall. It was interesting how seeing the dead dog changed so much. When we first got in the gorge the water was not the clearest but didn't bother us. Once we saw the dog anything but clear water we tried to stay away. Our luck, we were going downstream and only at the end we saw the dog.

Asia Trip

One of my good friends takes a big trip once a year and I decided to go along this time. We flew into Singapore and went to Krabi, Cambodia, and Indonesia. In Singapore we paid to have small fish eat the dead skin off our feet. It was quite interesting. We then slept in the airport and the next morning since our first flight was canceled we took the next one but because our connecting flight only flew once a day we had to get rerouted to Bangkok and with the help of flight attendants and running with all our luggage through an entire airport we made it to our flight, good thing they held the flight for us too:) Throughout the trip it was very hot and humid but lots of fun.

Once we got to Krabi we had to take a boat and climb many many stairs up a mountain to get to our hotel. We went scuba diving (with very large jelly-fish and saw a nurse shark), road elephants, went to the market, and toured some monuments and Buddhist places.

Then it was off to Ankorwat, Cambodia to see the temples. The taxi driver we were with told us about a crocodile farm and when we got there a young girl asked if we wanted to feed the crocs. Of course we did, but what I didn't know was how. We had the choice of Duck or chicken, I chose duck because it sounded interesting but instead of getting a bucket of cut up duck meat, the young girl went and well you'll have to see the video.

Finally it was off to Bali, Indonesia. We didn't have much time there but went to a water fall and did some scuba diving.

All in all it was a fun trip.

'09 Family Pic

I am truly blessed with the greatest family. Each person that has been added to the family has made it even better. I owe everything to them.

Trips to Cascade ID

My Friend has an uncle in ID near Boise which we went to multiple times. We did pretty much everything there from snowboards, horse back riding, snowmobiling, four wheeling, hot springs, water rafting, had steak for breakfast (amazing!).