Back to the 80s

Yesterday New York went back in time, more precisely to the 80s.
We all dressed up in a retro style to watch a concert by an 80s cover band from San Francisco, "Tainted Love", at B.B. King's in Times Square.

Beer pong champion!

For those who remember the post where I talked about the drinking games (beer pong and flip cup).
Well, yesterday, to celebrate our first test (statistics), my cluster gathered at the Gin Mill bar for a happy hour. I partnered up with Luke from my cluster for beer pong, and guess what? We played for two hours because we won consecutively. Not bad for my first time.
These guys must watch out! Portuguese power is on its way!

Wall Street is shriking!

Columbia Business School has a strong connection with Wall Street, the Financial Sector and Investment Banking.
The recent news on Lehman Brothers, Merril Lynch and AIG have been turning up the heat at the school. The impact of this crisis is present in many ways:
- former MBA students that are unemployed
- perspective for a job in the financial services is harder
- the other areas of recruitment are also getting harder because people from the financial services are trying them
- jobs for international people are also getting harder, because the USA is very protectionist

Today the Dean of the School made a speech to talk about his assessment of the situation, and to talk about alternatives that we should consider for recruiting.

Let's just hope the situation does not get any worse, and that things recover soon.

Rui

PS - I actually had an email from Lehman Brothers, sent last week, to invite me for their corporate presentation at CBS. Not gonna happen...

Tropical weather

Take a look at the following picture with the weather forecast from today for NY.
This looks like a tropical country. It's 27C degrees outside and it is raining. Tomorrow it will be 30C and raining. And the thing is, you never know when it starts raining. You are very well walking on the street and it stars pouring like it is the Great Flood ("diluvio"), and five minutes later it is sunny again.

They came...

I didn't get a ticket for the McCain and Obama conference last Thursdays here at Columbia.
However I did experience some of the excitement on campus: they had giant TV screens on campus, and everyone gathered around them to watch their speeches.
I have two friends who were lucky enough to go to the auditorium and they told me that it was full of celebrities such as Jon Bon Jovi and Toby Maguire (Spiderman).
Let's see how the following months before the elections go.

PS - Obama studied here at Columbia University

McCain & Obama

The American presidential candidates (McCain and Obama) are coming to Columbia University next Thursday, 11th of September.
There is already a frenetic mood because of this.
Us students could apply to get tickets for their conference...however there were only 200 tickets for a total of about 30,000 thousand students, which basically means that I didn't get one.

Labor Day Picnic at Central Park

Last Monday was Labor Day (Dia do Trabalhador) here in the States. It is always on the first Monday of September. My cluster organized a picnic at Central Park. Each one had to bring some food, or drinks, or other useful stuff. In the morning, before the picnic, I was still not sure of what I would cook to take to the picnic. In the end, I ended up making quiches for the first time in my life... and they were not bad.
Central Park is beautiful in the summer, and it is always very lively and full of people just enjoying a little bit of nature inside this big city.
I will leave you some pictures from that afternoon.