Thanksgiving in Washington DC

Thanksgiving is a North American holiday (celebrated both in Canada and the USA) that originated as a time to praise and give thanks to God for the harvest (colheitas, in Portuguese) and other things.

I went to celebrate Thanksgiving in Washington DC, at Jane sister's place, where he ate traditional Thanksgiving food such as turkey and pumpkin pie.

The Yoo sisters having fun in the kitchen

The Thanksgiving turkey

Early celebration of my birthday
Cutting the bird

There was a bottle of Portuguese Mateus wine in the house

Oh yeah!
Oh yeah baby!


Korean bbq dinner

Party in DC.
The White House
Korean war memorial

Vietnam war memorial

Lincoln monument

Jane making fun of president Lincoln

New Jersey state

New York state

The Washington Monument

Patriotic Jane

View of the Washinton Mall

The Pentagon

Washington Monument, this time with the Leiria Monument :)

Help reduce world hunger

I know this blog was created just to share stories and images of my experience while doing my MBA at Columbia Business School in New York, however today I feel I have to post about something different.

At the website of the Portuguese on-line newspaper, Publico, I read that the United Nations is appealing people to fight world hunger over the internet.
They are appealing to give 1 euro per week (1.5 dollars per week) to help fight world hunger.


When I think about the amount of "one euros" that I spend a week in things that I really don't need, I think that I can really spare some of that money and give it to people who really need it.
I already committed to give one euro per week for one year. If you guys want to help on this human cause, please visit the following link, and donate:
http://www.wfp.org/1billion

Fall Ball 2009

Fall Ball 2009 was last Friday. It was a great party, and this picture says it all:

There were other great moments though:

Bill Gates & Warren Buffet at Columbia Business School

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the two richest men in the world, came last Thursday to Columbia Business School to talk with us students about their careers, activities and outlook for the future.

We asked questions such as "who are the most important mentors in your life?", "Mr. Buffet, why the recent investment in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad company?", "Mr. Gates, what would you say to Steve Jobs if you saw him on the street?".
The event was televised on CNBC, and if you guys are interested, you can watch the show here:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/?video=1329393420&play=1



During the morning, before the event was recorded, the morning show on CNBC strongly promoted the event and had me and two other friends there to talk about it:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1327947690&play=1

Fall Ball 2009

The annual Fall Ball of Columbia Business School is coming next week.
I was just roaming through some pictures from last year, and found this pearl:

New York Marathon 2009

After a great night of Halloween, the following morning I was out in the cold with Jeff, Steph and Anne to cheer on the NY marathoners.
This year we had some friends from school running: Luis Sanz, Pau Sabria, Carlos Rivera, Ray Liu. Additionally, a friend from PepsiCo was also running, Rosaria Mannino.

The NY Marathon of 2009 had around 40.000 people running it and an estimated two million people cheering along the 42.2kms of the way.

Remember a posting I made last year, when Gustavo, Luis and I said we were going to run the half marathon? Well, it didn't happen. However, going to cheer at the marathoners brought back that interest to me and it is definitely on my lifetime to do list to run at least a half-marathon and, who knows, a full one.

During the time I was there cheering on the streets (at 116th street and Frederick Douglas Avenue) I only managed to see Pau Sabria and failed everyone else I wanted to see. However, I did see three runners with Portuguese flags on their running shirts, to whom I yelled "Forca Portugal!!! Forca!!!" They all seemed to have enjoyed the support in their own language.





One of the three Portuguese I saw, trying to find who was screeming "Forca Portugal!!"

Steph managed to spot her friend Ed.

Jeff running along with Pau when we spotted him

Halloween

This year for Halloween I decided to innovate and be... exactly the same I was last year, a vampire....and two years ago also.
I think it is innovative because everyone got a new costume, so I was definitely different from everyone by using the same costume.
Additionally, I had spent $40 on the costume last year, so I didn't feel like not using it again...after all I managed to bring down the cost of wearing it to $20 per use, instead of $40 per use, a reduction of 50%! I finally feel I am getting some value out of my MBA and learning something about managing money and resources.

Reuben and Jane as Luigi and Mario

Jeff doing some public service by providing free mammograms

No comments...

I wasn't the only one with an appetite for blood that night.

Steph as a bat, and me as a vampire

Nate, dressed as a flower, waiting to be pollinized by Anne, dressed as a bee

Pollinization completed!

Erin was also part of the pollinizing crew.

Mike Krafft disguised as swine flu, successfully infected Mike Kremen

Scavenger food and Craig's List

Like you have probably realized by my posts, life as an MBA student is very busy. At school, besides classes and class assignments, there are a ton of events happening every day:
- recruiting events (companies coming to school to recruit students)
- club events (there are many clubs at school for different types of interests, from professional to sports and arts)
- speaker events (the school constantly brings interesting people to talk to the students, from CEOs of big companies to people who want to save the world)
- and much more...

Most of these events have food included, which is great.
However, what happens most of the times is that there are always too many leftovers, so the people who organize the events just bring the food from the room where the event was happening to the halls of the school.

What then happens is that everyone realizes there is free food, therefore there is only one thing to do: eat it!
Of course, we love being part of the CBS community, therefore we also think about others, especially our friends. So when we see the food, we also have to tell our friends that there is free food, and where it is.
Yesterday while in the library with a bunch of friends, Sach (another friend) arrived from outside the library, went to our table and said (with a thick British accent) "Guys, there's food outside. Let's go, fast!"

Being fast is essential, not only because when the food becomes public it disappears pretty fast, but also because sometimes paper dishes and plastic utensils also go away even faster, and then we are all forced to eat in a primitive manner...and we try to avoid that.

When the food is something else than pizza or sandwiches, then it is really a lucky day. It is not that I don't like pizza, but the affordable pizza we get around here is oily and rubbery.

Speaking of events that have food catered. Today at school, we had Craig Newmark.
Craig is the founder of the popular website www.craigslist.com, where you can post ads. He is the guy to whom a lot of people around the world owe their successful apartment search and, in my case, my second hand portable air conditioner.