Merry Christmas

I decided to fly home for Christmas to see my family, eat good food, and flee from the cold weather of Illinois.  It is hard to believe, but studying abroad has also drawbacks alongside with its numerous advantages, and anybody should be aware that it involves important sacrifices.  I am not talking about "culture shock" but rather about being away from one's family.

Unless you worked hard for it - but let's be honest it's not the case of many, it is usually a heavy burden financially for your family to have you abroad.  This depends on the wealth of family and on the expatriation, of course.  Nevertheless, one thing stays equal for everyone whenever you are abroad: you are exposed to be dramatically powerless in the case something occurs to your family.  Loneliness, health problems, discords, tightened finance are some examples.  With your family, being abroad is like missing 5 episodes of Dallas in a row: when you come back, so much has changed that you don't understand anything.

I realized that I always took my decisions about expatration myself, not thinking that I could be a cog in the machine. Overconfident, probably selfish, I was looking up without knowing what was under my feet, and I let people down.  Semesters abroad sometimes make you feel like you'r in holiday and everything is "fun" or a "new discovery". Bad habit when you finally have to face the real world.

The coldest place on Earth!

Winter finally arrived in Macomb, IL! During the same day, the temperature dropped from around 6°C to -15°C!!  Today, the temperature reached -17°C and it felt like -25°C because of the wind. This is by far the coldest temperatures I have ever experienced.  Luckily, I found some warm coats and sweaters for a descent price during the Black Friday of Thanksgiving, and the cold is quite manageable as long as you walk fast to class. Despite the temperature, I managed to go to my finals and I think the results should be OK.  

The campus is now covered with snow, which is actually pretty nice!  I uploaded some pictures of the Fall and homecoming, and also some pictures I just took of the snow, check out my survival equipment!!

Recession is only about queuing

The current financial meltdown has been compared in many ways with the Great Depression of the 30s, because both crisis involved a high speculation that resulted to panic sales and made the stock exchanges plummet. In my opinion, there is a central point in which they differ: queuing. 

The most common visual representation of the Great Depression is this picture of gentlemen lining up for free soup.  How is that related to the credit crunch?  Eighty years later, there is no "physical" line, but several people are queuing for one thing: a jackpot of $700 bn (also called TARP... almost trap).  I could already picture AIG's, BoA's, Citi's, or Goldman's CEOs lining up in front of a Henry Paulson giving away billion-dollar-bags.  I read today on the Wall Street Journal that insurance companies througout the country were trying to buy small banks in order to get a ticket in this line... sounds like a pretty tasty soup.

I think you get the point, my personal opinion is that the way this huge amount of money is used is quite controversial.  No free soup for poor people nowadays, but billion dollars for greedy corporations.

It is paradoxal for me to write this because I am studying finance and might be hired by these companies once they are back on track, but it reminds me that I am a business school student and I might be queuing for a job very soon... I am glad not to be at the bottom.. may Obama do something.

President Obama

Among the several reasons why I am very grateful toward the Atlantis Program, the opportunity to be in the United States of America during the presidential campagin is definitely the most important one! Today is an historical day: Barack Obama is the 44th president of the USA.

Presidential rat race '08

One of the good things about being in the U.S. is that we have this great opportunity to be able to follow one of the most interesting presidential elections in the world.  So much money spent, so much talk, gossip, words, rumors, lies, strategies, tensions; so little content.  Pretty much the average American TV show! 

The recent trend in television is characterized by numerous successful series like 24, Lost, or Prison Break, that thrill our senses and keep us busy wondering for the rest of the week what will be happening next week.  Here, we have two superstars and an intense promotional campaign monopolizing the attention.

Analysts keep saying that people focus on personality rather than content.  Unfortunately for our two runners, there seem not to be any real answer to the current financial turmoil; this explains why both of them have been avoiding answering the questions and just repeated that greedy investors from Wall Street are evil... pretty demagogic.

As pretty much anybody from outside the U.S., I tend to support Barack Obama rather than McCain, because I think it is high time to have someone who would think twice before invading a country as leader of the most powerful country of the world.  Many comparisons with the Great Depression and the actual financial crisis have arisen; at this time, America was down on its knee, and what brought it up again was.. WWII! Hopefully, this won't be the remedye again. 

Future, uncertainties, stress

The financial markets are in bad shape nowadays, all stock exchanges plummeted and the U.S. government is about to spend the equivalent of more than Sweden and Ireland's GDPs combined.  I am glad I am not of these Wall Street brokers that we always see totally depressed, illustrating the highlights of the newspapers... wait, hold on a second... what's my major again?

Today once again, our teacher asked that question with that tone which already gives you the answer:

  -"If you graduate in May and are looking for a job, when do you think you should start applying?? Right now, of course"

Well, it seems obvious that this teacher is not the one who will waste her time sending resumes to human resources already busy with firing people.. I was thinking about applying for an internship in the U.S. after I graduate to get more experience before I want to earn a master or MBA but it seems kind of hard right now..

In addition, the Atlantis Program has been a very rich experience already for me, but we are  some students to share the same fears.  What are recruiters going to think about such a strange resume with no valuable internship and an abnormal number of bachelors for a 22 year-old kid?  Should I continue and earn a master?  Should I try to find an internship?  A job?  Where?  How am I going to argue about the strenght of my school and mention no internship?  These are tough questions and I still cannot find any answers..

always a pleasure

Yesterday, I went to the movie theater of Macomb to watch "The Last Mistress", a french movie.

Heard while leaving the room, from an old person:

"Anyway, I hate French people"