Elelator tales

I feared it might happen several times, but today it finally happened: I dropped my key down the hole between the floor and the elevator.

My roommate is away til october 4 and I don't have the spare key, so the doorman and I took matters into our own hands and stopped the elevator. To make a long story short, I got to go down into the elevator well for the first (and probably only) time! I have my key back and got a new memory out of it.

Happy Anniversary, Milele.

Destruction and rebirth or something like that

The recount confirmed the original election results, so technically we have a president. The campout on Reforma is finally lifting and it looks like things could be going back to "normal." Lopez Obredor is trying new tactics, but at least traffic should diminish for a while.

Here's a picture I took on Thursday of the dismantling of the camps down reforma (the street down the middle of the pic).

Viva Mexico!

Happy Mexican Independence Day!

Field Trip

Katie came to Mexico and we both took Thursday off to explore the city a bit. 9-3 is hardly enough time to see one of the world's largest cities, but we did pretty well. After coffee, we went to the Museo de Antropologia for a crash course in history, then ate and walked past the people camping out on Reforma, then walked around the Bosque de Chapultepec. We got a quick glimpse of the Palacio before rushing her to the airport.

I promise if you come to visit we'll make the best of the trip. It's always best if you can come for more than a day, though.

See you soon!

Speeding

I observed this year's 9-11 from abroad, as I did for the event itself. I won't go into all of the reflections on what did and didn't happen five years ago, but it has made me think about all that has happened in the past five years and what could happen in the next five. Time's flying by so fast, nothing to do but make the most of it, i guess.

Getting to know me

Since my only two topics of conversation these days seems to be work or business schools, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the essays that have become the bane of my existance. How does one express who they are and what they want in 250 to 1000 words. If that weren't hard enough, each school asks a slightly different questions so instead of writing four essays, you write at least four per school. Here are the basic questions that keep reoccurring and a few just for fun:

1. Why MBA? Why _____ school?
2. Discuss something you've changed (accomplishment, transform idea into action, etc.)
3. Describe your biggest challenge and how you dealt.
4. What have you done that was innovative?
5. How are you a leader?
6. What would you do if you didn't have to work for a living?
7. What matters most to you and why? (thanks, Stanford)
8. What's your favorite quote and why is it important to you? (thanks, Berkeley)

Do these questions really give the schools enough info to understand me? Why does each school need different questions? Wouldn't a common application do?

Now, a call to action: For those of my that know me well from an outsiders perspective, do you have any suggestions for how I should answer these? I'd especially appreciate quotes that could be used with the last question.

I've started working on these, but keep going back and starting over. Will likely be contacting some of you to review my essays over the next few weeks.