First Anniversary of my 21st birthday :)

Hey lovelies! I loved being 21 cause it seems like the perfect age haha but today I finally joined the 22-club and I'm glad to be able to report that it doesn't feel any different :) I had a jolly and a little bit crazy birthday party at my house yesterday. A lot of people came, wow, the house got pretty crowded! Let me show you some pictures!

Nicki (from Austria), me, Izzy (from Australia)

my lovely roomies did that for me!

with Santi (Columbia) and my roomies Alejandra (Mexico) and Maria (Spain)

Have a good start in the new week my loves!

New classes

Hey cuties!

Finally my schedule for this semester is set. After hoping the best for 2 weeks, I eventually got in all the classes I wanted. It's not so easy because usually exchange students are the last ones getting enrolled. So theoretically we can only choose from the free spots left. BUT luckily my supervisor and the professors are usually very helpful and trying the best to make everyone happy ;)

So these are my classes plus course desciptions:

Corporate and Cooperative Strategy: In this class, students integrate knowledge from the different functional areas and evaluate strategic decisions in a corporate context. This case-based course emphasizes the analysis of the drivers of value creation and value destruction in such corporate tools as mergers and acquisitions, alliances, and informal interorganizational networks. Students will learn to apply a set of tools that help them to make better corporate-level decisions addressing diversification, integration, and internal development issues facing modern multibusiness firms. The coursework includes a team project.

Environment, Society, and Capitalism: This course takes a strategic planning perspective to investigate environmental management issues in the context of assessing and responding to competitive and social forces. It examines a serious challenge to corporations competing in the global economy: How to maximize profitability and production in such a way that will allow the planet to support operations indefinitely. Emphasis will be on the company’s ability to use both traditional management concepts and new sustainability practices to build and sustain a competitive advantage. Students will learn how an enterprise can meet sustainability goals while still fulfilling its financial and market objectives.

French Society and Institutions: An introduction to French society and the institutions that shaped it. Using periodization to define particular historical movements such as the Gallo-Roman period, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Enlightenment, revolutionary France, and the Third Republic, the course focuses on historical and architectural sites in Paris and the provinces to consider issues of French identity. 

Introductory Spanish I: The overall goal of this course is developing proficiency in the 4 language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) essential to communicative language learning. The course uses a task-based approach which provides the learner with opportunities to use the language interactively. 

So far I cannot say a lot about my classes. For the Strategy class we have to read cases every week which we then discuss in class. I think it's going to be demanding but interesting. The french class seems a little dry but we are talking a lot and I guess it's really important for me because otherwise my french would get really rusty and I still need to take another tough french class at WU next semester. The spanish class is pretty intense (4 times a week) but so cool! Also we are only 12 students so i'm gonna improve really fast :) I can't credit this class though, so basically I'm taking it just for fun. But that's fine for me because it seems like a great opportunity, especially now that I'm living and hanging out with a lot of spanish speaking friends. Yeah and about the environmental class I can't really tell anything so far because I only had it once.

Also, I got a student job for 10 hours a week in the Computer lab. I basically have to take care of the printers and answer possible questions of other students. Not too hard and the good thing is, as long as I don't have anything to I'm allowed to study for my classes.

So far, hope everything is fine at home as well. Have a good one! XO

New House

Hey lovelies!

As promised, I'm gonna show you some pictures of our new house. It came more or less unfurnished so we had to buy a couple of things this week. Fortunately, I didn't spend a lot though because I found the desk on the street :) and the bed was not too expensive. Here we go!

the entrance of our house

my room

my closet

kitchen

Going out on Tuesday:

PS: This seems like a lucky week for me :)  Finally I think I will get in the classes I wanted to and I also got the hours I wanted for the job in the Computer lab. YEAH! I will tell you more about this soon.

San Francisco

Hey lovelies! We just had a marvelous time on our trip! We saw great cities, stunning beaches, different interesting landscapes and even a national park! After almost 3 amazing weeks of traveling I finally made it back to New Orleans.

I still owe you the pictures from our last stop though... San Francisco, what a colorful lively city!

Fishermen Wharf

Alcatraz

a cell in Alcatraz

a ride on the cable car

Santa Barbara, Malibu & Highway #1

Tuesday evening, Klaus and me arrived in Santa Barbara which is located around 1,5 car-hours north of L.A. Wednesday we drove to Malibu and spend some hours on the beach. You can’t imagine how hot it was, the ocean is pretty cold though! Most mansions here are just incredible!

 

 

The evening we spend exploring Santa Barbara. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot going on at the moment, probably because it’s off-season. 

Today, we drove up Highway #1 which runs directly on the coast. We stopped on a beach to watch seals and sea elephants. I was surprised how huge the sea elephants are, they weigh up to 3 tons! We heard that they return to the coast in December after a several month journey up to Alaska and back and then spend three months laying on the beach without eating, just sleeping and giving birth before getting pregnant again. 

L.A impressions

The guys and me started Monday with a car-tour through Beverly Hills to spot some celebrity houses for example Paris Hilton’s or Tom Cruise’s residence. In front of Leonardo DiCaprio’s house we didn’t see much except a big entrance door and the middlefinger of a security guard… ;) Afterwards we strolled around on Rodeo Drive, the famous shopping street located in Beverly Hills which is known for designer and luxury labels. Then we visited the UCLA campus (University of California, L.A).

streets of Beverly Hills

Rodeo Drive

 

In the afternoon we drove downtown and had lunch in Little Tokyo. In downtown there’s not much to see except skyscrapers. Hollywood is much more interesting!

Tuesday we participated in a Hollywood-Hills walking tour organized by our hostel which was great because they know exactly on which spots you get the best glance on the Hollywood sign. It is not allowed to go very close but we got a faboulous view, both on the sign and on almost whole L.A. It was really really impressing!

 

After checking out of the hostel, we went to Santa Monica beach which is another very nice beach. 

 

Santa Monica pier