Macromackerelmacaroon

Ridhima, I miss you!!

2010-12-30T23:13:00.000+01:00

Do you ever stop by here anymore?

Love,
Thu

Lobbyists, Tintin and European Commission visits...

2008-03-30T17:54:00.000+02:00

The drive to Brussels from Strasbourg took far longer than it should have. Our driver was a certifiable Hari Sadu. I remember how on the trip to Strasbourg he yelled at Mads because he thought Mads had dropped boiled egg on his seat, when actually it was Alex. The Rules of the Bus were as follows:
1) No Food.
2) No Drinks.
3) No using the microwave.
4) Stops at overpriced pit stops every two hours.
Oh well, you cant have everything, I suppose.. It was kinda cool the way we drove through three countries though - France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Brussels was a lot busier than Strasbourg. A lot of other parties to visit other than just European Union buildings. Our group was divided into two groups - staying at 2 different hotels - Manhattan and Arlequin. Hotel Manhattan where I was staying was a dingy old city hotel, two-star (you will see why this is relevant soon) which was in the red-light district and across the street from a strip club, which served us a stale roll for breakfast every morning. Hotel Arlequin where the others were staying was a three star, modern swank building, with a roof top breakfast lounge to envy. I think it is needless to say that we Manhattan people were jealous.

Anyway, the first day we arrived, we had a lecture by a Danish journalist who filled us in on the basic "wassup" with the European Union and how the future of any European Constitution hinges on Ireland's ratification of the Lisbon treaty. It was interesting to watch how the American students ask questions sometimes. Felt to me like they were challenging the speaker all the time.

The next morning we did a quite a bit of sight seeing the next morning. We walked everywhere from the Royal Palace to the Cathedral to the Tintin museum. That was fun. In the evening, we met a lobbyist for the Danish Shipowners Association who had prepared a powerpoint but unfortunately the hotel didnt have a projector so we had to imagine all his slides. And after that we went to Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office which had really good cookies. But not before Ole got us lost... :) That was really exciting for the Hong Kong students and understandably so.

In the evening, we all had a dinner in a restaurant on the restaurant street. Meriam had managed to in her adorable French get us a good deal so all 44 of us filled their restaurants. I sat next to Andrew and across from Oliver and Beth. And we participated in what was the Beth Challenge - getting Beth to talk to us. And she did. We got to know about her life, her hobbies, even her love life. And I am eager to see the beach in Hong Kong because a lot seems to happen there. Hmm.. I must explore this.

The next day was a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce. None of the speakers there were even American - one was British and the other was Italian but they did a good job teaching us about lobbying the European Parliament. That was a very good presentation, indeed.
We loafed around for a bit after that. Thu, Meriam, Jessica Tou and I had the best hot chocolate ever at a place close to the Danish Embassy there. The speaker at the Danish Embassy successfully managed to put all of us to sleep with his exact literal translation of Danish proverbs into English.

On our final day, we visited the European Commission which was really cool. The chairs on which we were seated actually had microphones next to them with translation functions. We actually got to talk to some from the department of External Affairs on the EU's stand on Tibet and David and Jessica grilled him on the EU's stand on Taiwan. That was an awesome moment. The EU has no real foreign affairs policy. Its all just talk.After that was over we had some free time to pay our homage to the chocolate shops and Belgian Waffle. But before we sank our waffles into any waffles, we went to see the Atomium and by we, I mean, Awika, JTou, Thais, Sofia and I.. Sofia was too cute because for some reason she couldnt stop smiling. The Atomium was cool, especially considering it was built in the 1950s. After that we headed to Manneken Piss, or as someone famously said, "That little piss.." because the waffle shop next to it is supposed to have the best waffles ever.. And it was true. I had one with white chocolate sauce and dark chocolate sauce. yum..

After that we went to buy chocolate from this cute chocolate shop where the Belgian lady got very excited when she found out I was from India and she told me how much she cried when she saw Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Bollywood gets everywhere. Just outside the shop was a little bazaar of sorts and it was a charming experience buying perfume from a perfumer actually from Grasse who was selling his perfumes in big vats. And they were really good and cheap too. He really knew his stuff. I made him smell the cherry blossom one that I liked and he was able to suggest a perfume that I really loved.

Nothing much after that. Just the trip back home, which was fairly uneventful except Justin and Andrew lost money gambling on a slot machine in the middle of Germany at 2 in the morning. After getting back on the bus though, Andrew and I started what came to be known as the Kelvin Challenge - similar to the Beth Challenge. It wasn't as successful though. The rest of the night was merely a musical chairs games of seats on the bus. Eventually though we reached Copenhagen, and there were teary goodbyes and hugs like we would never see each other again. A feeling of fellowship. Perfect.

Off to Germany for tequila flavoured beer

2008-03-30T17:01:00.000+02:00

Our study trip to Brussels and Strasbourg was perhaps the best first bonding experience we had in the GLOBE programme. We departed from Solbjerg Plads at midnight on the Saturday for Strasbourg and everyone had come prepared with their pillows and blankets. I suppose I was one of the only ones in our entire GLOBE class of 44 that was excited about the road trip to Strasbourg - that 14 hour long bus ride. As I told Razz (Rasmus) as we drove out of Copenhagen, who I ended up sitting next to for the whole trip, "I want to see what it feels like to drive on the Autobahn. I wonder how fast we will go." Razz burst my bubble though just by saying, "How fast do you think we can go in a bus?"Anyways, as the trip got underway, the back row got progressively more drunk and our part of the bus swang between more chatty and less chatty. Finally though, I think a lot of people had dozed off when we stopped near the Danish-German border to refill the tank and a lot of disoriented GLOBErs got off wondering which planet they were on, let alone which country.

Our next pit stop was at breakfast time inside Germany, where for the first time, Meriam uttered the historic words of "Geghocten Aeg" which means boiled egg (I think). The rest of the bus ride was pretty uneventful. We watched a Danish film called The Flickering Lights and I finally understand what they mean by dark humour. I dont think I could get the humour in it. In my opinion, the highlight of that trip was crossing the bridge over the Rhine from Germany into France. After having heard so much of that historic river, I think that was really awesome.

Strasbourg is a really small town in the historic French district of Alsace. The reason we went there was because that was where the European Parliament was at the time. So we actually got to visit the European Parliament building which was awesome and talk to an MEP.

Jessica, Yvonne and I also visited the Strasbourg history museum with Ole, which was nice. It was great to go with him because that just meant that none of us had to read any of the signs. He just told us the history and we talked about our own family histories. It was a cosy time.

Another more social highlight from the trip was the night we were chilling and walked all the way to Germany to buy beer. Really not that far. In fact it was closer to go to Germany then it was to go into town from where our racy (literally, as it was called Hotel F1) hotel was. We sang, bought tequila flavoured beer, ran down hills, gave each other nicknames and chatted till 2 in the night. It was glorious and it was people from all three schools. Truly, an international feeling

S for Shameless

2008-02-09T17:45:00.000+01:00

Hari Sadu, a new social phenomenon in India and latest endearing nickname in my house, is the protagonist from the advertisement of an online job portal in India. What does it mean to be called a Sadu? Well, 'sadu' in Hindi means grouch, but Hari Sadu has personified grouchy, uptight and taken it into the 21st century. Also available with uprades. This time in Bangalore, I could see huge billboards showing a desktop with an error message that reads 'Hari Sadu Virus ver. 2.5.' Naukri.com has not only created a good ad but an iconic figure for middle class India.

Scavenger Hunt

2008-02-07T23:58:00.001+01:00

The Holiday

2008-02-06T15:21:00.000+01:00

I had the good fortune to catch a dreadful cold, flu, fever, cough (you name it, I caught it) after an awful two weeks of hard work, hard partying and emotional roller coasters. It is the best holiday ever. I suppose I consider it a holiday because it came at a time when I wanted it the most and so it is appreciated so much more. And this is all I am going to go into the whole sickness-is-the-body's-way-of-telling-you-to-relax routine. After all, I don't want my blog about the holiday to be boring.

I have been lying in bed all day with all my to-do lists surrounding me. Watching all those little post-its trying to be stern and remind me of all the tasks that I have not completed yet, I can't help but chuckle to myself. I have a feeling that in a little while I will no longer be able to control the giggles and it will blow out to full-sized maniacal laughter. Though now, the post-its are trying to talk some sense into me. They tell me that I should concerntrate on the tasks that are less cumbersome, tasks that I could accomplish while lying in bed. I wonder where they picked up the fine art of negotiation. But no matter, I can ignore them for a while longer.

Lying in bed all day, legitimately, without feeling guilty has its joys. For one, you discover and understand the nuances of your pillow and sheets much better. It came as a great surprose to me to find that the left side of my pillow is more comfortable to use as a teddy bear than the right side of my pillow which is the more firm, no-nonsense side. It positively reeks of army like discipline - the right side because if you sleep on it for the whole night you jump up early in the morning with a pain in the neck.

The other joy that I have discovered is cough lozenges. I think I may have a new addiction. I dread to count how many I must have popped in the last hour. A little later on I may indulge in a little arts and crafts and try and see what innovative things I can build with 50 lozenge wrappers.

The most fun though has been watching the sky change out of the window over my head. Glorious fun. I predicted that clouds would be rolling in from the west by mid-afternoon long before the TV weather man even got there. For now though I am enjoying the clouds.

This flu has also given me time to rediscover my iTunes library. Somehow the word library conjures up images of an old, long-forgotten, dusty, wood-paneled room with book reaching up to a very high ceiling and creaky wooden movable staircases that you use to get books from the very top shelves. OK, that was a rather rambly side note. The good thing is that I can always blame any ramblings to fever delirium. Anyway, to come back to why I mentioned my iTunes library, I just discovered a song called Life, more specifically Life (High Quality) by a Eurotrance group called E-Type and I can't help but think lying here in bed doing nothing and eating lozenges all day that it is very appropriate.

Proof

2007-11-20T19:57:00.000+01:00

Finally, after months of bad conscience, it is scientifically proven that I am without guilt! It can now be shown that I am not a lazy person, who doesn't have interesting things going on in my life to share with the world... I can assure you that my silence in here is by no means a sign of that. No, I am just a girl with a blog, who doesn't blog - it's a Thu-thing.

Now how did I get this amazing insight?? It came to me yesterday, when Ridh and I were working on a project. Project equals research and research equals academic databases and no success in academic databases equals random search on google... After some hours of deep concentration, even google search becomes useless. That is, until you get the fantastic idea of googling anything that comes to your mind. In this case, Me, Myself, I, was what popped up in my head and I had to see how much truly valuable information there is in cyberspace. A search on my full name returned 1 (one!) hit. I guess I have to realize that I am not the most popular person in the world, but hey, this one hit was very useful!

It gave me the link to a blog I had 3 years ago when volunteering in Vietnam. Well, a blog is maybe too much said. There was a test post before I even left for the adventure and a post 4 months later, when I was about to return from it. Nothing in between - and this is definitely not due to the fact that there was nothing to tell. So this is my proof... I'm just not blogger-material!

But thumbs up for Ridh for trying to turn me into one :-)

A bad case of Examotitis...

2007-10-21T00:03:00.000+02:00

Symptoms: Dark circles under the eyes, insomnia, extreme caffeine dependency, memory of a goldfish and tea strainer combined, jitteriness, lack of appetite (or in some cases, extreme hunger), and a bad temper.

Yep. The past few weeks, we have been down with a bad case of examotitis...

Don't you miss those days when you could pelt the boy sitting in front of you in the examination hall with a tiny rolled up millimetre of paper torn from the corner of you question sheet to mouth exaggeratedly to ask for the answer to question 1, part 2)b): What is the difference between the free cash flow model and the something equities model?

Or all the times when you have contemplated writing some key formulae on your hand so you wouldn't forget them?

Or the good old "oops-I-dropped-my-pencil-I-need-to-pick-it-up" trick and then while you are down there might as well ask your neighbour for the answer anyway?

Technically my exams aren't over yet but soon... Soon... This time around our exams were case exams were we had 72 hours and 48 hours to solve them. Piece of cake I thought. We will plenty of time to finish and we can research the answers on that storehouse of useless information - the Internet...It is almost sad how disillusioned I was by the end of it.

The problem with open book exams like these is that the pressure is enormous. You can never tell anyone that you didn't know what the answer was, or that you had a temporary lapse of memory or that you got so nervous you made a careless mistake, or even that you wrote the wrong answer for the wrong question. You have to be perfect and you know it. The thought that comes to your head when you are struggling with it is, "Well, I have all the sources I could possibly want. If I miss anything, it will just be do to my laziness to look for it."

Many things can go wrong in such an exam. There is an immense potential for distraction in such a long period of concentration. After spending 10 hours in a day trying to solve a certain problem of bonus calculation, your attention wanders hopelessly fascinated by any small thing like a gold fish in a new aquarium...Picture yourself sitting there thinking of a goldfish and making funky fish faces with only 4 hours till deadline.

A fun thing that can happen as a result of such intense work is that you feel bonded with your team and a culture emerges with its own symbols and rhetoric. I experienced this for real in our group for our MCS exam. We were stuck trying to think of a solution for a particular aspect of our case. Finally, after 2 hours we had a breakthrough. Group member 1 got so excited that she threw her hands up joyously and exclaimed that group member 2 (the girl who came up with the solution) was the "King". After that epic moment of exultation, it became official that the highest praise we could each other was that of "King"liness.

In the end, all the arguments, pounding fists on the table during arguments, constant nitpicking were all forgotten in favour of proud moments of shining teamwork. And of course, we can't forget the sense of wonderful satisfaction and accomplishment that is part of the package. All in all, a very "King"ly feeling indeed...

Newer and Improved'er' Blog

2007-10-20T19:54:00.000+02:00

Helloo to our insofar non-existent reader base...
Our blog is now newer and more improved than before... I have been working on making sure that our music thingo plays on Mozilla browsers as well but I don't know how successful I have been... So whoever you are, if you chanced upon this wonderful land of ours in your lovely little Firefox-ical browser and found the music loading in the background, leave a comment and let me know... I need feedback...
Yay!!!

Calvinisms.. Not Protestant theology but another kind...

2007-06-12T01:13:00.000+02:00

Lately, I find myself finding a Calvin and Hobbes strip to explain everything in life. Why should economics be left out of that?

New Feature - Thanks Google!!

2007-06-06T09:58:00.000+02:00

We now have music on our blog. It is the ultimate tribute to procrastination before the exams.

Those who have sat with a Financial Accounting book in front of them for more than 40 minutes will sympathize and understand my sentiments and the corresponding course of action I took. I was really extremely bored and so devoted almost an hour and a half, I think it has been now to figuring out how to add a music track to a blog on blogger. Incidentally, it requires one to go into HTML and edit that.

Now you must be wondering how a Business student was editing HTML. Well, folks, its all thanks to Google, Wiki and other wonderful teachers. I think I have learnt more useful stuff from Google than from any other source in the world including all the brilliant teachers I have ever had.

I am beginning to think that almost all the world's problems can be solved if you just Google them. You will always find someone, somewhere who has already asked the same question and someone else somewhere else who has answered it. Just thinking of the vast potential of this is overwhelming (but in kinda a good way).

I am rambling again when I should be reading about liabilities, assets and cash flows. So I hope you enjoy the music (which is subject to change of course depending on the the mood of the authors), enjoy the video link (it is hilarious) and maybe you will even stick around to read the entries and leave a comment.

Flow

2007-05-18T07:14:00.000+02:00

Recently, (and those of you who know me can vouch for this) I have been caught in a maelstrom of activity due to the volley of family visits to Copenhagen. Thanks to these visits I got to visit the Danish Design Centre's exhibit call Flow. It is about consumer responsibility. For those of you have not visited it, I highly recommend it. It really is an eye-opener.

It is designed like a supermarket with products lined along the shelf. However, none of the products have any brand to distinguish them from any others. All products are equal, plain white with just a label with the name of the product. This is not a supermarket where they sell regular products but rather what society needs.

Milk cartons containing 'tolerance', cream cartons containing '1/4th pint of unconditional love', boxes containing 'commercial-free space', perfume bottles containing 'good vibes', cigarette packets containing 'addiction liberators', cans containing 'meaningfulness' and 'silence', medicine boxes containing 'stress killers' and 'time for each other', and disposable syringes with 'collective consciousness'.

I think that last one is really significant. I wish we could all inject our society with collective consciousness. In the exhibit, they quote Anne Lappe, "Everytime you spend money, you are casting a vote for the kind of world you want." I guess democracy is everywhere, huh?

Forgive me!

2007-05-16T06:38:00.000+02:00

I'm such a bad blogger...

The Ten Commandments of a Respectable Academician

2007-04-24T03:21:00.000+02:00

This is something I wrote ages back in middle school. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, it is still applicable in my life. So here goes...

Thou shalt sleep in class.
Thou shouldst be wholly present in body and soul for all class activities that consist of annoying thy comrades & harassing the professor.
Thou shalt indulge in gluttony when it comes to the lunches of thy comrades.
Thou shalt hate some of thy neighbours.
Thou shalt propagate this holy message by means of desk correspondence or notes.
Thou shouldst not be caught propagating the holy message.
Thou shalt never commit the paramount sin - paying attention.
Thou shalt never be seen taking notes as God spake unto Gates and said, “Let there be Powerpoint.”
If thy heart be pure, thou shalt never whisper or talk in class – thou shalt leave.
Thou shalt worship us, the authors, as thy creator and cower before us in fear and obedience.

Sweet exam time

2007-03-28T07:30:00.000+02:00

There are times when you've been studying for so long and you're so tired of it that anything can distract you. Perhaps the refrigerator suddenly got filled with the world's delicacies .. not very likely, but it's always worth a shot to check. If not for the possible outcome of this trip to the kitchen, then at least for the little exercise you get. Physical activity is the number uno way of taking a break from the books. Especially cleaning becomes heaven during these exam times. It's a perfectly legal reason NOT to study, it actually has a purpose, you get your caffeine-tired body moving all while turning up the radio and bawling out your favourite hits.

The best time, however, is when you can finally put your little exhausted head on the pillow and safely close your eyes. Knowing that you deserve a couple hours of doing absolutely nothing. Or that was what I thought until yesterday. Something changed between last night and this morning. I remember turning off the light and my last thought was something like "ahh...at last" and then there was probably some snoring...

Normally, I would expect to be on my way to sunny beaches and coconut drinks. I was fooled. I got brutally dumped into a nightmare where a little red evil-looking devil chased me up and down short-run aggregate supply curves, which eventually became long-run and thus vertical. And I fell. We both did, it was too slippery. Still he managed to follow me. I tried monetary policy, tried to bribe the little devil not to chase me, but all I got out of it was to shift the aggregate demand curve. The nightmare continued and continued until we had been through what seems like every single chapter in the book and I woke up breathless and sweating.

Today is the last day before the exam, last day before freedom. And I'm thinking. Tonight, maybe I should pull an all-nighter like I know certain other people do... I will beat the little devil.

Circus Librarius

2007-03-20T22:38:00.000+01:00

Yet another day, yet another endless book of graphs and figures, and of course time wasted (cough cough.. i mean, studying) in the library. The CBS Library at Solbjerg Plads is a fascinating place. With such striking architecture, it is a wonder that people are able to concentrate.

Today, I had the luck to acquire a prime seat in the library, with a fantastic view of the whole place. It was a seat on the ground floor facing the heart of the library. From it, one could stare at all floors at once. While I was sitting there, it occured to me that this fitted the image I had of the imperial pavilion at one of the Circus Maximus (Maximii ?!?) of Ancient Rome. Only I wasn't the Emperor. I was more like the Emperor's flunkie who stood to the side and ran errands for 'His Imperial Majesty.'

I don't how the entertainment I had compares today with the Circus Maximus of yore, but I have to say that this was pretty fun as well. The most amusing sight has got to be the people who I like to call the 'Seat Snatchers'. They are the people who enter the library and beginning scanning the place for an empty table to sit and study at. For those who already occupy tables, it feels like they are unsuspecting gazelles at the local watering hole being watched by a tiger who has just come off a vegan diet. You feel watched. Unsafe. And though you may stare back defiantly, the Seat Snatchers continue to circle like hawks, unperturbed by the discomfort they may be causing you. And then, just as they are about to give up the hunt, someone crumbles under the pressure (well, not really... possibly that someone just has a class to attend, but that doesn't sound half as dramatic, does it now? ) and gets up to leave. Then, the hawks swoop down together. It is a race to see who gets there first. The winner sits down, exhausted from the hunt, but trimuphant nonetheless and stares back at his competitors in a most humble manner, so as not to provoke them further. And the rest continue the hunt.

The other form of amusement at Circus Librarius is the Mobile Dash. It is fiery competition of determination and sheer speed between man and mobile phone. When everyone has finally settled into their seats, and is getting down to work, someone's mobile phone will ring loudly and unexpectedly. Most mobile phones nowadays have that feature where their ringtone gets louder gradually. Like a petulant child tugging at your trouser leg, it demands your attention, "Listen to me! NOW!!" And so they cry (or in this case, ring) , softly at first - so soft that only your neighbours can hear you, then louder and louder. The whole point of the Mobile Dash is to get out of the Library limits before the ringtone is loud enough to be heard by everyone on all 4 floors. It is indeed, a hilarious sight to see someone immersed in sheaves and sheaves of paper, suddenly turn red and purple with embarassment as the first strains of their embarassing ringtone choice float across the library. Then it is a mad dash leaving paper trails behind, tripping on computer cords all in a desperate attempt to get out of the library before everyone in CBS know that everytime you have a call from home, you hear La Cucaracha.

So what are you waiting for? Come to Circus Librarius today. You won't get much studying done, but who wants that anyway? Right? wink...

Helloooo

2007-03-19T21:52:00.000+01:00

I'm trying to find something intelligent to say. Not going very well. Been looking at the screen for a couple of minutes while Ridh is trying to upload our rowdy viking picture. The beginning of it was pretty random just as about anything we do. Studying macroeconomics for the upcoming exam, babbling away on msn as always... going macromackerelmacaroon. BAM. A blog was born.

Welcome

2007-03-19T20:55:00.000+01:00

This blog is hopefully, the start of many great things to come. A conversation between two confused souls to avoid studying Economics. Creativity hampers all education's attempts to discipline us and we love it.