Soccer Tournament in Dortmund

In November, GISMA sent off 14 MBAs to play against some of the toughest opponents in Germany. Among them, Ion, Andreas, Ingo, Caius, Patrick, Hector, Viveik, The doctor- Saurabh, Amit, Josh, Sebastian, and others. After GISMA had to play each other twice and play another 4 teams twice as well, the boys were tired and the women had lost their voices, if not from screaming then from the people smoking in the upstairs sports bar.

Unfortunately, the two teams, GISMA Green and GISMA Black, lost but everyone proved to be great sports. Though along the way there were a few incidences, Andreas in his second game twisted his ankle and unfortunately was out for the rest of the tournament.

His ankle soon became the size of a melon but Patrick came to the rescue with crutches provided by his lovely girlfriend. Even though there were a few injuries in the team and a few losses, this didn't stop everyone from enjoying themselves that night.

A few of us, stayed up and had a few drinks and told jokes. Here are the three Musketeers. Ion acted as our drink Meister all night and kept us all in high hopes.

Meanwhile, we couldn't keep these two love birds from making out on the field, the infamously in love, Sarah and Ingo. Ahhh...young love...

Travel for work or is it work for travel? Ghent

I am currently working for Eaton Corporation in their European Marketing Development Program. As part of this I am developing value propositions for their home automation product in the Netherlands, UK and Belgium.

Recently I had the chance to travel to Belgium and experience the cities of Gent (Ghent) and Brussels. I instantly fell in love with Gent and had a chance to see the city at night, as well as taste the local Jenever liquor (Original and Lychee) and amazing Belgium Trappist beer (Marc would be jealous!).

Gent, also known as Ghent, is the third largest port city of Belgium and is the capital of the Flemish province. Belgium is divided into three areas, French section, Bilingual (Flemish and French) section and the Flemish section. It creates an interesting dynamic that is reflected in every day life.

This city reminds me of Venice, as it is a city full of canals and houses bordered by water. There is even a Viking Castle that dates back to 800 A.D.

If you ever get a chance, this medieval town is worth a visit.

Andreas' New Classmates

Andreas has now been at GISMA Business School since August and has already had a lot of interesting experiences.

Including some GISMA outings... This one is the Mojito party at PodBi, the first of many to come....

Team Building Activities...What happens when you put a bunch of potential MBAs together and make them work as a "team?" Chaos!! But a lot of fun!

And we can't forget...Octoberfest in Munich!! This is what I call a lot of fun. We all boarded the ICE (fast train) from Hannover to Munich and were there in 4 hours! A car ride would take 8 hours! So after some German "bier" and pretzels we had even more "bier" and pretzels and white wurst... it got interesting. Needless to say, you need more than one day in Munich to appreciate the city.

Last but not least, I wouldn't have made it over here and stayed, if it hadn't been for the friendship of Jenn- my fellow Californian, whom I love dearly. Here is Jenn and Hubi- a fellow Gismian from our graduating class of 2007.

April and Andreas' Journey of a Lifetime

Initially Andreas and I wanted to do the Camino de Santiago but after much discussion with friends and family, we decided that we weren't going to do it by bike but by foot and not this summer. Perhaps another time...

So we decided to travel through Spain, Portugal, France and Italy instead. We flew out on July 5th from Berlin to Madrid. This was Andreas and I's 2nd flight together ever! Haha- we've always been flying to see each other but rarely flying together.

We arrived in Madrid and quickly headed to the bus station to grab a bus to take us to the beautiful city of Logrono- where I once lived and now missed terribly. We took the next bus out but before we did this, we headed out to explore the city around the remote bus station in Madrid. We entered a corner Tapas restaurant where everyone was standing and crowding around the bar to get a canaita ( small beer), a glass of Spanish wine and ahhh... tapas!

We later arrived into Logrono to be picked up by Ruth and Sergio, my wonderful old roommates.

The next few days we spent lounging by the pool, eating tapas on Laurel and going to...the Fiestas de San Fermin!! A.k.a. the running of the bulls in Pamplona! Andreas and I were there for the opening ceremony, clad in red waist bands and white shirts! We got nailed by wine while walking down the crowded streets of Pamplona and joining in the festivities of wine and beer. Ahhh, we couldn't have asked for a better time!

This is us afterwards. It was a great experience!

We then went to Coruna and Vigo then into Portugal to Lisboa- where Andreas got bitten by bed bugs...poor guy.

Then to Sevilla and to Granada, where we got to go see the beautiful Alambra.

Then to Madrid where we met up with Rene, Andreas' cousin and his beautiful wife.

From there...off to Valencia and finally to Barcelona.

Ahhh, Barcelona... we met up with Marc and Carmit, an old time friend from the Dominican Republic. We had such an incredible time eating tapas, dancing the night away and looking at amazing Gaudi monuments. Did I mention tapas? Because we ate a lot of tapas and drank...a lot...of wine! It was a great trip!

Seeing family was great! I can't wait until my next trip with Marc and Andreas...and of course, Carmit. Off to Israel we go.....

There is still more to come...the French Rivera and Italy!!

Guten Tag! First experiences in Europe...

After much discussion about our futures, Andreas and I decided that we were going to travel the world together, starting with Germany. First we had to get married...so we did, on December 23rd, 2006 on the beaches of sunny Southern California.

In March 2007, I moved to the small city of Hannover, Germany. I completed my MBA there and soon after in April, Andreas arrived as well. Soon after we moved to Berlin and took off for a week trip to Switzerland with Andreas' family. This was my first exposure to Andreas' family outside the US and I loved it. They were such warm, generous, and patient people.

Once we arrived we realized that our way of life was about to change. We weren't in the US anymore and we definitely weren't in San Diego anymore. I began taking lessons to learn German, which I practiced with already fluent and native Andreas. And this is how I started to learn German. Soon after I was practicing with his ever patient mother, Kristina in Berlin.

Living in Germany made me appreciate the incredible infrastructure they have here for public transportation. We left our cars in the US and came here with what we could carry. It's been an adventure ever since then.