Ah, I can’t believe that Spring quarter is already here. I’ve only got 10 more weeks of classes left and then my time at the GSB will be done. It’s good to see the light at the end of the tunnel approaching, but it’s scary to think I’ve got to walk away from my classmates into the real world.

I got back from the Spring break trip to Morocco late last night (or early this morning depending on how you look at it) and I can safely say that it was one of the highlights of my time in business school and probably ever. There were far too many great things about the trip than I can write here, but please believe that Morocco is definitely a country that I’d recommend that you guys check out. Just make sure you have a good touring company to set up things and you’ll have a fantastic time. The 28 folks on the trip were from a bunch of different social circles at the GSB and many of us had never really hung out with each other, so I established a lot of real friendships that I never even realized weren’t real before. When you’re doing things like riding camels, kickin’ it in the Sahara Desert, getting carsick on an 8.5 hour bus trip through Morocco, and braving the heat during downtown city tours in many Moroccan cities, you can’t help but get close to each other. A huge shout out needs to go to my man Charaf for setting everything up and serving as a fantastic host for all of us in his home country.

Today was a beast of a day. Because I got in from Morocco so late, I had to get up at the crack of dawn to get the course packets that I needed for today’s classes. You’d think that GSB professors would let us skate by onthe first day of class with no readings, right?…WRONG! So, I had to cram like crazy to get my readings done for these first classes, as well. because classes started on a Tuesday this week, the GSB shifted all of our Monday classes to Tuesday and our Tuesday classes to Wednesday, which added a bit more of a wrinkle to things. After all of the running around I did this morning, it was good to sit through my two afternoon GSB classes and immediately know that I’m going to have a great quarter of learning ahead of me. The Real-Estate Investment and Philanthropic Strategy courses that I had were both over-subscribed and I feel lucky to have gotten into them. Plus, they’re both taught by professors that seem really passionate about the subject matter and have students in them that should make for lively classroom discussions. Too bad, I slipped up and didn’t stick around in either class to form study groups…but it’s all good because that sort of stuff always seems to work itself out.

I’ve got to run out to an Education school class that is starting in a little while, but, before I go, I’d like to give some long overdue shout-outs to congratulate friends of mine on their MBA admissions success:

- To Ron F. –> Congrats on getting the good word from Wharton. I know I gave you a shout out over the phone, but this is huge news, so I’ll do it again. You made a lot of sacrifices along the way to get this far, so biggups to you.
- To Earl G. –> Congrats on getting “The Call” from Derrick Bolton and getting into Stanford. I’ll see you in a few weeks at Admit Weekend and will give you a proper congratulation then
- To Nicole R. –> I got your email with the good news about all your success with admissions at Darden, Fuqua, and Emory and, with all those full rides you should be in good shape.
- To Michele A. –> I’m SO proud of you getting that admission “YES” from Fuqua”. You’ve worked your butt off for this and you totally deserve it.
- To Nadia –> I don’t even know if you read this joint, but I’ll give you a shout out for getting the thumbs-up from HBS. Grace was so excited about your news that I thought she was the one who’d gotten in.
- To Kuleni –> I just got the good news about your HBS admission from Sean a couple of hours ago and i’m SO happy for you. Congrats!!!