Sunday, February 24, 2008

If you're feeling a bit blue....

... cause of the weather, love, people, job, or whatever... just remember...



:)

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Stress, Interviews, Poland and the such...

So... interviews a plenty, got called back for a position that would effectively make me GM for the country of Poland, also heading there this Friday to meet with a few people / companies / interview and such. Other than that, I've been thinking about location. I really wouldn't mind staying in Spain post MBA, nor would I mind moving to London. I think moving to Poland may still be a bit early on in my career, and long story short I want to position myself where I will have the most growth potential.

Notwithstanding all these interviews, coupled with the lack of a job, and the constant juggling of responsibilities to make ends meet has me stressed out a bit, which (and I will be honest) is fairly uncommon for me. Regardless, the prospects are good, and hopefully they will culminate in something good as well.

Finally, I’ve decided that I will be ending this here blog when I get a job, or graduate, whichever will be the latter. Hope all is well on everyone’s front, and for all those who read this.

Cheers,

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

As for things here in Barna (that's Barcelona in coloquial)

On a more personal note, I’m getting a lot of interviews with some outstanding consultancies and companies where I’ve been called back for a number of 2nd, and waiting for others, as well as an offer or two. Otherwise, I’m diligently preparing, studying (big exam in forex coming up Thursday) and pushing through the final stretch of this MBA. Not much else really, other than a friend coming to visit BCN for work purposes early next week.

Sobre Африка – Something peculiar about the Zambezi and the flooding in Mozambique


When I was in Africa these couple of months ago I remember on multiple occasions people in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe talking about the floods coming this year, there was a certain “j’e ne se quoi” in the air, and many had indicated that they are cyclical, and as one individual recalled “they do tend to happen every seven years”; which makes me wonder why the government of Mozambique did nothing to help prevent this, why they did not take precautions after the last floods, or even why the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe have done nothing to alleviate this, in fact working against it by opening the Kariba dam, propagating further flooding.

In any case however, the past is a brick wall, and we must look to the future. Recently, the government of Mozambique indicated that they will not ask for flood relief, but at the same time, I believe that it comes down to us, the international community to help. As such, I ask that those of you with the ability to help in some form or fashion do so; the peoples of this area truly need our help. Some organizations that I saw functioning in the area directly were the International as well as the American Red Cross’, and US Aid. So those of you in the US, write your representatives, and the rest of us, lets donate a € or two, or take 15 minutes out of our day to see how we can help.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Jeden z dwoch ktory spotkal sie z rodzinka,

Prawde mowiac bym nie powiedzial ze moje poglady polityczne leza po stronie PiSu, I takze, w zyciu nigdy nie myslalem ze Sz. P. Kaczynski kiedykolwiek wyladuje na tej tu stronce. Ale jak by nie bylo, moj ojciec chestny ostatnio sie spotkal z Panem Kaczka, cz. prezydentem III RP bo zrobil profesorstwo. (czy to tak sie mowi, o czy trace rozum?) Fajo co nie!

Od lewej, cora ojca chszestnego, lesiu, i moj stary chszestny.

Truth be told I wouldn’t say that my political views lay on the side of PiS, and notwithstanding never would I think that Sir Kaczynski would ever be featured on this here site. However, as it happens, my godfather recently met the duckling, meaning the president of the Third Republic of Poland receiving his professorate. (do you say it like that, or am I losing it?) Pretty cool, huh!

From the left, my god father’s daughter, el presidente, and my god father.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

I´m getting hit with serious exchange rate risk!!!!!

So, I bought a car in South Africa, at the time it was 72.000 ZAR, which was about 7.200 €, ok, I get 46.600 ZAR back, but then 1€ bought approximately 9.6 Rand, now, the rand is falling head over heels, what I can only assume to be the fault of many things attributable to the current happenings in the RSA. Now, if I had paid for the car in € as I had hoped, I would only be taking a loss of 7,3% or so, but since I had to pay for the thing in USD because Caja Madrid, would not let me transfer 7.200€, I´m getting hit with a loss of 11,25%, or 700 dollars.

And regarding this, I´m really somewhat ticked off. Thanks ZUMA! But.... considering the US dollars decline against the € since I´ve converted all my loans from dollars to €, I suppose I can say that Stateside, I made gains of 13,5%. Still.... 700 USD is still 700 USD. :\

Monday, February 04, 2008

From the front lines!

Not much happening other then me interviewing. And I'd say it's going fairly well, in the meantime, here's a really nifty little video I happened to stumble upon. Enjoy :)