One Intense Weekend

Hellloooo!

Before I start rambling on about my weekend, I want to first give some mad props to a couple people-mainly my family. First, my mom, who somehow manages to send me more cards, letters, and packages, than I thought the postman could carry. Not to mention photos of all you guys, too, which in addition to being a wonderful little present also make up most of what little decoration I have in my room. Thanks mom! Second my aunts-auntie rob and clare for sending me letters and auntie johnnie for sending me goofy little smily faces wearing lederhosen and scarfing down beer and bratwurst. Thirdly, my bros definitely earn an "A" in participation points. Thanks for posting comments regularly and making me feel like this thing is more like a dialog, which is what I was hoping would happen. You have to admit, I have been doing a pretty good job of "keeping in touch", eh? You´ve probably heard more about me than you did in all my years at IU combined!

Okay, now to get on with the story of my weekend. Nothing too wild n´ crazy, but it was pretty intense. This was the first weekend of the Planspiel. That name should sound familiar to you, because it is what I am trying to set up this whole web conference thing for. This was the first one to happen since I´ve been here, and they will continue to happen periodically throughout the semester. I don´t really want to get into all of the details, but I will say that it is a business game that is packed into 1 1/2 days split into 3 financial "periods" of trying (just to name a few) to communicate and negotiate in different languages, adjust product capacity, price, and quality, and come up with a marketing campaign for a joint-venture company. Whew.

At the end I got a little certificate saying I completed the course, though. Woohoo! This is normal here. The students receive a Schein, kind of like a mini-certificate, at the end of every class they take. So, I was a student for 2 days at FSU (Friedrich Schiller University).

Oh, and many of you I know are curious what my plans are for Thanksgiving. Well, first it is known here by most people, but as you´d probably guess not celebrated that much. My roommate´s birthday also happens to be at the end of November, right around Thanksgiving, and I think we want to plan a surprise party. Maybe we can cook a giant turkey, too. We´ll just have to see. Either way, keep me in your thoughts, because I know you won´t have any room in your hearts seeing as how your bellies will be vying for whatever extra space they can find.