Weather

We had almost spring-like weather this week. I took advantage of it by running and reading at the lake. Amazing. You cannot help but smile when you have weather like this!

Today we got so much rain then snow. And it is freezing. Yuck.

French Lesson

Recently we went over le famille in French class and learned something that caught my attention. In-laws in French are le belle-famille. So my sisters-in-law, Rachel, Daniela, Jess and Estephania are my belle-soeurs. Tell me something I didn't know.

Jessica, Rachel and me

Daniella and Estephania

Beautiful Family, beautiful sisters, lucky me :)

Akane's Birthday

Yesterday, we went to the White Horse to celebrate Akane's birthday early, since her husband is taking her to dinner tonight. L.U.C.K.Y.  :) 

First Round

Taking advantage of Happy Hour: 2x1

Candid ;)

Happy Birthday Akane!

IMD Brown Bag Lunch Series

 

Today was IMD's 2nd Brown Bag Lunch. The partners are invited to bring their lunch to the school and sit in the auditorium while some of the MBA's lead a discussion on a topic of their choosing. Today's lunch was presented by one of the Japanese students: 

“How Zaibatsu has been operating the business?

&

“How to survive the Izakaya reception with Japanese clients?”

I had no idea what Zaibatsu was before today or what an Izakaya reception was, let alone how to survive one! 

I am so glad I went, it was really interesting. Zaibatsu is a term to describe industrial and financial business conglomerates in Japan. According to the student, today there are three. He also spoke of the culture of business in Japan and how they focus much more on long-term planning and success than short-term goals. Finally, he had a fun quiz at the end to explain how to survive the Izakaya receptions, my understanding is they are a party or event where there is usually a guest of honor, but not always. Here is the quiz that he gave the group, answers below: 

  

Question 1: If you are the first one to arrive to the party, where do you sit and why?

Question 2: The waiter approaches you first for your drink order, what do you order? 

a. Sake

b. Beer

c. Whatever you like

Question 3: At the end of the reception, what is the proper response? 

a. to bow

b. to clap

c. to say 'cheers!'

Answers: 

Q1: D. The best seat in the house is B, so you should take the worst seat by the door because you could always be asked to move to a better seat but would be dishonorable to take a good seat when you have other important people who may show up. 

Q2: B. Beer, I cannot remember the Japanese expression, but it means "Beer First!" and he said that you must order beer at an Izakaya reception, even if you do not drink alcohol. 

Q3: B. To clap. He also had a fun expression that I cannot remember, but he said at the end of the reception, the entire table would stand, the one person would say this expression, something that sounded like "Jay...!" and the entire table would then clap one time. He had the entire auditorium stand up and pretend like we were at the end of the Izakaya and did the clap. He then of course bowed ;) 

Lunch at IMD TODAY!

We dream about days like these around here. Seriously.

picture to follow.

20km Training Starts Today

Just got back from my 3 mile run along the lake in the brisk cold. April 24 I will be running a half-marathon in my new town. I think I will have a few partners joining me for the race and supposedly, but not sure how, my partner is planning on doing it! That will be a lot of fun if he can find some time to do something for himself. We may have our Sundates on runs... who knows :)

M♥nth ♥f L♥ve

Over at the Partners Blog, we have announced that February is the Month of Love and I am compiling all the partners love stories to post. Should be a fun and interesting project! Feel free to check it out in the coming days.