…how wonderful it is to do your evening/before bedtime sit-ups and arm-stretches when you can see the Empire State and Chrysler buildings from your room. I love it.
PS. Pictures from Central Park coming up one of these days
Just another picture from our trip.
The picture is taken from a small bathing/boat bridge. We are on are way to Lake Placid from Tupper Lake (this lake is in between).
On November 2, the Americans elect their next president. Back in Europe it might be difficult to follow the rules, and what exactly is going on; partly because of the fact that the system is different from ours and partly because there is a bias in the European press. Here’s the story.
When the Americans elect their president, it is not the popular vote that is the deciding factor, i.e. it is not necessarily the candidate with the majority of the votes who wins. Whether this is good or bad, is up for you to decide for yourself, but that’s how it is. Instead, it is about winning the individual states and then you get points (called electoral votes) for each state that you win. It does not matter how much you win the state, just the fact that you win it. Each state has a different number of electoral votes. In the end, the electoral votes for each candidate is summed up, and the one with the most electoral votes wins. For this reason, it is important NOT to look at the nationwide percentage polls, which are extremely popular, because they do not contain all the information you need.
A very good website on this topic, which also tells you about the state polls and electoral votes is Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004. Enjoy!
UPDATE: The New York Times also offers a good website on the topic:
NY Times Election Guide. Again–enjoy!
This is how we party.
Last week, at the school here in New York, was a small fair where all of the exchange students had to present/represent their home school to attract prospective Stern Students to go on exchange. We were there.
One of our strategies was a LEGO challenge as you can see from the picture above. Below you see one of the Stern Students successfully completing the LEGO challenge, and I am a bit proud, as you can tell. Maybe she will go to Denmark on exchange?
The photographs in this entry have not been taken by me. The first one by A. Mark Rosso, the next two, Morten Boesen.
Without further comments. I’ll tell you more about our trip to the Adirondack Mountains (and with more pictures) later. We missed the peak of the leaves though, but…. ….and maybe the car on the left is an annoying element, and I have another picture without it, but since it was the car we drove, I felt like including it.
Well, obviously, not entirely without comments :-)
My best friend stopped by, and we had a lot of fun. Below is a picture of him in front of the car we rented (more on that in another post).
So, because I could not make it to make a Welcome entry to Morten, this is a goodbye entry. He left on Sunday. More on our adventures together later!
But school is also demanding, and I am sure you understand that I cannot update my blog everyday. Anyway, I have some time right now.
I love all of my subjects. I am taking Emerging Financial Markets, Corporate Finance, International Financial Management, Risk Management, and Business Policy and Strategy. Inasmuch as Stern (my school) is one of the best finance schools in the world, it is no wonder that I have an overweight of finance courses. Also, I have been lucky with all of my professors; the level of the professors here is simply much higher than in Denmark.
But there is much more to do here, than in Denmark. There is an ongoing evaluation of the students at all times, whereas in Denmark we are more used to the one final exam. Whichever is best is probably a function of what you grew up with. But it feels great to be challenged in the way you work, which enables you to take more than just the approaches we are used to back home.
A little note on school. More posts to come in a second!
The last day before school (read the entry if you do not remember) was not a success in terms of watching baseball (but in terms of many other things). However, on September 23, once again, we went to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
And boy was it fun. The fun part was of course experiencing a different sport and a different culture, because I do not think that I could get used to watching baseball as a spectator sport. But I got to taste a very very salty pretzel, a very very sour Minute Maid ice cream, but it was fun.
In the middle of the game, the entire stadium stood up and sang “God Bless America”. What a great atmosphere in the stadium, and what a great day.
As usual, I attached a few pictures. If you have any doubt (I don’t think you have), I took them myself.
I meant the thirteenth floor, but I felt tempted. :-).
If you are not up to speed, read my previous entry about elevators.
Yes, I’ve found a thirteenth floor, believe it or not. When my parents were here, I had the chance to visit the Waldorf-Astoria, and they actually have a thirteenth floor.
What does a presidential debate has to do with a fire alarm? I’ll tell you.
So, last Thursday was the first Presidential Debate, and the topic was foreign policy. Who would ever guess that the vast majority of the debate would be about the war in Iraq? :-)
However, the day began with the Wall Street Journal, which I, as a good business school student, read every day - of course. In it was a box called “Rules of Engagement”, and rarely do I have so much fun reading a newspaper, as I had when I read this box, which contained the rules of the debate (yes, they have rules!).
So, much different than what we are used to in Denmark.
Who came out of the debate as a winner? Most newspapers agree that Kerry was stronger in the debate, and in my opinion it seemed that way (not revealing my political orientation, though, God forbid). But let us see what the polls tells us, and from what I can read in the Danish newspapers you must be pretty updated on this.
But of course……before the debate had ended, yet another fire alarm went off, and I had to evacuate for the fourth time. Get real.
