2/7 Catching Up

Everything is just coming up roses these days. The weather is starting to come around. Everyone's got their schedule finalized now for the semester. And the Patriots are no longer perfect... HAHAHAHAHA! 18-1, 18-1!!!

BTW, "Gung Hay Fat Chow" to everyone celebrating the Lunar New Year today. For those of you who might not know, this is the Year of the "Rat". Those of you who are 24 (anyone in this program?), 36, or 48 (I think we've got a couple?), this is your year ;)

ADD/DROPS COMPLETED FOR SPRING 08
By this time, everyone should have had a chance to check out their final schedule for the semester. Remember to bring back any textbooks that you may have for classes that you are dropping.

Also, make sure to log into Bearfacts next week (don't do it right now since your final schedule was just uploaded to campus today) to make sure your schedule for this semester is accurate. If there are any discrepancies, please let us know ASAP!

TOWN HALL MEETING WITH ASSISTANT DEAN OF INSTRUCTION
Jay Stowsky, our new Assistant Dean of Instruction, will be taking some time out to meet with all EWMBA students during this coming week. If you have any questions or concerns about the program, or even better, if you have any glowing reviews about the EWMBA program staff ;)... please stop by and let Jay know.

BTW, food and drinks will be provided, so you shouldn't have any excuses! Dates and times for these town hall meetings are as follow:

Saturday, Feb 9th, 12-1pm, in Stanford classroom (Sun Microsystems)
Saturday, Feb 9th, 1-2pm, in Berkeley classroom (Sun Microsystems)
Monday, Feb 11th, 7:30-8:15pm, in Wells Fargo Room
Thursday, Feb 14th, 7:30-8:15pm, in Andersen Auditorium

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE INFORMATION SESSION
If you interested in the exchange program but missed out on the information sessions this week, please feel free to stop by and see this Saturday at Sun, or any time next week in the program office. The deadline for all applications to be submitted is: Monday, Feb 25th. So if you're interested, please let me know! Check out our website on the exchange program as well:

http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/EWMBA/EWMBAexchange.html

SATURDAY COHORT
So, we're back at Santa Clara this weekend. Please make sure to SIGN IN WITH YOUR PREFERRED FIRST NAME AND LAST NAME! That will really help us move the check-in line along this Saturday. Thanks!

Since this is our first meeting there for this semester, it would probably help if you guys know about the classroom assignments:

Core Classes
Morning (9-1pm):
EW204.31A, Operations, Su - Berkeley classroom
EW203.32A, Finance, Walden - Harvard classroom

Afternoon (2-6pm):
EW203.31A, Finance, Walden - Harvard classroom
EW204.32A, Operations, Su - Berkeley classroom

Elective Classes
Morning (9-12pm):
EW232.11, Money Markets & Financial Institutions, Perna - Princeton classroom
EW262.11, Brand Management, Upshaw - Heidelberg classroom
EW275.11, Business Law, Campbell - Columbia classroom
EW295A.11, Entrepreneurship, Morril & Gertz - Stanford classroom

Afternoon (1-4pm):
EW211.11, Game Theory, Oliveros - Princeton classroom
EW222.11, Financial Information Analysis - Heidelberg classroom
EW258A.11, International Business, Bahrami - Columbia classroom
EW269.11, Pricing, Azhar - Stanford classroom

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
The first birthday babies for the Year of the Rat:

Roy Kim, February 7
Venkatesh Nagapudi, February 7
Sharmila Ravula, February 7
Shelendra Sharma, February 7
Marisa Gallagher, February 9
Abhijit Tamhane, February 9
Lawrence Tomasiello, February 9
Larissa Wojciechowski, February 9
Robyn Im, February 11
Diana Liu, February 11
Ketan Shah, February 11
Douglas Rodwick, February 12
Hatinder Chawla, February 13
Nitin Garg, February 13

DID YOU KNOW?
Since this is the Year of the Rat (the first symbol of the Chinese zodiac), I thought it might be fun to share a Chinese legend about how that came to be, and also why cats hate rats (it's really a silly story):

According to one legend, in the sixth century B.C. the Jade Emperor invited all the animals in creation to a race, only twelve showed up: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Lamb, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig, and according to their places in the race, the Jade Emperor had given them each a number starting with the Rat who was the winner of the race.
Many legends arose from the Race of the Chinese Zodiacs. One told of the reason why cats and rats shall always be enemies: He and the cat (at the time good friends) were poor swimmers, so they asked the ox if they could stay on top of his head to cross the river. Along the way he pushed the cat off of the ox's back. And the cat, incapable of swimming, lagged behind. The rat stayed on top of the ox's head until the ox was almost at the finish line. And as the ox was about to cross it, the rat jumped from the ox's head and became first place. And the cat and rat have been enemies ever since.

OK, that's more than enough from me this week!

Siu Yung Wong
Assistant Director
Haas School of Business
Evening & Weekend MBA Program
(510) 643-0592