How many coincidentally difficult things can one person succesfully deal with?

I guess I'll find out in the next few months. Apparently I've been a little too ambitious/greedy with my summer plans. The issues, as they have dawned on me:

1. In order to obtain a Spanish visa, I need (among other things that I CAN acquire in a timely manner) a clean bill of lack of criminal record. This involves going to get finger printed at the local police station (on the agenda for today), and then mailing this, along with a couple other forms, to some FBI Processing office in Virginia. What I didn't know the first time I looked this up (because, of course, I didn't scroll all the way to the bottom of the page) is that this process takes thirteen weeks. So, assuming this is true, the earliest I would possibly have this shiny piece of paper is July 5th.
2. My current plan has me leaving the country with no plans of returning before the winter on June 16th.

3. Once I have obtained the said shiny piece of paper, I then must go, in person , to the Spanish Consulate in Los Angeles, and submit it, along with 10 other documents. Among those documents will also be my passport which will not be returned to me until my visa is processed. Which, according to the website, takes exactly "a very long time".

4. Apparently, the US Government has realized that sometimes bureaucracy is an issue. Therefore, if you need to travel internationally and your passport is being held up by a consulate or embassy for visa processing, you are eligible to apply for a second passport. Woohoo! Problem (partially) solved. I still have to somehow present myself to the Los Angeles Spanish Consulate while being on the other side of the Atlantic, but let's assume, for the purpose of this post, that I have $1300 to spare and can fly back to show them my pretty face.

5. The reason for my departure from the US on June 16th, however, is my other plans - namely, spending a month in Israel and then traveling with Gap Adventures to Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Jordan. Now, assuming I currently have in my possession the 2nd passport that the government issued me (while my other one is being held by the Spanish consulate), I can travel worry free, right? Wrong. Apparently, the government of Syria (and officially, Jordan and Egypt, but apparently its not a problem there) will not issue an entry visa to any person possessing a stamp from the Israeli government in their passport.

6. But wait, the US government also provides for this! They state that if you are traveling from Israel to any of the above listed countries, you can apply for a second passport. Only, wait, I already did that. How about a third, guys? No? Yeah, didn't think so.


My only option seems to be traveling on my second, blank passport, and asking the ever so friendly (oh, and smiley too) immigration officials that welcome you at Passport Control upon landing in Israel to not stamp my passport. Yeah. That'll happen.

Assuming it doesn't, I can then hope that Syria will enforce their policies as "strictly" as Jordan and Egypt, and will let me in anyway. Yeah. Even more likely...Update. Just looked up the visa information on the Gap Adventures Website: 


SYRIA: As part of your tour we are able to organize group entry visas to Syria free of charge. To enable us to organize your visa, you will need to provide Gap Adventures with your passport number, issue date and expiry date a minimum of 15 days prior to departure. Unfortunately , if we do not receive your passport information at least 15 days prior to departure, we are unable to guarantee that we will be able to organize your visa. It is vital that there are no Israeli stamps of any kind in your passports, nor any entrance or exit stamps from neighboring border checkpoints which would indicate a visit to Israel. Your passports must be valid for at least 6 months prior to the departure date. Please note that there is a departure tax of 550 Syrian Pounds.

Plans Solidifying!

I haven't written in a while, and although I'm disappointed with myself for that, I am happy to see that I have made progress in my decision making since the last time I wrote. My tentative plan for the next 6 months resembles the following:

May 27th: Fly to Barcelona for Admitted Weekend
May 29th/30th: Admitted Weekend
June 1st: Fly back to LA/San Diego
June 18th: Last day with Capgemini
June 20/21: Fly to Barcelona to Apartment Hunt with Alexa (1 of hopefully 2 roomates that I will have!)
July 27th: Fly to Israel
July 28th: Start program in Ashdod: Beach, Hebrew, Volunteer
July 21st: Leave for Cairo for "Cairo to Istanbul Adventure":

http://www.gapadventures.com/trips/istanbul-to-cairo-adventure/ETIC/2010/

August 10th: Fly back to Barcelona and start the rest of my adventure!

There might be a Greece trip or a flight back home for a wedding throw in to the end of August, but I , thankfully, don't have to decide that yet!

The Time Off

Time is also running out for planning what I will do in the 2 months between work and school. Here is the plan in my head, which is not being implemented in any way at the moment, and has not been confirmed on any level:

May 28th: Last day of work
June 7th (ish): Fly to Israel
June 14: Start Volunteer Program in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv
July 8: End of Program
July 15th ish: Leave Israel
Travel: Egypt? Jordan? Turkey? Croatia? --> Need to find some travel partners
August 1st - Arrive in Barcelona, secure apartment
August 5th (ish) - August 19th (ish) - Greece with Starr
August 23rd - Start new Life in Barcelona!!!

Time is running out. I need to start making things happen...

Between now and then...

Things are moving really quickly now, and I feel like I'm running out of time. Everything feels so temporary. I have to start thinking about leaving my apartment, packing up my life, etc. There are all the things I want to do here before I leave, too....

I probably only have these next 3 months left here in San Diego. In these 3 months, I need to lose 10-15 pounds, since I will undoubtedly gain about that much in what has been described as a hellish first 6 months at IESE. I need to start applying for loans, visas, etc...

I have 12 weeks of work left. That's 12 weekends. Of those, the following are already booked:

March 12: Park City
March 18: LA
March 25: Vegas
April 16: LA
April 23: SF
April 30: Alicia in SD
Some weekend in May: SB Wine Tour

That leaves 7 weekends for getting my life in order. Not that I'm complaining, this is all AWESOME, but time is running out.

Decision made!

I made up my mind a while back, but I suppose I should make it official.

 I've officially decided I will attend IESE this upcoming fall.

I guess it was never much of a difficult choice to make - once I visited and met people, it was clear. On paper, ESADE did appeal to me a lot more, but being on campus really did make the difference. The whole assessment day/networking selling day the school did in NYC also sealed the deal. And the fact that the economist ranked it #1 didn't hurt also, but I know better than to base everything solely on ranking. Although, when you get into the #1 anything, you GO!

In any case, I'm going. Considering the future, and the fact that EVENTUALLY, I want to come back to California to settle down, it makes sense to go with the more established name with more connections and a stronger reputation. I've also learned that education truly is what you make of it, and there is no doubt that I will be more challenged at IESE. In light of that, I think I'll be able to make more of it.

I'm terrified and excited!!!!

Now what?

I definitely never EVER for a SECOND considered the possibility that I would be admitted to BOTH SCHOOLS. IESE & ESADE have both offered me admission to their September 2010 intake. Both schools are awesome, both are places I'd be very happy at. Both involve me going VERY deep into debt. Yeah, IESE's about 20K more than ESADE, but in the grand scheme of things, those 20K are pretty insignificant so I need to not consider that in my decision making process.

From the acceptance e-mails alone, you can just tell that I'm going to get a lot more personalized attention at ESADE than IESE - ESADE's acceptance e-mail was so gushing, so excited, so helpful, full of contacts and information and an offer of anything I needed to help me through the process. IESE's was like...congrats. Here's where you pay, and here's how much. But, on the other hand, they're #1....when you're number one, you don't have to kiss anyone's ass. And, on that same token, when you're accepted to the #1 anything, you don't say no!

I have a lot of factors to consider:
1. Where I'm gonna grow the most professionally
2. Where I'll grow the most personally
3. Alumni connections for jobs post graduation
4. Alumni connections for jobs in the US
5. Reputation...but that's an easy one.

What attracted me to ESADE was their claim of Career Services working with you from the moment you're admitted to start developing your profile and start you on the right path to searching for your dream job. Their "LEAD" program sounds like something I'd be intensely benefited by, that kind of 360 approach to leadership development and mentorship. Their workload, which is somewhat less than IESE, sounds like I would get more out of it. Its hard to learn when you're just constantly rushing to get things done. On the other hand, I always do better, the more I'm challenged. But preparing 3 cases a night just sounds excessive to me! So i think overall my time would be more enjoyably spent at ESADE. IESE's focus, as evidenced by their reputation, is on the Banking & Consulting industries, and that's where most of their connections are and companies recruiting on campus come from. I'm not interested in either of those industries. ESADE seemed to have a lot more going on with Energy companies, with innovative technology, etc.But then again, that's what I think I want to do now - that might change. On a broader level, IESE probably offers more opportunity. They are more established, have broader alumni contacts, in more places in the world.

I'm gonna be engaging in this back and forth a LOT...

ACCEPTED!? Again?!

I'm in complete and utter shock. I received my acceptance from IESE this morning!!! After the weekend of hell they put all of us through, resulting in my coming home on Sunday night convinced that I stood no chance, after them pushing off the decision for weeks, after me thinking, good freakin' riddance, they actually WANT ME!? I woke up this morning and, as usual, obsessively checked my phone. I had an e-mail saying admissions decision from IESE, but the decision was an attached PDF, so I figured, its gotta be a rejection. But my phone wouldn't open the attachment, so I stumbled to my computer (which of course froze and had to be restarted) with my eyes still blurry cuz I was basically still asleep. So I was in complete disbelief when I finally opened the stupid PDF. The congratulations was short but sweet:

On behalf of the MBA Admissions Committee, I am pleased to inform you of our decision to offer you
a place in the IESE Full-Time MBA Program starting September 2010. Congratulations on
earning a well-deserved place and welcome to IESE!




I have been accepted to the program ranked #1 in the world by the ECONOMIST. I mean, SERIOUSLY!??!?!

http://www.economist.com/business-education/whichmba/


The next 4 paragraphs (surprise surprise!) were about money, how to transfer it, and when to transfer it by. Now I have to make a decision - by March 12th. Holy CRAP. I never thought I'd be in this position!! AHHH!