Mrs.O's writing room.

I realise it has been six months since I have been in Philly and as I look back I'm certainly more adjusted than I was at the start ( I imagine you are saying, duh!). Over this period God has blessed me with some very special friends, it's amazing. I met Suzanne at a get together that was hosted by her and her husband. We found out we shared the same faith and she had spent some good time in Africa. We have been friends since, she has a son whom Mich loves to play with and we get to go places together. It is wonderful when you are in a new place and someone seeks you out, I really thank God for her. There is another couple we met at church, Evan is a second year student and his wife Jane is a stay home mom just like me. They have a son too who is one of Mich favourite buddies, he actually looks up to Mich in many ways and they have a lot of fun together. Sam and I have been over to their house a couple of times too and it's great knowing them. I told you that I had joined t...

Interviews start this Friday and first years are busy getting their acts together. For those interested in consulting they have what are called "cases" to crack. In simple terms a case is a hypothetical situation about a company that needs the advise of a consultant to help them increase their profits. The student then explains how he thinks the client should go about his business, it involves calculations and things of that nature. To be on top of the game, the students have to practice with year mates, second years and people who are already in the field. Sam practiced with first years and most of them said he was good to go, he practiced with second years and they told him he needed to work on his approach in certain areas, he practiced with alumni and he was told, in the words of one of the guys that he "sucked" and that no body would ever employ him. That was such a blow, it took him a while to recover. As if that wasn't bad enough, check out some experienc...

I have probably given you the impression that Wharton is a very intense and stressful school, well it is. Quite frankly I can't get over some of the interesting stories Sam shares with me. One example, this guy is late for his class, he walks in and the lecture is already in session. Now you would think he would try to sneak in with out taking attention off the lecturer but no, he makes his way to the front row of the class, shuffling past students here and there. The lecturer can't believe it, she stops talking and waits for him to settle down, the class is obviously very quiet at this point. Then the guy after settling down says something like "please proceed with the lecture". Shocking I tell you, I wonder how the lecturer felt after that, but I know that his fellow students will always remember him. The other day, Sam told me how they were "playing" with Lego's in one of the lecture session. Lego's?? yeah Lego's, apparently it's not only...

Wow! January is turning out to be a really busy month for me although I must say I'm grateful that so far this semester is not as intense as the previous one. First years are busy polishing up for interviews for summer internships, the list for the first round of admits '09 is out, the Wharton Welcome Weekend is round the corner. Second years are wrapping up, sorting through the finer details regarding where they relocating to for full time work, graduation is in May and so on. I'm sort of feeling like a student under pressure too, well apart from the fact that I share in Sam's experiences (joys, pressures and anxieties of school) this time I have got some of my own. About three months after coming to Philly I attended a Wharton Kids' Club meeting and ended up being assigned the duties of "Coordinator Wharton Welcome Weekend". I agreed to it but frankly had no clue what my job description was, let alone what happened at a Welcome Weekend. It didn't b...

Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King His love endures forever For He is good He is above all things His love endures forever Sing Praise, Sing Praise Forever God is Faithful Forever God is Strong Forever God is with us Forever! This song has been on my heart all week and it has been a nourishment to my spirit. I haven't felt like blogging much lately, I think I'm going through a quiet phase of seeing God's goodness and just hiding it in my heart. Kind of feels like a retreat for refueling. Mich and I went to visit with a friend today and on our way there it begun to snow ever so lightly. We were excited!, Mich has been waiting for snow for a long time, not to say that we were not enjoying the "warm winter". As the flakes came down I couldn't help but marvel at God's wonderful works, it looked beautiful. Even though it was really cold the excitement on peoples faces was literaly shining through. Almost everyone I came across was either saying "it...

It used to be that the part I dreaded most about dental procedures was the numbing injections, gosh!!! the pain of that needle entering the gum and then the flow of the medicine into the gum muscle or whatever, absolutely horiffic!. Well nothing has changed, I still don't appreciate the process. It also used to be that it gets better when you finally stop feeling a thing well not anymore. I get a lot of "brain torture" when the drilling begins, it feels like I'm in a cement factory, no! like I'm a building site. The sound of the drill just freaks me out, even though I can't actually feel a thing. The whole process is unnerving, kind of feels like the dentist is doing major damage and my brain starts to trigger off pain impulses even where there are none. I'm hoping that in the near future we will have one of those intelligent scientist invent a silencer, you know, a drill that doesn't make a sound but is still effective. Ok, so the construction is over...

Today I got to visit my dentist to continue the procedure of a root canal, my was it a long visit! For three hours my mouth was stretched wide open. I'm sure you can imagine how tiring that can be, even for people who can't keep their mouths shut :-). It all started in UG when the plans to travel were finally wrapped up, we had visas etcetera. I decided that I would have my teeth worked on before I came here because I knew how expensive it would be, actually my dentist put it something like this " you are wise to do this now because if you wait... lets just say the amount of money you spend out there would pretty much suffice to buy land and build a house here". He knew all my problem teeth and worked on them but there is this one tooth that gave me most trouble and yet the very one he didn't sort out properly. Two months into my stay here it was giving me trouble again so I decided to visit the dental school for help. Now, I've come to learn that seeing a doc...

Mich and I spent the evening of the 31st with my navigator friends, they had invited a Chinese friend, so we were a good number. I didn't get to have much of a conversation with him because of the language barrier. I tried at the beginning but I had to repeat myself 3 or 4 times switching words back and forth for him to understand what I was saying and even then I didn't get an answer to my question. We resorted to keeping the conversation light and short,with closed ended questions. There was plenty to eat, we had meatballs, crab, greens, Pizza to mention but a few by the time we were half way I was absolutely satisfied. We played a board game called Yahtzee and that was fun. My Navigator friends love candy and this being the holiday season they had it all over the place. Alas my battles with Mich begun, I tried to keep the candy away but he had already seen it and was going crazy. I was successful for the most part but Brent couldn't help giving it to him, hhhaaaa!!!! he ...