Quinnie is Here!!!

So, Auntie Marjean and I got to meet our brand new niece this weekend. Man is she cute, and MAN am I tired. Marjean and I pulled feeding duties, so we were responsible for the midnight and 2am bottle. It was lots of fun and we loved it. Since I'm a proud uncle, check out these pictures...

Wrapping it up...

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post in a few days, but things have been VERY hectic here in Dijon! We have a number of assignments and papers to turn in over the next couple of days, so we've been working non-stop. We've still been having lectures in the morning and visits in the afternoons.

Monday's tour was a trip to an auto parts manufacturer here in Dijon. We visited a company named Jtekt just across town. Jtekt makes rack and pinion systems as well as other steering system components. We took a tour of their plant and then had a question and answer period with their HR director. Even though he did not speak English, we carried on quite a lively conversation. He spoke a lot about the strategy of the company as well as some of the issues in the French business world (can you believe that they have a 35 hour work week here?).

Tuesday's visit was a trip to a medical research facility called Oncodesign. At Oncodesign we met with the Director of Business Development. Tuesday's trip to Oncodesign was quite interesting as well. Apparently they are strictly a pre-clinical testing facility only. They contract with other companies to test compounds on rats and mice with cancer. They do not hold any patents, but they are growing like crazy.

Yesterday's jaunt was to the Regional Council. The Region would be comparable to our State. Dijon is the seat of the region (equivalent to Sacramento for us). A staff member gave us a presentation on the area and then we had an interesting question and answer period. We learned a lot about the political systems that work in France. Its surprising how little Federal oversight there is in France. Most of the political work is done at the Region level.

Tonight is our big certificate dinner. We're all going out for a formal dinner where we will get our certificates of completion. Tomorrow we have presentations scheduled (our team gets to just sit because we're going to present here in just a few minutes) and then we take our finance final. I think I'm going to do a bit more shopping on Friday afternoon. We'll be getting ready to go Friday night, and then we're up and out on Saturday morning! My train leaves Dijon at 6:30 am and we pull into Paris around 9. I've had a great trip, but I'm REALLY looking forward to getting home. It will be so nice to see Marjean and just relax at home. I'm also looking forward to a little TV in ENGLISH (I saw Grey's Anatomy in French the other night - no joke)!!

I'm not too sure how many more posts I will make. We're not doing anything too terribly interesting between now and when we leave. I also apologize for no pictures, but I figure you guys don't really want to see pictures of the insides of conference rooms, especially after the previous pictures.

I hope all is well at home. See you all very soon!!

A nice quiet Sunday in Dijon...

I have come to the end of my nice quiet weekend here in Dijon. I haven't done a whole lot today. Most of my day was spent working on the 3 different assignments that we have due today. We're just working away, trying to get the projects for our IS and Finance classes finished. I have a feeling that this last week is going to be packed full, so the sooner we can get everything done, the better off we'll be. Besides, our going away dinner is going to be Thursday night and we've got presentations and a final on Friday.

However, all work and no play makes Tyler a dull boy, so I did get out of the lobby of the hotel for lunch (I finally had a little Beef Bourgenon and it was FANTASTIC - Its beef stew in a red wine sauce). Around 5 pm or so Josh and I ran down to the city hall and we climbed the highest tower in Dijon. It was amazing, and I have some great pictures for you all. I'll tell you what, all of these french folks love to climb things! If it's remotely high, they'll put some stairs on it and use it to check out the countryside.

After a little more work this afternoon, we swung by the local kebab shop for some dinner. At this moment, we're back in the old Lobby finishing up the last of the assignments.

I'm sorry that the blog is a little uneventful tonight, but we haven't done a ton of stuff today (and I hope I can make up for it with good pictures).

Hope everyone is well at home. I'm marking the days until I get back and see everyone (and I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing Marjean!!).

Out and About...

Today was a nice, relaxing Saturday in Dijon. It is probably about 70 degrees and the sky is a clear blue. Its definitely a welcome change from the rains that we've been getting since we got back here.

We got back from our trip to Brussels last night about 9:30. I'll tell you what, 10 hours on a bus over 2 days is pretty long! I enjoyed seeing the EU. It was interesting to hear all about the legislative things that the EU does. Talk about getting lots of different countries to work together! I also saw a pretty interesting parade go right by our hotel in Brussels. Apparently they have a parade once a year where hundreds of people dress in period costumes and they parade through town. Its supposed to represent the Emperor returning to the city. They had everything you could imagine... people on stilts, mounted soldiers, Lords and Ladies, it was amazing! Believe it or not, the last group in the parade was a huge wagon with a barrel on it. The people in the parade actually come along and hand out beer from the wagon. You wouldn't see something like that at home!! Brussels was interesting, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the city. It was kind of dingy and dark and VERY compact. The streets feel like canyons with all of the tall buildings. I was also surprised to see a lot of trash in the area. Compared to France, Brussels is quite dirty. I was glad to get back to Dijon.

This morning we slept in late and got up to a beautiful day. We walked over to the laundromat and got some clothes washed. After a little lunch, we went out and hit the Dijon museum and the crypt under one of the local churches. It was interesting. We also walked around a bit and did some shopping. We're about to sit down and do some homework. Its going to be nice to get some stuff done.

The pictures are just some shots I took while walking around Dijon today. The first picture is actually the Dijon City Hall (Dad, how would you like to work there?). The second picture is is one of the little streets not far from our hotel. The third picture is a sarcophagus the contains a famous Lord from the area. The sarcophagus was VERY ornate and quite a sight. The last picture is of the crypt under the largest cathedral here in Djion.

I hope everyone is well. I miss you all and I'm looking forward to coming home soon.

Touring the French Countryside...

Well, I started off the day today with a mid term in finance. I know... yuck!! It was a grind and a good reminder of what we're really doing here. However, once we knocked out the test, we had a great afternoon!

When we got back to the hotel at noon or so, we hopped on a bus and headed out into the country. Our first stop was a fantastic castle called Chateau de la Rochepot (pronounced: roach-poe). The castle was unbelivable. It was owned by a family which was the advisor of the Duke's for years. It had a great example of the traditional roofs of this area (colored porcelain tiles are the signature of the burgundy area). We hiked all over the castle and got some great shots!

After the castle we headed to a small town near Dijon called Beaune (pronounced: bone). Our fearless guide, Claude took us on a tour of the old hospital that was located in the center of town. Apparently a rich merchant embezzled a bunch of money from the locals and he realized that he might be heading downwards instead of upwards when he passed away, so he had a huge hospital built. The hospital probably has the best example of the burgundy roofs that I have seen yet. It was amazing! Beaune is also very cool because the orginal walls of the city still stand. As modernization came to the area, lots of cities demolished their walls, but Beaune chose to keep their walls (they're known for resisting modernization).

The last stop on our tour, was my favorite. Our guide, Claude has been taking us on tours all over the city lately and it turns out that his family owns a winery in a little village just outside of Beaune. Claude opened 3 different bottles, all of which we exceptional wines. The last red he opened, a pinot noir, was ranked with a "Grand Cru" status. Grand Cru wines are the best of the best of the vineyards, and make up only 1% of the wines grown in the region. It was very good. Very clear, very smooth, hints of pepper and cherry. It was good, not Paso wines good, but very good.

By the way, all of you wine guys... check out how close the rows are! There's very very little machine picking done in this area.

Anyways, hope everyone is well. We're headed for Brussels tomorrow, and we will be back late Friday night. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post over the next couple of days, but I will try to make up for it this weekend.

A quick picture rundown... The first two pictures are of Claude's cellars (over 200 years old). The third picture is of a vineyard in the area. The fourth picture is a shot of a wine press in the wine museum in Beaune. The 5th picture is the hospital in Beaune, and the last two pictures are shots of Chateau de la Rochepot.

Hope everyone is doing well at home. I miss you all!!

High Finance...

I'm thinking that today is Finance day here in Dijon. We had morning lecture on a bit of global economics, and then we broke for lunch. Lunch was interesting... Lots of pointing and motioning and suddenly some food appears. Oh well, at least I'm not trying to speak spanish to folks any more. There are still a bunch of scared looking applicants running around school. Some of the french students tried to get me to play a little ping pong this afternoon, but I had to pass. Apparently my reputation for poor ping pong skills hasn't preceded me this far across "the pond" (I'm starting to sound like a serious world traveller).

We spent this afternoon in finance class working on some problems and such. We're getting ready for our finance mid term tomorrow, so everyone is a little wound up. However, I think things are going to be fine. The test is open note, open book, and you can use excel, so we're studying and building excel models tonight. The nice thing is, we have seen a lot of these concepts in our Financial Management class before.

In keeping with today's finance theme, we had an afternoon tour at the Banque de France. The folks at the bank were extremely nice and they gave us a great presentation. Apparently Banque de France is responsible for a lot of France's monetary policy. They handle all of the transactions for the French government. They also do a lot of research and data gathering through surveys and other polls. Banque de France is also very active in analyzing the credit worthiness of individuals and businesses. They take action against people and organizations in bankruptcy as well as maintain credit reports on entities. The bank also works closely with the European Central Bank to set interest rates. I suppose you could call them a combination of a consumer/commercial bank, the equivalent of our Federal Bank, and the equivalent of a credit analysis company like Experian. It was also interesting to see how similar their system is to ours. They have a credit rating system, they proceed through the steps of bankruptcy like we do, they control money like we do. However, there are some differences... the exchanges between different types of currency and different countries is incredible. Imagine if all 50 states had different currencies (with different exchange rates), and then one day, everyone decided to go to the dollar. Well, they did that here with the introduction of the euro just 7 years ago. Amazing! Talk about jumping through hoops.

I'm sorry there are no pictures today. I figured you all wouldn't be too interested in seeing the inside of our classroom, nor the inside of a conference room (of course they took us out to their private garden after the presentation, which was beautiful, and I didn't have my camera) at a bank.

Tomorrow's docket covers class, the finance mid term, and then a tour of local wineries. I'm looking forward to tasting some french wine, so I can see how much better Paso wine is! I'll get some good pictures of wineries and vineyards (that way you can critique their pruning methods, Jeff).

Hope everyone is well. Miss everyone!

Back to Work!!

Well, the vacation is over!! Today was the first day of classes at the lovely Burgundy School of Business here in Dijon (check it out... http://www.burgundy-school-of-business.com/). The school is pretty interesting. They had a bunch of students running around wearing matching shirts (the shirts say "No Stress" on them... that's my new motto for the next 6 weeks or so) and organizing activities (I must say, I’m not half bad at the French version of “Name That Tune”). I guess they’re having new applicant interviews. In order to get into this school, you have to take 2 tests (similar to the GMAT) and then be interviewed by the application committee. Apparently the Burgundy school gets 2,000 applicants and they accept 150 new students each semester. No wonder all of the applicants looked nervous!!

We had class from about 9 until 3:45, with a 2 hour break for lunch. I know, I know, pretty nice hours… After classes conclude for the day, we go out and do our activity for the day. Usually the activities are tours of companies and other places. We’re visiting wineries one day, an auto parts manufacturer, some government agencies, and a business development group for a medical company. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Banque du France. I’m looking forward to seeing how a French bank works. Maybe I’ll ask them about their revolving lines of credit for their dairies (just kidding… I haven’t seen too many milk cows around these parts).

Today’s activity was a walking tour of the old section of Dijon. The tour was led by a Professor of French Culture (somewhat of a history professor) from the area. He was VERY interesting and VERY knowledgeable. He took us to a bunch of the local churches in the area. The old part of Dijon is very quaint and the architecture is amazing. There are very beautiful cobblestone streets all over with classic buildings along each street. We strolled through city hall (which used to be a palace), past a few of the local museums, and through some gorgeous cathedrals here in town. We also toured old roman ruins and saw one the biggest sculptures that I’ve ever seen (check the picture... it was literally 2 stories tall). There were lots of interesting things to be seen, and I took some great pictures. I’m making up for not posting any pictures yesterday (I figured that none of you would be too interested in pictures of the train station) by posting a bunch of pictures of old Dijon.

Anyways, it feels like we’re starting to fall into a good groove here. We can find our way to school and we know where the cheap food is. We’ve all hit the market, so we all have the staples in the room. I’m looking forward to hitting the huge farmer’s market that they have here on Saturday morning. Things are going pretty well. I’m excited about some of the visits that we’re going to be making. We’re definitely seeing things that the average tourist would never see, and it feels good to get some work done in the classroom. It’s especially easy to get down to work when you know that 6 more units will finished in less than two weeks. Aw man… the finish line is soooooooo close!!

Well, I hope everyone is well at home. I hear it’s supposed to hit 107 at home this week. Yikes. Miss you all!