The Best Thing I Ever Ate!!!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

You know when you see things that you really want to try but don't know that it will live up to expectations. Well I had one of those experiences today, and it was amazing. Deep Fried Pickles with Ranch at Zaxby's. They are the most amazing thing ever. They not only lived up to my expectations, they far exceeded them. I thought that since Michelle and Anna are in Alabama, Delilah and I would let loose. And yes Delilah liked them just as much I did.

Fried Pickles and Ranch are a little heavy, so we came home and relaxed. It was hard work eating them Fried Pickles.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Signing bonus, NUFF SAID!!!

January in SC

Sunday, January 17, 2010

You know those Sundays in January when your really wanting to get out of the house, say for a walk around the block after a great Sunday dinner. But then you remember that its probably 20 degrees and snowing outside. Well if you know those Sunday then sucks to be you, because I haven't had that thought in a year and a half. This is us after Sunday dinner, taking a walk in gorgeous 65 degree weather. SUCKERS!

P.S. aren't those the sexiest white legs ever!

Final Case Competition Day

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Well we ended up taking 2nd and winning the round robin, the end result is as you can see below. What's a guy to do when he gets his first huge a$$ checks in his life.

Montreal Case Competition Day 4

Friday, January 8, 2010

Well to recap the day:

The first case that we had was not really a big deal, except for the fact that $5k was on the line. We needed to win and Porto needed to lose for us to get paid. Well as you can see from below they lost.

Below is the overall standings of the round robin. We were the only undefeated team, which means we won the $5k for winning the round robin.

We also had the semi finals tonight. And boy did they pick the wrong team to give a case about Sony to. Our team brought our A game tonight. Our team is comprised of Kelly Truesdale, Emily Crow, and Liz Brittle. We all did excellent tonight so kudos to the entire team for nailing it.

We have officially moved on to the Final round which guarantees us at least $5k more and up to $10k more for the team. GO TEAM!

Montreal Case Competition Day 3

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Well another day in the books at the John Molson Case Competition. Today was a bit stressful. We started off at 9:00am with breakfast and the beginning of our case. Today was a live case. This meant that we got a case first and then had a presentation by a company about our case we were supposed to prepare. The awesome thing part of the case was that it was for the Montreal Canadiens (Montreal's NHL Hockey team). The purpose of the case was to develop a new marketing campaign for the Canadiens.

We thought that we developed a great marketing campaign and did a great case analysis. Our coach Pat and the judges on the other hand didn't think so. But when the Head of Marketing from the Canadiens came up and said that we shouldn't be surprised to see some of our ad campaigns next season. That made us feel great. And although the judges were pretty harsh we still won our case.

On top of winning we have now clinched our division and are guaranteed a spot in the Semi-finals tomorrow. So needless to say tomorrow will be a long day. 2 full cases. Oh wow.

Cases Day 2

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Well here are the case results today. Today we went up agains the Business & IT School from Germany and won, and also Memorial from Newfoundland. The case against Newfoundland was a bit unfair because it was how to invest $1 billion in the auto industry. I have a job in the auto industry and have been reading auto blogs obsessively, and Kelly (in my group) has his Chartered Financial Analyst certificate and works at a small investment firm in SC. Needless to say we did good.

Later that night to unwind we decided to take the subway to get some dinner. As you can see we got a little lost, but it was a fun time. Even though it was -1 with wind chill.

Dinner at Schwartz's. Montreal is known for their smoked meat sandwiches, so we all got one.

Look at that beautiful thing. It was such a good sandwich and after a 30 minutes walk in very cold weather it hit the spot.

And what would a trip to a hebrew deli be without a pickle. We all got one.

Being as it is freezing cold here, I have discovered the how great a scarf can be. I always thought they looked stupid. I now realize they serve a purpose

Anyways, overall impressions of Montreal are great. Awesome attitude and culture throughout the town, and it is just like being back in Europe again. I would definitely consider this a livable city.

Cases: Day 1

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Well just to keep everyone updated on the situation. We had our first case today and won the team we were up against, however our competition was not that great today, and much better tomorrow. So we will see how it goes.

After our cases today, we had a cocktail hour at the Royal Bank of Canada's Executive offices. One of the larger banks in the world so needless to say it was nice.

Montreal Cont'd

Monday, January 4, 2010

I thought that I would upload some photos so that everyone could see what type of city Montreal was. This first photo is of a street in the downtown. There are a lot of tall buildings here and it is very nice to be in a big city again. Also Montreal has the largest underground network of galleries in the world. You never need to go above ground, it is awesome. Great shopping.

Earlier today we did a scavenger hunt across the downtown area of Montreal. The following is a picture of myself, Kelly Truesdale, and Emily Crow as we are doing the scavenger hunt. As you can see we are all bundled up nicely.

The following is what happens when you bring a South Carolinian who did his undergrad in Miami to Montreal. Kelly has really never seen snow, and as you can see he is losing his mind.

I on the other hand am a bit less enthused about the snow, and the consistent negative temperatures when wind chill is factored in.

Montreal is amazingly diverse. And so we decided to get some Lebanese food for dinner. This is a Shwarma. It consists of shaved meat, tomatoes, hummice, lettuce, cucumber sauce, and a pink pickle. Delicious.

Please stay tuned for more pics on the way tomorrow. As a final note, if anyone feels like visiting Europe, but can't afford the ticket just come to Montreal. It really feels like Europe here.

American Airlines Vouchers Saga

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Well we officially used our American Airlines vouchers yesterday. Yes that's right got them and used them 5 hours later. But in order to use them, we have to mail them in, separately no less. Then we have to use special wording on the envelope, and special numbers. Then and only then will they email us our itineraries. Yet again an example of an extremely poorly managed company. And they wonder why they are losing a crap load of money all the time. But on the plus side, we will be seeing you all in Feb. We are pumped to say the least.

Getting to Montreal

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Normally flying to a new city is usually no big deal for me, but this time it was different. The first leg of our flight today was from Charlotte to Chicago O'Hare. I had had one previous run in with O'Hare on my way to Rome and a 2 hour layover turned into 6, needless to say i was not pleased. This time would however prove to me that Chicago was ready to repent of its previous transgressions.

First of all we had a perfect view of the skyline from the plane as we flew in over Lake Michigan. I have not been to Chicago really since I lived there when I was not old enough to remember it. My visit this time, however, started off with a 10am Chicago Dog (couldn't pass it up). Then as we were about to board our flight they asked for 7 volunteers to leave two hours later and receive a $250 travel voucher. The group was all for this, and since I am trying to scrounge the money together to come out and see everyone for Conner's wedding I wasn't about to complain. So went and got lunch and came back. And to our surprise, they oversold the flight again and were offering a $250 travel voucher but to leave a 7:45 pm. Well the group was hesitant about arriving so late. However, when we talked to them they offered to switch us to Air Canada leaving at 4:00pm. So we took. For having not spent any money and then making $500 in travel vouchers, I would say this trip is a success already.

O' Canada

Friday, January 1, 2010

I will be off to Canada tomorrow for the Molson International Case Competition for the next 8 days. We will be preparing anywhere between 6-10 cases over 5 days and competing with schools from around the world. Its my first time to Montreal. Stay tuned for some exciting posts coming up.