My first day of school

I’d completely forgotten how exhausting school is! What am I doing going back to school? Whose crazy idea was that? How come nobody warned me about this whole MBA thing? I thought working was exhausting, but no…. School is a lot worse! I wanna go back to my fulltime job… Well… I guess I just have to get into the routine again. After a few weeks I’ll be fine. I think there’s gonna be a lot of work, but I have the feeling that it is not gonna be too hard. I’ll manage.

I’m taking four classes this semester. Most Master Students only take three classes which is the requirement for full time studies, but since I’m in the MBA program I need to take a few more classes. I’ll definitely have enough to do, but that’s ok, cause I really do like to learn new stuff. I’m taking an Economics class which I think is pretty basic micro and macro economics. But I really enjoy economics, I’ve always thought macro economics to be extremely interesting, so I have a feeling that this class will be one of my favorites this semester.

I’m also taking a Business Law class disguised as a management class. It’s American law, so I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to use what I learn in this class out there in the real world. But I’ll learn something new. The third class is a management class called Individuals, Group Dynamics and Teams. I’m really exited about this one, since the professor is one of my favorite professors from my BA. I have a feeling this class will be very interesting, but my first lecture is not until Monday. My last class is a MBA seminar. I have absolutely no idea what that is, but I’ll find out tomorrow.

I went to get my books today. Even though I know how expensive books are, I’m outraged every time I leave the book store with four used books at price of… $500! I’ll never get over how expensive that is. I got to remember to get my books from ebay or Amazon next semester. I just didn’t have the time to wait for handling and shipping this time. I’m all ready behind with the reading in most classes. Most professors expect you to have read the two first chapters in the book even before the first day of school, so I’d better get to it!

I was really anxious too meet the other MBA students. I was a little worried that I might be one of the oldest in the program, but I’m really not. There are lots of people in my classes that are older than I am, and most have some working experience, so it’s a really good mix I think.

Also, the thing that makes Hawaii Pacific University so special is the diversity. Even though I’m used to it, it still amazes me to find myself in a classroom with Americans, Canadians, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders like Samoans, Malaysians, Africans, Iraqis, Germans, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Thai, etc… And of course lots of Scandinavians! HPU state on their homepage that they’ve got more than 100 nationalities gathered here in Hawaii, and it is supposedly the most diverse university in the world. I believe that to be true. Sometimes the culture clash can be frustrating when you do group work with one from Samoa, one from Gambia and one from Japan, but usually you’ll end up finding it really rewarding.