It's always a win-win situation to tell the people you love that you love them on a daily basis. ♥

Happy Birthday Jeaven!

Today is a very special day, the birthday of my good friend Jeaven.

Vice President of the Dream Team.

Member of the Sac WP DC.

Finance Guru.

We have shared many a good meal, glasses of wine, and laughs. There are countless SBX, coffee runs, DOS, and ZIPFIZZZZZZZZZZZZ memories that we have shared. These past 20 months of graduate school without you, would surely not have been the same.

On a slightly more serious note, thanks J. I hope today is special for you, you deserve it. It is rare in life to find people that you can call your friends whom you know will always be there for you. You are a man of good morals, high integrity, and true loyalty... a combination rare and hard to find in todays darkened world. I am so privileged and lucky to have a friend like you that I can ALWAYS count on. So THANK YOU for being you, and for making my life a little bit more joyful every day.

I hope today is a wonderful day for you... and if it is not just think of this:

Bless you child in CHILE CHILE!

T

You are your choices

I like to believe that our lives are our choices, we are our choices. People talk about balance, balance is the result of our choices. You choose to make the sacrifices because they reflect what is ultimately important to you. You choose to structure your life more in alignment with one thing over the other because it is what is important to you. As we progress in life our priorities change and as such, so do our choices.

Not a day goes by that doesn't further define and reflect the person that you are.

You are your choices.

Success

Over the past few weekends I have been fortunate enough to meet with Art Ciocca (The Wine Group), Gary Rodgers (Dreyers) Louis Rosetto (Wired), Brett Galloway (Packeteer, Airspace, and Cisco), Craig Walker (Google Ventures), Judy Swanson (Genentech), and Marc Onetto (Amazon)... if there is one thing I have learned from these great leaders it is that when you are truly passionate about what you do, that is when you are setting yourself up for success (obvi you need the other skills to be truly successful) and your passion/enthusiasm/love for what you do allows it to transcend the common definition of "work."

Day 1 Chile.... Go big or go home (literally)

Following our arrival on Friday night, we went to bed around 3am. The following morning we drove for about 30mins outside the city and went to a house in the foot hills of the Andes Mountains for mountain biking. To say that it was challenging would be an absolutely huge understatement! It was the hardest bike ride I've ever done in my life period! Everyone from elite athlete to professor said the same (and he does 200mile road bike trips)! It was also one of the funniest rides I've ever done in my life. The weather was sunny and 95 degrees. The mountains were absolutely beautiful. We started out going 30mins up a "mild" 5-7% gradient (that was the warm up). I should have known we were in for a treat when about 1 hour into the ride I go to peddle and realized I had sheared the crank off of my bike (this is the peddle and arm that holds the peddle for you non bikers out there... this means I am clearly VERY strong!!!!). While funny, it is a bit hard to bike with no peddle!!!!!!!! Luckily the guide switched me bikes so I only had to deal with using peddles for clip ons with sneakers (also not easy) for about 90 mins (no big deal, I am a trooper).

From there, the real ride started. The first climb was another 1hr and 15-30mins, and this time there were tons of switchbacks, rivers, places we had to walk our bikes, and at times we could only peddle maybe 20-30ft before we had to get off the bikes and start hiking again. It was the most epic ride I've ever been on! We also had a really nice lunch in the mountains (salmon and some sort of mixture of rice/peas/mayo, and an incredible fruit kebab mixture), had some time to through the Frisbee around, and had a couple bottles of vino (ok... 5, but there were 7 of us?? good thinking Julio our guide... as if there werent enough crashes on the first half). From there, we started the second hill of the trip (I know after a big lunch and the wine). That made it pretty interesting. We were all doing more hiking than biking and it was at least 95 degrees! After about an 1hr and 30min death march (the hills had to be at least 10-14% gradients....spiking to 15%+ at times).....and I'm absolutely not exaggerating. Everyone who went fell at least once if not more (my prof fell twice). Jeaven only fell once, but was able to run out of it. He did however, run into a pricker bush that stuck him like a freaking knife. I have a bunch of little cuts and scraps all over my lower legs, a few on my arms, a slight puncture wound on my hand. (I'M FINE!!!!!!!!!...character building injuries :-)). I fell a few times, I believe twice although it was quite possibly three... ( I blame it on the heat, perhaps it was the wine?) THe last fall was the worst, I was mashing down the mountain when my tire hit a HUGE boulder in the middle of the road, stopped my momentum and sent me flying over the handle bars into a bush and rolling down the side of a cliff... I was fine once my bike got caught on something and stopped me, trapping me beneath, thankfully Jeaven came running to the rescue and held me up by my ankle dragging me up the side of the mountain. I must admit that Jefferson took the cake when it came to falls... you know its a steep hill when the professional biker guide starts walking his bike, but Jeffer decided he was king of the mountain and could take anything on, proceeded to go flying down a trail straight into a massive boulder, popping his tire, and sending him flying into a lake... I wish we had it on camera. It was quite funny, I may have peed myself watching.

The end of the ride was the absolute best! We flew down the mountains at 20-30mph on our mountains bikes for about 25mins. It was the most fun I've had on a bike in a long time. I did really well....and all I can think about is man.....when am I going to get to do that again. When we got back to the ranch many of us collapsed on the lawn to discuss the ride and take in a well deserved Chilean beer. We all took pictures of our cuts and scars......and a couple of groups pics and then headed home (we left at ~ 9:30am - ~5:30pm). My professor summed it up as saying, "there was plenty of mud and blood on this trip, a lot of mud, but mostly blood" Had a great discussion with my professor on the way back about work and work/life balance...and making work life CHOICES.

All in all, it was a great day, super fun, but incredibly exhausting!!! Attached are a few of my favorite photos of the day with a few more from others to come in later posts (i.e. me laying half down the side of a mountain under a bike and a large bush laughing hysterically at myself saying "i cant get up! im stuck! but im ok!!!!!!!!!!!!11 THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!) In fairness the pictures really just do not do the trip justice... we came home absolutely filthy animals and it reminded me of being a kid playing in the mud when my mom would insist i go around back and hose off before she ever let me in the house. I looked in the mirror and I was caked in dirt from head to toe and my gym shoes are practically ruined. We are walking around like we got in fights with giant rolls of barbed wire (thanks to the pricker bushes) and are covered in large red gashes, gaping wounds, and numerous bruises. Good thing people dig battle scars and it makes for a good story....

A special thanks for my co-writer on this post, the infamous Jeaven Mrazeck (Dream Team Affiliate and Vice President)

Goodnight from Santiago!

T

Argentina Day 5 - City Tour and US Embassy

Not enough time to write and the internet here in Chile is sparse... but we arrived safe and sound Friday night here in Santiago. Below are some of my favorite pictures from a walk around Buenos Aires before we left. I have a few posts to update on our weekend here in Santiago as well as our first day of meetings (very full day) and other events... I will try to catch up when I can

A few of my favorite pictures from a walk around the city of BA....

The tomb of Evita

A picture of a crypt in BA

More tombs ( I was quite enthralled with these...)
A tree with really BIG roots
A walk in the park...

Plaza San Martin (Argentine equivalent to George Washington)

Jeaven and I enjoying our "last supper" monstrous breakfast at a local cafe... DELICIOUS!

Argentina Day 4 - Meetings and St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patricks Day from Argentina everyone! To set the mood for this happy day, check out this song by an awesome up and coming band, The Blair Reinhardt Band. Click HERE

St. Patricks Day truly is a holiday celebrated all over the world. Here in Buenos Aires the tradition is almost as big as in the US with people wearing shades of green, various parts of the city hosting large block parties with bands and beer, and the partying continuing on throughout the night and into the next morning. I tend to be one that stays away from large holiday events where people get out of control and bad things are bound to happen, but I did make time to walk around the city a bit and see the masses flocking to the streets. It was quite the site I must say!

Thursday we had a long day of meetings starting by visiting CAEMe, a large pharmaceutical association in Argentina. They had really nice offices with large meeting rooms and we were treated to a 3 hour discussion on the pharmaceutical and drug industry in Argentina as well as another micro and macro economic/political discussion of the country. I was shocked to see that they had waitresses for us who shuffled around every few minutes refilling our water glasses and coffee cups. THANK GOODNESS for the coffee as almost everyone was a bit worn out from Wednesday nights late night at the Tango show. We also feasted on a delicious selection of medialunas, the most delicate and tasty little half moon shaped croissants you've ever tasted. After the meeting most of us chose to forgo lunch and squeeze in an hour long nap before we headed to the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. Here we discussed the differences between the Argentine stock market and that of the US. Amazingly their market holds less than 120 companies, of which only 40 are actually traded. In fact stocks make up less than 10% of the entire securities market, with bonds representing over 1/3 of the securities market. It was quite interesting to be standing on the trading floor with the head of BASE watching the "traders" hard at work, playing on the internet, one was even checking facebook.... and they wonder why their economy is in the toilet and inflation is at about 27%??? After the discussion at BASE we headed to Merval, a portion of the governing body of the National Securities Commission (similar to the SEC in the US) where we met with two of their head economists to discuss the securities market and Argentine economy. One of the most interesting statistics we discussed was the spread of the country's GDP over the past decade and the controversy of government published statistics. According to the government GDP has varied 3.4% over the past decade with a standard deviation of +/- 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS INCREDIBLE and a true example of the volatility in the markets here. (yet everyone keeps urging us to invest in Argentina, um... no thanks?).

We again heard about some controversy regarding the Argentine Prime Minister and the US Embassy so I am quite excited to head to the Embassy tomorrow to discuss diplomatic relations between the country!

I am having a wonderful time here thus far and have decided to stay low tonight to rest up. I am feeling quite well and think I am just about over my recent bout of mono, but would still like to ensure I am getting all the rest that my body needs to recover. Thankfully I have been able to escape the stresses of working and going to school full time and trying to do all the other things I normally do. While this has not been a vacation in the traditional sense and we are rather busy bustling about with meetings and what not, it is still fun and exciting to be in one of the worlds largest and most historic cities! I will be sad to leave Argentina but am quite excited to travel to Santiago.

I am just wondering though... if the market for wine is greater in Chile than here in Argentina, how will we survive? I do not see how we can drink much more than we already have but I guess we will have to give it a try! Tough life!!

Abrazos y Besitos!

T