MBAMA (M-BAM-A), Moab, & Bank Alarms

Prior to starting my MBA program last week, I went with a bunch of classmates (Members of MBAMA, the MBA Marketing Association) to Moab, UT over Labor Day weekend. Apparently all of the "fun" majors (Marketing & OB/HR (Organizational Behavior/Human Resources) have activities prior to school starting where we have the opportunity to get to know one another in a less formal setting. Along with students, professors and recruiters are also invited. (Finance majors lose out, but I guess that is probably okay as they tend to be kind of boring people, bless their hearts)I have to say that Moab was great fun. I was able to make more new friends and decide that Marketing is probably the best fit for me.

After 3 days with the group, I am pretty sure that I can answer the 3 major questions about each of them: Where they are from (hometown), Where they have lived prior to the MBA, and What they were doing prior to the MBA. For most of them I can also tell you random facts about them, including whose wife was hit on by John Mayer, who had a crochet needle shoved through their thumb, whose mission companion at 68 bananas in 6 days (NASTY!!) and who is addicted to "Rock Band." I also learned that married guys seem to be fascinated with the psyche of single women in the MBA program. I had all sorts of questions about what I want to do, my perspective on my single male peers and whether or not I plan on having a social life for the next 2 years. It was all very interesting.

As for our adventures, they started Friday morning with our drive to Moab in 12 passenger vans (I had flash backs to family vacation in "old yeller", evening getting my preferred seat - middle row, driver's side window)Upon our arrival at the Big Horn Lodge (apparently a few steps up from where they stayed last year, but definitely not the Hilton or even the Holiday Inn) we had free time for several hours. Myself and the Clements' sisters decided to hit the pool... little by little others joined us and pretty soon it was a happening spot. The guys decided to have a competition to see who could swim the furthers underwater without breathing. I believe Brandon won with 4 lengths.

After pool time we went to dinner and then listened to 2 recruiter presentations. We had presentations by Union Pacific Railroad and Wal-mart. After presentations we had the option of going to play laser tag, mini golf and race go karts. I was exhausted and opted to go to sleep instead. Unfortunately sleeping in a strange bed with a mostly (I met my bed mate, Michelle Quinn, that morning) complete stranger did not make for a restful night sleep. I was awake for at least 20 minutes each hour. I was relieved when 6am finally rolled around and it was time to get up!

Saturday morning we were picked up by our friendly tour guides and headed off on our Hummer safari. It was a lot of fun. It was a little windy as you will see from the pictures.After our morning of off-roading, we changed our clothes and headed up the Colorado River where we spent the afternoon rafting down the river. We don't have any pictures of that, but it was SO MUCH fun!!! I have all kinds of bruises from paddles and people trying to pull my out of the raft.

After another dinner, we had two more recruiter presentations (HP and Nestle). Once those were over, Elisa and I were ready to go, so we headed to what we thought was the door. We tried one and couldn't get out, so we pushed on what appeared to be an exit door. Once we did that, an alarm started to sound (did I mention our recruiter presentations were held in the basement of Zion's Bank). Apparently we tried to go out the emergency exit and in the process had all kinds of alarms going off. We had to evacuate the building and wait for the police. A little extra drama, just to keep things interesting.

1. The view outside the window as we climbed our first (and smallest) hill.

2. Elisa, Me & JJ as we are loading up in the morning.

3. The Clements Girls: Alison, Elisa & Me 4. Another fantastic vista from the Hummer windows. 5. Hell's Revenge - not much else to say 6. Elisa and Me - self portrait to show how tired we were. (Oliver, Union Pacific recruiter, Alison & Phil are in the background) 7. Alison, Nicole, Me & Elisa (Nicole is our neighbor and was part of our car pool group for orientation. She is also in my section) 8. Mike T: our fearless driver. This is exactly how he drove the Hummer, it didn't matter how steep the assent or decline.