Alumni weekend

With many of the American's who went to Chapel Hill still based around North Carolina, we spent this past weekend having a GLOBE alumni gathering. Some 8-12 GLOBE graduates took time out of their weekend to come down to UNC for social events, career advice, and networking.

We met up a GLOBE VI's house 5 minutes walk from Franklin Street, the main road just north of campus for a tailgate on Saturday afternoon. The event is basically a pre-football social get-together with a keg, food, beer pong, and Carolina blue. The UNC Tar Heels were playing the Louisville Cardinals away, so the flat screen TV was the centre of attention for most of the afternoon. I helped myself to huge portions of coleslaw, chicken, macaroni and cheese, salad and hushpuppies (tasted a bit like a dry rösti), and plotted myself in front of the TV with a full-bred American GLOBE II chap to enlighten me on the intricacies of college football. By the time I had finished my meal the first half was still under way, but Louisville were up 23-0, having scored on all their plays, as well as defending impeccably. So I lost interest (with most of the crowd), and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting outside in the sun.

The second part of the weekend was a couple of hours of networking and career advice at the business school. It was very helpful to get some advice from people who have previously been in your shoes, but I guess most of the comments were directed at the current job-seeking Americans. I spent the time eating munchkins (doughnut holes), drinking coffee, and listening to war stories of 90 hour work weeks and business class travel from the consultant-front.

A main realization is that GLOBE students consume an awful lot of alcohol. Perhaps it is the work hard, play harder mentality, the fact that somebody else is buying, or the relatively limited amount of times when one can do keg stands at 2 PM on a Saturday. So no wonder most of the people looked weary-eyed on Sunday, even though it didn't start till 1. I decided not to go out, following a brutal week of case competition and the amount of homework that is piling up. I think I have gone out enough this first month. Although at next alumni event, I am sure I'll match the GLOBE standards.