All is packed, except for the computer and I am amazed that I could make all fit. But I am sure that the bags are too heavy, I suspect that this is going to cost me some.

In any event, John should be arriving any minute to get the van and we will go to the airport, where I will have a long wait until 5 p.m., when my flight takes off.

See you all in Mannheim!

Tonight we meet for dinner at 8 p.m. at the Keg, in Kingston. A tabvle for 15 has been reserved, and we hope to see many of our colleagues there.
it has been a great term here at Queen's and we have been in a farewell mood for some days now. Many of the students here have already left for their own exchange courses in Europe, China, India or, even, Japan. The weather continues to be cold, but signs of spring have shown up slowly.
The last course, Managing Innovation, is getting to an end, and it has been an excellent course. our professor, Lib, has great corporate experience as CEO and as innovation champion, and she brigns her experiences effectively to class.
Life at co-op is also coming to an end. The last inspection before returning the keys is scheduled, the last kitchen duties are coming and the last party, this time at our direct neighbours, was yesterday. it was also a great experience, living with this nice bunch of diverse people.
And this is the mood today. One last presentation to practice, one last class to attend, one last exam to write. And then pack our books, clothes and hope that all will fit in the suitcases, even the pair of ice skates, my main Canadian souvenir.

Eleven days ago I went with 3 other colleagues to Niagara Falls and, later, Toronto, with even more people.
It was worthwhile. I was a bit skeptical, some people had told me that the town was horribly touristy (and it was) and I am usually not that impressed with the major tourists sites, so I was not sure if I was going to enjoy the sights or not.
Luckily, we arrived at the river close to the American Rapids, which are nice falls, but not that impressive at all. Very disappointing. But this disappointment made the view of the Horseshoe, the main attraction, that much more interesting.
I am certain that the falls at winter were more interesting for me than they would have been in the summer, and, because it is not the main season, the town is not too busy and everything is certainly easier around there. The only tourists around are odd people like us or 19 and 20 year old Americans who take advantage in the difference of the legal drinking age.
Yes, the town is extremely touristy. Take a look at the Frankenstein Burger King or any of the many "scary" or "haunted" attractions. I don't know why they have all congregated there, but it is really funny. So, in the end, the fact of it being touristy to extremes is not that bad, just adds a bit more of zest to the experience.
We didn't get to do the traditional boat excursion, for obvious reasons. Below, some pictures and videos on Picasa.

080313-14 Niagara Falls

So this is our free week in the semester. All of the other Queen's University students had their reading week 2 or 3 weeks ago, and we MBAs kept going to a completely empty Business School in what seemed to be a ghost campus.
But now it is our turn. All assignments done, all classes over, we are indeed free to enjoy some relaxing time.
The first extravagance that I treated myself to was going snowboarding with Marc last Sunday on a hill about 150 km north of Kingston. It wasn't the greatest hill, but we had a perfect snowboarding day and I consider those 100 bucks very well spent. I had been dying to snowboard for about a year, and am happy that I was able to do so at least once this season. The problem with Kingston is that we have lots of snow, but no hills.



The first half of the week was slow. I had my full of things to sort out, got it sorted out, took the opportunity to sleep some, read some more and even apply to a job or two. Not too bad, but certainly not as productive as I had imagined.
And now, again with Marc and other colleagues form the MBA, we are in Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side. It is certainly an interesting sight, and it was fun to go to the American side to eat at a casino buffet. But tomorrow we will head back to Toronto, where we will spend two nights.
It is good to be out of Kingston, but I am, unfortunately, very conscious of every dollar that I am spending during this trip. When you have a loan building up in the Bank, that's simply the way it is, and you have to find the balance between saving money and not missing unique opportunities.

I have been busy this week with the most thorough assignment I have worked on during the MBA for the "Problem Solving and Consulting" course I took last two blocks, using the "Problem Based Learning" methodology.

Based on the suggestively titled paper by Staw and Ross, "Knowing when to pull the plug", I developed the mnemonic model below, dubbing it the 6-finger-hand action plan. Sometimes it is necessary to introduce a bit o fun in academia.


The paper is coming along nicely, and I really enjoyed researching for it, as it was certainly aligned with my own private research for my professional development and career plans. I had the chance to interview 3 senior executives in the Canadian Venture Capital industry and a leading professor in the field of new ventures, Dr. Elspeth Murray. I will most probably put some of my findings here in the blog later on but, at the moment, I have to go back to writing, as the clock is ticking quicker and quicker.

The second day in Montreal was really cool. During the day we had a great time at the park, as you've seen. In the evening we went out to eat at a Jewish deli called Schwartz's, on Saint Laurent Street. But, at arriving there, we saw that it was a very simple place, which didn't comply with the expectations of part of the group for a 'Saturday night dinner. So we ended up in another restaurant on Duluth Street, which was a great choice. I just don't remember its name.
At this point Silvia joined us, and it was great to meet a familiar face from Brazil. We probably had the longest conversations we've ever had so far.
On Sunday we went for a walk at the port and the old city centre, which was nice. We ate at La Popesa near Notre Dame and went back to get the car. We drove to the Olympic stadium and said our goodbyes to Montreal. Just in time, because the weather changed completely and we drove back to Kingston under a very persistent rain. Rain! In January!
Oh, yes. Before coming back to Kingston we drove again to Schwartz's and half of us got smoked meat sandwiches, which are great!

080215 Montreal

080216-17 Montreal

Be sure to bring or buy good winter shoes for your winter semester in Kingston. The main characteristics, in order of importance, are:

• Water proof



• Anti-skidding



• Warm



• Easy to clean

Well, it gets wet here. That's because of the snow and ice mixture that you will find on streets, even when it's cold. So you want a water proof shoe. It is not fun to walk around in negative temperatures with wet feet.

the mixture of snow and ice also stains all sorts of materials, specially leather. So you don't want to ruin your nice dress shoes. And you want your new shoes to be easily cleaned for the same reason.

It gets really slippery around here, so a good sole design is a safety necessity.

And if the shoes aren't that warm, that is not a big problem, as long as your feet are dry. You can always use warm socks, or layers of socks.

I bought short boots at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Toronto, and am happy with them. Somewhat similar to the ones pictured below. It was boxing week and, with tax, I paid less than CA$70. A good price, I believe. Expect to pay up to CA$150.

Yes, I know. Not a very exciting article. But it was one thing I was considering before coming here. Winter boots are difficult to find in countries where you don't have a strong winter and heavy to carry in your lugggage, so I really recommend buying them here.

The first block of the term is practically over. The "Financing New Ventures" course was a great eye opener and I enjoyed every class of it. Great structure, great guestspeakers and a really good teacher, asking the right questions at the right time and making everything exciting. Even the assignment, which took a huge effort to get done (it was the first time I saw term sheets and I had to get myself familiar with many different legal and financial terms and practices), I enjoyed doing. There is still a group assignment to be done, but this will be dealt with on Tuesday.
So it was a good break to have an easy weekend after a busy week, and I am glad it is not over yet. Some of my colleagues are doing a heavier course and had to work the whole day yesterday, so we went to the Queen's Pub in the students' union's (or government, as they call it here) building to cool off.

And, if you have 20 minutes, take a look at this:
http://storyofstuff .com/

Nikon added several new features found in its newer D70s SLR camera to the older D70, including a new menu design and better auto focus.

In a statement, Nikon said, "The rapid pace at which development of digital technologies is proceeding inevitably leads to a continual release of new products. In the face of this dynamic, Nikon is determined to demonstrate our respect for the many customers who purchased a D70 digital SLR camera by delivering, where possible, the latest technology that the digital world has to offer through firmware updates."

It was a good night out. More pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.de/ferbress/08011718Second04

This was my day today. Working on Venture Capital term sheets for hours in my cubicle in our team room. At least I am enjoying. Can't really explain why, but it is a fact.
But now I am getting unproductive. I might go to that Irish music session later on.

And this was how my day started, Kingston with quite some snow. Pretty, huh? Let's see if I will still find snow great after 2 months.

I have been taking some picture here in Kingston and have uploaded them to Picasa. The newer one on top.
The last day in Toronto and my first in Kingston were really great days to take pictures, with immaculate blue skies. Later on the weather changed, temperatures went up and it got cloudy. But I guess you can still have a good idea of Kingston and my life here.

080112 Ice skating	080104-06 Kingston First weekend
080103 Kingston first day	080102 Toronto Kingston

So another couple of days has passed and it's time for some more impressions of Kingston and Queen's. So far, so good. I am really happy with my choice. The courses have been great so far. Demanding and interesting, relevant. There is still a bit of schedule conflict for me to solve, but I am enjoying it.
The class is very close knit. Of course, they have been together for 8 months now and know each other very well. But that doesn't make them less welcoming, and it has been very easy to get to know lots of people. I won't probably get to know everyone, as the class is really big, almost as big as in Warwick, and everyone is taking different courses.
For this first block of 3 weeks the options are:

• Financing new ventures
• Problem solving and consulting
• Marketing strategy
  
• Corporate valuation & mergers and acquisitions

So far I have been to all classes, but am actually enrolled in the first two. Tomorrow I will audit marketing again and it might be possible to take it as a third course, but I will have to see if I manage the work load.
Because of the schedule conflict I mentioned, I was not able to take the second session of PSC (or PBL, as you wish) and the first one was not enough to evaluate the course well.
Mergers and acquisitions seems to be the most demanding course. The teacher impressed me, but, since it really isn't what I want to work with, I will forego this one.
I guess I already wrote a bit about marketing, either here or on twitter, but the class I attended was really good. It was looooong, 6 hours with breaks, but it was very interesting. I will audit as many as possible or even take it as real course.
FNV is extremely interesting. Mainly because it is all new and very valuable information taught by people who really know what they are talking about and have real and hard market experience. So, as you can see, I can't complain.

Today the class went out for the first time. It seems that there is the Thursday out tradition around here. They call it the point four club. It seems that there has been a study somewhere stating that, if you go out once a week, the negative effect on your GPA is only o.4%. I'm not sure of the origin, so maybe one of my new colleagues will correct me.

And today we went to a new sports bar near my house and it was fun. Having, for the first time, really time to talk to some of the new people and playing, for the first time, the Wii I know so well from the marketing assignment from last term. I'll definetely taking part on the future instances of this even, so don't bother trying to chat with me on Thursdays evenening.
And I am ripe for bed. I want to post one more thing, then I'm gone.

It has been a while since I last wrote. I got top know the town (pics online), met Viktoria, Marc and even Sujay who is still here due to visa problems. Sujay introduced us to the school and night life in Kingston (K), although we have not been the best party goers around.

I messed my sleeping hours last week, mainly to time difference with the Middle East and to the season 1 of Heroes, a cool show Cristiano got me for Christmas. Thankfully it is over and I will now be able to concentrate on K. There is the schedule to be checked, both at the business school and at the co-op I'm living in. There also some pre-reading to finish for classes on Monday and a cell phone number to be bought.

The weather has changed quite a lot. From the perfect powder snow and -13 degrees Celsius temps on Thursday to mildly negative temps on Friday to mildly positive today. All the snow is melting and everything is wet and slippery. Gonna stay at home today, after buying some hair gel.
This cafe seems to be nice. Very well visited (and, therefore, probably liked) it is another co-op, the third one I've ran accross here in CA. The portions are big, the prices reasonable and they take pride in using bio food for "homemade" dishes. The attendance is quiet varied, with the obvious presence of the students, who started to pour into town yesterday. But you also see older couples and even one or two families here. It is almost 12 and it continues to be full, with a very healthy turnover. A nice place, I will probably visit it more often, the music is good, though th potatos were too salty.

Now most of the shops will be soon open, and it is time for me to move.

After having met so many great people because of my involvement in on line harmonica communities, this shouldn't surprise me anymore. But it does, every time: the power of belonging to an international network of like minded people is astounding!
I am at the moment in the Silver Dollar bar, on Spadina next to the University. On stage is Jerome Godboo from the Brokenjoe band, a harmonica player I had heard on the Internet because somebody recommended him on Harp-L, the (mostly) American harmonica on line discussion group. On that same discussion, Manfred, a Toronto based harmonica enthusiast, encouraged me to call him up once I arrived.
I did, and Manfred was kind enough to give me great tour around downtown Toronto yesterday, and we ended up talking shop in his house for a couple of hours.
He then called Mark "the bird" Stafford up and arranged for us to meet today (the 31st of Dec) and again I spent a great afternoon discussing and learning about the harmonica.
Mark made then sure that I came to hear Jerome, to whom I introduced myself passing regards from Mark.
And so it goes almost everywhere I go. I let the folks from Harp-L know that I will be in town and somebody gets in touch. I have already written that I saw Miguel Weissman in NY and met both PT Gazell and Jelly Roll Johnson in Nashville.
In Germany I have visited players in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Hannover, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Muenster, Berlin, Klingenthal and Trossingen (of course!), to name a few places.
In England I met Brendan Power almost by chance in London and got to know and meet again a bunch of very friendly people in Bristol, at the National Harmonica League's convention. In Brazil some of my best friends are harmonica players and, during the years I have got to know or at least meet many of my harmonica role models, also in Moscow, France or Hong Kong.
And if I don't forget that my last and coolest job I owe to these connections and the Internet (thanks Steve Baker!), then I shouldn't be surprised by all this anymore.
Now I just have to find out how to apply all this in a business setting.

Obs.: Jerome played a good set, the bar is cool, but the ticket was really expensive: CA$ 40,00! But I figured out that it is New Year and didn't want to spend the evening in the hostel, even though it really is a damn cool hostel!

Arrived well in Toronto. The bus downtown was maybe expensive ($17), but very convenient.
The hostel, Clarence Castle, seems to be really cool, I am, so far, happy with my choice.
At the moment I'm using my mobile over the wifi of "Craft Burger", where I expect to eat a very good burger with cordon bleu cheese and big, deliciously looking onion rings.
Hope this posting from the E61 works.