Wednesday, October 27th - Au revoir Paris...

Early this morning we boarded our Delta flight headed out from the the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris back home to Salt Lake City, Utah. We landed in Utah at 2:00PM. This landing brings a conclusion to my European Adventure I have been on for the last month.

I have only been home a few hours and already miss the ambiance and magic of Europe. I can imagine the smell of a delicious crepe with Nutella and Banana on it, or the sweet taste of an authentic Italian gelato.

I miss the feeling of friends sitting together to enjoy a wonderful meal accompanied by the  music of some passing musician serenading us with his accordion, while the slightly crisp, but not too cold, air would lightly surround us as as we casually sat outside some quaint, little cafe.

I marvel at the wealth of knowledge I have gained these last few weeks from visits to various corporations and political organizations that have helped me to understand International Business and International Relations on a level most graduate students don't even get to experience.

I miss: Magnum bars. Multi-grain cracker chips from Switzerland. Better tasting European Coca-Cola. Kebabs. Chateaus in every city. Buildings built centuries ago. Landmarks that make me want to be in love. European style. and most of all I miss my other scholars as I half expect to hear a dozen of them coming down my hallway being the "typical" loud Americans. What a fun adventure it's been!

My special thanks to Shannon, Stacey, and Lynne for this life changing experience!

Tuesday, October 26th - "Connecting" with each other

I feel this post needs to be prefaced with my current love for all and any Apple Products. That being said...I will recount one of my favorite corporate visits on this trip...Microsoft!


Today we headed to European Headquarters for Microsoft. Microsoft's France Headquarters as well as their European Headquarters are in Paris. We visited with some people from their European Headquarters. It was very interesting! We were hosted by Jacques and Wendy two of the employees in the International Division. We discussed Microsoft and their role in the computer Industry. It was interesting to see that Microsoft is becoming more of a platform business. They are developing new technologies and then wanting other companies to come along and market and sell the technology. Part of the reason for this is the sheer size of the Microsoft.

We also had a guy named Ray Pinto come and speak to us and he talked about the future of Microsoft and how they are moving into a Cloud Computing System. The idea is that your health records, birth certificate, credit card information, etc. will all be stored in “cloud databases” that individuals will have access to. He discussed the challenges with this in terms of privacy and security and how both of these must be addressed for cloud computing to really work.

As we walked around the various departments it was interesting to see their mainframe computers behind glass walls and to hear about some of the technology expanses they are making. On one particular poster of Microsoft’s partners there was an Apple logo. I asked our host with the competitive nature if Microsoft and Apple team up on technology projects together. He said that they are a partner with the Microsoft Office Suite and thus are considered a corporate partner.

I really appreciated the honesty of the Microsoft employees. Jacques at one point said something to the extent that Microsoft didn’t expect the iPad to become as popular as it has and Ray also mentioned competition from Apple and other companies like Google as a good thing because it keeps Microsoft on their toes moving forward.

They took us up to the top floor of the building where they had an apartment set up that is from the not-too-distant-future. The computer and TVs were wired together and there were several things that were all automated and controlled by your computer. We all got to try out the new CONNECT gaming system and it was WAY fun! It’s cool because it hasn’t even hit the market yet and we got to try it out and have fun. It was amazing because you didn’t need a remote or anything it just scanned you and mimicked your movements.

Overall, I was very impressed with Microsoft and learned a lot in realizing that they are not just a company that makes Windows and related products, but that their technology and expansion will continue to affect every market in the future.  

Monday, October 25th - DISNEYLAND PARIS!!!

Today we went to Disneyland Paris and it was MAGICAL as Disneyland always is. It was interesting seeing a lot of the same rides as the Disneyland in California with a few cultural adaptations that were made. Several of their roller coasters were inside as well as a good portion of the line to wait in. This was because unlike California Disneyland the weather is freezing cold! It was funny being the culturally loud Americans in the quieter French Society.

We first got a fast pass to Thunder Mountain and then headed to Indian Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean. Indiana Jones was an actual roller-coaster

Sunday, October 24th - "Let them eat cake..."

Church

Versille

Marie Antonettes Chateau

Hamlet

Fastfood

Return home.

Saturday, October 23rd -

paris flea market

catacombs

Notre Dame Tower

Saint Chapel

Boat Ride down the Seine.

Friday, October 22nd - A Message from the Dean

Thursday, October 21st - Spilling water all over NATO...

This morning we had one of our original visits cancel on us so we were able to set up a factory visit with Caterpillar. We toured one of their processing plants and it was amazing to see how things were shipped in, stored, and then shipped back out. It was really good in being able to view operations management first hand. I found it particularly interesting that all of their products are categorized into short, medium, and long storage life, and how all of the products are even positioned on the shelf based on this category. It was fascinating to see how quickly they could receive and fill orders based on their set up and really helped me to better understand shipping and receiving operations.

After our tour at Catepillar we went to lunch at an Italian Restaurant with several political advisors from NATO, North Atlantic Trade Organization. I sat at a table with their magazine editor Paul and had a great conversation about US/EU Politics and his line of work. It was interesting getting his opinion on NATO as he is more involved with an objective news side of the organization. He said he has gone to individuals who are against NATO and has sat down with them to understand their side and how he tries to portray and address that in their monthly publication. I appreciated his honesty and understanding of how and why people would be opposed to NATO.

I also enjoyed hearing more about the politics and policies of NATO from the other political analysts and the open door policy of NATO as long as countries interested in joining meet the requirements to join. I am once again amazed at how although NATO does not have enforcement power they are able to successfully implement policy and trade negotiations among their member countries and that the US is able to balance negotiations here with all of the other international organizations. I really enjoyed this lunch because of the one on one chance I had to learn more about the organization.

At one point I knocked over my glass of water and thankfully Paul was quick at moving or else he would have been covered in water. I was so embarrassed and he just laughed and laughed about me not liking his opinion on US politics and that he must have said something that offended me. Thankfully he was able to move and it wasn't the red wine that he was drinking.