Traveling around with my wedding gown!

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great!

Today I am traveling from
Chicago to Caracas for my wedding, which we are going to celebrate next week (I promise photos hahaha).

The adventure has been fantastic! People are delighted with the fact that someone is traveling with her wedding dress! It's awesome! Everyone is nice and cordial! Even at the security check!

Here are some pictures while I wait for my next flight!

Ice-skating at the UofChicago!

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great and you are all set for the holidays!

These are some pics of today's first try with the ice-skating at the Midway Plaisance (University of Chicago)

I hope you enjoy it!

The curve: the process of adjustment

Hi everyone,

I hope you are doing great. So today I decided to tell you a little bit about my experience with the grading system. I'm going to tell you a little bit about my feelings and experiences regarding my own adjustment process to this new system.

Basically, as some of you might know, here in the US it is common to grade your performance relative to your peers. This, as every system, provide you good and bad incentives as well.

The idea is as follows. You get a grade on the exam and everybody do as well. But the professor need to have some sort of normal distribution of the grades, son the majority of the grades are located about the mean and there exist some relevant variation between the extremes (both the worse and the best student).

This of course provide everyone with good incentives to do your best in order to achieve your best outcome and be on the top of you course.

However, it's is sometimes a source of frustrations and disincentives, since you have done your best, but you end up in the mean of your group, for example. Or maybe your absolute performance, say 90 out of 100, is quite good, but the mean was 88, so it doesn't reflect all the true about your real performance.

Disregarding on how good or bad we can think this system is, the important thing is that of you are not used to it, but you are considering coming to the US, you should definitely take it into account and try to adapt and make the necessary adjustment to your academic dynamic.

Finals week: my experience ex post

So finally we are almost done with the Autumn quarter!

The first final was over and there is only two more left and we are ready for Holidays!

Ex post, I can tell you the quarter system is quite intense. There is a lot of materials to cover in only 10 weeks, and that including midterms and finals weeks, so there is actually about 9 effective weeks to cover all.

For those of us who are new to this system, there is inevitable an adjustment period. Try to take it easy and make the necessary adjustment to make the process smooth (always remember that you came here voluntarily, Hahahaha).

The weather conditions also affect your performance. Consider that you might need to make adjustment in this area. In particular, the lack of sun after 4pm is driving me crazy, but I needed to find a way to overcome this situation. A good strategy is to use the university's resources such as libraries and study rooms. Getting out of your house is a good a idea if you like being around people and not falling sleep at 6pm!

I need to keep studying for mi Advanced Microeconomics final tomorrow, but I'll keep you posted!

Happy birthday to Daniel!

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great. I've been missing because finals and the proximity of my wedding are driving me crazy!

This Monday we celebrate Daniel's (my husband) birthday. It was great to have out friends from all around the world having a great time with us.

I prepared a Tiramisu for the birthday cake and we also served different dishes as appetizers.

We are incredible grateful to have such a good friends and to have met people with this human quality in our life's.

Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. As you might know, this is the time for the biggest and most important holiday in the US. Thanksgiving is the time when the American family get reunited and travel to meet with their lovely ones.

This is actually my first Thanksgiving and I had the opportunity to have dinner with my closest friends here in the US (all from the grad school). Some brought a stuffed turkey, some side dishes like mashed potatoes and others brought something for dessert.

Here you will find part of my contribution! It seems like everyone liked it since I came home with no leftovers! I baked a Banana Bread, a traditional Peacan Pie and made some mini apple strudels for dessert!

We had a wonderful evening!

Winter season welcoming!

Hi everyone!

Yesterday the city of Chicago officially welcome the winter and Christmas season with an outstanding event. The Light Procession at the Magnificent Mile (officially North Michigan Ave).

Thousands of children (and adults) prepared to welcome Disney World's carriages.

Also, the city inaugurated the winter season by opening the icerink at Millenium Park!

Hanging around Chicago

Hi everyone!

This week we receive our friend Antonio, who came to visit us from Venezuela!

After midterms, I guess we needed a break out! So we went to the Field Museum, to see the largest and most complete T.Rex fossil in the world.

After that, we went to the Signature Lounge at the 96th floor, John Hancock Center for a couple of drinks together.

Actually, if you are coming to Chicago, don't miss this awesome place! There is no dress code or fee to enter, and it's free to go up there. You would only need to pay what you will consume. There is also a restaurant at the 95th floor. The observatory is located at the 94th street.

Take a look of the view at the Signature Lounge!

Autumn landscape at the University of Chicago

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great!

I'm still having one midterm left, but even though I was focus on studying, I couldn't avoid being shocked by the wonderful autumn landscape at the University of Chicago.

This photos are taken from places I see on my daily way to school.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Crazy Midterms time! Don't overload yourself!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. These last weeks has been crazy with midterms exams, but hopefully, it will be over this Friday after my last exam!

So this is the really critical time. As long as you have had your materials up to date, you will find, but if you are struggling with any course, you will need to find some extra time to work on that. Also, recall that Professors are still as demanding as they were in the previous weeks, so they will still ask for Problem Sets deliveries and so. So be prepared to stay until late studying, but not overload yourself!

Below you will see me today with my Indian friend Shekhar studying Microeconomics! :D

I would like to add that in this stressful periods, it is critical to have some extra activity that keeps you away from the midterms's exams. Even if there is a talk or a conference, try to go at least to one activity you really like once a week. It will help you! And remind not to overload yourself beyond your limit (i.e. don't stay there for hours and hours), because it can be counterproducing for your learning process. Instead, if you are struggling with some material, try to relax, take a nap, and try it later.

Intramurals

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great! This week we played for the Volleyball Coed Graduate Intramurals (the Coed format is the one where men and women play together). Although it is a competitive tournament, there is nothing like professional level playing, so we basically play just for fun.

In most of the universities in the US, the intramurals sports are divided by season. So you will have sports that are played on Autum, Winter, Spring and Summer. This is good because you always have something to do and you can always join a team and play for a huge variety of sports. However, the only bad thing is that this format doesn´t allow you to sign up for a team an practice for long periods. Please notice that this is only for the graduate students. The undergrads do have a varsity team for every sport. Off course, they also spend a lot more time as students.

In any case, I guess that the University of Chicago is not particularly known for their sports´ competitors hahahaha.

So take this into account if you will be traveling abroad for your graduate studies. If you are an athletic person, the university´s facilities will provide you hundreds of options to do some physical activity, especially those related to cardio and working out.

Elected Admissions Chair

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. After warming up in the quarter, these weeks have been crazy, full of problems sets and homeworks due every week for each class. However, in the midst of the classes, the Student Government at the Chicago Harris School held elections for the new positions available for the incoming students.

Fortunately, I've been elected Admissions Chair for the year 2011-2012, so I'll be working closely with the Admissions Committee at the Harris School! Also, I'll comunicate throught this blog every tip that I think may be valuable for your application process. I will try to learn as much as possible and bring that to you! So feel free to contact me any time regarding your application process, because I believe there are many things in common between Harris' application process and other universites.

As part of your experience studying abroad, getting involved with some student organization will be key to fulfill your networking and learning skills. At the Harris School, there are dozens of students organizations of every issue you may be interested. From Education Policy to Social Issues, you will find people who have things in common that they like to share.

As I've said in previous post, it may sound threshed to you, but getting involved with your colleagues IS REALLY IMPORTANT when you are pursuing a professional degree. This becomes especially true when your are doing it in an environment where your are not familiar to and you may have to learn how to establish relationships, how to do business or how to find a job or internship in a culture different than yours.

Find a complete list of all the student organizations that make life at the Harris School of Public Policy to see what I'm talking about:
http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/students/current-students/organizations/

Chicago Harris School: Exposure to Leadership in the real world

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great! After recovering from my cold, I had the opportunity to meet in person to one of the strongest candidates running for the Presidency of Mexico next year (Josefina Vásquez Mota), in a talk organized by one of my colleagues at the Chicago Harris School. This was an incredible experience to have, even if as an outsider I might lack of a strong or informed opinion about her. However, been able to compare the impressions of my Mexican colleagues was priceless, and God knows how we as Latinos enjoy talking about politics!

Also, this same week I had the opportunity to meet reputed academic Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Even though I might disagree with almost everything he said, I deeply believe in the courage of debating ideas in any context. This is so especially because in Venezuela, where I come from, the debate is an activity that has been widely forgotten in the political scene. And for this reason, I enjoyed very much Dr. Sachs´ presentation. Especially, I am truly thankful with the people that make this this happen at the University on a daily basis.

One of the most important things about studying abroad in a top university is the access you have to a huge net of figures, personalities and colleagues who are in fact related to business, politics and decision-making in the real world.

The real value of your experience abroad is not merely academic. In fact, the more valuable insights will be provided by your colleagues outside the classroom, in any extracurricular activities or even in the Pub! So don´t forget to work on your social relationships and in your professional networking, because that will define a lot more than you believe for your graduate experience.

Weather changes and illnesses

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great! At least better than me. This week the weather changed dramatically in Chicago and I got a cold that got worse with an earache! I don't know if you have ever had one, butit  is one of the worst pains you can feel.

Check the weather news by the Chicago Tribune here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-high-wind-lakeshore-flood-warnings-issued-20111019,0,98419.story?obref=obinsite)



The first thing I would like to say is that, before coming to any other country where the weather is different to the one you are used, you should get the vaccines they recommend you. I personally got the Flu vaccine before coming and they strongly recomend you to take any other preventives actions you consider necessary. Also, you should definitely invest money in buying appropiate attire for the winter season. It worth every cent of it!

On the other hand, I wanted to talk a little bit about your health care options you have in the US if this happens to you for any reason. If you are coming as a student to any university in the US, the university usually offers an insurance plan (not always the cheapest, but they offer you one). If you are not willing to take this plan, most of the schools impose you to have another private insurance plan. So please consider every option you can afford before coming. Try to research all the options you have in advance, so that you maximize your budget constrains.

However, if for any reason you do not count on a health insurance plan or if your deductible is too high, there are several convenient options. One of them is Minute Clinic, a service provided in some CVS pharmacies locations. They offer primary diagnoses and treat for common illness and minor injuries, as well as health condition monitoring, at very reasonable rates. I was treated by them and my experience was wonderful. I would strongly recommend this option for primary evaluation.

(For more information regarding this service, visit http://minuteclinic.com/)

Here in Chicago, there are other Low-Cost options like ACCESS Community Health (http://www.accesscommunityhealth.net/) and the Lawndale Christian Health Center (http://www.lawndale.org/).

So I would recommend you to look for the alternatives you have in the case you require medical attention near your location. And try stay warm!!!!

Traveling around Boston

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. After finishing the Problem Sets due to the last week, I decided to travel to Boston for the weekend and visit one of my best friends there. Some people would say that studying in Europe has it certain advantages, because you can travel around from country to country. However, this is also true for those who want to pursue studies in the US. Such a big country offers hundreds of possibilities to travel, including beautiful national parks and several of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world (like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, etc).

This time, we travel to Boston and get to know a beautiful city full of universities and with a vibrant life. We went to Harvard University and eat seafood in the waterfront of Boston!

So if you get to manage efficiently your time, don't stay there and go travel around! These are one of the best quality-price cheap ways to travel within the US (some of them also travel internationally):

• JetBlue (by plane)
• Southwest Airlines (by plane)
• US Airways (offers wonderful prices if you're looking with sufficient time in advance)
• Greyhound (by bus)
• Peterpan (by bus)
• Megabus (by bus)
• Amtrak (by train, check for the local train services in every city)

If you're planning to come to the US for your graduate studies, don't miss Boston if you want to learn more about the american history and culture. 

Problem Sets

Hi everyone!

In our third week of classes, we are already struggling with Problem Sets for the core courses (Mathematical Statistics, Advanced Microeconomics and Political Economy for Public Policy).

If you are considering coming to the US in order to pursue your graduate studies, you should definitely take into account that the academic system could be quite different from what you might be used to. In particular, the american system heavily weights homeworks and problem sets. The classes are in general short (90 min on average) and the rest depends on your own work.

In order to succeed, it is important to manage your time and NEVER skip a deadline for assignments. Additionally, proffessors strongly recomend discussing assignments on groups, but always with a big enphasis in delivering your own work. For this matter, assisting to the pre-classes programs like English Camp or Math Camp could help you in your way of building a study group and feeling confortable while working together with your new classmates and colleagues.

The Quarter System: Pros & Cons

Hi there!

As the classes start, I thought about sharing with you the peculiarities of the quarter system, used especially in those universities located at the north side of the country. In the US, quarters usually comprise 10 weeks. According to Malone, academic quarters first came into existence when William Rainey Harper organized the University of Chicago in 1981, on behalf of John D. Rockefeller ( Kemp Malone, 'Semester' , American Speech, Dec. 1946, p. 264). However, less than 20% of the high learning institutions across the US use this system and around 60% uses the traditional academic semester.

Although some people dislike the brevity of the term and the intensity of the classes, it has some special advantages that I personally enjoy. In particular, the quarter term allow you to enroll in a richer variety of courses and extra curricular activities, maximizing the use of university facilities. Also, it allow you to coordinate internships with a big dose of flexibility and teach yoy how to manage your time in a short period basis. Even though this can be especially the case of very organized people, it is a fact that the quarter term encourages you to learn and improve your time management skills.

In particular, I think that the most important advice I could tell you this far is to keep up to date the materials, work on time on your problem sets and NEVER skip a deadline. If you have doubts, ask them during the class, TA sessions or office hours and don´t wait until the next session. Take into account that in a 10 weeks schedule, there is not enough time to catch up!

Academic Year Kick-Off!

Hi everyone!

With the initiations come off-course the Kick-Off parties for the incoming academic year. Sponsored by the Harris School of Public Policy, we had a Kick-Off party that closed the welcome week.

In a great bonding activity (which ended in a couple of afterparties after the actual party), we had the opportunity to join with friends and build closer relationships with faculty and alumni. Above you will see a strong evidence of that fact, sharing a picture with Deans!

Below you will find the Latin and Indian representation, counting with people from Venezuela, India, Argentina and Mexico! Hope you enjoy it!

Initiations at UoC!

Hi there!

Finally the time has come! This is our first week of real classes and the authorities at the University of Chicago have been splendid in making this a special moment. From a 10.000 graduate student base (out of 15.000 in total at the University of Chicago), we the incoming students have been initiated with the procession to Rockefeller Chapel.

From the heart of the campus, namely the Main Quad, we have started the procession following Scottish Bagpipes. Then we received the welcome speeches from the Dean of Students and several authorities that managed the daily life at the university.

After our initiation, we had a lunch sponsored by the University where we had time to meet all the organizations, groups and counseling entities that work at the campus. I found this particularly special in the way that helps you in the challenging process of becoming part of a different academic and social culture abroad.

Beach Voleyball at Montrose Beach

Hi there! After several bonding activities with sports enthusiasts, last weekend we spent some time at the Beach Voleyball Event, sponsored by the UChicago Chinese Student Association. Each team was up to 4-people and needed to count at least one female representative. I therefore organized a team with my classmates at the Harris School of Public Policy and went to play just for fun.

Actually, we ended winning a voleyball as the third place prize of the friendly competition! Indeed, better than this was the motivation to build a voleyball team at the Harris School and to commit to play at least once a week at the Ratner Gym. This not only as a bonding activity, but also as an external endeavor that will help us manage anxiety during stressful periods.

If you have the opportunity, try to couple your academic duties with some other activities (e.g. sports, community volunteering or student organizations) to accompany your lifetime as a student grad abroad. Try to get everything from this unique experience!

Scavenger Hunt

After our first week of Math Camp, the Harris School of Public Policy organized what is called the Scavenger Hunt! As an integration activity, we got a list of clues to find in the city of Chicago. Some of them were easy to find neraby the campus in Hyde Park, but for the most of them we had to travel all around the city using our CTA passes (public transportation unlimited passes for buses/rail system).

Along with getting to know the city and the "must" places to go during our stay in Chicago, we were split into 19 teams of 6-people each, in order to get to interact closely with our classmates and as a team-building strategy.

We spent from noon to 6pm travelling from point to point in the map and looking very carefully for each of the clues listed. Actually, it was a great strategy to learn how to travel around the city and to meet places that we had not otherwise known.

Intense visit from Venezuela

Hi everyone! The past weekend was crazy. We had 4 friends from Venezuela visiting for Labor Day weekend. As part of the Chicago Tour's adventure, we took the Wendella Boats Arquitecture Tour (totally recommended if you are visiting Chicago for just a couple of days), visiting the John Hancock Observatory for an incredible panoramic view of the city and finally have dinner at Giordano's, the most popular place to eat the Chicago-style pizza.

Here are some pics from our trip, that later included the 33rd issue of the Chicago Jazz Festival at Grant Park!

If you are coming for Chicago, it's a must to check this out http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en.html

Refreshing math

Hi there,

The Math Camp already started! This is a special pre-classes program that the Harris School of Public Policy at  offers to  all their incomming students. This actually helps to start turning on the engines before we start with the core courses, which have all of them an important component of math and statistics. This week we start with Algebra and the nex two weeks we will cover Calculus contents.

Of course the level of the classes depends on your professional background and the time that has passes since you review this contents on college (or even high school for some people). Also, it's a great opportunity to familiarize with some math concepts in English and to start the classes dynamics in English as well. Actually, for me as an international student, this has become key to understand how to succeed in my Master's degree abroad.

Above you will find a pic of our classroom today at Algebra class!

Building the group!

After finishing our Language Camp this Friday at Chicago Harris School, more tan 40 international students went to play soccer and then for a couple of drinks together. Below you will find a few of us enjoying our time together at The Pub (located at Ida Noyes Hall, in the University of Chicago).

Attending to the Language Camp is an essential part of becoming an international graduate student. It will not only help you to improve your language skills or to relax about it. Moreover, it's design to help you in your personal adapting process as an international student. It also helps you to experience the culture of the country to where you are travelling to and to understand the particular dynamics of a graduate student.

This program encourages people to know their future classmates and colleagues in a  very close relationship. I truly appreciate my personal experience at Harris and I've enjoyed sharing with people from all over the world, including Japan, China, South Korea, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Pakistan and Venezuela, just to name a few. Above you will find a few of us joining Hiro's birthday (Japan) at 57th St. Beach in Hyde Park, Chicago.