Egg-cellent planning

   I want to begin with saying "thanks" to amazing group of people I had a pleasure to share this interesting activity. It was truly an experience for me.

   At first we begin to talk about how we can create a structure that would be able to save an egg from breaking when being dropped. Each of us shared an idea of what is the best architecture would be and why it would be good. We came up with 3 main structures and argued about how we can build each of them with given materials, then tried to estimate how each of them would benefit our main goal - get the egg to the floor intact. So I guess I can check off steps 1, 2, and 3 from the list on the steps in the planning process.

   When it comes to allocation of jobs then we totally skipped that. But we still managed to do a great job and all hands were working very organized. Though we change our egg-protection along the way, because we realized that some parts of what we thought would work did seem not work at all. I felt adrenalin running through my veins and I liked it, though it made my hands a little shaky when I was applying masking tape to our creation.

   At the end we evaluated results as successful, because our egg did not break. (here comes my victory dance) - YEEEY!!!

Blog Topic #1: Culture Shock - How I've met PJ's

  I came to United States 9 years ago and since then I have traveled through out Europe couple of times. Being born and raised in one country and come to stay in another country is always going to impact the view of the country, and change you as well.
  I have a friend in Ukraine who has to dress up and wear make-up before going to the store. Not all women do this but the prevailing  majority. People expect you to look good no matter where you go. But when I was walking streets of Brooklyn I saw women not only having no make-up at all but they were wearing pajama pants. Let me note that I don't judge, I've always felt that people should do what they pleased to do the most, but when I told my friend about it she was stunned. I mostly felt that Americans just enjoying their lives and feel more free. Sometimes I do not have time or desire to put make up on, and I do not like make-up, but i still feel a little guilty for not doing it, i guess it is a cultural guilt.
 Someone mentioned in class that it is not recommended to look people in the eyes, that it is not safe. I could argue to that – I have no problem to look at people eyes in New York. I would probably be more scared to look at someone’s eyes in Russia or Ukraine. When I look at people they just smile to me. Or maybe it depends on the face expression you have at the moment.
 A negative moment is that people do not offer their seats to pregnant and elderly on the subway or bus, though it is highly encouraged right now. I do not remember seeing someone in my native country sitting on a bus or train and having grandmother standing next to that person. There was always someone who would get up to offer a seat.

Let's do this...

Hello EVERYONE,
 Let me admit right away that this blogging thing is a little frightening...First of all, English is not my first language, so I will probably be making tons of mistakes that I will be trying correct as we walk along our spring semester. Second, all of it just feels that I am talking to my computer, even though some of you will be reading my posts (including professor).
 So let's get started - my name is Maryna, and I am an accountant/student. I work in a high end Italian jewelry company called Damiani and as an employee I have 50% discount (if someone interested :). But we not here to advertise, so I am moving on - I live in Brooklyn, love to exercise, take pictures, sew, swim, dance, sing and all that good stuff, but on the other hand I do not have enough time to engage in everything, so I try to do it when I can.
 I also can share with you about the moment when I realized that managerial path is inescapable for me. Not that it frightened me, it's just I've never thought of it till that moment. We have interns coming in every semester and person who had an experience sharing space and professional knowledge with someone new every 3 month knows that it is tiring and sometimes painful process. Last fall we had a group of people coming in from Italy and I had to figure our what they speak with their thick accents. Not that my speech abilities are perfectly fluent and correct, it's just I do not used to "Itanglish". So my company came up with this project that our interns have to complete and I was helping them to get accustomed with our accounting system. My boss asked me to come in for a little chat before we begin and told me - "You will be their [interns] manager and I believe in you". At that moment I felt every hair on my head. The idea of being in-charge scared the hell out of me. I was there only for 6 month and do not want to have this responsibility, I thought to myself. But no one gave me a choice. I totally realized that if something was to go wrong I was the one to blame, but if it goes right I really hoped that I was to be rewarded.
  Let me tell you - It is a challenging task to be a manager... That group of interns finished their 10 weeks curriculum requirement, but new group is coming this spring and I am really hoping that this class will help me to improve what I was given to do. In any case I will keep you posted on my progress.