Report! What is your status?

My status is tired, but satisfied and stress-free.

I think this is one of my later blog posts. Since 7 PM, I have been working diligently to finish my six-page report due tomorrow morning. During office hours, I focused only on making my necessary charts (five in total, after much experimenting) based on the performance details of my six simulated CHESS weeks. I have the most trouble playing with the Microsoft Office features, so I wanted to do the charts where there were people who could help me if and when I accidentally deleted five cells of data, or wanted to turn 73000% to just 73%. With much advice from Colleen, I was able to finish my charts in time, and took an hour-long break to walk back to my dorm, call my Dad (he has been busy at work, so I haven't had any long conversations with him in awhile), and take a well-deserved shower. My seven-page report includes all of my excel-produced charts, several headings and sub-headings, a cover page, a table of contents, and one page at the end that I cannot delete because it changes all of my footers in the previous sections. It actually only took me about three hours to write (not including putz time); I just started late because office hours go until 9 PM. Tomorrow, all I will have to do is figure out what to do with that last, unnecessary page, and print out my work. 

Besides the "short" report that was looming over the all of the students' heads today, it was just business as usual (yes, the pun was intended). Group A continued their Excel education in the morning, while Group B got a lecture from Reneta. Once again, everyone was exhausted today. When we took a fifteen-minute break, at least twelve students (including myself) opted to rest our eyes instead. The Excel lesson was not hard to follow at first, but the last few points that Mark made were lost on me. Thankfully, they did not seem to be necessary for my graphs tonight, though. We also had a quiz on the basics of Excel, and a surprise quiz on all the calculations necessary for a completing Rooms Contribution Statement. Apparently, Reneta's small side comment yesterday that "this would make a good quiz," was supposed to be our obvious hint. Unfortunately, although Mark seemed to hear that remark, I did not. I put in a good effort, but lost all hope after my paper was collected and Mark laughed a little when he saw my answer. I was about $6,500 off; math is clearly not my forte. I only feel a little better know that the girls to my left, behind me, and in front of me were also off by a considerable amount, too.

At least lunch was fun. The class voted to shorten it to an hour so that we could get out of class early. It only took me 30 minutes to eat, so I walked back to class with my friend Alva. We mostly talked about politics - ranging from Mao Zedong's lengthy rule to the various levels of U.S. law. I always learn something new about China during lunch or after office hours. For instance, did you know that Chinese citizens don't get to vote (except for local laws on a rare occasion)? Did you also know that, similar to North Korea, the Chinese are still expected to honor the late Chairman Mao public? Hospitality school has taught me so much in so little time.