My Free Vacation

Alright I'm BACK!!! Only what, 2 weeks to recover from NOLA?!?! What you say? Yes sad but true and against everything that is me, it wasn't even the alcohol that slowed me down it was the math.

Yipes WHAT HUH you say again?!?!?

Well, to "push" myself I signed up for a bunch of finance courses this semester and let me tell you, my brain just cain't thank thata way. Well let me not say can't. It PREFERS not to. But really if I don't leave Business School with the ability to do businessy kinda things I'm only cheating myself. So, now that I back on the path of retraining my brain to think cash flows and valuations, ratios and EBITDA (don't you worry about what any of this means, just know that I know and that's the whole point). I'm ready to write.

Broke: Soooo. I bet your wondering how I paid for a trip to New Orleans on my budget. Well, the answer is I DIDN'T!!!! I used the old fashioned bartering system, evoked f my rights as a friend and kept an eye out for free food. As you may know I worked for American Airlines over the summer as an intern. (Big ups to their internship program, loved it). How did I find this internship you may ask, at the National Black MBA Conference (NBMBA) last year. SO, when the time came around for this year's NBMBA I gladly volunteered my services to come and help them recruit. They accepted and gave me a plane ticket. So a few hours of work = my plane ticket.
Transportation Cost- CHECK

Originally I had planned to reduce my hotel costs by finding someone to split a room with. Well guess what: Even better I found one of my friend's was going and her school was paying for her room. So um guess where I crashed.
Hotel Cost: CHECK (THANK YOU VERY MUCH H-DAWG)

The conference lasted 2 days. Every major brand you can think of was there including General Mills, Hershey's Wrigley's, Agra... I think you know where I am going with this... FREE SAMPLES. So I chose not to eat most of them (was saving room for oysters) but you could easily fill-up on these at no cost.

The way I got some free grub and booze was company "receptions". So, major companies held "receptions" for MBA students they are interested in. At these receptions you can do some good "networking" (in quotes cuz I'm still not sure I know what that means) and enjoy the appetizers and open bars :)

AA was also kind enough to take me dinner one night and my school sponsored dinner another.

So- majority of food costs- CHECK

That's a quick re-cap on how I did NOLA for cheap. What exactly I did there well... what happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans.

I'll be posting more soon...