Bekaa Valey, Lebanon

I wake up looking forward to a day at the beach, but Sarah and Becky decide they’d rather rent a car and drive through Hezbollah territory near the contested border with Israel. Even though I can hardly drive stick shift, I end up behind the wheel driving down a self-proclaimed Martyr’s Avenue, past UN fortifications, and stalling at Syrian checkpoints. Oh, and we stopped to ask the family in the picture if there were landmines around before our hike in the hills…

Martyr's Square, Lebanon

Marty’s Square is near the spot of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination, widely believed to have been performed by Syria. Soon after his death, over one million Lebanese –in a country of only 4 ½ million- protested the continued occupation by Syria in the streets. With additional pressure from France and the US, Syria promised to withdraw before the elections. Becky is Sarah’s former college roommate doing PhD research in the country.

A Medina, Lebanon

I was really feeling at home in my Islamic keffiyeh, the garb favored by the royals of Saudi Arabia. Sarah found a cute belly dancing costume recommended by the store owner. I decided my kingly ambitions must wait; I think Sarah decided the same about a belly dancing career.

Sidon, Lebanon

Four bombs and an assassination of the Prime Minister in the past couple months didn’t keep us form visiting Lebanon. An additional military presence in the form of checkpoints and army officers was evident, and Sarah took charge by checking out the readiness of this army soldier. I think Sarah needs to go through boot camp again – something about that gun just doesn’t look right!

Cambridge, England

The Judge Institute is the classroom building for the Cambridge MBA and the place where we had a strategy class one day. Our Cambridge professor, Simon Stockley, took us to see the sights including Kings Cross and a pub frequented by Cambridge scientists who discovered DNA. Remember – in Cambridge only senior professors are allowed to walk on the grass.

Normandy, France

A friend and I rented a car for a steal and drove 4 hours from Brussels, Belgium to Normandy, France only getting lost once or twice. We visited the D-Day beaches Omaha, Sword, Juno and Gold. We visited the cliffs that Rangers scaled to capture large German guns, walked on large concrete blocks used to build a floating dock at Arromanches, and saw preserved fortifications at a number of the landing beaches. The American graveyard at Omaha beach contained thousands of graves of military men and women who died in France.

London, England

It’s no all play in London! Sarah and I did a strategy project for Beyond Retro, a local vintage clothing store in London’s rough East End. Core competencies include inventory procurement and human resource knowledge which we recommend they leverage into a geographical expansion while replicating their proof of concept. Comparative advantages lie in publicity, and untapped sources of stock. Let’s hope our professor bought it.

Check out our recommendation. (Big file)

Berlin, Germany

Ilona was a foreign exchange student at the Coffman family during her senior year of high school. Besides feeding us great breakfasts complete with cappuccino and chocolate pudding, we visited a number of Berlin museums and monuments. Ilona’s boyfriend, Franz, took us on a backstage tour of the German Parliament building and Ilona took us on a snowy walk through a summer palace of a former king.

Seville, Spain

Here’s the Seville bullring, one of the most famous in the world. Did you know it is actually an oval and only two matadors have died in the last 100+ years? Seville is a beautiful city and the first place on our trip that was warm.

Fez, Morocco

I’ll bet you’re thinking, “look at all those styling hats.” That’s right, Sarah and Muhammad are shown here in there recent purchases from the Moroccan street merchant. We’re hanging out in the old city markets, the Medina, of Fez, Morocco. It’s a maze of a market, with the shoe market being my favorite. I’ve never seen so many pairs of bright yellow slippers. Ask me about the Hammam sometime.

London, England

Here’s the entire London group (myself excluded). It’s not all fun and games in London; we’re taking a class trip to Lloyds of London to learn about insurance. If that’s not exciting enough, we took a look at page 1130 in the large Lloyd’s book that shows an up-to-date listing of all recently sunk ships.

London, England

Sara Will, our first visitor to London, is hanging out with the Trafalgar lions. Risking bad weather in February, we went around to lots of tourist sights including St. Paul’s Cathedral, the changing of the guard and speaker’s corner. Not sure who are the crazy ones, the people who stand on a box in a park, or the ones who actually come to debate these buggers.

London, England

Not very exciting, but it reminds me of London. Here’s a kid so loyal to the queen, who's right to one the coutry's highest offices is based on heredity, that he’s willing to wear that silly hat.

Venice, Italy

The frosty cold weather didn’t keep the birds away from St. Mark’s Square in Venice, which was lucky, because they really seemed to enjoy Sarah. We happened to arrive during the first couple days of Carnival, where everyone dresses up in exquisite costumes and parades around the city at night. Unfortunately, I left my cape at home and could only take pictures of the parades.

Paris, France

That ‘other’ Notre Dame stands behind Sarah, just before she digs into her tasty French brie and grape leaf sandwich. We took the Eurail to Paris on our next weekend and paid a visit to the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Arch de Triumph. The ‘great' French subway is a reason always listed for them being expected to win the 2012 Olympics bid, but I just think they smelled horrible.

Leeds, England

In an early attempt to be proper English tourists, Sarah and I headed off to Leeds Castle, a moated castle southeast of London. Black swans swam in the pond around the castle that opens itself up to only the highest breed (& paying) of the English.

Inishmore, Ireland

This horse is one of the few inhabitants of the Aran Islands; one of three islands just off the west coast of Ireland near Galway. The island is famous for one of the best preserved pre-historic forts, Dun Agneus, that forms a semicircle on the west cliff 300 feet above the sea. Look west across the big puddle and image what it used to be like thousands of years ago.

Notre Dame, Indiana

The Irish Leprechaun on his way to the famous Notre Dame Football stadium stopped to be in a snapshot of Sarah, Eric, Pete and I before a fall football game. Unfortunately, the luck of the Irish wasn’t with us that game (where has it gone?), but we had a good time anyway. All thanks to the tailgate!

Indianapolis, Indiana

“Concessionaire Extraordinaire” is the only way to describe it. While Sarah was pulling, frying and sugaring the Elephant Ear in the back of the ‘Barn’, I was wheeling and dealing out the front, working to keep revelers at the Indiana State Fair supplied with cinnamon-sugary goodness.

Notre Dame, Indiana

O’hara Grace Graduate Residences is the official name, but to residences they are simply termed the ‘OG’. This is the housing of Notre Dame that must be the worst on the entire campus. This is where I spent my first year in the MBA program at Notre Dame and learned to love it. Justin, Leo, and Alex were my three roommates, and all we could do was look out our back window into the luxurious ‘country club’ accommodations of Fischer Graduate Residences.