You never really know what people are going to say when you ask them a seemingly innocuous question like, “So, what did you do over Spring Break?” Now, we all know HBS is populated with those Type A personalities who don’t think a trip is worth taking unless at some point, you cheat death. For instance, Katherine Mossman says she “climbed a gigantic waterfall” over the holiday. Those of us who know Katherine think that’s right up her alley. Bel‚n Aranda-Alvarado also climbed all over Machu Picchu and hiked the Inca Trail in Peru with her beau.
Those looking for real danger, however, went to Hollywood. Craig Shepherd says, “I was in LA to see significant other Erica and to meet with various film and television executives and lawyers. After a meeting at Miramax on Sunset Boulevard, I stepped across the street to chill on the deck of the Mondrian Hotel. Lo and behold, who should be there sipping an afternoon cocktail with a lot of hair but French rap star Doc Gyneco (one million copies of his first album sold, the Doc can’t walk the streets of Paris). I hit the Doc with a little of my Quebecois French and, pretending to understand me, he kindly invited me to join him. After pouring an ale and exchanging a few fresh rhymes, the Doc revealed that he was in town to record a new track with another physician specializing in the round mounds of street sounds, the Godfather of gangsta rap, the master of “The Chronic” and Death Row Records, Dr. Dre, who counts among his disciples Eminem, Snoop, and Master P.”
Joining Craig in Southern California were Maira Nevarez, Rich Tyrell, and Geraldine Coppola. Brenda Saavedra split her week between San Francisco (in the better half of California) and Honolulu, explaining why she showed up on the previous Friday in rather summery clothes for late-winter Boston. Also enjoying some fun in the sun was Jenny Belknap in West Palm Beach and Islamorada, Florida.
He didn’t run into the famous Doc Gyneco, but Gary Binford did spend his break in Paris and remarks, “French people, on average, are really nice people with one exception in our section, Vincent.” C’mon Gary-tell us what you’re really thinking!
Tom Wieand and Mike Dal Bello were among the group of guys that traveled to Brazil for the break and who remain remarkably tight-lipped about the whole trip. A hint of the reason behind their reticence surfaced at the Brazil/Chile lunch on Wednesday. Rodrigo Lara and Leo Letelier-Pimstein, in the spirit of cultural exchange, devoted a significant portion of their pictorial presentation to Gisele Bundchen, one of the region’s finer exports. Oo-la-la!
Johnson Tan probably got a little less of that particular kind of local scenery on his road trip through southern Massachusetts, New York City, Long Island, Washington DC, Atlantic City, and upstate New York. Clement Lau, Brendan Strong, and Bernardo Lazo also spent their breaks in the East Coast, Clement getting in some cross-country skiing in Jackson, New Hampshire, Brendan skiing in Vermont, and Bernardo enjoying the “spring in the break” right here in Boston.
Arturo Alvarez Demalde spent his break in Argentina visiting his parents in Buenos Aires where the top three items on the to-do list were tango, soccer, and good food and wine, some of it from his grandfather’s vineyard in Mendoza.
But while all of us may have been busy having fun over the break, perhaps no one was quite as busy as Martin Gonzalez, who welcomed us back with the news that he and his lovely wife Anita are going to have a baby. How fortuitous it as that the woman carries the child, as no doubt Martin would have found it difficult to swear off caffeine for nine months, particularly the kind found in Coca-Cola.
And finally an anonymous report on the basketball thrashing NC handed ND last Tuesday night: After a half-time tie, NC unleashed its roaring thunder from the field, raining points and claiming absolute value from their poor negotiation partners of ND2. As the game came to an end, struggling jokers from the ND superstar team wandered over to watch their ND2 brethren and rendered their best attempt at vulgar insults as NC players hammered the nail into the coffin at the foul line. As Section D President Brian Davis hawked Kevin Greene at the foul line (we’ll leave his explicit comments out), the Greene Machine reminded Davis who his daddy was, drained his foul shots, blew him a kiss, and sent him back to the Foot Bridge where he began the year. 44-30, NC. Either way, Erik Stafford liked us better! Play ball, baby!
