In January, I went on a trip to India for a few weeks. (You can read all about it here.) Before I left, many people asked me the same question: Why India? Well, the answer is that I was invited to go; but there’s a little more to it then that. I have always been interested in India. I studied a lot about it in college and I taught about it when I was student teaching. Does this make me an expert? By no means – but because of this interest, going to India was one of the things I hoped to accomplish before I died. So when the opportunity came along I jumped at it. I realize that I am in the minority, as many people that I talked to still questioned my wanting to go.

I found this clip on TED.com that really explains the difference between our two cultures – well as best as one can in 20 minutes – and might shed some light on that famous Indian head bob. The Western World operates with the belief that we only have one life to live, that’s it. While in Indian culture, a person has many lives to get it right. As a result each culture has developed their business models around their respective cultural view. I believe that each view can learn from each other. Take a look:

And just for fun, here are some questions I thought of while watching this presentation. Leave a comment if you want. It’d be fun to start a discussion. (Can you tell I miss intellectual discussions?)

• What do you think would happen to the American business model if individual thought was valued over institutional thought? Or do you think that Americans value institutional thought over individual thought to begin with?
• Which cultural view do you identify with most? How does this influence your behavior?
• Based on what you know about Indian culture, what aspects of American business do you think would benefit their business model?
• Thinking about what Pattanaik said about how mythology impacts business; what parts of American mythology impact American business?
• How would having a Chief Belief Officer change the American Business model?

I hope, if you took the time to watch the video, you learned something. If you made it to the end of this entry, thanks for reading the first lesson I put together in a long time. I guess I’ve still got it!

Class dismissed!

This fact should come as no surprise to you. I love The Olympics so much that I started this tradition with some friends of mine where we cook the food of the host country during the Opening Ceremonies.

What may surprise you is why I’m such a fanatic.

I love the whole Olympic movement. I love that it is a GLOBAL event. I don’t know how many of you are aware, but during The Olympics all nations are supposed to call off all wars. This obviously isn’t the case any more, but I always thought that the idea was a great one. Furthermore, countries send their very best to compete in (mostly) honest competition. This are in many cases amateur athletes. Some have made it there by their own accord, others are part of a government program, but either way each one has a dream – to compete their best against the best for an Olympic medal. Maybe it’s the idealist in me, but there is just something so pure about it that I love.

Beyond that, I love seeing all of these sports that are not as well known in my neck of the woods – like curling. I mean I guess it’s sort of sweeping the nation now, but for the most part, I only get to see it during The Olympics. Then there’s bobsled, snowboard cross, speed skating, and that crazy skeleton. In the summer, it’s diving, all of the track events, and swimming. [Side Bar - I am one of the few that like the Winter Olympics more then the Summer Olympics. There's so much more danger involved. Also a lot of those sports involve a lot of speed. It's just more interesting to me.] The commentary for these sports is always great because it so unfiltered. The commentator is usually a past athlete who is very passionate about the sport; so it always amuses me to hear their reactions to things I don’t really know much about.

There only a few days left. I hope to catch as much coverage that I can.

You can read about my international travel here: Marissa’s Trip to India

About the year older part of my year . . . I actually feel older this year, but in a good way. I feel more comfortable in my own skin. It’s kinda awesome. I feel like I am ready to take the bull by the horns and conquer the world. Well, maybe I’ll start with something smaller, but that’s the idea.

So that’s what’s up here. I’m going to try and post more this year. I feel like blogging again. We’ll see how it goes.

I pretty much posted this everywhere else on the interwebs so why not here? This is my new awesome sticker that I added to my laptop. Artwork and idea provided by: http://bit.ly/15kbWq

Now that I’m all out on my own, I’ve been making some pretty good dinners. This is what I had tonight. I call it, Pasta a la Marissa. It’s good yo!

It will also be my lunch tomorrow – Bonus!!

It’s taking me some time, but slowly I am getting all of my stuff in there. Stay tuned for more updates.

Best chocolate bar ever. I fell in love with these on my first trip to Canada in 1999. Now where ever I am I pick some up. These my Dad brought back from Bermuda. I’m excited because I’ve never had the carmel one before!

This was the view outside my window this morning. It was the result of more than 12 hours of snowfall. Even though it was a pain in the butt to drive in and clean up after; I still maintain that one of my favorite things about living in the Midwest is that there is always the possibility for a snow day.

My day . . . in a nutshell.