MBA/Football

So first and foremost, I had my interview w/ Corvinus University yesterday. They offered me a spot for their Full Time MBA program starting in mid-Sept...YAY!! They also have an Executive MBA program that they want me in, but they're waiting on my decision regarding CEU (which I should have an answer from them sometime this week). I'm stuck now weighing the pros and cons of each program (cost, length of study, alumni network, business connections, etc). The way its looking right now w/o knowing CEU's decision, I'm leaning towards the Exec MBA. I told Corvinus I'd make a decision by next Monday. The plus side of Corvinus is that the director of the program offered to find me a job if I accept the Exec MBA. They also want me to teach a couple classes. Serious stuff! :D Anyways, I was so stoked after my interview.

**side note: as i was leaving the interview, they were still screening other potential candidates and outside waiting was this hot ass chick...guys, you gotta come see this. ;) j/k gabi!...u know i love u!

Moving on to football. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but Hungary has several American Football teams. Budapest has the Wolves (www.wolves.hu -check out the cheerleaders!) and they are looking for players. I was invited to check out the "rookie team" practice yesterday. Now, a little background on me, I like sports, but have never played any high school, Pop-Warner, or any organized football ever. I was always a small skinny guy. My high school sport was golf...so i'm not exactly the best athlete. But I thought i'd give this a try b/c I didn't bring my golf clubs and I couldn't find a "rec"-league softball team. (FYI: rec=beer) Ok, so I just jumped right in to the lineup as they were doing their conditioning exercises (shuttle runs, cone drills, push ups, etc)....hot damn! I got my ass beat and no one even tackled me. Those exercises and drills are not like running a marathon. You're not sprinting 10 yds and then doing 10 pushups and then sprinting again to do 10 more situps and hopping around 1 leg over foot high blocks.
Anyways, I got over those and then we started to actually work on running routes. Most of the people on the rookie team have no experience with football and so they don't know what positions they would want to play. Now i've played 2-hand touch and flag football w/ friends and I mainly play WR or CB/S. So running the routes was fun. They didn't use a passing tree, they just had the routes on a sheet of paper that showed a picture of the route and the names in Hungarian and English. This was a lot more fun...I caught a couple balls. Slipped on a route b/c I have no cleats and couldn't cut back. After that we worked on tackling. This was actually cool. Like I said, we played mainly 2hand or flag, so no real contact....except that one time in college and we got really drunk and....I MEAN...
Seriously, the coach was showing us how to tackle properly and where to hit the guy. Now some of the rookie's had full pads and were practicing with them. So when we practiced this, if you had no pads going up against someone that did, you're assed out. It didn't happen much b/c they paired you up. So at first it was slow going for me, trying to get the footwork and then the tackling. After a while, I got the hang of it and the coach even said that I was hitting better than those that had pads.
So all in all, it was a fun first practice. The guys I met were all cool, a couple could speak english. I met some of the guys on the "Pro" team and they all had high expectations from me...mainly b/c I was from the US. Actually when they found out that I was from San Diego, the coach and those that understood all went up to me and started asking what position I play and all this other stuff. They're hoping I make it on the "Pro" team. That was cool. A couple of the guys could play, others were a little awkward looking running the routes, but overall it was fun. Made some new friends, got some exercise and had fun. We'll see about next weeks practice.

In other news, my friend Victoria just confirmed that she'll be the first to visit me here in Budapest on July 17th. SWEET! I'm looking forward to it.

That's about it. Still no camera...too expensive here. If you'd like to send me a care package, I could use some SPAM, Gatorade powder, a baseball hat (preferably Padres)... :D Anyways, i'm out. Comment back if you have any questions.