ACADEMICS
So Business Foundations (BF) ended, Orientation Week (OW) went past, and P1 picked up in full effect. Angela posted before about BF so I'll skip that. OW was a combination of Intro's to the courses, the teaching methods, and the material. Potentially this could have been a relaxing week, however the free time that I had, I spent in bed with a flu... for the rest OW was about welcomes, setting up laptops, doing all sorts of admin stuff, buying books,etc... The best part of this week was the last day on Saturday (Saturday seems to count as a working day at INSEAD) when we had an outdoors day to bond with our studygroups. After OW, P1 started in full force. Lots of prereading, and case preparations for each class, followed by interesting classes, groupwork, problems, and a new cycle starting with prereading, etc... I still need to get used to this...
MY GROUP
Just like in BF I have a great studygroup. An Englishman, a Brazilian, a Lebanese, an American, and me. We get along very well, we all want to learn from each other, and we respect our differences and skills. We'll be spending a lot of time together, so I'm really pleased with my group! The only unfortunate thing is that we don't have any women in our group. With 29% women on campus and studygroups of 5, the odds would be for having at least one woman in our group!
WELCOME
During OW, we were officially welcomed on campus by the Deans and by the President of the Alumni Association (who also happens to be the President of the Rothschild bank in Canada.) Nice welcome words to participants and our partners, good champagne to celebrate it, and a good cocktail afterwards.
PARTIES
Yes, there were a few...
The international INSEAD crowd makes each party look like there is a "young and vibrant" UN assembly on a fun quest!
Friday after Business Foundations we took over the Aussi Pub in Fonty; Saturday night was spent in one of the most exclusive clubs in Paris, On Sunday I passed, but there were at least 3 or 4 different parties... Last Saturday (right after OW) we had an extremely good party sponsored by Bain & Company at Chateau de Vaux-le-Penil (just imagine free champagne & rum & vodka from 22.00h until 04.00h the next morning, great music, a stunning castle, and free buses to take you back home!)
Next Saturday we'll have our party sonsored by OPERA Solutions at Chateau de Tavers, and they say that that party will be even better! Saturday the 14th will be the Shangri-La Fiction "Tarantino theme party." It seems that the Party scene is on at INSEAD and that there is fierce competition as to who actually throws the best one!
RECRUITING
Recruiting companies come to campus almost every evening. It's hard to choose which company presentations to go to after classes, because every day there are 2 or 3 invitations in our mailboxes. On Monday I went to Google, today to Bain&Company, tomorrow I'll go to Booz Allen, and Friday to McKinsey. I had to pass this week the invitations from SAP, Merill Lynch, J&J and BCG. Luckily they are here primarily for the P4s, and they'll come back for us in April, and May. All this attention is of course fantastic, but I'm sure that in due time it will also be stressfull, since there will be more MBA graduates in each class than there will be jobs offered via recruiting.
CLUBS
Yesterday night Angela and I went to a Wine&Cheese tasting. Most Clubs and activities are open for both partners and participants. In fact, partners are included in every aspect of campus life, so that is great! The Cheese tasting was initially a partners event, but since they had a few slots left, I was allowed to join, which I thankfully did.
We signed up for many clubs. Angela will write more about her prospective activities (amongst others she will play in INSEAD's women "soccer" team.) I signed up for a few Clubs with the aim to network in specific areas like Emerging Markets, Consulting, and International and Humanitarian Affairs. I also signed up for the Real Estate Club to learn more about investing in real estate. And, I signed up for the Sailing Regatta.
I hope that I'll be selected for one of the 2 boats that will compete against other B-schools in the MBA Regatta later this month in Italy. My going to INSEAD meant that I had to pass on a wonderfull opportunity to join Rick and Hans on the ARC Ocean Race from Las Palmas to St Lucia in November. I would have loved to cross the Atlantic together with these two guys, but you can't do everything at the same time. Sailing for INSEAD at the MBA Regatta would be extremely cool, so I hope that I'll make it. With many outstanding sailors (even an ex-Olympic sailor) as classmates, though, I'm not sure whether it will happen! I'll keep you posted, take care!
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