Academic mumblings...

I'm so glad that I'm writing this blog together with Angela... in these hectic times, she is the one who keeps the blog alive.

It's amazing how busy one can be, from early morning to very late. Papers, tests, preparation, lectures, and then there are the exams next week. The whole campus looks like a 24h study factory. There are people asleep over their books in cubicles at any time of day or night. Students eat at the strangest hours (in my opinion a strong indication of a complete disconnect with reality.) It looks like our current life revolves completely around the exams, inside the INSEAD bubble. For the best post from our fellow J'08 bloggers about the exam fever, checkout: www.strawberrytints.blogspot.com (I even quoted you in my LP&G paper, Dee!)

I'm just sending a few emails now and updating the blog before I go back to read my Finance notes and handouts. Maybe if I try hard, I will be able to master everything there is to know about the CAPM model, how to best diversify my investment portfolio, how to valuate any company using the right Beta's, and how to do all kinds of perverse calculations way into the future, using my HP12c...

P1 is almost over now. After the exams (and our trip to Barcelona), I will post more about my take on P1; the classes, the professors, and my fantastic classmates.

P2 is going to be great fun. I specificaly look forward to the Strategy and Leading Organisations classes. The following core courses will be taught in P2:

- Corporate Financial Policy
- Foundations of Marketing
- Leading Organisations
- Managerial Accounting
- Process & Operations Mgmt
- Strategy

My plan is to take significant time in P2 to do a lot of reading about companies in industries that I would like to work in, learn about the economies in Asia, network with people from places or organisations that I'm interested in, and start my post-MBA job hunt strategy. I will also tailor my Electives package and of course work hard on the core courses and party occasionally around all that...

It's funny, when I decided to stop working for a year to go to school, many people wondered whether I would enjoy it, or whether I would even be able to sit in class all day. Two months down the road (it feels more like 4 months) I can say that I absolutely enjoy it. Much has to do with the people around me. I can speak of all my classmates in this sense: they are a bunch of hard working, focused, fun loving, amazing characters. In my essays I wrote that this was the best possible choice I could make at this point in time... well, I can say now that it's not only a cheesy line in my application essay, it's also actually true.

Singapore

Great news for us: the final outcome of the school's exchange decisions is out: I've got confirmation of my exchange to Singapore for P3,P4, and P5. Singapore has a smaller campus than Fonty. This year there was so much demand for campus exchange in P3, that INSEAD had to waitlist many people after a lottery. This means that many students have not got their request fulfilled (yet) to transfer to Singapore. There is a waitinglist now for the Wharton exchange and for Singapore. My sincere best wishes, and goodluck to everybody who's on the lists! I knew that I had a very strong case to go to Singapore, since I am seriously interested in working in Asia. Off course, like everybody else, I also very much look forward to spend part of my MBA there. The great thing about Singapore is that it's very modern and Western in a way, but at the same time it's truly Asia. The food, the people, the warmth, the possibilities. One of the things that I loved about Singapore when I was there before, was to go to the rooftop swimming-pool of Angela's apartment at night, jump in, and then enjoy looking at the tall buildings around me. The air still warm, the sky clear, you can smell the orchids around the pool, and you can hear all the typical noises of a bustling Asian city by night in the distance...

There is more good news... we also found a terrific place to live. The Singapore housingmarket has gone completely crazy in the last few years. As a consequence, housing in Singapore has become very expensive, and prices are still rising dramatically. There are so many expats looking for places to live, that supply can impossibly cope with demand. Luckily, we won't have to spend time looking for a place, because what we got now is perfect. I'm absolutely delighted that we managed to rent a condo in Heritage View, probably the best complex around INSEAD. The apartment building looks amazing, it's a beautiful modern highrise with a cool swimming pool, tennis courts, barbecue places, and a huge garden with palmtrees. Many students live there, so we'll be able to do our groupwork in the garden. Only at a few minutes walking distance from INSEAD, and with the MRT stations around the corner. I look forward to pick up Angela from work (when I have early classes) to go for dinner at Lau Pa Sat, Clarke Quay, Equinox, Little India, or any of the myriad of other wonderful places in Singapore...

Parties & Lebanese week

Last week was filled with parties and events that caused everybody to get as little sleep as possible. It was fun but also very tiring. It started with Nuit Blanche in Paris, last Saturday. Several housemates and us went to Paris, parked our car in the easiest parking space and took the metro to Opera to have a Japanese dinner. Apparantly (I did not know) there are several streets with very nice Japanese shops and restaurants all near the Opera. Next on the list was Centre Pompidou to have cocktails in the uber-trendy bar "Georges" on top of the museum.
Even though Paris was filled with people who came for Nuit Blanche (and also several people who went to bars to watch Rugby-the French won) we ran into INSEAD students almost everywhere. Paris was just like a little town, where you keep on bumping into the same people... From Pompidou to Les Tuileries to watch the fire displays and in between we visited a church where they had a groovy light show inside the church. Very special, to see 3-D effects inside a church.

At the end of this night we discovered that our very smart parking space was not so smart anymore. Metros were too full, the taxis did not want to stop, so we had to walk back from Tuileries to Bastille. We arrived home at 5 in the morning, to be greeted by housemate Timur who just came back from a party in Chateau Tavers. Good to know that a lot of people decided to go there in the end. The Tavers gang had fierce competition from the city of Paris!

On Tuesday Villa Foch had its first housedinner, and we combined this with the birthday celebration of housemate Wim. We had a dinnerparty with 22 people and it was perfect. We all decided to have another dinner in the beginning of P2. We were very happy with the gift that Luiz brought; strawberries, limes, vodka and cachaca (mixed into fantastic caipirinhas) This, together with a keg of Desperado's, Wine, Tequila and Champagne resulted in a very merry bunch of people and cambalhota's in our living room... dear guests and housemates, thanks for a great first party@Foch!

Wednesday was the Lebanese dinner and as expected beforehand, the tickets were sold out faster than a concert of Robbie Williams. Everybody expects food in the Lebanese week to be very, very good and it was!
The first course were the mezzes, with bread. Next 'course' (from the look on several people's faces) was a belly dancer who smiled the whole evening. Not even once did she change her expression. Belly dancing must either be fun or else she is one of the most happy people I have seen so far.

Thursday was quiet. We ate the left overs from Tuesday and decided to go to bed early. Well, I did, the students continued studying as their P1 exams are approaching.

Friday was the end of Lebanese week and therefore a good reason for another party. I was still too tired and decided not to go. Omar and two other housemates went. The party was very nice even though Omar was one of the earlybirds, he left with the first bus and arrived home at 3 in the morning.


Et maintenant, the house is quiet. Everybody seems to have slipped into a study mode, and the majority of the housemates spend their hours behind their books. Luckily in two weeks time, after the exams, we will all have a short holiday. Even though it is only 4 days, people are planning and talking about it as if it were the 6 weeks holiday in summer. Omar and I are going to Barcelona, where we will meet up with several INSEAD students.