At war...and now heading for peace and tranquility

Well, well, well! Hasn't it been a while since I posted my milestone message! I may have stopped for a while but the world certainly hasn't; someone's come back from the dead, HEC Paris is yet again the top business school in Europe, and we have also "received the largest single donation to a French business school from an individual donor"! Only last week, we were discussing how the notion of giving back to one's alma mater does not exist in France in quite the same way as in the US. Hopefully, many will follow in Mr Destzet's footstep and fill HEC's coffer with so much dough that we can just buy our way to world domination! And, yet again, I had a guerre with the bureaucracy at the prefecture, albeit a different one, for my Titre de Sejour. If the bureaucrat sitting on the other side is not content, you are out! So, I queued and stood in the cold for three consecutive days. My wife and son also joined me on the second day...and still we were turned away for we did not have an optional tax document - of course, we don't because we have not lived here long enough but the bureaucrat was not interested in that! Success did come on the third day after repeated haggling and following a chat with a 'friendlier, more senior' bureaucrat. C'mon, Sarkozy, please do something!

That done, I am now at peace and can go on my annual pilgrimage with my son, starting next week! I am also hoping to visit one of the sites of my sponsoring company during this travel so that I can include the findings in my IPP report. We shall see...I am just looking forward to be on the move, on holiday, again! :-) And, as many are going away on exchange and internships during PP2, it is slowly beginning to sink in that we are now at the end of our time at HEC together as one big group of students. From now, we follow the paths defined by our individual goals and, except for graduation day, it is unlikely we will all be together ever again. That is a sad thought but, as always, life goes on and we move on knowing that we have had the experience of a lifetime. And, I wish my dear friends the very best.