Summer beckons!

The birds have flown, the flowers have wilted and the place is beginning to eerily haunt! Metaphorically speaking, of course! Summer is here and everyone is eagerly waiting for the exams to be over. Many are going to intern this summer whilst many others will follow the tracks of their dream holidays. So, as some head off on a tour of Europe, or Asia, and other exotic sounding places, I wish I had a few weeks off too. But then, there is money to be made, experiences to be gained, new colleagues to be acquainted with, new friends to be made, and new places to travel to. Sometimes, I look back in amazement at how fast things have moved from when we first arrived on the HEC campus, shaking hands and introducing each other, to today, when we can reflect back on the many events, and exams. Just like what I am briefly doing right now. Perhaps, it is the fact that so many things were happening concurrently. To give you a sense of what I am trying to explain here, let me present to you an oversimplified timetable of activities with extracts from the minds of many of my classmates:

January - Arrive on campus. If you want to do the double degree (with NYU, ESADE, etc.) Feb is the deadline. And, btw, how did your group do in NegoSim?

Feb - Have you started thinking about which clubs you are going to join/head? And, yes, are you doing anything during MBAT? Hold on, what is MBAT? Ah yes, that one...I thought it was in May!

March - Exams are just around the corner...no, no, no, they are in April. And, it was only last week when we had our mid-term exams!

April - Yeeeeeeeeahhhhh! The break is here...but let me first send out this internship application form. For those working in banks, it is already past the deadline...too late, sorry; early birds from the September intake got the worm!

May - Phew, the results are out! And, did you say we had Project Management last month? Dude, we only had a week off not three! Oh yes, MBAT is next week! Mr. Coordinator, have I paid my entry fee? Note to self: Wear smart suit and perform well at the Career Fair tomorrow in London. Deadline for exchange is fast approaching, I must make sure I finish the essays.

June - June already! You know what that means, more mid-term exams! Good news! I got an interview call to go on an exchange program at NYU/UCLA/Melbourne/LBS/etc. And, I am not sure why I have not heard anything from XYZ company about this summer's internship. I mean, they interviewed me three weeks ago!

July - Here we go again....exams. God, I so want to get over with these exams and run from here. Have I booked my ticket? Exchange results are out. Many are pleased but some are disappointed in this circle of life. Sorry folks, but I am sure something better will come along. Here I am...wow, nice office! Good morning, madam/sir, my name is John Smith, HEC Paris MBA student, and your intern for this summer!

So, there you go! Times flies in the life of an MBA student. I now have just one exam left and then I am done with the Core phase of my HEC Paris MBA. I was intially planning to leave on Sunday to start my internship in London from Monday onwards but, a paper I submitted on my group's marketing project got accepted for an oral presentation at an international conference in London. So, I need to head there earlier than planned, three days to be precise. Immediately after my last exam tomorrow, I am going on a long drive to pick up my son from his cousin's place and we will spend some time together before I depart. If you have been following my blog, remember that I tried to potty train him during my spring break in April and it didn't work. Well, we are now told that he has learned the fine art of you know what....perhaps, seeing other kids in the act helped! I am still in a hotel as the renovation is not complete yet and I need to start packing for London and Alaska; I am excited in anticipation of a great summer, sad as I don't like saying goodbyes, content because I am through the first phase of my MBA and delighted that summer is finally here! When I come back in September, I will be taking up my Strategy track knowing fully well that my MBA will be done by the end of December 2007...what a journey I am having. I am loving it!

What a break...what an experience I am having!

I did tell you spring break was coming soon but I just had not expected it to come and go (going!) so quickly! Last Friday, we had our last exam for the term, in Statistics, and when it finished at mid-day, one could see the relief on a lot of faces - we had just finished Core 1, the toughest phase as we are told! Hurray! The exam was definitely not set to be finished in two hours and, except for a few, nobody finished all the questions. Luckily, the last two questions, which most of us missed, were only worth 3 points. And so we promised not to talk about it again and hit the K-fet, the place where we get cheap beer and pizzas on campus. We spent the afternoon drinking and consuming tonnes of snacks and pizza slices though I restricted myself to just a pint or two as I was driving to see the property we were buying later on in the evening. I will come to this later but once I had dropped off my son and left the car with my wife, I took the metro to meet up with a classmate from New Zealand and hit the bars of Paris. A fellow classmate had organised an 'end-of-semester' dinner and so there we went. Fast forward four hours and I find myself drunkenly dancing on a bench of a stage in Cafe Oz, where fellow batchmates from the September intake had also arrived to celebrate somebody's B'Day. It was a great night out, a great way to say goodbye to Core 1, and welcome the break.

On Saturday, some old amis of my wife came over for lunch and, as always, I had time for a nap between formage and coffee! ;-) After a seemingly endless run of delightful courses, we decided to go for a walk and discover a new place in Jouy. Hidden away in the forest, not too far from our house, we found a lake and a children's play area and so the evening was spent loitering on the edges of the lake. About this time, for some unknown reason, I decided to give Ubuntu (Oo-bun-too), a free Linux based Operating System, a go and spent the Sunday installing it on my laptop. On Wikipedia, Ubuntu is defined as, "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity" or "I am what I am because of what we all are". Such a great thought! But guess what, while I was busy learning the steps of making Ubuntu recognise the Wanadoo wireless network we have, our neighbour, an alumnus of the HEC MBA program, came over to say someone had entered their property and stolen his laptop! I mean, where did all these 'universal bond' and "I am what I am because of what we all are" go? Pretty ironical, I thought! Alongwith the laptop, he has lost hundreds of photos of his new born daughter, who is currently in Brazil with her mum - and I can really relate to him in terms of how I would feel if I lost all of my son's early-stage photos.

On Lundi, a former industry colleague of mine from the UK, came over for lunch (she came to run the Paris marathon!) and, as she has been adventurous enough to start a B&B chain beginning in Morocco in Africa, I also invited a Moroccan classmate of mine and a Canadian friend with heritage in Sierra Leone. So, over a bottle of champagne and plenty of pizza slices in the green and pleasant settings of our house (imagine birds chirping in the background), we talked about life, work, challenges, and generally just chilled out. Later on in the afternoon, after my friends had left, I headed for the estate agent where we finally signed the papers needed to buy an apartment! So, we are now the proud owners of a biggish apartment that needs new wiring, a new bathroom, a new kitchen, new wallpapers, and the good old wooden floor needs a good scrub! God bless us for being so confident that we can turn this property around! To keep things moving, I have drawn the first floorplan of the apartment and it looks great! On paper, at least! The strength is in being able to imagine that this will come true someday and keep going. A good friend recently asked me how I manage to cope with all of life's hurdles and still stay so cheerful. My answer was that, every morning, I promise myself I will be happy. As they say, "those who wish to sing always find a song". Metaphorically speaking, of course, as singing is not one of my skills! :-)

And today...well, what can I say. I finally found out what French bureaucracy means. Last week or about 10 days ago, we were told that I should either be able to renew my Titre de Sejour (TdS) application receipt or have my TdS today. And, I need this to be able to leave France (for London tomorrow) and come back. But, when I got to the Prefecture, I was told that they had run out of tickets for the day and I was there well before they opened! A colleague from HEC had also arrived for his work permit and went back home very disappointed and with some very flowery words describing the system. Anyway, returning to my situation, I explained in whatever French I know that I was told I could collect my TdS and I need it to go to London tomorrow but they refused to heed. I asked for an extension and that too they refused. I was just banging my head against a big wall of human flesh! I kept trying and eventually the guards came and the cops (actually they came for someone else but had me worried for a sec) and even sought the help of my wife via phone. Nothing worked and, frustrated, I came back home. You see, one cannot leave France with the receipt of the first Carte de Sejour application, and enter back (a lot of posts on the web say this is possible but I believe this is meant mostly for citizens from countries with which France has an agreement for short-term visa-free travel; an Indian friend is having to apply for another short-term visa to be able to return). After I got home, I continued pestering the prefecture and haggled, very gently and nicely (if there is such a thing), seeking an explanation for why I was told it could be done/collected and why I could not this morning. Finally, I spoke to a gentleman who understood my situation (I explained that I can't miss my company meeting), checked the system thoroughly and said the computer system said the TdS was ready but it was not physically available in the Prefecture - voila! Great, but that does not solve my problem...donc I requested him for a letter so that I could use it to re-enter France on Thursday. He agreed but still insisted it was up to the immigration officers to decide whether to let me in or not - I said fine and we agreed to rendezvous in the afternoon at the Prefecture for me to collect the letter. I get there and, guess what, the lady at the counter recognises my name in one shot and says my TdS is ready! I mean, WHAT! I am really happy that it is ready but WHAT! She said they could not find it this morning! Ahem...nevermind, I now have my TdS and I am happily going to London tomorrow and should hopefully be allowed back into the country. You will know in the next blog! What an experience!

Amongst all these, if you have been visiting my blog regularly, you ask what happened to the potty training part. Well, I am trying but the boy thinks the potty is some kind of toy that he can play with in the bath. He just doesn't realise that it is for kaka and not a toy. I guess he is still growing up and, someday, I will succeed...or so, I hope.

The Forest


The saddle shaped mini-lake


The floor plan

Eight Days Four Exams!

Soon, I will be a year older, and before I know it, I will be hitting thirty (gladly, not this year!). But then, who has time to think about birthdays these days. It was only yesterday that I gave my French exam and we already have four exams coming up in the next eight days on Accounting, Supply Chain, Strategy, and Statistics. And, then a well-deserved break before the grinding of Core 2 begins.

We have also been viewing a lot of properties and have been thinking about repeating what we did in England - to buy a property that needs work and renovate it. We feel fairly confident that, using the practical knowledge and skills we gained from the last property development project, we will be able to finish it swiftly this time around. This would also help us make some money when we do sell the property which would help us climb the property ladder even more! BTW, you don't need an MBA to think like this. Every kid in England, where the housing market is booming, has the same idea! However, it is not an easy task especially when one has a child. And, what sort of a balancing act would it be between this and my MBA? The future's not ours, to see Que Sera, Sera...

Right, that's ten minutes gone, I better go and clarify my doubts on consolidation and consolidation reserve calculation.

Exams over...

Exam: Official exercise designed to evaluate knowledge and skills, and covering the contents of a course or a program of studies.

What a week...as I said in my previous blog, I had my mid-term exams and we had three of them. Marketing, accountancy and statistics and I am so glad they are so over - I expect an A in at least one of them, just not sure which one! :-| They were all open book exams and the questions were pretty straightforward but exams just make me feel like being back in school...I guess I am! Having exams is great in one way because we get a lot of time off, supposedly to study but I used most of it to spend quality time with my son. Actually, I didn't have much choice as France is on holiday this week and next and he has to attend the local nursery. My timings are perfect to drop him off and pick him up. This is great as B School can be quite a strain on quality 'life' time and can take a heavy toll (just read this). I picked him up this evening and took him to the local playground...he played a lot which may be explains why he is fast asleep on the sofa behind me as I write this. :-)

Preparation for the exams has not been the only thing that I have been doing during the last few weeks. I have also decided to make the best 'pedagogical' use of my iPod video and have subscribed to a whole bunch of Podcasts: Bisiness Week, Harvard Business Review Editors' Preview, BBC Radio 4's In Business, Lucy Kellaway - FT.com podcast, Times Online MBA Podcasts, New Scientist Podcast, and a few others. Alright, I have downloaded all these and synched with my iPod but do I have time to listen to them...perhaps a long trip abroad? Ah yes, I am off to Barcelona next weekend with a few of my mates from the MBA course...we are actually going for work but have a full day for fun in Barcelona (day temperature: ~20°C!).

Now, I did say we had more free time than before , or should I just say we had some free time, but this does not mean lecture-free. Yes, we did have lectures and I want to show you what our marketing professor showed to highlight the use of creative advertising in building brand recognition. The example used was Real California Cheese and I just ROTFL everytime I watch one of them ads. Don't believe me? Watch the Happy Cows and find out for yourself here. We also had a consultant come in to discuss Communication in Intercultural Teams. I have lived and traveled across many countries over continents and thought I knew all about this. But, I did pick up a few good tips on the day such as an Arab man counting his beads is not necessarily praying but could be also relaxing, showing your fingers open with the thumb folded means you do not have any more goods in Colombia, etc. Any activity in which I learn something is worthwhile for me! :-) Two messages to take away: Be open, be curious and be prepared for surprises, and avoid generalisation.