I love the 2nd year!

Well, the second year at IESE is definitely better than the first one. I actually have a lot of free time now and can plan my days the way I want. The academical schedule is not very tough, I somehow did not chose the most difficult subjects, so I have not been spending a lot of time solving difficult problems or writing reports.

I am spending a lot of time searching for a job or organising social activities, like the marketing club. The time flies very quickly, especially when you are having fun. And fun we have...

Here are some pictures of the past events:

Having a dinner with my "flatmates". If you wonder what I have on my head, it is a "Gracia look" (the neighbourhood we live in), which I received as a present.

Being attacted by "Punk" Marc during the Bar Crawl. I actually was dressed as a pirate, but just took off my eye-patch. This year we had a chance to harass 1st years by making them do stupid competitions and buy us drinks.

During the Helloween party all 3 of us dressed as characters from "Eyes Wide shut"...

Summer is over...

Well, after a half year silence I am back. There are so many things to tell, which some of you know too well, but anyway.

9 weeks as a consultant were very useful, but I am convinced I would like to do something else in my life. I guess, I need more tangible results and more people contact, so now I will be looking for a new career path. I did learn some tricks in Power Point and started to pay attention to small details, which I would never even know existed before.

My highlight of the summer was the trip to Peru. It is an amazing country and it is a pity I only had 10 days to spend there. I will upload the pictures on the net, so you can see them all, if interested, here are just a few. Few things we managed to do in a week: saw the old Inca town of Machu Pichu during sunrise, flew in a small airplane above the Nasca lines, did sand boarding in a desert and saw a sunset there…oh yes, drank a lot of coca tea to recover from the altitude (3500m does make you dizzy, believe me)

Now I am back to Barca, and I am loving it. I moved to a new place in the middle of Gracia, which is one of the coolest districts of Barcelona. It is all small streets, full of small shops, bars and restaurants. It is impossible to stay at home, eventhough my new place is absolutely great. Now I am sharing it with David, an American guy, one of my 5 flatmates from the last year. My other 2 flatmates (Cristina – Spain and Francis – UK) and Ryan, my Peru travel companion are living pretty close to us in a flat with the most amazing view of Barcelona. So now we have exactly the same situation as in “Friends”, when we hang out most time at their place, sitting on a terrace and drinking wines. The weather is still great, so every spare moment we still try to spend on the beach.

I am driving a moto now. Yes, I know, some of you have doubts in my driving capacities, but I have no choice and driving a moto is an absolute necessity here. Getting around by public transportation is not an option, especially with a limited time I have. So, I will keep you updated, but my 2 days of driving so far have been full of adrenaline.

I guess, there is no time to write about the classes this time. We only had 2 days, but I am taking one Spanish class about banking, which is absolutely great. In fact the professor called on me already and I had to say something in Spanish very scary.

My spring adventures

I haven't been updating the blog for a long time, so most of the news are getting old.

Marocco
It already seems like ages ago...The trip was absolutely great. We drove through the big part of the country. Saw the nature change from mountains with snow to the desert. Slept in an oasis, rode a camel, had some rides on a motobike, all together an amazing experience.
Check a short (or may be 4,5 min will seem long too you) promotional movie of our trip at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAuHZ4tBn8g




First rugby match
We had to play against a visiting team from INSEAD (for those who does know, this the Nr 1 MBA school in Europe, located in Paris and our nr 1 competitor). The girls looked terrifying and actually seemed prepared for the game, like this....
We never played as a team before, did not know the rules and our captain was not to be found as she was partying a little bit late the night before.
Nevertheless, we managed to play 2:2 (not a very rugby score, indeed), our captain was just slightly late, nobody was hurt (eventhough the referee compained a lot about our rough playing) we learnt the game rules on the way. Now we are practicing for the MBA olimpics in Paris and are determined to win. Also, we will have to be the most nicely taned team.

Mentally abused....

THE EXAMS ARE OVER!!!! The week was rather intense, with 6 exams in 3 days. It started relatively easy on Wednesday. After a pretty fair exam on operations, where we had to calculate on production capacity of a cheddar cheese factory, we had Human Resource Management in the afternoon. The exam only had 2 questions and we all were ready in less than one hour. The hero of the day was the Indian guy Abanis (has to be pronounced ABAAAAAAAANIS), who was ready in 15 min. (I believe the employees in his company will not have a lot of social benefits).
The next day was also OK, first we had Capital Markets. Eventhough we knew almost all the questions in advance, most of us got confused on how to use arbitrage opportunities. This is the new term we learnt and use a lot nowdays. SO, what is arbitrage? Borrowing something cheap in one market and selling it for more money in the other without any risks. In capital markets it will mean something like:
Borrow a call option, borrow money, buy a stock, sell a call option, buy a put option, sell a stock, borrow something else, .....shit - what did I borrow? How am I going to return this? Where are my profits?
Marketing was OK, we had to decide on marketing policy for a credit card for a bank in Mexico. The opinions are different: some want to give a credit card to every Mexican, interest and fee free. Some, like myself, prefer to find some rich guys and offer them something "special" for high price (you call it "niche marketing"). Still did not talk to the Mexicans in the class, what they think about it.
Today, started as a nice (for most of you kind of summer) day. We arrived to school pretty early, to do some last reading before the exam, but at the end all of is end up sitting in the sun and drinking coffees. The first exam, Microeconomics, was the most scary for me personally. Somehow, I am not very comfortable with this abstract subject. Terms like "perfect competion" and "natural monopoly" confuse me, I can not "think at a margin" and consider big investments as "sunk cost". The exam was not so bad (mostly because I expected the worse). The whole lunch went in discussions of "why would Swiss government subsidy cattle farmers?" (the best theory was because they help chocolate production), "How much would you charge for crossing the bridge?" and "How many of the red pens should we produce?"
The weather was great, we were sitting in the sun and we only had one more exam left. Managerial Accounting, our favourite professor Tony Davilla, 3 more hours, how bad can it be?
Well, .........pretty bad indeed!!! That was the hardest exam most of us could remember. 3 hours of intense calculations, and most of us did not even manage to finish it. In fact, there was only 1 person, who left before time and from the other 70 they had to take away the exam paper. Nervous laugh or swearing was the only two reactions. The only relief that the exam result will still be relative to the performance of the others, so each of us just hopes that there are at least 7 people in the class dummer than he/she is.
A couple of hours and beers later, here I am. Resting before the BIG NIGHT OUT.
This weekend is the Spring Fling. 150 students from other MBA schools (Paris, Italy and London) are coming to compete against us in sports. They all arrive today, so we have to give them a warm welcome. Tomorrow, we will have to beat them in all possible sports. Me personally - Women Touch Rugby.

Doing good and doing ....

So, what happened in the past weeks. First of all we had mid-term exams, which were pretty
tough indeed. I honestly spent quite some time on preparation and in general was feeling OK on most of the subjects, but at the end managed to make enough mistakes to eliminate myself out of the "A" zone. Do feel good about myself still as I understand most of Operations and Managerial Accounting, which are not the easiest subjects.
The course of Operational Finance is unfortunately finished. It was absolutely great as we actually learnt to understand finance of the company (how much cash is needed to run the business and where it is coming from). Professor (by the way, a prince of Lichtenshtein), was very good and entertaining.
Now we have 2 new subjects, which are an absolute nightmare. One is Capital markets - it is about stock markets, bonds and all the things I have no idea about. Very good for my general education, but quite challenging. The other one is micro-economics, eventhough I had it before I seem to be very confused now.

Last week we had a great event called "Multicultural fair". Every country was presented with a stand full of national food and drinks. Also, lots of countries prepared dancing acts or drinking competitions. The final results of this amazing cultural experience: 400 completely wasted people. The owners of the place could not make us leave on time and called the police. A number of people lost their driving licenses, the floor was slipery and everyone kept falling down, some people cut themselves on glass (5 hospital visits), one person was lost for 24 hours...well it was really fun!

Yesterday, after the hard week of studying we had 4 birthday celebrations. The party had a James Bond theme and Francis and Ryan decided to dress up as Austin Powers characters. We thought that it would be really fun if Ryan (dressed as Doctor Evel) will go and rent the "Austin Powers" movie, so I ended walking with him on quite busy street, renting a movie and buying beers in a supermarket. Now we have an amazing amount of stupid films and pictures we made together.

The final exams are approaching...In fact they are coming in 10 days! This weekend I am studying a lot and being very serious. Actually, now it is 23:00 on Saturday and I just finished writing a paper on Negotiations.

Back side of the brochure...

Well, I am becoming famous...
My picture was actually placed on a 7th page of the brochure made by Career Services. Don't I look as a smart MBA student????

P.S. Preparing for exams in the end of this week. Full of thoughts on bottlenecks, working capital and variable costs

No news in Barcelona

The past few weeks were pretty low on news. Studies during the week, some going out and studying again during weekends. The mid-term exams are approaching....We probably will go to study in the mountains this weekend, which would be nice.
Operational Management is pretty hard to understand with all technical terms as bottleneck, throughout and cycle time.
Managerial Accounting is pretty good and definetely useful due to the great professor we have, the same for Operational Finance.
Negotiations are rather fun as we have to negotiate with each other, which causes all kind of funny situations and, naturally, plenty of irritations. I hate to negiate and am pretty bad at it. During the first class I managed to sell a car for $400, when the minimum price was $300 and the average selling price in the class was $1000. Not to forget that my opponent was the most silent girl in class.
I decided to improve and last week I was on a team of some Arabian country buying airplanes from a US-supplier. It was pretty easy to play that role, in fact I was so good, that one of the guys announced in class that I was a very tough negotiator. Not exactly a reputation I would like to have....

First week of studies

Well, Friday they announced the grades for the final exams in December. In spite of all high expectations I did not get a single A for any subject. I did get 3 B+, which in a way was even more annoying as it was kind of: ...almost there, but ....well..., not good enough, sorry. It is quite arrogant to be upset about it, as many good people got some Cs, which in fact means they are the bottom 10% of the class. And I see it as a good learning experience, in fact now I am going to all the professors to hear their feedback, so I will for sure learn something from this.

Last week I had a visit fromTobias, Rebecca and Jules. It was very nice of them to come all the way from Paris to see me. For Jules it was a first flight, which he took very well. The entertainment programme included a lot of dining and wining. The weather was perfect so we even could have a lunch in the sun on the beach.
Sunday we went to see a Barcelona match in Camp Nou. Not a big football fan I really enjoyed the match and the atmosphere. We had the best seats, the comments of the enthusiastic fans behind us really helped to improve Tobias's spanish. The game finished with some fighting on the field, which is rather unique. In short, I think I will be going more often now.

The new term started. The classes seem more interesting now: lots of finance, which is great as
I do not know it so well.

Hard life in Barcelona

Apparently many of you have doubts about the amount of time I am actually spending studying. I guess, these pictures of the Christmas Ball and a short vacation in Gran Canaria are not improving the image I have so far. Please make sure you read the post below on exam preparation. The exam results will be announced this Friday...
The happy vacation time is almost finished. The classes will start tomorrow.
Most of the people returned to Barcelona this weekend. Yesterday lots of us met in a bar to discuss the X-mas experiences back home. The evening finished at 3 at night, when we all concluded that our life is absolutely great.
Now the whole house is trying to start studying for tomorrow, but noone succeed yet.

Exam preparation

Well, the 2nd term went by very quickly and we had to pass 5 exams in Decision Analysis, Accounting, Marketing, Organisational Behaviour and Spanish. In fact only 2 of them required real preparation, but it was a lot of work to do, especially since I missed out on some classes during the term.
To make sure we will be studying without distractions (MSN mainly), 3 of my teammates and myself went to a house in the mountains to study the whole weekend. It was a very efficient weekend as we indeed studyied all the time and besides always had someone to address any question we could have. Besides, in the evening during the dinner we had a spontaneous feedback session. Each of us got a feedback on his / her participation during the team meetings which was very useful.

A fun birthday party 

December update

Well, I have not updated my blog for a while...So here is the summary of the last 6 weeks.
Academics: Exam results were pretty good with 94 for Accounting and 78 for Decision Analysis. The new exams are approaching again...I am busy practicing T-accouns, decision trees, crystall ball and etc. For the majority of you who have no clue what I am talking about - Be glad! You are not missing anything.
My favourite subjects are Analysis of Business Decisions and Marketing. Organisational Behaviour is one long blsht story. Managerial Communication is rather fun. All of us have to prepare speeches in class. In fact tomorrow I will have to tell a special occasion story and quite nervous about it.

Personal:
4 weeks starting on the 4th of November have been hard....Once again I thank all of you who sent me warm words and gave their support.

Partying:
Eventhough much less than before, we still manage to go out once in a while (in this world it means at least 1 time per week coming home after 3 and then go out for a couple of hours another time a week)

New purchases:
Helmet! My X-mas present to myself. Now I can just jump on a motor behind many of my classmates and be at the point of destination in now time. Few of the guys have real motors and then almost all the rest have scooters.

X-mas plans
Arriving to Belgium on the 23rd of December. Staying at my Mums for a week. Few days in the Netherlands. Back to Spain on the 3rd and flight to Canarian Islands on the 4th: need my suntent for the next term:)

Long weekend

This weekend was awesom. We had 4 days off school. Had an ooportunity to breath before the exams. Cristina and I organised a trip to a lovely town 2 hours North of Barcelona. We went there with 16 people from IESE. It was good to be out of the city. We had a chance to know each other better and outside school. All people who went are great, we had lots of good moments.
The views were great, the weather perfect.
All of us were sad to return and go back to studies. This week will be short, starting on Wednesday.

Trip to Cadaquez 

1st day of school with my team 

My study group

I was assigned to a study group. We are 9 people and have to work as a team on different assignements. We meet every morning at 08:30 for 1 hour to discuss the cases for the coming day and work together in the afternoons. The group is very diverse: 3 Americans, 2 English, 2 Spanish and 1 Indian (all boys) and myself. The backgrounds are very different: bankers, a lawyer, architect, US Marine. Nevertheless we get along very well and are very happy with each other.
It is a great deal, since it really meakes a difference for a lot of things., and makes the stufy process more efficient. It is a great learning experience for me, as I did not work so much in a team before.

Last Friday we had a bar crawl organised by the 2nd years, where we had to fulfill some stupid tasks and compete with ther teams on that. We did not win anything, but it was really good for the team spirit.

My classmates and flatmates during the party 

My 30th Birthday

Saturday the 1st of October our house gave a great party. Since all 6 of us were inviting people, we end up with around 80 visitors. Fortunately the place is big enough, so it was even not too packed.
I received great presents from my flatmates including a cake with candles. There was a lot of cava (Spanish version of champagne), which is very cheap here and not bad at all.
Our neighbours are very cool, so we did not have problems with them at all. At 4 o'clock the real party people still went to the disco, so we came home around 6-7.
Sunday was absolutely great to receive the phone calls, texts and e-mals from all of you guys, thank you very much! It is a pity you could not be here though.

IESE nr. 1 MBA

First of all the great news we got last week. IESE (the name of my school) was rated nr.1 MBA by Economist Intelligence Unit. More info see at:
http://mba.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=2002rankings

Bar of the week party on 22/09/2005 

With Francis (the English flatmate and the best party-friend) 

Short update of the past weeks

The past 2 weeks were pretty similar to the ones described before: plenty of parties and meeting new people. After all the Spanish-speaking people arrived, there were another 100 people to meet and memorize the names. They are even harder to remember, as most of them are quite similar looking guys (quite good-looking though), with names which all start with R (Roberto, Rodrigo, Rodolfo, Ricardo....) or Juan - something.

The official classes did not start yet, which gives more time for entertainment.

The life in the flat goes very well, there have not been any conflicts so far and we have lots of laughs every day. The English guy Francis and myself are official most party people of the flat. The recent records are: partying till at least 5:00 4 times in the past week and arrival at 7PM last Thursday (just before the other flatmates started taking shower to go to school).

Benjamin & Alexandr from France 

Cristina from Spain 

One of the buildings of the school 

The new address

After a long search I found myself a new place. It is a huge appartment of 250sq.m
I am sharing it with 5 other IESE students:
2 French guys, a Spanish girl, an American and a Brit. They all seem very nice and we get along well. There will be a cleaning lady coming 3 times a week, so it will take away the most issue for discussions, I suppose.

The address is:
C.Francesc Carbonell 50-1-2
Barcelona 08034
Tel. +34 932 804980

As of Monday we will start the intensive spanish course. We had an exam on Friday and I was placed in group nr7 out of 10. Not bad, I suppose.
It is good to start doing something, eventhough going out till 5 and waking up at 12 is not such a bad lifestyle.

I met a lot of students already, but it is a challenge to remember their names and nationalities. We even have a guy from Nepal! Everybody is very excited about coming here, friendly and supportive. The average age is just below 30, so I am one of the oldest ones, which is very strange for me.

I am thinking of buying a scooter, but not yet sure if it is a good idea.

Private Brazilian party

Week 1 report

Goal: getting used to the Spanish schedule and the student life
Activities: hanging around, getting up late, having late dinners, siestas, going out
New experiences: going to the beach with 5 Brazilians
Major learnings: relax and forget about the time

Address in Barcelona

C. Canet 37-43, Ent.2
08017 Barcelona
Tel. +34 93 203 3263 (appartment)

Farewell party on 16 July 2005 

A place to live

Great news! I have my own place. A room in a flat with some other IESE students (A Canadian girl and somebody else). The flat is 20 min walk from the school, which is good for the first half year.
Close to a metro station. Takes 15 min to go to the center.

I will have to find another place by January, probably a bigger room and closer to the center

Another view of my small room 

My small room 

Living room 

Kitchen