No longer a Thanksgiving virgin!

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend my first, and IESE's 18th annual Thanksgiving dinner. I had my reservations when I learnt that the tickets were a bit on the higher side than I expected, but eventually bowed down to peer pressure and bought one, so naturally my expectations were high.

We started at around 1830h, with a word of welcome from our Dean Jordi Canals, followed by a quick Thanksgiving prayer - and knowing that people from different countries and cultures were present, the priest was careful enough not to inadvertently hurt any feelings, so kept the prayer fairly generic. Not wanting to keep the guests (us) waiting too long, our MCs (one of which was fellow blogger Noelle!) got us started on some extremely delicious fare - soups, turkey, the works.

Not so fast. Just as we were about to start the main course, our MCs called for all the first year students, and asked for 3 volunteers to take part in the turkey carving competition. Not having carved a turkey ever, I busied myself by pointing at other people, only to hear "Ashwin.. get over here!" by none other than Noelle. So not only did I end up having my first Thanksgiving dinner, I also carved my very first turkey!!


The rest of the night passed in a blur, partly due to the wine and partly due to this heady feeling of being a part of a tradition, a community. I was stunned by the quality of the talent show, which was far from the amateurish acts I've been used to seeing at work - the skit, the poems, the music bands galore. The icing on the cake was without doubt the IESE Auction, where students, professors and staff offered their services, bearing in mind that all the proceeds of the auction would go to charity. Being my first IESE auction, I was ready with my 50 euro bill ready to donate money for a cause. But with items such as A hiking trip in the Pyrenees with our Decision Analysis professor going for close to 1000 euros, and a dinner organised by some of the loveliest first year girls fetching 4000 euros, I realised how completely out of league I was - we ended up collecting over 18000 euros in one night, and mind you, this was a bunch of MBA students heavily in debt! Hopefully by next year, I should have a job in hand in order to up my bid...

So I guess there's an ounce of truth in what they say - you never forget your first time!

Filed in: IESE MBA Term1

View from Tibidabo



(I love Barcelona!)

Filed in: Non-MBA

Term 1 - Part Deux

Results are out, and the verdict is... I survived! Not completely, might I add. I fared well in one subjects and abysmally in the other, so overall I know how to strike a good balance. *Mental note - should use this during interviews* On the bright side, this was only the mid-terms and I have half a term to recuperate and improve my score, so I'm optimistic about it.

On the non-school front, fellow- blogger- who- shall- remain- nameless and I went all the way up to Mount Tibidabo on our bikes, and boy, what a ride it was. It took us all of 3 hours to climb up - actually we went further than just Tibidabo, we went off the Barcelona map, and some kind soul directed us back to our tracks, even though we insisted that we weren't lost, just exploring. Anyways, what made the trip worth the effort was the calories that I (must have) burnt, the *spectacular* views from up there, and the fun ride down. We must have been doing atleast 50 mph on our bikes, and with no cars on the road, it was more like a roller-coaster ride than a bike ride!

Pics to follow. Back to cover letters now.

Filed in: IESE MBA Term1

End of Mid-Terms

As of friday, half the first term officially ended. That is to say, we had our mid-terms. Thankfully, of the 6 subjects that we're studying in this term, "only" 2 are exam based, the other 4 are going to be graded on a combination of pop-quizzes, class participation and end-of-term reports.

So after taking the Corporate Financial Accounting and Decision Analysis exams on subsequent days, the entire IESE community seemed to have relaxed a bit. You could see people on campus sipping beers, sunning themselves - incidentally, that's another thing I love about Barcelona : it's november and I can still roam around the streets wearing a tee and shorts during the day... it gets chilly at night though.

Come friday night and students from all 3 sections attended a dinner party organised by the student-reps of the 3 sections. Needless to say, almost everyone who had stayed back in Barcelona was present, which meant a LOT of stories were swapped, among other things. Stories of people falling asleep during exams, people getting stalked, people singing aloud in the streets, more people falling asleep in class, the COW (Comment of the Week)... anything that could invoke laughter was there. The entire lot then went to the BOW (Bar of the week) to a posh nightclub, where followed more drinking and dancing.

Which brings me to today, i.e. a tiny hangover and cover letters. Completely unrelated subjects, of course. With summer internship deadlines looming around the corner, I better finish sending my cover letters across to employers before it's late!

Filed in: IESE MBA Term1