Second Year Blues

You're right. I haven't posted in a loooooooong time, and there's a very good reason for that. If the 1st year was full of academics, the 2nd year is only slightly (really, very slightly) easier in terms of workload - purely because you get to choose what classes you want, and there's a couple of hours free each day due to flexible schedules.

But what makes this year crazy is all the time that goes into organizing activities for clubs (I co-run the Asian Business Club), job search, projects etc. Specially the projects. Most courses that I've selected this term dont have exams, instead they have projects. With different teams. Imagine trying to match the schedules of, on an average, 6*5 = 30 people in order to complete your projects on time. Of course, all of them have to be due the same week.

Anyways, did I mention we had the chance to talk to Conchita Martinez? One of my courses this term is Marketing of Experiences, Innovative Concepts and Media (MECMI) .. and there was this case on how Maria Sharapova's image was marketed to companies in order to differentiate her from compatriot (and equally hot!) Anna Kournikova. In order to get a first-person view of the situation, the professor invited Conchita Martinez and her agent, where we grilled her on everything, from how it was to beat Navratilova at the Wimbledon, to her present day assignments. Awesome.

Finally, I'm kinda annoyed that there's now COW (Comment of the Week) in the 2nd year.. so many good comments going to waste! Tsk tsk.

The Daily Grind

You know, I just realised the advantage of courses in the 2nd year ... no mid-term exams!! They used to be right painful throughout the 1st year. Barely 2-3 weeks of classes and bam! there's the mid-term.

Come to think of it, there're hardly any final exams too. Most of the classes I've chosen have projects to be done, but no "exam" as such. Weird as it may sound, I prefer to have exams over projects. It's a day of torture but then you're done. With projects, no matter how much you work, there's always a little bit more that you can perfect.

Anyways, the first years should be off on their annual London Banking Tour. I distinctly remember last year's when about a 100 of us paraded in London in our suits, all carrying bright red umbrellas that one of the banks gave out. Now that's a sight you dont see every day!

Back to school

So it's been 2 days since school started and things are back to normal already. Since we get to choose the electives that we want, I went in for -
INTEC (International Applied Economics)
MECMI (Marketing of Experiences, Innovative Concepts and Media)
COCOM (Corporate Communications)
PERSO (Personalidad y liderazgo - my spanish credit for the bilingual degree)
BRAND (Brands and Advertising) and
CORPO (Corporate Strategy)

This week has been pretty laid back as I only had 2 classes a day, between 14h00 and 17h00. But starting Monday, it's going to be the usual routine of 09h45 to 17h00, with a 3 hour break in between. May be I can put that time to good use? Let's see.

Quick one before I leave for dinner - In today's CORPO case on the Walt Disney Company, the professor was mentioning how Disney World was a holiday experience and not just a one-day trip any more, when she inadvertently said "So people like T***** (female student) like to go to Disney World to spend a few days there, wake up next to Mickey Mouse.."

Oh, the laughter in the class...