Study Hall Monitors

Rebecca is in America this week to take US national qualification test to practice Chinese medicine. I'm watching the livestock and tending to a life of pure studies. Between class projects and final exam preparations, this week has been nothing short of mad. As my Australian friends would say, we have heaps to do right now. I decided to study at home last night to get away from the library stress. Roxy and Yum Yum kept a careful eye on my studies allowing only rare breaks to play the string game with them. I guess they were worn out and missing their Mom.


Max would be happy to see his cat bed finally getting some use. 

Study break at Montmelian

This past week was pure work except for the study break on Saturday night. About 15 INSEAD students live in a nearby chateau known for hosting elaborate parties. (http://www.montmelian.org) Saturday was the last party before finals (in 8 days) and expense was not spared on preparing for a big bash. I think their budget was something like 10,000 euros. The party theme was 'Heaven and Hell' with each person to interpret what that meant. I decided to orgainze some fellow INSEADers into the seven deadly sins. I represented sloth by wearing a torn t-shirt fixed with duct tape, sign requesting money, trucker sunglasses and a trucker moustache. Truth be told I probably also look a bit like Nicolas Cage from Raising Arizona. The green people are the husband and wife version of envy. I'll let you figure the rest out. Since you might not recall the seven sins, they are greed, lust, pride, envy, gluttony, sloth and anger. Back to my studies...


Seven Sins at Montmelian Chateau 

The Sunday Ritual

Is the dust settling? Between quitting my job, getting hitched to sweet Rebecca, moving to France, and starting school again, I've had a few changes in the past 3 months. It is fair to say that we have started to find a routine here in France. The weeks seem to fly by and I'm surprised to be writing that my first set of final exams are a mere two weeks away. They begin on Monday 24 October and end on Wednesday at noon. Grading is a pure curve at INSEAD and everyone is incredibly intelligent and hard working so...this will likely be my toughest set of finals ever. I try not to think about the fact that I gave up a very nice paycheck for this. :) It is an honor and privilege to study with great people from more than 60 nations. I'm not complaining and I'm glad it is not easy.

Oh, the Sunday ritual. Rebecca and I have developed a bit of a Sunday ritual that I really enjoy. Of course we feed the cats and have breakfast, just a bit later than normal. How unusual, eh? We head to the local farmers market in Fonty (Fontainebleau) to buy paella for lunch, fresh fruit, cheese and bread. Rebecca heads to the library and I head to the soccer pitch (football here) to play with a large group of fellow MBA students. We play from about 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. I hit the showers at the INSEAD gym and then Rebecca and I have lunch outside at INSEAD. The outdoor eating area is quite nice and for now, the weather is very pleasant. Surprise, I march over to the library and dive into the books, business cases, multi-variable regression analysis, you know...that old bag. Two weeks ago, we visited "Le Bacchus", a very nice restaurant near the chateau. For those that love meat (Rob Bacchus), this will be a must stop during your visit. Tonight, we are headed to the home of Ashish and Snehal, our friends from India. (Actually, they were living in San Francisco before coming here.) They've invited us to dinner and we are really looking forward to it. I think we need to celebrate the Longhorn victory over OU. Ashish and Snehal did graduate engineering school at the University of Texas.

OK, time to return to my studies. I wanted to post a few more pictures from Belgium. Here they are.


Dinner in style. Our dinner on Saturday night in Belgium...last weekend 

On Sunday in Belgium, I ran an ad-hoc fishing class with some of my fellow INSEADers. The rod and reel setup was new to most of them, especially Ranjit. He had never fished before in his life. I'm very proud to say that Ranjit caught his first two fish with me in Belgium. Using lightweight spinner baits, he landed a perch and a pike. Well done Ranjit. He informed me that if he opens a fishing vacation lodge in India, I'll get a cut of the profits.


Teaching the lads to fish...well, to cast first. 


Way to go Ranjit! A Northern Pike! 

Inside INSEAD - life at school

To date, I've been posting details about our free time, which is very limited right now. You might be wondering if I'm actually attending classes and learning things at INSEAD. The truth is I spend most waking hours in class or preparing for class. One of my big surprises about INSEAD is that every class expects you to pre-read and do the homework before learning the new material in lecture. I favor this approach because it does enrich the lectures. The amount of reading and homework required prior to each lecture make it challenging to have all the work done prior to each and every lecture. So, I spend most of my time in the library and I thought it would be fair to show you what that looks like. Rebecca is often in the library more than me since she is preparing for a US national exam in Chinese medicine...


The Doigt library, my second home. 

My lectures are always in the same room, Amphi P. I sit in the same assigned seat and with the exact same students for every class. Five classes in total and 74 students in my section. This week, I gave a presentation to our Leading People and Groups class on the subject of "Feedback in the Workplace". One of my group mates kindly took a photo of me. We addressed the issue of cultural and gender implications on feedback.

Anyhow, you can see my name tag which indicates my seat in the class and there I am giving our 10 minute presentation on feedback.


My presentation for one of our classes. 

Belgium, near Habay

For those that read our blog regularly, I apologize for the delay in posting proper details about our past weekend in Belgium.

Rebecca and I had the luxury of a weekend stay at a chateau near Habay in Belgium. The chateau belongs to the family of one of my group mates. She was kind enough to share it with 20 INSEAD students for Saturday night and all day Sunday. The chateau is located in the Belgium countryside well away from major cities. It is near lots of forest, has an excellent lake and multiple rivers on the property. In late morning, I hosted fishing classes for my fellow students that were either rusty or inexperienced in fishing. After casting lessons in the lawn, we heading out to the lake to try our luck.

Though the water is cold, I discovered that the fish are active. I spent all day on Sunday rowing around the lake and fishing. It took a couple of hours until I found what might be termed the "nursery". Before heading in for lunch, I caught 6 perch. We went in for a nice lunch and I recruited one of the Indian students to join me for his first fishing trip ever. Ranjit picked up skills rapidly. We had just set anchor and he started catching fish before I could get any bites. Within 20 minutes, Ranjit had landed his first two fish ever - one perch and our first Northern Pike for the day. Finally, I landed a nice one. A 5 pound Northern Pike took the spinner bait and ended up in our boat for a quick picture. Northern Pike have quite a few large, sharp teeth so I had to be careful removing the hooks and letting her go. I say "her" because I was told that the big Pikes are female.


Uh, wow. 


Inside the chateau is feels like museum. Their family did an excellent job of restoring the chateau. It has a grand entrance with a massive stairway leading to the upper floors and bedrooms. The ground floor has a billiard room, parlor, and fire place lounge.


Fishing trip in Belgium?