Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Seen on Email
I got a mass email today that sounded a little crazy. In the true spirit of keeping you updated on the INSIDE story here is the email received unedited:
"Well, I am not quite sure who I am or what I am doing here but one thing is for certain: I love you all, yeah, all of you. I love you so much. Please vote on the above voting buttons on how much I love you.
One more thing is for certain: I clearly forgot to log off……"
I got a mass email today that sounded a little crazy. In the true spirit of keeping you updated on the INSIDE story here is the email received unedited:
"Well, I am not quite sure who I am or what I am doing here but one thing is for certain: I love you all, yeah, all of you. I love you so much. Please vote on the above voting buttons on how much I love you.
One more thing is for certain: I clearly forgot to log off……"
The INSEAD French Test
Among all the crap I write, this one ought to be a "gift" (or so I hope) especially to INSEAD admits hoping to take French test before starting the program. I just came back from the French test. I am not going to do what the "certain language websites" do with the GMAT but then am going to give my experience with the test.
1. Practice the SAMPLE TEST, there definitely is some repeat. (3-4 points might eventually make a big difference).
2. Learn simple, regular verbs well before you actually move on to other things.
3. Conjugate, conjugate, conjugate (you are half way to level 3) atleast as per INSEAD.
4. Learn little phrases you might say in situations, slangs and others.
5. Translate and keep your INSEAD essays (atleast experience, goals and why INSEAD?) in simple French and you could actually get a lot of points with that ;-).
6. Time yourself well...you need 90 minutes to finish at a reasonable pace and thats all you have. I know a few people who never got to writing the essay or even getting to 50-60% over-analysing the multiple-choice questions.
Life is fabulous. I did the test, I think I did reasonably well. But getting a certification right on day 1 might need a miracle. I think I might need classes in the middle of the year for a month perhaps. But better than expected.
I got my first breather today. I have about a couple of hours break today. Or is it more like 4 hours (before I head to a fellow students party). Well the MBA dean officially kicked off the program (there are about 10 here I think and all of them are called deans). Guy with a good sense of humor.
Met with my buddy today (an "official" friend to help from the previous class). He is fabulous. He actually said he got inspired by willy nilly's blog and found the school to be a good fit. (I knew then that blogging was not a waste of time)...hi hi hi.
Personal note to people taking the entry test in january...leave a comment with a question and I will try to answer it before my memory fades. I also hope to come back and look at my own notes here to remember what I need to do before the next test (if I fail).
Among all the crap I write, this one ought to be a "gift" (or so I hope) especially to INSEAD admits hoping to take French test before starting the program. I just came back from the French test. I am not going to do what the "certain language websites" do with the GMAT but then am going to give my experience with the test.
1. Practice the SAMPLE TEST, there definitely is some repeat. (3-4 points might eventually make a big difference).
2. Learn simple, regular verbs well before you actually move on to other things.
3. Conjugate, conjugate, conjugate (you are half way to level 3) atleast as per INSEAD.
4. Learn little phrases you might say in situations, slangs and others.
5. Translate and keep your INSEAD essays (atleast experience, goals and why INSEAD?) in simple French and you could actually get a lot of points with that ;-).
6. Time yourself well...you need 90 minutes to finish at a reasonable pace and thats all you have. I know a few people who never got to writing the essay or even getting to 50-60% over-analysing the multiple-choice questions.
Life is fabulous. I did the test, I think I did reasonably well. But getting a certification right on day 1 might need a miracle. I think I might need classes in the middle of the year for a month perhaps. But better than expected.
I got my first breather today. I have about a couple of hours break today. Or is it more like 4 hours (before I head to a fellow students party). Well the MBA dean officially kicked off the program (there are about 10 here I think and all of them are called deans). Guy with a good sense of humor.
Met with my buddy today (an "official" friend to help from the previous class). He is fabulous. He actually said he got inspired by willy nilly's blog and found the school to be a good fit. (I knew then that blogging was not a waste of time)...hi hi hi.
Personal note to people taking the entry test in january...leave a comment with a question and I will try to answer it before my memory fades. I also hope to come back and look at my own notes here to remember what I need to do before the next test (if I fail).
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Offline Blog comes live
I have arrived at INSEAD and am finally connected. Am currently in the middle of meeting a lot of people and being introverted is not helping too much. It has been great so far. All my room-mates have made a positive impression so far. My house is in a adorable location. I am paranoid about hitting a deer or a boar (yes you heard that absolutely right) on my drive home.
Lot of interesting introductions. Very well organized orientation program (a lot of it could have been done online though instead of doing the paperbased French way). Well I shouldn't be saying it because I prefer scribbling on paper. Already have a bank account (finalement is more like it). Am undecided on the mobile plan. Yet to meet my group (but it is all assigned). So more soon. Meanwhile enjoy my offline blogs from the last 5 weeks.
Scene 1: 5:15 Pm, Home
“Where did you go, you have half hour to get to the airport now?” my father protested. He was right if I had to be at the airport 3 hours prior to the flight (as my agent wanted me to). I did tell him the truth – “I was shopping”. He was obviously not too happy about it but then he couldn’t show it to a son who was leaving for a year. He just smiled and said “ok, lets get going”. After a few hugs and kisses, (so we could save some public display later ;-)), we left for the airport. Got there a good half hour before the check-in process started.
Scene 2: Check-in Queue.
“Eeeks They are manually writing down seat numbers in a bunch of boarding cards” I said to a fellow passenger waiting in the queue. Apparently due to bad weather, all airport systems were down and they were going to do everything manually. It was scary and everyone who could afford did not want to check-in any bags. I was standing there with about 46 Kgs (thanks to the last minute shopping) to check-in and stealthily take in some unknown quantity. My conversation with my fellow passenger grew and he was also connecting later to Paris. But lady luck started smiling on me when this very kind person told me he was not checking in any bags and seeing my bags sympathetically said “we can check-in together if you want so you will not be billed excess baggage”. I obviously grabbed the offer. As we checked in the check-in clerk actually said I couldn’t carry the “heavy looking” cabin-suitcase (which ended up being 14.5 kgs when measured) and I had to check that in as well. So a total of 60.5 Kgs went to Paris FREE !!!! How lucky can I get. I thanked the fellow who helped me so many times, he chose to change his seat in the second leg of the travel. Lol. Actually, he changed his seat because he wanted to be in a window seat for the 12 hour flight or so he claimed. He was traveling to France for 15 days to attend a wedding and have a brief vacation. Lucky me. I was not all that Jetlagged at the end of the flight thanks to the sleep on the flight. My German neighbor was silent for the most part. I was reading about 150 pages of Thomas Friedman’s “The world is Flat” for about 2-3 hours. Book is a 3 Star so far. I browsed through the rest of the book, if at all I change the rating it would only go down.
Scene 3: Europcar.
Arrived in Paris in beautiful weather (some websites said it would be raining - have they ever got it right?). The sun was out, most convertibles had their tops down. 25 Degree C is all I would give. I saw the Kangoo and I got even more worried. Lol. I had only 2 large suitcases and one small one + the laptop and the small backpack. I said I could do with a smaller car and Europcar gave me a Clio. I also rented a mobile for merely Euro 8 / day (I think they make up the margins in the call rates) in the same place and started driving south of CDG.
Scene 4: Driving in France.
It was a beautiful day and my windshield wiper switched on by itself. It took me 15 minutes and some 2000 knob turnings before I could figure out how to switch it off. By now, the front windshield already had marks on it. Sigh, I miss my Toyota already. It was about 12:30 Pm on a Friday and the Peripherique (excuse spelling) was full of cars. I was moving at an average of about 15 Kms / hour for about an hour. All Stereotypes about French working hours are true. They seem to all be out of work early (yes, noon) on Fridays with their boats, motorcycles, bicycles, and a few weird equipments I didn’t really recognize. It was fun browsing the FM channels (there were atleast 20 of them). Once I got off the peripherique, I moved like breeze. The roads are all green and the transformation from a “City highway” to a “Grassland” to a “Forest” is all way too sudden to take in. That was another 50 Kms of driving before I got to Fontainebleau. Its green all around, the drivers are disciplined and the roads are clear. Sorry, before I passed Fontainebleau. There was a sign called “Fontainebleau” and I said “Right, I am home” and then in another 85 seconds there was a sign that said “Avon” which meant I had crossed Fontainebleau. No INSEAD, no Chateau and I had crossed the town. Before I could pull over I was at the edge of Avon getting into some other village. The towns here are super-duper tiny. Its cute.
Scene 5: Going around Fonty.
“You are refused, too powerful a car for a first time driver” she said in fluent French and for some odd reason, I knew exactly what she was saying. I said “Well, three countries have given me drivers licenses and I have been driving for about 10 years now”. That did not help. She however gave me a competitors name, number, and a map of the location to contact. That was kind. Am I so unsafe that they want to doom a competitor? I wasn’t sure. I got to AXA and they were more than happy to insure me nevertheless at a huge premium. An interesting conversation.
Agent: Euro 493 s’il vous plait?
Me: 493?
Agent: Oui.
Me: But the earlier owner paid much lesser.
Agent: Women pay lesser for insurance.
Can you believe that ??????????????? Should it not be the other way round?
A French speaking person from my undergrad college, works at INSEAD in the IT department. I knew him through a common friend of a common friend of a common friend. He also was taking care of my car until I arrived. He helped me out with seeing this tiny town and get around. We had some beer and dinner together and I crashed a good 10 hours.
Expenses so far:
Rental Car: Euro 78.
Acco in Fonty (B&B) Euro 120.
Dinner Euro 33
Insurance Euro 493
Rental mobile Euro 40 (approx considering all the calls I have been making)
Scene 6: Drive to Tours
First, I need to complain about the Toll. I had to pay about Euro 20 for a 250 Km drive. But in a way it was worth it because I could test my old Bimmer’s limits. I hit 180 Kms / Hour and phew, my gas pedal had not hit the bottom. But then I didn’t have the courage to do any further testing, thanks to the Euro 1500 penalty for breaking speed rules by > 50 Kms. (the fine for > 10 to <50 is about Euro 135)
Scene 7: Dinner with Host Family
Wow, Seven people in the dinner table, five speak fluent French and nothing else and one more speaks Fluent French but then after thinking a couple of minutes. There is one soul who seems to have no clue what is going on. Yours truly is overwhelmed by the 2 hour welcome dinner that lasted about 2 hours that felt like eternity. Things noticed: Very empathetic and nice host lady. Generally nice family
Day 25. Wow, Blogging at all time low.
Looking back at the 25 days I have spent here, they were easily the most eventful 25 days in 2005 (so far). Yet I have blogged the least. Now to make it up I have to write. This is offline again. So once in INSEAD after getting this computer on the network you are going to read all of this (Something tells me it is less than a week away and all I need to do is manage some time). I am broadly dividing my blog into two categories per week. The week and the weekend.
Week 1: Aug 1 to Aug 5
Life is great. I love the host family and have started making my first conversation in Francais. I am actually connected to the internet but then changing languages in these French computers seem to be an irritating affair. By no means am I learning why the French put the Q key where the A Key belongs. Lets assume the English (more likely the Americans) put the keys in the wrong place. The French had no right to correct it.
The week was rather eventful. I feel “proudest” about my own capabilities of grasping a language at 28. I have started speaking a few lines “Pazzez d’eau s’il vous plait” kind of stuff. It is fun. The family again is extremely helpful. The lady consistently goes out of the way to feed me the kind of food I can eat (restrictive diet).
Class mates (there are 6 more with me). There are 2 people in my class who have already been here for about a month and they are way better than I am. But to my aid there are a couple of students who are at my level and the teacher seems determined to make us speak the language. The week passes seamlessly. I went on a little “walk around” tour.
Weekend : Begins Friday 12:45 Pm
Being the hopeless romantic, I decide to drive about 16 hours this weekend to meet Ms. Love. Everything is well planned. I leave school at 12:45 and am on the highway at 12:50. Talk about efficiency. The drive is about 850 Kms and I take the village roads (Exagerration of course: these are national highways but pass through the villages) to save the toll. That lasted like 100 Kms and then I took the tollway as much as possible. The drive was beautiful. The weather was fabulous and I saw more of French Country side than I ever did in my life. As if to “get me off the scenary”, I got stuck in terrible traffic (at about 15 Km/h) for about 2 hours in Bordeaux. After a little search at the city of my destination, I managed to reach at 12:00 Midnight. Ms. Fiancee and her friends had plans to party until 4 in the morning (Surprise !!!). But I had a lot of fun with these people who made me feel ooold.
Saturday, there were plans from 8 in the morning. But no complaints because I got quality 1 on 1 time. We spent time catching up on “all the long distance things you never do on messenger and phone”. We didn’t see any places in particular. It was more hanging out together and doing the same things you would do everyday if you were in the same town. Sunday wasn’t very different but I had to leave at like 12:00 noon so I could reach back by 8 pm. After all the mushiness, I managed to leave at 2:00 Pm. Drive back was much easier.
Week 2: Aug 8 to Aug 12
Second week of French begins. The learning curve has reached its maturity, I have already started “forgetting” the devoir (homework). That should be normality restored. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the week partly because there is a long weekend coming and this time the lady is coming down to France. Life is paradise. Life goes on. I make a couple of good friends in class. The English lady and I get bonded totally thanks to our hopeless French. I do some accounting and find out I do not have enough money to pay my rent for next month. I don’t think my bank will be efficient enough to open my bank account in a mere 3 weeks (that’s expecting too much from the system). The week flows by without trouble. Rather uneventful and awaiting the weekend.
Weekend 2: Aug 13 to Aug 15 and later extended upto 12:00 Midnight on Aug 18.
I sleep all Aug 12 afternoon and night to conserve energy to wake up at 4 am on a Saturday (yes you absolutely heard that right). The train pulled into the station exactly on time (thankfully) at 4:58 Am and the lady appeared very sleepy but happy. After searching for Gas for about an hour (for all those planning to come to this beau country, it’s a bad idea to search for a gas station at 5 in the morning without a French Credit or Debit card, meaning for 3 months after you arrive), we drove down to Ile de Re (a nice Island on the Atlantic about 3 hours from Tours). We stopped at Marais Poitivan (I still haven’t understood how to say it to the French right) for a beautiful hour and half. Trekked a little. Its like a forest area with a lot of little rivers coming together. Then drove on to Ile De re. Spent a quality couple of hours on a very nice beach. Both of us were freezing. But the rest of France was in Bikinis (a couple of them topless too eeeeek) and shorts enjoying their freezing long weekend.
On our way back we stopped at Poitiers to see a chapel that someone had recommended. By the time we got to the hotel, we had already apologized 20 times for being late to the receptionist who was supposed to close at 10.
Sunday, we pretty much spent hanging around in the wonderful neighborhoods of Tours. Tours has an amazing Gothic Church and a ton of historic places besides being a beautiful little town. The best way to describe it is that after 5 days of life here, when I left for a town last weekend, I had actually started missing Tours. In the afternoon we visited two Chateaus (my guess is there are about a million of them around here) Langeis and Villandary. Reviews / comments if I see requests. Nice places. Tiring day. We meet up with the couple who will be in Fontainebleau later this year. I already know these people a little and like them. Knowing my girl, I knew this meeting would click and it does. Everyone has fun. The world is wonderful.
Monday – Take it easy day, One Chateau, a very popular one. Loved the IPOD tour. Chennonceau is the name. The lady had extended her stay in Tours by a couple of days and guess who is the happiest man in the world. We are invited for dinner at my host family. She has her first “French Family” dinner. Very nice experience. We are reinvited for dinner Tuesday J.
Tuesday – I have French classes in the afternoon. I seek permission to have an extra attendant in the class. The professor is nice. At break the Fiancee is intolerant of all the French and excuses herself. I get home in a couple of hours. Life is paradise.
Wednesday – I am supposed to have all day classes, but I excuse myself as the girl has a train to catch at 3. When I return, I hear “I have lost my ticket from Irun and guess what? The train is fully booked”. I am partying inside but then I can’t say it to the poor girl. I drive her back to the station and we put her on a 12:00 midnight train with seats available on all connections. We suddenly have another 9 hours extra together. I could actually go back to class. French or Fiancee, what would you pick? Right.
The afternoon and evening is spent in Tranquility. The holiday is coming to an end. And we don’t have a next meeting date. She is however going to spend a week in Fontainebleau (when you most certainly can expect me to push blogging to Priority 2, but atleast it will be ahead of the MBA which will be priority 3) (now I have the date) in the 3rd week of September.
Week 3: 18 Aug & 19 Aug
Gloominess sets in. I realize so many things. I have 3 Pre-reading books to finish. I am broke and I need to figure out what I am going to do with the French (it has already been 3 weeks). Back to French speaking, French dinner, French everything. (its bad only by comparison).
Week end 3: 20 Aug & 21 Aug
Life is fabulous. I really make up for all the partying by reading a ton (3 chapters of microeconomics and 3 lessons of accounting workbook).
Week 4:
Panic strikes again, I need to get back on track with French to make it in the test next week. Need a lot of luck for it.
I have arrived at INSEAD and am finally connected. Am currently in the middle of meeting a lot of people and being introverted is not helping too much. It has been great so far. All my room-mates have made a positive impression so far. My house is in a adorable location. I am paranoid about hitting a deer or a boar (yes you heard that absolutely right) on my drive home.
Lot of interesting introductions. Very well organized orientation program (a lot of it could have been done online though instead of doing the paperbased French way). Well I shouldn't be saying it because I prefer scribbling on paper. Already have a bank account (finalement is more like it). Am undecided on the mobile plan. Yet to meet my group (but it is all assigned). So more soon. Meanwhile enjoy my offline blogs from the last 5 weeks.
Scene 1: 5:15 Pm, Home
“Where did you go, you have half hour to get to the airport now?” my father protested. He was right if I had to be at the airport 3 hours prior to the flight (as my agent wanted me to). I did tell him the truth – “I was shopping”. He was obviously not too happy about it but then he couldn’t show it to a son who was leaving for a year. He just smiled and said “ok, lets get going”. After a few hugs and kisses, (so we could save some public display later ;-)), we left for the airport. Got there a good half hour before the check-in process started.
Scene 2: Check-in Queue.
“Eeeks They are manually writing down seat numbers in a bunch of boarding cards” I said to a fellow passenger waiting in the queue. Apparently due to bad weather, all airport systems were down and they were going to do everything manually. It was scary and everyone who could afford did not want to check-in any bags. I was standing there with about 46 Kgs (thanks to the last minute shopping) to check-in and stealthily take in some unknown quantity. My conversation with my fellow passenger grew and he was also connecting later to Paris. But lady luck started smiling on me when this very kind person told me he was not checking in any bags and seeing my bags sympathetically said “we can check-in together if you want so you will not be billed excess baggage”. I obviously grabbed the offer. As we checked in the check-in clerk actually said I couldn’t carry the “heavy looking” cabin-suitcase (which ended up being 14.5 kgs when measured) and I had to check that in as well. So a total of 60.5 Kgs went to Paris FREE !!!! How lucky can I get. I thanked the fellow who helped me so many times, he chose to change his seat in the second leg of the travel. Lol. Actually, he changed his seat because he wanted to be in a window seat for the 12 hour flight or so he claimed. He was traveling to France for 15 days to attend a wedding and have a brief vacation. Lucky me. I was not all that Jetlagged at the end of the flight thanks to the sleep on the flight. My German neighbor was silent for the most part. I was reading about 150 pages of Thomas Friedman’s “The world is Flat” for about 2-3 hours. Book is a 3 Star so far. I browsed through the rest of the book, if at all I change the rating it would only go down.
Scene 3: Europcar.
Arrived in Paris in beautiful weather (some websites said it would be raining - have they ever got it right?). The sun was out, most convertibles had their tops down. 25 Degree C is all I would give. I saw the Kangoo and I got even more worried. Lol. I had only 2 large suitcases and one small one + the laptop and the small backpack. I said I could do with a smaller car and Europcar gave me a Clio. I also rented a mobile for merely Euro 8 / day (I think they make up the margins in the call rates) in the same place and started driving south of CDG.
Scene 4: Driving in France.
It was a beautiful day and my windshield wiper switched on by itself. It took me 15 minutes and some 2000 knob turnings before I could figure out how to switch it off. By now, the front windshield already had marks on it. Sigh, I miss my Toyota already. It was about 12:30 Pm on a Friday and the Peripherique (excuse spelling) was full of cars. I was moving at an average of about 15 Kms / hour for about an hour. All Stereotypes about French working hours are true. They seem to all be out of work early (yes, noon) on Fridays with their boats, motorcycles, bicycles, and a few weird equipments I didn’t really recognize. It was fun browsing the FM channels (there were atleast 20 of them). Once I got off the peripherique, I moved like breeze. The roads are all green and the transformation from a “City highway” to a “Grassland” to a “Forest” is all way too sudden to take in. That was another 50 Kms of driving before I got to Fontainebleau. Its green all around, the drivers are disciplined and the roads are clear. Sorry, before I passed Fontainebleau. There was a sign called “Fontainebleau” and I said “Right, I am home” and then in another 85 seconds there was a sign that said “Avon” which meant I had crossed Fontainebleau. No INSEAD, no Chateau and I had crossed the town. Before I could pull over I was at the edge of Avon getting into some other village. The towns here are super-duper tiny. Its cute.
Scene 5: Going around Fonty.
“You are refused, too powerful a car for a first time driver” she said in fluent French and for some odd reason, I knew exactly what she was saying. I said “Well, three countries have given me drivers licenses and I have been driving for about 10 years now”. That did not help. She however gave me a competitors name, number, and a map of the location to contact. That was kind. Am I so unsafe that they want to doom a competitor? I wasn’t sure. I got to AXA and they were more than happy to insure me nevertheless at a huge premium. An interesting conversation.
Agent: Euro 493 s’il vous plait?
Me: 493?
Agent: Oui.
Me: But the earlier owner paid much lesser.
Agent: Women pay lesser for insurance.
Can you believe that ??????????????? Should it not be the other way round?
A French speaking person from my undergrad college, works at INSEAD in the IT department. I knew him through a common friend of a common friend of a common friend. He also was taking care of my car until I arrived. He helped me out with seeing this tiny town and get around. We had some beer and dinner together and I crashed a good 10 hours.
Expenses so far:
Rental Car: Euro 78.
Acco in Fonty (B&B) Euro 120.
Dinner Euro 33
Insurance Euro 493
Rental mobile Euro 40 (approx considering all the calls I have been making)
Scene 6: Drive to Tours
First, I need to complain about the Toll. I had to pay about Euro 20 for a 250 Km drive. But in a way it was worth it because I could test my old Bimmer’s limits. I hit 180 Kms / Hour and phew, my gas pedal had not hit the bottom. But then I didn’t have the courage to do any further testing, thanks to the Euro 1500 penalty for breaking speed rules by > 50 Kms. (the fine for > 10 to <50 is about Euro 135)
Scene 7: Dinner with Host Family
Wow, Seven people in the dinner table, five speak fluent French and nothing else and one more speaks Fluent French but then after thinking a couple of minutes. There is one soul who seems to have no clue what is going on. Yours truly is overwhelmed by the 2 hour welcome dinner that lasted about 2 hours that felt like eternity. Things noticed: Very empathetic and nice host lady. Generally nice family
Day 25. Wow, Blogging at all time low.
Looking back at the 25 days I have spent here, they were easily the most eventful 25 days in 2005 (so far). Yet I have blogged the least. Now to make it up I have to write. This is offline again. So once in INSEAD after getting this computer on the network you are going to read all of this (Something tells me it is less than a week away and all I need to do is manage some time). I am broadly dividing my blog into two categories per week. The week and the weekend.
Week 1: Aug 1 to Aug 5
Life is great. I love the host family and have started making my first conversation in Francais. I am actually connected to the internet but then changing languages in these French computers seem to be an irritating affair. By no means am I learning why the French put the Q key where the A Key belongs. Lets assume the English (more likely the Americans) put the keys in the wrong place. The French had no right to correct it.
The week was rather eventful. I feel “proudest” about my own capabilities of grasping a language at 28. I have started speaking a few lines “Pazzez d’eau s’il vous plait” kind of stuff. It is fun. The family again is extremely helpful. The lady consistently goes out of the way to feed me the kind of food I can eat (restrictive diet).
Class mates (there are 6 more with me). There are 2 people in my class who have already been here for about a month and they are way better than I am. But to my aid there are a couple of students who are at my level and the teacher seems determined to make us speak the language. The week passes seamlessly. I went on a little “walk around” tour.
Weekend : Begins Friday 12:45 Pm
Being the hopeless romantic, I decide to drive about 16 hours this weekend to meet Ms. Love. Everything is well planned. I leave school at 12:45 and am on the highway at 12:50. Talk about efficiency. The drive is about 850 Kms and I take the village roads (Exagerration of course: these are national highways but pass through the villages) to save the toll. That lasted like 100 Kms and then I took the tollway as much as possible. The drive was beautiful. The weather was fabulous and I saw more of French Country side than I ever did in my life. As if to “get me off the scenary”, I got stuck in terrible traffic (at about 15 Km/h) for about 2 hours in Bordeaux. After a little search at the city of my destination, I managed to reach at 12:00 Midnight. Ms. Fiancee and her friends had plans to party until 4 in the morning (Surprise !!!). But I had a lot of fun with these people who made me feel ooold.
Saturday, there were plans from 8 in the morning. But no complaints because I got quality 1 on 1 time. We spent time catching up on “all the long distance things you never do on messenger and phone”. We didn’t see any places in particular. It was more hanging out together and doing the same things you would do everyday if you were in the same town. Sunday wasn’t very different but I had to leave at like 12:00 noon so I could reach back by 8 pm. After all the mushiness, I managed to leave at 2:00 Pm. Drive back was much easier.
Week 2: Aug 8 to Aug 12
Second week of French begins. The learning curve has reached its maturity, I have already started “forgetting” the devoir (homework). That should be normality restored. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the week partly because there is a long weekend coming and this time the lady is coming down to France. Life is paradise. Life goes on. I make a couple of good friends in class. The English lady and I get bonded totally thanks to our hopeless French. I do some accounting and find out I do not have enough money to pay my rent for next month. I don’t think my bank will be efficient enough to open my bank account in a mere 3 weeks (that’s expecting too much from the system). The week flows by without trouble. Rather uneventful and awaiting the weekend.
Weekend 2: Aug 13 to Aug 15 and later extended upto 12:00 Midnight on Aug 18.
I sleep all Aug 12 afternoon and night to conserve energy to wake up at 4 am on a Saturday (yes you absolutely heard that right). The train pulled into the station exactly on time (thankfully) at 4:58 Am and the lady appeared very sleepy but happy. After searching for Gas for about an hour (for all those planning to come to this beau country, it’s a bad idea to search for a gas station at 5 in the morning without a French Credit or Debit card, meaning for 3 months after you arrive), we drove down to Ile de Re (a nice Island on the Atlantic about 3 hours from Tours). We stopped at Marais Poitivan (I still haven’t understood how to say it to the French right) for a beautiful hour and half. Trekked a little. Its like a forest area with a lot of little rivers coming together. Then drove on to Ile De re. Spent a quality couple of hours on a very nice beach. Both of us were freezing. But the rest of France was in Bikinis (a couple of them topless too eeeeek) and shorts enjoying their freezing long weekend.
On our way back we stopped at Poitiers to see a chapel that someone had recommended. By the time we got to the hotel, we had already apologized 20 times for being late to the receptionist who was supposed to close at 10.
Sunday, we pretty much spent hanging around in the wonderful neighborhoods of Tours. Tours has an amazing Gothic Church and a ton of historic places besides being a beautiful little town. The best way to describe it is that after 5 days of life here, when I left for a town last weekend, I had actually started missing Tours. In the afternoon we visited two Chateaus (my guess is there are about a million of them around here) Langeis and Villandary. Reviews / comments if I see requests. Nice places. Tiring day. We meet up with the couple who will be in Fontainebleau later this year. I already know these people a little and like them. Knowing my girl, I knew this meeting would click and it does. Everyone has fun. The world is wonderful.
Monday – Take it easy day, One Chateau, a very popular one. Loved the IPOD tour. Chennonceau is the name. The lady had extended her stay in Tours by a couple of days and guess who is the happiest man in the world. We are invited for dinner at my host family. She has her first “French Family” dinner. Very nice experience. We are reinvited for dinner Tuesday J.
Tuesday – I have French classes in the afternoon. I seek permission to have an extra attendant in the class. The professor is nice. At break the Fiancee is intolerant of all the French and excuses herself. I get home in a couple of hours. Life is paradise.
Wednesday – I am supposed to have all day classes, but I excuse myself as the girl has a train to catch at 3. When I return, I hear “I have lost my ticket from Irun and guess what? The train is fully booked”. I am partying inside but then I can’t say it to the poor girl. I drive her back to the station and we put her on a 12:00 midnight train with seats available on all connections. We suddenly have another 9 hours extra together. I could actually go back to class. French or Fiancee, what would you pick? Right.
The afternoon and evening is spent in Tranquility. The holiday is coming to an end. And we don’t have a next meeting date. She is however going to spend a week in Fontainebleau (when you most certainly can expect me to push blogging to Priority 2, but atleast it will be ahead of the MBA which will be priority 3) (now I have the date) in the 3rd week of September.
Week 3: 18 Aug & 19 Aug
Gloominess sets in. I realize so many things. I have 3 Pre-reading books to finish. I am broke and I need to figure out what I am going to do with the French (it has already been 3 weeks). Back to French speaking, French dinner, French everything. (its bad only by comparison).
Week end 3: 20 Aug & 21 Aug
Life is fabulous. I really make up for all the partying by reading a ton (3 chapters of microeconomics and 3 lessons of accounting workbook).
Week 4:
Panic strikes again, I need to get back on track with French to make it in the test next week. Need a lot of luck for it.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
The Good and Bad things French.
Bonjour everyone. Today I am completing four full weeks in France and am getting ready to leave the first town I have lived in. I feel fully qualified to comment on my first encounter / "French Experience". It of course will remain the truely unadultered experience partly because I lived 4 weeks with a French Family. (exception:the weekend trips). So I am going to tell you what I think.
Stereotypes and my view
1. French people are not friendly.
The most untrue and unfair stereotype of all I think. I have lived for over a year in three countries and have spent over 2 weeks (enough time to verify stereotypes) in over half a dozen. The French easily fall in the top quartile (the top 25%) in friendliness. Of course the language barrier does make it difficult but then after attempting to learn this language I can already imagine how difficult it would be for them to learn the other "rough languages".
2. French love their Cheese and Wine.
This is true. They are great cooks. Love the way food LOOKS around here. I love this food. I only wish I didn't have a very restrictive diet or I would be in a total exploratory mood.
3. They are all artists
After four weeks if I walk into elementary school and asked a student in random "What do you want to become in life?" My first guess for an answer would be "Gardener". How else could they have so many well maintained gardens on the streets, in the house, in the castles, in the office, on the banks of rivers etc etc etc? all in full bloom and beautiful.
4. Business is laid-back / Too bureaucratic
Well well well, all people I have spoken to so far stick to a 35 hour work schedule (legally, spiritually, emotionally and physically). My bank hasn't moved on from 1985. For changing my Euro travellers cheques into currency notes, the post-office executive had to fill in atleast 2 forms (with atleast 4 copies of each). Judge for yourself.
5. They are socialists.
With the taxes at probably the highest levels in the world and most of it done to distribute to the "have nots" I think this is very true (and different from all countries I have seen so far). It is scary. One gets often motivated to NOT work because the perks are high.
Besides, they seem proud of history, much more aware of world affairs than the "Average" world citizen. In short I love it here. Mais, will I stay here for ever? Peut-etre non.
A Bientot.
Bonjour everyone. Today I am completing four full weeks in France and am getting ready to leave the first town I have lived in. I feel fully qualified to comment on my first encounter / "French Experience". It of course will remain the truely unadultered experience partly because I lived 4 weeks with a French Family. (exception:the weekend trips). So I am going to tell you what I think.
Stereotypes and my view
1. French people are not friendly.
The most untrue and unfair stereotype of all I think. I have lived for over a year in three countries and have spent over 2 weeks (enough time to verify stereotypes) in over half a dozen. The French easily fall in the top quartile (the top 25%) in friendliness. Of course the language barrier does make it difficult but then after attempting to learn this language I can already imagine how difficult it would be for them to learn the other "rough languages".
2. French love their Cheese and Wine.
This is true. They are great cooks. Love the way food LOOKS around here. I love this food. I only wish I didn't have a very restrictive diet or I would be in a total exploratory mood.
3. They are all artists
After four weeks if I walk into elementary school and asked a student in random "What do you want to become in life?" My first guess for an answer would be "Gardener". How else could they have so many well maintained gardens on the streets, in the house, in the castles, in the office, on the banks of rivers etc etc etc? all in full bloom and beautiful.
4. Business is laid-back / Too bureaucratic
Well well well, all people I have spoken to so far stick to a 35 hour work schedule (legally, spiritually, emotionally and physically). My bank hasn't moved on from 1985. For changing my Euro travellers cheques into currency notes, the post-office executive had to fill in atleast 2 forms (with atleast 4 copies of each). Judge for yourself.
5. They are socialists.
With the taxes at probably the highest levels in the world and most of it done to distribute to the "have nots" I think this is very true (and different from all countries I have seen so far). It is scary. One gets often motivated to NOT work because the perks are high.
Besides, they seem proud of history, much more aware of world affairs than the "Average" world citizen. In short I love it here. Mais, will I stay here for ever? Peut-etre non.
A Bientot.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Spiral Returns?
Tomorrow is my first French test. I have spent some time on the INSEAD sample test and I am already cursing Finance Monkey for misleading me. I have put in 20 hours a week for 3 weeks and I still am struggling to actually figure this test out. It is certainly not seeming all that easy. I need to write an essay for 200 words and any essay for 200 words in French is not an easy affair. (It is not exactly blogging non-sense you see). Anyways, keep your fingers crossed for me because I have my first internal test (At CLE) tomorrow and that is going to be either a demoralizer (in all likelihood) or a motivator for the "real one" coming later next week. I worked on preparing for the test for about an hour just now. Thats as much time and energy I have "on my own" (without the babysitting of the professor) for French. I am going to go home take a nap (Celebrating Pre-INSEAD) and then work on my economics (why do I feel I am already in INSEAD?) after the 2 hour dinner with my wonderful hosts.
Quickly introducing you to my schedule
I go to INSEAD this saturday
Start INSEAD with orientation week, team building with MY GROUP, French test etc next week
From monday I think you should see me back in my usual form.
Tomorrow is my first French test. I have spent some time on the INSEAD sample test and I am already cursing Finance Monkey for misleading me. I have put in 20 hours a week for 3 weeks and I still am struggling to actually figure this test out. It is certainly not seeming all that easy. I need to write an essay for 200 words and any essay for 200 words in French is not an easy affair. (It is not exactly blogging non-sense you see). Anyways, keep your fingers crossed for me because I have my first internal test (At CLE) tomorrow and that is going to be either a demoralizer (in all likelihood) or a motivator for the "real one" coming later next week. I worked on preparing for the test for about an hour just now. Thats as much time and energy I have "on my own" (without the babysitting of the professor) for French. I am going to go home take a nap (Celebrating Pre-INSEAD) and then work on my economics (why do I feel I am already in INSEAD?) after the 2 hour dinner with my wonderful hosts.
Quickly introducing you to my schedule
I go to INSEAD this saturday
Start INSEAD with orientation week, team building with MY GROUP, French test etc next week
From monday I think you should see me back in my usual form.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
The Spiral is spiralling with activities. I am typing this with a French keyboard so apologies if there are are any spelling mistakes (I corrected this today)
Tons qnd tons of activities and I am absolutely impatient with this keyboard. I am going to upload tons of offline stuff next week when I get to campus...(deleted a few comments)
Activies in brief in the last 10 days.
1 French class at great pace
2 Pre-reading progressing at great pace. I am particularly proud of the amount I have read in the last 3 days (but then only because I completely ignored the task all these years)
3 Fiancee visits Tours for long weekend - I think you can all blame her for me being away from the blog. (Detailed blog on the exploits later...I collected my champagne)
4 Host Family doing great. They have been very very nice. For all of you with stereotypes about the French I have seven words "Save it for the French Govt / Banks"
5 I hate french banks / Postal Service (the bank blames priority mail) for not opening my account in about 12 days.
Tons qnd tons of activities and I am absolutely impatient with this keyboard. I am going to upload tons of offline stuff next week when I get to campus...(deleted a few comments)
Activies in brief in the last 10 days.
1 French class at great pace
2 Pre-reading progressing at great pace. I am particularly proud of the amount I have read in the last 3 days (but then only because I completely ignored the task all these years)
3 Fiancee visits Tours for long weekend - I think you can all blame her for me being away from the blog. (Detailed blog on the exploits later...I collected my champagne)
4 Host Family doing great. They have been very very nice. For all of you with stereotypes about the French I have seven words "Save it for the French Govt / Banks"
5 I hate french banks / Postal Service (the bank blames priority mail) for not opening my account in about 12 days.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Why write GMAT? Why write Essays?
Aujourd hui, Je apprend beaucoup de Francais. Nous faisait beaucoup de chose. Nous apprendait des L'arbre genealogical et des pourquoi the "mother in law" dans Francais is "Belle Mere"
Ok for all you English readers (apologies all you French readers) that was only to assure myself I was getting something for my money. This blog, is, was and will be for the people of Angaletterae and Angalatterian colonies of some day. (now save all those infinite comments you can make on spelling). I think 8 hours of french is taking its toll on me. But then, I atleast know for certain when a wednesday passes, I am on the better side of the week (the longest day of the week is over and there is a loong weekend coming).
Today I got together with an IMD MBA (to be) and an INSEAD MBA (to be) for lunch. We talked about rational behind selecting a European MBA and I saw one common strand amongst all of us. Get done with the **** in a year ;-). I heard some surprising comments about perception of schools. (The IMD guy felt the opportunities at INSEAD were better). I think this whole assessment thing is way way over-rated. I can afford to say this here because atleast INSEAD has a better standing in the perceived value in the given situation. I would say if you are sure you want to be in the dairy industry, then University of Wisconsin at Whitewater might be a better school than anything else. But if we all knew what we wanted to do with life wouldn't we be rather doing it than write b-school essays and the GMAT and in my case learning French additionally ? ;-)
Aujourd hui, Je apprend beaucoup de Francais. Nous faisait beaucoup de chose. Nous apprendait des L'arbre genealogical et des pourquoi the "mother in law" dans Francais is "Belle Mere"
Ok for all you English readers (apologies all you French readers) that was only to assure myself I was getting something for my money. This blog, is, was and will be for the people of Angaletterae and Angalatterian colonies of some day. (now save all those infinite comments you can make on spelling). I think 8 hours of french is taking its toll on me. But then, I atleast know for certain when a wednesday passes, I am on the better side of the week (the longest day of the week is over and there is a loong weekend coming).
Today I got together with an IMD MBA (to be) and an INSEAD MBA (to be) for lunch. We talked about rational behind selecting a European MBA and I saw one common strand amongst all of us. Get done with the **** in a year ;-). I heard some surprising comments about perception of schools. (The IMD guy felt the opportunities at INSEAD were better). I think this whole assessment thing is way way over-rated. I can afford to say this here because atleast INSEAD has a better standing in the perceived value in the given situation. I would say if you are sure you want to be in the dairy industry, then University of Wisconsin at Whitewater might be a better school than anything else. But if we all knew what we wanted to do with life wouldn't we be rather doing it than write b-school essays and the GMAT and in my case learning French additionally ? ;-)
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
One more day in France.
With about 10 days gone after arrival, France still seems beautiful to me. Thats new for a country I have visited. Things like laundary, Pre-reading etc have taken up their space in my life (healthy sign?). That ought to be good.
Let me start with answering my loyal reader Wannabe's question on First Impression about Fontainebleau.
I had a map to arrive at fontainebleau and a phone number of a "navigator" who was sitting in INSEAD just in case I got lost. I drove from CDG in my rental Clio (yes, I replaced my Kangoo to a Clio - details in the "offline post" that doesn't seem to go online until end of this month). My Clio after navigating through a painful Paris Peripherique traffic got into a very very scenic drive of farms for about 60 Kms. About 5 kms before I got to Fonty, it actually brightened up (with dense forests and trees). Then came the landmark my friend had mentioned to me (an obelise - excuse spelling). A board read fontainebleu. I started following the directions in the map and within 3 minutes I had arrived at AVON (and had passed through the entire town of Fontainebleau). The town is tres tres petite. Its very charming. Most people seemed rich. After about 10 minutes of phone conversation with my friend, I got to the campus. He showed me around. The place is deserted thanks to the summer vacations. I had seen the campus about 2 years back. The only difference is that INSEAD is actually building a couple of 4-5 storied buildings (in progress) and that seems to be the only change. I got to meet a few Phds but no MBAs.
I got to speak to a few people (mostly non-teaching staff) and they all seem to be bored because of the summer. Looks like life seems to be a little "off-beat" when the MBAs are away (considering its ONLY a b-school and not a university with a ton of other things happenning)
My first impression? Middle of nowhere - yet so close to Paris, charming, expensive, elegant, laid-back, and lifeless (without the MBAs around).
This is certain to change after I meet my classmates around so take it with a pinch of salt.
With about 10 days gone after arrival, France still seems beautiful to me. Thats new for a country I have visited. Things like laundary, Pre-reading etc have taken up their space in my life (healthy sign?). That ought to be good.
Let me start with answering my loyal reader Wannabe's question on First Impression about Fontainebleau.
I had a map to arrive at fontainebleau and a phone number of a "navigator" who was sitting in INSEAD just in case I got lost. I drove from CDG in my rental Clio (yes, I replaced my Kangoo to a Clio - details in the "offline post" that doesn't seem to go online until end of this month). My Clio after navigating through a painful Paris Peripherique traffic got into a very very scenic drive of farms for about 60 Kms. About 5 kms before I got to Fonty, it actually brightened up (with dense forests and trees). Then came the landmark my friend had mentioned to me (an obelise - excuse spelling). A board read fontainebleu. I started following the directions in the map and within 3 minutes I had arrived at AVON (and had passed through the entire town of Fontainebleau). The town is tres tres petite. Its very charming. Most people seemed rich. After about 10 minutes of phone conversation with my friend, I got to the campus. He showed me around. The place is deserted thanks to the summer vacations. I had seen the campus about 2 years back. The only difference is that INSEAD is actually building a couple of 4-5 storied buildings (in progress) and that seems to be the only change. I got to meet a few Phds but no MBAs.
I got to speak to a few people (mostly non-teaching staff) and they all seem to be bored because of the summer. Looks like life seems to be a little "off-beat" when the MBAs are away (considering its ONLY a b-school and not a university with a ton of other things happenning)
My first impression? Middle of nowhere - yet so close to Paris, charming, expensive, elegant, laid-back, and lifeless (without the MBAs around).
This is certain to change after I meet my classmates around so take it with a pinch of salt.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Long Break?
The disappearance was justified and the ones in loong distance relationships will absolutely understand. I was planning and executing the visit to Zaragoza (spain) where Ms. Fiancee lives. I left immediately after class on Friday and arrived back late last night.
Except for really bad traffic to navigate through in Bordeaux, the 2 days were fabulous (with a total of 17 hours in car solo). Spain is soooooo different from France even 10 Kms into the border. Its amazing how diverse this continent is.
French is coming along but there is some "make up" for the 2 days of ZERO FRENCH.
Life is moving on. Nothing particular to report.
The disappearance was justified and the ones in loong distance relationships will absolutely understand. I was planning and executing the visit to Zaragoza (spain) where Ms. Fiancee lives. I left immediately after class on Friday and arrived back late last night.
Except for really bad traffic to navigate through in Bordeaux, the 2 days were fabulous (with a total of 17 hours in car solo). Spain is soooooo different from France even 10 Kms into the border. Its amazing how diverse this continent is.
French is coming along but there is some "make up" for the 2 days of ZERO FRENCH.
Life is moving on. Nothing particular to report.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
First Day of Class.
I was cursed for being arrogant yesterday. After a few lessons through the CD and some hopeless formal education (10 years back in high school), I expressed superiority over my poor arab friends who had no clue about the language. God gave his verdict by making me the WORST performer in the class I am in now. Everyone already seems to know all French they need to know (then what are they doing in my class?. Today I was taught, Past tense, Future tense and abnormalities with not more than 3 words in English totally spoken in about 4 hours of class ! That means they won't touch alphabet, colors, words, and all the beautiful things that normal children (hi hi hi, I know that word is out there with a purpose) start their langugage learning adventure with.
Jokes apart, I guess the school has a goal to stretch the students to their limits and they have shown it on day 1. Homework seems to be an integral part of learning french and I have atleast an hour of work to do today. But the thing is I can do all the written work to deceive even the best people in the French language faculty. But when it comes to speaking and listening, its a completely different story.
I was cursed for being arrogant yesterday. After a few lessons through the CD and some hopeless formal education (10 years back in high school), I expressed superiority over my poor arab friends who had no clue about the language. God gave his verdict by making me the WORST performer in the class I am in now. Everyone already seems to know all French they need to know (then what are they doing in my class?. Today I was taught, Past tense, Future tense and abnormalities with not more than 3 words in English totally spoken in about 4 hours of class ! That means they won't touch alphabet, colors, words, and all the beautiful things that normal children (hi hi hi, I know that word is out there with a purpose) start their langugage learning adventure with.
Jokes apart, I guess the school has a goal to stretch the students to their limits and they have shown it on day 1. Homework seems to be an integral part of learning french and I have atleast an hour of work to do today. But the thing is I can do all the written work to deceive even the best people in the French language faculty. But when it comes to speaking and listening, its a completely different story.
Monday, August 01, 2005
Missing Blogging.
Hey fellas, I am missing this place so much that I have been blogging "off-line" for days now. I wish I had been a little bit more tech-savvy and had figured the ipod thing before I got here. Its a little late now. The day I can "sync" my laptop to a network, I guess I will be flooding you folks. The good news is that I am atleast connected now (Thanks to my French school at Tours) and I am also blogging irrespective of whether you can see it or not. So hang in there and keep checking this link and you won't be disappointed. Here is an abstract of what has happenned so far.
1. Divine Intervention: Did not pay any excess baggaged even when I had about 60.5 Kgs. How? Fellow passenger with NO BAGGAGE was super-nice. Flights were ontime and cozy.
2. First Rental / Driving Experience in France: Is just great. Weather is awesome. On the second leg - I could touch upto 130 Kmph legally and 180 Kmph as I was willing to pay a 135 Euro fine. Beyond 180 the fine is > 1000 Euros. I couldn't floor the gas on my bimmer with such trivial limits but did get to Tours (250 Kms) in about 2 hours 15 minutes. Btw, I bought myself an old 3 series and am not at all disappointed :-).
3. Got to Tours yesterday, Today was day 1 in language school. Language test (to test level to put in the right class) was embarasssing. I did better than all 6 others in my test taking class. Tours is prettier than Fontainebleau in certain ways. Also the F:M ratio is greater than 1 in French classes :-). (So unlike the INSEAD MBA)
4. Host french family knows almost no English. Probability of them learning English currently seems higher than me learning le langue francaise. Progress updates soon. They are extremely nice.
Plenty of time on hand now. Just have trouble with network. Once that is sorted out. I am back to entertain you.
Today I also got an embarassing mass mail to say "you are not good enough to be an INSEAD journal writer" ;-). So I guess if you keep searching out there, you might get a better version.
Hey fellas, I am missing this place so much that I have been blogging "off-line" for days now. I wish I had been a little bit more tech-savvy and had figured the ipod thing before I got here. Its a little late now. The day I can "sync" my laptop to a network, I guess I will be flooding you folks. The good news is that I am atleast connected now (Thanks to my French school at Tours) and I am also blogging irrespective of whether you can see it or not. So hang in there and keep checking this link and you won't be disappointed. Here is an abstract of what has happenned so far.
1. Divine Intervention: Did not pay any excess baggaged even when I had about 60.5 Kgs. How? Fellow passenger with NO BAGGAGE was super-nice. Flights were ontime and cozy.
2. First Rental / Driving Experience in France: Is just great. Weather is awesome. On the second leg - I could touch upto 130 Kmph legally and 180 Kmph as I was willing to pay a 135 Euro fine. Beyond 180 the fine is > 1000 Euros. I couldn't floor the gas on my bimmer with such trivial limits but did get to Tours (250 Kms) in about 2 hours 15 minutes. Btw, I bought myself an old 3 series and am not at all disappointed :-).
3. Got to Tours yesterday, Today was day 1 in language school. Language test (to test level to put in the right class) was embarasssing. I did better than all 6 others in my test taking class. Tours is prettier than Fontainebleau in certain ways. Also the F:M ratio is greater than 1 in French classes :-). (So unlike the INSEAD MBA)
4. Host french family knows almost no English. Probability of them learning English currently seems higher than me learning le langue francaise. Progress updates soon. They are extremely nice.
Plenty of time on hand now. Just have trouble with network. Once that is sorted out. I am back to entertain you.
Today I also got an embarassing mass mail to say "you are not good enough to be an INSEAD journal writer" ;-). So I guess if you keep searching out there, you might get a better version.
