Sex at INSEAD

Alright so the title is a blatant attempt at boosting the number of hits on my site. This blog has nothing to do with sex, primarily because INSEAD is a chaste institution of learning.

Week 3 has now come to an end and more and more people are falling off the wagon in terms of keeping up with pre-readings, HW, going to career events, meeting CV submission deadlines, going to the gym...... that isn't to say no one is doing anything, but rather that no one can do everything.

Week 3 was also Iberian Week at INSEAD with Spanish and Portuguese themed events the whole week. This included a comical lunchtime skit, a ridiculously tame Sangria party, a more treacherous Iberian White party on Thursday, Spanish movie showings in the evenings, and Spanish and Portuguese food in the restaurant. The Iberian White party on Thursday was the highlight. With a flat rate S$25 for a free flow of drinks all night, mayhem, carnage and bad hangovers were the only certainty. But the music was great and everyone looked great in white.

The party was a welcome break from the masses of work that is piling up. This is especially hazardous since in the coming week (week 4) we have 2 "quizzie-poos" which form 20% of the grade for Micro-Economics and Financial Markets. Most of us still havent figured out how to use the financial calculators (Excel not allowed in the Tests) and the remainder still don't know what bonds are.

Now if you are a potential INSEAD applicant/student who has also been considering/admitted to Wharton/HBS and are sitting there wondering how on earth they ever let people like INSEADers run companies/countries/their own lives and are about to sign on the dotted line in front of HBS - stop. INSEAD is a tough, intense, academically gruelling experience - I am just choosing not to write about the week 2 session on differentiating non linear demand and cost curves to find entry and exit decisions because that really does not make for riveting reading. However if you leave a comment on my page asking for my thoughts on real options or bond maths I will certainly oblige.

I said also last week that I would write about my conversations at INSEAD. This week I spoke with people about the waste of European Common Agricultural Policy, the future of Shanghai, received an email about "the Indian Revolution" (apparently this has something to do with IT and nothing to do with Britain), discussed the future of South Africa and/or Jacob Zuma, listened to an outside speaker talk about a "Vineyard Fund", heard the word "Fjord" mentioned in 3 entirely unrelated conversations by different people, learnt that the Spanish think the Portuguese are always late for everything, met 4 Americans who want to move to HK, heard 97% of our intake make fun of George Bush and saw 80% of those delight in Obama's successes in the primaries.

Ok - that's enough. Time for micro-economics. Same time, same place, next Sunday.

In keeping with Iberian week - Adios!