The Summer Begins

P3 at INSEAD is over and we are 60% of the way through the course, although what I like about the January intake is that we are only 50% of the way through the INSEAD experience due to the 8 week summer break.

P3 was as much fun as the previous periods although it was decidedly different. We no longer had the same group for all courses so co-ordinating times for meetings and projects was difficult and cranky and due to the shuffling of people between campuses new faces were everywhere and new friendships were made.

The Chateau parties and balls were perhaps the most fun part of the period for someone coming from the Singapore campus. In Fonty, there are themed weekly chateau parties and /or balls such as the Midsummer Night's Dream ball at Montmelian, the Summer Ball, the Abercromie & Fitch meets Ghetto Fabulous Party, the Black and White party, the Shangri La party, the Two items of clothing only at Tavers party, the Latin Party at La Plage, the Italian Party at Chateau snooty McFrancais nom tres difficile and so on.

My favourite stories involve include at the Tavers Two party, a friend had a gorgeous female (student) bouncer reach deep into his trousers to ensure he was not wearing any underwear (as he was wearing both trousers and shirt and a 3rd item would not have been tolerated. Cheekily another gorgeous lady (student) was wearing a dress and a hat, as if to calmly reassure the world that as far as she was concerned, two items was one too many. Admiration. The other legendary stories of the period involve a certain gentleman who with some choice John Travolta moves managed to seduce a lady onto the dance floor, swivel her above his head, only to then drunkenly drop her on her nose. Very suave Sir. And then there was the Great INSEAD Cabaret. The Great INSEAD Cabaret along with the Great INSEAD Dash (discussed in an earlier blog) are among most unique traditions at INSEAD. Every 6 months, the leaving class (with help from the junior class) puts together a fantastic show featuring skits, videos, songs and performances and so on. I strongly urge everyone to go to YouTube and search for "Gone with the Ding + INSEAD", one of the best performances at the June 2008 Cabaret. While artistically brilliant though, it was nothing to the nuanced performances by the Rugby Boys and Girls and the Can Can Girls. Such intellectual rigour and wit, such imagination, such profound thought went into those performances, almost wholly inspired by the Full Monty (without the plot). I jest of course, in fact their nudity was extremely well coordinated, courageous and admirable - and a good advertisement for those of them still single.

Speaking of nudity and singleness, two states of being with a inverse correlation, this period also saw the unfolding of the curse of INSEAD, relationships fell apart thick and fast as the Great INSEAD Stress and the Great INSEAD Booze got the better of the Great INSEAD Stallions (and Stallionistas).

Then there were exams, perfectly coordinated with the first day of good weather in France. As exams ended, the central lawn outside the bar filled up with booze, music and beautiful people (as future business leaders of the world, looking good also comes first. And naturally.)

Tearful goodbyes, friends wept, men hugged each other like babies to their mothers, lovers sexed aggressively for the last time for two months and then departures from Air France's Terminal 2 in Charles de Gaulle happened. All of this avec frites.

Bon été.