it's a marathon!

Last week, post-long weekend, and this week the homework has piled up, work group deliverables are nearing their deadlines, club management of Net Impact is being handed over... meaning, I am managing my time to the max and finding it hard to schedule some blogging time!

Any quality MBA program will be demanding. Perhaps one down side of the one-year program, however, particularly IE's in which content and credits is not decreased but rather squeezed into 13 months by having a shorter summer break and more hours in the classroom (which in the end is optimal because we're not scrimping on any of any knowledge) is the challenge of information retention. I often feel like I learn mind-opening concepts everyday, but I have to really struggle to retain that information as the next teacher rushes in or as I finish speed-reading one case study and swiftly move on to the next. Tonight, some pricey, but infallibly yummy dulce de leche ice cream is helping me get through another truckload of reading (and yes, I put my MBA skills into practice  at the supermarket by  recognizing my consumer confidence in the brand and its quality, knowing it would make me a happy camper.. make fun of me now).

Nonetheless, general spirits are still high, despite the occasional tensions in my work group and in others' as we move past the getting-to-know-you phase and into the period in which we really need to all contribute, else we waste time or produce below par results.

Despite the time that it takes away from reading and completing exercises, I am really enjoying the few club events I have been to so far as the November 2009 intake prepares to graduate, leave, and pass on leadership roles. The Entrepreneurship club seems like it will be really instrumental in helping those who want to start a business while at IE or immediately after, or even longer down the road, have a smaller community within the IE alumni community, to turn to for resources - both knowledge-wise and for networking. The Operations and Strategy clubs will hopefully provide some insightful events to develop my knowledge on the career paths I'm looking at transitioning into.

So this is the IE MBA - school, extracurriculars, and.... career management. Today I had my first formal meeting with my adviser in Career Services. In the next few days, I will be sending my CV out to a dream employer and will be hoping for the best!

Easing the pain of the workload: amazing Madrid weather (it's been in the 50s! Fahrenheit, 10-15ºC), unending possibilities to explore new restaurants and bars on the weekend with friends, and the long weekend I mentioned in my last post. Thank goodness my boyfriend eventually arrived last Sunday, despite the air traffic controller strike (although he should have arrived Friday), and we were able to escape a bit into the countryside and I had a breather before this pre-Christmas break marathon began. We stayed two nights outside a little town called Zuheros, and one night in Cordoba. Andalusia was beautiful - olive trees for miles and miles. We visited a cave were humans lived back in the Neolithic period and braved torrential rains in Cordoba to see the Mezquita (mosque).

Zuheros seen from above

moments before, a 10-minute roadblock

working with your building materials - Castle of Zuheros

elections and more strikes

Good news or bad news first? Let's go with the good news. This past Thursday, the IE Net Impact club held elections... and I was voted Vice President! Yeah! There is another girl, also from the U.S. who will be co-Vice President. I am really excited to get to know the new team - we will be made up of students from the April and November intakes of the IMBA and from other IE programs, for example, there are several students with leadership positions from the Master in International Relations (MIR). I will be sad , however, to see those who we be graduating in less than two weeks go. This is a link to my self-nomination proposal. There will be lots of updates this year on our progress!

On to the bad, bad news - an air traffic controller strike has paralyzed Spanish air space for the last two days! My boyfriend was supposed to arrive Friday night, yesterday we were supposed to have spent a lovely day in Sevilla, and today I should be at an olive farm in Zuheros, outside of Cordoba! My boyfriend, after having waited in the Torino airport 12 hours Friday (including 2 hours sitting in the airplane), went back Saturday morning for a supposed flight, which of course did not take off, and is returning again to the airport at the moment to hopefully, finally, get on an airplane for Madrid! The worst part is that as soon as I knew he would not be arriving Friday, I tried to call and cancel the hotel for Saturday and change the car reservation to the next day, but they are both going to charge me full price for services I won't have used. I understand they have 24-hour cancellation policies, but given the situation, couldn't you just take the deposit I already paid online and spare me the rest? The Spanish/European/world economy really did not need this mess right now. These 300+/- air traffic controllers have ruined the long weekend for many Spaniards and for many others and cost all of us a lot of money. My Facebook page is full of status updates of IE friends who have missed their flights, canceled their vacations, or are also missing the chance to see a significant other or visiting friend. Some spokesman for the Spanish government has been quoted as saying that these workers have "blackmailed" the citizens of their country. For a more sophisticated analysis of this "aerial crisis" as CNN+ is calling it, here's an article from the New York Times. 

Hopefully the next blog post will include at least a few pictures from Cordoba if my boyfriend makes it here and we still have a rental car waiting for us!