midterm madness

IE doesn't have a set mid-term week. In fact, I've only had one actual mid-term exam this past week. However, in these two weeks we have a number of major projects to hand in, so it feels like mid-terms, and that's what we're all calling this hectic period. It means a multiplication of group meetings that have spilt over into the weekend. It means even more need for excellent time management skills. My peer Miguel has written about this in his blog this week, click here for the post. 

While the time pressure has mounted, and the anxiety about grades has become a little more real, what I'm starting to take away from this process of finishing big group projects is a sense of having learned something. I'm trying to apply the frameworks we've used to analyze other cases; I'm thinking about our business plan for the entrepreneurial management class in a completely different light than I did at the beginning of the term thanks to material I've learned in all my classes, particularly marketing; I'm gaining confidence in some of my newly learned financial and quantitative analysis skills. But, I'm also increasingly struggling to retain additional information as we are starting to delve into the nitty gritty of financial accounting. As my classmate who sits next to me said this week "I'm saturated." What am I going to do about that? Go buy some flashcards. When it's tricky and detailed, I need to start memorizing certain facts so that I avoid getting lost when we're looking at complicated issues. 

Time management fairy is telling me my time is up to blog! Back to accounting!

a lot of firsts

So the whirlwind has started! Yesterday was the first day of the pre-program! So far, the teachers are excellent and I really think I'm going to get a lot out of the pre-program. I'm having an easier time understanding the material in Quantitative Analysis than Financial Accounting, but I think so is everyone else. I'm really glad I finished at least half of the online course I paid for with MBA Math. It gave be a good background for understanding a lot of the excel functions and accounting principles we are learning. Yesterday I also bought my first textbook, for €55.80! I'd try to buy the rest used, but since we have not been given a list of the books we will need, I'm a little hesitant to assume that we will be needing all the books the past intake was instructed to get...

I had met some of my classmates already through get-togethers organized online by Facebook, but this was really the first time I was able to meet many of them face to face. Every piece of literature and every IE alum will tell you the same thing - what an international group! In our Financial Accounting class we had to introduce ourselves and people, just in my pre-program group, literally come from all over the world. This diversity of cultures, together with the diversity of experiences, already led to many thought-provoking questions in my first day of classes. I'm excited to get the get-to-know-you phase over and to start making some friends!

This weekend was also the first time I used my new gym membership. I went with Palestra. It's a bit pricey but it's literally 5 seconds from my apartment building, and it's the only gym I could find in a 10 block radius that opens at 7am. I like to get my exercise done in the morning. Getting up is already no fun, so whether I do it at 6:50 or 7:30 makes little difference to me. I might as well get up half an hour earlier to burn some calories and stay healthy, especially because I usually feel like I have a million things to get done in the afternoon... The gym is really nice and it's all-inclusive: my monthly fee covers the cardio machines, muscle toning machines, and all their courses offered like yoga, pilates, tai chi etc. For now I'm just trying to do yoga two nights a week, but I might add tai chi later. I did tai chi for several months when living in Italy and really enjoyed it.

So that's my start at IE! So far, so good. Now, off to finish the reading I need to do!

P.S. My landlord and his father are so cute! They just came to put "prettier" drawer handles in my bathroom and baked for me a Spanish tortilla!