Landing Days, Dems Abroad, and travel

So much has happened since the last time I blogged! I feel like that's going to be the case during most of this MBA experience!

First of all, last Tuesday I attended one of the Landing Days session the Student Office puts on. Useful information was given on cell phone contracts, bank accounts, apartment hunting, and immigration. Since I had already found my studio apartment, I could fill out the immigration form right then and there requesting my NIE. One thing I really like about all these initial orientation activities is that they combine students from all of IE's exchange and master programs so I've been able to meet people also in other programs. 

Later that night, I went to my first Democrats Abroad meeting in Spain. I was previously a member in the Piedmont/Liguria/Valle d'Aosta chapter in Italy, so I decided to check out the Madrid chapter. I like Dems Abroad for a variety of reasons. First of all, the meetings are great for networking. Case in point, I met an IE professor! Second, because while I might not always follow party lines, I enjoy the philosophical discussions and the international nature of the events put on by the organization. At this September meeting, for example, Francisco Fonseca, Director of the European Commission in Spain, gave a speech on the future of EU-US relations post-Lisbon Treaty. 

The rest of the week I dedicated to making my new little apartment home. That means, of course, a trip to the urban sprawl that is IKEA. I'm still researching what internet contract to sign up with once I get my NIE. I think I want something with a little more umph than the company the school promotes - StudentsPhone, offers. 

I spent the weekend in Valencia with my boyfriend. Thank God for low-cost airfare! He can fly from Italy to meet me in Madrid, and many other Spanish towns for next to nothing. Unfortunately, the Joaquin Sabina concert we bought tickets to was cancelled, and it rained a lot. So not a lot of beach time nor Spanish music, but we did get to meet up with one of my boyfriend's childhood friends and so we enjoyed a local's take on the city... and a lot of paella and tapas!

some good news, and some bad news

The most exciting news... after seeing 4 more studios and 2 shared apartments yesterday, I got confirmation from the landlord of the studio I saw two days ago could be mine! My feet hurt so bad from walking all over the city, I was so overjoyed. It's going to be tiny, but I love the area. I love that I'm two minutes away from shops, restaurants and two movie theaters on the north part of the Fuencarral. I love that I can walk to the campus in 25 minutes. I love that I can walk down to Bilbao and Chueca in 15!

Now the bad news... I went to sign for my Caja Madrid account this morning - no problems and great service there. So to fill up my account with my Sallie Mae loan, I needed to cross the street and talk to the people in the IE financial aid and administration offices. While everyone seemed sympathetic of my cause, there's some computer/bank/technology program, and so my money could be transferred today (if I'm lucky)... or Friday. I was hoping that since the school opened my bank account for me with Caja Madrid, that it could have been an automatic procedure to transfer the money arriving from Sallie Mae into the account. Not the case. I understand, I just hope my landlord understands and will be able to wait for the money until Monday. I'm just a bit, ok a lot, bummed because I really wanted to get out of this hostel. Someone was coughing away the other night and I've definitely come down with a cold and a very painful pinched nerve in my neck from carrying around my laptop everywhere.

Besides looking for apartments yesterday, I went to two presentations put on by the Student Office for new students. The first one was about how to access the online services of the library. The second was a bit longer, but very appropriate for nascent MBAers: "The Sustainable Student" a talk given by Geoff Martin, currently a Personal Trainer in Madrid and formerly an MBA student and Strategy Consultant. I liked that he reminded us to make health a priority. I recently read in the Italian edition of the Harvard Business Review an article by HBS Professor Clayton M. Christensen about managing your life and priorities. One of Christensen's main points was to decide your priorities and stick with them, never allow yourself those "just this once" moments, otherwise after the first slip of judgment or surrender to laziness, it only becomes easier to do it a second time. Martin's talk had a similar theme, but pumped us all up about making fitness a high priority if we don't want avoidable health problems in our late 30s. I checked out a gym by my hopefully new apartment yesterday afterward. It's pretty pricey, so I'll have to evaluate that purchase carefully...

Wishing myself luck for a healed neck nerve and for a sympathetic meeting with the landlord in two hours!