a long weekend in Madrid and the first day of LAUNCH

I spent this past weekend in Madrid. Many travelled north and south, but to save my budget and my internship-preparedness I stayed in the city to get some stuff done. I managed to get a few emails out to current students in my intake that previously worked in consulting firms I'm interested in interning for... still have to work on my CV and cover letters, the time is already not sufficient, even with a four day weekend! But, it should be noted what a great resource my fellow IE students are already proving to be. Just hearing their experiences with the consulting firms I'm interested in is very helpful. So besides internship prep, I had a good night out dancing near Plaza del Sol and a great next day with fellow classmates wandering around Retiro Park and attending the free MTV European Music Awards Katy Perry concert Sunday. I feel like I'm starting to make some good friends, and that is always a good feeling!

Today was our first day of the LAUNCH program. The LAUNCH program is the first part of the Accelerate program. The Accelerate program goes on throughout the IE MBA program through mini-workshops on soft-skills but is composed of three two-week periods, one before each term of core classes. So this first Accelerate block, LAUNCH, is about the following elements: creativity and action learning, inspiration and leadership, soft skills, careers, and awareness. I won't go too into detail in order not to ruin the surprise for future intakes, but I think the workshops are fun, a great way to meet more classmates, and IE has brought in some really qualified people to instruct some non-traditional, but useful b-school skills.

loans and learning

Today my Sallie Mae loan should be arriving in the coffers of IE. According to Google, the exchange rate is at 1.2714 euros to USD, not too bad. I'm not sure, however, how that digital exchange will all work out between Sallie Mae and IE, I guess I'll just have to see once I get my hands on my Caja Madrid account information. More updates on that later.

During my blitz of meeting up with old friends and spending time with my boyfriend in Italy, I've been reading Lords of Strategy by Walter Kiechel. I have to recommend it anyone like me researching a career in the consulting industry. It gives a really great into to the industry's history and tools of the trade. I'll be taking it along with me to the beach for the next two days, maybe I'll finish it between lying in the sun and the train rides.

informational interviews and moving around the world

Today I started my draft email to send out to those lucky industry experts I will be requesting an informational interview with. Oh networking... I think it's actually a really good skill to cultivate, not just for business, but for life in general. Building up one's self confidence by reaching out to the seemingly unreachable, or learning to ask for what you want are not things most people can actually do. I ask myself so many times why I always have to decide on the most difficult and complicated paths... but in the end, I know it's the only way I feel challenged and happy with my life, because I've truly taken advantage of every opportunity I could, even if it's been lonely or demanding.

Within the various consulting firms I'm interested in, as I decide to who or to which country offices I want to make a contact with, I have to ask myself a lot of questions about my future. At first, the MBA seemed like a little breather - I'd have a bit of time to just learn and casually network before I had to decide my whole future. Au contraire! some of these internship applications for next summer are supposedly due before the IE November intake even begins! Even though I already started to outline some of these decisions in my b-school applications, I feel like I have to make so many decisions again too soon!

The first thing that comes to my mind is: I want to keep exploring! 

I am enthralled by China and its huge investments in solar energy and how its and other BRIC countries' development will affect the world economy, and natural environment... and so, how cool would it be to be where it's happening now, work a few years in China - yes please! I took a summer course in Chinese. While we only got through four basic chapters, it's a start! 

I also would love to re-learn Arabic... I was really good, I swear!!, at the end of undergrad. But then I decided to go work for an Italian NGO and I was paying more weekly for Arabic tutoring than for groceries and I had to give it up to survive my professional adventures in Italy. So what about working a few years in the Middle East? Where I could see how the energy industry is changing... But, will these offices even take me if my language skills need major work? 

Or will I want to stay in Spain? I'm afraid of falling in love like I did with Italy (although after actually living in Italy for awhile, and having to deal with their postal system and many other inconveniences, shall we say, I decided I'm only going back on a permanent basis with a much better salary). Spanish was the first foreign language I ever learned. And, I love siestas! My mother's family is from Sicily, and the last few years I've been able to go visit our cousins there in August, and nothing is more delightful than mare, mangiare, dormire, mare e mangiare di nuovo, e dormire di nuovo (translation: seaside, eat, sleep, seaside, eat again, sleep again). Taking a nap after lunch is truly a luxury everyone should experience. Spain's also a big investor in wind and solar energy. And speaking of energy, Madrid is just full of it! I can't wait!

So, I guess that I want to intern in places that I don't want to live in forever - I want to take advantage of the opportunity to move around the globe while I still don't have anything like a house or car to look after. But I do eventually want my own vegetable garden, and a library with room for a piano... in other words, to call a city home and maybe plant some long-term roots. I think ideally I'd like to work in a firm's offices in China, or Spain, or the Middle, or even South America for a few years, and then relocate to their San Fran office and travel out of there around the world. 

Good luck to myself in making this work! The first step in achieving anything is wanting it as my boyfriend says!

vacation vs. prep time

One thing I am looking forward to when school starts is the non-procrastination option. With a million things to do, and less than a million moments to do them in, one thing a demanding work or school schedule does is force me to work. While I feel like I've been more than productive this summer, I still don't feel my productivity juices flowing at 100%. I am torn between sitting down like a good little girl and starting my applications to consulting firms for internships next summer, finishing my self-imposed online math camp at MBAmath.com, and just sitting around not doing much of anything... oh the luxury of time off.

Today's the first day back to high school for three of my younger siblings, so maybe we can do some homework together tonight...