yes

Yes. Yes, I'm very happy I'm at IE. Yes, I have already met a lot of cool people. Yes, I think it's going to be a great year. And yes, I think I'm going to find a great job at the end. Yes, the first day of school was good! Yes! 

First of all, the "new" Segovia campus is gorgeous. It might be new to IE, but the buildings date back to 1218! 

After a much needed coffee hour, the welcome speeches started with Santiago Iñiguez, President of IE University and Dean of IE Business School telling us to be persistent like Christopher Columbus was when he sought financing to sail west because it's a good entrepreneurial skill. He had to leave before the day was over to go back to Madrid because IE was organizing an event to try and find business solutions to the on-going troubles in Haiti. 

Then David Bach, Dean of Programs, gave not only a great speech on many topics, but also a great looking powerpoint. I'm sure I will see many great powerpoints during my year at IE to develop some great photo, color-matching skills :) One thing he noted was the challenge of living between and working with the contradictions of the modern world, for example, increasing globalization but increasing local focus on marketing, consumption, etc. Just what my "glocal eating" website tried to address...  

I don't have time to write about what everyone said, but one thing I wanted to say generally is that I really like how down to earth IE feels. There is no pompous attitude I felt visiting other highly ranked b-schools. I feel like it's going to be a really practical program that's really focused on creating savvy and creative leaders. 

The last presentation of the day was by a 2005 alumni Giovanni Lo Faro. He talked about his experience working for the Modo eyewear company. It was really great to see half of his presentation dedicated to the new eco-friendly line of eyeglasses they have. I feel like corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability issues, what I would like to focus on in my future career, are really also going to be a focus at IE. 

I'm very happy with the first day. I met dozens of new people. I just hope I actually see most of them again! It's going to be a challenging, but fun first year! I'm off to eat and then sleep early - tomorrow we have orientation stuff scheduled from 9am to after midnight! 

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!