Day 181: Thanks for the memories of P3

The mass exodus from Singapore has begun with lots of my classmates flying out today and heading off to various destinations all around the world. It's not just Asia this time but people are traveling as far away as North and South America given that we have a week off and some people are taking the opportunity to do some company visits, take part in field trips and moving over to Wharton/Kellong/Fonty.

The past 2 weeks have flown by at nothing short of breakneck speed with deadline after deadline. Managed to squeeze a short trip to Krabi over a long weekend that I had in between and it proved to be a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of school. There's really so much more you learn about your classmates outside the classroom than you ever learn during your interactions in class.

I hate saying goodbye, not knowing when I'll see people again especially after having shared a significant amount of time with them, getting to know them and really building a friendship. There were many promises to meet again during the Grad Trip at least if not sooner but we all know that our time here at INSEAD is but fleeting and that one day in the not too distant future, we will have to say farewell to each other, not really knowing when we'll meet again. I found that I was definitely not alone in feeling that perhaps it's better to just slip off into the night silently without too much fuss or drama.

It was a really good day though, save for the fact that we had exams. Grad school exams are probably a lot less stressful than undergrad exams as you know you only need to pass and also because you have the experience of so many previous exams under your belt. What was tough for me though was having to continue with my exam while my classmates who had finished earlier were already beginning the end of period party outside without me!

The party was a great chance to catch up with people, chat about their holiday plans and of course say farewell to those not sharing the same campus as you the next period. Most of my classmates will be heading to FBL for P4/P5. Life on campus here in SGP will certainly be quite different with far fewer students on campus and hopefully a less stressful schedule for all of us. But I'm sure that the job search frenzy will take hold and people will get caught up in it (myself potentially included).

The day after just seems like such a drastic difference compared to the activity of yesterday. I'm heading off to Japan myself to go skiing with a friend from "outside the bubble" and his friends. I'm really looking forward to it as I haven't skied in almost 2 years and I've heard great things about Niseko in Japan. =)

Here's wishing safe travels to all my classmates who are traveling this break. Thank you for all the wonderful memories of P1/2/3. Here's wishing you all the best for P4 wherever you may be and I look forward to living vicariously through your photos and updates on FB. ;)

Day 180: Last day of P3 =(

Can't believe it's already the last day of P3! (Which also means it's our exam day)

Time is just absolutely zipping past and tonight many of us will say farewell to each other for at least the next 2 months (if not longer) with so many people switching campuses for P4/P5. Perhaps we'll meet again at Grad Trip or Graduation (depending on campus)

In the meantime (unfortunately), there's a small matter of an IPA exam standing between me and the farewell champagne party.

More updates tomorrow before I fly off to Japan!

Day 169: Happy Valentine's Day!

For all you bookworms out there...

Here's a link to a BBC Magazine Commentary on "Why books do not prepare us for real love"


Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Day 166: Nightmare week over!

Sometimes I feel like I just need to suppress the voice in my head that tells me to go to class and just hop on a plane to somewhere else instead. ;)

It's been a pretty brutal week in school and some days just feel like a complete blur given the sheer amount of activity going on. Thankfully the schedule eases up much more over the next final 2 weeks of P3 although it's kinda sad that it's the last 2 weeks to hang out with some of my friends before they move over to Fonty for the rest of their time at INSEAD.

I had another of those "this could only happen at INSEAD" moments this week when we essentially "took over" the bar at 1-Altitude on Thursday evening. Pretty amazing. I think most people come into this year fully aware of the fact that many of the experiences that we will have this year are so unique that you have never had them before and will very likely never have them again.

Think about it, how many times in your life are you likely to go out with >100 of your friends all at once, travel with a group of 30+ people to exotic locations, chat about what life is like from a local perspective across >30 different countries. That's probably why you throw yourself so fully into everything even though it exhausts you, even though your other friends think you're slightly mad. At the same time, you do need to fight the FOMO fear coz you can't physically be in 2 places at the same time and your body will break down if you keep running it into the ground.

Bring on the weekend and some much deserved down time. =)

Day 164: Cow Philosophy

My Corporate Entrepreneurship professor is known for his penchant for making fun of National Stereotypes. He does not mean to be offensive of course and trusts that we take the material in good humour. While discussing cultural norms in the context of international expansion of businesses, he shared with us the "Cow Philosophy". It's been circulating around the internet for a while but I doubt it will ever cease to be funny (and somewhat telling).

USA:  You have two cows.  You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.  You are surprised when the cow drops dead.

France:  You have two cows.  You go on strike because you want three cows.

Japan:  You have two cows.  You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.

Germany:  You have two cows.  You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

Britain:  You have two cows.  They are both mad.

Italy:  You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

Russia:  You have two cows.  You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows.  You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

Switzerland:  You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

Brazil:  You have two cows.  You enter into a partnership with an American corporation.  Soon you have 1000 cows and the American corporation declares bankruptcy.

India:  You have two cows.  You worship both of them.

China:  You have two cows.  You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported on them.

Israel:  There are these two Jewish cows, right?  They open a milk factory, an ice cream store, and then sell the movie rights. They send their calves to Harvard to become doctors. So, who needs people?

Singapore:  You have two cows. One is "Cow-beh", one is "Cow-bu" (Singlish slang). You are fined by the government for keeping them in your apartment.

Day 161: Where did the holidays go??? O_O

Can't believe it's Sunday night already after a 4 day holiday. While I don't dread Sunday evenings as much as I used to back in NS, it still seems like the past 4 days have really flown by. All the CNY eating/snacking/visiting seems to have all blurred together even though it's actually be a pretty action packed past few days.

Besides having the customary meals with my relatives from both sides of the family, I also managed to catch up with a couple of friends outside of INSEAD over the break and successfully avoid email for a few days too. Chinese New Year really is the perfect time for all sorts of reunions and a great excuse for groups that haven't met up in a while to meet up again and renew friendships. Since Chinese New Year runs for 15 days, I've got reunion plans for next weekend lined up also!

I'm sure many of my classmates are probably just touching down at Changi as I'm typing this after returning from various exotic locales. I look forward to seeing their pictures on Facebook soon and hearing about the ridiculous antics that people got up to. As for the ones that were "stranded" here in SG, a couple of them came over to my place on the 2nd day of the New Year for lil' get together. Figured this might be the only chance for some of them to experience Chinese New Year first hand, take part in some of the traditions and sample some of the snacks. =)

From the relative calm of the last 4 days, we enter the home stretch of P3. It's the last 3 weeks and 2 of my classes end this week. 2 more end the following week and 2 more the week after that (just before the hols). I still haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do for the P3/4 break yet. Need to figure that one out. Currently thinking either NZ, Japan (skiing) or perhaps a volunteer project in Cambodia that I just heard about. But before then, I need to finish 3 group projects, do 3 more group assignments and take 1 final exam. >.<

Guess there's only one thing to do. Take a deep breath and plunge right in.

Day 157: Rare public holiday break!

INSEAD are somewhat notorious for not observing public holidays either in France or Singapore so you can imagine my surprise when I found out that we were going to have 2 full days off for Chinese New Year here on the Singapore campus (not in Fonty though).

Additionally, Chinese New Year this year falls on a Thursday and Friday so it makes it a super long weekend for anyone looking to travel. Needless to say, at least 70% of the campus has decided to take this opportunity to travel over this break despite the high ticket prices (a lot of Singaporeans are also looking for a short break overseas).

I found it quite ironic that although most workers had the afternoon off today to prepare for the New Year, I ended up having class only at 3.45pm today! What I found pretty surprising was the fact that quite a few of my classmates were actually in class together with me. I had thought that more of them would have taken the opportunity to leave a day or two earlier. That being said, you could definitely tell the difference compared to a normal day.

Looking forward to the break and catching with friends outside of school I haven't seen in a while! And getting more sleep... maybe ;)

Song of the moment on campus: Barbara Streisand (keeps us going late at night when we still have work to do)