Fourth Week

Just came back from the jogging session, its very sweaty round my study table right now, but the cold air is coming through the window, don't know if its a good idea to let the body cool down fast, probably not. I am not a big time jogger, today was my second run only. Anyway came back home, wife still asleep, turned on my laptop with a thought of going to factiva, and go thru some news pages. But here I am blogging, got to do it though sometimes, very interesting this really, just keep on typing what you like, funny though because I don't speak as I like, being an ISTJ type, I like to think about what I am going to speak. But hey MBA has already taught me lot of things, my learning group has couple of mouth-shooters and I have tried it myself, its fun, speaking on top of your head, that is. It can make you look very silly sometime but I say its worth a try because I never felt bad afterwards, on the other hand, it was kind of stress reliever ( not that I have any stress at the moment, big WAC coming soon though, be careful in how you manage stress).
Well I have spent 10 minutes now on blogging, time to take shower, have breakfast and go through some news, in that order.
Guten Tag
Yeah I am learning German too :-)

Orientation Week

Time is fast running out, so I will keep it short and simple. First week was orientation week, had intros on first day, had a campus tour, registrations, intro about the school and learning methods. The evening was superb, we had a inter-steam race night event organized at Stafford Cripps, our first informal event together and it was great fun. I was involved in interacting with a lot of new people and everyone enjoyed it greatly. Blue Stream won, just to mention btw.
Second day we got our big study case packs, did a desert survival simulation, got our laptops, received intros to learning teams and did a case study. Evening's theme was International Dress. So everyone (mostly) turned out in their traditional dresses, that was a lovely evening, truly international. Loved it, will surely put some pics from that evening on this website, later. Wednesday saw a lot of presentations given to us by various depts in the school. Afternoon was booked for Sports - Rugby, Football, Tug-of-War, egg throwing and lot of miscellaneous fun games. Faces were painted in red and blue and despite chilli weather, everyone was in great spirits. Needless to say Blue Stream lifted the trophy. Evening was planned at Social Club with Barbecue, but it was drizzling, the event got delayed, I didn't go.
Thursday saw briefings on reps, activities, reps for Social, Sports, Stream, Diversity and Career.
Then there were case study presentations, week 1 learning team meeting and discussions, and so on and so forth. Thursday evening was superb, planned as a Cabaret night at Stafford Cripps, it involved doing your bit - play, song, dance, skit etc - and what a show people put. Highlight was Beautiful Dancing Girls - guys in Drag and 2 lovely ladies - everyone was in splits. I participated in a short metaphysical conversation about Santa doing his do on Chrismas Eve. It was a night that will remain in memory for a long long time.
Friday saw the reps elections, class photo in business dress, personal reflections by the orienteers, and orientation week summary by Lead Orienteer and Director of FTMBA. All in all a great week, the orienteers were very emotional at the thought of final leaving the school. I must say they did a fantatstic job of handling everyone and taking through the motions. They are great people.
2 weeks have passed since orientation week. I should find more time to write about these 2 weeks, but it is half-past mid-night now and time to say Good Night...

First Week at Cranfield

I arrived at Cranfield with dreams in my eyes on a Sunday morning of 25th September, 2005. It was cold, dull and grey as usual in UK, but I was looking forward to the warmth of my fellow mates who I was about to meet. The orientation week started with a bang, lot of new faces, welcomed by the Dean and Director, flanked by the Orienteers, who were from outgoing class and had stayed back to guide us through the week's chores. Started with the division of class (66) into two streams - Blue and Red, I am in Blue. Lot of shouting, cheering and banging tables, a round of introduction, by way of selecting one partner, asking details about him/her and then introducing to the class. I introduced Therese, from US, been working in Central Europe for past 12 years. Great people overall, I guess 15 different nationalities represented, majority of them Brits though but a good number of Americans, Indians and Russians too. Well that's why I chose Cranfield, diverse set of experienced smart people.
(to be continued)