You take two big suitcases, two carry-on’s, three housemates, and three traintickets to zone 4 to do grocery shopping for our upcoming xmas/hannukah/kwanza/new years party tomorrow night…We discovered this incredibly cheap supermarket a while back, so now when we need to buy in bulk, we go there. With suitcases and all.

Term 1 is officially over. No more academic obligations (bar one more set of notes that I need to type out tonight). Done. Finished. Pfiew. Everyone’s either on a plane, will be on a plane, or figuring out how the h**l to make turkey in a microwave (for those staying here). Strange feeling this, no more studying for a while, nights off, going to parties without feeling incredibly guilty. Wooohoooo!

Technically 400 Santas came to town… The Santa Claus Pub Crawl last Saturday was fabulous!! I’ve never seen so many Santa’s in any one place together, and I reckon a lot of people hadn’t, judging by the amount of photos that I saw people take. We must be in photo albums all over the world… I didn’t take many pictures since I didn’t bring my camera (pics here are taken with my mobile), but if you go to Al’s blog, he’s got a load of pictures up and I’m pretty sure KV and MBAEurope will have some up soon.
One thing that was especially good about the pub crawl was the timing. Accounting was tough and I think everyone needed to blow off some steam and boy, did they blow off steam!

Now there’s only a couple things left to do before I go to my parents next week: handing in of the Managerial Economics take home exam (who am I kidding? It’s not just handing in, I have to start writing it. Only 800 words. About supply and demand. Or monopoly. Maybe I should whip up my old Monopoly game…), two days of Career Services Personal Development courses (I’m taking Succesful Negotiation and Conflict Management), one last meeting this year of my Young Enterprise company (more about that at a later stage), my mock interview (which’ll be taped, eeek), and a bunch of parties to go to.

I can’t believe my first term is almost over. When you read for an MBA, there’s a strange thing about time, it moves in a different way. That’s not the right way of saying it, but I’m not quite sure how to express it in words. On the one hand time flies, and I’m sad the first term is already over, on the other hand it seems like yesterday that I came here. Everything that happened more than 48 hours ago becomes a bit of a blur, since there is so much going on, you can’t really wallow in any one thing. Which is good, but also makes it hard to enjoy something to the full. But boy, did I enjoy myself these past three months. It’s like letting a kid running around in a sweetshop. And on that gooey note I’m stopping myself in my own tracks cause I need to talk to a computer about some monopoly.

It’s one of my housemates trying out the Santa costume for tonight!!! (No, I’m not sharing a flat with a member of ZZ Top

We sat our Managing Organisational Behaviour exam this morning (no comment, don’t want to jinx it), and in 35 minutes we’ll have our Financial Accounting exam. And then, the real fun starts! Starting 5 pm, there’ll be 400 staff and students dressed in their Santa suits in the Mbar (which is our own bar on campus). After that we’re heading into London (if you’re in London tonight, keep an eye out for us), we’ll be signing carols on Trafalgar Square tonight from around 8.30 til 9, followed by another pub, followed by fairground rides on Leicester Square, ending the night at the Sports Cafe. So if you see a herd of Santas tonight in central London: that’s London Business School!

Alright, off to pack my trusty calculator and pencil and my throat lozenges (bad cold, second time this term) to head out to Financial Accounting! Wish me luck

Proud to present our very own MBA2007/MIFF2006 band, bringing down the house at Sundowners tonight: 1030 Dining Room!!!!

Even though everyone’s fretting over the upcoming Accounting and Managing Organisation Behaviour exam, some guys still find time to do some extracurricular stuff (this has to be one of the understatements of the year…), point in case being the MBA2007 band called 10.30 Dining Room (that’s when they had their first performance). And truth be told, these guys rock!!!! Half of them are MBA2007 from my stream (stream D!!!), and a couple are Master in Finance students. Tonight the band is playing again, the picture here is from their last performance.

One other picture I promised to put up is one of one of my lovely stream-mates with his lo

vely 6 month old son (are we looking at a potential MBA2030?). Some of my classmates have wives/husbands and even kids and I must say, I couldn’t do it. Life here can be/is (depends on how you look at it) very busy and it must be so hard combining this with family life, although I think my classmates are handling it very well. And it’s just so much fun seeing the better halves of the people I share a lecture theatre with

We’re gearing up to do the Santa Claus Pub Crawl, just got my Miss Santa suit today, and the skirt is short… don’t know if these guys didn’t get the memo, but London winters are pretty cold! Ah well, we’ll manage

[Edit 1. OK, winters in London are actually not that cold (but cold enough), I just don’t have the legs to carry off such a short skirt…. ]

Is applesauce! Who knew! I love cooking, and you know how other people need to work out in order to prevent them from becoming cranky? I have that with cooking. I love thinking about what I’ll cook, looking for recipes, going grocery shopping (one of my life-maxims is that I never try to leave a supermarket without buying at least one item I’ve never bought before), the chopping and slicing and the stirring and tossing. I dunno, but I find it terribly relaxing. And last week was a bit on the hectic side, so dinner was either non-existant, or a quick sandwich. Needless to say that the lack of cooking added to my general feeling of crankiness. Tonight I decided to cook a nice meal for myself, and I made the most fabulous (even though I say so myself) applesauce for dessert. With a little help from mum, I must admit (she’s a fab chef and I couldn’t quite figure out which apples she uses for her applesauce but a quick call home sorted that problem). I feel human now! What a difference applesauce makes…

007’s are

gearing up for our final week of the first term, which promises to be one of the most manic (well, at least for me). There’s the Managerial Economics take-home exam which is released on Monday, and this Saturday we’ll sit the Financial Accounting and Managing Organisational Behaviour exams. And then, on Saturday night after the exams: Santa Claus Pub Crawl! On this occasion, 400 students and staff of London Business School dress up in Santa suits and go on a pub crawl. It is apparently THE event of the year, and I’m so definitely going!

One last thing before I return to crafting my Financial Accounting crib sheet: tomorrow night at 6 local time (London time that is) Accepted.com is hosting a chat with London Business School adcom and students. For more info, see the accepted.com website.

Life feels a bit like a juggling act right now, and I’m trying to keep way too many balls in the air. And although I love all the stuff that I’m doing, when it rains it pours (heck, it feels like a thunderstorm) and it feels like I’m running around like a headless chicken. Over-committed is the right word. And whining, you-are-responsible-brought-this-on-yourself-don’t-whinge is probably true too
Every time I start whining and whinging, I remind myself of the Exec MBA’s. These guys and gals work so incredibly hard. Theirs is also a two year program, but they only come to school every other Friday and Saturday and they work full time. Hats of to you guys!

Tonight’s the last night before the deadline of the hand-in for the Strategy take home exam and I’m almost done. I need to be to, since tomorrow morning’s tai chi class, followed by the handing in of the exam, followed by a day of running around, helping out with the preparations of the Social Entreneurship Symposium on Saturday.

With all the stuff that’s going on, I’m trying to incorporate some of my recent reading into my life and to live in the moment. Never knew something that sounds so simple could be so hard in real life. I seem to always be trying to plan the next hour, the next day and the next week. Or thinking about what I ought to have done yesterday but didn’t get round to. But slowly and surely, I’m learning to be in this moment. Now is the only moment that counts. So, now I’m going to stop writing and finish my Strat!