The last three weeks I've been in what's called Launch, a series of seminars and presentations to fully immerse students into career development, program expectations and so forth. Though I missed most of this week, to give you an idea of what I was able to attend -
Last week - Taking the Stage with actor Richard from England. We listened to Richard explain how to conquer nerves when in from of an audience. During the program Richard had us work in pairs and pick a topic we felt very strongly about, "anything, it might be why you are getting an MBA." I was working with Maya from Lebanon who looks like Penelope Cruz. I was trying to think of something that she might know or would at least be interesting to her and obviously now avoid why I was getting an MBA ...I was trying to think of something that I react to immediately, got it: I feel very passionate about the disgusting sidewalks here in Madrid, specifically the dog poop. In this city, there is no rule or legal restrictions from using the sidewalks as a lawn for these metropolitan dogs and because the garbage companies go out every night and sweep and scoop the poop off the sidewalk, it’s not really a requirement to pick up after your pet. It’s absolutely disgusting; I don't know how they stand it.
Anyway, so I landed on the dogsh*it and when it was my 60 second turn to present to Maya I fumbled a little bit. I think because I felt I had to explain my passion (while trying to avoid looking like a crazy person) and the energy behind my disgust was overwhelming my ability to articulate myself.
Another presentation was the Power of Personal Leadership with a former neurosurgeon who found that people’s strengths and weaknesses are directly tied to the physical body and in medical practice he’d been performing.
He asked if anyone was from Indian, a number of students raised their hands. He asked if anyone had been to “Bangali?” My roommate Kudan asked where that was. He said by the water, someone corrected him, he meant “Bengal, Indian” Kundan said “Oh, I’m from there.” The Dr. clicked to a slide that had a picture of a beautiful bright blue water Bengal beach, Kundan announced that that was Hawaii, not Bengal. The Dr. described a scene on the beach where a figure running towards you comes into focus and it’s a Bengal tiger, next slide, a photo of the tiger. “There are only three left in the zoo,” announced Kundan. The class laughed.
The Dr. shared the findings of a Swedish Dr that spent her career studying dying. She documented that most people said that they would I have taken more risks in their life. For me, a planner who avoids breaking rules and getting into trouble, I wrote this one down.
This week, Verity created a group called “LADieS” for the women of ie, and Friday night Verity had scheduled our first get-together. Just about 40 women came and it was a riot! Good food, I had my first Nutella crepe! When people weren’t making them, I put up the frying pans and started making the pancakes. It was not a far stretch from the eggs in the egg sandwiches that my dad makes for us. The company was FANTASTIC! I am so impressed by all these women and I know we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in this program. We played the share one thing about yourself that nobody knows game…and as you could have expected, it was hilarious!
Afterwards we went to "Bar of the Week," one of the clubs on campus coordinates a bar every Friday. Some earlier intake students were telling me it used to be better because the president of the club used to work with different bars “we’ll bring your 60 people…you waive the cover charge and discount the drinks.” Today it should really be called "how to pay a fortune on your Friday night," it's ridiculous, we're smarter than that guys! Instead of waiting in line at BOTW, Goli, Maggie and I headed over to Chueca and met up with a group of our guy friends Chris, Chris, Ben, Greg and Liad.
At the bar some of the guys asked what the secrets were and the next morning Kundan was fascinated by the events of the previous night and laughed when I said I know something about 40 of your female classmates. Before you think I dished...what happens at LADieS night will stay at ladies night. I’m sure as we have more of the girls only events it was continue to add to our mystery and confusion for our male counterparts.
There are 100 women in our IMBA program and 40% is an AWESOME turn out! Proud of Verity Noble for putting this group together, success!
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