3/5 of week 4 done…

I take some time on this Wednedsday evening to catch up a bit with my blog entries.

Things I haven’t told you so far include matriculation, formal dinner at my college, SBS photo shooting and dinner with 3i’s CEO Philip Yea.

Trying to keep the chronological order I start with my first formal dinner at St. Hugh’s College. The dinner is called formal since everyone is supposed to wear appropriate clothes. This can be a challenging expression in Oxford, as different occasions demand different “appropriate clothes”. As a graduate student our formal dress for all University related events is the so called sub fusc. It consists of black suit with black shoes and black socks, white shirt with white bow tie in combination with a gown and mortarboard. Have a look at Wikipedia for more information.

Fortunately the dress code for our dinner was just formal which means suit for the boys and evening dress for the girls. Here are some pictures from the drinks reception before the dinner.

Although St. Hugh’s is said to be a poor College we have our own wine J

Curiously I was placed at the high table were normally only fellows and their guests sit. The high table is another funny Oxford tradition, being a table that is really separated from the normal dining-hall by being located of a podium overlooking the hall. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures at the high table. In the middle of the high table sits the Principal who officially opens the dinner with some Latin words. Before he has finished no one is allowed to sit... 800 years of tradition :-)

We had a really nice evening over a three course meal and finished the evening with a beer in the College bar.

On Friday Oct. 12^th we had our first happy hour. Every Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 pm our common room serves fair priced bear and wine and the dining hall offers take away food. Following a good start at the common room we went to the Turf Tavern to celebrate the first real week of studying. More pictures here...

Saturday morning we then had to meet at our Colleges for matriculation, which means in the broadest sense registration with the University. After a group picture in full sub fusc we went to the Sheldonian Theatre under the guidance of a senior member of the college. Since all Colleges have their matriculation on the same day, the city was full of perfectly dressed students. The ceremony itself took only several minutes but is for sure another nice tradition. More pictures...

Here is a small video I recorded...

Since our time slot for the ceremony was early in the morning some of the St. Hugh’s MBAs had decided to have breakfast together. This turned out to be a bit difficult since most of the pubs down town don’t serve breakfast and a lot of the cafes were already crowded when we arrived. Finally we ended in a place some minutes outside the city centre and I had my first full English breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomato, bacon, and black pudding which turned out to be “Blutwurst”. This interesting and obviously healthy, fat free and low calories dish is served with buttered toast and tasted really good :-)

On Wednesday Philip Yea, CEO of Private Equity and Venture Capital investor 3i gave a talk at the business school. He spoke about current challenges in the private equity market and how established companies deal with that. Following his speech and the common drinks reception I was invited to participate in a formal dinner with Philip, our dean and a number of interesting people thereunder a McKinsey Partner, the principal of Brasenose College, a representative of Rolls Royce and a small number of MBA students. I had a really good time although cooking is not one of the British’s strength :-)

Here are some more pictures from last week’s happy hour. More pictures...

And from the photoshooting for the SBS class picture... More pictures...

Sunday 21st October

Sebastian and I managed to have some minutes together and we started this beautiful autumn day with a lovely walk through the University Park – every Sunday should start like this!

Animal Welcome

This Morning I got a warm „Welcome“of a special kind. The cows were today a little bit late for there morning relocation – maybe because of the really freeze morning – therefore they crossed my way very closely. I was happy that our car isn’t red-coloured.

First days in school

It’s been a while since my last post and quite a lot happend.

This post shall try to resume the last weeks and give you a quick overview of my student live :-)

The time in Oxford started with a number of nice socializing evenings with my new class mates. The city is said to have more than 300 pubs which made us try to visit a new place every night. From evening to evening the group got bigger and got really difficult to remember all the different names. But since most of us face the same problem, nobody is really angry if he is accosted with the wrong name.

The weather in the first days was not bad which prompted Mariah to invite the whole new MBA group to her place for a garden party.

On the same evening (Sept. 28) the school hosted the first company presentation of the year 2007 / 2008. By these presentations we have the possibility to learn more about the big players of the industries: banking, consulting and other industries. The events start with a presentation, followed by some time for questions and answers before all participants head for the common room, the lobby or the reception room for a glass of wine, some finger food and an informal chat with the company’s representatives.

On Saturday before the start of the term we were invited by the school for the oxford pursuit, a big Schnitzeljagd through the whole city. We were put into groups of six by lot and had to answer dodgy questions about the city and its history. The questions were asked in a way that simple internet search would not help but only running through the whole city.

Since our group was really fast in answering the questions we had enough time to stop at the Jam Factory for a quick bear

before all groups met again in the school’s common room for a cold buffet and free drinks.

After the award ceremony the whole crowd went to the Oxford Retreat where some of us had reserved an area and arranged special prices for the incoming class. Over a lot of beer we talked about our pre-MBA live, or fears of the year and what we would like to do afterwards. Remembering names was a bit easier during this evening since most of us wore the nametags we had got in the morning.

On Sunday all new students were invited with their families to visit the school and get to know the other students and family members. That was a nice and relaxed start in the formal student live.

On Monday Oct. 1st school began. But during the first week we didn’t have any classes. We spent two days of more or less administrative things, with nearly a whole day for short presentations of not more than one minute from every class mate. The school recorded these session on video and I will share my stammering with you as soon as it is available.

The rest of the week was reserved for College related things. We our formal introduction by all of the College’s officials and spend the rest of the week with preliminary reading and pub explorations.

Our first real week started on Oct. 8th and we realized that the first assignment was due only fifteen days later. My study group consists of six people from all over the world. I will introduce them to you later. Here are some pictures from our workshops.

By now we have already finished two assignments of 1,000 words each. Not many words one might say but imagine six people trying to discuss really complex problems in only 1,000 words... The case study’s topics were fun so far. The first one dealt with the impact of personality to organisations and the second one analysed the structure of the global wine industry. Thank god I understand at least the basics of winegrowing / wine production.

I will come up with a report about my first formal dinner, matriculation and my first full English breakfast later. Now I have to stop to prepare tomorrows classes and our next study group meeting on Tuesday.