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.