... or How I learned to stop worrying and love the MBA.

and this is what I'm doing now.

2010-01-12T21:11:00.004-05:00

In case any of you who use this material as a reference and followed my progress from start to finish at ESADE, here's an update a bit over a year and a half later.

Needless to say 2008 was no picnic but in the end I believe it was beneficial to the world as well as everyone else and at the end of it all things should normalize. At the same time I'm willing to wager that the "forced" innovation that will occur from this recession will bring us benefits for a long time. What is this "forced innovation"? Entrepreneurship out of need due to no jobs / lowered income prospects etc...

Anyways, since graduating, I've started my own early stage consulting company, Plain White Paper, Ltd., and while the idea behind it wasn't first to go into consulting it somewhat just wound up that way, and it's quite exciting.

We've so far launched f3fundit.com (a blog and community on open innovation & entrepreneurship), and the "Next Top Startup" Global Entrepreneurship competiton, which is about all we'll be able to handle with our current structure. At the same time we're working on two digital media stealth concepts that - should we get the funding ought to "fingers crossed here" stir a few things up in the digital space. We've worked with a few cool companies, and have even had an indirect impact on a private social network.

If you're looking for Entrepreneurship Advice, head over to f3f, and if you've got a good story to tell about your travels, we'd love to read it at PT.

That said, will update you guys with any major future changes to my post MBA life, but that's it so far.

Cheers, and hope this stuff is helpful.
- J

That's all folks.

2008-04-09T23:36:00.002-04:00

Hi.

So this is it, two years later, and the posts are done, the EUMBA blog is coming to an end, and in all reality, it's all a bit sad. It's been a hell of a ride, and along the way I met some great people, had some great adventures, and saw some great places. As for all those of you who read this, thanks, if it was any help what so ever, you're welcome, and hopefully some other MBA's will write more blogs to help future prospective students.

As for me. I'm moving to Poland, funny really, it was definitely on the agenda in the future, but destiny apparently has different plans for me. The job is good, I'm happy, I even bought my 1st professional book this week from Amazon :o and long story short, besides making some money, I hope I can also make some good in this world, it needs it. And that's it.... so long, goodbye, aufiderzen, arrivederci, adieu, adeu, sayonara, hamba kahle, dowidzenia and .... ADIOS y con miles de besos!!!!.

kindof

When it rains it pours

2008-04-01T14:07:00.002-04:00

MBA done, job secured – where don’t know – but secured. So what’s been happening now? Well, I’ve been getting solicitations for employment left and right. First came one from America – enterprise risk management in NYC, then another from a well established IT/Research group here in Barcelona, then today, a phone call from a headhunter for strategic development in a leading global consultancy in Poland. And as some of you may know, had the interview in Milan with another great company (will take the job if I get the offer me thinks).
So when it rains it pours. On a final note though for all those people looking to pursue MBA’s, I say this – put on Queen’s “Let me Live” think about your future, and see if you really want to get to the top, because the MBA really is a fantastic vehicle for upwards career mobility, and as a final note. Here’s an article form the Spiegel Online.

p.s. I love my MacBook Pro :P

Ciao di Milano

2008-03-31T08:21:00.002-04:00

Ciao Tutti, e Bienviunto di Milano, plus strange train people and feeling like poop (can you see the exhaustion on my faccia?)

Greetings from Milano, here until late Monday, and then back to BCNa, and to tell you the most utter of truths, the Catalan Capital is much more aesthetically pleasing than Italy’s fashion capital. I even think I wrote about this before, but other than the D’Uomo and the Chiesa next to it, there’ really nothing much to the city on a day to day basis – though - it does look better at 16C rather than 45C.

Anyways, took Malpensa Express to get here today, pull out my laptop and am taking care of some everyday things, and some strange guy just keeps on looking at me, so I acknowledge him, by nodding, and there’s the opener.

“Hi, I’m a pilot, I like to tell people what to do, I’m a type A personality person, you know, a libertarian really, the problem with America these days is people are helping each other instead of being competitive, that’s the reason for today’s economy, and not to mention all the Democrat’s fault. McCain wants to change things a bit, but he’s too weak, you know I don’t pay for gas, I burn coal, those liberals saying it’s global warming, everyone knows it’s cyclical – hate, hate, hate…. “

And the irony behind all this is that while he complained about what is wrong is with America, he in fact was what is wrong with America. Funny.

Finally, feeling like poop. Had another sneezing fit, resulting in a bloody nose yesterday morning, three sneezing fits later, have a sore throat, and totally messed up sleeping schedule. YEY!!!!! I love it.

Finally, someone has been calling me, three times today, but the number is hidden. So I haven't the clue who it is, and feel that it's important, but I can't get back to them - which is annoying.

Goodbye everybody, I’m heading home, I’m heading home.

2008-03-28T17:53:00.000-04:00

Some people have already left, others, are leaving today, this weekend, yet others still - early next week. Truth be told, its pretty sad, we saw someone who shall remain nameless almost break down in tears because we’re all heading in our different ways. Relationships are falling apart, some getting stronger. For those of us who have jobs or plan on staying in Europe, things will be easier, small continent and we can always fly to meet one another in any given city. With those in Asia, Australia, Africa, the Americas, it’s going to be a different story. But one thing is certain, the past 18 months brought all of us closer, and we’ve all made some amazing friends. So for anyone in the class who is reading this. Thanks for being there, through the thick and thin.

MBA is Done and Done (almost)

2008-03-16T07:47:00.000-04:00

Graduated! My dad left today back to NY, mom is still here with my cousin until Wednesday. Still need to finish a few final things, like write a paper about Memling’s Pieta, but other than that I’m pretty much done. It’s a bit strange though, knowing that until I actually start working I’ve pretty much got nothing to do.

Which I have to say, is super super nice!!! Finally a chance to sit back, relax and do nothing for a few days. Can’t wait.

As for work, well, have two more offers that came in this week, and everything is starting to fall into place, only problem is that each one of these offers has something to do in or with Poland, and I don’t know if I should go or try to get to London, or perhaps stay here, and there’s the possibility of moving to Milan as well.

Long story short, we’ll see where we wind up after all this. That is still yet undecided. ☺

Musical MBA Students in Barcelona

2008-03-10T19:58:00.004-04:00

So this is one of the songs we plan to play tomorrow, can you tell it's our 1st jam session ever? Pretty bad, huh!? Anyways watch out tomorrow for Herr Donovan, Mssr. Omar, and Pan Jacek to show the world that MBA students are much more diverse than just compound interest and strategy loving geeks. Well... at least at ESADE ;)

Graduation: Friday

2008-03-09T18:53:00.003-04:00

Crazy, huh?! Well, we graduate Friday, and it's all over. 18 months of super fun, super intense, super duper MBA. But it's not all over yet... so chin up. :)

This week sees me, playing live for the 1st time in Barcelona, I figured, since were all to be leaving soon, might as well throw together a nifty little concert (ish type thing). It's Tuesday by the way, at Jazz Si if any would like to come. Starting 8:00pm. If in ESADE just ask someone form the 2nd year to Fwd you the address.

Also, as a result of my MBA Blogger Fame (sarcasm here) I was recognized on the street by a current 1st year IESE student. Super funny.

On a more MBA like note, I got an offer, and I've been milling it over, still don't know if I should take it, and going to write the company asking about their ops, long term strategy, etc... need to be educated when it comes to making a post MBA decision. As for other jobs, still waiting, and still stressed out - albeit not that much.

Oh... and as a last thing, for those reading this here blog from post 1. Well, if you remember, which I only assume not many of you do, I got a laptop at the beginning of all this, and 2 years later, while it still works ok, there are some things I just can't do with it, like make a proper movie of Africa, or record a proper song because Dell just wont put a decent sound card in, and as such, I've swithced to the following..............

Solo una pregunta.

2008-03-05T20:53:00.001-05:00

What do you think about yourself?

If you're feeling a bit blue....

2008-02-24T11:46:00.002-05:00

... cause of the weather, love, people, job, or whatever... just remember...

:)

Stress, Interviews, Poland and the such...

2008-02-20T09:30:00.003-05:00

So... interviews a plenty, got called back for a position that would effectively make me GM for the country of Poland, also heading there this Friday to meet with a few people / companies / interview and such. Other than that, I've been thinking about location. I really wouldn't mind staying in Spain post MBA, nor would I mind moving to London. I think moving to Poland may still be a bit early on in my career, and long story short I want to position myself where I will have the most growth potential.

Notwithstanding all these interviews, coupled with the lack of a job, and the constant juggling of responsibilities to make ends meet has me stressed out a bit, which (and I will be honest) is fairly uncommon for me. Regardless, the prospects are good, and hopefully they will culminate in something good as well.

Finally, I’ve decided that I will be ending this here blog when I get a job, or graduate, whichever will be the latter. Hope all is well on everyone’s front, and for all those who read this.

Cheers,

As for things here in Barna (that's Barcelona in coloquial)

2008-02-12T11:13:00.000-05:00

On a more personal note, I’m getting a lot of interviews with some outstanding consultancies and companies where I’ve been called back for a number of 2^nd, and waiting for others, as well as an offer or two. Otherwise, I’m diligently preparing, studying (big exam in forex coming up Thursday) and pushing through the final stretch of this MBA. Not much else really, other than a friend coming to visit BCN for work purposes early next week.

Sobre Африка – Something peculiar about the Zambezi and the flooding in Mozambique

2008-02-12T11:11:00.001-05:00

When I was in Africa these couple of months ago I remember on multiple occasions people in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe talking about the floods coming this year, there was a certain “j’e ne se quoi” in the air, and many had indicated that they are cyclical, and as one individual recalled “they do tend to happen every seven years”; which makes me wonder why the government of Mozambique did nothing to help prevent this, why they did not take precautions after the last floods, or even why the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe have done nothing to alleviate this, in fact working against it by opening the Kariba dam, propagating further flooding.

In any case however, the past is a brick wall, and we must look to the future. Recently, the government of Mozambique indicated that they will not ask for flood relief, but at the same time, I believe that it comes down to us, the international community to help. As such, I ask that those of you with the ability to help in some form or fashion do so; the peoples of this area truly need our help. Some organizations that I saw functioning in the area directly were the International as well as the American Red Cross’, and US Aid. So those of you in the US, write your representatives, and the rest of us, lets donate a € or two, or take 15 minutes out of our day to see how we can help.

Jeden z dwoch ktory spotkal sie z rodzinka,

2008-02-06T09:04:00.000-05:00

Prawde mowiac bym nie powiedzial ze moje poglady polityczne leza po stronie PiSu, I takze, w zyciu nigdy nie myslalem ze Sz. P. Kaczynski kiedykolwiek wyladuje na tej tu stronce. Ale jak by nie bylo, moj ojciec chestny ostatnio sie spotkal z Panem Kaczka, cz. prezydentem III RP bo zrobil profesorstwo. (czy to tak sie mowi, o czy trace rozum?) Fajo co nie!

Od lewej, cora ojca chszestnego, lesiu, i moj stary chszestny.

Truth be told I wouldn’t say that my political views lay on the side of PiS, and notwithstanding never would I think that Sir Kaczynski would ever be featured on this here site. However, as it happens, my godfather recently met the duckling, meaning the president of the Third Republic of Poland receiving his professorate. (do you say it like that, or am I losing it?) Pretty cool, huh!

From the left, my god father’s daughter, el presidente, and my god father.

I´m getting hit with serious exchange rate risk!!!!!

2008-02-05T11:33:00.000-05:00

So, I bought a car in South Africa, at the time it was 72.000 ZAR, which was about 7.200 €, ok, I get 46.600 ZAR back, but then 1€ bought approximately 9.6 Rand, now, the rand is falling head over heels, what I can only assume to be the fault of many things attributable to the current happenings in the RSA. Now, if I had paid for the car in € as I had hoped, I would only be taking a loss of 7,3% or so, but since I had to pay for the thing in USD because Caja Madrid, would not let me transfer 7.200€, I´m getting hit with a loss of 11,25%, or 700 dollars.

And regarding this, I´m really somewhat ticked off. Thanks ZUMA! But.... considering the US dollars decline against the € since I´ve converted all my loans from dollars to €, I suppose I can say that Stateside, I made gains of 13,5%. Still.... 700 USD is still 700 USD. :\

From the front lines!

2008-02-04T19:32:00.001-05:00

Not much happening other then me interviewing. And I'd say it's going fairly well, in the meantime, here's a really nifty little video I happened to stumble upon. Enjoy :)

Africa Photos are UP on flickr. If you're interested....

2008-01-24T18:22:00.000-05:00

.... hola dear readers. I have posted about 1/4th of the photos taken on my drive through Southern Africa, and should you care to view them they can be found HERE. There are a few of them, like 600, so I only took the best ones. Enjoy, and once I get some free time, I'll be posting my movie (maybe) on Youtube.

Cheers.

Cada día yo veo uno caso tan feo.

2008-01-21T17:22:00.000-05:00

Yes. Every day I read over cases, practice frameworks, go over personality type questions, and further try and make myself into the perfect candidate. Why? Because I need a job (or "trabajo" as they say here), and not just any job, but one that will allow me to challenge myself, be fun, ever changing, and propel my somewhat ambitious self up the ladder of life, I mean it doesn’t look like anyone else is going to do it for me.

And while all this is well and good, and while I’m up against thousands of other MBA’s who are also looking for jobs (plus those who already have them), I begin thinking to myself. Do these cases really prepare me for a job as a consultant, or do they simply test to see preparation? Personally, I can stipulate to the weight of a Airbus 360, or market size the amount of Zulu spears sold in Paris each year by dwarf sized Kazakhs. But so can anyone else who’s done their homework.

I think the real rub is in the strategy cases, the ones that really test your mettle alongside the skills that you took away from your MBA, ones that test not only a "framework" but test ingenutiy, innovation and problem solving skills. Those are the ones that separate the boys from the men…

… and unfortunately I have to say, that those are the ones that I still need to work on, because, while fun and possibly and adventure of a lifetime, Africa did nothing to help propagate my employment status. Oh well... back to the books....

"....so wait, direct material costs were how much?, $123,456 No, that just doesn't sound right." :D

School, Television, and Flu

2008-01-13T18:24:00.001-05:00

No, not quite the sequel to the 1989 drama, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, instead life since school began anew December 7^th. I’m taking, Analisis y Prevision de la Coyuntura, Consumer Behavior, Leadership and Human Development, Social Entrepreneurship, Impact of Culture on Business, and International Finance, as well as finishing up my lessons in Spanish (Nivel 6b – the highest nivel there is, not bad considering I spent 3 months in Africa not using the language). May drop one of them though, don’t know yet.

Moving on, Thursday I became amazingly ill with a bad case of the flu, it was so bad in fact that I only made it out of my flat once and that was to head to the Dr.’s office, who gave me a nice little chest x-ray to check for any infection of TB (mandatory since I've been having a dry cough, and spent some time on that continent down south). Luckily no TB, and I got myself a nice picture of my lungs. But that is not to mean my long weekend wasn’t eventful. Oh no, I slept a lot, I sweat a lot, and I watched a lot of internet TV because there was absolutely nothing else I could do.

Which in all has not been the best thing considering I have an interview coming up and wanted to prepare for it this weekend, and especially so since it will probably be in Castilian. So now, I get over the remnants of the flu, get myself into high gear and hope that this post makes sense cause my logic circuits are still dealing with the remnant effects of this virus.

The final countdown

2008-01-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

Term 5, the end of the MBA (almost). I’m actually sad writing this post, because I know that what quite possibly was thus far the best chapter in my life is slowly coming to an end. We walk as a class in mid March, and then head off on our own, each one in their own direction. But that’s still three months away, and I’ll leave the sentimental stuff for the end.

I honestly can’t wait to get back to BCN (The strange city where the population actually refers to its city by its airport code), see friends, and get life back into the swing of things. Meaning, more job hunting, interviewing, dinners, events, new people to meet, and then eventually come to the end of this whole MBA thing in a much worse financial position than when I went into it. But the ROI should be enough to compensate my more than adequate debt, hopefully pay it off in 2-4 years, and then start building some serious equity.

As for the job search, going pretty well I would say. So far have only been dinged from a small fraction of companies, have interviews coming up in January with ones that I want to work for, applying to even more, all where I can see myself happily consulting, and enjoying the work. The only thing is, I want to stay in Barcelona, and I would give an arm and a leg for it. So, we’ll see, and most importantly, I can just say that it’s good to be back home, as of tomorrow 14:00. J

By the way, this is home.

I’m back in Europe and it feels good.

2007-12-19T09:44:00.001-05:00

Firstly, I would like to start off by saying that in all likelihood, I will never fly South Africa Air ever again. On my way down, the service from the flight attendants was rude, and the real kicker was the way back. The plane was utterly empty, yet, I was forced to pay 4065 ZAR or 415€ more or less for taking home with me 41.5 kg of luggage. The funny thing however is, that I took with me approximately 38 kg going down there, I could do nothing to convince the woman otherwise because my “ticket” the one from Frankfurt to Barcelona read 20kg, which is standard for intra European flights, unless, you’re flying intercontinental, and then it goes up to, if I am not mistaken 40kg. Anyways, the wonderful people at South African Airlines are going to be presently bombarded by e-mails , phone calls, and letters until I receive a credit of 4065 ZAR in my bank account.

Moving on, after three months in Africa it’s really refreshing to feel the cold winter air on one’s face. I thought I would never really long for cold weather, but after a year of what was more or less an endless summer. I’m quite glad I’m here. I’m in Barcelona for a bit less than 48 hours, and then off to Poland, where my entire family will spend Christmas together for the 1^st time in 20 or so years. As you can image I’m really looking forward to it. However, the holidays and being back in Europe bring with it another reality, that of finding a job. So while people are merry, in the Christmas spirit and all that, I will be glued to my laptop, reading cases, and practicing for consulting interviews, that the companies I applied to were nice enough to hold off until the New Year.

And that is… more or less it. Pictures and videos from Africa coming soon.

I'm back in Kaapstad and alive and almost well.

2007-12-15T15:12:00.000-05:00

So it's over, I would have stayed an extra day or two on tour, but as things have it, I got really sick on my way down to Maputo from Tofo (Mozambique) and was utterly unable to do anything but head to the closest clinic, get tested for malaria (as of two days ago I still dont have it) and head straight for Cape Town. Now.... I'm back in Cape Town, staying at a friend's house until I fly out of here on the 18th.

As for the trip. Wow! Fun adventure filled, crazy, so many stories I could write about. But I'll just give you the highlights, almost got arrested twice, one in Botswana, the other time in Mozambique, I'm now a PADI certified open water, and deep diver. Breathing under water is soooo cool, I cant even explain it. You have to try it. Victoria falls, is impressive, really impressive, mist water everywhere, but the poverty, and the people with AIDS you see, are heartbreaking. A lot of it is heartbreaking, but you can only do so much, and what I did to help, well maybe it will make some difference in these people's lives.

As for losing things and having things stolen. 1 pair of Gucci sunglasses - gone, 1 pair of Cool Shoe Co. flip flops - gone, 1 really cool Zambia towel - somewhere in Bloemfontein, and then some other minor things, like a knife, pens, hat, socks, etc... etc... are somewhere. Anyways, photos coming soon as well as a synopsys of the trip.

2500 km later

2007-11-19T08:55:00.000-05:00

and I'm in Swakopmund, Namibia. On the Job front, no dings yet, which is wunderful news. On the personal front, got stuck in the sand, once by Sousselvlei, and once in the middle of some sand dunes. The 1st time was just stupidity, the second time I couldnt do anything about it. Was soft sand, and no one told me otherwise. Closest town was 40km away, and heat 36C, was about to walk with my trusty compass but luckily someone came. Namibia thus far is vast and the distances are huge. Driving alone with no music leaves a lot of time for thinking, and I've done a plenty of that. Slept so far 2 nights in the bush, with almost no people near me, was good fun. And I have to say, invented biltiong sanwiches (more on that later) internet time running out, and I have to start wrapping this up.

Also... iPod broke for about 2400km, but i somehow got it working last nite, only to find out that I'm out of juice. Whatever, I've gotten used to no music. To all those out there worried about me, (like 1.32 people ;), don't... I've managed to be a lot more resourceful than I thought I could be, and I'll be fine, given no Kudu decides to jump in front of me, or a pack of elephants, stampede my bakkie (pickup), or a lion chomp my head of. But all in all, should be fine.

Until next time -

p.s. the countryside is beautiful.

Budapest – Bamako Rally

2007-11-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

Depending on how this little trek (Afrikaans word by the way) goes in the coming month, I may be quite inclined to do one of these http://www.budapestbamako.org and especially before it becomes way too popular. Looks pretty cool, huh?

And for your viewing pleasure, another awful African sunset.

Around Southern Africa in 31 Days

2007-10-29T08:46:00.000-04:00

After some thought, I’ve decided to go ahead with the overland Africa trip solo. There was the option of an organized tour, there was the option of coming back Early, and changing my flight with some heavy fees attached, or I could just wing it. Regardless, even if I were to go back to Europe before my previously scheduled time I would already miss out on the career fair, and looking at many of the companies I applied to, luckily, their interview sessions begin in January.

So… taking that in hand, I plan to do the following….

Head north from cape town, stop off at the Orange River, then up to the Namib desert for some dune boarding, then up to Walvis bay up the Skeleton coast to the land of the mud people, then to Etosha, anf off to Okavongo in Botswana for some serious game (hopefully will not contract Malaria here – yey for Malarone), then off to Kasane where I’ll do a day trip to Victoria falls and pop in to Zim to give a quick shout to Bob, back through Zambia to Botswana and down through Gaborone to Limpop back in the Republic of South Africa, and then to Mozambique for a few days of lounging on the Indian Ocean, and return to South Africa, if time allows, I’ll head down to Lesotho for some beautiful mountain viewing, and back to Cape Town through the Karoo. – 31 Days…. Whether or not it’s possible we’ll see. But sure enough, it’s man vs’ nature vs’ self.

Only thing I’m worried about is I may get the bug, and decide to go on crazy vacations from now forth instead of some boring weekend in Castelldefels.

Job hunting time is upon me…. and… doing Africa – alone :o

2007-10-28T08:17:00.000-04:00

… so far so good, but there is one MAJOR problem, this whole application process requires that I be in Europe during November, and December, which is completely understandable, however, being in South Africa with little access to the web is doing me no favors while looking for employment; and then there’s the month plus that I’m going to be in the middle of nowhere, with little to no mobile/internet service until mid December.

So sure ‘nuff, I’m a bit worried and stressed out about the whole thing, but it will be how it will be, and there’s no use crying over it now. :D

In other news, my travel buddy backed out of our overland trip to Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia, and as such, I think I’m just going to just do fly solo, meet people on the road, and see what happens. Only problem is, there’s a lot of driving, 11k km, and regardless, that IS a lot, and then there’s the whole anxiety thing, because if this were Europe, or the Americas I wouldn’t even think twice about doing a trip alone, but being Africa, it’s still gives butterflies in my stomach. Regardless, it will be an amazing experience, and I just have to do it. So… come mid November; into the heart of darkness. :)

SOUTH AFRICA WINS RUGBY WORLD CUP!!!!!

2007-10-21T11:06:00.001-04:00

And the party last night was goooood. D-Nice was DJ’ing, and he hung out at our table, even bought us a bottle of Stoli, then went to the City Bowl for some good fashioned fun – oh and ripped my pants at the crotch doing a split last night. But I do have to say, that it was well worth it.

Other than that, the we came back from the garden route tour on Thursday, and it was a fun filled adventure, with ostrich riding taking the top spot for sheer fun and brilliance. Pictures will be up on flickr in a days’ time.

As for classes, they’re almost over, crazy really how they cram everything into two weeks, and then you’re left doing work at home. But… I still have one or two classes more which should keep me busy in between job hunting, and planning the 30 some odd day trip through southern Africa.

And that will do it for this installment… btw, that down there, is d-nice. :)

Cape Town: My time here so far.

2007-10-11T04:59:00.000-04:00

School has started and not much really to talk about, classes are very different than at ESADE, there’s things like advanced leadership (AL), and depth consulting (DCF), that deal strictly with one’s emotions, and there’s classes such as emerging enterprises (EE) that are just wonderful.

For example in EE we went to speak to a woman who opened the 1^st Bed & Breakfast in Kyalitsha, a Township just outside of Cape Town. In addition the class really challenges us to think about the problems that South Africa faces in the Entrepreneurial spectrum. i.e. if you don’t incorporate HIV/AIDS (deaths) costs in your strategy, you’re pretty much throwing money down the tubes.

Moving on, reality here is definitely not what you think back in the Northern Hemisphere, AIDS is very much a part of everyday life, and there are still very visible tensions between the different peoples of RSA.

On the bright side though the Springbuck’s are doing great in the Rugby World Cup, everyone is super nice, we had a braai (South African BBQ) in another township with a guy from the MBA who grew up in it, and next week we’re doing the Garden Route, going to ride an ostrich, and see some elephants. Should be super cool.

What I despise about ESADE!!!!!

2007-10-11T04:52:00.001-04:00

Got your attention, didn't I?

Since the creation of this here Blog, many people have asked me what it is that I generally dislike about ESADE. While overall I am satisfied with the choice of school, the location, the people and education there are a few things that I can share with you the wider community, that I personally think can be improved upon. Now, mind you this is only the opinion of one student, and what I think others may not.

So where to start? Well first off, when we as in the now 2^nd years arrived at ESADE, the food in the carpa (cafeteria) could have been better, it’s been improving, but eating bocadillos every day for breakfast can get a bit daunting. So if you’re looking at schools based on food quality, I say go to a culinary academy. Luckily however you can eat around ESADE, and for about 5.25€ can get a pretty decent meal.

But what about education? This one is a bit of a WYSWYG, basically there are a handful of classes that really test your mettle, and I mean really pummel you with work, so much so that you pass off assignments that you can finish others. Luckily with groups, and team work and all that, mostly everything gets done. Then there are some other classes that were a walk in the park for me, these was Corporate Finance, Marketing I, and Org. Behavior. But then again, I have a degree from Tulane in Finance, I took marketing before, as well as O.B., and tend to excel in the more soft skill areas in general. O.B. was very heavily rooted in Philosophy for example, where you needed to understand and apply the fundamental concept, instead of a you go with options c, d, e in case of a. But people do fail (not me luckily) and have had to retake certain courses (i.e. OB, and although some in my year will disagree with me, I thought it to be a brilliant and vital class to any manager).

Then are the readings, let’s say there’s a sufficient amount of them, if you chose to read everything that every prof. gives you, good luck having any type of social life, it’s all about time, team and people management. Not to use a cliché, but a work-life balance.

And then there are classes that I understand the need for, but absolutely hated. Namely, Intl. Taxation, and Law. To me, Mandarin Chinese is easier to grasp than law, and taxation as you can imagine is about as much fun as applying self acupuncture, but in the global workplace (another tired cliché), it’s necessary, and will probably come in handy when us MBA grads have to deal with source companies and tax brackets, bills, and transfers.

And finally, language, not the learning of but the understanding of the accent . For some people, especially those who grew up mono-lingual, and have not had ample experience with accents, some professors were difficult to understand. I have personally never had this problem, but I know people who have, and there’s also those individuals that have problems understanding native English speakers, they say some of them speak under their noses or mumble. Basicallyt, his is what happens when you study with people from 29 different nationalities.

What else… career services. It depends who you deal with inside the office, and generally they are doing a good job, the list of companies coming this October to ESADE are more than impressive, and even better than last years. If you want advice, and if you want help planning your career, it’s there, and opportunities are there. Lastly however, over the summer, the school’s installed some sort of glass rooms on Planta A, which in my most humble opinion are an audacity. Planta A was a sort of common area for us, it’s by the exit to the carpa, and they could have put those things on B, which tends to be dead ½ the time. But then again, what do I know.

Social life. As they say in Barcelona, la vida social en ESADE es súper chulo. For real, it’s great, but the school never, other than orientation, explicitly mixed the Spanish and English sections, we did that ourselves, and there really isn’t much intermingling between the MBA and the Masters of “enter field here” programs that the school also caters to. I think this is a mistake, as those people could also be a future network. But the argument for creating a tight knit network of MBAs also has its arguments.

So what is there to say in the end. It’s what you make out of it. For me, it’s building life relationships with intelligent ambitious and driven people, knowing that in the future they will be able to count on me and I on them, it’s getting a good if not for me an overly demanding education, but then, I never read all, or most of the supplementary material. Am I happy? I think I’ve said on multiple occasions I am. Can EASDE be better? I think it can. But it is the goal of any person or institution, to better itself, for itself and its/their respective stakeholders.

And as I’ve said before, I would have hated Columbia. The small number of students at EASDE really makes this MBA a personal experience, unparalleled in my eyes with any other, but they really could get around to having better food for breakfast.

On top of Lion's Head - Cape Town - Repubic of South Africa

2007-09-20T14:47:00.002-04:00

Cape Town in the Background, and more pictures coming to my flickr in just a few days time. By the way, so far so good, the town is awesome, and I've been traveling with one of my house mates. Still waiting for others to arrive. Till next time.

This post has absolutely nothing to do with anything, except…

2007-09-03T06:17:00.000-04:00

You know, Barcelona is a great town, mountains, beach, good weather, nice architecture, great night life, and friends to boot. Heck, I would even say that I’m starting to become part of the community, or at least I feel like it because the ladies who sell fruit, fish and meat at the Mercado even say hola to me on occasion. But there is just one thing that I absolutely despise. Noise. Yeah, living in New York wasn’t exactly the country side either, but at least there, I wasn’t woken up daily at 3am by the garbage men, at 8am by the parade of scooters with shoddy mufflers, by the ambulances, by the honking, yelling screaming at all hours of the day. Maybe it’s my neighborhood, maybe not. But I swear, after I get out of here, one of the things on my requirements list for a flat is going to be genuine seclusion, calm, tranquility and silence.

.... time is running out

2007-09-01T17:56:00.000-04:00

As in time until I fly off to South Africa, and I have to say that the fever is starting to get a hold of me. Meaning, I’m getting really excited about this trip. I’ve picked most of the courses that I want to take, and have pretty much gotten myself a place to stay. Thus far with 3 Americans and 2 Danes, it’s in a big villa. The place is super nice, and having at least some sort of certainty down there has made my stress levels go down quite a bit.

Now, if I understand the UCT course schedule properly, classes should end in November, which in my opinion is very early, and on one side of the situation, it means that I will probably bust my little behind for October, and some of November and then have a month to travel around Southern Africa, which in its own respect is amazing.

So it may be just the excitement speaking, but I would really love to (apart from R.S.A.) see parts of Namibia, Botswana, and if time allows Mozambique, and maybe even, should I be lucky enough, Malawi. But for now, that’s all just hopeful dreaming.

On a more serious, and MBA note, I’ve been putting some more work into this business plan of mine, but will need someone with some knowledge of Auto CAD to help me with initial designs, and I’ve also started on the official job search, meaning, identifying the companies that I’m planning on applying to.

You guys know that rag, The Economist?

2007-08-27T22:08:00.000-04:00

Funny thing happened just recently, I was reading a post on some tech blog about a Web 3.0 (or the Semantic web as some like to call it) company, and the article mentioned the Economist, and that Economist readers happen to have a certain unspoken bond with one another, a certain Je ne se quoi, but when you see someone at the airport, or the train, or even a café reading the magazine… well you just can’t help but smile a little.

So why this post about The Economist? Because I recently remembered how I got introduced to it, and I think it would be super cool to hear some of your experiences. For me it happened on Metro North RR in NY, coming back to Westchester… I don’t know the day, moth, or even year, but it was either in College, or just thereafter. I know it was the 1.30 am train, the last one up north, and I saw some guy reading the economist in the adjacent seat. What caught my interest was the cover story, and to be honest, I don’t remember what it was but, I kept looking over at the magazine, as the man next to me flipped from article to article, and eventually I asked him what he was reading. He told me, “The economist”, and sure enough as I got back home, a bit tipsy from the evening’s booze I think, I totally forgot about it.

Until, I found myself in a bookstore, and the trademark “The Economist” written in white on the signature red block caught my attention, and it all came back to me. I flipped through the pages, and bought the rag, and… well, the rest is history. Now I’ve got a subscription.

So… anyone else want to share???? Come on now.

Lazy August Post.

2007-08-22T11:45:00.001-04:00

Blog Entry # 94

Captain’s Log: It was another splendid holiday, this time in the Andalucia sector, we covered most of what we had planned, including, Sevilla, Cadiz, Tarifa, Marbella, and Granada, although Al-Hambra was missed due to some issues, such as our Citroen C2 Spaceship being towed by the Grenadian Parking Conclave.

The one thing that we did not get to see was the solar power tower just south of Seville, due to Google (Intergalactic) Maps giving us directions to go into the center of some tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. Regardless the Holiday went well, and neither Misha nor I killed each other, as was the analysis of our trip by certain parties.

On a final note however, I will not recommend Marbella to anyone, ever, the place was just awful though it did lead to a funny one liner by a New Yorker regarding the joint “Yo, keep Marbella on the DL, aite?” He… will not be getting an MBA from ESADE.

Blog Entry # 94.1

Captain’s Log: Spent one day on the Planet of Barcelona and then set sail for the nice, but somewhat strange planet of Sweden, Stockholm to be exact. Long story short, the country really is beautiful, the people are super nice, but a few things were a bit strange, for example the queues, everyone queues for everything, to the bar, the club, the counter, to ask a question, to get into a tramway. I heard the Swedes liked their queues but I never would have thought that it was a national pastime. Regardless, the food was great, and the whole stay was awesome. I spent one wonderful and adventuresome day in the archipelago, on an island called Moja, where I was attacked by a swarm of ultra large mutant space mosquitoes (hate the buggers), luckily I fought them off, and can tell the tale of my daring and courageous escape ;)

I finally came back a bit over a week ago to Barcelona, right at the beginning of Gracia festival, which … as we say in the trade “was more fun than a bushel full of midgets doing the can can all dressed up in animal outfits on a dew filled morning in the Adirondacks”. Don’t ask what it means, we just say it.

Until next time. Cap’n out.

Weekend in the north (of Italy) ... a summary.

2007-07-31T18:20:00.001-04:00

Wow, … um, ok… well I went to Italy 2 weekends ago, Milan was Milan, dirty, and a smoldering pan of tar. According to a pharmacy thermometer, the temperature read 47C in the sun. Having walked around the city for six plus hours, and taken the tourist bus, I was more than satisfied to leave the Italian capital of fashion and finance for some peace and quiet of Turin. Eugenio, a classmate of mine was putting me up for the weekend, a favor I would return the weekend afterwards, and we arrived in the home of the Fiat at twilight. The city was much more beautiful and scenic than I had imagined, with rolling tree covered hills, houses hidden in nooks, and the city itself, painted white, with straight alleys and boulevards, or so it seemed at night, almost majestic I would say. The food, as tends to be in this part of the world was magnificent, and made me really not look forward to having to return to the bocadillo, tortilla, and patatas bravas, which stand out far and beyond the other two culinary disasters mentioned here (in my most humble of opinions).

All was going well, and relaxation was setting in, the quiet of the hills, coupled with the food, and the much cooler weather was settling into my bones, giving me the rest I so needed after Barcelona. When on Saturday, we decided to go out. Given the party was good, as most parties always are, but the following day, with what some may call a raging hangover, I found out that neither Eugenio nor I wanted to go out that night; all my relaxation, evaporated, gone… but that is life; full of mistakes and unspoken words.

On Sunday we returned to Milan, with Eugenio’s ex girlfriend’s mother in the front seat. Knowing she would come, it was my intention to take a nap while heading back, but with the woman taking nonsense the entire way there, it was hardly possible. The next day I flew home, with my Italian having improved significantly in just the few days I was there.

Upon arriving back to Barcelona, it soon became evident that the light were out in most of the city, and thus could not do my wash, could just sweat in my flat. Later that night we went to the Montjuic outdoor cinema with some 1^st years, who left early as the film left a lot to be desired. And that is that, the last two weeks were uneventful. But this Friday, Misha and I set off for a long weekend excursion to Andalucía, news will be provided with some delay, and then there’s the Gracia festival, after which I am sure I will need another holiday.

As for work – I’ve started a new, and things are progressing slowly, but at least they’re moving. Pictures of Italy, should be on Flickr within the week. Cheers.

Worst idea ever?

2007-07-18T15:54:00.000-04:00

So... spent most of the day working, getting stuff in prder for when I come back from Italy Monday, organizing thoughts, and basically getting ready to get back into the run of things with this biz plan, when on techcrunch.com I came across 3D E-MAIL!!!! and after looking at the below clip, I've come to the conclusion that if people paid money to have this thing developed, getting cash for my idea should be a sinch.

Enjoy... and btw.... http://www.3dmailbox.com/ <-- it's not a joke.

Wait, what, huh????

2007-07-16T09:31:00.000-04:00

It’s summer, I’m pale, and I lost most of my work. Ain’t life grand. Well at least for one project.

Yep… haven’t a clue as to how it happened, but I go to open the file I’ve been using to work on my business plan, and poof. It’s gone, reverted to something I had in early June. So a month’s worth of work, down the drain. Not cool to say the least. Worst of all, I tried every trick in the book, and could no nothing to get the work back. So back to the drawing board, at least this time around I know where to look and what to do, so it should take me a bit less time to get the same amount of work completed.

Also, I’m pale. Summer in BCN and I am super pale. How lame is that, apparently spending most of my time indoors isn’t really helping too much with the bronzing of my skin, on the bright side though I’m putting off having more of those unavoidable wrinkles until the future. Touché.

And finally, I totally forgot about booking my room and getting some of the nitty gritty finished for South Africa, which I’ve been taking of today, and plan to hopefully have everything squared away by the time I head off for Milan. (Thursday).

who wants RAM!?

2007-07-01T22:59:00.001-04:00

not much has happened since the last post. I'm super busy, working on average between 10-14 hour days. Funny thing is about two years ago I would have called myself an idiot, now, I actually like it. And on a personal note, there's nothing like going pale during the summer in BCN... yeah, I spend too much time indoors.

On that note, I've decided to upgrade to 2GB Ram, bought from the UK, as I wound up paying about 15 Euro less for it w/ s&h than here in Spain. Why... because I tend to run too many apps at once and need it. So.... if anyone needs 512MB modules of stock Dell 6400/E1505 Ram, let me know. I got 'em cheap. ;)

Finally.... I'm looking into getting my Polish drivers license, and may need to shoot over there for it, and would really like to visit Sevilla and a friend in Milan this summer, problem is when. There's never enough time for anything. Bah... time for sleep. Buenas....

El Verano esta aqui, y....

2007-06-27T11:37:00.000-04:00

... in betwixt everything , I've started painting (see examples), I've been trying to work on these projects, but man, I forgot how hard it is to get motivated when there's nothing really pushing you and the weather's nice. But... I'm trying.

And that's pretty much it.... nothing really exciting other then that.

When buying your next laptop, remember to research thoroughly.

2007-06-18T04:59:00.000-04:00

I “unfortunately” own a dell. 6400 here in the EU, and E1505 in the States, I bought a Dell, because I had a dell, a nifty little 8200 that was tough, ran splendidly and never had any problems. So I figure, Dell’s a good company, they have good laptops, might as well go get another one.

Worst decision of my life. Why? Well I think I wrote about this but during the finals for term 2 I had hard drive failure, complete, and could not access my PC at all. Perfect for when you have to study.

Then my screen gets some strange stains that I absolutely cannot get rid of, and now, I can’t charge my battery because the power adapter is garbage, and it went right ahead and broke itself.

So today I am going to call support which in all likelihood will tell me that I cannot get support here in Spain because I bought the laptop in the U.S. (this will probably result as part of Dell’s new business model to push many support options onto its users, in hopes of generating higher revenues). But little do they know, that a crap product is still a crap product. I think I’ve said this before. My next laptop, is a Mac.

After our last final a bunch of us went to the beach....

2007-06-05T11:36:00.001-04:00

.... this is what we looked like. Now strategy week, and over with Year 1. Also, I got a 9.5 /10 in Strategy Implementation, Master Honors :D Super cool.

Done and done (almost)

2007-05-30T11:58:00.000-04:00

Finals are ALMOST over, we have two more, and I feel pretty confident about them. After that, one week strategy module, and the summer is here.

In the end I opted out of an internship to work on two consecutive business plans, one to generate a steady income stream to my and a colleagues bank accounts, it’s a website, it serves a niche that is yet unexploited in Spain, and Europe, so growth opportunities are there; with the second business plan being something that I believe to be somewhat revolutionary, super cool, and dealing with the renewable energy sector. This latter one will probably take most of my time, but should it work, and should I be able to pawn it off on someone like Acciona, Syngenta, or Virgin Fuels, I may just have this MBA paid for.

Moving on, since I will be here this summer, and since an opportunity presented itself, I have gone ahead and for the price of 350€ bought wheels. Yup, I’ve got a moto. Picture, enclosed. It’s 100cc, works great, and I just need to get another mirror (approximate cost 12€) cause some schmo stole it. That bastard. And yes, I will be careful, I like life a bit too much not to be.

And finally, on the 11^th, a fine young strapping Panamanian lad, (Pierre) is moving into our flat. So that’s that. Year one was a ridiculous learning experience, and I really can’t vocalize just how much it is we actually learned. Moreover, it’s actually applicable knowledge, which given whatever career I find myself in will undoubtedly help me in the future.

Oh yeah, and I’m really looking forward to the summer. Cheers.

By the way... this is Pierre.

I found something

2007-05-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

A long long time ago, I wanted to be a writer. Still do actually, I have a book that's about 1/2 finished given my mum hasn't thrown out the pages. It's hand written you know, what a terrible idea that was. But coming back to my previous point, and the title of this post, I found something, and I want to share it with you. I believe I wrote this some time between 1997-1998, wow, almost 10 years ago. Hope you enjoy it.

"The night was now gone forever and the day it had just begun, the sound of the nearby water fountain was like extremely profound perfume that the anxious child wares. Time, it was absolute to them, the Jack Daniels flowing nearly muted by the song of the dawn. They had swarmed together in pity of one another. I saw it all, I tell you. The gaiety and cheer, the dancing and lust in a massive orgy of licentious desire and passion swooned by the irrevocable effects of alcohol. They ride the stallions; exhausted and beguiled by their own savvy acts they stop. So they too feel the hurt and smell the perfume of the fountain. They are going to sleep now, I will join them, a sleep to sleep for ages, perhaps, we will not be woken up. "

Cheers,

- Jacek

We're almost at the end of year one.

2007-05-12T17:28:00.000-04:00

A small update

Honestly, it’s been a while, and while there are numerous things to write about I simply don’t know where to start. Last I left this blog was approximately a month ago. What has happened since then? Mostly a lot of work, the third term is intense, and I’m happy to say that given the scope of the past seven or so months I have learned more than I thought possible. This is stemming from operations, to marketing to finance, as well as a lot about me, and this is not strictly a result of the LEAD class. But what really is breathtaking is that we’re almost wrapping up the 1^st year at ESADE. We have, give or take three more weeks and that’s it c’est finis. Then we all part ways and leave for the summer, each on our own path.

I’ve pretty much narrowed down my options to a couple. I’m still waiting to hear back from a few companies, and one in Barcelona regarding a summer job, which given the context of my other option (which I will soon cover) would be ideal, as I really want to spend the summer here. The job option is in Switzerland (still waiting to hear back from this one as well), and then the final one, the one that I really want.

So what is it? Well, since about the middle of term one, I was playing around with an entrepreneurial idea, quite a good one too, but as we started digging into the possibility it soon became evident that an initial investment of a couple million € would have been necessary, not to mention a slew of issues pertaining to digital rights management. And for anyone who knows anything about DRM, it is an absolute disaster trying to wade those waters. Now, there’s sprung up another idea, one with much lower development costs, just as much potential, and better yet in a growing market than one which is just trying to forge itself. So risk, reward, we’re going for the new one.

So why do I want to stay in Barcelona? Because my business partner is here, communication would be easier than say if I were stuck in Zurich, and we could hypothetically get this thing to launch January 2008 (And I really mean hypothetically, because S.A. will undoubtedly slow things down). So now, choices. Should I follow the instant gains from an internship? Should I couple an internship with this project, and if I do will I have an adequate amount of time to devote to both? And finally what if it doesn’t work, will not having an internship in any way, jeopardize my future employment plans. After all there is the MBA tab to settle with Sallie Mae? Choices, choices, choices… In the end, I think I’m going to follow my gut on this one. Let’s just hope my gut is right.

And on a final note, the cleaning lady broke my desk lamp, que puta. (kidding)

The combination is 1,2,3,4,5…

2007-04-17T16:45:00.000-04:00

So I haven’t the slightest clue as to what I’m doing wrong here. I’ve applied for internships, and I hear nothing, nada, zero, zilch, nil, and I just don’t get it. No dings, no acceptance letters, nothing. Bad / good, I don’t know??? But thus far, both my roommates have them, one at Euromonitor in Chicago, the other at Pfizer in NYC; but Jacek really doesn’t want to go back to the states. Anyways, all this got me thinking.

Why don’t I have one? It can’t be my covering letter as I’ve helped others write theirs and they have internships, it can’t be my CV as a number of Co’s have expressed interest in me post MBA, but don’t have summer internship programmes for MBA students. i.e. E.On, Dalkia, Statoil, etc…

So what’s the plan? Stay in Barcelona, get my Spanish up to fluency? Worst case scenario. Go back to NY? – Nah! That’s boring. Go to Poland and get my EU drivers license, and Polish ID card… possibly. But the truth is, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve got a few things in the pipeline, and one of them is working on a development project in Liberville, Gabon. No details yet, keeping my fingers crossed and man, 3 months in Gabon, and then some more in South Africa, it’s like a dream come true.

Finally - what’s the point to this post or for that matter, the combination to getting a good internship? Beats the living bejesus out of me! For some it’s a step process 1,2,3,4,5, for me it’s anything but that – guess for now we keep on trying, and diversify our search criteria. :/

Oh yeah, and Term 3 = lots of work. More than in term 1 I think, it’s just that now we’re all used to it.

Term 3

2007-04-08T21:38:00.000-04:00

Yeah, last post today... ok... I know you guys are dying to read more... ok well maybe not. But here is our class line up.

Corporate Finance

Global Marketing

Global Strategy

International Business and Corporate Law

Management Information Systems

Operations Strategy

Strategy Implementation

Trade and Investment in the World Economy

Corp. Finc. is no joke, and the prof, who also works in administrations is looking to make us work like crazy for our grades, MIS, which usually is a joke and / or a pushover class imo, is looking really interesting, Biz law, thus far has been very inciteful, and we have the same teacher from pre-term (making me wish I paid more attention back then), our prof. from Trade & Investment in the World Economy is awesome, an older gentleman, knowledgable and super cool, keeps everyone interested in the material. Global Mkting has thus far been inciteful, and am looking to learning more. As for the rest of the materials, really cant speak much as I'm tired and as we just started I'm still getting acclimated to all the classes, especially after these Porto and Romania vacations.

Speaking of whitch - pictures coming soon. - Cheers.

You like me, you really really like me.

2007-04-08T21:23:00.000-04:00

Apparently I've been nominated for "Clear Admit's annual Best of Blogging Awards." So for all you people out there in Blog Land - and to all the people at Clear Admit, Merci, Gracies, Gracias, Multumesc, Obrigado, Dziekuje, Dziekuj, Zdrastwujtie, Arigato, Shukran, Danke, Grazie... well you get the point. And, it's good to see that all the trials, trib ulations, moments on the ferrocarriles, etc... have not been put to waste, and to know that people actually read my little piece of internet webspace.

Cheers, and to all those who read this, ... Merci, Gracies, Gracias, Multumesc, Obrigado, Dziekuje, Dziekuj, Zdrastwujtie, Arigato, Shukran, Danke, Grazie... well you get the point. ;)

8 days en Romania and all I got was a lousy sheep skin.

2007-04-08T10:39:00.000-04:00

A month ago stepping foot on the two new EU entrants seemed quite distant, but with flights to Turkey running around 500€ two weeks before the break, Romania, seemed like the greatest idea ever. So myself and Mike (a fellow MBAer at ESADE) went on the WizzAir website and purchased to and fro tickets to Bucharest. What we were to find was nothing what we expected, and especially that Rapha (another MBAer at ESADE) would join us.

So what happened? Well, it’s a long story, so let’s just cover the basics. The airport, the streets, the buildings, infrastructure, etc… is still very reminiscent of good olde communism, but it is changing quickly and is moving forwards. Bucharest as a city can be very cheap and very expensive depending on what you want to do, and how much you want to “make your presence known” (I’ll get into that soon). More than once, we saw prices that were more expensive than in Barcelona – but this is not the norm, many people are without proper work, there is a good deal of poverty, and I think the income disparity between the rich and the poor is very prevalent in Romania, much more so than in other ex-communist countries within the EU (or at least the ones I’ve been to).

But besides that the trip was fun, we stayed in Bucharest 2 days, both of which we went to Bamboo (the most exclusive club in all of Romania), and spent too much money to watch the rich and beautiful not talk to one another (apparently to be cool, you don’t converse with other people in the clubs / lounges / discos, you just show off – imo retarded). Then we went to the Mts. Carpatian to be exact, stayed in Tudor’s house up there, we ate well, saw Rasnov, Braşov, Bran (Dracula’s castle), a 1400m peak, Rapha saw Snow – being Brazilian he was very excited. I bought a sheep, and a t-shirt, Rafa a Dragon China Knife and a Dracula mug, and Mike food. I spent my birthday, signing karaoke to a bunch of Transylvanians in Braşov, and all in all it was a wonderful get away from the city.

Back in Bucharest, we decided to head down to Bulgaria for lunch as the border is 60km away, we headed down to Giurgiu and crossed the border on foot to Pyce (Ruse), where I found out that I apparently possess intermediate Bulgarian abilities. How wonderful. We then went into a restaurant, and ordered, appropriately, a Bulgarian salad and some type of meat, with local Bulgarian booze which tasted like super strong anisette. On our way back, we got swindled for 25€ by a Bulgar cab driver to go across the border, but he did drop us off at the minibuses, which was nice.

The following two days were spent in Bucharest, and on our last day we met with Tudor’s parents, as well as with Traian, who is also a fellow MBAer at ESADE. In all a short account, we did much more, but to get through it all would take up considerably more than what I feel like writing down, plus I’ve got to go take care of a bagillionload of things right now, like a nap, and laundry. J

I'm going to South Africa, Cape Town, and oh yeah .... a

2007-03-25T17:27:00.000-04:00

Is what I got on my Corporate Finance final. Not too shabby, but still not a hundred. Anyways, Portugal was interesting, Oporto historical quarter is dead, the houses are all falling down, no young people at all, just drunks, heroin addicts, and the old – as in old people. To be honest, I was shocked to see all this as the old city reminded me a bit of Ukraine, well, L’viv to be exact, run down and unmaintained. Going into the country the general gloom of Oporto’s city center was lifted, and the rolling hills in the Douro valley really were quite scenic, the wine was great, and the bacalao was everywhere, really you couldn’t get away. The beachfront, filled with young people, expensive cars, gave reasons a plenty as to why Brasil has so many good looking women.

Speaking of Brasil, I will not be going there for exchange, I was accepted to Cape Town, and will spend the latter part of this year studying, traveling, and learning how to surf in South Africa – the last being strictly dependent on whether my leg will recover from whatever injury it is I have. Basically, I’m limping everywhere, have a super tightness all over it, and pain 24/7. And I went to the doctor on Thursday – cyclobenzoprine, and an MRI.

In other news, I’ll be heading to Romania over Semana Santa for an 8 day long excursion into Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldova, and during which I will probably get drunk on a Monday as it is my birthday. And the wheels on the clock go round and round. Wrinkles and gray hair are already starting to appear, what’s next, gravity taking over? Beh… I’m not liking this getting older nonsense.

And that’s about it, Term 3 has started, soon we’ll be ½ way through this damn MBA, and I can’t believe time is flying by so quickly. 18 Months in Barca is turning out to be nothing. Anyways, enough of my rambling, back to writing these bloody internship application cover letters.

Transformers

2007-03-25T16:47:00.000-04:00

So we had a get together at my place this last Thursday, and “The Touch” was playing (You Tube link below) – which my roommate Benjamin put on – anyways, it’s from the transformers movie. And watching the video reminded me of something.

Back in 1987, when we first got to the States, transformers were huge, super cool for all the kids, and everyone wanted the different parts to build the mega robots. I remember being in Toys ‘R Us with my mom and some other woman who I can’t place one day, and I really wanted a transformer. Well, I recall, my mother that day, thinking about it, and finally saying that she would buy me one. So I went and chose the cheapest piece, took it home, and was a bit disappointed as it did nothing.

But what I’m trying to get to here is that, even though we couldn’t afford it, she sacrificed the couple of bucks that now seem like throw away change to make me happy – and sometimes I think of that moment, and realize what an amazing, wonderful, loving, caring, woman she is, and recall all the sacrifices that my parents made for me so that I would have a better life. Thanks mom and dad, and one day, I hope that if I’ll be ½ as good a parent as you were… well… you get the point.

So people, this may sound, touchy feely, a bit nancy, and so on, but hey… remember your folks, they truly are amazing people.

Kocham Cie mamciu :)

I spent 45 minutes on the phone with dell tech support...

2007-03-12T19:12:00.000-04:00

... in Spanish and all I got was a lousy hard drive. That is being shipped from the Netherlands. Today, we had our MPO (Managing People in Organization) final papers to hand in, and my PC's desire to break down did no one, and by no one me, any help, especially since I had to rush rewriting the bloody thing. Meaning, I didn't get to proof read it, and its final quality is far inferior to that what was lost due to hard drive failure. Thanks DELL!!!!!

We also had our Corp. Finance test today as well, which I think went pretty well, and tomorrow we have Operations Management in the morning, and Environmental Issues in the afternoon. We'll see... and finally wednesday, Marketing in the Morning, which I'm a smidge worried about, esp. since I'm not the one doing the PPT design this time, and finally International Taxation, which OECD rules aside is proving alot easier to study for than I imagined. Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on going into tax, but at least I'll get passing marks, which given OECD text (for anyone who has read it sans law degree will tell you) is not exactly Harry Potter and the MBA.

Then Thursday we're off to Portugal for the weekend, and then the start of Term 3. Time flies when you're in Barca. On the internship front, no Nr. 1 no Nr 2... a bit bummed about it. Had 1.5 interviews, but eh... and still no sign of life from the other companies that I've applied to. I'm inclined to think appropriating a chiringuito on the beach, say Bogatell, might not be such a bad idea. - And then there's the option of just devoting myself to this business plan I've been fidgeting around with, and making my money promoting - promoting NY style of course, Barcelona is slowly starting to go Haute Couture - and what with the pathetic dollar, I may stay here after all.

Cheers,

Today was one of those special days...

2007-03-10T18:14:00.000-05:00

Right, so we have Term 2 finals coming up next week, and this weekend sees the Barcelona version of the MBAT held at IESE. No football for me however, since I
totally messed up my leg a few weeks back doing just that, playing football. Instead I decided to devote this weekend to going over international taxation, finishing up
my MPO paper / final, and having an all round productive weekend hitting the books and preparing for the inevitable finals.

But... oh yes... but... sometime in the middle of the night as I was defragmenting my hard disk, the Windows Blue Screen of Death appeared, ok no big... happens.
Well in my case, this resulted in me not being to log back into Windows, or being able to finish my paper, or download any of the material I needed to from the intranet.
Instead I spend 45 minutes on the phone with Dell tech support in the U.S. that I had to pay for - 1.800 numbers arent free when dialing from abroad, and the Spanish
Dell was closed until Monday. Now... If I had nothing better to do than hang around and socialize, I probably would have left it at that, but as my access to the web, my
docs, etc... is directly correlated to how well I do, I've spent the last 6 hours, first trying to get into my PC, to do this I had to reinstall Windows, and then figure out
in safe mode, how to hack into my other accounts in Windows installation numero uno, and back it all up. Oh... and I found out via the nice people at Dell that
my HDD is done for. I'm going to reinstall everything on a new formatted partition after I back it all up now, but I need a new drive anyways - more useless PC work coming my way.... oh happy days ahead. I'm so pissed off... at least I managed to get my files...

I swear, prospective MBA students, GET A MAC!!!!!!!

Where do we go? Where do we go now? Where do we go, ay ay ay aiii.

2007-02-22T12:05:00.000-05:00

Not exactly “Sweet Child of Mine” by GnR, but the question is the upcoming MBA exchange. I would well stay in Barcelona for the 4^th term, but besides being here over six months already; what kind of fun would that be?

So what exciting places are there to go and see? Well for starters, let’s get the usual dishes out of the way. You have schools all over Europe, from France, to the UK, the Netherlands, Finland - Boring. Well, Finland could be interesting but that’s all I’m saying on that subject. Then you have the wonderfully wonderful US of A. Same here, East Coast / West Coast schools, some in the south, some up north, all of them the usual suspects (you know those schools that people can’t stop talking about on MBA forums) – and after spending 19 years of my life in the States, something is just not pulling me back there, and although I love and sometimes even miss NYC, for an exchange, bleh. I’ll come back when I have well over a couple of mill € in equity (maybe). Oh… and good luck getting a visa if you’re not from Western Europe. Viva la Patriot Act.

Then we come to the interesting ones kiddies. Nr. 1 on my Choice list. UCT GSB. Huh? University of Cape Town GSB (yes like in Kellogg). Why? Well… because I want to work in energy and during the embargo S.A. converted coal to liquid, they’ve done gas to liquid, and they’re an entry point into all the other Sub-Saharan African nations out there. They’re also the leading economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the fastest developing, and building a network there, and learning the lay of the land so to say, will only bring advantage to me when I’m building refineries off the coast of Angola (while investing in Angolan education, infrastructure, etc... because I believe the way Europe and the U.S. have done business on this continent in the past is flawed and morally wrong).

Then there’s numero dos. Or should I say “número dois” is Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo. Why? Well it’s Brazil, and Brazil has, for all those who are not privy to this information an amazing E85 system in place, meaning they run most of their autos on an etanol / petrol mix, and as I want to go into energy (see a process developing here), I believe I could learn a lot. Not to mention pick up Portuguese along the way. You see, eu non fala porgugeis. Or something like that.

Then the last one, is a two week stint in China before Term 4 starts, and the school pays for everything but the airfare, and believe it or not, after looking online the flights to an fro Sino land (that is the People’s Republic of China) are not bad at all 700€ round trip. Totally doable, and given my internship prospects don’t turn out as favourable as I hope, and am not able to land that dream job right afterwards, I can always get right on it here in BCN.

So where do you guys think I should go? Huh? Would love to hear your thoughts. Cheers

Nudziarze – czy to właśnie ta rużnica kultur? Inne sprawy, i coś tam jeszcze.

2007-02-19T06:03:00.000-05:00

Pare tyg. temu w czasie rozgrywek futbolu Amerykańskiego spotkałem paru Polaków z tego programu MBA koło nas, i muszę powiedzieć ze oprócz Kasi, takiej jednej z Chicago, to reszta troche nudziarze. W jakim sęsie? Pierwsze wrażenia to poprostu przekazywały ze faceci bez jaj. Założę się że każdy z nich to napewno więcej niż przeciętny pracownik, ale czy facet zrobi dobrego CEO, prezesa, itd... sądze że nie. Na te role jest potrzebna wizja, przewodnictwo, i umiejętnosci ludzkie. I osobiscie uważam ze najbardziej im brakowało własnie tego ostatniego. Mimo, że jestem jedynym Polakiem w ESADE, uważam ze kultura naszej szkoły w poruwnaniu do ichnej jest zupełnie inna, i gdybyśmy tu milei więcej rodaków to ta ruyżnica między nami była by jeszcze bardziej widoczna. Więc składajcie ludy, potrzebujemy większą reprezentację Polska. Mamy trzech Rumunów, Węgra, i to wszystko. A jeżeli chcemy zeby nasze firmy, nasza ekonomia, i nasza przyszłość stała na nogi, potrzebujemy sie nauczyć stosunków biznesu na strefie międzynarodowej, nie tylko Polskiej.

W innych sprawach, to nie ma co gadać. Atrykuł w Perspektywach powinnien być wydany za niedługo. Szukam praktyke na lato i idzie jak krew z nosa, i egzaminy na drugi termin się już szybciutko zbliżają – cholera, szybko ten czas leci.

Lessons hard learned

2007-02-14T03:40:00.000-05:00

Starting off, Andorra was fun, I tried snowboarding for the 1st time and should have just stuck with skiing, it was an absolute disaster and I spent most of the first day on my arse. The second day saw a wonderful fun filled day at Caldea (biggest spa in Europe - http://www.caldea.com/) and unlike the pictures on their website, there are no floating lemons.

Moving on, I lost the elections for Social VP. I had 43% of the vote, and only about 36% of the population went out and actually voted – so where did I fail? Not getting my supporters to the poles, I was basically the better candidate, but with people saying “Dude, it’s fine, there’s no competition, you’ll win” and not voting, basically led to Jimena taking the spot from me. Good luck, and good riddance. (Kidding, best of luck to her, and if she needs any help I’m there to help her out)

Finally, yesterday saw two things. One was a quiz in Corp. Finance, which would have went quite well if I had remembered how to use my stupid BAII Plus Financial Calculator, I knew what to do and how to do it, but my periods per year were reset to 12, and should have been 1. Oh stupid stupid…; and then there was my phone interview for one of my top 1st firms. How did it go? I haven’t a clue. Maybe, poorly, maybe well… we’ll find out in 7-10 days; but the interviewer ended it with “I wish you the best of luck in your future career”. So what’s that mean? I got it, or I didn’t. Flarghf… I hate ambiguity.

Wait... am I really this motivated? What happened? These MBA's are amazing!!!

2007-02-07T17:49:00.000-05:00

OK, so I passed Spanish and am now in the last module before I terminate my classroom learning of the language, French, German or Russian next. We had our career forum, which went well, but... I'm super swamped. Have a huge presentation in Managing People in Organizations tomorrow, then another huge presentation in Environment, I've taken it upon myself to put together the ESADE football team consisting of 1st years, 2nd years and the Part Time program, and after last weeks more than pathetic showing, we really need some vision, leadership, and a lot of training sessions. This weekend we're also going to Andorra - skiing, well snowboarding for me, and that involves a visit to decathlon (sports store) tomorrow, just don't know when, and I'm still to write my speech for social VP. Freggin A. But for kicks, here's my campaign poster, that - I have to print out tomorrow.

And on a final note... lemme tell you, Barcelona's great, but there is truly something I miss about NYC, and I quote from e-mail. ...

"Party Animals,

With its thousands of shows, aftershows, cocktails, afterparties, afterparties of afterparties, models and fashionatas running all around the city, the Fashion Week will always be a special week in New York.. At least for party animals like us!

We'll start tonight at PM with Phillip Bloch & Nick Cannon's 07 Fall/Winter Party, then we'll have Q Models Fashion Week Party at Room Service with special DJ Guest and Grammy Award Winner Hex Hector, on Friday our favourite Azzurri DJ Massi will be back at Manor for an all night long session, and to finish the week our Class Saturdays at Room Service. Dress to impress, its Fashion Week!

Cheers,
Fabien"

Aaaah, the good 'ol life. Cheers.

FT Rankings are in...

2007-01-30T07:44:00.000-05:00

And we moved up to 24th internationally, ahead of Haas, Darden and Cornell, which is nice, in the 10 ten in Europe and in the FT's rankings of rankings we're tied for 9th globally alongside Wharton and IESE.

Not bad, huh? But to look at it all objectively, rankings are somewhat of a farce, it all depends on personal choice, what you're looking out of an MBA programme, the culture and mesh. At least that's my personal opinion, and I could scream and shout about rankings how great they are, blah blah blah, after all we are No.1 Internationally in the WSJ. But as I said, it's a matter of fit between you the student, and the school.

Internships, Andorra y Español

2007-01-30T07:34:00.000-05:00

So, anyone know a CEO at a major energy company? Cause daddy needs an internship. I’ve been sending out applications and although a no response is probably better than a ding, it’s still not great, and after all industry does start after consulting and i-banking.

Thus far, I’ve heard back from a company that in my book is tied for the No.1 internship and employment spot, and I’m short listed for an interview, which is good, but not great as I’d like not to have to worry about this any more.

In other news, we’re going skiing in Andorra after the career forum, I’ve got my exam in Español this afternoon, which I’m neither prepared on unprepared for. It is grammar so it will undoubtedly be a killer, but the fact that I can have conversations about Chavez, energy, movies, and god knows what else bears good news about my abilities in Castellan. Whether I can write a report on the subject matter with the same sense and clarity as I have in English, is another story.

Marks are in - passed all my classes :)

2007-01-23T08:28:00.000-05:00

They showed up today, and I passed all of them, most were in the 8's, one in the 7's and two in the 6's, and I even pulled off a 8.1 in Financial Analysis :O; though I was a bit surprised with the poor mark in AQM. Could I have done better, probably, am I happy with what I got, I suppose so, term II is shaping up to be a walk in the part for me, so I should be able to bring my overall grade up a bit, and I also can't believe the lack of a 9 in Marketing, freggin' B.S. At least I won't have to take makeup classes like some other people this year. I do feel bad for them though, I really do.

Czasopismo nazywa się "Perspektywy"

2007-01-18T09:02:00.000-05:00

Dostałem informacje od mandzera programu i czasopismo się nazywa Perspektywy, ma częstotliwosc misięczna, i nakład ok. 100 tys. egz. Kto by chciał, link na storne czasopisma jest tu a link wikipedii tu.

Nie wiem kiedy artykuł będzie publikowany.

Prawie że niewiarygodne / Nearly incredible

2007-01-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

Więc tak, ogulnie to po Polsku chciałem dzisiejszy blog na pisać bo parę dziennikarek miało ze mną wywiad o ESADE do jakiejgoś Polskiego periodku skolasycznego. No poprawia się zycie, poprawia się. Ale bo moja kochana klawiatura Della nie jest ustawiona na jezyk Polski, i mi sie obecnie nie chce jej ustawiać, to konczę i przestawiam się znów na Angielski... więc... sory.

Now for the Anglophones and everyone else, sorry about my last few titles; I know I haven’t been all that creative lately. But! I have some amazing news. 1st of all the final in Competition and Strategy went well, I finished it, some others did not, for lack of time, and there’s another course closer to having an MBA behind my name.

But here’s the rub. Some Polish journalists came through ESADE today, interviewed the program director, and as I am Polish and all that, the administration asked me to briefly meet with them, I did and was unexpectedly interviewed. I was basically asked to talk about my decision to attend ESADE, specifically why there, what I found most interesting about the program, and like I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, it’s the personal attention that the student gets, and the languages. They took some pictures of yours truly and if all goes well I’ll get my 1st quote in a Polish publication at the age of 27. How cool is that.

Afterwards, I heard from the Program Manger, Jeroen Verhoeven that the visit went very well, and honestly, even though I was a bit distraught, just glad I could help.

Le update

2007-01-15T09:46:00.000-05:00

Competition and strategy is over, and now the real deal starts. We still have the final tomorrow in competition and strategy, and we’ll see how that goes, probably well as the book is an interesting read.

The 1st weekend back was pretty tame and we had a little shin dig in my apartment where the social gap between ESADE and IESE was bridged, yes, we had a mixed party, and no one left with any broken ligaments, this Sunday’s football match, may turn out otherwise. Kidding, but it was nice to mingle, and cleaning up on Sunday was less than fun.

The new term classes are ok so far, Managing People in Organizations is much more exciting than International Business Law, but then again I feel the same way about law as I do about getting the stomach flu, meaning both make me feel a bit ill, but the stuff today about double taxation will undoubtedly prove useful. Death and taxes and all that. Next up is Español, and then an entrepreneurial networking session with Babson exchange students.

In other news, I’m 100% going into energy, and I’m really keeping my fingers crosses about BP and RDS (Royal Dutch Shell) and have found a few other smaller, greener and really interesting companies here that would also be good places to spend the summer months interning.

As it’s term two and all, I’ve also been thinking a bit about an exchange. South Africa, specifically so I can get a grasp of life / work in Africa, too bad they don’t have MBA programs in Angola or the DRC. That would really be fun.

Back in the saddle again

2007-01-11T08:05:00.000-05:00

New York, New York. Vacation was good, saw my parents, saw my cat, saw my friends, stomped the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan, and it sure is good to be back in Europe. Especially after the fiasco that was Morocco – 10 days of pure and utter adventure. So much fun.

I flew out of NYC on the 28th, stopover in London Gatwick morning of the 29th, Barcelona, argued with the cab driver on the way home cause he decided to take me through mid day traffic hell instead of taking the Ronda and then Diagonal as I had asked. Dropped off my bags (yes bags, my initial luggage never left the Barcelona airport), then back to the airport for a flight to Malaga, met my traveling companions at the airport then to Algeceiras, and finally a ferry to in Tanger on the 30th.

The following few days saw us sleeping in a hotel without windows, going over the Atlas Mts. in a bus without heating and an open window (it was – 4C), sleeping 2 days under tents in the desert, eating amazing food and going by camel to an oasis. Then we missed the bus from Erfoud to Ouzazate as it was broken and by 1980 Mercedes taxi with a cabby who spoke only Berber to Ouazazate, there one night, super experiences with the locals and to Marrakech, where we amazingly enough found an amazing Riyadh for 20€ a person and spent two amazing days there. From Marrakech to Casa Blanca by train, and another two days in Casa at Paloma’s friends house, meeting the family and eating the most amazing couscous ever and then back to Tanger, on a train that was late, without sleep, and finally Spain where another member of our party had some visa issues.

Finally we got back to Barcelona Monday circa midnight and the following day school, which thus far has been kicking us in the gluteus maximus, i.e. working on a project this past Tuesday until 12:30 at night, and still not finishing it, then scrambling to get it done during lunch to get it done, and that is that. It’s good to be back in Barcelona, the weather is amazing, clear blue skies, and it’s fantastic to see everyone again.

Finally, the desert is such a place that you cant help but be at least a little touched. For me, I did some soul searching, and while music, media, advertising and such is all good and well, I think I’m going to focus once again on the energy sector. After all, I am zealously passionate about it and it’s just easier to change the world that way, and any who, that’s what I always wanted to do.

Oh… and I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Cheers.

What a wonderful and merry x-mas we've had

2006-12-25T23:54:00.000-05:00

I’m back in NY, oh much later than I was supposed to be, I have no luggage as it’s either still in Barcelona, Heathrow, JFK or Newark, meaning I had no presents for my family, or no socks to wear, no sweaters, no shirts, underwear… well you can imagine. I had to sleep in Heathrow because the wonderful people at el Prat (the BCN airport) didn’t inform me of the gate change (refer to previous post). Also, I probably ate something rotten or with salmonella or some other form of bacteria which made my stomach turn, churn and bubble. I haven’t been able to keep food down for the past 3 days, best of all it being x-mas and all, I really don’t want to eat any of the yummy food my mum cooked up. The only bright side to all this is knowing that people in L.A. pay for their bodies to go through the type of cleansing that I’m experiencing. Never again will I eat Airport food… ever….

… oh and being off coffee really is not doing me any good either. And last thing... I really don't like the holidays.

What I learned during term one

2006-12-21T15:55:00.000-05:00

So today saw the culmination of our exams, wrapping up this hell week was Marketing, and not to blow smoke up mine or anyone else’s arse, but we’re in the running for the best presentation out of the lot. Nice! But then again that’s what working on a presentation for three days, writing an original song for it, and going over it and over it and over it will do for you, and it should be a nice addition to my OB & AQM grades to leverage that god awful managerial accounting grade. If you haven’t noticed I’m still mad at myself about that.

So finally, it’s over, and I’m still at the bloody airport, I missed my first flight because the wonderful people at El Prat (the BCN airport) didn’t care to share with the general public that the boarding gate was changed. So I’ve been here, on 3 hours of sleep, paying way too much for internet access, definitely not sending out my econ paper, because quite frankly I need to review it, and telling you some of the more interesting things that I learned this first term at ESADE. The following is strictly an opinion so please take it with a grain of salt.

I learned …
1. … how to make frozen oven baked pizza seem like a gourmet meal by putting all sorts of condiments on it – when you eat it 3-4 times a week, you improvise.
2. … to absolutely despise jamon serrano, patatas bravas, and for that matter approximately 72.41% of tapas dishes in Placa Ruis i Taulet.
3. … how to say beet in Czech from the bartender at the bar below my flat, it’s řepa.
4. … to hang clothes out to dry, that usually never dry, especially now.
5. … to unconditionally never get my whites white when washing them, even with at least liter of bleach.
6. … to understand that a bocadillo, is more than a baguette with an uninspiring piece of meat thrown in for good measure, but a subtle experience, esoteric in nature, similar in fact to laying in a bed of thistle burrows and dreaming the composition of the universe. Or at least that what I told myself because I had to eat the damn things every day.
7. … that working from 8am to 10pm, just doesn’t seem so bad any more; 8am-2am on the other hand, is still a bitch.
8. … that a lot of people in Catalunya are named Jordi, and Xavi.
9. … to swear like a seasoned sailor in Español.
10… that coming here, to Spain, and to ESADE, has been one of the most rewarding, tough, inspiring, stressful, joyful, emotional, inspirational, driving, active verb adding experiences of my life, and I recommend it to anyone.

Oh… and apparently my flight was just pushed back another ½ hour. Now, I leave at 23:20 for Heathrow. YEY!!!!!!

Finals go as finals go…

2006-12-20T14:21:00.000-05:00

…and today saw a 180º turnaround from yesterday’s fiasco. Applied Quant went well, I’m confident I did well, how well I can’t say, but well enough to get a B, maybe B+ on the final.

Then we had Organizational Behaviour, which looked to all of us like a cloud of impending doom, hovering ever so gently, preparing to reign its terror on the MBA 1st years of ESADE, and apparently for many it was just that. For me luckily, the class was similar in nature to the Philosophy studies I did at Tulane, and therefore my mind was adjusted to that specific type of thinking, not to mention that I also greatly enjoyed the class. The exam was four questions essay style, and I’m sure I got full marks in 3 of the four, with the last mark in the upper end percentiles. Overall, I’d love to see an A in this one, and should my marks be below it, I will be pretty disappointed in myself.

We also finished our marketing presentation, touched up the little tidbits, here’s and there’s and now I’m on my way to finish my economics paper, and pack. Life is good. Well it’s busy, but good as well; anyways, at least a pleasant experience to offset the disaster that was Managerial Accounting.

Cheers,

... the s*** has hit the fan, or so the saying goes.

2006-12-19T13:22:00.000-05:00

While I would like to say that my finals have been going as smoothly as a baby’s bottom, the truth is, it’s not the case. Monday was Financial Analysis, the end all be all mother of the 1st term, and leaving the final I felt very confident, however, talking with my classmates, we all soon came to the conclusion that each of us had omitted minor details here and there. Leading us to question our elated sense of worth soon after finishing the 1st exam of the day. Following we had, our Geopolitics presentations, I was assigned Turkey, and while I think we covered the vast amount of material, we missed some very important issues, the prospects of future governments, infrastructure, and tourism – pass definitely, but....

There goes the A. Also, I think I passed Financial Analysis, I answered each question correctly as to my knowledge, and analyzed each situation, I just feel that I omitted some details that would have secured me a higher grade. Not to mention, they grade tough, really tough.

Then we come to today – Managerial Accounting. Thus far, quizzes, class work etc… has been a breeze, think I did exceptionally well on the quizzes but today’s exam, saw, what I can only describe as a brain fart. I was clueless, literally, I knew the application, I knew how to approach the problems, but I just didn’t. I studied last night, went over the problems, the slides, some of the readings, and today, as we say in Polish “kicha”. I bombed it. I don’t know why, and to be honest, I’m freaking out about the final grade, I was confident yesterday, so much so, of a B as the worst case scenario, now, I just hope I pass. Crap.

So what now. Tomorrow sees Applied Quantitative Models (AQM), and Organizational Behavior, both tough, and AQM’s exam is +1 point for every question correct -.8 points for every question wrong. Joy! So here’s to going over homeworks, re-reading cases, and hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. With OB, that’s a whole different story, the class was astoundingly interesting, but as to what will be on the exam? Essay style, one topic from everything we covered. When are we supposed to study for this??? Went over my summaries, and hope it will be enough, will read them again before bed, and between tomorrow’s exams. Moving on, we finally finished our AQM project today, it looks good, and to tell you the truth working on it was fun, it was like playing consultant to a NGO. We had to design the whole implementation process of a campaign and get the government to pass a directive to apply 0.7% of it’s GDP to developing the third world. Cool huh?

Then there’s the issue of the still incomplete econ paper, hopefully after tomorrow’s marketing presentation run through, I’ll have some time to sit down and write it, it’s only 10 pages. Whoever said MBA’s were easy didn’t do it at ESADE.

Keep your fingers crossed – and I still need to work on LEAD. Good thing I have a long flight.

And if you're wondering how I had time to write all this. Simple, the metro.

D-Day is Upon us...

2006-12-17T10:49:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow sees finals in Financial Analysis and Geopolitics, and we have 2 finals every day, until Thursday, when we have our final Marketing presentations. Do I feel ready for all these exams? Not really. Have I studied? Yes. Do I want more time? Oh yes!

But unfortunately time is something that there tends to be too little of. So we will see... look over the rest of my notes tonight and hope for the best, with some luck, and a stroke of genius I think I'll do well, and yes, we're all freaking out about tomorrow's exams.

On the bright side however, we finished our Marketing presentation, and if I'm right, here comes another A. Basically we pushed MS Powerpoint to its limits, and from a personal standpoint, I think it's an old vestige of a program. They really should have us do all these things in Adobe InDesign. Anyways, included find 2 slides from our presentation on "Ray Ban - Custom". Pretty cool huh? And we even went so far as to record a tune for it.

Wish us luck people... - Cheers.

Finals Time

2006-12-09T06:14:00.000-05:00

Monday sees our last week of term 1, and then we have finals 2 exams a day, Monday through Thursday. Obviously, there is going to be a celebration after we all finish, and one that I will be missing due to being en route to New York, good thing too. All this studying is making me really need some time off.

Truth be told, I’m stressing out a little bit about the finals, especially Financial Analysis, as I heard from 2nd years that anywhere from 25-80% of the class failed it last year. Then there’s the Econ term paper which I don’t know how to start, and Organizational Behavior which if our assessments are correct will probably kick our behinds, especially since professor is extremely demanding.

On the other side, I’m fairly confident that Geopolitics, Applied Quantitative Models, and Marketing will all be passed with flying colors, and could even include Managerial Accounting in that list as well. Overall though, a tough two weeks ahead and I still haven’t managed to get any Christmas shopping done, maybe Sunday.

Actualidad Económica - 9 Noviembre - ESADE y Yo (Yo means I in Spanish)

2006-11-21T16:06:00.000-05:00

La primera cosa, padrón mi español. En verdad. Eso es la primera vez yo soy un serio estudiante de esta idioma, y aunque querría hablar, escribir, bueno, simple no puedo después un mes de los clases. Vale, non paso nada, yo escribe porque en 9 de Noviembre nosotros (ESADE) eran en el artículo en Actualidad Económica. Y cuando yo digo nosotros, es en realidad, NOS OTROS! Mira. A bajo tienes un “scan” de una pagina. Y esto es nuestra clase en la disertación de Managerial Accounting. ¿Puedes verme? Jaja.

Ok… for all you non Spanglophones. ESADE was in the Nov. 9th edition of Actualidad Económica, see if you can spot me?

And by the way… for some reason whenever they take a picture of me here at ESADE they always get my bad side. First the CV book, now this… I mean really. ;)

They weren’t kidding 1st term is a lot of work – and I’m playing footyball.

2006-11-21T07:45:00.000-05:00

At this rate, it looks like I’m going to apologize for not posting every post. So what I’m going to do here is apologize for all the future posts that will come late and or be senseless.

Now, the workload just keeps on piling up, and the fact that I was sick didn’t help the situation much either. Truth be told, I feel a little overwhelmed with all they have us doing. Last week for example, I got home from school at 22:30, and it’s approximately half past midnight and I just got into bed from reading Financial Analysis. I guess this is why they call MBA’s prep for i-Bankers…

… despite not having much time to lounge around, drink beers, and philosophize the deeper meaning of life, I’ve decided to join the ESADE footy-ball team, a.k.a. Football, and Soccer in North America. They’re apparently playing in some sort of tournament now, but practice is on Wednesday, and I have my cleats ready to be purchased after school tomorrow (thanks mom and dad for sending them over, like I asked 12 bagillion times)…

… next up, we have internships. And that means, cold calling season is here. I’ve basically narrowed it down to about 8 companies, the top being the EMI Group, Sony-BMG UK, Warner Music Group UK, and a special one that I’m keeping secret (for fear of competition from anyone else reading this blog), if any of these don’t work out there’s a few indy’s as well as Universal, and a slew of Industry that catches my interest as well.

Lastly, it looks like there’s now a 50/50 chance of us working towards developing a business plan for this company idea I came up with a while ago, too bad there’s no time to really sink our teeth in this term, and yes I know, I could forego the footyball, but that would mean more jamon, more tapas, more, bocadillos, and a more rotund Jacek, and I’m pretty sure no one wants that. I sure know I don’t.

Until next time…

Me and ESADE's MBASA

2006-11-12T13:20:00.000-05:00

So, I've been asked by Social from MBASA (Student Association) to design their flyers. I did the 1st one for Halloween and now one for the Holidays, it's nice you know, to give back and use my talents for the betterment of mankind ;). Kidding, but I do like it, and it is fun. Also, we had our 1st Entrepreneurial Club meeting this past Friday, there's a lot to accomplish, but everyone is motivated and it looks like we can make a large impact on the club this year - so I'll say that I'm a bit excited about that as well.

That's more or less it, we had our 1st Managerial Accounting Test this week, and I think it went fairly well. I'm loving Geopolitics more with every coming session and am a bit sad that it has to end in December, and same goes for Organizational Behavior, which really should be called Business Philosophy. So much fun!

And now I leave you with a smidgebit of my artistic work.

Classes? in Spain... nonsense! Or is it!?

2006-10-23T17:36:00.000-04:00

For anyone interested this is what they got us learning.

Applied Quantitative Models, Financial Analysis, Marketing, Geopolitcs Society and Culture, Organizational Behaviour, Economics, Managerial Accounting, Español, LEAD, and Career Management Advice, and I think I may have missed one... ?

Mind you, there’s homework in all of them. Me thinks come late November we’ll be pooped.

Work, work and more work… but some play as well.

2006-10-23T17:28:00.000-04:00

Ok, so 1st off, sorry for not writing, but life’s a bit busy these days, and if not for installing my printer right now, I wouldn’t have time to write this little here diddy. So, life love, and the MBA, right? Something like that. And before I continue, I’d like to say, that ESADE’s cultural mix, the people, and culture are a perfect mix. I can honestly say that I absolutely could not, have made a better choice. Everyone is super cool! Including the Administration :o

So we’re in full swing, right, classes are disastrously engaging, which is good, the work is piled on in mounds and mounds, and we have a career forum today (Monday) and tomorrow. Today was i-banking and tomorrow we have consulting. I’m personally looking forward to the McKinsey and BCG presentations. I don’t think I’ll wind up trying to go for McKinsey as they’re core focus isn’t really what interests me, but none the less, the organization is a global leader and I am curious to see their pitch.

Then, we have an option to go to India, as well as Singapore with a business plan competition. I’ve submitted my name along with Jay (You'll hear about him more in the future now that I'm commited to renewing this place of cyberspace) for the India thing and am still considering whether or not to join a group of other 1st years with the Singapore project.

What else has been happening? Hrm… well ok, before pre-term started we had a few days break, so a whole bunch of us cut out of Barcelona, some went up north to Basque country, some to the Pyrenees, me… I went down to Valencia with my roommate, Ben. I figured, it’s getting colder so south, should be warmer. Which it was. Valencia, by itself is a cool little town, and I recommend it to anyone. – check out photos on my flickr. And while down there, I ran into two guys from the MBA while walking down the beach, Kean from Singapore and Chun-Yi from Taiwan. Good times.

Ok.. so back to the present. I have to say that I’m somewhat excited about the whole Halloween thing, ESADE’s MBASA (dont mind the website) is throwing a shin dig, and MBASA shin digs tend to be pretty good, so I’ve been working on my costume. I’m going as “Love”. But I’ve also decided to lend a helping hand and design the flyers, just need Eileen to get back to me with a couple of things before I can bang them out all quick like and what not.

Oh, and I’m entertaining the option of starting a media & entertainment club here at ESADE if I can get a few others interested – and just in case anyone cares, all my future plans went to nothing a month in (minus that presidency thing), there are so many doors, so many paths, and options, I’m like a kid in a candy store.

Anyways, sorry if this post was a bit skitzo, but I only had a few minutes. Now back to that Applied Quantitative Models HW. Fun Fun Fun! (I’m serious, it’s really cool, in that total dork kinda way)

Oh and we’re once again top 10 in the BW International rankings.

Wall St. Journal rankings put ESADE at the forefront of the International MBA.

2006-09-21T10:08:00.000-04:00

Based on recruiter assessment, ESADE replaced IMD as the top International School in the WSJ International MBA rankings 2006. With LBS coming in 4th, and Columbia 6th, MIT 7th and the other MBA Program here in Barcelona, IESE coming in 15th.

Obviously this is great news for all of us attending the school, as well as all future applicants. To be put in the forefront in recruiter rankings is a wonderful thing, and further justifies that my choosing ESADE was a great idea. Some of the things that were stressed by recruiters in their assessment of the program’s graduates were teamwork, co-operation, and lack of arrogance, which they found to be prominent at various other institutions of stature.

In addition, the Spanish newspaper el Pais, is coming to ESADE to take photos, and do an article on the school, its staff and students. So all in all, as you can assume, things are really going splendidly, everyone yesterday was on cloud 9, and tonight we have a career development forum until 20:00 and then off to my place for an accounting study session. Being first apparently does not come without a workload. :)

It’s a bit strange to be back in school

2006-09-12T11:08:00.000-04:00

So week 1 is over, and we’re starting week 2. So what are my impressions? Well, first and foremost, I have to say that it is definitely strange to be in a classroom setting after a pretty long hiatus, and at first it took a bit of adjustment, especially since the first class of the day starts at 8am – and after two months of party, party, party, it’s quite the readjustment. Regardless, the classes are long, and the material is preparatory for the real term to start.

Yes, we are currently in pre-term, which is meant to get everyone up to the same level. A necessity when you have people coming from all sorts of different work backgrounds. For example – the Biotech Scientist (yes we have one), will hardly know anything about economics, or accounting, or the Lawyer, will hardly know anything about IT. And even for someone such as me who has two faculties in finance and management from undergrad, the refresher courses are quite helpful, since I hadn’t seen the stuff in years, esp. accounting.

So for all you who would like to know what it is specifically that we are taking, the list is as follows

• Business Law
• Accounting
• Economics
• Information Technology
• Statistics

Oh… and yes, most of us leave here at around 9:30pm, group work, homework, etc… is already in full swing, and the good part is – these teams are such a mix of different people / styles / backgrounds / etc… that butting heads is more or less inevitable. After all, aren’t international MBA’s also about learning how to work with people who have competencies utterly different from yours?

In the beginning – and we’re numero dos after Harvard!

2006-09-04T10:04:00.000-04:00

In the beginning – and we’re numero dos after Harvard!

ESADE officially took off last Monday, and I have to say that I am very pleseantly impressed. From day one we were overwhelmed with massive amounts of work. For example last Monday I got home at 10pm – strictly from doing work on the 1st day of the program. This work, for all you who would like to inquire – was mostly in the nature of career services – we have to have our resumes in by the 5th in both English and Spanish. Consulting and I-Banking week after all starts October 16th. And we have to get ourselves prepared.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw us off to Cardona for a “getting to know your classmates / team-building sessions” – which as it turns out also involved some drinking afterwards at the local bar by the entire class, which in turn led to a very hard Wednesday in the sun (more team-building this time in the form of adult LEGO – trust me it was a blast).

Thursday we came back to more career services information sessions, and started with our CV reviews and pictures. Friday involved a lawyer info session for all the foreigners (aka non EU citizens) and a cultural awareness session along with more CV review.

But these are just the mundane semantics. I will say that the program is impressive, really impressive, you see that everyone at the school, admin, education, etc… resources and such, are really there to make the MBA as worthwhile as possible, the CSC (career services center) boasts a wealth of resources, so many in fact that now looking back at Tulane, it was laughable. ESADE rips it apart hands down, but I digress, and I’m rambling, and Introduction to Business Law is about to start, so I have to go.

Oh, and we’re No. 2 in HR right behind Harvard, and again top 5 in Europe. Check it here.

T Minus 7 Days and Counting....

2006-08-20T09:13:00.000-04:00

Intensive Spanish has already started and one of my roommates who I am yet to meet, told me that people aren’t exactly ecstatic about it. Well life here isn’t exactly a cup of tea either. In my brilliance before leaving Spain, I didn’t pack any warm weather clothes. After all… it is summer, but apparently summers aren’t the same everywhere, and now it’s raining, it’s cold, and my tan is fading faster than Michael Jackson’s new single on the U.S. Top 100.

But moving away from my own melanin production and back to the MBA – over the past week we’ve been getting e-mails from the administration to start working on things, prepare for classes and so on and so forth.

The first of these e-mails pertained to career assessment. Basically, ESADE has a website, you log in, fill in a b c, the whole process takes approximately 3-5 hours, and they website, though what I assume are logarithmic calculations, tells you where your strengths, weaknesses, areas for improvement, lay. While usually, I tend to look skeptically on any one person or program that gages my abilities. I approached this one particularly openly. And while I found minor glitches, the end result was overall very pleasing to see. – Apparently I’m cut out for Consulting / Entrepreneurship. – I never would have figured ;)

The following e-mails were the basic, school starts for Intensive Spanish on so and so, Into week on so and so, but during intro week, they will be taking the whole class somewhere for two days, and told us that they will send a follow up e-mail with what we should bring, etc…

I personally think they’ll be taking the whole class for a sort of trust building, get to know each other, teamwork building session in the mountains somewhere, but then again I could be entirely wrong, and we may well go to the canaries for a couple days on the beach, wind surf, and just hang out. However, option B, I fear, is just a delusional dream. Regardless however, it’s going to be so nice once classes start. I can’t wait to drown myself in work.

Cheers,

From Russia (o.k.. Ukraine) with Love...

2006-08-16T15:43:00.000-04:00

Or something like that. Got back from Ukraine yesterday, and between not showering for two days, being almost robbed, and trying to avert swindlers at every opportunity. I'm sure glad to be back in civilization. But one thing's for certain, the Ukraine is definately an adventure and takes the utter monotany out of traveling. And regardless of everything it was prety fun. Full update when I get back t Espańa.

Tootles.

Mi movil eran robado ....

2006-08-07T06:14:00.000-04:00

Tel got stoeln last night... :/ not too happy about it at all... especially the 179€ I had to drop on a new one

Too much money? Let's invest it!

2006-08-03T12:36:00.000-04:00

I’ve recently been looking over my finances, and not really knowing how much I would need for my 1st year in Spain, I decided it would be better to take out more than less. So now I’m stuck with 35.000 € in my bank account, collecting nothing more than – digital banking dust, and I still have enough USD in my old bank to get me through, I would say, October – while living decently enough.

So what’s a poor MBA student to do? Well the logical thing, at least in my mind would be to put that money to work. No need to have it sitting there, when I could throw it in a growth fund, money market or something else of the sort… even better, spread it out, so that I can hedge the risk in putting the cash into Emerging Markets, Eastern Europe, and India…

… so, looks like it’s time to do a bit of research with what investment options are available to me here in good ‘ol BCN, and see if I can capitalize on this extra cash, and maybe lower my overall debt, while still in school. After all, once it’s in there, it only takes about 30 min’s a day to check on how your cash is doing.

Unfgh... Spanish Banking... Bleh!

2006-07-31T10:35:00.000-04:00

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to you, readers of this MBA Blog. The busyness has for the most part stopped, and I have been able to enjoy Barcelona. Truth be told, I did a little smidge too much enjoying of Barcelona – but it being summer, and I being on vacation, I figured I could let the hair down (this would be given I had hair to let down).

Anyways, the new apartment is great, the location is fantabulous (which apparently is a word since MS Word didn’t underline it) and now all that’s left to take care of ADSL. Whatev’s (which apparently is not a word, since MS word did underline it).

Overall, the city is great, but enough about that. Some helpful tips for all incoming students and anyone who cares to know anything about anything whilst living here.

Spain, as far as I know after three weeks of living here (which to an insect is a lifetime, but us humans not much), is a credit aversive society, people work, live with their parents until they’re well into their 30’s, meanwhile saving all their money to eventually get hitched, and buy a place of their own – paid mostly in cash. Wha wha what? Yup…

And, that’s all good and well, but while you’re sitting on 50k Euro… and it’s in a low interest checking account, wouldn’t it all make sense to throw it at least into a money market, I mean, that’s if you’re risk aversive - or put 20% of that badboy into some high yield fund, and leverage the risk with oh... something boring, like commodities (not that I know what I'm talking about of course).

Well… apparently not. You see, there really is no culture of this. For example when I deposited 18.5k USD into my account, it didn’t even come to the tellers mind that I may want to invest that money, whereas in the US, the 1st thing they would have asked was where I wanted to stick that cash. However, this problem is not strictly Spanish. I recently learned from a friend that it also extends to France, and I assume, numerous other states within the EU. But I digress…

… all this non-investment I assume leads to what I have decided to call the “Spain’s no free fee for fee system.” Where you as a customer, have to pay fees for nearly anything and everything that a bank does to your account. Transfer funds, - fee, take out a a large amount of cash – fee, walk past the bank – fee, talk to teller – fee. Pay a fee - fee. OK so I’m exaggerating a bit, but the fees are ridiculous. I think I’ve already paid something like 200 € in fees, and I’ve been here for what? 3 weeks. Dammit, I should be getting interest not paying fees - or am I just being made a fool of?

Then is this where’s Spanish banks get their revenues from? Are they only savings institutions? Do they capitalize on cash, like in the US? Or are the “Caja’s” (Caixa’s en Català) strictly safety deposit boxes? And can I please get a credit card? (The answer to the last one is a big fat NO! I don’t have a job - oh if they only knew of my credit limits stateside.) Right… rambling – so…

These are things that I have only assumed, and in no way shape or form, would know if they are true or not. Except for one thing - that if you are moving to Spain, prepare to pay banking fees for nearly everything.

Busy, busy, busy.

2006-07-20T09:04:00.000-04:00

Wow… so vacation right? Seriously, no so… I’ve done most I had to do with school, and last minute they changed the start date on us. Which in all, did not make me too happy as I was to be in Poland at the time, and had to change my itinerary. Regardless. School starts on the 28th now, and I’m really looking forward to it. Though I am sure it will be A LOT of work. 

So, I’ve straightened everything out with the bank, and should be getting my cash this Friday, which won’t really be in there much longer, since I have to dish out the entire apartment move in fee. A Whopping 9.150€, that’s appx 11,500 USD. OUCH! Right… but I will be getting a good chunk of it back from the roommates and will be getting the rest of my share when we move out. The flat is amazing, 140sq m. in Gracia… a cool nifty little neighborhood right in the center of the city… and close to everything. Muy importante. Btw… that’s my living room. 300€ a month… HA!!! In NY…? HA!!!!

I’m learning Spanish at an alarming rate which is really wonderful, as the sooner I don’t have to take Spanish at ESADE the sooner, I can start taking French at ESADE. Which as some of you know, is somewhat invaluable as I want to move to Luxembourg or Paris after this little MBA fiasco. This is – of course – given I can’t land a job here in Spain that’ll pay me close to 85000€. An unlikely, but not impossible feat. Basically, I’m not settling for anything less that $100k.

Now… once I get my keys, it’s off to the city council to get my NIE, and then only, the drivers license remains, but as the city is small, the public transportation good and cheap, and my particular dislike for driving… this is not something to stress about.

So… that’s about it… wish I were playing tourist a bit more, and had a bit more free time, but such is life. Oh... and I'm really glad I came here when I did. Doing all this while school is going to be in session is just asking for torture. Good luck guys! ;)

The Perils of Living in Spain…

2006-07-14T12:57:00.000-04:00

Not that I would really know what they are since I’ve been here a whopping week, but an update none the less. First, I would like to send a big great thank you to a nameless blogger who in her magnificent niceness donated $25.oo to my MBA Monetary Relief Fund.

Other than that, I have some pics of ESADE and Barcelona up on my flickr site, and should any of you like to see them the link is here. Other then that, things are progressing nicely, I think I’ve found an apartment, and quite the spiffy one at that, located in Gracia, close to Diagonal, metro’s and the such. It’s big, has plenty of light and plenty of space, including a parking one – that I’m thinking about subletting out – I mean hey, if it covers the cost of bills, why the frek not.

And finally, a friend from the States was in BCN this week, got to spend some time with her, which was a nice relief from stumbling my way though Castilian. Anywyas – plan for tonight – book and a cup of tea. I’m saving money, and tomorrow, I want to play tourist.

Tootles,

Hola de Barcelona!!!!

2006-07-08T10:47:00.000-04:00

Wow… so much to say and so little blog. Ok where to start? I guess the beginning would be a good place… so.

Aer Lingus. That’s what I flew. Can’t say much about the airline, except that unlike Air France it did not serve free booze and the food was less than something to write home about, all in all a good budget international airline, but don’t expect too much. On the other hand Air France is quickly becoming my favorite airline and I’m full well behind them in the WC finals; France that is.

Dublin. Landed there at 4:50am and soon discovered that what you read about in the papers and how the Polish have amassed in the city is most unconditionally true. I think I heard more Polish in Dublin than Warsaw, ok that’s not exactly true, but it was rampant, and I’d be a fool to say that a few of my country brethren will not hook up there and go on to have Polish babies in Ireland and eventually move back home. I also found the people to be extremely rude. Obviously I’m not judging the country by the people in the airport but still… in NY they may be incompetent, but at least they try.

Now… Spain, Barcelona, Catalunya. Wow! I now remember why it was so hard for me to leave this place five years ago. I landed, the sun was shining, I walked though passport control without any problems (go EU citizenship), talked and laughed with the cabbie on my way to the sublet. The sun was shining – still is as a matter of fact. Everywhere you turn you’re stricken with one beautiful scene after another, music is everywhere, the drivers are crazy, a pleasant breeze nulls the effect of 30 degree heat, and everyone and everything is just amazing. The place is like a little piece of carved out Eden, placed on the Mediterranean. I the Barcelonese are possibly the luckiest people on earth, and I have no idea why anyone would ever want to leave this place, and while I’m yet to make my way to the beach, or go out at night, or start the inevitable sightseeing (I lost 4 rolls of film in Rome, from my last stay here, so I will need to re-do) I have never felt better in my life. It’s hard not to smile. Looking back now, at NY, it’s a depressing place. Truly. Not to mention that the dinner I ate last night was quite possibly the greatest thing I ever had my taste buds experience – salmon, artichoke ravioli, topped with caviar and roe, in a yoghurt sauce, with essence of plum placed around the plate. Mag-ni-fi-cent. In NY the dish would have been $25 easy, and I paid for the entire dinner w/ wine, coffee and water 15€. The only thing I have to complain thus far about is the fact that my cuticles are falling apart from lugging around 40+ kilos worth of stuff, and the fact that until midnight last night I did not sleep for 30+ hours. Meh.

Now being an MBA blog, I should also add the little bit about ESADE, I suppose ;). I made my way to the school yesterday, and like it says in the brochures, the area of Pedrables is truly amazing, beautiful, and scenic. The main building is architecturally very cool looking, and upon making my way in I went to the full time MBA office. Everyone was super nice, and they advised me on who to contact to help move me along with my NIE, they introduced me to Financial Aid, and I should be getting all my financials, bank account and so on, straightened out early next week. Y en finalmente, yo no neceisdo voy a la clase española introductoria. So, I’m heading to Poland for the last two weeks of August to visit the fam, and walk around in the woods. – Super Bueno! :D

T minus 48hrs and counting….

2006-07-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

I leave for Spain in 2 days. I’m moved out – not without drama – mind you. It turns out my “oh so wonderful” ex-landlord is not only a humongous prick but also somewhat of a megalomaniac.

You see he stipulated that he could easily get $2,000/mo for my crappy apartment, and that he would in no way shape or form rent to this girl and her friend because they a) weren’t going to pay more, and b) weren’t going to cover the fee that my old roommate never paid (which after due deliberation with my old roommate, I saw in his bank statement that he did in fact pay) – anyways, long story short, the s.o.b. stiffed me for $700, no one in their right mind would pay $2,000 for that place, even with absurd inflation, and all things considered, the guy was an outright ****.

In return, I left him with the wonderful gesture of a complete mess to clean up, and a fridge filled with uneatables. An expensive cleaning lady, I know, but one turn deserves another.

So… now I’m staying with the parents, until I fly out in two days time, packing, doing laundry, and picking up a few necessities here and there. Until next I blog, de España.

News on ESADE in the Economist.com

2006-06-28T02:15:00.000-04:00

From economist.com, June 21st.

"European union

France's HEC School of Management and Spain's ESADE business school, already close collaborators, have decided to increase their cooperation substantially. Under a new agreement, students will have the opportunity to study for a time at both schools and take advantage of joint programmes abroad in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The schools will jointly recruit and develop new faculty, and they will also collaborate on teaching and research. Bernard Ramanantsoa, the dean of HEC, told the Financial Times that the schools may also launch new executive-education programmes in countries such as the United States."

This is fantastic news, and really opens up the market for all us ESADE students in France, and should they open centres in the US, it will only increase the ESADE name brand even more. Truth be told, I'm somewhat giddy hearing this news :) Giddy indeed.

Wait? I'm leaving the country!!! and how moving & packing is my nemesis!!1

2006-06-27T22:50:00.000-04:00

I don't think it's quite settled in yet, but I just came to the realization that I'm leaving the country. Not for a little vacation, a month, an exchange program or some backpacking tour, but at the least two whole years, and more likely indefinitely.

You see, I had this going away party, and a number of friends had asked me if I was excited, or looking forward to it, and all I said, was "meh, not really" – thing is, I should probably be losing my mind, as moving is considered as one of the most stressful activities in life. But who gets stressed out by moving?

It’s annoying, sure, but stressful? Pffft. Garbage! This is my 3rd move in less than 18 months, and if anything, it won’t be the stress, but the packing that’ll leave me with a stroke and poor motor function.

Which I started doing yesterday, packing that is, not having a stroke, and once again, I am reminded how much I utterly detest the activity. Putting all your useless garbage into little boxes, throwing the most useless of the useless garbage out and trying to sell anything worth selling has become such an irritating chore that I can’t even express, especially since I last had this exercise in November.
But that’s why we go get our MBA’s to move ahead in life, prosper, and hopefully pay people to do all this god awful packing for us… anyways, I digress, there’s a cold beer and a box waiting for me.

Lets hope I stay in the same flat for the two years I’m in BCN… until next time, wishing all the other MBAers out there the best.

How I love my new laptop let me count the ways

2006-06-24T10:33:00.000-04:00

Having had a Dell Inspiron 8200 for the past three years, and never having any problems with it, I opted to go for another Dell. Sure I did my research, read about the HP’s the Sony VAIO’s Toshibas, and even snagged a look at the new Intel based Macs. But all in all Dell was just the best choice. So what did I get?

A Dual Core Inspiton E1505, it weighs 6.5 lbs and is one fast little rocket. Under the hood I have the following.

2 T2400 Dual Core CPU’s @ 1.83GHz
1022 MB Ram (1 GB)
100 MB HDD @ 7200 RPM
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 256MB Ram

Then I went ahead installed non manufacturer drivers, Tweaked XP a bit using Tune XP, and the thing cooks like a mofo, is fast and the battery life is just amazing. So for anyone looking to get a new notebook for school, I can, will and do wholeheartedly recommend this notebook. Additionally, I got a great deal on it, as I made sure to buy it with all the fixins, and when doing so, Dell was offering coupons that took 30% off the total price, which led me to pay about $1,700.00 for the whole thing.

Adios Amedica - My Farewell Sendoff...

2006-06-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

I'm flying out on the 6th, and my sendoff parte' is on Saturday. Should be good times, I'm having people from life and work coming, the mingling will undoubtedly be interesting. Other intersting individuals who are showing up are the two guys I'm headed to school with, Misha and Jason, as well as future IESE student Niko, and I invited the 4th New Yorker, Paloma, a new additon to the ESADE class to come as well. If it doesn't rain, should be good times. * if the freggin weather gets any better, I'm so sick of this rain!

Anti Americanism and the World Cup

2006-06-22T17:07:00.000-04:00

While we would all like to think the World Cup to be an affair where winners and losers are decided by the feats of the players on the pitch. Recent events, have led me to believe otherwise, and have made me somewhat disgusted with FIFA, and the level of refereeing at this WC.

Lets take the game USA v’ Italy. Anyone who saw this match, even an Italian, will tell you that the U.S. did not deserve two expulsions. Throughout the game, the Italian side would take dives, cry to the ref for free kicks, and surely they were given to them. When the U.S. fouled, it would be a card. And while I wholeheartedly believe the Italian ejection from the match was absolutely justified, the same goes not go for the Americans. Neither one was in effect an offense that justified expulsion. The referee in that match, a Uruguayan with a history of refereeing “inconsistencies” was also banned for a time from international football, and in the farce that was U.S.A. v’ Italy gave the game to the Italians. America, even tired and with nine men, played wonderful football. And I am sure that if it would have remained 11 v’ 11, or even 10 v 10 the Americans would have come out triumphant, of this I'm certain.

Moving on, today’s match with Ghana was nothing short of disgusting. Following the blatant Anti-American display in the Italy match, the German Ref wanted to one up the fellow from Uruguay by awarding a PK for a blatant dive, one that even a local league referee would not have missed, and the horrid foul against Claudio Reyna that saw him removed from the match through injury, and which led to Ghana scoring. Simply put the Ghanaians had 12 men on the pitch today, and with 12 men it’s very hard to win. But this isn’t only my sentiment; the commentator on Spanish Radio in NY said the same thing as I am sure others around the world did the same. Today’s display was a farce!

In all, it’s simply sad, sad that blatant Anti-Americanism was touted in such a way at a sporting event of this magnitude, sad that people hate this country so much that they would go out of their way to prove a point and hurt the players, and fans who carry with them the hopes of generations of immigrants from around the world who have come to shape America for what it is today, and sad that the World Cup was at least in part ruined through the actions of a few.

ESADE en E.E.U.U. (That’s the US of A)

2006-06-20T20:14:00.000-04:00

So, when I tell people I’m getting my MBA in Spain, they usually say “oh?” However, I’ve been recently getting conversations that fall more along these lines.

“Yeah, so I’m going to get my MBA in Spain”
“Oh that’s great, congratulations, what school?”
“At ESADE, it’s ranked…”
“The one in Barcelona right?”
“Yeah”
“My (insert any of the following) friend, ex-co worker, acquaintance, etc…, went there, he/she/it is doing great.”
“Really?”
“Yeah he/she/it said it was a wonderful experience, you’ll…”

And then we return to the regular babble of people in elevators / subways / bars, what have you. So, it apparently seems that people do in fact know quite a bit state side about this little school in BCN called ESADE, and they all have very favorable opinions of it. Good to know, that given everything doesn’t work, and I’m forced to return to the good ‘ol US of A, I’m not going to have to explain to every rube and his mother what ESADE specifically is.

Additionally, and as I’m getting gitty, I picked up the Barcelona Time Out guide, in which ESADE is also mentioned as a very prestigious business school. :)

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!

Another one bites the dust, and $700.oo, sorry $800.oo

2006-06-17T23:43:00.000-04:00

I don’t think that I’ve ever adequately expressed how much in fact I despise having roommates. It’s not so much the living with someone else that bothers me; in fact all I need to be happy is the following, (A) a clean bathroom and kitchen, (B) some personal space, i.e. my own room, and (C) utilities to be paid on time.

Now (B) never really seems to be a problem, there was a time when I live in a musician building where my Sundays were usually filled with god awful progressive cello rehearsal, or my next door neighbor playing Chopin the way Chopin never meant to be played (trust me I’m Polish, I know my Chopin) but other than that one time, it’s been pretty decent.

Now… (A) Cleanliness, why that’s a whole other issue. I personally don’t care if my roommate(s) personal living quarters look as if a miniature Hurricane Katrina has passed though, but the living room, the living room however I can deal with, it’s the bathroom. The one thing I cannot stand is a filthy bathroom. My past three roommates have not been able to maintain a level of normal decency in the loo. No. 1 Puked all over it, and then tried to blame me. How??? He was out the next day, with all his crap in the hallway (this was the music building, and there were 3 of us there beside him) No. 2 Was better, but no picnic, he couldn’t really hit the toilet while urinating, and after about a week, it would start smelling like any outer borough subway station entrance. At least he'd clean up after himself. And Mr. Current, No. 3 is so lackluster in the intelligence dept. (Male model, explains it all – right) that even after numerous discussions and even actual physical demonstrations on "flushing the toilet", the buffoon still manages to leave piss in the toilet, and clogs the john at least once a week. How? I ask how, how, how???? Normally, I’d tell him to leave, but as I’m leaving…. Well. Oh and doing dishes, well to all it was about as foreign as Mandarin Chinese.

And finally (C) – the payment of utilities. For some reason, I’ve had the bad luck of landing with two individuals since November, who do not quite grasp the concept of paying on time. My previous roommate, while paying utilities left with an outstanding balance of $1400.oo to the landlord, and Mr. Idjit Model just lost his job, so he can’t pay this months, meaning his security is going to cover this months rent – and I’m left wondering if I’ll at least get the cable/internet money out of this numbnuts before he / I leave.

Oh … and as you can guess, the outstanding balance of $1400.oo – has not been paid, and has basically made my deposit of $700.oo defunct, and while I indicated to Mssr. Landlord that getting a collection agency on my old roommate would be the best thing to do, he is apprehensive as there’s a good chance this place I live in is leased illegally. – Oh, the joys of NY living.

So. I’m thinking, incur the extra cost of a studio or 1br in Barça, and live alone, or pray that whoever I wind up with will at least have the common decency to flush the toilet and pay the rent? Decisions, decisions.

BTW - I’m getting my 700.oo bucks, + the 100.oo for cable – even if I have to sell his shit, call his parents, kill his hamster, whatever! (No he really doesn't have a hamster)

Thoughts on my ESADE interview - From baaaack in the day.

2006-06-09T11:27:00.000-04:00

While I only interviewed at three schools, I can wholeheartedly say that the ESADE interview was by far the one, where the admissions officer tried to get a sense of me as an individual, access my talents, abilities, drive, and really see whether I would be a good fit for the program.

I was lucky to interview in person with Mary Granger, who at the time was visiting New York on holiday. I met her at her hotel lobby and we went to a café around the corner for breakfast, where she offered to pay.

The interview began, with her initially asking me about, and if I recall correctly, my accomplishments? I stated to speak, but as my leg was killing me at the time, I was just post-op, and being nervous, as ESADE was important to me I started stumbling over my words. I told her that this was the case, and as any good interviewer, she quickly changed the subject to calm my nerves as to be able to gage the real me, instead of a ball of nerves.

This worked fantastically, and I regained my composure quite quickly, fielding the other questions quite well. Some of the other questions asked went into deeper detail on my professional life, my essays, as well as some that were meant to gage my ability to work in teams, and one in particular that I found difficult to answer. “Elaborate on an event where someone changed your mind on something”. Being stubborn, driven, and set on thinking I’m usually right, this question was really hard to field. But in the end, I prevailed. The there was the quintessential question phase, where I the applicant asked questions a, b, c, etc…

I should also mention that during and after the interview, the topic of conversation would often drift, from the city grid work of Barcelona, to European fiscal policy and it’s need for change, to the need for energy independence, to some lady who owns a restaurant in Barcelona. (I think it was a restaurant, the interview was on April 3rd, my b-day, and although I have a good memory, certain minute details may escape me).

We eventually wrapped up the interview circa an hour forty-five minutes in, and I left feeling that it went exceptionally well.

In comparison to the other schools with whom I interviewed with I can say that ESADE’s was by far the most exploratory of me, and what makes me, me. IESE’s I found to be very cold, cut and dry – points, 1, 2, 3, ask questions, goodbye, we’ll let you know. Whereas RSM’s was conducted by an alum living in NY, and although RSM is great, I found the interview to be more of a pitch about the school than an exploration of me as a candidate and a fit to the school.

I find that ESADE’s approach here makes sense in respect to the school as a whole; they have a program that is very much focused on shaping the individual, and really seek to make exemplary MBA grads instead of the MBA Machine Cookie Cutter 1200 student intakes that are seen at various American Universities.

Letter of Resignation – Submitted

2006-06-07T10:03:00.000-04:00

As of yesterday, it’s official – well at least at work it is. I submitted my letter of resignation and will be “officially” leaving the agency on June 30th 5:30pm – for good. And while everyone at work knew that I was leaving, and especially after the debacle of the Big Apple Awards where I got up on the podium, thanked everyone for coming to see me, and told them I was leaving for Barcelona – I thought it best to submit the letter anyways. Oh, and the aforementioned debacle, well – it’s why I’m never drinking at a work function ever again.

Moving on, my director thought the letter to have been written very eloquently, and was glad that my time at the (still) present job was a learning experience, so on and so forth, and while I did, and do complain about my current work situation, and it being one of the catalysts for my going to grad school, I can say now, at the end of this two year stint here, that in some small way, I may actually miss these strange strange people I work with. What I will not miss however, are syndications, dealing with the incompetent buffoons at various banks (who shall remain nameless), fact checking their work for errors, and the lackluster attitudes of many NFP employees.

Behind ESADE's Big Jump

2006-06-01T15:26:00.000-04:00

I found a Business Week interview with Gloria Batllori associate director of ESADE's MBA programme regarding the school's continued jump in the rankings. Should anyone care to read it.... clickez ici

Post in English - ¿Cualquier persona sabe quiénes son los buenos abastecedores móviles en España?

2006-05-31T14:35:00.000-04:00

OK, I've looked online, searched the internet far and wide, compared A with B with C, and I'm stuck. Why? Well I need a cell phone when I get to Espain, and I dont know which one to get.

In Poland, I have Orange, and to be quite honest, it was great, than in France I have Vodafone, and it was good too - obviously the French one raped me on the cost of SMS' (Text messages for all you American folk), but then again that is to be expected. Euro were flying out my pocket last time I was in Paris, but it is an expensive city - even phone wise.

So thus far, I'm thinking Movistar or Vodafone or Amena... at the moment I'm thinking Movistar since 65% of them locals done use it... but the thing is, I need something that suits my phone usage needs, here in th3 States that T-Mobile (unlimited txt messages), there I have no idea - I'm so confused, I feel like I'm at Starbucks.

I've also managed to find a pretty nifty site for anyone moving to any number of places, it's called Just Landed, check it out.

Checklist, World Cup, Downtime

2006-05-30T15:40:00.000-04:00

Downtime – yup. Pretty much ready and good to go here, got my bank account opened, loans are ready for disbursement, most of my material goods have been pawned off, including my soon to be ex car, visa – don’t need one, insurance, got to get that insurance, will fax that tomorrow, and the plane ticket needs buying. But other than that, all my things are pretty much wrapped up here in the good ‘ol US of A – so now, to sit back and try to enjoy the World Cup – I don’t have any annual leave you see, used that in conjunction with my sick leave to cover my leg operation – oh well, sneaking out at lunch time it is :)

Hope everyone has a most splendid summer, I’ll try to post something relevant here should the need arise, but for the time being, it’s getting to be WC time, and I’m going to tune out for the next month and a half. Be seeing you from Barcelona.

- Jacek

If HBS is so good, why’s it accept college drop outs?

2006-05-23T21:21:00.000-04:00

Yup, ya heard me right. Read about it here in the Economist, and I just saw it here as well @ clearadmit - Blake Gottesman, a 1st year college drop out from nothing more than the equivalent of a Texan community college gets to go to Harvard Business School because he brought the president, as in one Mr. George W. Bush, coffee. While carrying coffee can be seen in certain circles as an activity befitting only the most lackluster individuals, it is, apparently at Harvard, a pre-requisite criteria for entry. It's a good thing I didn't apply, I buy my coffee on the corner.

However that is not to say that someone such as a legislative aid on Capitol Hill would not have a shot at Harvard, I in fact have a very good friend who is just that, he works for Congressman Honda, out of California – and truth be told is spearheading a very interesting project at the moment. But what one Mr. Gottesman has that my friend does not, is that he dated the President’s daughter. And while my freind, like the rest of us, has to work, be creative, involve himself, and really be a go getter to get that grad diploma. He didn't date the president's daughter, and unlike Mr. Gottesman, will probably have to do better than drop out of college and in all lieklihood score a 420 on his GMAT (yes, the pun was intended).

Regardless, I find this all absolutely pathetic. That HBS would on the word of the president, and such a poor one might I add, accept this buffoon into their ’08 intake, where I am sure that there were hundreds of qualified individuals who would have made much better choices, who actually have some sort of considerable talent other than bringing coffee of course, and who in all likelihood deserve to be in that class.

But hey… that’s life right. So let's give Harvard a great round of applause for last year's insult of women, and this year's brilliant admissions choice.

Oh, and in case anyone forgot - midterm elections are in November.

My Reservations Concerning IESE?

2006-05-23T15:17:00.000-04:00

Ok, before I continue I want to say that I was asked to go into this, so instead of writing out e-mails, so on and so forth I’m posting it here – one more thing – I know this is a smidge later than my usual progression of posts. I had a very very very long last week.

Anyways, onto the topic at hand.

That Whole Ranking Thing
Fist off, both schools are good, and although IESE is currently ranked higher overall, BW and especially WSJ rank ESADE higher, WSJ, in fact ranks it No.2 Internationally after IMD. For anyone who doesn’t know WSJ ranks based on the assessments of recruiters, meaning, if recruiters like you, you get hired. I would in fact consider this, along with the FT rankings the most important (Personally, I find The EIU’s rankings full of it. While The Economist is a brilliant publication, it’s rankings put E.M. Lyon above RSM? Absurd…).

Interesting thing about the FT rankings is if you look at ESADE, it looks to be one of the quickest movers of all the schools, rapidly heading into the top 20 globally (IESE is No. 13 in 2006).

So why a school that’s moving forward instead of one that’s higher but staying still? The way I see it, is as follows, I would rather see myself in a class where students are really shaping the university, I want to leave my mark on the institution, and I believe this will simply be easier to accomplish at ESADE. Furthermore, people are more inclined to talk about a school that is rapidly getting ever better than one which stands still. This is a good example of NYU for example. A number of years ago NYU wasn’t even ranked, today it stands as one of the best MBA institutions in the world.

¿Como se dice?
Languages. ESADE has the best language school in Spain, it’s MBA is bi-lingual, and in addition to teaching excellent Spanish, also offers courses in both French and German. Being that I will absolutely require full working knowledge of French if I want to go into, what, I want to go into. I saw the lack of a language program at IESE as one of the most crippling aspects of their program. By the time I graduate from ESADE, I full well know that I will be fluent in Spanish, and French, where as now, I just have a working knowledge of the former, and a laughable excuse for the latter.

Case Method contra Mixture of Everything
While I consider the case method of teaching to be valuable, I do not agree that relying as heavily on it as IESE does is the best way of actually conveying information to the students. As a graduate of Tulane University’s Business school, I can say that we worked with cases, as well as on projects, etc… the cases we did, proved very valuable, but at the same time, I feel that utter reliance on them leaves a lot to be desired knowledgably. Additionally, there specializations that ESADE has, especially Policy are exactly what I am looking for in a program.

Cambio in el Administración
ESADE and IESE are both run very well, both look at international markets, ESADE just called for a pan-European energy policy (that I actually agree with), while IESE opened an Executive Training Center in Warsaw (which the region needs). However, ESADE’s admin is grabbing the bull by the horns so to say, and really pushing for new program implementation. In this respect I believe that they are as much if not more-so forward thinking than IESE. ESADE is growing faster, it’s blooming, and IESE in my opinion has bloomed.

Culture
Finally, the culture - meeting people from the universities, students, faculty, and alumni, I just felt more at home with ESADE. It’s the same problem I had when I went to info sessions with Harvard and Wharton. I found most people from ESADE to have more of that Alpha cockiness which was relevant at Wharton as well, whereas IESE I found to be much more like Harvard, “nose in the air” snobby.

And the way I see it, while someone’s got their nose in the air thinking their shit don’t stink, it’s the guy who knows his shit stinks and doesn’t care that will see the goal and reach the finish line because he wont care about the odor. – Or something like that :)

Conclusion
All in all it all depends on personal decision, for me with was being in something motile, something moving forward, helping to make it better, and it also had a lot to do with the language school. Regardless, each school is great, and in spite of rivalry between the two schools, I’ve already managed to make two friends from the “other” school whom I will have drinks with in BCN. In the end, it’s about what you get out of it, and the network you build, and trust me when I tell you that mine will incorporate both the ESADE class of ’07 & ’08, but also the IESE ones.