In Cambridge

Finally! After many months of waiting I’m finally in Cambridge and Monday it will all start. For now, I’ve just been settling in and making sure I have everything ready for classes to start.

So I just had to open a bank account, which wasn’t very difficult. I just had to ask a letter from JBS stating my personal data and the course details and that was it. I also got a bike to move around easily and I have even tried riding it, which was quite an adventure. I suppose after some days I’ll get used to it.

But the most fun part of all has been meeting all my colleagues. Although classes will only start next Monday, there are already many students around. So I’ve been meeting all these interesting people and at the same time, getting to know many nice places to have meals and to go out.

I’d say these first days have been really amazing. Lots of gatherings, lots of pub nights and lots of catching up to do with my new colleagues. And the weather has been really great. This place is really nice especially with sunny weather. For far, I have been having a great time and there’s always something fun to do.

I guess from now on I’ll get to what matters the most: the course, living in Cambridge and all the weird and funny stories about it. So stay tuned!

Hopes and expectations

This is it. After nearly six months of waiting, I’m finally heading towards Cambridge. It means this is my last post in my home country. It also means this blog will now get into a new phase. So far I’ve been talking about my application and all the things that happened ever since. From now on, if I have the time, I’ll be posting from Cambridge and soon enough, I’ll be posting about the course itself.

And for my final post of this stage, I’d like to share with you what my hopes, goals and expectations are. My expectations and goals have been evolving over time as I got to know more about the course and, specially, as I got to talk with future mates who provided me with their insights.

But I still don’t have much information and I still didn’t go through the whole experience, so I thought it would be fun to share my expectations now and maybe come back to them in the future and compare them with the reality.

So, here are my main expectations (regarding fun and work).

• I expect the course to be hard working, challenging but not very difficult academically (I have a strong mathematical and economical background);
• I expect to be challenged and to be among a very active community with access to innovative ideas and very close to where the actual action is;
• I hope I can improve my managerial skills and my social and networking skills;
• I believe I will meet lots of interesting, fun and active people;
• I expect to make friends for life;
• I hope I have the time to do some sport;
• I expect to ride a bike a lot (and hopefully, with not too many rain pouring);
• I hope to be offered a fulfilling job somewhere along the course (ideally, more than one nice offer);
• I expect to attend lots of parties, dinners, cocktails and social events;
• I want to travel a lot while I’m there;
• I want to learn how to cook Chinese, Thai, Indian or Japanese food (I’m relying on my colleagues on this!);
• I hope to participate in the MBATournament in some sport with my colleagues against other business schools;
• I expect to have very little time and some sleepless nights;
• I hope I can have access to many different opportunities;
• I expect to get depressed sometimes with the weather;
• I believe I’ll grow up a lot as a person.
  

Obviously, I’m expecting new opportunities, new things and ideas, hard work but also lots of fun. I’m just hoping Cambridge is all that and more!

Farewell

Despite what the title may suggest, this won’t be my last post in my home country. At least I don’t think so because I planned the subject of my last post while here some time ago.
I just felt like writing about all the farewell parties, lunches and dinners of the last days. I usually don’t like farewell parties or, at least, I don’t like thinking of them as farewell parties. Nevertheless, my departure is an excellent excuse to have some fun gatherings and take some crazy pictures. And that’s what I’ve been up to in these last days.

It’s nice to be surrounded by friends and feel their support when embracing such an adventure. It’s also nice to hear their plans to visit me while I’m there although I don’t believe I’ll have much time for those visits. These times have been crazy, running around trying to get everything done, packing up everything and still going to parties at the same time.

It’s pretty exhausting but by the end of the day, it’s worth it.