Before it really began

Although there is a gazillion things happening around us these days I want to spend this entry telling about all the stuff that happened before it all officially began.

When I was accepted in the program back in June 2008 and got access to the IMD MBA-portal I quickly found that my future fellow students already had started connecting on the MBA portal, Facebook and LinkedIn. Many started meeting in the real world as well. The four Brazilians met in Sao Paulo and the Russians met in Moscow. I had the pleasure of having a beer on Clark Quay in Singapore with Sylvain Cabalery [French] and Henry Low [Singaporean] during a business trip in September and I had lunch with Richard Dove [British] in London a month later. Although short, those short meetings gave me insight into things that I didn't even know existed and got me wondering about what was waiting in Lausanne. Henry is a Singaporean Navy officer. I had never thought that Singapore actually had a navy (I guess I thought it was all about business) and that their history would give them good reasons to have one.

As it became apparent that many of us would be in Lausanne already before New Year Albert Schultz [German] started arranging a joint New Years celebration. What in the beginning seemed like a small get-together ended in a big party with more than 60 people. It all started with dinner in the Mexican restaurant Poco Loco and continued in the bar next door after midnight. Although it was a sit-down dinner in a restaurant it looked more like a cocktail party. Everybody was meeting their new class mates for the first time, so we stood around and talked pretty much all night. When the New Year approached we got ready with the champagne. The radio was playing in the restaurant, but it was all in French so we didn't really understand it. When the time hit midnight on our watches the radio was still playing music. Thinking that there would not be an official countdown, we did our own, toasted and bid each other welcome to the new year. A minute later the official countdown DID actually start. I guess we will just have to claim that we are bit ahead; even ahead of the New Year. Thanks Albert for setting it up!

Ruslana [Ukrainian/Canadian] arranged a great skiing trip in nearby Champery in the weekend of 3/4 January. Around 20 students and partners joined. We stayed in the small and cozy Grand Paradis hotel, which is run by Paul and Rhonda, a British couple that had decided to try a new and better lifestyle in the Swiss Alps. We had the whole place to ourselves and got an excellent and personal service from Paul and Rhonda. The weather was excellent and the snow was perfect, so we had two days with lots of sun and fresh air, while getting to know each for the first time. Thanks Ruslana for arranging it!

Thorsten