Christmas in Madrid and New Year in Lausanne

It has been a busy couple of weeks. After celebrating christmas in Denmark on 24 December, we got up at 4.00 the next morning to catch a flight to Madrid, so we could celebrate the Spanish christmas with Susanas family on the afternoon of the 25th. Actually Christmas is not that big of a deal in Spanish. They make a lot more out of the 'Three Kings' celebrations on 6 January, which also is where they give each other presents.

It was the first time for me to meet Susanas family and friends for real. Despite some differences in languages I got an impression of the warm and welcoming Spanish mentality. It doesn't take long to feel at home there. Susanas sister, Mar, had gotten us all tickets for Cirque du Soleil. A fantastic show with absolutely amazing acrobats. I have never seen anything like it!

On 29 December I went to Lausanne, where I took over my new apartment. On 30 January my three Indonesian friends Anya, Binky and Adi came to visit for 4 days. In that very short period of time they managed to go as far away as Chamonix, Jungfraujoch and Zürich. They really utilized their Swiss railway-pass to the max!

They also joined for the New Years party that was held together with almost 60 of the new MBA students, partners, friends and children. The whole thing was arranged by Albert, one of my new German class mates. It felt a bit like being a MISE trainee again with all the new people from many nationalities meeting for the first time, but the atmosphere was great!

On 1 January Susana arrived from Spain. The next day we said goodbye to Anya, Binky and Adi over a great Swiss fondue. A love fondue, but it is a dangerous invention that definitely is going to cost me some kilos this year.On 3 and 4 January a skiing trip had been arranged by fellow student Ruslana in Champery, about 2 hours away by train. We had fantastic weather and great snow! We stayed in a small, hotel run by a British couple. We (20 people) filled the hotel, so we got an excellent service and really enjoyed ourselves.

5 and 6 January was information sessions, where we had to get a lot of practical things done before the school officially kicked off yesterday, the 7th of January! Busy days!

thorstenboeck.dk!

WWW.THORSTENBOECK.DK

Yes, I now have my own website! Inspired my sister Helene I bought thorstenboeck.dk. Had I known it would be this easy I would have done it a long time ago. You just go to one.com or a similar site and buy your domain for USD 15. Then you connect it to the blog which is still hosted at blogger.com. That's it! No html code or anything!

The same .COM site was also available, but although it was tempting (and cheaper) to go with that one I decided to stay loyal to my Danish heritage and go with the .DK site.

NOTIFICATION BY EMAIL

It does seem that the blogger software allows readers to sign up to get an email whenever there is news. You can sign up for an RSS feed, but I think that is overkill for most of the potential readers. To overcome this I will send out a short email notification manually. If you want to get on the mailing list then send me a mail on thorsten@boeck.dk.

THE FIRST MONTH OF THE NEW LIFE

Today it is exactly one month since I packed my things at work and went into the (voluntary) unemployed life. And what a month it has been! Just as busy as before, but with different things!  I have to be honest, though, and say that I haven't been very efficient or disciplined by my normal standards. I haven't gotten started on the stack of books we got from the school or on applying for scholarships. Instead I have gotten tons of other (less serious) things done that I have wanted to do for months or years: I have learned how to blog, I've gotten a website, gotten my dad an iPhone, started cooking a bit again, changed bank, rented my apartment out, started running a bit again and most of all I have seen a lot more friends and family than the last year. Next project is to learn how to get my thousands of photos organized and uploaded to the web, so they actually bring some value.

I have also worked quite a bit on the practical aspects of moving to Switzerland: Getting flight tickets, insurance, phone, internet, moving, etc set up. Considering how much time it has taken me - moving alone within the same time zone to an already furnished apartment - I can only admire those of my future fellow students that move their entire families from the other side of the planet. How do they do it?

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR

Susana and I will be celebrating Christmas with my family in Denmark on the 24th. The next morning at 6.00 we will fly to Madrid to take part in the Spanish christmas celebrations. The 29th I will go to Lausanne to meet up with my Indonesian friends Adi, Binky and Anya who will be visiting me over the New Year. We will all four be attending New Year party in Lausanne together with 50 other IMD student and partners. Susana will come to Lausanne on the 1st or 2nd of January, just in time to join the pre-school skiing trip on the 3rd and 4th. On the 5th and 6th we must attend information sessions on campus and on the 7th at 10:30 the school year officially kicks off! It will be an intense couple of weeks. But probably nothing compared to the year that follows!