It's like a montage, but without the singing

I would much rather just leave this to the picture, but I think it took me too long to actually get the camera out, and as such, obviously, the picture suffered somewhat. What you're seeing is a woman on a folding tricycle being pushed up a hill by her friend (?), while her other friend and one of their daughters looks on. The kid was a terror on the little scooter thing she had, and the old woman was a freaking disaster. Not once did I see them smile in any way, shape, or form. It was a beautiful day out, a national holiday. Everyone else was all smiles. These women were clearly having an absolutely miserable time with that godforsaken tricycle they never should have brought all this damn way in the first place!


And now, slightly forwards in time to the MBATs, the MBA Tournament, aka the MBA Olympics. This was a weekend event in Paris a few weeks ago, and although the sporting events were generally rather lame, the event itself was quite fun. About 70 people from school went (out of a class of 90), and lots of girlfriends and boyfriends too (including Laura). Each day was filled with badly run and overcompetitive sporting events, and each night had a dance. Yes, it does sound like a highschool track meet. On the Friday Laura and I championed our Ultimate Frisbee team, and we went 1-1. The first game we won because the other team didn't show up. Laura was so keen to play (she had really come a long way for that game) that she convinced another team that had already played that they would play us for fun. We won against them, but really, it was all about the fun... then. The second game, in the semi-finals, we got crushed. 14-0. When the score got to 6-0 Laura and I both opened beers on the sidelines. There had been a general promise to the team that Ultimate would be about fun, and not about winning/losing. We felt obligated to lead by example.

So that was Friday. On Saturday Laura and I went into Paris and spent about 3 hours with our feet up in the Jardins de Luxembourg watching the world go by. It was amazingly difficult for me to wind down (it's pretty much always go-go-go here) but I think I finally relaxed towards the end. It was really really nice just to sit and relax. Then we got back on the train and went back to HEC, where the MBATs were, in time for the Saturday night dance.

The best way to describe this dance is that it was like the season-ending dance on Dirty Dancing. Except without the pageantry. There were plenty of dirty, dirty dancers though. I think there is something to the rumours that MBA stands for "Married But Available"! Seriously though, the party was actually quite fun. LB and I were very restrained, but had a good time with the stage props beforehand, and the dancing afterwards:

When they first met, the snake and Laura seemed to get on just fine.
Then Laura got snake bitten. She's never been the same.

And finally in this series, Matt saving Petra from the snake's maw.

And this is general dance-mania at the MBATs. I'm pretty sure Laura's in there somewhere, but I can't tell from the picture unfortunately. This was the closing night party. It was very bizarre, but quite fun.

And now, out of MBAT land and back to Lausanne and IMD. This is a terrible video we watched in Accounting class last week about how an auditing firm screwed up. The word "terrible" is woefully inadequate to describe this video. Perhaps I will use "appalling" in future.

This is the side panel of some "ride" at the country fair right beside IMD right now. This fair has a bunch of "third-string rides" in the words of Dongao (whose nametag is featured in the previous photograph), three bumper car arenas, and at least two rifle-based shooting ranges that we found. Why is Switzerland so weird?
And this, this is as good as it gets in Lausanne-town. That's right folks. The name of her tour is "Taking Chances". Don't all pack your bags at once.I saw this on the side of a grocery store today. I turned around and walked back to get a picture. Someone watched me do this. I felt embarrassed until I remembered the woman on the folding tricycle.