Lost but not forgotten

You, my (un)faithful readers, that is.

Consider this a social experiment. A dismal failure of a social experiment. I stopped posting to this blog in June, and through July and August I received one (1) email from someone telling me they missed my blog.

The email was from my mother:I did not feel very "missed".

Three (3) things have pushed me back to Switzian. Firstly, my nephew was born, and he's adorable.

Second, I'm off to South Africa at the end of September and hopefully going to Canada in between, and since I've last blogged I've also been to Kenya, Tanzania, and Lyon (France) and I thought it might be good to post some pictures of that stuff. They will come in the next short while.... if I get three (3) comments from different people on this post, verifying that I am at least assured a mild readership.

Thirdly, I got a comment from Jules guessing on the MENA literacy test. I realized I have no idea if she's right or wrong anymore. Oh how things have changed from my heyday as a global literati.

Another angle on butter

Back by popular demand:


In this land of dairy, can there be any finer?

Butter and popcorn

Yes, butter and popcorn. First, the butter:

This is at the Beau Rivage Palace, the swankiest hotel in town. It is so swank that there are actual treaties that divided up Africa signed at this hotel. I'm not kidding. My parents (Bob and Brenda, fyi) visited me on the weekend before exams (May 31-ish) and took me out to fancy restaurants so we could discuss my lack of an achievable career plan in finer surroundings. Anyways, back to the butter.... This is what they do to your butter at the Beau Rivage; note how much Bob doesn't care. Brenda, however, was highly amused by the butter, as was I. The food was quite tasty (I had the rabbit) but it was no match for L'Ermitage des Ravet. L'Ermitage was actually ranked the best restaurant in Switzerland recently, and it has amassed three Michelin stars for those of you who care about the restaurant rankings of a tire company. In terms of butter, their presentation was somewhat haphazard (it was in a small pot) but the butter came in different flavours depending on the course and the bread you chose. This was quite a meal. Really, to call it a meal would be to denigrate the hosts... this was an Experience! It took us almost five hours to complete the meal marathon, and I was afraid my palate would be ruined forever, but I'm ok now. Phew.

In other news, I'm done with pretty much all the "academic" stuff here. The second round of exams came and went; they were miserable to study for and terrifying to write, but somehow my grades actually didn't suffer that much, almost in spite of myself I think. The most amazing result was in Finance, where I actually thought I'd failed the exam, only to discover that somehow my overall mark went up! I'm waiting for the exam to be returned so I can see just how this manna from heaven event transpired. Apparently there are no bell curves at IMD.... we'll see about that.

The plan for the next month is rather absurd: We're off to Kenya here on the 20th of June for a ten-day school trip. Highlights of the trip include cocktails with the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, and a trip to a baby elephant sanctuary! They certainly seem to be doing it up right. A large number of my classmates were also particularly pleased to see three blocks in the schedule reserved for watching the semis and finals of the Euro Cup (soccer/football, depending on which continent you're on). Priorities, priorities. On the 30th, the school trip ends and Laura arrives in Nairobi. LB and I, along with about 10 other IMD people, are going on a 6-day safari in Masai Mara and another (forget the name) park in Kenya, and then we're going to Zanzibar in Tanzania. We'll stay in the town of Zanzibar for 2 nights, and then on the beach at Sazani beach for four days! The flight home to Toronto will take the better part of 2 days, and will involve five airplanes (2 shared, 1 for laura, and 2 more for myself), but this whole thing should be a hell of a trip!

So, enough about butter. Here is popcorn for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.maniacworld.com/making-popcorn-with-cell-phones.html

--
Update: more on the popcorn, but don't read this till you've watched the above:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/06/12/cellphone-popcorn-ho.html

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.

Hero worship never had it so good

.
There was actually someone from the class who was so excited that he didn't sleep the entire night before. And, to top it all off, he never got to ask a question. The picture is also not very good unfortunately, but this one is a bit better:

For all you non-capitalists out there, the older man in the middle of the picture is not one of the 2008 MBA class, he's Warren Buffett. Getting to listen to and ask questions of the richest person in the world, the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Capitalism, is pretty close to a religious experience for a class of 90 corporate acolytes. It's like meeting the Pope. To hear the Pope talk about how he figures selling a family business to a private equity buyer is a bit like selling the painting you've been working on your whole life to a porn shop: "they buy it, make the boobs a little bigger and the lips a little redder, and then put it in the window for sale again. Another porn shop comes along, buys it, makes the boobs even bigger, and bam, it's back in the window for sale again in a couple years." Or, my other person favourite: "I don't need due diligence to tell me if a company is worth buying. You talk with someone and within 5 minutes I can usually tell if there's a deal to be made. It's like a 350 pound man walking through the door: I don't know if he's 350 pounds or only 300, but I certainly know he's fat."

I heard the words "folksy" and "down-home" used later on to describe him...

But really, I found it extremely interesting. He was very up-front in his comments, willing to discuss anything, and extremely articulate. Charming. We were all thoroughly charmed.

I will blog more now. I didn't like blogging in the month of May for some reason. I think I was burned out. I'm less burnt now... the char is wearing off.

- i

MENA literacy test

Middle
East and
North
Africa

in case you're as ignorant as I was.

Here's another in the series of regional literacy tests:

1. There are over 2 million refugees from Iraq. In which two countries are they mainly?
2. The Al Yamamah Deal featured in recent newspaper headlines. What does it refer to? (Incidentally what does the word [اليمامة] mean in Arabic)?
3. What caused the Arla Dairy Company to lose tonnes of money?
4. Where did the “Cedar Revolution” recently occur and what triggered it?
5. Who was Gamal Abdel Nasser?
6. In 1977 which Arab head of government addressed the Knesset?
7. Which two Middle East countries were at war with each other between 1980 and 1988?
8. Which Maghreb country had a brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002?
9. What are the three main communities comprising the Iraqi population?
10. Who is the longest serving head of state in the MENA?
11. Who was Maimonides?
12. Who was Naguib Mahfouz?

- i

I'm back and I'm bad

Well that's not technically true. I am back, but probably only temporarily. We have another Integrative Exercise this weekend, starting tomorrow (Friday) evening and ending on Monday at 5pm. I'm somewhat concerned about what it will entail, beyond the obvious (i.e., my entire weekend.) In other news, I heard an interesting factoid just now:

- in the first quarter of 2008, China's foreign reserves accumulated at a rate of $1 million per minute. That is, in 3 months, they accumulated $136 billion (US) of other peoples' money.

I am left wondering how much of it was mine.

Oh, one other factoid: one member of my class is a communist party member in China. Another used to be, but quit. Not sure why that's significant (after all, I know plenty of NDP & Liberal members in Canada, and I suspect Alison probably considered PC membership at some point in her Hugh Segal days!)

Inder: your present is still coming. It's sitting in my living room, mooing.

Ian