At times be a solo traveler is fairly difficult.Ya, you go to new places and meet some interesting characters, but you’re never in a fixed place and you never have a good friend to share things with.You build short very intimate relationships with other solo travelers out of necessity, but every 4 days or so you move on your own separate paths and you are once again alone.There’s something to be said to have common memories with someone: inside jokes, reminiscing, “Remember that time when.” But when traveling alone you don’t get that.When I was in Mendoza I built a pretty close knit community of friends like I said, out of necessity.Keith and I happened to be in the same hostel for the exact same time frame, we saw sights together, shared food, drank, but then inevitably after 4 days we parted and will likely never see each other again.That’s the nature of meeting people from all over the globe; it is very likely that you will never again cross paths.Oh well, sorry for getting deep but it’s something that often gets forgotten and pushed aside because you often just remember the good times and conveniently forget the gritty details.Rosy retrospection.Well now I’m in a new place and I need to meet some new people and start the process over again. P.S. I wrote this like 8 hours ago but couldn't post it, just to put your minds at ease I've already met a bunch of people again so I'll be good.
Classes started last Monday and I have been very busy. Here's a sample of a weekly schedule: Basically, I have 6 classes: Finance, Accounting, Statistics, Organizational Behavior, Ethics, and Microeconomics. Given that INSEAD is a one year program attempting to cover 80% of the material of a two year MBA, they cram in a lot of class time. So far the material has been very easy as it is all entry level stuff that I already covered in undergrad. For example, I was an accounting and finance major so I have taken 9 accounting courses and 6 finance courses. At INSEAD I am taking introduction to finance and accounting. Similarly, last semester I took econometrics for which statistics is a pre-requisite. At INSEAD, I am back in statistics again. The good news is that the teachers are very good and the classes are mostly case based with lots of discussion from students. INSEAD also has a very good zero-tolerance policy on using laptops or phones during class. At SAIS, I noticed th...
Right, my roommates are great. We speak entirely in Spanish and very very occasionally if I don't know a super key word I'll ask Alix but other than that we Castellano ("Cast-e-jah-no"). Occasionally they will speak French to each other but that doesn't really hinder my learning Spanish. It's only bad when I hear English because then my brain switches from Spanish into English and I have to remember the switch back. It's not like I'm thinking in Spanish obviously but it affects my ability to speak it. Continuing on my quest to learn basic French while I am down here since I have two native speakers living with me and I can ask them any question, I went to the book store and purchased a begining French book written in Spanish. That may have been overambitous but I'll give it a shot. My Spanish is worst in the morning when I just wake up because I'm thinking in English and it's hard for my brain to function when I'm tired. On Frida...
Quick update on the rest of orientation week. The week continued with a lot of team building/ reflection type activities. Everyone had to decide whether they were a hunter (knows exactly what job they want), or an explorer (career switchers). On day 3, I was finally introduced to my study group with whom I will be doing all group projects for the next 4 months. So it will probably be a love-hate relationship if my past study groups are any indication. Anyway, I was excited to meet them and I think it's a good group. Here they are below: Our first task was to create an anti-drug or anti-drunk driving poster in 2 hours to be used at INSEAD. It was a great first task as we essentially had 6 strangers in a room trying to decide on a poster design. I ended up being the most creative/artistic one in the group and was brainstorming and drawing pictures on the board. At one point Sajeed said, "Taylor, do you mind if I ask what your background is?" When I said I was an acco...
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