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First Week of Classes

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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...
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Mineirazo: A Vergonha Nacional do Brasil (Brazil's National Shame)

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Brazil's 7-1 semifinal loss to Germany on Tuesday will go down as the worst loss in Brazil's soccer history. Just take a look at the front pages of the national newspapers: "Massacre" "National Team suffers the worst loss in history" "The loss of losses'" "Humiliation at Home" But why is this the worst loss in history and what does it mean for Brazil? Prior to last Tuesday's game, the worst loss in Brazilian soccer history was the "Maracanazo" in 1950 (the game took place at Maracanã stadium in Rio). It was the World Cup Final and Brazil only needed a tie to win it all as it used to be a Round Robin format. Brazil went up early in the second half 1-0, but Uruguay came back to win 2-1 in front of  speechless 215,000 fans (still the World Record). The loss was compounded by the fact that Maracanã had been built by Brazil for the 1950 World Cup and was a symbol of Brazil's modernity and emergenc...
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Sin Titulo

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...
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