In Toronto and burgers

Arrived well in Toronto. The bus downtown was maybe expensive ($17), but very convenient.
The hostel, Clarence Castle, seems to be really cool, I am, so far, happy with my choice.
At the moment I'm using my mobile over the wifi of "Craft Burger", where I expect to eat a very good burger with cordon bleu cheese and big, deliciously looking onion rings.
Hope this posting from the E61 works.

Leaving Nashville

I had a great time in Nashville. It was also a relaxing time. I did a lot, but not too much. I even slept some. But, most importantly, I finally met the family I knew so much about, but had previously had so little opportunity to really get to know. Only those who had been to Brazil I had met briefly.
This time I had more time for them and they for me, I really enjoyed it. As Roger said, we are blessed with a beautiful family.
I uploaded the pictures I have taken these days to picasa, and below you'll find the links. Now I have to start packing for Toronto tomorrow.

071223 Nashville Sptephen's birthday	071224 Nashville Christmas' Eve	071225 Nashville Christmas Brunch
071226-27 Passeio em Nashville com Julia	071228 Nashville Mall

Arrival in Nashville

OK, so finally I arrived in Nashville. It is very much like a dream come true. I always wanted to come to Nashville, to visit my family here and experience the "American way of life". But it never worked out. Bad timing, usually, like that time with that incident they later called 9/11.
But now I am here and it is pretty cool. My family is cool. I like all my cousins and I am sure I am going to have fun with them.
Today I was glad I had decided to take a car to the airport. The day sarted really wet in New York, and it wouldn't have been nice to walk 5 or 6 blocks in Queens with two heavy suitcases and a backpack under the cold (really cold) rain.
In the airport all went well. I again was screened very thoroughly, I have to find out what is it, that makes those people suspicious. But the flight was without incidents and I even caught some American football on TV at JFK.
Here in Nashville we had the whole family together, commemorating Stephen's 14th birthday. Was a good way to start my stay here in Nashville.

Last day in NY

Easy day, today. Nothing too exciting, but some good conversation with Henrique, who is a graduated MBA and has lots to show me.
Actually, yesterday night was fun. I went out with Henrique and two of his friends to the W Hotel bar. Cool and funny stories, and I saw for the first time the benefits of the accounting classes, while discussing Citi's and PWC's share performances.
But today I gave in to the buying pressure and spent some money on a nice woolen jacket, an aviator cap and good skiing gloves at trcentury. Good prices and I'm sure that Kingston will be friggin' cold.
Battery Park, the obligatory Statue of Liberty photos, Ground Zero (or the big hole). Now waiting for the subway back to Queens to a Brazillian dinner with rice and beans.
Tomorrow morning the flight to Nashville, where I will be picked up by my cousin Julia and my aunt.
Christmas will be at my aunt's, 14 people in all, will be fun.

Views from Henrique's apartment

Café Habana

After a nice walk in the sun in Central Park looking at the squirels I took the 6 train downtown at stopped at Canal Street to take a look at China Town. Then decided to try some pasta in Little Italy and ended up eating Cuban grilled chicken with Mexican tamarindo juice. Suits me fine.
The plan is then reach the southern tip of Manhattan and enjoy some of rest of the sun at the water front.

I didn't actually get to the water yet, but spent time looking at some shops and prices on Broadway and later met Henrique again, who took me to eat a great burger at th Burger Joint.
I'm now officially his guest until Sunday here in Queens.
What continues to be a problem is finding a good place to use the internet. Aaah... How I miss the European internet cafés around the train stations...

Second day in New York and life is fine

Sitting in the Telephone Bar and listening to Mjguel Weissman on harmonica and his swing band: accoustic guitar and bass and pretty brunette singer. All purely accoustic, no mikes, no amps. Very good indeed.
Now on a line 6 train uptown, back home. It was a good day. Lots of work in the morning for the endless economics assignment, finally over. Then the spontaneous buy of this Nokia E61 smartphone and a walk around 34th Street.
Found a public library where I could use the internet for exact 60 minutes, no more. But it was suficient to submit the assignment and post some pre-prepared posts.
Later a quick dinner at McDonald's to see if it really tastes like home, while watching a guy making open heart surgery on two Gameboys Advance.
And, after that, the highlight of the day: NY Knicks x Cleveland Cavalliers in the Madison Square Garden Arena with Henrique, and old acquaintance from Brazil who works for the Citigroup now.
All in all, a very good day.

Flight

• Nice enough, nothing really unpleasant, but nothing very interesting.
• No individual interactive VOD screens this time.
• Great view flying over Canada: black and white. Snow, frozen lakes and dark terrain.
• At least one hour of Economics assignment writing, until the battery died on me.
  

New York

• JFK is big. But the signs are well placed.
• 5 dollars for the airtrain out.
• 2 dollars for the subway.
• Ticket machines accept credit cards, but don't give change for a 50 dollar bill.
• Yellow cabs.
• Yellow school buses.
• Extra long red fire engines.
  
• Big Ford pick up trucks with enormous wheels.
• No limos so far.
• No McDonalds spotted in Manhattan. Nor Pizza Huts. But Starbucks. And Radio Shack.
• Clumps of old snow lying around.
• Cold. Freezing wind.
• Very dark very early.
• Decently sized pizza slice with a decent topping serving and lots of cheese. Coca Cola on the rocks and people spotting from the window. Spanish speaking pizzaiolos.
• Lots of dry cleaners. And Manicures.
• The "coiffeur" sleeping in his chair while waiting for the next client.
• Everybody listens to their MP3 players. Sometimes to incredibly loud volumes.
• SUVs. Luxuses.
• Cars drive on the right side of the road. My world is whole again.
• I feel I am in a movie.

Dublin

• Never saw too much. And only in the dark. Arrived late at night and went straight to the hostel.
• Try not to get there after 11 p.m., as it seems that the 747 bus for the city centre runs only until 11:45. 6 Euro. I had €12 with me and used €1 to call England from a payphone. Got the extra Euro from an American guy, who changed it for a one dollar bill I had in my wallet.
• Cars still drive on the wrong side of the road.


• People maintain the British tradition of wasting themselves with beer during the week.
• Hostel was OK, although I was not able to make a comprehensive appraisal. They were nice enough. The name is Barnacles Guest House or something similar beside the famous Temple Bar Pub.
• Alight from the bus at the O' Connell Street by the spike and catch it back there to the airport again. Around 30 minutes travel, plus 10 minutes to/from the hostel.
• Trip which I made 3 times in the morning as I forgot my cell phone on the bed and discovered only when I was already waiting for the bus.
• Only 6 kg hand luggage on Aer Lingus flight. And my laptop alone weights 3,7 kg. But I am allowed to take the laptop under the arm.
• No problems with the US immigration, who had special departure gates in Dublin. At least 6 officers checking everybody. It is good to have the European citizenship and be able to waive the visa.

I am scary after a day of travelling, am I not?

Birmingham airport

• Getting there was easy enough. Tipp: get the bus and rail travelcard for 4,70 pounds
• Restaurants close quite early at the airport. I should not have been surprised, after the experience on campus. The typical hamburger in the New York style italian restaurant franchise was a nice preparation.
• It is always difficult to say goodbye. But we knew it would be so and there are no regrets, only hope.
• Laptop bags are no longer allowed as second piece of hand luggage, at least not at the Birmingham International airport. Extra 33 pounds. And I had already paid 55 pounds for the extra kilos I had to take with me. Next time I might take the bus and fare.
• Very detailed inspection of my hand luggage. But people were nice to me.

Last day in Coventry

Was not really as I wanted it to be. Should be more romantic, but was a lot of hard work, doing the famed economics assignment. At least I had great company, as usual. Company which I will miss dearly.

3 Countries in 24 hours

I have arrived well in New York and already had fun with my two little cousins and walking around Manhattan in the evening. But the way was long, and not too easy. Because of jet lag, I'll use the bullet point writing style.

Dublin

Not gonna write today

Cause I'm busy with economics assignment (still!), farewells and stuff.
Was a great term, thanks to all.
And good luck to all too, the world is small, we'll soon meet.

Washing clothes at the University of Warwick

Not much to explain here, just some hard information for you.

There are several launderetes around campus. The ones I know are the one at in the Lakeside 4 building (pictured below) and the one behind the students' union next to the mail room. There are others, of course.

The first thing you'll need is soap or detergent. You will have to buy this at Costcutter or Tesco, there is none available at the launderetes.
Then you will need coins. Washing is 2 pounds, drying is one pound and you might need an extra 20 pence.
A big bag. You'll need it to carry your clothes and people usually use the green recycling bag you get in your rooms.

The washing machines are big and strong. That means that you can collect clothes for a long period of time and wash ever 2 or 3 weeks only. Or you can share the washer with a colleague. As written before, it costs 2 pounds per washing and an extra 20 pence for a longer cycle. Not sure if those extra 20 pence do any good. It takes around 50 minutes to wash your clothes.

Then you have to dry them. For 1 pound you do that. Follow the instructions on the wall and transfer your clothes from the washer to the dryer. it works pretty well without creasing the clothes too much. It also takes around 50 minutes.

Go during the week during the day, you won't have a problem in finding available machines. On weekends you might have to wait until somebody's clothes are ready to use the machine. Then, if they are not there to free up the machine, be merciless: get their clothes out, store them somewhere, put yours in and go continue studying OB.

You will find chairs for the wait and even a Coca-Cola vending machine.
So, remember:

• Coins in the correct amount: (2 pounds + 1 pound + 20 pence).
• Detergent
• Good planning ;-)

BTW, good place to meet that cute girl from the opposite flat...

Ice cold organizational behaviour

Yesterday was the last exam I was really worried about. Organizational behaviour. But it turned out that I wasn't too badly prepared, thanks to some own work and to some great help and a efficient summary on motivation by Marwa.
Now I have marketing and operations management to go. But I liked those classes, am confident about the subjects and the exams are only 40% of the final grade, having already gotten a good grade in the marketing group assignment and expecting a positive result for the OM project as well.

From 071211-12 Ice...

Much more interesting, I believe, is the development of the weather around here. The lst 3 days have been very cold, finally. We had had a cold wave in November, but, after that, the weather had become pleasantly mild and unpleasantly wet. Now we can say that it is really cold: for the first time, the lake has frozen closed. The ice layer is not really thick at about 5 mm, but it is a beginning. Let's see how it develops. Maybe we'll celebrate our farewell party *on* the lake?
Some pictures in the following album:

071211-12 Ice in Warwick

Final exam 1: accounting

OK, accounting is over. Passed. Probably. Maybe the grade isn't even too bad. But that is not important.

The check mark that I just put behind this big "to do" item just feels great. One gone, OB to go, still. Then Marketing and Operations after Wednesday. In the meantime, I just have to pack one box to Germany and two suitcases to Canada. And we did collect a lot, really a lot, of paper!

To start the week in engineering mode

Lest I forget my origins...

Index of useful posts about life at WBS

OK, I should be studying accounting and OB, but let's try to keep it simple.

Here is a list of links to information that I brought together during the term regarding practical tips for life on campus and classes. I hope they are useful. They can easily be referenced by clicking on the "WBS Tips" button on the top right of this blog.

• Adapter plugs
• Have at least 2
• Washing clothes at the University of Warwick
  
• The book fair
• An event to buy used books
  
• How good is the internet connection at Warwick University?
• The Language Centre
• If you plan to brush up your French or Japanese or...
  
• Societies
• You'll probably not have time for them, but...
• Midterm exams and a little bit more about Bristol
• A bit on exams here and some unrelated stuff
  
• Submitting assignments at WBS
• The tap issue
• A British curiosity
  
• High tech infrastructure
• An ode to Nicholas Bate
• Some about some of the teachers we had here

I wish I'll find time to write more practical tips for the benefit of all, but, realistically, I think that will be it. But if I do, I'll update this list.

If you are going to study at ESSEC, France

There are Mannheimers all over the globe. Even near Paris, at the ESSEC school. Pete is one of them and he sent these tips for those going there in the future. Not my case, but enjoy.

DSC00692
Originally uploaded by
Patrick Blum

From: Peter Findlay
Date: Dec 7, 2007 6:11 PM
Subject: For ESSEC Students - Winter Term 2008 - Ignore Otherwise

Hello all If you are going to ESSEC for the January semester - here are a few points of advice.

Maina gave us some great advice about Warwick - let us know if anyone else has anything to add to that.

Cell Phones - the other guys were paying for prepaid cards - but they are quite expensive about 0.39 EUR per minute, with not too many deals. If you want to go through the hassle of getting a bank card like I did - (you have to make an appointment, bring a passport, attestation of residence and school enrolment) - then you can sign up for a long contract. The great thing about this is, you can legally break your contract after three months as long as you leave france. Delphine, the academic advisor gives you a attestation of leaving france and you're off the hook. A much cheaper way of doing things - but definitely requires some more hassles.

Residence - the residences are pretty average when compared to the Mannheim and from what I've heard Warwick residences. Nothing is included at the beginning, not even toilet paper. No bedding, no dishes, no light, nothing.
They charge you 90 EUR for a really crappy package - that we suggest you don't take. We all went to Ikea and spent anywhere from 50 -100 EUR and got more and better stuff - most of which we can resell for half price or maybe even give to you if we can figure out where to store it over the holidays. - We should arrange a swap system somehow. If you cant get to ikea - there is also Au Chan, which is about 5 min from ESSEC in the big shopping centre. It is a giant food store and has Wall Mart like items as well - cheap clothes / electronics / dishes, etc. Heating and windows are poor, so good to have an extra blanket. Internet has been a problem - bring your own internet cable.
Also we haven't been able to use torrent or other download tools which is annoying. Skype is sketchy sometimes.

School - not too bad, some of the rooms really need renovating - and often not well heated. Get used to sometimes wearing your jacket in class. The university is well-renowned (MBA just ranked 7th in the world for international business schools in the Wall Street Journal ahead of Harvard and Insead!!), however in reality - the program is not really an MBA. The students, although very smart, are very young and often without any real work experience. They are hired to work at the best banks and consultancy firms in France and throughout Europe, but they don't go in at the MBA level, but at an undergrad position essentially. However, you are going to ESSEC in the best term, as no other of our partner schools offer as many options for courses to take and you can really find courses you like from some generally pretty good professors. You will feel a little old here - the average age is probably around 22 in the MBA classes and many students on campus are like 19 or 20.

Paris - about 40-50 minutes on the RER subway train - a must do almost every weekend,and even during the week. Cergy really does suck and paris is amazing on so many levels. So make use of your time here to enjoy the city.


Food - Food at school consists of French sandwhiches at the cafeteria or the pub for about 2.5 EUR which are essentially a big baguette a few small toppings inside, or there is a student restaurant close which is shared with some local colleges - you have to by a booklet of 10 tickets for 2.8 EUR per ticket - and when you go downstairs - you get a big meal for your 2.8 EUR.
The meal is not always amazing, but lots of choice generally, and good to get veggies, stuff like that. Otherwise - there is a food court in the shopping mall which will be 5-10 EUR (be carefull the asian places are really expensive). To go out to a restaurant - Paris is obviously the best - but if you have to stay in Cergy - there is 4-5 nice little chain restaurants down by the harbour about a 10-15 walk from school - about 12-20 EUR. Residence - Le Haut - not to sure, but seems like there is nothing really around other than a bakery. Linandes - A McDonalds / KFC / Overprice American Steak restaurant and a bakery within 2-3 min walk.

Parties - go to Paris on your own or if you want to do one of the many ESSEC parties - we suggest the "MASTERIZE ME" parties organized by the masters students who are normally > 22 so there a little more your age. Many of the ESSEC parties are like 19 years old. The Foy's pub is pretty cool usually on campus - lots of French people there of course - but beer is only 1 EUR (25cl) or 2 EUR (50cl). Normally in france beer is 4 EUR (25 CL) and 6-7 EUR for (50 cl), so this is the best deal around.


Bakeries - these are everywhere, not as healthy as German bakeries, but more tasy. Almond Croissants are my favourite. Basically its like a croissant getting nuclear bombed by almonds and chocolate such that it doesn’t even look like a croissant anymore.



Hope this helps.

Pete

New MBA member

I just found out that Diego has a blog, in Spanish. He doesn't post often, but, when he does, he usually has great pictures. And a great sense of humour.

But if you visit his blog (http://eninglaterra.blogspot.com/)today, you will see that he has a great reason to be really, really happy: the arrival of his third kid, Juan Pablo.
Congratulations, diego! Toda sorte do mundo para você e sua família! Or, in Portuñol: Toda la suerte del mundo, par ti y tu familia!
From now on, his blog is linked on the right.

Submitting assignments at WBS

Tip of the week for the Mannheimers coming next term.

Assignments are submitted online through www.my.wbs.com. Usually the intranet is quite stable, although we had a problem during the submission deadline on Monday. But things were sorted out nicely.

Take a look at the e-mail below and do your files in shades of greys.

Gratuitous x-mas
tree bokeh, with a twist.
Originally uploaded by
Corey (a.k.a. Ten0fnine)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Miriam Mason
Date: Dec 6, 2007 11:52 AM
Subject: EBE assignment
To: FMBA students 2007 intake

Dear All

I understand there's been some discussion regarding submission of the assignment in colour. This is just a reminder for clarification purposes that you're required to submit online, and according to University policy all work is printed in black & white. It would therefore be more beneficial to produce your graphs/charts accordingly, i.e. using shading etc, rather than in colours which may not be clear when printed.

I hope this helps - and good luck with the assignment!

Kind regards

Miriam Mason
Programme Manager, Full-time MBA
The Warwick MBA
Warwick Business School

Two photos to wrap it up today

The picture above shows how focused everyone gets when it is revision week and the subject is accounting. And attendance was also high, as you all can see. This is also a nice shot of the class where we have our lessons, with around 80 people. The number of students increased from around 50 last year. It won't get any bigger, that's for sure. Maximum asset utilization (which is one of the ratios we have to know for the exam next Monday).

And then we have my favorite tree on campus. I guess it's an oak. I don't need to write much about it. It's imponent.

What awaits me in Kingston, Ontario, Canada

winter marina
Originally uploaded by 416style

So these are the high and low temperatures I am bound to experience in Kingston. Not extremely low as feared, but certainly more than two long months with short days and negative temperatures all through. I just hope I will be able to do something fun with all the snow around. But I've heard that kite snowboarding won't be an option.

Monthly Averages
	January	February	March
High Temperature ( C )	-4	-2	3
Low Temperature ( C )	-13	-12	-6
Precipitation ( mm )	69.5	63.2	76.5

An ode to Nicholas Bate

Undoubtedly Nicholas Bate was the teacher who had the most impact on our class this term. Mind you, he is not a WBS teacher. He is a consultant and trainer who has given us about half a dozen sessions on varied subjects, all dealing with personal development. You know that kind of self help and life philosophy Americans seem to like so much? Yeah, exactly that.
I personally don't care for self help books. How could I? They are extremely boring. They do present some neat and interesting ideas, but they rely on repetition and exhausting explanations to present you what is, usually, pretty much obvious stuff, good sense. OK, their merit is to put obvious stuff black on white and present it to you. On hindsight, everything is easy, remember Columbus' egg. But they are boring and patronizing anyway, most of times. So I shouldn't like Nick's sessions, right?
Well, what he does is to get all the clutter out of the way and present what really matters. And he does so in a consistent and excellent way, with all the meaning of the word. But more on that later. So, personally, I found his sessions good, will use some of what he has proposed, but not all of it. But that's the hang of it: you have to endorse what he is doing.
It seems that his way of teaching is, at least, very striking: many of my colleagues have written about him in their blogs, and his phrases or citations are common vocabulary in the cohort: "Love the dip, love the plateau.", "No failure, only feedback.", "Be here now.", "Be your own hero.", "MEDS", "Be distinct or extinct." and so on. One of Deepak's first blog articles was about Nick. Praveen has written about him. Chris also. And Marwa is a big fan. No other teacher we had made people think as much about themselves.
We did have great teachers. And Ben Knight is, from WBS, surely the one I liked best. He has an extreme enthusiasm for his subject, economics (the mother discipline) and he obviously has fun making everybody participate in his class. And he knows the students in the group. By name, nationality, experience. He put effort into getting our particular experiences out to illustrate his points to the class. Five stars for him.
Then we had the energetic Stuart Chambers, Operations Management. For me, one of the most entertaining classes. As his colleague Nigel Slack, which we had for only one session, also created an impression with his knowledge and humor.
Nigel Piercy, Market Analysis, was, IMHO, a very good teacher. But one with a mixed feedback. I liked his classes a lot, many people could not deal with his cynic and sarcastic style. Sometimes you were not sure if what he meant was what he wrote or the exact opposite. But that was fine for me. Our marketing course was very much a first grade strategy course and it treated marketing from an updated point of view. No 4Ps or established (and usually still valid) theories, but more about customer value, customer relationship, strategic advantage, effective communication. I believe we could not have had a better marketing course. And, for me, his slides and his presentation style, though monologic and maybe boring at times, worked well.
In organizational behavior we had so many teachers, that only the first and main one remains in my memory. Nick was a very pleasant guy and his classes are interesting. But sorry, didn't work for me. I couldn't find a structure in his exposition and this made it very confusing for me. I am not expecting to get a good mark in OB.
Accounting was well taught. But it was a technical subject, nothing special to report.
And we had other speakers and teachers coming in and out during the term for one day sessions. Graham from Sykes Fairbairn stood out and his colleagues were pretty cool. Not to mention Mark and Dana from Penhela, who fortunately I will be meeting again and listening to their extremely fast paced speech in Mannheim in April. These are some really expert recruiting consultants!
But Nicholas Bate was surely the most impacting character during these 3 months. And, for me, it has more to do with the way he presents things, than with what he actually presents. He clearly has control of the crows all the time. When he is in class, he means business, and you know it. He does joke from time to time, but he is dead serious. He is extremely well prepared. He know his handouts by heart. He doesn't use powerpoint slides. He speaks clearly and loudly. He repeats and emphasizes. The course of his lectures is dynamic and diverse. He has catchy phrases. No bullshit keywords. And, obviously, he likes what he is doing.
So, that's it for today. I gave you all an overview of the types of teachers we had and singled Nicholas Bate out. I hope this gives you a good idea of who we faced during the term and I'll end up with the weblink to Nichola's blog. Its feed is on my reading list.
http://nicholasbate.typepad.com/
Cheers,
Fernando, heading to the Practice of Management report which should have been done long ago.
P.S.: The geese are back. They disappeared for a week, when it was really cold, but it is warmer now and they are there again, although not as loudly as usual. But this is an old pic.

And Google Maps Mobiles gets even better!

I really miss my Hagenuk S200 Palm OS Smartphone. It died on me, or, more probable, the battery did. But it could run Java applications, the best being Google Maps for mobile phones.
The only thing missing was a feature telling you where you are. My phone didn't have a GPS module, but Google Maps helped me a lot in several occasions in Germany, where I had GPRS internet access very cheaply (www.symio.de, I can recommend this pay as you go SIM cards).
Well, now I won't need a GPS module anymore, it seems. Google is using the cell tower location to approximately tell you where you are. It is by far not as precise as GPS, but I imagine that it is a really big improvement over the older version of Maps.
But it is revision week, an assignment is to be delivered on Monday and others have already written about this. So check the fun genial video below and the following article.

http://lifehacker.com/
Just one more quick note: it seems that the best precision of Google Maps Mobile My Location feature is about 600 m or half a block.