A couple of Queen's Business School pictures

I should be posting more pictures here on the blog, as I believe that the show a bit more of the day-to-day life than my texts by themselves.
So we start with another view of the main classroom, during the first day of the Investments course. Most of the MBA class was present, and I decided to capture the moment. Differently from Warwick, we haven't had classes with the whole class together, as people choose different electives.

The tema work yesterday and today for this same course went very well. Yesterday we learned quite a lot discussing the case and today the report was written in a few hours. I am happy with this team, and it is fun.

But the big subject today was, again, the weather. Really miserable weather mostly due to the strong winds. Coming back home I found out that the extreme temperatures during the day had been -11 and +5, quite remarkable.
Anyway, two pictures, a bit of what's going on around here, now it is bed time. I will wake up at 5:30 for the second day in a row, this time for a telephone interview with a head hunter from Germany. Seems interesting.

Warwick Business School MBA 7 spots higher on the FT ranking this year

Warwick Business School has achieved its highest ranking yet in the prestigious Financial Times Global MBA rankings, published today. It is now ranked 29th in the world, a climb of seven places in one year.

Read the rest of the press release or take a look at the Financial Times MBA ranking site.

WBS also climbed two spots in the European comparison, being the 12th business school in that category.

That is indeed a great result, and I am happy for the school, the teachers, the staff and we, students. That's a great way to go!

Now it is back to the investments class after a non satisfying quizz performance.

A quick impression on the weather around here

I don't know if this has been being a normal winter here in Kingston so far, but something tells me that it hasn't. I arrived here on a very cold day, below -12 degrees. There was ice on the bays of the Lake Ontario and a beautiful snow blanket over the city.
The first week was unusually warm, and all the snow melted. Last week we had snow and cold again, the Victoria Park ice rink was opened and we even went cross country skiing on Sunday, with temperatures around zero.
Yesterday we had positive temperatures around five degrees and, again, most of the snow disappeared. And today I stepped out of the house at 7:15 to the worst weather I've seen here, a mix of snow and rain (but mostly snow) and a very heavy and agitated wind.
On days like today, you just wish to stay in your room.

Elective subjects in Mannheim

Another deadline for Mannheim approaches, in this case, the course subscription. I have decided to take the following courses:

• Cross-Cultural Management
• Global Information Management
• Global Supply Chain Management
• International Finance
• International Management
• International Marketing

I might audit (visit the classes without taking the exam) HRM and Employment Relations in Europe and EC Law, as both are courses with very useful information, although not really in my immediate interest area. But we will see if I'll take them once I am again in Germany.

For now, it is back to Investments readings. The book is good, the lecture not that much. But the teacher might still be warming up, let's see how it goes.

Other than that, the day today was a good one: I managed to skate for about half an hour on the Victoria Park rinks which are really close to home, I did my dining hall duty mopping the whole floor and my house duty cleaning the bathroom. And still manage to write some here. I'll see if I upload one or two pictures to finish off.

Accommodation in Mannheim

I decided to take the offer of the business school and live in one of theri studio apartments close to the castle. The price is much lower than what I payed in England and here in Canada, but higher than I would get if I got one of the oficial student accommodation places run by the University.
Yes, it will cost me maybe 3 hundred Euros more for the initial 3 months I have booked there, but the reasoning is that I am buying peace of mind. I will arrive on the 6th of April in Mannheim, commencing classes on the 7th. I don't want to find out on a Sunday afternoon that something with my room is wrong. So I took it. Of course, my two beautiful Russian speaking colleagues here who are taking the term here in Canada with me made their best effort to convince me to sign for the apartment, and I gave in. Since I had budgeted these expenses in advance, all is well on the financial side as well, although I had hoped to save some money there.
Now I have to get a confirmation from the Business School, to see if I am staying where I want to. If not, I will try the University accommodation. Besides being a bit cheaper, they offer the possibility of getting to know new people. There is always risk involved with that, but my experiences here at the co-op in Canada and at Lakeside 4 in Coventry have been pleasant enough so far.
I will keep you posted.

What's keeping me busy these days

Well, no classes this week since Wednesday. So I should have had a quiet week and weekend, right? But that was not the case. Laundry, assignments, pre-reading for next block's classes and socializing (I'm avoiding to use the term party too much around here) and kitchen duty have kept me fairly busy. And, on top of that, my phone continues to give me problems from time to time, and I don't really know what the cause is. But, with the help of the all knowing internet, I'll figure it out.

Winter shoes

Be sure to bring or buy good winter shoes for your winter semester in Kingston. The main characteristics, in order of importance, are:

• Water proof



• Anti-skidding



• Warm



• Easy to clean

Well, it gets wet here. That's because of the snow and ice mixture that you will find on streets, even when it's cold. So you want a water proof shoe. It is not fun to walk around in negative temperatures with wet feet.

the mixture of snow and ice also stains all sorts of materials, specially leather. So you don't want to ruin your nice dress shoes. And you want your new shoes to be easily cleaned for the same reason.

It gets really slippery around here, so a good sole design is a safety necessity.

And if the shoes aren't that warm, that is not a big problem, as long as your feet are dry. You can always use warm socks, or layers of socks.

I bought short boots at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Toronto, and am happy with them. Somewhat similar to the ones pictured below. It was boxing week and, with tax, I paid less than CA$70. A good price, I believe. Expect to pay up to CA$150.

Yes, I know. Not a very exciting article. But it was one thing I was considering before coming here. Winter boots are difficult to find in countries where you don't have a strong winter and heavy to carry in your lugggage, so I really recommend buying them here.

Phase 2, block 1

The first block of the term is practically over. The "Financing New Ventures" course was a great eye opener and I enjoyed every class of it. Great structure, great guestspeakers and a really good teacher, asking the right questions at the right time and making everything exciting. Even the assignment, which took a huge effort to get done (it was the first time I saw term sheets and I had to get myself familiar with many different legal and financial terms and practices), I enjoyed doing. There is still a group assignment to be done, but this will be dealt with on Tuesday.
So it was a good break to have an easy weekend after a busy week, and I am glad it is not over yet. Some of my colleagues are doing a heavier course and had to work the whole day yesterday, so we went to the Queen's Pub in the students' union's (or government, as they call it here) building to cool off.

And, if you have 20 minutes, take a look at this:
http://storyofstuff .com/

Times around

This travelling around the globe is getting me confused. The timezone setting for this blog has been wrong for the last 3 weeks or so. But that's not too bad.

The hood

A jacket with a good hood is an important accessory when it gets windy in Kingston.

Hardware as a service OR Don't try to match the text to the pictures

Nikon added several new features found in its newer D70s SLR camera to the older D70, including a new menu design and better auto focus.

In a statement, Nikon said, "The rapid pace at which development of digital technologies is proceeding inevitably leads to a continual release of new products. In the face of this dynamic, Nikon is determined to demonstrate our respect for the many customers who purchased a D70 digital SLR camera by delivering, where possible, the latest technology that the digital world has to offer through firmware updates."

It was a good night out. More pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.de/ferbress/08011718Second04

Full ratchet and the snow outside

This was my day today. Working on Venture Capital term sheets for hours in my cubicle in our team room. At least I am enjoying. Can't really explain why, but it is a fact.
But now I am getting unproductive. I might go to that Irish music session later on.

And this was how my day started, Kingston with quite some snow. Pretty, huh? Let's see if I will still find snow great after 2 months.

The first real weekend in Kingston

I can't complain that my weekend in Kingston wasn't eventful. I started it by going, by bus, out of the Kingston Bubble to buy second hand ice skates. I went as far as the Gardiners Centre and discovered a new side of Kingston, which is a city with around 140 thousand residents.
And of course I had to enjoy the nice weather and test the skates right away, which I did on the City Hall ice rink, as you can see on the album on Picasa.

In the evening, living in a co-op house paid off: I was invited to an Irish dance with other co-opers, and really enjoyed it. Pity it only happens once a month. But I also found out that there is an Irish music session happening in town, which, if assignments allow, I plan to visit tomorrow. There is even a slow Irish session for those learning, and this one I will visit with my Pady Richter tuned harmonicas to give it a try.

After the Irish dancing I met Viktoria and Marc, who literally spent their whole weekend on the Mergers and Acquisitions assignment. It is really strange that some of the courses require so much extra work, while others are comparatively mild. I believe this really damages their ability to divide their attention even

After missing Sujay due to strange scheduling, we met him by chance at the Grizzly and people even played some pool.

Sunday was less interesting, but also quite nice. And Monday awoke to Kingston covered in snow, and it snowed the whole day. I guess the winter arrived again.

A small collection of pictures

I have been taking some picture here in Kingston and have uploaded them to Picasa. The newer one on top.
The last day in Toronto and my first in Kingston were really great days to take pictures, with immaculate blue skies. Later on the weather changed, temperatures went up and it got cloudy. But I guess you can still have a good idea of Kingston and my life here.

080112 Ice skating	080104-06 Kingston First weekend
080103 Kingston first day	080102 Toronto Kingston

How does your Business School show appreciation towards guest lecturers?

I observed here at Queen's School of Business that they have a nice, little ritual to show their appreciation to guest lecturers who have taken their time to come to the school and share some of their knowledge with us. At the end of the class, one of the students hands the guest a nicely wrapped box (probably chocolate) and thanks for their trouble.
Pretty simple, sure. But nice anyway. The "Financing New Ventures" course I am taken uses guest lecturers a lot, and all 4 who have come so far have been extremely helpful and open, their experience truly invaluable.
Pictured above our main lecture room, Goodes Hall 410. Although people leave their name signs on their customary places, these places are changeable.

0.4 club

So another couple of days has passed and it's time for some more impressions of Kingston and Queen's. So far, so good. I am really happy with my choice. The courses have been great so far. Demanding and interesting, relevant. There is still a bit of schedule conflict for me to solve, but I am enjoying it.
The class is very close knit. Of course, they have been together for 8 months now and know each other very well. But that doesn't make them less welcoming, and it has been very easy to get to know lots of people. I won't probably get to know everyone, as the class is really big, almost as big as in Warwick, and everyone is taking different courses.
For this first block of 3 weeks the options are:

• Financing new ventures
• Problem solving and consulting
• Marketing strategy
  
• Corporate valuation & mergers and acquisitions

So far I have been to all classes, but am actually enrolled in the first two. Tomorrow I will audit marketing again and it might be possible to take it as a third course, but I will have to see if I manage the work load.
Because of the schedule conflict I mentioned, I was not able to take the second session of PSC (or PBL, as you wish) and the first one was not enough to evaluate the course well.
Mergers and acquisitions seems to be the most demanding course. The teacher impressed me, but, since it really isn't what I want to work with, I will forego this one.
I guess I already wrote a bit about marketing, either here or on twitter, but the class I attended was really good. It was looooong, 6 hours with breaks, but it was very interesting. I will audit as many as possible or even take it as real course.
FNV is extremely interesting. Mainly because it is all new and very valuable information taught by people who really know what they are talking about and have real and hard market experience. So, as you can see, I can't complain.

Today the class went out for the first time. It seems that there is the Thursday out tradition around here. They call it the point four club. It seems that there has been a study somewhere stating that, if you go out once a week, the negative effect on your GPA is only o.4%. I'm not sure of the origin, so maybe one of my new colleagues will correct me.

And today we went to a new sports bar near my house and it was fun. Having, for the first time, really time to talk to some of the new people and playing, for the first time, the Wii I know so well from the marketing assignment from last term. I'll definetely taking part on the future instances of this even, so don't bother trying to chat with me on Thursdays evenening.
And I am ripe for bed. I want to post one more thing, then I'm gone.

Le curry

Co-op life means that you have to help out in the kitchen for 3 hours a week. This first week I was scheduled for only two hours today, before lunch. The menu consisted of vegetarian (right) and chicken curry (left).
I didn't do much. Chopped green and red peppers and then mixed it all in the big pans. It wasn't exactly mind blowing, but it wasn't devoid of fun.
Because I had classes already at 12, I skipped lunch which I replaced with two great sandwiches I prepared before leaving the kitchen. I also didn't like the prospect of eating curry with peppers, so I was content.


I attended the marketing class today. I am not enrolled on the course, but am happy that I am allowed to sit in on classes. Or audit, as they say over here. The class was good, the teacher is certainly great. But it was draining, six continues hours of marketing material I am already familiar with. But we had breaks and it is always good to listen to a new viewpoint by an experienced lecturer.
Tomorrow the morning is free. Or almost. There is some preparation to do for Problem Based Learning and Financing New Ventures.

The sleepless goat cafe

It has been a while since I last wrote. I got top know the town (pics online), met Viktoria, Marc and even Sujay who is still here due to visa problems. Sujay introduced us to the school and night life in Kingston (K), although we have not been the best party goers around.

I messed my sleeping hours last week, mainly to time difference with the Middle East and to the season 1 of Heroes, a cool show Cristiano got me for Christmas. Thankfully it is over and I will now be able to concentrate on K. There is the schedule to be checked, both at the business school and at the co-op I'm living in. There also some pre-reading to finish for classes on Monday and a cell phone number to be bought.

The weather has changed quite a lot. From the perfect powder snow and -13 degrees Celsius temps on Thursday to mildly negative temps on Friday to mildly positive today. All the snow is melting and everything is wet and slippery. Gonna stay at home today, after buying some hair gel.
This cafe seems to be nice. Very well visited (and, therefore, probably liked) it is another co-op, the third one I've ran accross here in CA. The portions are big, the prices reasonable and they take pride in using bio food for "homemade" dishes. The attendance is quiet varied, with the obvious presence of the students, who started to pour into town yesterday. But you also see older couples and even one or two families here. It is almost 12 and it continues to be full, with a very healthy turnover. A nice place, I will probably visit it more often, the music is good, though th potatos were too salty.

Now most of the shops will be soon open, and it is time for me to move.

What I found in the basement of my new "home" in Kingston

I arrived tired and hungry, but safe and well, in Kingston, Ontario, my last stop outside of Germany in the globe trotting MBA.
And this is what I found in the basement:


This is surely a good start here in Kingston. Other than that, the city seems deserted, it was already dark when I arrived, quite cold (the taxi driver told me -4°C) and we have about 40 cm of beautiful snow.
And I am going to bed now. See you all tomorrow.

Networking in North America

After having met so many great people because of my involvement in on line harmonica communities, this shouldn't surprise me anymore. But it does, every time: the power of belonging to an international network of like minded people is astounding!
I am at the moment in the Silver Dollar bar, on Spadina next to the University. On stage is Jerome Godboo from the Brokenjoe band, a harmonica player I had heard on the Internet because somebody recommended him on Harp-L, the (mostly) American harmonica on line discussion group. On that same discussion, Manfred, a Toronto based harmonica enthusiast, encouraged me to call him up once I arrived.
I did, and Manfred was kind enough to give me great tour around downtown Toronto yesterday, and we ended up talking shop in his house for a couple of hours.
He then called Mark "the bird" Stafford up and arranged for us to meet today (the 31st of Dec) and again I spent a great afternoon discussing and learning about the harmonica.
Mark made then sure that I came to hear Jerome, to whom I introduced myself passing regards from Mark.
And so it goes almost everywhere I go. I let the folks from Harp-L know that I will be in town and somebody gets in touch. I have already written that I saw Miguel Weissman in NY and met both PT Gazell and Jelly Roll Johnson in Nashville.
In Germany I have visited players in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Hannover, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Muenster, Berlin, Klingenthal and Trossingen (of course!), to name a few places.
In England I met Brendan Power almost by chance in London and got to know and meet again a bunch of very friendly people in Bristol, at the National Harmonica League's convention. In Brazil some of my best friends are harmonica players and, during the years I have got to know or at least meet many of my harmonica role models, also in Moscow, France or Hong Kong.
And if I don't forget that my last and coolest job I owe to these connections and the Internet (thanks Steve Baker!), then I shouldn't be surprised by all this anymore.
Now I just have to find out how to apply all this in a business setting.

Obs.: Jerome played a good set, the bar is cool, but the ticket was really expensive: CA$ 40,00! But I figured out that it is New Year and didn't want to spend the evening in the hostel, even though it really is a damn cool hostel!

Aborting the take off in Nashville

And here we are, back again at the ramp where it all started. Air Canada flight 8031, due to arrive in Toronto at 13:08, will be late.
All seemed fine during take off, until, unexpectedly, the plane slowed down. And then the brakes were applied more strongly and the plane diverted off the main lane.
"Brake testing", one passenger in front of me believed. "Unusual", I thought, but hoped he was right and believed it too. Until the captain told us they had gotten some warnings and needed to go back to the ramp to have the plane checked.
Dec 31st, 2007. At the Silver Dolar, waiting for the show to begin, decided to finish this episode. So we got out of the plane and people from Delta Airlines, who were operating the flight for Air Canada, told us they couldn't do anything for us and that we should call a 1-800 number. But people at that number were even less informed. It seemed that I would have to stay over in Nashville for another day.
Which was, actually, fine by me. I didn't have nothing planned for Toronto and knew that an interesting band would be playing on Saturday at the Station Inn I had visited on Friday.
But waiting payed off. There was a rumor that the plane might be ready in 2 hours and this to be almost true. They actually needed an extra half hour to test the engines once more, and I was glad to wait for THAT.
And that was made up by the tail wind we had, so, at 4 p.m., only 2 hours late, I set my feet in Canada for the first time.