Cramming

If you want to read a really honest and bitingly funny blog about INSEAD, check out my friend MbaMRS' blog. She is writing up quite a storm over there!

I haven't updated my blog for ages, for three reasons. 1)I was cramming for Panda week. 2) I'm now cramming for finals. It sounds ridiculous since I've been in school for barely 2 months. But this is how it's like at INSEAD - you are in a constant race against time. 3)I have been spending way too much time on Facebook and Twitter.

So P1 is almost over. INSEAD is not entirely what I expected and the first two months haven't at all been a smooth ride.But I don't regret it yet. I have enjoyed most of the classes (have also dozed off a few, and skipped a couple) and met some very intelligent and interesting people. I have indeed made a lot of new acquaintances but not really new friends. I have done an okay amount of socializing, but not crazy. The INSEAD party scene is very much reminiscent of the New York single scene, except for the reverse male-female ratio. The Europeans dominate - at least on the party circuits. The Americans, at least the ones I know, are surprisingly low-key. The Chinese, a bit on the fringe, have formed their own parallel circle and they are hardly the overachievers that are often associated with Chinese in America.

While my pink glasses for INSEAD haven't completely worn off, I must confess life in Fontainebleau is a complete letdown. It has very little of the charm but all the inconveniences one would expect of a small town and sometimes costs you more than its famous neighbour. I miss city lights. I was in Paris last Saturday, and almost wept when I saw a pharmacy still open at the tender hour of 9pm. This is probably one of the factors I bid fearlessly for the Wharton Exchange. At this point, any city will do - even Philadelphia!

(to be continued)