Tomorrow we are going to see how these weekly course are going to work out. Startin with Cross-Cultural Management, the electives in Mannheim are going to be taught in 5 days, only one week. We will have classes in the mornings and afternoons, the evenings being reserved for readings and team work.
I am a bit anxious about the whole thing. Having courses in only two weeks at Queen's University was already pretty tough, especially when we had double classes in the afternoon, for six long hours in a row. In the Mannheim case, this will be the rule, with the difference that we will have a lunch break inbetween.
Another characteristic of these courses is that you start the course on Monday and write an exam on Friday. I am sure that this will be the perfect system for some people and the worst nightmare possible for others. I hope that I belong to the former grou ;-)

Tomorrow we will also meet several of our colleagues from the partner schools. Today I meet the Queen's group, all are staying here at my apartment building. Three of them are going to take the course tomorrow, plus two ladies from Warwick Business School, who have already arrived also. This will certainly be fun!

Oh yes, and the weather was great today, finally!

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.

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.