And tonight they had a cool party at the Warwick Business School. All exams are over and the second term of MBA, with the last core subjects is also over.
From the Facebook updates I have been following, people have looked to this party with mixed feelings. They are happy for how far they have come and the feeling that exams are done is certainly very liberating. On the other hand, with the end of the core subjects, which everybody has to take, an important stage of the MBA reached its end. After these subjects, the whole cohort will maybe only get together again at the graduation party.
The A0.01 class room will no more be full with 80 plus FTMBA07 people again. It is kind of sad. This is a great group of people and it was a great group of people for me to start my MBA. I found good friends, open minds and, more important, open hearts. A very diverse mix: different ages, different countries, different professional experiences. But it was the group I started with and it is the group I would be with now if I could.
Anyway, I am now at the Business School in Kingston, Ontario, several thousand kilometers away, with another great group of people, watching a video after a good week of classes, relaxing deservedly. My first half of the MBA is also soon over. 10 more days and one exam. Then I will pack everything up and fly over to Germany. And the big job search will start seriously.
In Mannheim there will be yet a third group of great people assembled. I am really looking forward to meet the guys and girls I met for one brief week in Semptember 2007, an eternity or two ago. This will surely be great! And, to top it up, we will have weekly reinforcements from all over the place: the students who have been our hosts will come to stay at our home this time. Man, will that be fun!!

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

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!

Marketing gone. I did manage to write a nice essay with introduction, development, conclusion and end, so I should be fine. I also mentioned key phrases like "customer value", "smart customer", "mutating market", "value definition" and "learning organization" in a sensible way, so this should put me in a better position still. I hope that the teacher grades the tests, cause I did try to emulate his discourse and even humour. But, with 82 people writing 2 to 4 pages essays, I don't believe that he will do it all by himself.

In the afternoon we have organizational behaviour, which I believe is the exam I am worst prepared for, and will do some last minute studying during lunch break. Just hope that I can take advantage of the beautiful, though cold, weather outside.