All is packed, except for the computer and I am amazed that I could make all fit. But I am sure that the bags are too heavy, I suspect that this is going to cost me some.
In any event, John should be arriving any minute to get the van and we will go to the airport, where I will have a long wait until 5 p.m., when my flight takes off.
See you all in Mannheim!
Showing posts with label kingston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kingston. Show all posts
Saying goodbye was harder here in Canada. But this simply from a logistics point of view. It was tough enough to say goodbye in Coventry, but, at least, we had a great farewell dinner party there, with most of the cohort present.
Here it wasn't so, as the different electives ended in different dates (there are still people studying for an exam tomorrow) and people are leaving the program in different blocks.
Added to that, here I had to say goodbye from two different groups: the MBA colleagues and my friends at the housing co-op I lived in. It makes things a bit more complicated, for sure, but it is really good to have had so many friends to say goodbye to.
In the picture above we see the German clan in the far left and two cute co-oppers on the right. The other two didn't want to appear in the picture, so will remain unmentioned.
Tonight we meet for dinner at 8 p.m. at the Keg, in Kingston. A tabvle for 15 has been reserved, and we hope to see many of our colleagues there.
it has been a great term here at Queen's and we have been in a farewell mood for some days now. Many of the students here have already left for their own exchange courses in Europe, China, India or, even, Japan. The weather continues to be cold, but signs of spring have shown up slowly.
The last course, Managing Innovation, is getting to an end, and it has been an excellent course. our professor, Lib, has great corporate experience as CEO and as innovation champion, and she brigns her experiences effectively to class.
Life at co-op is also coming to an end. The last inspection before returning the keys is scheduled, the last kitchen duties are coming and the last party, this time at our direct neighbours, was yesterday. it was also a great experience, living with this nice bunch of diverse people.
And this is the mood today. One last presentation to practice, one last class to attend, one last exam to write. And then pack our books, clothes and hope that all will fit in the suitcases, even the pair of ice skates, my main Canadian souvenir.
A cool picture taken by Viktoria at the frozen Ontario Lake.
I am going ice skating soon, to enjoy the cool weather and bright sun.
Last week I took part in a recruiting webcast done by UK's consulting arm of the company, IBM Global Business Services.
I thought, from the beginning, that it was a cool idea, as I would be able to take part in the same event as my colleagues from Warwick Business School, even being an Ocean apart.
But the webcast was set up in a surprising way: the slides were served through a password protected website, while you had to call a special number to be able to listen to the speakers. Why not have both online, I don't know, but, in the age of Youtube and Skype, it surely is strange. Since I don't have a good phone plan for daytime calls, I used Skype out, which worked just fine, bringing all back to the internet.
The presentation was fine, the slides being showed on the screen and the audio through the headphones. One glitch or two due to feedback, but that was really minor.
I would have one or two suggestions to make this type of event more effective.
First of all, it should be all online. I don't know the reasons to separate the audio from the video, but I am sure the folks at IBM know why they do that. But it certainly would make our lives easier. And taking part in the event would be more convenient for the participants. It certainly is technologically possible.
Then I would suggest doing it in two parts. The first part, the one way presentation, when the audience doesn't interact with the talkers, could be presented as a pre-recorded podcast. Not only would the overall production quality be better, it would give participants the chance to get the presentation at their own time.
The second part would naturally be the questions and answers part, which is two way. For this section, people would then all connect at the same time and use the teleconference possibilities.
Furthermore, there were only 3 questions allowed and I thought this was very little. After all, people had been listening for about 40 minutes, they could have reserved a little bit more of time for the more interactive part of the presentation.
All in all, it was an interesting event. But, more interesting, was the opportunity to talk to a more senior consultant from IBM Global Business Services Canada, who gave a guest lecture for the marketing course here at Queen's. The cohort went to the pub after the class, with the aim of having the possibility of talking to Todd. And this was certainly constructive, as I could discuss several higher level issues related to the consultancy profession in general.
Exactly a month ago we had the opportunity, on a Sunday, to do some sports and go for cross country skiing in a reservation park they have near Kingston. It was a nice Sunday, not too cold and with enough snow.
I hadn't done it before, but it worked quite well, it was certainly good exercise.
After this week I believe that I will be able to relax a bit more and have some free time. Who knows if, by then, I won't be able to go skiing again? I wish to go snowboarding, but this involves much more money, so I am not sure if it will be possible.
In any event, now I have to concentrate on the most important assignment I've had so far and I don't have much time available anymore. Enjoy the pictures below.
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| 080127 Cross country skiing |
The weekend in Montreal was a well deserved pause. And, considering the fact that I am only taking one course this block, I was expecting to have a bit of slack now.
But it ain't so. It is not bad, but I have to pay attention. I am taking Services Management as a full course and Advanced Topics in Marketing as a listener. Should (and will) work out quite well. But Services Management is a very case intensive course, I have to read a lot. Additionally, I have to prepare 2 written case discussions, a case presentation with a group, another group assignment on customer loyalty and a compliment/complaint letter exercise. At least the last one is done and I had to do it anyway, as my complaint is a real one with a store in Toronto. And it seems that the issue will be solved.
The workload is high, but not unbearable. And the cases are interesting. But two of the courses I have taken last block still have left me bigger assignments I have to complete until the end of next week. This means quite a bit of juggling with appointments and a need of good planing and discipline.
I believe that I have found a good way to work. I simply stay in my team room in the Business School from as early as 7:45 in the morning to as late as midnight, or even 1 a.m.. I have the impression that I can concentrate better here that at home. At least during this week, when the co-op dining hall is closed and I am living of instant noodles cooked in the resource room's microwave oven. At least I don't have the co-op kitchen duty of 3 weekly hours to do. And now let me get back to the IKEA Child Labour case.
Tomorrow is Walmart Business Case Day, let's see how it goes.
Oh yes, and it snowed like crazy. Bit annoying, when the restaurant is waaaaaay down at City Hall and all taxi services are completely overloaded, but very beautiful anyway.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
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."
http://picasaweb.google.de/ferbress/08011718Second04
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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
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.
And I am ripe for bed. I want to post one more thing, then I'm gone.
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.
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.
