2 campus & 2 intake dynamics

There have been at least 2 awkward introductions in the past week when I've met someone on the Singapore campus, I've asked them how they liked Singapore over the first 4 months of the program, and they explain that they actually spent those 4 months with me in Fonty. This is bizarre for the Singapore intake to see. They started with 100 in their class and they all know each other by this point. Fonty was different, the environment didn't facilitate interaction like it does in Singapore. For one thing, there are many more people to get to know (300 vs 100). In addition, students disperse themselves over the French countryside as opposed to concentrating themselves in 2 high rise apartment buildings as happens with Dover/Heritage. In fonty, you always saw the exact same crowd out at the social events (maybe 60% of the class). There was another 40% who rarely, if ever, went to the standard events. If you didn't share a section with these people, it was possible that you never properly met them.

There are 3 distinct groups on campus these days. The P4s who started in Fonty, the P4s who started in Singapore, and the P1s who just arrived here. The interaction between the 3 groups isn't as fluid as you might expect. P3's mingle and slowly break down the walls between the campus intakes, but their seems to be very little interaction between the P1s & P3s. It isn't suprising, P3's are still tired from meeting hundreds of new faces over the past months and the P1s have enough name learning to do of the people that are in their own boat. Judging from our first periods in France, the most successful ones to break the P1-P3 divide will be the P3 guys. They seemed to have some sort of power to win the attention of our intake's P1 girls. I guess girls are always impressed by the older, confident guys. Let's see if our P3 guys are able to find the same keys to success.

A new beginning

Stepping onto the campus in Singapore was a bit cathartic. P1 & P2 in Fonty were great, but I feel my MBA experience now has a chance to truly begin.

P3 is the opportunity to break free from the shackles....of core courses, of pre-defined projects, of a herd like mentality. Up until now, it was all too easy to be swept away in a current of convention. While the current is still strong, I am serenely content with the idea of breaking free and swimming alone.

So, P2 was not a very successful blogging period for me. It started off hot, I found a lot of success with my Sex & the MBA entry! On the other hand, someone or two took strange pleasure in making my anonymous blog a little bit less so. Maybe having my identity known made blogging subconsciously a little less fun...or maybe the mountain of coursework and group work made blogging seem less of a priority. Either way, in P3 I will pick it back up and share my perspective on this whole strange experiment called the INSEAD MBA.

Week 1 in Singapore was really great! It is not easy getting back into the casework mode after spending a non-stop 2.5 weeks with the person I love most in life on an amazing holiday. Plus, the feeling of being at a resort seems inconsistent with work for me. Being able to swim and play tennis in the sun each day just outside my front door is associated with vacation, not school. I've just drawn up a schedule of all key deliverable dates to force myself to stay on top of the workload.

The most work in week 1 seemed related to weekend trips. Just 1 week in and loads of people have all weekends through the end of P2 booked...Thailand, Bali, Vietnam, Cambodia, KL, HK, blah, blah, blah. I'm a bit slower to figure out exactly where I want to go and more importantly who I do and don't want to go with. Some location decisions area easy...I've never been a beach person, I enjoy the culture of the big cities or countryside much more. Plus, I hate group tours, that'll cross of lots of trips where half of the airplane is made up of INSEAD students. I've spent enough time on superficial relationships in the last 4 months, I look forward to building better and long lasting bonds in the next 4.