Roma, non basta una vita

So the students were all gearing up for MBAT with their partners and kids and after considering it for a while, we decided a break from IMD would be more fulfilling and headed for Rome instead. 

We booked Easyjet flights- 6:20 in the morning. Only a day before did we realize that the last train to the airport was at 12:10am and the next one at 4:20am- which was cutting it too short. We arrived at the airport around 5:35am. I WAS RUNNING FOR MY LIFE. Easyjet is ALWAYS so crowded. The queues were long and it was taking us forever and then terminal D inside the airport seemed like it would never show up- Yep! They make sure you pay for having opted for a cheaper flight. 

But 2 hours later we were in Rome. Managed to get to the hotel, freshen up and made our way to the city center. 

What can I tell you about Rome that will actually justify its magnificence? Nothing. You just have to go. 

Perhaps it is possible to conquer Rome in a day- but not for history buffs. I had some help from Sharon, Marcella and Marieke that helped me chalk out a plan on what we wanted to do on our short trip there. The Vatican, The Museums, The Colosseum, The Fountains, The ruins- everything about Rome is saturated with centuries of History. As someone rightly said, the city itself is an open-air Museum. 

Yes the queues were long- but they were fast moving. 

Yes people talk rather loudly- but they are so friendly. 

Yes the traffic is crazy and even the buses and local transport are reminiscent of overloaded trains back in the South Asian sub continent. But nothing that a comfortable pair of shoes and a large appetite for history cannot solve once you set out on foot. 

All in all, with my transportation mess up (our hotel was far away from the center and the nearest Metro station no longer existed) and all-you-can-eat Gelato and delicious Italian food, the flights, stay (which was the bulk of it all) and excursions, it cost us around about 900 Euros. 

International Student Cards didn't help in the least. In fact, I should have saved the 40 francs I spent on it because wherever applicable, it also stipulates a standard requirement for (a 26 years) student/ partner age limit. 

The Italian term for greeting someone (hello or goodbye) is 'Ciao' and Thank-you is "Grazia".
And-a when-a you come-a back-a you vill-a vant-a to talk-a like-a that-a for-a while-a! 

Tip: It's better to pick up tickets for the Palatine hills and then enter the Colosseum. Saves you the madness of getting into another long (and this one not so fast moving) line. 

Another tip: Book your flights as early as possible!

So the world didn't come to an end on the 21st and I figured I couldn't squeeze out of it and had to get off my lazy derrière and do something about hubby's upcoming birthday. I was absolutely exhausted from all the labour I underwent to prepare a "nice dinner". I was up at 8 and sat down to rest ONLY at 6:30 in the evening. But I want to thank: 

Sevara & Lois for the cooking tips

Alison for the blender that made possible the Lentil soup

Sharon for the spring-form pan

Christina from Spain- for the mixer

and Fei for the grater.

and this is why you cannot NOT love the Partner community! 

This month has been busy. 

Our lovely Christina (my mixer saviour) has given birth to Nicolas. Can't wait to see them! 

There was also Iyerida's surprise birthday party that Diana organized. And little Sevinch who turned 3 earlier on during the month. Some pictures I'm sharing. 

It's getting hotter. I've been (yawn!) reading, baking and after an amazing "Positive energy" session offered to partners by IMD (which I will talk about in another blog because my blogs tend to get too lengthy then) I have gone back to some activities I had long given up. These days its puzzle solving and cracking brain teasers. Here's one I'll share with you- try not to cheat.

"Mike's birthday is today. He tells me that Tyson, his brother, has a birthday coming up in two days. They are twins. Is this possible? Or is he lying? 

Note: Mike is a twin to Tyson (so don't assume that Mike is much younger than Tyson and that Tyson has another twin brother)"

Until then, Au revoir!

My MBAT Experience

(by Maria Godsey)

As mentioned in a previous post, Noah and I decided to join the IMD class in a trip to Paris to compete in the MBA Tournament (MBAT). In total, I believe there were 88 students, 25 partners and 8 IMD babies who made the venture.

Leading up to the event, there was a lot of excitement in the air. IMD clothing was issued, posters and banners were made, class song and cheers were selected and final logistical arrangements communicated. Looking at the students, you could tell they were ready to let loose for a couple of days and the partners were ready to join them in the fun! After several months of planning and practicing for the competition, the class was ready to head to Paris!

The IMD team competed very well, especially considering there are only 90 of them to show their talents and the class curriculum doesn't offer much time for practicing. The final results…. 6 medals! A silver and two bronze in cross country running, silver and bronze in tennis and a bronze in squash. Not too bad! If I had a vote, I'd also give the team a gold for best team spirit!

Overall, the experience was nice, but not exactly what I expected. While I appreciated so much that partners were able to join, it would be hard for me to recommend the trip for future partners, especially given the expense and if you have children. Perhaps my weekend could best be summarized by borrowing Mastercard's priceless campaign. My version would go something like this:

• MBAT attendance fee (incl. transportation, hotel, food, parties)....... 500 CHF
• Additional expense for food due to late/sparse dinner offering...... 150 CHF
• Sightseeing trips around Paris..... 100 CHF
• Four days of uninterrupted family time away from IMD: .... PRICELESS!

If I had to do it over again, I would still join the class in Paris (the time with Joseph and Noah really was priceless), but would save the attendance fee expense and arrange my own travel, hotel and food. Some other lessons learned I can offer to the future partners are:

• • MBAT takes place on the HEC campus which is very widespread. Getting from one end of the campus to the other with a stroller is very difficult. If you're traveling with a child, try to bring a carrier or come by car so you can get around easier.
  • The dinners offered by HEC start at 8 PM and probably not the best if you are bring a child. We decided not to attend the dinners since they were so late and enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner at our hotel while Noah slept in our room. The feedback from other partners that went to the dinners were that the dinners were mainly finger foods, there were long lines and no tables to sit at. As well, although the dinnertime was communicated to be 8 PM, food was not served until much later.
  • The lunches provided by HEC were bag lunches and of decent quality.
  • It's about a 6 hour drive to the HEC campus, but much longer by bus due to mandated breaks for the bus driver. Depending if you are traveling with child or not, you may want to choose another method of transportation.
  • The campus is very close to Versailles. If you haven't visited this site, I would definitely recommend you reserve some time for this. Those with babies, don't forget your baby carrier as strollers are not permitted in the palace. :)
  • When we put our budget together last year, we did not budget anything for MBAT. The trip is free to the students, but the partners who wanted to join had to pay their way. Depending if next year's class participates in MBAT, raises enough sponsorship funds to cover the partners, etc, it would be wise to plan some money for MBAT, just in case. As you can see from my 'priceless' campaign, the expense is not small.

So those are my lessons learned and what I wish I knew beforehand. For the future class.. best of luck next year!! GO IMD!!

Maison de Quartier & Vallee de la Jeunesse

(by Marieke Van Esch-Gille)

My name is Marieke and mother of 2 daughters: Daantje (just turned 2 years old) and Juul (6 months). The three of us support my husband, Papa, in his MBA this year. We are from the Netherlands and I chose to focus this year our the family and quit my job as a HR consultant at an international HR consultancy firm. Every day we are profiting and discovering Lausanne and its direct surroundings. Up till now, life is good and the city of Lausanne seems very child friendly to me.

Besides the many parcs and playgrounds, Lausanne has several indoor play areas for parents & children which are great to visit. For me and my two girls it has become a fixed moment in the week: On Monday we go to Maison de Quartier (sous-gare) and on Friday morning we go to Vallee de la Jeunesse. My eldest and I love it as both places have different things to offer.

Maison de Quartier opens their doors three mornings a week for children from 0 till 6 years old. A typical morning starts with handicrafts (on Mondays by the dedicated leadership of Marcella, our IMD partner coordinator)……very nice for the creative mums, or discover something new in yourself in this field. This is followed by free play for the children. We end the morning with French child songs. As a break during the morning, coffee/croissants are served and for the children, bread, water/lemonade and apples. We all sit to have a nice pause in the dynamics.

Vallee de la Jeunesse is a place for children from 0 till 5 years old and their parents (2 mornings and 1 afternoon). It has a great play area for the babies including a partly separate play area for the toddlers. The toddlers will find lots of bikes, cars, hobble horses, books, puzzles, little toys, a small house etc to play with and meet other children. The babies can have fun underneath one of the many baby-gyms. This attracts parents & children from all kinds of nationalities. Two people guard the place and will help you out with your child if needed. The nice thing about it, and Daantje will agree for sure, is that they have a coffee table where you and your child can drink coffee, tea, water or lemonade and eat apples, bread and cookies. The rule is: sit while you eat. I love it from an educational perspective and also because it is a nice moment to mingle with the international mothers (and sometimes fathers).

For me, these visits have a very nice side effect. It turns out to be a great opportunity to speak/ polish my French and really be aware that we are in Lausanne and not only in IMD-land!!

BTW: the activities described of both places are one of the services provided by them.

IMD Partner Room

(by Maria Godsey)

I've spent a lot of time in our IMD partner room the last couple of days that I thought I would write about it. It's currently become an art studio as a couple of us are painting banners and making cheering supplies for the upcoming MBAT (just 6 days away!) The IMD partner room is one of the great things IMD provides for the partners. It's located in the same area as the student study rooms/lockers and purely dedicated to us partners!

(Maria, Noah, Leena, and Sachi getting ready for MBAT)

The room is large and has all the necessities: computer, speakers, TV, white board, art supplies, lots of books, maps, brochures, toys for the little ones, lounge chair and a nice, big table. Plus it's super convenient with it being located on campus.

Right now our room is doubling as an art studio, but we use it for everything… language classes, sewing class, potluck lunches, playroom, study area, reading area.. the list is long! And the best part, seeing the student partners during their breaks or after class is over! They all know where to find us! Here are some photos of our wonderful partner room!

(The IMD Partner Room)

(Computer Area)

(Books and Toy Area)

Easter Break!

(by Maria Godsey)

It's been a week since the Easter Break, but the feeling of having this special time together as a family is still fresh in my mind. So much so that I think I miss Joseph more now than before Easter Break! Perhaps I had gotten so used to him being at school and this break was a reminder of how nice it is to actually have your partner around for the entire weekend straight.

For Easter we decided to stay in the Lausanne area and travel to near-by cities. Switzerland and the Lake Geneva area are so beautiful, it just made sense to stay here than to fly someplace else. It turned out to be a great decision as we were able to save some money and still had a wonderful time together!

So what did we do? Here's a quick outline in case any of the future partners want to use this as reference next year:

Day 1: Hiking! - We packed Noah in our back carrier, took the metro to a stop just above Riponne and started hiking towards the woods/trees. We didn't really know where we were going, but I heard there was a large park close-by and thought we would check it out. The exploration was nice and we found some marked hiking trails which lead us to a wood tower lookout point, small lake and 'zoo', and several museums I hope to check out as the year progresses. We got back before the sun went down and ended the day at the beach near-by. Bliss!

Day 2: Gruyere and Cailler: Tahira talked about this in her last blog. I think many of the partners visited these locations over the break. I would definitely recommend it as the Gruyere region is beautiful and the cheese and chocolate are too good to be missed!

Day 3: Lausanne: Our initial plan was to visit Sion, the oldest city in Switzerland, but changed our minds as the weather didn't look promising. Also, Joseph was really craving a 'do nothing' day and I was all for that! We did a nice little Easter basket reveal for Noah, quick visit to the park, played board games while Noah napped, nice stroll along the lake and ended the evening with a wonderful dinner together. Maybe we did more than 'nothing', but the day was perfect!

Day 4: Morges: Joseph needed some time in the afternoon for school work, so we decided to visit Morges' Tulip Festival. Morges is very close by, only 10 minutes by train. The entrance to the tulip park is free and there are lots of tulips!! This is a definite must-do for the incoming partners! We found a nice spot in the park, picnicked and took lots of pictures of the flowers and Noah walking all over the place around them.

So that was our spring break. Was amazing! Now time to focus on MBAT (MBA Olympics) taking place at HEC Paris. A bunch of us partners will be joining the MBA class as they compete against the other MBA schools. I'm really looking forward to the event, the away time with Joseph, and hopefully some family time visiting Paris. 12 more days to go……! :)

A little Swiss holiday and one crazy trip to the Kingdom...



Chateau de Chillon

ok... so what's basically happened is that- we're busy. I think its safe for me to say that for everyone. Plus with me, my laptop was having a bit of a nervous breakdown- and you know, you need to blog in the comfort of your home and the strong reliable arms of your laptop. Additionally, I didnt want to make the partner blog look like a Tahira blog- so some space and hopefully other partner contributions (*hint, hint*) should help achieve that goal. 



But with the exams over and a nice long weekend thanks to Easter, I've also been really busy sorting out our "vacation" schedule, which included one crazy trip to Riyadh and back for a mere 24 hours. Why? Long, boring story. Nevermind that. 

One of the trips we made was to Montreux. And thank you Mr. Splendid Sun- You made it worth our while by shining mad all day. We drove down, about 45 minutes from Lausanne. The walk by the lake, spread of flowery colors, a little paddling perhaps, marinating in the sun, and if you're into history, a little expedition at the Chateau de Chillion will definitely make your day. 



Also, we the partner planned and successfully executed our very first surprise birthday party. This one was for Sevara. It was so much fun with so many partners showing up rather surprisingly (because I thought we were mostly out of town, planning vacations, taking day trips) and we left poor Sharon cleaning up after us, who played an amazing host and masterminded the event.

Sevara & Lil' Sevinch

So a day before our flight to Riyadh (KSA), we headed for La Gruyere* over the Easter weekend. It is a small, cute little town that extends a little beyond the walled area it is more famous for. The placed paved with cobblestones, cows grazing, flowers in full bloom, and oh that cheese! I remember some of the partners mentioning that the place has probably played host to a deluge of Bollywood movies- and seriously, I'm sure they're not too far from the truth. We visited the Gruyere Castle- which was very interesting and the HR Giger museum- rather disturbing; but for those who can stomach it, it was in fact rather fasinating, complex and dark (you get a discount when you visit them together and be sure to show them your Student cards). 

La Gruyere

And since we lacked the luxury of time- Faisal woke up a full hour later than intended- we made our way to Moleson and decided we'd do the Chocolate Factory another day.As for Moleson**- seriously, save your money for Jungfrau. They keep showing an observatory when you click Moleson on "search" and you get up there all excited in that cabin herded like cattle, and you realize that its a shack and nothing more- the observatory is "under construction". The view is stunning no doubt but it's too small and there are way too many people crowded around and everything seems to be falling apart; decrepit and frail. So unless the observatory is done, my honest opinion- save that very small and extremely precious student "vacation" budget for something better.

And then there was the trip to Riyadh. One of the things you ABSOLUTELY LOVE about the Middle East (and especially Riyadh) is the preferential treatment women get in long queues and administrative work in government offices. I am Faisal's golden ticket to getting work done around there. And oh! the cheap and amazing food. And thats about all the love one can have for Riyadh. 

We were exhausted and worn out and all you want is so have a nice ,decent flight with plenty of leg space and hopefully nobody sitting next to you, which we got on our way to the Kingdom. But on our way back, when we really needed it, was when everything that could go wrong did. We arrived an hour and a half earlier than scheduled. Thank god for cheap thrills like "the first class lounge". Its pathetic but they are a life saver. 

And then we discovered that our "direct" flight back, wasn't- it was going via Jeddah. And as luck would have it, the flight was jam packed. There was an onslaught of people suffering from flatulence and halitosis and bromhidrosis- and in some sick way it was rather amusing how when things are unpleasant, they leave room for almost nothing to breathe a sigh of relief into, pun intended. 

If my olfactory senses could, they'd have sued me for this abuse. 

The seats were cramped and a child was constantly wailing in the back. After an eternity of waiting, I finally turned to his mother and gave her the "look" which prompted her into action and she finally shushed him. 

And when Faisal made his way to the air-loo towards the end, he realized how the last cabin was more or less empty and people had stretched themselves entirely onto the seats and lay there drooling peacefully in their sleep. Arrrrgh! 

But let me tell you what was CRAZY! The flight captain signaled the alarm for "turbulence"- oh well, we thought normal turbulence, lets just strap ourselves into our seats and continue doing what we do best on such long haul fights- nothing.. But what followed was completely unexpected. Dont worry, since I am typing this story out, it means I came out alive. 

The plane started with a shiver. More shiver. Some shaking now. After constant trembling for about three minutes, not only was the plane jiggling into a near samba routine- IT GALLOPED! I bounced off my seat...and my heart plunged into the abyss of panic attack escorted with a pathological smile across my face- talk about masochism- and I just looked at Faisal and told him how much I loved him and started chanting prayers...Trust me when I say this, this is how the term "scared shitless" originated.  

But I was likening the feeling to a free wheeling roller coaster ride! FTW?! 

My mind was rushing through a psychedelic maze of plane crashes and pointy Swiss Alps and horror stories and people stranded for days who ended up eating other passengers and still starved to death; I thought about my life and my family and how I hadn't written a will (not that I have much left). And slowly, still stuck in that horrifying stupor, I could feel the plane descend. The normal, routine, scheduled descent. With that the air in my lungs started to untangle, the stomach seemed to have fallen back into its place, other anatomical normalcies took place I'll spare you the details of. 

But we were all so traumatized that the passengers burst into an impromptu spell of thunderous applause the second the pilot touched down. Phew! 

Oh well, now we're back. Students are back on track (rather forcibly) with the barrage of assignments coming in, while we the partners will probably be gearing up for the MBAT. Until then, this is T signing off. 

 Au revoir!

*The trip on train costs around CHF 22 (a half fare card) and then you need to dish out a bit more for any museum excursions or cheese/chocolate factory trips

** Costs CHF 14 per head (half fare card) for the Furnicular and then the cabin up and back down. 

P.S. These are 2011 prices (:

Exam Week

(by Maria Godsey)

Exam week has passed and sadly, I miss it! Earlier I mentioned that I planned to be away and wondered if it would turn out to be a positive thing or not. Well… positive it was! During the prep and exam days, there was a different feeling in the air. The students were still busy and had to study, but it was different and in an odd way, more relaxed. They had free reign on how they scheduled themselves, where they studied, how they studied… all this gave lots of opportunities for some face time with them which I didn't expect.

Here are a couple of highlights as I look back at the past week:

- Like I said, the students' schedules were up to them to figure out and for us, this meant saying goodbye to the hectic morning rush for awhile. It was really nice having breakfast as a family again. Unfortunately, we couldn't sleep in due to our wonderful alarm clock named Noah, but our morning pace was a lot slower. Joseph wasn't rushing around the house, gathering his items in between bites of cereal before running out the door. Instead, we actually ate breakfast together. Joseph even got to feed Noah his breakfast which was fun to see. :)

- The weather here was FANTASTIC!!! Sun shining, light breeze… Lausanne is so beautiful with the blossoming flowers, leaves on the trees and clear skies to see the mountains. One day, a bunch of us went to the near-by beach to soak up the sun. Ahhhh... refreshing and relaxing!! Best of all, some of the students joined us as well and studied in the sun!

Leana & Sachi, Noah & Maria, Soujanya, Charlotte, Marieke & Daantje

- Exams completed at 1 PM on Friday and it leant the opportunity to some wonderful family bonding time over the weekend. We decided to go to the nearby vineyards to walk and picnic along the Lavaux Wine Trail. It was so nice to spend this time together! I'm already counting down the days until Easter Break!

View of the vineyards and beautiful Alps!

So as a partner, the exam week wasn't bad at all! Not sure the students would agree with me, but I sure enjoyed it! :) If I had to do it over again, I would definitely stay local during this time period! (*hint, hint* to the future IMD partners!)