My Spectacular Group

After my last post, I felt guilty that I wasn't doing anything, and during my last class of the day, I asked my group if they would mind if I cut out on that night's group meeting (finishing up our stats case) and went to UHC Yom Kippur services and break fast. They're amazing. No one minded, and I was off. I had a solid hour of services and then a great break fast for young adults in the community - planned by my friend Gal. I was really appreciative that I could be there. My deal was that I would do the final editing and putting the presentation together. Unfortunately it was too big and ended up crashing my computer, but I finished it on Friday morning.

So this is a small appreciation to my group.

At INSEAD we are all put in groups of five people. They try to put you with people who are different from you - culturally and in terms of experience. Though that might be hard to navigate in terms of working together, it's amazing, because each of us really does know a lot about some things, and not so much about others...but there's always someone to fill in.

As a side - we currently have five classes (Accounting, Micro Econ, Finance, Stats, Leading People and Groups), and there is literally one person who specializes in each of those areas. It's pretty great to always have one person who understands (especially when you're me, and you had never heard of a discount rate or a Cournot Equilibrium).

So...my group is diverse. We come from the US, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Portugal. Two have experience in finance/banking, and two have experience in consulting. When we did a presentation between us, I think we saw that we had eight university degrees and spoke more than ten languages and had visited more than 50 countries. I can't remember the stats, but it was pretty cool.

At the beginning we weren't the group that clicked right away and spent all of our time hanging out when not necessary. I think we all felt fine about each other, but we got our stuff done, and then we went our own ways. Over the past period (it's been nearly two months!), I have really grown to like each person individually, and we have grown together as a really functional team. We are super productive, and I think we even seem to come up with the right answers.

I'm sure there will be other related postings, but I just needed to share that I appreciate them at this time.

Two unrelated things:
What the hell was Michigan thinking? I'm so embarassed.
I have decided to study at Wharton at Penn for two months - mid-March to mid-May, so I hope to see many of you when I'm in the States! Unfortunately Matt and Kitty will have to hold down the fort in Singapore. I'm not too worried about Matt, but I hope Kitty remembers me and still wants to cuddle when I return.