Last Class

Last night was my last class at INSEAD. Corporate Turnarounds, until 7pm.

For college, grad school (the first time), Otzma, Pardes...pretty much all of the programs I have done, I have been ready for them to end. I was very attuned to where I was in the process, and when it was over, I was ready to move onto something new. I definitely don't feel that way with INSEAD. I feel like I spent the majority of the last ten months just trying to understand what is going on, and so much of it just passed me by. I have loved nearly all of my classes this year, and I have learned so much, and I wish I could learn more. I don't feel sick of doing work, and I could sit in classes for months more (though another exam wouldn't sit well with me). I just started getting comfortable socially (took me long enough, I guess...), and now it's all over.

There is a lot to say to reflect on this whole experience, which I will do, but for this posting, I will use the excuse that I am still in INSEAD shock - don't really understand what to do with my time now that I have some, and I really, honestly, do not understand that it's over. No more leaving at 6:45 am to beat the heat and make sure to make my 8:30 class, skinny latte first thing, reading the FT in the bar, in and out of class all day, lunch next door or across the street (I was on strike from the INSEAD cafeteria for most of this period), sitting in some break out room working on something, figuring out what I had to read for my next class, wrapping my brain around a case, or just generally talking to lots of superb people.

In other news, I will share something important that I learned. Apparently in the back of US passports there are four pages that look exactly like all the rest of the pages, but they don't say the word "visa." I did not notice this difference. I spoke to my friend, Tamara yesterday, who is heading to India next week, and when she went to get her visas for India, she was told that she didn't have enough pages in her passport. I happened to talk to her yesterday morning at about 11:20. I looked at my passport, which I will need a visa in on my arrival in Bali tomorrow, and I didn't have any pages left. I DASHED to the US embassy, made it there a few minutes late (luckily they made an exception for me - which is SUPER not common in this country), and I picked up my passport this afternoon with extra pages. CHECK YOUR PASSPORT!!