A1 vs. A2

While Mumbai has fallen apart and Bangkok is also a disaster...INSEAD P2s were at the beach today.

Today was the A1 vs. A2 Olympics (A1 and A2 are our sections). A2 (my section), lost in nearly everything...except four things.

Let me first state that I had nothing to do with any of the wins. I did contribute to a sore volleyball loss, though.

A2 won in:

• Sand castle building (which I believe was actually done by partners, not students)
• Some French game that starts with a "B" that seems like Bocce ball, but the balls are silver (and it's French and not Italian). They claim it's an olympic sport, but I have never heard of it
• Dodge ball (which is obviously the most important "F*%$ you" sport, which is crucial for business school students)
• Baywatch. We had to go save A1 "victims." I think there was mouth to mouth involved

Though four seems like a lot, A1 won in basketball, some water gun thing, arm wrestling, volleyball, soccer (football?), swimming, and probably a few more that I'm missing. They were just better than us. What can we say?

The day was fun, though. It was one of the few non-partying opportunities to connect with other students since I started. It was on Sentosa - which you might remember from when we first moved here. This time, though, I really appreciated it. Yes - you could see the ships, and yes it seems like the water must catch on fire if you get too close with a match, but it was really pretty, and it made for a really relaxing, fun, day.

Mumbai

There isn't really much I can add to what is being written about Mumbai. It's just totally crazy to me that something like this is happening...and that it's still happening after more than a day.

I have never been to Mumbai, but in the last few years I have developed quite a few relationships with the city, and all I can say is that I'm hoping and praying (in a Melanie sort of way) that things end soon and the damage is minimized. It seems like avoiding major damage is already far beyond an option.

My boss at Moody's stays at the Taj Mahal hotel, and I organized an event there a few months ago.
My co-worker from Moody's, Nidhi is from there.
My roommate, Zimra from Pardes is also from Mumbai. Her family is extremely involved in the Jewish community.
My former co-worker/friend Erin was working with the JDC for the last year in Mumbai. I'm sure she is well aware of the Chabad building and all of the people who live inside it.
I recently read Shantaram which made me fall in love even more with the city.

Basically - I'm thinking about these people in my life who are directly affected. It is constantly on my mind (instead of Finance, Strategy and Accounting, unfortunately).

All of this in the context of American Thanksgiving (which we did nothing to celebrate).
And the INSEAD Cabaret, which was last night and had a really fun atmosphere.
And preparing for finals.

Two INSEAD Traditions

This past week (so far) has been filled with random things at school.

This included (but is not limited to):
The INSEAD Dash
National Week Bidding

Friday, as is tradition in Singapore, the students all dressed up in costume and ran from one of the apartments where lots of people live - to school. There were huge birds, Aladdins, many "women" (I am still trying to figure out what to make of the fact that about 20% of the men dressed up as women), prisoners, Scottish warriors, Peter Pans, hula dancers, Mexicans, and I was an ipod, of course. People were in outrageous costumes, and it must have been quite a scene to see all of these people running to school.

I don't know if I have ever written about this on my blog, but it's sort of hot in Singapore (right...), so it was actually a hard thing to do - especially for those who were in huge costumes with big heads (like the Chuck ECheese Mouse). I have pictures, and I will post.

Part of me thinks it's silly, since basically everyone just went to a costume shop and paid $50-$100 to rent a random costume, but when you put the whole picture together, it's hilarious. Sitting in class afterwards was also really funny.

The second tradition was last night - the National Week Bidding. At INSEAD, we have six weeks per half year (Sept-Dec/Jan-June) that are designated National Weeks. Countries, or groups of people from similar countries get together and plan a week of activities that show us about life in their country. Last week was Desi week, and they had Desi music playing, dinner one night, dancing classes one afternoon and it all came to an end at the Kamasutra party. They each do different things, but they're all really fun and have lots of energy.

Last night was the bidding for the first half of 2009. Groups of people got together and put together movies and bids for their countries and what they would do. Other than more exploitation of women's bodies (it's seriously widespread here), it was just hilarious.

I enjoyed seeing my classmates dressed up like nuts (Toreador, in togas, in Chinese dress, flags on their backs), and the movies were great. We'll have to wait to see who won, but I have to say that the Iberians and the Italians had a strong showing. The same thing was happening in Fontainebleau, so we'll have to see what happens in the final voting. There was an American week bid, but it was totally done by the folks in Fonty, and I didn't get involved at all.

In other news - the babies are starting to flow again.
Congratulations to Greg and Cristine who had a baby on Friday - named Sam. He looks super cute from the two photos I have seen. I regret that this has lost me a reader, though, as Cristine was fairly committed, and now she might have other priorities.

Christian and Lee Fong are having their baby on Monday...
Liba and Ethan are having their (SECOND!) baby a week from Tuesday...
CRAZINESS!!!

Lunch

Successful:
GREAT roti prata.
Two kinds of otah - mackerel and chili crab (!)
Peanut pancake
Lime juice
Diet coke

Unsuccessful:
Buying the baby clothes that I went to the market to get
Buying watermelon
Buying hairbands
Eating healthy

I met Matt and Peter at the wet market this afternoon. I was super stressed this afternoon - realizing I have finals in 2.5 weeks - but Matt said the clothes guy was there in full force. This guy has Esprit, Gap, Eddie Bauer, Osh Kosh, Carters...all of these American brands that are produced somewhere in SE Asia, and then some make it to our wet market. The adult clothes are usually $5 per piece, and the babies' clothes are 3 for $10. Whoa. It's the real deal, also! I got a load of clothes for Christian and Lee Fong, who are having a baby in a week, and I went back today to get clothes for Lauren and Mo who are having a baby in a month, but by the time we finished lunch, he was gone.

The good news is that I had a really yummy lunch. I don't think it gets more unhealthy.

We have had a good weekend - Friday night dinner at Deeksha and Rajeev's, Saturday I tried to value options all day (that was really hard). Last night our friends organized a wine tasting thing for young people in the Jewish community. It was nice. Today was studying (by the pool, which was nice - I need my vitamin D) and a few games of Settlers. I won a lot today. Surprise wins - I conned people into trading with me so that I could win. Twice. SUCKERS!!!

Really? Ballsy?

I think you have to click on it to enlarge it to see...

Because People Will Pay

I have always been really cost conscious. Some people call this "cheap," but I'll just say that I have always paid close attention to prices.

From a young age, I always asked my dad why things were priced so high? He always said, "because people will pay."

I don't need this 50,000 euro degree!!! That's what we're learning about in school. In our Strategy class, we learned about how for an item there is a cost, and then (hopefully) above that is the price, and then above that is the willingness to pay. Apparently there is not a direct relationship between willingness to pay and price, but it's definitely closely related, and my dad taught me this when I was really young. Way to go, dad! The only difference is that it seems that "they" could actually charge higher, if they're actually charging what people will pay. But then we go into supply meeting demand and micro economics, and that was last period, so I won't go there.

In other classes...Operations, for example, we have been learning about how processes work inside a factory. We have learned about bottlenecks and capacity and pooling (so you have multiple people working on the same project rather than spreading one person's time out among many things). And today, we took a field trip to the Tiger Brewery. We got to see the bottleneck (which is apparently the filler, because it can only move SO fast), and we saw all of the processes and how it all works. Then we had free flow beer for a while. Pretty cool.

It's Coming...Beware

Obviously we have been hearing about the Financial Crisis that has been taking over the world. I still listen to NPR daily, and my husband works at JPMorgan. But...so far it has felt that it wasn't yet in Asia. I felt that the states are probably falling apart, and all of these homeowners are totally in a mess, but we're fine. They're still hiring in Singapore. Rent is still going up (remember - we pay what we paid in MANHATTAN, and we live in the suburbs here!). Ex-pats are moving in left and right, and all seemed to be normal.

But it doesn't feel that way anymore. Whenever we talk to our friends, everyone is worried about his job. People are making "Plan B"s all over the place. All of the banks have announced that they're cutting globally - there was a Wall Street Journal article that mentioned nearly every bank I know, including JPMorgan, and it said they're all cutting 10%-15% across the board (JPMorgan is cutting 15%).

Since we moved here we have heard about wait lists at ex-pat schools, and the American School has traditionally had a waiting list of over 400 students. Apparently that is gone.

People are saying their kids' friends are not showing up in school, because their parents lost their jobs.

I hadn't yet known anyone whom this affected, though, so even though I was hearing more about it lately, it really didn't feel that bad...until last night.

I heard from a friend that her husband lost a job (in the finance world), and they have three kids here - two enrolled in school. He had no warning. Just called into a meeting and escorted out of the office. I think this is the first of many that we're going to hear about, and it's really scary.

Considering the fact that I'm in one of the most expensive MBA programs in the world, and I have already come to the conclusion that I will be EXTREMELY lucky to find a job after I graduate, I definitely rely on Matt's income, and that's very scary right now.

Plus I read about what's happening with the cars in Detroit. Not only is my future worth at risk (the value of my parents' house and what not), it seems like it's going to be a total disaster. The "future worth" thing was a joke - don't worry, mom. Anyways, if one of those companies go down, it's gonna take a lot of the economy with it.

Scary stuff...