Collection of cool things I haven't had the chance to tell you about

So far, all my posts have been very structured and focused in only one specific topic at a time. This has refrained me from sharing cool stuff about my life at INSEAD with you. Enough of postponing all the random topics that have come up to my mind on the past few weeks, just because they are not big enough to fill an entire post! It's time to (randomly) share!

Firstly, there are some class dynamics that I would like to tell you about.

1. Each section defines a "word of the day". The first person who uses such word in a question to the professor in a way that is a) meaningful and b) makes sense in the context of the class, gets a drink from the section's social fund. Whether the question makes sense or not is judged by the class, and words are chosen by the winner of the previous challenge. Anytime a Professor understands that we are playing this game, no drink will be attributed. We've been playing this game for a while, and the outcome has been hilarious. Examples of words/ expressions already used include "moist", "eggplant", "hamster", "juggernaut", "snowman", "catwoman", "Victoria's Secret", among others. Only one of them has been identified by a Professor - smart Miguel Sousa Lobo -, and words have been mentioned in all our classes - from Accounting, to Finance, to Statistics, to Organizational Behavior (the easiest one, by the way).
2. Since 2004, there is a tradition at INSEAD called Dash. Dash is a different day at INSEAD, in which all students put up their funniest costumes, get together in the condo where I leave by 7 am in the morning, and run (dash) to school around 8 am, already after one or two drinks. People attend classes in such costumes and there are a few special activities on campus as well. This year's dash is happening in one week, on October 17th. I won't be drinking in the morning for sure, but I guess I will have great stories to share with you in a future post.
3. Other remarkable events at INSEAD are the National Weeks. Every year, 3 nationalities (or groups of nationalities) are voted (by the previous class) to organize thematic weeks. This year, we will have Latin America week, Italian week, and Russian week, as per 16D nomination. We will choose the National Weeks for the upcoming class, and so on. Latam week starts tomorrow, and organized events include: football tournament and Brazilian barbecue on Tuesday, salsa class and tequila tasting on Wednesday, latin party on Thursday, thematic meals at INSEAD's cafeteria, and more.
4. Robin Hood campaign is another weekly event that will take place sometime this year. It is a fundraising one-week event aimed at collecting money for a few scholarships. Fundraising is done through students, in very creative ways. For instance, in the end of certain classes, students have the chance to auction themselves to their fellow colleagues. For instance, a Brazilian guy can sell capoeira classes, a good looking guy can auction a dinner with him, a fit girl like me can auction workout sessions (haha), and so on. Furthermore, we have the chance to send flowers with messages to our classmates and friends (each flower costs a certain amount, which reverts to the cause). People use the flowers to prank friends. And more activities like these, you see?
5. There are many more social activities, which I will explain to you as they approach.
6. Each section has students representatives - two academic reps, two career reps, and two social reps. Social reps are the ones in charge of monitoring the games mentioned above, and of coming up with new ideas to entertain such bored INSEAD students.

Secondly, there are important topics of my personal experience here that I haven't shared with you yet.

1. I am an official INSEAD blogger. Along with a few other INSEADers, I contribute to The INSEAD MBA Experience, the school's official blog. Feel free to check my one and only post so far: Welcome to Singapore
2. I am a not-so-official but very-seriously-taken Personal Trainer at INSEAD. Many of my friends (especially the Portuguese crew) started coming with me to the gym. I go everyday, at least from 7 to 8 am. They join whenever they can, i.e., when they had not drunk much the day before and/or their body pain allows. I typically give them ideas of new exercises to do and monitor their postures, but their all-time-favorite is my 15-minute core class that literally kills them.
3. Group work with my team has been going very smooth. We decided to split tasks. For each assignment, two of us are responsible for doing it, another one of reviewing it. For all assignments, the doers are responsible for presenting the output to the team, so that everyone understands what has been done and is update with all the topics. We seem to be less busy than most of other groups. I guess it means our method is productive and efficient.
4. Last week, for our Organizational Behavior class, we had a group feedback session. It could not have gone better. Everyone took all the comments in a constructive way, and I would dare to say that such feedback session was a good bonding event. It made us closer to each other. On a personal note, I was happy that no one thought I have been too direct/ push/ intolerant during these first weeks - which is my less positive feature that I committed to work throughout the year.

That's it for now.

Talk to you soon,

Marta