Last night I went with my wife to a Graduation Gala -2012 for GWSB. The Gala was held at the Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery. Quite an impressive venue at night (someone told me they were not quite impressed with it in daylight). I have mixed feelings about the event, though I mostly managed to redeem the whole experience by the end of the night.

First, as we entered the courtyard I was surprised to see so many unfamiliar faces. For some reason I had thought it was an MBA graduation gala only. Turned out it was for all masters’ programs in GWSB: all flavors of MBA, MSPM, MSIST, Finance, Accounting, Tourism, etc., AND the undergraduates. That explained why I had hard time to spot familiar faces in the crowd at first. It was a humbling experience to realize that I did not know most of the people, unlike in my previous venture at MBA Gala. Later on I turned it into a benefit by actually meeting new people I would not be able to meet otherwise. It was also fun to spend some time with my Project Management buddies.

Second, I somehow did not get into the dancing mood this time. I hardly entered the dance area for the whole night. Even though I enjoyed shmoozing around all night, without dancing the night was somewhat incomplete for me.

Third, the most disappointing thing was that not many of my graduating MBAs came to the Gala. I enjoyed seeing whoever was there, but frankly I was expecting to see most of my graduating class. It seemed to me that considerably less than a half of the graduates showed up. One of the reasons could be that it was a week night and everyone, at least from part-time MBA program, had to go to work in the morning. Still, it’s a shame they missed this last chance to have fun and say hello. The Commencements are coming this weekend, but it will be more formal atmosphere. And I bet you, everyone will head in their own direction once the ceremony is over.

At least I had a chance to meet some new people, including a surgeon who got his Healthcare MBA online, and an undergrad. I would never meet them and have some interesting conversations if not for the Graduation Gala.

On Saturday Washington, DC was a host to an annual highly popular event: Passport DC – Open Houses at Washington, DC Embassies. Last weekend it was open houses from countries all over the world, and this Saturday it was just the countries of the European Union.

Last time I had a chance to attend this cultural celebration was three or four years ago – in my pre-MBA life. After that I could not go because of my regular routine of spending whole weekends on homework assignments. But now that it is all over, I can do again fun stuff. Come to think of it, I suspect I will be posting a lot about my post-MBA fun, because there has been a huge penned up demand for just having life/fun in the last three years that will be released now.

I had some commitments in the morning, so I started my travel around Europe (or along Massachusetts Ave.- depends on perspective you choose) quite late, around 2 PM. That meant I had only two hours before all participating Embassies closed their doors. Still, between Dupont Circle and the British Embassy I was able to catch glimpses of a lot of exciting stuff going on.

Most of the Embassies had huge lines of willing guests. I specifically wanted to get to the British Embassy, because I had read that they were preparing a lot of activities and expositions to showcase the country in the light of upcoming Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Therefore I did not go inside any of the Embassies along the way, except one. With the rest of the Embassies I was just watching (and at one point – participating) the folk dance performances.

Embassy of Luxemburg - Passport DC 2102 Open House

First, I visited the Luxemburg’s Embassy. Small area was open for visitors, with some artwork and fun facts sprinkled around the visitors’ pathway. One of the highlights of the Embassy was a magnificent bed of roses in front of the building, everyone around me were taking multiple pictures of those beautiful flowers. I took just one – to give you an idea.

Irish Folk Dance- Passport DC -2012

Next, I stopped at the Embassy of Ireland and watched a couple of dances there. I was amazed at what an elaborate legwork is involved in those dances, some variation of tap dance, I would say.

Just around the corner was another dance performance in front of the Romanian Embassy. There, again, not only I watched a couple of dances, but also participated in one simple two-step dance when the audience was invited at the end of the formal performance. What a fun it was!

Latvian Folk Dance- Passport DC 2012

Next stop was at the Embassy of Latvia where I enjoyed watching a couple more folk dances.

After that I was going straight to the British Embassy without stopping. Once I got there the line was long but was moving steadily. I got in line in anticipation of some great time.

Royal Marine at British Embassy - Passport DC 2012

At 3.20 PM when I was mere 50 yards away from the entrance checkpoint a uniformed guy, looked like a Royal Marine, announced to us that the Embassy is closing admission of the guests, because the event is closing at 4 PM and they would need time to process the guests that were already in. He also explicitly added that “there are no exceptions for anyone”. Here is the picture of the guy who closed my entry to the UK

Italian Fairy - Passport DC 2012

It was a disappointment, and I headed back to Metro. On the way back I spotted a line to the Italian Embassy, which I joined. I finally got in at about 3.50 PM. I had a look around the visitors area, checked out a few vendors, and some art exhibited there, took a picture of Italian Fairy (never had seen such long eyelashes in my life, fake ones of course). I also bought some Italian desserts, just to experience the taste of Italy. I spent there a total of 15-20 minutes and it was a nice closure to my Day in EU.

So, you might be wondering by now, what was the lesson in international business. It is simple: the way the time is treated in different countries in Europe, as was illustrated by the contrasting policies of the British vs. Italian Embassies.

The south Europe in general, such countries as Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc., has a much more laid-back way of life. This laid-back attitude translates in how they do business, communicate with each other and the world, which I had firsthand experience  during my Study Abroad program in France; and hate austerity measures after screwing up their economies, for that sake.

The northern European nations, on the other hand, are much more pedantic, punctual, and formal, with that “no exceptions” attitude expressed by the Marine. That’s why I was still welcome at Italy at 3.50 and turned away from UK at 3.20. I have no grudges, but it is helpful to keep these peculiarities in mind when doing business or even just traveling in different countries across Europe. And, as turns out,  you can experience these differences even without ever stepping outside the Washington beltway.

Updated on May 15, 2012. Here is another link to short goofy moments at Commencement speeches: Gotta Watch: Best commencement speeches.

On one of the news sites I ran into a link to 12 Great Graduation Quotes . Those graduation speeches are always aimed at 20-somethings college grads who have their whole life ahead. I am kind of late to that train, but still many of those quotes are universally aspirational.

My favorite one from the link above is “… Stay hungry. Stay foolish”, by Steve Jobs. Of course it may indeed sound foolish taken out of context, but this is an incentive for you to follow the link and read the whole quote. For me personally, the idea of “being hungry” was the one that lead me to pursue the MBA in the first place. So I can relate to it.

After reading those quotes I googled around for more graduation quotes. Many of them are recycled on multiple sites, but I will post here a few links to get an inspiration boost, that is if you need one.

Here are a few graduation quotes that mused me most:

It is indeed ironic that we spend our school days yearning to graduate and our remaining days waxing nostalgic about our school days.  ~Isabel Waxman.  This one is so true. If you had a chance to follow this blog for a while, you read quite a few lamentations related to the “hardships” of the MBA program in business school. And then in my last post MBA- Happened, I already started spiraling down the vicious circle of self-pity and nostalgia. More quotes here.

A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that ‘individuality’ is the key to success. – Robert Orben. This one is good too. I will actually have to experience this in person next week by going to two Commencement ceremonies, one for GWSB, and the other for the whole GWU. Will post a picture. More quotes here.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad. – Theodore Roosevelt. This one I like because it was the one closest related to MBA graduates.

On Thursday I had my very last MBA class. I personally count it as the official end of my MBA program at GWSB. Of course, I still do not have grades for any of my classes, I still have commencement ceremonies and celebrations, and I still will have to wait 6-8 weeks to actually receive my diploma. But all those events are more of ancillary or arbitrary nature – I know that I have passing grades in all my classes, the commencement dates are just arbitrarily picked and tied to the tradition and fit for the University schedule, and arrival of diploma two months later is just an evidence of inefficient bureaucratic processes.

As a matter of fact, true to the traditions of my country of origin, it’s even better to have all those additional extended dates incrementally marking my MBA winding down – more excuses for celebrations and libations . But the last class is the last class – very real, specific point in time that cannot be negotiated. When professor in Strategy class released us, that was it: The End of MBA.

I was thinking for some “creative” titles for this post to commemorate such a remarkable event that ended a total of almost four years (if I count from the day when I took my TOEFL and started preparation for GMAT) of a very intense period of my life. All I was able to come up with for the title was so cliche and cheesy: “MBA – Mission Accomplished”, “MBA Complete – That’s the End of the World as I know It”, “MBA – Life Reloaded”, etc. You get the picture. I got tired of this nonsense, and this is how I ended up with the title you see.

Even though the last class is the most real mark of the end of the MBA program for me, I do not have the same level of exaltation as I used to have at some other points during my MBA. You can read my post from the last year with some reflections on that matter – Hooray MBA – Summer Break!. I am very excited, but as I mentioned in my previous post, it’s a bittersweet feeling.

On one hand, not having to spend weekends and long nights on the homework is a nice relief, because now I can “have my life back”, as one fellow MBA student put it. On the other hand, there is some sense of a loss of purpose. There is also a sad feeling that I will not have as many opportunities to meet with my classmates, who, as turns out, usually between the second and the third glass of beer and extended conversation, have some great and unique stories to share.

As a wise man said,”it’s not the destination, it’s the journey that counts”. And for me that MBA journey is (almost) over. I would not discount the destination, having the MBA degree,  altogether, because I believe it is just a start for a new journey, and new adventures and experiences. And still this MBA leg of the journey is over. OK, I could go endlessly in this circle of excitement and pity. Enough of that.

Looking forward, I am still planning to be hanging around on this blog for a while. I will probably reflect on the Commencement events, I want to add a couple of posts about my France Study abroad, I am committed to putting up all the remaining write ups for Business School MBA Cases, I will finalize the  Best MBA Textbooks section. So there is no goodby from me yet, even if you already got tired of my MBA ramblings .

Yesterday I attended an MBA Gala – again. I enjoyed every minute of it: saw a bunch of my classmates, met quite a few new people, danced through the night, got updates on people I have not recently seen in school, met a lot of “significant others” of my classmates, and even hopped on one after party. Just like the Business Gives Back event earlier this year – it was a blast!

About two years ago I was at the first MBA Gala in my part-time MBA experience. It was interesting for me to re-read that post and to see how much my perception changed over the time. Last time, for whatever reason, I was not quite impressed with the event. It could be attributed to any or all of the factors as follows: did not know most of the people in the room, music was too loud to talk, the venue was not as appealing, feeling too old for this kind of events.

This time, in contrast, I knew probably at least one third of the people when I came in, and close to a half, by the time I left . I can attribute this change to my recent transformation after the study abroad trip to France. Quite a few of the students I knew from my once a week going out after class with different groups of classmates in the last six weeks after coming from France (as opposed to just seeing their faces in the class without knowing anything about the person). All in all, compared to ten people from first year PMBA I saw at the first Gala, this time I knew people from all three programs: PMBA, GMBA, AMBA, and from all years in the program. It really felt great to see so many familiar friendly faces in informal setting. For some reason I did not even feel like an old fart any more  .

Sadly, this is one of the last times I will have a chance to enjoy the informal side of the MBA experience at GWSB. I wish I had realized the value of out- of-class experience earlier in my pat-time MBA ;-(.

This coming week I have my last three classes to attend. There is still a Graduation Gala, and one more after class outing, two commencement events: one for the GWSB and one at the GW University level. But after that my student life is over – a bittersweet goodby.

I still have three or four papers to finalize and one take home exam in the remaining week. So, I’d better go back to my homework for now.

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A couple of months ago I was at the parents meeting at my daughter’s high school. The principal and the staff were sharing information about the graduation activities, deadlines, dues, and such. Among other things there was a mentioning of “senioritis” epidemy that affects most seniors at the high school, and how we as parents should help our kids to fight the “disease”, stay the course, and stick it out in the last few months of school.

When I heard this term – “senioritis” I just could not help but smirked (inside). I kind of remembered my last months both at high school and college, and going through all those symptoms of decreased motivation and effort, difficulty to concentrate, etc. But giving it a pseudo-scientific name seemed to me a little too much. I also thought that by giving it this medical-sounding name, it was, in a way, normalized and justified in the eyes of the affected, as if it were something out of their control, like inadvertently catching a cold or other contagious disease.

I also thought that I had developed resistance to it, much in the same way as you don’t contract chickenpox again, once you have had it once. Little did I know that there is no resistance build up for this condition.

On the first day of classes of my second Spring module, and final MBA module for me, I met one of my classmates sitting on the porch in front of the Business School entrance. He looked, and talked, and otherwise acted in a very relaxed, laid-back, nonchalant way. He informed me right away how many days are left to the end of the school – he is also graduating in May like myself.

This was when I saw the first signs of this particular MBA strain of senioritis disease creeping on the campus of GWSB. In the following couple of weeks I noticed that I have developed some of the symptoms as well. I still have three more weeks of classes to go and quite a few deliverables to complete. But the whole attitude has changed – I am no longer as much concerned about the difference between a ‘B’ and an ‘A’ in any of the classes, as I used to be. I will do my nominal work to get by, but would rather not put an extra effort. As I mentioned someplace before in the blog, they call it a B-School for a reason.

And now that senioritis is legitimized through getting this pseudo-medical name, I can blame it on the epidemy, – not my fault, just happened to contract it from another sick graduate By the way, lack of motivation to post on this blog is yet another symptom of the disease.

Since I came from my Study Abroad week in France 10 days ago, I have been on a mission. The mission is directly coming out from my Most Valuable Lesson Learned in France: I have been making a conscious effort to meet with people in informal settings over a meal or a drink, just to talk and learn more about each other.

Last Friday I managed to get the people in my office out for lunch. Not that we have not had lunches together before, but the pattern and participation rate are very spotty and inconsistent. This time I got the highest participation in about two months. I also scored a few “thank you” emails from colleagues after the lunch for taking the initiative and promoting it. So much about “leading without formal authority”.

I mentioned in my last post that three of us in my Business Communication class agreed to go out to the neighborhood bar on campus to have a drink and just chat after class this week. As I planned, I sent invitation to the whole class to join us. We ended up getting one RSVP confirming coming, who bailed out at the last moment. But another guy joined us at the last moment. So there were four of us, we had some good conversations, beer and light food. It was not too long either, somewhere around an hour and a half. But for me it was well worth it.

So here is the invitation (with minor redactions) I sent to my classmates, and now I am sending the message to you:

Guys,
As part-time students most of us do not have enough time to learn about our classmates outside the classrooms, to have fun, and just get a shot at fostering lasting meaningful personal/business relationships that could continue after we graduate.

Part of it is our actual busy-ness due to juggling job, school, (family). Another part is due to the cultural predisposition to individualism, social apathy, laziness, and may be even fear of interactions with other people outside the formal prescribed frameworks.

In an attempt to at least somewhat overcome these constraints three of us: M, R, and Vit agreed to come out to Tonic (so masterfully praised by M in his impromptu speech in the first session) after class this Tuesday.

We want to extend this invitation to the rest of the class. It could be a good opportunity just to have fellowship and a few drinks, to learn more about each other in informal way.

We understand this is a short notice to adjust the schedule, and especially to undo the years of cultural baggage, but here it is – everyone is invited. If you have trouble justifying this time spent on socializing with your classmates, give it more business-like label – networking. Either way, we’ll be glad to see you there.

You may RSVP or decide at the last moment to join us – it’s OK as we don’t make special reservations and our class is quite small anyways.

Cheers!

One of the guys at the bar told me afterwards that the email was a bit harsh and could have turned off some people. But there was another response from my classmate that I would like to quote:

Thank you for sending this out!  I have been thinking this way since I got to DC and wonder why none of the students want to go out after class.

I would have joined you tonight, but I have a little bit of a cold… If you decide to grab drinks on another night, please let me know, I would love to join you!

Thanks again for being brave enough [emphasized by me] to send this.

I was glad to receive this kind of encouragement and confirmation that I am not completely nuts after all, at least not the only one But what amazes me most is that you have to be “brave enough” to ask your classmates out after class. Something must be fundamentally wrong with the culture where simple joys of fellowship and camaraderie require extra courage.

I have planned at least three more posts with reflections on my Study Abroad in Nantes, France trip. Among those posts I hope I will have one on the formal part of the  Corporate Social Responsibility course, as there were quite a few eye-openers during the classes and company visits. But for me personally the more important discoveries and epiphanies were outside the classroom, especially through the fellowship and conversations with the students from Audencia Nantes School of Management.

I may or may not come around to writing those posts, depending on the time constraints and waning enthusiasm. But I am going to share the most important lesson I took home from France: the value of the communal life.

I really appreciated witnessing how easily and how often people get together to share the meal and a drink (OK, more than one of those) with their friends, colleagues, classmates. I understand that I need to make adjustment for age, life cycle stage, and other incidentals. But the fact remains true – in France, most of Europe, and probably most of the world outside the US, people do make time for living their lives, meeting friends, sharing the joys of fellowship over a meal and drink.

During our stay in Nantes we were exposed to two groups of students: the equivalent of our undergrads (18-23 y.o.) and International MBAs (mean age probably slightly above 30).  The undergrad students meet in big groups, around ten or more people, at least 3-4 times a week. The MBAs have more intense schedule, as they have to cram the equivalent of two-year US MBA curriculum in just 12 straight months. Nevertheless the class of 25, mostly international students, make time to go out to a different restaurant at least once a week with at least 70% participation.

When I learned this, I compared it with the realities of my life back home in the USA. Admittedly, I am not a very collectivist animal in general, but neither are most of the people I know of in my neighborhood, at work, or Business School. I also realize that my individualistic nature was exacerbated in the last three years by double pressure of full-time job and part-time MBA studies.  Still, overall we are too busy in this country with our jobs, commute, family obligations, and other stuff, mostly really insignificant, so we don’t have time to regularly meet with our friends.

For example, with one of my friends I planned to have their family over at my place for dinner twice in the last year. Both times it took about two months in advance scheduling, and it was cancelled at the last moment due to unforeseen circumstances on their side – who can possibly foresee  those so long in advance?! I also planned to meet for a drink with a few of my MBA classmates since the beginning of the Fall Term. Our schedules so far have prevented us from getting together. If we actually want to meet before graduation in May, we need to make a conscious, and possibly forceful effort.

In America we invented and exported around the world, along with Coca Cola and other superficial artifacts of our culture, such a phenomenon as Networking. It has to be a planned-in-advance, organized and, most likely, formal event for people to get together, meet each other, and  to talk, of all things, about business. Networking should have a niche for very specific circumstances when the people are of very diverse locations/backgrounds, so they cannot  naturally meet. But for us it became one of a few places where we actually meet our colleagues, partners, or even friends, because we don’t find the time to do it naturally in the course of life.

Even better, we have not just invented LinkedIn, which I personally consider a great networking tool to stay in touch with people from your professional realm  or learn some facts about them that don’t naturally surface in regular fellowship, as I wrote about this in my other post. But we came to believe that just having a connection there (or Facebook for that matter) is a sufficient substitute for really seeing those people once in a while.

Enough rambling. In my first class of the second module, which started this week, I met a couple of guys who I had had classes with before. We ARE meeting together for beer after class next week. We’ll invite others in class to join, though I can anticipate the response rate already ;-( . By the way, one of the guys is from Italy, the other – from India. The “real Americans” would probably be too busy or feeling awkward about such unsolicited advances for informal fellowship.

So, this was my most important and valuable “graduate level” MBA lesson from France – make space for meeting with friends, pals, buddies, classmates, colleagues, strangers. It is doable , they do it all around the world, why cannot we?

Today I arrived in France and will share briefly while it’s all fresh. This is my first trip to France and, as a matter of fact, to any country in Western Europe. Long ago I had opportunities to travel quite a bit around the Eastern Europe, but that was it.

So after arriving to Charles de Gaulle airport I took a TGV (speed train) to Nantes. One of the things I noticed while looking out the window of the train was lots of graffiti on the fences around the rail. I thought this was specific to the rail system and other industrial facilities, as around DC you can also find some of that under the bridges and occasional other structures.

But when I arrived to Nantes and took a walking tour around the city, I also saw quite a bit of graffiti all other the place. Apparently it is a form of national artistic self-expression in France. And the artists are very prolific, if not pervasive. Take a look at this somewhat lengthy video I shoot on the train and see for yourself the amount of graffiti. Mind you, my goal was not to video the graffiti, but the views of the country.
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Hotel De La Duchesse Anne, Nantes, France

When I was walking around Nantes, I took a picture of this hotel, apparently under reconstruction. It is right across the street from the historical centerpiece of the city – Duchesse Anne Chateau. After that I was almost expecting the walls of Chateau itself to be covered with the art. And when I did not see any graffiti, on outside walls at least, I was almost disappointed .Here is the picture of the hotel. Admittedly, most of the graffiti is on the temporary boards, and the hotel is not functional at this time, but still peculiar.

Overall I enjoyed my first day. I took almost a four hour walk around the city center and acted like a classic tourist – soaking up the atmosphere and taking pictures incessantly. At times I thought of myself as a google mobile, – the one that drives through the streets taking panoramic video continuously for google’s street view feature, – only on foot .

That’s enough for the day. I still have to read the case for my classes, which was thoughtfully left in my name at the hotel front desk in the welcome package from the Audencia Nantes School of Management.

Stay tuned for more reporting and pictures.