September had arrived, and along with it the start of the Pre-Term course. Pre-term is something you can best describe as a one month period in which the basics of the most important economy related subjects are being injected into students brains – especially those of non business backgrounds – in a highly accelerated manner. This includes the courses Financial Accounting, Economy, Business Law, IT-Technology and Managerial Statistics. Classes start at eight in the morning and usually end at six in the evening, being accompanied by group work after the classes until nine or ten in the evening and individual study afterwards on a personal preference.
I must admit: the first time I went to the class and heard the lecturer talking about Financial Accounting as of what it is, why it is necessary, what a balance sheet is all for, I was thinking of not being in the right place. This was basic material during my BA study in Banking and Finance, as well as it was with the content of the other subjects. This seemed to get quite a relaxed month, at least this is what I was thinking in that moment. The other way round it was. Although the material was quite simple to understand, the pure mass of class hours, group work and individual homework was incredibly high. Plus, there was the need to prepare the CV and cover letters for the internship applications for the consulting companies, additional other lectures from external providers with topics such as “How to read through the Financial Times” (a really interesting seminar by the way) and things to prepare for the Leadership development program. Here in special, we had to select some 20 people out of our private and business life and ask them to give us feedback about ourselves through an anonymous questionnaire provided by ESADE. This is part of an extensive 360 degree feedback each of us had and still has to go through. At that moment, please allow me to say THANK YOU to all my evaluators who, by spending their valuable time going through the questionnaire, have provided me with invaluable feedback about how they see me. I will atone for that, for sure!
Obviously, a quite intensive month, especially for the non-business-background students. And at the end, the first final exams arrived – at least in some subjects where we were not be graded on the quality of group works, presentations or some other tests during the term. It was amazing seeing all the people prepare like there was no other thing going on, especially in the subjects Managerial Statistics and Business Law. After three years of having been completely out of University, this was interesting to experience and stimulating at the same time. I actually do not yet exactly know why, but that´s how it felt. Overall, I consider it a good start: nice to get used to the University life as well as to long days and nights working, to getting things done again and being productive after a month of more or less relaxation. And congratulations ESADE: I would have never considered it possible packing so much information in just a single month and still leave it manageable. But I actually expect the level of working hours and stress to get raised even more soon, and really look forward for it!
At home in my flat, things have developed quite interesting. As I haven´t had the chance to be there a lot due to the work we had to do at ESADE, I hadn´t been able to see my new flat mate (a Mexican girl) a lot – actually it was twice the whole month. But what I obviously could see is that she didn´t seem to take seriously the responsibility and things she had to do at home. No cleanings were done during all the time by her. She neither changed that habit after I told her that – and for I had never seen her at home, I communicated like on the “old style”, getting a piece of paper and a pen, writing a message and leave it in her room. I did that a second time, but no reaction at all. That is not tolerable! At the end of the month, she left the apartment based on a decision made by the rest of the people living in the flat. A new flat mate, a girl from the Dominican Republic, was soon found. Now it´s me plus Cynthia, a Mexican girl, plus Cynthia, the one from the Dominican Republic, plus Israel, a guy from Mexico. An interesting combination – three Latin Americans and a German – with the common language being Spanish. I love it! Best to practice my Spanish! Let´s wait and see how it will evolve during the next weeks.
There is one thing I haven´t mentioned yet but is really important for me, and I´m actually glad that it seems to work more or less: The fact that I was able to keep in contact with my friends and family I had to leave behind. And with my godson, who turned three years in September, and his amazing and lovely family! Hope, we will have more time in the next weeks to stay in touch! I will continuously work on that, promised!
