SEVILLA - CAMBRIDGE AND BACK A POST MBA FAMILY STORY

Alive

2011-04-21T23:42:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone. I just wanted to let you know that we are alive and things are going well. I know I should keep posting. Actually I should have kept posting. But I'm just too busy and lost the habit.

In any case, if you are thinking about taking and MBA, here is my advice almost three years after graduation from JBS and after giving advice and getting feedback from dozens of MBA from most of the world best business schools:

Make sure you choose the right school for you: your profile, your personality, your career goals.
Go to a top school. Top 10 better than top 20. Top 20 better than top 50.
Take GMAT seriously.
Take English seriously.
Don't bullshit in your essays. Be really really yourself. If you are perfect you don't need an MBA.
Start your job search day 1 and narrow down your target companies soon.
Be confident, not arrogant, but confident. If you are in you are good.
Work hard. Make the most of every minute. And make friends.
Read books. Leave your laptop and cellphone away a few hours a day.
Don't take a job if you want to start a company.

Let's see if after this I feel like telling you more about us.

Back to the future

2009-07-17T18:38:00.003+01:00

I'm back in Seville and hopefully back to the future. I finally took the new job in Seville, my fourth job since last september when I finished the Cambridge MBA. It might sound a bit weird all that changes, but when you know the details I think it all makes sense and in fact I'm very happy with my career progression since then.

The last move was not easy. I was very happy in Madrid in a new and very interesting position and in a great work athmosphere. But at the same time the new offer I received back in Sevilla was a challenging managerial position with lots of international exposure.

So I did what I normally do when I go running at a new place, I took the tougher route. I took the new job, left the flat I recently rented in Madrid, rented a house in Sevilla, and moved, again. That was the 1st of July. I've been quite busy since then. In fact I'm still at the office now, something quite unusual for a friday afternoon in Seville, in summer. But overall I'm very happy with the new job.

Miriam and the kids are also happy with the change. Now we live in a bigger house and near family and friends.

I will tell you more another day.

And from Madrid to?

2009-05-28T12:28:00.003+01:00

When I wrote my previous post on my way to Madrid about a month ago I coudn't imagine I would have to take another big decision a few weeks later. On May 16 I was graduating in Cambridge and I was happy to tell all my friends about my new job in Madrid. But a few days later back in Madrid I received a call from Sevilla in what turned to be another job offer, a very interesting job offer 15 minutes walking from my flat.

My head started spinning and in fact is still spinning since then. Both jobs are cool, both jobs are well paid, both jobs involve a challenge and an opportunity, both would allow me to learn and grow my network of contacts, and of course both involve risks and have their downsides.

And the result is a tide. One is near home, but the fact is that I have already rented out my flat in Sevilla and a flat in Madrid, so now I have a home in Madrid but not in Sevilla. One is in a new city and a new administration, but with some old colleagues and bosses. The other one is in my home city, almost same administration but with new bosses and colleagues. One involves working in a team that has been working well and smoothly for years, the other means facing a group that has seen three managers in the last couple of years.

I have to take many things into account: a school for Diego, a nursery for Leo, a University and/or a job for Miriam, my parents and sister, my in laws, expenses, weather, friends, running, entrepreneurship opportunities, mid and long term plans, stability, loyalty, work-life balance, fun, stress, etcetera.

I hope to make the final decision this weekend... and never ever feel I took the wrong path.

Sevilla-Cambridge-Sevilla-Madrid

2009-05-02T09:04:00.002+01:00

If you expect an MBA to make your life easier you are mistaken. It will certainly make your life more exciting, dynamic, full of opportunities, but full of challenges too, and challenges have to be difficult to be real challenges. Anyway, we like challeges, don't we? That's why we are MBAs.

Well. All this argument is just to say I've got a new job and and I'm on a train right now moving to Madrid. As you may know or suspect I work in the public sector. I prefer not to give too much details. But basically I'm switching from the regional to the central government. And I'm really happy with the offer (offers) I've got in the last few months, probably none of them possible without the MBA.

Maybe from some of you moving city for the third time in less than two years is not that a big thing, but for me, married with you little kids, it's quite a feat. Moreover because two of these moves have been out of Sevilla, the best place in the world to live.

But I know I can always come back to Sevilla. Actually my plan is going to my parent's place one weekend a month.

What keeps me busy now is finding a flat in Madrid and renting mine in Sevilla. A handicap is that prices are much higher in Madrid and this is not a good season for renting my flat. The advantages are that it's a good moment to rent in Madrid, and I hope to find a nice place in a cool area. Renting gives you the opportunity of living where you can't buy.

We also have to find a school for Diego and a nursery for Leo, and Miriam will apply to Universidad Autónoma de Madrid to be trained to be an English teacher.

So I will have lots of stories to tell to my colleagues in two weeks when we meet for Graduation. I'm really exited about that.

See you next month

2009-04-16T09:18:00.003+01:00

I just noticed I'll be in Cambridge for Graduation in just one month. Time flies!

I was in Cambridge in May two years ago for the interview day, was there last year too, of course, enjoying the last month of the MBA and some running success, and will return this year for Graduation. Great.

I bought the plane tickets months ago and have already booked a room with views to Jesus Green in the Arundel House Hotel, just a few meters from my old flat in Chesterton Road.

Jesus Green and the riverside are great places for running and that's one of the the first things I'll do on friday when I get there, going running with my friends Giulio, Giacomo, Alessandro and Ben. I also hope to be able to find a race to do on the weekend, so I have an excuse not to get too drunk during the celebrations.

This is going to be a very special weekend for Miriam and me because we'll leave the kids at home with my parents. It will be the first time we go out by ourselves for such a long time since Diego was born three years ago.

I know some of my friends will miss Diego and Leo, but we are waiting for them in Sevilla whenever they want to come. We still haven't received any visit from MBA friends in Sevilla. Looks like Victor and Daniela from Chile are going to be the first ones.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I'm looking forward to go and see everyone in JBS.

Los libros del GMAT ya están vendidos

2009-03-02T17:02:00.002Z

Disculpadme por no haber borrado el post anterior. Los libros del GMAT los vendí hace un mes o así. De todas formas lo más sencillo es buscarlos por Amazon y lo más fiable es ir directamente a por las guías oficiales.

Os garantizo que es una buena inversión, y si no tenéis mucho tiempo es bueno que los compréis lo antes posible antes del examen. Mientras más practiquéis mejor.

En internet también se encuentran algunos recursos interesantes.

We are alive

2009-01-31T18:14:00.004Z

We said we were going to keep this blog alive but obviously we're struggling. Many things have happened in the last few months. Probably the one that is making the harder impact in our lives is the credit crunch, financial crisis, economic slowdown, recession or however you want to call it.

This crisis -that probably some MBA colleagues have contributed to create- has frustrated the expectations of many of my friends, my hopes too, and I guess is worrying some of the readers of this blog, people taking an MBA in Cambridge or somewhere else and MBA candidates around the world.

But the MBA is not the problem, the crisis is the problem, and without an MBA things will probably be even harder. Of course we all should lower our salary expectations, should forget about some companies -expecially about the ones that went bust-, but I believe I am better prepared to do any job after the MBA and if you are humble enough to take a job that you can do better than anyone else you'll be fine, you'll be promoted soon, you'll get a real MBA job soon.

Why do I say this? Well, I'm a live example of this. I had a low GMAT, not a quantitave background, little management experience, but was very much into entrepreneurship, diversity, internationalisation, marketing and communication, and about management. And somehow I managed to be admitted in Cambridge and that changed my life for life. I hope for the better.

I have a new job since the 1st of January. The 1st of September I returned to my previous employer in a sligthly different role, but first the mere fact of having a Cambridge University degree and second that, of course ;-) I'm a better manager, took me to a senior management position within three month and now I'm the youngest guy in that position ever. I'm still working in the same sector, almost the same employer, but in a compleletely different role and with plenty of opportunities ahead.

But I have to warn you about the upsides too. I have a better job, I got a 50% salary increase, but I work longer hours and as a consequence my quality of life is much worse. I like my job, I enjoy what I do, but I have to handle lots of pressure, fire people, say no, work long hours, and that affects your personal life, specially your family life. We are ok. Miriam is happy, I'm happy. I try to make the most of the time I spend with my kids. But to be honest I hardly can see them at all from monday to thursday. This is something to think about.

More news. I had a foot injury -a stress fracture in the second metatarsal head of my right foot- last december. Now I'm back but I'm out of shape and with the new job I hardly can train on weekdays.

Miriam is very well, working part time and spending time with the kids. Diego has switched to Spanish but can speak and understand English too. Leonardo is starting to say his first words.

This weekend Miriam and I went on holiday with friends for the first time without the kids. It's being fun. We are in the hills in Huelva -Sierra de Aracena- eating great food, drinking beer, wine and rhum, playing table games, playstation, karaoke, basketball and football. Tomorrow everyone awake at 9:30 to watch Nadal-Federer in Australia.

Let's keep it alive

2008-11-12T10:20:00.003Z

We have decided to keep this blog alive. The MBA is over but I still have to graduate and above all the Cambridge MBA is one year that will last you a lifetime.

Also a blog is a great way to keep family and friends up to date and to keep a diary too.

I didn't want to lose the MBA archive, as I have received many messages of MBA candidates who find it useful. That's another motivation to keep posting. Current students and alumni were of much help during my pre-MBA and I'm happy to be useful for new candidates now.

As you can see I have changed the "theme" and title to adapt to our new reality. I always talk about "we" or "our" because I believe my MBA wouldn't have been possible without the support of my wife and the joy provided by my kids.

I still plan to publish a few "retrospective" posts to tell you about the end of the MBA, the IP, our holidays, readapting home, jobs and so on.

Also, and I hope sooner than later, I'll start here a series of posts about the MBAs who come to visit us in Sevilla. Who's going to be the first?

I'm an MBA

2008-10-30T08:42:00.005Z

A few days ago I received the letter from the new MBA Director Jochen Runde, the statement from the Committee of Examiners and the Official Transcript confirming I'm an MBA.

I also received my grade for the Individual Project, which I wrote with the title "Innovative approaches to increase revenues for football clubs - Can good business sense make football better?". It was fun, and I got a good grade.

I haven't been writing in the blog for a long time. Partly because I was busy, partly because I don't want to accept the MBA is over. In fact I'm telling myself is not over yet, because Graduation is on the 16th of May 2009.

Now I'm back to work in Sevilla, Spain. I returned to my previous employer, in a different department and possition, but with the same boss. I left that door opened during the whole year and I'm happy to be back.

As you may know I funded my MBA with a Talentia Scholarship which requires you to return to Andalucía or to an Andalusian company abroad for 4 years after the program. Otherwise you have to return the scholarship, which in my case is worth €56k.

At some point I considered the possibility of finding a job in the UK and repay the scholarship, but given the current work market circumstances and my family responsibilities, that soon became an utopia, especially if I wanted to keep my pre-MBA standard of living in the short term.

The MBA is a long term investment, and I think there are at least two ways to ripe benefits from it.

If you are young, single, come from a relatively low income country and are ready to work like crazy for a few years it definitely makes sense to take any MBA job in London and build your career from it.

But if you have a family, your pre-MBA job was already about MBA level, and you don't want to start from scratch again, it also makes sense going back home, either to your old company or another, and use the Cambridge MBA to grow within your network.

I chose option two, and honestly I still don't know if I made the right decision.

Sometimes I think I should have been more ambitious and try a different job, a different company, a different industry. I can't really stand still, I'm an entrepreneur.

But it's not only about me, so when I go back home from work (sometimes as soon as 15.00) and I meet my wife and my kids in the playground near my riverside flat, I realise that -at least for now- I'm in the right place.

Vendo libros del GMAT

2008-09-09T08:43:00.009+01:00

Business is business.

Con mi regreso a casa me he dado cuenta de que tengo demasiados libros. Tantos que no tengo donde ponerlos. Y si hay 4 libros que estoy seguro que ya no necesito son los del GMAT.

Así que he pensado que igual a alguno de los lectores de este blog les pueden interesar. Tengo 4, como podéis ver abajo. La guía oficial completa, los extras "verbal" y "quantitative" y el Cracking the GMAT de The Princeton Review.

Vendo los 4 por 30 €, y de regalo Your MBA with Distinction, un libro fácil e interesante de leer antes del MBA. Yo corro con los gastos de envío en España.

Los libros están bien, prácticamente nuevos. Sólo tienen marcas a lápiz que se pueden borrar.

En fin, si te interesa déjame un comentario.

Bye Cambridge

2008-08-11T16:39:00.002+01:00

This is Miriam, Diego and Leo at the bus stop about to leave Cambridge.

We'll be back soon. Graduation is in May 2009 but I probably won't wait that long.

Last day at home

2008-08-10T16:15:00.001+01:00

It's weird but for us "home" is not Sevilla anymore, is Cambridge. We are going to miss this city and our little flat. Somebody told me the other day that Cambridge is addictive, and I think it's true. It's a truly nice well-rounded city, especially for families.

But tomorrow we are leaving for a week of holiday in Brittany (France) and then to our home in Spain, in Sevilla.

Of course I'm looking forward to see some sun, family, friends, good food, and above all, I need to start working because unfortunately money doesn't grow on trees, not even in rainy Britain.

Anyway, this is a picture of us at our porche.

Kedington 5k

2008-08-07T15:18:00.000+01:00

One more race in the UK. It's a pity I only found training partners and the right contacts to go to races so late in the year. But the training paid off and today I won the Kedington 5k.

This is a very amateur race, with only about 100 runners, but in a very demanding course and with a few good runners. I think I did a good race, clocking 16:20 for the very hilly 5k in the outskirts of Kedinton, Haverhill, Suffolk, not too far from Cambridge.

I went with Giulio, a running partner from Cambrige. Also Alessandro, another Italian, came to the race. Giacomo and Ben, the other running partners I found this summer were both on holiday.

I don't have the results or pictures from the race, but as I wanted to test myself I wore my GPS-HRM-sport watch and here you can see all the data about my race. Below the graph showing heart rate, speed and elevation.

The bin guitar player

2008-08-02T16:24:00.004+01:00

This is one of the Cambridge legends. The guy playing the guitar inside a bin. And it's real.

The picture above is mine, taken today.

The video below is from Youtube.

Imperial War Museum - Duxford

2008-08-02T15:41:00.005+01:00

We received another visit from the Pedrali family, my brother and sister in law and their three daughters from Italy. It was a good opportunity to do something together and we decided to go to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, very near Cambridge, on the way to Stansted Airport.

My brother in law had already been there and it was a good idea to go again all together. It's a massive museum full of planes, tanks and other war vehicles. You can learn about the D-Day and Second World War, but also about commercial planes and the history of aviation.

They also have historic planes still in working condition, and you can actually fly on them if you want. We didn't do it, but there were plenty of visitors and many did.

The MBA year is almost over, and I'm quite busy finishing my IP, but we are trying to make the most of our time and taking some time off is always nice.

Too much stuff

2008-07-30T11:47:00.000+01:00

The removal company came today to take our stuff back to Sevilla. It was way too much: 16 boxes, some of them as big as to fit my bike.

Here you can see some, not all of them.

It was the only feasible way to take all the kid's toys and all my books back home. I think there were like three or four boxes just of toys. And the same number for books and notes.

I don't know where are we going to put all this, so we'll probably take the opportunity to get rid of some stuff when we get home.

By the way, we are leaving Cambridge on the 11th of August. I can't believe it.

Visita de Fernando y Laura

2008-07-23T11:28:00.006+01:00

Estos días hemos recibido la visita de Fernando (Martí) y Laura. Yo llevaba mucho tiempo insistiéndole al Martí que viniesen a vernos y por fin se decidieron.

Nos lo hemos pasado bien. Llegaron el domingo de madrudaga y yo por la mañana me fui al St. Ives 10k. Llegué directamente al pub, al Fort St. George, para un buen Sunday roast y una pinta de Peroni. Le di a probar al Martí una cerveza local y no le gustó. Decía que sabía a café.

Además de ver algunos colleges en Cambridge fuimos a Londres a echar un día. Intenté llevarlos a ver las cosas más típicas y más o menos lo conseguimos. Incluso vimos el reloj de Willy Fog, como llama el hermano de Laura al Big Ben.

Vimos el Tower Bridge y la Torre de Londres, la catedral de St. Paul, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, el Parlamento y el Big Ben, St. James' Park, Hyde Park, Picadilly, el Palacio de Buckingham, Campden Town, Harrods, el Barrio Chino. No sé si me olvido algo.

También estuvimos en un Garden Party en un college. Basicamente una fiesta-picnic en Magdalene College, que está justo en frente de nuestra casa. Además echamos una pachanguita de fútbol muy apañada. Jugamos descalzos aprovechando el cesped increible que crece en Inglaterra.

Los tres días pasaron rápido. Diego hizo pronto amistad con Laura y Fernando y todavía pregunta por ellos. Leo, que se encargaba de despertarlos cada mañana, también. Los veremos de nuevo pronto en Sevilla.

St Ives 10k

2008-07-21T10:57:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I run the St. Ives 10k and I was second!

Last week I met Giacomo, an Italian taxi driver that has been living in Cambridge for 19 years and who took me to the station once a few months ago. He's a runner too and we talked about running. But I never saw him again till last week. Then we talked about running (of course) and we went training together the next day.

He usually trains with Giulio, another Italian, born in Cambridge.

The thing is that we went together to the St. Ives 10k and run. It was not such a massive race as the London 10k, of course, but there were a few good runners. The winner was way better than me and won easily. I had a good fight with three other runners for the second place and had to push really hard for the last two kilometers, but it was good to be runner up and specially running half a minute faster than in London.

I finished in 33:20. You can see the results here.

And a picture of the podium below.

Time for farewells

2008-07-10T21:51:00.004+01:00

It's been months since I last made my contribution to this blog, mostly because as soon as the kids go to bed, I follow after! especially since Leo is not a great sleeper, although it seems to be getting better now.

However, I am finally realizing that this year really is coming to an end.

All our meetings with friends lately seem to be farewells: last Wednesday was our last day at toddler group (Bounce-a-Round) and Diego got a little goodbye present (which was terribly sweet of you all!); last night we had a Farewell dinner with the MBA wives (picture below); next Tuesday is the end-of-the-year (=my last) Bible Study Group dinner... and on and on it goes. We are regularly invited to Pub nights and dinners to have a chance to say our goodbyes to people who are already leaving... and it's soooooo sad!

Even though I know that closing a door means opening another one and moving on to more exciting things I still feel I'm desperately trying to make the most of my time left here.

This morning I had a lovely walk with the kids through Trinity's gardens, out to Garret Hostel Lane, over the bridge and back through Clare College an on to the Market where we bought fresh bread and focaccia before walking home for lunch. The kids enjoyed meeting a squirrel, a mummy duck with her seven ducklings, loads of canada geese and the white cows on the fields behind King's.

I know Seville is beautiful, but I'm going to miss Cambridge.

British 10k London Run

2008-07-07T14:07:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I run the British 10k London Run and it was good fun. I finished 14th in 33:53, which is much better than I expected. You can see the results here.

People at JBS are quite impressed and some even asked me if I can make it to the Olympics. No way. It might look like if a 4 minutes difference between me and Olympic Champion Stefano Baldini is not that much, but closing that kind of gap is literally impossible.

But anyway, the most important thing is that the fundraising for New Foundations is going well.

You can see more pictures here.

Running for others

2008-07-03T10:54:00.003+01:00

Sunday I'm taking part in the British 10k London Run 2008 to raise money for the charity New Foundations.

Almost everyone at JBS knows about it and support so far has been amazing, but according to Google Analytics there are a few others around the world who visit this blog regularly, maybe because they find it useful, informative, entertaining...

If you are one of those and you want to help, you can sponsor me here: http://www.justgiving.com/paco

To spice things up a little bit I donated 25 pounds and I bet that if I don't make it to the top 25 in the race (out of 25.000 entrants!) I'll double my donation. If I make it, you can double your donation. Many of my friends have taken me on this bet. But it's up to you.

Any contribution is welcome. New Foundations runs medical projects in the Niger Delta where £5 will pay for:

seven patients to be treated
10 children to be vaccinated against measles, tetanus, polio and given Vitamin A
over twelve months 3 people will receive sight
three treated mosquito nets for children
Just 80p can provide an antimalarial injection that saves a childs life

Many thanks. I'll let you know how I did as soon as I can, probably Sunday night.

Grantchester

2008-06-25T22:15:00.004+01:00

Today we finally made it to the Orchard!

I had walked to Grantchester with mum and dad when Paco was in Paris for his MBAT but after stopping to see friends on the way it was too late to make it to the Tea Rooms. This time I went with the MBA ladies.

Well, we didn't have the same glorious weather we had when my parents were here, but it didn't rain, we got some sunshine and we certainly had lots of fun and ate en excellent tea!

Meanwhile the kids loved climbing up the trees, including Diego who decided that the best way to do it was barefoot!

Here go a few pictures:

MBA Ball

2008-06-09T11:13:00.005+01:00

For me a ball has always been a sphere you can kick around. Here a ball is also a mega-party every college hold in Spring to celebrate the end of the academic year. As there are many colleges and to prevent clashes, they run from April to June.

This year, for the first time, the MBA class organised its own ball. It was another great job from the CBSC, a perfectly organised event. It was held at the University Arms Hotel, and it was a very strange feeling returning there after the Alumni Gala Dinner I went to in October. It felt like if it was a month ago. Time flies.

The party started at the school with drinks and prizes for the students that have contributed the most to the Cambridge MBA experience. Prizes went to Natalie from France and Janine from South Africa. What was the prize? A return ticket to anywhere in the USA with American Airlines.

Before leaving for the hotel we had an unofficial graduation picture, everyone in their tuxedos, rock star or dinner dresses. Actually Oliver missed the picture because he was watching a Germany match in the nearby Browns pub and I forgot to call him, Ofor from Nigeria was late and Dorji from Bhutan was in London. Probaly also a few others missed it. I managed to put Oli back in the picture with Photoshop. Where is Oli?

I was a good party but though there is still one more week of lectures people started to feel sad about the MBA being almost over. Many of us are going to stay over the summer, either in Cambridge or London, on holiday, working on assignments and IP, doing an internship or looking for jobs. But also many of us are going to leave soon and you never know when, if ever, are you going to see them again. It's a strange feeling.

Just in case we got a nice picture taken with our Chilean friends. From left to right, Andrés and Paula, Rodrigo and Blanca, us, and Victor and Daniela. Good friends I'm sure we are going to keep in touch with.

Once in the hotel we had dinner, Oscar Awards Ceremony and dancing.

In order to reduce costs we opted for a buffet dinner and that caused a massive traffic jam, but we all managed to eat and food was not bad for English standards.

The Oscar Ceremony was funny and very well run by David Sabel. I was voted by the rest of the class as Most Valuable Player, and there were many other funny prizes to Andrés as the most likely to be a CEO, Roupen as the best dancer, Juan and Natalia as the most likely to be models, and I can't remember more.

Finally, the dancing with Roupen, Vassily, Ileana and other superstars performing at their best. Music was provided by Cambiando, a salsa band where Oliver Campbell plays. Really good music.

How to contact me

2008-06-04T14:51:00.006+01:00

In the last few weeks I have received comments from people who wanted to contact me, but they never left their email in the comments so I couldn't write them back.

I don't have my email on the blog to prevent spam, but if you leave me a comment with your email I will contact you. Don't worry, I won't publish that comment.

This post is especially for changho, chile trademark, dodo and sole.

At the zoo

2008-05-31T22:22:00.003+01:00

Today we finally made it to Linton zoo. We had planned the expedition for Diego's birthday in March and had to give up on the idea because it snowed, but this morning we woke up and the day was perfect so even though Paco had an appointment in the afternoon we decided to make the most of the time we had.

We walked to the bus station and hopped on the first bus going to Linton, a small village on the outskirts of Cambridge, it was strange to realize how little we've been out of town in this year we've been without a car. The countryside is very flat but pretty, as is Linton with the traditional thatched cottages etc. From the bus stop it's 10' walk along a quiet road to the zoo.

We had a quick lunch and then started the rounds: the zoo is quite small but has some pic-nic areas, playgrounds and a bouncy castle so it's fun for the kids.

Diego loved the zebras and the tiger, but was annoyed with the lions who did nothing but sleep. He was also very taken by the enormous tortoises and tried feeding them stones! Luckily he couldn't get quite close enough!

We also saw monkeys, parrots and a giant rabbit.

However what Leo enjoyed the most was dropping his bib out of the buggy and watching mum, dad or Diego picking it up. "Isn't that fun!?!"

The Oxbridge Challenge

2008-05-24T17:51:00.007+01:00

The event is still running, but as I have good news and some spare time I take the opportunity to write a quick post on the Oxford vs Cambridge MBA Challenge.

First, we won the football match 3-1. We played probably the best match of the season, especially in defense, and that made things easier. Gaylord, Rui and Juan scored. I'm quite happy with my performance as I took part in all three goal plays even if I didn't score.

Second, I won the 5km race. Ok, I was expected to do that, but you never know. And in this case the race was straight after the football match. I just had time to change my shoes and my shirt, less than 10 minutes.

We also won at Cricket, Rowing, Tennis and a few other sports.

Weather was almost perfect and my collegues did a great job organising the event. Everthing worked just perfect.

In the afternoon I played some petanque and we also won!

Then we went back to the school to have some drinks and then to St. John's college for dinner. Miriam, Diego and Leonardo came too, so it was very nice.

Before leaving the college grounds two guys, one from each university, jumped from a bridge into the river Cam. Too much wine...

The party finished at The Anchor, as usual.

The MBAT

2008-05-11T22:23:00.002+01:00

I'm back from the MBAT. It's been an amazing weekend meeting lots of people, playing sports and enjoying the good weather, Paris and the french food.

On top of that I won 2 gold medals in cross country and 1.500 meters and I contributed to the bronze medal as a team in the cross country race.

I think we also did quite well in football reaching quarter finals where we were eliminated by IESE, one of the favourites.

Cambridge is a small school compared to LBS, INSEAD and the like and I think we did quite well overall. I'm pretty sure we beat everyone in coolness, partying and networking ;-).

For me it was a quite busy weekend. I played three football matches on Friday, so Saturday morning I had very stiff legs. But the cross country race went well and I managed to come first covering the very hilly 7 km in 25:40. Inmediatly after I played the football quarterfinals, that we lost, and a couple of hours later I run and won the 1.500 meters in a very modest time of 4:44, almost one minute slower than my personal best but good enough to secure the win.

The support from the class was simply fantastic and they really made me forget about all my aches and pains during the final race. It really feels good being number one at something, even if it's not Accounting ;-).

I'm not in my best shape but I'm happy I'm running again and that my back and my foot are not complaining too much. I hope this can help me to come back and give another try to the marathon in autumm.

Weekend with Colby and Rebekah

2008-04-28T16:14:00.008+01:00

Our friends Colby and Rebekah came to visit us over the weekend and it was a very nice break from MBA life. It was pretty intense too.

Friday we went to a Formal Hall at Magdalene College, courtesy of my colleagues Carlo and Amane. It was the first formal for Miriam too and the first time Diego and Leo stayed with a babysitter. Everything went well and we all really ejoyed it. Colby and Rebekah were quite impressed by the scenary and the college master saying grace in latin, among other things.

Saturday we enjoyed the best weather of the year, a true spring day. I played football in the morning at Parker's Piece while other MBAs practiced ultimate frisby for the MBAT. For lunch we decided to improvise a picnic in the park and got massive and delicious burgers from GBK. They make probably the best burgers I've ever eaten.

In the afternoon we went punting. The river was packed and it was quite funny because we had a few crashes with other boats and also saw a couple of people falling into the water. It was the first time I went punting this year and I did pretty badly. I was going from one side to the other of the river. Colby was doing it for the first time and did actually quite well.

Sunday the weather changed and it poured rain most of the morning. After church we went for lunch to a pub and finally decided to stick to our plan and take a train to Ely. We were lucky because entry to the Cathedral was free and we even managed to see the kids choir singing. Finally we took a tea at almost five in a very nice courtyard just behind the cathedral.

I love having friends at home. It's the only way I actually unwind.

First week of the Easter Term

2008-04-25T17:08:00.004+01:00

The first impression is that the Easter Term is quite different from the previous two terms. People are more relaxed -and tired- and courses don't run evenly during the term but just for a few days over a week or a few weeks.

We have five core courses, four electives to choose from a pool of 25 and a few seminars and workshops. Inevitably the class is much more streamed and in some electives we are only 10-15 students.

This week we have started -and finished- Cost Accounting and Negotiation Skills.

Cost Accounting was taught by Dennis Oswald, an American who has an impressive CV and used to teach at London Business School. The Negotiation Skills course was run by David Venter, a South African who teaches in Belgium and assisted Mandela and de Klerk in the negotiations to dismantle apartheid.

Lent Term and GCP are over

2008-04-19T16:49:00.002+01:00

Time is really flying. I can't believe that in less than two months lectures will be over and my colleagues will start to go back to their home countries and/or their new jobs. But that's the essence of the Cambridge MBA, one year that will last you a lifetime.

Yesterday we did the GCP presentation and both the client and our tutor seemed quite impressed. We as a team also felt everything went quite well. At least we celebrated afterwards as if it was a success. We went to the nearby Hotel du Vin and then had dinner at Fitzbillies. I was so tired at the end that I missed the end of term pub night.

But there is no time to rest. Monday the Easter Term starts with the first Cost Accounting and Negotiation Skills lectures. And of course, there are already pre-readings to do.

Jo left JBS

2008-04-11T15:21:00.000+01:00

Jo Grantham - the MBA Admissions Coordinator - has left the school after 21 years. She's going to work elsewhere within the University of Cambridge.

All the MBAs from this and previous years love her. She was almost our only contact with the school since since we applied till we started the program. She was ever so helpful answering all of our emails, allocating us to colleges and helping us in all ways.

There have been a couple of interview days after she left and though everything went well it didn't look the same. It was amazing how she would know all our names since the very first time.

When the sun shines

2008-04-10T23:56:00.000+01:00

One of the funniest things of Cambridge in particular and the UK and other "cold" countries in general is that as soon as the sun shines everyones goes out and sits in the sun.

That has always been a quite funny thing for somebody like me who comes from Sevilla, where the sun shines over 300 days a year and people actually runs away from sun.

But now I live in Cambridge, I endured snow the day Spring begun, and now I also act like a leezard and go out as soon as I spot some sunshine.

That's exactly what we did the other day. It was still cold and the grass in the park was wet, but we decided to have a picnic.

The GCP continues in Amsterdam

2008-04-09T23:31:00.006+01:00

During the last two weeks we have been reviewing literature and interviewing people at Saatchi & Saatchi in the London offices. It helped us to get into the right "change management" mindset and to know a bit more about The Lovemarks Company.

Sunday we flew to Amsterdam and Monday and Tuesday we interviewed seven people at the Netherlands office.

We basically decided to fly a day earlier to take the day off in Amsterdam. Robyn and Andrés had never been in Amsterdam before and though Will and I did we also thought it was a good idea.

We stayed at the The Gresham Memphis Hotel, that by the way is quite nice. It's close to the museums and a big park and at a walking discance from the center. The price was very good too.

The interviews went very well and now we have to focus in writing the report for the school and preparing the presentation to the client.

I really enjoyed the three days there. As you know I love bikes, and I completely fell in love with this one.

GCP at Saatchi & Saatchi

2008-04-04T12:01:00.000+01:00

These days I’m doing my Global Consulting Project at Saatchi & Saatchi one of the world most reputed advertising agencies with clients like Toyota, Procter & Gamble, the Labour Party or Adidas.

I can’t tell much about the project because there are things that are confidential but I must say it’s being a very interesting and challenging experience.

We are working in a team of four: Will, a former plastic surgeon from the UK; Robyn a physical therapist and psychologist from Australia; Andrés, an economist from Chile; and myself.

As part of our work we are going to interview a dozen of people in the London and Amsterdam offices. We are meeting CEOs, creative directors, human resource managers, account managers, head strategists, board members and other members of staff.

Our project is about Lovemarks and The Lovemark Company, new concepts developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO, Kevin Roberts. Basically it’s about going beyond trademarks and brands and beyond creative and ideas companies and produce Lovemarks that create loyalty beyond reason.

Kevin Roberts is a very interesting character and an amazingly inspiring speaker. I already wrote about him at the beginning of the course when he came to talk to us. He’s going to come a couple of times more I believe, one of them for the Creativity Workshop.

And yes, you have read well, we are going to interview people in Amsterdam. Apparently Saatchi & Saatchi Netherlands is doing very well and we are going to spend two days there to find out why. Actually we are going to spend three days in Amsterdam, because we are flying on Sunday to get into the right mindset before the interviews on Monday. ;-)

Apart from that we are enjoying the fact that we don’t have lectures during one month so you can get organised to do other things apart from work. I’m spending a bit more time with family, going running at least three days a week and playing football when the opportunity comes.

Right now I’m flying to Seville and writing this post in Word to copy, paste and publish it when I get Internet connection. I’m going to spend 24 hours there to see my previous boss, go to the orthodontist, meet the people from Talentia, get some pictures taken for a magazine, see the family and hopefully some friends, eat good food, get some sunshine and hopefully survive the experience!

Oxford vs Cambridge

2008-04-01T15:43:00.005+01:00

El sábado fue la regata Oxford-Cambridge, conocida aquí como The Boat Race, y además el partido de fútbol entre las selecciones de ambas universidades, el Varsity Match.

Oxford confirmó los pronósticos y se llevó la carrera. Cambridge ganó el trepidante partido de fútbol por 3-5.

El plan era ir toda la familia a echar el día en Londres pero al final el tiempo se puso muy malo y fui yo solo. Bueno, solo con otros 50 o 60 MBA.

El partido se jugó en el estadio del Fulham, que está literalmente pegado al río cerca del puente de Putney. El estadio tiene una especie de terraza con bares desde donde se ve el río y desde allí vimos pasar la carrera. Esto es como el ciclismo, una hora esperando para verlos pasar a toda leche durante unos segundos. Afortunadamente los bares tenían pantallas y en cuanto pasaron nos metimos dentro para ver terminar la carrera por televisión.

Como comentaba antes el partido de fútbol fue trepidante y Cambridge acabó ganando 3-5. Cambridge se adelantó tres veces en el marcador, pero Oxford empató las tres veces hasta que Cambridge marcó el cuarto en el 87 y el quinto en el descuento.

El mejor jugador del partido fue un chaval de Cambridge, un tal Stock de St. Catherine's College. Marcó los cuatro primeros goles en las cuatro ocasiones que tuvo y dio el quinto. Todo lo que hizo lo hizo bien. A mi personalmente también me gustó mucho uno de los centrales de Cambridge, Turnbull, y el nueve de Oxford, que según las niñas se parece al Prince Henry y tiene un nombre un poco pedante, Toogood.

De todas formas yo esperaba ver un poco de más nivel en el partido. Evidentemente los chavales eran buenos, pero no se veía demasiada rapidez ni precisión. Y no estoy comparando con el fútbol profesional, sino por ejemplo con el Cambridge United, que juega en el equivalente de Segunda B en España.

En la carrera de barcos prácticamente no hubo historia. Oxford era favorita y confirmó los pronósticos. El tiempo era muy malo, con mucho viento, y de hecho fue la carrera más lenta desde 1949. Oxford salió muy rápido y tomó un poco la delantera. Cambridge recuperó y se llegó a poner por delante al paso por el puente de Hammersmith. Sin embargo no consiguieron adelantar y tuvieron que coger la última curva de la carrera en paralelo por la parte de fuera, lo que los reventó.

Nosotros los MBA tendremos nuestro Varsity Match particular contra la Oxford Saïd Business School a finales de Mayo.

and Leo?

2008-03-26T22:24:00.007Z

All this talk about Diego and no news of Leonardo? that can't be right!

Especially since he's been making lots of progress lately: he can almost sit by himself (we prop him up with a few cushions still), he loves hopping around in his baby bouncer and he's started on solids and can hold his sippy cup all alone. But the best thing of all is that he's a real smiler and has a lovely laugh... especially when Diego's doing anything even vaguely funny: he obviously adores his brother.

Here go a couple of pictures:

Diego's birthday

2008-03-26T21:52:00.010Z

On the 24th of March Diego had his second birthday and since it was Easter Monday we decided we would spend the day as a family and have a party with some friends later. The original idea was to take him to Linton Zoo but after Sunday's snowfall we thought it would be better to change plans...

It turned out to be a good idea: on Monday I made a cake and then we just relaxed while Diego enjoyed opening and playing with his presents at his own pace (veeeeery slowly!). Nicola and Martin and Carlo also popped in to say hello and have a slice of cake and we had lots of phonecalls from friends and family (you can see Diego talking to one of them in the pictures below).

We also went out for a short walk in the park and Diego loved stomping on what remained of other children's snowmen!

Today we had a party with some of the other MBA families in Links House's garden house which was kindly offered to us by the wardens so the kids would have more room to mess around in. It was good fun and Diego had lots of lovely presents.

Thanks to all of you far and near for contributing to our bundle of happy memories!

Pues sí, está nevando

2008-03-23T12:08:00.000Z

Antesdeayer decía que se esperaba nieve para el fin de semana. Y aquí está la nieve.

Ayer el tiempo estaba loco. Salía el sol, a los cinco minutos granizaba, luego paraba, llovía, volvía a salir el sol, nevaba. Así lleva todo el día.

Hoy ha amanecido todo nevado, aunque al rato se ha puesto a llover y la nieve se ha fundido.

Spring, global warming and local cooling

2008-03-20T14:16:00.011Z

Spring starts today but it looks much more like winter. I believe in global warming. As you know I come from Sevilla. But here in Cambridge it looks like we are experiencing a kind of local cooling. As you can see in the weather forecast for the Easter weekend we are going to have below zero temperatures, wind, rain and maybe even snow. Cool! ;-)

We were planning to go to the dark side on Saturday, have an egg hunt party at Christoph and Ina's on Sunday and go to the Linton Zoo on Monday, but if the weather is bad we will stay here and try to find some indoor activities to do.

Monday is Diego's second birthday and we wanted to do something special. Some of our friends are going to be away during the Easter break so the birthday party will probably be on Wednesday or Thursday.

I have to go to JBS but it doesn't stop raining. I'll go anyway...

Exams over, assignments pending, GCP in progress

2008-03-17T23:28:00.003Z

I wish I were an undergraduate in Cambridge. Their terms really last only two months and they don't have many hours of lectures. Today the city was half empty because the Lent Term is officially over and most of the undergrads have left. We, MBAs, have to finish some assignments and work in our Global Consulting Project, so life is not that easy for us.

Of course I'm simplifiying things a little bit. Undergrads in the University of Cambridge are very bright people, the best students from the UK and around the world. Normally they are mature, responsible, smart and focused people and though they might not have many hours of lectures they still have lots of revisions with their tutors, books to read and essays to write. I kind of like this academic model. You have much more room to focus on your priorities, you have to be responsible and self-motivated, and you always need to be able to integrate distinct information and produce knowledge.

But let's go back to the point of this post. First, we finished the exams for the term. Friday we did Strategy and International Business, two exams that as usual we had to write one right after the other in a three-hour slot. It's not easy to switch from one subject to the other on the spot and above all it's not easy to handwrite for three hours. I'm not used to it anymore and my hand and wrist hurted. My handwriting is even worse than it was when I finished my undergraduate degree and I wonder how the examiners can understand it.

I did the Strategy exam first and chose the question almost nobody else chose. There were two questions, one about strategic alliances, the one I chose, and the other one about strategy frameworks, the one everyone expected and almost everyone did. I was going to do it but I like to go against the stream so finally chose the alliances one. I didn't do the best exam in my life, nor the worse, so it should be ok.

Then I did the International Business part. In this case there were three questions and we had to chose one. I chose again the first one, which was about the shift and blurring of the boundaries of the firms in the Global Business Revolution. It was basically writing about the "cascade effect", the favourite theory of Peter Nolan, probably the best lecturer I have had so far in the MBA. I was a bit tired in the end and though I made all the points I wanted to make I probably didn't organise and express my ideas as well as I could. I still need to improve my English and my essay writing technique.

But thought exams are over, I still have three assignments pending. The People Management group and individual assignments and the Global Marketing individual paper. I'm working on them but they are due next week so I still have some time to waste with my blog.

To be honest People Management has dissappointed me a little bit. It's an elective but I think it overlaps too much Management Practice and Organisational Behaviour. I expected something more practical, more "how to manage people" from the manager point of view, rather than revising again conceps like motivation, leadership, etc. But it's still useful. All the MBA alumni I know always say that while you are taking the course everyone pays more atention to the hard (quantitative) than to the soft (qualitative) courses, but that in the end, when you become a manager, what you really use the most is your soft skills.

On the other hand Global Marketing has even exeeded my already high expectations. Eden Yin is really an extraordinary lecturer. And when I say extraordinary I say good but also out of the ordinary, original, politically incorrect, challenging and fun. Their lectures are highly interactive but for some people his style is too harsh. In my opinion his attitude is part of the course and completely necessary. You need to question your assumptions, cure your cultural myopia and change your mindsets to be a good global marketer.

And as I mentioned before, while all the undergraduates are on holiday, we have to do our GCP. I'm doing it in a team with Andrés, Robyn and Will at Saatchi&Saatchi, one of the world leading advertising agencies. Our project coordinators are two MBA alumni, Jasper and Jane, which I believe is a great advantage because they know our expectations and also our potential and limitations. And our tutor is Allègre Hadida, the Strategy lecturer. She knows very well the company and his CEO Kevin Roberts and is being of great help.

Of course, after all this work and the exams we had a Pub Night at The Anchor on Friday. I went out late because I had dinner at home, put Diego to bed, and wasn't too sure about going out. I was a bit tired. But in the end I'm happy I went out because when I got there the party was at its peak and I had two or three hours of good fun and interesting conversations with colleagues. I even did my internationally famous "flag". I'll post a picture if I find it.

Pizza night

2008-03-16T19:19:00.004Z

Don't believe a word of what Miriam said about her pizzas yesterday. They were fantastic. One of my colleagues said it was the better pizza he had ever tasted.

I went to watch Cambridge United football match against Woking with the guys who are doing the Global Consulting Project at Everton F.C. They requested the help of other football fans for a focus group for a market research and invited us to the match in exchange.

The match wasn't as good as the previous one we went, but Cambridge won again and they are second in the league. We might go to see other matches if they play for a promotion.

As in the previous time, I went with Diego. He didn't pay too much attention to the football, but behaved very well, enjoyed the singing and played a little bit with Juan, Dorji and Andres's son, Cristóbal.

Miriam rang me during the match and asked me if we wanted to have a pizza at home. Finally Juan, Luis, Dorji, Oliver and his brother Thomas joined us and we spent a very nice evening drinking beer and wine and eating crisps and pizza.

Tonight more social events, dinner at Carlo's kitchen in Magdalene College.

Baking!

2008-03-16T18:14:00.003Z

I'm officially having a baking frenzy!

Yesterday I made pizza for some of Paco's classmates... but it was rather a rush and the result was not too great but today I really enjoyed baking my first loaf of bread in a long time. To be fair, I must confess I've just bought a great book on bread, so I just followed the recipe but the loaf looks quite good... I'll tell you how it tasted when we've tried it, I still don't trust my oven here... we just don't seem to get along.

And here go the photos to prove it:

The tulips are from last night (Thanks Dorji!): don't they look lovely?

Actually I've just found out that they grow masses of tulips around here and there's a big fair on in May... it would be fun to go have a look.

Yesterday I also discovered yet another bookshop I hadn't been in: they do story time for kids so I might take Diego there another day.

El más difícil todavía: con tres cucharas

2008-03-04T23:47:00.001Z

Diego sigue superándose a sí mismo a la hora de comer. Ya os habíamos contando su técnica para sujetar el tenedor con una mano y comer con la otra.

Pues el otro día inventó algo nuevo. Cómo comerse dos platos de chícharos con tres cucharas. Me remito a las imágenes.

Geoffrey's birthday

2008-03-03T18:57:00.005Z

As I said in my previous post we went to Italy for the weekend to join all the Allen family in Geoffrey's 60th birthday. For the ones who don't know it, Geoffrey is my father in law.

It was a fantastic family event because for the first time in a long time all Miriam's brothers and sisters (6 in total) got together with their partners and kids. So as you can see in the picture, we were 32: the 2 grandparents, the 12 parents, the 17 kids plus aunty Elizabeth, Geoffrey's sister.

The venue was the Cascina Colombara, a farmhouse near Pavia where most of Miriam's brothers and sisters live. It was a great idea because there was lots of space and things to do for the kids.

Weather was lovely and I even had the opportunity to see my friend Tommaso, a great marathon runner that I met while training near the cascina a few years ago.

A pity Diego was a bit poorely and wasn't in the mood for too much playing. Anyway, he got there one of his favourites toys, the tractor you can see in the picture and that he now carries everywhere. Thanks to the Gibbons for the present!

Muchas cosas que contar

2008-02-28T22:26:00.005Z

Lo sé, hace mucho que no escribo. Y la verdad es que tengo muchas cosas que contar, pero nunca tengo tiempo. Así que voy a intentar hacer un resumen.

Las clases se han ido intensificando poco a poco hasta el punto de que el miércoles que viene tengo el primer examen del Lent Term (el segundo trimestre), de Innovation.

Ya os conté algo sobre Peter Nolan. También me lo estoy pasando muy bien en Global Marketing con Eden Yin. Es un auténtico crack. La verdad es que está un poco loco, o más bien se lo hace. Nos provoca, bromea con nosotros, hasta se ríe de nosotros, pero sobre todo nos hace pensar.

Esta asignatura va mucho de ver las cosas desde otro punto de vista, de darse cuenta de cuánto influye la cultura en la percepción de la realidad. Y Eden usa cualquier cosa para hacernos ver eso. Por ejemplo puede poner una foto de unos perros en una jaula y un puesto de perros fritos, de verdad, en no sé qué país asiático donde los perros se comen, y punto. En España me imagino que matas un perro para comértelo y te meten en la carcel, ¿no?

Y entonces y se pone a darle caña a los japoneses por cargarse ballenas, a los americanos porque en no sé qué estado hay una ley que prohibe tener sexo con un puerco espín, a los cataríes porque allí se puede tener sexo con una oveja, siempre que sea hembra, etc.

Esta semana hemos tenido que escribir un pequeño ensayo sobre cómo ve el mundo un conejo, un pez o una paloma. Una paranoia. Se ve que el tío disfruta con lo que hace, y te manda correos electrónicos cada día con videos de youtube y presentaciones en power point cachondas.

Cambiando de tema, el fin de semana pasado estuve en Sevilla con Diego. Fui al dentista y a reunirme con gente de Talentia para ver qué voy a hacer cuando acabe el MBA. Estuvo bien viajar con Diego los dos solos. Se portó super bien. Me di cuenta de lo rápido que está creciendo y de la cantidad de cosas que aprende cada día.

También los abuelos disfrutaron mucho con él y le enseñaron algunas palabras en español. Ahora ya sabe decir "jamón" y "pan", que luego lo complementa con un "I like" y queda super cachondo. Por ahora sigue mezclando las palabras. Hay cosas que prefiere decirlas en inglés y otras en español.

Esta semana tuvimos una sorpresa en clase. Estábamos haciendo un caso sobre Cobra Beer, una cerveza que está pegando muy fuerte en el Reino Unido, y resulta que en la clase estaba Lord Bilimoria, el fundador y jefe de la empresa. Nos dio una conferencia sobre el tema y fue una de esas clases que valen la pena. El tío llegó a Inglaterra hace treinta años con 5 libras en el bolsillo y ahora es multimillonario.

Y no es el único Lord que ha estado por aquí esta semana. Otro día tuvimos la presentación de las optativas para el Easter Term, el tercer trimestre, y una de ellas las imparte Lord Eatwell. Su asignatura, Financial Regulation, parece interesante, pero creo que no la voy a escoger. Tenemos que elegir 4 de 20, y la verdad es que todavía no lo tengo claro. Podéis ver el listado aquí.

Esta semana nos han dado la nota de Marketing del primer trimestre y a mi me ha ido bastante bien. Creo que ya le he vuelto a cojer el tranquillo a esto de estudiar y hacer exámenes. Lo que pasa es que las notas de Organisational Behaviour no nos la darán hasta mediados de marzo, y las de Corporate Finance y Accounting a finales.

Se me olvidaba. Este es el trimestre de las consultoras y la semana pasada estuvieron en la escuela McKinsey, Bain y Accenture. Se venden muy bien y el trabajo parece interesante, pero por lo que cuentan no hay una semana que eches menos de 60 horas.

En general todo va bien. El tiempo pasa volando y ya tengo que empezar a pensar en el retorno. Diego y Leo están creciendo rápido. Miriam está bien, contenta, totalmente adaptada con su grupo de amigas. El tiempo está mejorando. Yo estoy intentando salir a correr tres veces por semana.

Por último mañana nos vamos a Italia, hasta el domingo, para el 60 cumpleaños de mi suegro. Nos juntaremos mis suegros, los 12 cuñados y cuñadas, y los 17 sobrinos y sobrinas. Una locura. Ya veréis las fotos.

Just mummy and Leonardo... and the pool!

2008-02-22T19:12:00.006Z

This week-end will be an unusual one for me since Daddy and Diego left yesterday afternoon to go to Spain: Paco to deal with some business there and Diego visiting his grandparents.

That leaves Leo and me and I decided we should spend this time doing something nice. Yesterday afternoon was spent happily browsing a couple of bookshops.
This morning I took Leo to the swimming pool for the first time! for obvious reasons there are no photos of the event but it was a very successful expedition. The pool is very well organized for kids, with family changing rooms and changing tables all over so you can put baby down a moment if you need to (never unattended!) and the water is really warm... I don't know what the exact temperature was but it was rather like stepping into a bath and Leo loved it... and let's hope he'll sleep better for it tonight!!

A trip to Ely

2008-02-16T18:51:00.001Z

This week we decided we should make the most of the little free time we have as a family so seeing it was a lovely sunny day - even though freezing cold - we took a train to Ely to have a look at the famous Cathedral and walk around a bit.

Diego obviously enjoyed the train bit! He's really into anything that moves now: buses, trains, lorries (or lollies!!), cars, bikes... you name it! And we also have to mention that he's become quite a walker, he only needs a bit of encouragement and he'll go quite a long way on his own two little legs.

Paco and I admired the Cathedral: it's quite amazing especially if you consider that it's practically in the middle of nowhere! It was also nice to have time to chat over a meal.

And Leo... well, I think what he enjoyed the most was sleeping all wrapped up in his buggy!

Interior of Ely Cathedral

The stained glass windows reflected on the columns

Diego running to catch up with us!

The cascade effect

2008-02-12T22:09:00.000Z

Today we have finished Professor Peter Nolan's International Business course. And it's a pity, because he is no doubt the most singular lecturer we have had in the course so far. He really says interesting things and make you think about the global economy.

Peter Nolan is original not only for what he says, but also for how he says it. For instance, he doesn't use slides. And when he talks, he doesn't dictate, he just talk. It's very difficult to take notes of what he says, but it doesn't matter. I gave up the first day and since then I just tried to enjoy the lectures and capture the message.

Professor Nolan has a vast bibliography. One of his favourite concepts is "the global business revolution". I've found this abstract of one of his papers in the Cambridge Journal of Economics: "The global business revolution since the 1980s has witnessed an unprecedented degree of industrial consolidation and concentration of business power at a global level. Firms with powerful, globally recognised technologies and/or brands constitute the ‘systems integrators’ at the apex of extended supply chains. This paper examines the supply chains in four different sectors: aerospace, telecommunications, automobiles and beverages. It finds that these sectors have striking similarities in the way in which the core systems integrators have stimulated industrial concentration across the whole supply chain. This ‘cascade effect’ has profound implications for firms from developing countries in catching up at the firm level."

But, why do I entitle this post the "cascade effect"? Well, because I have noticed that the MBA is also acting as a system integrator and by continously trying to rise its standards, it demands each of us, as elements of the system, to improve our performance. The good thing is that this happens without too much pressure, not as an obligation, but as a motivation.

Finally, today I've also found out that Peter Nolan regularly visits the Universitá degli Studi di Pavia, in Italy, where most of my brothers and sisters in law live.

Happy family Pérez-Allen!

2008-02-11T14:37:00.000Z

Yesterday we had a photographic session with the kids and once more we had to give up without one decent photo of both of them laughing! Here is a selection:

JBS football team win again

2008-02-09T23:23:00.000Z

Today 2-6 against Robinson College.

And guess who scored five goals...

Yes, me!. Unbelievable. Today it was one of those days when you just kick the ball and it goes in. Specially if you are in a difficult position. I missed two or three easy chances, but surprisingly, I scored three goals with my left leg.

To be honest I scored four and a half goals. The last one was after very good play from Amane, who could have scored had I not kicked it first.

And what makes it more amazing is that I was feeling so bad today before the match. I almost didn't go. I went to the pub night yesterday and I was hangover. I couldn't run for the first half an hour and we even started 1-0 down.

But the team did a very good job and we played much more in their side of the field than in ours. Also, as in our first victory, this rival played less phisical than others. They let us play and we let them play. Less tackles and as a consequence better football.

Marvin -Janine's husband-played as a keeper. Roupen, Haru, Ahmed and Andrey played defense. Andy, Sina, Ken and Amane midfield. And Dihan and me up front.

Sina scored the othe goal, the fifth, in a very good kick after a clear goal chance I missed.

We all finished the match with cramps and couldnt' run anymore. We really need some phisical training. I definitely need it. I could play much better if I were able to go running twice a week. I'm going to try.

In April we play against "the other place", and in May against other MBA teams near Paris during the MBAT. I still don't know if I could go, but I'd like to. There is also a cross country race. And I definitely need to train for this.

The Gibbons

2008-02-02T23:12:00.000Z

This weekend we had a swift visit from the Gibbons: David, Rachel, Daniela, Laura, Thomas and Amy. It was lovely to see them.

David spent here thee years (?) reading for his Phd at St. John's College and keeps very good memories from the city. We even went to visit his tutor, a Professor of Italian now almost retired but that irradiates energy and is in extraordinary good shape for his age.

Dani and Laura have grown a lot, and also Thomas. I didn't know Amy. She looks like David (and Dani) and seems to be a very good girl. I can't believe I already have... how many? 17 nieces? Something like that...

Nuevos viejos posts

2008-02-02T12:01:00.000Z

Estoy actualizando el blog con algunos posts antiguos. Os dejo los enlaces.

Actualizado el 2 de Febrero

Actualizado el 23 de Enero

Pictures of Diego and Leonardo

2008-02-01T12:04:00.000Z

People keep asking us to upload more pictures of the kids. Here they are.

Yes, they are growing very fast. Leonardo is already 6kg and Diego who knows.

Time is flying. We are almost halfway through the course.

Financial Times Global MBA rankings

2008-01-28T18:18:00.000Z

Below some info about MBA Rankings from our Director, Richard Barker. I ommited some parts non relevant for this blog.

As you have probably seen, the Financial Times has today ranked the Cambridge MBA 10th in the world, moving up from 15th in 2007 (and from 35th in 2006).

Our strong performance in these rankings will have a significant impact on how potential applicants, recruiters and other schools view the Cambridge MBA; it is very good news indeed.

Our performance is even more remarkable when compared with the greater age, scale and financial resources of the other MBA programmes in The FT's global top ten, especially in the light of the increasingly competitive nature of the business education sector.

As ever, we should be cautious in the emphasis we place on the rankings, which we do not view as objective measures of performance and which do not determine our strategy and direction.

Nevertheless, it is very gratifying that the intrinsic value of the Cambridge MBA, which delivers a distinctive, world class programme, has again been recognised by The Financial Times.

The Cambridge MBA is now consistently ranked in the global top tier; our FT performance is on a par with our two most recent rankings – 7th by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 3rd by Forbes.

The real story here is not one of rankings – which are subjective and can be volatile – but of the Cambridge MBA’s great momentum and excellent fundamentals, which are growing stronger every year.

We will continue to focus on attracting outstanding candidates and to build upon the recognised excellence of our programme, which is combined with the strength of the wider Cambridge University networks.

En el "Top 10" mundial de MBAs

2008-01-28T01:35:00.000Z

Acaba de salir el Global MBA Ranking del Financial Times y la Judge Business School se situa en el décimo puesto mundial.

Una buena noticia para la escuela y para los alumnos que estudiamos en ella.

Formal at Magdalene College

2008-01-26T22:34:00.001Z

Yesterday I went to a Formal Hall at Magdalene College. I was invited by Carlo de Stefanis, an Italian colleague who lives just in front of us.

I had a good time. Sometimes it's nice to dress up a little bit and wear your gown.

Another MBA, Daniel Vankov, from Bulgaria, also belongs to Magdalene and he invited Vasily Gribkov, from Russia, and Oliver Campbell, half English half Venezuelan.

We sat together, drank cheap red wine from Chile and France and joked about English food. The main course was haggis, which is more or less stuffed instestines. Oliver, the only English in the group and the only one who knew the ingredients beforehand asked for the vegetarian option. To be honest it wasn't that bad. It's more or less like Spanish "morcilla".

Afterwards we had a few drinks. Porto, Sherry, Wiskey and Bayleys were the choices. I went home early, at around 22:00 while most of the others headed for a pub.

Cambridge United vs Altrincham

2008-01-26T21:24:00.000Z

Hoy ha sido un sábado futbolero.

Por la mañana tuvimos partido, Judge Business School contra Wolfson College. Hicimos seguramente la mejor primera parte del año, pero esta gente venía de ganar su liga y nos fuimos al descanso 4-0. Pero eso no fue lo peor. Al comienzo de la segunda parte Tim Letheren se rompió un brazo en un salto con el portero.

Por la tarde fuimos a ver un auténtico partido de fútbol inglés, Cambridge United vs. Altrincham. El Cambridge United juega en el equivalente a tercera división en España, pero la verdad es que el partido estuvo entretenido y había bastante gente en el campo. Ganamos 2-1 con un gol de rebote en el descuento.

No os perdáis el balonazo que se lleva el linier en la última foto. Aquí los defensas no se andan con chiquitas y eso de sacarla jugada se ve más bien poco. Los locales normalmente le pegan por encima de la grada, pero los visitantes tiran a dar.

A dos cucharas

2008-01-22T22:22:00.000Z

Diego sigue inventando nuevas técnicas para llevarse la comida a la boca.

Hoy nos enseña cómo comerse un yogur a dos cucharas.

Primera semana del Lent Term

2008-01-18T21:48:00.000Z

Esto no para. Ya hemos acabado la primera semana de clases del Lent Term, que es como se llama aquí al segundo trimestre. Y la verdad es que ha estado bien.

El lunes sólo tuvimos Operations Management, que lo imparte un profesor alemán, Matthias Holweg, especializado en cadenas de montaje en la industria automovilística. Vimos un video impresionante de cómo trabaja la gente recogiendo, envolviendo, etiquetando y empaquetando lechugas sobre la marcha en un campo cerca de Ely. Es un trabajo que generalmente hacen inmigrantes polacos y que al parecer está muy bien pagado, pero el ritmo es realmente alucinante. Tesco, la mayor cadena de supermercados del Reino Unido vende de media unas 250.000 lechugas frescas al día, y cuando digo frescas quiero decir que se recogen el día anterior, durante el verano en España, durante el invierno en Inglaterra. El sistema, básicamente una cadena de suministro, está calculado al milímetro y la gente que se encarga de coordinarlo todo son gente como nuestro profesor.

El martes tuvimos Strategy e International Business. En Strategy empezamos con la profesora Allègre Hadida, una chica francesa, bastante joven, hiperactiva, y da la impresión también que bastante buena. Hicimos un "case study" de la compra de 7-up por parte de Philip Morris y de lo mal que les fue en general con las bebidas gaseosas y sobre todo con el lanzamiento de una bebida de cola en Estados Unidos, Like, que fracasó entre otros motivos porque Coca Cola y Pepsi le dijeron a las empresas embotelladoras y distribuidoras, que si trabajaban con Like anulaban sus contratos, y evidentemente Like no encontró quien embotellase ni distribuyese su bebida. A estudiar este tipo de cosas es a lo que se dedican los estrategas.

En International Business tenemos probablemente uno de los mejores profesores de la escuela, Peter Nolan, un gurú del comercio internacional especialista en China, hasta el punto que el Financial Times llegó a decir que "Peter Nolan sabe más sobre empresas chinas y sus competidores a nivel internacional que nadie en la tierra, incluido en China". El tío es tan bueno que se permitió el lujo de darnos una clase de tres horas y media (con dos descansos de quince minutos) sin usar el Power Point y sin un papel por delante. Y la gente atenta como viendo una película de cine. De esas clases que no quieres que acaben, que te gustaría grabar porque luego eres incapaz de poner en pie lo que el nota ha dicho. Simplemente genial. Eso sí, antes de la clase nos tuvimos que leer como 200 páginas de diferentes libros para ponernos en antecedentes sobre el tema. A la clase hay que llegar con la lección aprendida y el profesor lo que hace es puntualizar, aclarar, contextualizar y hacerte pensar sobre el tema.

El miércoles también tuvimos sólo una clase, Innovation, con el Decano de la escuela, Arnoud de Meyer, y Kamal Munir. Una de cal y otra de arena. De Meyer, que es belga, es bastante bueno y dice cosas interesantes. Sin embargo la clase de Munir, indio, ha sido la más aburrida desde que estoy en Cambridge. No dijo nada nuevo. Se limitó a repetir muy lentamente lo que habíamos leido en el artículo recomendado para la clase, la historia del fracaso de Kodak en su adaptación a la era de la fotografía digital. Pero bueno, la verdad es que el listón está muy alto.

El jueves volvimos a tener Operations Management, y hoy viernes Information Systems and Strategic Change, con Mark Thompson. Es una asignatura corta pero también muy interesante sobre cómo integrar la tecnología en la empresa y cómo cambiar una empresa a través de la tecnología. Vimos el caso de Zara, con su sistema de "inventario cero" y de producción y distribución ajustada a la demanda.

Además de las clases hemos tenido otros eventos relacionados con el Global Consulting Project que tenemos que hacer a partir de Semana Santa, charlas varias y visitas de empresas.

Una cosa que me ha llamado la atención es lo importante que es el "feedback" de los alumnos sobre los profesores y el resto de servicios de la escuela. Al final de cada curso tenemos que completar un formulario online sobre el programa y el profesor. Este año al parecer Simon Bell, de Marketing, no ha tenido muy buena acogida, y se lo han cargado. El año que viene dará todo el curso Eden Yin. A mi la verdad me da pena, porque Simon es muy bueno, pero si es cierto que sus clases eran más aburridas que las de Eden. También en Management Science van a hacer cambios, aunque no se han cargado a ninguno de los tres profesores.

Mañana vamos a ir a echar el día a Londres con nuestros amigos los Levell. Necesito Salir de Cambridge un poco.

Olías Newton y Joan Maynard Keynes

2008-01-14T09:30:00.000Z

Mis ex-compañeros de facultad Jose Olías y Juan Jiménez me hicieron ayer una visita. Habían venido a Londres a echar el fin de semana y ver un par de partidos de fútbol de la Premier. Los dos son periodistas deportivos, en Málaga Hoy y As respectivamente, y además de fanáticos del fútbol tienen contactos en los equipos para conseguir entradas gratis.

Llegaron a Cambridge a la hora de comer y nos fuimos a una pizzería con Miriam y los niños. Luego echamos la tarde paseando por la ciudad y visitando St. John's, Trinity, King's y Pembroke.

Les conté cómo es la vida aquí y cómo funciona el tema de los colleges y la universidad. No es fácil de entender porque en España es totalmente diferente. Aquí lo que pasa es que para estudiar una carrera, una licenciatura, tu solicitas el acceso a la universidad a través de uno de los 31 colleges. Después, aunque los cursos son organizados por los diferentes departamentos (no hay facultades) el papel del college es muy importante durante toda la carrera, ya que trabajas constantemente con tu tutor y un reducido grupo de estudiantes. Los tutores son generalmente profesores o estudiantes de doctorado.

Normalmente, para una licenciatura (no para un MBA) hay pocas horas de clase a la semana, entre 15 y 25, pero muchas tutorías, muchas cosas que leer, y muchos "ensayos" que escribir de una semana para otra. En general se fomenta el razonamiento crítico, la capacidad para argumentar, para investigar, y para hablar en público.

Para los postgraduados (doctorados y masters) la cosa es diferente. Se solicita el acceso al Board of Graduate Studies, o en el caso del MBA y otros estudios financieros directamente a la Judge Business School, que son los que luego se encargan de buscarte un college. En todo caso, si no te admite un college no puedes estudiar en la universidad.

Por la tarde estuvimos buscando un sitio para cenar y ver el partido del Madrid, pero no lo encontramos, así que los acompañé a la estación para que volviesen a Londres. Hoy iban a visitar el museo de Wimbledon.

Exams are over!

2008-01-11T13:08:00.000Z

Exams are over, and the first term, Michaelmas Term as it is called in Cambridge, is over too. In fact, we start second term, Lent Term, on monday.

Today we collected the study packs, huge as usual. See a picture and take into account that this is just the study notes. I'll buy the books over the weekend on Amazon.

I am overall happy with the exams. To be more accurate, I'm reasonably happy about the Accounting and Finance exams we did on Wednesday, and quite happy with the Marketing and Organisational Behaviour ones I just finished one hour ago.

I don't know exactly for what reason but we took two exams in a row at a time. It seems to be a normal practice for the MBA. Time pressure is huge. You are given three hours to complete both of them. In fact, the Accounting lecturer told us that he expected us not to be able to finish it. It is not only about how well you can solve the problems, but also about how fast and above all how do you perform under pressure.

The first part of the Accounting exam was difficult. Well, more than difficult tricky, because we didn't do any exercise like that in class and everyone was expecting something different. Not even the accountants in tha class managed to make the Balance Sheet balance, and one of them told me it would normally take 8 hours to one of its subordinates to do what we were asked to do in 45 minutes. I spent one hour in the exercise, and of course it didn't balance, but I think I did quite a good job. The theoretical questions were not difficult but I had no marging to make mistakes or think too much, so I feel I could have done better.

As a result I started the Corporate Finance paper a bit late, with around 75 minutes remaining. I think I did quite well the first half, a complex Net Present Value calculation, and again rushed throught the remaining questions, making some silly mistakes in one about Options and leaving one blank. But I think overall I did well.

Today it was the turn for Marketing and Organisational Behavior. Much easier for me. In both of the exams you could chose to answer two questions out of four. In any case, also only three hours to complete both of them.

I did Marketing first. I chose to do a pricing strategy for a flying car and a customer loyalty program for a financial institution. I didn't have time to mention a few things I wanted to say and my caligraphy was horrible, but I think content is good.

Finally, for Organisational Behaviour, I chose the questions about motivation and change management. I also felt quite comfortable and I managed to remember all the frameworks we had to use to analyse the problems.

Now most of the class is in the first Pub session of the day in The Bath House. I'm in the school catching up with emails and, as you can see, the blog. I'll join the second session tonight at The Anchor.

Below, a picture of the Syndicate Room yesterday with some colleagues studying and discussing about how to price a radical innovation.

Niño, ¿tu qué quieres ser de mayor?

2008-01-09T21:01:00.000Z

Pensábamos que Diego iba para cocinero, o para futbolista, pero a medida que pasa el tiempo parece que la cosa se va complicando.

Conductor, como su tío Juan...

Manager, como sus tíos Matthew y Césare...

Amo de casa, como sus abuelas Lola y Judith...

Músico, como sus tíos Simon y Stephen

O agricultor, como su bisabuelo José...

Di nuovo a casa... e il periodo pre-natalizio

2008-01-08T13:31:00.001Z

Eccoci di nuovo qui a Cambridge e dopo tante parole a vuoto ("il nostro blog trilingue bla, bla, bla...) ecco finalmente un post in italiano!

In realtà non so neanche bene da dove cominciare: è passato ormai un mese dall'ultimo aggiornamento ed è stato un mese pieno, ma proverò a raccontare un po'alla volta cosa abbiamo combinato ultimamente!

A metà dicembre più o meno Paco ha finito le lezioni e gran parte del lavoro più urgente quindi, pur dedicando sempre varie ore al giorno allo studio, ha avuto più tempo per stare con noi. Abbiamo approfittato per fare qualche giro in centro a caccia di regalini per la famiglia, prendere un caffè solo noi o con degli amici o invitare gente a casa.

Un giorno siamo andati a visitare Girton College, il suo college che io non avevo ancora visto...dato che non si trova in centro ma appunto a Girton, un paesino fuori. L'edificio è molto pittoresco e gli addobbi natalizi creavano proprio una bella atmosfera... sembrava di tornare un po' indietro nel tempo, una sensazione ricorrente qui a Cambridge. Faceva però taaanto freddo e visto che a quel punto i due pargoli dormivano abbiamo approfittato per pranzare e chiacchierare tranquillamente in un caffè, giusto per completare una bella giornata in famiglia... e per provarlo, ecco qualche foto:

In questi giorni poi abbiamo approfittato anche per fare altre cose che rimandavamo da tempo... come tagliare i capelli a Diego... ancora un po' e gli facevamo il codino! Ecco quindi il papà parrucchiere e il bellissimo modello con taglio quasi militare!!

Stephen Hawking en el mercado

2008-01-05T13:49:00.000Z

Hoy estaba dando una vuelta por el mercado con Miriam, Diego y Leo y nos hemos cruzado con Stephen Hawking, que iba con sus dos asistentes (creo que una de ellas es su mujer) y se paró a comprar fruta en un puesto.

Se comunicaba con ellas a través de la pantalla de su ordenador, donde sale escrito lo que quiere decir y que transmite a través de un sistema de infrarrojos que acciona con el parpadeo de uno de sus ojos. Wikipedia lo explica muy bien aquí. Es realmente impresionante.

Carros de Fuego

2008-01-05T10:06:00.000Z

La visita de Juan Limón me motivó para salir de nuevo a correr unos días. Una mañana nos pasamos por Trinity College, en donde se disputa anualmente la Great Court Run, una carrera que originalmente tuvo lugar entre Harold Abrahams y Eric Liddell y que aparece en la película Carros de Fuego.

La historia cuenta que Liddell y Abrahams corrieron alrededor del patio intentando batir al reloj, que tarda aproximadamente 43 segundos en tocar las campanadas a mediodía del 1 de Octubre, el día de la matriculación. En realidad, la escena de la película fue rodada en Eton College, un colegio privado cerca de Windsor.

El patio tiene un perímetro de 367 metros, por lo que para correrlo en menos de 43 segundos hay que ser realmente rápido. Hay diferentes historias al respecto. Se cree que el primero en hacerlo fue Lord Burghley en 1927. Luego lo intentaron Sebastian Coe y Steve Cram en una carrera benéfica en 1988, y aunque Trinity dice que sí, que Coe lo consiguió, al parecer el video demuestra que no. Finalmente se cree que un estudiante también lo consiguió en 2007, aunque la carrera ya no se disputa por el mismo trazado y la distancia es ahora de 341 metros.

Juan Limón quiso intentarlo pero yo le convencí de que no lo hiciese porque había carteles que prohibían el paso por algunas zonas. De todas formas el hecho de estar allí y recordar estas historias es realmente inspirador. Os animo a que visitéis los enlaces que os pongo a lo largo del texto. La mayoría son de Wikipedia y cuentan muy buenas historias sobre el tema. En inglés, obviamente.

Y para los corredores, algo más. No he podido encontrar el video de la carrera, pero sí otras imágenes inspiradas en Carros de Fuego que realmente animan a correr. Espero que os gusten.

Estudiando

2008-01-04T17:49:00.000Z

Hoy se han ido Juan y Repo de Cambridge y ya no tengo más excusas para no estudiar. Estoy en la escuela intentando meterme en la cabeza algo de Contabilidad, que es una de las asignaturas más chungas del curso.

Cada vez se ve más gente por la escuela. Sobre todo los que tenemos familia y no podemos estudiar en casa. También los que prefieren estudiar en grupo y discutir cosas más que empollar propiamente dicho.

Yo lo que estoy haciendo es revisar primero toda la materia, hacer resúmenes, y luego ir haciendo por mi mismo con papel y boli todos los ejercicios que hemos ido haciendo en clase. El tema es que la mayoría de ejercicios de Contabilidad y Finanzas los hemos hecho con Excel, pero el examen es escrito y sólo tendremos 3 horas para las dos asignaturas. Así que hay que estar suelto y sobre todo no cometer errores, porque ni siquiera se puede usar lápiz, y esto no es como el Excel en el que puedes añadir columnas y filas y los cálculos se hacen solos.

Os dejo una foto del atardecer desde una venta de la Syndicate Room. A la derecha la Keynes House. Al fondo el Fitzwilliam Museum.

Diego's car

2008-01-02T17:20:00.000Z

Father Christmas brought Diego a very nice little electric car at abuelo and abuela's home in Sanlúcar. I can say it's a very fun and good quality present.

Watch the video!

Nochevieja en Cambridge

2008-01-01T18:31:00.000Z

Este año me comí las uvas en Cambridge, con Juan Limón y con Repo. Pero sin campanadas ni nada. Aquí la gente está a su bola hasta diez segundos antes de la 12 de la noche, hace una cuenta atrás, y se acabó. Unos cuantos besos, "Happy New Year" y a seguir a lo nuestro. Así que quedó regular lo de comernos las uvas, pero bueno, por lo menos eran sin semillas.

La fiesta de Nochevieja que organizamos en Hughes Hall College estuvo bien. Yo creo que éramos como unos 50 o 60 y nos lo pasamos bien. Empezamos pronto, sobre las 20:00 o así, y nos fuimos a casa a eso de la 1:00.

Leonardo se portó muy bien y estuvo durmiendo casi toda la noche. Diego estuvo un rato viendo películas y jugando con los hijos de los Illanes y luego bailando conmigo en la pista de baile. Fue una vez más la estrella de la noche.

Hubo mucha comida, de sobra, y como no podía ser de otra forma las tortillas de patatas de Juan Limón y Repo fueron todo un éxito.

Os dejo una foto de nuestros invitados de honor.

Happy Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale

2007-12-14T22:30:00.000Z

CLICK HERE!!!

Café Rouge

2007-12-14T17:27:00.001Z

L’autre jour nous sommes allées prendre quelque chose au Café Rouge et j’ai eu un peu de nostalgie de la France. Comme ça fait longtemps que je ne parle pas Français j’ai décidé d’écrire un peu e rentre ce blog quadrilingue.

En fait, pendant que j’écris ce message je parle avec Dimitri, un mec de Bordeaux que fais l’MBA avec moi. Il est marié avec une femme japonaise et elle va déménager ici en Février.

Ça faisait bizarre pour moi être au Café Rouge, avec un garçon Français, avec Miriam, mais aussi avec Diego et Leonardo. Comme vous savais quand j’ai connu Miriam nous étions a Rennes et je ne pouvais pas penser que on va se marier, avoir deux aussi jolis fils et en plus aller en Angleterre faire un MBA a Cambridge. La vie est très intéressante!

Bon, ces paroles sont seulement une excuse pour vous faire voir des photos, et pour rigoler un peu avec mon Français.

Dissolving the study group 16

2007-12-12T13:50:00.000Z

It's amazing but the Michaelmas Term is almost over and the Study Group 16 is dissolving. I have spent a lot of time working with Dorji, Yun-Ruey, Juan and Sean in the past three months and we went from being just a study group to becoming a team and a group of true friends. I'm sure I'll keep in touch with them for the rest of my life.

In fact, if I could choose a country to visit next summer I'll say Bhutan. It must be such an interesting country.

We went out for lunch last friday to the Slug and Lettuce. A very interesting place. I took some pictures. See us in front of King's College and the food we had.

Christian Christmas dinner

2007-12-10T14:07:00.000Z

Yesterday we invited a few friends for dinner at home. A few weeks ago Sandie, from Taiwan, started to organise a weekly Christian Lunch but we are always so busy and we never managed to meet all together.

So we decided to have a kind of Christmas Dinner and as we can't manage to go out by night because of the babies we decided to invite them to our place. Miriam cooked a delicious "pasta al forno" and prepared some salad, and they all brought something else to eat and drink.

It was also Natalie's birthday so we killed two birds with one stone.

Diego was the star of the night, playing with everyone and staying up till 11pm.

From left to right: Penny (Japan) Sandie, Joseph and Xianglui (Taiwan), Natalie (Canada-Japan), Aaron (South Africa), Sina (Nigeria), Ansuya (South Africa) and Maxine (Nigeria-UK).

You all know the rest of us.

Más de Diego y el tenedor

2007-12-10T13:27:00.000Z

Visto el éxito del anterior post sobre Diego y el tenedor no he podido resistir la tentación de subir tres nuevas fotos de nuestro primogénito haciendo de las suyas.

Si os fijáis, al contrario que su mano y su cara, el tenedor está totalmente limpio.

Matriculation pictures

2007-12-10T13:12:00.000Z

We got our matriculation picture at the college taken at the beginning of the course and last week I got my copies.

Apart from that, I just handed in my Management Practice essay and now I'm working on the Organisational Behaviour presentation, due on Thursday.

We don't have any more lectures and I'm going to Spain on the 18t, but my plan is coming to the school every morning this week to study for the January exams.

Nueva convocatoria de Talentia

2007-12-06T22:46:00.001Z

Ya ha salido la nueva convocatoria de las Becas Talentia, gracias a las cuales estoy ahora mismo aquí, en Cambridge, haciendo un MBA.

Hay algunas novedades que me parecen interesantes, como el que se puedan solicitar hasta 5 años después de haber terminado la carrera (antes eran 3) si quieres hacer un doctorado y hasta 8 años después (antes 6) si lo que quieres hacer es un MBA.

Espero que sea un éxito y que más gente pueda vivir la experiencia que yo estoy viviendo.

Para ver toda la información oficial haced clic aquí.

Fiesta de Navidad en casa de Sir Paul Judge

2007-12-02T17:33:00.000Z

Sí, más fiestas. Y esta realmente especial. En uno de los primeros posts os conté que Sir Paul Judge es un señor muy muy rico que un día decidió donar 8 millones de libras a la Universidad de Cambridge para crear una escuela de negocios. Por eso la escuela donde estoy haciendo el MBA se llama Judge Business School.

El caso es que este señor invita todos los años a todos los estudiantes de la escuela (más de 200 entre MBA, MPhil y PhD) a una fiesta de navidad en su apartamento en Londres. Sí, en su apartamento, en el salón de su casa caben holgadamente 200 personas. En la foto de abajo sale menos de la mitad. Os cuento.

Este señor vive en un penthouse ocupando completamente las plantas 18 y 19 de un edificio llamado The Panoramic. El apartamento está al lado del Támesis, en frente del puente de Vauxhall y del MI6, al lado del barrio de Chelsea, a tiro de piedra del Big Ben y el Parlamento, cerca también del London Eye.

Los que conocen la ciudad dicen que el precio de mercado del apartamento puede rondar los 30 millones de libras, unos 45 millones de euros. Demencial, ¿verdad?

En resumidas cuentas, la historia es que salimos de Cambridge en tres autobuses y tardamos más o menos 2 horas en llegar al centro de Londres. Dejamos los abrigos en un guardarropa en la primera planta y subimos en unos ascensores super lujosos y con televisión hasta el piso de este señor. Él y su secretaria estában esperándonos en la puerta y nos fueron saludando uno a uno y preguntándonos de donde éramos. El tío con toda la pasta que tiene y nunca ha estado en Sevilla!!!

Nos lo pasamos bien. La comida, tipo buffet, no era nada del otro mundo, pero a eso estamos acostumbrados. Por supuesto había barra libre y todo eso.

Después de la cena Sir Paul hizo bajar una pantalla del techo y con un proyector puso vídeos musicales y la gente estuvo bailando hasta la hora de irnos. Yo estuve hablando con uno y con otro toda la noche y haciendo fotos de las vistas, que eran realmente espectaculares. La fiesta duró hasta media noche y antes de las 2 estábamos de vuelta.

Otra experiencia para recordar toda la vida.

Kids Party and Winter Party

2007-12-01T10:06:00.000Z

The term is almost over and celebrations begin. But it doesn't mean we don't have to work, because in fact we are very busy with our CVP and different individual and group assignments.

But the Kids Party was very nice. I think there were around 15 kids from my classmates and the Cambridge Business School Club organized some activities for them like cookies decoration, face painting, coloring, and we even had a Santa to give them presents.

Diego had fun playing with other kids and also with my classmates and staff from the school. It also served as a presentation for Leonardo, who by the way, most of the people say he looks like me!

We also took got a new family picture taken.

And after the Kids Party was the Winter Party at Judge sponsored by Cisco Systems. We had food and live music and also Secret Santa presents. I got two books for Diego and Leonardo and gave a book with pictures of England to a japanese classmate.

We also went to the pub and some people stay out till 4 am, with is really late for Cambridge. I went home at midnight because I can't sleep till late in the morning as my single friends do. But I had fun.

I'll talk about Cisco presentation another day. It seems to be an interesting company and they are doing really amazing things.

Stephen Hawking's lecture and other stuff

2007-11-29T21:44:00.000Z

I know I know, it's been a longtime since my last post. And you know my excuse: I'm very busy.

In fact many things happened in the past two weeks. My parents and my cousins left and I focused much more into my studies, we lost another football match, we finished lectures for most of the subjects and we started some assignments we need to hand in before Christmas.

That's the stuff I mention in the title after Stephen Hawking's hook. Journalist always use titles to attract people's attention and then they talk about something else...

So the point is that yesterday Stephen Hawking gave a lecture at the Cambridge Union. To be honest I didn't attend, but a classmate sent me some pictures and I thought it would look nice in my blog. He talked (through a computer attached to his wheelchair) about black holes.

Hawkings is a fellow of Gonville and Caius College and is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.

That's the kind of story that really inspire and motivate you. You are living in a small city full of geniuses. You may even sit next to a Nobel prize winner for lunch in one of the colleges and don't even notice it. What this man does is really amazing.

Of course I'll never reach this level, not even close, but being here helps me to try and reach my maximum potential. I already told you I felt like if I have learnt more Maths in two months that in the rest of my life. Something similar is happening with my English. I still make mistakes and can't argue as I do in Spanish, but I feel I'm improving a lot. It's good to think I'll still be here for at least seven months.

By the way, Management Science final marks are out and my study group got the highest grade of the class on the group assignment. I also got quite a good mark in the individual exam so I'm happy.

What else happend recently? We are about to finish our CVP with Harambee. It seems the client is quite happy with our work and we are reasonably happy with the results too, so everything seems to be going well.

This week we finished Organisational Behavior, Marketing and Management Practice lectures and need to focus completely on the assignments, projects and study. I promise to talk a bit more about the lecturers, specially about Eden Yin (Marketing) as my friend Fernando requests.

And what I'm going to try to do from now on is writing more often and shorter.

Final remark. Christmas lights are on and the city looks beautiful.

LINKs

2007-11-26T16:13:00.000Z

After having all these guests staying with us (it was lovely to see you all, by the way, and thanks for your help!) I'm getting round and about on my own a bit.

A few days ago I went over to my neighbors at Link House for a cup of tea and a chat... I really needed to get out of the house after a few sleepless nights due to Leo's rather nasty cold and cough and the wardens had been over to invite me some weeks ago. I had a lovely time with Nichola and Martin and they again invited me for today's "activity". Link House is a Christian organization that provides cheap(er) accomodation for overseas post-grad students and (in some cases) their partners and childrens. However they also try to make these people feel welcome and settled in in England... hence these activities, especially for the wives who tend to have more difficulties with the language. Today they had organized an english pudding cooking session and in their house on Gilbert Street, so I went along. We made apple crumble, scones (plain and cheese), trifle and lemon cake... and then scoffed them all!!... Diego and Leo both behaved wonderfully and we had a really good time... and I'll write more about it some other time 'cause Leo's howling!!!

Mi padre y mis primas en Cambridge

2007-11-17T20:24:00.000Z

El jueves de madrugada llegaron a Cambridge mi padre y mis primas Sandra y Ana. Ryanair normalmente tiene dos vuelos al día, pero en temporada baja lo reducen a uno y en este caso llega muy tarde, a medianoche. Pero se las arreglaron bien con el autobús y el taxi y llegaron perfectamente a casa.

Yo esperé despierto hasta que llegasen y aproveché para estudiar un poco. Diego estaba un poco resfriado y Leo hambriento, comiendo cada dos horas, así que de todas formas no iba a dormir mucho. Entre una cosa y otra nos acostamos a las tres y pico.

El jueves y el viernes estuve casi todo el día en la escuela por la conferencia Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge, pero tuve tiempo para venir a casa a comer los dos días. Ellos salieron a dar una vuelta por el centro, ver algunos colleges y tiendas, y perderle un poco el miedo al inglés y a los ingleses.

El viernes por la noche salimos mis primas y yo. Vinieron a recogerme a la escuela y fuimos a cenar a King's College, que como ya os conté en otro post tiene un comedor espectacular, tipo Harry Potter. Luego yo había quedado con Jonas, Juan, Luis y Rui en el Revolution, uno de los sitios más "cool" de Cambridge. No sé por qué esa noche estaban dando comida y chupitos gratis y además había una fuente de chocolate en la que podías mojar pinchitos de fresas, plátano y esponjitas. Todo de lo más fashion. Para rematar la noche nos fuimos a The Anchor, el pub oficial del MBA. Los viernes va mucha gente. Estuvimos hablando un rato con Peter, Giorgi, Scott, Victor, Kirk, Tim, Ehud, Oliver, Carlo, Dimtry, David, Ganesh, Jenny y no sé quien más. Había mucha gente. Incluso estaba el sub-director del MBA, que fuel el que me hizo la entrevista de acceso.

Y hoy sábado hemos salido todos juntos a media mañana a dar una vuelta. Primero visitamos Saint John's College, y me enteré de que con mi carnet de estudiante pueden entrar gratis cuatro invitados. A mi padre y mi prima les gustaron mucho los edificios, especialmente la capilla, inspirada en la Saint Chapelle de Paris, y el Puente de los Suspiros.

Salimos por detrás, lo que llaman "the backs" y fuimos a comer a The Granta Pub, un pub tradicional junto al río donde además alquilan punts. Mi padre pidió fish and chips, Miriam risotto y mis primas y yo hamburguesas. Las hamburguesas aquí por lo general son enormes. De postre nos tomamos unos brownies excelentes.

Volvimos a casa caminando por el centro y parándonos en algunas tiendas. Ya están poniendo las luces de Navidad y algunos negocios incluso han comenzado con las promociones.

Diego y Leo están muy bien. Anoche durmieron mejor. Diego durmió con mis primas y aunque se llevó toda la noche hablando en sueños no se despertó. Leo volvió a su rutina normal de comer cada cuatro horas y hoy Miriam y yo estamos más descansados.

Espero que os gusten las fotos.

Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge

2007-11-17T10:21:00.000Z

I'm not joking. This weekend Judge Business School hosted the conference Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge. A few of the "big guys" from the most successful internet companies in California came to share with us their experiences.

It started Thursday evening with a panel debate in the Student Union on whether Europe or USA will become the best place to build the future billion dollar companies. Five people supported each side, all of them making very good points and with a great sense of humour. People from the stands could also participate. Why not Asia? Of course, there is no answer, but the debate itself was educating and motivating.

In my opinion the USA have a lead because they are real entrepreneurs, they are more prone to take risks, they don't care about failing. Europe's strenght comes from the Universities, the knowledge, the reasearch, but action need to be taken. And Asia is catching up. China and India have an enormous workforce potential and really bright people.

It was interesting to read the speakers profiles. Some of them are "serial entrepreneurs", guys who have founded dozens of companies, some of them complete failures, but some of them big successes. Maybe the two more popular ones were Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and with shares in Facebook and Mozilla among other companies; and Hermann Hauser, founder of Amadeus Capital Partners. Wise and wealthy guys.

Masterclasses were held on Friday at JBS and I assisted to as many as I could. I liked all of them and took some hopefully very useful notes. The most simple, but maybe the most useful one is "just try". If you want to be an entrepreneur you need to take risks. The only way to test if an idea is really a good idea is trying to put it into practice. And the sooner the better, specially if it is in the Internet. Other very good point was that if you are going to approach venture capitalists you need to tell them that you are going to work full time in your idea, that you really believe in it, that you have passion for it.

Unfortunately I had to leave before the end because I had a CVP meeting. We are running out of time and still don't have any consistent results. The next two weeks are going to be hectic.

Una semana más, una semana menos

2007-11-11T21:26:00.000Z

Siempre digo lo mismo, pero es que realmente no tenemos tiempo ni para darnos cuenta de que el tiempo pasa. Pero el caso es que ya llevo una semana más aquí y me encuentro totalmente adaptado. Y esto me hace pensar que me queda una semana menos de MBA y que tengo que aprovechar cada minuto.

La semana comenzó fuerte. El lunes, además de las clases de Finace y Management Science asistí a una conferencia de Carlo de Benedetti -dueño de La Reppubblica y otras muchas empresas en Italia- en Pembroke College. Si os digo la verdad fue bastante aburrida.

Luego me pasé por casa un momento y me fui a la celebración de la Bonfire Night, en Cripps Court, justo al lado de casa. Se trata de una fiesta muy peculiar y con mucho arraigo en Inglaterra. Celebran el día que quemaron vivo a un tal Guy Fawkes, un tipo que intentó hacer saltar por los aires el Parlamento británico y cargarse a toda la aristocracia británica de principios del siglo XVII. Este hecho histórico es el que inspiró la película V de Vendetta. Ahora básicamente lo que se hace es tirar petardos y un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales. Subo un vídeo, de baja calidad, pero en el se ve algo de los fuegos artificiales y de Diego en la oscuridad.

Para rematar, había quedado en mi en mi casa con mi grupo de estudio (Dorji, Sean, Yun-Ruey y Juan Carlos) para hacer un caso de Accounting que teníamos que enviar por correo al profesor antes de las diez de la noche. Una paliza.

Y el lunes además fue el cumpleaños de Andrés, el compañero chileno que fue a recogerme al aeropuerto cuando Miriam se puso de parto. Menos mal que lo celebramos el sábado. Subo una foto.

El martes tenemos clases de Accounting y Marketing. En Marketing nos tocaba cambiar de profesor para la segunda parte del curso. El nuevo es Eden Yin, chino, pero que ha pasado mucho tiempo en Estados Unidos. Tiene un sentido del humor bastante peculiar, bastante ácido, incluso demasiado fuerte para alguna gente. Yo me lo pasé muy bien. Para rematar el día tuvimos una conferencia de Sir Paul Judge, que donó 9 millones de libras para la creación de la escuela. Por eso se llama Judge Busines School.

El miércoles a parte de Organisational Behavior pasamos toda la tarde trabajando en el Cambridge Venture Project. Estuvimos reunidos con la gente de Harambee y viendo cómo podíamos enfocar el proyecto.

El jueves es el día de Management Practice y otra vez estuvimos haciendo trabajos en equipo y reflexionando sobre cómo nos comportamos en diferentes situaciones de trabajo. Es realmente interesante. Si tuviese tiempo os contaría más, pero no se puede resumir en cinco minutos lo que se hace en cinco horas.

El viernes otra vez Finance y Management Science. Por cierto el profesor de Management Science también es nuevo. Para esta última parte del curso es Danny Ralph, australiano, un tío simpático y como todos por aquí bastante buenos.

El sábado fui a correr por la mañana un rato. Me pasé por las pistas de Wilberforce Road y había gente haciendo series. Estuve hablando con un chaval. La verdad es que me piqué un poco. Tengo ganas de correr de nuevo, lo que pasa es que no sé si mi espalda me dejará. Cuando llegué a casa llevé a Diego un rato al parque y estuvimos un rato jugando a la pelota. Decidí no jugar al fútbol al día siguiente porque todavía tenía molestias en la inserción del cuádriceps del partido del domingo anterior. Después me arrepentí de no jugar, porque perdimos 2-0 contra Zoology.

Por la tarde llegaron Miki y Ce a casa, con Elena. Van a pasar aquí el fin de semana y se van el miércoles por la tarde. Por la noche llegan mi padre y mis primas Sandra y Ana. Desde que nació Leonardo creo hemos tenido visitas en casa casi todo el tiempo. Y la verdad es que me alegro, porque así Miriam no me echa tanto de menos y yo también tengo una excusa para desconectar un poco de vez en cuando.

Finalmente, hoy domingo fuimos a comer a un pub junto al río, Fort St. George. Un sitio para volver. Yo me comí una hamburguesa gigantesca y Miriam, Miki y Cesare unos filetes a la brasa con muy buena pinta. Tienen una especie de cocina en vivo y puedes elegir el corte que quieres y el contorno. Los cocineros eran del Arsenal y estuvimos hablando de fútbol un rato. Luego fuimos a dar una vuelta por el centro y estuvimos por lo menos una hora en Heffers, una librería enorme que hay cerca de casa. Estuve a punto de comprarme un libro muy interesante sobre los estudiantes que se dedicaban a escalar fachadas a principios de siglo, The Night Climbers of Cambridge. Pero no tengo tiempo para leer nada que no tenga que ver con el MBA.

Diego va para cocinero

2007-11-11T12:22:00.000Z

A Diego le ha dado por los cacharros de cocina y se pasa todo el día jugando en la chimenea con una cacerola, una cucharra de madera y unos cuantos macarrones.

Hoy hemos entrado en una tienda de juguetes y se ha ido flechado para una cocinita.

Sus abuelos y mi amigo Kiki estarán orgullosos.

No os perdáis el video.

Y si el fútbol fuese lo mío?

2007-11-04T18:14:00.000Z

Hoy por fin hemos consequido la primera victoria como equipo de fútbol de la Judge Business School. Ganamos 5-2 a la Korean Society. Y lo más fuerte es que yo metí 4 goles.

Está feo que yo lo diga, pero jugamos bastante bien, y el otro equipo no era malo. La diferencia es que los coreanos no son tan leñeros como el resto de equipos ingleses al que nos hemos enfrentado, y nos dejaron jugar un poco más. No hubo tantas faltas, y el juego en general fue más bonito.

A ver si consigo una foto y la subo.

Una de fotos de los niños

2007-11-02T23:20:00.000Z

La oferta siempre se tiene que adaptar a la demanda, así que voy a publicar unas cuantas fotos de las que les gustan a nuestros lectores, de Diego y Leonardo.

Leonardo ya ha puesto más de un kilo desde que nació y hace unos días pesaba 3.5kg. Está creciendo muy bien. Come bastante y duerme casi todo el resto del tiempo.

Aquí lo podéis ver en una foto tomada hace sólo unas horas durmiendo plácidamente en el regazo de su madre. Miriam se merece un MBA (Master in Babies Administration) mucho más que yo.

Y aquí tenemos a Diego tirándole los tejos a Lara, la hija de Christophe, un compañero de clase alemán.

Últimamente a Diego le ha dado por jugar con una cacerola, y se pasa horas trasteando con ellas. Parece que vaya para cocinero. Le ha cogido tmabién el gusto a sentarse en la chimenea y ponerse perdido de hollín. No os preocupés, la chimenea está apagada. La casa tiene calefacción centralizada.

En esta foto lo vemos en su versión más intelectual, me imagino que imitando a su padre, leyendo un libro. Como podéis ver la casa es muy luminosa a pesar de ser una especie de semisótano.

Y por último Diego después de haberse metido entre pecho y espalda un plato de macarrones con tomate. Sigue con la manía de sujetar el tenedor con una mano y comer con la otra.

El tío no para de comer y se está poniendo gordito. Me lo voy a tener que llevar a correr al parque ya mismo.

El fútbol no es lo mío

2007-11-01T21:04:00.000Z

El domingo volvimos a perder, esta vez contra Emmanuel College, 5-1.

Lo curioso es que jugamos bastante bien, pero ellos tenían un buen portero y a nosotros nos metieron 3 goles muy tontos. Pero bueno, con un 5-1 es una tontería poner excusas.

El caso es que llevo unos cuantos días dándole vueltas al coco sobre volver a correr, que eso sí que es lo mío, o no. Pero la verdad es que no tengo tiempo y jugando al fútbol me lo paso bastante bien.

Subo otra foto, mejor que la anterior.

En pie, de izquierda a derecha, Gaylor de Zimbawe, yo, Luis de Ecuador, Dihan de la India, Ken de Japón, Tim de Inglaterra, Andrés de Chle, Giorgi de Georgia y Víctor de Chile.

Agachados, también de izquierda a derecha, Hideki y Amane de Japón, Andy de Uzbekistán, Rui de Portugal, Sina de Nigeria, Juan de México, Harunori de Japón y Jorge de Portugal.

También subo otra foto, de las que les gustan al Mellado, con muchas bicis. Es el parking de la escuela, donde por las mañanas es casi tan difícil aparcar la bici como un coche en el centro de Sevilla.

First exam, first pub night

2007-10-29T22:11:00.001Z

First exam done: Management Science. I'm quite happy, I think I won't have problems to pass. And after the exam, first Pub Night, but in this case first only for me, because some of my classmates go out much more often.

As I say above, I'm quite happy with how I did in the exam, but the test was quite difficult and long, much more than I expected. To be honest at some point I nearly panicked because I was wasting too much time in one of the easiest questions. They only gave us 90 minutes to answer 9 questions with 2 to 5 points each and different weight in the final score. I suspect that this is part of the test. It's almost impossible to answer all the questions perfectly in such a short time.

One of the reasons because I'm happy is because the lecturers told us that unless you don't answer most of the questions or answer them completely incorrectly you should always pass. I think I answered 7 of them quite well and only made a couple of serious mistakes in two of the others. But you never know. I had to write very fast and my grammar and spelling won't be very good.

That's another point. Here at Judge there is not a ranking of students so the possible outcomes are pass or not pass, with the only exemption that the top 10% at the end of the course will get into the Director's List, which of course is good, but of little use during your job search because the list is published around six months after the end of the course and by that time everyone should be already working. Besides, in the last list all the students were native speakers so it is obvious that fluency really matters.

I was also happy to hear Bernhard, a very bright austrian guy who is a Mathematician, and who told us that what we learned during the course is what you study in second or third year in a Maths undergraduate degree, and that we covered lot of content in a very short time.

But where I want to get is to the evening, when around 80 students gathered in The Anchor to celebrate that one less exam was left. I really needed to go out one night and relax. Everyone was in a very good mood and we laughed a lot.

Oliver, one of the german guys, organised a drinking game reportedly played by the German Army. It was quite funny and sometimes a bit ridiculous, so English, American and Australians joked about it trying to find a correlation between the game and the German defeat in the world war. Tim, an english guy who has been living in Japan for seven years took lots of pictures. I paste one below.

In the picture, from left to right, Dihan from India, Juan from Mexico, Jonas from Sweden, me, Sean, Maxine and Justin from USA and Steffi from China.

As I said, there were much more people in the party and there is more picture, but I don't want to undermine anyone's future employment possibilities...

;-)

One more week!

2007-10-27T21:38:00.000+01:00

I can't believe almost one week passed since my last post. Time is really flying. I shouldn't be writing this post now because Monday we have our first exam and I should be studying, but I needed a break.

What did I do during the week? Well, Sunday we lost our second football match, against Cambridge Assessment, 1-2. It was not that bad but we made a penalty right at the beginning and then scored an own gol in the extra time. A sad story, but as you can see in the picture we were quite happy after the match. The point is just having fun.

Lectures go as usual, very fast, very intense. I feel I'm learning a lot, though sometimes I'd like to have more time to digest what I'm learning. When you start enjoying solving a specific kind of problem you need to move to the next more complicated one. By the way, we have a new Finance lecturer, Simon Taylor, for the second half of the course.

Tuesday was special because Rob Britton, former Marketing Manager of American Airlines, came to give us a speech and then went for dinner with a small group of students. I was pleased to be selected and I really enjoyed the time we spent with him and the Marketing lecturer, Simon Bell. We went to Loch Fyne, a seafood restaurant very close to JBS. He told us lots of profesional and personal stories about the airlines industry and September the 11th.

I'm enjoying a lot courses like Management Practice and Organisational Behaviour that allow you to learn about how people behave within an organisation and as members of a team. Eveyone says that in real business life, what you really use everyday is that kind of subjects, that kind of soft skills, and not Finance or Accounting. If you are good enough, somebody will crunch the numbers for you, and you'll focus in taking the decisions. But of course, you need to be able to intepret the numbers, and that's why Finance and Accounting are so important.

Family is well. Leo is growing a lot and sleeps well, not as much as in the first two weeks, but enough for me. Conversely, Diego is quite jelous and make stories before going to sleep. But he is also growing a lot and learning things every single day. I wish I had more time to spend with him. Miriam is almost fully recovered from her c-section and happy. Judith is being of great help. Let's see how we do when she leaves.

More family news. My dad is coming the 14th of November with my cousins Sandra and Ana. They'll stay five days.

We'll probably go to Spain for Christmas from the 18th to the 28th of December and spend New Year's Eve in Cambridge. Friends and family welcome!

Now I have to go back to my books.

Una foto de Diego y Leonardo

2007-10-21T11:33:00.000+01:00

Esta semana ha sido super "busy". He hecho mil cosas. Imposible contarlas todas en el blog. Estamos cada vez más liados. Cada vez hay más cosas que hacer. El lunes de la semana que viene, el 29 de octubre, tenemos el primer examen, de Management Science, y la gente se está empezando a poner un poco nerviosa.

Yo lo llevo relativamente bien, pero tampoco quiero dejar de lado el resto de asignaturas y por ejemplo para el lunes me tengo que leer más de 50 páginas del libro de Corporate Finance, que es un tocho, y todavía no he empezado.

Ayer sábado tuve un seminario de Presentation Skills, todo el día, de 8:30 a 18:30, y luego fui a un pub a ver la final de la Copa del Mundo de Rugby en la que Inglaterra perdió contra Sudáfrica.

Dentro de un rato he quedado con mi grupo de estudio porque tenemos que ver a nuestro cliente del Campus Venture Project. Y esta tarde jugamos a fútbol contra el equipo de Cambridge Assesment, los que corrigen los exámenes en la Universidad. No sé si nos conviene dejarnos perder...

Bueno, a lo que iba, aquí os dejo una foto de Diego con Leonardo (iba a ser un vídeo pero es demasiado largo y no puedo subirlo). Como podéis ver los dos están muy bien y se llevan bastante bien. Diego está un poco celosillo, pero no demasiado. Y Leonardo duerme en torno a 18 horas al día, y cuando no duerme está comiendo, así que no nos podemos quejar.

With Nanny and Grandad

2007-10-18T11:10:00.000+01:00

A short update while Leo sleeps and everyone else has gone out...
Mum (Diego and Leo's nanny) changed her ticket and arrived the morning after Leo was born... leaving from Bergamo at 6.30 am!!! Paco came straight to the hospital with her and she's been a great help ever since: looking after Diego, cleaning, doing the shopping... literally most everything that needs doing so I have plenty of time to play with Diego, feed Leo and rest.

Dad also arrived yesterday evening and they have now gone out for a walk around Cambridge with Diego. I decided to stay in since I have been doing rather a lot: registering Leo's birth, going to church and toddler group and various odd bits of paperwork that needed doing quite urgently. I still have to register Leo with the Spanish consulate and get him a passport... we're still not quite sure which... probably a British one.

Leo is doing fine: the midwife came for her last check-up on Tuesday and weighed him: he is now 2.770, which means that in 10 days he's not only got back to birth weight but has actually put on 260 gr... and he's already spacing out his feeds more, going round for four hours quite regularly. We just hope he carries on like this. By the way: his cord fell off after only three days. Is that some kind of record?? this kid is definitely in a hurry!!

Sometimes I wish I had a little more time to cuddle him, but Diego gets a little bit jealous when I feed and hold him a lot so most of my time is spent with him. Leo doesn't seem to mind, though... he just sleeps!! And Diego really is very sweet: the first few days he was quite upset at mum having been away, but now he wants to cuddle and hold his brother and gives him kisses... which doesn't mean I can leave him alone with Leo!!

Paco is still as busy as ever... he has been catching up on the things he missed while in Spain (yes, it was only one day, but they go ever so fast!) and I think he has some kind of lecture this Saturday too, so I'm glad to have mum and dad's company.

I'll post a photo of the children with grandparents as soon as possible.

A big thank you to everyone for all your presents, cards, mails and phone calls... If I haven't replied personally yet I will do so as soon as possible!

New family pictures

2007-10-14T13:09:00.001+01:00

Here is our updated family picture.

And also one of just Diego and Leonardo.

Playing football with Diego

2007-10-13T22:19:00.000+01:00

It has been a very hard week and today I wanted to relax. I slept a lot and when I woke up, after breakfast, I went to Jesus Green with Diego to play some football.

It seems he prefers to be a goalkeeper or a basketballer because he keeps taking the ball with his hands, but he made a couple of good moves with his feet too.

Have a look at the first video in the blog (taken with the mobile phone) and a couple of pictures.

By the way, I've also uploaded some pictures in the post about Miriam's birthday.

Leonardo beats all records!!!

2007-10-11T22:35:00.000+01:00

Paco once more has been quicker than me at updating you all... Leo is very good and does sleep quite a bit, but Diego needs his mummy's full attention right now, so it's hard to find a moment to actually sit down at the computer and write... also because it's VERY tempting to just go and have a rest when they are both KO!

However, I do want to give you my version of this most exciting event before memory fails me, so here it goes:

Well, I'd been having contractions on and off for a few weeks, some days more than others, but together with other simptoms (I won't go into all the details ;-)) I was beginning to suspect that things were beginning to move... I was quite sure I wouldn't last 'til the 18th... but then one just doesn't know...

On Friday (gosh! was it only a week ago?? it feels like ages already!) I started having definite symptoms that things were indeed moving fast, but I refused to believe that Leo was really that determined to be born the minute his dad nipped away. However, I warned mum in Italy just in case she needed to change her flight urgently and Blanca and Paula here in Cambridge, should I need somebody to take me to hospital in the middle of the night and look after Diego . I also vaguely mentioned to Paco over the phone that it looked like things were moving, but without worrying him too much. He would be back in 24 hrs anyway... I would last that long.

Well, I didn't... my waters went at 1.30 in the morning, so I quickly phoned Paco and Blanca, picked up some clothes for Diego (Blanca: where are Diego's shoes!!!) , packed a few extra things in my bag, bundled Diego up in , his sleeping bag and off we went.

Once in hospital I started to relax a bit: the midwives were great, Diego was sleeping and Blanca stayed overnight to look after him (Thank you for everything once again!!) and there were no contractions, so I only wanted the doctors to wait for Paco to arrive to start operating. I even managed to get some sleep. In the beginning they said they probably wouldn't wait, they didn't want to risk having to cope with an emergency when they could do things without hurrying in the morning, but morning came and nobody came to take me to the operating theatre so I spent the morning chatting to Blanca and Paula (who also came to give a hand, while Andrés picked Paco up at the airport: thanks to you both too!!) and waiting.... and then the contractions started... they weren't bad at the beginning but they got very intense very fast... at which point I started thinking that well... they could start operating... it was midday already after all, and Paco would be there at 1.00, in time to see baby just born if not to actually be in the operation... and then 12.30 and contractions are becoming more and more painful... couldn't they start giving me the spinal???? Pleeeeaaaseeee!!! IT IS HURTING!!! And where is Paco????

Well by the time Paco arrived I was having "tightenings" (!!) every two minutes for a minute but they still were not operating (they gave me gas, though!) since the anaesthetist was occupied in an emercengy and I was thinking that I really shouldn't have been going through all that... it was supposed to have been a programmed caesarean... but then it was my own fault for wanting my husband there, so there was nobody to blame!

However they eventually got me on the operating table and gave me the spinal... after that it was all really quick, Paco has given you all the details of the operation, but I didn't feel a thing except for a little pulling and tugging and Leo was born on October 6th at 15.25 pm weighing 2.510 kg (5 lb 9 oz) and is a wonderful tiny weeny baby!

Thanks to all of you who have been calling and mailing and helping out in all sorts of ways! I will try to take a few more pictures in the next days.

Time to sleep now... or feed... Leo is making noises!! Will be back soon!

La película del nacimiento de Leonardo

2007-10-11T16:39:00.000+01:00

Acabamos de terminar una clase de Management Practice y estoy tomándome un te antes de entrar en la biblioteca para leerme unos cuantos capítulos de los libros de Management Science y Corporate Finance para mañana. Un día os contaré cómo se preparan las clases, lo intensas que son, lo importante que es estar todalmente al día.

Total, que como no se puede comer ni beber en la biblioteca he decidido aprovechar el tiempo para contar mi fugaz viaje a Sevilla y el nacimiento de Leonardo. Algunos de vosotros ya conocéis la historia, pero otros muchos no. Lo escribo en español para acabar antes. Le diré a Miriam que de su versión en inglés o italiano.

El caso es que yo el jueves de la semana pasada tuve Formal Hall en mi college, luego me fui a casa a estudiar hasta pasada medianoche, y me levanté a las 3:30 de la mañana para ir en autobús al Aeropuerto de Stansted. El vuelo fue bien y a las 11:00 de la mañana estaba en Sevilla (recordad que en España es una hora más tarde que en Inglaterra).

Fui a la Casa Rosa y al dentista y a pesar de que me faltaba un papel pude presentar la solicitud de prestación de desempleo y la suspensión hasta cuando vuelva del MBA, si me hace falta. Me fui a casa, dormi la siesta y eché el día con mi familia, tranquilo. Mi vuelo de regreso salía el sábado por la noche y tenía pensado aprovechar el día para ir a correr un poco, estudiar y hacer algunas compras. Con esos planes me fui a dormir.

Pero el caso es que Miriam rompió aguas a las 2 de la mañana, y me llamó por teléfono. No me lo podía creer. Afortunadamente ella ya había hablado con Blanca y Paula, las mujeres de dos de mis copañeros de clase chilenos, Rodrigo y Andrés. Blanca recogió a Miriam y Diego con el coche y se fueron para el Rosie Hospital.

Como mi vuelo salía para Londres a las 9 de la noche me puse a buscar por internet algo más temprano. Desde Sevilla no había nada, desde Jerez tampoco, ni desde Faro. Al final encontré un vuelo de Easyjet Málaga - London Luton, con salida a las 10:10 y llegada a las 12:00 hora británica. Lo compré y salimos pitando para Málaga. Me llevaron mi padre y mi madre en coche.

El vuelo se me hizo eterno. Miriam había estado toda la madrugada mandándome mensajes y cuando embarqué pensaba que no llegaba porque me dijo que los médicos querían operarla antes del cambio de turno de mediodía. A mi me parecía bien, yo lo que no quería es que ni Miriam ni el niño sufriesen. Pero Miriam queríá que yo estuviese en el parto, y bueno, yo también, pero no a cualquier precio.

Cuando aterrizamos mis planes eran coger un taxi hasta Cambridge (60 libras) pero mientras esperaba las maletas recibí un mensaje de Miriam diciéndome que Andrés había venido a recogerme al aeropuerto. Impresionante cómo se han portado con nosotros.

Llegué al hospital sobre las 14:00 y Miriam ya estaba con contracciones, contenta de verme, pero pasándolo bastante mal. Ahora lo que pasaba es que había habido una emergencia y no podían operarla todavía. Tuvo que esperar como una hora con contracciones de 1 minuto cada 2 minutos. Tiene pinta de ser bastante doloroso.

Luego me mandaron a cambiarme de ropa, así que me disfracé de George Clooney y nos fuimos para el quirófano. Había un montón de médicos y enfermeras y un montón de aparatos de todo tipo haciendo diferentes ruidos y mostrando todo tipo de gráficos y cifras. Era como muy futurista, como estar en una película.

En todo momento nos explicaban lo que iban a hacer a continuación. Les costó un poco ponerle la epidural a Miriam pero por lo que me dice fue bastante bien y no sintió absolutamente nada. En la cesárea de Diego dice que sí sintió dolor.

Quizás algunos no lo sepáis. La cesárea era algo previsto, sólo que estaba programada para el 18 de octubre y Miriam cumplía el 26. Leonardo se adelantó 20 días. No estoy tan loco como para irme a Sevilla con mi mujer cumplida.

Yo en la operación estaba super cansado. Había dormido unas 5 o 6 horas en los últimos dos días y no me econtraba demasiado bien. Pero aguanté el tipo. Y os puedo decir que no es nada agradable ver a tu mujer abierta en canal y a gente con máscaras metiendo las manos en su vientre. Pero al mismo tiempo la ves a ella tan tranquila, hablando, bromeando, que parece algo ireal, como esos números de magia en los que cortan a la gente por la mitad con una sierra.

Todo fue bastante rápido y bien. A veces te llevabas algún susto porque alguna máquina comenzaba a pitar y como uno ve Doctor House y esas cosas se piensa lo peor, pero no hubo ningún problema. Sacaron al niño por los pies y al momento comenzó a llorar, muy bajito, como un gatito. Estaba todo lleno de sangre y sucio. Ya sabéis.

Cuando le cortaron el cordón me lo pasaron a mi y me di cuenta de que era bastante más pequeño que Diego al nacer. Lo tuve un momento en mis brazos y se lo acerque a Miriam. Es un momento muy emocionante. Los que sois padres lo sabréis.

Entonces el pediatra me llamó para que me fuese con el a pesar el niño, limpiarlo un poco y vestirlo. El tío acertó el peso a ojo, dijo 2.5 y fueron 2.510kg. Era pequeñito, pero estaba bien de salud, que es lo importante.

Y creo que más o menos esta es toda la historia. Miriam ya está en casa con su madre, Judith. Leo está muy bien. Y Diego también.

Me tengo que ir a estudiar.

Leonardo Pérez Allen

2007-10-07T17:08:00.000+01:00

Ya está aquí Leonardo Pérez Allen. Nació el sábado 6 de octubre a las 15:25 en el Rosie Hospital, Cambridge, Reino Unido.

Miriam rompió aguas a las 2 de la mañana y yo tuve que venirme pitando desde Sevilla, en un vuelo Málaga - Luton comprado 5 horas antes de su salida.

Miles de gracias a nuestros amigos chilenos Rodrigo, Blanca, Andrés y Paula.

Cuando tenga más tiempo os contaré más cosas. Tanto Leo como Miriam están bien. También Diego y yo estamos bien.

Lunch at Kings College

2007-10-03T21:49:00.000+01:00

It's being a "historical" day. Not because I had done anything special, but because I've in a few "old" places and really enjoyed the historical athmosphere of Cambridge.

After the matriculation picture and our first Accounting lecture we've been to lunch at Kings Colleges, one of the oldest and most beautiful ones. The dining hall is really amazing. And I only paid 3.5 pounds for my meal.

Matriculaton picture

2007-10-03T18:39:00.000+01:00

Today we've got the Matriculation Picture taken and I've been for the first time in Girton College main site. Of course, I also wore for the first time a gown, which is something quite funny.

The college is beautiful, pity it's so far. Well, in fact it is not that far, it could take me 10 minutes to get from home to there by bike, but as Cambridge is quite a small city it really feels like far.

Find below an unnoficial pictures of the event. We'll have to buy the original-official ones.

Can you see me?

Miriam's birthday

2007-10-02T22:57:00.000+01:00

Today is Miriam's birthday and we went out for dinner to the Teri-Aki, a japanese restaurant very close to home, just going to the center past Magdalene bridge. It's a very nice place, with good prices and good service, very efficient, very japanese.

Diego had fun playing with the sticks. Both Miriam and me ate noodles, me pan fried and Miriam in a soup.

Miriam received lots of phone calls today and I gave her a book with funny stories about Cambridge and soap balls for the bath as presents.

Corporate Finance

2007-10-01T21:26:00.000+01:00

Hoy hemos empezado con la asignatura Corporate Finance, sí, la del profesor que nos mandó el viernes a última hora un correo para avisarnos de lo que había que saber para lunes.

Tiene toda la pinta de que va a sar la asignatura más complicada del trimestre, sobre todo para los que no hemos estudiado finanzas en nuestra vida, que para nuestro alivio somos mayoría.

El profesor, Gishan Dissanaike, de Sri Lanka, parece buena gente y buen profesor, pero sabe que la única forma de que aprendamos algo provechoso de finanzas en tres meses es darnos mucha caña. Nos ha advertido de que es fundamental hacer las lecturas previas a las clases y si perdemos el ritmo lo llevamos chungo.

Las clases van super rápido. En la primera hemos visto dos capítulos del libro, más de 50 páginas, un montón de fórmulas para carcular el Present Value (no sé cómo se dice en español), que sirve para calcular cuotas de hipotecas, estimar la idoneidad de inversiones, y muchas cosas más. Parece la piedra angular de toda la historia. Por ahora lo llevo bien, pero tendré que currármelo.

El viernes me voy a perder la segunda clase porque voy a Sevilla a recoger el cese y entregar los papeles en el SAE para tener derecho a cobrar el paro si no empiezo a trabajar directamente cuando acabe el MBA. Más vale andar sobre seguro.

Luego hemos tenido la segunda clase de Management Science que la verdad es que me gusta mucho. Estoy aprendiendo muchas cosas nuevas de Excel y a hacer "business modelling", que me imagino que en español se dirán simulaciones o algo así. Está muy bien.

Una semana de verdad

2007-10-01T18:45:00.001+01:00

Llevo una semana sin escribir. Os aseguro que no he tenido tiempo. De hecho ahora estoy en una reunión de un SIG (Special Interest Group). Un compañero está contando su experiencia como consultor en Capgemini y fundando su propia empresa, pero yo ya me conozco la historia porque coincidí con él en julio cuando estábamos buscando piso.

Esto ha empezado de verdad. Voy a ver si me acuerdo de todo lo que he hecho esta semana y hago un resumen. Ya os conté que el lunes tuvimos la conferencia de Kevin Roberts, el CEO de Saatchi&Saatchi. Después de eso tuvimos que hacer un trabajo en equipo, expresar en una frase el espíritu de la Judge Business School. Básicamente un slogan. Hay un premio para el ganador. La verdad es que esto estuvo bien porque me ha permitido conocer mejor a mis compañeros del grupo de estudio.

El martes tuvimos una introducción sobre "case studies" que es sistema que usan la mayoría de grandes empresas para reclutar sus empleados. Básicamente te presentan un problema real de una empresa y sobre la marcha tienes que analizar el problema y plantear una solución. Al día siguiente yo hice una práctica, individual, con una especialista de la escuela, y mi "caso" fue bastante chungo. Era más o menos: "Nuestra empresa es una farmaceútica y ha creado un producto que cura la calvicie en tres semanas y te devuelve la cabellera que tenías con 15 años. Calcula el mercado y el precio de venta en Estados Unidos".

Y ya está. Ahora tu tienes que empezar a hacer preguntas pertinentes para intentar conseguir más datos y trazar un plan paso a paso para llegar a la solución. Yo me acojoné un poco y me atranqué algunas veces, pero al parecer lo hice bastante bien. De hecho clavé el tamaño del mercado, 45 millones de personas (es largo de calcular) y dí con algunas claves que hay que tener en cuenta como patentes, si se vende con receta o no, competidores, etc. Se me olvidó preguntar por efectos secundarios. Con práctica se puede mejorar. Es fundamental estar relajado, transmitir confianza y dominar el vocabulario (algo que todavía tengo que mejorar).

Por otra parte, ya acabó el curso introductorio de Economics. El profesor es muy bueno, Jochen Runde y me alegra de que sea mi tutor durante el primer trimestre. Ha dado todo un libro de económicas de 600 páginas en dos semanas y aunque ha ido rápido todos tenemos la sensación de haber aprendido y clarificado ideas. Un compañero chileno que lleva más de diez años enseñando Económicas en la Universidad en Chile dice que el da un curso así que dura 6 meses. Esto de la velocidad parece ser la tónica general de todos los cursos. Si no te lees las cosas antes estás perdido. Hay que ir al día siempre.

El jueves también nos presentaron el Cambridge Business School Club y nos anunciaron que hay que elegir junta directiva. Hay algunos candidatos para presidente. Yo no quiero robarle más tiempo a la familia ni a los estudios así que no me voy a meter en más fregados. Pero parece un buen sitio para hacer "networking", que es como llaman aquí a trabajarse los contactos.

El viernes empezó el SIG de Capital Riesgo en el que sí que quiero participar porque está muy relacionado con el emprendimiento. Igual hago una presentación sobre Invercaria por si algún compañero quiere montar su empresa en Andalucía. Seguro que se vive mejor que en Kazajstan aunque no haya gas ni petróleo. Nos vamos a reunir todas las semanas de 8:00 a 9:00 de la mañana antes de las clases.

Por la tarde tuvimos la presentación del ATKearney Global Prize, una competición entre las escuelas de negocio europeas y americanas consistente en un "case study", lo que expliqué al principio, y un plan de negocio.

Y para terminar la primera clase de Management Science, para la que también tuvimos que leernos unas cuantas cosas antes, y que estuvo bastante bien. Esta asignatura básicamente consiste en aprender a utiliar herramientas cuantitativas para tomar mejores decisiones empresariales. Hay que controlar mucho de Excel. De hecho yo pensaba que controlaba bastante pero aquí el nivel es muy muy alto (como en todo).

Creo que más o menos esto es todo. Esta semaha ha estado bien porque me he ido familiarizando con el edificio y el personal en general. Se pierde mucho tiempo cuando no se sabe cómo funcionan las cosas. Además he conocido mejor a otros compañeros y sobre todo a los de mi grupo de estudio. Un día os hablaré sobre ellos con más detalles.

De hecho, se me olvidaba, esta semana también nos han asignado nuestro proyecto para el Cambridge Venture Project, el proyecto de consultoría que tenemos que hacer a tiempo parcial al final de este trimestre. Nos ha tocado una ONG de la zona. Tenemos que diseñar un proyecto para ayudarles a incrementar sus ingresos y sus voluntarios.

El fin de semana comenzó con un email del profesor de Corporate Finance el viernes por la tarde en el que nos decía que había que leerse tres capítulos del libro para el lunes y nos amenazaba literalmente con preguntas aleatorias como cuando estábamos en el cole.

Yo el sábado no pude estudiar prácticamente nada porque vinieron Tim y Katie con Jonas y Casper desde Londres. Echamos un buen día. Comimos en casa y luego fuimos a dar una vuelta. Carlo nos enseñó Magdalene College y a Katie le ecantó poder visitar la Pepsyan Library. También vimos Pembroke College y en general todo el centro.

Y finalmente el domingo fuimos a visitar otra iglesia, Holy Trinity, y luego yo me reuní con el grupo de estudio para analizar el "caso" de Managemente Science y terminar de pulir el slogan para Kevin Roberts. La tarde se la dediqué totalmente a Corporate Finance y al final revisando cosas y haciendo un resumen me dieron las 2 de la mañana.

Son las 19:30. Me voy a ir a estudiar un poco y luego tiraré para casa. Allí es casi imposible estudiar con Diego intentando quitarme el ratón y los bolígrafos. Llegaré justo a tiempo para darle un baño, cenar y acostarlo. De lunes a viernes mi rol como padre creo que se va a reducir a eso. Bueno, también le preparo el biberón por la mañana.

Ahora sí que parece que esto ha empezado de verdad. Va a ser un año muy intenso. Si no habéis leido el post de Miriam en inglés simplemente os comento que le han programado la cesárea para el 18 de octubre. Ella cree que no llegará. Yo sólo espero que no se ponga de parto el viernes o el sábado que viene, porque yo estaré en Sevilla.