MBA Ball

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

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

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

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

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.