Miriam's networking!!

Hello there!

My turn again... it's been a while because my laptop's hard disk died a few days ago.... we've ordered a new one, but meanwhile it's rather hard to access Paco's computer since he's got it with him and/or is working on it most of the time.

However, in the meanwhile I've been doing my own networking in Cambridge, making the most of time before Leo (we still think it's a boy!) is born.

Two weeks ago I visited a lovely toddler's group near home and Diego had a great time while I got to know a few local mums. They organize "messy time", with finger paints and glue and soap and all-sorts first thing in the morning, then we all traipse outside to the playground for slides and cars ("coche!!!" Diego exclaims!!) and tricycles, followed by coffee and tea for mums and milk and snacks for the kids. Then it's books, a special activity (last week it was sand) and singing before going home.

There I met a mum who's having an elective caesarean on the 24th of October and who's eldest child is only a month older than Diego, also her husband is South-American and she's from the States, so having to cope alone here too! As you see quite a few things in common... I also got to know a neighbour (she lives round the corner from me) who has already offered to look after Diego for me a few hours a week when baby n.2 comes along if I need a breather ...

On Sunday we decided to visit the Round Church where we felt quite comfortable. We might be going back this Sunday or we might visit a different church, depending on other activities. However I found out they too have a toddlers group on Wednesday... so I went along to that this week... it was rather chaotic, there must have been at least 50 kids there, but Diego enjoyed it and I believe it will become another weekly activity.

Apart from that I am meeting up with other MBA wives (MBA standing for Men Busy or Absent!!!) at least once a week. This week it was cinema while the dads babysat! and next Tuesday we are meeting up for coffee... it will also be my birthday so that will be a pleasant start to my day.

I must say I have found the wive's network invaluable already. Paula and Blanca (from Chile) both picked me up and took me back home from my visit to the Rosie Hospital on Thursday and I really can't say how much I appreciate their support and help.

By the way... (hahaha) the result of my latest appointment at the hospital is that my Caesarean has been booked for October 18th... so unless anything happens before then that will be Leo's birthday!

However, since Paco and I will be visiting the hospital with my midwife next Sunday I will tell you more about that then. For the moment the good news is that Paco will be allowed in with me the whole time, which I'm feeling much relieved about.

I guess this post is long enough already!! More coming soon... I hope!!!

Four conferences

No, we don't spend the whole day from party to party. Today I feel like writing about four conferences/lectures we've had, all of which have been very interesting.

The first one was last Friday as an introduction to our course on Organisational Behaviour. The title was Team building – complex high performing teams, and it was given by Mark de Rond, who spent seven months observing the Cambridge Boat crew’s preparation for the 2007 Boat race against Oxford. Cambridge won, coming from behind, working as a team. The captain had to make a number of difficult decisions in order to choose the best possible team, that is not always formed by the eight best rowers.

Saturday morning we had other two conferences. The first was Stimulating Innovation for a More Competitive Europe, by Arnoud de Meyer, the Director of our school. He said that "Europe's and the UK's competitive position cannot be built on low-cost competition and efficiency, that the University is a hotbed of technological breakthroughs and inventions, and that the challenge is how to bring these into the market and couple them with exciting creative business models".

Later we received Lois Jacobs, from Jack Morton, a leading marketing agency specialised in big productions. The title was Branding a City through Olympic Ceremonies and it was a very good story because our speaker was in charge of the production of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games ceremonies. The lecture explored the 20 month journey it took to produce them, describing how she recruited a volunteer cast of 8000, a support team of 2500 volunteers and a multi-national production team of 1200.

And today we've really enjoyed the visit of Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world's leading creative organizations, employing over 7000 people in 83 countries. This man is the originator of Lovemarks. "Lovemarks are brands that inspire loyalty beyond reason. People love them because of what they are, not because of what they do. Their appeal is emotional. Companies may own brands. But Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them." He really knows how to motivate people. He is a very tood speaker and he really really likes to be a leader. He encouraged us to think about our dream job and try to make it real. Not always very realistic, but very inspiring indeed. By the way, he arrived almost two hours late because it took to him six hours to drive from Heathrow Airport, so we missed our Beer Game.

Fin de semana sin descanso

El fin de semana ha pasado volando. El sábado tuvimos las dos conferencias por la mañana y por la tarde, a las 19:00 ya estaba yo con el tuxedo puesto para irme con Carlo a la Alumni Gala Dinner, una cena de gala con antiguos alumnos en el University Arms Hotel. Mirad la pinta que llevaba.

Estuvimos allí hasta las 12:00 y luego nos fuimos a un club hasta que cerró, a las 2:00. Nos lo pasamos bien aunque la comida, la verdad, no era para tirar cohetes. Cada vez voy conociendo a más gente y eso ayuda mucho.

El domingo por la mañana fuimos a The Round Church, y la verdad es que nos encontramos muy bien. El domingo pasado fuimos a otra iglesia pero está muy lejos. Está está en centro y tiene muchas actividades de todo tipo.

Yo luego fui a comprarme unas botas de fútbol, unas espinilleras y unas medias y me fui al campo del Fitzwilliam College a jugar con los compañeros. Llegué un poco tarde, ya habían empezado, pero echamos un buen rato. Hay unos cuantos que juegan bastante bien. Yo llevo cuatro meses sin correr y la verdad es que me encontré regular físicamente. Tengo que empezar a correr de nuevo.

Y por último, por la tarde nos fuimos a la casa de uno de los chilenos, Rodrigo, al cumpleaños de su hija. Nos juntamos bastante gente, todos familias con hijos. Ya parece que llevásemos meses aquí.

Spanish Fiesta

It's funny that the way the Judge Business School decided to celebrate the end of the first week of lectures was with a Spanish Fiesta. I was realy curious to see what does a Spanish Fiesta mean for people in England, and as I suspected it is something quite different from what Spanish people understand for a party.


It was ok, don't misunderstand me. I had good fun. Organisation was perfect, music good, and food good quality too, but it wasn't really Spanish food. In fact, the only dish they served that was really Spanish is actually ilegal in Spain. It's what we call "boquerones", very liltle, immature fish.

Anyway I really enjoyed it and I had the opportunity to know better other MBAs, their profiles, experience, career objectives and so on. We've only been here, all together, for a week now, for five days in fact, but it seems like if much more time has passed.

Tomorrow we have a couple of conferences and the Alumni Gala Dinner, where I'll have to wear my tuxedo for the first time. I promise to post a picture.

The MBA Handbook

Today we've had the Handbook session and we've learnt the basic rules of the MBA. It's been really interesting. I can't tell you all about it, because it would be too long and because among other things we've signed a confidentiality and non disclosure agreeement.





There are though some things I think I can discuss here without getting into trouble.

Collaborative. People here insist in that this is a very collaborative program, and it really seems it is. Everything that could arise rivalry is avoided. We do need to be competitive, but not agressive. It's all about building teams and relationships.

Assessments. Submission of written assessments is very strict and you have to stick to the rules. You never put your name in your papers, just a number. The examiners doesn't know who they're grading. There are severe penalties for delays in the hand ins: 3 out of 100 points just for being one second late and then 1 more point for every hour. They are also very strict about plagiarism and about word count.

Marking. Marking is quite similar to the Spanish system and I like it. Grades go from 0 to 100 and the average grade is between 60 and 65. Grades about 70 are rare and above 80 exceptional. At the end all the grades are averaged wheighing the number of credits of every subjetc and you just fail, pass or if you are in the top 10% are included in the Director's List.

Yesterday we also had the Library session and it is really amazing the amount of resources we have access to. From now on I can borrow whatever book is published in the UK for my whole life. Doesn't it sounds nice? There are also lots of online resources and databases, with huge amounts of articles and papers published all around the world in all kind of newspapers, magazines and books.

I'm going home now. Tomorrow we have our first careers session and the Spanish Fiesta to celebrate the end of the first week. We also have a seminar Saturday morning and the Gala Dinner in the University Arms Hotel in the evening. Some guys are also organising a football match Sunday morning in Fitzwilliam college sport grounds. I'll try to join them.