More Orientation

Days 3 and 4 of orientation were (waaaaay) less intense than days 1 and 2, thankfully. On the other hand, by the end of day 4 I was really, really glad to know we would be changing seats on Monday!

Thursday started with IT. We got our logins, and an overview of the systems to use, and our free Office 2010 discs. Then we learned about the library and how to take out books, etc. Next up was an overview of the Career Center and how we'll work with them (which seems pretty thorough, actually), what's involved in fundraising for the school and also PR.

The Career Center: I don't remember all the details off-hand, but essentially they have a series of workshops and one-on-one counselling sessions on everything from CVs to business dinners to networking. For that last, one of the examples she gave is: walking into a room full of people where everyone is standing in small (2 - 3 ppl) groups, how to know which group is the right group to join for the purposes of networking. Looking forward to that.

After we had a general information session. That was largely on things to do in Hannover and how to get around here and in Europe in general. Then we had an "Introductory German Class", to get a sense of what the class during break will be like. I am  now officially sad I won't be attending it ... but not sad enough to cancel my trip. Looks like I'll be spending some money with a language school.

And finally the most stressful / irritating part of the day: filling out the Residence Permit application and registering our place of residence with the relevant city. Everyone was talking and cross-talking to each other through-out and it was stressful and annoying.

It appears we have to have biometric passport pictures for the Residency Permit. Which means I (and a number of other people) have to find photobooths. These are downtown.

One thing that amazed me on Thursday was how many people were LATE! It seemed like fully a quarter of the class was 5 - 10 minutes late and 4 people (that's 10% of the class) were 15 or so minutes late. And then loud coming in! That is already old and will only get more annoying over time.


Friday was a nice day. It was basically a wrap up. Since I didn't have any IT issues or Residency Permit questions, and since I didn't get a Student Assistantship, I didn't have to be at school until 11! I did have to pay my rent / security deposit / admin fee / for my bedding at 8:55, but that's doable. Actually I slept until 8:30 and only really woke up when a door slammed. Whoops. Regardless, I paid everything and did some laundry before heading out.

One small wrinkle: When I did my laundry, I washed all my pants ... so I didn't have any that were left out! I ended up going down a size for the day. Apparently I've lost some weight in the not-quite 2 weeks I've been here, as that wasn't an option before I left Orlando.

Anyway. School at 11 for a session of "Meet the Faculty". We met two of the 4 professors for this module and one we won't see again until module 3. It was a nice way to cover much of the syllabi, I think, so we don't waste time on that on Monday.

Somewhere in there, perhaps after the meet the profs, we went through how seating will work. When we get to school on Monday, our name tags will be in a big jumble. We get our tag and pick our seat ... and that's our seat for the Module. They'll do seating charts after day 3, so we have to stay put. Still. Tired of my current seat so that'll be nice. It'll be interesting to see the competition for the 'good' seats!

Still haven't figured out where classes are  on Monday for my section, but I have all weekend. Also this weekend: meeting with my team to do our Charter. We would have preferred to do it on Fri, but Vlad (who, it turns out, is from Moldavia)'s daughter's first day of school was Friday so he needed to be there.

And, finally: at 12:30 we went on a City Tour, mostly by bus but partially on foot, and ending around 3.

A bunch of us went to lunch (linner) and then separated. I picked up a pump for my bike and a pilates mat and ball. Then I went hunting for a photobooth. I eventually had to ask at a helpdesk, but found it in the luggage storage in the hauptbahnhof and got my pictures. Interesting to see the difference between my passport and these - I've lost a fair amount of weight since a year ago May, and it's visible in my face.

And that was orientation!

Orientation - days 1 and 2

So, orientation finally started yesterday! Yaaay! It's been a long couple of days, with today being day 2 of 4 days of orientation. One interesting thing I've observed: the noise level during breaks is steadily increasing as people get to know each other and find things to talk about.

Yesterday we started at 8:30 am. A number of us headed over early, leaving the dorm around 8:05, which means we arrived at school at 8:15. Nice that there were 6 or 8 of us there that early, though the rest of the class came on pretty quickly.

We started with introductions, to the Dean, to the staff and then around the room as each of us did a quick intro of ourselves. I remember next to nothing, of course. 

There are 42 people in my class, though we were still missing 5 yesterday due to visa issues, and 1 had a stomach virus and was in the hospital. Of those 6, 3 (including the one who was in the hospital) came today, and all are expected by Monday at the latest. 

Within that 42: we have people from 17 countries. The largest group is from India, with 11. There are 7 from Germany, 3 from China, 5 from the US. By continent, 11 are from Europe, 21 from Asia, 6 from North America and 4 from South America.  We are 48% women, average age is 30, average work experience is 5 years. 

We had a full day, yesterday, going over the norms and expectations for the program (in summary: be on time, be professional, no cheating and, seriously BE ON TIME AND NO CHEATING. Apparently this cannot be emphasized enough, due to some cultural issues), touring the 2 buildings, going over the program structure, the professional development series, the Purdue systems, getting our group picture, our individual pictures, our GISMA IDs, our Purdue IDs, our textbooks and our locker keys. In between, we had multiple opportunities to chat.

Also nice: in the lecture hall, we have, for now, assigned seating with large name plates for each of us.

The class, for the 1st two modules at least, is broken into 2 sections (A and B), and everyone is assigned into study groups / teams. They actively worked to make the teams as diverse as possible, avoiding more than 2 ppl from any one country (and, where possible, region or continent!), mixing gender. My team (team 10) is 2 guys (Qasim and Vlad) and 2 women (me and Deborah). Deborah is from Brazil, Qasim from India and Vlad from ... huh. I don't know, actually. I assume Russia / Russia-ish, from the accent. 

We also covered grading. We're graded on a curve, and the professors are held to it. There is a different curve for Core classes vs. Electives but .... at least for the core classes there will ALWAYS be at least 2 people with a B-, which is a 2.7. Everyone has to maintain at absolute lowest a 2.95 (just under a B average) or they get kicked from the program. 

We are required to have 48 credits to graduate, of which 28 are core classes. Electives are: 1 in the 3rd module, everything you take in the 4th and all but 1 in the 5th. Among the classes there are also opportunities to do a formal Project for a corporation, either in modules 3 and 4 or in 4 and 5. These are 4 credits, with 2 (1st module) being pass / fail and 2 being graded (2nd module). You're expected to dedicate a full day of work every week to the project. Right now it looks like there will be 5 or 6 projects this year. Project teams are a max of 5 people, so 25 - 30 people have a chance to participate, though 2 or 3 will be from the Purdue campus for one of them (it's a joint project). I'm not really sure how I feel about the projects. It seems like a lot of work, but also like a good networking opportunity, but also really hard, but also a good chance to apply new knowledge ...

Anyway, for the project you have to take the Project Management elective this module. I'm going to take that, as 1. I may be interested in a project down the line; and 2. it's 2 credits. 

We broke yesterday right around 5.

Today started at 9am for foreign nationals, and we spent 90 minutes  on banking (setting up accounts for those that hadn't yet, getting online access and bank cards for everyone) and health insurance (filling forms for those that hadn't dealt with it yet, change of address for many of us). I went in early to print out my bank and insurance info. Yaay internet.

After a break, we started the bulk of the day, which was spent on Organizational Behavior / Group Dynamics and Team Building. Basically we spent the day getting ready to work in our teams, and getting familiar with the challenges we may encounter. We had a couple of break-out sessions, with some problems to solve, of different types, and then talked about how the 2nd challenge was much harder and why, and how to go about solving these kinds of problems in teams both in school and in life. 

After that we got to the good stuff: Exchanges and study abroad!!

Blah, blah, module at Purdue, really not that interested unless there's some amazing elective I just can't resist.

The study abroad, first the key stuff: Yes, we can have someone come along! The cost for an extra person will probably be $1600, not including transportation. The cost includes half the double occupancy room for 6 nights (Sun - Sat), transit pass for the city, risk insurance, included guided tours, orientation in the city, breakfast daily, some lunches, welcome reception and closing dinner. 

March 4-10 Paris or Budapest

March 11 - 17 Rome or Madrid

I'm interested in the latter for each, but won't know for sure what courses are being done until late October. That's also when the sign-up is. Oh! AND! No maximum for the # of people attending, so if I want to go, or if anyone wants to join me, no problem!!

Participants coordinate their own transportation and personal expenses and must be signed up prior to the Christmas school holiday (prior to TG, preferably).

And India: it's a 3 week internship outside Bangalore, it occurs in the 2 weeks between modules 4 and 5, and participants will miss the 1st week of module 5. It costs just $300. Not sure how many people will be permitted / accepted. This one has to be applied for, as they'll be working for TVS.  I'd really like to do this one, for the experience.

Also today we finally had the bazaar. I got an air mattress, a tool kit (hammer, etc), 4 schnapps glasses (pretty!), a laundry basket and, at the end, 2 plates that I convinced them to break a set for since no one bought the set and since they'll likely get it back at the end anyway. 

After all that, we had presentations by a representative from the part time MBA class, from last year's class, from someone who graduated 10 years ago, and finally a hosted dinner.

It was a looong day.