Et trouve que je suis roi de la colline, en haut du tas
Mar 21st
And find i’m king of the hill, top of the heap
Day 4 – A day by myself
The morning almost started to become a routine, wake up, have a bagel with cream cheese, and walk to the subway station to go to the next sight! However day 4 was going to be different. As a group we decided once again to split up because it was a the last day for almost everyone and there was still so much to see. I decided to join Nathalie and Stephanie, who were going to start with a visit to Columbia University. Of course a visit to another Ivy League university was something I was in for.
Once we arrived at Columbia University, i was again impressed by the huge and beautiful buildings that made up the campus of one of the world’s most famous university. Of course a quick visit to the Business School was also part of the walk around campus.
Columbia University Library building
Columbia Business School
Our day continued towards Central Park, the largest park of Manhattan. Upon arrival my the girls decided to just go straight through the park and go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while I was set on strolling in the park that had been featured in so many movies. So having arrived in the park, I decided to go and discover Central Park alone.
New York being the city I dream of living and working in one day, this was a great time to just walk and think about how it would be. My iPod making sure the right tunes were played to support the scenery, my camera making sure the right scenery was photographed to support my story.
New York, Central Park 1
New York, Central Park 2
New York, Central Park 3
New York, Central Park 4
New York, Central Park 5
New York, Central Park 6
New York, Central Park 7
New York, Central Park 8
After an hour or 2 of walking around Central Park, I ended up walking out of it straight into East Harlem, just above the Upper East Side. My next goal was going back to Wall Street, finding the banks, and having a good look around. Nonetheless, I decided to walk down from East Harlem towards downtown Manhattan for as far as I liked to.
The walk through East Harlem was amazing, it made me realize why New York is one of the most amazing cities in the world. Even within one borough (Manhattan, others are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island) there are so many different little cities, each with their own type of people and each with their own style of living.
A good hour later, having walked through East Harlem and a bit of Upper East Side, I found a Best Buy and decided to go in and buy new ear-buds seeing my Sennheiser had died earlier the week and I was using promotion ones I got earlier in Montréal. With new Sony ear-buds I left the store and decided to take the subway towards Wall Street.
Arrived at Wall Street, the excitement I had the first time just came back instantly. I found on the internet a museum called the “Museum of American Finance”, which was located on Wall Street and supposedly had an exposition on the development of legal tender in the U.S.A. and many more interesting stuff for a finance freak.
Plague of Wall Street, New Amsterdam
The bear and bull fighting for their "market"
The first known notes to be legal tender in the U.S.A.
A war bond, with Disney characters to make happy war!
The House of Morgan on 23 Wall Street
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Having done Wall Street, I’ve seen the building of the Federal Reserve Bank, Chase, and Goldman Sachs, it was time for me to head towards SOHO where we agreed to meet up for diner.
After the diner we came to the conclusion that the clouds would prevent us from having a good view from the Empire State Building so we decided to go back to the hostel, seeing most people had to leave early the next morning if they wanted to catch their train towards Montréal! I, however, decided to stay another day.
Day 5 – New York, a giant slush
When we woke up on day 5 and looked out the window we were surprised to find New York covered in snow. Stephanie and I had decided to take it easy today because we saw everything we wanted to and this day was just extra.
After a light breakfast – yes, again a bagel with cream cheese – we went outside, where we found out that the snow was actually not snow some sort of slush, wet snow that just didn’t melt fast enough to disappear. I was walking on sneakers and did not at all expect to be walking in a white New York, so within meters my feet were cold, wet, and starting to freeze. We took the subway towards SOHO where we decided to do some shopping, with its abundant choice of clothing shops SOHO was a great place to do so. A couple of shops later, we both succeeded in buying something that we liked and we decided to walk to the Hudson river.
The Hudson river by snow
Not being able to feel our feet anymore and having to carry our newly bought clothing through the snow, made us decide to go back to the hostel and warm up a bit.
When an hour had passed at the hostel we decided to go and see Central Park by snow before trying to find something to have for diner. It was such an amazing experience being able to see Central Park both in normal state and fully covered in snow just the day after.
New York, Central Park in snow 1
New York, Central Park in snow 2
Having seen Central Park in snow, we decided to call it a day and just go back to the hostel again. However, we wanted to finish our visit to New York in an appropriate way so we decided to meet with Cristina, who went to see a friend who is doing an internship in New York, and her friend at Dangerfields Comedy Club.
It was a very entertaining evening and we were back at the hostel at 1am, when we did some packing and fell a sleep for the rest of the night. At 7am the alarm went, which meant we had to get to the train station for our trip back to Montréal.
Once arrived at the train station, we were informed that our train was delayed 3 hours due to the heavy snow fall in New York. In the end we did however arrive safe and sound in Montréal at 11:45 pm.
The trip
It became a bit of a delayed story, but the trip was amazing, something I will never forget. Finally I’ve been able to visit the city of my dreams and the big apple didn’t disappoint me once.
In the meanwhile a lot has happened since I’m back in Montréal, and I hope to be able to post a story on all my adventures here in the coming week! But first there is a midterm for coming Wednesday!
Á bientôt
Je veux me réveiller dans une ville qui ne dort pas
Mar 8th
I want to wake up in a city that doesn’t sleep
So after two days in Boston, it was time to go to New York city. New York being one of the cities that I’ve always wanted to visit and the city I hope to live in one day while being active in the financial sector.
At 9 am on Sunday we woke up in the hostel, just in time to have a nice breakfast and walk to the bus terminal to catch a bus towards New York. The bus of 12pm was supposed to arrive in Chinatown, New York around 4pm, however a phenomenon that is a highly discussed problem in the Netherlands, traffic jams, caused our bus to arrive 2 hours late in the Big Apple.
Day 1: just enough time for Times Square
Upon arrival we took the subway to our Hostel, which was located in the Upper West Side close to West Harlem. After an hour or two at the Hostel, we made our way to Times Square where we walked around a bit and had dinner at a nice Italian family-style restaurant.
The group and our hostel
Times Square, Madame Tussauds
After the dinner and a walk around Times Square it was time to head back to the hostel for a good night’s rest because the next day would be a busy day, trying to see as much as possible.
Day 2: being a tourist
The next morning turned out to be the start of a day filled with almost too many sights humanly possible. The day started with a long ride on the New York subway system towards Battery Park, where upon arrival a ferry took us towards Liberty Island, the island home to the world famous Statue of Liberty.
Battery Park and a view on downtown Manhattan
View on downtown Manhattan from the ferry
Skyline of Manhattan with me in the foreground
Me trying to pose as the Statue of Liberty
After Liberty Island, the ferry took us to Ellis Island. Ellis Island was originally used by the USA to receive immigrants and process them from there. Another nice piece of US history was shown on the island.
Baggage on Ellis Island, as it used to be back in the days
Immigration hall on Ellis Island
The ferry took us back to the main island of Manhattan, after which we continued our walk through the streets of New York. Next stop, Wall Street! And after reading my last post Sur une chasse pour le plus intelligent you thought I was looking forward to seeing Harvard, nothing could beat the prospect of going to Wall Street. The legendary street where J.P. Morgan’s house is located, the street where on daily basis billions and billions of dollars in stock and bonds are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The prospect of walking passed the building of prestigious banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Lazard filled me with joy and excitement.
Walking from Battery Park towards Wall Street, we passed the “Wall Street Bull”. The “Wall Street Bull”, symbol for prosperity in the market, and at the same time for the strength and unpredictability of the market, is said to bring luck to investors and traders, so I caught it at its horns before walking down to Wall Street.
The Wall Street Bull
The beginning of Wall Street
Because I was the only one really excited about Wall Street we only walked around a short time before continuing towards our next stop, Ground Zero. I did manage to take some picture of Wall Street and was determined to make my way back to Wall Street during one of the following days to have a good look around.
The New York Stock Exchange
Me in front of the New York Stock Exchange
When we arrived at Ground Zero, there was not much to see because they already started to build the new World Trade Center. We managed to get in the “museum” in which they showed what the plans are for the new WTC.
Ground zero, one large construction yard
The plans for the new WTC
The short visit to Ground Zero led to a split in the group, some people wanted to see other sights than others, so we decided to continue as 2 groups. I joined the group which was headed towards City Hall park and Brooklyn Bridge.
City Hall park
City Hall park and the Ross global academic charter school
Cars going Brooklyn bound on the Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge
Once we crossed the bridge and were walking in Brooklyn we decided to just walk around for a bit and see where it would take us. We ended up on the river bank of the East River before we decided to walk more inwards to find a subway station to go back to Manhattan.
East River river bank, view on Manhattan
The Manhattan bridge
30 years evolution of BMW in Brooklyn
At the time we got back to Manhattan it got dark and with more than 2 hours to go before meeting up again with the rest of the group for dinner, we decided to go to the third university of the week New York University. Located in downtown Manhattan, surrounding the Washington Square, it has in my opinion one of the best location an university can obtain.
The arc in the middle of Washington Square
Me inside the NYU library with a NYU statue
The Stern building, the NYU Business school
After we had dinner in the New York version of the well known restaurant chain, Hard Rock Cafe, we wanted to finish the day by going up to the observation deck of the Empire State Building. This plan was sadly cancelled when we arrived at the location and heard that visibility at the top was limited due to rain. An early night for some and a late night drink for other resulted from this disappointed.
Day 3: rain and more rain…
As day 2 ended, so started day 3. Rain, rain, and more rain, and it never stopped raining. So as we decided on day 2 to try and visit a Broadway show in the evening of the third day, we had to be at times square around 2pm to buy the tickets. It would cut up the day and make some sights not worth it to visit because of the lack of time, we decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Soaked by the rain, we arrived at the MOMA to find out that the museum is closed for regular visitors on Tuesdays, due to some conference.
So to give the time we had left, until we had to meet on Times Square to buy the ticket for Broadway, some sense, we went to FAO Schwartz. An huge toy store which by many is mistakenly linked to the movie “Home Alone 2″, me included, nonetheless it was an amazing store to visit and we danced on the large piano (pictures shot by someone else so coming soon).
Me and a mega M&M at FAO Schwarz
A bunch of Giraffe at FAO Schwarz
After FAO Schwarz we just wandered around in downtown Manhattan, passing by the Rockefeller center, New York Grand Central, and the UN building. We didn’t really go in anywhere, besides Grand Central, but it was nice to see them from the outside. At the time we were done, it was time to head back for the tickets for Broadway.
We ended up with tickets for the musical “Fela“, a musical about a musician in Nigeria in the 70’s who was trying to start a revolution against the leaders of Nigeria in that time and at some point even running for president of Nigeria. It was a successful evening.
When the musical ended we headed back home, because it had been a long and especially wet day.
This is all for this update! As usual, you can view all my photos on my online Picasa albums, for this story the following albums are most important: New York 02-21-2010, New York 02-22-2010, New York 02-23-2010.
Á bientôt
Sur une chasse pour le plus intelligent
Mar 7th
On a hunt for the smartest
The second day in Boston was one that made such an amazing impact on me, it was time to visit the universities that are renown for their research and high academic standards. MIT and Harvard, the number 9 and number 1 university in te world.
Before we arrived at MIT we thought it would be nice to go to the Prudential tower for the sky-walk, an amazing view from the 50th floor observation deck.
Great Marketing visible from the skywalk
Nice Victorian architecture in Boston
View on the Charles River Basin
View on Cambridge, the town where Harvard is in
After the sky-walk, it was finally time for MIT, a visit to one of the most prestigious universities in the world excited me. Although we didn’t see all of the MIT campus, it wasn’t as impressive as I hoped it to be.
Main MIT building
1st picture of me with a top 10 university landmark
The short trip to MIT was followed by a longer trip to the most prestigious and most renown university of our time, Harvard University.
From MIT it is a short trip with the underground to Harvard station. As much as a visit to MIT excited me, it was nothing compared to being on the campus of Harvard. The campus, the history, and the reputation all contributed to an great excitement for me.
Harvard subway station
One of the many gates to the Harvard campus
After walking around a bit, we went to the Harvard information center where we soon found out that it was possible to take a guided tour around the campus of Harvard, the guide would be a Harvard student. While we waited I was caught up reading the flyer of the possibility to do a summer program at Harvard.
A little while later the tour started and the guide told us all kinds of nice stories about the history of Harvard and the students.
The campus of Harvard is filled with a variety of buildings all exuding the same image, prestigious and knowledge.
Freshmen year residences of Harvard
Main hall on Harvard campus
Main library of Harvard
2nd picture of me with a top 10 university landmark
Having seen MIT and Harvard the day was basically over and it was time for some drinks in downtown Boston, having agreed to not put any pictures of that night online, you just have to believe my word that it was a good night!
These were the two first days of my “reading” week, we walked a lot, seen a lot, and I made myself a promise to do all I can to hopefully one day become a student at Harvard! (we all have dreams right 
)
As always, more photos can be found in my online Picasa albums, for this day you need the album Boston, Harvard, MIT
Keep coming back for more stories to come on the adventures in New York, or enable update in the menu to get an e-mail notification when I post a new story.
Á bientôt
Marcher le long de la Freedom Trail
Mar 4th
Walking along the Freedom Trail
Head entrance of Bost South Station
It was 18 February, just a day after I wrote three midterms on one day, when I got on the night bus towards Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Accompanied by a group of five international students, one Dutch, one Slovak, one Czech, two French, I sat through the nine hour bus ride. At 9:30 am on Friday, we arrived at the South Station in Boston, after which we all went to the hostel to drop out stuff and start a trip which I never will forget!
Boston, a city known for the Boston Tea Party, the Freedom Trail, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),and Harvard University, was one of the cities I wanted to visit during my stay in Montréal for above listed sights. So on Friday we started of by walking towards the harbor where the ship of the Boston Tea Party was supposed to be. On the way there we passed some great buildings which I don’t want you to miss out on:
Federal Reserve bank of Boston
Boston Wharf
James Hook Lobster
Washington st. & Franklin st: 2 of US' founding fathers
Sadly they moved it for renovation work and one of the most renown events in US history was kept from us. Nonetheless, we found a great restaurant to have some lunch.
With our stomaches filled with fish and mine was nicely swimming in white wine 
, we continued our stroll around the city to end up in Boston Common. Boston Common is the main park in Boston and the start of the Freedom Trail, which leads its followers through the city passing 16 of Boston’s most important historical landmarks.
Boston Common, where the freedom trail starts
A memorial placed in Boston Common
The park Boston Common
Tile in the floor marking the start of the Freedom Trail
Massachusetts state house
So following the Freedom Trail as every tourist, we kept the red line illustrating the path close to us. The path led us to the Massachusetts State House, which is the building where the current government of Massachusetts is seated.
After the State House, the path took us to the Granary Burying Grounds. On first sight the grounds look like every simple cemetery, but when one would walk around the grounds it would soon become clear that this ground is house to the graves of Josiah and Abiah Franklin, the parents of Benjamin Franklin, and the grave of Paul Revere , who was one of the members who planned the Boston Tea Party and who participated in the midnight ride, which was set out to warn Samuel Adams (the leader of the American Revolution) about the incoming British Army.
Grave of Josiah Franklin
Grave of Paul Revere
Having the burial grounds behind us, the red path took us to the Old City Hall with in front of the building a statue of Benjamin Franklin himself.
Statue of Benjamin Franklin
Old City Hall in Boston
After the Old City Hall, the Freedom Trail took us to many places like the house of Paul Revere, Little Italy, Copp’s Hill Burying Grounds, and Deacon Larkin House (Paul Revere rode his horse on the famous Midnight Ride of Paul Revere) to end at the Bunker Hill Monument.
The Bunker Hill Monument is a 67m high obelisk which sits on top of a hill and gives an amazing view over Boston to it’s visitors.
Bunker Hill Monument
View over Boston from the monument
So that was the Freedom Trail of Boston, as usual more pictures can be found in my online Picasa Albums.
So many pictures, so many stories to tell which made me decide to split this week up in at least 3 stories. Hopefully I find time tomorrow to write a story on the second day in Boston, which will be considerably shorter but as interesting as this one because it included visits to 2 of the most prestigious universities in the world, being Harvard and MIT. And the weekend has to be enough to write down all the amazing things I’ve seen in New York City!
So make sure to check back this weekend to read the rest or just sign up to make sure you get an update when I post something new!
For those who are interested, I have some grades back.
- Investment Management midterm: 92%
- Organizational Policy midterm: 72%
- Sales Management midterm: 74%
- Sales Management paper: 77%
Thanks for reading and hope you’ll be back!
Á bientôt
Ils ont été les périodes occupées
Feb 18th
They were busy times
As mentioned in my last update, previous week and this week were very busy that’s why only now I can post a new update!
So, last week was the week of midterm preparation and the second assignment deadlines, but also the week for my 2nd explore Canada trip, this time it was Quebec City.
Before I start with my story about my trip to Quebec City, I will give you an update on the assignments. Both “Investment Management” and “Capital Markets and Institutions” require the students to deliver three assignments, next to other graded material (i.e. midterm, final), over the course of the semester.
The first assignment for both courses was due in the last week of January, for Investment Management I had a 83% and for Capital Markets and Institutions I had a 82%, both I thought were “ok” grades for the first assignments I did at McGill but I knew I could better.
So last week the second assignments had to be handed in, which together with the preparation for my midterms consumed basically all of my time, but I have a better feeling about both these assignments! I’ll keep you posted on grades!
Now I’ve done the assignments part, I would like to mention that I’ve added something new to my blog. In the right menu bar you can now find the header “Subscribe”, if you enter you’re e-mail address in the field below and press on “stay up to date” you will be take through a process which will in the end keep you up to date by sending an e-mail when I post a new message!
Quebec City
Last Saturday, 13th of February, around 8:30 am there were two buses waiting in front of the SSMU (student organization) building, which were going to take us, a group of 110 McGill students, to the capital of the province Quebec and on the way we were making a stop at the “Hôtel de Glace“.
After a bus-ride of 2 hours and 30 minutes we arrived at the ice hotel. The first thing that almost everyone noticed that it wasn’t made out of the clear ice but the majority of the hotel was made out of frozen snow. Inside it was a beautiful hotel, but not one where I would spend a night, because it was way too cold!
Chandelier in the Hôtel de Glace
A bed in the Hôtel de Glace
We couldn’t stay that long in the hotel, because Quebec City was waiting. Because of the Carnaval in Quebec there was a big traffic jam to enter the city, which is why the bus took over an hour instead of just 30 minutes. In Quebec we had around 10-11 hours to walk around and see all the sights that Quebec has to offer.
I could describe how it looked but it would be better if you just look at all the pictures: Quebec photos.
The trip to Quebec was a great success and a lot of fun!
Midterms
So that was last week. This week was all about midterms, midterms, and midterms. Four in one week, the first on Monday the other three on Wednesday! I’m glad to say that most went good, but when it was time for me to write the last midterm on Wednesday I was kind of done with it. Will keep you up to date on my grade after my trip to Boston and New York, which is going to start in less than 10 hours! It’s going to be awesome!
P.s. for the Dutch people, hope we still have a government after today or tomorrow, because new elections could lead to some blond dude getting a more prominent position within our government, which wouldn’t make me more eager to go back to the Netherlands
Á bientôt
Le temps passe trop vite
Feb 2nd
Time goes by way too fast!
It just seems like days ago that I stood at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, ready to leave the Netherlands for a 4½ month stay in Montréal. When I look at the calendar I see that a month has gone by so fast, while there is still so much to be done and seen here!
In 2 weeks there will be a midterm week, where I will have to focus on from now. I do however have a number of events planned for the coming weeks of which I will gladly update you on with a lot of pictures!
The 13th of February, we’re going to visit Quebec City for a day. Carnaval de Quebec is the occasion and I am sure I will end up with a huge amount of picture, so keep on checking back for that update.
After the day trip to Quebec City, I will have the midterm week followed by the so called “spring break”.
The plans for spring break are not yet final however the plans as they are now include a 2 day stay in Boston followed by a 4 day trip to New York City.
In the mean time I still want to find time during this week to see Old Montreal and Mont Royal, so do check back for picture on those!
Á bientôt
Il m’a dit: ne tombez pas amoureux!
Jan 25th
He told me: don’t fall in love
On Christmas day 2009 my uncle Marcel gave me some of his wise advice: “You can do what you want, as long as you don’t fall in love”.
It was Friday afternoon when I printed my tickets for the Greyhound line from Montréal to Ottawa, I was to visit Nick in Ottawa for a weekend of going out and just hanging out. When the bus left at 14:00 for the trip of 200km, a scene from the TV series “The O.C.” went through my head (Trey leaving in a Greyhound bus, for the people who saw the series).
Within 20 minutes we already left the city of Montréal behind us and were cruising on the highway 40 towards the Canadian capital. My laptop, a bottle of water, and a cookie were all I thought I needed to make it through the 2 hour bus ride; nevertheless it soon turned out the laptop was superfluous.
All I saw of Canada up to now was the city of Montréal which, considering the abundance of architectural styles and all the clubs and bars which Montréal has to offer, is not at all bad.
The bus ride showed me more of the beauty that Canada has to offer, straight after leaving the busy city life the 40 took us through numerous types of landscapes. First, there was “Lac des Deux-Montagnes”, a big frozen lake on the foot of a hill which presented a stunning view. The image was completed by an ice-fishers hut which was surrounded by nothing but ice.
Passing the province-border into Ontario, the 40 went over into the 417. Headed southwest on the 417, the bus took us passed another beautiful scenery. This time it was a flat land covered in a big layer of snow for as far as the eye could see, on the land a number of farms were situated while a series of mountains were at the horizon.
Closing in on arrival in Ottawa, the final part of the bus ride took us through an enormous forest. The forest, stretch over at least 10 kilometers, covered in snow was the final part of the trip, before arriving in the capital of Canada.
Too bad my camera was in my bag, which had to be places in the lower part of the bus, so I don’t have any pictures of any of the above described landscapes!
My weekend in Ottawa was mainly occupied by going out to dinner, going to the pre-party, going to the party, ending up eating pizza and drinking beer at the after-party! I had a blast and it was great to see someone from “back home” again, although I do have to go back to see some of the sights that Ottawa has to offer.
So to get back to the start of the story, I can only say that I did fell in love. I fell in love with the country Canada and can’t wait for more exploration trips to see what this great country has to offer.
I will try to post an update more often, because posting updates with intervals of 2 weeks wasn’t how I intended to use this blog!
Á bientôt
Le sport national officieux
Jan 12th
So last Saturday was the day when the McGill Redmen ice hockey team had their first home game of 2010! In the McConnell Arena of McGill University the Gee-Gees came all the way down to Montréal to defend the pride of their University of Ottawa.
With a group of international, I could say Dutch (there were at least 8 others), students we attended the game and saw the Redmen take the lead deep in the first period. During the break the crowd was entertained by two junior teams playing a game of only 3 minutes.
Once the second period emerged, the Gee-Gees didn’t take long to even the score and get back into the game. Besided the usual clashing between the two teams the rest of the second period wasn’t all that interesting.
The third, and final, period was dominated by even more uproar between both teams. While the tension between the two rivals was in the air, the McGill Redmen managed to get the upper hand and score the 2-1. Within the minute the Redmen secured the victory and scored the 3-1.
Thrilled that the game resulted in a victory for McGill, we went for some beers at the local sports bar.
Pictures of the game can be found on my PicasaWeb
Á bientôt
18ème pour une raison
Jan 10th
Salut!
The first week of lectures has passed and McGill University has given its first impression. But before I start with the stories on how the lectures were, first I proudly present the main reason why I chose to go to McGill University.
According to Times Higher Education- QS World University Rankings 2009, McGill University is the 18th university in the world, up two spots from their 20th position in 2008. As comparison, the highest ranked university from the Netherlands is the University of Amsterdam on place 49.
So back to my courses, I can break my findings down into 6 sections, one for each different course and one general.
General McGill findings
The first thing that I noticed is the space for students to work and study. Where there is a shortage of study spots at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, McGill offers an excess of space for students to work and study in. Of course I haven’t been here long enough to see how it will turn out to be during midterm preparations, which are going to take place in the week of the 15th of February.
Another positive point is that all professors, whether their mother tongue is English or not, have the appropriate level of English. Although, I did really expect this, it was nice to find out that it was actually so.
An issue that will be affecting me both in positive and negative ways is the level of the other students, specifically their use of English. This will be positive in the sense that it will help me develop my vocabulary beyond what my peers and I are used to in the Netherlands, on the contrary this will be negative in the sense that it will be harder to get the high grades I’m pursuing.
Investment Management
This is most likely going to be the most interesting course of all, we will be looking into portfolio management, capital assets pricing models. At the same time, it is going to be the most challenging course, seeing the finance and investment theories exceed the level of what is taught on the HES with ease.
Capital Markets & Institutions
The course aims to give the student a strong background on how the financial markets work, covering issues like the money, capital, and banking markets. Focus will be on the risk that financial institutions face and how this risk can be mitigated.
Sales Management
The name “Sales Management” gives a view on the course that is not accurate, where sales management makes it sound like the focus is on the management of a sales team, the course actually covers that in only 2-3 lectures and then starts with personal selling. I see this course turning into the most enjoyable one, because it uses a very unusual method of grading. Besides the regular midterm and final exams there are 2 assignments, the first is an interview with 2 business to business sales representatives on which we (in teams of 2) have to write a report of 15-20 pages, the second is a sales process. The sales process starts with a sales call to the professor, in which the team has 8 minutes to perform a need and wants analysis in order to persuade the professor to allow the team to hold a sales pitch, this sales pitch is done in class.
Organizational Policy
Officially called “Organizational Policy”, but the professor actually is in the process of getting it renamed into Strategic Management. Numerous cases are going to be handled in order to analyse what strategic decisions different corporations took in their day to day management.
Approached to International Political Economy
My personal interest course, not saying that I am not interested in the above course but this is a course to broaden my horizon in a way that the HES does not offer me. The course is going to cover different views on economical policy. To my positive surprise we are also going to look at different financial upheavals of the past and the current and look at what the policy makers did to handle the distress in the economy.
Considering it all, I can conclude by stating that this semester is going to be a very interesting, challenging, educative, and of course fun.
Tomorrow (Tuesday for everyone back on the European continent) I will write something on the ice hockey game I attended this weekend!
Á bientôt
Un blizzard arrêté le touriste
Jan 4th
Bonjour!
Yesterday was the day that I was supposed to be the tourist, got up at 9:00 and although it was snowing pretty hard I decided to go out and go to Old Montréal. Old Montréal is the old city centre with great architecture and a beautiful harbor.
Once I got outside the weather got worse and worse, I quote a random guy from the street: “Thank god for global warming, otherwise the amount of snow that we would have had would have killed us all!”. Nonetheless, I still wanted to walk to my destination, Old Montréal.
Sadly, because of the weather I never made it to Old Montréal, however I did manage to take some nice pictures which can be found on my PicasaWeb. That means I still owe you guys pictures of Old Montréal and I hope to be go there somewhere this week!
I am also working on a replacement for PicasaWeb, because I would love to have the photo gallery integrated into my blog, but until further notice all my photos will go on PicasaWeb.
In 30 minutes I have an “exchange student advising session” and at 13:30 my first lecture, Investment Management, starts after which I have lectures until 21:00! Tomorrow I will give you a short update on how my first day of lectures was!
Á bientôt
Montreal, CANADA