The First Weekend of School

The first weekend surpassed my expectations of life outside the MBA program. IMD’s reputation is very much of a no-nonsense, hard work program where people don’t get to have much of a life outside the school, but I was glad to see that this year’s students are not interested in perpetuating that rumor.

We had accounting class on Saturday morning from 8am – 12pm, and afterwards we split up to do individual tasks. Some people stayed at school to work on optional accounting exercises or to read ahead for classes this week, while others went to exercise or run errands around town. I went to the train station to investigate ticket prices for skiing on Sunday, because the train station offered a combined “train ticket and lift ticket” package for a reduced price.  In the end I decided to take up a fellow student’s offer and go by car instead.

On Saturday night I met up with six other students to try a sushi restaurant, Ichi Ban, that was next door to my apartment on Ave D’Ouchy, about ten minutes walk from school. One of them was a Japanese student, Hitoshi, so we had him do all the ordering for us, and his selections were fantastic. We had edamame, sashimi, sushi, rolls, tempura, roasted steak, miso soup, rice and lots of sake. The fish was really fresh and the steak cooked to perfection. After dinner we met up with other students at a club in the center of Lausanne for a “few” drinks.  The turnout literally must have been at least 50 of the 90 students, and we had an absolute blast.  We stayed until the club closed at 2am and then walked about 20 minutes home in a group.  It was one of the funnest nights out I've had in a long time.