Hello my faithful readers:
It has been exactly 1 week since I last updated my blog and to be honest I've been too busy to give serious thought about what I could share here on the blog with you all. My classes are Monday - Friday from 9 AM - 17:30 (5:30 PM). I'm in 2 lectures per day, both approximately 3 hours long if you include the breaks we get. This past week we've gone until almost 18:00 in my last class of the day. I've already completed one class (Economics) and will be starting two new classes next week. Typically we get an hour and a half lunch break which never seem long enough. Today for example most of my lunch time was spent sitting through a presentation from the government run health insurance company (more about that in another blog, once I experience the system first hand). After classes are done, I meet with my group to discuss whatever projects we have together; then I get a bite to eat or start studying for the next days classes. There have been a few days where I walked in at 9 AM didn't leave campus until almost midnight. Intense schedule huh? Most of my classmates are experiencing similar situations!
Now that doesn't mean I'm not having a good time here, but I will say that the sheer amount of reading is overwhelming. I've started to become a lot more strategic about how I spend my time so I don't burn out too quickly, but it is tough. It's also a challenge for me to make sure that I'm getting enough quality time in with my new friends (not always as easy as it might seem). Getting things done personally is almost exclusively reserved for the weekends. I went to Ikea last week and only had time/resources to purchase half of what I need here in my new studio. I'll focus on buying the rest of it this weekend if I have the time.
We watched a video yesterday in my "Managing Across Cultures" class; the film highlighted 3 distinct stages of culture shock. Stage 1 is the honeymoon phase, Stage 2 is crisis and Stage 3 is the adjustment phase. I think that I'm somewhere between the honeymoon and crisis stages. I just hope that my crisis stage will be a short one, but so far my biggest frustration is dealing with my banking situation and not knowing how to quickly get things done here without a lot of run around. All of the running around of late has me quite tired, but I hope that I'll build up some endurance to the intense schedule soon.
I'm still waiting for my student loan money to clear the bank here - I deposited over two weeks ago now, but the money still hasn't posted to my account. To add insult to injury, I'm frozen out of my banking software (why I can't just do it online like I did in America mystifies me) and when I called about it they actually told me I would have to call back because I didn't enter the right code. When I tried that (about a week ago), I couldn't get back in touch with them. I haven't had the time to attempt more direct contact with the helpdesk from the bank, but if I don't get some help by tomorrow I'm planning to shift my money to another bank when (and if) it ever appears!
As far as figuring out how to get things done- I think that will come with time for me. I just need to be patient and make an effort to simply learn more of the Dutch language (at least enough to understand all of the bills I'm starting to get in the mail). Making friends who have lived in Leuven for a while would be a good start for me.
That's about all I have to say for now. I like my classes a lot and have to say that I'm impressed by the caliber of students and professors this program has recruited. I learn something new every single day both about business and myself. I'll have a few growing pains, but for now I'm savoring the honeymoon.
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
Showing posts with label time management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time management. Show all posts
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
A different way of doing things
Hello my faithful readers:
This week I have been focused on passing the pre-coursework my program has assigned us; all should be completed prior to the first day of classes on September 1. The school also ambitiously assigned us several books to read prior to our arrival here in Leuven. Out of the 3 classes we are to take online I have completed one and classes begin less than a week from now. I see a future with lots of nights spent here in the school (where I currently am) in my little study cubby.
I'll admit that in undergrad, (and even high school) I was never much of a disciplined studier. Nothing seems to motivate me more than an impending deadline and usually it is less than 24 hours away. With the workload that we're going to cover in this 1 year MBA program I will have to change some of my bad habits. I'll have to figure out more efficient ways to manage my time and spend less time surfing the web, checking my facebook page or just tweeting about how much studying I'm NOT doing.
Today was a poor study day for me, but I feel like it was time (mostly) well spent with getting other important tasks completed. I picked up my disbursement three checks from the International Office here at the school and learned that the student loan process for US based loans is very different here in Belgium than it is in the US. The biggest difference is that I got the first half of my loans (1/2 tuition + 1/2 living expenses) and I am responsible for making the payment to the school for my tuition. I took the checks to my bank and I was hoping that I could use a portion of my living fees expenses to pay the deposit on my studio. No such luck, apparently because of issues with check cashing fraud no Belgian banks allow you to cash checks. Ever! I deposited all of the money into my ING account, although the lovely woman couldn't give me a specific timetable of when I would have access to the money. One other (important) lesson learned at the bank today is that you should be very specific with them about the currency of the checks you're depositing. You should also keep in mind that here in Europe- the comma in currency is used in the same way as the decimal point is used in the US. I was glad that they checked with me because I would have been quite upset if they had assumed I was depositing checks for small dollar amounts(e.g. $5). That would have been a really bad exchange rate!
After doing the banking thing, I bought a few things that I needed in my room and went back to my kamer to grab a bite to eat and take a nap. That evening I needed to pay the deposit + 1st months rent to my landlord so I had to call and make special arrangements with my US based bank. I also set up my renters insurance since the same company has my current US renters insurance and luckily my rate is a little lower here in Leuven than it was in NYC, which is great considering Leuven is one of the safest cities in the world. I went to a couple of ATM machines here to withdraw the money and stopped by to pay the deposit to my new landlord. I also realized later that the exchange rates seem to be a whole lot better if you're withdrawing directly from the ATM machines.
Although I didn't get my intended studying completed, I learned that there are many differences in the ways that Americans and Belgians get things done. I think overall I'm going to learn more patience and become a lot more laid back after my experiences here. Plus I'll need to carry lots of cash around because lots of places don't seem to accept debit/atm cards here! That's enough of my rambling for tonight - I'll try to squeeze in at least one more blog this week, but for the rest of this week I'm all about getting my Statistics and Accounting courses completed!
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
This week I have been focused on passing the pre-coursework my program has assigned us; all should be completed prior to the first day of classes on September 1. The school also ambitiously assigned us several books to read prior to our arrival here in Leuven. Out of the 3 classes we are to take online I have completed one and classes begin less than a week from now. I see a future with lots of nights spent here in the school (where I currently am) in my little study cubby.
I'll admit that in undergrad, (and even high school) I was never much of a disciplined studier. Nothing seems to motivate me more than an impending deadline and usually it is less than 24 hours away. With the workload that we're going to cover in this 1 year MBA program I will have to change some of my bad habits. I'll have to figure out more efficient ways to manage my time and spend less time surfing the web, checking my facebook page or just tweeting about how much studying I'm NOT doing.
Today was a poor study day for me, but I feel like it was time (mostly) well spent with getting other important tasks completed. I picked up my disbursement three checks from the International Office here at the school and learned that the student loan process for US based loans is very different here in Belgium than it is in the US. The biggest difference is that I got the first half of my loans (1/2 tuition + 1/2 living expenses) and I am responsible for making the payment to the school for my tuition. I took the checks to my bank and I was hoping that I could use a portion of my living fees expenses to pay the deposit on my studio. No such luck, apparently because of issues with check cashing fraud no Belgian banks allow you to cash checks. Ever! I deposited all of the money into my ING account, although the lovely woman couldn't give me a specific timetable of when I would have access to the money. One other (important) lesson learned at the bank today is that you should be very specific with them about the currency of the checks you're depositing. You should also keep in mind that here in Europe- the comma in currency is used in the same way as the decimal point is used in the US. I was glad that they checked with me because I would have been quite upset if they had assumed I was depositing checks for small dollar amounts(e.g. $5). That would have been a really bad exchange rate!
After doing the banking thing, I bought a few things that I needed in my room and went back to my kamer to grab a bite to eat and take a nap. That evening I needed to pay the deposit + 1st months rent to my landlord so I had to call and make special arrangements with my US based bank. I also set up my renters insurance since the same company has my current US renters insurance and luckily my rate is a little lower here in Leuven than it was in NYC, which is great considering Leuven is one of the safest cities in the world. I went to a couple of ATM machines here to withdraw the money and stopped by to pay the deposit to my new landlord. I also realized later that the exchange rates seem to be a whole lot better if you're withdrawing directly from the ATM machines.
Although I didn't get my intended studying completed, I learned that there are many differences in the ways that Americans and Belgians get things done. I think overall I'm going to learn more patience and become a lot more laid back after my experiences here. Plus I'll need to carry lots of cash around because lots of places don't seem to accept debit/atm cards here! That's enough of my rambling for tonight - I'll try to squeeze in at least one more blog this week, but for the rest of this week I'm all about getting my Statistics and Accounting courses completed!
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
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