Let the games begin!

-Anita Yehudai

Every year in May more than 1000 students from European business schools travel to the HEC campus close to Paris to compete in various sports. This year 2 bus loads of students, partners and kids from IMD made there way to this event called MBAT (MBA Tournament). Some of the participating teams had been practising for weeks or months- basically whenever there was a bit of leisure time during the tight schedule. For instance, the soccer team met every Sunday morning, the rowing team met on a few Saturdays, some people worked on their badminton skills on Friday evening, others met for a volleyball session, and there were loads of table tennis exercises every day after lunch. Regardless of the level of preparation, all teams had two things in common: the Olympic spirit from living in Lausanne (where the IOC is located) and tons of good mood.

The IMD partners probably presented the biggest group of MBA partners at MBAT and we made sure we got involved by either competing in a sport, cheering enthusiastically or doing both. I had the pleasure to play table tennis and pull the rope during the tug-of-war. Both teams were great!

In fact, the whole IMD crowd was so actively cheering and celebrating, we must have left a memorable image behind. As a result, we won a special award at the end of the games for fair play and team spirit!  

Here are some pictures of us partners and kids in action:

Beate [Germany] and the ultimate frisbee team

Swati [India] on the BabyFoot

Elena [Russia], Angelika [Greece], Anita [Germany] and Khatera [Germany] during the lunch break

Masha [Russia] practising for the MBAT 2035 

Helen [Norway] getting ready for the climbing competition

The cricket team before their match posing with Kate [Australia] and Mahima [India]

Nathalie [Belgium] explaining the rules of ultimate frisbee

Me with the table tennis maniacs

Beate[Germany] during a volleyball match

Mahima [India] and the other fans were cheering at the football match… 

…and even kept their enthusiasm when it started raining 

David [Peru/USA] and his dad watching… 

…Angela [USA] on the frisbee field 

Angie[Greece] while documenting the tug-of-war final…

...in which we won the gold medal! Yippie!

Partners on holidays (contd.) !!

Mahima - "Mystical Venice, Easter trip"

Mahima - "With Suchir at Barcelona"

Tatiana - "With Denis, Alex, Fabiana, Jose and Mariella. The Brazilian gang at Istanbul"

Isabella - "With Corinne and Camille. The little family enjoying life in Cannes, South of France"

Isabella - "Cannes, South of France"

Aude - "Alicia at Saint Gervais during Easter holidays"

Aude - "With Benoit at Les diablerets ski resort"

Angie - "Stelios and Nikos discovering skiing in Chamonix, France"

Partners on holidays !!

After three grueling months at the school, the participants finally got two long weekends in March and April. We partners were delighted to get out of the IMD bubble, if only for a few days, and spend sometime with our families. 

Below are some pictures from our various vacations over the two weekends -

Patricia - "Beautiful Interlaken - Awesome Alps views"

Patricia - "With Kelly. Chateaux hopping - Easter trip"

Swati - "With Prashant at Kleine Scheidegg, in Jungfraujoch region, Switzerland."

Beate - "With Peter. View of the town Locarno at Lago Maggiore"

Angie - "With Stelios and Nikos in Annecy -France"

Swati - "View of Lake Como, Italy and the Swiss Alps."

Anita - "In Gstaad, Switzerland, during my 1st time ever skiing experience."

Kelly - "With Henry, Patricia and Bruno at Loire Valley in France. Perfecting our 4-person own-made shot in the Loire Valley."

Angela - "With Andres and David at the Edelweiss Restaurant in Geneva. We'd spent the day exploring some of the parks and botanical gardens and ended up here for dinner."

Life in Switzerland from a Two Year old's perspective

- David Akamine

Dear blog reader,  

My name is David.  I am 2.  I live in Switzerland.  I learn English and Spanish.  I don’t speak French.   My Daddy is Andresito.  He is from Peru.  My Mommy is Angela. She is from U.S.  My old house is in Houston.  My friends live in Houston.  I went on a big plane to come to my new house.  Now I live in Switzerland. 

My Daddy studies at school.  Some days I am a big boy and I go to school with Daddy. I like my school (the IMD Kindergarten).  When Daddy comes home, I tell him about my day.  Sometimes I see his friends.  They are nice.  My friends are in Houston.  They can’t come to my new house.   Mommy’s new friends are fun.  I have new friends.  Our new friends come to our house.  We play and run. 

I like to tell people about my life.  Sometimes my Mommy has to help me so they understand.  I will tell you about Switzerland and Mommy can help me… 

To Daddy: Last night (a day during the Easter break) Mommy was eating with the girls.  I went to my school.  I bang on the door.  “Christelle, it’s David.  Let me in.  I want to come in.  Please, it’s me, David.  I want to come.” Mommy found me.  Mommy told me they were not there.  I have to wait ‘til after Easter...  

To one of the MBA students who asked him how he was: I fell at school and I had to go to the hospital.  I got an ‘owie’.  I had three stitches.  The Doctor gave me a card (a certificate).  I have to put cream on my eye to make it better.  It hurts sometimes.  Now it is better. 

To one of the partners: Last night Walid (an MBA student) took me to school.  We had breakfast.  I am Mr. Chocolate.  Walid gave me chocolate milk and chocolate croissant.  . . . Mommy, Is it Sunday?  I can have chocolate milk on Sunday, can’t I? 

At the check-out counter at Migros: Mommy, when I am big, I can have the candy.   

To some of the partners who were babysitting him: The curtains came from Germany.  I went skiing.  I am a good skier.  My Tio(uncle) Shige lives in Germany.  There is a playground at his house.  I can play at his park.   

To Aunt Crystal in the U.S.: My mommy goes to school some days.  She learns French.  Some days the girls (the other partners) come play with me.  Judy made me birds.  We have fun.  Sometimes I go play with them at school. . . . Mommy, where are my books from Kelly?  Some days I go with Miss Marianne to see the girls.  We have birthday parties. 

To Daddy, after our Easter-egg decorating morning with the partners: There were plastic eggs filled with carrots, peanuts and strawberries and we had an egg hunt for the two kids: Daddy, look what we made.  The girls came.  We made eggs.  I colored this one.  Mommy, what’s her name, who helped me? . . Natalie.  Natalie colored it for David and Daddy.  It has your name.  We look for eggs.  My chocolate melted.  The eggs had peanuts in them. I ate all the carrots. Nikos and David find the eggs.  We played bubbles.  We ran. 

To Daddy, after our outing to the Tulip Festival: Daddy, today we went out with the girls.  I play with Nikos.  We went on the boat.  We went to see the tulips.  There were red and yellow tulips.  They were big.  I had ice cream.  I share with Styopa.  I share my car with Styopa.  I was a good boy.  I didn’t cry.  I play with the girls and I was obedient.  I threwed big rock into the water.  It made a big splash.   

 

I like my new home and my new friends.    

 

Good-bye, Blog Reader!

Why I come to Lausanne...

- Kim Jung Hyun

I am Kim Jung Hyun, also known as Judy to my friends. I am married to Kim Young Ha and we are from Korea. I worked in Korea as a research engineer for LG.

Young Ha and I were married at the end of 2007; and he received news of his acceptance from IMD in April 2008.

From then on, it was a diffcult period for us, as we had to think about whether I should come to Lausanne or not. For 6 months, my husband and I considered and discussed about this and eventually, the decision was to come to Lausanne together.

I knew that I would have to give up many things in my life, including my job and my career, but for me, the reasons I need to move to Lausanne were bigger than these. There were several reasons, but the main reason is that I love Young Ha a lot and I'd like to take time out from work and spend more time with him in Lausanne. I'm thinking that if I didn't come here, maybe Young Ha and I would have a difficult relationship with each other.


However, I don't want to say that I sacrificed for my husband, because that will not help our relationship; also, because I came here partly for myself - I would like to take a rest and feel that this can be good time to think about what I really like and what I really want out of life.

I quit my job and I came. Right now I'm enjoying my life in Lausanne and supporting my husband as he works hard at IMD. I am also taking French lessons and meeting new friends.

I stayed in the US when I was in university student for studying English. And now, when I remember that time, I smile at the memories. I believe that I can smile too, when I look back at my life in Lausanne when I'm 40 and 50 years old.

Recipe of the month - Asian style cod with vegetables

- cooked and contributed by Kelly Chong, photographs and notes by Anita Yehudai

Serves: 3-4
Preparation time: 10min
Cooking time: 30min

Ingredients:
* 1 big onion (or more)
* 2 slices of cod (each ca. 200g)
* 1 big ripe tomato
* 4-5 mushrooms
* ginger (thumb size)
* 2-3 cloves of garlic
* 6 leaves of chinese cabbage
* 2 chili pods (preferably small red chilli)
* 2 stalks of spring onions
* pure sesame oil (1 tablespoon)
* Chinese cooking wine (Shao Xing)
* premium oyster sauce (slightly more than 1 tablespoon)
* cornflour (or alternatively plain flour)
* pepper
* about 10 wolfberries (or amount to your liking)
* fried onion (as extra condiment)

Preparation:

* Cut the chili and take out the seeds. Cut the onion into slices. Dice the garlic. Slice and cut the ginger into strips. Slice the tomato and mushrooms. Discard the outer leaves of the cabbage and cut out the required number of leaves. Cut the leaves into 3-4 sections. Cut each slice of fish into 3 pieces. Soak the wolfberries in cold water.

Cooking:

1) Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onion, ginger and chilli and fry in the pan till onion is translucent and the ginger is fragrant. Add the garlic and fry. Watch that the garlic does not get burnt.
2) Add the tomato and cabbage. Fry till cabbage is turning translucent and tomato starts to turn soft.
3) Add the dark soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir into the vegetables.
4) Add the mushrooms, spring onion and the sesame oil into the pan and fry some more to ensure the vegetables absorb the taste.
5) Add some cold water to the cornflour to make about a quarter cup of mixture. Pour this into the pan and stir.
6) Remove wolfberries from the water and discard the water. Throw the wolfberries into the pan.
7) Place the fish in the pan now, making sure to turn the pieces now and then to cook both sides. Turn gently as the fish breaks easily.
8) Add in the Chinese wine, making sure that is mixed evenly with the rest of the ingredients. (NB: Always add Chinese wine last in terms of sauces, so as to retain the taste.)
9) Finally, add in pepper and fried onion to taste and cover the pan. Turn down to low heat and and let the dish simmer.

Serve the dish with white fragrant rice. (Thai rice is recommended)

Welcome

- Angelika Vytogiannis

Herewith I would like to welcome all to the IMD PARTNERS BLOG 2009!!!

I am Angelika Vytogiannis from Greece, married with Stelios and I have a son named Nikos, 2 years old. Being an IMD partner is a great honor and privilege for me, so let me tell you why!

When Stelios announced to me that he was accepted in one of the best leading MBA business schools in the world called IMD I felt really proud and the countdown for our new life began.

In the months of preparation before leaving home our emotions were mixed- enthusiasm, anxiety, curiosity, excitement but simultaneously fear and stress for the unknown and the new life ahead us. What moved me most was not leaving my country or my home but leaving my beloved relatives and friends. I confess I had crying moments before leaving, but on the other hand I told to myself that this once-in-a-lifetime experience will be amazing! And now I see I was right!

So here we are, in Lausanne already for two months! Lausanne is a small but beautiful Swiss city - ideal for family life, which was something that made me feel secure and relaxed.

The first two weeks were not so easy for us, not only because we were still settling down, but also because of Nikos’s accident in the second day of our stay in our new “home”. Although we were panicky and not ready to deal with our bad–luck, IMD was! Chris Eaborn, our insurance contact set up by IMD, saved the situation within ten minutes! He gave us the appropriate advice and directions, but most of all he gave us courage and the feeling that we were not alone or strangers in a strange city. It was one of the proofs that IMD really makes you feel at home!

When Nikos was recovered and everything was back in order again, it was time for us to join the ski-trip in Champery, which one of the MBA students organized. There, I had the chance to meet the first few students and their partners. The atmosphere was very friendly and full of smiles! We had a great time and it was a good chance to get to know each others, to relax and enjoy some family time before the course began.

We all looked forward to the ‘Welcome Lunch’ that IMD organized, and on that day the IMD’s restaurant was filled with students, partners, children, professors, IMD staff celebrating altogether this warm ‘welcome’ to IMD and to Lausanne . The enthusiasm was almost bursting through the walls of the building! Finally the “names”, we already knew through the IMD portal correspondence, became real people hugging and kissing each other. And there we finally met Marcella Rispo, the Partner’s Coordinator; a wonderful woman full of energy, who was herself an ex-IMD partner and knew what we were going through. She is our helping hand in difficult moments and our guide in our new life in Lausanne. She is also the one who helps the group get going and motivates us to take full advantage of this wonderful one-year opportunity to live and know more about the Lausanne way of life as well as other cultures.

Many of the partners have started already French lessons and gym classes. There are also briefings and meetings organized by Marcella to help the mums and mums-to-be answer our children’s needs.

The most important among us partners, is that, after two months of dealing with a new life, we have managed to organize ourselves, to become close to one another and I dare say, to even become good friends! We share our feelings, our problems, our experiences, we help one another and above all we have fun and are enjoying ourselves! Proof of that is that we meet once per week for coffee and chat, for lunches and dinners, for DVD nights, for birthday celebrations! We also made trips around Lausanne and visited museums together.

So we are all here in Lausanne, supporting our partners, giving them the courage and the strength to continue with the rigorous course !

We are here, enjoying every moment, as we learn and grow together in this journey!

The IMD PARTNERS BLOG 2009 opens and welcomes you to follow our journey with its bad and good moments! Enjoy the ride because we already do!

Last but not least -: Special thanks to IMD, to the MBA office and to Marcella Rispo, who make us feel at home and make us feel part of a big FAMILY!

My best wishes to all!