Singapore Adventure: INSEAD – not only a business school but also home to social events

This blog entry is going to talk a bit more about INSEAD, Simon’s educational home for this year. The primary reason for Simon to choose the school over others, as mentioned before, was its very good reputation and the international network. In his first few terms, he did have a lot to work – it was really like a full time job with hours only a bit less than in his consulting work. On top of that it turns out, however, that it is also a lot of fun. INSEAD is hosting a number of social activities and involves the student’s “partners” (girlfriend / boyfriend / wife / husband) quite well. Some of the activities have already presented to you in this blog, be it the Heart of Europe national week or just travel events with a number of students.

The INSEAD cabaret

Twice a year, the artistic talent of the student body is brought out in an impressive way. INSEAD goes cabaret. A big organizational team put together a show that ranged from music performances to choreographic dances or even slapstick comedy. The most amazing parts of the cabaret were the creativity of the 13J students (the ones graduating in July) for whom it was the final social activity and they re-texted some popular songs to fit into their INSEAD experience. Also, the group of students from the Indian subcontinent would have an amazing dance prepared and the Chinese students had practiced a Panda dance, including a fun video that was rolling in the background. The highlight is every year the men's ballet. The choreography was actually taught by a student with 10 years of ballet experience... The execution was left to the male students graduating in July 2013. This activity will be repeated once in December before Simon’s promotion graduates – Ana and Simon are already looking forward to that now!

The MCs

INSEAD's infamous men's ballet

National Bidding Day

The concept of the national week was already presented to you in the Heart of Europe blog. Well, these national weeks are really a big thing and in order not to interfere with the academic activities too much, there are a limited number of possible weeks per year. Since there are more nationalities / regions that are interested in presenting themselves, they need to lobby for student support which is done on the National Bidding Day. When it happened, the students from Lebanon, the Indian subcontinent (“DESI”), Portugal, Eastern Europe (“Soul of Eurasia”), the US, Canada and Africa would present themselves with stands on campus, serving national food and having several exhibitions. Especially the crowds from Lebanon and DESI were very loud and optimistic, having a large number of students from the respective countries and they even had a belly dancer who would give a spectacular performance. When it came to the actual voting, each country had 10 minute time slot to present themselves which was normally done with a video and some sort of dance. DESI really hit it off with a whole “Bollywood” type soap opera produced as well as dancing on the stage. Afterwards, we had some more national drinks at the courtyard at INSEAD – a great way to spend a Friday.

The Portugese team

Jalla Lebanon

The three Spanish ladies (too few for a team) just dressed up nicely anyhow

DESI - Pakistani and Indians finally united!

The INSEAD Olympics

Furthermore to the academic and the fun challenges at INSEAD, there is also a competition involving sports. A consulting firm sponsored event, the BCG Olympics, is held on a Sunday in Sentosa Island, the weekend getaway island connected to Singapore via a bridge. On a large beach area, students from all sections (the “classes”) would get together and compete against each other in events such as beach volleyball, swim relay, beach soccer and dodge ball. Simon helped the beach soccer team to secure a second place whereas Ana helped on the swim relay.. There were also a lot of fun activities for “extra points” such as building a human pyramid. At this stage, the “mascot” of Simon’s section needs to be mentioned. One of his fellow students was in Singapore with wife and kid. 2 year old Ike would be involved in almost every INSEAD activity during the day – also at the Olympics. So no wonder that at the end, he would be on the top of the pyramid lifted up by his mum. Simon’s section ended up winning the overall competition with great support from Ana which they celebrated with a trophy in class.

The winning pyramide

Where are the people from? (Roughly a globe)

People would get quite competitive!

The DASH

A tradition on the Singapore campus developed years ago that saw a few students dressing up in costumes and going to school like that for a day. Well, it really becomes fun when 95% of the students are doing that and are always motivated to beat the spirit of the prior class. In 2013, this meant that people would hire the most spectacular or just plainly ridiculous costumes. A group of students was dressed as the Angry Birds, the whole Star Wars saga was present and some characters were not quite recognizable but fun nevertheless. They would all meet around 7:30 am in front of one of the apartment blocks were most students lived and then make a procession to school – much to the amazement of the Singaporeans that they passed, including a number of school kids since they were passing a high school on the way. Sounds a bit weird? Well, it definitely was but much more fun if one participated in it. Also Ike, our section mascot was helping his dad look great. The most random costume though was a student dressed like a shark with a very, very big head... and do not forget it was still 30 degrees Centigrade and quite humid...