The following abstract is a compilation of phrases been pronounced during the trip Berlin-Munich by either of these characters: Yuan – alias “Juancito” (Chinese), Martin (German), Maria (Mexican), Leon (8 year-old, German). The author has asked the actors permission to recreate this particular scene of a trip that promised to be a prelude to a Quentin-Tarantino film…

“I’ve just passed the exit…can you wait Juancito”? – Martin to Yuan who urgently needed to obey the call of nature.

“Can you translate mom?” – Leon trying to understand Yuan’s urgency

“Wanna a sandwich? – Maria to the crowd

“Give me some hope!” - Yuan to Martin regarding the search of the WC

“Can you ask him to play? Maybe he will forget” Leon who tried to keep Yuan distracted from his evident pain

“Oh, I missed the exit” - Martin missing for second time the gate to Yuan’s relief

“Give me a bottle!” - Yuan in desperation

“Why don’t you give him a bottle?” – Leon making a point of the above

“When are we going to make a stop?”-  Leon visibly concerned

“Just stop on the side and let him search a tree” – Maria to Martin after the repeated fiasco with the exit

“There!” All of us unison at the first sight of a WC sign

“Fantastish” – Yuan  (with a wide smile on his face) stepping into the car after taking care of the essentials

  To be continued….maybe

All good things in life are…10! Seven more modules and counting down.

In retrospective the first quarter has gone quite fast. We are all now into the learning rhythm again and the “oldies” like me (well, not quite but I look back to my student’s life some years ago now) can confirm that it can only get better and better. This second module transcended in my universe without major pain or glory but with the cumulative satisfaction of managing the life of academia, the life as a single mom and the future life as …well who knows for sure now?  Anyhow, my major achievement was jumping my own shadow…and that hurt on the ego…

During this module I confirmed once more the Hindu grace of problem solving and discovered again the infinite generosity of a well functioning team. We won the business simulation and we had fun in getting there: for Mirko “Kumar-Pannesi” Wagner together with Satyanaran Sundararaman Operations was kind of piece of cake. Ambar, Ritesh and I had the Marketing and Finance part well under control (“save the document, Ambar”!) and Dorothea kept exceptional good track of the overall activity while maintaining our spirits up and running.

But of all those episodes that this Module delivered the one that deserves a special place in esmt’s memorabilia is definitely the one delivered so elegantly by Dorothea during the Marketing class (see Gee’s column April 1^st). I regret we were not filmed by the cameras in the Auditorium! What a laugh!

My private episode though is the conclusion of the Advanced Marketing syllabus by Luc Wathieu… in his words is all about Belgian Buddhism (sic transit gloria mundi) and what he loves to expect from his scholars: decency, passion and smartness about business; audacity, cosmopolitism, critical thinking… He was and remains UNSTOPPABLE!

Yes, we are having the hang-over. The one of the first team, the one of Module 1. Two weeks ago Felix opened the doors of his home to his former team and prepared a table full of delicacies for the eye, for the body and for our spirits. To continue the non-spoken tradition, Super-Mirko and his fianceé received this Sunday the old “Berliners” in the deepest part of the West. To the surprise of my fellow friends there are beautiful alleys beyond Brandenburger Tor :  )  These evenings are proving to become legendary…the delight of the genuine German hospitality that breaks any cliché, the sincere laughter and the smile aside….the joy of sharing a good home-made meal. Who knows where we all are going to be in a year from now. For the time being, the case is calling…

With French is like a box of chocolates – you will never know what you’ll get. Therefore when dealing with them I am rather laid-back as I have experienced those citizens of la grand nation as terribly overrated (le stat ce moi!) but also those who are amazingly grounded to the earth.

Of all  the possible things that could happened along this way, having had a character like Monsieur de Véricourt as a teacher (he can call himself to be one) has been one of the most challenging and rewarding ones. Though his subject was rough and the path to the decision tree was at some times not the optimal one, the joy in the journey was to realize that even elements as myself, with the adequate motivation, do have the potential to overcome the limitations of analytical thinking. Now that it is over I will miss my teacher’s nonchalant style and his presence filling the classroom.

His subject, his method and his human warmth will prevail beyond Module 1 and hopefully, after graduation. This wonderful piece of lyric by Robert Frost reflects the essence of decision making. This is to thank my teacher and my team Berlin who helped me in the ordeal:

 Two roads converged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.