NYC & Columbia: From A to Z

A as Asian Girls. Lots of them. I would say 70% of the ones around, especially on campus. If you love the kind, this is da place to be.

B as the Bell Curve, a remote shade of the first year grading system. No one cares anymore about it, because professors don't use it anymore! And without doing anything, at the end of the term is still raining "A"s.

C as Central Park. Two corners down the campus you have the best place for a nice autumn walk or a 10k run up and downhill. Lakes and paths give you one of the best overview of the skyline of downtown.

D as dates. You don't have relationships or affairs. You have a date. You go out together, you sleep together, if u are a man you pay restaurants and drinks (a lot), but fundamentally you are free to have more than one date at a time and nobody is hurt by this. ROI is low, ROE (return on effort, is high)

E as Espanol. Impressive how everything here is in double language, English and Spanish. Like in a big IESE: but with many more Yolanda Serras!

F as Fitch. Abercrombie & Fitch. Probably the only store that you can find in NY but not in Europe. Trendy clothes at cheap prices. It's worth a visit just to be sorround by half naked male and female models pretending to be clerks. It was supposed to be under "A" but then i wouldn't be able to fit the asian girls.

G as Guest House. I would say the club i loved more. No cover charge, high selectivity at the entrance, soft lights, nice people, good music. Ok probably the best music in town is still at CIELO.

H as Havana. The best corn I ever ate is here. An probably will be the best also for you. Don't miss the mojito too. Five of them at 5pm are the best kickstart for the night.

I as IESE! Obviously i missed home. I missed Huy, Matteo, Noelle, David, Rafa, Enrico, Marc, Bertie, Alexia, Jan Erik, Inigo... ok i cannot write hundreds of name. Sorry for the ones i haven't mentioned.
But I am glad i came here for the people I met. So many people and sooo nice. I really want to keep in touch with them and I hope this will be easy since are almost all italians! Italians rule at columbia.

J as Jose Padilla. Huy gave me his 6 mix and i kept listening to it for 3 months. Definitely the soundtrack of my exchange at Columbia. Addicted.

K as Kuruvilla. My surname for the first 25 years of my life. Then somebody at the city register made me notice that my surname is Ottathycal. So i changed everything, my driving licence, my id, my emails. But not my signature. It's difficult to change surname. I can't belive Sean Combs changed his name in Puff Daddy.

L as the free Lunch. There's no free lunch? I had so many at the companies' presentations. And it's really free because you can grab your piece of pizza and walk away. At IESE you cannot even carry a coffee in a classroom. Here you can have beers and pizza while the head of goldman sachs is presenting the company (and paying for your pizza).

M as Marco Seboldi! Flatmate in barcelona, flatmate in NY. I don't understand how he can bear me around all this time but i know i can always count on him And this is great!

N as Networking. Columbia gives you an exposure to alumni, professionals and companies that unfortunately IESE cannot do. Lots of events on and off campus. The best way to look for a job if you are not happy with the summer internship.

O as oranges. I'm bored to hear that "you cannot compare apples with oranges". Why the fuck are they not comparable? Obiviously they are! Let's start with the color. One is orange, the other is red, yellow or green! And if you peal them, there are many more differencies inside!

P as Parties. Too many i would say. But that's the essence of the second year.

Q as a Quarter of a Dollar. As for the other coins, given the short period i stayed here, i refused to learn their value. So i never used them. The result is that now I have a pile of coins in my room that are worth some 50 dollars. I think i will end up givingh them to the homeless who beg for change.

R as ratios. If there is one thing that you really use a lot during the second years, are the ratios. ROI, ROE, Gearing, Debt Coverage. Whatever you do, you end up with a ratio that should tell you something important. The rest, is useless and you leave it to the first years.

S as back in Shape! A light school workload, the availability of a huge gym on campus and central park round the corner made me able to go back in shape after a summer spent eating like a fat pig in Rome. However, without the role of smoke and alcohol better results would have been achieved.

T as tacky. Finally I got to know how to say this in english. And in New York you have plenty of occasions to use it, especially if you enjoy watching at people.

U as Uris Hall. It is the building hosting the business school at columbia... and the Uris Library, Uris Deli, Uris Lehman Brothers room.. and so on.

W as the amazing Easte of money I experienced here. Without even noticing it, I completely used all the intership salary plus the rent i got from my flat in Milan. Now my post-MBA vacation in Asia and/or South America is really @ stake. I need another internship to cash in something.

X as the eXpress line of the metro. It never works when you really need it, which is around 4 or 5 in the morning.

Y as Youth. When you do an MBA you shift back your mind to the age of youth. You go back to school, to parties, to freedom, to late hours, no sentimental relationships, no responsibilities. Then, after the MBA, this will end. And we'll shift back to the real world of a boy (or a girl) of 28. And maybe, we'll realize that something or someone important has been lost along the way.

Z as Z. "Who's Zed?". "Zed is dead baby, Zed is dead!" (pulp fiction)

Did i miss something? Ah yes, I missed the V. Indeed I missed her a lot.