Good Evening,
I have just returned from a night on Place d'Erlon. The IM LUX group has concluded 3 days of introductory activities, where everyone in the program (all 41 of us) got to learn about the school, the cities we'll be living in, and about each other. We have visited champagne houses, surrounding towns where grapes are grown, participated in team-building activities, and generally had a good time. Fun note: less than 20% of students in the program are male. How's that for a statistic?
Anyway, here's a quick summary of some of the activities we've enjoyed over the last few days:
Wednesday, Day 1, was primarily an administrative day. Various people presented the different aspects of the program, and we were introduced to some our professors and alumni from last's year inaugural IM LUX class. We visited Champagne Taittinger, one of my top 2 favourite champagne houses, and enjoyed a nice lunch at the university. One of the alumni held a small party at his conveniently-located and spacious apartment, so we got to have a little late-night fun.
On Thursday, we joined forces with the MIM (Master's of Int'l Management) group, which is about half the size of our crew, to learn more about the school in general. We also had some team-building activities, which included building a structure which could protect and egg from a 3-metre drop, and creating a percussion ensemble, with full performance in front of a small audience. By the end of the day, I'd personally met 90% of my classmates, and a few MIM students, memorizing roughly 50% of the names. Somewhat of a challenge there, considering the variety of backgrounds, but hey, that's half the fun.
Friday was our trip to Épernay and Hautvillers, two towns just outside of Reims which house many of the most important vines and producers in the region of Champagne. In the morning, we visited the Mercier cellars, now owned by LVMH, and followed that up with a lunch at La Ferme des Presles, a beautiful country property where a woman in her 60s prepared a delicious lunch for about 80 students. Épernay is a beautiful town with incredible vistas. The lunch we had was delicious as well, and included foie gras, so you know I was happy. Following lunch, we drove to Hautvillers for a scavenger hunt. Divided into groups, we crossed the town looking for clues to solve a puzzle and win a prize. My group didn't win, but it was fun. I kind of wish we'd just had free time there; all the focusing on the map and the questions that were part of the game took away from attention that could have been paid to the rolling hills covered in vines, the half-century-old buildings and the parts of the town that the scavenger hunt led us to discover in the first place. A map and 2 hours of walking time would have been enough to appreciate the small town, without any added distractions.
After all the running around, we returned to Reims. I made dinner and then went downtown, where I was joined by about half of my classmates (those who were not too tired) for an evening drink or two (or five, whatever).
All seems to be going well. I am feeling lucky to be in a country I love, in a city I like, studying something that is interesting and useful, surrounded by intelligent, fun and frankly beautiful people. But enough of this introspective sentimental shit. Go check out some pictures on Facebook, where they are presently proving slightly easier to upload.
I have just returned from a night on Place d'Erlon. The IM LUX group has concluded 3 days of introductory activities, where everyone in the program (all 41 of us) got to learn about the school, the cities we'll be living in, and about each other. We have visited champagne houses, surrounding towns where grapes are grown, participated in team-building activities, and generally had a good time. Fun note: less than 20% of students in the program are male. How's that for a statistic?
Anyway, here's a quick summary of some of the activities we've enjoyed over the last few days:
Wednesday, Day 1, was primarily an administrative day. Various people presented the different aspects of the program, and we were introduced to some our professors and alumni from last's year inaugural IM LUX class. We visited Champagne Taittinger, one of my top 2 favourite champagne houses, and enjoyed a nice lunch at the university. One of the alumni held a small party at his conveniently-located and spacious apartment, so we got to have a little late-night fun.
On Thursday, we joined forces with the MIM (Master's of Int'l Management) group, which is about half the size of our crew, to learn more about the school in general. We also had some team-building activities, which included building a structure which could protect and egg from a 3-metre drop, and creating a percussion ensemble, with full performance in front of a small audience. By the end of the day, I'd personally met 90% of my classmates, and a few MIM students, memorizing roughly 50% of the names. Somewhat of a challenge there, considering the variety of backgrounds, but hey, that's half the fun.
Friday was our trip to Épernay and Hautvillers, two towns just outside of Reims which house many of the most important vines and producers in the region of Champagne. In the morning, we visited the Mercier cellars, now owned by LVMH, and followed that up with a lunch at La Ferme des Presles, a beautiful country property where a woman in her 60s prepared a delicious lunch for about 80 students. Épernay is a beautiful town with incredible vistas. The lunch we had was delicious as well, and included foie gras, so you know I was happy. Following lunch, we drove to Hautvillers for a scavenger hunt. Divided into groups, we crossed the town looking for clues to solve a puzzle and win a prize. My group didn't win, but it was fun. I kind of wish we'd just had free time there; all the focusing on the map and the questions that were part of the game took away from attention that could have been paid to the rolling hills covered in vines, the half-century-old buildings and the parts of the town that the scavenger hunt led us to discover in the first place. A map and 2 hours of walking time would have been enough to appreciate the small town, without any added distractions.
After all the running around, we returned to Reims. I made dinner and then went downtown, where I was joined by about half of my classmates (those who were not too tired) for an evening drink or two (or five, whatever).
All seems to be going well. I am feeling lucky to be in a country I love, in a city I like, studying something that is interesting and useful, surrounded by intelligent, fun and frankly beautiful people. But enough of this introspective sentimental shit. Go check out some pictures on Facebook, where they are presently proving slightly easier to upload.
