So Cesc Fabregas signed for Barcelona this morning, the Nigerian Under 20 football team lost in the quarter finals of the Junior world cup last night and my pot belly has refused to evolve into a six pack....despite depriving myself of 'junk' food for the past few days....so its safe to say that i'm on the lookout for a 'pick me up' this morning....
The countdown continues....in about a month, i'll be packing my bags and heading out to Heathrow for what would hopefully be a mind blowing year of fun, stress, knowledge acquisition and even more fun! I am excited while nervous....excited at the possibilities that lay ahead and nervous at the total deviation from the familiar. I would be going into a city where i have no friends or even anyone vaguely familiar. I am particularly apprehensive about food. I am a Nigerian and by definition we love spicy food...our entire diet is brimming with spice. I've never been out of Nigeria for longer than a week before and I remember heading straight to a beer garden or restaurant from the airport to save my tongue from the blandness it had had to endure all week. Luckily, practically everyone would probably have an issue or the other. But first things first, I need to get my Visa issued.....in Nigeria, the UK operates a drop box system where you download and fill the forms, include all necessary documents go get your biometric data captured, and submit the form. It typically takes about 3 weeks to a month so fingers crossed.
I've been thinking about setting goals for the year. I read in an Oxford Alum's blog that you can only do two of three things well in Oxford.....Academics, Socials and Sports. Academics for me is absolutely key....its my intention to get on the dean's list (A list of the top performing students in the class) so as to counter my relatively weak undergraduate gpa. It might be an issue during recruitment season when companies have their pick of the best business school talent in the world. I would also need to look for 400 hours during the year to study for CFA. So that leaves one more slot....do i pick socials or sports. Now socials are important, afterall one of the reasons to come for an MBA is to create an extensive international network and you can only do that by socialising extensively. I also like sports...football is absolutely critical to me and i've been looking forward to the annual MBA Tournament in paris since i first started considering going back to school. I would like to believe I can engage in both and still do well in class. I guess time would make that decision for me.
Finally, the thorny issue of finance! My wonderful parents (bless them) have given me most of the money required. I have estimated that the entire year would cost me about £54,000 pounds....thats a very conservative estimate by the way. After also throwing in my life savings, i just, only just have enough to cover my expenses for the year. Its a tough decision to have to make......a significant investment. But like someone once put it, its not too much to pay for the priviledge of being an Alumni of the great Oxford University for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, the school has very limited loan and scholarship options so it has to be 100% self funded. This is something the school needs to change. We're (some of the incoming students) looking to work on this with the school.....
On that note, I leave you to mourn the demise of my once great club......
