Little updates from the little birdie

So it is about time I update my blog readers (I have ceased to wonder about the reasons for their existence apart from the ikka dukka ones I know of :-)) about what is happening in my life apart from the cribs and the rants and the sobs and the frowns. So here goes, something fresh from my garden, for all those who care to have a whiff.

The end terms for Term 4 at IIM Kozhikode are under way and I am about half way through my papers. Although I have come to (come to, because I never intended to but somehow ended in) taking the maximum number of allowed subjects, the exams are not too much of a bother. With most of the papers in the marketing area being theoretical and expandable (in other words, global), things are pretty smooth and expected to be so till I leave Calicut on a three day train journey to home...and this time, I shall be gone for quite some time. 

In other news, I am all set to go to Paris in about a fortnight from now and I must say that as the days pass, I am getting more and more excited about the trip. Having grown up for the last decade on a diet of mostly Europe-centric books (right from the Five Findouters to Sherlock Holmes, et al), there has always been that feeling of awe for the region in me. Honestly speaking, anything faaren would have done just as well for a first timer (yes, I have never been abroad and for the records, this will be only my second flight over, the first international one, of course) like me but Europe simply takes the cake.

As if Europe was not enough, I start off (and in fact, even though I have all my plans for the Euro trip, I am actually supposed to be staying the entire three months) in Paris, the city that has been mentioned so many times by so many connoisseurs of arts as the best and the finest. If ever there were a capital of romance and romantics in the world, Paris would be the top contender for the position. Since I consider myself to be somewhat of a romantic, as well, I am sure that providence has been playing its role in putting me on to Paris.

The real (all right, official...all of you are such hecklers) purpose of the trip, of course, is the international student exchange of IIMK with ESCP-EAP, Paris and I am supposed to study (in caps??) one whole term of my management education out there. The subjects I have chosen there look pretty interesting as of now and if the teachers and course structure out there are even half as good as what I have set my expectations on, life should be fun.

Talking of courses, did I ever mention the courses I have been taking this term here at IIMK and the ones I am supposed to be taking at Paris? I suppose not, so for the record and to store the data for quite some time in the future (actually I really don't know why I am listing down the subjects but just felt like it), my Term 4 courses include:

Finance Courses
1. Fixed Income Securities
2. Management of Banking and Financial Services
3. Portfolio Management

Marketing Courses
1. Sales and Distribution Channel Management
2. Advertising and Sales Promotions
3. Retail and Franchising

Systems/Consulting Courses
1. Strategy Management (the only compulsory course)
2. Enterprise Resource Computing

Yeah, right! Quite a big fill, I know. But before you apply your stereotype and term me a nerd, here go the next term courses and you might just change your opinion or at least, confuse myself (how I love confusing people :D)

Finance Courses
1. Capital Markets and Financial Engineering
2. International Finance
3. Financial Intermediaries

Marketing Courses
1. Consumer Behavior
2. Marketing Communication

So there, with three day weekends and a lot of free time in the midst of the courses, I (and by now, even you) know what I am going to do in Paris. Europe, here I come!