Business & Busyness

 Hey guys! I'm Ollie Lloyd from Newport, South Wales and I'm currently staying in Rennes, France "studying" business on my exchange year.

Just thought I'd reintroduce myself because it's been so long since you've heard from me you've probably forgotten who I am! I'm very sorry for this, but I have been very busy experiencing Rennes these past few weeks, and the longer it took, the bigger the task would become, and the more my manipulative friend Procrastination 'Prokey' Jones asked me out for a drink instead.

So how have I finally gotten the time to go through with this post? Simple, I'm in an Entrepreneurship & Small Business class with a teacher who, nice as he is, is a bit of a bore. He talks at us repeatedly for three hours at a time, with only a ten minute break to rush to get some Coke. It's thanks to him that I'm now officially addicted!

But as Richard Ashcroft sang in the classic Verve song "the drugs don't work", and the Coke can only get you so far. The effort needed to listen to his lectures, in which he says the same thing in 9 different ways (typical businessman I guess) is just overwhelming, and after finally getting (kinda) used to the 8:15am starts, this is still too much for me, and I always dose off. FYI, my body clock is still in British time, so I technically get up at 6am every morning, so any Warwickers reading this can stop complaining about their 9ams!

He doesn't allow usage of phones or even laptops during class, so I can't distract myself. And as Prokey is still at home having a staring competition with the pile of unwashed dishes, I thought - hey, let's write my blog OFFLINE! Yep, I'm seeing things differently, just like Warwick Business School claim to do. They have pictures of blue strawberries - MINDFUCK!

Okay so where did we leave off? Shit - Disneyland?! You're kidding me, that was weeks ago! Dammit this might be a long one. I might need to do this through Project Management too.....


Disneyland

I was very excited to go to Disneyland last Sunday 24th September - but why? I've been there so many times I've actually lost count! Well, 50€ for return travel and entry is quite the bargain, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to bond with those who live with me in Appart'City.

The bus ride was a pain in the ass - and neck, and back, and legs. We got up to get the bus from school at 4am (well I didn't get up because I didn't even go to bed, but let's not get pedantic about this). While we were waiting for the bus to arrive, I cracked open a can of Coke (they've stopped putting cocaine in their drinks right?). STUPID DECISION! The bus ride did not consist of cheerful banter and sing-along songs (It's been a while since I've been on a school trip), but everyone trying to get some sleep. My friends and I took a double seat each at the back of the bus and tried to curl up. With the caffeine bubbling frantically in my oesophagus, and the double seats clearly not ergonomically designed to be laid across, this ended up being quite the struggle, and thus I started my new hobby - contortionism.

When we got there five hours later, my feelings were a strange mix of nostalgia - it had been a whole 13 months since my last visit - and sadness. The magic of Disney was wearing off on me. I was there not for the atmosphere, not to hug Mickey Mouse and ride It's a Small World, but only for the 'big kids'' roller coasters. Walking through the park I was shocked at my own thoughts. I wasn't thinking I was in a different world where happiness and hope is forever ubiquitous, and my favourite Disney characters were there in the flesh. (At this age only weed can do that for you.) I was busy thinking how high the park's daily operating costs would be and sincerely doubting that, even with such a massive consumer base, Disneyland's annual revenue would be enough to make profit: WHAT HAS BUSINESS SCHOOL DONE TO ME?!

And, even worse than that, I was checking out the girl dressed as Rapunzel. She had to be my age and Oh God WHAT HAS BUSINESS SCHOOL DONE TO ME?!

Okay so anyway my priority was to try Rockin' Roller Coaster, the Aerosmith ride, and the fastest roller coaster in the park. After a childhood distaste of roller coasters, I had only conquered it last year by riding Space Mountain twice, and I had not tried the ride that, with its blasting rock music and guitar-shaped carriage, had my name written all over it!

So far it was looking good. The wait time was only 35 minutes - perfect! But then things started getting a bit shit. We were all asked to leave after 20 minutes of queuing due to the ride having a fault (I pictured a group of 24 people screaming and dangling upside down as the carriage stopped mid-loop, one or two hanging on for dear life, having somehow escaped the safety bars) and as we looked elsewhere in the Studios park, the rides either had a 90+ minute wait, or they had also messed up (more dangling screaming people). Okay, to the main park!

I won't bore you (anymore) with the details, but despite missing out on Rockin' Roller Coaster, it was still a great day, definitely worth the money!


The guys

Maybe I should introduce you to the guys with whom I went to Disneyland, who have since become some of my closest friends here at Rennes. To protect their identities, their names have been changed. Just kidding, I'm using their real names!

Matt (England) - Coming from Weston Super Mare, close to Wales, and also studying in the Midlands (Birmingham) he is from a similar background to my own, and coupled with our shared love of music and comedy we have naturally got on very well. As the only other British guy at ESC Rennes (Chris has left Rennes by the way - forgot to drop that bomb eh! He didn't like it here and decided to endure a 3rd year at Warwick instead. Wishing you the best Chris!) the two of us enjoy talking about British culture, how we miss fish and chips, and teaching our international friends PROPER English, not the American drivel they've had forced upon them.

Itzel (Mexico) - with enough kindness, wit and general awesomeness to make up for her short stature, my IBPM classmate is a great laugh, and her accent is the most adorable thing you could hear!

Simon (Ecuador) - A really funny and chivalrous guy who's somehow studying IBPM in English with me after having learned the English language for just one year! He's improved greatly already, and his voice is AWESOME - I can do an impression of him, it's so much fun!

Satu & Jaana (Finland) - Yep, it's your signature pair, where one without the other is weird. Satu is fairly quiet, but very wise when she speaks, while Jaana's lightning-fast dialogue conveys confidence and indifference towards anyone who disagrees with her. They are both fantastic, and often make my day.

Annelien (Belgium) - She knows just about everything there is to know about her home country (politics, beer, cities, culture, sport - anything!) and is very clever - luckily for me, I work with her in most of my group projects. She's also a very talented singer and a joy to discuss music with.

Rob (Cyprus) - Okay, this dude didn't come with us to Disneyland, but he lives with us in Appart'City and is definitely worth a mention! He's a big lad with a bad-ass goatee, and if you didn't know him you wouldn't want to spill his pint! But then you see his Family Guy t-shirts and realise he is just a great laugh, with a soft sense of humour, referring to my home country as the 'U Gay'. Great dude to drink with too!

Yeah I probably shouldn't have exposed these guys online, but I feel I should - they're an integral part of my time here, and I think they're all awesome! And the mix of nationalities never ceases to amaze me. I feel humbled every day to be part of such a cosmopolitan group, and I get to learn so much about other cultures from all over the world, not just that of France.




My studies

Another reason for the delay in the blog update is the sheer amount of work I have been doing for my various courses. I realise I haven't really explained what I am actually studying here, so here's a brief outline of what I'm doing:

International Human Resource Management - I realise this is my favourite field of business study - dealing with people and human capital. When I finally get started with my internship applications, I shall be focusing on this line of work. Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest fan of my teacher, who doesn't really listen to anyone's opinion. Dude, this is organisational behaviour - bloody psychology! Everyone's entitled to an opinion, and he tends to ignore our suggestions, having just asked for them, in favour of his own views based on uncited research. One particular example that pissed me off was when we had a case involving a staff member who spends his lunchtimes on the Internet and the HR manager finds he has uploaded his CV on a job website. Instead of trying to get to the bottom of the situation, our teacher would just fire the guy instead for using company Internet bandwidth for non-work related matters, even if his job performance were flawless! He even compared improper use of company bandwidth to using a company car to take your kid to Disneyland for lunch time. WTF? Who takes their kid to Disneyland for lunch? 90 minute wait times!

After an hour arguing with him, asking if our mark would be based on our almost-psychic ability to say what he thinks rather than arguing our own opinion based on academic research and business cases, we had to accept that he just would not give way. When I mentioned how demotivating firing the guy would be, the manager audaciously claimed that that was what all the Fortune 1000 companies do. When I mentioned Google and Microsoft, he said 'the rest do it'. Um, what?! How do you know this?! Have you conducted research on all 1000 companies?! Do you even know the names of all the companies! Do you even know what a company is?! Ugh, he's an idiot, but at least the arguments wake me up on Monday mornings. PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 0.3

Project Management - this is taught by the same guy who teaches Entrepreneurship, and I don't really know the point of this class, because it seems to just fall in with the business plan that we have to do for the latter class. PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 1

Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management - apparently we have an exam at the end, but at the moment I'm doing exactly what I did in my first year - creating a business plan and pitching it, except this time it is only worth 30% of the class, and the info in the lectures seems to be geared towards that. PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 0.8

French Culture - Taught by a hilarious French professor resembling Bilbo Baggins, who himself claimed that the Finnish think he's either drunk or mad. It is quite a fun class, albeit a little pointless. I'm experiencing French culture firsthand through living here, meeting French people (which, by the way, I'm continuing to succeed at) and trying raclette - a great dish involving melted cheese and various cooked meats. So it seems studying it academically may be a waste of time. Fortunately, however, it is taught in fluent French, and is a great way for me to practise listening and understanding it. PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 0.1

French Language - Due to being in the top level, and having not studied French for two years beforehand, it is extremely difficult for me at the moment, especially considering the lack of any English. The teacher knows some English, but she'd rather flap her arms about doing strange motions to explain new words. I think to myself 'just say it in English, dammit!'. I presented for the first time last week (on Coca-Cola of course, while drinking Coca-Cola of course) and it actually went pretty well, and since then my confidence has gone up. This is definitely the most difficult class, and sometimes I'm as enthusiastic about it as a snail about to enter a salt factory, but this tactic of total immersion is used in Europe, according to Frieddie, and the Germans are brilliant linguists. Maybe this is the reason we Brits suck at foreign languages so much - we need to be taught like this from the start! PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 0.7

Distribution & Channel Management - With a topic that seems unnecessarily drawn out, and a teacher whose English and general voice projection is somewhat lacking, this class immediately became my least favourite. Furthermore, considering it is early on a Thursday morning, the day after my 6 hours of French classes (which is very tiring), and sometimes the open bar events that are on Wednesday nights, it just did not seem worth studying. So, to reduce my credits to a normal level, and to allow myself a much-needed mid-week lie in, I dropped this class after just one lesson. PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 2

Marketing Metrics - This is a VERY useful class, actually giving quantitative values to the otherwise wishy-washy field of studying that is marketing. Unfortunately the teacher is from Nice in the South of France, and her commuting means that we get only a few classes in this module, but they are intense and tiring - good job that it is so interactive. PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 0.5

Salesmanship & Sales Force Management - taught by a charismatic American who clearly knows what he is doing, this course has been a very interesting introduction for me to the field of sales, a subject that is not taught at Warwick. Like metrics, the classes are few and long, but as the teacher is so engaging, and the course is so interactive, it is easy to follow, and is currently my favourite course in business. PROBABILITY OF SLEEP: 0 (except the ethics topic - that was a higher score of 0.8)


So there you go, a summary of my studies. As you can see, I have had an awful lot to do here, but it is mostly interesting, so I do not mind it at all. Although the 3 hour classes do take their toll.


Busyness

Finally, I thought I'd summarise the past few weeks outside the classroom. The weather was great the weekend after Disneyland, and I spent most of my time chilling at le Parc du Thabord, a beautifully-maintained park in the centre of Rennes, with many different people, drinking wine and enjoying what will probably be the last great weather of 2011. 

Of course, with all my various new-found friends, there has been the odd night out or fifty. I want to dedicate this, my longest blog post, to my stomach, who is an absolute LAD. The mélange of substances he has had to deal with has been ridiculous, from strong Belgian beer, wine and vodka orange juice shots (I drank so many of those shots at the last open bar I probably got my 5-a-day!) as well as one night where I decided to cook chicken that was rather funky, having been in my fridge for a bit too long. I had to pull out of a cremaillère that I was invited to in case of my getting salmonella, but fortunately my stomach fought off the small amount of funky chicken that I had thoroughly cooked, and I was perfectly fine. If there was ever a time to get food poisoning, that was it! So thank you, my stomach. Your continous service is much appreciated, and I will not test you like that again (the chicken, not the drink).

Obviously, summarising nearly a month is very difficult, but of course, for me, there was only one more event of continual importance throughout - the Rugby World Cup, which has made me very proud indeed to be a Welshman. So proud, that I will have to dedicate a separate blog post will the awesomeness of the Welsh rugby team, because clearly, I have written enough here for now.

So once more guys, I am sorry for the delay, and I will try to update it more frequently so you can get more detailed stories. But this has been a very important update for me, because I have finally outlined a few important parts of my stay here.

So what's next? Well tomorrow, after French class, I will have a half-term holiday that, coupled with the holidays of All Saints Day, will give me nearly two weeks of vacation. I wanted to travel through Europe with Cam, but due to the high costs of last minute flights, I will probably travel in January instead. I shall stay here to do some catch-up work while some friends go visit their loved ones. However, hopefully I will have some more stories to tell very soon. For one, yesterday I made sure that I achieve my main resolution for 2011 - to visit a new country. I have booked a ticket to Amsterdam for the weekend of the 5th November to see the sights and try the local specialties. Stay tuned for this guys as it should be a good one to report!

For now, I'm bloody tired, so I should leave you. I'll add photos when I can be bothered.

You look great today by the way

Rant over

Ollie