I know I know. I promised that he should work on it but he!, just no time.
I just returned from my trip to Amsterdam and Dublin: Great fun. Dublin is the town I’m going to live in for the next few months/years, who would have thought that? Singapore was my dream but every dream ends somehow and this one will end in a thunder storm in Dublin! But the positives: I can do some random Kitesurfing!
Because some people complained that I didn’t publish any pics with costumes, I’ll make a sequal to the Halloween 2006 series…… just dont asked what I was doing (drinking / eating with chopsticks a mix of vodka and watermelon in a taxi to a karaoke bar where we were not thrown out despite of all the rumors)
Nick and I went today to the city to get ourselves a halloween outfit… damn what are these suits uncomfie when it’s 30 degrees outside… But the result is there!
Arriving at Campus I get this feeling that nothing changed and that all personel of INSEAD still know me by name or heart. Cindy , my favorite bar lady of the INSEAD bar was especially thrilled 
. She deserves a place in my cyberspace…
This lovely little girl had an important role at the wedding of my brother: she had to give the rings to them….she rather kept them for herself!
Now I’m again moving my ass to Singapore I think I should do something to show my family and friends my life and what I am doing. Since writing takes a lot of time and an image says more then a word, I’m going to publish a pic a day. Every day I’ll try to make picture or a short movie so you guys can peek into my life. The series starts at my brothers wedding (the 28th of october)….
![Wedding Robert and Jolanda [Bakker]](http://unitedstatesofpeter.com/United%20Gallery%20of%20Peter/A-Pic-a-day/weddingrj.jpg "Wedding Robert and Jolanda [Bakker]")
So I became a member of the INSEAD Rugby club: “The INSEAD Barbarians”…. Wow, a lot of work though: training, inaugural drinking, training, inaugural drinking, getting hit and kicked by big men and after 5 trainings still no clue about the rules. Then we are invited to attend the Bangkok Rugby 10’s: A tournament where teams from all over Asia compete for a Bowl, Cup or Plate, depending on the level they play…. We play for the Plate….
Arriving at INSEAD to receive our tour kit (a bizarre Chinese outfit) and the tour book I finally know what my position is: I am a Forward. These are the guys in the second row of the scrum putting their heads through the first row….we hastily go to a rugby shop to buy a mouth guard and a scrumcap: believe me you need this as second row!
After we arrive in Bangkok we go to the registration and do some initial drinking and land in our beds at about 4. At seven the alarm clock signals that it’s to be beaten up: gogogo. I just can’t eat breakfast and I feel absolutely miserable and the thought of playing rugby in a few hours without any proper training doesn’t make me feel better.
Arriving at the pitch (=the field) the guy screaming random comments through the microphone tells with a sense of proud that one of teams has Robby Kingstead in their team. I ask my team mates who the hell this guy is…. Ow, a guy who played a decade in the South African national team… and they will be our first opponents… Holy shit: I feel even more miserable.Since my current state doesn’t allow me to play I pass the most of the time of the first match on the toilet deciding if I should shit or puke and finding ways to do it at the same time.
A few hours I feel better and the temperature is a mere 35 degrees and I am on for my first game of rugby in my life. Somebody wants to reassure me by saying: “only the first tackle really hurts, after then you’re so pissed that you won’t feel it ’
Two times 12 minutes later I know he is right: It fucking hurts but what a thrill: absolutely a fantastic sport!
In the evening we went out Bangkok style and we ended up in vague bars where all other rugby teams were hanging out. The guys who tried to run you down in the morning congratulated me on a great tackle and the fact that I played my first game.
Next day we played for the loser’s cup and we defended fiercely our last place in the tournament and we even scored one try (a touchdown). It was not hard to defend the last place since we could not get more than 7 people on the field. One of us broke his finger so we ended borrowing 4 players from other teams. The rest of the players was too lost to find the pitch and showed up for the third game or some even after we were finished…
The afternoon was followed by some random temple visits and souvenir buying to make sure we had a physical memory from the tour accept for the blue spots on our bodies. In the evening we tried some excessive drinking (we passed) and I ended up missing the plane the next day. Fortunately I had a changeable ticket and Thai Airways allowed me to be in class around noon. Sitting uncomfortable on my sour ass in class I realized I discovered a very cool thing… getting beaten up by some random guys and hanging around with your rugby buddies in a string of bars in Bangkok… or bar of strings, whatever
see the pics at pic department:
After a tedious new years eve after whicgh I couldnt fall asleep I finally arrive at Charles du Gaulle in Paris. Just a few hours ago my mum and Peter brought me to the airport and here I am: starting my new adverture….INSEAD. It is something I worked quite hard for and now: it’s starting. Because my Math skills stem from 1996 I thought it would be wise to do the Pre-MBA course.
Three days later I felt like a freight train just ran over me. Day after day we got initiated in the INSEAD way of living… from 8 till 23 hr busy with stuff you’re unfamiliar with. Fantastic to feel the cohesiveness and friendship develop after only a few days of hard work. Now on my way to Singapore to start the real thing
INSEAD invites her admitted MBA candidates to the campus. I thought I would be a good idea to meet my new classmates so I went and ran into a major partyzone..
Friday evening I arrived at the INSEAD residence and after checking in I went to the bar to get some late evening snack/beer. Just after downing this lonely beer, some other admits walk in. I don’t know why but the Brittons where over-represented. Most of them knew about a party which was going on at Villecerf and suddenly a part of the group appeared all dressed up…( as banana-man Frankenstein-man, and ‘am-myself-man).
So it seemed to be a Theme party, like all the parties seem to be at INSEAD, and the theme of today was “SuperHeroes [dont drink]“. I chatted up the gay bar tender and convinced him to give me his cooking skirt. I put some red stuff on it and transformed myself to “The Butcher Man”. Who hasn’t heared of the famous Butcher Man? After some basic drinkin’ and chattin’ we went with a few cars to Villecerf.
Wow, absolutely wow. The guys at VilleCerf have a briliant place and made quite an effort to spice the place up. The rest of the night was basic, some drinks (2 much specially imported and sponsored italian beer anyway), some random dancing, meeting tons of people whose name I forgot, a lot of laughs and some amazing costumes (Superman en Spider man were normal super heroes; Silverman and Bicycle Man were a tad strange but “Naked man” was absolutely bizar… [yes he was naked like the Red Hot Chili Peppers were])
The next day there were two kinds of admits. The one who did go to the party and the ones who didn’t. One group looked and felt like shit and the other group was sorry not to feel like shit. The day was well organized with meeting all fellow classmates, some faculty and alumni as, for me, the most useful activities. I was as well very impressed by the helpfull staff of all departments wether it was regarding the languge requirements, the logistics or exchanging idea’s about joining academic groups. Never met so many interesting people in one day and to be sure we would remember this day the INSEAD staff even arranged a photographer who made a corny “My first class at INSEAD”-picture… I will keep it as as memory of the start of my INSEAD life!
In the evening there was a chateau diner ending in a bar whose owner forgot halloween was finished and who kicked us out at about 1. Then we finished the night with some random pool-shooting and some beers in INSEAD residences.
Personal conclusion of the butcher man: INSEAD is way cool and I am glad to be a part of this
Well, I was just preparing myself to enter yet another weekend without knowing if I was admitted or not and I was preparing for the probing jokes in the pub where my friends thought I was joking about going back to school.
Then at 17.30, the message came. I just didn’t read past the “…great pleasure to congratulate you…”. I’m in; a huge weight fell off my shoulders and I felt rewarded for all the work I did on the silly GMAT, the 15 million revisions of my essays and endless doubting about which languages to report…
Fuck it: I’m in.
Peter Bakker
INSEAD MBA December 2006
