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| Jon MacDonald, Warner Minschell (from Kenyon College), and Felipe Fernandez (OC '02) in front of the Champs-Elysees in Paris. |
Summer in Europe--Entry 3
Photographs and text by R. Jon MacDonald
The Oberlin-in-Europe Group in Paris.
Related Links:
The
European Summer School
Oberlin-in-Europe Euro Summer
School
On to Paris… and "Business Boot camp"--Week four, already! Time seemed to fly by and I didn’t have enough of it to do everything I wanted. I was excited again to meet the students who would be joining our group for the European Summer School program and the final three weeks of my trip. About 15 more students from all over the world (Germany, Brazil, The Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Canada and Kenya) joined us in Jouy-En-Josas, France, as Françoise (our contact for the week) showed us around campus. The HEC School of Management’s campus is situated about a half-hour train ride from the middle of Paris on top of a mountain with no other distractions within walking distance. This turned out to be a blessing considering the work that was ahead of us.
The first full day at HEC was a Sunday, so we took a train into Paris to do some sight-seeing. In one day we managed to see just about every tourist spot possible: Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triumph, the Eiffel Tower, and all the smaller spots in between.
The next day we started our first class, The History of European Integration. After four hours of class, we took a break for a three-course lunch that included wine and cheese, steak and smoked salmon, Fillet American (raw ground beef in the form of a pancake with a small salad on top of it), and the world's best cheesecake. One thing I can say about HEC is that they really treated us well. We always had breaks in between classes with wine and cheese or champagne. Françoise then took us on a bus tour of Paris and gave us all the 'local' information about the city, which turned out to be useful during our nights out on the town. Françoise was an incredible host, always telling us the story behind things.
The following day we had a class called "New Trends in Economics," which was taught by an outstanding professor, Laurent Maruani. Laurent made me feel like I could go out and rule the business world. His philosophy was to teach economics without speaking about economics--and he had it down. His classes were easily the best on the trip.
During the week, we took a trip to Brussels again to meet with more people from the European Commission (EC). During this visit, we discussed how the upcoming release of the Euro would affect international business. We also had lunch with some of the top officials at the EC, an event that taught me a lot.
The rest of our stay at HEC School of Management was spent in the classroom, attending what I jokingly called "Business Boot Camp." I gave it that name because we were in class from 9 A.M. until at least 5 P.M. every day. Most of the time, we only had one class/topic a day. I learned a great deal during these boot camp sessions, and the wine and cheese mid-day breaks became a welcomed part of the day.
That Saturday night, the group boarded a train to Milan, Italy. I woke up around 5 A.M. to a scene of the Swiss Alps. Of everything I saw in Europe, this was the most awe-inspiring of them all. Living in Ohio my whole life, I had never seen such an amazing view of mountains. After seeing the view, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I just sat there looking at the mountains for three more hours until we arrived in Italy.
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| A view of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower. |
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