Tomorrow afternoon will be exactly 3 weeks since I arrived in Leuven. I’ve been away from replying emails, posting photos and writing updates here. The main reason is that I’m still having a bit of trouble adjusting to my new life over here, in terms of time schedules and overall activities. So, let me update you on what’s been happening.

First week my parents and my brother were here with me. You can’t imagine how their help was important. I honestly didn’t thought the first days could be so hard, with buying some missing stuff for the apartment that I’m renting. We would have to split tasks, so we could get things done. I took care of all Belgium bureaucracy, getting a Belgium mobile number, opening a bank account, etc.. We also did lots of shopping and because I didn’t bring my car here, we did lots and lots of walking… until we all had blisters in our feet. I felt bad because I wanted my parents and brother to enjoy their time a little better, when most of the week was spent working.

In the end we managed to take the Sunday off, and we decided to go to Brussels, the nearest place that we planned visiting. We didn’t went to Antwerp and Brugge, as we planned while still in Portugal. The trip to Brussels was fun, it was pretty cool and my parents enjoyed it. We went to visit the Belgium King’s palace, which was open for free during the summer months. It was simply amazing, as you can imagine. All the lights, the walls, the gold, the amazing rooms…

Then they went back on the 14th and my classes started on the 16th. As 15th was a national holiday, I just tried to rest as much as possible. I was so tired of walking that I just wanted to stop for one day. On the evening of the 15th, I’ve meet more than half of my MBA colleagues for the first time, on a dinner and drinks gathering planned through the school’s web forum. It was really great! Meeting everyone for the first time, and just start talking and getting to know each other. It was a really good idea… it took a lot of the pressure usual for the first day of classes.

The 16th and 17th were mainly “presentation” days. Presenting the school, the MBA, the 45 (if I’m not wrong) members of this year class and the basic rules and facilities. On the 17th afternoon, they invited last year students, so we could meet them, hear about their experience, and then just go for a drink and meet even at the school restaurant. It was our first official “networking” event. Initially it was a bit strange, but I did an extra effort to go to some of these colleagues, introduce myself and just start talking about their backgrounds and their experience from the MBA last year, and also sharing a bit about me. It went pretty good. I noticed that I’m slowing getting more comfortable with these kind of events, and I’m learning to make use of them.

Then came last week. The first week of real classes. It was scary! We had 2 readings and write-ups on Monday afternoon, to be delivered before Tuesday morning class. Several colleagues just stayed in school reading and preparing the writing we needed to deliver. I just left after 11 pm without even going for dinner. It was like the first glimpse of what the MBA will be in about 1 month, after this first summer/preparation term ends.

The first 2 days we had a classes for a course called “Managing across Cultures”, Wednesday we had classes for “ Presentation and Report Writing and Skills” and last 2 days of last week we had “Leadership Skills”, which was lectured by an amazing professor. He used to be the dean of the school a few years ago, and he turned the lectured into something very personal, while sharing his personal insights and experience… and just challenging us to look inside ourselves.

I’ve finished packing! I’m deeply exausted… physically and emotionally. I need to go to bed. We need to wake up at 5am. Our flight to Brussels is tomorrow morning.

Thanks to everyone who came visit me to say goodbye or just had the chance to say goodbye during these last days. Your words have been me strenght but also left me with a trail of sorrow in my heart for leaving you behind.

See you in Leuven…

Today was the end of an era, just to quote a work colleague today, when he learned that I was leaving.

Today was my last day at my now old job. I’d been working in this company for 5 years and 8 months. It was strange to say goodbye. Saying goodbye to colleagues I’ve known since my first day over there was hard. There’s still a sense of relief in my mind. I made it! After all this time, after all the disappointments, after all the good moments, after all the times I’ve tried to leave before, after all the depressing moments, after all the good experiences with travelling abroad and get to know different cultures and different people… I have made it! Now comes the beginning of a new era, a new step in my life.

This was the place where I grew up as a professional. The hard moments made me feel tougher in the end. The good moments made me feel more thankful for the opportunities I’ve been given. I did the best I could, with what I am and with what I know.

Now comes the time to stop. Stop working, I mean. Not just for a few days, but for almost 1 year. It will be a crazy year for sure. Really busy trying to capture and learn all that I can during my 1 year studying in Belgium.

For now, I just want to sleep! These last days, and even weeks, were too much on me. Even today, it didn’t seemed like I was leaving the company, with all the meetings, requests for help, questions, issues and problems that kept creeping in. I need to rest now! I’ll try to relax these next 3 days, while slowly preparing everything I will carry along with me to Belgium. I still can’t believe that in less than 7 days I will be there… and this time to stay there for real…

This is a live version of the first song from Over the Rhine’s new album, “The Trumpet Child”. You definitely should preorder it… over here.

Yeah, it’s almost unbelievable how time flies! I only have 3 more days of work, and then I’m no longer an employee… I’ll be a student again.

These final days at work have been pretty crazy. It doesn’t really seems I’m leaving, actually. We have been flooded with problems that our users submitted, and we’re running like crazy trying to solve them. But I know we can’t make it on time, before I leave… and I should instead be focusing on training the colleagues who will be staying “in my place”.

At home I’m also trying to put everything together… preparing for the move to Belgium. Need to choose clothes for Summer and Winter time, because I will only be back home for Christmas holidays. Also sorting books that I need/want to take along, along with some other stuff. I fear I won’t be able to fit everything with the travel bags… and that I will exceed the travel bags allowance for my flight.

In less than 2 weeks I will be in my new home in Leuven. Honestly, I can’t want for it! I’m trying not to feel nervous or depressed for leaving everything behind, specially my family… and take this chance as a good opportunity, in the most positive way.

Since last week I am becoming more busy at work. Mostly is because the training sessions I’m giving to some colleagues are becoming more frequent and longer. They are taking more than 75% of my day. The rest of the time I’m just reading and replying emails. I’ve managed to write some short posts the other week, but now it’s getting harder.

So going back to where I left in the last post of this series…

The admission day was getting closer, and I booked my flight and the hotel for a few days. It was on a Friday, but I decided to fly to Brussels on Tuesday, and stay in Leuven until Saturday morning. That way I would have 2 days to get to know Leuven, relax from work for a while, and also study a bit more. I was happy in the end because I managed to do a fair balance during those 2 days. I’ve walked around Leuven a lot, becoming more familiar with the city, and also managed to study for around 4 hours each day. I’ve also meet on Wednesday morning someone from the church I contacted, and we got to talk for a while. I was given a small but useful tour around the city, and was also given some good advice… and something pretty useful… a map!

That Wednesday was a very rainy day, but on Thursday I was lucky, and we had some sunshine, and the city actually looked to me a different place. Didn’t looked so gloomy as it did in my first impressions. It was a quiet and small city. I could walk around anywhere pretty easily. I was slowly getting comfortable with the possibility of having to live there.

On Thursday evening I went to a prayer meeting in that church. I was invited to go there, in order to meet other people from the church. It was something really useful to me. I heard some more good advice, support and prayers about my next “admission” day and the decision I would have to make, in case I got in. It was good to meet new people, was good to stop thinking about what I had been studying the previous days, relax and refocus my perspective about all this… and just leave everything in God’s hands. I was good to see how “international” the church was. I remember people from Belgium, UK, Ukraine and China.

The day came! The admission day would start at 8am. All candidates for the MBA were gathered in an auditorium, and after introduction and explanation of our schedule for the day. We would start right away with the “Analytical Test” which would take 30 minutes, followed by the “Written Test”, around 1 hour long. The first focuses on basic math concepts and data sufficiency, and the second on language skills. In the “Written Test” they would read us a news article, and we had to write a summary and a comment to it, in 60 minutes. We were forbidden to take notes while the article was being read aloud. Nobody knew about this detail. We thought we would be given a copy of the article, for us to read. This raised the difficulty of this part.

Another post will be needed to finish the “Admission day” story…

This is one of my favorite songs from Sufjan Stevens. I was blown away when I really paid attention to the lyrics. Simply and beautiful!

If you haven’t noticed I’m enjoying how easy it is to post Youtube videos on blogs nowadays

After talking again with a friend from my church about Vlerick School, he contacted an old teacher he had during his MBA course to have his opinion. The feedback he received was very positive. This made me consider the idea more seriously, of course.

Then I decided to prepare and apply for the admission day Vlerick School had in the beginning of March. I had bought previously a book to prepare for the GMAT exam, and had already started reading a little bit at that time. I could do everything online, in terms of applying for the admission day. I could upload my copies of university transcripts, photos and copy of passport. It worked like charm.

While applying online, I could also submit a 500 words essay, to apply for a scholarship from Vlerick School. I put some special effort on this, even had the help of some good friends reviewing what I wrote, and I still managed to submit my essay on time.

I’ve booked a 5 days vacation at work, booked a hotel for 4 days in Leuven. I would stay in Leuven 2 days before the actual admission day. This would give me the chance to get to know the city, walk around, see how I felt over there, and also try to study a bit more. I’ve managed to use some of my Lufthansa Miles to book my flight to Brussels, thus saving some money.

I’ve talked before going there with a friend of mine who is leaving in Antwerp. He was my colleague at university and during my internship job. He was surprised for my decision, but fully supported me. He also told me about friend from another colleague from our university who was actually living in Leuven. He gave me his contact and I started telling him about my plans. Good! I already had someone I knew living in Leuven.

Another thing that worried me, in case I would get in, was if there was a church in Leuven, a Evangelical Church. I started doing some googling and searching around, and found ICEL, a English Speaking Church. I’ve emailed them about my plans to visit Leuven between the end of February and beginning of March, and how I would like to get to know the church. They replied me back, expressing happiness to hear about my willingness to meet them and their church.

So, I kept studying and preparing in the weekends before my trip to Leuven. I did countless math and english exercises, and also bought some “economy” magazines, like Business Week and The Economist, and read them a bit everyday. I ended up subscribing to The Economist, because I really liked to read it.

And the story goes on in a next post…

I just love this song. It’s from Matthew Perryman Jones. I can listen it over and over… Found this video a couple of minutes ago, and I had to post it over here.

There’s a version of this song he posted on his myspace site. You can listen to it over here.

In October of last year I had the good opportunity to visit some old friend’s church, in the south of Portugal, and do a concert over there on a Saturday evening. It was a great experience! While I was there I managed to have a longer conversation with an old friend, who has a degree in economics and has been working more in the management area. While I was sharing with him my idea of going for a MBA in Porto, he advised me to look in Lisbon (Portugal’s capital city) and even abroad. If I was considering really stopping for 1 year to focus on the MBA, it would be a better investment than staying close to home.

So I started studying that possibility, doing some “googling” and finding information about MBAs abroad. I was considering a MBA anywhere in the world. I’ve considered the most famous MBAs in the United States, in Europe and even in Asia, specially in Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. I was checking the typical rankings and also the tuition costs. In most cases I was deeply discouraged with the really high tuition and the average living costs.

Still last year, I managed to talk with a friend from my church about what was going on on my mind, and what I was considering doing. He works as a manager in a mobile phone operator here in Portugal. He advised me to look for scholarships, specially for the United States. He shared with me that he went for a part-time MBA in Porto, and he thought that in the end it was good what he learned, but could have been better in many points. He also told me that if I was considering stopping work and go for a full-time MBA, it would be a much better and rewarding experience to go for a MBA abroad. It would be better recognized by the companies later on, and the whole learning experience would be better than just staying here.

So I kept looking, even requested a couple of brochures from different universities… I remember receiving one from Stanford. But it was a 2 years MBA, the tuition costs too high, and the living costs also above what I could afford. In Europe, in places like UK or Spain is also too expensive. The tuition was between 50 and 60 thousand euros. I was almost giving up the idea of going abroad.

While I kept checking rankings and business schools anywhere in the world, I came across one MBA in Dublin, Ireland, which was around 25 thousand euros for tuition, and later found another in Belgium, just 15 thousand euros for tuition.

The more I explored about this one in Belgium, the more I was liking the idea of choosing that one. It was just 1 year full-time MBA, the living costs in Belgium are not too high, in a central place in Europe, and they had something really cool… you could go there for one day, the so called “admission days” and do all exams and interviews for your admission, and they would tell you the result by end of the afternoon. I loved the idea! I could go there, and get to know the school, the city, the people, while doing the admission exams. The more I searched and explored about the school, the more it seemed the right place for me.

This business school is called Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, and the full time international MBA takes place in Leuven, quite near Brussels.

More about the my admission day and the rest of the story in a next post.