After All That Happened In France

How do we start any journey? Packing suitcases..Planning routes and final destinations… Deciding who you what to take with you on your trip...

My adventure began with this thought, “Where am I even going…AGAIN?!” Will it really be worth the effort and time, and do I really want to be so far away from home? And then of course came the thought of packing suitcases, planning routes, final destinations and so on. I had done it all before in my life and the same thing can be said about most of the students in our program: most of us are used to traveling, studying and working in different countries.

What I remember most about that first day were the shivers that ran over my skin when I met people I shared something in common with – a love for entrepreneurship.

The first thing that came to my mind upon arrival at our school, when a squirrel gaily scurried in front of me waving her fluffy tail, was “DO THEY REALLY HAVE SUCH AN ECOLOGY HERE??!” (read with Russian accent).

I remember Boot Camp and our loud applause when Professor Delmar freed us after the intense and fast paced week!

I remember the sketches we had to prepare and perform on stage in front of the whole class. They made me want to participate in the EMLYON theater, but with all of the work and the trips to school on Sunday’s for meetings, my dreams of the spotlight never came true.

I remember our first trips together - to new cities and countries. Thanks to the talent of Mr. Nezar Kadhem, Thomas Vagner and Miss Ilona Guobite we now have amazing photos that capture all of the beautiful moments we spent together!

I remember my first impressions of my fellow students – how did they find so many interesting, bright, yet still so different personalities from all around the world? We're all very different ladies and gentlemen, and we do not differ only by age and nationality! We look at this world from different points; we see it from different angles and in different colors. I have always been told that white is always white! In our program, white suddenly becomes green, yellow and red! We are artists, we paint what we see – and what we see is very different from one another!

After four months we have grown by going through the problems that the semester in France presented to us: working in groups with people we didn’t know, writing a business plan (that was for many of us something entirely new), working with entrepreneurs and their start-ups with very little information. In such a short period of time we managed to go through many conflicts and problems and still overcome them successfully!

There were thousands of times when we became angry with the French peoples favorite form of relaxation…strikes! We laughed together in amazement at the “French” apocalypse…15 cm of snow! (Now I am surrounded by 30cm of snow in Russia and wonder how 15cm could shut down the entire city of Lyon.) We had spent many nights at the university, preparing for exams and writing assignments! But through it all we managed to find the most important thing …friends: people you begin to miss just after three weeks of vacation.

Now, China and the U.S. are still awaiting our arrival. For me the U.S. seems to be the peak of our “educational experience” therefore China is more like “a test of survival in a new world!” Nevertheless, it's still ahead, and what is most important is that we are together!

So, enjoy your holidays my dear friends! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
From snowy Russia, with love!

Dasha!