The First Few Weeks of My Kellogg Journey..

I haven't been able to blog lately, since I only got my laptop last week! Wow, it was scary to be without a laptop for more than one month, however, I survived!

Okay, now, I want to share with you on what to expect when you arrive at business school for the first time ever, especially if you didn't even go to the admit weekend. So, this is a story of a girl who was stranded in a place called Kellogg..

Arriving at Evanston:
I didn't realize how hard it is to get a ticket to Chicago, apparently most flights for end of August are almost always fully booked. Luckily, I managed to arrive 2 days before KWEST. Since I'm an international student, moving equals to bringing two luggages, each weighs around 50 lbs. So, I'm moving my life thousands miles away with two big suitcases. I was also nervous to meet my new roommates for the first time ever, since I actually never had roommates before. Hence, my first preference was to live in a small studio in one of Kellogg's housing, McManus. But since I got waitlisted (on a side note, how could they waitlisted me??), I was forced to find an off campus apartment. Oh well, you know the whole story here. Anyway, it turned out to be a great decision, as I got a great apartment, yeah.. so much better than McManus.. and.. I got two friends that I can start the year with, since I practically don't know anybody at Evanston. Oh, yeah.. they're really, really, great roomies (they probably could read this blog.. so I'm just gonna put it out there).

Several jet-lagged hours later, I already went to a couple of parties, including a Kellogg-Chicago GSB mixer (but since the party is at Evanston, you can imagine how many GSB-ers showed up... like less than 5). So, this is what life is going to be like in Evanston, pretty close knit and you can walk everywhere (a big deal for me.. where I came from, you drive everywhere, even if it's only a 5 minutes drive).

KWEST
So, I have been talking about KWEST in my earlier posts, but for those of you who are not applying to Kellogg and don't know what KWEST is.. well, KWEST stands for Kellogg Worldwide Experience and Service Trip. There are 37 different KWEST destinations this year, they span from Alaska to Thailand. Some trips have high activities like trekking in Norway, while some trips went to relaxing places like Cabo. The goal is to create instant friendships and strong bonds between you and 20 other Kellogg students. KWEST is fully student run (like most things in Kellogg are), besides 20 other first years, the trip itself will be led by four or five Kellogg second years.

Well, I'm not gonna tell you where did I go to, since it might compromise my identity, but rest assure, KWEST was awesome! You meet great people, you go places you've never been before, almost everyone who went to KWEST enjoyed their trips so much.

Another fun thing about KWEST is that you are not supposed to reveal where you're from, where you did your undergrad, and what you did before Kellogg. This rule will force people to talk about other things and try to find common interests beside locations, colleges and jobs. Then, we would have a "Reveal Night". All in all, I would recommend all future Kellogg students to do KWEST, and I'm seriously considering to lead a KWEST trip next year.

Next.. Labor Day..
Okay, why is Labor Day important? Well, it is important, because it is the only day where I get to run all errands and do stuffs that needed to be done before CIM. Because CIM is going to be intense. As my KWEST leaders have warned me, during CIM, I will not want to spend my free hours doing errands, I would rather spend those hours by sleeping.

So, during Labor Day, I bought a new iPhone.. yay! That's what really mattered..

CIM
Well, for you Kellogg applicants, you should know this by now, that CIM stands for Complete Immersion in Management. It's basically a two-weeks orientation to prepare you for your two-years at Kellogg. But, if you can't imagine what CIM is.. well, CIM is like Kellogg's version of summer camp with high dose of hysteria, drama, and sleep deprivation. I absolutely love my CIM experience. It might not be the case for everybody out there, but hey, I got through it.. and if you take everything lightly and have fun with it, you'll love it as much as I do.

So, you might wanna know, what do we actually do at CIM? Well, we listened to speeches, we did community service, we did cases, and we had a pre-term class. That's the serious part. The fun part is you were placed into a section with 70 other people. Each section has a section name and a long-standing proud tradition. Each section will compete to win the CIM trophy. There will be cheering competions, olympics, skits, etc. Trust me, it was all fun, hilarious, and you'll quickly bond with your sectionmates like never before. It feels like high school all over again.

Of course, the 20-hours days during the first week of CIM will make you easily exhausted, tired.. and sick.. like me. I was sick every weekend, I had a cold, mild fever, sore throat, you name it.. But that doesn't only happen to me.. it happened to almost 80% of the CIM population. But that doesn't stop me from hanging out at the Keg, a not-so-pretty bar in Evanston, but everyone seemed to hang out there all the time. It's the ultimate Kellogg social scene.. sad but true.

CIM was fun and I believe it's a truly unique experience that you can only get at Kellogg. I'm glad I pick the right school.

Well, there you go.. the first couple of weeks at Kellogg. I just had my KWEST reunion earlier, and it already felt like so long ago. How time flies when you're living under the Kellogg bubble.

I gotta go, I have a Mexican party that I need to go to.. Adios!