TGI Friday or may be not !!

Well, call it the effect of various measures people might have taken last night to get over their mid-term experience [drinks, ice-creams, movie, sleeping (meaning subject to reader discretion :-P) ], today morning our class was almost half empty.

This was despite the fact that it was Strategy class, and although some of them did manage to come in late, it did not increase the overall presence of students to more than 60-70 %. Frankly, Luis was disappointed.

Anyways, after 3 continuous classes today when me and my friends were making dinner plans for tonight, you would think we were happy that weekend was finally here - well, let me put it this way:
When you have deadline for OB report as Monday, Accounting mid-term as Tuesday, EM pitch and report as Tuesday; and when you also need to practice the next tool usage for MDM, and do all the readings for classes on Monday, all of this between Friday 4 PM until Monday morning; will you even sense that the weekend is around?

That's right - Thank God its Friday .. but wait, it is not really a Friday as we can all see ourselves in the school on both Saturday and Sunday :-)

Mid-terms :-)

Finally, after all the anticipation about it, the day of mid-terms is past. A day to officially kick-start the open book mid-term for Accounting and also to write the economics mid-term in a more traditional way of exams.

After writing yesterday's post, I found myself in a friend's place, drinking Sangria :-)
So, woke up really late in morning today, and did not read anything about economics again.
Considering all that, I think I did fairly well at the exam :-)

As per the old engineering tradition, followed the exams with a movie 'Fast & Furious 6' before returning back to school for the group-work.
About the movie, read it in my blog coming up this weekend, don't wish to spoil anything as of now :-)

The question over which I am going to sleep over tonight is: How to crack the accounting open-book mid-term? :-D

A Day Off ..

Well, I needed a break and what better day to take a break than when the whole day at school was supposed to develop a career strategy :-)

I thought the whole exercise of finding what my interests, skills, motivations are would be redundant, as we had done a similar thing with Careerleader while starting the program. Not to mention, spending a couple of hours before the session for the homework and then the whole eight-and-a-half hours at school doing the actual exercise, that too just before the mid-term, took away all the fun out of it. As you may have guessed, I decided I was going to bunk school today.

So, I could take proper medicine last night, sleep well till 9:30 AM today and take care of the fever and sore throat. I also could spend the entire morning studying economics and get ready for the mid-term.

At about 3, I started to feel school-sick though and just came over to MM31. Luckily, I managed to get a room and took care of lot of ad-hoc tasks in my agenda - from reading the OB case to reading the material for Fellowship project preparation to working on EM industry analysis preliminary setup.

This day-off turned out to be a great strategy after all. I am much relaxed tonight, in terms of my study preparation and also in terms of my health :-)

The Fever continues ..

Yes, the fever continues .. and I am talking about both the slight fever with sore throat I have and the exam study fever. The first one almost got me to sleep due to fatigue after having a long decision making class, when I was sitting in the Strategy class. The latter one, helped me sit in the school after the classes were done, so that I can study economics :-)

I don't know which one of these fevers to attribute this to, but right now, I am too tired to think of anything special that took place today. Just wish to conclude with a quote I had in my economics notes of a previous class, which I read some time back, "Allow freedom of economy, and from a very disorganized situation, Order WILL RISE" :-)

Yes, its fever - the exam fever :-)

Well, I am feeling much better today. Specially after spending a wonderful evening with a movie and a walk through the city. That does not mean, my fever is gone.

But even before I get to think of it again, another fever has gradually caught on. The exam fever. Mid-terms are starting this week, so it's now or never, when it comes to studying :-)

I was never so good at studying subjects with a lot of theory, so I resorted to my old trick - write down my notes including what I need to take from the book or from the professor's notes and this way - I would remember better and I won't feel sleepy while studying.

So far, I have made a good progress and I hope to maintain the momentum until end of this week :-)

tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...

well ... this morning i woke up with a head-ache and was also feeling a little feverish. Not sure if it was actually a fever though.

Anyways, i did try to execute my grand plan of studying economics the whole day, but could not go through with it. So, I just decided to take some good rest, so that I feel better by tomorrow.

I was asleep almost for whole day today, except occasional times when I woke up to eat something. In the evening, some friends had already booked my ticket for The Great Gatsby, so I got ready and showed up at the theater.

Movie was awesome - it made me a bit heavy on emotions though. So, when Nadja and Ilya offered to walk back home, I immediately said yes - If I had taken a train and came back quickly, I would have kept processing on the movie in my brain until I had put it down in a blog. Ofcourse, I am still going to do it, but just not tonight. Tonight I want to continue to take rest and make sure, I am ready to take on the study challenges next week. To borrow a few words from the concluding quote of The Great Gatsby, "tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther ..." :-)

Not really a weekend :-)

I know, that our work-group was not meeting today. But, that is exactly why we had our E.M. group meeting today. Our project made a good progress today and we also discovered the quiet surroundings of Library to study on the weekends.

I had a few moments in the meeting today, when I showed our introductory video for the pitch that I had made, and when I developed a demo mobile app within 15-20 minutes to show to the group.

I am positive that we will make something real and something good out of this project :-)

After coming home in the evening, I edited the remaining Lisbon photos and posted them on FB. So, that chapter is closed now. I can now concentrate on some studying tomorrow :-)

People are not rational !!

In the strategy class today, we played an interesting simulation game for a fish market. 3 groups were to quote their fish quantity such that their respective profits are maximized. When I and everyone in my group did the homework, we knew the correct number was 33. Somehow, one of the other groups kept playing with a 50, and the third one kept throwing random high numbers between 65 to the maximum allowed number of 75.

And this went on for 12 rounds.
We have varying conclusions for this behavior. One way to think about it is that the other groups had not done their homework. The ones playing with 50, may have a excel geek amongst them, who quickly came up with the number 50, which gives equal but lesser profit for all. The ones playing with high numbers though, clearly gave a signal that they have not done any prior calculations or were not doing them even during the game.

I know I should not accuse anyone and I am not trying to do so. But then, if we are to assume that everyone had done their homework and knew that if 3 of us each put a 33, we all get same money and the best profit, then there can be only one justification for this entire game. No matter how much the professor stressed that the goal is to maximize our individual profit without caring for what others get, people were just not able to overcome their tendency to lose the share of their own profit, just to see others earn lesser. They were ready to earn only 500 instead of 670, just to see us earn 450.

While the game was so simple, it gave an important lesson to us today - "People are not rational in competition".

Let's keep the weekends out :-)

Well, we have started to get more and more work, and the fact that mid-terms are approaching also indicate that we need to finish the assignments and submissions well before time.

While, this may have resulted into working on the weekend, our work-group made a resolution today - you may call this as highlight of our entire journey as a group "We will not meet for group work on weekends" Sounds Unreal right? But, we are going to try it anyways.

What that meant was we need to work more today and tomorrow. So, it was that I am up until 2:30 AM tonight, to finish my Decision Making assignment. Every luxury has its price !!

I just hope this burning of night oil is worth it and we actually take a break on the weekend :-)

About Dogfighting or may be not :-)

The day started with a strategy case about dog-fighting in Europe that took place between two airlines. Well, as usual, when different tools and games were applied to the numbers of these airlines, a lot of insights surfaced.

Of course, when the class finally took a decision and found that the reality was exactly opposite this decision, we all became curious and dug further into why it is so. Another interesting class.

And I know I have said this so many times before, but the very fact that we were playing around with numbers for airlines margins and revenues and blah, just when we had also started to play with similar numbers, for a particular airline, for decision making yesterday, was so much fun.

Again, either somebody has been planning our sessions to be perfectly in sync or we are just too much lucky to have these happy coincidences :-)

After the end of classes today, our EM project group met and thanks to an initiative by Yehia, we put in a structure to our work and our team - discussing from what our common goals are, up until details like who will be responsible for what function, we wrote down everything.

Well, not a bad way to kick-start the team work and ensure that there are no dog-fights amongst us, although it is too late to even think about any such thing for my regular work-group :-)

But then of course, when it comes to my regular workgroup, we have never needed these guidelines anyways :-P

Day concluded early today and I had a good 3 hour siesta this evening, recovering all the backlog of the past few days. I am feeling so good now.

And the reason is not just the sleep, but also that I have enough time to cook something and have proper food today.

Well, there is this one other thing as well about today, something which I come to know by default, just by looking at the number of posts I have in this blog :-)

Today we complete 50 days here at IE, starting from the opening ceremony of 3rd April. WoW !!

Where did all this time go? I have got to read back on my blog and relive those memories :-)

A day of Ratios and Analysis

Financial accounting with ratio analysis discussions, followed by Decision making with Risk Analysis, followed by accounting assignment with receivables analysis, followed by decision making assignment for cost analysis, and somewhere in middle of all this - the strategy case reading to analyze the case details.

I guess you got the point by now - today was the day of ratios and analysis. And in case you are wondering why this post is so short, Today was also the day when our group stayed in school up until mid-night. Another first, although I hope there aren't many of such days :-)

From the game of smart cat to burning of ships

Well, its always good to start the day with a Strategy class. You feel so good about being in a business school. As we explored today's case, Luis gave us many insights and showed us many decision making tools and techniques. Todays class covered it all - from a game of a smart cat and two monkeys to the chicken game to the burning of ships game.
Impressed :-)

After a long OB class, I worked on accounting assignment with my group.
Today was the day when I had my first mentoring session - as part of the prize for Impact Weekend win. It was with Paco Polo - the founder of Change.org in Spain and we had to meet him at his office near Gran Via.

It was a good one hour and we got to know about his team, and he answered our queries.

Came back to school to continue working on accounting presentation and returned home only around 9 PM.

Not a bad day to start the week :-)

The Walk ..

All though it's Sunday, we have got lots of work to do and met in School at 3 PM. Earlier today, I cleaned up the kitchen and washed dishes from yesterday's party. I also had to send something to my EM group. So, didn't really get too much of sleep after the party.

My work went on until 6:30 PM and I had already made a movie plan with Ilya and Nadja. So, I took a cab and went to the cinema hall. Soon, the Russians arrived and well, while there were 3 people in front of us in the queue, the 7 PM show got full !! Next show was 8:50 PM which would have deprived us of sleep completely.

So, we decided to go back - with a small change in mode of transport. We decided to walk :-)
4.5 KMs walk through different areas, showing all flavors of the town, and different seasons of the place due to changing weather - from a sunny day to a cloudy day with cool breeze to a heavy rain to a hail storm !!

This walk showed it all and I loved it :-)

A long day explored and enjoyed to its fullest :-)

Day began at 7 AM today, when I woke up early and began cleaning my room. I had some friends coming over for dinner tonight, so had to tidy up my room.

At around 10 AM, i went to the supermarket and got the needed veggies and cutlery for dinner. My E.M. project group met at 11 AM and we have now finalized a great idea for our venture. This meeting went on until 2 PM.

I rushed back to my room, had a quick sandwich on my way back and bought chicken and wine and beer.

3 PM and I was back in school to meet my workgroup. Our assignment work went on till 5:30 PM. I got back from school at around 6 and started with marination for Sangria :-)

Yes .. Sangria :-)
My first attempt at it, and I must say it turned out good.

I cooked lots of food today and was in fact cooking even after my friends showed up at around 9 PM. I had told them not to indulge in any formalities and bring any gifts; but turns out that by saying that I may have indirectly called for gifts. Everyone got something [to drink ofcourse] as my birthday gift :-)

We had a wonderful time tonight and this gang of friends made my birthday celebrations in Madrid memorable forever. I am still overwhelmed by their affection.

Here is a small blog expressing my feelings:
http://when-pictures-talk-to-parsooram.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/a-friendship-brewing.html

The Picture gave me an excellent metaphor to describe my friends and my feelings. I think you will enjoy reading it:-)

By the time it was all over and I went to sleep, it was already 2:30 AM :-)
Long day this was, but I put every bit of it to a good use and enjoyed doing so.

The First Final :-)

Well, we had another great strategy class today, but truth is, I was too tired and phased out during the class. Luis was great with introducing new insights, but people were already exhausted by the time his class started. The reason - we had our first final - for communication skills class today - it was supposed to be a 3 hour thing, but went on forever.

By the time all presentations and feedback was done, it was already time for next class, so we missed our 1.5 hour break in between these classes. This was still OK, but the real reason for fatigue was that almost everyone in my class was in school before 8 AM today and had occupied a room to practice their presentations.

Anyways, its over now and soon we will know our grades for the class. Until then fingers crossed :-)

PECHA-KUCHA ... aarrgh !!

Well, after spending a long time working on communication skills slides yesterday, when we came to school, we found out about how PECHA-KUCHA means "only pictures" and minimum slides. Frankly speaking, our slides were concise enough and we were not convinced by the talk, but when the entire class is doing it, then "Why Not?"

So, we did a rework on our slides and yes, today was also the day when integral use of IT tools in decision making became evident to us. Our professor introduced us to various risk analysis techniques and the software tools which can help in these techniques.

Next class onwards, we are supposed to actually use them. And yes, when asked - "Are these tools available in MAC?" I guess, if you have been reading my blog, you already now what's coming next. Yet, for benefit of new readers, the answer was "It's a wrong question. These tools are meant only for REAL computers" :-P

I enjoyed the class as the analysis started involving more and more numbers and I enjoyed watching faces of victims that fell prey to the statements as above :-)

Good times are just around the corner :-)

The weather is changing since last evening. Its started raining and temperature is back to 12 degree celcius.

Well, that gives us another excuse to not go out despite today being a holiday and stay home studying. And, I did study today - started with some financial accounting, then prepared myself for communication skills group work, and later joined my group members to work on the presentation.

Yet to do the reading and survey for decision making class tomorrow. All-in-all, the study load pattern has changed drastically, just as the weather.

And I know this as a fact, that days will be bigger now and the nights longer.

Good times are just around the corner :-P

Solitude in midst of a crowd ..

There are times, when no matter where you are, you just feel like wanting to leave everything behind and go home. Today was one such day - Being my birthday, I was missing being with my family and friends.

But then there are so many of them on facebook, so why miss them ? - you would argue, and yes, all of them cheered up my day by their greetings and well wishes - which is what took me through the day really. Thanks to everyone for that.

Anyways, after I entered the classroom today, a few of my new friends wished me, and then suddenly after an announcement by Marcello, the entire class started singing Happy Birthday .. I wasnt sure how to react and just smiled :-)

Classes today gave a heavy dose of knowledge - continuous sessions on strategy, accounting, decision making !! It was exhausting ...

After school, I had lunch with some of my classmates - a full course menu at Lah~

At home, most of my time was spent in responding to birthday wishes and in editing Lisbon photos. I wasn't in a mood to study anymore :-)

However, when I checked around with few people, it was evident that everybody else in my intake was busy studying tonight - as we had all squandered away our vacation last week, this week was going to be all about study.

Well, as no dinner/outing plan got materialized, I just got a pizza for myself and while eating it in my room began thinking about the year past and the year ahead.

Although I was part of a big crowd now, I had landed myself in to these moments of solitude and it was time to be with myself.

Last year, I lost some, I gained some. This next year is going to be full of surprises
 and challenges and I have got to be ready - well, it's my birthday, so I can't have any bigger reason to be optimistic about life than this - so YES, I am READY :-)

Leaders, Managers, Needs and Solutions !!

Today was the day spent studying Entrepreneurial Management and Organizational Behavior.

We discussed differences between Leaders and Managers, went through self-assessment for Leadership attributes and saw different settings which make leaders succeed or fail.

Apart from the class of E.M. this morning, Rachida also spent some time with us guiding us about the E.M. project we need to do.

In the class and in this guidance session, she conveyed an important message - When looking at a problem and analyzing it - don't limit yourself with already known features of the solution. Explore various aspects and dynamics of the problem, and better solutions will evolve.

Interesting message I would say.

Our F.A. study group met today for some more practice and it was some time spent well. There is still some reading to do for tomorrow, so it's going to be a long day for me today :-)

If you forgot .... SHAME ON YOU !!!

You know what I am talking about "Accounting is fun, Accounting is Sexy". AND, If you forgot, SHAME ON YOU :-)

That is the footer of notes that I read today :-)

Entire day today was spent for Financial Accounting study, first on my own at home and then with the group.

Cannot admire Unoma enough, as she had returned from Lisbon only this afternoon, was tired already and still stayed back after our group assignment work to explain us the concepts we were struggling with. I mean all I did yesterday was to just sleep in my room, giving myself excuse of travel and here she is - teaching us tirelessly !!

I think we owe her a few drinks for sure :-)

Can I stay ????

Seriously, we did a tram ride today and discovered so may places that we hadn't been too. Since then, the only thought I have been having was that can I stay in Lisbon for just a few more days!! I don't want to go back to Madrid :-(

Anyways, we did return to Madrid and although I had high plans of studying and reading tonight, the fatigue of travel took its toll on me. I fell asleep while doing something on my laptop and woke up only early morning on next day [had to play back the time for publishing this one :-)]

I LOVE LISBOA !!

It's Official !! This city is magical. There's something in its air, that makes me feel so very good, about myself and about everything around me. I am in love with this city and I have spent the last two days enjoying the pure bliss that this vacation has to offer.

I guess you would all get your chance to know more about my experience here, after you see the photos I put on Facebook. Until then, Cheers from Lisboa :-)

Lisbon, here we come ...

We have four days off this week, thanks to the MBAT starting on 9th May in Paris. So, as per our plans a few of us started our journey to Lisbon.
No school work for next 3 days. Yippee :-)

Taxes, Subsidies and Sound Bites !!

In the economics class today, there was an interesting discussion on how externalities can lead to taxation or subsidies and how these impact both producers and consumers. With the examples and graphs that were mentioned, these concepts are now well embedded in to my brain.

Next was the Communication Skills Session, where we practiced handling difficult questions and facing media. Interesting bit for me was the concept of Sound Bite and how it has now evolved from a 30 second duration to a 10 second duration.

Not to mention, again it was the day when two classes complemented each other, and played well. Just when we finished understanding effects of negative externalities, we started handling the BP Oil Spill case in the communication skills class. Of course I think today it was a coincidence, but if it was planned by someone sitting in the IMBA office, I cannot admire that person enough !!

After the classes, I visited Library today - first time since the program started. It's a nice place, very quite compared to the constant traffic sound on Maria De Molina.

I don't know how occupied it is on week-ends, and whether it is open on weekends, but its a good place to do some quiet study. I know what you are thinking - that's what the Libraries are for :-P

When all the Illusions go away ..

Well, today started with another great session on Strategy. We discussed the Cola Wars which have been ON since last many decades.

Gradually as Luis, our Professor guided the discussion, we discovered many interested aspects about the matter. The justifications, the logic, the end result of tools that Luis used to his assistance, gradually shattered all the illusions that we had about the Cola Wars.

Personally, I was wowed with discovery of the facts that I had never thought of thus far, in my entire life.

I am beginning to like this class more and more with each session :-)

We did a great presentation during the communication skills class. Well - I only played a minor part in the whole setup, just to be honest. There were many other interesting presentations as well, and no matter whether we liked a particular presentation or not, we surely learned something new with each of them.

Today was the day for the Spanish Class as well and in general, I am enjoying being in this class. It gives a good break from the usual study routine.

Later in the evening, I also met my Professor for the Fellowship work.

All-in-all, a busy day, but each component of the plan was worth it !!

Taming the Beast : Men at Work !!

Well, after an extra long Entrepreneurial Management workshop and an hour with my workgroup, I went down to the Launch Pad area, to do some reading. I had indicated all those interested in forming the study group that we will start at 5 PM. When time came, among all those who had said they wish to join, 2 people showed up - Andrew and Nishant :-)

We started working on F.A. from the very first exercise and soon, were able to resolve lot of our doubts, queries and mistakes. The fact that Nishant had worked on the initial exercises during the weekend already, helped myself and Andrew to gain momentum.

I have a feeling that this is more about practice and hence we have headed towards the right direction by starting this study group.

All-in-all, I must say, we have now begun to tame the fearful beast that is Financial Accounting. Of Course, the title says "Men at Work" not to show any gender bias, but simply because none of the ladies showed up :-)

After completing all the required reading in IE campus itself, I returned home to cook some delicious Indian food and to unwind all my exhaustion of the day.

And the word is "Panic" !!

No, I didn't see the "Batman Begins" today. Title of this post portrays my own state of mind in the afternoon !!

Well, as per my grand plan, I woke up in the morning and opened my assignment. I read it for some time and then when I was about to start solving it, I suddenly realized I don't know what I am supposed to do here. Damn !!

I could not find a way to start my work, no matter how much I tried to concentrate and read the related chapters.

After spending almost two hours in vain, I decided to do something else and left the assignment to solve with my group.
I then decided to make myself feel better by repeating the exercise on Income statement and balance sheet which we had already discussed during class.

I went through all the process and got my final numbers ready and bang !! It hit me again !! The numbers were not matching !!

I spent almost half an hour trying to figure out what I am doing wrong and could not find out. Soon I realized that I have been taken over by Panic. I just decided to stay calm and not do anything for some time.

Of course, this did not stop me from expressing my feelings to my classmates and I proposed to form a study group for F.A. I have a couple of responses from people who want to join in and feel the need for studies, same as me.

After our work group met, I asked them what is needed to be done here. When they explained the first few steps, I already got started and completed most of the assignment on my own before our group work began. I felt much better after that :-)

I have now decided to stay back in school and do an hour of F.A. daily. I have dealt with greater complexities during my masters and I am not letting this subject take me for a ride. Its about time, I got my form back !!

Setting the Pie even ...

When it all started, I remember we were told "In general, you would find yourself with 3 things to do - Study, Sleep, Party; and considering that there are only 24 hours in a day, you will be able to do only 2 of these properly".

Yeah, I know ...

So, I don't really party much, then I was thinking I have enough time to study and to sleep. But gradually, I am now realizing that with the slight cold temperature in my room, I am always inclined to sleep for most of the time. Study as such comprises only of readings for the next day.

I have got to set this right. Before we know mid-terms will be upon us and I would like to be ready for it.

High time to start real "studying".

I spent a few hours today reading first few chapters of F.A. Plan is that I would do the assignment of the week next day and then revise some of the classroom examples before going to IE to join my workgroup.

Hope things work out as planned....

More Numbers to Crunch !!

Today was the first session for MDM and as was expected, it is all about number crunching and interpretation from those numbers.
So, another companion to the accounting class :-)

I found the Professor making satirical comments while he spoke about things and I am sure that now people either hate him or like him. There is no grey area here. In case, you are wondering what kinda comments, let me give you a sample - When telling about how the excel add-ins we need are not available in a Mac, he exclaimed, "They say these only work with real computers" :-D
You see what I mean now, right? This is going to be an interesting class as well.
Next was another great class on Strategy, and then we had a little Pizza get-together with the IMBA team and one other section of our intake. Considering the rising pile of assignments, most people just took off after eating their slice of pizza.

Had a good home-made Indian dinner tonight with a couple of my friends - This is where I found out about the frozen Spinach cubes, which can be heated to get a mashed Spinach paste - wow !! I don't need a mixer-grinder to make Palak Paneer anymore :-)

In case you are curios about how the Palak Paneer turned out, photos of Palak Paneer, Chicken Curry and Pulav are available on my Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/UnitedExpressionsOfParsooram

[I know I keep doing the self-propaganda :-)]

Anyways, all-in-all another good day with some new learnings !!

Day to Face the Book and Facebook !!

Today started with lots of Facebook activity, thanks to photos of CAPEA floating all around in everybody's updates. In all this excitement though, I kinda offended one of my classmates. Anyways, I have reverted back on my act now, so should be ok.

When I saw that after lunch, I was about to fall prey to the usual "Lets sleep now and get up in an hour to study" trap [where I never wake up in an hour], I picked up my bag and went straight away to the IE Campus.

Looking at the crowd in MM31, I almost forgot that it was a holiday today. Anyways, all those people studying around helped me to focus on my reading as well.

As per the figure of speech used in title of this post, I faced the strategy book for the first time today and read recommended chapter along with the case :-)

Also, spent some time reading notes for Financial Accounting and doing reading plus some ground work, as instructed for MDM classes starting tomorrow.

Left the building at around 9 PM as I was feeling hungry and came home after eating only to post some more photos on Facebook and write this post.

By the way, do you know the highlight of today? It's 2nd of May and today we completed one month of our course. I still cannot believe that a month has already past since our opening ceremony.

Wow !! Time surely flies !!

CAPEA !!

Today was all about CAPEA !!

Weather was perfect - sunny with a light cool breeze, there was a Spanish Barbeque going on all through the day, beer and sangria were served from the moment we arrived at the destination until we departed, there was a DJ playing great music and the venue was surrounded by amazing green landscape. [All these photos will eventually be on Facebook].

We had three rounds of bull-fighting [baby bulls and cows and not the big ones, but for sake of convenience, I am going to refer to it as a bull anyways]. I went in during the second and third round and had a great time teasing the bull, getting near it and evading its attack. I used my shirt to wave at the bull.
It was fun. Something nobody should miss while in Spain and one of those things, you ought to do at least once in your lifetime :-)

Apart from this action, entire day was spent chit-chatting with friends from our intake and the previous intakes. I also took a couple of walks around the venue to take some pictures.

One such round proved to be an un-anticipated adventure, not so much for me, but for everyone else :-)

I saw a bunch of bulls/cows grazing in a faraway field and started walking towards the herd. I crossed the compound of our venue and then gradually reached near the herd. As soon as these 10-12 animals saw me coming, they moved forward towards me. After I moved further ahead, they kinda got close to each other and all of them started staring at me. At this moment I was around 30-40 meter away from the herd and was merrily taking pictures of them. Then I got greedy and just when I was going to take a step forward, I started hearing voices 'Prasad, Prasad'.

When I turned around many of my classmates were trying to call me and there was a man rushing towards the place I was standing. I decided to go back. This man turned out to be owner of the place and as soon as he reached near me, he started scolding me. Thanks to his little knowledge of English, he only kept saying 'You Crazy. You want to die' a lot of times.

Well, turns out that this herd which I was getting so cosy with, was of the fully trained bulls, who have spent their life-time learning to charge on humans and swing any human that gets closer to them.

People kept talking to me about this craziness throughout the day.

After all that fun, Bar of the Week [even though it was on terrace of a 5-star hotel] wasn't appealing anymore and I decided to stay at my place and edit the photos I took, rather than going to the BOTW :-)