The end of P1

P survived his P1-exams, I survived Brussels without P, and together we celebrated this (and our 6-year anniversary!) with a great long weekend!
Thursday and Friday we spent 2 days in Disneyland Paris...which was absolutely great. We were able to relax and forget the real world for a while. (up until the point that “the real world’s electricity” failed for 15 minutes, and the smiling, dancing little people of “It’s a small world after all” just became plain plastic dolls…). And up until the moment P got a very upsetting mail on his blackberry (see 2nd part of this posting)
Saturday we enjoyed Paris together with some friends. We discovered that Hausmann was very serious when he designed his “Grands Boulevards” (walking from L’opera to l’Etoile, the boulevard Hausmann just went on, and on , and on, and on….). So after finally arriving on the Champs Elysées, we all deserved our 6 Eur- hot chocolate :-)
Sunday we had brunch with P’s collegue and wife, who will be starting their INSEAD-experience in January, on the Signapore campus. And the wonderful weekend ended with a great walk through the Fôret de Fontainebleau, which looks awesome in autumn colors.

With some great sadness, I also have to mention that some did not survive P1. Two students of the July 2008 class in Singapore drowned Friday morning at a beach in Bali due to unusually strong currents. They were there together with some of their classmates as part of their P1/P2 break.
I did not know them personally, but my thoughts go out to their family and friends.
Coping with this tragic news proves difficult for everyone, and people are looking for ways to express their grief. On Facebook, all the other Belgian students put their status “in mourning”. P spent hours looking on the net for more information on the accident, trying to understand how this could’ve happened. Today a moment of silence will be held on both campuses. But even for the brightest people in this world, “Why” is sometimes a question that just cannot be answered….