He was honest, entertaining, and tangible. He talked a lot about being lucky, but also about that something inside of all good entrepreneurs that no one can quite pin down. So far, I’ve gathered that it has something to do with being restless, energetic, creative, risk-taking, and not liking it when other people tell you what to do. The best part about Sir Tom Hunter was his authenticity. I totally believed that every question he answered he did so without pretence or agenda. Someone asked “If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?” His first answer was, “I’d have hair.”  Then he went on to talk about the education system in the UK and how it wasn’t serving kids, like he had been, who don’t fit the mould. Basically, he was just a guy, who happened to get lucky, and became the richest man in Scotland.

Having sold his company for a quarter of a billion pounds at the age of 37, Sir Tom found himself without much to do. Since, he’s become one of the global leaders in venture philanthropy and has vowed to give away £1 billion in his lifetime. He’s given generously to social change campaigns like “Make Poverty History” and supports much of the work being done by the Clinton Foundation in Africa.

In the Q&A session, I asked what he would recommend to people who want to make a difference in the world but who don’t have a billion pounds to do it with. He said, “You don’t have to have a billion pounds, because there will be people out there like me who already have a billion pounds. And people like me need people like you. Figure out what you’re good at, and get on the right team.” I thought it was a pretty good answer to an admittedly tough question.

We have one fewer class than last term, which makes a surprising difference, although the hours not spent in class are meant to be filled with our “EP” (Entrepreneurial Project). The EP is a new business plan development project done in teams of five. At the end of the term, we’ll be pitching our plan to a small group of VCs and SBS advisors for feedback before submitting the final plan early next term.

In addition to EP teams, you have to manage up to four other study groups depending on the mix of electives you’ve chosen. Study groups seem to be a completely different creature between this term and last. Last term, I practically lived with my study group—we ate together, drank together, and edited papers on an overhead projector for hours to get the wording just right. This term, my new group has met only once, and all of our editing is happening online. It’s a different approach, but basically a necessity when you’re looking at coordinating the busy schedules of six people. So far, it seems to be working for us.

Exams
Whoa, that was a lot of exams—6 in 4 days will really take it out of a person. I felt pretty good going into the first exam on Monday morning, but then a killer Financial Reporting exam in the afternoon hit pretty hard, and it was a slippery downward slope right through to Thursday morning, when Finance just about did me in…It’s been funny thinking back on my undergrad experience—somehow, I don’t ever remember exams being that big of a deal. And it wasn’t that I didn’t take difficult classes, or lots of them. I guess I must have had projects and/or final papers in lieu of written exams for many of my undergrad courses. Needless to say, I have never packed so much information into my brain as I did in weeks 9 and 10 of this term, and while it was stressful, exhausting, and detrimental to any semblance of healthy eating or sleeping habits, it was actually fun to feel like I had really learned the material. We’ll see what the examiners have to say in a few weeks…

Winter Break
It is so cool to live in a place where you can hop on a plane for less than £100 and in a few short hours you can be skiing in Switzerland, cruising the streets of Barcelona, or roaming around on the African continent! Ok, ok, so I didn’t manage to do all of those things over the winter holiday, but I came pretty close! The ski trip was thwarted by a combination of poor snow conditions, and waiting too long to purchase tickets and reserve accommodations. My husband and I did, however, manage to meet up with my family in sunny Barcelona. We had a lovely Christmas spent with long lost relatives outside of Madrid, and then made our way south to Granada before taking the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier. We spent a phenomenal ten days travelling between Tangier and Marrakesh, soaking up the beautiful, vibrant, and ever-entertaining Moroccan culture. We walked the beautiful and winding streets of Chefchouen, got hopelessly lost in the crowded market in Rabat, and spent an entire afternoon watching from a balcony restaurant as the huge plaza Jemaa l-Fna in Marrakesh came to life with food vendors, snake charmers, acrobats, and fortune tellers. It was a tough decision to stay abroad for the holidays, but I must say that this winter break will not be soon forgotten.

Back in Oxford
We arrived last night by bus from the London Gatwick Airport. It’s a bit surreal to have spent the last several weeks traveling, then return “home” to Oxford, which still feels a bit like a travel destination of its own. Coming in on the A-40, the bus drove through so many interesting parts of the city that I haven’t even found on a map yet—places like Headington, Cowley, and St. Clements all have great shopping, beautiful old buildings, and fantastic restaurants just waiting to be sampled. This term, I’ve made a resolution to get out more, experience more of the incredibly rich history and culture that Oxford has to offer.

It felt good to be back, and nice to see familiar faces again at the Business School. We walked down the canal path to the grocery store last night in the dark, got caught in a horrendous downpour on the way back, and thought to ourselves “Ah, home sweet home!”

I love my college Harris Manchester. I think the right word for it is “quirky”— it’s filled with smart and kind characters and it’s a great fit for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent only a tiny fraction of time there compared with hours upon hours spent at the Business School, but whenever I do make it to the college for a meal or an event, it’s always a great experience.

My favorite thing about the college is the amazing people you meet and (even better) they are people who look at you funny when you use B-school words like “value added” and “normal distribution” and “brand recognition.” It’s a great reality check. So far, I’ve met an internationally acclaimed badminton player, a teacher studying the best way to teach theology to kids, a trial lawyer who’s decided to come back to uni after 20 years to get a masters in history, a wine connoisseur, an opera singer, a Latin-speaker, and an elite tennis player. One guy I met was in a band that hit it big at 16. He’s already experienced the rise and fall of his own UK rock band before returning to study at the ripe age of 21. Wow.

It would have been great to live in, but my husband (I’ll call him Tyler from now on) is here in Oxford for the year, and the college doesn’t offer “partnered” housing. (If you’re looking, several colleges do—you just have to do some searching!) We’re living in an apartment near SBS, which is working out great, and we try to make it to the college at least once a week for formal dinner or other events (they host concerts, lectures, parties, etc). Tyler is actually playing on the college football team and has made more friends there than I have, which is great because he introduces me to people!

We had our Christmas dinner the other night, and after a tasty meal and several glasses of wine the entire faculty table stood up, donned Santa hats, and sang us all a Christmas carol. I love this place.

When I told people that I was moving to the UK the first thing they always said was, “Oh, the weather there is awful!” Having spent several years in the Willamette Valley of Oregon (it’s between San Francisco and Seattle and gets plenty of rain), awful weather to me meant torrential downpours and no sunshine for weeks or months on end. While it’s possible that winter hasn’t yet officially hit Oxford, I can say that so far it really hasn’t been that bad. Yeah, it rains. Yeah, it’s foggy and damp and grey a lot of the time. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised that when it does rain, it’s usually light and it usually doesn’t last that long. For the most part, beautiful sunny days have been mixed in with the dreary ones.

Something, too, about the sunshine here—it’s so bright when the sun does shine. It’s a harsh, white light much different from back home. I’ve heard theories about the high humidity levels in the air here that reflect the light differently and make it seem brighter. I think the atmosphere over England just isn’t quite sure what to do with the sunlight, so when it does shine through, it really shines!

The last month has been a busy one. The novelty of moving to a new country has been replaced by the realities of Oxford academia, although I’m still struck by the quintessentially British quirks confronting me when I do manage to leave the library:

Oxford “freshers” (students attending “uni” for the first time), stumble drunk down High Street on a Wednesday night, leaning on one another as they walk. Dressed to the nines in suits and black bowties, they are a giggling, slurring, tripod trying to make it back to their college before they lose their legs.

A cheerful woman’s voice comes on the loudspeaker at the grocery store (always with a thick British accent) when the lines at the checkout stands have reached the far side of the produce section. “We apologize for the long queues you are currently experiencing,” she sings out. People chat and smile as they wait in line for 45 minutes to make their purchases.

I find something especially endearing about old English people. Riding my bike the other day, I was passed up by a little old lady whizzing along on her cycle with a big wicker basket on the front, her bright white hair shining from under a scarf. Whenever I to out jogging, I see old men walking slowly down the canal paths in the misty mornings. Their plaid socks are hiked up with their trousers tucked in to them, wool hats tilted sideways and thick smoke billowing from their pipes.

Before arriving in Oxford and starting the MBA programme, I had this romantic notion of travelling the English countryside by rail on the weekends…not so much. The workload has been intense, but the classes are interesting. A notorious class skipper in my undergrad, I have actually attended every class so far! Even when I’m totally lost and haven’t the foggiest idea what Modigliani would say about the net present value of the multiple regression I ran last night, I like to think that some small portion of the material will soak in just by sitting in class. So far, I think my theory has definite merit.

My mom called the other day as I was preparing for a study group meeting. I told her I couldn’t talk, that I had to go. She said, “Well, is there a time tomorrow that I could call you?” I pulled up my calendar, which showed meetings, classes, study groups, and presentations booked the next day from 8:00 am straight through until 11:00 pm with 15 minutes of un-allotted time… I told her “No, maybe next term.”