Monday, November 20, 2006

Girls Gone Wild (Milan Edition)

So it has been a very busy week. After a fabulously entertaining Random Dinner (where second year students host first years for dinner) on Thursday night, we were off to Milan on Friday for the first annual "MBA World League" tournament, hosted by Bocconi. Technically, this was the same event we played in last year, but with more sports (volleyball and basketball in addition to soccer), more participants, fancier uniforms for our soccer team, and a bigger logistical headache for our hosts.

We arrived in Milan Friday night without much hassle or delay (on Alitalia! imagine!) and were greeted by this beautiful sign at Linate airport. Maybe it's just me, but I think that if you decide to post a neon sign at an international airport, it might be a good idea to look into all the possible implications of your company name...


At any rate, I was too exhausted to do anything aside from crash Friday night, which meant that getting up at 7 Saturday morning to get breakfast and catch the bus for the sports complex wasn't quite as bad as it could have been.

We played back-to-back matches without a goalkeeper (Gemma valiantly stood in for the first half of each match and I took over for part of the second half) and managed to shut out the competition, defeating Bocconi 8-0 and London Business School 6-0. I don't think I will ever again have the opportunity to score 12 goals over two matches, or to score one while wearing keeper gloves, so please forgive me for enjoying it for one little blog entry. Normal self-deprecation will resume in one sentence.

Behold, the fabulous ladies of IESE: Cary, Gemma, Carol, moi, Anna, and Teresa. And muchas gracias to BBVA for our sweet uniforms!

I refereed the last match between Bocconi and LBS and then it was time to relax and cheer our basketball, volleyball, and mens' football teams on. Sadly, the others didn't have the same luck we did, but everyone managed to have a fantastic time.

After our day of sports, we were off to a molto tasty buffet dinner, where mingled with other students and I met Paolo, a fellow blogger from Bocconi. It's funny to walk by a complete stranger and be greeted by name. Ah, celebrity. I suppose I'll have to find a way to deal with it!

Unfortunately I couldn't chat with Paolo for long because we were presented moments later with our first place trophy and I was also given a very unexpected MVP award. As Borat would say, "High Five!"


The ladies and our cup

To which we quickly became very attached...

With the ladies of LBS

Feigning humility...

I learned a very important lesson that night: Be very careful when you give a shiny cup to a group of girls. We get completely out of control! We spent the following 30 minutes in a corner of the room cherishing our new friend - kissing it, taking pictures with it, drinking from it... not to mention singing IESE songs and chanting each others' names. Only slightly ridiculous.

Our love affair with our trophy soon came to an end however, because it was time to head to Old Fashioned for the official event party and some serious dancing. All of which is much easier to do (and more fun) when you know you don't have to get up early in the morning to play more sports. Woo hoo!

A bonus side note... I returned home to learn I have an interview (in 3 hours!!!) that I am VERY psyched about. Sweet! So now I must refrain from futher blogging in order to prepare. But coming soon... some important insight into Italian airport security.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woooo hooo noelle!
Exchanger from NYC are very pRRRRRRoud of you girls!

NoellieBellie said...

Grazie Georgie!!!

Anonymous said...

As one of the organiser of the tournament - event I am proud to hear that you and your girls had fun.. it was great having you in town... just one thing: 8 goals to Bocconi + 6 goals to LBs makes 14...not 12.. I guess u still have to take the Advance Quantitative Methods course... ;-p
Thanks once again and keep in touch.
corrado

NoellieBellie said...

Well I had to let someone else score a couple of times! So I only scored 12 of the 14. What can I say? I'm generous! :)

Anonymous said...

By the way... I have to say that people at assitalia are indeed assholes.. no wait, awesome.. well but then should be aweitelia.. mmm that's becoming too complicatade now.
And INA obviously refers to I. Thomson.

Anonymous said...

Now that's a way cool blog. Thank you. Worth the wait. Hope the interview went well.

Anonymous said...

Hope the interview went very well.
-Bright