Goodnight Seattle, We Love Ya

This is the third and final installment of my contribution to the exchange blog, at least as far as experiences at UW go. I intend to be joining in with stories from afar following my return to the other side of the pond.

And I do so with very mixed emotions.

On the one hand, it is a great feeling to only have one quarter of assignments, deliverables and suchlike remaining. On the other hand I will conclude my time at UW and in Seattle with an element of sadness. It’s not even been three months since I arrived in the US, but in many respects it feels as if I have spent my whole MBA at the Michael G. Foster School of Business – albeit that technically it wasn’t named as such when I arrived here. Cynics may suggest that this was the reason for the generous offerings of non-Foster branded merchandise to exchange students, but I digress. That aside, I guess that it is testament to UW and Seattle that I immediately felt so at home here. Of course sharing an (almost) common language, climate and political outlook has most probably assisted with the transition, but such similarities have already been covered in a previous blog post.

In one context it feels like just yesterday that I walked, jet-lagged and caffeine deprived (I hadn’t yet discovered Victrola, Vivace or any other place beginning with letters of the alphabet after the letter S), through those now legendary doors to the MBA Lounge to be greeted by a posse of new friends, colleagues, and alcohol-appropriating buddies. Many of you, I’m happy to say, fit with all three of those categories. But then I have also done so much in my relatively brief my time here. It was, at one point, rumored that I had been to every social event that took place in the Greater Puget Sound region since my arrival. Sadly, this reputation was shattered following my absence from the YPIN event last Friday. Free alcohol as well, apparently. I digress.

I’m really going to miss being in Seattle. It might well rain nine months out of the year (incidentally I think we’ve been fortunate in that respect this Fall), but from the strange noises that can be heard in Capitol Hill at night to the Christmas tree on top of the Space Needle, I really love this city. It’s hard to believe that someplace 5000 miles/8000 km from the UK feels so much like home. It’s a long way, but amazingly only 8 hours on a British Airways flight from London. Concorde would have been even faster – in spite of the concerns regarding noise pollution, but then Seattle never was averse to a jet plane or several thousand. And Concorde did look damn sexy. On second thoughts, I do have an MBA to pay for. (Note to editor: insert pay-per-click banner advertisement for BA here).

I have similar feelings about UW and the b-school. The Huskies might rarely win; the Balmer Café might be clean out of my favorite flavor of VitaminWater at 7.30pm on a Monday evening when I really need it, but there is always something or someone here to make me smile. Incidentally, given my feelings about the Coca-Cola Company I shouldn’t even be buying VitaminWater considering the recent acquisition of Glacéau by said organization. Again, I digress.

It requires exceptional people to have a wardrobe full of purple apparel. I should know – our University color schemes are something else that we have in common. Okay, so it might not go with any other item of clothing that you possess, but then is that such a bad thing? Actually I guess it is, but you have to love it for its boldness. For once, I am lost for words – it’s hard for me to summarize how I feel with regard to my time here. Sufficed to say, it’s been a blast and that I intend to make the most of my remaining 12 or so days here.

Finally, to borrow an amusing yet completely-made-up-for-comic-effect quote from the present governor of California who, when supposedly asked in his former thespian career which classical composer he would most like to be, cleverly responded “I’ll be Bach” [sic].

And so I hope to be.

I’m going to do my very best to make it to C4C in April; steroids or otherwise.

Keep in touch, wherever in the world you may be.

Happy holidays one and all!

[Today’s blog post was brought to you by the letters U and W and the number 2007]

P.S. just noticed that I used US English spelling in this post - that's what a whole weekend of assignments will do to you!