Universidad del CEMA

Hola!

This blog is about my university here in Buenos Aires: Universidad del CEMA. I really like my university! It's well organized and it is a small university, really small! You may think, every university is well organized, right? I can tell you one thing: In South America well organized organizations/companies are rare. Personally, I am still a little amazed by the inefficiency I experience  every day, not only during the classes, but even with grocery shopping or getting a statement of robbery at the police office. Though it is a great experience and it makes you respect the Netherlands and its policies more, at least for me thats the case.;)
About a month ago my introduction days started. I just got back from my trip to Salta and was looking forward to meet all the exchange students of my university. Up to that moment I already knew a lot of people from di Tella, but this was a new opportunity to meet other interesting people. UCEMA has 2 introduction days, on those days the university provide you with all the information necessary to study at UCEMA and you will get to know your fellow exchange students. You can get to know all names in one day, because there are only a few international students. This is really nice, because you will get to know all exchange students pretty well and it is possible to organize dinners and activities with all of them. I really like my fellow exchange students, 5 are from south-america and the others from europe. We organize dinners with different country themes every wednesday and do a lot of activities together. The first days I felt really stupid, because my Spanish isn't that advanced as the others, all the others have, or spanish as mother tongue, studied already for a semester in a Spanish-speaking country or speak Portuguese what is kind of the same. Luckily enough, everyone is very kind and it is the perfect way to learn spanish really quick.



The way of teaching here in Argentina is way different than we, Tilburg University students, are used to!
To start with the location, UCEMA is located in the micro-centrum of Buenos Aires, all the big companies are located there and its the heart of the financial district. It is close to Casa Rosada (the office of the president) and to Puerto Madero ( the Nacional park located in the big city), so it is the best location you can wish for. It is a tall building, two entrances, +/- 12 floors and with security. I have to say, about all buildings here have security, but still, its different. The people at the university are really nice, they always want to help you, they know you all personally, the only thing that is difficult is that nobody speaks english. Some teachers do, but the people from administration do not. So also a good motivation to learn speak Spanish really quick.

I chose 4 subjects: Liderazgo (leadership), Politico de productos ( policy regarding to products, its an advanced marketing course), Administracion de Recursos Humanos (HRM) and Topicos Avanzadas en Finanzas (Advanced topics in Finance). All different directions and courses I really like a lot. To me the first three courses are the courses I miss in my studies, so I am happy I got the opportunity to take them right now.
In my following blog I will elaborate more on my courses and especially the differences compared to Tilburg University.

I will finish this blog with a remarkable anecdote:
For finance I need to write a paper of 15-30 pages, we needed to send the professor a proposal of the paper and if he approved of the topic you needed to make an appointment with him to talk about it in detail. So I sent him my proposal, a little with doubts if it was correct and I made the appointment.
When I came into his office he started some small talk, amazed that I was studying at his university and my spanish is still not that advanced. After that we talked about my paper, my paper is globally about the economic crisis in Europe focused on Greece. He looked at me and started questioning me how we, Europeans, thought it was possible to form one union, with (according to him) the hardworking people in the north of europe and the laid-back-attitude from the south. He said it was the stupidest thing to do, we will get bankrupt because of the countries in South-Europe etc. I was a little stunned and didn't know what to say. He finished with telling me he was really curious about my paper, because he will maybe get to know the European way of thinking.
Then the habit of a different culture came to light: he kissed me on the cheek when saying goodbye.
I was a little shocked, but here it is perfectly normal to kiss everyone on the cheek, the teacher in the gym, everyone you meet or once saw, the coordinators at university and also the professors. ;)
So if you go here, don't be shocked, everyone does it, its is the same as saying 'hi'.
Though imagine for a second how weird this would be on Tilburg University...