Saturday night was the Winterball at the Chateau des Conde (http://www.chateaudesconde.com/), a beautiful and imposing castle near INSEAD. This was a black-tie event which only reinforced the magical character of the venue. Apart from the very minor detail of a cloakroom located a few hundred meters from the actual ballroom causing many a lady to catch a cold, everything was extremely well organized. From a relaxing drinks in a lavish Moroccan room with a small number of INSEAD student performing low-key quality ambiance music, to the exuberance of the main ballroom with provocative dancers, percussions, saxo man and Funk’n’Bleau INSEAD.
Champagne served all night – with your weight in chocolate handed over to you in large balls by white-gloved waiters walking around the crowd. The food was not fantastic and the vegetarian choice was basically “the same plate but I will remove the meat part” but all in all very acceptable given the difficulty to cater for so many people. It could not tarnish the quality of the company and the setting.
I am leaving for Singapore and I do not know whether I will come back – I am looking at all these people that I will be already missing – and I have not yet been able to meet the great majority of them! Despite the rush for the P2 exams, the workload with the final cases and papers, it is so important for me to spend time with all these friends that I will be missing bitterly at the other end of the world. All of them so incredible – yet so simple in their approach to life.