This is how we be!

With the samba beats still ringing in my head from last night’s Brazilian party, I thought it interesting to contrast how we party back “home” in the Netherlands with what I see here. Simply, how do MBA students spend the most important part of their program in a small school versus a big school?
Having attended two of the most popular parties (so I’ve been told) in the program thus far, The White Party and the Brazilian Party (yes I missed the Foam party and I regret that deeply!), I must say I’m impressed! Not just with the operational components of the parties- the location, music etc.-but also the huge turnouts. These parties perhaps give good reason for all the eight hundred in one class (sixteen hundred with both classes) to gather at one place in search of that common goal I mentioned in my last article (goal: could be anything. Here it’s probably getting drunk and dancing the night away). These are the moments where I guess the class isn’t divided into cohorts and you all are just ONE class. What’s even better is that as you attend every party, and assuming you attend pretty much all of them in your first year, you’re still getting to know more and more people. You can look forward to something new and (hopefully) exciting every time.
Partying in a small school environment is definitely different! Since we don’t have the huge student numbers to benefit from, yes our parties aren’t big. But does size matter?
Theme parties, drink-till-you-get-wasted parties, national-theme parties (like the Brazilian) etc. Yes we have all of that. Operationally, the only difference would perhaps be that these are held in pubs and small clubs. As the parties wear on, one notices that one is seeing the same faces every time. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Since I prefer partying with people I’m close to and know well, this helps me enlarge that circle every time. Yes we do have our own cliques as well in a small MBA program and with a smaller class size, I know I don’t need to hang out in my clique or even have them at every party to have a great time.
Enough said about people. What about the other stuff?
Well, these parties are largely beer-oriented and much emphasis is placed on food. I guess with a class size of a hundred that’s not impossible to organize. We generally cycle up to the venue in all our finery (yes we even pick up dates on cycles!), and begin (like normal party people everywhere) around 11pm. It’s not uncommon to bar/pub hop in smaller groups and increasingly with time the trend was to finish off with a nightcap (read beer) at a ‘regular’ pub. Very homely, very ‘Cheers’-y. Barbecues (weather permitting) and house parties are very common too and with smaller numbers again, it isn’t difficult to accommodate most of the class. Too seek newer venues and perhaps new kinds of beer, we met up in pubs/clubs in the neighboring (and charming!) towns like Delft, Utrecht, Den Haag and of course, Amsterdam! And of course if you feel like you need a change in the party scene one weekend, Paris or London is, at best, a few hours away!
So am I going to say that I prefer small-school parties over the big-school ones. No. And it’s not because I’m a fence-sitter. It’s because they’re both completely unique and different experiences. Those only we lucky exchange students get to go through!