The Visa process was arguably the toughest part of all preparations. This was not so much because it is difficult but because it is very time-consuming and at times very boring and bureaucratic. My tip: when you go to the embassy or consulate to get your Visa, bring a book! I was not allowed to take any electronics inside. Also: when doing the online questionnaire, make sure to save your process! On the other hand, the time spent getting prepared for this adventure was time that also prepared me mentally and got me more and more nervous at what would await me at T-Bird: how do the courses compare to MBS? How will the other students welcome me and us? What will Phoenix be like after 5 years? As always, the closer I got to my departure date, the more nervous I got, even though I at least knew the area and had friends to visit. But this was the 'good kind' of nervousness. I wanted to do this term abroad for a long time and something would have been wrong had I not been nervous.

Travel arrangements to and from Phoenix are always difficult. During some periods, there are daily flights from London Heathrow to Phoenix; sometimes there are no direct flights from Europe to Phoenix. I found a connecting flight within the USA and the travel time was around 24 hours from door to door. When I arrived, my classmates were already there and had volunteered to buy me bed sheets, towels and such things from the closest Wal-Mart (go north on 59th Avenue!). The frequent sales of used furniture and appliances on the student web page were a great way to get a cheap fridge or microwave.

When we were settled, foundations week started. This is similar to the first week in Mannheim, but then again it is radically different. Be on time, adhere to the dress code, and take part. It is a great way to get to know the other students that enter the school at the same time and there were some fun things to do. We were introduced to T-Bird specific things such as the IT systems, the alumni network or their career services department. We also had our 'academic start' with one country presentation in a team and one negotiation training in a team. After the long days, we tried out the pub. It is the center of social life at T-Bird and Dave and Marco are great Bartenders. Tipping them nicely does pay off ;-).

T-Bird is consistently ranked as the best internationally oriented MBA program in the world, and it shows. There are no lectures on Fridays so that many students flock to the pub that is situated on campus. On these Thursdays you will be at what is arguably the most international pub in the world. You will literally find any nationality in that establishment. To see that everybody is in one way or another proud of his or her origin is great. It is even greater to realize the mutual respect among everyone and that this pride is never taken as an offense but is often the source of long-lasting dialogues and new friendships. In that sense T-Bird was the experience of a lifetime and what I learned here was worth not only the term at T-Bird but also the whole MBA program. There is a reason that the main flag flying at T-Bird is that of the United Nations. I quickly got into a mindset that everybody here is 'international'. The one example that shows this was that it took me three times of playing soccer with a guy called 'Marcus' and thinking that this is not really a common name for somebody from England to find out that this person was actually from Germany. Somebody needed to point this out to me, too…

The teachers are also a part of student life. Some of them we saw at the pub, some of them I played soccer with. This school is a real community and it is proud of it – and rightfully so.

T-Bird has a huge course catalogue, but many courses were by definition out of the question for MBS-students. Since the term start and end dates are different from MBS, we needed to find those courses that are held in the first half of the term only. But even with this limitation and the fact that it is hard to get into advanced courses, both because they are in high demand and because we did not meet certain prerequisites, I still had plenty of courses to choose from and was more than satisfied with my schedule.

Course-work is somewhat different at T-Bird when compared to MBS. It involves a great deal of reading case studies and preparing them for the next session. In many courses I did not write a final exam but had a take-home assignment or a group project instead. The teaching style is highly interactive and when the sessions are over there was usually some discussion going on between professors and students. The professors were also more than happy to talk and help outside the classes. It seemed as if they truly enjoyed the international setting and the willingness of students to learn and supported this by any means possible.

Course work at T-Bird has many different aspects but one was truly outstanding: the internationality. Different cultures produce different solutions and after a while I became aware of the fact that any problem can be solved in a myriad of ways. Knowing this intellectually is one thing. It is, however a completely different thing to see one single problem being solved successfully in 10 different ways. I considered myself a person with a broad mind before, but I had to find out that I was in fact very narrow-minded in certain areas.

The social aspect of life at T-Bird is a big one and I certainly made sure to be a part of it. As I mentioned before, there is the pub where a large part of the social life took place. But there was so much more: barbecues, soccer, rugby, and a general tendency of students to do things together. One of the first weekends we rented a party bus with around 15 people and went to Scottsdale, went into a club called Martini Ranch and had a great time – all student organized. In general, T-Bird campus is one large social life in and of itself. I saw about 60 Indian students in the commons at 4AM watching the cricket world cup – multiple times! The beauty of internationality comes up here as well. I experienced how people from different cultures celebrate and socialize. And I learned one thing: each of the more than 40 nationalities I came into contact with can pride itself on its hospitality!

The Sonoran desert: beautiful and dangerous. I for one love the dessert and especially the Sonoran desert that surrounds Phoenix. We had one problem that I had not run into during four years in my undergraduate studies in Phoenix. Freezing temperatures. Phoenix is simply not prepared for this kind of weather, and neither was I. Consequently, I did not have enough warm clothes and also drew the anger of some people I had advised on what to bring.

Phoenix is not just one big city; it is multiple cities grown together. T-Bird is situated on the west part of the valley, Phoenix itself is in the center and the well-to-do areas are in the east. There are many things to do besides staying at T-Bird. Hiking one of the mountains, for example, visiting the other cities, shopping or playing golf. We were three people that made use of a special arrangement for renting a car over the weekend. US$40 for a weekend got us all around the valley.

There are many more great cities in what in the USA goes for a 'short distance'. Las Vegas is 5 hours away by car, the Grand Canyon 4, Hoover Dam also 4 hours, San Diego 6 and Los Angeles 8 hours. The trip that everybody took while I was there was to Las Vegas. Being in a group of 20 people, Sin City was probably the greatest experience outside of T-Bird itself. We left in a big SUV with six people on Friday afternoon and returned on Sunday evening. Too many great stories took place those days to mention here so I will stick to one: it is always good to wear new socks in a Las Vegas elevator at 5AM on Sunday morning. If you want to know what this means, ask me at a future 'Stammtisch' in Mannheim.

Again, I knew the area pretty well before but after talking to many other people that visited for the first time it became clear that they all loved the surroundings. Yes, it is different from what most people know and even different from what most people consider to be a desert, but that is exactly the beauty of it.

I made a ton of new friends at T-Bird, I got to take great courses, I got away from the cold weather and I made so many other great experiences that clearly it was very hard to leave Glendale and Phoenix. But then, sharing those experiences with the classmates who went to Canada, India, Denmark, England and Spain and also with those that stayed at home and played hosts to the many exchange students coming to MBS was a great experience by itself.

I can wholeheartedly and without any reservations recommend the T-Bird experience. Yes, there were problems and issues that had to be worked out but I figure we are all adults aiming for a higher degree, so we should be capable to find ways to solve problems and issues. After all, this is part of life and this is what we will hopefully be hired to do after the MBA program is over. For me the term at T-Bird was even better than I expected and it added a completely different level to the overall program. If you plan to go to T-Bird, I can assure you  that you will return with a wealth of insights and new impressions far beyond what you expected.