Touching down at Heathrow airport after almost 10 months on the road my crisp brown tan, seaswept hair and grisled beard (imagine I can actually grow a beard) disappeared almost instantaneously.
Having had a year of summer travelling through the Southern Hemisphere - South America and Australia - October through February, the tropics - South East Asia - March through May and the Northern Hemisphere - China and Japan - June and July, I'm not quite sure whether London, or indeed Europe, has what I now call a REAL summer. It's basically gray and raining. I can't really complain though, revisiting my old investment banking bullpen and seeing the disheveled pale faces of my former colleagues reminded me that I have had it pretty good this past year and a summer of rain will not damper my spirits. Besides, I'll soon be moving to California and we all know what the weather is like out there.
London weather report - pretty self-explanatory...
I'm French and Swiss, born in Singapore but grew up in Belgium - for the long version just shoot me a message. I'm also an ex-M&A banker having followed half of my undergraduate Wharton class to the Street, or in my case the City. After two years of highly intensive albeit interesting work I decided that pure finance was not really for me and decided to pursue a long term ambition of mine to travel the world.
After a few months working in social entreperise in Peru, I made my way through South America and Asia before returning home a new man. I applied to Anderson along the way to switch careers and focus on my passion which is sports and football (the real kind) and received the excellent news of my acceptance somewhere in the Ecuadorian Andes. After my year of self-discovery I'm actually expecting to spend a good deal of my time at UCLA in the Price Center trying to combine entrepreneurship with my passion for sports. But before that I need to reduce the seemingly endless list pre-MBA tasks and also try to enjoy my summer, or lack thereof...
-Chris Varin, 14'
Follow UCLA on Twitter @UCLAMBA
Read up about my travels on Wordpress @ametronomiclife
Most relaxed I've ever been? - Halong Bay, Vietnam
