The week that started out as one from hell, has taken a remarkable turn for the better. It’s an odd thing, the scheduling here. This week was frontloaded with SO much stuff: back-to-back three case days, shad practices, meetings, 101′s, etc. Then yesterday I finished Shad and had nothing to do all day. It made for a great opportunity to catch up on sleep (the section was out pretty late the night before).
Today only had one case to prepare, and it was relatively light. The other class we had today involved this simulation online where we were basically in a chat-room type meeting but some of us were presumed to be non-native English speakers, and therefore everything we said came out jumbled or unintelligible to the other people in the conversation. We then had to evaluate how well we adapted and produced in that environment. Was interesting.
The rest of the day will be spent preparing 2 cases for tomorrow and making sure that I’m rested for tomorrow night and what will undoubtedly be one of the most ridiculous events I ever attend.
Today started with learning team, per usual except that we had our regular meeting room stolen from us. That was a drag. I found myself far more prepared for the cases in LT than I felt when I went to bed 5 hours earlier.
Classes went well. I finally got in another comment in finance. It started out okay but then I wobbled on the professor’s follow up. Can’t sweat the small stuff. I’m learning to be less self critical in the moment of particiaption, because I find obsessing over comments distracts from the next 20 minutes of learning. Better to evaluate after class.
This afternoon we had the first part of the infamous “shad” exercise, where we simulate a manufacturing plant on the floor of the gym. Our team did well. Fortunately I love my learning team and the team we were paired with has been fun to work with. This is all part of the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) course, which I’ll get into in detail later.
We went to debrief the exercise in the grille over beers (yay for having a chill team) and I’m now taking a 20 minute time out in the Spangler living room.
Tonight I’m going to see one of my LT teammates play guitar at a fundraiser for Argentina. This week we learned he is a famous recording artist in South America. Cool! After that sec-c is watching the debate in the grille and then going to chill at a bar called Bus Stop. Should be good times and fortunately there is only the second half of Shad to do tomorrow, so done with work for tonight. Good feeling!
12:20am. I still have a whole case to read and prepare. And it’s finance. The class where I’ve spoken once in 6 sessions. Great.
We’re in the midst of what can only be described as HBS’ version of freshman hazing – the Shad exercise. Teams of 12 people forced to get together and simulate manufacturing plants in the gym (“Shad”) all the while learning whether a job shop or product cell approach to manufacturing is better. Frankly, I’m starting not to care. For some reason they thought it would be funny to schedule this across two back-to-back three-case days. Now this exercise is actually cutting in to my ability to learn in the other classes.
Vent.
That feels better.
It’s starting to get cold here. The walk across the river tonight wasn’t pleasant. Time to dig through the basement for the winter clothes perhaps.
I’ve been waiting for the momentum of the school year to plateau, but it hasn’t yet. I’m starting to wonder if it ever will. I still am averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night during the week and struggling to wash that out with 10 during the weekend. On top of that, I’m still sick (yes, three weeks later).
Finally the cough is starting to subside. But it’s been so long since I’ve been completely healthy that I’m starting to forget what that’s like.
Tomorrow is a 3-case day, but I only had to prepare 2 today because one of the cases was done in learning team on Friday afternoon. Was nice not to have to read three books today.
And lastly to add more to the already growing pile, I got an unexpected jolt today when I found out I was elected president of my section. It’s a responsibility I’m really looking forward to having this year as my section has not yet ceased to impress me. And since I’m in that mood, I’m finishing up the weekend watching an episode of the West Wing while my housemate has about 18 girls in our living room watching the Sex and the City movie… weird.