Christmas Break Fun

After finals ended a few weeks ago, we wasted no time getting out of snowy Boston and heading South.  The first stop was Rockville, MD where both my brother and Cynthia's parents live (what a coincidence!).  We spent about four days relaxing in MD, seeing some of Cynthia's friends, spending time at National Harbor, and slack-lining for the first time (for me at least!).

Slack-Lining Like a Pro

If you take a picture fast enough (before I fall), then it almost looks like i know what I'm doing!

Dumpling Party!

In front of the tree at National Harbor

From Maryland, I flew down to Mexico City to spend a week with with my family and my sister-in-law's parents, one of which happens to be the US Ambassador to Mexico.  We had an absolutely amazing week down there, getting spoiled by delicious food prepared by professional chefs and having private tours of all the popular sites around the city.  It seemed like everywhere we went, doors would open and we would gain access to incredible opportunities!  Here are the highlights:

Incredible Accommodations
It turns out being the US Ambassador has some fantastic perks, such as getting to live in a beautiful home with a full compliment of chefs, butlers, maids, and security folks.  The whole time we were there it felt like we were staying at a 5-star resort, but even better because everything had a personal touch.
 

Starting the day right with a great breakfast!

Looking over the grounds of the house

Many an afternoon was spent in this pool!

Chapultepec Castle
During my first afternoon there, we headed to the Chapultepec Castle, which is situated on a hill in the middle of downtown.  The castle has a long and storied past, including being a military academy, imperial residence, presidential home, and observatory.  Now it houses the Museo Nacional de Historia, or the National History Museum.  We were fortunate to be driven to the top of the hill, right up to the entrance of the castle.  From there, we wandered through the museum and took in the great views of the surrounding city.

Entering the grounds of the Chapultepec Castle

Beautifully manicured garden on the roof of the castle.

View from the castle

Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Anthropology Museum)
On Christmas day, after opening presents and relaxing at the house, we headed downtown to visit the Museo Nacional de Anthropologia, which is the most visited museum in Mexico.  It contains many large artifacts from throughout the history of Mexico, dating back to the time of the Aztecs and Mayans.

Outside the museum, we watched a performance of the Danza de los Voladores, or the Dance of the Flyers.  According to one myth, the ritual was created to ask the gods to end a severe drought many years ago.

Watching the Voladores

Inside the museum.  Note the large roof supported by a single pillar!

And ancient Aztec "sacrifice stone".

The Pyramids at Teotihuacan
The next day we drove out to the pyramids and ancient city of Teotihuacan.  The city was built between 100 BC and 250 AD and at it's peak was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas.  The site has two large pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.  We climbed both and got some great views of the surrounding landscape.

The Pyramid of the Sun

Climbing the Pyramid of the Sun

On top of the Pyramid of the Sun

The Pyramid of the Moon

Mexico City Cathedral
Our trip to the Cathedral was one of the highlights of the trip.  After arriving through a side alley, we were whisked into a back entrance and met by the head priest who gave us a private tour of the whole interior.  He led us around many of the side chapels and told some amazing stories from throughout the church's history in Mexico.  From there, he handed us off to the man in charge of the bells for the cathedral and he led us up to the bell tower and across the roof where we had some incredible views of the downtown plaza.

The front facade of the Cathedral

One of the alters inside the cathedral

Looking out over the roof from one of the bell towers

On the roof, in front of one of the bell towers

Looking out from the face of the clock, at the main plaza of Mexico City

National Palace
After the cathedral, we headed to the National Palace, which houses many of the murals painted by Diego Rivera depicting scenes from throughout Mexican history.

Mexican history as painted by Diego Rivera

Inside the National Palace

Templo Mayor
Our final stop that day was a quick visit to the Templo Mayor, which used to be the central temple of ancient Mexico City.  It was expanded seven different times over the course of about 200 years, and each time they just built on top of the old construction.  Archeologists used to think that it was buried directly underneath the present-day cathedral, but in 1978 two utility workers dug into it as they were constructing a new drainage system for the city.  Since then, a large portion has been excavated and you can now walk through all seven layers of construction, all the way to the central temple.

Central temple at the Templo Mayor

Chapultepec Zoo
One of our last excursions of the trip was to the Chapultepec Zoo, home of the only panda bears in Mexico.  It turns out that it has one of the most successful panda breeding programs in the world.  We managed to get a private tour of the panda exhibit, thanks to the director of the zoo who came and found us as we were wondering the exhibits.  We watched as one of the trainers worked with one of the pandas, getting it to stand, lay down, and open it's mouth on command.  By training the bears like this, they can avoid putting them under during routine vet check-ups.

Getting a panda to stand on command!

Checking his teeth!

Shopping
Our last stop of the trip was at a huge market to pick up some souveners.  We drove out to an expansive open-air market and wandered through rows and rows of vendor booths.  There were lots of gems in there, but I settled on a Mexican blanket and a coupe T-shirts.

After stopping in Maryland for a few days and celebrating New Years with Cynthia, it was back to Boston just in time for Winter Storm Hercules, which dumped about a foot of snow on the city and sent temperatures plunging below zero.  As I write this, we're getting ready to head up skiing tomorrow.  Then on Sunday we leave for the LGO Plant Trek!!!

Landing in Boston yesterday, and missing Mexico!

That's a Wrap! (Second time around)

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, all that stood between me and a long break for the holidays was a final in 15.010 (Economics).  A few hours later, as I handed in the test, I realized that I was half done with the academic portion of LGO.  Since I'll be on my internship during the spring semester, I really only have two semesters left at MIT which is truly hard to believe.  Now that I have some free time and no looming finals, I've been thinking about my experience so far at LGO:

Summer vs. Fall Terms
I definitely feel that the summer was tougher than the fall.  Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't been in a classroom for 5 years or maybe there actually was more work, but it seemed like I was always busy during the summer.  In the fall, there was a lot more downtime and time to do more things outside of school.  Of course this can completely depend on the engineering electives that you choose to take.  My two engineering courses (Logistics Systems and The Airline Industry) were both very interesting but relatively light in terms of workload.  There are definitely classes that can make the fall much tougher than the summer, but I have no regrets about my choices.

The team dynamics were also completely different between my summer and fall teams.  During the summer, we worked on virtually every assignment together, or at least compared solutions to the P-sets.  We saw each other a lot outside of class and got to know each other really well over the summer.  During the fall, there was really only one group project during the entire term (for Organizational Processes) and I didn't see much of my core team at all except for during class and the weekly Communications Lab.  Other LGOs had great core team experiences in the fall, so mine may have been an anomaly. 

LGO within Sloan
We were warned before the fall semester that we would have to actively try to connect with the rest of Sloan, as it is all too easy to stay within the tight community of LGO.  Now that the core term is over, I have mixed opinions how I did with the integration.  I definitely tried to join in on a lot of the Sloan events, including some wonderful dinners through the Happy Belly Club and the NYC trek with the Travel and Hospitality Club.  On the other hand, I definitely spent a lot of time in the LGO lounge and more time outside of class with LGOs than with the rest of Sloan.  The common theme is a group of incredibly smart and talented people and I definitely want to continue to get to know people better.  Something to work on going forward!

Living in Boston
I'm still enjoying my time in Boston, though the recent winter weather is definitely testing that enjoyment.  As the summer turned to fall, the fall colors came out radiantly along the river and the only change that I made was to throw on more layers.  I was still running regularly along the river until about mid-November.  That's when the real cold weather started and I cut back quite a bit with the running.  I have yet to find enough layers that can make a run through 5-degree temperatures comfortable.  We just had our first batch of snow roll through Boston last week and it was fun to trek through it to finals.  Four months from now I may not be so excited, but for now it has a certain mystique to it.

The MIT dome after a snow storm

The Sloan building, after my last final!

The Charles River Trail...a little harder to run on it now!

The sailboats are out of the water until the spring...and the river is frozen.

Cynthia celebrating the first snow.

So what's next?  Well, for the next month I will be living as a nomad.  As I write this blog, I'm sitting in Suburban Maryland, visiting my brother and Cynthia's parents (who happen to live just miles apart from each other).  On Monday I'm headed to Mexico City to meet up with my family for Christmas, followed by another brief stop in Maryland.  Then it's off for the epic LGO Plant Trek!  We've put together an action-packed itinerary for the trek, including stops in Detroit (GM), Portland (Nike), Seattle (Amazon/Boeing), LA (Amazon), Tucson (Raytheon), Austin (Dell), and San Juan, Puerto Rico (Amgen).  This is one of the major highlights of the LGO program and I can't wait for all the adventures!

Itinerary for the next month!

First leg: BOS - BWI yesterday (flying over Manhattan here)

So if you're looking for me over the next month, just look up.  Odds are that I'll be on a plane!

Happy Holidays!

Internships, C-Functions, Movember and more!

Yikes, I just realized that it's been over a month since I last posted anything here.  We've been pretty busy will a whole host of school activities and other adventures!  Some updates:

Internship!
The biggest news is that the off-cycle internships have been announced and I will be going to Sikorsky in Startford, CT to work in a supplier management role.  There is a longstanding debate within LGO about whether to do the internship off-cycle (Feb - Aug) or on-cycle (Jun - Dec).  About 25% of the class does off-cycle and the other 75% does on-cycle.  For me, the decision was mostly driven by an interest in the project (only offered off-cycle) and the fact that it met the requirements for my Aero/Astro engineering requirement.  It is also a follow-on to a previous LGO project, so I'll have a good baseline to start from.  The main difference is that I'll get two fall semesters on campus, while the on-cyclers will get two springs.  That drove a few changes to my course schedule but it didn't have any major impacts on my plan.  The two big benefits of the off-cycle internship are that I can participate in G-Lab next year and also get an extra 3 months to write my thesis!

Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk

C-Functions
We've had several more C-Functions in the last month including Korea, Latin America, and Mexico.  All the clubs have done an excellent job of putting on the events and we've been treated to some amazing performances by our classmates.  One of the Baltic Ocean traditions is that someone always wears a penguin suit.  This month the honor went to LGOs Cynthia and Kara!

Cynthia as the Baltic Penguin at the Korean C-Function

Photo shoot in front of the dome

Kara as the Baltic Penguin at the Latin C-Function

Movember
The month of November brought on Movember and the men (and women) of Sloan teamed up to raise money and awareness for men's health by growing ridiculous facial hair.  So far the "Mustachioed Men of Sloan" have raised more than $14,000!  Ammar had a great series of posts with pictures of the LGO 'staches, so I'll just post a few shots here.

Exploring Boston
The winter weather has arrived, but that doesn't mean an end to the exploring around Boston.  Recent excursions include discovering a third climbing gym in the area, visiting the aquarium, and eating lobster on the waterfront.

Penguin Exhibit at the NE Aquarium

Lobster Feast!

Thanksgiving in Maryland
It turns out that my brother and Cynthia's parents live within a few miles of each other in suburban Maryland, so it worked out to be a perfect destination for a quick trip over Thanksgiving.  We didn't have any travel issues in either direction and had a great time down there.

Thanksgiving Feast

Outfitting my Nephew William with MIT gear

Post-feast hike at Great Falls

10-Mile "Turkey Burn-off" run

Travel and Hospitality Trek to New York City
One of the many benefits of being at Sloan is getting seemingly endless opportunities to learn more about particular industries by doing on-site visits and "treks".  Last Friday we had the opportunity to go down to Connecticut and New York to tour companies in the Travel & Hospitality industry.  We stopped at the world HQ of Starwood Hotels, at lunch ate 'wichcraft in downtown Manhattan, met with the senior marketing team of JetBlue, and got a behind-the-scenes tour of Delta's operations at JFK.  Of course, being an aviation geek, the stops at JetBlue and Delta were most interesting to me.  The JFK tour in particular was like being a kid in a candy store; we got rare access to the Delta ground operations center in the control tower and toured around the new facilities at Terminal 4.

JetBlue HQ in Long Island City

JFK Operations for Delta Airlines - Amazing Place!

Next up is just two more days of classes, and then finals!

SIP Week, LGO Hockey, and Winning the World Series!

It has been another series of busy weeks here in Cambridge.  We reached the mid-point of the Fall semester a couple weeks ago, which meant it was time for our first Sloan Innovation Period (SIP).  SIP is a program unique to Sloan that was developed to get students out of the traditional classroom environment and into more experiential learning environments.  Instead of regular classes, we get to choose between workshops in ethics, leadership, and other topics.  For the first-year LGO's, we were required to take two seminars in ethics and I found both of the ones I took to be very interesting and engaging.  One was on common pitfalls that we can fall into when dealing with ethical issue in business, and the other involved live-action (i.e. we all had to act) performances of situations when we faced an ethical issue.

SIP is also viewed as the mid-way breather in the semester.  Unfortunately for LGOs we still have our regular engineering classes, which for me meant a mid-term and and a major homework assignment was due.  Oh well, that doesn't mean that we didn't still find time for a lot of fun!  I was able to strategically schedule my SIP workshops so that I was done with everything by Wednesday afternoon, which meant a 4-day weekend for adventures.  Here are the highlights:

Sailing on the X-Dimension
It turns out that MIT has a 42' sailboat sitting out in Boston Harbor, and our captain extraordinaire Adam is fully qualified to sail it.  So on Thursday morning, 7 of us headed out for an overnight adventure on the X-Dimension.  The weather was definitely chilly (picture mid-40's and windy), but we had a great time.  Even when we realized that the stove didn't work (out of propane!), we still had a great evening playing card games by flashlight!

Getting ready to head out on the X-Dimension (non pictured)

All geared up for the frigid (but clear!) weather

Our Mighty Vessel

Outdoor Climbing in Western Mass
I finally had a chance to get some outdoor climbing in, with the help of Cynthia's climbing network.  She found an MIT student who was heading out to Crow Hill and we were able to tag along.  This was my first time climbing outdoors in about 10 years and it was definitely a challenge, even on the "easy" pitches that Cynthia was leading.  Still a lot of work to do if I want to stand any chance of keeping up!

Making it look easy!

Blacklight Run
After climbing, we checked out a Zipcar and headed up to Andover for the "Boston" Blacklight Run.  I say "Boston" in quotes since it was actually about 45 minutes outside of town (a fact that they neglect to mention on the website!).   Oh well, we recruited some other Sloanies and had a great time running trough stations of powdered die that glowed under the blacklights.

Hard to tell, but we were really glowing!

Intramural Hockey
Last week marked the start of MIT Intramural Hockey.  It has become a tradition to field an LGO team for the D-league and this year is no exception.  Now keep in mind that I've only been on ice skates two or three times in my life (it turns out that skating experience is not a prerequisite!) so you can just imagine what happens out there.  I've made it to two games so far and they have both been pretty epic, including our first 2014/2015 inter-class LGO rumble!

LGO 2014s and 2015s after the Rumble

Red Sox Win the World Series
Last week was a great week with the Red Sox winning the World Series in Game 6 right here in Boston!!!  I went downtown right as the game was ending and witnesses the huge celebration on Boylston Street.  Then on Saturday the city threw a parade, with all the players (and the trophy) riding in the Boston Ducks.  The weather was absolutely amazing and the whole city seemed to be having a giant party.  Great way to wrap up the week!

World Series champions and nice fall colors!

Sweet Trophy