Midterms and Mid-Term Fun

The last few weeks have reminded us that we really are in school, and that school involves midterms.  It seems like October is a midterm month, with at least one test every week and sometimes a couple.  So far we've had Accounting, Organizational Processes, Economics, and Logistic Systems.  One more to go (The Airline Industry, next week).  As I've said before, none of the topics are particularly challenging on their own, but the combination of classes means that there is a lot of information to learn in a short time period.  It has all been manageable so far, but I'm definitely starting to understand the MIT mantra of Drinking from a Fire Hose.

Now of course it hasn't been all work and no play.  Some of the highlights from the last few weeks:

Climbing:  Cynthia is an avid climber and we finally made it out to the new Brooklyn Boulders climbing gym in Somerville last week.  She also made it to the real rocks up in Rumney, NH to get a bigger challenge (I'm not quite there yet!).

Brooklyn Boulders - A Climbers Paradise

Lead Climbing in Rumney, NH - Now that's some real rock climbing!

BAA Half Marathon:  Lots of LGOers ran in the BAA Half Marathon last weekend, and the weather could not have been better for a run through the fall colors of South Boston.  This was Cynthia's first-ever half marathon but I have a feeling it won't be her last!

BAA Half Marathon LGOers

Trip to the Berkshires: This was definitely the first time that I've gotten Columbus Day off, and to sweeten the deal MIT gave us both Monday and Tuesday off.  So after a weekend of studying, we headed out to the Berkshires in Western Mass to relax and check out the fall colors.  Along the way, we stopped at the MASS MoCA museum in North Adams to check out some large-scale modern art.  We also had time for some exploring and driving to the top of Mt. Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts (which lived up to its name as it was completely locked in with grey fog!). 

MASS MoCA - Colorful walls by Sol LeWitt!

Would you believe that these are all pencil sketches?

Close-up of the above picture - amazing!

Xu Bing's "Phoenix" - Made completely from scrap construction material from Beijing

Fall colors in the Berkshires

"Bridge of Flowers" in Shelburne Falls (A great little town!)

Driving up Mt. Greylock

Rowing Events: Cynthia was on the crew team here at MIT for all 4 years of her undergrad, so I've been learning all sorts of stuff about rowing.  A couple weekends ago we went to the MIT Crew Alumni event where she looked right at home in the boat.  There were enough alumni to fill four 8-person boats for the race, and it was lots of fun to watch from the shore.  Then this last weekend was the annual Head of the Charles Regatta, when rowers from all corners of the world take over the Charles River between Boston U and past Harvard.  It turns out that this is the largest 2-day rowing regatta in the world, with over 9,000 athletes, 1900 boats, and 61 events.  It was definitely hard to tell what was going on in the races as it was such a long course, but it was quite a sight!

Alumni Crew Race - Cynthia's 4th from the Right

Head of the Charles Regatta

More Head of the Charles

Interested in LGO? Come visit us during Ambassador Day (November 4th)!

Have you been reading these blog posts and thinking "Wow, that LGO program looks amazing"?  Well, don't take my word for it; come see it for yourself!  Ambassador Day is coming up on November 4th.

From the LGO website:

Every fall, LGO hosts an Ambassador Day and Information Evening on campus. This daylong series of events is designed to allow prospective students to learn more about the program and its students. Ambassador Day features student and alumni panels, a partner company seminar, and the opportunity to attend classes, interact with students and faculty, and see what makes LGO the nation's leading graduate, dual-degree program in engineering and management.

I attended Ambassador Day last year and it was really my first contact with the LGO program other than e-mails and the website.  It was a great experience to get out to Boston and spend a day with the current students, attend a few classes, and hear more about what makes the LGO program unique.  I remember flying back to Seattle the next day knowing that this was the right program for me.

So if you're interested in LGO, come on out for Ambassador Day.  All the details (and a great video made by some of my classmates) are available on the LOG website: http://lgo.mit.edu/

Ambassador Day Video

Hope to see you next month!

I'm on a boat...in Italy!!!

One of the best things about being in business school is getting e-mails with subjects like "do you want to go race a sail boat in Italy for the weekend?" and being able to respond with an emphatic "yes!!"

Sloan is full of opportunities and you never know what may come up next.  It turns out when you surround yourself with 406 globe-trotting students with adventurous tendencies, there are really no limits!  So it was that I found myself sitting at Logan Airport last Wednesday waiting to board a flight to Paris on the first leg of a journey that would take me to Santa Margherita, Italy to participate in the Rolex MBA Regatta.

It turns out that Rolex hosts a 3-day regatta every year off the coast of Italy between MBA students from around the world.  MIT has fielded a team for the last several years, but the first that I had heard about it was about 4 weeks before I boarded the plane.  Once I learned that sailing experience wasn't a prerequisite for the team (my sailing resume up to that point included a total of 4 outings on the 2-person MIT tech dinghy in the Charles), I jumped at the opportunity.

The journey from Boston to Santa Margherita included 2 planes, 3 trains, and 2 buses over the course of 18 hours with brief stops in Paris and Milan, but everything went smoothly along the way.  I arrived to the race site at about 3:00 on Thursday and met up with the rest of the MIT team (15 in total split between 2 boats).  The agenda was to race on Friday and Saturday with parties hosted by Rolex every evening.

Milan Central Train Station

Downtown Santa Margherita

Santa Margherita Harbor (Photo credit: Andrew Tran)

On the Docks

It felt wonderful to be back in Italy, and of course one of the first things we did was sit down to a wonderful meal on the harbor. 

On Thursday night we all attended a kick-off reception at a villa overlooking the town and had more Italian food, wine, and lots of fun.  It was also a great chance to meet team from the other schools, including Wharton, Tuck, Kellogg, Booth, Harvard, Columbia, and many more from throughout Europe, Hong Kong, and Brazil.  

After not much sleep, we woke up on Friday and were the first boat to head out of the harbor towards the race course.  It turns out that there were several of us on the boat with little or no sailing experience, but we were in luck in that we had an amazing skipper in Adam Traina (another LGO 15!).  He gave us all jobs (I was on the jib), and we set to work learning what the heck we were supposed to do.  We were so focused that we completely missed the start of the first race (whoops!).  By the time we got to the line, we were dead last.  But it turns out that we had a great boat and a crew with a steep learning curve, so we were able to catch a few teams and finish the race in 7th place.  Then we kept improving and placed 5th in the second race.  After we decided to call it a day, the race officials decided to do the same and we all headed back into port.

Hard at work (Photo Credit: Andrew Tran)

Friday night we all boarded a ferry to Portofino for some exploring before heading back to Santa Margherita for dinner and a party in the Rolex tent.  More eating, more drinking, more dancing, and not much sleep.  Fun times in Italy!

Portofino (Credit: Andrew Tran)

Fun times in the Rolex tent (Credit: Andrew Tran)

The next thing I knew, it was Saturday morning and we were heading out on the water for another day of racing.  This time though there was no wind and we had to wait for a couple hours before the racing could start.  So what did we do?  Rig up a rope swing from the mast of course!  Oh, and skipper Adam donned his full pirate suit!

Once the wind did pick up (barely), we set off racing.  We had a great start to the first race but quickly lost our wind and watched helplessly as other boats cut in front of us.  Then it was time for the last race of the day (and the regatta).  We started aggressively and kept a great line for the entire race.  We were first of the line and managed to hold our position for the entire time.  That's right, WE WON THE RACE!!!  We may have only been going 2 knots as we cruised across the finish line under light winds, but when the signaling cannon went off we were definitely the first ones to cross.  It was a fantastic way to finish the weekend of racing and the victory was promptly celebrated with a bottle of prosecco!  That finish was enough to launch us into 4th place overall for the best showing that MIT has ever had at the race.

Finishing the last race in 1st place!

Celebrating the finish

With the racing over, we were free to completely cut loose at the final and most over-the-top party of the whole trip.  We were all shuttled up to a castle high on the cliff and overlooking the Mediterranean to attend a conference and black-tie party that was personally hosted by the CEO of Rolex.  Words just can't describe what an epic time was had by the whole team!

The Sloan Crew (Credit: Andrew Tran)

Courtyard of the Castle (Credit: Andrew Tran)

Fun times with great friends (Credit: Andrew Tran)

Sadly, all great things must come to an end and so it was that I found myself retracing my route back to Boston on Sunday morning.  This time I had a couple extra hours in Milan so I took the chance to get downtown and see some of the sights.  After another hop across the Atlantic, I was back in Boston and ready to start another week of classes.  Looking back, this is probably the craziest weekend adventures that I have ever done but it was an absolutely incredible experience with great friends and lots of stories!  We're already plotting to recruit a team for the regatta next year :-)

Il Duomo in Milan