Whew... these past few weeks have been crazy. I ran my half-marathon on November 15 and it was an incredible experience. The 13.1 miles actually flew by despite the numerous hills (mountains?) that I was climbing and descending. I finished in a time of 1:55:24 which I was very happy with, however, nobody warned me about the recovery process. The first day was fine, but then then soreness descended and I spent the last week gingerly lowering myself into chairs and making odd noises that I'm sure had my classmates looking twice... doesn't matter though, well worth it. As soon as I crossed the finish line I mumbled something about the next race... running is really addictive for me. I came home and signed up for two more races and of course I will be running the Boston Marathon in the spring!
All that running requires a lot of fuel so I'm always scavenging for a good meal. I didn't have to look far though, MIT Sloan puts on a Thanksgiving Dinner for the class every year complete with everything that makes Thanksgiving so good. Everything I go to here in business school always reminds me of how incredibly diverse my class is. I was standing in line for the food and overheard one of my friends asking what gravy and stuffing were... it made me realize how many assumptions I make about people understanding my culture and how it feels when someone doesn't understand it. Speaking of learning, I attended the Southeast Asian C-function the other night and it was really fun. I also "modeled" an outfit in the fashion show at the beginning of the night. The whole C-function was great and I'm constantly impressed with my classmates!
The first-years are almost done with core and I am not sure how I feel about it. JK. I'm so incredibly proud of my pilot team and so happy for all of the first-years I know who will now be able to experience the best fun that business school has to offer. At the same time... my stories about how wonderful it is after the core will have to end. Oh well... I'm already getting kind of sad that I'm nearing the end of my third semester at Sloan. However, that means that January is coming and in January...
I'm going to South Africa! We are working on writing the business plan for our project host and cannot wait to go there and implement it. I love my team and our host, ClickDiagnostics, is really great. ClickDiagnostics was a product of the MIT Media Lab and focuses on mobile diagnostics in rural settings. There will be many more updates coming and I will also be blogging for that. Learning about the regions that we will be working in has been fascinating and I cannot wait to actually go there and make things happen!
Sports Conference work has been coming along as well - (www.sloansportsconference.com/2010/) - Adam Silver, Bill Simmons, Mark Cuban, and Michael Lewis are all confirmed. It's hard not to get excited about the conference on March 6, 2010. There is also a research paper track this year for the first time... if you know anyone that is enthusiastic about sports and the analytic side of the business, pass along the info!
Ok, that's it for now, much more coming later... Happy Thanksgiving!!!
