“From the Bosphorus to the Charles River…”

Have to say it is kind of nice and eases the homesickness to settle in a place that at least resembles in its appearance to where you came from. Coming from a city situated on both the continents of Europe and Asia and that looks out onto the Bosphorus of the Marmara Sea made me think of this as I was staring out of my plane to the Charles River at 8 am when we were about to land. <>

Why staring? Basically because I was trying so hard to keep my eyes open. The journey that should have taken a total of around 20 hours with the connecting flight ended up continuing to 40 hours with my flight from JFK being cancelled, me changing airports, my luggage getting lost (obviously due to the fact that my luggage didn’t change airports with me!) and me not getting any sleep during the process! All the while the single line going through my head was “What a way to start my first journey to the US!”

I have to admit that coming to the US for the first time in such an eventful way (in the least of words…) was adventurous but everything, fortunately, went uphill from there. Having only one day to shop around for basic needs, it was a very fast start into the Pre-Term for me! But for someone like me (and probably a majority of Sloanies : ) who has adopted the work hard, play hard principle it was much fun! Getting a refresher on the topics of the courses we’ll soon be enrolled in during the day, attending social events during the evening and partying into the night made me understand perfectly what Sloan was all about, though it also kind of resulted in me not being able to wake up to attend the first of the morning classes following the first day : ). One other thing I realized was that it would have been a much wiser move to arrive a week before Pre-Term since I had to settle in at the same time that I was doing all the above, meaning that I literally had not one minute of spare time. But don’t take this as a complaint because I absolutely loved it! Meeting in person, the people whose experiences I’d read about and been amazed at on Sloanspace was altogether a great experience. I wasn’t sure about coming to the Pre-Term but now I’m glad I did since it gave me the opportunity to meet and spend quality time with many of my classmates.

Just as the whirlwind of Pre-Term was over, there came the storm of Orientation! My personal favorite during the Orientation was the Warren Center  where we spent the day out in the green doing physical activities that incorporated team and leadership attributes. It was absolutely a very good way of getting acquainted with my core team with whom I had met less than a day ago and I really felt that we grew as a team throughout the day, moving from the raft that didn’t hold up in the water (thanks to my lovely design!) to the maze where we got filthy rich and made a cool $29 mil. : ). It was also great warming up to our oceans (GO AT-LAN-TICSSS!) in case studies and sessions.

 

Before I finish my blog I have to write about the GSC Orientation activities I attended to get to know Boston, which exceeded my expectations especially on the Harbor Cruise on Sunday. It was pure luck on our part for the harbor to be on Sunday just before the Labor Day because I watched the biggest firework show I had ever seen. The show that went on for more than 10 minutes was just spectacular!

 

Now that the long weekend is over, I look forward to writing about my experiences on first days of actual “school” and the transition from the “soft” launch to the “hard” one. Stay tuned!!!