Today was the first day of new student orientation. It was substantial. It got off to an early start, up at 6h30 to pack and get ready for the move tonight to the new apartment. I headed to Uris Hall for the beginning of the orientation week, and was, to my surprise, literally the first student there. I got there at 7h45am for an 8am start, so I was quite amazed to see that I was there before most of the Peer Advisers (the students running the orientation).
Breakfast was a veritable feast, with some of the best fruit I've ever seen. I remember clearly eating giant fruit in Central Park when we were in NY in about 1996. Slowly everyone trickled in, and I met another few new people. We finished breakfast, and I dashed back to the apartment to give Uzayr his keys. I then returned to Uris for the first session of the day, a discussion on the academic programme and the core curriculum. Nothing of note was said, save that I am able to take classes at other schools within the University for credit (and for fun, over and above the credits that count toward my degree). Also, the grading system was explained: the top 15-20% of the class will get an honours pass for a course (H), the bottom 10-15% of the class will get a pass (P), and the middle band will get a high pass (HP). Very few students fail a course, let alone the degree. Little do they know that they have admitted someone with the tenacity and self-defeating tendencies required to do MAM2080W twice...
We then did an ice-breaker where we met a new group of people and had to compile a group resume, including all the things about us that make us unique or interesting. My go-to story was, as ever, the tale of the Two Oceans Emetic Event (where after finishing the 21.1 km, I vomited on the SuperSport presenter). I mentioned that I was on the SuperSport highlights package for a day and was hence a minor celebrity in the world of projectile vomiting. Somehow this was transformed in the mind of our group spokesperson to me being a YouTube sensation, with over a million hits in my native England?! If the spokesperson is anything to go by, I should easily avoid getting any Ps in class.
After a quick lunch, we broke up into our clusters. These are the first disaggregation of the January term into smaller subsets of the class, of 68 people each. We take all our core classes with our cluster, and our learning teams (teams of four to five members) are assigned within the cluster. Each cluster is designed to be a small-scale version of the class (in terms of diversity and demographic splits); similarly, each learning team should reflect most of the diversity present in each cluster. I'm in Cluster Z, which these American louts insist on pronouncing "Zee" rather than "Zed". My learning team within the cluster comprises Thomas, an MD/MBA student; Aaron, an enthusiastic and energetic finance guy; Linda, a finance specialist from China; Rutger, a Dutch consultant, and me. They all seem very nice, and quite competent, so I think we'll get along fine!
We did some exercises within the cluster, and then rejoined the plenary to have a session on Social Intelligence, particularly as it relates to goal setting, team structuring and conflict management. Honestly, I was expecting more. The content was pretty generic, and what was touted as a big deal (the 360 degree feedback we do later on in the course) is something I've done a number of times at McKinsey. Given that McKinsey was a pretty short time, and not something through which I experience huge depth of expertise (focusing rather on breadth and generalism) I'm a bit disappointed at the level of engagement. I trust that it will just be this course, and the rest of the degree will be a bit more advanced. I struggled to stay interested when they were trotting out some pretty basic team management and conflict techniques that any normal person would be able to think of quite easily as some deep insight that is uniquely representative of the business school value proposition. I am certain that things will pick up from here on the content front.
After the session, we headed across to Faculty House for dinner, which was great (it seems to be a universal maxim that the sweetness of a free dinner is directly proportional to the cost of living of the area in which you eat it).
I skipped the after-dinner drinks at Amsterdam Bar and Billiards in the East Village in order to move. We have our apartment! Uzayr and I packed everything, and filled a cab across to the new apartment. We lugged everything into the apartment, and then returned for another 2 trips. We finished around midnight, exhausted. The new place is great, quintessential New York. A bit of info about it:
- It's a 5th floor walk-up (i.e. no elevator, so everything had to carried up to the 5th floor by hand)
- It was recently renovated, so the hardwood floors and exposed brick walls are new or recently revamped
- I'm in the less-desirable room, since it isn't on the corner, but it does have access to the fire escape, which acts like a little private balcony for me
- If you check it out on Google Maps, we're the 5th floor of the building on the south west corner of the intersection of 85th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
I spent the first night there on the mattress from a sleeper couch, finally hitting the proverbial hay at about 1am. I don't have blinds yet, so the light from the skyscrapers streams through into my room, along with the noises of cabs and dogs barking and people yelling and cars honking and machinery going. This is true New York at its best!
Monday morning breakfast feast
CBS Honour Code on our notebooks
First lecture session with Vice Dean Amir Ziv in Uris 301
The view north from the bridge over to Faculty House
The chapel on the way back to Uris
The massively overloaded cab to 200 W 85 St
Luggage everywhere
More luggage!
Uzayr's room in the apartment
The view north from my fire escape
The view east
The view down to the ground
The view west
The view across the road
Our tiny kitchen
Tiny kitchen in context
Coat closet to the left of the kitchen (in our living room)
Wall to the left of the coat closet
Living room
From living room, my room on the right, Uzayr's on the left
View from Uzayr's room
From living room through to front door
It was really hot carrying stuff up the 5 floors, so we cooled off using the freezer
Uzayr and Nisha (the new digsmates)
Way too much luggage
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