Of tapas, Mckinsey and Leadership!

Bidding for courses officially ended this morning at 8 am. We all spent a lot of time strategising what courses to take, and how many bid points to allocate. At the end of it though, I think most of us felt incompetent to an extent that we knew our best bids can also get messed up. At the end of it though, I think most of us will get classes we want, and with professors we want since in most cases we have enough supply - let's see if my prediction comes true, just half a day to go before we find out.

Day before yesterday, Ian Davis(Managing Director, McKinsey) came to the deliver a short speech at GSB's Winter Garden. I must say that I liked the content of the speech, and his candid and honest answers the student questions. It was surprising for me how he accepted the problems some countries had and how hopeless their situation was, just like he discussed how certain economies are doing well but still have a long way to go. The shoebox lunch was kinda ok, the Snapple Lemon Ice Tea served alongwith lunch was much better :)

Yesterday we did something for which I can steal the Emirates Airlines punchline "when was the last time you did something for the first time". As part of our legendary LEAD program, 7 of us (from a sub group of our cohort) were given a group assignment which was videotaped. Then we had to watch ourselves on videotape, and analyse our strengths and our faults. It was followed by a short evaluation of our behavior by the LEAD facilitators. It was indeed a revealing and enriching experience, and I am sure this will add a lot to our improvement on how we behave, talk, present and conduct ourselves.

Later in the day, we had 2 more sessions, one which didnt rhyme with me, and another which did. The day finished by we heading to a popular Spanish Tapas bar in downtown Chicago, where our cohort and a sister cohort was ready to mingle. I ate lot of stuff which I still dont know much about, drank a bit, talked a lot, and had good fun. Came back very late in night, put in my bid for courses, and then crashed on my bed. Thankfully, today is our day off, so we are just relaxing. There are some more parties in the night (and it seems that this GSB class has a knack for parties, outings, etc) - so who knows where I will end up today.