Class Photo Day

While I'm procrastinating from the huge pile of work that awaits me, why don't I share a couple of pictures taken during our class photo day last week.
This shows the classroom, and my "Section"--the group of 90 students that I sit with for the entire 1st year, and are basically the core of my social group.

Parental Visit

Just a quick entry as I'm way behind on the academic side of things, and really need to get to it.

Just wrapped up a nice visit from the parents. They arrived Thursday evening and are staying until tomorrow (Monday) morning. We managed to cover a lot of ground in the days they were here, and I think I nearly killed them with all the walking we did, but we covered most of Boston, a good chunk of Cambridge (aided by a walking tour put on by the Cambridge Historical Society) as well as the HBS and Main Harvard campuses. (My friends Raif and Cantek were also in town from Toronto, so I managed to have a good night out on the town Saturday evening, once I'd put mom and dad to bed :)

Dad got to have a beer in Norm's spot at Cheers, and mom found a store entirely devoted to Christmas, so both were contented, if exhausted.

Tonight, thanks to the HBS administration, they're taking part in a program whereby students can put their parents up in the Dean's official residence; so mom and dad have a fantastic room in an oppulent New England home, just around the corner from my apartment and right in the middle of campus. A cool idea though...I only wish I could stay there. You could host a killer dinner party in that place.



Here's mom and dad outside of Faneuil Hall in Boston--also the site of an excellent market.

Below is a picture taken 90 minutes later, once the snow had started coming down. (Pictured is the Harvard Business School library).

Finally, here's a picture taken at the entrance of the library at the Dean's house. I hope dad uses a coaster.

Harvard-Princeton Football Tailgate (and game, I guess)

Don't be fooled. Ivy Leage football may have a storied past, but today it is rarely exciting. A team comprised of high-achievment students who were admitted to top U.S. schools on academic merit, is really detrimental to the quality of play (the Waterloo Warriors team could shred either Princeton or Harvard from what I saw)

The way to get around this uncomfortable fact is to have a massive tailgate party. And that's what we did. Most of the Harvard community had some sort of function going on, but the Business School tailgate seemed to be the best fun around. Here are a few pictures, and a couple from the actual game (we only made it for the 4th quarter).

Group of hardy tailgaters.



Making preparations for the other important competition of the day: The Flip Cup Tournament. (Like boat racing, but when the drink is finished, the player has to place the cup with the edge hanging off the table, and flip it over so it lands upside down on the table. Once this has been done successfully, the next team member begins drinking).

Victory is ours.

There was actually a football game that day too...

...though most people stayed at the tailgate.

Dinner Party #3: October 22: Harvard/Princeton Football Weekend - Head of the Charles Regatta

Busy weekend in Cambridge. Not only is it the Harvard vs. Princeton football game, but it's also the "Head of the Charles" regatta, which has brought an additional 200,000 people to Harvard for this world class sculling event. (A few Canadian schools represented as well, including U of T, Brock, Queens, UBC, probably others). The Toronto Sculling Club took the gold medal in Masters 4's (both the men's and women's categories). Not completely thrilling to watch however, since everything seems to be run in time trials, with staggered starts every 20-30 seconds or so. So there isn't the head-to-head competition that you get in Olympic rowing events. But maybe the finals will be different (didn't stick around to see).

Here are a couple of pictures of the dinner yesterday, and of the races today.

Dylan and Catherine. (Dylan is from France, Cathy is actually from Toronto. We met down here, but she lived 2 buildings north of me on Bay Street, and worked at BCE Place for Morgan Stanley. Small world cliche comment implied).

Janet and Tanya on the left (both Aussies). John in the background preparing more food. Sam and Laura on the right, Sam from London and Laura from Dublin.

It dawns on me that there were no Americans at the party, and in fact, they are usually a minority (3/12 on average) when we hold these things. I'm not sure why that is. In fact I was completely unaware of it until I thought about it today--statistically it's unlikely (Americans are 70% of the student body) so perhaps internationals just get on with each other better? Or maybe we're more outgoing? Or, perhaps there's some sort of bias that I'm bringing to the situation without realizing it...not sure.

John puts the finishing touches on the nutmeg/baily's creme brulee...always a crowd pleaser (and a host pleaser too, judging from the expression).

These pictures don't really do the event justice. There were literally hundreds of boats entered, and a carnival-like atmosphere along much of the river. I was just too lazy to get some good shots. Next year...

Dinner Party #2: October 8: Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner. Jen was visiting, so we had a good group (13) over to celebrate before heading to a club. (Pork tenderloin & creme brulee replaced the more traditional fare of turkey and pumpkin pie). (13 people).

Dinner Party #1: September 17: HBS Casino Night

Our first dinner party was held as a prelude to HBS Casino night. A great time, and our guests are looking spiffy indeed. (9 people in total).

Pricilla Ball

I'll save myself 2,000 words, and just post a couple of pictures from the annual Pricilla Ball.

Fractures and female apparel

Well, sadly, it's been weeks since my last post. A lot has happened. I had a great rugby game, made a wonderful trip back to Toronto for Jen's birthday, and had an excellent Canadian thanksgiving long weekend here in the US (it's Columbus day here): Jen came down, we had a huge dinner party at my place, and a thanksgiving dinner with the Canadian Club.

During the course of these weeks, I also learned the technical term for the shoulder blade. (It's called the "scapula"). Unfortunately, I had to fracture said skeletal component in order to discover this. I'll use google next time.

It all happened in Portsmouth, Maine, where the HBS rugby club was taking on the Seacoast ruggers. At the half time, the HBS side were down 2 tries, and the coach thought he'd shake things up a little by throwing me into the game (I normally start on the "B" team, but played a decent game the prior week so got a chance to play on the "A" side, or the starting XV).

Anyway, they kick to us, I catch the ball and run up field...maybe 30 yards (I'm feeling good about it) then get hit REALLY hard (I'm feeling bad about it). Passed the ball just before being hit, and the play carried on, but I hit the ground so hard it took me a second to get up.

The ball eventually goes out of bounds, and in the brief pause I realize that, if required, I wouldn't be able to lift my right arm more than 20 degrees from my side. When this didn't go away, I decided to pull myself from the game, and writhed in pain for the remainder of the afternoon.

Not being able to lift my arm made it interesting trying to get my game jersey off. I had to lay on my stomach on the grass, and wriggle backwards out of it, trying not to cry out. However, I COULD bend over and let my arm swing through the full range of motion without tremendous increase in pain, and thus was told that it wasn't a dislocation, and therefore nothing to worry about.

I went out to dinner with friends (Steve and George..."The Dartmouth Guys"), and could barely put on my jacket. However the next morning there was modest improvement.

The following two days were better still, so I went to Tuesday rugby practice, but stipulated that I couldn't engage in contact. I soon found though, that passing the ball with my right arm was too much weight to support, and the healing progress from Saturday was completely undone by a 15 yard throw. I decided to get it checked out.

Harvard medical services does not disappoint. I phoned for an appointment and received one the same day. The doctor heard my story, frowned on the rugby playing, then scheduled x-rays which I waited approximately 2 minutes for.

The next morning, while in class, a nurse enters the classroom and tells me that she has received permission from the Dean to remove me from class (attendance is mandatory at HBS) because the doctor wants to discuss my x-rays. I grab my things and follow her.

I walk into Dr. Biller's office, and he tells me that I've got a fractured scalpula (and here, I learned a new word). He then goes on to say that I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon in 20 minutes. He hands me 2 taxi vouchers and says "There's a cab waiting for you in the parking lot to take you to your ortho appointment. I've scheduled CT scans for first thing in the afternoon IN CASE the ortho wants them. Here's another taxi voucher in case they need to operate, and you require transport to one of the hospitals. Please call after the doctor makes his assessment."

Wow. I felt like a pro athlete. Everything worked like clockwork. Turns out the fracture is off the joint in a place that doesn't usually bear much stress, except for a few scenarios which I've identified and never repeated. I'm out for 8 weeks, and need to take it easy. A shame, but rugby is out, unless I start drinking more milk and work on the upper body strength a little. One or both may come to pass...we'll see.

The rest of the time has been a blur of academics, quizzes, and group projects. Tonight is the much anticipated "Pricilla Ball" hosted by the Australia / New Zeland club. The theme is rather strange: the men dress as women, and the women dress as whores. I was lucky enough to inherit the famous outfit that is passed down to one lucky first year male in the Canadian Club each year: a black vynl fitted dress (with accessories). The main benefit being that I get to burden some other Canadian dude with it next year.

Look for the party debrief...coming sooner than 3 weeks from now.