Wednesday Socials

One tradition that my class of 90 has initiated (and I'm fully supportive of) is "Wednesday Night Drinks" which we rotate around Boston and Cambridge. Usually we get about 30-40 people out, which is an excellent turnout considering the workload and family responsibilities of some of our classmates.

Our section historian is charged with taking a few pictures to document the evenings, a few of which I've posted here.

This week is the lead-up to three momentus events:

1) Friday: The Annual "HBS Hollidazzle Ball", or, the Christmas Ball. This is a very popular, black tie ball. Over the US Thanksgiving weekend I secured my tuxedo shirt and 2 ties (classic black bowtie, as well as the more modern long tie) for the event, and a couple of websites and frustrating attempts later, have learned to tie a decent bowtie.
Another noteworthy element here is that our section has arranged a Champagne pre-party in my building, as well as transport to the venue in stretch Hummers (stretch limo's, but of the US Military HUM-V variety). Hilariously overkill. And best of all, it's all being paid for by the Boston Consulting Group, ostensibly as a "Recruiting event". I'll certainly take pictures.

2) Saturday: Christmas dinner at Glenn & John's. We're having spicy seafood soup to start, duck breast with an orange/port/tarragon reduction, and finishing with creme brulee. (First two ideas belong to Tim, the last I'll submit as being fairly universal). Should be a great time though, a last hurrah before exams begin.

3) Exams. Not too worried, though most of them are 5 hours long, which can't be fun, but I'll muddle through alright. Enough said on that topic.

Below we see me with Geoff, a former public school teacher. He's definitley among the more left-leaning in the class, and adds a lot of useful perspective to our discussions.

Here I am with Jim, Andrew and Jayne. (Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Bain respectively...typical of the diverse cross section of students in the program :)