First day of classes done!

It is Sunday morning and I'm feeling surprisingly refreshed despite the loooong day yesterday. Here's a recap.

7am-9am : Drove up to school with three other classmates.

9am-930am : The school provided an impressive complimentary breakfast spread for all sections. (Well, I think I'm paying for that somewhere in my massive tuition bill.)

930am-1245pm : Data and Decisions (otherwise called the Statistics course).
We had been asked to read up the chapters on probability before class. I planned to get around to it in the car ride, but then the professor emailed that he wouldn't cold call anyone on Day1, so that plan flew out the car window :)
Prof. M is funny, seems easy-going and knows his stuff. He started teaching probability with the interesting history of why it began to be studied. History in a math class was a first for me and I appreciated it. The rest of the class was a slow ramp up to probability concepts but I fully expect it to speed up from next class.

1245pm-145pm : Lunch break (where the school doesn't provide lunch).
There was a kick-off meeting for the Entrepreneurship Association so a bunch of us attended that. ( I heard there was also an interviewing skills workshop at the same time but the EA provided free pizza...)

145pm-2pm : I gleefully discovered that the FEMBA lounge has fancy coffee machines which had options for lattes, espressos, mochas, cappuccino etc. Sadly, the machine broke down just when I was trying to get my fix. Luckily there was fresh coffee and more snacks laid out when we got back to the classroom.

2pm -515pm: Organizational Behavior.
Prof. B partly grades us on classroom participation so I was worried about dozing off. They've assigned us fixed seating positions alphabetically and as luck would have it, I'm on the first row, right in front of the teacher's podium. Great. Fortunately, the class was pretty engaging, especially the part where we had a very entertaining and heated in-class auction for a $20 bill that ended with two classmates owing the teacher $80 each. This NYT article explains exactly how the escalation of commitment happened.

545pm-645pm: Anderson Toastmasters meeting.
We were greeted by the VP of the club (FEMBA'10) with the words, "Welcome FEMBA '13. Sorry I don't look as enthusiastic as you guys. That's what happens once you've been beaten on the the head with GAP (Global Access Program - it's like a thesis project in the final year)".  Ouch.
The meeting was fun, we got to hear a few speeches and evaluations and some of us may consider joining the club.

7pm-900pm: FEMBA meetup/happy hour at South. (Celebrity spotting - Cuba Gooding Jr. at the bar.)
Quick dinner at Rubios.

9pm-11pm: Drive back home. I'm very thankful for having a carpool gang (more on them later) because I sure as hell wouldn't have managed the drive alone.

Overall, very fun day that went by really quickly. I'm just amazed I was able to sit through two 3-hour long lectures. It's been a while. :)
For next week, we have a handful of papers to read, a movie to watch, an assignment to write up, and an online quiz to submit before Saturday. I'm just glad there are 279 others with my workload. Misery loves company ;)