Third week in review

Pete, Alex and I won the simulation challenge #1!   The game was a 4-hour live simulation for Operations Management class where we  managed a factory through variations in order sizes (must make each order in 2 days or else customers get products for free and orders are in FIFO (so we couldn't refuse orders).  Our simulation included machine purchases, lot size changes, utilization, queues, etc. 

The class had a professional photoshoot on Wednesday, which turned into this.  Now you know what happens when you put a bunch of engineers into business school:

Must-needed Friday night fun (the first full week of classes hit us hard!).

 Me, Mike (friend from Gillette), Liz, and Jeremiah (Liz' bf) at Howl at the Moon with live music!

Me and Jodian (from Gillette gym) - I miss Jodian, others at the gym, and the gym itself soooo much!

On Saturday, Grace and I went to an outdoor bootcamp class in the morning before my beach time with Mike, Cooper (Mike's childhood friend from Chicago), Liz at Nahant Beach:

Mike's Jeep was perfect for a beach trip.  I read a case study on JetBlue at the beach.

Afterwards, LGO'15 (along with some LGO'14 and SDM) had a miracle fruit tasting at Fort Awesome, ate felafels, and went to Tavarn in the Sq to watch the Bruins.  Then I joined Gilletters at Sligo in Davis Sq for the rest of the game.

 Obviously the pic was taken before the end of the game :(

Grace and I recharged on Sunday with a spin class at the Handle Bar (new place by the Broadway T Stop).  The class was AMAZING but definitely felt like a pay back from all the consumption from the day before.  I highly recommend the place and Chi'en as the instructor.

I wish the weekend were longer, but I'm sure my LGO classmates will help keep my week days happy!

Real classes begin!

The second week of LGO was interesting.  We slowly transitioned to real school work by beginning with a lean workshop for 3 days and then starting real classes for the last 2 days of the week.

Lean workshop was fun even though I had taken the class before my senior year at MIT.  It was just great to refresh my memory on many lean six sigma terms.

And of course a workshop would have a simulation game, an airplane assembly factory with 3 sub assemblies,  1 final, 1 quality, and 1 supplier.  We team 8 did really well again being the team that makes the most profit!

Here's a picture of our team at the end of the game (taken by Ammar which is why he's not in it: more on his blog http://likethegreatoz.blogspot.com/2013/06/lego-aircraft-enterprise.html):

I was the subassembly making the wings. They utilized my division more, so I had the most number of pieces at the end. John was the final assembly, which meant he didn't get to play the legos quite as much.  Alex was the quality person, so he didn't get to assemble at all.  Ammar was our supplier; he did a great job for us, but we still gave him a hard time with the quality and speed...we're such typical manufacturing :)

We also had a case study on communications with Neal Hartman.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, which is somewhat surprising because I hated participating in discussions as an undergrad.  I think the difference now is that I see a stronger value on learning when participating.

On Thursday, classes began. Lots of reading for Leigh Hafrey's leadership class.  I felt it was interesting however.  In class discussions, I ended up arguing that what Suman called "irrationality" was "passion."

As Friday rolled around, I just couldn't wait for the fun to start.  After classes, Alex Pete and I went to the Muddy Charles to prep for our operations management simulation (which we all had to do on Sunday night 5-9pm...just finished now).  Alex pointed out a picture of all these MIT women from around 1880; it's so great to see there were women at MIT even back then.  Earlier that day, we also learned that the person with the highest IQ in the Guinness Book is a woman and she has a column in the Boston Globe!

I rushed to my Gillette friend Frankie's bday party at Barlow's.  Getting off at the Broadway T Stop like I used to when I worked at Gillette still felt so normal to me, more so than getting off at Kendall to go to classes.  I missed the place quite a lot and felt a bit "homesick."  I think it's normal, but that's why class like Universe from Within that asks you to reflect on why you're at LGO and what you want to get out of it is so important.  I reminded myself as to why I made the move.  Here's a picture of Gillette as I walked past it:

In addition to Liz and Frankie, I got to see Freddie, Steve from 1L, as well as a bunch of people from Fusion and Embrace Value Streams. 

 

I had to leave at 6 to go to LGO/SDM BBQ. It was a lot of fun, and I made Liz come too.  At this rate,Liz is definitely going to be known as my s.o. (significant other) to my LGO people.

After the BBQ, a lot of LGOs went to the Fields; we sat outside, drank and chatted.  It was a perfect ending to the work school week.

On Saturday, Liz and I went to the Heartbreak Hill for our 10miler trial/fun run.  Well, I went to the wrong 638 Comm Ave (Boston versus Newton one).  I had to take the T 30 min out to meet up with Liz who already did 1.5 mi up the hill.  We ran together, not knowing the directions exactly.  We took the wrong turn and got to the end 4.5 mi in...meaning I only ran 3 mi at that point... We decided to run the Heartbreak Hill again since I didn't get to do it.  The Hill was not steep at all, but I could see why it's such a known section of Boston Marathon; after 15+miles a hill is the last thing you would want to see! Plus it's pretty long for a hill.  As you can see here, Liz and I definitely took it as a fun run.  Overall, it was 4.5 mi for me and 6 for Liz.

Afterwards, Liz dropped me off in Boston, and I ran 2 miles to Kate's apartment for my free meal :)  Kate and Matt have been feeding me 1-2 a week now that I'm a poor student :)

Around 4pm or so, it hit me that I'm a student with homework so I carried my book bag to Harvard COOP and worked for a few hours before CK scooped me up and we went to Border Cafe for dinner.

Since I didn't do my long run yesterday, I made another attempt today (Sunday)!   I did the Harvard to Museum of Science Esplanade, Boston Commons, Public Garden, Comm Ave, Fenway Park, back to the Esplanade and ended at Toscanini's for ice cream.  Today was SF marathon, and I had some friends running half and full marathon, so it was nice to think of them as I ran.  I also had that awkward moment at mile 10 when I saw  a sports cars gathering going on on Comm Ave.  The cars were constantly stuck on traffic lights and I kept running pass them. Luckily they were good sports and smile at me :)  Def put me in a good mood.  I cannot wait til I break 15+ miles!  I can't seem to do it.  I blame it on time since I never seem to allocate enough, but I think I get quite tired after 10.  It's also interesting to see that mile 1-5 for me are always so slow when I know I'm doing a long run and how the speed pick up a bit at 6-10 but that makes me tired and achy after 12 or so.

At 4pm, Alex, Pete and I met at Fort Awesome to do our simulation, which you will hear about in the next blog.  It was not painful like I thought.  We had fun and ate pizza.  

Now I must finish my Burger King Operations process diagram and get some sleep before class.  The pace right now is just right, but I'm sure the work will pick up soon...

Since today is Father's Day.  Here's to my dad (and my mom too because I love them both)! Pictures from our most recent trip to Thailand and Cambodia:

Summer kick-off LGO style

Here is a summary of my weekend:

1. MIT10 reception at MIT Museum

2. LGO15 outing at the Hong Kong

3. Yoga with Julia and Grace at Liberty Hotel

4. Kendall Sq Food Truck Festival with Grace

5. Shopping for running shorts at the Galleria

6. LGO summer kick-off house party at Fort Awesome -combining with Liz and I sending Eve off on yet another work trip to Mexico

7. First long run (10+ mi) in almost 2 months

8. Cheering Julie on her Dragon Boat Race Festival -guest appearance from Manuel

9. Bike ride with Kate

10. Dinner with Matt and Kate -thanks for feeding me twice in one week, guys! <3

I know, lucky me :)

First Week Check!

Today marked the end of my first official week with LGO.  It's been such a week of reflection and goal development.  It's so fitting since it's also MIT graduation week.  I got to look back at the past few years and thought about what have changed, moved forward, or stayed the same.

What have changed is my view of success.  I read Drew Houston's Commencement address after classes ended today and completely agreed of his statement:

"For your first couple decades, success in life has meant jumping through one hoop after another: get these test scores, get into this college. Take these classes, get this degree. Get into this prestigious institution so you can get into the next prestigious institution. All of that ends today."

I had struggled a bit at first when I left school.  There was no longer a big milestone.  Luckily, I found my way to move forward  quite quickly just like Drew said:

"Instead of trying to make your life perfect, give yourself the freedom to make it an adventure, and go ever upward."

From all the risk taking opportunities stretching me beyond my comfort zone at work allowing me to manage a big upgrade to my hangouts with friends and from my first trip to Africa to my first half-marathon, I grow and learn more about myself everyday.

It also feels nice to know that some things are constant: my love for my family, my loyalty to my friends, and my values of respect and constant learning.

Getting to know my new classmates this week, I realized that these next 2 years will be so transformative for me as a person.  I'm glad to be feeling the sense of going upward and trust as I think about my classmates now; it feels adventurous yet comforting.

Karl sent out a list of "Verbatim," a collection of amusing (usually out of context) quotations earlier this afternoon, and the very first one was the following:

At Outward Bound:
Ploy: guys where do I climb from here?
Dave the instructor lookup at Ploy: OMG, where did you get these calves?! They are gigantic."

I thought it fits with what I'm feeling exactly.  I'm stretched beyond my comfort zone but open to help and embracing of comments.

Ammar (my teammate) captured a lot of pictures from this week which can be viewed on his blog: http://likethegreatoz.blogspot.com/2013/06/up-up-up.html

Oh, and here's my team 8 (my team for the summer and pretty much everything LGO):

 I know, they are all about the same height...but me.

On a different note, I am amazed that with all the LGO things that happened this week, I still had time to catch up with my non-LGO friends.

Julia and I did bootcamp on Tuesday and Wednesday:

Matt cooked steak and beer for me as I helped his bride-to-be try on her wedding dress (I'm the maid of honor!)

Liz and I helped Eve get ready for her 10K that's coming up in a couple of weeks.  Eve accidentally locked her car keys in the trunk.  Liz drove us to get Eve's spare keys, so we were able to unlock the car.  However, we still couldn't open the trunk from the car because the switch to open it was broken and Eve had run over the key to the trunk so it was bent.  We read the manual, searched Youtube on how to open it from the back car seat, and started pulling the back seat forcefully.  Finally, we tried using the bent key carefully, which worked! It was an adventure to say the least :)

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better transition week from work to school.  I look forward to creating new adventures and  maintaining current relationships.  Now I must get ready for an MIT10 reception at MIT Museum before I head to a get-together with LGOs later on tonight.  I'm out.

First Day!

Well, it's here!  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures.

BUT the day was great.  We had introductions "check-in"s and started our leadership workshop/seminar called Universe from Within.  I must admit that I usually hate these soft skill workshops, but I found this one to be very engaging and practical!  It's a good sign indeed =)

Our class has 48 people, 14 of whom are girls.  I think the number is pretty good.  We then got divided into 8 teams of 6 people each.  Teams 1-6 have 2 girls in each, while teams 7-8 have 1 each.  I'm on Team 8.  I didn't really think anything about it until Alex mentioned that other teams had 2 girls.  I thought if being the only girl on the team really bothered me and thought not because I've been working with boys and men all my life, most specifically in my manufacturing work at Gillette with male technicians with years of experience who just thought of me almost as their daughter.  My team 8 is awesome, and I felt like one of the guys. We got to talking about how there are a lot more guys than girls in higher up positions, and I just think that it is the case not because girls aren't smart or driven but that there are more of us that put more emphasis on family. 

Anyway, the teams played a game of survival where we ranked 15 items in terms of priority individually and as teams.  Winning was considered 2 different ways: 1) team whose ranking was most similar to the expert ranking and 2) team whose ranking score was the most different from the average team members' individual ranking comparison to the expert ranking. The first way of looking at the winning meant that the team worked well as  members helped each other thought through goals and decisions.  The second  meant the team work was much better than what individuals could do on their own.  Well, guess how our team did?  We won in BOTH categories =)  Although I don't have pictures from today, I'm sure I'll post plenty of pictures of my team this summer.

We watched a movie which we will discuss in class tomorrow and called it a day.  More than half of the class went to Asgard's for 25 cent wings, but I didn't go because I went running with Eve instead.  I was a bit sad that I didn't see my work bestie Eve during the day like I normally would at work, so I was very happy to see her after.

Countdown to the new chapter

This past week was my last week of work as well as the week before the beginning of LGO program.  As much as I had been looking forward to LGO, I couldn't help feeling bittersweet about leaving my work.  Luckily I had a busy week and didn't really have time to feel sad.


My parents drove me back from Cooperstown after my triathlon/duathlon and we spent Monday together before they left with my brother. For the past 3 weeks, my brother stayed with me for his medical residency elective at Tufts Medical Center.  We ate out almost everyday together and in the end I gained 2 lbs, while my brother gained 7!  We had a lot of fun together.

On Tuesday, Evelyn (my work bestie) and I went to the first Boston Bike Party where hundreds of bikers met at South Station and biked the city of Boston.  We focused on South Boston (Castle Island) and ended the ride by the Prudential Center.  We had music, drummers on bikes, and policemen who helped us take over the streets.  It was definitely a blast, and I will definitely do it again next time (June 11!).  Check Boston Bike Party on facebook for updates!  I also hung out afterwards with Dan and Jeff.  They were so cute and made sure I biked between them with Jeff leading and Dan following me, making sure I was super safe biking on the street.  I will miss Jeff a lot as he moves to UVA to start his MD/PhD in a week.

On Thursday, it really hit me that I was leaving work and starting a new chapter.  My boss took me out to lunch near work at Amrhein's, one of the oldest restaurant in the U.S.  Afterwards, I went around to visit my technicians from 1st and 2nd shifts, making sure I got to say goodbye before I left.  I wanted to do it on Thursday and not Friday in case I got too emotional on my last day. I also cleared my desk then. I left work feeling a bit sad, which resulted in a 19 mile bike ride followed by a few miles running to get my legs to feel normal again.

I will surely miss Gillette gym and its awesome staff and classes.

Friday was my last day.  It definitely felt odd to be leaving.  I left work at 2:30pm to go to Barlow's the local bar/restaurant where all Gillette-ers go to after work. There we had a going away party. Luckily despite the extremely hot weather, a bunch of people could still make it.  Eve surprised me with a cake; she had taken a half-day vacation to go get it, telling me she wanted to leave work early to go home and change.  I made fun of her for wanting to change into something even cuter; now I feel bad for doing so cuz she just wanted to surprise me with a cake.

And look! My LGO friends (pictured here: CK, David, Weng, and Esther. Not pictured: Maxine) came to support me too!

Eve, Liz, Mike, Mike's old college roommate Craig and I went out after to help me not get too sad about the last day.

I will surely miss my time at the company.

Since I said I didn't want to get too emotional about this change in life chapter, I packed my weekend with awesome activities with my amazingly supportive friends.

Although we had just gone out the night before for my last day, Liz and I met up in the morning to run our first 5K!  Liz and I have been running buddies for over a year now, and we have done a 10K, a 10miler, and a half marathon, but not a 5K!  Luckily Julie told me about this free 5K called the New Balance Let's get movin', an East Boston program to help kids stay healthy and active.  Besides from my duathlon last week and a 10miler in March that I ran with an IT band injury (bad idea), my last real race was my October B.A.A. half marathon, which I did after having run somewhat regularly for 6 months.  My pace then was around 10:30 min/mi.   I have been running 9min/mi for a while according to my mapmyrun, but I hadn't done a real running race in a while. Liz and I ran the 5K in 95F weather; I couldn't believe it! especially since I had just done a duathlon in below 40F weather last weekend!  Anyhow, it was my PR at pace of 8:55min/mi!

 We rest for a bit before heading to NH for Evelyn's family get-together.  Eve, Liz and I are such 3-musketeers!  I always have amazing times with these besties. Earlier this week, I invited Eve to have dinner with my parents and brother.  It was a joke that at the rate we were meeting each other's whole families, we would be married by next month.

Wow, lots happened on Saturday, but more eventful stuff were present on Sunday as well.  It's like deja vu that I had yet another 5K on Sunday!  Julia, a bunch of our friends, and I had done a MIT Getfit, a 12-week challenge to work out, and at the end there was a 5K planned.  Because of all the craziness that happened in Boston in April, they postponed the 5K.  I was able to enter the race for free.  And guess what?  Another PR!  8:38min/mi this time in 85F weather! Julia had her PR too!

Afterwards, we went to Nahant Beach.  It was so pretty.  It reminded me more and more of why I love Boston.  It's a city, but nature is just everywhere. Awesome beaches and mountain hikes are just a short car ride away.

Unfortunately, it was too windy to have a real tanning day.  This is our towels when we got up from laying in the sun. We were all covered in sands as well, surviving only by covering our faces with clothes.  We had an awesome time anyway.

 And look what I brought to read at the beach! "The Goal" - a book LGOs should be reading this summer for a class. 

 I ended the weekend with a get-together with LGOs 2015!  John Kang and Maxine took group pictures, so you should be reading about it in their blogs soon :)

Well, my countdown to the new chapter has almost come to an end!  Tomorrow is my first day at LGO! From P&G ID to MIT's, I reflect on my experiences.  My goals are to learn lots, appreciate new friends while maintaining my current friendships, and reflect on experiences so I can apply my learnings into practice.  Goodnight all! Wish me good luck for tomorrow!