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: