A Case of the Mondays

 Business school is an interesting place. I actually look forward to Mondays in a weird way.  Today started off pretty well with getting to sleep in til 11:30am. Some things don’t change right? The day just got better and better from there. 

11:30-1: Did some reading for my social entrepreneurship class while eating a leisurely breakfast and getting ready for school. Also sent a few emails to set up a volunteer thing I am doing this weekend and a Colombian dinner I am going to help cook for some friends on Thursday.

1:30-3:45: My “hard” class this semester, Decisions Models.  I really like this class so far and I feel like I’m learning some good stuff in it (decision trees, monte carlo simulations, optimization, etc).  Considered one of the “must-take” classes at Fuqua and I can’t argue with it so far.

4-5: Went with my roommate over to a new apartment building that just opened up to see how it compared to my current place. Word on the street was that it was newer, nicer, cheaper, and closer to school.  Turns out it is definitely NOT cheaper, and we won’t be living there.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained though.

5-7: Worked out with the powerlifting group over at RTP Fitness.  I don’t love the fact that I’m paying for two gym memberships at once (one at Duke is included in my student activity fees and one at RTP Fitness for $20/month) or that RTP Fitness is 20 minutes away from my house when Duke’s main gym is only 10 minutes away, but the free coaching on my technique and programming that I am getting by working out with the group at RTP fitness make the decision to work out over there a no-brainer (These guys are STRONG). Today we used a cambered fat bar, which I’d never used before, to do some box squats.  Cool stuff.

8-10:30: Went out to dinner at Gourmet Kingdom in Carborro with some of my Asian classmates (7 Chinese students and 1 Indian actually).  The Chinese students at Fuqua swear Gourmet Kingdom is the best Chinese place in the Triangle area and I told them I’d be happy to join them next time they went, which happened to be today.  It was a great preview for my upcoming trip to China this summer for China GATE (global academic travel experience). Over dinner (spicier than expected, a pleasant surprise!) we talked about life in China, ESL programs in the US, and a bunch other random things.

10:30-11:30: Came back home and watched the 2^nd half of the NCAA championship game between Butler and UConn with a couple of guys down the hall.  I was nervous about missing the first half during dinner, but it turns out all I missed was a brick fest.

Midnight-2am: Did some more reading for my Social Entrepreneurship class and sent a few more emails to set up some team meetings later this week. Also wrote this blog post. All in all, I have to call today a great Monday.

Edit: Also I just realized I never posted anything about the results of the Georgetown tournament.  It was a TON of fun.  Our team technically came in tied for 5th, but I can say with confidence that we were at least the 4th best team in the tournament of 22, and possibly the 3rd best team.  Our final record in the tournament was just 2-2, but the two games we lost were to the two best teams in the tournament that ultimately faced each other in the championship game (Chicago Booth and Rochester).  Chicago Booth, the winner, had been learning set plays and defenses by practicing 3 times a week for several months (holy crap! we just play pick-up hungover once a week!).Anyway, GREAT trip and one of the highlights of b-school so far.