Global Institute is well under way

Last week felt much longer due to starting on Sunday, with three full days of Orientation.

It was weird to actually go to class on Wednesday! I'd done a bunch of the readings well ahead of time, but at Orientation had picked up our "course packs" so had to transfer everything. (side note: a little part of the Green Californian in me is really frustrated with all the paper used here; and even I printed out things ahead of time to mark up even though I knew it would be printed for us later! *sigh*)

The LEO course (Leaderships, Ethics, & Organizations) was really interesting. Felt like it was somewhat tapping into my old Psych background. We started off by breaking into our ILE teams to discuss a short case - the company needs to hire a CFO, you're given 3 resumes and different information, who do you pick? It was less about a right answer and more about the process - the interesting fact that all of us knew one negative thing about a person and threw her out early, whereas collectively there were more  negative traits about the person we picked, but individually/uniquely held, so didn't make as much of an impact. Makes you really think about what could have been a more fair process.

Oh, depending on our sections, our schedule is completely different. Completely.  I printed out the very colorful excel sheet and keep having to refer to it constantly....Class is either 8-11, 12-3, or 3:45-6:45. And every day it changes,a long with other session mixed in.

For our 2nd day in Section 4, we had an Improv session. It was run by some people who are/were with Second City (improv/skit group in Chicago). It was interesting; it was groups of 3 teams in a room going through a lot of things, be it trust exercises, or learning how powerful "yes, AND" is vs "yes, BUT" is in a conversation. It was a lot about relaxing, going with the flow, and not shutting people down. There's a week long course in January I might go for (it's extra $$ though!!)

For our last day, we had a second LEO class, as well as our first GIE (Global Institutions & Environments) class. I was really nervous about GIE; there was a ton of rumors about how the teacher would cold call. One of my weakness is reading comprehension as well as speaking up in class....Luckily I was only called on when I raised my hand.  I think there will be more cold calling if people stay quiet, but everyone looked like they were trying to participate. A % of our grade for both classes is participation, but without the professor taking notes on us, I'm not sure how that works...

I think both of our teachers are somewhat extremes....LEO is more laid back, but we wish sometimes there was more control over the discussion; that is, not waiting to hear every last idea/example and not let people repeat what's already been said. GIE is an atmosphere where you get called out for repeating yourself, and we don't exhaust everything, but it seems like there are very very specific answers, which are sometimes hard to get at.

Outside of class, "party" culture is definitely in full swing. I feel like I'm already missing out on a lot. I also don't think FaceBook is the best method...posting on the wall of our class group/page doesn't notify anyone! I tried to start a google group for my section, but then someone did a page. I tried to get a vote to see what to do about that; I'd much rather have email for notifications...On Friday, I finally tried Shooters - the main dance club around. It's pretty differently - there's a bull, and a cage, flip cup / beer pong tables, and is western themed, but  plays Top 40 music. On Saturday though, we stayed in and baked cookies and watched a movie; it was good just to hang out.

On another note, people have very interesting talents! I had bought a new wheel/bottom set to my chair in the Bay Area at Ikea, but when I tried to add it, I discovered the drill holes were different (the chair top was from years ago). Turns out a classmate does carpentry for a hobby, and totally helped me drill new holes/chip out quirky edges to make it fit!

In terms of the famous team dynamics...all I can say is that I hope we make our team charter soon. We are 6 very very different people...and are not yet efficient (we took 1.5 hours to do something that was prescribed to take 30 min!!). We're also still trying to get to know each other as a section. We had a Section 4 BBQ but no one read that the $5 was for drinks/snacks and to bring your own food, so two of us collected money to get burgers. The organization person inside of me is trying to go with the flow and let it go; tho next time I want to do a Costco run beforehand (hey, it would have been cheaper!!)