Philly Day 1 and 2....

So I finally made it to Philly. Flew in from Atlanta on the first flight out without any incidents.

I tried to check in to my hotel, but there were no rooms available when I arrived. Being from out of town, Wharton put me up at the Inn on the Penn instead of the SCC. Apparently, if you are local to Philadelphia, or coming in from New York or D.C. you get put up at the SCC. If you are not, you get housed at the Inn. I guess if you really wanted to guarantee yourself a room, you could try to get a reservation for Saturday night and stay over. Since I couldn't check in, I just checked my bags and headed over to the SCC lobby where we were supposed to sign in at the hospitality desk. When you sign in, you get your Penn card and SCC id card which you are supposed to wear around you neck at all times. The Penn card has your picture on it. The reason I mention it is that when you are asked to send in pictures, keep in mind that it will be used for your Penncard for the next two years, and also the facebook. So its probably worthwhile to send in a nice studio photo from work, or get a haircut and ask somebody to take a nice passport type picture of your face.

After signing in and getting your id, you get a brief tour of the campus and the SCC along with your fellow classmates (broken up into smaller groups). This provided me with the first opportunity to start meeting some of my other classmates. Afterwards, there is food served in one the lobby areas at the SCC where you get to mingle with other classmates and in some cases their spouses. I enjoyed this time as I got a chance to chat it up with alot of nice folks and start putting names to faces.

Orientation started at about 12:30. Everyone (spouses included), went to one of the amphitheaters where we heard from the administration, some of the professors, and some current and past students. The amphitheater seating assignment was by alphabetical order. At our seats, we recieved our wharton name plates, and a wharton school bag with some goodies like course packs and a student handbook/facebook

Following the presentations there was a brief break. When we returned, a couple of the professors did a community building activity that was designed to introduce you to your pre-assigned study group. This was a good activity as it had a lecture feel to it and there was some good discussion. We also went around the room introducing ourselves and giving a brief description. During this time, I think the spouses went off and did some sort of organized activity (philly trolley tour?).

We wrapped up just before dinner time and headed for the dining room. Dinner was good. It provided a chance to meet some more classmates. After dinner, some of the folks headed to the bar for some informal schmoozing and mingling. I went back to the hotel to check in. They finally had a room ready. The rooms are nice and the hotel is just across the street from Huntsman Hall...so I cannot complain. The good thing about wharton is that they take care of all the logistics, food included. And the food is good. After I checked in and freshened up a bit, I headed back to the SCC where I met up with some of the folks who had gone to the bar. This was a good setting to socialize some more because people had loosened up a little bit and with a little help from the likes of Sam Adams, the conversations were flowing. I didn't stay too late, but stayed later than I had planned because it started to rain. Once the rain let up a little bit, a fellow classmate and I headed back to the hotel.

Day 2 started early with optional math camp. Since I had done the pre-math CD that was sent, I didn't feel I needed the math camp. But I went anyways because I had heard the guy who teaches it, Dr. John Siler, is quite a character (and walking, breathing WEMBA history since he's taught every wemba class since it started). The rest of the day consisted of classes, where we got right down to business. I was glad I had already completed all the accounting reading and homework. The prof moved fast, and I felt that I was able to follow along like a champ. I like both of the professors for the classes. They were very professional and very entertaining. Tonight, during dinner, I am meeting up with my study group to review some of our assignments that are due this week, including one tomorrow.

Thatss all for now. I'll try to post later this week if I can.

As far as what I am reading this week, as you can guess, cases and homework. And what I watched recently was Spiderman 3 on Friday night. It was entertaining. We had originally intended on Pirates of the Caribbean, journey to the end of the world, but it was sold out.