One week down, one to go.

My first week of PKP consisted of 40 hours of class time, 15 cups of coffee, and 50 new friends. After it was done, I felt I had known many of my class mates a lot longer than a week.

Our quantitative course focused on regression analysis and the time value of money. It wasn't overly difficult, and since most of it was new to me I was glad I took the course. It also gave me a chance to meet my classmates. First impressions: an extremely bright and motivated group. My best guess at the average age is about 28 or so. The most common background is banking, with engineering in second. There are two or three lawyers, not including those who are doing joint law and MBA degrees. There are also at least three M.D.'s including a neurosurgeon. I would say that 60 to 70% of the class is male, which is (surprisingly) an improvement from the previous cohort. As one female classmate put it, this is the age when many women want to have babies and it would be virtually impossible to do a full time MBA at the same time. Overall, I am very happy with my class and look forward to a fun year ahead. Now we have just four more days of PKP (one more of Economics, three of Accounting).

On Saturday Julia and I went to a formal dinner for the graduating Spring 2008 MBA class. It was held at Museum London, an art museum in downtown London. It was a chance to meet some of the graduating class before they embarked on their next adventures. Many of my class also attended, and I think everyone had a great time.



On Sunday Julia and I traveled North to the shore of Lake Huron. We first stopped at Grand Bend, a small beach resort community that looked as though it is a summer party spot for many Londoners. We were obviously early in the season because the place was dead. I think once the May 24 long weekend hits it will be packed.

Grand Point, Ontario

Afterwards we drove along the shoreline and eventually arrived in Sarnia. It was a nice town, although fairly small. We stopped at the river walkway in the downtown area and could look across the St Clair River to Michigan. Hopefully we can take more excursions like this soon; I think our next trip will be to Detroit.

Looking across the St. Clair River to Michigan in Sarnia, Ontario.