Orientation at Barclays

Mike finished orientation at Barclays. The last event was a trip on the London Eye.

My HP office

Okay so I know we haven't been posting much lately (we've been so busy), but hopefully the next few posts will make up for it.

Here is my HP office. Although it's not too far from our place, commute requires three different tube lines. The tube is so packed in the morning I can barely sqeeze in. Welcome to London.

Right next to my building is the ancient Roman wall that surrounded Londinium.

My office is also next door to the Museum of London (free!). I stop by on my lunch breaks. On Wed I attended a tour on the Great Fire of London (1666).

We made it

Our first adventure on Sunday was to try to find each of our offices. Mine is off the St. Paul's stop. We walked around forever trying to find it.

Here is Mike's office in Canary Wharf.

Our offices couldn't be in more opposite places architecturally. All the buildings around Mike's office are super modern with glass and steel. My area is in "the city" surrounded by the old Londinium wall (the original London back in Roman times) so all the buildings are super old.

Final countdown

We're practically on our way to London.

I'm excited to see this...

(Featherstone Castle)

Mike's excited to see this... (Hadrian's wall)

And someday I hope we get over the shock of paying 400 pounds/week to live here:

(Surrey Quays, London)

TV Shows

M & I fly to London on Friday morning. We are bringing our portable DVD player. We wanted to buy a TV series or something to keep us entertained, but we have no idea what to get. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

I should probably mention we have already exhausted the following shows: Arrested Development, Lost, The Office, and Flight of the Concords.

Any other good TV show suggestions?

LEAD is done for the year

So LEAD is done for the year...and MAN it's been a crazy term. LEAD is the only required class for all full-time students here at the GSB, and the cool thing is it's actually taught by second-year students. All incoming students take it during their first term. The class starts off with a crazy weekend trip up to Wisconsin in August called a Learning Outdoor Experience (LOE), which is basically a chance to everyone to get hammered, party, and get to know each other. After LOE, the actual classwork starts--conflict management, communication, leadership, team dynamics, and other so-called "soft skill" classes.

Second-year students actually lead these discussions (called "modules"), using a combination of prepared material and discussion forum. The idea is to get everyone there thinking about themselves--the program mantra is "self-awareness," and the topics are geared toward getting the class to think about the people side of business. Too many students come here thinking they need to learn the harder skills...yes, you need to know how to value a business, but you can teach anyone on the street how to do that. Business is still a person-to-person interaction and I think that too many of my fellow students forget that.

Last term, applications went out for the next batch of LEAD Facilitators, or "facils," are they're known around here, and I just knew I needed to apply. Of over 100 people who applied, I was one of the 40 accepted, and this last term was our spring training. We spent the first 5 weeks of the term developing and practicing the content for our modules and then spent the last four weeks delivering the content to part-time and weekend students. The spring is a different atmosphere from the fall; the spring students take LEAD because they want to, whereas the fall students take LEAD because they are required to. Needless to say, the atmosphere in the fall can be a bit more hostile, simply because the class is required.

Anyhow, the spring was great and I learned a great deal about myself and got to work with some really amazing people. My fellow facils are the pick of the class and I feel quite privileged to be given the chance to work with them. I've got the summer off, but things pick right up the first week of September as we get ready for the fall students. The nice thing is, since we've already delivered the content once, the fall is goes a lot more smoothly, so we get to spend more time hanging out with the first years--acting as mentors and helping them get through the crazy fall term.

The pics are from a practice run-through and one of the classes that I co-lead during the spring. My buddy Eric Szmurlo, another facil, always has a camera with him and he got these. Erin loves them.

Happy Birthday Shanny

I am adding the beach pics my mom just sent.

Check out our sand castle (okay, Nathan really made it and I watched). We love the beach.

Happy Birthday Shanny!

Surprise!

I flew home this past weekend to surprise Shanny for her birthday. It was so much fun. It was the first time I had seen Isabelle. So cute.

Here are the Sprinkles cupcakes we got for Shanny. I decided Red Velvet is definately the best.

I took Nathan to seminary on the last day (aka: Irvine waffles and ice cream day). Yes, I know I look super tired - hey it was 6am! He showed me some of Heather's graffiti art around the city.

Mr. Baby Featherstone

It's a boy! We just got back from the hospital today. We have been SO excited for this appointment.

Now we can finally start picking out names and planning the nursery. Here is my favorite bedding so far (Serena & Lily).

Baby pictures coming soon... (I have to wait for Mike to finish his CFA studying to scan the pics in).

Preggers belly finally

Annie has been asking for pics of the belly -- and we hadn't even taken any up to this point. Then of course with mothers day our moms were asking. Anyway, we took a few last night so you all can see the growing belly.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Michael darling. You are the best husband ever! It has been two wonderful years and every day I love you more.

P.S. I love my new bonzai tree!