Quick Synopsis of Highlights of the Week

Tuesday - completely downpoured but Alicia convinced me to go with some folks from our stream to Shakespeare Globe Theater to watch "As you like it". It was quite good and a really cool venue (got some pictures before my hand got slapped) but after getting downpoured on the 3rd time towards the end of Act 1 Molly, Trisha and I decided to go find food and hot beverages to dry off and warm up. We ended up at The Real Greek, which was good but overpriced and small quantities, where we ate and chatted until the rest of the folks showed up. I had fun and got to spend some time with Jamie, Pooya, Alicia, Nick, Neil, Joao, Trisha and Molly

The motley crew of 8 who decided to brave the rain and go to Shakespeare Globe Theater anyways

The inside - very cool, felt like I was in Shakespeare in Love
My illicit picture of the actors and the start of the play "As you like it"

Before the rain.... the three who ended up escaping after Act 1 to find a warm, dry place to wait out the rest of the play Molly and I after braving our 3rd downpour in the rain... we're quite soaked at this point

Thursday - Met my group at 8am for a full day of stats... Long Day! Stepped out at 1:30PM to take my oral test for Mandarin... teacher said my Mandarin is not bad and I can skip to level 2... thank goodness I thought I was going to have to spend 70hrs taking level 1 during what is looking like a really busy and hard autumn term. Then went back for more stats only to leave at 3:30 and spent roughly 3 hours taking the written exam. Found I remembered a suprising amount of mandarin, and picked up some words I had forgotten from other sections of the test. Glad to know I actually did retain some. Hung around campus because at 6:45PM was the AT Kearney Global Strategy Competition briefing, Venu and I decided we might as well try it, 50% of the teams get to actually compete and that's a random drawing, and Molly joined our team. Went out to Notting Hill with Venu and Christian because I thought it was Christian's birthday. Turns out its a different Christian's birthday ... one I have not meant... so I actually didn't have to go out. What should have been a 15 min tube ride turned into a 30 min plus tube ride as the two local pros, Venu and Christian, first had us riding the wrong way on the Circle Line, only to switch and get on the wrong line, only to take another tube ending up back at Baker St 30min later to finally get on the right tube to Notting Hill. The bday party was at Babylon Beach Blanket or something, super posh place with a fireplace inside ???? and 11GBP mojitos... that's like $17. They were good but not THAT good. After a bit of socializing and chatting we headed home.... what a long night but as usual it's fun hanging out with Venu, Christian, Constantine, Laura and a few other folks =)