RunGirl

The end is near...

Wow! This semester has FLOWN by! I can't believe that next week I'll be done with my first year of grad school. I have one more paper for my Creativity class and then a final exam in my online class. I get a whole week to do the final so that is what I'll be doing all day Sunday. I want to get everything done so I can have a nice relaxing Patriots Day. Maybe I'll even think about what to bring to China!

Last week's China class went well. We got our project groups for the trip. I think my group is really good. I'm looking forward to working with them more. I'm getting more and more excited for the trip. As of right now, I only have 18 days to go! Can you believe it??

Despite having mixed feelings about an online class, I have enjoyed this semester. I have learned a lot and feel like I'm getting a lot out of my classes. After China I'll have a few weeks off then I get right back into it with a class during Summer Session II. I think I'm taking a finance class over the summer. It's a core class so it will be nice to check another one off the list. Let's hope the next two years go just as well as this one has. :) Enjoy the rest of your week! I'll be back for a wrap up post next week and most likely some more posts once the China trip is over.

Bye for now!

27 days until China!

As you can probably tell, China is at the forefront of my mind right now. We met as a class on Friday to share our book reports, get our itinerary and learn some basic facts about China and its history. It was nice to see everyone who is going on the trip. It seems like a good group. We meet again the next two Saturday mornings and then two weeks after that we leave! I can't believe it.

My creativity class had two guest speakers (a web designer for the Celtics and a Suffolk professor) along with a group presentation on Mental Models. It was really interesting. I liked that we covered so many topics and that our professor let us leave afterward since our brains were all very tired by 9:15! The only thing I have left for that class as far as assignments go is one more journal. The time is flying by! Before I know it, the semester will be over.

Tonight I have my online marketing class. I have enjoyed the course but as I've said before, I just don't like online classes. I think this may be one of the only ones I take. I get a lot more out of the classroom setting than sitting at my computer. I think I have two classes of this left and then the final. Exciting!

I'm all registered for my summer session II and fall classes. I decided to take them all at the North Andover campus. I'm not sure if I mentioned that already. It's close to work and has free parking plus no toll so my wallet will certainly thank me for this decision. Hopefully it goes as well as I hope!

Hope you're all enjoying the week!

Another one down...

Well, I finished another group presentation/project this week. I think we were able to pull it off well despite many setbacks. The presentation was for my online class. I found it really difficult because it was impossible to meet face-to-face and getting responses back from people via email is not always effective. One group member did absolutely nothing for the project and the other was slow on getting work back to us. It became a very frustrating experience that I am more than happy to put behind me. As I have said before, I think online courses are great for some people but I get much more out of a classroom setting. I doubt I'll take many more courses online but we'll see. Sometimes circumstances make it the best method so I won't rule it out. I'll just try to get my classes done between the Boston and Andover campuses.

My Creativity class is still going well. We had one group present this week. They did a type of martial arts that had a lot to do with self defense. I really enjoyed it. We were all really tired after the break but we kept going forward with the creativity exercise the professor had planned. We each just wrote for 10 minutes. Each sentence had to begin with either "He remembers..." or "She remembers..." I found it awesome. I started remembering all these past experiences like sitting by the bonfire at my best friend's house along the river, feeling the warm sun on my face in New Mexico, running through puddles during track practice, and lying in bed in Maine listening to the waves crash on the beach. It was one of those exercises that almost put me in a meditative state. I felt so happy and relaxed when I was done. I think writing to me is what actual meditation is to others. I don't like just sitting there with my eyes closed but I do enjoy zoning out by writing.

My weekly China classes begin next week. I'm looking forward to getting to know my classmates better and learning more about the trip itself. I have no clue what to pack! I did get my travel neck pillow for my birthday though. That will definitely be coming on the plane with me. :)

Hope you all have a nice weekend! Until next week...

Spring break!

Okay, so Spring Break isn't nearly as exciting when you still have a full time job to do but it's still nice to get a week off from having class. As of 1o o'clock last night I am officially on my "spring break" of sorts. I am planning to use this time to get ahead in a lot of my reading because I'll start having weekly classes for the China seminar starting in April. I cannot believe how quickly the semester is going! It's a little crazy to me that in about a month and a half (maybe a little more) I'll be on my way to China. Amazing!

Creativity for Business & Life Success was really good this week. We had a guest speaker who has held a multitude of create jobs. He's a photographer, marketer, etc. He was really interesting to listen to for the first half of the class. During the second half, my group did our napkin folding presentation. It went really well but I guess we were supposed to take it further than just showing the class how to fold them. I suppose one group has to be the guinea pig so the rest of the class can learn what to do. Thankfully we get to use the beginning of the next class to take it a little further. I still think we did a great job though. My group works amazingly well together. By far the best group I've worked with thus far.

Marketing is also going well. I've had three graded assignments so far and have an A on all of them. Score! I am doing a group presentation for that on the 25th. I'm curious to see how a presentation will go in an online class. Hopefully our group pulls together and gets it all done. It is difficult because we can't physically meet someone where get the project done. I think this is a reason I probably won't do many more online classes. It's a little too frustrating when doing group work. Plus I get distracted by watching American Idol during class. Shhhh don't tell my professor! Overall the class is going well and I am learning a lot. I just think having it in a classroom is more effective for me personally.

Okay, since I'm on spring break I'll leave it at that for now.  Have a great week and I'll see you the week of the 24th!

It's getting closer...

I can't believe Spring Break is getting so close! I'm looking forward to it because my birthday is the Saturday before Spring Break starts which means I can enjoy the whole day without worrying about homework assignments. Score!

Everything is going really well right now. I love my group in Creativity for Business and Life Success. We work so well together and are having such a fun time with the project. We'll actually be teaching the class napkin folding. We tried origami but had a lot of trouble with it. Yours truly could barely understand the directions so I'm glad we opted for napkin folding. Can you imagine trying to teach a class of 30 how to make a paper crane? We finished up The Flow Game this week too. It was awesome! I worked with one of the same partners from last week and two people I had never worked with before. It was really cool to get their feedback about the question I chose for the game. Everyone was really helpful. I was unsure about this class in the beginning but now I love it. I'm so glad I chose to take it.

Marketing is going well too. I'm not sure I'll take many more online classes though. I like being in a classroom and getting to meet other people. Plus I feel like I get a lot more out of learning in a classroom. Despite this, I'm working with a really good group. I will be working on the group paper this weekend while another member works on the power point presentation. We are focusing on cell phone technology for our project. It has been interesting to do the research on it. I think the project will go over well. I am also working on our Marketing Analytics exercise. It has a lot of math to it which reminds me of Operations Management and Economics. I'm pretty much all done with that which is great because I'm getting sick and was hoping to just relax this weekend.

One thing I do need to do this weekend is read my books about China.  The book I chose to read is grossing me out in parts. I have never read so much about cannibalism in my life. It's horrifying to see what happened in that country. The worst is that it was totally a man-made famine. There was no reason for it at all. While people starved there were granaries full to the brim of food. Awful! On a lighter note, my trip is getting closer and closer. I have been immunized and am pumped to go! 8 weeks and counting! At least I think it's about 8 weeks. Wooohooo!!!!

Have a great weekend and stay out of the rain!

So many groups!

Three weeks until spring break and so much to do before then! I have two group projects and three papers to get done. It will be nice to have the group projects done before spring break. That will be one less thing to do during it!

Creativity is going amazingly well. On Monday we did an exercise called The Flow Game. Only 23 people in the world are trained to lead this game and of those 23 only one lives in the U.S. Lucky for us, that one person is friends with my professor. The game is a really interesting way to explore what the main issue of concern is in your life and think of new ways to improve your situation. It continues next week which I find really exciting. My group project is going well too. I absolutely love the group I'm working with. We're all very motivated, enthusiastic students with great ideas. I think our project will be a hit. Our guest speaker is going to be great too. She'll come into our class after spring break. I have enjoyed reading up on the various speakers that people in our class have chosen. They seem like they will have interesting things to teach us.

Marketing is going well too. I had my first online group meeting last night. We seem right on target and are working so well together. It was easy to divide up the work. Hopefully the rest of the project goes just as smoothly. I am getting a lot out of that class. I was unsure how an online class would work but I really like it. Plus it's great to go home after work, relax for a bit and then get started on class. I'm finding it a very enjoyable experience.

That's all I've got for now. Another month until China meetings begin. I can't believe how quickly the semester is going! Two months down and two more to go. Have a great rest of the week/weekend!

The flu!

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all doing well and are able to get home safe and sound in this big snowstorm we're supposed to get today. This week I haven't had any classes because I was out sick with the flu on Tuesday. I really enjoy my Creativity class so I was disappointed to miss it. I'm working with a great group in that class. They are a really cool, smart bunch of girls. I did get my homework into my professor thanks to technology. Now I just have a lot of reading to do for all of my classes since I was pretty much out of commission last weekend and this week after work I've been sucked into American Idol. I don't think anything good is on tv this evening so I'll get my weekend of homework off to a good start.

I really don't have much new news to report. School is still going well. Oh! I almost forgot. I got my first Creativity assignment back last week and got a 5 out of 5! Not a bad way to start the semester. Let's hope my second assignment is just as good. I'll do a longer post next week when I have a little more to say. For now, this is rungirl signing off and hoping she'll get out of work a little early today!

Have a great weekend!

Weird weather!

First we get snow with thunderstorms. Then freezing cold temps. Now rain with much warmer temperatures! Gotta love New England. :)

Well, my classes for the week are over. That's the great thing about having them on Monday and Tuesday. By midweek I'm done with class and have 5 days to do my homework at a nice, relaxing pace. The classes are going well. Creativity for Business and Life Success is awesome! At first I wasn't crazy about it because I felt a bit out of my element but now I love it. We changed to a new classroom and for some reason I'm a lot more relaxed in the new one. Plus I have a great group for our class project. We already have our guest speaker set up and are actively working on what we are going to present to the class. It's going very well. I like how the class itself inspires me to go beyond the limits I had set for myself and try new things. I think this will definitely live up to the title of preparing us for business and life success.

Marketing is going well too. I had that class online last night. It's a very interesting class. We are starting to work on case studies in addition to reading the text. The case studies are really cool because most are based around the Boston area. One is on the "Juice Guys" who run Nantucket Nectar. Even our textbook contains Boston references. It makes it a lot easier to learn and relate to something when I've heard of the companies and products. I'm learning a lot and find I do enjoy marketing. The strange thing I'm finding by taking different core classes is that I'm starting to realize I like the math-based courses better than a lot of the others. I don't know if that means I'll end up focusing in Finance or Economics but it's surprising to me because I thought I'd like Marketing more than those subjects. I'm sure I'll figure it all out as I go along.

China is moving along as well. I'm 1/3 through the book I am reading for the class. It's a really interesting book on a horrific famine that took place at the end of the 1950s as a result of Mao's Great Leap Forward plan. He tried creating a Utopian, communal society but unfortunately it backfired and caused millions to suffer. It's hard to read at times but too interesting to put down. I sent in my Visa application today along with my mugshot of a photo. Seriously, does anyone have a good passport/Visa picture? Mine is just awful! I'm so excited that this trip is happening. It keeps getting closer and closer! :)

For now, I hope you all have a great rest of the week and a happy Valentine's Day!

And the semester keeps rolling

Hi everyone!

What a busy semester so far! I feel like I have so much more to do this semester. That is probably because I am essentially taking 3 classes in addition to working FT. This week I missed my Creativity class because I was sick. I think a stomach bug is going around my house so I'm trying to avoid it. I definitely felt lousy on Monday! I was upset that I missed class because we had a guest speaker that I was looking forward to seeing. Oh well, there's always next time.

Last night I had my online Marketing class. I really, really love having an online class. It took some getting used to but now it's so great. I sit by the fire, keep Biggest Loser on in the background (shhhh, don't tell my prof!) and chat with my professor and classmates about the topics we've read. I have a group presentation for that and for Creativity coming up soon so I'll have to make sure I get in touch with my group members. I like to get started way in advance so I don't feel that crunch time pressure. I'm enjoying Marketing but I'm starting to think I like my math based classes better than any others. I enjoy numbers so maybe I'll end up focusing more on the financial MBA courses. I guess I'll decide after I take the Intro class this summer.

I have a lot of odds and ends to finish for China right now. I have to get them my Visa application, get a passport photo taken for the Visa (I already have a Passport from when I went to Ireland in college), read my self-picked book on China, and find bits of information on the country to share with my class. I'm interested in the music in China so I'm going to try to find articles on what artists are popular there now.

Overall, everything is busy but going really well. I am enjoying my classes and like staying busy so all is good. I hope you all have a nice week/weekend!

Busy already!

Hi everyone!

This semester is already so much busier than last. I guess because I'm going on the China trip, it results in having the workload of 3 courses. I have lots of reading to do for the China seminar but I'm so excited about the trip that it makes it worth it. I have to start finding information about China to post for my fellow classmates as well. A coworker of mine gave me a bunch of book titles about China to read. I don't have time to read them all (it's a big list!) but I'm going to check out one or two that he starred. It was really cool to meet the others who are going to China. We had a brief meeting about it and then went to the Chinese New Year Celebration in Sargent Hall. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I had to leave before the food was served but it sure smelled good! I talked to a couple of people who are going and they seem great. I even have my roommate all set. What a relief!

My first online chat was held last night for Marketing. Having a Mac makes things a little difficult. At one point the messages got really delayed so I had to log off and come back in. Then I couldn't figure out how to fit all of the text into the little box so I could read it without scrolling all the way over. Otherwise it went really well. I like the online class because a) I can do it in my pj's and 2) it cuts down on the number of times I commute into Boston which will be very helpful when we start meeting more for the China seminar. I think I'll probably do a couple more of these but to me nothing beats learning in the classroom. I'll probably take advantage of the North Andover campus this summer since that's so close to work.

I have had two Creativity classes since I last blogged. I like the class a lot. There was a lot of relaxation and visualization exercises on Monday. I have used visualization in the past at running camp to mentally prepare for a big race but lately I haven't used it at all. It actually makes me want to get into yoga a little more. I love that she has us write "morning pages" every day. Basically this is just a journal where anything that comes to mind gets written down shortly after we wake up. I run early in the morning (5:30) so I've been getting up at 5 to get this done. My mind things strange things when it's not fully awake. All we do is write 3 pages that no one else will see. It gets a lot out which is nice. I love writing anyway so this doesn't even feel like work. We also have to do a weekly "Artist date." This is just time we take by ourselves to see a movie, play, go to a museum, etc. I'm trying to get a massage (my first!) this weekend. I'd think that would count... right? Hope so! :) The class is a little out of my comfort zone since I'm not normally big on ice breakers and such but I like it. The professor is great and so are the others in the class. If nothing else, it's a fun elective!

Okay, have to get back to work. Hope you all have a nice rest of the week and weekend. Go Pats!