We had our TA Microteaching assignment presentations today. I presented on 'Indian Business Etiquette'. Others presented on 'Fuel cells', 'How to play basketball', and even 'Circuit Theory'. I was quite desperate to get over with mine. Everything went well, except I said 'Oh S&*t' towards the end of my presentation. LK and I were the only MBAs in the microteaching assignment and left early to be in time for the student check-in at Management school.

I formally stepped into the Lally School of Management & Technology today. All events were completely planned. We had received an email earlier to dress in business casuals, and everybody looked their very best.

As we entered at 11AM, we were greeted by Rita, whom we had been interacting with over email, for some time now. Each first-year student was photographed for the MBA Directory, and gifted a Lally School shirt. The next few days' schedules were handed to us as we got together for free lunch. Apparently 'free' is the buzz word on campus during this time. We were gently told that this pampering would not last forever!

Everything was super-timed. The Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, and Dean made presentations in that order. I liked the fact that every individual was so mindful of their time. Gina made a presentation on the '10 Myths of the MBA' which had 12 points. This was interesting. But the fun part was Dr Tom Tiscari's presentation on Stats, which he called 'Statistics Bootcamp'.

As part of the exercise, Dr TT took us to the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, for the ballgame. The hometeam, the TC Valleycats were playing.

The assignment was to study how the Management team at the Joe Bruno stadium uses statistics to run the concession stands at the stadium, decide on player's fortunes, and basically strategize on overall growth. I had NEVER experienced class in this manner before. Moreover, I didn't know a thing about how statistics were used in baseball. On another note, I didn't even know how its used in cricket. But when you're right where the action is, observing the others helps. We had William Gladstone, President of the TC Valleycats make a presentation to us. Plus we had the Box reserved to watch the activity in the stadium, and again, there was food and drink. We also had the TC Valleycats Coach talk to us, and the Joe Bruno Stadium General Manager and team discuss how they tracked and analyzed data. I suddenly realized how significant numbers were to these people.

Sadly, we guys were so busy working on our assignment, there really was no time to appreciate the game.