Beer Game Victory!

Well well well. Maybe I will survive this MBA course after all. Allow me to chronologize:

7:45AM. My alarm goes off and I feel like I'd been hit by a bus. So tired. Just... so tired.

8:20AM. I manage to get out the door and into the dining hall for a filling breakfast. Tried not to think about the nutritional value (or lack thereof).

8:45AM. Coffee in hand, I set out to find the Beer Game locale - a vast, terrifyingly generic exam hall that gives me the heebie jeebies.

9:00AM. We are assembled into ten groups of eight, seated around rectangular tables. On top of the tables lie white tarps on which is a visual representation of a beer supply chain. The teaching assistants (ubernerdy Economics PhD students) begin to explain the game to us.

9:01AM. I am mildly panicking. We each have a partner in this game, in addition to working together as a team. My partner is male, older, and seems super smart. I am convinced I am never going to be able to learn how to play the game, I will be dead weight for the team, and my partner will hate me.

9:15ish AM. The game begins... and, lo and behold, I get it! I really get it! My partner and I are strategizing and the team is working together and I am contributing just as much as anyone and I think I even grasp the supply chain concept a little better than some of my teammates!

10:15ish AM. Still going strong! Feeling fabulous! Our team is doing well! (I think.) And, miracle of miracles, I am having FUN!

11:00ish AM. Game ends. But but but! We were just getting going! Nope, sorry, time to compare results and see whose supply chain accrued the least cost.

And the winner is... US! Woohoo! I can't even believe it. This is the nerdiest honor I have ever received. I am psyched.

Best of all, we won 75 quid! Each of us had to put in a pound to play the game, and the winning team got the pot! Apparently the other stream's victors will donate their winnings to the Business School Club. But not us. Per my suggestion to my teammates, we're going to the local pub for Guinness and chips before our evening lecture tomorrow. The lecture is being given by a finance big wig, and is entitled, "Financial Crisis: Past, Present, and Lessons for the Future." Yes, we maybe MBA students during the beginning of a Second Great Depression, but we still know how to par-tay!