Soon after that fantastic call from Chicago GSB (now Chicago Booth), I began researching my Random Walk options. I love meeting people and traveling. I just had to be on a Random Walk. However, the long list of destination choices confused me. However, I arrived to rescue myself! I was a hard core consultant and brains behind the patent of an algorithm which could predict a type of human behavior using mathematical models. I prepared a spreadsheet listing out the activities that could be done at each destination, gave each activity a preference weight, and assigned a numerical score to each option. Thereafter, I applied "business intuition" to select my top choices from the top 10 destinations. I sent that spread sheet out to some fellow admits, and they responded with a pin-drop silence. I was later told that everyone thought I was crazy. They continued to apply that label on me till they took some quantitative marketing classes. Then they realized that I was a cool guy after all!
In the interim, my urge to connect with people and organize them kicked in. I tried hard to organize an unofficial Random Walk in India for the Indian admits. However, it didn't work out because of various reasons. Therefore, I focused on the real thing. My algorithm had thrown up Costa Rica, a destination which turned out to be a hot favorite. You see, I wasn't too off with my math!
As was required, I mailed Rick, the guy who ran Random Walks for Chicago Booth, and submitted my choice. I was so confident of my analysis that multiple e-mails from Rick mentioning that Indians might face difficulties in getting into Costa Rica failed to dissuade me. While I did understand that if all the Indians decided to move to Costa Rica, its government would have a small logistical problem, I wanted to just go there even if I had to swim. Fortunately, there was no problem.
Each trip has a set of four second year students whose main job is to keep the flock together and keep them moving. They are picked from volunteers by the Random Walk committee of Graduate Business Council, the student government at Booth. Those leaders began spamming us with instructions like "buy bug-spray". I was sure that Indian mosquitoes could beat the hell out of Costa Rican mosquitoes blindfolded, and I was used to the Indian type. Therefore, I added our four trip leaders to my spam filter. As a result, when it came to packing things for the trip, I had no clue. I filled two large suitcases with everything I could think of including a steam iron and cans of soda.
All the Random Walk trips start and end in Chicago. Before the actual trip, there is a big evening event where everyone going on a Random Walk gets together to mix. However, it is such a big crowd that it is difficult to meet every one from your trip. I met them soon enough - all 16 of them at the airport at 5AM. Waving at sleeping people is real fun. The good part is that you can do it as long as you want!
On my flight, I sat next to a massive guy – one of the trip leaders. It takes a lot of beer to make you that big. It was not possible to drink that much in one year, so I assumed he had been working on it for quite some time. My only grudge against him was that he was in the window seat and was blocking my view. Otherwise, he was a perfectly nice sleeping guy.
After two flights and a long bus ride in a bus full of snoring people, we reached Arenal Springs Resort in Costa Rica. I realized that while one snoring person might irritate you, many snoring people sound just fine. Anyways, it didn't matter to me, because I kept chatting with a beautiful would-be classmate throughout the bus ride – for five hours. However, the only thing I remembered was our guide telling us that tectonic plates mess around with each other a lot in Costa Rica and it was good to say "Pura Vida" to everyone we met. So it is quite likely, that I was sleep-talking, and that my new friend was asleep too.
Costa Rica is a large and perfectly landscaped garden full of volcanoes and friendly people. However, nothing had prepared us for the beauty of the Aenal volcano. It was a perfect cone framed by beautiful blue sky with the tropical rain forest climbing its way up like ivy. At nights, one could see the crater glowing, and during the day one could see the smoke coming out. Our resort was beautiful too – with small well maintained cottages spread across a large area. Unfortunately, that was our last few hours of lazily appreciating something. The series of adventures Costa Rica Random walk turned out to be, jerked us out of our lethargy. In my next post, I will talk about them. Do keep reading!
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