LBS Treasure Hunt

As a way for Dave, his classmates, and their partners (like meee) to mix and mingle with different students while learning the layout of London, a treasure hunt was set up. Sadly, we did not get the memo that some people were dressing like pirates. However, as we did not know anyone else in our group of 8, we might have scared them off a bit had we dressed up (which is so unlike the two of us, I know!)

The premise: 30 teams of 8 were unleashed around the city of London with a Samsung tablet. The tablet had a "Treasure Hunt" app containing maps of London that indicated 40 wi-fi hot spots throughout the city. You had to navigate towards one of the hotspots, and when you got close enough, your tablet buzzed with either a question or task. Some of the tasks included taking photos. At the end, the team who answered the most questions correct, had the best photos, and returned on time, wins. Here is Captain Jack Sparrow explaining the rules:

Our team was made up of a couple of people in Dave's class (the MBAs) and a couple of MIMs (Masters in Management). MIMs are all young and right out of college, and ours were ready to win the whole damn thing. The MBAs (plus me!), who were all older, late twenties, wanted to relax and enjoy the day, perhaps stop off in a pub for a pint. Well...I will give you one guess which half of our group snagged that Samsung tablet, hellbent on winning, while running the old folks around London. 

Here we were at our first clue: How many fish are on the Eros statue in Picadilly Circus? After Dave and I made several spins around the statue, we returned confident and proud to help our team by proclaiming there were 24. Sadly, this was not an option on our multiple choice. We decided to round up, went with 32, and were correct. Where the other 8 fish were, I don't know. 

After much wandering around, we all jumped on the subway to find some more obscure clues. This is before I realized that the auto focus on my camera was off. 

After riding the subway, we got off at the Westminster station. While the group struggled to find the next clue, I had a photo shoot. (I swear I contributed at certain points).

These two kids are ready to take over this town:

It may not look like it, as I clearly seem to have just wandered about taking pictures, but I really did contribute to our next questions on Westminster Abbey. What number appears the most on the Westminster sundials? 6. And how do we know this? Cause I ran around like a fool finding sundials and yelling out numbers.

This is where our day became mildly dangerous - it doesn't look so bad now, but this was a temporary pause in 4 lanes of fast cars and buses. Anything to get to the next hotspot. 

Next clue: Find a bike and take a picture with at least 2 of your team members on it. I'm not gonna lie, I did not think they'd find a biker willing to give up his ride in the middle of the street. Those MIMs....

Next task, stage a beach volleyball game in the middle of the Queen's cavalry square. No pictures of this, but a picture of the square: 

Next task, make a word with your own bodies. We were so incredibly creative.

At the end of our day, we stopped at a supermarket for some beer, and headed back to the school to await the results:

Ah the prizes. Spared no expense. 

In the end, we did not win (surprise!) . I have no idea what place we came in, but probably right around the middle of the pack. The team shown below came in second place - dressed as superman, they flew around town (they literally ran, fists raised to the air, through the streets, all day). They even had the glasses!

And that was my lovely first little Saturday in London.