What its like to be a trophy house-wife, siiiiinnnggging in the rain...

I now know how it feels now to be a trophy-housewife, and as long as I don’t have to watch “The View”, “Oprah”, or “Dr. Phil”, it is definitely the greatest thing in the world. It started out with what I do everyday, in class from 8 to 12, but was lucky enough to watch movies I had never seen, “Mulan” and “Kung-Fu Hustle” in both classes (in Chinese). Mulan, as most Disney movies are, was great and Kung-Fu was highly entertaining. Anywho, lets say those two movies were proxies for watching Oprah and the like all morning; was grazing on snacks like Pocky the whole time too, which is like a proxy for bon-bons.

Then right after class went to get our cheap massages…not sure if I mentioned this before (and even if I did is tremendous enough to mention again) but the already cheap massages are even cheaper before 5 PM on M to Thurs…cheap as in 78 RMB (or about $10) for either an hour full body or 80 mins of foot reflexology + simple shoulder, back, and neck massage. That’s not all folks – that price also includes ALL YOU CAN EAT made-to-order food. If most of you know me, it is a losing proposition when you offer me all you can eat…

So anywho, got the 80 mins massage while I ate sliced fruit, dumplings, then afterwards sat in their lounge and ate an omlet with rice, more sliced fruit, and mushroom noodle soup. So essentially I stayed at this spa for over 2.5 hours getting a massage and eating…how about that? Then off to go shopping at the suit place as previously mentioned – picking up the final version of my custom, made-to-measure suit. How did it end up? See for yourself (you like the look with cargo shorts?):

Worth every penny of the 950 RMB I paid, or about $127 USD – less than the alteration jobs usually for the off the rack suits I buy in the states. Naturally, I then had the shopping bug and bought a made-to-measure custom 85% cashmere/15% wool with silk inner lining overcoat for 1300 RMB, or about $175 USD – will be going Saturday for my second fitting, will update on how it went. Okay, okay, did not stop there – bought a nice, custom made-to-measure dress shirt in a nice blue textured houndstooth pattern with French cuffs for…get ready…wait for it….$80 RMB or about $11 USD!!!! This is too much fun. The sad part is as quickly as China is growing, I bet it will already be a good deal more expensive in a year or two.

After that, came home and….went to eat again. So by 7 PM, all I had gotten done was:

1) Watched two movies

2) Ate dumplings and fruit while I got a foot massage

3) Ate more in a new-age lounge with Enya playing in the background (although not always like that…last time the TV had a pirated “Transformers” playing)

4) Shopped…a lot

5) Ate

On another note, after dinner, it was POURING….like, as Forrest Gump would say “big ‘ol fat rain”….monsoon type stuff. And even though the campus restaurant is only a 5 minute walk, when its raining so hard it feels so far away. It was too much fun running back to the dorm – I felt like a little kid again. We were splashing in the biggest puddles, laughing, jumping around…sometimes it’s the littlest things that are so much fun you know? The only gross part is the sewage system is not the greatest in Beijing, and therefore is overwhelmed very quickly = huge puddles, likely mixed with a lot of…sewage…yummy.

(Soaked down to the bone...too much fun)

Okay…time to fill up the bubble bath, pop in some Kenny-G, have a couple of Xanax, and have some alone time with me, the new Cosmo magazine, and a bottle of red wine…

"The Trip"

So, I know I went to Hong Kong first, but the Taiwan trip was more important so will report on that first. As a few of you know, my HK trip was originally supposed to be from Thursday the 26^th to Sunday the 29^th so I would have sufficient time to do my company visits as well see as much of HK as I could. My plane ticket was booked and then I got the report that my grandmother in Taiwan was having some surgery for a pretty serious ailment. Unfortunately, since this set of grandparents live so far away, its sad to say I have probably only seen them 10 times give or take (with the bulk of those them visiting the States when I was much younger). I have only been to Taiwan two other times, one when I was three and then two years ago when my grandfather was having some major surgery as well. So while passing through, my sister thought it would be a great idea for me to go to Taiwan while I was in Hong Kong since one has to go via HK anyways (cannot fly directly to Taiwan from mainland for a whole host of reasons…check it out on Wikipedia or something if interested). It made all the sense in the world, and as a bonus it is quite close – only about an hour and 15 mins by plane. So I ended up changing my return flight to Monday the 30^th and got a ticket to Kaohsiung, Taiwan for Saturday morning to Monday morning. My grandparents actually live in Taipei, but the surgery was getting down in Kaohsiung (not sure if it has something to do with that my mom’s little brother is a doctor down there).

While it made my trip to HK only about 36 hours, it was totally worth it – the happiness my grandparents had was worth all of the effort and more. My grandma had her surgery Tuesday and fortunately was looking great when I got there – she was talking and sitting up and just starting to eat some solid food, and grandpa was so happy too. My mom also arrived there the same day I did, about 2 hours earlier, so that worked out so well.

My uncle, aunt, their 9 and 11 year old daughters, and their dog Pee-Pee were very gracious in hosting us, driving us around to run errands and even taking us out to a delicious dim-sum place for dinner – that’s right, they had dim-sum for dinner! Anywho, I with I could have stayed longer as these opportunities will not be available forever. At least if I work in Hong Kong it will just be a hop skip and a jump. Unfortunately my other grandparents both passed away years ago, and I wish I had been old enough/mature enough when they were alive for me to truly appreciate them.

(the dog Pee-Pee...he is kinda funny since he answers to Chinese and does not understand any English).

As a side note, Kaohsiung (2^nd largest city in Taiwan with about 1.5 million) is like LA or something – its weird, it is very urban feeling when you are walking around because its all mixed use buildings with retail on the bottom and housing/offices on top, but there are no real tall buildings and the city seems pretty spread out. I would estimate most buildings were no more than ten stories, so it’s a sort of odd feeling to be walking around in an urban environment with all low-rises and no real “central” area I could figure out.

Now, onto HK – the visit really was amazing! I got in fairly late on Thursday night and right away it was a weird adjustment (lets call weird #1) because all of the sudden everyone could speak English! A weird juxtaposition in my head with all the Asian faces that normally only speak Mandarin in Beijing while in HK it’s a lot of Asian faces that speak perfect English. Took the superb train into the city, which along with the airport train in Copenhagen is the most impressive in its speed, efficiency, cleanliness, etc etc. Every city should have something like that. I then took a cab from the train station to my cab where I had weird #2 b/c everything is right hand drive (HK was ruled by the English up till 1997). I don’t know if its because I haven’t been to London for like over ten years, but I had a momentary moment of panic as we were driving around up the ramp from the train and I thought we were going to slam into someone head on.

(the HK airport is kind of cool because one side is bordered by mountains and the other side is bordered by water/mountains...wonder if its a pain in the ass to land when weather is crap)

After getting to the hotel – weird #3 – pedestrians actually follow traffic signals here! I’m used to whatever goes in Beijing and here we are, waiting to cross a street with absolutely NO cars on it, but we are all standing there because the cross signal said don’t walk – such a weird feeling after following the locals no matter if it is green light, red light, yellow light, walk, don’t walk, bus coming, etc.

Stayed at a nice and reasonably prices Ramada and then woke up for day of meetings. And let me tell you, they went great! I was fortunate enough to meet with some great people and I really felt like I hit it off with them and got a much better idea about what finance/real-estate in HK is all about. The verdict? I-banking looking for more local native level speakers while the buy-side is still very foreign dominated English speakers so looks like we know where I will be focusing…HK mission accomplished. The buy-side shop in particular was especially impressive and the Director I was speaking to made me really feel like I might have a chance there – I will be focusing my summer/full-time efforts there as the culture there seemed to fit me very well.

(Hong Kong at night is really gorgeous....the pic on the left is Hong Kong from across the bay in Kowloon and the 2nd pic is Kowloon itself...incredible pics courtesy of Andy)

Then my friend Andy and his girlfriend Fion hosted me and showed me around the city, and they did an INCREDIBLE job. I met Andy last June at my finance fellowship orientation week in New York City and he is a great guy.

After my last meeting I went to Andy’s office (also his g-friend’s) and they took my on the ferry across the way to Kowloon. It was a beautiful night with a bright sky, and the HK skyline really is something else - like nowhere else. We walked around a very upscale mall there until our 8:30 reservation at an incredibly delish Cantonese style restaurant with a breathtaking view overlooking the bay.

(Real pictures of the food...nummy....)

(As an aside, let me you the Hong Kong-ians (?) love their malls – the whole
central area of HK where all the companies and banks are are literally connected by over the street walkways with mini malls in each one, and a lot of Central is also connected by underground malls combined with the very robust, clean, and fast subway system the MTR. I suppose its good so you can have a constant dose of A/C if you are walking building to building, not mention if it rains?). They then took me to a night market called Mong Kok which looks a lot like what you see on TV a lot when they show Hong Kong, with lot street vendors selling shady merchandise and booths selling foods. Did not get any fake handbags for myself but did buy a sweet pair of headphones/hands free phone kit (my phone has MP3) for only about $7, which would normally cost about $30 in the states.

They then took me to the nut-so main nightlife area called Long Kwai, which is the only place I think thus far that really reminds me of Bourbon street in New Orleans. It was like 2 AM and the streets were packed with loud music coming from everywhere. I was pooped so we ended up just grabbing a drink at a laid back Russian bar that had a cool giant icebox you could go into and take shots.

(The icebox in the Russian bar)

Andy was gracious enough to let me crash at his place, so we were back there by about 3 AM…slept at around 3:30, then up at 6 to catch my flight to Taiwan. Andy and Fion, just wanted to give a shout-out for showing such a great time!

The one thing – OMG was it HOT there….temperature wise in the mid 90’s, but the humidity – oh the humidity! The body depends on sweat to evaporate in order to keep cool, so when its that hot and that humid your body is just miserable. It did not help I was running around all day in a suit and tie (since did not get to Andy’s till 3:30 am, was wearing the same dress-up clothes from 8 AM to 3:30 AM! Talk about ring around the collar). The good part is everyone uses ridiculous air conditioning – like, so cold I was glad I was wearing a suit and tie to keep warm. Oh well – better than the alternative I guess, but sounds like a good recipe for a cold or something?

Verdict on the weekend? Was pretty pricy, but worth every penny both personally and professionally - lets see if I end up there...

International Excursions

So, I went Saturday to a tailor to get a custom, made to fit suit – I pick the material – and I have to say so far I am impressed. We went and were there for about 20 mins looking at all the different fabrics and patterns then we were extensively measured. We were able to dictate everything from the number of vents on the coat to if we wanted cuffs on the pants. Then we went back yesterday for second fitting with the shells of the coat and pants – so far, looking very good and one can tell by the stitching and seams that it is pretty high quality. The cost you ask? Unbelievable – I got a Super 120 wool suit, which is a pretty fine wool (makes for a good summer suit) and it was 950 RMB, or about $125…yes, that’s right, $125 all-in, which is probably about what I spend on just the tailoring alone of an off-the rack suit back in the states!!! CRAZY!!! My friend Jim got a Super 110 suit, which is a coarser (and more durable) wool with two pairs of pants for 1000 RMB. NUTS!!!! They can also make a 80% cashmere 20% wool overcoat custom fit for about $170…I don’t really have the money, but that might seriously be too good to pass up….
I will see how the final suit turns out, but here is a preview:

So, leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow right after class – super excited. As many of you may know, I have an interest in working in Hong Kong after MBA school. This will be my first in-person view of the place and I have set up four informational interviews at places I would be ecstatic to work at (in both the states or Hong Kong) including some buy side real-estate shops and some top investment banks. It will be a tight schedule – I fly in late evening Thursday night and then staying at the Ramada. Then Friday I have a full schedule going from company to company. After that I will meet up with my friend Andy, who is gracious enough to let me crash at his place Friday night. He will be headed to Kellogg this fall, but he is having us meet up with his other friend from HK that will be joining me at Columbia. Then I have a morning flight to Taiwan on Saturday - unfortunately, my Grandma will be having some pretty major surgery, so I really needed to make this leg of the trip. I have a lot of extended family there and my mom has already flown over there from the states. Originally I was going to be in Hong Kong for the whole weekend, but this popped up and ended up working out well since I have to fly through Hong Kong to get to Taiwan anyways (no direct flights from the mainland). Thanks for Teresa for helping me out on that one. I will be in Taiwan until early Monday morning, at which time I will make the trek back to Beijing. So, a whirlwind tour to be sure, but one absolutely worth taking for a family and career perspective.

Oh yeah - kicked booty on the test Tuesday – studied hard, and then aced the quiz today. And still struggling to finish this darn MBA school pre-math review that I had planned to finish Sunday. Thought it would only take a few hours, but with an Algebra, Pre-calc, calc, and statistic sections, coupled with my very short attention span these days = long way to go despite the fact that it is due August 1^st!

Hope to give y’all a little update or two while I’m out of Beijing, but if not you can be sure I will report back extensively upon my return…

Life is good...

I don't mean to be mean, but this, my friends, is (other than a gross foot) the blissful flip-flop tan-line of someone that has not worked since May 18th...
Had a test today and a quiz tomorrow in my other class, so no time for a real post today. Headed to Hong Kong Thursday so will make sure to post tomorrow before I leave.
On another note:
Congrats to my friends Ben and Alanna for their new daughter, their second!!!

Yummy...red meat...preferably still mooing on my plate...

So, Peking Opera was pretty cool, and I appreciated it for the cultural aspects of it. You also definitely had to appreciate the impressive showmanship and elaborate costumes. However, I have never really been into that kind of theater stuff, so content wise I was not the most excited. The coolest part was though when they had this part where they were throwing these spear things and the other actor was hitting them back with her feet – I know, weird to explain but was sort of Beijing Acrobats type stuff so that got my interest. Verdict – definitely something I think one should do if you have time in Beijing, but not something I would likely make the time to go again...see the pics!!

The coolest part of the day though was our meal at Outback Steakhouse! Meat is not the most plentiful here, especially beef, so this was quite the treat (and we paid for it too…most my meals here end up costly no more than $4-5, this was standard U.S. prices of roughly $30) and let me tell, it was quite the treat. 12 ounce prime rib, in all its juicy, pink, tender glory, steamed veggies, and rice. A little slice of home, and this kid is super spoiled after Mexican with Teresa for lunch then Outback for dinner..can't you see how satisfied I am in the pic? The, the boys and I had to burn some of the fatty off by pushing around giant soccer balls...

That was Thursday – last night, Friday night, had a CRAZZYYY night!!! It is our first weekend without a scheduled Chinalink trip where we had to wake up at 7 AM to go somewhere, and so the evening was wide open. So what did I do? Went to the giant store Carrefour to get some snacks, fruit, and a haircut (more on that later) – basically, the super wal-mart of the rest of the world and one of the 20 biggest companies in the world. The place is pretty sick – its like a super wal-mart, Costco, and best buy rolled into one, just massive. Now, there are plenty of places to buy fruit from stands in the street, but I tread carefully with that b/c they use a lot of pesticides here and are not necessarily known to be the cleanest. Washing the fruit doesn’t make me feel so comfortable either considering we are not supposed to drink the tap water here ;-) - not sure how comfortable I feel washing my fruits with non-drinkable water, you know? So when getting fruit I stick to a big, international retailer like Carrefour and stick with peel-able skins like oranges and bananas (unless I am eating apples from Teresa’s 5 star hotel). A successful trip, and one I was happy to get out of the way since I hate shopping. I did find the funniest thing though – rice alcohol, but in a plastic, squeeze top sports bottle. In case you are working out on a hot day, and you just need that sports bottle to quench your thirst with a 56% alcohol refresher! I have a friend that just moved to Chicago this might be perfect for, you know who you are Mr. D; heck the company you work for probably makes it...

So, the haircut – I don't want to sound prissy but I have to confess I have been slightly stressed out about this for a few days now. Its not that there are not plenty of good haircut folks in Beijing, its just that I very rarely seem to see anyone here walking around with a similar haircut, which I consider pretty basic. I think the style is just different here, and I wasn’t sure if it really fit me. I just did not want to end up feeling like I look funny with the company visits I have coming up in Hong Kong next week, you know? So I ended up going to a salon inside Carrefour (they seriously have everything), and “Jack” did just an incredible job. A shampoo/condition, haircut, another wash, then blow dry and style for just 38 RMB, or about $5…and since they do not tip here, I feel really bad like I’m ripping them off or something. Nevertheless, I had nothing to be nervous about, and I will certainly be coming back right before I leave for a haircut right before school starts. You can’t even go to Supercuts for $5 in the states, you know? See the pics and tell me if you approve:

What’s up for the rest of the weekend you ask? Well, since this weekend is, for once, wide open, I am doing the complete opposite of last week’s all-night Great Wall party and essentially sequestering myself in my room to do all my required pre-MBA work. Fun. It’s like a math, accounting, and some other stuff review that’s supposed to take a few hours and is required to be done by August 1^st. I will concentrate especially hard on the accounting section in order to review for the exemption exam. I will be sure to take lots of exciting pictures. Talk to y’all later!

I've been lazy!

So, it has been a crazy week and I feel way behind on this. So much so stuff has gone on that I’m going to cop out and and some structure to my stream-of-consciousness writing by breaking it down day by day. So, without further ado:

Thursday, July 12: The absolutely incredible Beijing Acrobats. No, these people were unbelievable – someone in my group said it best: you know its amazing when they are doing things that you know you could never no matter how much/long you trained. It is crazy stuff like the little guy on Ocean’s 11/12/13 with flips through hoops, a lady that apparently has no spine/bones she is so flexible, some ladies that can pile like 10 people on a single bike, some dudes that can do handstands, one handed, on another dude’s head, another guy that was bouncing around on one hand up and downstairs. Really, it is all hard to describe without seeing it, but I’ve attached some pics:

Friday, July 13: Had an interesting day as I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have lunch with an executive director from a top investment bank. She was nice enough to host me at a great restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel where we had a great discussion about my potentially working after grad school in Hong Kong. I learned a ton and I think that I now have a better idea about where I want to focus in the future – more to come after my visit to Hong Kong in two weeks where I will meet with a few other companies. I am so fortunate to have people that connect me with folks like these!

Saturday, July 14: So, this was the beginning of the unbelievable, endless Great Wall of China Weekend. No, like seriously. So, it started out with our planned Chinalink group trip to a piece of the wall about an hour a away. We hopped on the bus about 8 AM and trucked it over, and then spent about three hours walking up and around it. The weather was absolutely perfect – overcast and a little misty, which made the hike up the countless steps bearable and made for some mysterious looking pictures (see them below). The most fun part was coming down – it was basically a toboggan that ran down the whole side of the mountain back down to the parking lot at the bottom, and let me tell you – I would have hiked up 10 times to come down this way. The only thing that sucked was some slow people ahead of me, but in retrospect maybe that was good b/c I might have killed myself going too fast. So, we here at lostinthered productions are now trying a new thing so that you, yes YOU, can also experience the “Great Wall Dismount” (thanks Rich for that one!) via a video I took while coming down – I'm new to this video upload stuff so please let me know if it didn't work....

Saturday, July 14 GREAT WALL PART 2 (!!!): So, after we got back from the first Great Wall Trip, we showered and got ready for Great Wall trip part 2. So basically, there is this annual night party they have on the coast, on the beach, at the end of the Great Wall. Think about that – an all night party, at one of the 7 wonders of the world, on the beach, with 8 DJ’s spinning from 6 PM to whenever AM the next day – amazing or what??? So we got tix, took the bus (that was advertised as 2.5 hours to 3 hours, but ended up closer to 5 hours) out there, and arrived at about 12:30 AM. The party though, was incredible…the DJ’s were fantastic, and I had never been to an outdoor party on the beach overnight, let alone at the Great Wall of China…
To make it even more fun, it was Rich’s 26^th B-day, and we got 19 of the 22 Chinalink folks to go. It was really cool seeing it get light on the beach (unfortunately no sun rise b/c it was cloudy), and the 5 hour bus ride home kind of sucked – good thing we were all exhausted – but I still can’t believe I can say I partied all night on the beach at the Great wall. See vids below - the first is peak time in the middle of the night, the second is 4:38 AM with less people, but still going strong (again, new at this vid stuff so let me know if it doesnt work). Also a couple of choice pics:

(At this point in the night, probably about 2 AM, had to be 500+ people...)

(Rich the birthday boy)

(Shadow dancing at the Great Wall)

Sunday, July 15^th: Dead to the world. Well, until I woke up at about 4 PM, at which point we met up with: My beautiful sister Teresa and her new husband Ulrik!! They are on their multi-country/continent 3 month honeymoon and were coming through. So great to see them, the last time was at their wedding in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 27^th. Met them at this incredible massage place where we can get very good full body massages for about $18, but the crazy thing is that includes all you can eat, made to order food along with it. What???? So was great to get a massage after dancing all night and then I’m sure Teresa and U enjoyed it to after their 5 hour-delayed flight from Mongolia.

Monday, July 16: Dead to the world as I had my midterm on Tuesday, so basically spent studying all day with Rich and Chris (“The Twin Towers”…6’3 and 6’4 is pretty damn big here in China) at a coffee shop, then coming home and basically passing out from the remaining after-effects of Saturday night.

Tuesday, July 17^th: No problem on the midterm, I think. Studied pretty hard so should be decent enough. Went back out to meet Teresa and Ulrik for…well…um…a massage??? It’s hard to resist for $18, and then its an even better value proposition when you factor in the free all you can eat food and drink?? Need to justify the decadance. This time I even ate before AND after my massage – I could get used to this. Then I had a great night of sleep at my sister’s hotel – they decided to use up some of the points they have built up as consultants on the road all the time and got a suite at the (as the travel guides refer to) as the best hotel in Beijing the 5 star St Regis. And lemme tell you, it was soooo great. I love my dorm/frat house here and all, but lemme tell you it was really nice to have central air, no mosquitos, a marble bath (and crazy, it was my own – the suite has two baths) and HBO/ESPN, etc. I crashed hard, with the excuse that I still had after effects of the Saturday night/midterm studying.

Wednesday, July 18^th: Spent the whole day hanging with sis and brother-in-law (or as my friend calls him, BIL). By whole day I mean I played hooky with class too. We went to the old emperor’s summer palace, which was AMAZING. Right there with the Great Wall as the most amazing places. It is sort of Versaille like in how beautiful it was with lakes (all man made with hard labor), beautiful buildings, and sweeping views of the city. It was mostly built end of 1800's early 1900's by this spoiled emperor-ess that diverted navy funds to build it, and they used some cash! The terrible part – FORGOT MY CAMERA! This was a great place for pictures, but at least Ulrik got some – will have to get them from him the next time he has access to a computer and can upload them.Wish I could show you guys the pics b/c so gorgeous, but not this time. It was seriously probably the most beautiful day there has been since I got here (it apparently stormed all night Tuesday night which cleaned things up a lot – Tuesday day was very gross and very hazy from pollution) so it was sunny and breezy. And just was great to spend quality time with the family. We went out for a little while that night so they could get a glimpse of the nightlife, but then came home pretty early and crashed hard again in their super-comfortable suite. Life is good!

Today, July 19^th: So, I woke up at 7 AM to take the 45 min cab ride back to campus for class. Then, um, I got right back into bed and slept until like 10:30….
I’m seriously not one to normally play hooky – like, I really believe that just going to class is the bare minimum – but I was just so comfortable there in their penthouse suite and the A/C was so strong, and the apples so delicious, and the marble bath so…marble….
I couldn’t resist. Then while Ulrik got up and worked on his pre-term stuff for school (he is going to Harvard B-School next fall) Teresa and I got what I have been craving this whole trip – Mexican! Never had a burrito been that delicious! In addition to the extra sleep, the morning was worth it to spend more time with T – was so to say bye, but they are going to have an incredible time on their next stop to Tibet. Teresa and Ulrik, please be safe!

Tonight – the famous Peking Opera – will report back more promptly this time.

Trans-a Formers

So, it was quite exciting to finally see it today, and we saw it at an incredible theater (in English) with a huge sound system. And you better believe that was loud since it was a Michael Bay movie. Overall I'd probably give it a 3 stars out of a possible 4.5. The action was incredible along with the special effects, but you could definitely tell that it was made so little kids could enjoy it too (get a whole new generation of folks hooked) with pretty stupid humor and an extra-simple storyline that if you think too hard, has plenty of holes. Also probably too long at 2 hours 22 mins, mostly filled with alleged "character development". Overall, I would say slightly disappointed, but then again the expectations for me were so high maybe would have been impossible to reach them? Enjoyment level may have been lower without the huge sound system. The cool part was it was only 35 RMB to see the movie - less than $5. Stay tuned for a whole entry about the money here, buying power, etc, possibly connect to a whole entry about eating/food here.

So, i'd like to take this opportunity to talk again about the age difference with most of the rest of my classmates here. Related to the above, a lot of them have never seen Transformers or even know what is it about. Vast majority of the group was born between 1987 and 1989, so that really is past their time. Its the Transformers for chrissakes! Then in the movie they had the classic Cars song "Drive" - which no one knew.
Also, a bunch of us bought some local pre-paid cell phones to keep in touch (only about $40, and since its on GSM band will work virtually anywhere with purchase of a local SIM card) and one time while we were in a group someone asked how to find out our balance. I told them to dial 867-5309 and they were like WAIT WAIT! SLOW DOWN! WHAT IS IT AGAIN??
I thought maybe they did not get the 80's song reference, so I told them its easy to remember just sing it - and I sang it in the tune of the song (although with me, "in tune" is pushing it), and still no one.
Last, and maybe most importantly - no one knows what a Zack Morris phone is!!!! (or have seen Saved by the Bell for that Matter). I should ask them if "up up down down left right left right B A Select Start" means anything to them?

Thats my little rant about that, but to tell you the truth - and most of you if you know me can attest to this - I really get a kick out of it! Its actually very cool to finally be older/allegedly wiser than the folks I am around.

Okay, so two paragraphs, and nary a word about China, Beijing, or Beijing University. Things have been going - just a ton of work to do, so kind of just trying to survive on that end. I vowed not to be some sort of bookworm because a big part of this experience is hanging with locals, checking out the city, etc, so maybe not doing the absolute most I could be, but why would I come all the way to the Harvard of China to do that? Also, as a total tangent, we taught my awesome language buddy today how to say "Fo Sho"
So excited - tomorrow we are seeing the Peking Acrobats - you remember the little guy from Oceans 11/12/13? Its all that kind of stuff.
Until next time...

A crazy, small world, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Before I talk about the trips, I gotta tell this story about how weird and crazy this small world is. To preface, I am trying to work a visit with some companies I may be interested in working for (in Hong Kong) after MBA school. So, I was studying pretty hard last night and so didn’t end up having dinner until like 9:30 PM. I dropped by a little noodle house on campus where you can normally pay either with a student meal card or cash. But b/c it was so late, there was no cashier there so you had to ask a student to use their card and pay them the cash. So I ask the dude in front of me in line and we end up chatting it up because he was a business major in undergrad/working on masters in econ, and we are both big basketball fans. So we sit and as we are eating as it ends up his very good friend/classmate from Beijing University works in Investment Banking at – lo and behold, the ONE top bank that I do not have a good contact with in Hong Kong (not going to name names)!!!! So just like that, a late, last minute dinner ends up being another contact. Crazy how the world works – let’s say I end up working for that bank after school as a result of his friend? Then it would totally be like “what if this guy had not been in line with me at the noodle house?” Anywho, that’s my interesting story. I think my Hong Kong trip is now set, and really really packed with some great companies. I’m very fortunate.

So, had a great (but incredibly hot!) visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. See the pics above (perhaps one day i will take the time to learn how to integrate the pics within the text?). It was a cool visit, but too bad the place to see Chairman’s Mao’s body is under renovation. The Forbidden City, while cool, was sort of like the Temple of Heaven in that it had an odd, artificial Disney world feel to it. The fact that there is a Starbucks in there did not help a thing. I had a bunch of other stuff written about this, and got as far as posting, but i've been told to get rid of it so thats why the entry aobut this is so short...

Tomorrow we are seeing Transformers!!! It opens tonight at midnight here in China (although believe it or not I have already seen bootleg copies on the street for the last week). We contemplated being super nerdy and going to see the midnight show, but thought it would be too much of a cost to our sleep. So we are catching the 1:30 tomorrow, the first show after class. Maybe we will dress up as Transformers? Yes, we are that nerdy….

Geriatric...

So for probably the first time in my life, I feel sort of “old”. Some of the folks here don’t get a lot of my references so my non-stop witty banter sometimes is not understood I think. Or maybe I am just super lame. They don’t know david hasselhoff from what really made famous, Knight Rider, they only know him from Baywatch! (the subject was broached b/c I was singing select verses from his German #1 hit “Freedom!”. I find it funny that I think everyone knows his status as germany’s greatest pop star). Its just weird when people talk about how they were born in 1988 and 1989 and stuff like that. And while Rich and I are super excited to see the Transformers movie when it opens here next Wednesday, most never really watched the cartoon b/c it was past their time. Weird.

Anywho, yesterday’s trip to the “Temple of Heaven” was pretty cool, but honestly it seemed kind of artificial. I don’t know what it was, its like these old temples are so perfect they had a Disneyland quality to it. See pics above!

The 'black market' market, now THAT was cool. Surprisingly it was in a 4 story building- funny this nice building is all devoted to fake stuff. It was really entertaining to see all the ripped of Dolce and Gabana, Burberry, Chanel, North Face, Nike, Adidas, Tumi, Timberland, hell even fake IPods! Some was blatantly terrible, like you could tell from far away, but some was really incredible, basically real. From what I am told, that is possible as sometimes these factories will produce a couple of thousand more than what was ordered by the Nike’s of the world and sell them on the side. We joked that the coffee shop in there even sold fake coffee, like plain hot water with dark food coloring in it...

The funniest part was when we got caught in what we now call “the Gauntlet”. It was about 5 or 6 of us walking through, all guys, and we made mistake of walking down a corridor with fake shoe vendors on each side of us. It was like we were out in some street market, they were all crowding us as we were walking through, thrusting their “AIR JO-DAN! NIKE! PUMA YOU BUY!” in our faces and even sort of hitting us with them. It got so ridiculous we could not stop laughing, but it kind of wasn’t funny b/c we could barely get through. So I just put my hands over my ears and started yelling “AHHHH!! TAI DA-SEN! AHHHH!” (AHHH! TOO LOUD! AHHH!) which made us laugh even more, but it still wasn’t funny b/c at this point we were practically getting fondled. Its like they barricaded both sides of the corridor with burning tires like on Black Hawk Down, but eventually we got through. We laughed for like 10 mins, then decided it was so funny we would walk through again. But alas, as we went though again, laughing, they realized were just screwing around and kind of left us alone that time. :-(

You can be sure we will train harder and faster over the next few weeks and return to face “The Gauntlet” again….

Everyone is sort of dragging today – we’re not positive if its just the fact that there was so much going on the first few days and now we are settling into a groove/coming down, or the fact that the air had gotten steadily crappier since our first two rainy days here. Its like, sort of ridiculous how bad it is – there is just this gross haze that hangs around, and it kind of makes your throat and eyes hurt all the time. I will be sure to get a good pic that illustrates it, but the fact that:

1) Not much in terms of emissions controls here

2) Building for Olympics

3) A desert outside the city = lots of small particles in the air

4) Really bad pollution from coal burning factories

Are the reasons why, as I read in USA Today, that the air is worse than New york, LA, Chicago, and Dallas COMBINED (!). Gross. I played some basketball the other day outside (Beijing Uni only has outdoor courts) and I swear I was going to cough up a lung.

So looking forward to the trip tomorrow – Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. Will make sure to get tons o pics. And thanks all who have left comments – please keep them coming!

Laaanddd of the Freeeee

So, has been a fun last two days (july 3^rd and 4^th). Met my “study buddy” we are assigned to as sort of a cultural exchange/free tutor type thing. I wasn’t sure what to expect so when I introduced myself I was like “wo shi O-yi-ming” (I am Lawrence), he replied back something along the lines of “ Oh hey, I’m Andy”, so comfort level was instantly high….his English is great. Smart kid too, double majoring in electrical engineering and economics. So we were able to talk some macro-econ shop – was nice to get back to that – and like pretty much everyone that hears I’m from Chicago he says “WOW! CHICAGO! MICHAEL JORDAN!!” so we chat about b-ball. So I speak Chinese with him while he speaks English to me, but his English is far superior to my “chinglish” but it still helps.

We had a 4^th of july dinner hosted by our program Chinalink, and it might be the weirdest 4^th of July I’ve had. Ate traditional peking duck (so delicious) at a restaurant in a room surrounded by Mao posters, communist military propaganda posters (sort of like US WWII army posters), and old “yearbook” photos of crusty communist generals. I just thought it was ironic to be surrounded by all this commie stuff on Freedom day, you know? Other than that, has been the regular crushing school work load.

So, my book for one of my classes has the funniest chapter headings. Some of them sound funny b/c they are direct translations that don’t always work, but its because of that they are quite entertaining. Some choice selections (and remember, these are exactly what is on the book):

Lesson 4: did you play football and prepare the text at the same time?
Lesson 7: how could a beautiful girl learn monkey boxing?
Lesson 8: its not allowed keeping dogs in the dormintory (damnit, we ARE going to get a 5^th floor Shao Yen building #5 dog!!!!!)
Lesson 14: want to be my cousin?
Lesson 17: do you think its willing to live in a cage?

And , the award for best chapter title thus far (drumroll):

Lesson 18: Do you want to kill yourself??

Off to our first field trip – to the “Temple of Heaven”, and then our first black market to buy some shady ripoff U.S. luxury brands! Stay tuned….

FINALLY!

Sorry it has taken so long for me to make the first update - the commies here have blocked blogspot (too much freedom of speech) and had to figure out alternative means to update it.

So it begins - I am in Beijing! As most of you know, before I start at Columbia Business School next fall I will spending 6 weeks in China at Peking University for a summer language program. it will be pretty intense, with 4 hours of class 5 days a week plus additional stuff in the afternoons, but going to be really fun and it will be very cool to see things ramping up for the '08 Olympics. so far ,a couple of observations:
1) Cattle class sucks on 13 hour flights
2) It is hot as !@#$% here....no really, like Atlanta is pretty temperate compared to here. the kind of thing you walk outside and you can barely breathe
3) traffic laws are just a suggestion in Beijing
4) it is just unbelievably odd that a country/city that is so capitalist and prosperous is ruled my communists - preposterous!

anywho, so my program is great. 22 of us, although most are pretty young, like entering soph/junior year in college, and some that are entering college in the fall (crazy...born in 1989, unbelievable) . For my age there is a cool dude Richard, here, he's 25 gettin a masters at Georgetown in international relations; before he came there was actually some question if he would be let in b/c in his previous life he did some defense work at NASA and Lockheed-Martin. also a guy named Mike who is 30 and married. other than that, pretty much 20 something year olds but all pretty cool and mature.
we all live in this internatinoal student complex call Shao Yen, and our program is building number 5, 5th floor. so we call ourselves the Cinco Cinco. i've been pushing for a 5th floor community dog, stereo, and ping-pong table, but not sure that is going to happen...
There are 5 total groups here for a total of 108 people, and our program (called ChinaLink) is by far the most rowdy and loud. we are proud! but the cool part of that is we are still all smart kids and fun. although rich and I agree that there is no way we can keep up with the young'ins going out schedule.
we live 3 to a room, and each room has a bathroom; the building/rooms are pretty nice, a little old but you cant beat the fact that we have freakin maid service every single day! I get back from class and the bed is made, the floor vacuumed, bathroom is cleaned, and brand new towels. unbelievable - im' going to be pretty spoiled after I leave here. our Cinco Cinco is a lot of fun b/c it is essentially a co-ed frat house - no one closes their doors except at night and we just hang out in each other rooms. hopefully, at some point, we will get a chance to study some Chinese.
The campus of Peking Uni itself if gorgeous, a mix of modern buildings and really old traditional chinese style buildings. we still have not figured out how to upload pictures to this "back-door" of blogspot, but as soon as we do I will post lots. the campus is pretty big and self contained with lots of restaurants, stores, couple of gyms, etc, with lots of trees, trails, and lots of pretty ponds. although the ponds = lots of mosquitos, which is nasty.
Class is pretty cool, but 100% in Chinese - like, the teachers are from Beijing and can't speak English, but I suppose that will help us learn faster? these classes will definitely take a lot of studying - im' guessing no less than 2 hours a night. which doesnt sound like a ton except for the fact that we already have 4 hours a day, which probably means i'll be doin chinese a minimum of 6 hours a day! last night i fell asleep with the chinese TV on (its not so cool....all state controlled TV) and maybe if i just sleep every night with it on, I will learn chinese without studying?
gotta run - will hopefully be posting much more often now that I actually can post!

Introduction

Hello all - I hope to get this sent out to all my friends soon. I will be keeping a journal, as close to daily as possible, of my days over the summer of 2007 in Beijing, China. Please stay tuned as regular posts with photos should begin the end of June. Comments are definitely encouraged!