Great Week!

Ahhhhhhhh it's been a good week / ten days or so.

I've been a busy boy. Had mid term exams this week - 2 mandarin exams, and also a managerial economics exam for my MBA. So been doing some studying. But also going out to meet people and have fun.

Went cycling around dianshanhu, just past sheshan. That was fascinating - a juxtaposition of massive grandiose canalside houses being developed, next to a large extremely basic village with tiny streets that we cycled down. I think cycling around China is a great idea. I met a couple of mid forties brits on the bike trip that had been to Guilin (one of the most beautiful landscape areas in china) where they rented bikes and toured around - and had apparently a most authentic uncommercialised and wonderful time. I'm looking forward to local and further afield bike trips in the future. Talking to my uncle michael from HK today, I realised how Shanghai is great because there are so many interesting places to visit only a stones' throw from Shanghai itself.

Went salsa dancing at a studio class - that was expensive - 90 kuai - 6 pounds or so - london prices! Met some new friends - very happy. Went to a wonderful Jazz lounge (JZ lounge)- super music, lovely relaxing setting. Went to an upmarket local restaurant (Nanling Restaurant) to eat 8 jewel duck and beijing duck. Ate loadsa food for 85 kuai - bargain for such a setting. Also went to a japanese eat all you can in pudong, in a huuuuge mall, that was superb to munch good salmon sashimi and hand rolls and ice cream till the cows came home (and drink all you can tsing dao) for 138 kuai (under ten pounds.....)

what else..... oh yes today went to watch the BMW Asian Open golf tournament at the Tomson Golf Course. Great! First time I've watched golf live. Superb golf course. I learned of the lengths the course have to go to in order to maintain the grass over and above irrigation... including covering the greens at night in the winter, and blowing fans on the greens in the summer. Watching golf live was way more fun than watching it on TV. Rushing between holes keeps interest levels up, and some of the shots played are really breathtaking. Interesting is seeing the younger chaps playing fantastic shots alongside the really seasoned players. Today the big names I recognised were Colin Montgomery, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els. I followed Els with my surrogate uncle Peter, for the back 9 holes. Some great moments, when Ernie miss-shot into the water... on the 13th a fantastic greenside chip up to the hole, and on the 18th, on various, shot on backspins and even I think I saw a side spin(!?) and on the 18th a beautiful finish over the water. I hope one day to get a chance to play on that course... what a priviledge.

going to see the golf today reminded me of what a priviledge playing golf is here. I'm looking forward to playing golf when I get to hong kong in a couple of weeks time. Today I gained something new from my trip out here - that is that for all the times that I played golf in the UK, I now will be able to appreciate a game all the more. Being out here, I'm really learning to appreciate the quality of life that I have for long taken for granted and to some extent lost interest in, in the UK.

ahhh what else have I been up to. I've joined a committe in my MBA class to organise guest speakers to come to us. It has the focus of Shanghai/Hong Kong affairs, to distinguish it from other career oriented forums that already exist. Attending committee meetings has been interesting - with a variety of backgrounds in the committee, planning and deciding on approach is not straightforward.

This week I have also learned about my own leadership tendencies. Observing the dynamic I have amongst my mandarin student friends, my mba friends, committees, I am finding myself exerting more leadership than I would normally in the UK. In the UK, I'm happy to sit back and let others get on - my style being only really to get involved and take the reins when needs be. Over here, I think because I have additional confidence and opinions, I'm pushing a little more. It's good for me to observe my change in stance. It's also good for me to practice leadership, particularly whilst overcoming language and cultural barriers, and given the conflict of my experience versus lack of local understanding.

Tomorrow.... I am off to Changbaishan, which is a million miles away. It's way way up north - like 40 hours on the train. I, fortunately am flying! I'm going with a former London friend Ken Siow, who now works in Beijing. (amazingly he shares the same surname as me - which is pretty rare) We're hoping for Indiana Jones style adventure, at the upper end of backpacking (hotels not hostels). It's a big mountain i'm told - famous for ginseng apparently... and there should be snow on the ground. It'll be a big change from the dust bowl of uni...!

I did my mandarin exams this week. When I get back from my holiday, I'm going to attempt to ascend a class to D class, thereby skipping C class. I'm not really getting value from my current classes, so it'll be interesting to give the D class a go. I know it is a big step up though. Best is if I've done well enough in the tests for them to recommend my ascending. My written vocab isn't great though, so I may not have qualified on that front, in which case I will take on the forces of administrativia to ascend a class anyway. We'll see when I return!

April 05 Update

Ah what a good month so far.

MBA
I spent two busy weeks preparing a group case study for my Economics class. It was hard work - a group of 9 people, and I missed the first team meeting because I was on a weekend trip to Hangzhou. I had opinions on what we should present and how we should present, and so persuading my fellow team members to take on my views in our second and third meetings was a challenge. After a great deal of discussion, during which I observed traditional risk-averse dynamics from one team member, and modern faith coming from a younger team member, we went with my ideas. The result - whereas so far presentations have been 1 or 2 people standing at the front and talking through slides for 30 mins, we used 5 role play actors to present, and discussed real analysis rather than lengthy re-presentation of known facts. I now have my first MBA exam coming up... at the end of April. I will be very happy if it goes ok.

Mandarin study
I decided this month not to go on the Mandarin School's half term holiday to Tai Shan. I figured I wouldn't get enough practice for Mandarin, and Mandarin really is my priority right now. Instead I took a couple of short trips to SheShan (MBA team building), and WuXi (city with a beautiful park on the outskirts of Shanghai). On my friends' return from Tai Shan, I really noticed that my mandarin has improved greatly over the last month. MBA lectures are no longer so painfully tiring, and my everyday comprehension has also improved. I know however that my spoken word is still limited - so I need to grow my spoken vocabulary through practice. This month, to resolve the self study / lessons dilemma, I attended about half of my mandarin classes - the grammar classes in particular, and spent remaining time at home doing self-study. Right now I have stopped attending classes altogether, with the aim of studying the C class's text book, with a view to jumping C class to D class in two week's time.

Socialising
I went out to party at Barbarossa, a newly opened Moroccan themed bar. It was a great place. No dancing which was a shame, but that meant that whilst it was busy with people, we could still talk. We went on from there to a private room at Park 97, where pretty much everybody got drunk on whisky. Oh dear! I did not feel so well the next day! I made a new friend this evening - Lisa - who did an MBA in Leeds and has recently come to Shanghai to work in advertising.

HK
I'm planning to go to HK in the 3rd week of May, as my mum and sis are coming out. I've got to go buy a flight sometime, hopefully I will have time before my MBA class this afternoon, if not it will have to wait until Monday morning. Last night I went to the HKU Alumni Monthly Mixer. I was happy to meet lots of people from HK naturally, some young, some older. It does make sense for me to attribute myself as having HK connections. I was privilleged to be introduced to the Chief Operating Officer of a big financial corporation here.

Work
All other leads having gone quiet, I have contacted Capgemini with a view to spending some time in the office getting to know them. I feel my Mandarin is at a suitable level to begin relationship building and working in multinational clients, although certainly not yet ready for local Chinese clients. Sadly consulting as a service is not well developed or understood here, and so my options for now are limited. My UK office continue to support me, with a view to transferring to Capgemini Shanghai. I'm grateful for the pocket money they give me as I don't really have access to much in the say of liquid assets - after all until recently I didn't know I would need large sums of cash handy!

Home
Life at home is good. I have just changed from using my feather quilt to a silk one that I picked up in Hangzhou. Indeed it is much more comfortable when I wake up in the morning - much cooler. Though I don't know if that's really a result of the silk, or just because it's not as warm a quilt anyway. My Ayi has been helping me out lots, keeping my fruit basket topped up and cooking me dishes to keep in my fridge. That's been helping me have lunches at home and get more done, rather than cycle out to meet friends for cafeteria lunches all the time. Money wise, life remains expensive. I've begun taking buses into town when I can, because it saves a little money (although not a lot), but by and large there isn't really any getting around taking taxis. An evening out generally costs me 60 RMB in taxis, 150 RMB for dinner, or if it's drinks, another 150-200 RMB again. (1 pound = 15 RMB). It's still desperately good value in UK terms - in London the equivalent would be £10 in taxis, £40 in meals, and £30 in drinks) - more than 4 times more. But on my student income - it's all expensive. Haha, so I am impatient to start work again.

The month ahead
May I am hoping will be a good month. I hope to see my Mandarin step up another level, I will visit HK, and at the back end of the month hopefully I will start making weekly appearances in my Capgemini office here. I'm hoping that soon afterwards I will leave studenting, and begin working.