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.