Christmas Break

The finals are over and I'm back in Europe. Things went all very smooth.

It seems that the strategy of hanging out in the Philippines for the study week has truly paid off. I was nicely relaxed for the exams and I thing I did quite well.

Right now I'm doing some fine Snowboarding here in Austria... School is far away already, and the only thing that reminds me of China is my daily dose of Mandarin vocabulary learning.

So don't expect to read anything about CEIBS until early January next year.

Merry christmas and a happy new year!

Feverishly awaiting the finals

I got myself a cold when coming back to Shanghai. Nice move. The culprit was probably a freezer-like air conditioned cinema on my last day in the Philippines.

What the HELL is wrong with those people, that they always have to run their A/C on full steam, until one cannot see the movie screen anymore, because ones own breath condensates in midair?!

Anyway,
I had planned to spend all Saturday really studying for Statistics and Financial Accounting. Instead I'm now lying in bed with 38.5 fever, lazily dreaming away - not to say halluzinating ;-)

I'm not complaining, though, as this gives me another great excuse to procrastinate studying a little longer...

This morning we had to give our presentation for Business Writing and Presentation Skills class, which was videotaped, since it represents the final exam for this subject. I hope to catch a glimpse of myself later this week, performing in front of a totally bored must-be-there-audience with feverishly glazy, red eyeballs and a sore nose.

Sad Conversations

Some snippets of my conversations. Might not be the exact wording, but true to the sense of what was said.

First Girl
me: Do you like what you're doing?
her: (thinks, hesitates)... No.
me: Why do you do it then?
her: I need the money.
me: Why's that?
her: I have a kid.
me: what? You mean here?
her: He stays with my parents. I need the money to support him.
me: What about the father?
her: The father is not interested. He doesn't care.
me: He doesn't give you any money?
her: No, he's from Belgium. He won't return any of my emails or phone calls.
me: This is sick! Do you know that Belgium law would require him to pay for his child?
her: No.

Second Girl
me: Do you like your job?
her: (without hesitation) No.
me: How long have you been doing it?
her: For about two years. I ran away from my family.
me: Why's that?
her: They tried to force me to marry a muslim boy. But I didn't like him.
me: And then you ended up here?
her: Yeah, I needed a job.
me: And you go out with guests and sleep with them?
her: Yes.
me: So you didn't like the guy you were supposed to marry and now you sleep with a stranger every night.
her: (remains silent, with a contemplative look on her face)

Third Girl
me: (to a 16 year old looking girl, jokingly) Are you for sale?
her: Yes. (half-jokingly) I'm a virgin. I can come with you.
me: Don't be silly! I could be your father. How old are you?
her: I'm twenty.
me: Don't make me laugh!
(I buy her a fruit juice and we do some small talk)
me: So if I pay the barfine, will you come with me to my room?
her: Sure.
me: And then you'll sleep with me?
her: Yes.
me: And if I want to sleep with you without a condom? Would that be okay for you?
her: If you want me to... yes.
me: This is crazy. You've got all your life before you! You shouldn't throw it away that easily...
her: Most tourists want to use a condom anyway.
me: Why are you doing this?
her: I have to support my family.
me: Do they know what you do?
her: No. I tell them I work as a bar waitress...

Fourth Girl
me: What have you done before you came here?
her: I worked in a Mall. But I can make much more money here. I'm not going to do this forever. I want to study afterwards.
me: Your family doesn't pay for your studies?
her: No, I have to support my family financially. And I support my big sister, too.
me: Do they know that you work here?
her: No... You think I should tell them?
me: What does your family do?
her: My father used to be a painter, but now I gave them money so they can have a small business.
me: What kind of business?
her: They sell sandals on the market.
me: And how is it working out?
her: I don't know... I hope OK... I gave them 40'000 Pesos (note: equals two full months of work) for it. If it doesn't work out I cannot give them any more. I already gave them 20'000 earlier, but my father gambled it on a cockfight and lost it all.
me: Maybe you should call them and check with them monthly on how the business is doing...

I've hit a real Low Point

This Tuesday we went to Sabang (near Puerto Galera) for scuba diving and we stayed there until today.

I really don't know what to say about the place. My mind is completely blank! I'm afraid I might just have hit the low point of my vacation here in the Philippines or maybe of my entire stay in Asia...

Why? The hotel was nice, the food was great, the scuba diving superb...

But the nightlife really makes you wanna throw up. There are about 6 girlie bars in town and we went to check them all out during the first night.

Now I consider myself very open minded and most people would agree that I'm not easily shocked by anything. My office in Zurich was located in the red light district for several years and I was used to look at prostitution merely as a demand/supply function.

But here you go into one of these places, and you're immediately surrounded by children. Most of them will tell you they're 18, 19, 20 years old, and admittedly I'm no expert at judging Asian's women's age. But I'm absolutely convinced that at least some of these girls were underage. Even then, I doubt that 18, 19, 20 is the age where a girl conciously and willingly decides for such a career move and its associated long-term risks and consequences. Especially considering that a considerable proportion of the male guests in these places are 40+, 50+.

The girls are more or less held like slaves. They have no fixed salary. They get locked into the staffhouse after work because they're not supposed to go out and enjoy themselves.

Their job is to convince guests to buy them drinks and then they'll get part of the drinks costs as comission, thereby slowly turning themselves into alcoholics. If a guest likes a girl, he pays the barfine (CHF 60.-) and the girl is his for the rest of the night. Since the girl will get half of this money, this might look like a fair deal at first. However, if a girl does not want to leave with a (30 years older) guest, she will have to pay the bar's share of the barfine herself, thereby making up for the bar's profit loss, essentially losing all her previous day's earnings. Not exactly free choice.

Why it pays to have your own apartment

9.11.07

Subject: heaters in the dorm rooms
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 09:07:36 +0800
From: CEIBS Logistics
To: All MBA Students

Dear All,

Some of you want to know when the heaters will be turned on in the dorm rooms, now the official comment is that the heaters will be turned on when the lowest temperature drops below 10 degrees Celsius. Thanks.

Best Regards,
<Undisclosed>
Logistic Department


little more than an hour later...

---

From: <Undisclosed Exchange Student>
To: CEIBS Logistics

Dear <Undisclosed> and CEIBS Logistics,

Thank you for the email. Can you explain to me the reasoning behind the 10 degrees Celsius benchmark? Why this number and not 15C? Or 17C? I don't want to be rude, but don't you think 10C is a little cold?

From my understanding of basic thermodynamics, if the outside temperature is 10C, via equilibrium, one can expect that the temperature in our rooms will also be approximately 10C. Note: my analysis does not take into account the assumed heat generated from our moving bodies and running computers. However, the internationally accepted room temperature is around 18C to 23C (see below for room temperature definition).

<Email followed by a rather large excerpt from Wikipedia, defining room temperature as being between 18-23 degrees>


three days and a surge in enraged email traffic later...

---

Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2007 15:25:58 +0800
From: Students Committee
To: All MBA Students

Dear fellow students,

I want to thank you all for your trust in the Student Committee and your contribution on the BBS thread.

As you know, under the current policy, heating on campus will be activated when the minimum temperature drops below 10 grades. Thanks to the intervention and great effort of <Undisclosed>, the school is ready to provide additional heating in the dorm between 8PM-8AM when the min. temp drops below 12. Below is the official web site of Shanghai Government, it’s used as the standard measure for our heating application:

http://www.smb.gov.cn/PortalQXJ/ForecastWeather.aspx?cate=159 (this is in Chinese, there’s a link English version but the data in English is not updated)

According to the forecast, the min. temp. might reach 11 grades tomorrow (10/Nov). If that happens we will have the heating turned on during this weekend.

Happy Birthday Som

Today is Som's birthday, as I just found out. Not knowing so beforehand I failed completely to come up with some present.

So I had to rely on my single most valuable asset... my secret weapon... my magic powers...

I taught Som how to make Balsamico salad sauce. No kidding. Those who know me will testify that I'm the, er, unchallanged champion in all kinds of dressings (basically that's the only thing I know how to cook ;-)

Som seemed to like the dressing so much that she asked me to show her how to do it. And I did. And she was a good student.

I love the Philippines (Part 2)

Ok, so we went out tonight. All the nightlife is within comfortable walking distance from Martin's house.

After stumbling around and eating dinner at Greenbelt/Glorietta we invariable ended up in P Burgos to play pool. Well, what can I say...

The three coolest things to do in Manila (revised):
1. Makati Nightlife
2. Makati Nightlife
3. Makati Nightlife

P.S. For all the lads in Shanghai and/or Switzerland:
Air temperature 28 degrees, feels like 32 degrees.
But the really hot stuff happens inside the air-conditioned clubs ;-)