Snow in Shanghai

The picture says it all. Especially if you compare it to the one here. Courtesy of Roy Cheung, CEIBS Photography Club.

A night out at Malones

Yesterday we went out to celebrate. No, there was no particular reason for it. Why on earth would we need a reason anyway? Relying on reasons just limits opportunities for celebration. Comprendre?

The evening didn't begin very promising though. I went out to have dinner with some '06 students. They brought me to this burger place, where the milk shake alone adds about 2 dinner's worth of calories to your diet.

I then went to People7, a really cool restaurant/bar to meet some other '06ers 'cause I'm trying to figure out which of the coming electives are worth going to, which obbviously requires highly classified insider knowledge...

Once I was done there and wanted to meet my own crowd it had started to massively pour down. And as local expats tend to put it: "Whenever the environment turns hostile, there are no more taxis available".

It took me about an hour to get a transport, despite all attempts, including trying to "buy" a taxi from existing occupants. What do you mean you can't do that? Of course you can. This is China, the worlds most advanced capitalistic system. Money will buy you (almost) anything in this place.

Finally I made it to Malones, a cool bar I hadn't known before where my people where hanging out. Quite nice, great live band and a good crowd.

The exchange dilemma

We just got our Term 1 transcript.

Apparently it was a typo when they stated that the grades would be ready by end of February. So my rant was only partly justified and I hereby apologize for wrongly accusing whoever responsible. No, it is not like they discovered this blog and traded non-expulsion against rectification ;-)

Anyway, my grades turned out to be better than expected. I got a B+ in Organizational Behaviour, which is kind of hard to explain after my inital exam results. Looks like the other professor in the second half didn't hate me as much... I mean... valued my contribution and humour much more than the first one (thanks Jean, we all love you!).

And now to something completely different...

With my current grades I get a fair chance to go to my exchange school of choice. Which has created a new problem.

See, I think I should go to LBS because they have a good reputation and an excellent alumni network. And since I see my future mainly in Europe that looks like a huge long-term payoff.

But then again, I'd love to go to UCLA. The weather is much nicer, the school specializes in entrepreneurship and in general it sounds like much more fun. Not to mention californian girls - oops I didn't say that...

So what's it gonna be: Long-term payoff or fun?

It's raining cats and dogs

Well, not literally, but the weather really is rather shitty right now!

However, Chinese people seem to be very inventive dealing with the situation (and their pets)...

Tonight we had the farewell dinner for the MBA 2006 class. It was a great event hosted in the Ramada hotel. As part of the show they screened a 10 minute movie called the MBATRIX.

Essentially it was a short version of The Matrix re-staged with many personalities of CEIBS. Absolutely hilarious! Eleven out of ten for this one!

They re-did all the special effects and people rolled on the floor laughing when they had canteen personell turn into agents. The famous scene where Morpheous shows Neo the "real world" accurately reframed canteen food and in the end our statistics professor was cast as "the architect".

It's gonna be very hard to top this one on our own farewell party.

Swiss Cheese Fondue

Tonight we (Eric and me) hosted a Swiss fondue dinner for all interested students. Overall we were more than 40 people.

We had to improvise quite a bit. Instead of Swiss Caquelons, we used the ceramic pots and heating-sets used for Chinese Hot-Pot. It worked very well and we got many helping hands from other students, although crowd control turned out to be a real challenge at some point...

We brought the Cheese to China after the christmas holiday.
"I believe it was more than 10 Kg in total and it's a miracle that they didn't stop me with that stuff which resembles plastic explosives in its consistency" commented Eric who travelled though London and Hongkong.

The evening showed once more the huge potential for innvoation that lies hidden within the CEIBS student body: Some groups "optimized" their fondue by adding Swiss choccolate, which made me sceam NOOOOOO! just in time to save at least one of the pots from being ruined. Most Chinese are used to adding a little bit of sugar while cooking and they thought it actually improved the fondue's overall taste (no comment here).

Yet others (the Westerners to be exact) added enough Kirsch so that the fondue could have been easily classified as biofuel, while yet another (Chinese) group ordered dumplings to see whether these could be dunked into the cheese as well...

Let's see how they will handle the smell which is bound to persist in the canteen for another few days ;-)

The apartment story

This Sunday we had yet another meeting regarding our apartment. You cannot fully appreciate this without a little background information... Enjoy. It's hilarious!

Finding an apartment
At the end of August Paolo and me contacted several real estate brokers to find an apartment. Finally, after visiting several run down places, and some less run down ones which sported rather tasteless furnishing instead, we finally found a place which was nice, big, and appropriately furnished.

It didn't take us long to decide - after several days of looking at apartments you can tell within the first 30 seconds whether you like the place or not. So we immediately signed a one year contract and moved in the same week - paying 4 months rent cash in advance (a 5cm packet of money...)

The unexpected visitor
Now on the first Sunday thereafter - I was lying on the sofa in my underpants - suddenly the door opened and three Chinese people were standing in the middle of my living room!

One was a broker and the other two were interested buyers. The broker explained that the apartment owner was trying to sell the house and that they would just have a quick look around. Two seconds later I had kicked them out and shut the door. "No looking around. This is my place now!".

Later that day somebody else knocked on my door (which was locked in the meantime). I opened and outside was another broker with yet two other prospective buyers. This time they didn't even make it past the door... Yep. I learn fast.

Even later there was more fumbling and knocking at the door, but that time I didn't even bother to open anymore.

Damage control
We asked our Chinese co-student who had helped us sign the contract to phone the owner and inquire about what was going on. However, he refused, citing that probably the owner had been trying to rent or sell the apartment at the same time and that information of its successful rental hadn't propagated to all the brokers yet.

And sure enough, things calmed down in September and we had no more unexpected visitors.

The bill circus
Instead of getting annoyed by prospective buyers we then started to get visits from various utility companies. At school they keep telling us, that money collection is one of the biggest challanges in China. And sure enough, all the utilities came after us because the previous tenant hadn't bothered to pay his last bills (bills seem to be addressed to the apartment rather than the tenant in China).

Obviously my first reaction was "this is not my bill. Go get your money elsewhere!" However, it turns out that utility companies are in a slightly stronger position to negotiate, as they will simply shut down electricity, gas, etc. if they feel unfairly treated... So finally, after one day of blackout, we ended up paying the ransom, because not only did the laptops no longer work, but also the water in the shower kept flowing cold as ice, a rather persuasive argument.

Back to square one
Then on one Sunday in early December we had another unexpected visitor at the door. This time it was a broker who cited that the apartment had been sold and that the new owner wanted to move in ASAP. He would even be willing to compensate us by not charging us for one month's rent.

Again, this conversation didn't last very long..."I have a contract. This is my place now. I don't want a free month's rent. I want to stay here. Come back in a year. Thanks. Goodbye."

Interestingly we never heard of this broker again, and we thought that they had probably just been testing us to see whether they could make us leave so they could sell the house (house prices have been soaring in Shanghai).

The meeting
So we were even more surprised when the owner scheduled an official meeting with us in January to discuss the situation of the house. Apparently the apartment had really been sold in November and the new owner really wanted to move in...

After getting some legal advice regarding contract enforcement in China we decided not to give in - and even change the locks at the door if necessary.

However, the meeting went quite well. After explaining our situation and giving our reasons for not moving the new owner seemed to accept the situation and told us that he was going to respect the contract.

Let's see what happens next. I'll certainly keep you guys posted if one day I come home and all my stuff is gone...

Any regrets?

So the term is well underway and last year's class of MBA 2006 students is back on campus.

Nick Conti, one of the '06 party animals took the initiative to organize a night out for both classes. And go out we did...

We kicked off the evening at Cotton Club, a small jazz club with life music and then we went on to Muse, one of the stylish clubs in Shanghai with a fairly international crowd. Some say most of the Chinese girls there are models, but I think there might be another reason to it: Add enough drinks and every girl starts to look like a model...

Model or not - we certainly had a blast! There was a life band on the upper floor that performed really well and the DJ played some of the coolest mixes I've ever heard.

At some point during the night, Patrick (the '06 Swiss student who got me here in the first place) came up to me and asked "So how is it now, do you have any regrets coming to Shanghai?".

No. None. Zero. This is a cool place to be. Absolutely. One of the greatest experiences of my life!

Paolos Quest for a better me

The first few months in China have turned me into a chainsmoking, fat, lazy, sleep-deprived alcoholic (sort of)...

While some of the party animals out there might argue that there's nothing wrong with that, my dear flatmate got an entirely different opinion on this matter. He stepped up and put an end to all this by deciding that my body needed reshaping. Now.

So he volunteered to become my personal trainer. I wonder whether I should consider this a gift from heaven or a severe nightmare. Now six-pack-Paolo is breathing down my neck at least three times a week. "C'mon Matt, let's go to the gym!".

Maybe I should have done more careful analysis before picking him as my flatmate. How could I know, I'd end up living with a sports-maniac who works out daily in the gym.

Well, let's hope the pain is worth it and I'll return back home from China looking like Brad Pitt in his best years!

Strategy is breathing down my neck

We just had Strategic Management course. The professor is new to CEIBS. He got his PhD from MIT Sloan and taught at INSEAD before coming to China.

He kicked off his course by giving us a written case study assignment to be done over this first weekend and another one to be done during our precious spring vacation. He also supplied us with 4 course books of reading material, this is about the same volume as all other subjects combined.

HEY! WAKE UP! This is laidback China. This ain't no Wharton or INSEAD. If I wanted to work all freakin' weekend I would have applied there directly!

Jeez' I'll really have to think of some strategic evasion techniques, cuz' otherwise I can trash my Term-2 resolution right here, right now...

That's a joke, right?

From: MBA Office
To: All MBA Students

Very understanding that many of you are early expecting the grades of Term-1 courses. The hard copy of your individual transcript will be distributed by the end of Feburary. Before that, please DO NOT check the grades with the TAs individually. After the release of Term-1 grades, MBA Office will arrange the Final Exam Paper Review for Term-1. Should you have any doubts or inquries on your final grades after the review, then you can check the break-down grades of each course with me.

Two months to calculate the average of two exams and one participation grade per course? You must be kidding me!
And no way to learn about how we did on the final exam before receiving written transcripts? That's a joke, right?

Study less, party more!

I hate new year's resolutions. They never last much longer than a few weeks, or, more often than not, days.

So I decided to call this my term two resolution. It only has to work for four months and hence feels more doable and less frightening.

Why study less? Because it will leave me more time and energy for the second part of the resolution.
Why party more? That's not a serious question, right?

Honestly, I feel that I completely missed some of the goals I had set for my MBA experience. I didn't really enjoy Shanghai's nightlife as much as I would have liked. And most of the time I went out with other international students rather than Chinese fellows, mainly because they have a different notion of hanging loose.

While hang loose and relax usually means go to a bar, have a beer or two, and do some talking to a Westerner, the same thing to a Chinese means grab a group of 20 people, go to a Karaoke place, and sing, dance, drink and smoke in a crowded, noisy fashion.

And this is exactly what I'm gonna do this term. Why? I have no freakin' clue. Just part of the mandatory cultural experience, I guess.

P.S. I got 90/100 for the case I wrote in least-effort manner. Another point which proves my new strategy as being highly effecive.

The first day

So today I had my first day of classes and it looks quite promising: Operations Research with Tom Callarman is a real treat and Corporate Responsibility looks at the "other" side of China's rapid growth - a sad view as you might imagine.

I'm glad CEIBS is trying to sensitize future managers to environmental and social problems. Sometimes here in China you get the impression that people simply don't care. But the bitter truth is, they don't know. That's one of the downsides of keeping the public happy by censoring negative information in mass media.

Luckily, my blog is already banned in China, 'cause otherwise it certainly would be so now...

Picture this: Reportedly there are over 30,000 internet censors at work in China whereas the Environmental Protection Agency is staffed by 200 full-time employees only (18,000 in the US) and the Energy Bureau has 100 full-time staff (US: 110,000). Scary!

Make sure you check out this NY Times article on the "other side" of China. It's not only worth reading, it's a real eye opener!

The wait is over...

Hi there

I'm back from Switzerland, and jetlag once again makes me write blog entries in the middle of the night. What a pain. For someone like me, who normally falls asleep within 45 seconds or less, lying in bed unable snooze off is a pretty weird experience.

Let's just hope that the snoozing won't delay itself until tomorrow's Corporate Governance and Business Ethics class. That would just be plain unethical.

My three week vacation in Switzerland was a nice experience, although a bit weird, too. Ever felt like an alien in your own country? Somehow it felt familiar, but it wasn't really home anymore. At least for the first week. Also, meeting old friends kind of deteriorated into some kind of marathon. Beer simply doesn't taste the same on a scheduled basis rather than spontaneously after work.

And price levels - oh boy - let me tell you, this place is expensive! CHF 8.50 for a 2dl Perrier in a bar? That's just plain ridiculous! Thanks God Richi volunteered to pay the bill... It would have simply blown my budget!