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!

I love the Philippines!

I guess I will never be able to fully repay my debt to the OB professor, who made me come to Manila in the first place ;-)

I quick word of advice: If you'll ever live abroad for a few months and get homesick, just visit some Swiss friends who live in a nearby country.

Martin and his lovely wife Som went to great lengths to make me feel right at home.

First thing after arrival was to take me shopping to Säntis Delicatessen, a store that sells whatever a real Swiss person desires: Aromat, Kägi Fret, Hero Rösti, Cervelats, a wide selection of cheese, and of course Muntz "Schoggimüsli".

They then proudly fired up their raclette oven and suddenly their house in the middle of Makati city turned into a home far away from home! And then, the next thing you know, is you being served home-baked "Buurezüpfe" for breakfest. WOW!

The three coolest things to do in Manila:
1. Eating Raclette
2. Surfing the non-chinese (i. e. uncensored, high speed) web
3. Killing time with Xbox games

Visitor #1

Heinz definitely wins the Visitor #1 award for putting his money where his mouth is. He stopped by on a business trip to Asia and we had a great evening together.

Unfortunately the timing was exceptionally bad, as I still had the financial accounting homework to go AND the school had reshuffled the timetable so that I had class all weekend from 9am to 8pm.

But on Friday night we went out nonetheless: First we went to People7, a nice restaurant in the french concession that offers fusion cuisine at chinese prices. Then we did some bar hopping from Manifesto up to Velvet. Along the way we even found a street hawker who sold original Villiger cigars. They were cheaper in the five-pack, so we figured the only responsible way would be to buy the complete pack, which then somehow burned away during the evening...

Thanks Heinz for coming. Hope to see you soon. I'll do some more restaurant and bar research in the meantime.

Home sweet home

This is Paolo, the friendly Italian fellow who will become my flatmate for the next 12 months. Today we finally signed the rental agreement for our new appartment.

We had been visiting loads of places until we finally fell in love with this one. Even though the kitchen looked rather filthy and the refrigerator smelled very bad (the owner had cut power without opening the doors first) we instantly recognized this diamond in the rough.

We should be able to move in this weekend, provided that the cleaning works out as we have demanded. And yeah, we will closely watch the cleaning procedure, you can bet on this one!

I'll post some pictures as soon as we're ready for the house warming party.

The Swiss(tm) Connection

This is Eric from Switzerland. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy would probably describe him as being "mostly harmless". However, he makes me feel pretty guilty as he's making hell more progress in Chinese languange learning than I do. What can I say...

At least he's told me his secret: chinesepod.com

Sechuan Cuisine

Not everybody likes it hot. But Jimmy apparently does... The art of eating Sechuan cuisine, by the way, is actually much less related to being resistant against insanely hot peppers, but rather to developing a sixth sense about what not to eat and when not to bite. Turns out even native Chinese people try to avoid the small pepper balls which are known to have a devastating effect on even the most heavily abused tastebuds.

Get the complete picture at picasa