My head is bleeding like hell

Honestly, you didn't think that the "peace and love" theme of the last post would last for a long time, did you?

Tonight I slipped and hit my head exactly on the edge of some furniture, resulting in an ugly cut just above my left eye. At first I thought I had just hit my head, but then I started to wonder why my hand felt suddenly so sticky, and what the trickle from my head was all about...

It really was big enough a cut to warrant stitching, but scared of a potentially ugly scar from stitching gone awry, I decided to avoid the hospital at all cost. Instead I patched myself up with band aids tightly closing the gaping wound.

Well, I guess there will be a scar left, but at least it will be a thin line without stitching marks. And this at least leaves a lot of room for interesting stories, such as how the guy attacked me when I chatted up his girlfriend, what the rabid soldier had done to me in Vietnam, how I could barely escape the sabletooth tiger while hiking in the Amazon, etc.

And yes, various girls on campus have already comforted me by telling me that the scar actually looks rather sexy...

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...

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.

Nervous breakdown

I just came close to nervous breakdown after having looked at this weeks schedule of assignments. Apparently the school doesn't want us to hang loose and relax after the mid-terms.

What bugs me the most is that we have to turn in a 10 page paper for business writing and presentation skills class. A subject which could be highly valuable, interesting and fun.

Unfortunately, the course in its current setup, has ..um, still some "headroom for further improvement". Frankly, I'd say it really draws its main attraction factor off the mandatory class attendance rule (which, btw is enforced by a TA ticking off every student at the beginning of every lesson).

Last Saturday (YES, the %#*@ class is on WEEKENDS!) we spent half an hour looking at DVD footage of speeches and presentations with focus on the 1-3 second intervals where a shot of the audience had been cut inbetween the speaker shots. As the professor pointed out, if you thouroughly scrutinize the footage of "An inconvientient truth" there's actually one person sleeping in the audience while Al Gore gives his speech. Now that's what I call some serious take home value. I bet none of you guys has ever noticed this while watching the movie, right? You freakin' loosers were too focused on the discussion and main content and completely neglected to look at the really important stuff, the audience, that is...

In case you wonder what the frenzy is all about: CNN is coming to campus this Friday to shoot a discussion with us students sitting in the audience. And apparently, some people seem about to freak out by the thought that we could represent the school in a bad light. Apparently they assume the average CNN watcher to videotape and single-frame-forward the airing, especially the audience shots...

The heat is on...

Workload has increased dramatically, which is why I will only be able to write once or twice a week, and much less so, edit photos to be published here. I know, you'd like me to publish more infos, but hey, don't complain to me, complain to the guys who give us all the assignments!