Chinese crutches

Hello everyone back in Seattle.  I guess I'm writing this right at the end of the term so I wish everyone good luck on exams.  Here is a picture of the progression of Shanghai from old to modern to mega-city.

So what's new in Shanghai?  Well, unfortunately I found that the only crutches available in the local hospital are still too short for me.  I'm going to a school called CEIBS here and was part of their cursed soccer team.  In just 5 games our team got a broken ankle, a chipped tooth, 12 stitches above the eye and a strained ligament.  I was the strained ligament.  So our team has successfully completed an overall assessment of the Shanghai healthcare system.  Anyway, we did win the tournament so are the best MBA soccer team in Shanghai.

My classes have been super interesting mostly because of my classmates.  CEIBS is a small school and half of the class goes away on exchange which means there are about 65 other exchange students from Canada, USA, South America, Spain, Hungary, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia etc.  A group of Mexican students organized a great American Thanksgiving for all of us.  We imported a real turkey (they don't have turkeys in China) which cost about $150 but it was worth it. We also had another event where we went to watch the Shanghai Tennis Masters Cup and saw Federer lose and Andy Murray crush Andy Roddick.

It is also interesting the number of large companies that are recruiting at CEIBS.   I read a stat that about 480/500 Fortune 500 companies are in China right now.  So there is a large demand for management that is fluent in English.  So although, China is also feeling the financial crunch, my Chinese classmates are still receiving many offers from companies desperate to improve their Chinese presence.  And the salary offers are rapidly approaching the level a US MBA might look to receive.  Unfortunately for me, the companies also need native Chinese speakers...  and that's not me. 

The city of Shanghai still amazes me.  I visited last December and saw a huge half finished building in the new downtown core. Well, just a few months later it is finished and is the 2nd tallest building in the world next to Taipei 101.  And  a few days ago, the started on a new building that supposedly will be taller than Taipei 101.  So three of the tallest 7 buildings in the world all within walking distance.  Actually a little scary considering the events in Mumbai last week.

I haven't travelled so much other than one bike trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou.  (360 km)  And that was a very interesting trip.  You can ask me in January when I come back about getting lost on the freeway and then my tire that fell off.  But as I left the downtown core of Shanghai and rode through the countryside which is basically the world's factory I gained a different perspective of China.  Namely that there is no public garbage control when you leave the city limits.  So everyone just throws garbage on the ground and lets it rot there.  I remember stopping for a snack at a farm and saw a stream full of garbage. Just about the stream full of garbage were the vines from all the vegetables that the farm was growing.  Makes me think twice about the food I eat in the restaurant.

Anyway, I do miss my time in Seattle and will take any Qmeth notes that people are thinking about burning.  See you in January!!

Geoffrey

Swiss-style Fall Forum And Recent Travels

Many wonderful things have happened over here since that last time I posted. While all of you were busily networking to land jobs and internships at Fall Forum 2008, Trevor and I were doing a little networking of our own. That's right, UZH also has a fall forum (of sorts) that they put on. How does it compare you say? Well, to be honest, it doesn't. At this Fall forum, there were four(!) firms - Ernst & Young, IBM, Credit Suisse, and McKinsey&Co.

Now, all of these firms are very well known and very respectable. but I.M.O. this was not a very good networking opportunity. There were not very many options for students and the company representatives were only moderately interested in meeting us/helping us navigate the application process. So, to those of you reading this, be thankful for the BCC and all of their efforts with companies and recruiters. Also, be thankful for the great reputation of our school and our MBA program. I know I am and I will be even more-so when I get back in the States and I start looking for a J O B.

Also, last week it snowed! It was heavy, and it did not last for more than a day, but it was my first snow in Europe. Locals say this is a regular occurrence, and that it is not expected to stick until January. It's hard to think that it was 20 degrees Celsius (~70 F) just a few weeks ago.

As if that weren't enough, we are traveling almost every weekend to a new country to see the sights and experience a new culture. So far we have visited Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France.







As such, my perspectives are being constantly adjusted in ways both big and small. From environmental policy, to work/life balance, to career interests, to social norms, I am beginning to think about issues from a more global perspective. The biggest change of all is the realization that Europe has a very different pace of life from the US. Everybody knows this back home, but experiencing it first-hand is something entirely different. Christine (the wife) and I have been talking and we both agree that we could easily live and work in Europe at some time in the near future. Of course, the biggest problem, besides finding a job over here, is getting a company to sponsor us and move our important stuff! ...I can only imagine what that would cost if we paid for it ourselves.... So, in the case that we do not get back over here for a while, we will have to visit as many countries on our list as possible - places like Croatia, Hungary, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and possibly Morocco. The UK and most of Eastern Europe will have to wait until we return. I know it will be tough to go on without me, but I'm sure they'll find a way.

Turkish Norms and Culture

Wow, I clearly had no idea what I was signing up for when I chose to do my exchange program in Turkey. I think it was a combination of seeking adventure and being naive that brought me here. 

Turkish norms and culture are very different from the U.S. For starters, the U.S. is a very developed, westernized country and Turkey is a developing, trying-to-be-westernized country. Also, the U.S. is a highly individualistic country and Turkey is a collective society. Just these differences alone have huge implications and make daily life for me challenging because differences come out in even the smallest of events. 

The language barrier is by far the thing that makes living here difficult. By not being able to read or speak Turkish, I am essentially illiterate. Living independently and trying to accomplish mundane tasks when you cannot read or speak the language is a tremendous challenge. For example, I went to the grocery store the other day and made the mistake of not taking my Turkish phrase book with me. I needed a shopping cart but did not know where they were so I did hand signals with a guy for about 5mins before he realized what I wanted. I usually make pasta because the foods sold in grocery stores are very different from the U.S. so I make pasta often because that's a food that I actually recognize and know how to make (and don't need to be able to read the cooking instructions on the back). I do my food shopping by examining packaging and looking at pictures. Yogurt milk is very popular here and it is packaged exactly like milk so I accidentally bought yogurt milk instead of milk. The next morning I had it with cereal and was convinced I had bought sour milk until I looked up the words for milk and yogurt milk and realized I bought the wrong thing. I didn't want to waste food so I ended up eating the cereal with sour yogurt milk. I obviously quickly learned the Turkish word for milk. 

Turkey and the US are very different in the way people think about things and the way things are done here. The ideas of discipline and structure are not part of Turkish culture. So the idea that someone would create a schedule, stick to it and successfully accomplish what was supposed to be done just doesn't exist here. The reason this doesn't happen is because if a person doesn't stick to the schedule or do what they were supposed to do, there is no one to hold them accountable and the person never feels that it was important anyway. The ideas of accountability and responsibility are completely absent here. This was very difficult for me to grasp when I first started school here because I actually assumed that the people in the administrative offices at school would actually do what they told me they were going to do. I realized I was making assumptions that people feel a sense of responsibility to get my request done; they don't. I was also making the assumption that people enjoy their jobs and are self-motivated to work; they aren't. These were assumptions I had brought with me from the U.S.

People think and operate in completely different ways than they do in the U.S. When someone tells me they are going to do something I just assume that its not going to be done or it will take on average 5 days longer than they originally said it would be completed. There is no trust in transactions between people and so I still wonder to this day how this society manages to operate when the idea of trust does not exist? All the things I've mentioned is part of the reason why things in society either don't operate or they operate with much lower standards for quality and time than they do in the U.S. There is tremendous bureaucracy and inefficiency in the way pretty much everything is done here. From the bus system, to the school registration process to the way people think. It is completely engrained in society.

Since I am a person that thinks logically and tries to do things in an efficient manner, life was very frustrating, stressful and confusing for me during my first month. I can only laugh now at the difficult adjustment I went through and be proud at how much I have adapted. I am way lazier than I am in the U.S. and I don't have the ambition and drive that I do when I am at home. Its not that I want to be this way, its that in order for me to live successfully in this society I have to be this way or I will find myself unhappy all the time if I try to think and operate as if I'm in the U.S.

I have talked to some students here who have done exchange programs in the U.S. or western European countries and some of them loved it and some of them hated it. For those that hated it, they said they did not like all the rules and all the structure and the fact that people were punctual. They said they felt like they had to be a machine and they're not a machine; they're human!

Hello from Istanbul, Turkey!

Hi everyone in Seattle!

I am also sorry I have not written a post on this blog....I have been crazy busy since I arrived in Istanbul at the beginning of September. I have so much I could write about that I'm just not going to be able to fit it all in so I'll pick and choose certain things. First off, a big shout out to you Aaron for the great post on your experience in Denmark so far!! I was laughing so hard because I can completely relate with so many of the weird travel experiences you have gone through! 

Koc Universty

Koc (pronounced Coach) University is a private, non-profit university founded in 1993. The university is supported by the financial resources of the Vehbi Koc Foundation, set up by Vehbi Koc, a leading Turkish businessman. Attending Koc is pretty much like going to any college campus in the U.S. Its students come from very wealthy Turkish families and they are very westernized and super trendy. I cannot believe all the nice cars that the students drive into campus. Koc’s campus is practically brand new and very nice (by U.S. standards). I work out at the gym which is very nice but doesn’t open until 9am!! In Turkey though 9am is considered early (of course). 

Koc University is located at the very north of the European side of Istanbul. Its campus is located up on a big hill in the area of Sariyer. It is about a 10min shuttle (dolmus – pronounced dolmus

h)down to my apartment from campus and about a 10min dolmus ride to downtown Sariyer from my apartment. Downtown Sariyer is a small town where fairly conservative Turkish people live. It is not touristy at all and hardly anyone speaks English. I go to downtown Sariyer whenever I want to get away from campus and my apartment. I go there to go grocery shopping and to drink tea (caye –pronounced chai)and walk along the Bosphorus. Its very beautiful and Turkish people love to sit and have caye and stare out at the Bosphorus.

 There are about 3,000 students at the university. There are not many graduate or PhD students, but I have met most of the Master’s students. They are all very nice and there are a few Americans doing their Master’s programs here for two years. Its so nice to talk to Americans and native English speakers. The MBA program here is very small. There are only about 30 people per class. There are only two other MBA exchange students here; both are male and one is from Germany and one from India. They also cannot believe the backwards and inefficient manner in which everything is done here so we usually just sit around and laugh as we share out nightmare stories with each other.

While Koc is certainly nice and very modern, I don’t like that its far away from downtown Istanbul. With traffic it takes about an hour to get to various places in the downtown area. I am getting better using public transportation everywhere I go except that the bus drivers never speak any English and I never know how much a bus ride costs. The bus fare depends on how far you go and so I just hand the bus driver 2YTL and he gives me some change. There are no bus schedules posted anywhere nor are there any signs that explain the fare. I’m not surprised. Like everything else about my life here, I have had to embrace riding public transportation as an uncertain adventure. The first two words I had to learn in Turkish in order to get off the bus were dur lutfen! (stop please!). The bus drivers are very crazy and aggressive!

Istanbul

Given that Istanbul is an absolutely beautiful and amazing city but that setting up life here is extremely difficult, I would highly recommend visiting but not living. Unless you want to lose your mind and go crazy. I love Istanbul!! It is everything that everyone told me it was li

ke and more. Istanbul really is where old meets new, where conservative Islam meets liberal Westernism. Everyone looks different – from the skin color to the hair color. I don’t think there is any other place in this world where a Muslim woman is dressed head to toe in black and is walking arm in arm with another woman wearing a tank top, mini skirt and 4 inch heels. That is totally accepted here and no one thinks anything of it. People are free to be religious (although the secular people don’t like the conservative practicing Muslims) or not be religious. Turkey is the only Muslim country in the world that is a secular democracy. 99% of the population is Muslim. It makes for such an interesting and dynamic place.

 I do have to keep in mind though that Istanbul is not representative of Turkey as a whole. Istanbul is a very liberal metropolis of 16 million people. The rest of Turkey is extremely conservative. Still there are millions of conservative practicing Muslims living side by side with non-practicing Muslims in Istanbul. At first I could not stop staring at all the women who wear headscarves and now I don’t even notice it. I’ve already had many conversations with students about the religious, political and economic aspects of Turkey and it has been very interesting and insightful. 

 For anyone that has ever studied or cared about religion, philosophy, politics or history Istanbul is the place to visit. I’ve already visited many of the major historical sites around the city including the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia. I visited the area of Uskudar on the Asian side and I also went to the area of Eyup which is the fourth most holiest place in the world for Muslims. We climbed up to the top of an ancient grave site and had caye at a teahouse overlooking the town and the Bosphorus. It was very conservative with no tourists around and I always carry a headscarf with me because I have to wear one to enter a mosque. I have taken some photos inside mosques, but sometimes I feel uncomfortable doing so because of all the people that are actually praying. I cannot believe the beauty of all the hundreds of mosques around the city. I hear the Muslim call to prayer 5 times a day.

I have already learned so much about the battle between the liberal secularists who want to westernize and modernize Turkey and the conservative Muslims who feel Turkey is loosing its identity and religious roots. It is so fascinating the religious and political struggle that this country is going through right now. 

 Also, Istanbul is very expensive. I consider the cost of living to be higher than Seattle.

 

Copenhagen and beyond...

Hey Guys and Gals,

Let's be honest, I have been very bad at this update thing since I've been away. But, after almost two months, I have come around to writing about my adventures.

Everything feels like a blur since I arrived in Copenhagen on August 21st (I can't believe it’s already been a month and a half). For my first few weeks, I didn't go very far. I spent most of the time getting oriented with the Denmark and the school, meeting all sorts of people (mostly other exchange students from Europe), and exploring the city. It's certainly a beautiful city with a great vibe to it; the people are friendly, it’s very clean, and the culture is great. However, I am happy that this is only a temporary residence for me as it is too flat for my liking (permanently) and super expensive (I've never seen anything like it). Plus, in some ways I feel like I have regressed in life as I am living in a dorm for these 4 and a half months, having to abide by some strict rules set by the building inspector, who conveniently lives on the first floor. I don't think I've ever had a building manager send me an email about keeping my windows shut on a beautiful, sunny day. That's what I've walked into.

Thankfully, as time has moved on, I have explored out of the city. My first two trips were day trips...one to Malmo, Sweden (just across the bridge) and the other to Mons Klint (down south a few hours). Malmo was a beautiful quaint city that felt like a smaller, less expensive version of Copenhagen. While I can now say I've been to Sweden, I want to go to Stockholm to get a better sense of the real Swedish culture. Mons Klint was really beautiful and something I needed after being in Copenhagen for about a month. It is a outdoors area right on the Baltic Sea with chalk cliffs. Luckily we went there on the sunniest day in a week. The trip was great as 11 of us rented two cars to see more of the landscape of Denmark. Then, in the evening time, as we headed back towards Copenhagen, half of us decided to get our full worth out of the cars by making a trip up north an hour to Helsingor. Stupidly, though, we forgot that it was Sunday night and everything would be closed (as it always is in Denmark on a Sunday). We did get a glimpse of Hamlet's castle. It was cool to see in the night time, although I imagine it’s even better during the day and from a closer vantage point.

My next trip came a week later with some fellow University of Washington students. The other two scholarship recipients (one engineering student, Paul, and one architecture student, Roman), our "Danish mother," Marianne, and I went off to the island of Bornholm. Bornholm is part of Denmark, but you have to cross over southern Sweden and take a ferry from there to get to it. Marianne organized this trip, telling us it would be a pleasant time casually riding our bikes around, eating smoked herring, and seeing some sights. Well, she was honest about two of the three. We ate some delicious smoked herring and saw some breathtaking sights, but I wouldn't really consider it a "casual bike ride" at any point. Within a two and a half day period, we rode around the entire islands (approximately 75 miles around). But I guess it was casual for 68 year old Marianne, who kicked my butt on the bicycles, then ran a marathon in Berlin the following weekend. Paul and Roman were fun guys to hang out with. I especially enjoyed Roman's acrobatic move of taking a picture while riding his bike on a curving rode, veering off the rode into a ditch, and landing face first into a pile of fertilizer. Lucky for him (depending on how you look at it), the fertilizer was fresh, so the landing was soft.

A few days after I arrived back in Copenhagen, it was time to prepare for the next trip, Greece and Italy. I went on this adventure alone and, to be honest, had to skip a couple weeks of class in the process. Fortunately all of my homework revolves around reading, which is easy to catch up on.

I landed in Athens on Wed, Sept. 24th around noon, immediately found a hostel, and explored the ancient sites the city has to offer. The Acropolis and some surrounding areas were amazing to see in person, but the city of Athens itself was not that pretty. My impression is that it is an overcrowded city with lots of small crime. I got that impression when, in one day, a Belgian guy staying in my hostel got his backpack stolen, a Japanese guy got his wallet pick-pocketed, and I have some small object thrown past my head when I refused to buy drugs. But, at least I could take refuge in the dorm room I shared with by far the smelliest person I have ever been in close quarters with. I don't believe this Scottish guy has taken a shower in 2 weeks. Without going into too many details, I was physically choking on his stink most of the night.

Though I didn't get the best impression of Athens, I did enjoy my short time there. That first night I hung out with two Japanese guys that were blown away by my height. In fact, they were so in awe that they made me arm wrestle them. Don't worry guys...I won! (I’m no Ben Mahdavi, but I’m tough!)

The next morning at dawn I left Athens for the islands. I set out on a 7:30a ferry ride to Ios that I figured would last approximately 3 hours. By hour 4 I asked how much longer. The crew told me it was a 7 hour trip in total. We arrived at 5:30p. For all of you who did poorly on the math portion of the GMAT, that’s a 10 hour trip...long, but worth it.

Traditionally, in the situation I was in, 8 days to spend on the islands, I would normally venture around a bit more. This time, I found Ios to be so relaxing and peaceful that I stayed there for 5 days. During my days I would explore the island a bit, relax on the beach, or hang out by the pool and read. One day I wandered off to a rather large cove that I had entirely to myself; no one was within a couple of miles. There I ventured across a few cliffs before stumbling over to the beach area of the cove. On the beach, I found a hammock to pass out in for a while. Passing out on a hammock on the beach may be one of the most relaxing things you can do. At night time, I hung out with people in my hostel, kicking back a few beers...okay, a couple nights it was more than a few. It was going into the last week of the season, so things were calm but not dead. My time on Ios was almost perfect.

I liked Ios so much that I could have spent my entire time there, but I realized I should at least check out one more island. So, I headed to Santorini. Now, in getting there, I could have taken a half hour speed boat for 18 euro, but being the budget traveler that I am, I chose to take a 4 hour ferry for 7 euro. You can call me cheap...I'd prefer to say that I wanted to take in the scenery. For those of you who haven't been, Santorini is a fascinating island. It is one big volcano that has seen a vast amount around the center sink underneath the water. The most inhabited part of the volcano island is on an outer rim.

I made it to the island with two Australian guys from my previous hostel on Ios and subsequently spent the next two days hanging out with them. During those two days, we rented quads to explore the island, while taking it easy at night time. These quads may have been the slowest ones ever created but they were still good fun. I certainly enjoyed racing uphill at 16 kph against Patty, one of the Australian guys.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. On Thursday, Oct. 2, I took a ferry boat ride back to Athens in order to catch my flight the next day. The only ferry heading back that day left at 3:30p and was supposed to get in at 12:30p...key phrase, "supposed to." The ferry ride was enjoyable as when I stood up for a moment from the bench I was sleeping on, a Greek woman tried to steal it from me. When I explained to her that I was still using it, she decided to sit down in the closest seat to me and blow cigarette smoke in my direction for the remaining 6 hours. I guess she felt more comfortable at my table than at one of the other 6 empty tables on the sundeck. I decided to hold my ground as the other tables didn't have a bench to lie on.

We arrived in Athens at 2:30a (remember I said "supposed to"). At this point, I couldn't justify (being a budget traveler) paying for a hostel bed for a few hours of use. However, the port we were docking at is "the most dangerous place in all of Greece," especially at night time...or so claims the Lonely Planet. Despite my thrill seeking style, I decided to obey the book and move away from the port towards a nice area in Athens city center; I needed to find a place to hang out for a few hours. What I found was a 24 hour McDonalds. I know it is wrong for an American to get McDonalds while traveling abroad (some of you might claim it is wrong in general), but I needed to do so in order to keep from being kicked out by the rent-a-cop. So, I sat down at this McDonalds with my food, book, and bag at 3:30a. For the next 6 hours, I focused almost entirely on my book, Life of Pi (kind of a weird book). Of course there were distractions from time to time, like when an obese homeless woman sat down next to me, put her sunglasses on, kicked her head back, and let the sound of her snoring fill the room. I only know of two people in the world that snore louder than her (neither of them being me).

Later in the morning, I headed off to the airport for the next part of my trip...Milan, Italy. But before I go on to that part of the story, I must mention the absolute best part of Greece (at least from my perspective). GYROS!!! If you ever make it Ios, go get a gyro at Porky's and tell them I sent you. There are many amazing sites to see in each continent, tons of beautiful beaches that fill the world, and numerous adventures that you can go on, but there is only one Porky's and they make the best gyros in the world (can I get paid for this endorsement?). And if you make it to Santorini, take advantage of the 24 hour bakeries! As you can imagine, my diet during those ten days consisted mostly of a gyros and pastries.

I arrived in Milan in the early evening on Friday, Oct 3. I headed there to visit Mr. Nick Casaril…all of you first years, you’ll know him soon enough! Nick welcomed me and a Swiss girl that I met on the plane. This Swiss girl, Milica, is the 9th ranked Swiss female tennis player and 800th in the world. She promised to include me in her speech when she wins her first Wimbledon. I'm holding my breath. Milica, due to ferry problems in Greece, missed her flight home and had to take an asinine route to get back to Zurich. In fact, she got stuck in Milan that night, hence got to hang out with us. However, that night she had a fever and I had flu-like symptoms, so I doubt we were all that much fun for Nick...sorry, buddy.

The next day Milica left, and Nick and I explored the city. I felt sick as a dog, but fought through it. Nick gave me a great tour of city, stopping at all of the impressive attractions. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in to see The Last Supper as you need to make a reservation two weeks in advance, but I'm certain that the posters we saw of it were just as good. During the rest of the weekend, we did more exploring and hung out with his friends at night time. Overall, I enjoyed my time there. I'll admit, it would have been even better and we would have seen a bit more had I not been so sick.

Last Monday, after a couple weeks away, I arrived back in Copenhagen and have been here ever since. During this past week, I have done very little beyond classes, homework, and such. But don't worry, I have already planned out the next trip. Being that this week is Fall Break at CBS, my friends Rocco (from Italy), Justin (from Lithuania), and I are going to head to Barcelona for 6 days, leaving Wednesday. It should be a great time!

As for the school, it’s a different type of setup here. Where we are getting a much more practical education at UW, applying our new knowledge and skills all the time, CBS teaches in a much more philosophical sense. I feel like we are always discussing topics and issues from a very high level hypothetical perspective and never going deep into the subject matter. One thing that is the same, however, is that we discuss the US economy, Microsoft, and Bill Gates very often.

On the career side, in early September I was fortunate enough to volunteer and attend a conference called COPENMIND, which is highly focused on the future of sustainability. There I made a number of renewable energy contacts from around the globe and met the US Ambassador for Denmark. Those of you that know me well enough should realize that I am working hard to get an informational interview with him. In addition, a fellow MBA from Victoria and I are working on organizing a trip to Vestas headquarters on the other side of the country. For anyone serious about, you should look at their website. They seem to have a very impressive graduate management program.

So, that is it for now. More stories to come. Hopefully I'll be a bit better at send them out in a timely manner!

Cheers,
Aaron

P.S. I am currently planning out some trips for November and December. If anyone wants to come out for an adventure with me or even visit me in Copenhagen before I leave at the end of December, please let me know.

Classes at University of Zurich

Seeing as I am STUDYING abroad, I guess it would be good to talk about my classes, huh? Well, this term I am taking:

Advanced Corporate Finance
Financial Risk Management
Microfinance
Enviornmental Finance
Financial Markets and Institutions

Sounds like a lot of finance, right? Well, it is! The reason for that is because The University of Zurich's (UZH) Swiss Banking Institute is focused mainly on banking. So, if you are contemplating attending UZH via our exchange program but are interested in studying marketing, IT, operations, HR, or some other aspect of business, look elsewhere. However, if you are thinking about studying finance from a practitioner's or manager's perspective, this school is an excellent choice. It will give you the tools to engineer financial products, manage portfolios and understand economically why you should do one thing over another. ...Of course, acquiring these super powers while you are here implies that you put the effort in to learn the material.

The last thing I'll say about classes here is that I'm told they can arrange it so that you can take classes from *any* masters program in Switzerland! So if you wanted to study at, say, IMD in Lausanne (ranked 14th of all MBA programs in the world by Financial Times), I'm told they can arrange that! However, you should check that assertion before you act on it.

Grüezi from Zurich, Switzerland

Friends, Students, Future leaders of the World,

Welcome to my little corner of the MBA Exchange blog!
From here I will try to keep you up to date on my classes at the University of Zurich, my travels in and around Switzerland, and other random thoughts about living in a foreign country where I don't speak any of the four national languages. Please forgive me if the spelling or grammar is a bit off, but I'm trying to juggle this "bloglet" with many other international pursuits and I don't intend wasting time looking for that one errant apostrophe that should be before the 's' as apposed to after it. There are more important things to do. So, with the intro out of the way, let's get down to business (ooouuuuu, bad pun).

My wife, Christine, and I have been in the country for about the past 4 weeks and are finally getting settled. It seems everything takes longer than one would expect - even in efficient Switzerland. Not speaking the predominant language in this region of Switzerland (i.e. German) makes even a trip to the grocery store tiring, to say nothing of the immigration office, the international students office or the bank! That being said, things here are amazing! People are friendly, the city in wonderfully clean and organized, and the sights are spectacular! I could go on forever, but I'm sure the first-years have studying to do (right, right???) and the second-years have jobs to look for (assuming the economy stay afloat long enough for us to get them), so I'll skip over the past 4 weeks travels and get right to this past weekend.

We started out in Sazlburg, Austria in the Alps. Salzburg is famous for salt, Mozart, physicists, and the oldest restaurant (circa 803AD) and biggest fortress in all of Europe.
Our accommodations were a hostel embedded within a 15th century castle overlooking the city (!) and our activities were all of the regular tourist stuff - churches, old buildings, open-air markets, fortresses, etc. Overall impression, very cool city with lots of history. Worth a day trip if you're ever in the area.

After Salzburg, we were off to Munchen, or Munich as we call it, for Oktoberfest. Upon arrival, we had ~36 hours to see the sights. So, obviously we went straight for the beer. After a quick stop at the famous Hofbrauhaus we were off to Oktoberfest. While not entirely what we expected, it was an amazing experience and we would happily return (though next time lederhosen and dirndls are required!). We like to say that Oktoberfest is was 50% county fair, 50% drunken German frat party and 100% fun!
For those that have not been before, Oktoberfest is located about 15 minutes walk from the center of town. As we were walking towards the festival, we saw a TON of families with small kids headed in the opposite direction. This surprised me, as I assumed the only thing to do at Oktoberfest was to drink and sing...and drink. I know that Europe is more liberal when it comes to alcohol, but surely not even they would subject a small child to a 1 liter alcoholic beverage half to 3/4 the size of their body! However, as we entered the grounds, it all became clear. Around the outside of the festival grounds are an endless array of carnival rides, games, and food stands selling everything from souvenir cookies the size of your chest, to candied nuts, to sausages, to shots of booze. We quickly moved past all of this and started tent-hopping looking for a seat. After about an hour of being shot down (it was 3:30pm when we started), we found a table with locals that spoke passable English - thank goodness. We spent the remainder of the evening at this table drinking BIG beers, eating BIG pretzels, and rubbing shoulders with BIG Germans actively engaged in singing and dancing in celebration of King Ludwig's marriage.

To all of my classmates that were in Europe, but that missed Oktoberfest in pursuit of something else: your loss. To future exchange students: make every effort to attend Oktoberfest if you are studying in Europe. You'll make wonderful friends at a party you won't soon forget.

Next week, Paris and the free museums (1st Sunday of every month). Stay tuned....