Wednesday, February 22, 2012

SOE

So, for the past several days, I've been working with a Chinese SOE (state owned enterprise). Which has been pretty interesting in terms of getting the whole China exposure. There are a few highlights that I've had this week, mainly:

1. Free food

Yes, apparently Chinese companies especially SOEs give you free food. Usually it's all you can eat, which can be nice when there's something good on the menu. The food isn't bad, it's just normal. Unfortunately, in my excitement to eat "lion's head" meatballs today and to take extra, I was told "ONE MEATBALL PER PERSON ONLY" :( Made me feel very sad, because I really like those meatballs. You don't get much variety - noodles or rice, with 3 or 4 side dishes and bread and soup. But free food is free food right?

2. 8.30am - 5.00pm sharp.

Nobody does over time. They work exactly 7 hours, have lunch at 11.30am sharp (because if you're late or slow there's a long line for the food) and go home exactly at 5.00pm. They don't do over time, and take a nap during lunch break or play ping-pong. They looked at me weird when I asked them why are they going home so early? I opted to stay late and play a bit of poker online as I usually have a dinner appointment at 7.00pm and am not rushing to go anywhere.

3. Smoking Room

That's right! Every floor has a dedicated smoking room, how cool is that? You get to get your nicotine hit whenever you want without having to step outside the building.

4. English

Everybody here speaks Chinese (as expected) and is trying to learn English (as expected). They're happy that they can practise English with me and help me with my Chinese whenever possible. In fact, they're so dedicated to learning English that they set aside 1pm - 2pm every day to have time to speak in English. They take turns translating their conversations, or articles or something that they saw into English and correcting each other. I'm pretty awed by their determination and motivation.

And the last thing I would like to touch on is... work.

I have not seen anybody do any serious work. I don't know why, maybe this is their down time. I'm sure that they do work at some point, maybe it's because I'm sitting in the corner and I can't see them. But most people who I walk past don't seem to be doing work @.@

But, I have been... well, not a lot, just a little... but little by little adds up right?

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DJ Yanny presents Terraformer - Won't forget these days (DJ Digress remix)

Nightcore version (faster/sped up)

Can't remember if I've put it up. Sorry if I did....

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Odds and ends, student budget

For some reason, I decided to commit myself to a part-time internship that requires me to be in the office 2 or 3 times a week. On top of that, I've got a class that needs attending and my thesis to write.

The interesting thing about MBAs, or rather any masters programme in China is that a thesis is required for you to pass and receive certification from the education ministry (or something like that). It is possible NOT to do the thesis and still receive the certificate from the school although you don't have the ministry certification (which isn't a bad thing, especially if you're going back to the home country), after all, a Chinese ministry certification doesn't really carry that much weight in other countries. I am very tempted to do this although I'm a third of my way through writing the thesis.

On top of that, you do need to submit 10 reports for additional seminars and presentations that were non-class related that you attended over the 2 years. The nice part is that some people would have done several reports and sent them out to everybody. How selfless and team oriented.

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I've been asked several times on how much you should budget for coming to Tsinghua University.

Well, it goes a little something like this

If you stay in the dorm, it's approximately RMB2500 a month - that doesn't cover Internet (at least last time, perhaps now it's in the package), and you only get hot water 3 times a day (I can't remember the times, but I think it's morning, afternoon and evening) for 2-3 hours per session.

If you stay off campus around Wudaokou/Liudaokou, it's about RMB3000 - RMB3500 for a room (shared apartment). A single room/studio will be about RMB4500 in Liudaokou, and about RMB6000 in Wudaokou (Huaqing). Huaqing sucks, but it's the most convenient. Or you can buy an electric bike and go up and down to Liudaokou.

Phone bills will range from rmb200 - 500, depending on your usage and how often you would like to call your boyfriend/girlfriend back home. You're better off getting used to Skype.

Food will cost you approximately RMB50 per meal if you want something decent, if you go to Sanlitun, it's approximately RMB100 - RMB200. If you decide to cook, meat can be expensive and foreign foods as well, so say about RMB300 - RMB500 per week if you're cooking.

Taxis are a burden, a trip to Sanlitun will cost about RMB50 one way. I would suggest that you take the subway down if you're by yourself and take the cab back if you're having a night out simply because the subway closes at about 10.30

So say you're staying off campus, spending about RMB80 a day on meals on weekdays, and RMB200 on meals on weekends, have a significant other that you call regularly, and go down to Sanlitun twice a week. That would give you about

RMB3500 + RMB 1760 + RMB1600 + RMB800 = RMB7660

Now, if you include going out for drinks and dating, you can expect to spend about RMB 300 - RMB 500 - RMB 800 per night out. So all in, that's about RMB10,000 a month all in. Which I think would allow you to live a pretty good life.

That's how much it costs to come to Tsinghua University SEM if you want to have fun.

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Avicii - Fade into Darkness (Albin Myers remix)

This seems to be the version that they play at clubs, or at least Spark.

Download it here

Friday, February 10, 2012

Why?

Last week, a very good friend of mine told me that he's planning to propose to his girlfriend. This week, yet another friend told me that he's thinking of having a long term stable relationship.

Both at MBAs, both are successful, intelligent people. But yet, they see a need to allow their happiness to depend on a third party.

The usual romance stories go, boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl likes boy, they have a relationship, things go bad, they patch up. Get married, live happily ever after. Right? Unfortunately, it's not really like that in real life. They break up, or maybe get married and have a pretty good chance of getting divorced.

But my problem is not really about people getting divorced. It's about why people get into relationships. Relationships are fun, as long as they are short term - in the long term, they get dreary and boring (regardless of how kinky you make it, after a while, it's been there done that). I think can think of several reasons of why people get into relationships:-

i) They need a dependency for their happiness, a third party that makes them happy. This is akin to my drinking a bottle of whiskey every night so I can sleep happy, well knowing that there's a pretty decent chance I'll get liver cirrhosis.

ii) They're scared of dying alone. I've heard this reasons so many times - but don't they realize? When you die, you die alone. Your partner doesn't die with you, your children don't die with you, your dog doesn't die with you. You still die alone.

iii) They want companionship. That's what clubs are for, failing that, hire a girl for the night. Sounds pretty scandalous? Not really, it's just to fulfill a basic need. You want mental stimulation? Challenge yourself, start a company, read. Don't depend on somebody else to satisfy yourself in that sense.

But of course the question is why? What's so wrong about a relationship?

i) You lose your edge. People who enter into relationships, into marriage, "settle down". Doesn't that mean they're losing their edge? It affects their abilities to take risks (in most cases). Want to quit your job and start a company? Talk to your spouse. Want to move half way around the world for a career opportunity? Talk to your spouse. Want to eat KFC for dinner? Talk to your spouse. Your life is no longer about doing what you can do to achieve what you want, suddenly you have a 50kg (if she's light) weight attached to you, impairing you from making your own decisions.

ii) Sacrifice your success. Yes, we all know that a lot of CEOs are married, but don't we also know that a lot of successful people are divorced? And if you're female, how many successful females are there with children? Do you really just want to be a home maker? What happened to your dreams? Weren't you going to be great and achieve something, weren't you going to make a difference in the world? Chances are you'll have to put that on KIV if you're getting married, and maybe especially if you're having kids.

iii) Lose yourself, lose your identity. Who are you really? Once you're married, you're no longer going to be the person you are - you're going to be somebody's spouse. Unfortunately, your life is really about you, not about your parents, or your children or your spouse. It's all about you, that's why it's your life. Why make your life about somebody else when you haven't even fully achieved living your own life?

Live is about yourself and happiness. Happiness comes from within you, not from an external source. Just like internal motivation will pull you through, you cannot depend on an external motivation (like a partner) to really make you happy. If you're not happy from within, why would you be really happy just because you have a partner?

If you want to have a partner - do it like a hobby. Because you have spare time, because you're bored and because you have extra money. Don't do it because you need it to fulfill a need. Because that's just not sustainable.


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Sy & Al Storm feat. Meri Everitt - Lonely

And no, I don't get lonely because I choose not to let myself get lonely.

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