23/11/2004: Cancún, Mexico
23/11/2005: Barcelona, Spain
23/11/2006: In the middle of the Coral Sea, Australia
23/11/2007: Marsa Alam, Egypt
23/11/2008: Shanghai, China
5 years, 5 continents. And that makes 31.
It's been raining for the last few days. Fall has come. Fall here is gray and humid, the sky is about to fall on me. It's quite cold and humid. Night falls before 5pm, people have dinner before 6pm and campus is emptier than usual.
All this has made me feel some nostalgy, some homesickness. I miss the Indian Summer. I guess that's why he call it Indian Summer and not Chinese Summer. Music is helping me cope with my feelings. I had never appreciated so much listening to Serrat, Llach, Juan Luis Guerra or Celtas Cortos (yes, I am ecclectic).
I also miss my life. I am getting really tired of so much work at school. The main event in November is next eek, the final of the Shanghai Masters Cup next Sunday. The only day off in 2 weeks. Yes, I have class next Saturday. You can't imagine how fucked up I am by Nadal's injure (albeit, less than himself, of course). We purchased the tickets for the final expecting to see Rafa win the title. We already had the red and yellow t-shirts ready and we were preparing the show we would do so that people in Spain would see us on telly. And now, neither Nadal, nor Ferrer, Robredo, Feliciano, Almagro... nothing. I guess they'll have to see us only thru pay-tv.
I need Christmas break. 3 weeks not thinking on assignments, exams nor cases. Being able to have my own free time, meet people to talk about something else than the school, eat home-made food (mmm, I am looking forward all the smells in grandma's kitchen). I'll be there on the 17h!!!
In other sort of things, this school has impressive high-level political contacts. Besides an ex-dean that was a deputy minister of economy in Spain, I have caught up with the Dutch minister of foreign trade, tomorrow we have the mayor of Barcelona... After all, the school is a joint-venture beteen the EU and the Shanghai Municipal Government. In contacts with Spain the school is also quite impressive. One notices easily that the ICEX, the Basque Government, the one of Cantabria, the Port of Barcelona, la Caixa, BBVA, Santander, Telefónica, Gamesa, Banc Sabadell... each are sponsors of the school. As the ex-dean commented, this school is the area in China where Spain is most influential. All this thanks to Mr. Nueno, founder of this school and current executive president.
Now we have to translate that into even more corporate contacts. Let's see if tomorrow we can network a little bit with some of these 40 executives that come with Hereu.
Yesterday we wen to a teppanyakki place to celebrate Renaud's birthday (a Québecois classmate). I was impressed by the fact that, amid the 30 people we were there, we could speak 17 different languages (and I am sure I am forgetting one): English (common language, although only 2 people had it as mother tongue), Spanish, 5 different Chinese (mndarin, cantonese, shnghaianese, sichuanhua, anhuihua), Portuguese, Catalan, Basque, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Arab, Farsi and Thai.
Isn't the school truly China Europe International :)?
Hangzhou is the capital city of Zhejuang province, just South of Shanghai. On the other side of the bay. It is a city known by its lake (Xihu), very green and mid-size for Chinese standards (6 milion legal residents, about same amount of ilegal - remember than internal migrations are not free in China).
Well, the municipal governemnt organized a Foreign Investment Forum and the governemnt agency organizing this invited a few foreign-looking classmates to spend the week-end in Hangzhou so the event looked a success. Yes,like the people who go to talk shows just for the hot-dog. Except that ehre it was a 4* hotel and duck buffet.
Just the bus n our way there gave the right tone for the "investors":
We did have time to hang out a little bit, have fun and go to a club we had been told, the SOS. They were holding a funky Halloween part, with people disguised as Chinese zombies (yes, dressed as in old times, much like the soap operas here9, waitresses "flying" as vampires...
Saturday night there were some fireworks (roughly, the 25th time I see fireworks in China, but these were, arguable, the most impressive ones). Fireorks were in the river and they were fired from boats placed at each side of a bridge. We were sitting in the first rows (we were treated like distinguished guests), but- it was raining and fireworks fired at our side were rapidly hidden by a thick smoke. After a while, we could only see colored smoke. No fireworks. This said, the best part of the fireworks were the raincoats we got:
We are having the first exams and assignments and, thus, the first grades. Grading method varies from professor to professor (over 10; over 100, A, B, C, F... - so far nobody over 20), but there's a general trend: grades are surprisingly high.
One gets 90/100 and thinks "I am THE boss, I rock, you morons" until ones sees that the average is 88 and the loest grade is 80/100. weird. I was used to see grades that covered almost all the spectrum (at least, from 3 to 10 - in Spain we always grade over 10) and I find it bizarre to see everybody in the upper part. The bad outcome is that it is hard to know what you do well and what you do bad. Or you can assume that, yes, you are the boss and that, others, are too.
Well, all least it is rewarding.
Another cruriosity is that final grade does not only depend on your own effort, but also in other people's grades. If at the end, you get 90/100, that doesn't mean much. If the average is 98/100, you might very well have failed. It seems that behind ahead of the pack is more important that beating the record of the mile.
No comment.
After Huangshan, we went to see the other part of Anhui province that is a World Heritage Site, Hongcun and Xidi. Both towns are small traditional towns of rural China, with houses from late Ming and early Qing dynasties (that, 17th century, to make it short).
Hongcun is a town full of canals, but it is not the Venice of China. Not even the Venice of Anhui. Surprising.
As said, these two towns are famous for their 17th century houses:
The best of all Hongcun was arguably the place where we ate. Not only it was in a small hill, which let us see the town (and that added some more pain to our knees), but it was awesome by itself:
That night, after dinnar, to relax a little bit, we went for a massage (something pretty common in China, especially foot massage). However, just before we decided to go to a KTV (karaoke). I had heard that some KTVs were more girls bars (whorehouses). This one, once inside did not try to soften the message. It was a dodgy place with semi-nude women (and men) pictures on the wall. There was even a pink plastic spaniking hand!!
Now that we mention whorehouses, the hotel bathroom was pretty revealing as well:
Last day, we went to Xidi, a town similar to Hongcun, but without that many canals. Everybody seemed to like it more than Hongcun, but I had the feeling that every single house had someone trying to sell you something. Slightly overwhelming.
Xidi, China, September 2008
Oaxaca, México, August 2004
To me, the conclussion is obvious. Tacos are Chinese food.
Last night we used the kitchen in our dorm to cook some Spanish omelette, with potato and onions (btw, vegies in carrefour are either rotten or have flies, almost made me puke) and et it together with a salad and some red wine.
The campus smelt so nicely afterwards! Sapnish omlette! Now we only need a jamón hanging from he ceiling and we'll feel like home.
cuscuswithchopsticks
, España
cuscuswithchopsticks
ver perfil »Spaniard, French beard (or goatee, as you prefer), glasses, short and scarce hair, studying an MBA in Shanghai. That pretty much defines me now.
