Back to HK for vacation

Dear Bloggy,

So what's up last week? Let me recall....

Sept 24, 2007

This is my first day with Google Shanghai. I didn't bother to ask HR for the Shanghai office address as I thought I was smart enough to figure it out online. I found the address, left school at 12pm, got there, and told the receptionist that it was my first day on board. She looked at me like I was from the outer universe and said "Google? They have moved to their new office long time ago!" I ended up reporting on board at 3pm. :p The office isn't as big as the one in Beijing. But it still has a ping-pong table, a game console, a massage room and plenty of food. :)

Sept 26, 2007

I went back to HK through the PuDong international airport. It was my first time taking the "magnetic floating train" and boy it is fast! It can go up to ~450Km/h and since it is tilted when it turns I was actually quite scared (trains don't tilt from my experience) :p It is great to see my family again and also to have some home-made meals after "tolerating" CEIBS canteen for 3 weeks. :p

Sept 27, 2007

Met with Martin to play squash and swim at POC. I haven't played since I went to China as there doesn't seem to have many people interested in this sport. :p

Sept 28, 2007

Congratulations to HKUST which is just ranked Asia number 1 MBA program, number 20 globally at the EIU ranking! :) And on the way we beat Wharton too who is ranked number 21. Anyhow, as Prof. DeKry put it best, we believe only in rankings who ranked us good. :p We had a celebration at the school's central facility.

Happy Mid-Autumn!

子曰：“人无信，不知其可也！”译文：孔子说，一个人过节的时候连个信息都没有，简直不知道他是怎么混的！祝你中秋快乐，阖家团圆！

Swim, swam, swim

Dear Bloggy,

Sept 21, 2007

You know swimming is really luxurious in China. I went to PuDong swimming pool 2 weeks ago which is supposed to be the best swimming pool in Shanghai according to some reviews I found on web. It is a standard size (50m in length) swimming pool, but since there are so many people there they divide the pool into 2 parts and you can only swim across its width. It really test your swimming skills as you have to zig-zag across to avoid bumping into people. :p Traveling there isn't easy at all: It took 25 minutes for me to walk to the closest bus station and another 1hr bus ride. It is a 3 hours round trip. :p

Luckily Masa know of a really good pool close to the school area. So Eva, Masa and I went there 2 days ago and had a good swim. :) It is 25m in length but since we went in the morning there were only 5~6 people there including us three. It costs 20 RMB which is not a bad deal at all consider most of the swimming pools here charge 70~80 RMB :p I ended up buying 10 tickets for it. :)

Yesterday I went to the "Tips to climb up the corporate ladder" talk given by Gary and Maggie at Han Shen Lu. Good talk and met quite a few interesting people.

I have also been notified today that my part-time internship with Google has been approved by Mountain View. :) So apart from being one of the first MBA interns in Google China I have also become the first part-time Googler in China. :p Heard that the engineering team have already implemented part of the recommendations so I am excited to see how the result would look in the short future. I am supposed to start this coming Monday but since my batch is mailed to HK I am not sure how I can get into the office. :p But I am looking forward to check out the Shanghai office here. Hmm I guess I will have a good excuse to start skipping more classes and meetings ... :p

周庄-中国第一水乡

Sept 16, 2007

Dear Bloggy,

It is really a beautiful place. About 1.5 hrs bus ride from Shanghai. :)

MBA fair @ Shangri-la

Sept 14, 2007

Dear Bloggy,

Life isn't very exciting at CEIBS since it is really in the middle of no where. Even if I to downtown sometimes, most of the time I just stay in campus. I don't know too many people here either so I usually have meal by myself. Not that I mind eating alone as I am quite used to it, but from time to time I do want to go out and eat with friends. There aren't too many of these here yet. On the other hand I enjoy the plenty of leisure time here for my personal reading.

So I am especially excited today as there is a MBA fair for me to go to. :) I talked to several of the potential candidates and I am surprised that there are so many people in China interested in pursuing an MBA degree. I enjoyed the event a lot (even though my throat is hurting as I had to keep talking loud for 2 hrs non-stop) Maggie brought me to Starbucks (my first time going to Starbucks in China) and my stomach is now feeling after a brownie and an ice-mocca. I guess I should go to bed soon.... :p

浪奔～～登～登登 浪流～～登～登登

Dear Bloggy,

Now that I have finished my internship with Google I don't have access to the 'outside world' anymore. No appledaily, no access to my friend's blogs, and no access to my own blog either! I couldn't even read what I have posted last time, so let me just summarize what have done in the last few days while I can still remember...

Last Friday was my last day with Google. It was a pity that I have to leave at that point in the project as it has generated some real interest within the company. On this last day I still have to present to the engineering director through video conference. It feels good that people are interested in the findings but in the meantime I would love to see the recommendations being put into practice and to help driving them. Too bad the internship ends so soon. I will try to keep track with it with my team members on GTalk and see if I can help remotely.

Moved to Shanghai on Sunday and stayed in a hotel I booked online. In general I think the service provided here in Shanghai is much better than those in Beijing. The taxi drivers and the people in the hotel front desk I met are all very willing to help. A taxi driver even gave me the number of his friend who is a housing agent when I told him I was looking for an apartment. :p So far I think people here are more helpful compare to Beijing.

Finally I settled in the CEIBS dorm. Even though it is a dorm but in fact it is a service apartment as there are staff to clean it up once a week. It is like an apartment itself except that it doesn't have a kitchen (OK for me!) and a fridge. TV, air-cond are all included. The campus itself is actually better than I thought. Heard that it is designed by the famous architect Bu Lu Ming. Location sucks though. It is in the middle of nowhere and in order to get to the closest subway station we have to take a taxi. There is only one cafeteria in the campus so I think I will be craving for better food pretty soon..

Lillian, Eva and I went to downtown area yesterday. After 10 years I can finally feel the "浪奔～～登～登登 浪流～～登～登登" again. :p The scenery at the bund area is really good. We met up with Lance and Warren for dinner.