Random stuff I have to get out of my mind
Although I promised myself I would study right after finishing the previous post- I can’t. There is another of those nice lists on my mind which I have to get rid off, and that list includes some minor things that have happened here over the past few weeks- things I have not remembered to add to any post or that have not fitted into any “theme” yet – yes, I actually try to configure my posts to give them some logic for the readers and myself and yes, once posted, I will not change anything in the text (except grammar). Weird enough- once posted, things get “out of my mind” usually- since I have “recorded” them somewhere probably. Ok, here it goes:
Being away physically I have in the last couple of weeks started to actively surf through Finnish newspaper pages and other Finnish web pages, mostly newspapers though, in addition to world news. Why? First, on campus the only free newspaper is the Herald Tribune (you can get it from the international office and I really do not want to run into our exchange coordinator), pretty much any other freely distributed print media (if any) is Cantonese. The next shop with newspapers is in Hang Hau. Secondly, I trust neither the China Morning Post nor any other Chinese paper: the important stuff is usually missing (e.g. that a guy died last week of H5N1 in Guangzhou, 170 km from here; that was not in the news). And the more I fly and read free newspapers, the more I realize how much I am missing off the rest of the world…
Stumbling on the “predict your date of death” at www.hs.fi was one thing I of course did yesterday- compared to Finland, the matters of life or death are here more dependent on income and luck. For the records: my official date of death (according to Helsingin Sanomat) is with a probability of 59% March 11, 2068 (at age 83).
Life is slowly switching to “normal” mode although I sometimes have to tell myself: “I am in Hong Kong; I live in here!”, when I wake up in the morning or when things get too shitty (as if that as such would be super great--- it is!). Other people (exchange students) do not seem to perceive it as such exorbitantly extraordinary- but I do and I want to enjoy my time here fully and doing so consciously without letting it all just pass!
I get along well with my flat mates - Jussi and Erkki. Erkki and I have two classes together, both in the morning. This means in practice that we wake each other up since one of us always oversleeps (I have adopted some bad habits lately… *smile*) or both of us feel like shit because we spent half the night talking BS through the wall. The wall is thin like paper so technically we “sleep in one bed”, since our rooms and beds are right next to each other.
The fridge I full of vodka and gin- student life- although today I felt like real food since I am getting really fed up with the rice noodles and the rice. Just therefore I am very grateful to have a kitchen… I went to Hang Hau and spent an outrageous amount of money on cheese, mozzarella, red wine, non-toast “darkish” bread and salad which was SO good.
I am really happy to have an apartment- just being able to be alone for sometime and shut the doors- although I realize the drawbacks from not living 24/7 on campus. Some other people have moved out or away too: a Swedish girl (Matilda) moved to Fortress Hill on HK Island a couple of weeks ago. It is a small sea view 2-room apartment (one room has the kitchen, shower and bathroom all in one and separated only with plastic curtains – easy to re-model) close to the “center”- expensive but cool! And another guy moved to Thailand- he just announced he was leaving and coming back. As far as I know he is living on some beach in the North or so- sounds cool!
And I understand the reasoning behind it to some extend, since if I would not need the courses I am doing (and two of them I do need), I think I would just go as well. The lectures are a joke (don’t know about the exams yet), especially management, which is why I completely fail to take them seriously as I do usually. I have one management class Ethics and something and last lecture we spent one hour lining up according to our birthdays. We were then divided into groups and had to paint colorful posters with our names on them. And people took it VERY seriously (I guess it is graded). Can you believe this? Today we talked 1h about plastic surgery (breast implant) ads on Chinese TV: a monologue of pretty extreme jokes by the professor. Nice. Why does everything have to be translated into dummy language? I think I do not have to elaborate on this (or otherwise I will have to censor my own language). It’s just a f****** joke!
Our school is really pretty ok, trust me… and taking about studying: I am thinking too much about what I want to do next year. I have no clue. Maybe do some other degree? Am leaning towards (international) law, but not in Finland. Or then more business studies? Or do what I really want, i.e. music (do I really want that?)? Or work? Or go to Africa (for 6 months) or then to China or Thailand (to work or teach English)? It seems that most people I study with graduate at 21/22 with a Bachelor’s, no clue of anything, and then go straight to work. Nope, I think I still have a lot to learn.
Fakes: I bought a fake Gucci bag in Shenzhen. And when in Oslo a guy came to talk to me about my bag asking where, when, how I had bought it –turned out the bag will only be sold in Europe in the summer- he could not believe it was a fake until he actually looked at it and opened it. And the guy worked for Gucci as a purchaser… that was pretty interesting- and I learned about more about SCM! And fakes are apparently even more authentic and cheaper in Beijing and Shanghai.
Otherwise the days pass in school or doing homework. Running around the track. Playing tennis. Hanging out in the sandwich club (coffee shop, and the coffee is really strong and good everywhere here… to counter the Rafla-coffee complaints). Going out from time to time. Easy life! I miss the music- should have brought my flute to play. And my books!* *smile* I plan to do some local cultural stuff instead- Chinese and Western Opera, maybe some classical concert or theatre- but the selection is quite narrow. Have to plan my spring break trip- I’d like to extend it to 12 days or so; maybe travel to Borneo and Indonesia.
*Course books are really cheap here, about HKD 200-600. Other books in English (novels) are expensive, about HKD 160 a piece. I bought some, because I haven’t found a library yet. I decided to go through the “Finance classics” we get preached about. Check out for zero literary value but some insights into “why I do not want to be an investment banker”:
Connie Bruck: Predator’s Ball
Mikel Milken, the junk bond king, the rise and fall of Drexel(LambertBurnham) and the roaring 80s on wall Street.
Being away physically I have in the last couple of weeks started to actively surf through Finnish newspaper pages and other Finnish web pages, mostly newspapers though, in addition to world news. Why? First, on campus the only free newspaper is the Herald Tribune (you can get it from the international office and I really do not want to run into our exchange coordinator), pretty much any other freely distributed print media (if any) is Cantonese. The next shop with newspapers is in Hang Hau. Secondly, I trust neither the China Morning Post nor any other Chinese paper: the important stuff is usually missing (e.g. that a guy died last week of H5N1 in Guangzhou, 170 km from here; that was not in the news). And the more I fly and read free newspapers, the more I realize how much I am missing off the rest of the world…
Stumbling on the “predict your date of death” at www.hs.fi was one thing I of course did yesterday- compared to Finland, the matters of life or death are here more dependent on income and luck. For the records: my official date of death (according to Helsingin Sanomat) is with a probability of 59% March 11, 2068 (at age 83).
Life is slowly switching to “normal” mode although I sometimes have to tell myself: “I am in Hong Kong; I live in here!”, when I wake up in the morning or when things get too shitty (as if that as such would be super great--- it is!). Other people (exchange students) do not seem to perceive it as such exorbitantly extraordinary- but I do and I want to enjoy my time here fully and doing so consciously without letting it all just pass!
I get along well with my flat mates - Jussi and Erkki. Erkki and I have two classes together, both in the morning. This means in practice that we wake each other up since one of us always oversleeps (I have adopted some bad habits lately… *smile*) or both of us feel like shit because we spent half the night talking BS through the wall. The wall is thin like paper so technically we “sleep in one bed”, since our rooms and beds are right next to each other.
The fridge I full of vodka and gin- student life- although today I felt like real food since I am getting really fed up with the rice noodles and the rice. Just therefore I am very grateful to have a kitchen… I went to Hang Hau and spent an outrageous amount of money on cheese, mozzarella, red wine, non-toast “darkish” bread and salad which was SO good.
I am really happy to have an apartment- just being able to be alone for sometime and shut the doors- although I realize the drawbacks from not living 24/7 on campus. Some other people have moved out or away too: a Swedish girl (Matilda) moved to Fortress Hill on HK Island a couple of weeks ago. It is a small sea view 2-room apartment (one room has the kitchen, shower and bathroom all in one and separated only with plastic curtains – easy to re-model) close to the “center”- expensive but cool! And another guy moved to Thailand- he just announced he was leaving and coming back. As far as I know he is living on some beach in the North or so- sounds cool!
And I understand the reasoning behind it to some extend, since if I would not need the courses I am doing (and two of them I do need), I think I would just go as well. The lectures are a joke (don’t know about the exams yet), especially management, which is why I completely fail to take them seriously as I do usually. I have one management class Ethics and something and last lecture we spent one hour lining up according to our birthdays. We were then divided into groups and had to paint colorful posters with our names on them. And people took it VERY seriously (I guess it is graded). Can you believe this? Today we talked 1h about plastic surgery (breast implant) ads on Chinese TV: a monologue of pretty extreme jokes by the professor. Nice. Why does everything have to be translated into dummy language? I think I do not have to elaborate on this (or otherwise I will have to censor my own language). It’s just a f****** joke!
Our school is really pretty ok, trust me… and taking about studying: I am thinking too much about what I want to do next year. I have no clue. Maybe do some other degree? Am leaning towards (international) law, but not in Finland. Or then more business studies? Or do what I really want, i.e. music (do I really want that?)? Or work? Or go to Africa (for 6 months) or then to China or Thailand (to work or teach English)? It seems that most people I study with graduate at 21/22 with a Bachelor’s, no clue of anything, and then go straight to work. Nope, I think I still have a lot to learn.
Fakes: I bought a fake Gucci bag in Shenzhen. And when in Oslo a guy came to talk to me about my bag asking where, when, how I had bought it –turned out the bag will only be sold in Europe in the summer- he could not believe it was a fake until he actually looked at it and opened it. And the guy worked for Gucci as a purchaser… that was pretty interesting- and I learned about more about SCM! And fakes are apparently even more authentic and cheaper in Beijing and Shanghai.
Otherwise the days pass in school or doing homework. Running around the track. Playing tennis. Hanging out in the sandwich club (coffee shop, and the coffee is really strong and good everywhere here… to counter the Rafla-coffee complaints). Going out from time to time. Easy life! I miss the music- should have brought my flute to play. And my books!* *smile* I plan to do some local cultural stuff instead- Chinese and Western Opera, maybe some classical concert or theatre- but the selection is quite narrow. Have to plan my spring break trip- I’d like to extend it to 12 days or so; maybe travel to Borneo and Indonesia.
*Course books are really cheap here, about HKD 200-600. Other books in English (novels) are expensive, about HKD 160 a piece. I bought some, because I haven’t found a library yet. I decided to go through the “Finance classics” we get preached about. Check out for zero literary value but some insights into “why I do not want to be an investment banker”:
Connie Bruck: Predator’s Ball
Mikel Milken, the junk bond king, the rise and fall of Drexel(LambertBurnham) and the roaring 80s on wall Street.
Bryan Burrough and John Helyar: Barbarians at the Gate
The story of RJR Nabisco and the attempted LBO by its CEO Johnson which ended in a takeover through KKR in 1988
And of course I read a book I got from friends whenleaving:
Mikael Niemi: Popular Music
Hilarious! ***Thank you!***
posted by Crazy Night Rider at 4:24 PM
1 Comments:
We missed you at lunch in Hanken today. Take care,
Meri
Post a Comment
<< Home