Lots of schoolwork...and a little fun.

This week, I dedicated my days to my studies and tried to get as much schoolwork done as possible. Aaron comes on Sunday for 10 days and I know once he's here, it becomes much harder to get schoolwork done. Plus, with only two weeks of school left, I have so much work to do- a presentation on China's Inequality, a three-page case analysis on the same topic and 4-5 page paper about the economy in China. Not to mention two finals as well.  The workload is manageable...I just need to practice good time management. 


I found a nice little coffee shop not too far from my apt that is a perfect place to study. It is called Cafe Punta del Cielo and its a Mexican cafe. The coffee shop is never crowded, they offer free wi-fi (Starbucks only offers 20 mins free) and they even have plugs to charge my computer. They also have flavored teas (Kiwi Strawberry, Raspberry) that are both good and inexpensive. Too bad it only took six weeks to find this place. Below is a photo of the coffee shop. 

Cafe Punta del Cielo

A couple of the nights this week, I broke the study habit and met up with some of my HKUST classmates. Wednesday night, I went to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant (Nha Trang) with Lili and her friend, Josh. He is an American and  actually from the DC area (Centreville, VA). He works for the US Navy and has been an expat for about 12 years. In addition to being a naval office, Josh is trying to start his own business. He plans to open up a Japanese pod hotel here in Hong Kong. He explained his whole business philosophy and  we chatted about target customer(s), revenue strategy and outreach methods. The conversation was pretty interesting because it allowed Lili and I apply some of the things we learned in our MBA program. After dinner, Lili and I headed to a rooftop bar attached to the Mario Batale restaurant Lupa to meet up with some of the full time MBA students. I had a really interesting conversation with Vikram, a full time MBA-er and the head of the association for exchange students. We talked mostly about finding a job once the program was done. Vikram just got a summer internship in Singapore with GE Health. We also about India and he told me about all the places I should go when I visit. Unfortunately, I'm not going to get to India while I'm out here, but it's on the list of places I want to visit. 


Thursday evening, I met up with my group for my Applied Strategic Thinking course at the downtown campus, which is on the 33rd floor of 9 Queens Road in Central Hong Kong. It has a nice view of the city, which I have yet to snap a photo of. My group is revamping the Google Site we built evaluating the Luxury Goods industry and focusing specifically on the corporate strategy for the brand, PRADA.


After meeting for about an hour my group, I headed to Tin Hau to attend a BBQ/party thrown by a few of my classmates. Osmund, the party host, is Norwegian and decided to throw a party to celebrate Norway Constitution Day, which is celebrated on May 17th. Similar to the 4th of July in the US, Constitution day celebrates Norway's declaration of independence, which took place in 1814. The party was pretty fun. Osmund and his roommates (who also attend HKUST) made a bunch of food and also had plenty of drinks. Osmund also planned a trivia game whereby he asked a set of true/false questions about Norway. For example, did you know that Norway is the same size as Japan but with only 4% of Japan's population? The winner of the game (Giovanni, an Italian) won a bottle of Beringer Sparkling Wine, which he shared with everyone. These are my favorite kinds of parties. They include food, drinks and a whole lot of people from all over the world. The attendees included few Italians, a few Norwegians, a couple of Indians, a South African, a Polish-Canadian, a Chinawoman, a Chilean and me, the only American. The conversations were stimulating and the weather was nice enough to go up to the roof deck. A nice way to spend an evening.  

Norwegian Flag

Norwegian Traditional Dress (The Style differs based on the location in Norway)

Justin