Jenny's Journey to MBA at Oxford

07/08 Class Statistic

2009-09-12T05:31:00.000+01:00

Live a Simple Life

2008-10-26T14:08:00.005Z

I have learnt a couple of thing during this year. One of it is appreciating how to live a simple life. I realised that I have brought too many things to Oxford and also bought a few branded stuffs in London and Italy. So, everytime when I do the packing (i.e. Oxford --> Finland --> Oxford --> London --> Germany -->London--> Hong Kong), I wasted too much time on it which is too annoying.

I am the kind of person that don't like troubling people but these packing activities did involve the help from my family and classmates (though they don't consider these as problems, they are too kind to me!). I think be myself and act confidently is far more essential, which I've learnt from some friends. Let's see how long could I keep my motto after I get my salary :)

Trevor

2008-10-22T15:00:00.004+01:00

This is little Trevor, son of my best of the best friend. Today is the first time we meet each other. He is only 6.5 months old but already too big for my Oxford T.

You can see how much he has grown compared with my 29 April blog.

Habits

2008-10-21T13:24:00.013+01:00

I realised that I have developed the following habits during the past year:

- drinking tap water: this habit developed since Finland trip but I mustn't do it in HK
- walking with sports shoes: loss interest in driving now and find painful walking with high heels shoes
- walking under the sun: thus my skin color is getting dark
- life without TV: can save more time
- text message instead of making a phone call
- reading articles on screen instead of hardcopies: more environmental friendly
- blogging: don't want to cease this habit but I think I need to formally close this blog soon because there will be nothing related to "Journey to MBA at Oxford"

Travelling Summary

2008-10-21T12:37:00.003+01:00

Many friends asked me which countries I have visited in this year. I've been to too many places, let me summarise below in case I forgot in the future.

Spain: Barcelona
South of France: Montpellier, Avignon, Arles, Marseille, AIX-EN Provence, Cannes, Nice
Monaco
Holland: Amsterdern, Leeuwarden
Italy: Milan, Florence, Rome
France: Paris
China: Shanghai
Finland: Helsinki, Espoo
Sweden: Stockholm
Iceland
Germany: Rothenburg, Wurzburg, Zugspitze, Munich
UK: Stonehenge, Salisbury, Avebury, Bath, Southampton, Northampton, Cambridge, Farnborough, Wales (Swansea), Scotland (Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness)

The place that I like best is Iceland because I like seeing nature scenery. The worst place is Finland, may be because we spent too much time working in Nokia project and I set too high expectation in this two months trip.

Connection

2008-10-21T12:07:00.004+01:00

So cool that Wadham will have a reception in Hong Kong two weeks later. I hesitate to join or not because it may be a bit boring. However, I decided to participate finally because I want to stay in touch with my college. More importantly, if I don't join this time, I think I will be more reluctant to join in the future.

Looking forward to this event! I am proud of being Wadhamite!

Jogging Path

2008-10-21T11:58:00.005+01:00

Here is a nice jogging path near my home, it is a very nice place but I have tried it once only. Am too lazy when back to HK, no motivation and not energetic enough. Anyway, I will join Standard Chartered Marathon on 8 Feb 09.

Random snap in Hong Kong, looks nice, is it?

Little Nephew

2008-10-21T11:37:00.004+01:00

I stayed in my sister's home for a night in order to play with my little nephew. Lack of chance seeing him grown up in this year, thus, I need to spend some time to build up a closer relationship with him. He is only two and a half but he is already a good cyclist.

Why he looks same as Chicken Little?

Laptop Repaired

2008-10-18T19:08:00.004+01:00

I have fixed my laptop at Asus finally. The monitor is replaced for free and it just take me two days, so cool! I have the full screen now. Hong Kong is the best, efficient and economical.

Alarm Clock

2008-10-15T17:28:00.002+01:00

Just realised that I haven't brought my alarm clock back to HK. Now I can sleep as much as I can in the morning, you can imagine how slack off I am now. In the past year, I disallow myself to sleep a lot because it's like wasting of time and money.

Hmm, after a second thought, why I allow myself to waste my time in HK, what's the difference?

Chill Out

2008-10-14T17:02:00.002+01:00

I wake up quite late everyday, it is not a matter of jetlag, just don't want to wake up because I have nothing to do in the morning. Can't imagine how could I wake up at 7am and prepare to go to work two weeks later.

I need to wait for my friends off from work in the evening and then hang out together.
Good food, good chat with good friends...... feeling happy.

Some MBA friends said that I am too smart and a bit cunning. Hmm, may be, at least I know how to chill out.

Just received an email from SBS saying all students passed in SCP projects, that means we passed the whole MBA course. Congratulations to all of us! (Though no surprise....)

UK Brands

2008-10-13T15:36:00.003+01:00

I shop in ThreeSixty supermarket today before waiting for my friends to have a tea break. This supermarket sells many foreign brands such as Innocent beverages and my favourite Green & Black's Milk Chocolate (with crunchy butterscotch pieces). The feeling is special (a mixture of good and bad), like shopping in Oxford/Finland supermarkets. At least I have an option to buy the UK stuffs though the prices are unnecessarily expensive.

I have bad mood today though partly offset by some good news. Thanks for Lulu, JoJo and Yam for their accompany. Jenny need to cheer up and stay strong!

Meeting friends

2008-10-12T07:53:00.004+01:00

Hong Kong doesn't change a lot, the weather is nice now, around 27C, I adopted to the place quickly. When the sky turns a bit dark at 5pm, I wonder if it is going to rain, I think I am too used to UK shower now. The only odd phenomenon is that I found the people here are very young and skinny, many girls wear shorts with boots on. May be I spent too much time in London where the working class is a bit mature and the people I met during travelling in European countries are mainly old retired people.

The only thing troubling me is to unpack my luggage, I also need to dig my old stuff from my wardrobe, drawers and many unknown places. I have buried my Octopus card (similar to UK Underground Oyster card) and some credit cards in nowhere one year ago. I am reluctant to unpack the things because I wish to find a new place to stay, fortunate that my friend "leader" will accompany me on the flat hunting. The property market slumps drastically because of the financial tsunami, it is an appropriate time for me at this moment.

I will start working on 27 Oct, so I will spend these two weeks to meet up with friends. Today is the first Sunday I go back to church, I feel a bit nervous at first as I need to meet hundred of old friends at one time; it turns out to be very warm and sweet, too sweet indeed!!

See my three nephews and my new hair style below

Back Home

2008-10-09T05:16:00.010+01:00

I was staying in my friend's home in London West India Quey in the last few days, it is an amazingly large serviced apartment, I have my own double bed and bathroom, so lucky. My place is near Marriott Hotel, so I took the new National Express Dot2Dot mini van to Heathrow Terminal 3 at 5:30am; as it is too early, no friends were able to send me to the airport but I can manage well by myself because the driver helped us picking the heavy luggage.

I took Jet Airways home, it is not easy to find a reasonably cheap flight especially I buy a one-way ticket only. I need to transit at Mumbai, the first time I landed in India. The flight service is amazingly good, 28kg lugguage allowance, continuous supply of drinks, good food with metal utensil, a large variety of inflight entertainment, quite spacious seats, etc. I have watched 4 movies in total, a bit headache afterward because the individual VOD screen is quite huge.....

I didn't overload my check-in lugguage this time as I have shipped 30kg via Dimerco in advance, so, I have an empty handcarry suitcase to carry the souvenir that I bought in Heathrow. I don't expect my handcarry suitcase need to be inspected again during transit at Mumbai, the inspector asked me to open the candy boxes and nearly disallowed me to carry the Harrods jam. Lucky me again, they let me pass after I shown them the receipts. Need to be careful next time.

After travelling from 9am UK time on 8 Oct to 9am HK time on 9 Oct, I finally arrived at HK International Airport. I've been here in early June with Pawel and Tarun for the CEIBS Business Competition, miss those days so much! Anyway, back home now, have free wifi at HK Airport, Hong Kong is the best (sometime)!

Last Last London Visit

2008-10-09T05:16:00.008+01:00

My last picture in front of Big Ben

My last supper in Belgo followed by my last musical "The Sound of Music"

My last gift from Oxford

Last London Visit

2008-10-06T16:21:00.003+01:00

Scotland - Loch Ness

2008-10-06T16:06:00.006+01:00

Scotland

2008-10-04T23:25:00.006+01:00

I haven't blogged for so many days because there was no internet access, I will stop this blog probably before I start working in HK by the end of this month, I think it is time to end this blog after graduating.

Before going to Scotland, I stayed in London for a few days and watched two more musical: Chicago (very poor) & The Wicked (excellent!). Then, we go to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. See some snaps of Edinburgh Castel below, it is the best castle I have ever seen, with many museums inside. Not many pictures because I hate taking pictures under cold and windy weather.

The weather is cold here, I catch a cold before coming here, thus, I always feel very sleepy. Fortunately, we hire a car to drive which make life easier. Hertz guys are ridiculously rude, it is quite amazing to see people provide such level of services. My first time drive in UK, not difficult at all; the only problem is we cannot use the GPS properly, even you input the postal code, it still request you to input the street name, very troublesome. Therefore, we wasted a lot of time to drive in Aberdeen, like a treasure hunt today, hunting for castles.

Wales - Swansea & Gower

2008-09-28T18:49:00.012+01:00

Germany - Munich Oktoberfest

2008-09-28T17:27:00.017+01:00

The first Oktoberfest (Beer Festival) was held in the year 1810 in honor of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. In the following years, the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into September. We are lucky to hit Oktoberfest in Munich.

A dozen of beer tents there, I think there are over thousand of people in one tent. Would be loads of fun if more friends go togther.

1 litre for each of us

Half way there

Some people talk a lot after drink, I am the kind of people that become very sleepy. I don't like beer but can't resist to drink 1L if you come to Oktoberfest.

Wake up and bottom up! Then throwing up when back to hostel........

A lot of people no matter it is day time or at night

Beer tent

It's a carnival, many sales boothes and thrill rides.

Germany - Neuschwanstein Castle

2008-09-26T02:54:00.009+01:00

Hohenschwangau Castle (Yellow castle)

We stayed in a guest house which is at the foot of Neuschwanstein Castle (Swan Lake Castle).

The Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disney Land was modeled on it

Do some hiking to find the Swan Lake

Germany - Zugspitze

2008-09-26T02:25:00.010+01:00

Eibsee Lake at the foot of Zugspitze

Taking cable car to Germany's highest mountain - the Zugspitze (2963m)

The most favourite scenary in my Germany trip. The temperature is not very cold, only -5C, still tolerable.

Germany - Travel Day

2008-09-21T22:06:00.005+01:00

Whole day travel in train again, from 12:30 to 18:00. No nice picture today as it is a bit dark already when we arrived. See our deluxe hotel below, hope the weather is nice tomorrow so that we could have a wonderful day in Alps.

Germany - Rothenburg (Assignment)

2008-09-20T20:20:00.008+01:00

We didn't go to any other places today, just stay in Rotenburg because we need to finish the crap stone assignment. As we chose not to do it in Oxford in order to have more time to hang out with Oxford friends, we need to sacrify some time in Germany to finish the assignment. It is quite enjoyable though, we woke up lately, took a nap in the afternoon, wrote (bullshit something) in the coffee shop. I think we could pass as long as we give 2000 words to the capstone people. Trust that it is the last assignment in my life.

Germany - Wurzburg

2008-09-19T21:04:00.007+01:00

UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site- Residence Palace

Fortress Marienberg with April - my little sister in MBA who knows many of my secrets.

Good to travel to Germany because it is a relaxing place, in other words, no big loss if we skip any scenary. Good to run away from Oxford so that I don't need to continue missing my beloved friends there. However, I was depressed for a while because I suddenly realised that unlike the previous term-break trips, I would no longer return to Oxford after this trip. No chance to buy souvenir to the classmates and cannot meet them easily/forever.

Germany - Rothenburg

2008-09-18T22:13:00.006+01:00

We travel for the whole day starting from 4:30am to Stansted Airport. We took 4 hours train and reached the hotel at 5:30pm. Anyway, it didn't bother us much as we just want a relaxing trip, no hurry. The only thing need to hurry is the Capston individual assignment, need to start my engine tomorrow.

We will stay in this cosy hotel for 3 days, the important thing is it has free wifi, for us to do the "crapstone" assignment.

Miserable farewell

2008-09-17T12:27:00.009+01:00

Feel miserable in these few days because I need to farewell with many beloved friends. I will go to Germany for one week, I believe it is a good time for me to evaluate myself and what I have done in this year, so that I can stay strong and carry on to overcome the future challenges in the rest of my life.

Leaving Wadham Merifield, a nice place to spend my last two weeks in Oxford.

Photo again with Said at SBS lobby

Hand in the last assignment to Exam School.... Oops! This is not my assignment, mine hasn't finished yet.

Suddenly realised that this is my last time to walk along George Street to SBS, I feel very down.

Blog later, whenever there is internet in Germany.

End of Course Ceremony

2008-09-15T00:00:00.017+01:00

Farewell Dinner

2008-09-13T19:28:00.013+01:00

Finally, rushing 4.5 days for the capstone, we have farewell dinner at Oxford Thames Four Pillars Hotel. It's difficult to catch a cap, so I late for 1 hour, still able to have the starter. My feeling is complex, too many things to do in this week and at the same time avoid thinking of the separation.

Capstone

2008-09-11T22:48:00.009+01:00

Our last week in Oxford is to attend 5 days Capstone course in which we need to do scenario planning, 20 minutes presentation and 3000 words individual paper. We have many lectures and provocations in Nelson Mandela Theatre as well as break up sessions for group work. We didn't learn much here (at least do not need 5 days to learn this), it is just a "crap stone" week. Suppose we need to have great fun and lots of time to hang out with classmates in this week but ..... Anyway, I still have an okay okay time because I have many nice and funny group members.

Nilanjana Bhattacharyya is our team leader (uploader *0* ), she was my Hilary term study group member.

See what we done in four days - waste a lot of post-it and paper, not green enough

Hard working Nilan and Naveen Verma. What a pity that it is my first and also the last time to work with Naveen.

Sleeping brothers - Martins Marnauza and Tarun

Full team Nilan, Naveen, Joachim Santoso, Pawel, me and Tarun (Martins was in London)

Chinese Classmates

2008-09-10T23:18:00.004+01:00

Shasha, Me, Dai Ke, Zhen Shen, Sabina and Zeng Tian at Paddyfield

Including me, we have 8 classmates come from China. There were a Chinese couple at the beginning but were dropped out in Michaelmas term, no one knows the true reason behind. We didn't hang out a lot but I feel the close bonding among us. After this year study, I believe that I become more patriotic.

St Giles Carnival

2008-09-10T23:13:00.001+01:00

Iceland friends and food

2008-09-08T21:59:00.010+01:00

Susanna, Rowenna, Nick, Philips and Craig.
Interestingly, we all studied accounting in undergraduate but in different countries i.e. HK, UK, Australia and Canada.
Moreover, we can be divided into two teams: three of us worked in KPMG while the other three worked/working in HSBC.

Nick's friend, an Icelander, share with us a lot of things about Iceland.

This is a very expensive fine dinner, costs us GBP88 each. Anyway, it is tasty and fancy.

Another nice dinner, I am having puffin and whale. Actually it just taste like beef.

Iceland Day 3

2008-09-06T09:30:00.004+01:00

We will go to Golden Ring, need 5 hours drive for the whole natural scenic exploration. I think I will like it.

Wonderful scenic during the drive.

Pingvellir National Park, the biggest lake in Europe

Geysir

Gullfoss Waterfall - the largest waterfall in Europe

Kerio

Iceland Day 2

2008-09-05T10:48:00.002+01:00

Will take a ferry and see the whale today, sounds exciting. The weather is not as cold as expected, very enjoyable and relaxing so far.

Hmm, I don't enjoy the whale watching because it is too windy and cold when taking the ferry. We wait for a long time and can see several jumps.

See the tail of the whale somewhere in the middle of the sea.

Dumpling at RAC

2008-09-05T10:46:00.003+01:00

Always fun to eat and chat together. Thanks Sally for inviting before going to Iceland.

Iceland Day 1

2008-09-04T21:27:00.003+01:00

We stayed in Blue Lagoon today and enjoyed the geothermal seawater. Very leisure. Will post the picture later.

Iceland

2008-09-04T01:32:00.001+01:00

Will go to Iceland tomorrow till Sunday. I am not very looking forward to it because the weather is cold there but I am afraid I don't have enough winter coat because some of them were already sent back to HK during the last Shanghai trip. Anyway, trust that the scenary is awesome and we have 6 people renting 2 cars, will be quite comfortable indeed.

Blog later!

Nokia Group Photo

2008-09-03T08:54:00.004+01:00

From left to right: Anssi Ronnemaa, WeiWei Tseng, Me, Kristian Dahlstrom, Irshad Shafique, Pia Almi, Ravindra Kumar, Seppo Orsila and Tarun Dhillon

The middle one is Anssi who is our project coordinator, he is extremely nice and helpful but work too hard, he is always the last person leaving office.

Nokia Finnish people are generally friendly, they are very polite, always say "Good Job! Excellent!". Though not sure if it is true.

There is only one guy, an external consultant, who was impolite to us. He suddenly called a meeting at 8am in week 1 saying he need to brief us on some part of the project before his holiday. We were really confused because we couldn't figure out why Nokia appoint an external consultant just to brief us. So, I asked him what's his deliverable to Nokia. He replied he need to ensure we know how to do the project and have it done properly. I think it is BS, he tried to exploit us and treat us kids. I decided if he continues to instruct us doing this and doing that, I will reply him saying "I don't even have the time to ignore you." We think it is quite cool............

Back to Oxford

2008-09-01T22:13:00.004+01:00

I feel very warm to come back to Oxford, to meet the friends, back to school and college to check the pigeon hole, everything is so familiar and nice. After going to Finland for two months, I learnt how to appreciate Oxford life, we have many food options, price is also cheaper. I went to a Chinese restaurant (above) today with shasha, to update each other after a long separation. MBA life will end on next Friday, just don't want to think further........

Wadham Merifield

2008-08-31T23:04:00.003+01:00

Back t0 Oxford from Helsinki today. I am staying in Wadham Merifield student hotel for the following two weeks. It is quite far away from the city centre, thus, I need to borrow a bike from classmate. There are 4 bedrooms in a flat share a common room, quite cosy indeed. I like Oxford, feel like home.......

Goodbye Helsinki

2008-08-31T22:56:00.002+01:00

My souvenir - Moomin

Last pubbing in Helsinki

Last day in Nokia

2008-08-29T17:42:00.002+01:00

Finally, this is the end of our SCP. Still remember the time we struggled in writing 10 different cover letters for bidding the projects. Still remember we interviewed with Coca Cola and Infosys while Infosys also selected us to go to the awesome India campus. Life would be very different if we go to India as I saw the pictures of Infosys team from facebook that seems they are always partying.

We chose Nokia as our first option among the 10 companies because of its reputable brand name and the chance to travel to Finland. It is a very popular project and I feel a bit surprise when received the news that my team is being selected. Though the reality is Finland is a boring place and we are assigned with too much work here, today is the end after 2 months working working working.

We gave 3 hours presentation yesterday which cover 4 projects, the client also admitted they overloaded us accidentally but were very appreciated that we could provide a good quality of work. Nokia client is generally nice especially our project lead Anssi. He treated us with a fancy North Finnish dinner which last for 4 hours, see my snap above.

Auntie Molla

2008-08-26T16:25:00.003+01:00

This is Auntie Molla from my church, she is the only person that I know in Finland who speaks Cantonese with me. A very kind person who always takes care of me.

Broken laptop

2008-08-23T17:29:00.001+01:00

Stockholm Day 2

2008-08-21T22:24:00.005+01:00

Aquaria Museum

P.S. Bad news, I dropped my Asus laptop and broke the monitor. Now I can only view 2/3 of the screen. Very bad! Will fix it when back to HK one month later, need to be patient.

Stockholm Day 1

2008-08-19T18:02:00.011+01:00

The first view of Stockholm from Viking Line, looks very nice, better than Helsinki

Ahlens Department Store, my client in HK

We spent a lot of time to locate the tourist information centre and finally get our 1 days Stockholm Vistor Pass.

Unexpected that there are many Japanese food in Sweden, my favourite cusine.

Just take a picture, of course I won't eat in this Hong Kong Restaurant. I don't believe they can really cook HK food.

City Hall - I like this place mainly because the tour guide give many clear and funny descriptions.

Tivoli Amusement Park, Sweden oldest theme park - 125 years. That is amazing.

My van!

A funny Comfort Hotel. We thought they gave us a wrong single room when we just pop in, hardly find the folded bed there.

Viking Line

2008-08-18T17:46:00.009+01:00

Wei and I took the Viking Line to Stockholm, it is the first and last journey that we have during the SCP. Before we came to Finland, we thought we would travel to Norway & Denmark as well. However, Nokia work load is super heavy (I think I have grumbled many times during these two months) and flight tickets are expensive, so, we cancel our initial travelling plan.

It is nice to travel in Viking Line because we take off at 5:30pm on Friday, reach Stockholm on Saturaday10am, return on Monday morning 10am. It costs EUR150 per person for two people cabin (no window), fair enough.

The cabin is much better than what I expected, we have a very good sleep there. However, there is nothing in the upper deck, not even a bench. May be the weather is too cold there, not worth constructing any outdoor facilities. I am a bit disappointed by the cruise facilities because I think it would be same as the SuperStar Leo and SuperStar Virgo that I saw in HK i.e. with swimming pool and huge disco.

We hit a few pubs (someone sings karaoke) and watch Olympics in the cruise. Nice experience. The special thing is that I remember the ferry trip that we took from UK to Paris for the MBAT, I think I will miss those days everytime I take a cruise.

Nokia Cafeteria

2008-08-14T21:59:00.004+01:00

The place where we have lunch every day. The food is pretty good, costs EUR5.2 for Nokia staff and EUR7 for external staff. We are categorised as external staff, it is the first degree price discrimination according to Microeconomics.

I will go to Stockholm by Viking Line (cruise) over this weekend, then need to hurry up for the SCP report, finalise the powerpoint and prepare to give the presentation for senior management. Feel the pressure as reporting deadline is approaching. Blog in next week!

Fortress of Suomenlinna

2008-08-10T15:37:00.009+01:00

Take a 15 minutes to Fortress of Suomenlinna after church today. The weather is fine, at least no shower now. In case you are not aware, the summer has gone.

Pubbing

2008-08-09T15:46:00.005+01:00

Pressure

2008-08-07T20:43:00.003+01:00

Most of the Nokia staff has returned and started chasing us about the project status, we can feel the time pressure. We are now busy on finalising the powerpoint presentation on three projects to Nokia and then start writing our SCP report to school. Life will be busy in the coming three weeks.

Photos taken in Nokia House cafeteria

Cooking

2008-08-03T18:17:00.005+01:00

The only thing that interests me is I have more chance to learn cooking.

My hotel agreed to waive the EUR60 door open fee after I wrote a complain letter to them. Good news to Nokia, helps it to save some money. Besides, our Nokia supervisor, Anssi, is checking whether we are eligible for the daily allowance which is talking about GBP64 per day. If it is the case, we would be motivated to finish the remaining four weeks work.

Stay at StayAt Hotel

2008-08-03T18:06:00.003+01:00

Better to take more rest rather than walk a lot. I spend the whole day staying at this StayAt Helsinki Senate Hotel. Feel extremely boring, want to go back to Oxford, more friends and better food there.

I am too careless that I forgot to take my room key with me when going out. This hotel doesn't have reception and no housekeeping services during weekend. Thus, I need to call the StayAt Helsinki Parliament Hotel and ask them to send a security guard here to open the door for me. Besides, they need to charge me some penalty fee

I've received an email two days later and they are going to charge me EUR60. It is incredibly expensive, I will negotiate for a smaller fee and ask Nokia to pay. Plus the EUR46 doctor fee, I'd better travel to Tallin with the guys. Kind of bad luck in these few days.

See the old hotel elevator

Hietaniemi Beach Again

2008-08-03T17:57:00.003+01:00

Went to the beach again with my bandage...... The water is cold, hope summer stays a bit longer......

Some pictures taken earlier in another beach, that one sucks, thus, we have ice-cream instead.

Injury

2008-08-01T19:21:00.005+01:00

Stupid me that I slipped on the hotel staircase and sprained my right foot. I checked with my HK insurance agent to ensure my accidental insurance can cover the medical checkup, then, I called church auntie Molla to visit a clinic with me. The doctor said that I will be recovered probably in two weeks, no medicine, no spray, just a bandage. Lucky me that have auntie Molla, she is very nice, she also brought me home made soya bean drink and an ankle support.

Unfortunate that I ruined my weekend plan. We have a long weekend because the guys go to Tallin from Friday to Sunday; Wei and I planned not to join because there are nothing special, just same as Finland except for cheaper beers. Anyway, I watched a Batman after seeing the doctor, however, I don't like it, too sad and too much explosion.

Trinity Term Results

2008-08-01T19:12:00.002+01:00

Capital Raising Techniques 67
Business in China 66
Private Equity 64
Retailing 64
Real Estate 61
Merger, Acquisitions and Restructuring 61

All pass, nothing good, no surprise, no disappointment. Bad that I don't have one more distinction, otherwise, I can secure an overall distinction in the degree (need a total of 6 distinctions).

Hietaniemi Beach

2008-07-29T21:55:00.010+01:00

We worked overtime in the past weekend, thus we took a day off today and went to a beach. In fact, we could work at home at any time as long as we can manage to finish the tasks. Undoubtedly, it is more efficient to work in the office.

We went there at 6pm and we couldn't swim because the water was very cold though the sunshine is still very bright. We will visit the beach again very soon.

The guys playing basketball with IBM people.

Military Band

2008-07-29T14:40:00.002+01:00

Enjoying the Sunshine

2008-07-26T21:56:00.004+01:00

Beer Garden

2008-07-24T21:12:00.005+01:00

We need to hang out more rather than just go to Nokia House to work, then back to the hotel. Today, we went to Beer Garden with an IBM consultant (Axel) who works for Nokia and then have a nice dinner. Axel is am expert who knows which pubs to go at what time.

Tasks

2008-07-22T18:34:00.002+01:00

I have three main tasks on hand: questionnaire interview, financial business model (need to calculate NPV, payback period, IRR, ROI etc) and pricing strategy on a certain business line. I need to work in the hotel for the questionnaire because of the difference time zone between Finland and USA. Also need to work on the financial model because the huge spreadsheet is not easy to maintain. I feel better in this week after moving to Helsinki, a place with more people, shops and restaurants, and majority of Nokia staff are on summer holiday so no one disturb us so frequently.

Finland church

2008-07-20T20:21:00.006+01:00

Lucky me that Pastor Lee of Oxford St Aldates fellowship refer me to The Chinese Evangelical Church in Finland. Today is my second time going there, it is more convenient after moving to hotel Helsinki. The church mainly composed of adults couples from Hong Kong and mainland China, most of them have been immigrated to Finland for 20 years. There are not young people in these weeks because all of them are travelling during holiday or go to camping. Sister Molla Leung is very nice, she escort me to the church, I can feel the spirtual fire in her heart.

StayAt Helsinki Senate Hotel

2008-07-19T19:44:00.006+01:00

We moved from StayAt Hotel from Espoo to Helsinki today. Helsinki is the capital of Finland, centre of the country, more people and more places to eat & visit. Most importantly, more pubs for the guys to have alcohol. Trust that our life would be better after moving here.

Somehow I feel a little regret for choosing this SCP, my friends who chose summer electives have already finished their course in last week and planning to travel now while we need to work till the end of August. However, I trust that when I look back a few months later, I will notice that I learnt something new in these two months. As I was an auditors, I already get used to visit client's office, interview clients, work in a team of around four people. The difference is I do more reviewing work after being an audit manager rather than creating working paper/reports from scratch.

I didn't update my blog frequently in these few weeks is because I don't have a good mood due to the work load and there are not new faces in my pictures, you guys will always repeating seeing four of us (Tarun, Ravi & Weiwei) in the coming weeks............

Nokia Flagship Store

2008-07-17T23:14:00.002+01:00

It is very nice to go back to London in these few days, feel like going home especially when we spent an evening in Oxford meeting old friends. Really miss the friends in Oxford.

We interviewed with many Nokia UK staff in these three days, collected a lot information on Software & Services in order to design a business plan. Life is not easy because we are assigned with too many tasks and at the same time we spent a lot of time in meeting Nokia staff, roughly 40 people in these three weeks. Thus, we don't have time to write any reports. Anyway, hope it would be better in the coming week because most of the Finland staff are on summer holiday, we should be able to have more time to do work.

Nokia Farnborough

2008-07-16T14:54:00.003+01:00

We are now in Nokia UK, flied to here from Monday nite till Thurs. Life is a bit better than in Nokia Finland but still miserable as the reporting deadline is coming.

Moomin World

2008-07-12T18:05:00.008+01:00

Sea View from Nokia House

2008-07-11T21:14:00.001+01:00

Visit Salo Factory

2008-07-09T17:58:00.004+01:00

A hi-tech factory, looks like HKUST.

Picture taken at Salo train station

Nokia House

2008-07-07T20:10:00.005+01:00

Nokia building is awesome, the environment is nice, there is a sea nearby. However, we have no time to enjoy it , all people dump their job to us. I want to go home, either Oxford or HK.......

Before and after work

2008-07-07T19:32:00.005+01:00

Feel tired to go to work, early meeting at 8am for two consecutive days, we need more sleep......

Feel good after off work, let's take more photos in the cab..............

Helsinki

2008-07-05T22:10:00.007+01:00

Hardworking team

2008-07-04T16:08:00.005+01:00

See how hardworking we are........... with our new Nokia N95 8GB

Days are not as good as expected..........I feel exhausted after 4 days in Nokia House

Free Gifts?!

2008-07-03T22:15:00.005+01:00

New IBM thinkpad

Retail price of Nokia N956 is EUR590 with many functions such as navigation but we are too busy to explore how to use it. Also, we need to return it at the end of Aug, thus, not motivated to learn the functions indeed.

StayAt Hotel

2008-07-01T21:33:00.007+01:00

I wil stay in this StayAt Hotel for the coming two months. It takes us 10 mins drive to Nokia Hotel. There is a large shopping mall called Sello nearby. I think I will try to cook at night because a large and well equipped kitchen area is available, the disadvantage is that the kitchen is facing my bed........

Other than the big kitchen, the hotel is that good - small toilet, scout tidies up the room every week only, no breakfast provided by Nokia, quite noisy outside because of the construction (I think i will change a room soon). It is not good compared with the Shanghai hotel that I visited in last month but the living condition here is better than Wadham College obviously.

Arrived to Finland

2008-07-01T00:05:00.006+01:00

Ravi, Tarun, WeiWei and I will stay in Finland in July and Aug for Nokia Strategic Consulting Project. It is a very cool project in terms of the location, workload and subsidies. Let's see our arrival picture first.

There are 188,000 lakes in Finland

To Helsinko Airport by Finnair

Arrived at Helsinko Airport at 11:30pm. Finland is 2 hours ahead of UK, so, HK is now only 5 hours ahead of my place.

Green College Stargazers' Ball

2008-06-29T03:31:00.010+01:00

This is probably the last ball in Oxford - Stargazers' Ball organised by Green College. It is also the last ball orgainsed by Green College because it will merge with Templeton College in the coming year to form Green Templeton College, sounds like very environmental friendly.

Compared with Trinity Ball, Stargazers' Ball sucks because there is not enough food. However, it is fun mainly because of the Rock-O-Plane (we spin 360 degree) and funny friends there.

Nottingham

2008-06-29T03:22:00.005+01:00

Three hours train from Oxford to Nottingham to visit my high school friend, Susanne Law. Though I could only afford to spend five hours there, it's worth going because of the reunion of St. Marians.

See our pictures in front of "Welcome to St. Mary's"

BBQ at Wolfson College

2008-06-27T23:53:00.012+01:00

Wolfson College looks like a resort which is a place for students with family. Thanks Kim and his wife for preparing such a nice BBQ party for us, with lots of food and chat.

Farewell lunch with Aiman in Strada Italian Restaurant at Little Clarendon Street

Trinity Exam

2008-06-26T00:41:00.003+01:00

Have finished the one and only one examination (Capital Raising Technique) on Monday, probably this is the last examination in my life. Now working on the last assignment - Retailing, 4,000 words, due on next Monday before I fly to Finland for Nokia Strategic Consulting Project at the evening.

Howard Jones, professor of Capital Raising, M&A, Trading, many classmates find him cool!!

Trinity Ball 3

2008-06-22T22:27:00.013+01:00

Trinity Ball 2

2008-06-21T11:07:00.016+01:00

Trinity Ball 1

2008-06-21T03:37:00.008+01:00

Trinity College has held a Commemoration Ball since as early as 1902 and now it is held once every three years. It is really a marvellouse ball, like carnival with tasty food such as oyster, suschi, moo moo milkshake, chocolate fountain, etc. Though it is bloody expensive (GBP 125), still worth going!

Trinity Ball Video

2008-06-21T02:19:00.002+01:00

Sunny from Chicago again

2008-06-20T13:31:00.003+01:00

This cute girl came from Chicago again with her mum to visit her dad, Zhen. I've been the baby sitter for just 2 hours when her parents went to Sheldonian Theatre for a concert. As what Grace told me, she is easy to take care of because she just sleep sleep and sleep. Like me, she is on diet now as she is over-weigh.

Polish Food

2008-06-19T10:00:00.004+01:00

As I said before, I need to explore more about Oxford before leaving 10 days later.
Tonite, we have Polish food at Cowley Road with the Polish guy.

Dinner at Lincoln College

2008-06-17T21:00:00.005+01:00

Lincoln Collge - with gorgeous pub, chapel, library, dinning hall, just every thing!

Ben and Harini

BBQ at RAC

2008-06-17T20:54:00.005+01:00

I am not from Templeton College but we always attend its events e.g. Templeton Guest Dinner, BBQ, Oxford Ghost Tour. Also, I always go to its common room for potluck and pingpong. One funny thing is that almost all MBA students know the PIN of its entrance, seems insecure to live in RAC ^0^

Last Happy Hour

2008-06-15T12:06:00.006+01:00

We have happy hour on every Friday evening at SBS. This is our last happy hour in Trinity term, thus, with free drinks. I am not very keen on joining happy hour because the music is too loud that I can hardly hear what people are saying. Till the weather is getting warmer in these 2 months, we can go to the garden to take some fresh air.

This is Mike Chang - his head is as big as a water melon

Lunch in Jesus College

As I have only two more weeks staying in Oxford before going to Finland for Nokia summer consulting project on 30 Jun, I would try my best to explore Oxford as much as possible, hang out with friends, try new restaurants, just do whatever I've never done in the past few months.

End of Trinity Term

2008-06-14T12:30:00.009+01:00

My best friend - Shasha. She is very cool because she got an internship offer from McKinsey Amsterdam. I am proud of her, she was so focus and well prepared since Hilary term. Trust that we have time to meet up in the future because consultant need to travel a lot. She is leaving today to start the internship, will see her in Sept capston course only. Thanks God for giving me such a wonderful friend. We still remember the first day we met, she thought I come from Japan :)

Back to Jan 08, I accompany her to McKinsey Amsterdam for a casual interview. Hmm, may be my good fortune passes to her.

I skip the last class in private equity and have breakfast in SBS garden. Don't envy me, I don't do that very often.

Today is the end of Trinity term, this term passed extremely fast, seems I didn't learn much, just chasing assignments deadline. Some friends need to skip lectures in order to spare more time to do the assignments. This term is not enjoyable because of too many assignments, also, it is time to separate from your friends.

Shanghai sightseeing

2008-06-13T15:41:00.012+01:00

Finally, we have time to tour around Shanghai after the presentation. We hang out with UCLA fellow contestants Julia and Alex, as well as Jane, our local tour guide.

Shanghai People's Square.

I don't like buying souvenir in PRC, waste a lot of time on bargaining. Say, they set the selling price of a jersey at RMB400 and we eventually got it at BMB140, it is crazy, just like being cheated.

Walking Street - a bit look like Times Square in HK

Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower - the world's third tallest tower

Shanghai - Presentation

2008-06-13T00:23:00.013+01:00

I don't expect we were going to give our presentation in front of over around 150 audience in such a large lecture theatre. It's a bit smaller than NMLT and ours is cooler because we have wifi inside the theatre. Feel quite surprise when arrived at the venue but feel exciting because I am quite confident about our innovative business idea. Besides, I don't feel shy presenting in front of the people I don't know, I don't care at all.

I just slept for 2 hours during the night before the presentation because we finished the preparing the powerpoint at 2:30am, then I translated it into Chinese for one of the judges, hoping we could impress him (or at least to make him understand what we are talking about).

We have 10 minutes presentation followed by 10 minutes Q&A. I have less than 3 minutes after Pawel's parts, very rush indeed. We handle Q&A session quite well, we were being asked how many villages were there is China because the judge wanted to challenge the coverage size of our project. Coincidentally, I remember China has around 647k villages and the judges feel surprise and smile, wondering how could I know the exact number, quite funny indeed.

The winner is UCLA, though I still think our business idea is the best among all other seven teams. Anyway, such experience is good enough for me. I've never thought I would join any competition and never thought I would go to Shanghai and HK during this year. Thanks God's blessing.

Though CEIBS campus is nice, looks like CUHK (my undergrad college), but I like SBS more, ours looks more advanced.

This is Jane, a part-time MBA student in China, she said she was impressed by our presentation and wanted to click a snap with us. She then invited us to join her to tour around Shanghai in that afternoon. Graceful people (me ^0^) always meet nice people.

Shanghai Pubbing

2008-06-11T23:51:00.011+01:00

Attica - massive terrace overlooking the Huang Pu River

M on the Bund - a super cool place, I like it very much. I will visit M at the Fringe when back to Hong Kong

Barbarossa - upscale nightlife venue in located in People's Park with three floors of lush interiors.

BabyFace Disco - too crowded and too noisy for me

Shanghai Day 2

2008-06-10T08:36:00.010+01:00

CEIBS ranks No. 11th in worldwide MBA ranking (Financial Times). Still, I like Said Business School, feel proud every time introducing yourself that you come from Oxford.

We went to the sponsor (EVOC - a technology company listed in HK) office and interviewed with the CEO to collect more information for the competition. The office is in one of the alley, serious traffic congestion and I kept on sleeping in the bus.

Slogon - a popular phenomenon in China

Rural part of China - hawker selling noodle

Shanghai Day 1 - Video

2008-06-10T08:31:00.001+01:00

Shanghai Day 1

2008-06-10T08:16:00.011+01:00

Two hour flight from HK to Shanghai Pudong Airport by CX followed by three hours waiting for the arrival of other teams at the airport. To fully utilise the time, I completed capital raising assigment in Burger King at Pudong Airport.

Dinner at CEIBS Finance Research Centre - We look very smart at business suits, right?!

Wadham Team is one of the finalists among 82 applicants. We are awesome! We don't expect there are so many applicants when we join the competition.

Competition question released after the dinner: How to spend 100 million RMB on an innovative and sustainable CSR project that reflects the company’s values and capitalizes on its core competencies. I like the topic but don't want them to release the question so early, that means we need to work for 48 hours immediately............

There are 9 finalists in which only 7 teams will present because 2 teams encounter visa application problem. We are the 4th team to present on Sunday morning.

Nice apartment hotel, I stick to this table for the remaining few days............

From HK to Shanghai

2008-06-10T08:07:00.009+01:00

We have Mercedes Benz from home to HK Airport via Disney HK

Maze in Disney Hotel

Tarun is so happy because he is going to Bombay while Pawel and I need to work sleeplessly in Shanghai for InnovateChina 2008 competition organised by CEIBS.

Hong Kong Day 3

2008-06-10T07:39:00.016+01:00

Central - in front of Chatered House

Hong Kong Stock Exchange

Central - Exchange Square. Pawel said Central looks like New York while NY is much older.

Stanley Bay

Flea market in Stanley Bay

Seafood in Pui Toi O

Too many tourist attractions in HK, we went home very late every night...........

No blog

2008-06-04T19:23:00.002+01:00

Will go to Shanghai during Thu to Mon. As far as I know, blogspot.com is not accessable in mainland China. Will blog later when I return to Oxford.

Hong Kong Day 3 - Video

2008-06-04T18:27:00.005+01:00