We've been busy...sorry

All, sorry its been so long since we've posted, but school started on Monday, so we've been working on getting our mind right, so our game is tight (Zach). We received all of these pre-MBA emails about classes and assignments, class members contact information, etc...its been alittle intimidating. Of course, since we are all 'superstars' in our former lives, the intro emails were proceeded by a flurry of replies stating that X email was no longer valid or there is this book that someone found really helpful. The main point of these emails was meant to showcase one's job title and association with Microsoft, Boeing, Google or something like that. i said that Cliff should put "Free-lance Rocket Scientist" under his name. Top that.
So, class started on monday will a long parade of speeches give by the dean of Vrlick Management School (who will issue our diplomas)...he spoke about the history of the school and how their new partnership with BiMBA was just the start in their quest to climb the worldwide MBA rankings. Then the dean of BiMBA spoke about leadership and how were were all going to learn to be leaders and not just managers. Apparently they bring out officers from WestPoint ever spring and we go running and do some push-ups with them which, in turn, will make us leaders. Cliff loved that part.
We actually started our business statistics class that day, which is an interesting and challenging (at least for me) course. The first half an hour, the professor talked about academic integrity and how being ethical is part of being a leader in business, that they have ways of catching us cheating and don't try it or think of it as a challenge to find better ways to cheat. This is an interesting prospect here in China, as cheating I don't think is culturally looked down upon. For instance, reportedly there is some underground network of students here that after taking the GMAT will post the questions and answers online, so most of the students taking the GMAT will have seen every question given to them on the test at least once before. Students will do the same with essays. Moreover, you can pay for someone to take the test for you too. There is a guy in our class that got a 780 (out of 800) on the GMAT...but his english is really, really poor. How's that work out? Also, because all chinese education up to this point (including college) was about rote memorization...memorizing concepts is more important than understanding them. So, our Chinese class mates don't have alot of critical thinking training. That's not to say they can't do it, but it's not encouraged, like in the west. This is where the 'international' portion of the class comes in. I get the fact that its our job to help our chinese counterparts to be more forward thinking and to take more initiative, rather than be part of the collective. In turn, we get experience working with China's next generation of movers and shakers. Its a pretty good trade...but I digress.
I've found that the class falls into several catagories...those who are true Chinese (born and raised in the mainland...may have some international work or travel experience), those from HK (with alot of international and english experience), other chinese speaking asians (from Taiwan, and a couple from Singapore), and the rest are none Chinese speaking foreigners. I'm proud to say that my chinese is the best of all the non-native speakers, but I'm also reminding of how poor it is when I talk to some of the other Chinese or Taiwanese Americans.
As I said before, we are taking Business Statistics, which Cliff is brilliant in, and Business Management, which is a more nebulous subject, so I feel very comfortable doing. Getting back in the 'study saddle' has been alittle humbling...especially since everyone has work experience and has done something with their lives already. We are still all in the polite stage of team building (thank you AF 101), but it is apparent that we've all joined a cerebral sport, and like anything game, it will be a competition. the good thing is that Cliff and I have become used to being less than forthcoming about our jobs and past accomplishments since we've moved to China, so hopefully we can fly below the radar in this respect.
The good thing about school starting is that we can finally start building some friendships with Chinese people...before we were kind of stuck with other expats, but now we have opened up our circle of friends. We even went on our first class outing this weekend: A trip to Prince Gong's temple. The Prince Gong's Mansion or Gong Wang Fu Museum is located in the western part of central Beijing, north of the Shichahai Lake. Consisting of large mansions in the typical siheyuan laylout and gardens, the Prince Gong's Mansion is known as one of the most ornate and extravagant residence compounds in all of Beijing. The original plan was to head there with our classmates, then have dinner and drinks. Below are some of the pictures Cliff took:


Here is an entrance to one of the buildings with our class mates Tori in front of it.

The guy on the left, Tony, organized the trip. During our walk thru the palace, the guy on the right, Darren--who is from Taiwan, and I had a great political discussion. I was surprised...there are two student from Taiwan in our class.


Above is Oscar who is from Venezuela. Unsurprisingly, we and I have also had some great political discussions, like the fact that Russian and Venezuela are having a joint naval exercise coming up. I bet you the US Navy loves that one.

Here are two girls from Taiwan...the on the left is in the class and the one on the right (who is also Taiwanese) is the wife of one of the guys who is Chinese American. She is a really lovely lady and really beautiful. By the way, do you get the fact that China is slowly, patiently and quietly integrating the Taiwanese into the fold?










Cliff, demonstrating the power of the good ole USA....

And some goofing around...
Here's part of the group inside Prince Gong's mansion...

And the big group picture at the front gates of Houhai...

After the tour we went to dinner at a great Hakka place. The food was good, but it turned out that we were to become the loudest, most obnoxious and drunkest table in the entire place. It turned into the typical Chinese business dinner, in the respect that we all toasted every new introduction, every great saying, every common opinion. The waitresses were laughing at/with us and all the other tables were duely intimidated. It was glorious. After a lot of beer, we moved on to a local rooftop bar with a smaller, more intimate group. We stayed there and waxed poetic until about 130 and then decided to move on to a club.
Cliff and I had ridden our electric bikes down to Houhai and we needed to drive them back home first. When we got to the bikes, we realized that Cliff had lost or dropped his keys and that the lock on our bikes were gone. Thank god the second bike lock was still locking our bikes together. I walked up to the nearest police officer (they're everywhere) and asked if he had seen any keys or locks, because ours had been stolen off of our bikes. He proceeded to inspect our bikes and ask for ID...since we don't carry our passports with us, I had to give him the only ID I had...my military ID. He copied down some information and radioed something in...suddenly there were about half a dozen cops, including one with alot of flowery things on his shoulder boards, and a camera crew at our bikes (don't know why there was a camera crew hanging around--maybe we will be on a Chinese version of COPS). The cop (will the shoulder-flowers), wanted to take an official statement, but we said that it would be no big deal to catch a cab home to get a spare set of keys for the electric bikes. He insisted on driving one of us home instead...which was kinda nice. So, Cliff got loaded onto the paddy wagon and with lights a-blazing, sped home to get another set of keys and sped back. He said that the cops were running red lights and cutting people off to get him back to our home. This is our first run in with local law enforcement and I was very surprise with how helpful they were and how seriously they took a foreigner in the bar district at 2am.
One more great experience to chalk up here in China.