This week Amanda and I will be working on setting up a Financial Plan for our make-believe "clients" in our Financial Planning class. We have a group of 6 people - 1 from Slovakia and 3 from Mainland China in addition to ourselves. It is truly a learning experience to work with such a diverse group! You can really tell the difference in cultures from the East and West... especially the desire to do groupwork on Friday and Saturday nights! Who would ever want to do that? But we all have one thing in common: we think our teacher is crazy! The class is based upon building relations with clients and helping them to understand their future financial needs. Since financial planning originated in America, he generally turns to Amanda and I for answer or our opinion... however he generally seeks our opinion on very subjective topics. Some of these include: whether women can be "bought", our feeling of corruption within the U.S. government, and my favorite, whether we think that Chinese men with long fingernails are strange. We were asked about the last topic a few weeks ago. Amanda said, rather bluntly, "I think it's gross." (side note: most people here are much more blunt than in the U.S., so it was not taken poorly) However, I said that sometimes this happens in the U.S. and that it's a matter of choice. I really didn't want to offend anyone in the class that may have long fingernails, even though it is a terribly gross habit. The teacher proceeded to ask me what my major was. I replied, Finance. He said, "Caitlin, you should not go into finance, you should go into politics because you always give answers that are (with air quotes) 'politically correct.'" I was rather offended, however his next topic discussing women in business made me want to give him some lessons on being "politically correct"!!
This week I have been a bit homesick. With the holidays approaching it is hard to be away from family - but it's a learning experience I could not pass up. However, I think the desire to go home stems from not wanting to deal with exams in the upcoming weeks. Exams here are 50% of your final grade... while I have done well so far, I am a little worried! It's also hard to strive for A's when I have already accepted a job after I graduate. For those of you who I haven't told, I will be working for Bank of America in a management rotation program. Perhaps the most exciting part is that I will be geographically flexible for the first 2 years with the company! Amanda also just accepted a job in Boston with EMC, so we are equally unmotivated when it comes to schoolwork.
Now onto the good part... this weekend was the Wine and Dine festival in SoHo (an area on Hong Kong Island filled with expats, wonderful restaurants and many bars). We headed out Saturday night to enjoy the wine vendors and music. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant - it was wonderful! I am really starting to miss food from home and find myself craving In-n-Out burger - nothing in Asia can compare! After dinner, we roamed the streets of SoHo for an hour or so before heading to a wine bar to enjoy some live music. What a nice night!
Sunday afternoon, we went to Kowloon Park, a park just a short train ride from the dorm. This was my first time at the park and I will definitely return a few more times before leaving Hong Kong. Every Sunday there is a Kung Fu show from 3-6pm, what a show! I found it very relaxing. Some of the moves are very slow and the music, while typical Kung Fu music, is rather relaxing, too. I ended up sitting next to this older Chinese man who, by the looks of it, had never seen an American before - or he wanted to rob me, on or the other. He stared and stared at me for the entire show. Too bad he didn't speak English and I don't speak Cantonese, I think we would have had a funny conversation. Then, about halfway through the show a chunky little boy came and sat down next to me... no, not next to me, ON ME! I tried to scoot over a little, but there was no room... we were cheek-to-cheek watching the show. He kept tapping me and giving me the thumbs up to the moves that they were doing. It was so funny, but his father would reprimand him every time he bothered me, but he didn't learn and kept poking me at every new move. Such an entertaining afternoon!
That's all for now! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
-Cait
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| A group of women doing Kung Fu - they were really good! |
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| They have a work-out course in the park! |
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| Flamingos! |
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| New Age Kung Fu - aka teenagers dancing to American music. They were really good. |
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| Kowloon Park |
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