Classes get rolling

"Orientation"

"Orientation" on Friday was a bit of a joke...okay, a big joke. Intended for international exchange students only - what took the better part of a day could have been compressed into a 90 minute session, and the campus tour was in the pouring rain (and I mentioned a few posts ago how HUGE the campus is). On the plus side, it was great to meet some of the other exchange students

The orientation closing ceremony on Saturday was for all programs (iMBA 1st years, Chinese MBA 1st years, part-time MBAs, eMBAs, and exchange students). The first part of the ceremony was a bit of a snooze-fest, and nearly all of the exchange students left after 20 mins. I decided to wait it out, kind of like a bad movie, and in this case it got much better. The latter half were performances from Tsinghua's different MBA programs and it was really entertaining! Mock fashion show, skits, dances...it's always great to see the "fun" side of MBAs, and just cutting loose.

Sunday was great. The International Student Office organized (and paid for) a day-long tour to see some of the sights of Beijing. Probably like most tours, we started off the morning at Tian An Men Square and walked northwards into the Forbidden City. I guess it's been more than a few years (7+ years?) since I've actually been inside the Forbidden City - and I was surprised by the mobs of people inside. When I went there as a child, I don't ever remember it being that packed - but since then the combination of China being a greater international tourist destination coupled with greater mobility among Chinese is certainly apparent.

Visibility wasn't great, but it did not take away with how impressive the sheer scale of the Forbidden City is (9,000+ rooms). Also, some of the larger structures are under 2-year renovations - to be completed in advance of the Olympics next year.

The highlight of the tour was traveling by rickshaw through the narrow streets of a Hu Tong...very very cool. We had a lunch arranged in the home of a family who's family has lived in the courtyard for over 180 years. Despite being in the heart of Beijing (located north of the Forbidden City and south of the Olympic grounds), the hutong was tranquil as it lacked the hustle and honking of normal city streets.

Finally, we ended the day at the famed "Silk Street" - which is one of the top markets to bargain for knock-off clothing, suitcases, etc. [This is the kind of place that keeps North Face, Polo, Nike, Adidas, and other international brands sweating at night...] Although I've been there countless times before, this was my first trip to it's new building. What was once a charming open-air alley of vendors in stalls, is now an 8 story structure with a department store layout (luggage in the basement, 1st-3rd floors = clothing, 4th floor = childrens and undergarment , 5th floor = silks, restaurants on upper floors). (I didn't buy much, but instead bargained to find out what the lowest prices for things were...for a future visit.)

Classes
This is the first week of classes, and since I'm not 100% sure about all of my classes I'm attending more to figure out which ones I'll add/drop. Right now, I'm still adjusting to the 3hr 25min length of classes - so on Monday's when I have 3 classes...that's 9+ hours of classes (up to double the amount of classtime I was accustomed to during Mods 2-4 last year)!

Right now, its difficult to gauge the overall caliber of the classes since many classes have skewed more towards lecture for the 1st meeting, but I'm optimistic that most will get rolling with interactive discussions. Aside from my Culture, Ethics, & Leadership class - which I WISH would focus less on ethics and more on the other 2 topic areas...I'm pretty content with my courses overall. My operation strategy professor is rock solid, and the global leadership professor has got far more experience in the field, than teaching (which is a good thing).

Most of the iMBA electives (electives taught in English) are in Building 6 - which is one of the largest teaching buildings on-campus. (Only 3 courses are taught in the SEM buildings - which is where the full-time 1st years and eMBA have classes.) Building 6 is very modern, although the desks & chairs are a bit backdated. All desks face directly forward towards the teacher, and the chairs are stationary & bone stiff.



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