Little Miss Giggles

A sweet award from my awesome stream mates in our final class.  Who knew my cackle is distinguishable?

Ode to rugby

Women's touch rugby.  These three words have been a big part of my first year MBA experience.  While I do enjoy the game, I really LOVE my teammates.  Many (but not all) are in my stream, and I'm blessed to count them as some of my best friends here at London Business School.  Because of my involvement in many activities on campus and my role as a Student Ambassador, I get to interact quite a bit with prospective students.  One question they ask is:  Who should go to business school?  The answers are endless including people wanting to make a career switch, entrepreneurs, people wanting to advance their career, etc.  After a year in, I would specifically call out "high achieving women".   At London Business School, I'm always impressed with the profile and caliber of students recruited.  I've noticed though that relatively, the women at LBS tend to impress me even more than the men (which is already a high bar).   Whether they exhibit excellence in all that they do, beat the odds to hold distinguished positions in their companies, or overcome repressive female policies and norms in their home countries, I'm continually amazed.   And being on a rugby team with these girls is not only fun but also motivating.  A few highlights of the year...

Toga party + Elvia/Tanya's birthday celebration at MBAT...

A subset of the best women's touch rugby committee ever...

Rugby 7's tournament at Twickenham.  Amazing to see the NZ All Blacks and SA Springboks play...

Silly group photo at Twickenham.  Pei pointed out the interesting placement of my arm...

Best co-president ever...Joyce is a rockstar and don't know what I would do without a good friend like her

My favorite Singaporean, Louise.  She's a joy to be around and is a renaissance woman of sorts.

Ex-Pat Anniversary
This weekend was Admits Weekend for London Business School, and I remember my non-stop flight from Houston to London a year ago.  As my first year in London comes to a close, I have a very special "thank you" to everyone who has sent me emails, letters, care packages, and even come to visit.  So...to Reese, David, Lis, Bo, Tuan, Britt, Alyssa, Luke, Levi, Cory, Mike, Harrison, Daniel, Sarah A., Sarah M., mom, dad, and Binita, thanks for coming to London!

Dad & me in Bath

A recent Borough Market outing with Daniel and the Sarahs

Texans reunited in London @ Sundowners

J'adore Paris with Lis

Adventures in baking

Over spring break, my mom visited me in London.  This meant lots of exploring London.  And shopping!  We discovered the Westfield's shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush, and I was in love.  Westfield's is similar to the Galleria in Houston or the Galleria in Dallas.  As I was shopping for a gift for my sister, I came across the Hummingbird Bakery's new "Cake Days" book.  PERFECT for Binita!

There's a funny story about me buying my sister a great Banana Republic leather tote and then basically hijacking it because I ended up liking it so much!!  She will never let me live that one down.  And it happened again with this cupcake book. 

I love The Hummingbird Bakery in London.  It's the closest substitute I have found for Crave or Sprinkles.  Since it was spring break, I had a little extra time on my hands and decided to bake the lemon poppyseed cupcakes.  Overall, they were a success!  Not without a few hiccups in the process though.  Two lessons learned.

1) Buy a scale.  Baking can be a bit difficult for newcomers in this country.   In the US, cookbooks provide recipe measurements in terms of volume (teaspoons, half cups, cups, etc.).  In the UK, recipe measurements are given in terms in mass (grams, ounces).  Well, I had a half-liter liquid Pyrex measuring cup with ounce markers.  Except that was in fluid ounces.  In my opinion, there should NOT be a unit of measurement that exists for both mass and volume with the same name.  Because they are NOT the same.  Baking is all about precision, and I ended up having to eyeball just about everything in that entire lemon poppyseed cupcake recipe.  Thank goodness they were edible! 

2) Whenever you are making simple syrup glazes, do NOT step away from the hob to go throw something away, answer the phone, turn on the music, whatever.  Your almost ready simple syrup can quickly turn into liquid caramel fast.  Haha.

Drumroll...here's the finished product. YUM!

Another reason to pay attention in class
This story is too funny not to share.  My study group mate Prothit missed the first day of the summer term because he decided to stay at home in Delhi for the Cricket World Cup final.  (GO INDIA...Whoop!).  When he made it to London, it was about midnight and the immigration line was long (as usual).  The funny part was that the immigration officer asked him to name the 4 P's of marketing to prove the he was studying at London Business School.  HAHAHA!!!  The immigration officer could've look at his Tier 4 visa in his passport but thought this question was a more appropriate way to see if he really was reading for an MBA.

We are all Japanese

Even if we don't have a Japanese passport, we should all consider ourselves Japanese.  The massive 9.0 earthquake that hit the country didn't affect "another" group of people.  It affected our fellow brothers and sisters. And the next natural disaster could easily affect you and your immediate family.  Over the past few weeks, I've seen how this tragedy has affected many of my classmates who either are from Japan or of Japanese descent.  Now that my network is quite a bit more global, tragedies like this become a little more personal. 

I view this blog as not only an outlet to share my opinions and stories, but also to spread other opinions and stories.  At LBS, we have a mechanism that allows anyone affliliated with the school to send a message to the entire LBS community which includes tens of thousands of people.  One of our alums has been sending periodic updates, and I thought I'd share them on this post.  It's a first person point of view, and there are some poignant parts, especially the last sentence in the 25/3 letter.

March 19, 2011
Dear All,

I am glad to see some actions from LBS to support refugees in Eastern Japan.

Here are some insights about life in tokyo without any media filter.

3/11 was of course a terrible experience and the strength and length of this earthquake (3 minutes) was unseen. I will never forget it...everyday strong aftershocks remind me that life is very fragile.

Since the nuclear plants broke down Tokyo area (35 million people) has simply not enough electricity. So we have a daily schedule and the city has been divided in 5 groups, everyday electircity is shut down for 3-4 hours. We cannot ask electricity supply from the western part of japan as their power plant use a different frequency. Electricity power ourages will at least happen until the end of April. This implies also disruptions on train services. Shops are closed...which is really unusual in Japan, traffic lights stop and make street crossing a dangerous experience.

We had clearly issues getting products as logistics had been disrupted. What we missed was milk, eggs, water, gasoline, rice, etc...

Now it looks a litte bit better, although you can only take one bottle of milk per person or 20 liters of gas for your car, we cannot complain.

Many companies are relocating people to the Kansai area (Osaka-Kobe) not because of radiations but because you just cannot have your business as usual in Tokyo right now.

There is no real panic due to Fukushima. Although many foreigners left through their embassies recommendations, Japanese stay calm.

But the real issue starts in what is called 東北　in Japanese. there old people die because there is no heating with negative temperatures, they have no drugs, no food but still hope. In an aging country this area counts many many old people and it is difficult to image how they can survive.

As modern as Japan is, getting hit by a 500 kms 10m wave, earthquakes, nuclear issues is certainly too much.

Thank you for any kind of support you can provide.

-LBS alum
 
March 25, 2011
I received some mails to give an update on japan so here it is.


2 weeks ago we were all shocked by the wrath of nature. Everyday was full of bad news and it was extremely difficult to think about tomorrow.

Life in Tokyo changes very quickly.

If we had issues finding eggs, milk,...or even toilet paper&tissue (Japanese have a huge consumption of those last 2 items) things have changed.

What we clearly miss now is water. There is simply no water in the supermarkets or convenience stores...shop owners say it will arrive soon though. Actually it is not entirely true, I could find some small bottles of Perrier...and mysteriously there is no Coke for 3 days now. Because of the contamination by radioactive iodine we need to be extremely careful. Of course it is said to be only dangerous for infants, but radiation changes quickly, depending on wind, rain, etc...So most of the Japanese in Tokyo try to avoid to drink tap water. Because iodine has a half-life of 8 days I keep tap water in bottles and use it 8 days later to cook, I don't drink it though.　What really worried me is cesium and they start to find some.

Tokyo governement is distributing 3 small bottles of water per infant and just lifted the warning on tap water today, but new areas are hit now with rates from 120 to 210 bq. I start to be an expert in radiation now. On mother on TV said　本当の事を知りたい　I want to know the truth!

Vegetables is an another critical issue. Japanese eat a lot of vegetables and those from Fukushima are clearly banished. There is an official exclusion zone of 30 kms around Fukushima nuclear plant...but they found Cesium contamination 5cms underground in a village 40 kms far from the plant. I feel so bad for the people that were cultivating it. The government said it will compensate for the loss. But money will not compensate one life's work gone away. One day or another the Japanese government will have to explain why thy didn't extend the area to 80 kms after the U.S. recommendation. But in Japan there is only one way, the Japanese way. So everybody faces the issue together, aligned...Japanese spend a lot of time in meetings to make sure that everybody agrees, but the execution part is very impressive.

Imagine that in one day you tell 35 million sof people: We don't control the nuclear plant, winds are sending radiations all over Tokyo, water is contaminated, there are risks of massive earthquakes again, there si not enough gazoline for everyone to escape, etc... Well at least the government could avoid a huge panic...but when I see young children playing with sand in the Park in front of my home...I kinda wonder if releasing piece of informations one by one was really the best solution?

Electricity outage continues. I must admit it is quite depressing when everything stops for 3 hours but I cannot complain, at least I can use electricity 21 hours per day. Business is really disturbed and many big companies are relocated in Osaka, smaller companies that can't afford it stay and make their best.

Earthquakes are really part of my life, everyday...Actually I have a warning system in my home. It is connected by optic fiber to the government network. Every earthquake send first short signals that are detected by this system and a voice (quiet scary voice actually) warns of an earthquake tremor coming. I think it is not working so well...you have no warning and you are hit by a 5...or the system warns you of a 4 in the middle of the night...and nothing happens.

From all other the world TVs are impressed by Japanese behavior. I am also impressed, imagine a supermarket without water for two days, one employee was bringing water to the shelves...well people were just patient and waiting without pushing each other.

What impressed me the most was what is called HyperRescue. If Japanese are humble, those super firemen
were just incredible. They know that they have been exposed to radiation, they do their job without any hesitation. They go on TV and believe me give so clear and plain explanation. I just pray for them to be safe. Most of them were coming from Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki. There were way more volunteers than requested.

Some sad news come also from the tohoku, the area most hit by the tsunami...by the way the wave was officially measured at 23.6 meters.

I particularly remember 3 stories among so many.

In Japan valentine's day is a day where women offer gifts, almost exclusively chocolate to men. Men offer...nothing.

But Japan has the white day, 1 month later men offer in return a gift.

One woman was complaining that her husband never offered some gift. When the earthquake hit the area he called his wife immediately and warned her of tsunami coming. He said that cell phones will be cut very soon and couldn't finish. Because he warned her she could escape the tsunami with her two young children. 3 day later the boss of her husband said they had found his corpse. He also brought all his belongings...among those ones was one diamond ring that he bought for the white day.

One old person heard the tsunami alert, he decided to go to the tsunami wall to close the gate and impeach the water to enter. Which was useless because the wave just swallowed it in a second. He could climb a hill just on time. But he left behind his family...all died. He said that he took the bad decision.

One caregiver put her family in safety but returned to the city to save old people,he could save many but made one trip too much.

A last thing that shocked me was that Japanese had to bury the corpses because there were no gaz to burn them...Japanese don't bury corpses. There is a cemetery but the grave 墓　（haka）is just a place where you put the ashes. It is extremely expensive to have a haka. When you go in the city hall you can see maps wher places are available. The first time I saw it I thought it was a plan where people could buy land for their houses. People said that as soon as they could they would take back the corpses and hold a full budhist, shintoist or christian cermony depending on their religion.

In Tohoku schools are really the heart of the city. Many refugees go to this building. School buildings in Japan are extremely robust. One young high-school student lost all her family, but she helps old people everyday, cooks rice and clean the building.

We probably spend too much time watching superhero movies on TV...The North of Japan is full of ordinary people who deserve our best attention.

-LBS alum

The Haves and the Have Nots

When I moved to the United Kingdom, I expected to see a population with a more homogenous standard of living than in the United States.  Not quite right.  And this chart from this week's Economist confirms the wide disparity I've seen here.
 

This chart shows the highest and lowest GDP/head regions (as a % of average national GDP) for certain developed countries.  It took me a minute to understand this view, something the OECD monitors regularly. 

From personal observation, Britain is bifurcated.  There are some incredibly wealthy individuals who live in London (many are foreigners who settle in London for personal and commercial reasons).   And then there is everyone else who manages to get by.  Compare that with the United States where there truly is a middle class that drives the economy through personal consumption.  I can also sense this general two-tier split on a basis of everyday things I see.  When it comes to clothing, the two options seem to be very high end, custom tailored fashion foward clothing.  Or cheap Primark, H&M, etc. clothing options.  Also, I see alot of small Fiats slightly bigger than go karts and alot of BMW's, Benz's, and Range Rovers.  Not many Toyota Camrys or Honda Accords.  (Realize that you will pay a good bit more for even the smaller vehicles in the UK than you would in the US because of taxes and the like).

So, why are there these differences?  A number of guesses I have...
1. Not as many people pursue higher education (college).  While many students go to incredibly respected universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, etc., many others don't go to college at all.  They may pursue some sort of vocational education, but that's not required. 
2. High taxes and red tape in starting a business.  SMB in the US create alot of wealth for many Americans.  While the UK is sometimes called "a nation of shopkeepers", these shopkeepers are also being taxed at 50%.
3. Wealth is highly concentrated in London.  The chart is a bit tricky in that it graphs regional averages, not absolute highs and lows.  London obviously is the high point for the UK.  Wealth seems to be more geographically dispursed in the States.   It makes sense for wealthy people to settle in NYC, SF, LA, Chicago, Miami, etc.

So what? Is having this big gap a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  Look at it from the flipside.  Is not having a large gap a good thing?  Japan and Italy are countries where there isn't as much income disparity.  However, I'm not bullish on those economies for a number of reasons.  At the same time, Germany has a smaller gap and is the GDP gem in the EU.  I think the bigger issue with having the sort of disparity that the US and UK have are the socioeconomic and racial tensions that can flare up. 

Party Like It's the End of the World

This blog post title is a nod to Jay Sean's catchy "2012" tune.

I haven't blogged in a while because of two reasons.  1) I've been trying to line up some internships for the summer.  2) I've been partying like it's the end of the world.  Whether those two are compensatory or re-inforcing is up for debate :)

Don't know where I'll end up this summer.  The recruiting cycle in Europe is much later than the cycle for US schools.  Instead of applying for everything, I'm only chasing a few things that I would be committed to.  I've got some good leads...and after spending a good bit of time freaking out and comparing myself to others, I've resolved to call this a God thing.  My college roommate Holly (a beautful girl, inside and out) used to say that "Comparison is the thief of joy."  It's a pretty sticky quote with a golden nugget of truth.  

While I'm waiting for my purpose, I've been traveling and partying like it's the end of the world.   Instead of stories, here are some pictures to prove it :)

Rugby tour vs. Cranfied => Burns Night Dinner

Rugby match vs. Cranfield.  My liking of the game was severely tested with the frigid weather.

Stream B Ladies Dinner => Hosted by me and Dolan at a neat Indian place called Masala Zone.  Yummy street food!

Belgium Beer & Fashion trek in February.  Brussels is beautiful and reminds me a lot of Paris. J'adore Brussels, Leuven, Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruge!

My first English tea experience with Ying at Le Meridien Picadilly.  So fun!

Through a Groupon, one of my friends from college and I tried an AMAZING Persian restaurant in central London.  Rebecca is a foodie and good at finding these gems!

My sweet dear former co-worker Alyssa came to London for a weekend getaway.   Except for the time I got her and Luke lost on our way to St. Paul's, it was good to get out of student mode and explore the city.

North America Club booth setup for Tattoo 2011.  Tattoo was a top 3 LBS experience so far.  I had heard it was an unforgettable evening, but all my expectations were blown away.  At the NA Club booth, we had a hog roast and a mechanical bull.  Clearly outstanding!

Besties at Tattoo 2011.  LOVE these two.  Greg (aka Gregorio) is in my Spanish class, a fellow Sundowners crew member, and a fellow co-president of the Volunteers Club.  Emily is a sweetheart who is my go to wine-o-clock girlfriend.  We both have a slightly unhealthy obsession with TED...haha!

Crazy wig costume at Cologne Karneval. 

Cologne Karneval trip March 2011.  Pictured here with host Phillip.  LOVE sitting next to him in class this quarter :)

Cologne March 2011.  Group photo in front of the Cathedral.   The scale of this building is just unbelievable.

Study group B2's booth at the DEO tradeshow. 

Sweet photo in Bonn

Stream B Ladies Dinner => Mexican night at Taqueria hosted by the fabulous Ms. Emily

My first Bulgarian drink with Todor.  Not a fan of whatever it was (similar to grappa, raki, and ouzo...yuck!).

Resolutions

January.  A time to start anew.  To aim high.  To take second chances.   On the whole, New Year's resolutions really are just resolutions for most people...not achievements.  However, I do think that everyone should have some New Year's resoultions so that they are forced to self-reflect and develop some loose sense of purpose.  The alternative is to meander, and life's just too short for that.

Here are some of mine.   They're humble, achievable, and meaningful.

• End the beginning - In 2008, I decided to write a book.   I'm calling it Greecings and Such, and it has three parts.  The goal is to finish the first part this year. 
• Color the world - One of the parts I liked about being back in Houston over the holiday break was sleeping in my room surrounded by my paintings on the walls.  It's home.  Time to buy some new paint supplies and canvases to spruce up my flat in London.  Hopefully, they are not ungodly expensive because I can't justify having two sets of expensive supplies on either side of the Atlantic.
• Twelve in twelve - My reading queue is way too long.  Besides watching Ted videos all day, reading is what I would choose to do on a leisurely Saturday.  A book a month is the goal.   
1. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
2. The Prize by David Yergin
3. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
4. No Apology by Mitt Romney
5. Luckiest Guy in the World by T. Boone Pickens
6. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
7. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
8. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris
9. Molokai by Alan Brennert
10. Twilight in the Desert by Matt Simmons
11. Emma by Jane Austen
12. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
• Aim for 20 - This is really my "get back in shape" resolution.  I was in the best shape of my life when I was twenty.  I could run really far and for a really long time.  While I likely won't reach that level of fitness again, I can get back into running more consistently and lifting weights more regularly.  Fall 2010 quarter at LBS was just too jam packed with courses to come up with a routine.  This quarter is a different story.  My friend Dina invited me to run the Prague marathon with her in April.  I really would like to, but my left knee can't take it anymore.  This resolution is not marathon or P90X fit but rather feeling healthy again.