The Last Presentation of the Term =)

Finally!! our last presentation was held on friday, when we
delivered a report based on Toyota for our strategic management class.
Using concepts learnt from the past weeks, we elaborated on how Toyota
managed to perform well and how it was able to push paradoxes and break boundaries to become a worldwide market leader.

Here are my two teammates, Benedikt(on the left) and Martin (on the right). They're from Germany and amazingly tall! But dont let their height and looks fool ya, they're actually 1/2years younger than me.

Glad to have them as groupmates, we make a good team and we're able to pull off workshop-based presentations instead of the normal hide-behind-the-podium-kind of boring presentations. I must say they've put up well with my last-min inspiration working style too =)




As you can see, the class isn't that big, just a square-shaped
formation of tables and onli around 10-12 students. Our tutor,
Martinez is the one seated at the bottom right of this picture.

Ladies, check out those boots, they're very very common
here (but i dont think you'd have the chance to wear them in s'pore)




That's me explaining how Toyota leverages its resources
by creating synergies between its different bases/divisions
throughout the globe. To "score points" here its basically
the same as back in Singapore:


1) Present confidently
2) Articulate your ideas well & elaborate when necessary
3) Don't spam huge "walls of text" on ur slides
4) Analogies/metaphors/Thought-provoking statements
5) Videos, Games, Discussions/Debates
(anything you can pull out of e bag)
6) Cater to the audience - the more interactive the better
7) Spoil the market by doing stuff outside the marking scheme
8) Make the other teams like your style/presentation
(cos it pays to have the competition on your side too!)


We had this impression that suits were required for overseas
presentations but in the end, everyone wore so casually that
wearing a suit would appear to be overly-formal. I guess its
also a good thing, because casual dressing makes the session
more lively and we definitely feel more comfortable presenting.

Overall we had alot of fun presenting during our strategic management
classes, some interesting things we did:

-Played a modified version of battleships (to illustrate command & control, centralization & decentralization)

-Played "Guess Who?" by sticking stuff on their heads (to show that our ability to process info is based on prior knowledge and circumstantial info... haha our tutor had to try and guess that she was a T-rex)

-Guided the class through a DISC Personality profile (to show that even our strengths can become our weaknesses & that everyone has a dominant trait - to illustrate that we have our core competencies which we rely on subconsciously)

-Had alot of probing questions/discussions that made them apply the concepts to their daily lives instead of just focusing on the textbook

Updates! Updates!

Wow, i realised i haven't updated my blog in a really long time... But well, life has been abit more routine nowadays so i felt it wasn't too interesting to post daily. Here's a brief breakdown of the events for a normal week:

Mon Rest & Relaxation (unless Projs/Assignments are due)

Tues 2 x 2hr Lessons but it'll be over by 3.30pm 

Potluck followed by biblestudies @ Nate's place

Wed More R&R, but it usually means prep for friday's stuff

Thu Thu's like wednesday, throw in some tennis, doing groceries, etc..

Fri Finally~ its Friday and lessons are over for e week!

Sat On Sats we plan to visit other countries but end up oversleeping =)

Been planning to go brussels for quite some time now, we'll get 

there eventually, hope dennis manages to get cheap tickets!

Sun Church @ 10am or 5pm(two services), Prayer Mtg @ 8

That pretty much sums up an average week, on really good weeks i get a free friday off (because they'll have lectures which will be cancelled due to the unavailability of a guest lecturer), but on bad weeks we end up spending all the free "R&R days" meeting up to do projects.

The past two weeks have been hectic, with presentations or assignments nearly every tutorial/seminar. One thing about the 8 week modules here is that they give students very little breathing space in between lessons and i kinda dislike the fact that there are so many readings to cover. Feedback most students (including locals) have given is that the readings are way beyond our level, because they include some masters level readings inside our pre-requisites and we're forced to try and understand all the high-level statistics and models that they use. Its the extreme opposite of spoonfeeding, where the students cant focus on the key learning points because the subject matter is beyond our understanding. Fortunately for us, they're compenstating for this by making the exam MCQ-based... so at least we'll get 25% of the marks if we tikam tikam. (btw, all these bad comments were only about the International Financial Management module)

Meanwhile, back in the hostel... 

The top few things we usually do

(!Important Disclaimer! They're not in order of priorities):

1. Cook 

2. Wash clothes 

3. "Relax in bunk" (Playing com/watching anime/dramas)

4. Watch TV (only during our meals)

5. Go walk walk or exercise

6. Buy groceries

7. Play tennis (more like picking balls though haha)

8. Chat with neighbours/fellow exchange students

9. Read books

10. Mug or invite groupmates over for projects

11. Skype/MSN/EMail

12. Check out www.ryanair.com for cheap air tix =)

13. Plan the next few travel destinations

14. Play piano using some cheapo software called Midipiano

15. Enjoy life 

Living in a foreign land(or even in your own home back in Singapore) requires a great deal of discipline... And if you understand computer game lingo, you'll understand that i didn't pump much "stat points" into that really important trait. Its a constant struggle to get my priorities right and do the important stuff first, but i'm praying that it'll be one of the many take-aways at the end of this exchange. 

Crap man... the IFM paper's on 31st March and Strategic Management's on 2nd April... gotta TRY to start mugging already

Schoolwork...

I'm taking 2 courses this semester, International Financial Management

and Strategic Management. Of the two, IFM is the harder subject

because its more technical and you cant smoke your way out (which

is my preferred mode of answering questions haha) 

This was just one of the presentations we had, its on Market integration

and Contagion. The idea behind Market integration is how prices to move

proportionally to each other even though they are in different markets. 

Just take a look at the European Union its an integrated market with 

common currencies, policies, etc... Basically it promotes trade and boosts

growth, but there are also other factors to weigh in deciding whether to

integrate or not.

One of the cons of integration is this concept of "Contagion", which is

how crises spread through the interconnectedness of financial markets.

Think about the recent credit crunch and stuff, it spread from the US all

the way to Singapore and throughout the globe. 

So on one hand, integration might be good, pegging exchange rates to 

the US dollar, relying heavily on imports/exports, free trade agreements 

& blah blah blah...

In the end when a crisis strikes, it'll just cause it to spread faster. 

Imagine a class full of students, if one sick guy comes in and sneezes, 

all those around him will get "infected". No matter how strong your 

immune system is, there is still a chance of catching the bug. 

Similarly, no matter how strong a country's fundamentals are, it can 

still be affected by crises in other countries halfway across the globe.

Below's a visual guide to the financial crisis, take a look and i hope you'll

get a clearer picture of how contagion works - through media, through

market sentiment, through irrational exuberance, etc... Its just that easy

to get caught. You'll see how greed and ignorance fuels all of it - and at 

the end the very instruments we used to promote growth of the economy 

and stuff backfires on us.

Somehow i get this feeling that the cyclical effects of depression to 

boom are "pre-destined" and meant to happen every 10 years or so,

do exploit it while you have a chance =) 

**its definitely not "once in a lifetime" though, we'll get hit harder next time

Introducing my kitchen companions =)

Haha these will be keeping me company throughout

my stay here [hopefully they'll make me look a litttle

fatter too, so the next chinese new year my relatives will

have something more interesting to say instead of 

"le jin san leh" (you look skinny) hahaha]

Roll of honor

Kung pao chicken

Pai2 Gu3 Wang2

Chicken Curry

Thai beef noodles 

Emperor chicken

Chow Mien Hong Kong Style

Thai Tom Yum

Carbonara sauce

Peking style pork sauce

Pad Thai Noodles (stir fry)

Ba Kut Teh (haha this is ownage)

Salt & Pepper

Char siew sauce

Black bean & garlic sauce (for beef hor fun)

Chilli

Whisky cocktail (this is dutch salad dressing)

Kikkoman

Dark soy sauce

Teriyaki 

Sukiyaki (for soups)

Marmite (for good beef stew/soup)

Knorr cubes

Sesame oil

Pasta & Pizza oil

Olive oil (for our normal food)

Oil (for deep frying our fries and stuff)

Corn starch (marinate + soup)

Kippen soup - chicken soup

Holland beef ball sauce from maggi

Coconut milk

Not forgetting our assortment of Noodles,

Spaghetti, bee hoon, choc digestive biscuits,

rice cooker in the background and all my other

buddies chilling out in the fridge =)

These are basically the items you need, not only

to stay alive, but to eat like a king lol 

The best thing is that with a budget of 2bucks per meal,

we can cook up a storm cos we always cook for 4 pple

Meat costs around 3-4 euros for 500-600g, veg and

fruits are cheaper, so a good meal like carbonara with mushrooms,

ham, carrots and stuff will onli costs around 6-7 euros (and shared

among 4 people, that is really economical)

New Recipes!

We found a large chinese provision shop across the 

bridge, 15-20mins cycle away from our guesthouse.

There, we went crazy and stocked up on all sorts of food

and spices and sauces. I just wanted to buy everything 

back because they looked so tempting!

Here's our Beef Tom Yum

And guess what, we even made Laksa! haha i was

craving for laksa ever since i left Singapore, so i bought

all the ingredients (like laksa paste, coconut milk, tao pok,

fishballs) and we cooked laksa on thursday. Its surprisingly 

easy to cook (seriously man... you guys should try it at home)

This just shows how much "liao4" we put inside

our laksa, we had shredded chicken too (i steamed the

chicken before that and then shredded it). Of course,

some credit goes to my mom who gave some tips on how

to cook this local delight. But i want to encourage you pple

(esp the char bohs hahaha) to try your hand at cooking.

Its really fun and as you gain experience there's no limit

to what you can cook =)

Here's guowei's veggies, we added some jap sauce to

it so it tasted really good

Its been 1 month + 1 week and i would say we're really

getting the hang of staying overseas. From laundry to

cooking and washing up + room maintainence, they're

pretty simple disciplines which make our life so much

more comfortable if we abide by them. i'm glad my threshold

for untidyness is pretty moderate (so i do spring cleaning pretty

often once i reach my limit). The only thing that i procrastinate

doing is washing my jeans - which i've been wearing for 3 weeks

*but i've changed already la... so not that "la sup gwee" (hokkien for unhygienic)

Sunday, 1st March

Been busy the whole of this week so i've not been 

updating my blog regularly, anyway this post was

supposed to be on Sunday, 1st March

Here's one of the hymns we sang in church. 

Its in dutch, but i recognized the melody and tried

my best to pronounce the words... 

haha brings back memories trying to sing "muneru valiba"

in primary school during the national day periods =)

Here's the english version:

Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

William and I were invited to Pastor Jacob's house

after service along with some other members. We spent

the rest of the afternoon talking and snacking on bread & 

mushroom soup and we really enjoyed the fellowship.

I didnt bring my camera out that day, if not i would

have taken more pictures of their home. The furnishings

are simple but cosy and there are lots of plants and flowers

in the house. They have a very nice garden as well, cos their

fav pasttime is doing gardening =)

Pastor Glas in in the middle of the picture, his wife Margerite

is on the extreme right and on her left is Marjanne, who does

the message translations for us during the service