Bryan in Hong Kong

It’s hard to believe. Three weeks from today I’ll be done, and Sam will be flying into Hong Kong. Still a lot to do: projects and finals, packing & shipping, planning the trip with Sam, booking tickets and collecting visas, and everything else required to wrap up the year. I’m starting to feel that things really are nearing the end here.

Everyone in the master’s program took a boat trip last Sunday to an outlying island, which was a lot of fun. I will make a post later. It was a nice opportunity to relax and just enjoy Hong Kong.

Just finished my first week of the new semester. Here’s what I’m taking:

Full semester:
Topics in Economic Analysis of Institutions

First quarter:
Competitive Strategy
Politics and Socioeconomic Environment of China
Banking and International Finance

Second quarter:
China Industry Analysis
China’s Economic Development and Reform
Strategy and Organization

Half-way through exams. Two more to go: math Wednesday and econometrics Friday.

I had dinner at a Thai restaurant tonight. Even the restaurants in the standard shopping malls are very nicely designed, and you can tell a lot of effort went into creating the atmosphere, except… this was the second time I’ve noticed what could become a disturbing trend… the restaurant looped the same song the entire time I was there. There were no words, but it was clearly a Kenny G style saxophone version of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”. Just imagine hearing that 10-20 times in a row!

This follows an experience at a Korean restaurant last month that looped a single Black Eyed Peas song the entire night. After about 5 times, your mind starts playing tricks on you. I don’t know how many times I thought I heard the beginning of a new song, but then it turned out to be the same one again! Anyways, just thought it was worth sharing :)

Amazing to think that we’re already beginning the last week of classes, followed by two weeks for exams and then winter break. Seems like the first semester has gone so quickly. Taking a short break from studying to make a post.

In other news, we finally played the electrical engineerings in basketball yesterday (reschedule from rain last week). I’m pretty sure they won by at least twice our score. I’ve now proven my hypothesis that a slight height advantage is no replacement for skill. Also, met some people from the Purdue Club Hong Kong Friday, which was fun. Still amazed by the sheer number of people on the streets in downtown Hong Kong (Wan Chai, Causeway Bay), especially on a friday night.

The MSc econ students had a basketball game today against the MSc IT students. Referees and everything. A lot of fun, and we even won by three points. Apparently some of the other master’s programs have teams too, so this could become a semi-regular event :)

Just finished my last midterm exam yesterday, which means exams are over until finals start next month (though still have a big project due soon).

Also, some new photos up.

Just finished the last of three exams in a five-day period, so haven’t had time to make any posts in the last few weeks (let alone do anything non-academic worth writing about). After pretty much spending a solid week in the library I’m exhausted. Unlike classes in Shanghai, the ones here very closely parallel coursework in the US, meaning regular homework, midterm exams, and projects (as opposed to one giant final exam at the end). This means intense amounts of work during the entire semester.

Possibly heading to the island for Mexican food tonight. Another exam next week, so not too much rest time.

Today was my first day of classes. I’m taking four courses this semester: microeconomic analysis, macroeconomic analysis, applied econometrics, and a mathematics for economics course. So far so good, though I only had one class today.

Also, all the pictures from my Malaysia and Singapore trip are now up.

While looking through my program registration papers for this Saturday, I found the following note:

If Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 8 or above, or Black Rainstorm Warning is hoisted on registration day, registration will be postponed to the next working day; the time and venue will remain unchanged.

Hopefully, this is just a precautionary warning ;)