Quest for Health, Wealth and Wisdom (and cheap education)

The philosopher Aristotle once said, "It is wise to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom."

I have never been fond of lying in bed till noon, but the idea of gaining an entire working month of extra time each year sounded fantastic. My usual getting-up time ranges between 6.30 and 8am, but on Steve Pavlina's life improvement blog he discusses how you can train yourself to rise at 5am, every single morning, forever. Even 30 minutes earlier adds up to a full working month per year, but that extra 90 minutes per day adds up to three full working months, 120 hours per year. That's an awful lot of useful and potentially productive time. Like Steve, I find that my motivation levels rise higher when I am up early and they remain high the whole day. Being a fan of multi-tasking and methods to squeeze more out of each day, I've decided to try out Steve's suggestions. Today I managed to get up at 6.30. As it's my day off today and I had a late night yesterday, I think this is not bad. But from tomorrow on, the 5am regime will begin.

Steve's blog is at: www.stevepavlina.com and is totally worth checking out.

Today is Qing Ming Jie, or Tomb-sweeping Fesitival. On this day, Chinese people visit and take care of their deceased relatives' graves. They also burn paper money on street crossroads. The belief is that this sends the cash to the "other side" where it can be used by dead family members." In reality, many of my students told me that they live too far from the location of the graveyards and will just be using this day as a fine chance for a long relaxing weekend. The kind Chinese govt. gives everyone an extra Monday off work. I've planned a productive day, involving intensive university research and a few applications.
The choices (so far) are as follows:
MSc in International Management at Exeter or Roborough, MSc in Process and Project Management at Warwick, MA in Modern Chinese Studies at Oxford; and a variety of similar courses at universities in the Netherlands and Germany. Studying in the Netherlands is
my most recent idea, because the tuition fees are a fraction of those in the UK. Back home, I'd have to spend at least 5000 pounds for a year's tuition. Universities can charge whatever they like for postgrad education. However in the Netherlands, I found many equivalent masters courses, in English, for around 1500 euros. Also, as they are also EU, I can easily and freely find part-time work without the need for any visa documentation. Unlike Sweden's, which has already passed, the Netherlands' uni application deadline is still far off in May or June. Sweden offers undergrad and postgrad education entirely free of charge even to foreigners and even has a huge selection of subjects taught in English. But I guess it's pretty competitive, as for anything free, and they close the application window in January of the same year. Oxford is on my list just because it would be amazing to study there, if I could ever get accepted onto any programme. I picked Modern Chinese Studies because it seems like I might have a fighting chance of acceptance. Four years experience in the field plus language skills must mean something...

I already feel very motivated and productive by writing this blog post at 7.40 am, so now I'm going to continue my disciplined new lifestyle by NOT drinking coffee for breakfast. Even the civet variety... ;-)

Civet Coffee and Chinese CVs,

Do you know which coffee is the world's most expensive? I bet you couldn't guess where it comes from...I love coffee, so I was intrigued to discover that this prime brew comes out of a cat's arse. Yes, literally. The Kopi Luwak coffee is made from coffee beans, which is nothing unusual. But the difference is that these beans pass through the digestive tract of a civet cat before being excreted onto the ground for easy collection by coffee farmers. This mainly happens in Sumatra and surrounding areas (wherever civet cats and coffee beans are in close proximity). The coffee is made by separating the beans from the rest of the dung, washing them thoroughly (whew!) then processing them like normal coffee beans. The taste of Kopi Luwak has been described variously as 'gamey', 'rich, strong and full-bodied', 'syrupy with a hint of chocolate' and 'like crap'.
So how much does a cup of this stuff cost? In London's Sloane Square, a snooty coffee shop sells Kopi Lumak for 50 pounds a cup. Various online stockists also sell it and it seems to be surprisingly popular in its coffee-snob niche market. I'd be keen to try it, but 50 pounds a cup of anything would make me cringe. If I ever get to Indonesia, I'll go hunt me some civet cats.

After wasting a lot of valuable time Googling 'crap' coffee, I got myself sufficiently motivated to finish the day's main task - translating my CV into Chinese. This was a challenging job and took me at least two hours to complete. But the end result is definitely worth it, it will certainly impress Chinese employers and what's more - it looks really, really cool. ;-) I'm quite proud of myself (although www.nciku.com did get surfed now and then...) I've got a job interview at Dalian Software Park this week. I'll have to learn the CV by heart or make myself a pinyin crib sheet for some of the new words, hehe.

I'm making plans for a return to the UK this autumn. The postgrad education idea is still firmly lodged in my mind and there are some great courses on offer. My question to myself is: would it be better to study a practical subject (MSc in International Management,Business Administration or Programme and Project Management), or go for the MA in Modern Chinese Studies at Oxford University? I think that my China experience can get me onto the Oxford course, how cool to study at Oxford! But in reality, the practical applications of an MA in Modern Chinese Studies might not be so apparent to a prospective employer, what's more, am I sufficiently fascinated by China to spend even more of my time studying it? Recently it has begun to annoy me in a whole bunch of ways. Realistically, it's time to get serious and choose a degree subject that is directly related to career. Career, Career, Career. I don't want to make the same mistake I made when picking my undergrad degree:

Dad: "You should really study business/management/computing/engineering."
Daughter: "But Sociology really interests me and it will give me good career prospects, honest!"

The future's looking colourful.

Once upon a time...there was an SAP Project Manager

Once upon a time, in a land far far away...a young girl was offered a job. The job was difficult and challenging, but also interesting. The girl was inexperienced and unqualified for this job. But the men that hired her were not concerned about these small factors. They, one in particular, were simply concerned with escaping from that land far away and going home to the fatherland. So they handed her the job on a silver platter. The girl was very excited about the new challenge she faced, her attitude was positive and she was determined to do well. However, her lack of experience did not stand her in good stead. The man who was her superior was rather a strange fellow. He did not like to talk much and he was always busy. He seemed to disapprove of the girl right from the start, rarely offering her anything but criticism. He had an unusual habit of humming to himself when she tried to ask him questions. The girl strived to do her best, but she never seemed able to meet the mysterious expectations of her enigmatic superior. Another man, an outsider, was kind to the girl and did his best to advise and support her. But it was not enough. Two months after she started, when the trial period ended, the girl was out. The girl was quite surprised and rather disappointed, because she had been working hard as best she knew how, using her initiative and trying to cope with such a distinct lack of guidance. She liked her colleagues and her working environment, also she found the daily work interesting and motivating. The girl was sad to leave, but, being an imaginative and strong-minded person, accepted the situation and immediately set to work on plan B. She viewed the short-lived time at this job as a valuable learning experience, proof that taking a risk is still worth doing even if it doesn't work out. What is life without the excitement of challenging ourselves?

New Gadgets and New Careers

blogging on the move again

I feel very streamlined today. I have my little netbook (made by Lenovo - it's so small, just like an actual book!) tucked into my handbag along with my new Nokia E71 smartphone (with wifi and lots of other exciting features!) this means I now have absolutely no excuse for being lazy with this new blog.

I have a job interview this afternoon, so am in a Dalian downtown Starbucks waiting for it. It's for a teaching job...but a short-term one (a month) teaching English writing skills to IELTS students in preparation for their exam. The money isn't great, but having busy mornings will help structure my days and motivate me to achieve more in my free afternoons and evenings.

This week I viewed three apartments on behalf of Dr Kay. He lives in the Shangri-la hotel but also wants to rent a second apartment in my building, for easy switching between Dalian and Kai Fa Qu. The original agent, Jenny, who helped me to rent my apartment had apparently left her job. Her two replacements were overexcited about helping a foreigner, but friendly and efficient. One of them was a logistics student at university and spoke a little English. I used the amazing Nokia to snap photos of the apartments and arrange them all into an 'active note' for emailing later to Kay. Hopefully he'll now be able to choose one and let his secretary finish off the negotiations with the landlord.

I was up at 6am today, when I managed to catch Fran on MSN. She is still having a whale of a time in New Zealand doing the working holiday thing. It sounds like fun and quite tempting. I considered it for an hour or two, but in reality, working holiday jobs consist of bar, waitressing, or - heaven forbid - fruit picking. The kind of stuff I left behind when I graduated. I don't think it would do much to improve my already fragile CV. I still need to find a good explanation for the two month mini-stint playing at project management. Although I think I can explain it honestly enough and point out how my total lack of experience in the field combined with a total lack of training/guidance didn't exactly equal stunning success. However, I know I still worked hard and learned a lot in those two months. Maybe things would have been better if I'd had a boss who was prepared to support and mentor me. But life is not about saying 'what if' and 'maybe' - it's about learning from every experience, good or bad, and using that knowledge to help you do better next time.