Tag Archives: study abroad

Adventures in the Middle Kingdom- Part 1

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Henry Ko

Henry Ko is a second year MBA student from Los Angeles, CA. He is currently studying abroad at Peking University in Beijing, China. This is his adventure…

It has been a crazy couple of days but I have arrived safely in China and I’m settling into my new home for the next three months. The first 24 hours of craziness started with some delayed flight drama in Nashville, followed by a sleepless 12.5 hour flight from Chicago to Beijing, ensued by long and chaotic queues at the Beijing airport, and topped off by a frustrating search for my living accommodations on campus. Things are finally coming together now and I’m ready to enjoy my China experience.

So far, Beijing has been everything I expected and a lot of what I didn’t expect. Here are some of my observations:

-          China is growing and it is painful, for me: I’m reminded every day from 5AM to 12AM that China is experiencing unrelenting growth. Example: there is a new building going up about one hundred yards right outside my window and the site never seems to shut down. Just the other day, there was a thunderstorm rolling through the area. Lightning struck not too far away. Yet, the workers kept on hammering and the crane kept on lifting. Talk about commitment. The only time it seems to be quiet is when I wake up in the middle of the night wondering why there isn’t any noise coming from outside.

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Posted in Graduate Life, Guest & Alumni Bloggers, Lifestyle | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Bringing Over a Little Bit of Home

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Cindy Yeo

This post was written by Global Business Association Vice President Cindy Yeo, member of the MBA Class of 2011.

I love living abroad. As an international student from Singapore studying in Nashville, Tennessee, I’ve been able to take advantage of the various study abroad programs that Owen offers and I’ve had the fortune of traveling with my classmates to various countries around the world.

However, one of the worst things about studying in a foreign country is that sometimes you don’t have the flexibility of returning home for key holidays. For me, those holidays would include Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Last month, Amrita Dutta-Gupta and I (as board members of the Global Business Association) were approached by several 2nd-year students regarding the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. They felt that with the large number of Chinese exchange students at Owen this year, it would be a great opportunity to showcase Owen’s commitment to diversity.

For those of you who are not familiar with it, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest moon festival celebrated by various cultures in Asia.  It has been celebrated for thousands of years, falls on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar. This year it was on September 22.

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Posted in Guest & Alumni Bloggers, Why Owen? | Tagged global business association, lantern festival, mid autumn festival, | Leave a comment