Noorwegen - Norway - Noruega

As promised, a new blog post pertaining to this Master’s program that is allowing me to zig-zag across the globe.

To begin, the 7 weeks I spent in Canada after returning from Australia, were fantastic. I was able to spend a lot of time with family and friends and partake in weekly weekend adventures. Of course the weekdays were entertaining as well, Southern Alberta keeps you on your toes with frequent rattlesnakes visits to the house, a tornado warning nearly every other day, and well painting that fence surrounding the yard was pleasant, but because I’m such a great sister I think the thing I enjoyed the most was picking canola weeds in a sugarbeet field! ;) Sorry brother, this was the last summer you had the best employee to do those things!

As most of you know, I’ve been in Holland for a few weeks and I’m currently in Norway. I’m partaking in a block seminar that is compulsory for the CEMS Master’s programme. It is a weeklong seminar that focuses on a specific theme or topic. Each university that is part of CEMS has a weeklong seminar pertaining to different topics and themes. The reason why I chose to do mine in Norway was because the theme was much more interesting than the one offered in Holland. The topic of my seminar is Climate Change, Innovation and Social Corporate Responsibility. Thus far, we have had 5 lectures. The first two were about climate change specifically. The first focused on the economics of climate change in terms of green certificates and trade quotas of emissions. The second lecture was a view point regarding the natural cycles of climate change and ice ages as well as the issues regarding land use/management.
Yesterday’s lecture was about CSR (corporate social responsibility). Later in the afternoon we had team-building and leadership activities that took place at a rafting resort in Voss. Today's lecture focused on the ethics of business as well as the sincerity of a company's motivation to participate in CSR (genuine vs. instrumental in the sense of creating positive PR).

Monday’s lectures took place at NHH, school of economics and business in Bergen. The rest of the seminar is taking place in Voss. This is a small town in the mountains of Norway, kind of in the middle of no where but still on the main route for trains. Our location is right on the lake surrounded by lush green hills and snow-topped mountains... a beautiful view to wake up to! It's been a bit rainy and cloudy but it's very refreshing to be in the crisp mountain air.

My journey to Norway began in Oslo. From what I’ve seen, Oslo is a beautiful city and I will return there Friday night. From Oslo I took a train to the west coast of Norway to the city of Bergen. It is nearly 8 hours in the train but definitely worthwhile to get a view of the incredible landscape. Everyone has said Norway would be beautiful, and I must agree that it is indeed picturesque.

In terms of the Norwegian culture, it is very open-minded and friendly. I love the humour and easy-going, casual people and professors. For those who know the Big Mac Index, yes Norway is expensive, I checked it out and it was approximately 109 krone voor a big mac meal at McDonalds. As the exchange sits now, that is nearly 12 euros or 15 Canadian dollars, give or take a little. One professor said Norway is sitting at number 1 in terms of the Big Mac Index. Most of us know that Norway’s tax and regulations are quite intense. No alcohol can be bought after 8pm in stores, and I’ve heard even as early as 6pm on weekends. Some say this is a way for the government to regulate consumption, but of course everyone knows to just buy enough before closing time. 8 euros for a beer is also quite normal here. I’ve found public transportation to be of a normal price although I’ve also realized I need to practice my times-table of 8 more often! Approximately 1 euro = 8 krone so dividing everything by 8 is apparently not my strongest asset (but I’m sure I’ll be pro by the end of the week!)

Moreover, the Norwegian language is intricate but I like the sound of it. But it is not of too much concern to not understand this crazy language as nearly everyone speaks fluent English; extremely well and many with hardly any accent. Compared to other European countries such as Germany, France and Spain, many Scandinavian countries do not impose their language on English-speaking television shows, especially those from the States. All the American shows will simply have subtitles whereas other countries, where people’s English skills are not as strong as in the Scandinavian countries, will use their native language into the characters’/actors’ script.

So far the seminar and people have been utterly interesting! Everyone has their own unique story, most of those also have jumped across the globe for various reasons.

Of course time permitting, I will try to post some pictures later today.

Fotos Norway

Improvising since my suitcase broke in my travels from Oslo to Bergen, all is well if it is balanced 10 kg in the front and 10 kg on the back
Voss
Voss, view from my room
Voss

Bergen
Bergen
Bergen
Bergen
Bergen
Bergen

Wine to-go

A convenient way to have some refreshing white wine, 200ml. The packaging of this product is what caught my attention but of course I couldn't resist having wine while waiting to board the plane in Holland. Either way, I like the marketing aspect of this. On the back of the can it says "At the seaside, in the mountains, out sailing, in a plane, eating dinner ... it's so small and trendy you just have to take it with you wherever you go. Serve chilled." I suppose it's the nerd in me relating everything back to marketing, but I couldn't help but share this especially since I did a case study on the marketing of the Australian Yellowtail wine and how they tried to reposition wine in the market, and they succeeded in doing so. I would say Yellowtail and this Italian winemaker are targeting the same market although this Italian wine's packaging is very unique.

The End of University of Sydney Semester

To start, I had every intention of writing one more blog before the semester ended but the last weeks of the program would not allow for it and I simply ran out of time.

Either way, after our classes were done, we had a week to study for exams and finish off projects. The following week exams took place, along with a 2 hour presentation to our client for the Not-for-Profit venture.

It was a very busy week as exams took place, as I was also starting to pack up my room and clean out my kitchen cupboards, and get ready for my mother to arrive that weekend.

My mother came to Australia and we spent a few weeks travelling on the East coast of Australia. I first showed her the city of Sydney and the University. After a few days there, we flew south to Melbourne to meet two aunts of my mother and her cousins. This was a great opportunity for us to see the city of Melbourne as well as some of the countryside 300km west of Melbourne. It was starting to become Fall in Australia, so Melbourne definitely demonstrated that Australia has a colder climate as well. From Melbourne we flew north to Brisbane and then to Cairns -- the tropics of Australia which has pure summer weather all year around. We spent most of our time in Cairns doing various activities such as sea-kayaking, rain forest tours, Great Barrier Reef tours, and experiencing the wildlife. We were able to see koalas, crocodiles, kangaroos, pythons and many unique creatures in the wild. Cairns is definitely a top destination for anyone. There is an abundance of things to do, or as the Australians would say, there is heaps to do!

My experience in Australia was simply fantastic! It’s a beautiful country with great people. The city of Sydney has definitely made my list of favourite cities that I’ve visited. It may actually sit at number 1 right now! It’s an amazing city that has a lot to offer; it was very clean and felt very safe. Of course the University of Sydney was also an unforgettable experience. The campus was massive but easy to find your way around. The Master of Management program was tough and required a lot of effort but it was worth every minute of it and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I thoroughly enjoyed the Australian culture, in terms of the informality, the business culture down-town Sydney, and the friendly and easy-going Australian people. And of course the people that I have met, my classmates and friends make this journey priceless!

So what is the next step for my master’s? I will be doing my first semester of CEMS (Master of International Management) in Rotterdam at Erasmus RSM (Rotterdam School of Management) starting August 30. The week before classes start, I will be doing a block seminar which is compulsory for the CEMS program. I will be doing this at the partner school of CEMS in Norway. My block seminar will focus on innovation, climate change and corporate social responsibility. I will be in The Netherlands from August until Christmas.

From January 2011 until May I will be doing my second CEMS semester in Barcelona, Spain at ESADE (Escuela Superior en Administración y Dirección de Empresas).

I may not post another blog until I begin my studies at RSM, which is less than 2 months away. So until then, enjoy the summer (or winter if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere)!

Studying and Projects

Finally a new blog post! I know it has been a long time since I last wrote, but I’ve been very busy!

After Easter we had another week without class. This week was dedicated to group projects and our Not-for-Profit project. Once we returned to class in the middle of April, we were told that the second half of the semester would get even busier. I didn’t think it could surpass the first half of the semester but it certainly did. All group projects went into full swing.

I’m currently working on three group projects. One of the projects is the Not-for-Profit project we started after Easter. We are consulting a client who wants to start up an educational venture with the aim to get high school students from a low socio-economic district of Sydney to go to university or obtain post-secondary education. This is quite difficult since there are a lot of inhibitors for this target market, mainly financial and social hindrances. Financial in terms that the parents simply cannot afford to send their children to post-secondary education, and more detrimentally the fact that these students do not have role models or live in broken homes where their role models are those who abuse drugs and alcohol. The client ultimately wants to inspire these children and change their mindset to consider post-secondary education. Our task is to determine the feasibility of his project and create a preliminary business plan.

The other project I’m working on is a business plan for a potential product. Our product pitch has been observed by an investor who gave us feedback and provided insight on how we can continue with the product into the market. Of course this is all hypothetical at the moment, but we are looking into the realistic feasibility of it.

As of tomorrow (Monday), I will have two weeks of class left including two skill seminars. Thereafter, one week to study for final exams and then a week to do the final exams and hand in the essays and projects. As predicted, the semester went very fast, but it’s not over yet and a lot has to be done before that time.

Last week, April 30, was Queen’s Day in Holland. There are about 8 Dutch people in this Master’s program, and well, I also live with two Dutch people, so it was obvious we had to celebrate our national holiday. The Dutch Consulate had organized a party that started quite early and we weren’t sure of the exact location but even two streets away from the building we seen many people dressed in orange so no further direction was needed. The consulate provided us with lots of entertainment and Dutch food. I spent a lot of time near the food table --- cheese, bitterballen, herring, poffertjes etc. There was an after-party arranged by another Dutch individual and thereafter an after-after-party that was quite entertaining.

Friday night our class had another networking event to go to. This event was at a Union Rugby League game and many individuals from big companies were present -- CEO’s, high executives, Alumni from the rugby league. We had a private section in front of the field with private food catering and drinks. It was a great experience. It was also interesting because two weeks ago I went to a League Rugby game which is different from Union League rugby. There was a big difference in terms of spectators and social class. Both games were interesting even though I have no idea what the exact rules are, both are quite rough in terms of physical contact but that is inevitable when players jump on top of each other to form a massive heap of people.

If I have some time I will try to add some photos. Enjoy the week!

Bruise from paintball, 24 hours after being shot
Sunset, Blackheath, Blue Mountains
Three Sister Mountains, Blue Mountains
First shot
The girls
Group at paintball
Blackheath, Blue Mountains
Blue Mountains
Blue Mountains
Ready for action
Blackheath, The Blue Mountains
Blackheath, The Blue Mountains

The Three Sisters, The Blue Mountains

Easter

A few weeks have gone by since my last update. I’ve been very busy and a lot has happened.

First off, I hope everyone had a great Easter!

I spent Easter weekend in the Blue Mountains, which is about a 2 hour drive from Sydney. We stayed in a small town called Blackheath. We went for several hikes and did a day of paintball. It was a lot of fun and I have the most interesting bruises on my body. I’m guessing there is an intricate physics aspect to it when a bullet hits you at 400km/hr. It has left perfect circles on my legs which are then encompassed by even larger, very purple, very wide circles. Paintball was a lot of fun especially since we were with about 13 people from our class... I think this secretly allowed us to show our true feelings of how we felt working with each other in group projects!

During this trip we stayed at a student’s house who is originally from this town. Her parents cooked an Easter dinner for us and it was a massive feast. Of course we all over-ate but we enjoyed a lot of Australian dishes that consisted of Australian lamb, Australian beef, pumpkin, figs, passion fruits, cheese, wines, prickly pears... it was very tasty.

After the Easter weekend we did not have class nor do we have class this week... but that doesn’t mean we can take 2 weeks of holidays. Instead we are working on a Not-For-Profit project, as well as 2 other projects and other assignments. I’m keeping very busy!

I’ve also moved into another house. I really enjoyed the neighbourhood I lived in before, but I knew that place was temporary. As of this last weekend I moved into a house with 5 other people. Two of them are students and in the same program as me. This time I’m living with 2 Dutch people, 1 Danish girl, 1 Portuguese, and 1 Scottish guy. The house is quite big and the rooms are spread out throughout the house on 3.5 levels. There are three floors but my room is between the first and the second floor, kind of a bi-level thing. I’m still within walking distance to the University and a bit closer to the city.

Two bizarre things I seen yesterday --- One: a man walking around the city with 2 pet goats. I’m a 100% certain they were his pets, the goats were wearing collars (no leash though) and obeyed the man better than a dog would! At a red light they would stay behind him and follow him when the man crossed the street. Two: usually I only see the bats at night as they rustle about in the trees, but I’ve already seen two during the day in the street where I live now. Of course they were both dead. The first one was definitely electrocuted by the power line. It was hanging upside down, which I know is normal for bats, but it was hanging with its wings open and it was definitely not stretching to the bright morning sun. Then there was another one lying on the sidewalk. It was big, about 40cm. It had quite a bit of fur, black and a very distinct brown head. Not very cute looking but I was intrigued. It looked like it had just fallen out of the tree, late night perhaps, or didn’t quite make it home. I wanted to take a picture but at the same time I felt the bat would twitch one last time or attempt to fly again and that would probably have me go for a quick sprint... the last thing I want to go get is a needle for rabies.

That is it for now! I will try to post some pictures as well.