As Time Goes By....

Again Vienna, again after midnight and soon I will have to be in the MBA-class again. Today is Saturday and the night of the annual Life-Ball. After a few intensive days again I have decided to go to bed early - Latest at 3:00 I want to hit the pillow!
This time I stay for the 4 days in a hostel at the Naschmarkt. Today, after the second night in the hostel, I have experienced that my key-card didn't work any more. At the reception we've found out that my old room got cleared of my stuff and I was transferred to another room. The afternoon staff didn't know this and my belongings got stored at the reception. After we've figured out the problem I got a new key card, drink vouchers and an invitation for Breakfast. Again a little unexpected adventure!

My new roommates seem to be all at the Life-ball and look pretty queer! The room is pure chaos but again a different experience. Now I'm in the lobby as can be seen on the picture of this blog and I do some final work before I watch the latest episode of south park.

Not long ago I've started with my MBA and now already half of the program is over. There is only one module left in June and then the specialisation starts in September. We'll kick off the program in Boston where I will start the final round with a decent road trip. I really look forward to this trip because it will be my only vacation of the year!

...more TK!

Long Nights In Vienna

This is a weekend full of tricky moves and other unexpected surprises. A few days before travelling to Vienna it turned out that no cheap hotel rooms are available because of a radiology congress at the same time. By a coincident my MBA colleague and dear friend Holly has also checked in to the same hostel as I did. It's the brand new Wombat hostel at the Wiener Naschmarkt. The prices are ok (weekends 20 Eur/ dorm and under the week 15 Eur/dorm). The people in my dorm turned out to be very nice - I was always the latest to come home and the earliest to leave. I've slept just enought to survive the day. At night there always was something going on and I've met many niche people at the hostel.

Right now one just has got up in the middle of the night to search for something in a bag. I'm really happy that I'm already in bed and can relax. Tomorrow we have the final day global markets and after that we'll head home to Graz. That are Holly, Matthias and I - glad to have survived and ready go get home.

At the end some proven observations again: many people prefer stinky rooms over fresh air!

Student life

It's a while ago since the last blog entry. I'm busy studying and in parallel I'm also running various projects. It's a bit after midnight so I have now time to enjoy myself and chill out.

It's now almost the end of the first semester of my MBA program in project and process management. It just recently turned out that this is the least interesting topic that I had until now in class.
Studying is very interesting. I have to be in average once per month in Vienna and I have plenty of pre- and post assignments to work on. That means that I have all the time something to do. After the next semester the "business core" part is finished. Then I just have to do one semester in project and process management before I finish with my master thesis.

Unfortunately its not so easy any more to travel. After all the work with university and projects there is almost no time left fore fun things. Fortunately I have a natural talent to identify weak spots in the system and so I will carry on with short trips until I'm finished with my MBA.

After waking up the blog again my next actions will be to feed picasa again with new images. As my stock is pretty extensive there is a lot material and I also will present some new stuff from various projects.

Final days in Bali

Soon its time to leave the island. Just a few nice memories will be left and a the wish to return soon again. A few surf sessions still will be performed and then my plane is taking off on Thursday to cold Europe. In a week I will have the "pleasure" to be at my first MBA-session near Vienna. A week together with "high potentials" and a lot of competition. I am very curious how I will fit in the world of power and money again.

Before I leave I have a few days left and try to enjoy them to the max. My shopping is also almost done and I have a few nice clothes now. Just need to buy a few business shirts and I'm done. Of course I have to buy some interesting things to eat and I already have bought the clove cigarettes. They need to last until I come back so I have plenty of them. Who knows when I can afford such a travel again as almost all of my funds are gone by now. The future will bring a lot of new challenges but I definitely need to get a decent income again.

Back in Bali

It seems that today its a good day to write a little bit after being a couple of days in Bali. I'm again in Bali for surfing. I luckily could manage to come once again and squeeze it into my vanishing budget. The big difference to last year is the weather. Last year at the same time it only rained once and now at least heavy rain every second day. As I already have bought a rain poncho it of course never rained when I was on the street.

I'll stay here until the 28th of October before I head home. Right after I arrive at home I have my first week at the MBA at the University of economics in Vienna. I'm very curious about that and it will be a completely new world form that what I now experience.

My days are as usual here: Morning surf, eat, sometimes afternoon surf, eat, drink , chit-chat and go to bed. It was very hard for me to get up that early. Every day between 4 and 5AM!
I now live in an apartment not far from my friends. The cost is very reasonable and that also supports my stay here. The traffic situation got worse from last year as more and more vehicles are on the road. I'm very curious how that will be solved in the future.

Unfortunately I have to finish this short report right now because I have to go surfing. I'll try to do some updates over the next few days.

...Darling, I Just Go For Cigarettes!

...But wait, those things are no cigarettes - It's surf wax. In fact I'm out of Indonesian cigarettes (Kretek) and I'm in desperate need to surf again. Luckily I could manage with my last reserves to go on travel again. On Friday I will be off to Thailand and then to Bali. The weather forecast is not the best but you always have to give it a try. Conditions can always change and if there is no surf there is maybe the possibility to kite-surf or something completely different.

It's also time for some new, spectacular, travel photos. As I'm still working on my new website I need some new material to present. Some action shots and pictures from exotic places will do the trick. The website will soon be active at: www.liquidcolour.eu

China

Unusual for an intensive travel I write my travel experience at the end of the journey. I’m currently on the final flight from Dubai to Vienna and just an hour travel time is left.

The previous two weeks I have been travelling with the Austrian Journalist Club (OeJC) through China. Starting from Shanghai over Shenzhen to Xi’an and finally spending a few days in Beijing we had a very intensive Journey. The daytime was always full of official meetings and learning to know country and people in more detail. After dinner night-life has started and we wanted to come in touch with the locals to get a better picture about China. It was very helpful for us to have as much controversial influences as possible.
Our first stop in Shanghai was a great beginning. Starting the journey in such a bustling city was an easy introduction to an uprising country. Everything is everywhere on the jump to become bigger and better. Maxims are standard in common vocabulary and the direction of progress is fast forward. I have been already 12 years ago in Shanghai and the change has been very dramatically. The development zone around the oriental pearl tower was fully completed, the Olympic Games have been held and now the Expo 2010 is going on. The transformation is of course not finished. In Shanghai still construction is going on as in the rest of China. Everywhere old buildings are wrecked down and new constructions erected. Also thousands of people are relocated in focus of national development.

The Expo 2010 is a perfect showcase to get an idea about the speed and seriousness of the wish to become a modern economy. We have visited the Expo twice and the dimensions of the exhibition area and the buildings are breathtaking. The most imposing landmark and one of the few buildings, which will remain after the Expo, is the Chinese pavilion. It is a red giant and constructed based on traditional buildings.
Shenzhen in the south is an uprising city with a long historical background. Many low wage industries are located there and its home to a big industrial development zone.  Thousands of farmers have been converted to industrial workers and their fames had to make place to new streets and buildings of all kind.
The next big stop was in the geometric middle of the country – Xi’an. Well known for history and the roots of unified China. The first dynasty has been there. World famous was the terracotta army of the first Dynasty. We’ve visited the national museum, the terracotta army and an Austrian-Chinese joint venture before heading to Beijing.

The capital city was the final stop on our tour through China. It was also a good example for the meaning of the words “big” and “mega”. Everything there is simply bigger than usual. Distances, building, squares streets etc.. Just around the corner usually means a short drive from 15 to 45 minutes. Walking just one block can be a nightmare just walking around for ages. There are many hotspots in the city like an art district, night market, Forbidden City and so on.

My personal impression from this trip is that I want to come back again and see how the nation can cope with the rapid transformation from a communistic society to a hi-tech country. It seems for me that there are a lot of efforts to make a better future like going green. At the other hand there are still a lot of restrictions that make it hard to believe that this kind of changes will be in a short time. Many people still are stuck in the system of former times and there are just a few signs of a transformation to a new democracy.