I was the only white person there

Today was wasted, largely spent in bed for my own safety. However tonight I went out to dinner with a number of Tsinghua School of Economics and Management MBA classmates. I was invited by SeungHae Ahn, a Korean classmate. Several classmates went to a park today, but I had opted out to try and get stuff done. I failed miserably.

Ahn called me up at six, and was gracious enough to meet me at the Wei Lun building because I didn’t know where we were going. It was a restaurant in the far back corner of campus. It was in yet another large cafeteria building. When we arrived with his attractive wife and another classmate, there were already almost four full tables of people. I only knew one other person, a Korean girl name Eunjin Song. I was ultimately seated between two Chinese women and two Korean women, so I can’t complain.

Eventually some VIPs arrived. One of the draws, besides meeting some more of my Chinese classmates, was meeting some Executive MBA classmates. A Mr. 安�?� An Li, was seated at my table. He took a liking to me as my first name had the same character as his ‘An’. Actually my Chinese name is �?�士奇 which always goes down well, as it is both Chinese and not Chinese. However that is a story for another blog entry.

I also learned that gambei!, doesn’t mean cheers in China, but bottoms up. So after saying it to 安�?�, I became a very popular drinking companion. I had to drink many small glasses of beer. It actually interfered with my enjoyment of the meal. I didn’t eat that much and didn’t get to try all the dishes until some were cold.

I had a good time talking to Lee Hye Mi (Melanie) �?�惠美. I even might have won some brownie points knowing the last character of her name is “beautiful”. We got along pretty well, as she is new to China, so her Chinese isn’t so strong so she was happy to speak English. Her English was of course excellent. I never got to talk to her friend much, she was much in demand among older, drunken, Chinese classmates. Lee Hye Mi’s brother is also currently studying mechanical engineering at UBC so we had a few things in common besides our lack of Chinese language ability.

I eventually was pulled away from Lee Hye Mi, by Ahn. We went on a tour of the tables, where I was introduced to many people. The tour consisted of three Koreans and me. My Chinese isn’t so good, but I managed to get a few laughs by saying I was Japanese (in Chinese) once. I also had to drink many glasses of beer and ran out of business cards before I went to all the tables. I gave out a lot more cards than I received.

I hope to add some photos from the evening when Ahn and others email them to me. I enjoyed myself and was able to forget my troubles for a while. Of course when I get back, my room mate Nan nan, has noticed things aren’t quite right with me. This despite the fact she thinks I am a dedicated hard worker and a ‘nice guy‘ for going out of my way to help so many people, such as the undergrads.

I also got an email neigh two, from Mr. Steven Keller, whom I was correct in assuming has not read my blog. He spent many an hour reading my postings which he found both funny and disturbing. That’s me, I’m even funny when I’m depressed.

Of course now that Steve has learned a few more things, others will learn a few more things and there are a lot of things to learn. Lord knows I learned some hard, hard, lessons during my MBA. I don’t think I will ever benefit from those lessons…

This entry was originaly posted on October 29th, 2005, it was last edited on September 26th, 2022 and is filed under: Asia and tagged: China, MBA, Tsinghua.