Study Trip Wrap-Up and Coming Home

As you might have been able to guess, writing about the study trip is actually part of fulfilling our international requirement at the GSB. The school tries to make sure that we don't interpret those trips as vacation, but actually as an opportunity to learn and grow. Part of that learning is reflecting on the experiences via blogposts or essays. Well, I selected the blogposts.

Let me sum up the trip experiences:

(+) Met a lot of great people from my class

(+) Actually really got to know some people on a deeper level

(+) Learned about the Australian economy

(+) Made some meaningful airline executive connections

(+) Crossed off another continent

(-) Wasn't really challenged culturally (Australia is actually kind of like the US)

(-) Didn't get the time to venture out on my own

(-) Had only very few interactions with locals

(-) Spent much, much, much more money than I would have on a self-organized trip

After three more days (including Christmas) in Cairns it was time to say bye-bye to Down Under and the town with the countless bats and head back to California. Well, not exactly. Driving airfare down I decided to book a lot of my travel with AirAsia and include 3 stops on the way back: Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Tokyo.

Highlights:

- Skiing in Hakuba and having sushi on the slopes

- Realizing that I visited 4 of the 10 most expensive cities worldwide on the trip (SIN, MEL, SYD, TYO)

- Having drinks at the Marina Bay Sands hotel, starting to dance and having the entire club follow us to the dance floor

- Staying at a classmates former housemates house in Tokyo (Thank, Li!)

- Being shown around Tokyo by another classmate and taking her to a Maid Cafe (if you know what that is you are really weird!)

I promise that the next post will actually be about business school again.

Until then

Cheers + bis bald,

TIM

Emperor's Palace in Tokyo

Japanese mid-skiing snack 

Me on the slopes in Hakuba

Hakuba's Happo-One skiing area