Ford trip/3 midterms/2 group presentations/Thanksgiving and Taipei

Ok, so from the title of this blog, you can see that I have been really busy the past 3 weeks. 11/7 our MOM class took a trip to the Ford Motor Co. in Taiyuan. We had to meet our group at 6am at the Kuang Fu Gate across from the Country Club and was told not to be late and yet we did not leave until 6:30am b/c the teachers were not on time nor the majority of the group so I could have had another 30mins sleep which did not matter because the 3hr bus ride was perfect for it. At the Ford Co. We started with the Upper Management introducing themselves then started our plant tour to the assembly line and the Engine manufacturing. It’s absolutely stunning how precise the assembly line is. They manufacture I think 5 different cars(I did not take notes) that are all mixed in together throughout the line up (meaning, they do not just make the focus car one day and the ford escape another day) Their software program is great. It has every part from the bolts to the exact doors to come in at the perfect time the car gets to the specific spot on the assembly line. It’s easier to explain if you are looking at it. haha. Anyways the plant was very clean and professional with the workers working hard (no slackers). They fed us lunch in their cafe on site for all their workers and then we headed back to the conference room for the managers presentations. It was a long day at the Ford plant and we said our good byes and headed back to Tainan. They happen to stop for dinner about 45 mins off our course home and it was a place with more interesting foods. I ate pig fat, some kind of intestines, a whole fish cooked in front of us with scales in all on it, some chicken, a mini squid or maybe it was a crawdad thing which was really good, and of course we had rice. I did not enjoy too much of the food so I was still very hungry by the time we arrived back at school.

So I have had 3 midterms which ended up being 1 each week for the past three weeks. I hated my BDM midterm which consisted of 5 Statistical questions which was poorly written out and took me 3 hours to complete. I got a 74, but should have done much better, but the teacher said anything over a 60 you’re in good shape, I just have to do well on my group project in the class and I can probably have an A in the class or a high B. So my second exam was IT PM which was open book and I feel I depended too much on the book and not my own personal knowledge which caused me to second guess everything and ended up with an 88. My 3rd midterm was in MIS and I will find out this coming Wednesday what I scored. In the past 3 weeks I had two group presentations in my IT PM class which I am glad to have gotten over with and the group project is on schedule.

Thanksgiving was just around the corner and I could not wait to eat all the bad memories of studying for hours over the past 3 midterms, but soon realized I did not have any plans nor heard of anyone planning a Thanksgiving dinner party. It was last Wednesday before thanksgiving when I was studying for my MIS midterm that was later that day at 6:30pm. My friend Kyle Webb from Texas who is American/Taiwanese helped me plan our last minute TG party where we had found a restaurant which prepared a full TG meal (16-20lb turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, and they couldn’t leave out the green tea) all for just 3000NT or $100US. After I got off work Thursday at 12N Kyle took me to "AJ's Burgers" to try for the first time and I had a double bacon/cheese burger and fries that was actually really good and the closest thing to a burger from home. I was really tired from not having much sleep the past couple nights from studying so after the big burger, I went back to the room to grab a nap and also a movie before I met back up with Kyle at the track to run off the burger and get ready for the huge meal we had planned at 8pm. I went back to shower before I met back up with Kyle to pick up the turkey and after I left the track with my bag and Kyle continued to run a couple more, Kyle called and said someone had stolen his bag which had his wallet and cell phone in it. So a bad beginning to a great night and Kyle is calm person and was able to keep it from ruining his night even though he had to make a lot of calls to cancel his credit cards and all the other information. We had a later start than we planned, but we got to the restaurant to pick up the Turkey that I was so surprised to see as it lay in a nice big basket. After we picked up the food we had to find some more plates and forks and a few drinks. We got lucky and found place that was closing its doors, but allowed us to buy some paper plates at the last minute. It’s great that Kyle speaks Chinese or else this Thanksgiving dinner would not have been possible for me to plan and put together alone. It was hard to resist not jumping into the back seat and eating everything b/c the smell was amazing. We got back and Kyle got his perfect parking spot and everything was set up in his apt when we realized we had forgot the "GRAVY" and you cannot eat turkey, mash potatoes, or stuffing without gravy. So I had to make a bunch of calls to ask for 30 more mines while we drove all the way back across town to get the big bag of gravy we sadly forgot the first time.

Well our friends started showing up and we were all starving so I had the privilege to cut the turkey and it was just a great experience to finally share a part of my culture with all my friends. At the party we had friends from Pakistan, Italy, Estonia, Taiwan, Canada, US (me), and I think the Philippines. We had about 16 show up total so we were able to split the price at only 200NT a person or $6. To top off the night one of my favorite movies "The Count of Monte Cristo" was on TV :). My friends all came together and gave me a great thanksgiving dinner while I shall remember forever as my first Thanksgiving away from home.

It was even better when I was able to Skype my family at home around 1:30am my time to see all of them before they had their big thanksgiving feast. Saturday morning I was also able to wake up early and Skype home again to talk to my Maryland cousins and my gramma. It really put a huge smile on my face to see everyone and talk to them as they came in town to visit the family and gramma "90th" Birthday. Happy bday gramma or Sheng ri Kuai le in Chinese :)and sorry to wake up my roommate Clark when I had to call them at 9:30am here, I couldn’t pass up the chance to talk to everyone.

So Toni and I left for Taipei Saturday on the 1:50pm bus and I was able to watch a couple movies and get a good nap on the 4 1/2hr bus ride. We arrived at the Taipei Main Station where I stayed just around the corner may 2007 in Hotel Flowers with my Study abroad trip with ASU. It was great to go back and have the quick memories and even more amazing that I was able to find my way to my favorite restaurant which was a few blocks away and delicious. I am really glad I did not get Toni and I lost as I tried to recall my steps from over a year ago. Sander and Maria also made the trip to Taipei and we were able to meet up with them before Toni and I went to our hostel to luckily get the last room available and it was only 500NT a night or $15US. We had a fun time that night and got back to the hostel at 5am to sleep a few hours and catch a bus back home to Tainan at 1:40pm. It’s fun to just get up and go somewhere for a quick weekend and I recommend my friends and family back home to just get up and go on a quick trip to get away and just have fun.

I finally made it home and looking ready for a movie and bed. I love all you here and back home and I am always praying for all my family and friends’ health and safety.

Love yall,

Logan

IMBA "Welcome Party" / First Halloween in Taiwan

So classes have been going on as scheduled and we held our first ever at the IMBA NCKU University Professional International Case Study meetings. Since I was working in the IMBA office on Friday mornings 8-12n I was put in charge of the registration process for the morning events. Long story short, I sat in the basement under the stairs from 8am-12n with only about 30 mins of actual work of signing up people. I had to work on homework before my 6:30pm class, so I was not able to make it back for the afternoon Case presentations. That Friday for my MOM class we had a guest speaker Jason Liu who was the CEO of Mazda here in Taiwan. He has traveled all over the world and had many interesting things to tell us about. His topic of discussion was explaining Brand Value and how Mazda tries to strategically use it to increase sales, and retain customers by creating brand loyalty. Mr. Liu was a great speaker and since his profession was in the Automotive industry, I felt a quick connection in his presentation to home (thanks dad). Later in the presentation he opened the floor up for questions and I had to ask if he had ever been to a "NACE" convention in Las Vegas. Since I have been to a couple NACE shows over the years with the last one being in Las Vegas, I was hoping to hear his thoughts and comments on the show and the Las Vegas experience, but he had never been to NACE since it is mainly for collision repair companies and manufacturers of the products for that industry, but he said he has heard of it, and hopes to go in the future. He did say he has been to the show in Frankfurt Germany which is the largest of the Car shows in the world (not sure if I spelt Frankfurt correctly). Anyways his presentation was great and with a few advertisements he showed us, it made me think of getting a Mazda for my next vehicle (but still probably wont).

The next day was Saturday which was the night of our "Welcome Party" that the senior students hosted for us Juniors. Everyone dressed in their Traditional Countries dress for the event. It was really cool to see the diversity of everyone. The party was at a very nice hotel and we had over 250 students with their friends and family members. There was so much delicious food and of course they arranged a bar which everyone seemed to love. A couple of the Senior students performed a skit to really "break the ice" with everyone and someone it came out that I was known as the "cute/hot" new Junior, but I am too tan for some of the girls taste, haha and Raquel was also mentioned as being the cute/hot female junior of our class. After they made me stand up in front of everyone while my face was blushing and surprised that I have not heard all this commotion about me already. hehe. Well after the dinner, still in front of everyone (including our professors and their wives) the seniors wanted to have a drinking challenge against us juniors so each team was consisted of 8 students. The game was just to chug a wine glass of beer one at a time until the end of the line. Well "WE WON”, but one of our teammates drank his right as they said start without knowing he had to wait his turn, but we still won by more than one person so I don’t like to accept the disqualification. Both teams were a good sport and shook hands. The last part of the party at the hotel was of people from different countries performing a traditional dance or song. So we had to be out of the Hotel by 11pm due to our reservation expiring, so the after party was a bus ride to the club "Fusion" where we all danced and partied till about 2am then shared cabs home.

The next weekend was Halloween so just about everyone was excited to dress up and celebrate a Western Tradition. I still had a week of classes to get through with Homework due in BDM and MOM. My Chinese class was cancelled for that Thursday because the Chinese language center had planned a field trip on Saturday which everyone could have signed up. The trip looked like a lot of fun, but knowing previous Halloweens, there was no way I was meeting at 7:30am after a night of drinking to ride a couple hrs on a bus for another party. So Friday was the big day, and after work I spent the rest of the day up until class searching all over town to find face/body paint to create my outfit. Tony and Ulle searched around town on our scooters with me until we finally found an art shop with non-toxic face paint and we found some bamboo rice farmer hats at another store to create our outfits. I had MOM class where we had another guest speaker Bob Crowley, who is the HR Director for Ford in Taiwan. Mr. Crowley is from Australia and has worked with Ford for 29 years. He talked about what it takes to become a successful international manager and his past experiences. Mr. Crowley brought many gifts to pass out to students who asked good questions. Towards the end of class the topic of compensation came up so I had a question I felt fit the discussion. My question " As the HR Director of Ford, how do you deal with keeping a high morale and motivation among your employees, when in 2006 Ford lost around $12.9 million and the CEO was paid over $39 million while laying off thousands of jobs?" he said the key to keeping the trust in employees is clear effective communication. He continued by saying that finding a CEO is very competitive based pay and the majority of his $39 million was stock options which he most likely lost as the company lost money. Also by explaining the reasons behind certain decisions and the rationale behind it, employees will not feel left out or in the dark on matters such as these. He thanked me for the good question and gave me a ford racing jacket collection edition. It’s really cool and sporty looking just a tad bit small, but it will come in handy I’m sure.

So after the class I hurried back to the dorm to start dressing up and painting up my face with Tony, Ulle, and another friend from soccer Kyle from Ontario who has only been here a week. The night started at the "country club" then to the Armory bar. It was packed and everyone loved our costumes and took a lot of pictures with us throughout the night. Around 4am we went to the Orient club since they were no longer charging admission and danced for about 1 1/2 until we ended up having breakfast at a restaurant near our dorm and watched the daylight creep up on us. It was a lot of fun and I slept till 3pm the next day and then worked on homework.

Most recently or Last night, we have been set up in "Families" with local MBA business students at NCKU. I have 5 new friends; Elaine, Davis, Candice, Albert, and Beryl. We had a fun eating game we all played as a group (15 groups of 7 or 8) where we had a member of our team (4 at a time) go up to the front and eat a traditional Taiwanese dish (mine was oyster omelet) and one of the dishes had wasabi (green Japanese spice) and we had to pretend we had the spicy dish to convince the other groups to pick you from the person who had the real spice dish. If the groups guessed the wrong person then they had to drink a very bitter tea which I thought was disgusting and it gave me goose bumps. lol anyways after the contest my group joined up with some others and we all went to eat dinner (shrimp rolls which I have been waiting to eat since I have been here). They were delicious like I had expected and we finished the night we a few of us playing pool in a game place that was only a 100yds from my dorm and I had no clue it was there. So hopefully I can play pool more often and not be terrible when I finally get to come back home.

So my past few weeks have been fun, but of course I miss home and these holidays coming up. Thanks again for everyone reading my blogs.

Luv Always,

Logan