St. Petersburg- Day 3

Julie,

Wow and I thought yesterday felt like a long day... today was brutal! In short here was our schedule: A 3 hour class, followed by a one hour speaker, followed by a one hour lunch, followed by a three hour class, followed by an hour and half speaker, followed by dinner. Ouch! That is a lot of sitting.

I'm still getting a feel for whether or not I like these classes. I think both are very applicable, but the three hour time frames are wearing on me earlier than they usually do. I'm also a little confused with cost accounting as everything he talks about an is showing us in class is from an observation or managers view which would be nice other than I know he is going to test us on the details of how and where to calculate certain numbers. We have a midterm test the first week we get back from Russia and it is worth more of our grade than the final is and right now I am trying to figure out what the heck he is going to test us on?

Today was also our first day of operations class. I think it is going to be a good class, but today got a bad wrap cause the afternoon class is always harder to sit through than the morning class. I think there will be a lot of usual information. I know it is good when I am sitting in class thinking... ok so how can I apply this to Foot and Ankle or another medical practice I might be in? Hopefully that enthusiasm carries on.

Both speakers did an ok job today, but speaking engagements are just so much different than I expected them to be. None of the speakers really dazzle and a lot of the time I feel pretty bored (or I'm fighting to stay awake), but as I think back on it afterwards, they covered the very types of things I wanted to hear about in this region of the world. I guess it is just tough to spend an extra 2 1/2 hours sitting and listening to speakers after you have already spent 6 hours sitting and listening to lectures.

I also had a couple interesting realizations today. First was the break times we look forward to so much during class. Usually about half way through they will give us a 15 minute break. Everyone always looks forward to these, but I have found the breaks during this residency to be much different. I didn't realize what it was until part way through today. The reason the breaks haven't been as enjoyable or feel different is because every break is centered around food and the major food that is available are sugary treats like cookies and pastries. I hadn't really noticed it before, but this trip I have been really good about not eating the treats they provide (surprisingly I don't even desire them like I use to) so we get out to break and I chat with some classmates for a few minutes and then I have nothing to do. That is usually when I start glancing over at the treat table so now I usually head back in to the classroom early and check my email or facebook or something before we start up again. Nothing revolutionary, just an interesting observation I had.

The second has to do with an iron and an ironing board. Watch this video and then read further.

So to restate the video, it is crazy that a 5 star hotel would only have enough irons for like 10-15 people when they know they will be hosting 120 business students for 10 days. Oh well.

Well that was pretty much my day today. Here are a few other pictures of the hotel since that is all I have seen the last couple of days.

This is the "classroom" or hotel ballroom where I have class everyday.

This is the lobby entrance to the ballroom where we have class.

This is one of the many events screens around the hotel. As you

can tell we are monopolizing the space.

This is a view of the main lobby from the second floor.

This is the patio where I work out in the morning. The gym is right behind

where I was standing when I took the picture. Every morning so far I have 

come out here instead and done my workout (jumprope, situps, pushups, burpees, etc)

This picture didn't turn out as good as I hoped, but it is a picture of

the view from that balcony. You can see about 4 or 5 cathedrals sticking up just 

in this picture. It was amazing to me how many you could see from up there.

And my last picture...

This is the beating I've taken in Russia so far (notice the whip marks on my arm)

In reality this is the punishment I get from trying to learn

double unders.

Final side note: The housekeeping has been so weird here. LIke most hotels they leave signs that say, if you want to change the sheets leave this card on the bed and if you want new towels don't hang them up just leave them on the floor. Well today after I got back from class, I go into the bathroom to find both the hand towel and towel I used this morning hanging on the back of the door when I left both laying on the ground. It was just so funny to me. I mean what was she trying to pull... make me think that I hung them up there myself? Anyway, I just thought it was funny.

I love you so much,

Brock

St. Petersburg- Day 2

Julie,

Well sometimes it comes early and sometimes it comes late, but it ALWAYS COMES! That is the marathon day. I really hate days like today, but it sure got us back into the swing of things. Today we actually were given some "study time" in the morning so class didn't start until 11am and while most of my classmates used that time (and the first class) to sleep in after staying out all night, I was able to sleep in a little bit, workout, go to breakfast, and get some reading done for class.

The first class we had was GMI, which is the macro economics class we have been taking every term since we started. Thankfully this is the last term. We finished up talking about a few topics over 3 hours and now we never have GMI again. I am very grateful for that. That class was actually split in half with lunch right in the middle, so it was nice to get a little break half way through.

After lunch and the second half of GMI, we had our first class of managerial accounting. This is probably going to be one of the most useful classes I am taking, but 3:30pm to 6:30pm is a bad time. Right about the 4pm mark, I was fighting HARD to stay awake and I couldn't shake it until the half way mark at 5pm. Needless to say that was one of the longest hours of my life as I fought and fought to keep my eyes open. At 5pm he gave us a 15 minute break and that helped wake me up enough that I was ok the rest of the way. I'm looking forward to this class the rest of the way, but I hope I can gear myself up for it.

Oh here is a funny side note, so we have been having quite a few internet issues since we got here and the hotel staff couldn't figure out what was going on. Since we had arrived, we have crashed their server twice and they weren't sure why. Come to find out, even though they have 400 rooms and are a 5 star hotel, they only had 50 licenses for people to sign on to the server. When we arrived we typically have 118 people all trying to get on the server at the same time since we all get out of class the same time and have the same schedules. SO, supposedly tomorrow morning they will have the problem fixed. Let's hope...

Well after class was over they gave us 30 minutes to have dinner and then go to a career management class on interviewing. I ended up going to the main session at the first where we are given certain information on how to interview and then they decided to break out into smaller groups and practice. Based on how well that went in Shanghai (not well at all if you didn't guess), I decided my limited time was best used elsewhere so I left. Now it is 8pm so it will be nice to have a couple of hours to get some homework done and get to bed at a decent hour since we will be starting class early again tomorrow.

This residency has been very interesting, because I can tell I am pretty worn down at this point. I find myself being even more isolated. I still enjoy talking to my classmates and being apart of the group, but I don't mind splitting off from the group and getting things done on my schedule and timetable. I am very relieved that this will be the last international residency. I am not cut out for constant travel and although a lot of my classmates love it and travel 2 to 3 times this much for work, I could never do that. 5 international trips in 11 months has definitely worn me down. I feel like we have half way into this residency and then I look at the calendar and realize this is day 2.... wow!

Well sorry no pictures, but there wasn't much to show today. Tomorrow we will spend all day in the hotel as well so I will try to get you some pictures of the classroom and where we eat, etc.

Thanks for all your love and support.

Love,

Brock

St. Petersburg- Day 1

Julie,

Well can you believe it is the last international residency? As I sit here and contemplate it, I can't believe in the last 11 months I have been to London, Dubai, New Delhi, Shanghai, and now St. Petersburg. You have been such an amazing support through all of this. The other thing I have realized is how much closer this experience has made us. I've been here for a little over 24 hours and already I am wishing I were home with you and the boys. As much fun as it is to be in Russia, it will never be as fun as it would be with you. Having said that, I really think we made the right choice in you not coming. I want you to see Moscow--my home-- not St. Petersburg. (Plus I am VERY MUCH looking forward to our trip to Cancun!) My point in all this is that WOW! it has been a long journey and YES! we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I arrived in St. Petersburg last night around 6:30pm and as usual by the time I got to the hotel, unpacked, and took a deep breath it was time to go to bed--thankfully cause I was exhausted.
This hotel is definitely VERY NICE for Russia, but it doesn't get anywhere near matching the JW Marriott we stayed at in Shanghai. The rooms are actually kind of disappointing-- smaller rooms, small bathroom, weird half glass bathtub/shower, and two twin beds side by side instead of a king bed.

View from the doorway

Bathroom (that's the beday, not the toilet, I'm standing over the toilet taking the picture)

Notice the half glass shower thing... it only blocks enough water so your floor gets partly soaking wet :)

Bedroom-- two twins? huh? Aren't I suppose to feel like a king? :)

This morning we had orientation first at 8am followed up by a 2 hour GMI class. I learned two things, 1. Orientation is still boring, and 2. I still don't like GMI and will be very glad it is over after this term. I promise I am not trying to be negative, I think I am just becoming a little more opinionated about certain things so I can then translate that into being more decisive in some of my decision making.

After classes we were given box lunches and then it was free time and a group cultural tour. During the free time a big group of us decided to take a trip out to Peterhof to see the palace and we ended up having quite the adventure. I didn't even know the group was going to Peterhof until I got down to the lobby to go to the convenience store (had to buy some toothpaste cause I forgot to bring some) and I saw a big group of students. I ran back up to my room to get my camera and by the time I got back most of the group was gone except Dave Taylor and Johnson Tan who waited for me. They had said everyone was going to walk there so we started walking assuming we as 3 people could catch up to the big group. Apparently, however, we couldn't. We were never really sure we were going the right way but we were walking down the main historical street nevski avenue (невский проспект) so here are some of the things we saw along the way.

This is the Hermitage (Art/Cultural Museum). Our tour guide in our later tour told us that if you spent 

10 seconds looking at each picture in there that it would take you 2 weeks straight to finish.

WOW! That's a lot of pictures.

After about a 40 minute walk we made it to the hydro foil boat in order to ride to Peterhof. This is where we caught up with the rest of the group. 

The Hydro foil boat to Peterhof

Along the way there wasn't much to see, but this was kind of

cool to see the construction/maintenance area for a big ship.

After a 30 minute boat ride, we made it Peterhof. Luckily for all of this I had my student ID in my wallet, because student prices are half of the regular tourist prices. We were pressed for time, so we didn't spend a huge amount of time here, but it was definitely worth seeing. The palace is HUGE and the fountains are amazing to see. 

Me at Peterhof

This is a view from the palace looking back toward the docks where the boat dropped us off.

This is a view from the docks toward the palace.

After Peterhof, we boogied on back to the hotel so we could make it on time for the cultural tour with the Duke group. We made it back in enough time to run an errand to the store for my toothpaste and then catch the bus. The bus ride was alright and the tour guide was a funny girl that spoke funny broken english, but driving around the city gets a little old after a while. Here are some of the sites we saw.

One of many monuments

The Moscow Train Station (i.e. the portal to my homeland in Russia)

Another monument

The Cathedral of Christ and the Spilt Blood.

After the bus ride, we took this boat through the river/canals of the city. It was a cool perspective, but I didn't take many pictures because you are so low all you can really see are the sides of buildings. All in all it was a busy day with a lot of walking and touring, but it was also A LOT OF FUN! I'm glad I got to see as much of the city as I did and especially right up front so I can be sure I got to do all I wanted to.

Here are a couple of videos I shot... hopefully they load.

                                  Peterhof

                         Example of our boat tour

          (very similar to the one we did in Denmark)

Shanghai- Day 7

Julie,

Wow, I was getting ready for bed and I realized I almost forgot to
write my email for the day.

Nothing particularly exciting as today was the gauntlet day. We
essentially had class from 8am to 6:30pm... a VERY long day. It was
pretty funny though because my strategy professor started taking role
in class because the Duke staff asked him to. For the last two
residencies attendance has been dwindling especially the later we get
into the week. Mostly it is because so many of them go out and party
literally ALL NIGHT LONG and then come back and go to class. A couple
of the people sitting around me had only gotten 2 hours of sleep the
night before, one of which was after drinking a lot of alcohol so they
looked in pretty bad shape. But I was impressed with them even showing
up to class, because a lot of other people weren't anywhere near class
all day long. It is kind of funny. We spend over $100,000 for this
exclusive education and then when it comes down to it a lot of them
are treating it like they are back in high school. Crazy!

Today was the last day of the finance class. Overall I think it is
going to be a very useful class and I am really excited that during
the distance portion rather than going over a bunch of new material,
we will be reviewing all the material we have already gone over here
in China. We did the same thing in stats and I really liked it because
I feel like it gives us a chance to really learn and apply the
material we are learning.

Tonight our team got together and had dinner as a group which I
thought was really good because we were able to socialize and learn a
little more about each other and not worry about an assignment we are
or are not doing. Overall I really like my team and feel like I got
put with a great group of people.

Tomorrow is our LAST DAY here Shanghai. The plan is to have class all
morning and afternoon until 4:15pm. Then I am going to head over to
the markets to try and get the last of the things I want to get. Then
I'll come back, pack, sleep, and that will be it for residency #4.
Crazy that there will only be one more international residency after
this.

Also, I have been thinking a lot about our current situation and not knowing where we are going or what is going to work out, but I came across a verse in Mosiah that spoke peace to my heart and let me know we are on the right path.

Mosiah 29:20- But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightly unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him.

Great verse. If we put our trust in him that this will all work out and humble ourselves before him it will all work out the way it is suppose to. We must have faith in that!

Well, love you babe!

Brock
P.S. Attached are some pictures of the view we get to look at everyday
from our classrooms. Its an awesome city to look 

Shanghai- Day 5 and 6

Julie,

There wasn't much to tell from yesterday so sorry for not having an
email for you, but today was a really good day.

First, yesterday Day 5 was mostly all day in the hotel. I really like
both the classes I have this semester especially from a content
standpoint, because I feel like there is a lot of good information I
could be utilizing at work, but I have gotten to the point of
frustration with my finance class. The professor is really nice and
very smart, but his teaching style is extremely dry. So much so that I
found myself completely zoning out during class. Even more so, he has
some CDs that he gave us with presentations of the lectures he gives
in class and they are exactly the same almost verbatim. Because of
that the last two classes I have missed most of the class and watched
the lecture on CD and then come down to class for the end of it. I
REALLY want to get this material down and start implementing it
immediately so I felt like this solution was the most helpful.
Tomorrow is our last finance class so I am still debating on how I
will handle that one.


I think I have mentioned this before, but these two classes have
really made me realize that I need to be utilizing more of my MBA
skills in my current position and as a practice administrator when I
become one. There are a lot of things we could be doing to help
practice better assess new opportunities, cost controls, brand and
market strength, etc. By doing stuff like forecasting, regression
analysis, industry/SWOT analysis, NPV, IRR, and DCF analysis we could
really differentiate ourselves and show some great value in what we
provide. Anyway, those are just thoughts I've had that I wanted to get
written down.

Both days I have tried to fit in some shopping since but I am
realizing I don't have enough hours in the day. I am trying to figure
out when I am going to be able to go back and finish everything I need
to. One of the funniest/best experiences I have had is
shopping/bargaining with Dave Taylor. The man is a legend. He is a
really aggressive negotiator and calls out the sales people on how
ridiculous their prices are. In the end they are usually ticked that
he has pushed the negotiating so far, but when he comes back the next
day they all remember him. It is pretty funny to watch. He'll get into
it with any of them about pretty much any product.
Today I got winter coats for both of us and I am really excited about
them because they are definitely the best quality I have seen since
I've been here.

Today was also our "corporate tour" day or in my case cultural tour.
We took an hour and a half bus ride out to the city of Zhouzhuang
which is a really cool historical city that has canals running through
all of it (think of Venice, Italy). It was cool to see some of the
older historical chinese buildings. We rode on a gondola boat and
walked the streets. It was a lot of fun and even though I was
apprehensive about taking so much time to get out there and see it, I
was definitely glad I went and saw it.

Attached are a bunch of pictures. Sorry there aren't any comments on
them, but they are mostly shots of the city as we walked around. I am
not looking forward to have to back date all these emails and put them
into the blog, but I want to have them there as an archive--dang
chinese censorship! :)

Well I am off to bed. Love you so much!

Brock

Shanghai- Day 4

Julie,

Well another day is done and I don't feel like I have much to report. I will tell you though that structuring my day similar to how my day starts at home makes a huge difference. I was able to go to the gym again this morning and that really helped with keeping my energy up and kept me having better focus. 

Finance was quite a battle though today. Our professor seems like a really nice guy, but he is VERY dry when he teaches so it makes the class feel like it is twice as long. What is sad is there is some really key material that I think I and many others could derive a lot of information out of, but as I reflect on how the same material was taught to me in my econ classes at BYU, he sure makes it feel and seem a lot more difficult. At first I thought it was just me, but then I noticed some other people who have finance backgrounds making the same comments.

Strategy was awesome. It flew by and I really think I am going to love this class. What is even better is the professor is kind of quirky and so all the quirks come out during class. For example, every time the back door opens and gets left open (which is a lot) he stops what he is teaching to ask someone to go bak and close the door. Then today while he was saying something, someone was rattling a wrapper (they give us mints on our desks in individual wrappers) and he stopped class to ask the person to stop. It is just so funny to watch him because you can tell those things are really getting to him.

Two other really funny things that happened that won't seem as funny to you, but I thought I would write about them just to have a record of it. Throughout the various terms, there are a few consistencies in every class and they deal with particular people. First is Bob. Bob is an American that lives in Russia and in case any of us didn't know that, he is sure to start off every sentence with "Well in Russia... this is how it works or this is how it happens." It became the running joke in London and has continued ever since. He also has a funny way of raising his hand almost like he is calling a waiter over to take his order. The other prevalent person is David. He has apparently decided it is his job to ask at least 30 non subject matter related questions per class. This has gotten to the point where the other section tends to get out of class 30 minutes early because the professors are so use to our section, mainly David, asking so many questions that when the other section doesn't ask any questions they get through the material MUCH faster.

Well in two quick minutes, the professor made comments to both that had the class erupting in laughter (Again, this won't sound funny, especially in writing, but I had to record it). About half way through the class the professor asked a question and then you could see his eyes gravitate toward the back of the room where David sits. He then painstakingly looked around the room only to find that no one else was raising a hand and so he looked back at David and said, "You've already talked a lot today, let's give someone else a chance." Then a minute later he looked over after another question to see Bob giving his typical "come take my order" hand raise and called him on by saying, "you look like you're trying to order a cup of coffee." Bob then went on one of his rants about how "things were" and when he paused you could see the professor had kind of zoned out and then he came back to reality and said, "and so what was your point?" 

Oh man, it was probably the fact that it was just a long running joke, but we were all busting up laughing. 

After class, we had a 2 hour break until the CEO speaker night so I went back to the market to try and get some stuff. Apparently the cops had been through that day so all the good stuff was in hiding and they weren't going to pull it out. So we wandered around for a couple of hours and I ended up not buying ANYTHING! Tomorrow I will have another opportunity and then one on Saturday. 

Tonight was the reception/CEO night that is like the nice dinner evening. It actually turned out to be a disappointment. The CEO speaker was from American Standard and he did a great job, but the dinner was so so and there wasn't the nice setup like they've had at other residencies.

Well tomorrow is another full day of classes and then hopefully some time visiting the markets again.

Love ya,

Brock

Shanghai-Day 3

Julie,

Well today was a boring day by way of reporting. We spent all day in the hotel so I don't have any cool pictures to show you. I do want to take a picture of the awesome balcony and view we have from our classroom area, but today was overcast and rainy so I am going to wait till it clears up to take that picture.

Today our schedule was class in the morning, then a speaker, lunch, another class, break, Career Alumni panel, Dinner, and homework. 

One change up that I started today was I tried to emulate my normal schedule at home, so rather than getting up later, I got up at 5:45am and went to the gym. I tried to craft my own crossfit workout and it definitely wasn't as intense as crossfit, but it is difficult to set something up when you have to transition between weights or machines because there were a TON of people in there so anytime I would leave a weight someone would take it. It is actually a fairly nice gym and it sure made the day go a lot better having gone to the gym in the morning-- I was much more alert. It also helped me regulate my eating better. I still ate some of the goodies they put out for us, but I moderated myself better than I had the day before when I didn't work out. 

Classes felt REALLY long today. Most of the time I found myself zoning out and it just felt like the clock would crawl by. I started trying to figure out ways to be productive and during the speaker I ended up reading my case study for strategy just to keep myself engaged. I think I already said this in another letter, but I am really excited for this strategy class. I am hoping to be able to apply the principles from that class right away because I feel like they are going to be very pertinent to what we are doing with medical practice administration.

Another thing I thought was useful today was a comment made by one of the alumni at the alumni career panel. He was talking about how to use your MBA after you graduate and how you should really take to heart that the paper part of the degree does you no good, but that you really need to focus on actually USING the skills you get from the degree. I guess that really just hit me because I don't feel like I did that very well coming out of undergrad. I feel like I have really strong skills that I could have been utilizing before that i haven't been like regression analysis and forecasting or these strategy skills I am gaining. I feel like a lot of the modeling stuff that I learn, it would be easy to just forget about and let fall by the wayside because the job i have doesn't utilize that type of thing right now, but his comment just made me realize that what I need to do is take those more difficult skills that take a lot of effort to retain and implement them in my current job (desired job) so that i bring a new dynamic to the position (and I retain those skills that make my MBA valuable).

All day I was debating with myself whether or not to go to the career panel thing. I had been to the one in London and it was NOT HELPFUL so I had planned never to attend another one. But I guess the Duke staff realized none of us wanted to go to it because they made it a requirement to go to this one if we wanted to be eligible to attend the job fair in September on Duke's campus. My debate all day was that I knew it wasn't going to be helpful and I hope that I don't have to worry about the job fair in September because I will already have a job by then, but then I would tell myself it I did want to go to the job fair I would regret not going tonight, so I finally signed up and went.  As I predicted WASTE OF TIME. I did like the line I mentioned above, but other than that it just wasn't helpful. They were suppose to have mock interviews with the alumni panel after the panel part but a bunch of the panel didn't show so there ended up being like 15 students to one panel person (when it was suppose to be 5). At that point, I figured I had paid my dues and I left. 

Tonight I have just had dinner and done some homework and then it is off to bed.

That's about it for today!

Love ya,

Brock