What I Learned from Three Months in China... and how my MBA Prepared Me for It

I spent the last three months on an MBA exchange to Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing. It was the fulfillment of a lifetime dream. It was my first time in China, or anywhere in Asia for that matter, and my first time living abroad from the U.S. The experience is so fresh, the realizations so numerous, and the feelings so strong while there, that it's difficult to begin to unravel exactly what I learned. But all that can be done is begin. So here goes.

Creative Expression, Persistence, and Self-Fulfillment

"There is nothing you can buy, achieve, own, or rent that can fill up that hunger inside for a sense of fulfillment and wonder. But the good news is that creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty."

New York's 'exceptional sense of self'

In my preparation for my move to Beijing this fall, where I'll be participating in an exchange program with the business school at Tsinghua University, my Asian and Asian-American friends have been preparing me for life in Beijing, including gearing me up to negotiate for everything. The 'rule of 1/8ths'-- whatever the price is quoted, pay 1/8th that. It sounds tiring. It is, they say, but negotiation is just part of the culture.