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China Experience Coming Soon!

As most of you know. It is extremely hard to access facebook, twitter, and any blog system in Mainland China. Therefore, as the time passes, I will be updating my blog now that I found access. Currently I am just trying to continue to gather my thoughts and taking notes. Soon I promise....Soon!

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China is a Go!

With half my semester gone, I am starting to figure out the details of when I will be flying to China for the first time. Our program finalized our mission to China, not to take over, but to learn more about innovation. We are working for an Information Technology firm, YEAH IT! I have never been to China, but thanks to my sister and brother in law, I will have some pocket money. They went to China last summer and for my birthday, brought me back some money. In this pouch of money, I have 5-what look like 100 Euros but of course they weren't Euros, they were of lesser value. That 100 Ren only worth $15.87 so that 5 x 15.87=79.35. But of course everything is super cheap so shouldn't be to broke right. I hope so.

The adventure continues. The countdown should begins again.

61 Days

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Another Reason to Innovate.

My program MGIM, is in the process of expanding to create a 6-week innovative internship in Hangzhou, China. I am more than excited to have this opportunity in my life. I have always wanted to visit China. This is my chance to learn about the business culture of a country that has a mass amount of innovation coming out of it. This program is expected to start right after I graduate in May. It is said once we walk we will be given 1 week until we depart to China.

Thus make sure you stay up-to-date on my blog. If and when I go to China, best believe I will be going to Tokyo, Thailand, and other Asian countries just like my journey in Europe.

Hahahahahaha! (that is my excited laughther! I don't know why I am laughing but I didn't feel like writing LOL.)

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Another Innovation Project! #NCSTATEMGIM

Yesterday was our first day of our new semester at NCSU. Back to my home university. Fun Stuff! After finishing up our innovation project in France, we arrived to campus Monday morning to meet Dr. Fred Renk, our innovation project class professor.

After my experience last semester with some of my project team members, I was a bit nervous to find out our teams were preselected. I exhaled when they just so happen to turn out to be individuals I was thrilled to be working with. YEAHHH!!!! However, that excitement was somewhat downgraded when I realized our project was something that well, I was a bit more scientific then I was desiring. This is not to say I am not excited to get the crack at getting the chance to try something new but I was hoping there was going to be a project that was more not gonna be so scientific product related. It is going to require me to think so far outside of a box that in my mind hasn't even been created.

Thankfully our sponsor explained it so well that I kind of understand it. It's time to start the research and for me this is going to require even more of an understanding of the product itself. That may take months in itself.

Class has began!

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I Woke Up to Discover...

Have you ever woke up one morning to discover you know exactly what you want to do with your life and it has been in front of you the entire time. I did a couple weeks ago. I'm a little upset that it took me so long but I'm just glad it did.

December 15th, 2011, I finished my innovation project with Etat Pur designing a innovative solution to their website. It hit me after finishing that there is no possible way I want to go into product innovation. Innovation is not solely about the products, and what I was doing with Etat Pur wasn't product related. It was service related.

A couple days prior to that presentation I had lunch with a professor of mine asked me one simple question that has been stuck in my mind since then. He asked me what I was afraid of. Cliche right...Very! However, giving him a cliche answer back (failure) he laughed at me and told me he didn't agree. He told me I was afraid of success. At first I gave it 2 seconds of thinking before I agreed just to agree. But lately, I've been thinking. He was right. As much as I have failed, why am I afraid of failing. It's normal. One thing that I have always secretly told myself is what's next after I reach my goals. That's one of the reason I constantly change my goals because I'm not sure if once I reach it I will have something to achieve afterward. It only makes sense for me to go into a service related industry because I always love to help others and you can never stop helping. Since the world will never be equal or fair, I will always have something greater to achieve.

Now, since I figured that out, time to get to work on finding the opportunity that is gonna get me to where I need to go. My goal is to do innovation marketing within the hospitality industry. Preferably for a convention center or hotel. I'm still an event planner at heart. Don't get me wrong I still want to go into non-profits, however, lets be honest it's really hard to pay off my student loans when you work entry level for a non-profit. One day I will get there and own my own innovation consulting firm for non-profits, just not right now.

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This is my friend Sean's Blog. It's quite interesting. Very deep, very creative. Just thought'd I would share it.

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In 3 weeks, me and my groupmates will present an innovative solution to Etat Pur, a 5 month old cosmetic company. They want to increase internet traffic and go global. This is a real life situation. We are not only graded by our presentation and paper, we are actually working as consultants for Etat Pur, so we can not just present something simple.

How or what would you do to increase traffic to a website without using the typical social media and social networking tools?

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5 Traveling Tips- Part I

Back in October, 24 or 25, students (a large group of us, better put) took a trip to Barcelona. Here is what I discovered, just some helpful tips from both me and others that I would like to share.

When on a bus going on an 8 hour journey, always remember not to sit behind people who talk for 4 hours. It's damn near 2am. Take yourself to sleep. Avoid it if you can because even when they sneeze, cough, or anything, the smallest thing will annoy you. Thus the invention of ear plugs. These handy dandy lil peacemakers block out unwanted noise. Always carry them with you. Also, choose your seat wisely. If you have long legs, try sitting on the outside seat, no matter how much you want a window seat. Your legs will thank you, and so will the random guy who smells like smoke sitting next to you.

Always check to make sure you get off the bus at the correct stop. If it is 5am, PLEASE make sure you get off at the correct stop. Lugging your suitcase or bags even more than 10 blocks from your hostel is not the ideal way to start a trip. Especially when it's 5am.

It also might be ideal to make sure you can check into the hostel between 5am-6am when you arrive. Nothing is more exciting than sleeping on a hostel couch when all you can think about is sleep and who's ass has been where you’re about to put your head. It's a rather disturbing feeling but you might be was too exhausted. However, I did what any person should do in this situation, I took one of my scarves wrapped it over my face and feel asleep. But only to wake up 3 hours later and find our rooms still weren't available. So in order to make light of all this, we did what any unbathed group of students would do. We went out and about the city to find breakfast and pass the time.

One of my personal tips for people who have never stayed at a hostel before. They are quite interesting. I'm not use to sharing only one entire bathroom with men and women of all ages, even if there were individual stalls for multiple showers. It was like men’s and women's locker-room in combined with no sauna. The bedrooms, well let’s just say I was lucky to have all females in my room. I don't particularly care for having multiple men in the same bedroom as me. I don't know maybe it's just me but I get very, very uncomfortable. If you disagree and are comfortable then hey, you do you...and them and everyone else in the room. I'll stick to what makes me feel safe and secure.

If I learned one thing on the first 16 hours in Barcelona, it was to always bring your own sheets. I don't care who says it's clean; chances are it's not clean to your standards. If it is then your standards could possibly be too low. I had one bad experience with sleeping on sheets that looked clean and weren't and will never have that experience again. Just a tip.

Any who, that's just the first of many stories about some of the trips and some tips. I promise there is more to come.

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I don't know if you notice, but only those who care pay attention. Those who don't care just listen.

Me(because I pay attention)

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And out of the chaos, a voice spoke: "Smile and be happy, for it can always be worse". And I smiled, and I was happy, and it did get worse.

Unknown

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There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

Mark Twain

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Survival Mode: Part Duo

Sometimes being away from family and friends can be hard especially for an extended period of time. Thankfully there is this thing called Skype and International Phones. They are perfect for contacting your loved ones back home.

However, they are also perfect for breaking up with your loved ones back home. See, I'm very honest person and very loving girlfriend but sometimes when things feel like no matter how hard you fight, the other person is more willing to give up, things change. I personally don't like giving up on people. It's a weakness.

This survival mode is about truly wanting to be happy in a time of distress and sadness. I have survived an amazing 3 year relationship and now I have to survive seeing his pictures on my computer and facebook and even his name in my phone. I can't delete them because hey, were still friends.

So how do you cope with a long distance breakup?

Simple, you think about why you are in this this long distance relationship. I came to France to study and travel. I paid to come to France to study and travel, well the government paid, but still. I am enjoying my time here. If I had time to mob and sob and have this emotional breakdown 24/7 it would be a huge waste of money, time, and energy. Energy which could be used to do my marketing project, innovation project, and all the other homework I probably should be doing rather than writing this blog post about how to survive a breakup.

So with that being said, back to sleep I go. Hey, I need my rest to have the energy to write these papers which are do in 5 days.

P.S. I still love you! :)

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Survival Mode: Part Une

So even though I have a nice sum of student loan money. I have come to the conclusion that I might be a bit of a shopaholic here in France. Just a bit.

August/September, I limited myself to 550 Euros for the entire month. This included money spent on food, clothes, fun times, etc. Somehow, 550 turned into 675 then into 725 by the end of September. Although a good majority was spent on clothes, surprisingly I didn't realize how much I spent on food. This is so typical me in the US minus the fast food. I thought since fast food over here is rare, that wouldn't be a big problem. I thought maybe I would have more of a fashion addiction...that's right, I do.

To combat this problem, I devised a plan. This plan includes the following:

7 Euros a day-on food, clothing, fun activities, etc.

Where's my Easy Button?

If that 7 Euros is not used in that day, it rolls over into the next day. Essential it rounds out to about 50 Euros a week or 210-220 Euros a month.

However, I'm still debating if it roll into the next month...that would be sweet!

Thus far I am on track, Wednesday of week 1 and I have only spent 25.25 Euros. Not bad it's halfway through the week and only half of my money spent. PERFECT!

To bad I'm making an exception this weekend on my trip to Barcelona. Oops!

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The Truth About French People Time(FPT)

It has been said many times that the idea of CP Time is for African Americans who always show up late. Well...

Introducing, FP Time. French People Time.

The common ideology that whenever you go to dinner at a French person's house, you should arrive 15-30 minutes after the time that you dinner is scheduled. For example, one of my classmates invited us over for dinner and told us to be there by 8:30. In French class our professor warned us that 8:30 usually means 8:45ish or 9 maybe. Well, we of course arrived around 9 because, women, as they say show up fashionably late anyways. Explain to me why when we got there, no food had been prepared. I was expecting at least the chicken to be cooked, but no. So as we sat and waited, I came to realize all the other times my French classmates were late.

-late for class-4-6 times

-late to meetings-2-3 times

-late to hang out with other people-3-4 times

So on and so on.

I am not saying that I have a problem with this, on the contrary, I find it quite amusing. I don't know why. I come to accept that one will be late and know that as long as they show up, everything will go well.