Yujian's Exchange In USA: First Day of Classes at Penn

Hey peepz,

its been really long since i've updated my blog right! i'm so sorry! Anyway, life at UPENN is really kinda busy... not really because of work but rather because of the amount of activities you have... In fact, the classes are really quite ok... so let me start by telling you more about my classes.

Classes

I'm taking 4 modules this sem and they are: Financial Derivatives, Spanish, Special Topics in Macroeconomics: Family Economics, and Venture Capital & Entrepreneurial Mgmt.

Seriously, the people in Wharton and not in Wharton are really very very different... the facilities are also very different... here's the pictures of a standard classroom in non-Wharton classes (that's my Macroecons & Spanish Classes, pictures are from my Spanish Classroom):

students sat on these chairs

they still use overhead projectors

they still use BLACKBOARDS (actually Wharton still use blackboards)

Wharton Facilities are EXACTLY the same as SMU. I wonder who gave SMU the idea to the seminar classrooms... they look the same and everything... just that i think our technology is a little bit more advanced...

Anyway, what's more important is the people in the classes... They're really different... Let me tell you about my Financial Derivatives class. The prof was asking us to introduce ourselves and tell us whether we had experience in derivatives. 1/2 of the class were saying something along these lines "My name is XXX. I spent my summer { (1) trading derivatives / commodities (2) interning at a arbitrage desk (3) doing investment banking, etc } in XXX (most are big names such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, etc". You don't even hear banks like Credit Suisse, Barclays, etc... One of the funniest reply i heard from an Indian girl was, "I was interning at Goldman Sachs Investment Banking, so I don't have experience in derivatives". She sounded like her internship is so-so only... I haven't finish...

1/4 of the class was MBA students... yes, this is a cross-listed class (i.e. mixed with MBA). most of them were traders or working in S&T departments in big corporations... haha... but they sound like nice people... just that they're just damn hiongz...

the rest of the 1/4 of the class was people like me. Know a bit about derivatives but no real experience in it... of course, they were minimal people who are not finance majors but these are really the minority of the minority...

So far, the most interesting class is Spanish... the class is taught in Spanish and i'm totally lost in class! Americans will definitely get in touch with a bit of Spanish in their lives because US is ranked 5th based on the number of people who speaks Spanish. Anyway, i'm still learning... its just the second class... i'm really not that good... i can now pronounce how the alphabets and simple stuff like Buenos Diaz (good morning), Buenas Thordes (good afternoon), Buenas Norches (good evening)... also simple things like como te llamas (what's your name), me llamo yujian (my name is yujian)... something like that...

That's about it for classes... next, let's talk about the facilities...

Facilities
The facilities here are really great... just imagine dorm-life university (i.e. NUS and NTU) but really much more complete with city stuff and such... They have a DAMN nice gym and climbing wall... I'm sure the climbers would definitely prefer this wall to ours... it looks more like a natural wall... i think i'll go and take some pictures and show you... but in the mean time, let me show you the stadium... its called the Franklin Field...

are you reminded of National Satdium?

seriously, at the first look, i tot the stadium is bigger than national stadium... after some checking, i realize that the size is the SAME as national stadium... (NEW Singapore National Stadium capacity = 55,000, Franklin Field Stadium capacity = 52,000) what the hell... and trust me, this stadium serves UPENN... Philadelphia has another stadium... but then again, i was told that this is the oldest 2-tier stadium in US.

Other facilities are actually ok only... in fact, i realize that in terms of technology infiltration, US is actually slower than many asian countries... this is one point that actually mystifies me... but i guess its because of the large fixed costs that were incurred long ago and they need to fully depreciate it before rebuilding... unlike Singapore where the good look of the buildings and technology is very very important...

My Room and My Food
Last but not least, i'll show you guys some pictures of my room and my food... actually, i think my room is really quite nice... I've furnished it to look quite homely and stuff... i don't mind chilling in my room... it just needs a bit more stuff on the ground for people to lie around or sit around...

my food shelf

my dressing cupboard and cooking utensils / bookshelf

my study table...

my bed

my US$125 / semester rented fridge...

inside of the fridge...

Remember my entry about not being able to cook? I brought an electric stove here and i've been secretly cooking in my room... haha... it really saves me a lot of money!!! as compared to a typical meal that costs about 5 to 6 US dollars, my food rocks! tastes nice too!

my beef ramen with egg (US$1.50)