8 months LAH!
Just realized that I am actually starting my 9th month working here in the US for the AIESEC traineeship/my company's Management Training Program. I have been enjoying my professional experiences a lot; and of course all the network and friendships that I have built here with local friends and colleagues. Recently, I am also involved in a Business Process Re-engineering project that the department I am with in the Florida rotation is undergoing. I work with an external consultant and people across different functions in the company. Thus, I have been learning a lot about our operations (as I am involved in the Production department now), as well as some business knowledge on quality control management, productivity enhancement and organizational re-design issues, in which I consider it as a really valuable learning experience for me so far.
Intellectually, I also found that reading the Economist, reading online industry related articles, books on business topics, as well as the talk we had shortly with our Operations GM are very helpful for my personal gains. I take it as kind of a late start for me; but as the ancient Chinese idiom says, "You Zhi Zhe, Shi Jing Cheng" (basically meaning someone who has determination and the drive to his vision will succeed in the end)
Beaches Beaches NOT Bitches Bitches!
How many Beaches in Florida State? Well, uncountable!!! Even from where I live - Tampa Bay area, there are plenty of them; one can literally go to a new beach every weekend living here! So far, I have not been to a single beach for more than once. Building on this, how many beaches will there be in the entire US territory - including Haiwaii and Puerto Rico? Huh, what a number! But somehow, amazingly they have a beach competition here!!! Each year, some guys will go and rate beaches on various critera - do not ask me what :P - and then they come up with the Number ONE beach title. Last weekend, I visited the Ft De Soto Park where its North Beach is ranked the number one for the year 2005. It does look very beautiful and what a quiet and fun place for picnic, family gathering, barbeque, mass activities, kayaking, sunbathing, chasing waves, surfing, etc...Checkout the details:
http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_Ft_DeSoto.htm
Beautiful Skies
Florida is the Sunshine State; how sunny and beautiful is it?
The clouds are absolutely low and huge, and snowy white in color! The sunrise and sunset are absolutely gorgeous; almost looking unreal!! Then of course it also has to be with the landscape of the state of Florida itself - it is so flat that you will literally see the sky and the ocean merge with each other!
Besides, apart from the hurricane season and those cyclones that hit the state (generally a few times in a year), the beaches along the Gulf on the west coast like where I am staying at are absolutely magnificient and attractive. I guess this is called quality of life?
Anyway, I am trying to put up some pictures of the Tampa/St. Petesburg/Clearwater beaches and neighborhood. Enjoy them:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/calvinmcp/
First encounter with hurricane in the US
Katrina, or Hurricane Katrina is the name you will hear over and over from FOX news, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc...whatever network/channel you tune to for an American TV now. That was my first encounter with a hurricane in the US territory. It did not strike us but it created such a disaster in New Orleans and the coastal areas of the State of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana here.
Before the landfall of Katrina, there were a lot of warnings from the officials and I recalled the nights before when I was watching TV and having a strange feeling about it - knowing that something bad is going to come, and hoping that people will evacuate and not creating much of a problem. However, of course now it proved that it is not the case. Thousands lost their home, houses, cars, pets and even family members were lost (missing or passed away); food, fresh water and medical supplies are lacking; tens of thousands of homeless people are either trapped or awaiting for rescuees, dead bodies floating in the flooded regions, etc...What is even worst, there are people looting and shooting evacuees from hospitals where electricity ran out and lives of patients are in alert mode. Many more are breaking into groceries, computer shops, even gun stores! As one CNN anchor rejectedly accepted the term - refugee, it does happen in the world's greatest power - United States of America! It does create a shocking feeling to me, really striking, and how come these things could happen...
I live on an Island in the city of Tampa, which is also categorized in Zone A, meaning first class evacuation in case of direct hurricane hits. I can imagine how the normally so low water level would rise up and litterally destroy an entire city. It seems that Flordia is kind of "far" from Louisian or Mississippi; however, we can certainly feel the impact from the media, and even from our oil price for car fuels, not to mention the expected increasing prices of consumer goods, etc...BUT I deeply feel the sense of emergency and toughness in the whole recovering project and rescue mission. I hope we could do something to help; if you would like to do something, visit Red Cross or other charity organizations:
http://www.redcross.org/
