The twins were staying in California for the holiday season, too, so we decided to roadtrip together from San Diego to San Francisco. None of us had spent any time in Yosemite National Park before. With my experience in National Parks, Lalo´s interest in wildlife and Toti´s jolly way of entertaining us we couldn´t have had any better outset.
We took off on a late Wednesdy morning. It was sunny and we were of good mood. My Chilean friends Toti and Lalo took me to Yosemite – or I took off with them. For real, they just used me, because I had a car. The twins were staying in California for the holiday season, too, so we decided to roadtrip together from San Diego to San Francisco. None of us had spent any time in Yosemite National Park before. With my experience in National Parks, Lalo´s interest in wildlife and Toti´s jolly way of entertaining us we couldn´t have had any better outset. Yosemite at winter is a dream. There are hardly any other visitors. We had the park just for us. We attended several ranger walks. One on the trees, one on wildlife and one on the Ahwahnee natives who lived in the Yosemite Valley. We were cold the whole time, but we managed to stay warm with “Jäschä – M”. I learned about former communist president Allende and dictator Pinochet who both formed Chile. We also hiked up to the Columbia Rock to have a terrific view of the Yosemite-Valley. It was an easy hour hike with 60 switchbacks. Once on top we rewarded ourselves with an awesome, homemade sandwich. Another thing we did was to participate at the first snowshoe hike of the season. We had a distant view on the back of “El Capitan” and followed the steps in the snow of a bear. Snowshoeing can be a physically demanding sport. With the sun reflecting in the snow we all got a little sunburned. The craziest thing about the whole Yosemite trip is probably the history of the lodge that we stayed at. It´s called Cedar Lodge. The very first moment we arrived the absence of any other guests made the Chilean suspicious. To quote Toti: “Somebody must have been murdered here” … and indeed! The next day we inquired at the lobby why the place was so empty and if somebody had been murdered there. A nice guy at the reception told us that about 25 years ago three women, a mother with her daughter and an exchange student from South America had been murdered at Cedar Lodge by a psychopath. The murderer killed one more person in the park before he was caught and sentenced for life, probably death penalty. We were curious of course were this all had happened, in which room. Luckily the nice guy at the reception pointed to one direction of the lodge that was in opposite to our room. They have turned the room into a storage space by now. The nice guy was not supposed to tell us which room it was, but by telling us it had been turned into a storage room, there wasn´t much of guessing left. We had no particular interest in discovering where the storage room was exactly located, we rather preferred to check out the community room. Every day from 5pm – 9pm there are freshly baked cookies, hot chocolate and board games available. The winding valley with the curve slurped street, in a mountain mogul full of trees and cups of mud. Is disgusting and disguised of any value besides its beauty of nature. The true love of a stone to a tree, says the gras before it was eaten by a rabbit. Good night my dear.
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Busy, hectic, a lot of traffic. Tech industries, ocean, sea, surf and fun. Beach life and Hollywood, Deserts, dry sand and where is the fresh water? Sun and sun and a lot of sun. San Francisco. The Brooklyn of the west. The Berlin of United States. Gentrification and money. Lots of money. Lots of money to be made. Smart people and phones. The train-age of today. The automobile-age of today. It´s happening in California and nowhere else. Everyone else is just watching, catching up. Arrogance and Individualism, but diverse. Especially the wealthy residential areas. So many Whites and Mexicans at the same time. Whites living inside the house, Mexicans working around the house. If you make it here, you can make it anywhere. Achieving and working. Individual accomplishment. Striving for wealth and success. Money, money, money, but where is the culture? - In San Francisco, but be quick, because the guys from google are taking over.
China´s culture is a totally different than European or American. Working with people in business is all about not losing face. That is to accept and respect hierarchies and age. The last night at the official dinner and young talent show may have inserted a little twist. The Koreans just went crazy as you can see in the next pictures. Applauded and admired by the audience this show among many others made the CICC (Citi International Case Competition) an international encounter with many new friendships founded. It´s not about winning or losing, there will be only one winner and the majority being placed 2nd, 3rd and further behind. The point of CICC is to enjoy a learning opportunity and experience encounters with friendly people from different parts of the world. To me this case competition has shown that candidness and fun is the key for a bright world-wide shared future. The young students from all over the world enjoying themselves at CICC will one day encounter each other in suits and with a business plan in mind. I can just hope and I´m convinced that we will not run each other over for our own gain, but will strive collectively for a better world. In that sense to learn a lesson from that part of China that is planning way ahead in the future. The short-lived profit seeking is nothing to chase. I´m glad our team from Maastricht had so much fun and that we met so many great people from different teams and countries. Watch Chuan teach the others how Singaporeans dance. I can´t wait to hit those moves in Singapore´s clubs one day. Representing Maastricht at the City International Case Competition at HKUST (The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology) I took a flight from LA to Hong Kong to spend 8 amazing days in the Pearl River Delta. Together with Jacky, Kathrin and Lars we performed on the Chow Tai Fook - jewellery chain case. We became 2nd in our division of 6 universities. We had the chance to present for a second time in the Challenger Round where we didn´t make it to the finals. Still we had a lot of fun and were really happy to make it that far. The City of Hong Kong is crazy. With the concept of Feng Shui applied the Skyline appears to merge into one holistic and beautiful picture nuzzling the mountains. Beautiful Islands, delicious dishes such as Dim Sum and a multicultural society promise an interesting and unforgettable trip. Lars, Chuan and I also made it to Macau, a former Portuguese ruled place near Hong Kong. Today Macau is the Vegas of Asia. It is said that Macau makes more money than Las Vegas. We saw many rich Chinese gambling away their fortunes made in the wake of globalization and cheap exports. Our losses and wins were rather small, but still we had a lot of fun. Pictures above:
1. & 2. Skyline at night from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong 3. DIm Sum in Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui 4. Chuan and Lars in a community garden in Macau Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and Guangzhou together form a region in the Southern part of China of which much is going to be heard of in the future. 2 hours east of San Diego located is a huge salty sea "Salton Sea" almost double the size of Germany´s biggest lake the Bodensee. The Salton Sea does not have an outflow, it´s also in the middle of a desert, which gives it a bizarre appearance. Piles of dead fish along the shores, misifits living in caravans, if not in abandoned houses. All in all this was a one-day Sunday weekend trip, where we Charley, Luzma, Jordi and Lorenzo together had a lot of fun. I mentioned the many abandoned houses. In this area no one can really live. It is too hot, the water is badly smelling, salty and just disgusting. The shoreline consists of multiple layers of piled up fish-bones and sediments. You have to be careful walking on it as you sink in. Especially I did, as I am very heavy. There is nothing to enjoy there at Salton Sea, though the whole scenery makes it worth a day-trip visit. salvation MountainMaybe you have seen this in TV or youtube. Salvation Mountain is essentially the work of a religious man, who painted the whole rock. Paint donations are warmly welcome, it´s for free and you are even allowed to climb around. Next to Salvation Mountain a few hundred people have built up their shelters to overwinter. Many of them are fed up with society and seek the wild remoteness of the desert, many of them are also religious and are associated with the Salvation Mountain community. A few images from abandoned houses, arts produced by overwinters... One Indian, Two Italians, One African, Silver Surfer, One German, One Australien Beef Jerky & Trail Mix Bananas, Apples & Pears One Sleeping bag, One Mattress, Water, Water, Water, Water, Water, ... Passports, I-94s, DS-2019s, SEVIS fees payed |