We had our graduation ceremony on 27th May, Thursday, a simple and cozy ceremony.

It began with some finger food and beverage at O building (for our department only) while a student band was playing at the small stage in the center of the hall. The dean of our department gave a speech both in Swedish and English and announced the best student and best teacher of the year (the award usually goes to the bachelor students) before the crowd was dismissed to different rooms according to which programme they went to.

Programme leaders congratulated and bestowed us the degree certificates. Oh, wait a minute, those were actually applications for the degree certificates. In Sweden, you need to apply for your degree certificate before you can get it.

Here is me with the application. Forgot to mention the rose. Everyone got a rose or even a hug from the programme leader.

We also received the course certificate from SHUSI ( a university we had an exchange programme with).

Everyone seemed happy for getting the rose perhaps. That was not the end and no time for sentimentality. We had to prepare for the final seminar on the following Monday.

Behold, readers of my blog

A public page and a closed group have been created on Facebok for MoIBD (the programme of Management of Innovation and Business Development, including the first year programmes) Alumni.

Go find us!!

Public page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MoIBD-Alumni-Halmstad-University/177072802337728?sk=wall

Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_188919467805072

2nd February this year was the Chinese new year eve. From 3rd February starts the new spring and the year of rabbits.

The Chinese new year differs each year on the international calendar. Usually it is at the end of January or the beginning of February. It is based on the Chinese calendar or as it is called in Chinese, the Yin calendar, on which all traditional festivals are based.

Some friends and colleagues were nice enough to say happy new year. I did not feel like new year at all. Went to school as usual, had seminars, and worked.

I did not pay so much attention to the Chinese new years even when I was in China for the reason that we are one year older after the new year’s eve. New born babies is one-year old because Chinese count the time when they were embryos. Since I was born at the end of a year, that means according to the Chinese system, I will be 2 years older than I actually am. That’s not nice.

Right now, in China, it is already the 5th day of the new spring. It is the birthday of the god in charge of wealth. It’s a tradition to have fire crackers and fireworks from mid-night. I wish you all good night those who don’t celebrate Chinese new year but in China.

Shanghai is a big city. By big, I don’t mean big like Stockholm or Göteborg, but seriously big! To take the subway from its one end to the other might take more than one hour (I have heard that they have extended some of this kind of long lines recently). The population in Shanghai alone is more than twice as much as that in the whole Sweden.

This is a picture in one of my presentation about China. It illustrates the comparison of density among Sweden, China and Shanghai the city alone.

When you look at the map in Google maps, it’s hard to tell where it is the best area to live. Well, you get some general idea by looking this one:

The map just shows the districts in city. There are quite a few other districts outside of the map.

The name of the districts are in blue. Most recommended districts to live are:

• Luwan, center, covers the old French concession, with nice bars and restaurants.
• Huangpu, center, close to the attraction the Bund, nice bars and restaurants.
• Xuhui, partly, where it is close to Luwan.
• Jing’an, partly, where it is close to Luwan.
• Pudong, the corner where it is close to Huangpu

Well, I’m not saying that there are no good places in other districts. Sure there are. The thing is it might be more convenient to aim at the recommended solution first if one does not know the city so well. Besides, since the city is big, it can be expensive to take a taxi home at night after party if you live too far away from the center where most bars are located. And believe me, you are going to party….a lot!

/Carmen

In March, our department SET will have two exchange courses with SISU university in Shanghai which I am going to attend. Having lived in Shanghai for four years. I know the city quite well.

I’m going to blog a little about living in Shanghai, and some tips of accommodation and transportation and hopefully it will be helpful to people who have plan to travel there.

Please leave a comment or a request about what you would like to know, and I will no doubt pour out whatever I know.

/Carmen

Just came back from work in the Chinese restaurant House Ming.  They needed extra personnel tonight.

There are fireworks everywhere in the city right now.

Happy new year, Halmstad! Happy new year, everyone at the European time zone! (People in China have already entered the new year and people in America will need to wait for another 6-7 hours. )

Wish you all the best! Hug!

/Carmen

Want to learn more about studying in Halmstad University? Check out this video:

It’s an interview with some teachers and students in Halmstad.

To read more about the student interviews, please go to:

http://www.hh.se/english/education/studentinterviews.9220.html

Halmstad city is so cozy when it’s getting close to Christmas. It’s been snowy for quite a while, and the center is decorated with lights. There is even a big Christmas tree in the city square. Though my personal favorite is the one behind me, near the big bridge. It’s a giant glowing tree.

I traveled to a town on the southeast coast of Sweden, named Karlskrona. Krona means crown; the name of the town is Karl’s crown.

Karlskrona has always been an important naval base since it was founded by King Karl XI in the year 1680. The marine museum at the harbor is quite an attraction.

Façade of the museum.

This is said to be the oldest sub-marine in Sweden.

A real periscope, from which people can see what’s above the building.

These are the hats of navies from different countries.

The one to the right on the first row is from China; the one under is from Japan. If enlarge the pictures, you might find the one from your country~

This is one of the real figureheads of ships displayed in the museum. They fought together with the ships through thunders and storms and witnessed great explorations and communications of the Swedes. This one is named Saga, who is a goddess associated with a treasure land in the ancient Norse Myth.

The center is really beautiful. I like the architectures a lot. Some of them have been standing there for hundred of years.

I wish I have been there during the summer. Water is so crystal clear. The city encompasses quite many islands that connected to one another with ferry lines iterating between them many times a day. There’s even a ferry to the other side of the Baltic sea, Poland.

It would have been so much fun to sail on the sea….

/Carmen

Halmstad University has a lot of cooperation with local companies. The engineering students are the one who benefit directly from this. There are a lot of projects between the firms and the students.

We, as business students, also get to work with some companies once in a while. Instead of finding technical solution, our expertise lies in consultancy.

Not long ago, on the course Management of Change, we worked with an interesting firm, which locates right next to our campus, named Tylö. They are in the bathroom and sauna business. It was quite educating and fun experience working with them. We got to see the whole production line of making a sauna, infra sauna cabins, and cool designs of bathroom, etc and got to know the concept of soft sauna and the future trend of bathroom.

We appreciate so much of the trust and support that we have received from them, and they are pretty happy about the new ideas we provided. In order to keep the competitive advantage, I will not reveal our work…

Since then, every time we go to the swimming pool, we always pay particular attention to the Tylö sign on the door handle of the sauna in the swimming pool, which looks like this:

I guess working with companies actually helped in building brand loyalty.

/Carmen