Panda and I compared footprints by the pool. Guess which belongs to me!
Silly superstitions
13
January
2012
It didn’t even occur to me it was Friday the 13th until a guy at work said it today. The number thirteen has actually been my favorite number since fifth grade, when we had numbered cubbyholes and I was #13. My second favorite number is 19 because that was the box that the guy I liked had! Haha, funny how some things really last in your life.
Well, since it was a day of superstition for much of this country, I thought I’d share a video of one of my cats. When I was choosing them this summer, I specifically went for the dark ones because they don’t seem to get adopted as much. I now have a gray and a black cat, both with some white accents. I don’t know why cats get a bad rap, especially black ones, but at least they are lucky and respected in some cultures. In this video, Missy (the gray one) was really enjoying the tag on my new Victoria’s Secret shirt. She’s a curious and playful one!
Writing challenges
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: business school, experiences, maven, opinion, writing
12
January
2012
Yesterday was the deadline to apply to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in the second round (there are three rounds each year and you can apply in any single one you choose). This entire week, I had been working to perfect everything for my application, particularly my essays. I had found the Harvard Business School essays to be easier to tackle, with only a few rewrites. When it came to Stanford’s though, I was a mess. Let’s take a look at both schools’ prompts:
HBS
- Tell us about three of your accomplishments.
- Tell us three setbacks you have faced.
- Why do you want an MBA?
- Answer a question you wish we had asked.
Stanford GSB
- What matters most to you, and why?
- What do you want to do – REALLY – and why Stanford?
- Tell us about a time when you made a lasting impact on your organization.
- Tell us about a time when you generated support from others for an idea or initiative.
I felt like Harvard’s were more practical and Stanford’s were more emotional, if that makes sense. What made Stanford’s challenging for me was how personal those first two are. It was really getting to the core of what is meaningful to me and it’s hard to express something you believe in so deeply. I had to work backwards, first sharing stories of my workplace successes, then tackling what I want to do and what matters to me.
The first versions of my responses to questions 1 and 2 came out extremely idealistic. I realized that I sounded like my mind was in the clouds and my feet weren’t on the ground. I knew I had to present things in a more concrete manner so the selection committee could see the logic behind how what mattered to me drove what I wanted to do and why that all tied into going to business school. Unfortunately, I cared so much about properly expressing something so close to my heart that nothing sounded right. I would write a paragraph and start the next only to decide that I wanted to add a paragraph to the beginning instead. I labored over those two for so long!
Finally, I was satisfied with how the second essay came out, but I was still pretty stumped by the first. How do you share your greatest dreams without sounding unrealistic? Again and again, I would rewrite my response to that question until I started to create a structure that made sense. I then made the very smart move of sending my writing to Maven for a proofread. One of my greatest challenges in writing essays is making everything flow. I tend to let my ideas out stream-of-consciousness style, which usually results in random connections and scattered ideas. He was able to help me reorder some of my sentences to make my structure infinitely better! At that point, I was finally ready to turn everything in. I had put forth a great effort and now it was time to officially apply to one of the most prestigious programs in the world.
I feel so relieved now that it’s in and strangely, I’m not really nervous about decision day. That’s probably just because it’s still over two months away! As the time nears, I’m sure I will nervously anticipate the news and hope for the best. I can really see myself going to a top business school and excelling.
Late night detour
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: driving, experiences, freeway, los angeles, videos
11
January
2012
It was late at night and I thought I’d be free and clear to drive down the 405, but of course they were doing construction and we got routed off the freeway onto Sepulveda. I was pretty tired and the little caravan of cars all following the detour was amusing to me at that point.
Crunch time
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: business school, education, experiences, future
09
January
2012
It’s down to the wire for my HBS application and I don’t think I’m going to make it. I have been unable to get in touch with two of my recommenders and the third says he did it, but the system didn’t register anything. By the time we start work tomorrow, second round applications will be due (and all too soon overdue). It was disturbing to come to this reality, since I really want to get into b-school this fall, but at least there is still one more round. While that round is extremely tough since most of the class will already have been formed, I hold out hope that I will be able to stand out.
I’ve still got another day and a half to get my Stanford GSB application submitted in time for round two, so I’m going to put all my effort towards that and this time I will not fail. I will spend all day tomorrow making sure my recommenders get those recommendations in before we leave work. I won’t accept another missed deadline!
Trip through China
laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: china, pictures, travel, vacation
08
January
2012
Here’s a look at what I’ve been up to while I was gone! Click to enlarge and view more details.
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- Off I went, heading first to Portland in the early hours of Christmas.
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- Came across a colorful piece of art by James Dupree at the Portland Airport.
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- A cute napkin on the plane from Portland to Tokyo.
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- Looking down at the vastness of the ocean just before reaching Japan.
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- The smallest crane is just a dot to the eye and was made with tweezers under a microscope.
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- Yum, I just had to try the ramen in the airport! I tasted very rich and fatty, perfect for my starving belly.
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- The captain brought our attention to the lights of Seoul, South Korea, and the blackness beyond that is North Korea.
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- I saw a bunch of bird nests in the trees now that they are bare in winter.
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- I arrive in Shenyang and enjoy a feast of a dinner at a hot pot place with great service.
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- I celebrated my 26th birthday with some relatives and the cake came with a cute cutter. The candles originally said 28 because they thought they’d get 28 candles to use, but we fixed it!
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- That night, we stayed at this nice hotel right across the street from my aunt’s.
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- This is looking up at the auditorium in Lingshan where the Buddha is. Each petal is actually the same size and each row has 48 petals! Apparently they got this from one of the sites where the 2008 Olympics was held.
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- The front statue moves as the story of Siddhartha’s birth is told and nine dragons bathe it. Back on the mountainside, grownup Sidd overlooks Taihu Lake.
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- The seats on Juneyao Airline are pretty cool! They offer good service too, even gave my cousin a kid’s book to read (which she loved).
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- We finally arrive at our new place on Hainan Island and enjoy a wonderful view.
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- The golf course down the street, called The Dunes.
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- It’s a very scenic golf course with this cool rock formation.
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- From one of the courses, you get a great view back at the clubhouse.
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- Now I had no idea what a muesli was, so I didn’t try it, but the rest of breakfast at the Four Points was good.
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- A pretty hibiscus flower sat just outside our deck at the Four Points.
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- Apparently a popular Chinese movie was shot in this area, particularly at Le Meridien, off screen to the right.
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- If you fancy lounging, this is the spot.
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- There was a new housing development being built (Shimei Bay Nine Mile), so we checked it out. Here’s the master bedroom.
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- Outside, you can’t see much, but the insides are nice and each has a small pool in the yard.
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- The parents went across the street to get some fruit and came back with all kinds of weird tropical stuff.
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- A Chinese police car parked behind us so I decided to get a shot.
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- The golden coconut on the left is special to Hainan Island, but its water doesn’t taste as good as the normal coconut.
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- A beautiful white sofa at our new place!
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- What a fun circular tub! We fit us three cousins in easily for a silly photo shoot.
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- Only on the last night did I realize I could use the alarm clock as speakers for my music! Not that I really listen to any, but I had to try it out.
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- Even the moths are prettier in the tropics.
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- It was a beautiful sunny day down at Sanya, the southernmost part of China.
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- These elephants were sprouting flowers.
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- Looking out across the South China Sea.
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- We’ve got to talk a ways to get to the big Tianya stone.
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- I spotted a couple of teeny little fish!
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- Someone was out enjoying the day in that parasail.
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- My first time witnessing coconuts being picked. The guy had special hook shoes to climb with and the guy below is holding the wire to let down the coconut bundle slowly.
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- Well, they may not want pictures taken of their products, but I’m pretty sure they won’t mind me documenting their strange translation…
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- Chunyuan Seafood Square was recommended to us for dinner. You pick and buy your own groceries in the back, then pay a fee to get it cooked by one of the many restaurants, each with a couple of tables.
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- Those red dots with white outlines may look fake, but these crabs actually grow them!
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- And so it was time to go, after being the first island people to stay overnight at this new development!
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- We saw a bunch of Buddhist nuns and as it turns out, they were on my flight.
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- We got sandwiched between two layers of clouds for a bit and got a peek at a gorgeous blue sky.
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- What a pretty box they served lunch in on Hainan Airlines!
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- As we got ready to land in Fuzhou for a break before continuing to Hefei, I spotted the waterline.
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- We approached Hefei and I caught a glimpse of a temple. I don’t usually see them from above!
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- Want an Apple Store? Oh yeah, we’ve got them in spades! Want a real one? Umm…
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- The lake outside our place in Beijing was frozen over, but people were still out walking.
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- Since it’s a manmade lake, the fish need holes drilled so they can get to the surface. They had frozen over, but were opened up again.
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- Snow in Beijing! It was my lucky day to get to see snow in a city that rarely gets it anymore.
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- Awesome, my Delta flight had USB ports so we could charge our devices!
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- No longer were there buttons on the side of your chair for these commands. Now it’s all on the TV screen.
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- Our takeoff was a bit delayed while we got de-iced to ensure a safe flight.
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- The mountains below only barely peek out here and there. Is it fog or pollution?
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- You can see a whole bunch of sailboats sitting in the harbor as we take off from Seattle’s Sea-Tac Airport.
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- That is a lot of water way up high in those mountains!
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- A view of the marina at Marina del Rey.
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- I could see a lot of other aircraft making their descent into Los Angeles International.
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- Hey, that’s my suitcase!
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- It’s a tradition to stop by Sam Woo’s after coming in from LAX, and I couldn’t resist a delicious bowl of my favorite, the wonton hefen noodle soup.
