Picture from Marika 1: This is Warszawa. I haven't been there, but friends sent me this picture after a recent trip. I thought it was nice enough to put up.

Picture from Marika 2: the Krakow old town

Random #2: A classroom shot. I am asking questions to a group that has just finished their final presentation. The classes were run using the Socratic method. Students were constantly participating. Apparently they do this, because they've found that other students remember 95% of what students say in class, but a much smaller percentage of what professors say.

American wrap-up

My time in the United States has come to an end. I arrived back in Australia two weeks ago, after a day spent enjoying Taipei's typhoon. I spent the last two weeks after my last post studying, partying and relaxing in Palo Alto's summer weather.
On the last week, we were asked to prepare a group presentation on a business subject of our choice. My group decided to focus on the rise of Starbucks, and of the role of Howard Schultz in its success. The topic was well geared towards an audience of young and hopeful business oriented professionals. The students enjoyed hearing a story of success, and we got a good response from them. Well besides the odd comment of about Starbucks and corporate America.

After the presentations, on the Friday night, we had a graduation dinner, followed by a night out. They had hired out a limo bus to get us to the bars. The evening was fun, more because everyone was bent on having a good last night, than because of anything else, but attitude on these occasions is everything.

Saturday night, I left the US for Australia via Taiwan. There was a typhoon in Taipei, which put an end to my plans of visiting the town. By the time I got to Australia, I wasn't feeling well. It took me a week to get better, and university had already started. Since then, I have been going to class, while trying to ensure that I will graduate at the end of this semester. A tough task, since I am not taking any engineering classes.

I am still going to use this page for the odd trip or photos, but until Africa, it is not going to be quite as active.

The final dinner was the start of the final night's celebration. We all made our way to alumni centre, where we enjoyed truly gourmet food, and good company, before we headed out for the night. The night finished late as we all stayed behind, avoiding goodbyes.

That's me getting my certificate, second in line, by alphabetical order. Half the people hadn't realised the presentation had started, but at least I was out of that line quickly.

Kashfia and myself. Kashfia was nice enough not to wear a collar that night. She is from Bangladesh, and she's invited me there. I told her that I could only come for a few months. Her agreement didn't seem so keen after that.

Just about everyone dressed up for the final dinner.

From the right: Jill, Tom, myself, Chris and Elaine. I had many good laughs with these people, especially the blokes.

Random shot #1: This is a post Mist Trail in Yosemite shot. This shot, and most of the ones I posted today were taken by someone else. Hence the late post.

A rather dogy shot of the last night out, but this photo has people I spent a lot of time with. Tobias on the left, Holda under me, and Marika on the right all started a Coupling craze. We had a nice following among the Americans and the internationals for the show. On our last week there, we ended up watching it a lot.

A nice shot of a building on campus.

We went to a Giant's game the weekend after Yosemite. The park is rather pretty, overlooking the Bay. When Barry Bonds plays, there are people in their canoe, waiting beyond the park, to catch his home runs. This game was also my last time in the city (short for San Francisco).

Right on the point of contact. The batter ran a double.