Beijing 北京

Nǐ hǎo! After leaving Hong Kong and heading to Shenzhen to visit the Walmart China headquarters and a distribution center, the group headed to China's capital city - Beijing. Tonight is our last night here before we get up early to travel to our final stop on our Chinese tour in Shanghai, but we've done a lot during our time here. We focused primarily on cultural excursions here and have seen Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Temple of Heaven. I've learned so much in such a short time here about Chinese culture. I also have to admit, I have a newly heightened sense of respect for the international students in our program. Being unfamiliar with the language and facing daily challenges communicating with those around you is even more challenging than I could have imagined. Most of my time here, I have felt very dependent on other people - which is not in my nature! During our time at Walmart China, we had the opportunity to meet and speak with their CFO MJ Medina who talked with us about seeking out these experiences to stretch ourselves and overcome the pain of culture shocks, and I am so grateful to have been able to come to China and experience this firsthand. I feel that I have already grown so much in these two short weeks, and I am confident that it will only benefit me in the future. I would love to work for a multinational corporation and spend several years over seas in another country such as China to further develop myself as a business leader and professional - and I have this trip to thank for opening my eyes to these opportunities. Anyhow, enjoy some of my photos of Beijing sights below, and I'll try to check in one more time from Shanghai before I return stateside. Then I'll give you a full update on my trip when I get home. I've been taking lots of notes and pictures that I can't wait to share with you! Zài jiàn!

- Tammy :o)

HONG KONG!

I made it to Hong Kong tonight! After a long 15 hour flight from Chicago leaving yesterday at 1:30pm CST, we touched down at Hong Kong International Airport 5:55pm HKT. Shockingly, the flight didn't actually seem that long. I had made sure to download plenty of entertainment onto my new handy dandy iPad (the whole first season of 'Hart of Dixie'...) to keep me occupied. When I arrived, half of our group was already here as the undergrads spent a week in Zhuhai studying Chinese culture and met the grad students in Hong Kong. My roommate, Lily, is actually from China, and she has already proven to be a marvelous resource as she took me to dinner tonight and showed me the ropes. Tomorrow we have a free day in Hong Kong and then the next day we visit Li & Fung for our first business visit. So far, all is well, and I'm absolutely loving China. That's all for tonight, but I will keep you posted as the week goes on. For now, here's a photo of our view from our room. Ciao!

- Tammy :o)

End of Term 1

Well, the first semester has officially come to an end. It's definitely bittersweet as I worked harder this term than I ever have had to in school before, so it's definitely a relief to be able to say that I survived (with all A's at that!). Nonetheless, I'm sad that I won't be in class everyday with my classmates. Our class has gotten so close over the last few months, and I'm going to miss them over the summer. We did have an end of the year bash at my house after finals finished up, so we were all able to let our hair down and say our farewells before everyone went there separate ways this summer. My summer agenda includes the beginning of our Entrepreneurship course, interning full-time at Kellogg, and jetting off to China! I'll be sure to keep you posted as I go!

-  Tammy :o)

MBA Women International

Today I officially kicked off my term as the National Student Director for MBA Women International - formerly known as the National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA) and Graduate Women in Business (GWIB) before that. During my term, we will first be conducting a feasibility study to evaluate our recent name change and how best to serve our student chapters through membership dues, benefits, chapter governance, school partnership, and international expansion.

I'll also be serving this term as the Region Director for Region 2. My responsibilities will include reaching out to the student chapters in my region over the summer and finding ways to best serve our student organizations. I'm excited that as a member of the National Student Leadership Team I will also have the opportunity to attend the MBAWI Leadership Retreat and National Conference in Phoenix this October as well.

We held our first National Student Leadership Team conference call this morning to get acquainted with one another and start work on the project plans for our initiatives for the year. Our feasibility study is just our first project, and I'm so excited about working with the high caliber women on our leadership team this year.

Check out our website here to learn more about MBAWI: http://www.mbawomen.org/.

- Tammy :o)