Flying Smartly

So during this year I have been asked by many people how I could afford to travel so much all over the world - well this post will hopefully give some simple answers:

Workshops, conferences, business-related trips

I often find workshops, conferences or other business-related trips to which I apply or get invited to, so I do not pay for the flights/trips. This helped me to get to Torino, Zurich, London, Paris, Berlin and other cities. After or before attending the event I would try to see something from the city or even visit some friends in the respective city. 

You should always try to make some free time to actually visit the city besides the actual purpose of the trip. Now I know that not everyone has the chance to just attend these kind of events, but look on the Internet, I am sure that you will find events that 1) are interesting for you and 2) to which you can also apply to and which are on top of it in very cool cities - try and apply, you have nothing to lose!

Scholarships

The second answer I can give is that I was often supported by scholarships that have helped me to pay for bigger trips. I am very thankful for the support. So if you consider doing an internship abroad I would definitely advice you to look for scholarships and mobility scholarships on the Internet. There are a lot of institutions that support stays abroad and internships abroad. - If you need help, email me.

Booking cheap flights and using clever transit

Of course I also rely on cheap flights and train tickets. 

I am still confused how all the airlines and webpages calculate their prices, but I have noticed that flight prices are mostly down during the morning (5-7 am), so I found flights from Germany to New York for around 340€ for 2 weeks from now - which is pretty short notice. 

I would also recommend to check and compare flights in the local currency (e.g. Euro vs. Dollar in that example) and the current exchange rates.

Also make sure to check local flight companies for inner flights as they will be certainly much cheaper!

If I found a cheap flight with a transit, I would make sure that 1. it is via a very cool city and 2. if it's a cool city, try to stay in that city as long as possible.

That is what one of my friend did when we flew to Shanghai. We had to stop in Dubai and he had 10 hours to kill before his flight from Dubai to Shanghai, so he took a cab and discovered Dubai - for no additional flight costs :) So all in all he got to see Dubai and Shanghai for around 500€.

I know this can be very stressful and is probably not something everyone wants to do. But if you want to use every occasion and you don't have the budget to travel all the time for >1000€ - this might be a good option for you.

If you need more tips or more information on the points above, feel free to email me.

So for me the next stop will be Ecuador for four weeks during the Christmas break and using the above I will spend another two days in Miami as I will fly over Miami) and I only paid 550€ YEAH! :) 

some random pics :)

by Sisi

Nightshot session

Hey there,

i did a photography class last night and we did some nightshots in Central Park - it was freezing after a while but anyways it was totally awesome!

Let pictures speak: New York

Fifth Avenue

a lovely coffee/bookstore

Coffee and biscuits place

cupcake store

Knicks vs. Rockets

A coffee habit

As said earlier, I have been traveling quite a bit this year and ever since I discovered my passion for coffee places, the first thing I would do when I got into a new city, was to roam for a nice coffee place I could do my work in.

So in my opinion a nice coffee place has to have at least the following characteristics:

-       Good coffee
-       Free Wi-fi
-       Plugs (!)
-       Capacious tables with an appropriate height to work on
-       Big windows for natural light + lamps for the evening
-       Character.

Screw all Starbucks Cafés – they suck.
Always filled with tourists, same NOT-cozy style everywhere and the coffee is not exceptionally great – in brief Starbucks does not have character.
Starbucks is like McDonald’s. It’s a chain, it’s convenient as you already know their stuff by heart and they are everywhere – but would you ever choose McDonald’s over a nice tasty restaurant if you had the choice?!
In most times you would not (except after partying I suppose). The same with Starbucks. At least for me I only choose Starbucks, if I really do not have better options, but individual coffee shops have grown like mushrooms these years, so I always end up going to a passionate coffee place
–and I am happy :)

So maybe if anyone is going to travel to any of these cities, this list of really awesome nice coffee shops, which fulfill all (or almost all) points above, might help:

Munich:
- Batty Baristas:

Just next to the Technical University of Munich, this was my favorite place to work and hang around back in the days, as it was so close to my university. Especially on sunny days, I can definitely recommend to go there at around 3pm – that’s when the sun shines directly into the coffee shop and when it’s the nicest to sit outside :). Their coffee is good and the atmosphere is cozy although I don't think the interior is that spectacular.

Berlin:
- Buchkantine:

In a quiet but very nice neighborhood in Moabit, Berlin, directly next to the Spree River, this coffee place is integrated in a bookstore, which makes it the perfect place for book and coffee lovers. They also have a terrace, which is nice to sit at during the summer time

-St. Oberholz:

This coffee place is very stylish and is the home of many freelancers and Mac lovers. When you step in, you have the feeling that you are in some high-tech world. You will meet blue-light reflecting "aliens" wearing big headphones, staring back from behind their big laptop screens...This coffee place has everything anyone can dream of of a perfect coffee work place - given that you like the "berlin style" of it and that at peak times you have to share your broad band with tons of other people.

Berlin is a great coffee city - they have a million other cool cafes! Check them out!

Paris:
- Malongo

If you want to taste a great coffee and do not want to feel like being in a parisien brasserie, Malongo is the place to be. The interior has a touch of South America and they sell their South American(?) coffee in the café as well. It is great to enjoy a sunny afternoon in Paris - that's when Malongo is bathed in golden sunlight...

Beijing:
- Sculping in Time Coffee

Copied or not, this time the Chinese did a very excellent work of establishing this coffee chain business. Each Scultping in Time Coffee in Beijing has a different interior but all of them are decorated with taste and love. And as Chinese people are indeed hardworking people, there is really no deficits to be observed. They have plugs, wifis, capacious tables, good coffee, good light and nice ambiance (okay maybe the coffee price was European standard, but that should not count!)

Geneva: 
- Boreal

By far one of the best coffee places I have been so far. Everything was done correctly here. Very good coffee, large tables, wifi, plugs, good lighting conditions. If only they didn't close this early (7pm!) - but this is a typical Suisse thing I guess. Definitely a super super cool place to be creative!

New York:
Sooooo, Big Apple. Unfortunately the Upper West Side does not offer much of really good coffee places and I have not made it to Brooklyn yet to really explore the coffee shop landscape over there, but at least I found a pastry/coffee place on the Upper West Side which is still a nice place to chill. Its called the "Hungarian Pastry Shop". Beside nice pastry and decent coffee, there are so many authors, writers, journalists who enjoy their creative moment there. So this place is pretty nice for people observing :)
They dont have plugs, nor Wifi (which is rare here in NY!) and they do not offer much light - but definitely a nice place to brainstorm and be all creative!

Unfortunately I have not had enough time to find a great coffee place in London (if someone knows of a good one feel free to tell me!), I forgot the name of the nice coffee place in Singapore. 
Bali, Torino, Frankfurt, Shanghai and other cities weren't that interesting coffee place wise (mostly only the starbucks experience...

Some pics of today in the Hungarian Pastry Shop in New York...

Columbia Business School

As several people asked me how I was doing and how it is in New York, I thought I'd give some insights on some topics starting with this one:

Columbia Business School: (not actually this building)

Now I really understand why people pay a fortune to go back to school for an MBA. 

It is definitely for networking purposes and honestly the people at the Business School are great!

They are open-minded, come from various backgrounds and are very easy-going. They proof that the "student syndrome" does earn its name... people do the minimum amount of work at the latest point of time possible to hold the deadline and to maximize fun and social networking - awesome strategy! Every Thursday they have the MBA Happy Hour which is comparable to the HEC Paris POW (Party Of the Week) - although to a certain degree it might be a bit more sophisticated as they also serve free food....

Many people in Columbia Business School have a Finance and/or Consulting background, but compared to the German Business students a.k.a. "BWL"er, I do not think they are snobby, arrogant or overly competitive at all and that is what I like about the atmosphere here so far. I mean, of course they are ambitious, have high expectations and are perfectionists, but this actually creates a very positive effect why people feel motivated to be a part of.

Taught using case studies, my MBA courses so far have been interesting. For instance, in one of my classes we talked about a Happines Study, in which the professor conducted a huge survey in various countries to assess diverse factors (e.g. believe in god, having kids, employment, mariage, money) and their influence on our happiness. Apparently, we are the unhappiest between the age of 24-65, this might have something to do with the fact that people normally work during this life period. Having listened to this, it just strengthens my decision to NOT work for a company haha.

Unfortunately, I must admit that overall I have been a bad student so far. I just cannot leave my laptop in my bag and pay attention to someone talking in front of me. Not even the Harvard Professor on Social Organizations was able to catch my attention entirely... I just realize that maybe listening to someone for two hours is just not my cup of tea...

Oh yeah one observation I made during class which I would like to share:

So during the class where we were talking about the happiness study, the professor explicitly asked us to shut down all laptops (oh my...), so we all (kind of) ended up paying attention. At some point my neighbor slipped a little note to me and we kind of started talking using paper and pen, and the neighbors on my other side were playing hangman - wow that definitely brought me back to highschool memories and I had to smile because I was sitting in a class with top-class invest bankers from Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Goldman and consultants from McKinsey and BCG but I suppose in the end we are all but humans and enjoy some little paper mailing and hangman games :)

New York

In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York,
these streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
lets here it for New York, New York, New York

Only Day 5, but the city already feels close. 

In fact, after spending time in Berlin, Shanghai, Munich, London, Paris, Singapore and other bigger cities, the change and acclimatization to New York was not hard at all. Especially, as I have friends who live and work here, it gives a very familiar touch to the city - I feel good in New York! :)

Though, one remarkable distinction between New York City and any other metropolis is that New York operates on a totally different scale and magnitude. New York's streets are 5 times broader, the buildings 5 times higher, the lights 5 times brighter and the people's background 5 times more diverse and different... this is incredulous and I feel a certain feeling of timidness in this gigantic city, I have not felt in all the other cities - although they are big and vivid as well!!!

 

*

5 days ago...

When our plane took off the ground in Munich five days ago and while we were rising into the sky, I felt overwhelmed by emotions. In that instant I had the epiphany that I was about to realize one big dream I have worked hard and long for. 

Not the fact that I was going to one of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. was paralyzing but the certitude that I was apparently able to reach whatever I had set into my mind was sensational and conjured a big big smile on to my face while some tear drops ran down my face :D

- Honestly, I think everyone can do and reach things they thought were impossible to get, if they really truly believe in it and in themselves...

In front of Columbia University

Some impressions of the night out with the girls from my Paris exchange semester :) It was great to see you all! I had a fun time!

Genève

One week in Geneva, time for a review i guess? ;-)

After finishing my studies in Berlin last week, I started my internship at P&G in Geneva last Monday.

The internship is AWESOME.
Oh my god, this is the first time I am actually saying this to a company.

This is the first time I feel passionate and enthusiastic with the work I am assigned to as I am responsible for more strategic things and can actually be creative and use some Design Thinking Approaches! Currently, I am doing some consumer research and they even encourage me to go out and experience –

„this is the best research – neither the Internet nor any presentations will have the answer to your questions“

They have a very open and innovative culture in the company.
The first day I wore a suit and met my (French!) boss who greeted me in an Abercrombie and Fitch Shirt and Converse Chucks – Yes, you can imagine, this was definately weird!

And: I have never seen sooooo many women working in one place. The ratio is 55% to 45% ( I suppose I was under too much consulting and IT influence over the last years...) and geee what kind of women they are: sophisticated, emancipated and elegant – and most of them are the heads of the departments. Wow. And how they are dressed up. Sometimes I feel like being in Sex and The City.


Working hours are not bad either, you will hardly find someone sitting at their table after 18h. And for the first time I can occupy myself with the work for the whole day (not like other jobs where I would sit at my desk for hours’ sake). I even developed the habit to say „we“ instead of „P&G and I“. They really got me, huh? :)


Some words about Geneva:


powered by flickr



Geneva is pretty (my pictures will follow soon!). It is calm indeed, but the lake and the mountains are breathtaking. The architecture reminds me a bit of Paris but you would always know that you are NOT in France- maybe it is due to the many watch shops and Suisse flags hanging around everywhere.




I did a bike tour at the lake and I have already found my favorite coffee house in Geneva. Of course this is the most important thing to me haha – for everyone who knows me.


http://www.borealcoffee.ch/

So guys, please come and visit me in Geneva - if you like nature, you will love Geneva :)

The joy of every moment

It was a sunny, but chilly day which was nonetheless appropriate for this time of the year. End of February – the end of winter.

My best friend and I sat in a lovely and cozy café. It was afternoon and he had come by after school. We were talking about his upcoming birthday and as usual with every new year in sight we habitually talked about the past and the things we had experienced and achieved so far.

We remarked that we had already known each other for 12 (!) years and that we had been friends ever since, although both of us had been really busy, hardly seeing each other. – wow what a lifelong friendship!, we thought.

As the pleasurable afternoon went on, we agreed to a pact: in 10 years –no matter where we both ended up – we would come back right to this specific café (given that the café would not have been closed down by then ;-) ), getting a nice cappuchino and chatting about our wonderful lives, we would have established by then. How we would currently live somewhere in South of France or Italy, happy, relaxed and seeing our dreams fulfilled.

This was five years ago.
He was about to celebrate his 18th birthday and we were both studying for the A-Level at that time.

Surprising, how fast time passes by, right?

According to our pact we have to come back to this café, back to our home town in only another five years. 10 years sounded sooooo long and now it is only in a wink of an eye that we will come back to this place again.
– Will we have already accomplished our dreams and wishes, we have once craved for in a small café in a little town somewhere in Germany?

Life is very fast-pacing.

A lot of things have changed since this encounter, we have commenced college life, we have spent time in Paris, Shanghai and Chile, we have met new interesting people and we have found new places we call our home now, - yet nothing has really changed.

We are still the same persons with the same dreams – some already fulfilled, some still for us to grasp for. Our reunion seemed like yesterday...

It is surprising how we do not perceive how fast time moves forward and before we realize this, time has already passed by...

The other day I had the shocking epiphany that my university time is soon coming to an end as well. A whole chapter of my life is ending..., I thought alarmingly.

To prevent this from happening too early, I decided to extend my studies another semester, as I really began to comprehend that I would never have this precious time as a student again.

One has to profit from the moment.

This year has been one of the most fast-pacing years in my life. I spent more time abroad than in Germany.

At the beginning of 2010 I completed the first half of my course "Design Thinking" at the Hasso-Plattner Institute near Berlin while commuting to Munich once a while. From March until Mai 2010 I was in Shanghai to work for a small start-up company. Now from June until July I will finish the second half of the "Design Thinking" course, only to find myself in Geneva from July until October 2010.
And from November 2010 onwards, I will be in New York...

Everything just goes by so fast!

I enjoy every moment I have, for I have realized that due to my very short stays at these various locations, I can only really profit from the stays if I fully plunge into my environment.



We need to live in the present from time to time, neither in the future by planning what we will do later, nor in the past by reminiscing over things we cannot change anymore.

Sometimes we need to forget what has happened and also what is waiting for us.
Sometimes we need to capture the time of the moment and consciously appreciate what we do in that very instance.

One has to profit from every moment.

Reminiscence

My time in Shanghai is over now. The time here felt short and yet at the same time really long as I have experienced many good and some bad things during my stay.

It is a mixed feeling to have left.

On one hand I am really glad to have stopped working. After a while, work just became a real pain in the ass, because we stayed in the office until very late.

– I realized that I did not get a real chance to actually live and experience Shanghai. If someone had come to visit me, I would have still needed to consult my good friend Google for good restaurants, clubs and cafés. I would have not been able to show around my favorite spots due to the lack of time to go out and find out cool places and eventually be able to call them my „favorites“.

The second thing I realized is that to me working in a start-up company is almost the same as working for a big company. I came to Shanghai with the expectation that after having worked for so many big companies, working in a start-up company would give me a more pleasing ambiance, more freedom and more responsibility.
In a certain way these points were given but nevertheless I have to admit that I just dislike to work for other people. Money is no real incentive for me to work either. Only if the work is a challenge, only if I can learn something for myself, improve myself in a way, I can align my inner motivation to the work.
In the end, I conclude that only starting an own company makes sense to me, as it is clear that only when you start your own thing, your heart and passion will be truly attached to it.

Besides this, Shanghai was really awesome and I am sad that I had to leave behind my family and friends.

Being in Asia is like being in a totally different world.

It is hard to imagine that a completely different life existed before my stay in Asia and will continue when I return.
I cannot express how influential it was to have met all these people during my stay.
To listen to their life stories, to share thoughts and perceptions. To see how they live, to hear what they want to do in the future, to understand their worries and to appreciate their dreams.
- It makes you reflect over your own life and rethink certain aspects of it.

During my time in Asia, I also visited old friends and I discovered something very important:

It is nice to discover that after all the time of not seeing each other, after all the experiences made, which shaped our lives in different ways, the old relationships have not changed at all.

This proves that my theory of getting to know the inner core is right (@t ):

If you succeed to penetrate to the inner core of a person, while getting to know him and appreciate what you see, if the other person succeeds in doing so as well, then you will always be able to establish the same good relationship.

The inner core of a person is one's basic character, meaning the way you are, when you were a kid, - the phase of life where you are not consciously able to disguise yourself, which as a adult, we master skillfully for reasons which only adults have, like protecting or shielding ourselves from bad things, fitting into social groups or attaining a certain goal.

The basic set of characeristics of a person never changes, - as you cannot change your genes, or the background you come from. So if you manage to establish a relationship upon this with someone, you will always get along with this person no matter what you both experience in life or kind of lifestyle you adapt over time.
In the end you will always find yourselves again - since the underlying fundament will not have changed.

People sometimes call this „soul mates“, I call them real friends.
– friends, that no matter how far you are apart from them, they will still know you and appreciate the way you are. Friends, you can always count on, friends who always see you, and only you, not a fascade, you established for the general public.

Discovering that nothing has changed, while everyhing has changed at the same time, gives me a feeling of freedom and joy. (@jsr: ;-) )

It is nice to see that meeting my old friends back in Asia after such a long time felt like as if we were apart for only a day or two.

Although contacts are not always maintained, although we live in different societies and although live goes on, I know that after only a short time it will be possible to recognize these friends again and to get along with them the same way like before...

and this discovery is very precious to me as it makes me understand that wherever those persons are, - who know me so well and who I know so well-, in whichever city or country they live...

...when I travel and visit them, I will always be home in the world.