maysblog

My friends and I took a road trip this past weekend to attend the Texas A&M vs. OU game.
It was a long trip up to Oklahoma City/Norman, but so worth it. (Apart from the Aggies losing and me not being able to withstand the windy weather.)

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My mother always said it would happen one day. That one day, I would get off a plane, and among the mass of waiting drivers, I’d see someone standing there with my name.

Well, it happened, but it wasn’t a corporate sponsored limo in New York as I imagine she had envisioned.  Instead, it was Yanik, a local artist doing a favor for his hostel owning friend, picking up two Texas kids on an adventure in Bali.

Jacob ’06 works for Mustang Engineering.  Our fathers, both Aggies as well, met each other through work.  When they found out both of their eldest children had moved out to Singapore about the same time, it was inevitable that we get hooked up. Meeting up several times in Singapore and keeping posted on the everyday happenings of each other’s lives has proven to be a unique experience.  Also a Houston raised suburban kid, we know exactly where each of us has come from; sharing that culture and then continuing on to share this Southeast Asian one has helped us form an interesting friendship. As my dad likes to remind me, this is just another great manifestation of the Aggie Network in action! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ve been far from lazy…

• My best friend from Paris, a Singaporean who now works in San Francisco, came back for two weeks to visit her family.  It was so nice to catch up with everything happening in each other’s lives.  Walking into her parent’s condo was exactly what I needed; a loving, safe environment… with AIR CONDITIONING! I spent many nights there, including one where the two of us were as sick as dogs.  She couldn’t hear out of one ear, and I re-tasted the chili-crab I had eaten earlier that night…  It was sad to see her go, but I think that our continued to connection, and ability to pick up like nothing had changed between the two of us is a real testament to friendship.
• I was not a tourist for very long in Singapore. I made local friends and got to know people who have lived here for a while.  On one hand, this is a real advantage- you are brought to the hidden gems of the city, (including the world’s greatest burger, but I’ll get to that in a second) but on the other hand, you tend to skip all the fun tourist stuff.  Making up for lost time, I headed to the Singapore Zoo.  I went to the zoo with my Aussie friend Karen, making a special stop in the Australian Outback exhibit (she is really from the Outback- came from a small town and tells stories of her childhood without running water!) where she laughed at the tiny size of the Kangaroos! I think the pride of the zoo has to be their extensive elephant show and exhibit! You can purchase a painting made by an elephant.  Apparently the elephants don’t speak singlish- the original trainer at the zoo was from Sri Lanka, so this tradition of training them in this native tongue has stuck.  Read the rest of this entry »

Lately I’ve really been in limbo mode.  Everyone knows how ready I am to graduate and move on with life, but at the same time I sometimes think I’m rushing too much and not quite ready for the so called real world.  The last few years have really gone by fast, and this semester seems to have gone by even faster.  While I love the fact that I am almost finished with my last fall semester of college ever, I’m also finding myself wishing time would slow down so I could enjoy and soak in all the great things around me here at A&M.  Life has really been treating me well as of late.  My grades are good and I feel positive about the direction I am heading in life. Read the rest of this entry »

Howdy,

This summer I was blessed by being able to take the Marketing Study Abroad Program through Mays Business School.  We traveled throughout Europe learning about local cultures, international business and the world we live in.  This video blog documents our experience and gives you some insight into the adventures we had, the things we learned, and the relationships we formed.  Bon Appétit!

-Christopher Kaspar ’10

We live in a very complicated world where new technology is available every day. When I first came to college, I thought that I could stay in my bubble and avoid all of the new fads, but I was wrong.  There are many technology fads college students are going through that are actually useful in the classroom. Read the rest of this entry »

You know when you just have those days when you don’t want to be in Singapore anymore?

Okay, if you have never been to Singapore for an extended period of time, I wouldn’t expect you to understand, but anybody who has can echo my sentiments. It is a very safe place, but mainly because there is a culture of following the rules for their own sake. Some call it island fever, but whatever it is, it makes you want to get out of town. FAST.

You could feel the elation as the plane took off, and the growing excitement when we landed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (Pronounced Jogjakarta, called Jogja for short). In third grade, I did a project on Indonesia with my friend Leah because she was born there (her father worked in the oil industry). I have been slightly disappointed in myself for not having been to the country earlier, being this close, but c’est la vie. The landscape was instantly different; beautiful, tropical, and yet unplanned. Walking across the tarmac from the plane to the small airport, I looked at the latitude and longitude indicators; my first steps in the southern hemisphere.

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This year I’ve been involved with the student advisory council with David Gardner’s jewelers.
We go over marketing strategy, trends and of course … gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, etc.

Today we got to witness the studio and the process of making custom jewelry. It’s quite fascinating that everything from beginning to finish can be made right in that store.

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Serving as Editor-in-Chief of The Edge is the most glorious pain in the rump I’ve experienced in college.  It’s wonderful and awful, inspiring and sleep depriving. 

For one, I’m trailing two of the most talented layout designers known to The Edge history.  Unable to go backwards in terms of quality, it’s been an adventure trying to learn InDesign well enough not to “look a fool” when the magazine comes out.  On the other hand, it would be nice if I could just get the magazine out. 

From battling the technology that allows my staff access to our server in the business school, to dealing with people who said they’d done things they haven’t, straight to trying to figure out how the heck to sell advertisements without knowing design specifications, I have been one tense, cranky, time bomb of a person to be around.  Learning  to use Adobe Creative Suite has been great fun, and I know I’ll use it later in life.  Having to give someone the long-and-short-of-it is not my favorite thing, and causes me to wonder why, why, why I put myself through it–voluntarily!

On top of that, it seems that no one has an opinion about what we should write about until after it’s already half way finished.  The advice I got in the beginning of production is different from the feedback I’m getting now, and the Dean, advisor, exec team, Edge staff and students all have varying opinions of what purpose The Edge should serve.  At some point, I’m going to have to plug my ears to get a vision and produce results with which I can live. 

I’m not sure what I’m doing after graduation or if any of this lost sleep will even pay off, but it’s been (and continues to be) a heckuvan experience alright.

College students pay some of the highest car insurance premiums. You would think that people from this age group would be among the best drivers. With youth usually comes better reaction times and better vision, but most students will either be involved in an accident or receive a ticket during their academic careers. Perhaps at some point while we were learning how to book an impairment loss for discontinued operations, we forgot that a red light means stop. I feel it is my civic duty to reiterate a few forgotten rules of the road. Read the rest of this entry »