July 9th - An average day

July 9th, 2012

Weather: Cloudy and sprinkling. 

Since my classes started a bit late at 2:00 P.M., I took the time to sleep and recover from my Scotland adventure. I ended up waking up at 11:30 A.M. and after showering, I ate a light lunch and headed off to Cambridge Union Society. Ended up checking my email, waiting and hanging out with a few friends before I headed off to class.

International Management and Business Ethics: Competitive advantage of regions.

Today's lesson emphasis was on the exploitation of poor countries....For example today we watched a Dole youtube advertisement in which Dole presented themselves "favorably" by saying things about quality, environment, and benefit of communities. What Dole never mentioned was its use of harmful in its crops (even though the pesticide is banned in the US). Dole never informed its workers about the pesticide even though they were aware of the consequences, causing massive sterilization. Workers tried to sue Dole. The point of this example for is to question profits and costs... when is acting out of your best interests too much and when does morality come into play. A lot of the lecture was questioning research, morality, ethics, golden rule. Personally I do believe in abiding by the golden rule and making moral ethical business decisions; however, I do find this situation to be a bit too idealistic to work in America after seeing corrupt companies like Tyco and Enron....or even more recent: Goldman Sachs and  Lehmen Brothers. After the discussion about exploitation, Rafael talked about the business plan requirements....Sigh. I am not looking forward to producing a complete business plan in 3 weeks.

For those interested in the Dole case. Watch this movie.

After classes, I read the bulletin board and saw that there was two Shakespeare plays available: Julius Caesar and Taming of the Shrew. Since I'm not a fan of Cassius's cowardice in the battlefield I opted to sign up and see Taming of the Shrew. The problem is I've never actually read Taming of the Shrew so I'm not sure what to expect. Hopefully it will be good? Additionally, I signed up for the Botanical Garden tour. Sadly, there was no punting signups due to rain :[. Hopefully the rain will stop soon so I can try punting through the River Cam.

:[ I really want to go punting down the River Cam.

Once I finished signing up for activities, I ended up walking around and exploring Cambridge more/ getting lost. ....I can't help but laugh when I see a pub every half a street. Pubs are like clubs in Vegas....there's always one in walking distance. So at 5:00 PM, I got back to my room and went through the horrendously lagging PKP website to book my London trip. Unfortunately, most things were filled so I signed up for week 5. (Hopefully it will still be amazing?)

Pub map of Cambridge: That's......a lot of pubs in Cambridge O_O;

In the evening I went to the study skill session to see what I needed to know/ how to survive Cambridge courses. Eh it wasn't the most entertaining session, but I did learn that most of the grading is focused on arguments and writing good essays. That's...surprisingly different from the tests at home. Afterwards, I went to the King's College library and did some reading with friends. Today was a eh day, but nonetheless it was still fun. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

Until next time, Cheers!

Tina