Amsterdam
I had to stop overnight in Amsterdam on the way home, because this is the long way back from China and flights aren’t quite coordinated. Flying into Amsterdam it looked a bit like Beijing, although the haze here was actual rain rather than whatever floats in the air in Beijing. I sat next to a French man working in Hamburg who is taking an executive MBA program at Qinghua University. This was his first visit to Beijing and he didn’t get to see or do much of anything besides his program, but he’ll be going for a series of weekly visits. Executive MBA programs are very expensive part-time programs for business executives. I believe the U of M program is the most expensive (for the student) graduate program we run, at $115,000 for tuition and fees for a 21-month program of monthly sessions. How business faculty convinced the world that one needs a graduate degree to work in business is an interesting story, although I must say that students and friends who’ve gone through business school have found it interesting (in contrast to law school, where reports are more mixed).
It was raining hard in Amsterdam, but I walked all over the city and enjoyed the fresh air. This morning I took advantage of jet lag to run around the sleeping city (although some of the staff of some of the nightlife establishments were cleaning up and looking much the worse for wear). Here’s a picture of the canal tourist boats waiting for another day’s work.
I stayed in a cheap-by-Amsterdam-standards hotel called the Plantage Kerklaan. It has free internet access but otherwise seems only ok.
I’m off to Schiphol airport and hence home to the U.S.