새해 복 많이받으세요/say-hay-bok-mani-pah-du-sayo

Wasn't it just new year's a few weeks ago? For those of you into Asia you know that the Lunar New Year (called 설날/seol-nal) is the big dog of holidays. I left early today, but if the in-laws were up I would have been bowing to them this morning. Not a little hip-angle bow, either. A full, put-yourself-on-the-floor bow--I'll do it tonight after dinner instead. It's really not all that bad; after all, they do a lot for us and although the language and culture stuff gets in the way sometimes I know they have big hearts.

Like yesterday morning. My father-in-law was up when I was having cereal and asked if I was going to warm it up. Huh? It's cereal...it's supposed to be cold. Well, he was a little puzzled. I think there must be some Korean tradition that cold food in the morning is bad (generally Koreans like all things piping hot). He just stood there watching me eat. I'm used to stuff like this but after a while it got a little disconcerting. I think he expected me to take his advice and warm it up...but, being (more or less) an individualistic Westerner, I didn't. Anyways, no biggie, but an example of where a little culture can make for confusion on both parties parts...and, as in my case, it takes about a day to mull it over before I figure out why 'they' do things.

Yesterday I met with an advisor with the SFU Global Asset & Wealth Management (GAWM) MBA program. He said my GPA is a little light but my resume more than made up for it. There is also the part about the GMAT. He figures if I can get 3 reference letters (not a problem) copies of the certificates from my many industry courses and an ok mark on the GMAT that they can get me in there...the only 2 things left are time and money. The program is 1-2 afternoon-evenings a week plus 1-2 weekend days (all day). The price is about $33,000 (CAD) over 2.5 years, which is ok, but I'd like to see some of it paid by my new employer (nice idea, eh?) and, if not, I want to be sure I can handle both aspects without a problem. It's a great program, though. For their derivatives course they fly in a guy from a New York derivatives desk to teach the class as well as other professionals from Australia, London and Toronto. Excellent, a link from class to practice--I always liked that about SFU.

Well, better get at it. Happy (Lunar) New Year!