I guess i can't find any new words to describe this session again, but the news of today is, we were the first group to get ready for the bus. Anyway, it's always good to be punctual!
Barclays Capital Investors:
It's another one hour ride before we stood in front of the magnificent building of this well-known financial giant's base, which located at downtown San Francisco. After the concise presentation given by Barclays, we had the basic background information and how its business processes: Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC which has an AA long-term credit rating and a balance sheet of over US$1.8 trillion. With a distinctive business model, Barclays Capital provides large corporate, government and institutional clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs. Barclays Capital has the global reach and distribution power to meet the needs of issuers and investors worldwide.
Besides presentations, the trading game we played soon after was the fun part of the day. We were the red team and consisted of two traders(Han Yang and Vu), two middle officers(Jacqueline and me) and a book keeper(An), which were role played by students. We had lots of fun and even Mr.Patrice, the runner, who ran back and forth to assist us playing a better game enjoyed the whole process equally. Our strategy was to sell as many shares as we could and make money out of the sales. The result wasn't so bad, we turned out to be No.2 in a-four teams competition.
While we were eating lunch hosted by BCI, we learnt a lesson in the BCI's IT department leader Tim' s short presentation. We were impressed by his words on "choosing a job of our interests" and "life is a learning process". In the end, we managed to take a couple of group photos with hosts before we left BCI at 2pm.
NASA:
After the trip to BCI, we had a good time in AMES RESEARCH CENTER NASA RESEARCH PARK before our plan of a tour in Stanford University in the late afternoon. The instructor of NASA told us many interesting stories about universe and galaxies. Meanwhile, his sense of humor made us feel at ease when we were asking questions, as we could absorb new knowledge but didn't feel the pressure from such a legend like NASA.
We found shopping at NASA Gifts Shop was a totally fun experience. Although we were reluctant to walk under the boiling sun shortly after we came out of the shop, the famous sunshine of California truly made our afternoon heat up!
Stanford:
Stanford University, founded in 1885, is recognized as one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions, with one of the most renowned faculties in the American nation. It is generally recognized as the origin of silicon valley and many of the world's famous IT companies. Only when we set our feet on its campus, we could feel the desire of learning and the innovative spirit . Two first-year Stanford freshmen from Singapore showed us around the campus of Stanford. Although we didn't have plenty of time, we could still feel how does school life in Stanford look like everyday. We have been to school's bookstore,too. All the attractive souvenirs made us want to stay there a bit longer in campus. However, we had to catch our bus before sunset.
Dinner:
ly, it's the best dinner ever since we came to USA! Ten different yummy dishes with the fourth NBA final game between LA Lakers and Boston Celtics on going at the dinner time made our evening in SF more colorful. Here we go, tomorrow we will visit Apple!!!!
Regards,
Chen Kun
Ngee Ann Polytechnic
