Run to catch the bus

480 pages assessment delivered.

After a long long time I am back to express myself in this blog. To be honest, during this period I’d written two articles but I postpone their publication because I am not sure if they are offensive or they can create some uncomfortable situation to some friends of mine. Eventually, taking an MSc course isn’t the easiest situation you can deal with. Hours of study, countdown to deadlines and… running to catch the bus (for people who doesn’t know that, my principle “never run to catch a bus, another one will arrive shortly” was busted here in York, twice!).

Finally, the Practical Software Engineering & Management of Software Engineering module ended yesterday followed by a fest in the local pubs. 4 months working with 4 people from 4 different countries. Deal with 4 different cultures. A lot of 4s or a lot of lessons learnt? I strongly believe the second one. Let’s do some maths:

• 7.648,42 are the kilometers between Athens and Beijing.
• 5.009,51 kilometers from Athens to New Delhi.
• 2.481,57 kilometers from Athens to Tehran.
• 2.422,30 kilometers from Athens to London.
• 1500+ hours of team working. 841 hours spent on defined project tasks.
• More than 100 liters of coffee (= 300 pounds spent in vending machines)

What about culture?

• Capital punishment is the penalty to Iranians if they declare that they are not religious.
• In contrast, English people really don’t care about God.
• Chinese boys have to buy a house to their girlfriends.
• Indians smoke a lot, like Greeks.
• Never bet against Iranians.
• In China, you have to work at the place that you were born.
• If an English man wants to speak real “everyday” English you cannot understand him, even if you hold a PhD in English language from the Cambridge University with the title “Understanding everyday English from English university students”.
• ...

And finally, general stuff:

• Conversation between two Greek boys is very sexy (yes, someone told that. WTF?).
• Greeks can speak for boring things very passionate.
• Democracy in software engineering sucks.
• after 4 months Gu Zi became Gu Zili and got his glory back (sorry Steve ).

That’s all. It’s time to start my final project. Another 4-months experience starts from now. For the previous one, I want to thank Lyla, Steve, Ehsan and Vipin.