Fresno State Athletics
Moses Harris Learned Business Abroad
7/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 10, 2008
FRESNO, Calif. - In the midst of summer training for the Fresno State football team, junior Moses Harris spent two weeks in Hong Kong to take two classes at Hong Kong Baptist University with 40 other Fresno State students.
Harris took his first plane ride two years ago with the football team to the Liberty Bowl and said his first flight out of the U.S. was not something he wanted to repeat anytime soon.
"The plane ride was 14 hours and it was awful," said Harris. "It was really loud and there was baby crying the whole way. The food wasn't too good either. I did a lot of homework on the plane. Hong Kong is the No. 1 airport in the world and it was crazy when we landed. The first thing I noticed was the tabloids in Chinese, they are sort of like the Enquirer we have here in the U.S. I met some of my classmates in the airport and took the hour-long bus ride to the campus."
The students stayed in dorms on the campus of Hong Kong University.
"My dorm was really small and my bed was really hard," added Harris. "It felt like I was sleeping on the floor. The classrooms are very smart and electronically advanced. The campus was really nice. The resident dining hall was impressive and a full meal for breakfast and lunch was like $2.00."
These Business Finance majors took Marketing 124 and 127, integrated courses which allowed them to learn about different cultures and customs in the business world.
"Academically we learned a lot about International Business," said Harris. "Two guest professors, one from HKBU and one from Australia spoke to the class. We learned a lot about logistics, international strategies for how businesses go global, cultural business, human resources, how different cultures are perceived in the business world and different customs in different cultures for executives."
Harris missed voluntary workouts during the summer. There was a training facility on the campus in Hong Kong in which Harris used to continue the same workouts as he would if he were still in Fresno.
"I completed all my workouts except for two days when there was a Typhoon warning," Harris said. "I went to the park around the corner from the school every morning at 6 a.m. There were about 200-400 elderly people doing Tai Chi in the park in small groups each morning. One group had swords, another had fans and that was really cool to see. When I was running on the track people thought I was training for the Olympics so that was pretty funny."
Before he left for Hong Kong, Harris said he was most looking forward to going to Disneyland, but since it rained 12 out of 15 days he was there he was unable to go.
"I didn't get to see Disneyland but I saw the Giant Buddha which about 6 stories high. We also went to Victoria Peak which allows you to see all 200 islands that belong to Hong Kong. The boat cruise allowed us to see all of Hong Kong's buildings and skyscrapers and that was a neat sight. I think the Fish Market was the most intense thing. There are no food regulations so there were pigs getting their heads chopped off, frogs croaking and fish jumping everywhere so that was a little shocking."
As far as how the food was prepared at tasted, Harris said that was a little eye opening as well.
"I tried dim sum and ox guts and some different types of fish I had never had before," Harris said. "One night I ordered duck and was shocked when it came out as a whole duck with the beak, eyes etc. I was told the locals do that because of superstition. They believe in wholeness and that it brings luck."
When asked about the language barrier and how difficult it was to talk to locals Harris said that sometimes it was surprisingly easy and other times he struggled.
"I learned a few of the local words such as `thank you' and `excuse me', but the two official languages are English and Cantonese and all of the young people speak three or four languages. The taxi drivers were the most difficult to speak to because they didn't know English at all so you had to get your location written down in Cantonese before you got in the cab."
Harris also took a little bit of time to enjoy the shopping outside of the classroom.
"The Lady's Market is where you get all of the knock off bags and shirts and its 15 blocks long. It's really intense. There is a mall on every corner. It's a mix of NYC and Rodeo Drive."
Harris returned to Fresno on June 28th and will continue to prepare for the 2008 football season.
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