Election Day 2008

Music: Wait- Get Set Go
Mood: Satisfied

I apologize for not updating like I promised. -___-

First of all, welcome new readers. I know the bloggers in Austin made classroom announcements in BA101, so I might have new readers. A quick intro: I'm a BHP, Plan II, Finance major from Missouri City, TX, and I am currently studying abroad in Hong Kong.

This semester, I've been pretty bad about keeping up with people back home because I've just been so occupied with things going on here. Typing up emails and blog posts just takes so long, and it is difficult to coordinate skype calls, so I apologize for those people who have not received their postcards or who have not heard responses from me via facebook or email.

So first things first, the "big news" that I had from last post was that I am seriously considering Teach for America. I talked with my parents about becoming a teacher in passing one time but didn't really think anything of it. Then, while abroad, I've traveled to so many different places and seen so many things. I've come to realize that I'm not EXTREMELY interested in finance, though my major is corporate finance. I mean, y'all know that situation about how I really want to do something that helps others instead of work for a corporation in a cubicle. That's why I really want to strategic consulting and eventually work for a nonprofit doing work that champions the rights of the poor-- specifically, providing education and access to health care to prevent deaths from preventable diseases. Ideally, I would love to start my own philanthropic foundation like Bill Gates, but then that requires a pocketbook the size of Bill's. Thus, I deduced the only way I can achieve my goals is either [1] work in corporate america, make a lot of money, and then form the charity, [2] work in strategic consulting and move into the pro bono cases of the firm and then slowly transition to a non-profit consulting firm, [3] start off working in non-profit and then climb my way up to becoming the CEO of a non-profit, [4] go into law and represent the disenfranchised or go into politics after law, [5] anything else? This Teach For America (TFA) experience would strengthen me as a person and allow me to grow. I know it's an extremely hard 2 years, frustrating at times and rewarding other times, but I think it'll be worth it. And, I'm already young for my age, so two years after graduation, I'll still be relatively young. From that, I could either go into law or go full-time into whatever job I sign with. So yea, TFA was the big announcement. I think I'll apply next Fall.

In other news, Today/Tomorrow is election day! It's crazy that this is my first presidential election, and I voted from abroad. I was worried that Fort Bend County wouldn't receive my ballot because of mailing issues, but I emailed FB county and they confirmed they received my ballot, so I'm glad that worked out. In terms of the foreign opinion of the election, I've gotten a huge amount of input and perspective from other people. As you can tell from the news reports, most other people in the world don't support McCain. The sentiment is that Obama would better represent America and begin to heal the broken ties and the bad reputation that America has received. At the same time, talking from my grandparents, they cannot believe that a Black person would even be on the ballot in the States. My grandparents are very old fashioned and think differently, but when they hear that Obama has been in the lead, they are in disbelief and don't think America will choose him. Talking with my roommate, I asked him during the primary between Obama and Hillary, who he supported. He said he favored Obama because he didn't trust a powerful woman as president. Others I've spoken with, like from Germany or The Netherlands, support Obama as well because they feel he is more in tune with world policy rather than the previous notion that America is King.

However, on a side note, American's still think they're kings. I mean, I'm not bashing or stereotyping Americans, but when I've traveled abroad to other countries and seen other tourists, you can spot the American tourists from a mile away-- they are "usually" (but not always) the loud, rude, obnoxious ones. In crowded areas where the people harass you for things, they are usually the ones that either [1] mock the language, [2] yell at the people to stop harassing you, [3] make a big scene. In my opinion, these people are doing their jobs, and the American travelers are just being rude and unaccepting to the other people. It's a sad but true reality that because of these interactions with American, others still view Americans in such a bad light. Will a presidential election change that? Who knows? What I do know, is that tomorrow morning, after my auditing class, we will know who our next president will be. I'm interested to see what else will be on the news after the election. The media has had a fanfare with this election because of the historical impact of this election-- a black guy and a woman.

I know that tomorrow, I'll wake up at like 8:20 for my 9am class. Watch CNN downstairs in the lobby for a bit, and then take my computer to class and watch the returns come in on CNN or MSNBC. (Personally, I'm starting to like MSNBC a lot more. CNN's interface is hard to use and their news is boring... haha). By my audit class ends tomorrow at 11am, I think we'll know who is president. In the meanwhile, I'm still reading Hillary Clinton's autobiography entitled "Living History." I'm on pg. 630 of 800. Hopefully I finish soon!

Also, I'm going to Korea this coming weekend. Specifically, Seoul, Korea, and I am excited like none other! Me and my high school friend, Cynthia (who goes to Berkley but is studying abroad at Hong Kong Univ.) are flying to Seoul and staying with a high school teacher who moved to Korea to teach at an international school. He's going to take us around the city and allow us to stay with him! How cool is that?! I plan to see rural Korea, get some good Korean BBQ, see some temples/palaces, go to the korean war museum, and overall soak in the coolness of the city. It'll be about upper 50s for the high and in the 40s for the lows. Because of this, I had my tailor in Shenzhen make me a D&G copy wool peacoat!

Hopefully, it'll be cold enough for me to make use of it! Haha. I went to Shenzhen this Sunday to have a suit made for me. I also had him make me a shirt and monogram it (on the left tail of the shirt, so it's not visible). I went back today (Tuesday afternoon) to have him give me a second fitting for the jacket. While there, I realized I need a pea coat and that it'd be cool to have for Korea, so I went ahead and ordered it. It'll be ready by Thursday, and he said he'll be able to ship it via DHL to me so I can have it for my Thursday trip. Though I'm not having a 2nd fitting for this peacoat, I think I should be okay because pea coats are supposed to be bigger and fuller. The prices for this tailor are pretty reasonable. A wool suit with silk lining cost me 750 RMB and a dress shirt cost me 100 RMB. The peacoat with top quality wool (it was sooooo soft) with silk lining cost me 800 RMB. (1 USD = 6.83 RMB, so I paid about 110 USD for the suit, 15 USD for the shirt, and 117 for the peacoat (shipping included). I got a black suit made and a white shirt. When I go back to pick up my suit next week, I think I'm going to get a grey suit and a blue suit a well, as well as maybe 5 or 6 shirts. I just can't get over the fact that these are custom suits, so they are PERFECT for my build. I am so lucky that I got a multiple entry Chinese visa. Most other students here only got double entry, but because I got multi-entry, I can go to China as many times as I want. This means many trips to Shenzhen to go shopping, which is nice because I can use these suits for the business world (or professional world!). Yaya! So excited. In addition to that, Shenzhen has so much counterfeit stuff. I'm not condoning piracy or copyright infringement, but in Shenzhen, the reality is that you can find ANYTHING. They have fake Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Burberry, etc. They even have copy-iPods! They also have every movie imaginable. They have all the seasons of every TV show you could imagine, from a popular show like the Office, to like BBC history shows! They have movies like crazy too, esp movies that aren't even out yet. We were joking with the guy and asked him when he would have the new Bond movie, and he said come back next year and he'll have it. How whack is that? There are copy Ray-Bans and Oakley sunglasses and copy Omegas, Tissots, etc. Everything. They are obviously FAKE, but still. They're there. It's unbelievable.

This past weekend was Halloween weekend. I ended out going out and dressing as the Joker. We went to Lan Kwai Fong, which is the 6th street equivalent with the mind-set of going to dance and have a good time. Instead, there were SOOO many people that they had us snaking back and forth for like 2 hours before we could go to the bars. It was literally a parade of people in costume. What we didn't realize was that the ENTIRE purpose of halloween in Hong Kong was the parade. People just take pictures of other people. In fact, there are people perched up on the higher buildings and in the elevated walkways taking pictures of others. It's crazy. So after weaving through the "parade" for about 1.5 hours, we got sick of that and wanted to actually do stuff. It ws about 2:30, and the night was still young (in Hong Kong time), so we went to a karaoke place and karaoked until about 6am and caught the subway back to UST. It was insane because we saw the sun rise. How sick is that? I mean, I'm not into sleeping that late, but wow! I was hungry too, so we waited for the McDonalds to open at 7am and had an sasuage-egg mcmuffin with hash browns and then I went to bed around 7:30am. Needless to say, I did not wake up until about 4pm. Haha. Hey, it happens.

Wow. This post is turning out to be longer than I thought it would be! I'll try to wrap it up. In finance, I had quite a scare when I found out I got a 59 out of 100 on the first mid-term. It turns out the TA mixed up people student ID numbers and I really got an A. In operations mgnt, however, I absolutely hate the teaching style and cannot stand the quizzes. I got the class avg (a 17 out of 25) on the 1st quiz and we just had our 2nd quiz today. Not sure how I did on that, but if i end up getting a B in this class, I will be furious. It's so easy, and I'm one of the people who knows the subject the best. In fact, all the other exchange people call me for help because they know I'm the one who pays attention and studies, but still, I end up with about the same grade as them. It's ridiculous. In my Chinese lit class, I got a 25 out of 25 on my first essay! Haha. Love it! I haven't gotten my Chinese film essay back nor have i heard back about my audit mid-term, so we shall see how things go.

Tonight, I just booked my ticket to Taipei, Taiwan for Nov 20 to the 24th, and I'm about to book my ticket to Shanghai for Nov 27 to Dec 2! I'm super excited! My pocketbook is almost empty, but it's being replaced with suits, pictures, and memories to last a lifetime! (See the pictures below)

Oh, and because this is supposed to be a career services oriented blog, I'll talk briefly about recruiting. I went to one recruiting talk for a small consulting firm here in HKG that is big in Europe and has some operations in the States. I got the HKG partner's contact information but she has yet to respond to my email about an internship. OCR opened up on Nov 3 for spring recruiting, so went on that last night and dropped my resume for several positions. I know that the strategic consulting firms don't use OCR, so I have to watch out for when interviews and resume drops are for those companies on the company website. Hopefully I get an internship I want this year. I mean, after interning for an auto company in Detroit my freshman year, and a hedge fund in operations in Dallas this past summer, I really want to work somewhere where I could see myself going full time (that is, if I don't do TFA or Law school). Oh, and I got an interview for SCIO-- Student Consulting International Organization. They're the Panama Brigades equivalent for this year, and they're doing a project in India to "turn a Maharaja house into an eco friendly lodge." I really hope I get selected for this project. If I do, I'll work on the consulting project for all of spring semester and then in May, after finals, I'll go to India for three weeks and actually implement the project. How cool would that be? I mean, it's doing the non-profit work that I love, it involves traveling, and it's during the summer! So this summer, hopefully I can go to India with SCIO and then work afterwards!

Ok, I really need to get to bed. I've been sooo sleep deprived this past week (the halloween festivities have throw my sleep schedule all off) so I need to get to bed.

Enjoy the pictures below (esp. if you've made it this far in the post!)

In Macau with the ruins of St. Paul Cathedral

Enjoying the sunset behind Victoria Peak and the IFC2

Waiting for the MTR on our way into the city

I had to take a picture with this cute Snow White

Riding the MTR back at 6am. eek but I'm still smiling!