Life in the U.S.

Things about me recently:
1. I got Bronchitis and am still recovering from it
2. I've moved to a new place in Koreatown- it's a lovely apt but it has NO INTERNET (yet!)
3. I've been spending a lot of time getting immersed in investment stuff- reading up on corporate finance, building my financial model, books on valuation, keeping abreast of market news, investment perspectives etc. Let the bottom fishing begin!

Ok. boring updates aside, this post promises to be fun and exciting! It is intended to give you an overall view of how life in the U.S. has been for me! :)
Basically, I was -so- flooded with finance stuff, I decided to give myself a break. (Can't believe I gave up going to Las Vegas to read finance right...) And I decided to make a photo & story log of my life in the U.S given how that's what EVERYBODY asks me about when I returned to Singapore. I realized I have been snapping all these photos but I've not been posting most of my life story up cos' of work (accounting was such a pain!).

So THE STORY GOES...

I left my former company on Sept 11 (yes 911) after spending 1 year 1 month 11 days with them... On Sept 12 the very next day, I headed to the U.S. where a different phase of life awaited me:

What am I doing:
I'm basically in a Glooobel Rotation Ploglam (I don't want this to pop up in a search engine) consisting of six 4-month long rotations (that's 2 years) within the investment management business. There's a huge amount of flexibility (& uncertainty) because I never know what I'm going to do next. I've done my first rotation in Finance & Accounting (Irvine, OC) and now, I'm doing my 2nd rotation in Legal/ Compliance (downtown LA) but nobody knows what I'm doing next (& I'll only know 2 weeks PRIOR to starting it).

In the first year, I'm based in Los Angeles because there are 3 classes (4 months each) that I need to attend. They are taught by graduate professors from universities here, including even the Dean from LMU himself! So I take 4 months of Accounting class (recently completed), followed by 4 months of Corporate Finance class (I'm doing that now), followed by 4 months of Investments class. Along with classes come LOTS of homework and readings, exams and projects... which can eat into personal time and get painful at times. But it's all part of the package. After the 1st year, there is much more flexibility in where I'm placed. Past candidates have gone to Geneva, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Canada, New York, DC etc. basically out of LA, depending on business needs and opportunities available.


I was housed in a very pretty beach-side fully furnished corporate apartment (each time I have an assignment OUT of LA, I will be given such luxury!) but as always, the initial pain is in stocking up the food & supplies from scratch...

A new relocation wasn't easy. I had to get used to many things- the road (left hand drive), the crazy traffic, the fact that things are not all in 1 place like a mall in Singapore (they are all stand alone units in different parts of town), LA is really NOT 1 city - rather, it comprises MANY small cities (e.g. Koreatown, Santa Monica, Westside, Brentwood, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance etc.) And then there's the pain of getting a credit card where building a credit history is vitally important. No one here cares if you are earning $1m back home and you come to the U.S - you start from Ground Zero and nobody will give you a credit card cos' they think you're poor and delinquent. -_-"'


I've known my current company is big...But I didn't know it was SOOOOOO big and respected in the industry and that it's really hard to get in (average of 20 interviews to land a job is common). Apparently once someone gets in, they usually spend the rest of their lifetime here. I know this is not easy to fathom, nor can I imagine myself spending the next 40 years of my life here... but increasingly, it looks quite quite plausible as the work-life balance is ridiculously good!! (The office is all empty by like 4pm/5pm) and the compensation in the long run is comfortable as I'm told.

After my initial 3-4 weeks near the beach (Playa del Rey, near Santa Monica), I had to start my first rotation in Irvine, Orange County. Typically, people get 6 weeks of bask-in-the-sun-and-no-need-to-go-to-work-time (yes, that's life huh!) but mine is shorter as I came in later (bummer!). But no complains though as being in OC meant my accommodation was again, provided by the company. :)



The thing about my relocation was I only started packing the night after I ended work on Sept 11 so I literally spent my whole night packing and in the furry, FORGOT TO EXCHANGE ANY USD!!!! (& my credit cards didn't work in the U.S!) In retrospect, maybe it's good since now I can 100% tell that all the $ in my bank account now is 100% income earned from being in the U.S. - scrimping and saving, sometimes suffering and really trying to make ends meet from scratch like an immigrant, you know. :) Along with that, I had to be prudent in my spending so I bought a little car with my signing bonus while the rest of my friends bought sexy Mercedes, Acuras, Mini Cooper etc.



The initial relocation was pretty challenging (we'll get to the REALLY tough part later) so I'm really glad I had people come over to visit: Huiyang, Alissa, my sister, my sworn sister, XT... and more recently, the SMU Cognitare team.



What's my take on being in Los Angeles?
I've already been on several roadtrips in the U.S. when I did all the touristy stuff: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Seattle, Napa Valley, Death Valley and also been to other parts of the U.S. e.g. Washington DC, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Bethlehem, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Reno .... so in a way, being in LA now is kinda relaxing. I don't have the need to go Disneyland or Hollywood or Universal Studios or anything like that for the matter. So it's good just being chilled out like a local... (which's great given that I've soooooo much work to do e.g. accounting, corp finance). I do enjoy taking time to do local stuff e.g. checking out Pumpkin patches during Halloween! :)









In a way, I'm happy for the relocation because I have gotten new experiences and new knowledge: E.g. Halloween, Thanksgiving, knowledge of the U.S. financial markets, fund management etc. But of course, there's always tradeoffs in everything that we do in life and there have also been times when I'm left questioning if this was the right decision...But I guess at some point, I just have to trust that it's all part of "The Divine Plan" God has for me and to live bravely forward and onward! Life is already complicated as it is...there's no need to add on the "What Ifs"...


But along with the apparent "fun" (I think I just look happy because for some reason, we are all engineered to SMILE in PHOTOS)..., this period of relocation has truly been THE MOST CHALLENGING POINT of my life. It could be that life has been relatively straightforward/ smooth-sailing for me in Singapore and being all alone in a foreign land really kicked me out of my comfort zone. At times, I wonder about my past international experience and how they've been GREAT e.g. months in Mexico, Central America, China, India, U.S. respectively etc. but then I realized the difference now is that I'm WORKING, there's NO TURNING BACK/ NO END-POINT and there's NO FRIENDS. vs. exchange programs are somewhat fun, friends-filled trips.





The loneliness can sometimes be too hard to bear...so I'm always excited and delighted to hear that there are people visiting me! :P In particular, I need to give thanks to Jason - who has been a big help during the times when I was so lonely. It turned out that he was stationed in San Diego for training with the U.S. Navy (just 1.5hours drive from Orange County) for like 3-4months... This period of time was also where I distinguished -real- friends from -french fries- friends (as kids, you know you have friends that just disappear when the french fries were gone?) So certain people just became more important in my life (you know who you are) and this cementing of our bond is something irreplaceable in my life. :) I will forever be deeply grateful to you. :) The same goes to my family... esp. my mom!! our conversations...oh boy... n my sisters and their encouraging emails...



Given that I decided to take up the job because I wanted to combine international experience with professional experience, how could I resist the times to go do fun stuff? :P Whenever someone visits (e.g. Cheryl, XT) and time works out on my end, we try to do "uncommon" stuff together e.g. heading to snow play at BIG BEAR!!! (sorry Alissa mi amor, I was -sooooo00- swamped n boring when you visited me... :(( )



and to take the chance to explore the area. E.g. I only really traveled to the beaches in Orange County when Versaille's mom and XT were here. :P So I went to work at 6am so I could leave at 3pm to catch the sunset at the beach with them :)) See what I mean by good work life balance? :)





Post the horrible car accident, I got myself a new car...which marked a momentarily upward reversal of my life when colleagues played a crucial part in raising my happiness index. They opened up their homes and opened up their hearts and it was a moment to be thankful about at Thanksgiving :P



For those who don't quite know why relocation has been tough for me, I guess it's part loneliness, part solitude, part feeling like I don't know why I'm spending weekends on academic work and not going out to explore (there's always this travel bug in me), part car accident and part opportunity costs of home and friends and probably, part realization that there's only -this- much you can get closer to people here and that many things are not within your control. Much of it has to do with being in touch with myself and learning that I cannot please everyone.

Thankfully though, I have also met some REALLY nice people and lifelong friends! :p



So basically that's my life story from 12 Sept 2008 till 26 Jan 2009 when I went back to Singapore. The next post and photos on my Singapore CNY trip will come soon! followed by photos and the day-by-day building of my new house in Koreatown! :) Stay tuned! ^_^ Oh..and don't forget, I still don't have internet connection so my next post might take a while. :)