Hong Kong Entry #7

Whats going on everybody the last time we talked was Saturday and since then I have had my first junk boat experience!  Luckily it was on the largest Junk Boat in Hong Kong, the Angus!!

 From the Dream Careers crew Michelle, Melissa, Alexia, Amanda, Ross, Chris and myself all got on along with Stanley my co-worker and Amanda's boss who both helped in getting us on the trip.  This boat is unreal it takes 120 people max and has water slides, diving board, karaoke, dance floor, mahjong, banana boating and wakeboarding.  There are literally 4 levels to this boat one of them being a rooftop area and they also had kayakes, and rafts to use!

It was a really neat experience we took the boat from the Sai Kung Promenade dock area to this area of a bunch of islands.  They anchored the boat in the middle of all these Islands and basically stayed here all day.  It was awesome, there were beaches that you could swim to on the islands and the food was great.  It costs each person $450 HK but included all activities raffles, all you can eat and all you can drink (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and lasted from 10:30-7:00 so it was well worth it.  I will admit it took me two times to get up on the wakeboard but the last time I actually did it was last July so its been a while.  They had a large selection of liquor on the boat, everything from beer to bloody Mary's.  Aside from just about any drink you could want they also had a large selection of food.  The food was all cooked right there and consisted of homemade potato wedge fries, fresh grilled fish, chicken nuggets, steamed veggies, rice mixed with egg and veggies, noodles, some chicken wings that were awesome and some other chinese food that I just ate and have no idea what they were.  Aside from all that food they also had a popcorn machine and a hotdog roller, and tons of snacks/chips all over the boat, so no one went hungry.

Ross and I with the Captain of the Angus!

 I literally did everything I could on the boat because I didn't want to miss out on anything.  I first just sat in the sun for a little and had a few beers then I jumped off the top and board a couple times and swam in the water (which was super salty).

 After swimming a little I had a few more beers until lunch was ready.  I ate my weight in food then laid out up on the top deck for a little to digest.  After digesting we decided it was time to wake board, out of myself, Chris, Ross, Michelle, and Stanley who were on the same wake boarding boat, Ross was the best at wake boarding out of all of us.  Michelle who had never been before got up for the first time which was great to see!  After we all had gone wake boarding we went back in the water and decided to swim to the nearest beach.  At the beach we met a couple other people on the boat with us who actually live in Hong Kong and speak English we shared a couple beers.  Chris, Ross, and myself decided to explore a little on the Island which ended when we realized that we could not get very far due to jagged rocks and thick thick vegetation.

  When we got back to the part of the beach where everyone was chilling we saw that they had buried Melissa and built her a new sand body that was pretty interesting to say the least!! lol (unfortunately I did not have my camera so I have no pictures of it).  When we ran out of beer we swam back to the boat and had a little more to eat.  Then somebody got the idea to play beer pong and that is exactly what happened, the teams ended up being Brit's vs. Americans with teams of 4.  (I know very weird)  Now we were playing with these big thick plastic drinking cups and only 6 per team (thank god though because the ball just bounced off most of them!) Well the bad news is we ended up losing to the darn Brit's on the last cup. I had 2 of 6 as did Chris and Michelle had 1, unfortunately Ross couldn't help us out at all! (I know if I had NickZ and Jez on my team it would have been over before it started!)  Well anyway that pretty much ended the boat trip.  When we got on the bus both groups of new friends sat together on the bus and had a big sing along which I can say and I'm sure you all believe me I was a big part of! lol  When the bus dropped us off in Central we were hungry so myself and the other Dream Career peeps went to a a place that I hold very dear to my heart....Subway!!! YEAP!

 Now they didn't have as many toppings as they do back home, but it was still delicious!! So Pumped!  When I got back to City University I had just  got settled in my room and Ignacio came in and asked where the track I had been running at was.  I started to explain then I did the unthinkable after an entire day of drinking, I committed to go run with him!! I guess I just figured after a full day of stuffing myself a workout couldn't hurt.  So we ran for 20 minutes did some sit-ups and pushups and got a nice sweat in!
Work on Monday was really mundane, I just worked on my Capital Formation project for Andrew.  I submitted it to him he made some additions which I added and then sent him the final edition.  For lunch Daniel wanted to order from this place that does this grilled chicken with rice lunch box, so against my better judgement I ordered as well.  The chicken was as I suspected very fatty, however the meat that I did eat was very tasty!  I liked the taste of it, however I will not be ordering from there again.  After work I tried making it home to the health services because I am coughing up some junk and probably have a sinus infection, however when I got there I realized they close at 6.... bummer.  So from there I walked up the hill, sweated my butt off as usual, took a shower then met up with Ross, Ignacio, and Mike for dinner.  We decided to head to Dan Ryan's and I got a Burger again! And it was just as good as last time!
Today was a much better day at work I started off by doing a little job search and coming across a couple openings that I applied to.  After lunch Andrew called me into his office to have a discussion with him. He looked over the Capital Formation deck and said thank you and you did a nice job.  Then he asked me for my next project what I rather work on, Private Equity or Back Operation and IT.  I had no idea what the latter was so he explained it to me, basically its all the technology and more that enable electronic trading to work.  It's the stuff that lets trades on the NYSE shown in Shanghai in less than a nanosecond!  I told him I wasn't sure and he told me he could send me both of the older files so I could mull it over for the day, and I said okay. However as I was about to get up to leave he picked up my resume and started going over my experience and asked me what my dreams were what I saw myself doing.  I told him that I really enjoyed my Marketing experience at Cambridge Credit Counseling Corp. (thanks Thom! opened my eyes!) and that at one point I had considered going into PR in the financial industry, so that I could utilize both of my majors.  He said that was a terrific idea and there was a lot of demand for that and if that was the case then I should just work on and study the Private Equity stuff because it would be a lot more beneficial to my career.  He also said that James Heimowitz the President and CEO of the Asia Pacific division based in Hong Kong was a close friend of his and that would be a easy introduction.  He told me that his goal was to make this internship as much as a guidance and help toward my career as possible.  I thanked him and told him how much that meant to me. (Great guy Mr. Miller)  He told me to study about PE for 24 hours and tomorrow afternoon we would meet again with Sylvia Poon who I would be helping update the PE deck.  So that made today go from a good day to a great day.  After that meeting I felt great and relieved, I had finally put things I enjoyed doing together and started creating a career path for myself!!! very exciting and relieving.  From there the day at work just got better. I was reading through a Dream Career email about our guest speaker tomorrow David Fernyhough from Hill & Associates, and realized that he is based in Hong Kong and also into investigative finance, just like the people Jamie was looking for the Kroll case.  So I had Jamie look at him and he said that he was perfect for an upcoming position at Kroll, and he told me to forward his profile to him and Andrew! I had just found my first Candidate at Global Sage!! (very cool)
For dinner tonight I just had the Homey kitchen, chicken nuggets, broccoli and rice.  I did my laundry and that was the basis of my night. I skipped the tasty tuesday tonight because they went to some chain steakhouse and I did not feel like spending a bunch of cash for steak, or waiting till 9 to eat!
Anyway thats it for today! Adios!