For one's betterment

" Be humble, for you are made of earth; Be Noble, for you are made of stars." - Serbian Proverb

My Hotel Rocks

I am a very happy chap today!!! Just moved into my home for the next 2.5 months in Hong Kong and honestly, I like it. For starters, there's wireless broadband in my room...WOOHOO! Though I had to pay like 400 HKD for it. Secondly, there's cable in my room!!! WOOHOO! haha...World Cup, here I come.

The hotel which I am staying is called Bishop Lei and its located in the Mid-Levels of Hong Kong island, kinda like an expat upper-class residential area. Its set amidst the lush green hills of Hong Kong island and I can see the fog covered top of Victoria Peak from my room. Which is kinda refreshing and relaxing. I heard that if I got assigned the other side of the hotel, I would have a sweeping view of Victoria Harbour, but alas. All interns are usually assigned the hilly view. =p

Did some grocery shopping and bought a ton of junk food. Potato chips and cup noodles mainly. Hey, a man gotta sustain himself through the World Cup fever right? Also bought loads of cereal and milk. Can't let my tummy go hungry when I go to work in the mornings. Short post today. Feeling abit lethargic.

Testing 1 2 3...Testing 1 2 3

After a hiatus of more than 3 months, here I am. Back blogging.

So much has transpired over the past 3 months that I don't even know where to begin with. Hmmm...For starters, here I am, all alone in Hong Kong serving my internship. LOL. Feeling a myriad of emotions all at once. Excitement over my 1st day of work on Monday, trepidation of failing to leave up to the expectations of my firm, loneliness of living so far away from my loved ones, not to mention injustice, fear, anxiousness, and you've got a pretty messed up being.

I gotta pull myself together. I need to. I have to. Work's starting on Monday and I must perform at my zenith.

Was speaking to a friend from NYU (Stern Business School) who is also in Hong Kong for her internship and realised that all her Singaporean friends in NYU are also in Hong Kong for their internships. Lemme count...2 in Lehman, 1 in Morgan Stanley, 1 in Deutsche, 1 in JPMorgan and herself in UBS. And guess what? All in i-banking. Earning twice my pay for doing more or less the same job. grrrrrr. Life's a bitch and I've gotta live with it. WTF.

Was telling Brat last night about the injustice and we agreed that we've gotta work doubly hard from now on, and ensure that our kids will enjoy the chance to attend one of the Ivy Leagues in the States. I wouldn't want to deny my kids the opportunity that their father never got. My friend was telling me that all-in-all, it cost about SGD 80,000 per year for her NYU experience.

Hahahaha...I was thinking aloud to myself, "at 80,000 per year, even if my parents sold away our HDB flat to support my 4 year of education in New York, we would still be 100,000 short." Damn it. I love my university. I truly do. SMU has given me opportunities than I could ever dream possible. Coming to Hong Kong on an internship, working in a bulge-bracket investment bank. Not many of my peers from Singapore universities get to have the opportunity.

BUT, this is my whole exact fucking point. So what if you have a 3.9 GPA in SMU, been the founder/president/captain of clubs in SMU, the darling of all the deans. Attend an interview attended by Singaporean candidates from Wharton, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Stern, Sloan...blah blah...and you will get my point. All the top jobs would invariably drift towards them. Leaving zilch for local undergrads.

I'm just eating sour grapes. For the obscene amount of money that those Singaporean students pay to attend all these Ivy League universities, I guess its a form of return on their investment. However, I would like to stress that in no way, am I less capable than them. Not in a million years. Throw me an Ivy League undergrad anyday and I'll tear them apart. ROARRRRRRRR!

Super happy but yet kinda sad as well...

WOOHOO...got back my Corporate Reporting Test today and I got one of the class highest!!! (61/80) Was expecting to fail or at most get a decent pass (60% of the class failed), but was greatly surprised I did so well =) Now I'm really motivated to do well for the rest of this term and finish this term off with a BIG BANG! So...I'm now in the library mugging away for my Investment Banking Test tomorrow. Must maintain my track record...wahahaha

Today's mood is quite a stark contrast from yesterday's...yesterday, I got rejected by a bank that I really wanted to do internship for =( Was really hoping to fulfill my internship over there in either its Corporate Finance division, or its Sales & Trading division, but alas...they don't want me. Since I'm graduating in December this year, I was planning to give it my all in this internship, and hopefully they would offer me a permanent job after my internship...SIGHZ...but all is not lost...I will continue to hunt for other banks...its their loss for not wanting me =p but really, I learnt the importance of picking oneself up after experiencing a setback. One can either wallow in self-pity or take positive actions to rectify the problem and find solutions. As for me, I chose the latter =) Right after I got rejected, I printed out my resume and sent it out to a career counsellor (one of my lecturers in SMU actually) and asked for comments on my resume and ways I could further boost it and gain the invaluable edge. He hasn't replied though, but I'm sure he will.

Next, I really love my Brat. She's been giving me so much encouragement since yesterday that its tough for me to wallow in self-pity any longer than it is neccessary. She kept egging me not to give up and that she would try and obtain important HR contacts inside her bank so that I can send my resumes to them. More importantly, her words of reassurances and comfort really uplifted me (she even said I can be a "Xiao Bai Lian"...wahahaha)

Alright...gotta get back to my Investment Banking notes...Wish me best of luck tomorrow!

What an Eventful Day

TT-gang Fishing Trip in December 2005


TT-gang Fishing Trip on National Day 2005


KNNBCCB...my car just got knocked into by a freaking lady driver. Was driving along AYE on the way back from Brat's house when this red Mitsubishi Lancer started cutting into my lane without even signalling. Worse still, my head was swirling with all the sub-sections of the Companies Act (think: fiduciary duties of directors/veil of incorporation/alteration of memorandum) that I didn't even notice that her car was drifting into my lane...and the next thing I know...her side mirror banged into my side mirror...AAAARRRGGGHHH...almost wanted to stop the car and seek justice from the lady driver but she happily zipped away on the expressway after knocking into my car. Was contemplating chasing after her, but decided against it because 1.) I am only concerned about my Company Law test tomorrow 2.) the side-mirror suffered only minor scratches 3.) petrol is expensive...wahaha...anyways, thank goodness the damage was very minimal or I would have kicked myself in the butt for not chasing after that red Mitsubishi.

Besides that, I slept in all the way until 1pm today and started to panick for my test. That's when I decided to go to school and do some studying. Hmmm...studied with Eugene and Brat (she came after work to study for her CFA) and its kinda a nice feeling. Its totally unlike the tense/nervous feeling I get when I study with my "acquaintances" (lets call them "Jarheads" from now on) =p heh...maybe its because I think they epitomize the meaning of Jarheads (big empty vases, full of shit) Think I shall study with Eugene more often from now on. Really thankful for his company throughout our 6-month exchange in Denmark. If it wasn't for him, Denmark wouldn't be half as fun. Oh oh...and I was reading this blog belonging to my friend - Manchi, and she made a post dedicated to her secondary school friends. MANNNN...I so totally agree with her that "old friends" are the best. If it wasn't for my secondary school friends such as Eddie, Linghao, Mingcong, Jiehua, Li-En, Shanhow and Weibing, my life wouldn't be what it is today. Honestly. Through my darkest hours, each and everyone of them at different points in time have given me the neccessary encouragements, precious advice and undying friendship that helped me surmounted those challenges (think: army and girls) Here's a BIG THANK YOU to all you guys! I can't emphasize again how much you guys mean to me...TT-GANG FOREVER! (heh...TT-GANG is sort of like this secret brotherhood that we've maintained since secondary 3) =p

OKAY...gotta get back to Company Law. Wish me best of luck guys (whoever is reading this blog...I doubt anyone...haha...no one knows about my blog anyways). I'm going to need lots of it tomorrow. Oh, you can also leave a short prayer for me. Nothing works like a good prayer. =)

TIRED TIRED TIRED!

Mannnnn...I am so tired and sleepy, must be the lack of sleep for the past few nights =( Anyways, finally got my car serviced and the squeaking problem rectified =) But today's a super unproductive day, studies wise...didn't even get to finish reading a single page of the text...hahaha...like Brat always tell me..."Procrastination always feeeeeeeels so good...until you realised you've just FUCKED yourself" =p

Went to Shawn/Darrell's birthday party and I must say the food is really top-notch. Power man. And Darrell's house is really very nicely decorated, kinda the dream house that I would want when I marry Brat...k...can really feel my eyelids closing...I'll end off here...hopefully I'll have more energy to blog a longer post tomorrow. There's so many things that I wanna blog, but just can't summon the energy to think and to type.

Can't believe I have jumped onto the band wagon

Hmmm...don't really have an idea why I'm jumping onto the band wagon. Was just watching American Idol on tv and felt really bored all of a sudden and I just thought to myself..."HEY, WHY NOT JUST START BLOGGING?" It feels really weird to write my thoughts out but then again, it's going to be a personal random musing of mine. No one's gonna know about my musings so what the heck, my blogging journey starts here =) Lets see, what shall I blog about on my virgin post? =p Well, I went to SMU library and made a feeble attempt to study for my investment banking and company law mid-term tests. I am sooooo panicking man...hahaha...since week 1 till week 7, its been DOTA DOTA DOTA (curse you DOTA!) I'm like waaaaaayyyyyyy behind my school work...jialat...

I was walking towards the library today when I saw some "acquaintances" (not exactly friends) of mine. Its just weird bumping into them. Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive, but I just feel like I'm constantly being judged around them. Well, more of that in a later posting another day. SHIT...friends just jio-ed me to DOTA...AARRGGHHH...I must RESIST...*grits teeth*

I give up. Resistance is futile. DOTA wins. CIAOZ!