It was the first time it hit me that I am actually turning into a businessman. To be sure, it will be a long process, but it has commenced—I am starting to say things in everyday conversations that I say at work. The first step, it seems, is to talk the talk, and eventually you become fluent in the language of business. Education and internships can only do so much to help with this transformation. The real conversion from finance major to businessman cannot start until you are completely immersed in the business culture and lifestyle. Although I am still far from being able to walk the walk, it is nice to see myself changing and adapting.
“Traders just talk different than normal people,” an older businessman once told me in New York before I made the move out here. “At a party, you can always tell which people are traders. We just go about conversations differently. It’s easy to spot.” And out here, my non-finance roommates and friends constantly point that out to me.
“Do you want to go to dinner on Elgin Street tonight, Paul?”
“Yeah, that’s done, J.”
“Paul, stop talking like a trader!”
But I can’t help it. I’ve only been actively at the job for three months and people are already calling me out on it, so I have no idea how far it will escalate over the coming years.
Speaking of things escalating, the apartment problems just keep getting worse. After the new pipes were installed, I thought I had seen the last of inconvenience and construction workers for a while… Then, about a week later, our wooden floor started to warp! The leaking pipe situation was fixed, but the damage had already been done. Boards started to pop up all over our living room, so the repairmen had to come in and put down a new floor.
Then a few days ago, J noticed a different pipe in the bathroom had started to drip ever so slightly, getting worse and worse each day. Our landlords came over to check out the situation, and before we knew it, more workers were coming by to fix this new problem. All is good at the moment, but I’m just waiting to find out what happens next.
But every cloud has its silver lining: bringing my newfound businessman skills into play, I negotiated a rent deduction for the month because of all the inconvenience. Only a few hundred Hong Kong Dollars (HK$) off, but I was still proud of myself.
You see, I need every dollar I can save because Chinese New Year is coming up, and I will get a few days off from work. I am going to visit my friend Erin (another VSB Class of 2009 graduate) who is teaching English in Thailand. She is working in a small town in the northern part of the country, far from any big city, so I am hoping to get an authentic Thai experience. I am really looking forward to it!
Also on the horizon is a stint working out of our London office for three weeks in March. My bosses in New York think it would be good for me to spend some more time with the brokers there and learn how they do things, so on March 5th, I get on a plane headed for the U.K. and don’t return to Hong Kong until March 29th. But because of my trip to Thailand, I haven’t even had a chance to start getting excited about it yet.
There was also that last minute weekend trip to Manila I mentioned in my previous post. It was a great getaway with my colleague Kevin, and his two friends Matt and Chris. The highlight of the weekend for me was a somber visit to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, in a tranquil neighborhood far removed from the traffic-clogged roads of the city's downtown. Now, after such a memorable first trip to the Philippines, I'm looking forward to adding Thailand to my growing roster of Asian travel destinations.
The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
The graves are set amidst impressive trees and beautifully maintained lawns.
A touching, poignant tribute to the American soldiers of World War II
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