Goodbye/Hello

Greetings from London!

Somehow, I always wind up here. And I’m fine with that, because London is high on my list of favorite cities in the world. Ever since I studied and interned here the summer after my freshman year, I’ve been in love with this place. Lucky me… Since graduating from Villanova in May, I’ve been here three times already. I never knew a job in Hong Kong would entail so many visits to the U.K.

While training in New York, my bosses wanted me to see how our London office operated, so they sent me out here for a week. You see, the new Hong Kong branch is an off-shoot of our London operations, so they felt it was important for me to get a feel for the way it all works. When I left to go back to New York, I thought I had seen the last of London for some time.

Then, on the way to Hong Kong, our CEO needed to make his annual review of the London office. Since we travelled together, I had four completely free days to enjoy the city while he did his work. Again, as we headed to Heathrow for the big flight, I said goodbye to London for what I assumed would be years.

And now I’m here again—for three weeks—to work out of the office. Lesson learned: never assume anything. I’m very much looking forward to spending more time in this great city.

Since Kevin and I are the only two employees who work in the Hong Kong office, there is only one person for me to learn from—Kevin himself. But it’s never good to limit your learning to one person. Imagine if you only had one professor for every subject in college. It’s always better to have exposure to different approaches and techniques. That way, you can really come to develop your own style, which is, in essence, why I’ve been sent here.

This trip was the brainchild of my bosses in New York, and I think it's a great idea. Since the London and Hong Kong trading days overlap, I can keep in touch with my Asian accounts and also take advantage of the multitude of different brokering styles to be found among the London staff.

Hong Kong has been wonderful, and I’m looking forward to returning in a few weeks, but things have also changed a lot since my last update. Sadly, I had to say my first Hong Kong goodbyes over the past two weeks. Mostly by coincidence, the friends I had been making were only in the city on a temporary basis, either as interns or on short-term job rotations. I always knew friends would be leaving, but I didn’t realize three of my best pals, Jurre (also one of my roommates), Becca and Harriet, would all go within a week of each other. That’s why I’m glad to leave for awhile now, too. Goodbye, Hong Kong... Hello, London! This trip couldn’t have come at a better time.

Out in LKF one last time with Becca, Jurre and Harriet

And another issue came up: with Jurre gone, Julian and I were faced with the prospect of getting a random roommate assigned by the landlords. It could have been anyone—a middle-aged Chinese lady who speaks no English, a forty year-old Turkish man who works in a local hotel, or anybody else. Really, all bets were off! Luckily, we met a 22 year old French kid named Guillaume who had just arrived in Hong Kong and was looking for a place to stay. We put him in touch with our landlords and solved the potential roommate crisis. He moved in earlier this week and the three of us get along very well.

On Thursday night I got a chance to show my ‘Nova pride by attending a college fair at the Canadian International School. Since most admissions counselors cannot make it out to such fairs, it’s common for young alumni to represent their alma mater instead. So not only did I get to talk up Villanova to young expat students, I also got to make friends with other young people living or working in Hong Kong. Funnily enough, Guillaume, the new roommate, was there as well, representing his school. And we made a new friend with a young lady named Samantha who I met for a few drinks the next night, before my flight. So even though I've had my fair share of goodbyes over the past few weeks, I've also had quite a few hellos, as well..

Hong Kong makes air travel as easy as it can get. You check in and leave your bag in town, at whatever time is convenient for you. I checked in for my 11:35pm flight at 2:00 in the afternoon. My bag was sent to the airport, I got my boarding pass and I went back to work for the rest of the day.

I met some friends after work, and at about 10:15pm, I got on the ‘Airport Express’ train to the terminal, only a 24 minute ride from the city center! Since I had my boarding pass already, I just had to clear security and head right to the gate—completely hassle free and no need to arrive hours early. I was in the airport for less than 50 minutes by the time our plane was ready to take off. I do not understand why other cities have not instituted similar systems.

I've just arrived at our London office to drop off my bags, and I will be meeting up with some of the guys who work here in a few hours. Tomorrow I will probably hang out with my friend Allie, from 'Nova, who is studying abroad here. And I’ve already gotten a taste of the brisk winter weather I’ve completely managed to avoid this year, since it rarely falls below 55° in Hong Kong and is usually much hotter. Even with freezing temperatures on the horizon, I’m really looking forward to the next three weeks!

Chinese New Year, Thai Style

As you probably know, the Year of the Tiger has just begun… So Happy Chinese New Year from Hong Kong! Not just a one day affair, Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) is a fifteen day festival full of food, parades and time spent with the family. More importantly for me, the days off from work gave me my first real chance to get away from Hong Kong and explore another part of Asia. In January I took a day trip to Macau and spent a quick weekend away in Manila, both of which I really enjoyed. But Chinese New Year was going to give me a couple of days off from work, so I could really take advantage and do something spectacular.

Seizing the opportunity, I went to Thailand to spend some time with my friend Erin, who also graduated from VSB last May. Erin and her friend Emily are teaching English for a semester in a tiny northern Thai village called Hang Chat, and they are having an Asian experience that couldn’t be more different than my own.

During our final semester at ‘Nova, Erin and I realized our time in Asia would overlap. Ever since, we have been trying to work out a time and place to have a reunion. Fate kept playing tricks on us though. First, we threw around the idea of going to Cambodia after Christmas to meet up with the Villanova mission trip, but the logistics were too complicated to figure out. Then we thought of meeting up in the southern Thai islands for New Year's, but our days off didn’t properly coincide and flights were nearly impossible (read: expensive) from Hong Kong. A simple weekend in Bangkok could have worked, but they couldn’t get down to Bangkok, and for me to get to the northern part of the country, I need at least one extra day to make the travel time worthwhile.

Then we finally figured it out: Erin and Emily were planning a tour of Southeast Asia following the conclusion of their program. With Hong Kong as their final destination before returning to the States, it looked like our reunion would take place here. Of course, the company decided to send me to London for a month, and I'll be returning to Hong Kong two days after they've gone back to the States. It looked like 48 hours was going to come between us and our reunion.

Then I realized I did have one long weekend—Chinese New Year (also coinciding with Valentine’s Day and Washington's Birthday). I looked into flights, coordinated with Erin and finally was able to work out a reasonably-priced, extended-weekend vacation. The four day trip was, without doubt, the highlight of my time out here so far, and I’d have to rank it up there with the best weekends I’ve ever had. I don't remember ever having laughed so much in my life, and I will always treasure the memories of the trip. I am so grateful we finally managed to work it out.

On the morning of Friday, February 12th, I took a ferry to Macau, flew from Macau to Bangkok, and finally flew from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, the nearest “big” city to where the girls are teaching. It was slightly surreal meeting up with my old friend Erin in this part of the world! And although I had never actually met Emily before, I felt like I already knew her because of a very vivid and hilarious blog the two of them are constantly updating. It was so nice to meet her, and we got along great from the start. And Erin has been a good friend since we took a public speaking class together first semester junior year, so of course it was great to see her again!

VSB Class of 2009 in Thailand!

Thailand was a wonderful and beautiful place. I loved the old walled city of Chiang Mai, with its moat, ancient wats and winding streets. I’m a fan of Thai food, too, so it was great to finally eat authentic curries and other delicious dishes. Friday night, I arrived rather late. The three of us headed straight to JJ Market for a night out, Thai style. JJ Market is very popular with the local students, and we were the only “farangs”  to be seen. ("Farang" is the Thai word for white people, the equivalent of Cantonese's "gweilo" heard often in Hong Kong.)

Taking the mic my first night out in Chiang Mai

On Saturday morning we had to be up early for an excursion known as “Flight of the Gibbon,” which is a series of 10 zip lines through a Thai rainforest. Along the way, local guides offered glimpses into the traditions of nearby villagers and interesting information about the trees and other natural surroundings. The zip lines were thrilling, giving you a bird’s eye view as you soared from one high treetop to the next. Most of the lines were horizontal, but a few were vertical drops down to the jungle floor. It was a great activity, and I’d highly recommend it if you ever find yourself looking for something to do in Northern Thailand.

Erin and Emily on Flight of the Gibbon

Sunday was “Wat Day” as Erin and Emily took me around town showing off the ancient temples that are found in Chiang Mai (and all of Thailand, for that matter). The wats are far more intricate and elaborate than any temples I’ve seen in Hong Kong, with glistening spires, lots of gold statues and plenty of paintings. After a few more hours exploring Chiang Mai, including a massage and a trip down the Ping River in a longboat, it was time for a journey into “real” Thailand.

As I said, Erin and Emily are teaching English for the semester in the humble town of Hang Chat, and they live on the campus of the school in a “Jungle House” that is rustic (think lizards and spiders crawling around) but spacious. The town is about an hour and forty minutes’ bus ride from Chiang Mai, and the buses don’t even stop there unless you specifically ask them to! There isn’t even a real bus stop. We had to get off in the middle of a highway, where one of their fellow teachers, Lan, was waiting for us with two motorbikes!

I will never forget that ride on the back of the bike as the sun set over Hang Chat. I will probably never make it to that random little place again in my life, but the time I got to spend there was very special. Lan wanted to make sure I saw Hang Chat at its best, and she really went out of her way to make sure we had a good night. We had dinner at one of the local spots Erin and Emily frequent—and had a filling and tasty meal for less than $1! I also got to try an Oreo milkshake from the girls’ favorite milkshake stand—set up next to the town’s only traffic light! And at the town market, I got a bag of fried crickets, which, curiously, tasted like salted potato chips.

Milkshakes in Hang Chat with Lan

The next morning, we were up bright and early for a day at school. The campus was beautiful, with lots of grassy fields, palm trees and both academic and residential buildings scattered all over the place. As the day went on, I realized just how different Emily and Erin’s Asia experience has been compared to mine, as I got a first hand taste of teaching English to Thai high schoolers. That day we covered many topics: the rooms of the house, furniture and household objects, what items we would most desire if stranded on a desert island and an ill-fated attempt to teach the students a song by U2.

Kru Erin teaching her students

The students also were slightly confused as to why an American 'friend' would come all the way to Thailand on Valentine's Day, so they were sure that I was dating either Emily or Erin... And they kept asking all of us the whole day long! Even after explaining that it was also Chinese New Year, and that I actually work in neighboring Hong Kong, they still believed what they wanted to believe.

With some of the students after classes

For lunch, Sutham, the director of the English program at the school, treated us to a tasty meal in town. Back in the classrooms, the afternoon went by quickly, and before I knew it, we were with another teacher, named Pan, driving to Lampang, another town about 20 minutes away from Hang Chat. Pan said I looked Chinese, and she also thought my name was pronounced Pohn, but still, I cannot thank her enough for how gracious she was the whole evening. Born and bred in Lampang, she was very proud to show off the two beautiful wats that her town is known for.

She dropped the three of us off at Big C (a Wal-Mart like shopping center) while she went home to change before dinner. And then she returned with her daughter, Poon, for my farewell meal, at a local restaurant called ‘More T.A.O.’ (I still have no idea what that name means.) With the exception of one dish (that I happened to order), the meal was incredible. The one dish in question, described on the menu as “fried shrimp with peanuts and chili” was actually a plate with lots of raw (and random) items: salted peanuts, chili, ginger, onions, lemongrass and small cut-up pieces of lemon and lime—and in the center the tiniest, most disgusting shrimp I have ever tasted! At one point, Pan herself, in an effort to show that the food was edible, attempted to eat it. She gave it her best effort, and never actually admitted that she didn't like it, but she stopped after one piece of ginger and never mentioned it again. Luckily, I was forgiven for ordering the dish, and it became the running joke of the meal.

Dinner in Lampang, with Pan

Afterwards, I was dropped off at the bus station to head back to Chiang Mai, since my flight was early on Tuesday. In town, I went for a random walk before going to sleep and stumbled upon an elephant walking down the road! The one disappointment I had about Thailand was not getting to see an elephant, so it worked out so perfectly that on my last night, one just happened to walk by!

Feeding the elephant in Chiang Mai

The weather was beautiful all weekend—what a terrible feeling when I stepped off the plane to 50° temperatures back in Macau! Oh, well. I went straight to the casino at the Venetian to meet up with some friends, won a little bit of money, and got the Year of the Tiger off to a great start. And something felt really good about getting back to Hong Kong—it felt like coming home. Making a new home here has had its challenges, from leaky pipes to not knowing my way around and having to make new friends, but returning from this short vacation proved that I am on the way to successfully making Hong Kong my new home.

A trip to remember...

Guilty Pleasure in Happy Valley

I always try to be unpredictable. I don’t like people to be able to guess where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing at any given time. I am usually capricious and make most decisions on a whim. I also like to spice things up, and rarely allow myself to fall into a routine. But I break this rule each and every Wednesday, when—never fail—I arrive at Happy Valley racecourse to spend the evening. Sort of like the Grog on Thursday nights during my senior year at ‘Nova, there's only one place I'll be if you are ever looking for me on a Wednesday between 7pm and 11pm.

And I’m always one of many. The track is never empty and almost always completely packed. There is a running joke in Hong Kong that you should never get a haircut during the day on a Wednesday because the barber will be reading the racing form—not paying attention to his work—and might snip your ear off. In fact, there are still old timers who tell stories of how the stock exchange here used to close early on Wednesday afternoons so that everybody could go to the track. That’s how popular the races are. Like Rick’s Café, everybody comes to Happy Valley.

I have always been a fan of live horseracing. When I interned and studied in London, I went to the Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood race meetings. On one of my first days abroad in Paris, I went to the Prix d’Amerique race at the Hippodrome de Vincennes. And back home in New Jersey, one of my favorite summer pastimes is to spend the day at Monmouth Park Racetrack. So I struck gold, without knowing it, when I signed on for this job in Hong Kong. Until I did some research, I had no idea that there were nighttime races in Happy Valley, right in the middle of the city, every Wednesday evening.

Jurre, Becca, me and Julian at the races on a Wednesday night

Bright floodlights illuminate the grandstands and viewing area; the high-rises surrounding the track create a surreal, futuristic environment; and the shouts of excitement from onlookers when the horses round the last turn make the mood even more palpable. Between races, it almost feels more like a party than a sporting event: Lady Gaga and Sean Kingston blare from the loudspeakers, young people dance and sing and there are even games and contests. There is a great deal of atmosphere that makes it unlike any other track I’ve visited.

And Happy Valley is right in the heart of the city, only a tram ride from my office or a fifteen minute walk from my apartment. Losing my newly earned money couldn’t be easier. Or more fun.

Every now and then, especially when I go by myself, I try to sneak away from the (mostly Western) crowd out front and head up into the top level of the grandstands. It is up here that the chain-smoking, odds-obsessed, local betters gaze at the screens until the last possible minute, watching potential payouts change as post time approaches. From this perch, you can watch the entire race, whereas down below, you loose sight of the horses for a sociable amount of time, due to the large screen in the middle of the track, among the other distractions. You also remember that you are in Asia, a fact that is, sadly, all too easy to forget in Hong Kong.

Whether I go alone, with my roommate Jurre, or as part of a huge group, Happy Valley on a Wednesday night is always a wonderful experience. And I always give in to the temptation of ordering McDonald’s, since the one at the track—only open one night a week—is thus claimed to be the freshest McDonald’s in Hong Kong. Yet another reason why I’m always looking forward to Wednesday night!

Talking the Talk

A few days ago, I met up with some friends at a tea house out here to watch a free concert. Another girl in the group (whom I had not met before) also works in the financial industry in Hong Kong. Upon discovering that we had similar positions, we began to talk quickly about our jobs. Immediately, the rest our friends rolled their eyes and muttered, “Do you see what happens when you get a couple of them together?!”

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

In the meantime, I am recovering from a minor sunburn I got earlier this week. When I got into work at 8 o’clock Monday morning, all of our systems were down and I could not access any of the programs I needed, so I was told to take the day off! I went straight to the beach at Deep Water Bay since it was a beautiful day, but I forgot my sunscreen. Oh well, it was a relaxing day, and I certainly love the fact that I can get to a beach so easily. Next time I will just have to be more careful.

The Joys of Hong Kong

Life in Hong Kong is as interesting as ever. I think what I like most about living out here is not ever knowing what to expect. Any given day, you are bound to see so many strange and interesting things going on around you. And with the help of a few guidebooks, and happenstance, I have always been able to find something to do.

A few weekends ago, Julian and I decided to go out and try snake soup for dinner. We did an online search and found a place that was highly recommended and described as “very authentic.” And what a dinner it was! We had to wait to be seated for a bit, and then we were given a small table that we had to share with other diners. And the menu was not in English either! Only a small "highlight" section provided translations. I am not exaggerating—we were the only two Westerners in the place, everybody else was a local. So... as you can probably guess, the food was fantastic! The snake soup was delicious, and we had fried snake for our main course. Even though it was difficult to eat due to the tiny bones, it tasted great. It was the first time I had ever eaten snake, and I am still trying to think of the words to describe it.

Snake soup

Last Saturday was a great day. I woke up pretty early and the sun was shining. So I put on a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops and convinced Jurre that we should go to Aberdeen, located on the southern part of Hong Kong Island, for the day. The harbor at Aberdeen is filled with fishing junks and sampans. The people who live here are known as “boat people” and they actually live on the boats. There was a time when "boat people" were found all around Hong Kong and needed to gain permission to set foot on the land. Back then, it was said that most of them lived 90% of their lives on the water. Those days have changed, but Aberdeen is one place where these traditions live on. As you walk along the waterfront promenade, lots of old ladies try to convince you to board their boats to take tours of the harbor, so of course we did it! Seeing the boat communities up close was incredible.

Aberdeen’s most famous feature is the Jumbo, a floating restaurant. When I first read about the Jumbo, I figured “floating restaurant” was just a fancy way of saying “boat” but I was wrong. It is literally a building permanently moored in the middle of Aberdeen’s bustling harbor. Since it was so nice out, Jurre and I sat out on the top deck and enjoyed a big buffet lunch. It was the perfect way to spend the beautiful afternoon.

On Sunday I woke up with no plan. I opened my favorite guidebook and decided to go up to the New Territories, the part of Hong Kong that is situated between Kowloon and the border with Mainland China. The book suggested a fantastic attraction in Tseun Wan—an old, restored Walled Village that was turned into a museum back in the 1980s. Walking the old lanes between the houses, visiting the Ancestral Hall and learning about life in the old days really gave me an insight into the history of Hong Kong’s more remote areas. Then I took the train to another town where there is a "heritage trail" that passes ancient pagodas, temples, Ancestral Halls and even a real Walled Village still inhabited to this day! In a big, modern city where things are constantly growing and changing, it’s often impossible to find traces of the past without going inside a museum or looking in a book. Luckily, there are places like the New Territories where you can find great reminders of a rich cultural heritage to explore and experience in living color.

A temple on the heritage trail

The ancient pagoda in the New Territories

Now I’m getting ready to go to the Philippines for the weekend. I am flying down to Manila with Kevin and two of his friends after work today. It was a very last minute trip… We only decided to go last Friday! But the airfare was cheap and it’s always great to explore a new place. I am looking forward to checking a new country off of my "to do" list.

As I said, one of Hong Kong’s great joys is the feeling that there is so much to discover. At first I thought that was true just about the city itself, but I am now starting to realize what a gateway it is to the rest of this part of the world. I am going to Thailand for Chinese New Year (when I get a few days off from work) and I am already thinking of trips to Vietnam and Singapore. This is definitely a great place to be!

Tricks of the Trade

Now that the holidays are over, work is getting busier and busier. I am learning a lot and really enjoying my days. My hours are not nearly as grueling as some of my friends’ who also work in the finance industry: I have to be at work each morning by 8am, and I leave some time after 6pm, depending on how busy we are.

And something that’s particularly nice about Hong Kong is that there is a two hour lunch break built in to the middle of each day. It’s not an official rule or anything, but it’s generally accepted that between noon and 2pm, very little action goes on, at least in the corporate bond market. I am free to go have a nice lunch with a friend, get some important task accomplished, meet a customer for coffee or simply walk around to get a bit of fresh air.

I like this schedule because you can work hard from 8am to noon, relax for two hours, and then go at it again in the afternoon, feeling completely refreshed, like you’re starting over. Working in New York was exhausting because each day was long and drawn out, with hardly a minute’s break. Dividing the day into two reasonable halves makes each ‘session’ more productive and interesting. The day hardly ever drags, and it’s usually fun and exciting.

I think I have mentioned before that I only have one coworker here in Hong Kong. His name is Kevin, he is from London and he just turned twenty-four. Kevin is a great broker, and he is trying hard to teach me how things work. I feel very comfortable around him, asking questions and trying to learn from him. Even though I far from know it all at this point, I can still say that everything I do know about the business, I have learned from Kevin. We get along very well and are friends inside and outside of the office. He is just as good about giving me advice on Hong Kong as he is about teaching me how to broker.

In general, there are two types of bond brokers operating in the financial marketplace. One of these is the so-called “big-screen broker” who updates his prices on a computerized screen to which all of his clients have access. If a client sees a price he likes, he can execute a trade electronically and receive instant confirmation. These screen brokers facilitate the trading of tens of millions of bonds per trade and make a small commission on each bond. When hundreds of millions of bonds are trading each day, even a tiny commission per bond can yield large profits.

The second type of broker is the off-screen broker, and that is what I am out here. We specialize in the odd lots and illiquid securities that slip past the screen brokers. The trader’s advantage for using an off-screen broker is that we can often get inside the “screen” market and secure a better execution price on a smaller size—you see, a seller might want to sell ten million bonds at 101.50 but would part with a small scrap of only half a million for less, say 101.40. This way, a trader can save a considerable amount, and for this service, he is willing to pay an off-screen broker a slightly higher commission. So even if we don’t trade that same volume as the big-screen brokers, there is still the potential to earn decent money.

When I arrived in Hong Kong, brand new to the business, I had no customers. Just like every other broker who ever started from scratch, I had to make those dreaded cold calls. I am still in the process of making them. I have to find ways to locate the phone numbers of fixed income traders throughout Asia, and then I have to call them and give them my pitch.

I call banks in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, China, South Korea, Thailand and any other place I can. Usually the person I speak with is very receptive and interested in being added to my distribution lists. (Honestly, there is no reason for them not to be—they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If they don’t like the prices they see, they can just ignore them. If they do like a price they see, then they buy or sell bonds.)

However, what can be tricky is getting to speak with the proper person. I have spent hours trying to get non-English speaking operators to connect me with a trader; I have been on hold listening to tacky jingles for what seems like forever; I have been passed from one operator to the next to the next only to be disconnected after twenty minutes and have to start back from the beginning. It’s not the most enjoyable process, but it’s really the only way to get started, even if it is annoying.

Our office, with its incredible view over Victoria Harbor

Speaking of things that are annoying, on Christmas Day we discovered that our pipes were leaking in the new apartment! Although it wasn’t causing a problem for us, the old Chinese couple living downstairs had water dripping through their ceiling in several spots. It turns out the old pipes all needed to be replaced, and to do this the water for our apartment was completely cut off—no running water in the kitchen, no water to shower in the bathroom, no water to do laundry and no water to brush your teeth. We couldn’t even use the toilet! Our landlord owns another apartment up the road, and we had to traipse over several times a day whenever the need arose. Imagine me walking through the streets of Wan Chai with shampoo, soap and a change of clothes… I got some very curious stares. Luckily, though, the workmen have finished and we have water again.

And Hong Kong is still a great city, running water or no running water. I am having the time of my life exploring all it has to offer, from wonderful restaurants to sweeping views of the skyline to the great museums. This place keeps topping itself, and at the end of each day, I love it even more than the day before.

Although I am unsure how many years I will spend out here, I can rest assured that I could live here for the rest of my life and never run out of things to see and do. There's a quote from Myrna Loy that was once displayed at the World Trade Center PATH station—where I used to ride back to Jersey after work many an evening—proclaiming, “Something’s always happening here. If you’re bored in New York, it’s your own fault.” Having grown up just outside of New York and having spent most of my life there, I completely agree with Ms. Loy’s assessment. But it’s nice to know that the Big Apple isn’t the only city in the world that provides a constant parade of fascinating sights, sounds and events. Hong Kong certainly is the New York of the East, and I am very happy life has lead me to this wonderful place.

Away from Home for the Holidays

Happy New Year from Hong Kong! It’s tough to believe the holiday season has come and gone so quickly... and that a new year has already gotten under way!

As exciting as these past few months have been, this was the first time in my life I have been away from my family at Christmastime. To make matters bleaker, for a few weeks leading up to the day itself, it looked as if my Christmas might be spent alone. Kevin, my only coworker here, went home to London for the holidays. He was quickly becoming a good friend, showing me around town, introducing me to his buddies and making sure I got to know how things worked, both in and out of the office. But apart from him, I was not making new friends as quickly as I had hoped. And with him back home, I didn’t have a holiday plan. Hong Kong was all decked out for the season, but I wasn't completely in a Christmas mood.

The Christmas Tree in the HSBC Building

You see, when I first arrived here, my company put me up in an extended-stay hotel in the Mid-levels, a part of town very popular with expatriates. Extremely quiet and residential, the Mid-levels is a tough place to meet other young, like-minded individuals in a similar situation as myself. Don’t get me wrong—my apartment at 2 MacDonnell Road was wonderful and I loved living up there—but it definitely was not the best part of town for a lone twenty-two-year old who had just arrived in Hong Kong to make new friends. If I stay out here for several years, I would love to move back there, but I know that I made the right decision to relocate to a livelier, younger part of the city at this stage of the game.

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My first apartment, in the Mid-levels

Since my second or third week out here, I had been on the hunt for a more permanent apartment. And after dozens of meetings with landlords and lunch-time tours of flats all over town, I finally found what I had been looking for. One Monday after work, I went to an upscale shopping mall in Causeway Bay to meet yet another landlord. To my surprise, I was not the only prospective tenant there that night but rather one of a group.

The last place we saw on that “apartment tour” was exactly what I had hoped for. It had a nice, big living room, reasonably-sized bedrooms (at least by Hong Kong standards) and a low price tag. It was in Wan Chai, a very fun and popular part of the city, and most importantly for me, it was a three bedroom apartment—meaning I would have roommates (read: new friends). In fact, the night I looked at that apartment, I made my first new friend out here. His name is Jurre, he's a twenty-three-year-old from the Netherlands and he was one of the other people on that “apartment tour.”

Afterwards, we went out for a couple of beers in SoHo, exchanged e-mail addresses and ultimately decided to become roommates, taking two of the three bedrooms in that last flat. Before I even moved in to the new apartment, the landlords informed Jurre and me that they had rented out the third room to “a funny German guy named Julian.” That's all they told us about him.

The moment Jurre and I met Julian, a twenty-year-old German doing an eight-month internship out here, I realized instantly that I had struck gold with both of these roommates. The three of us clicked, and on December 17 (the day I moved in to the new apartment), it finally looked as though I wouldn’t be alone for Christmas after all.

With Kevin back home, I was also given the task of running our office by myself for two weeks. Although I knew from the start it would be invaluable in terms of building confidence and teaching me how things work, I couldn’t help but be extremely nervous. I mean, I had been out here for less than two months, and now I was left completely alone to do it all. Luckily, the Christmas season is generally slow in the finance world, so it was the perfect chance to learn the tricks of the trade and get firsthand experience putting things together.

Fear not, the office is still in business, and I feel so much more assured than I did two weeks ago. I have finally moved up to the next level, and I could never have done that without jumping (or being pushed) off the deep end.

With December 25 quickly approaching, my roommates and I bought and decorated a Christmas tree for the apartment, and one of Julian’s coworkers invited us to her rooftop apartment in Happy Valley for a Christmas Eve barbeque, which was wonderful.

Rooftop barbeque on Christas Eve

And at the last minute, one of Kevin’s friend’s, Dan, was nice enough to invite me to lunch on Christmas Day with a big group of his friends, which wound up being more fun than I could have ever hoped. It was a multi-course meal at a restaurant called Wagyu, on Wyndham Street, and the food was delicious.

With Dan for Christmas Lunch at Wagyu

The week between Christmas and New Year flew by, and all of the sudden it was New Year's Eve. “Western New Year,” as they call it out here, isn’t quite as big a deal in Hong Kong as Chinese New Year, but it was still a very fun night. There was a countdown and a small fireworks display, but apparently they are saving more impressive pyrotechnics to celebrate the Year of the Tiger in February.

In the end, my first Christmas season away from home wound up being memorable and very enjoyable. I couldn’t have asked for anything more! I can safely say that 2009 was one of the most exciting years of my life—finishing off my college career with a bang, taking me to four continents and sending me off on a rewarding new journey for the next stage of my life. I have high hopes for 2010 and am looking forward to all the adventures it has in store.