stranded in SF

this is probably the worst flying experience ever. i flew out from jfk this morning to catch my connecting flight from SF to hong kong. well my flight was delayed (no surprise there) so i missed my hk flight. so they try to rebook me onto a flight from sf to shanghai then shanghai to hk but not guaranteed that i will make the connection in shanghai...which means that there is a high probability i will get stranded in shanghai....and all the business class seats were sold out so they will have to downgrade me to coach. after arguing/haggling with the people, they swapped my business ticket with a singapore airline direct business flightto hong kong. the only ting is that it is a red eye flight leaving sf at 1:30am. so basically i'm stranded in SF airport for 12+ hours....ahhhhhh. total nightmare. i touch down in hk monday 6:30am and my first day at work is 8am.

luckily i called up my aunt and uncle and they're coming to pick me up for dinner. i think doris will also drop by later tonight so we can have our one last reunion.

my last few moments in NYC

it's about 4am and i just finished packing. i will be leaving in few hours for hong kong. yes i'm travelling again. hard to believe that i have only few more hours in new york city. the last 7 weeks have flown by so quickly. i really enjoyed my time here. surprisingly, the city has grown on me....more so than what i had originally expected. i think i may want to try moving here after my stint in hk. we'll see.

lastly, i wanted to thank all of my friends who have been calling me the last few weeks (you know who you are) to wish me luck on my new job and my move to hong kong. also thank you for the farewell dinner last weekend and this weekend. you guys ROCK and i will trully miss you all :( i don't know what i would have done without you guys in nyc. hopefully you'll come out to hong kong sometime soon!

some pics i took from the summer:

koji's trip to NYC!

steak at peter luger in brooklyn. the steak was fantastic. suppose to be the best steak in NYC.


weekend at the MOMA - van gogh's infamous "starry night"



me and my cousin anne!


rita's birthday dinner



Farewell dinner at Hudson Cafeteria in the Hudson hotel


farewell present from my friends

Mariah in Concert

Yes, as the title suggest -- I went to see Mariah Carey tonight at Madison Square Garden in NYC!! I went with my co-worker Scott. The concert was AWESOME and I had so much fun. We were 10th row from the center stage. Scott even got to touch Mariah when she was walked through the crowd singing "always be my baby"!! Totally happy for him since he's a huge fan of Mariah!

There's something about Mariah's songs that brings back memory no matter how old or new the song is. I think one of my favorite song tonight was "I'll be there" but I also really enjoyed her new songs from her Mimi album.

All of Mariah's old songs definitely "ages well". By that I mean none of her songs really sound corny or lame even after all these years. For example, unlike say, Amy Grant's songs... in which you listen to it now and the lyrics and rhythm just instantly makes you gag sometimes....some of her songs just sounds a bit outdated. not with mariah's songs. you know what i mean?

We also saw P.Diddy, Jay-Z, Sean Paul, and few other artists perform tonight at Mariah's concert.

Overall, it was a fantastic nite.

Here are the songs that she sang tonight:

01. It's Like That
02. Heartbreaker
03. Dreamlover
04. My All
05. Shake It Off
06. Vision of Love
07. Fly Like a Bird
08. I'll Be There
---"B" Stage:
09. Fantasy
10. Don't Forget About Us
11. Always Be My Baby
---End "B" Stage
12. Honey
13. I Wish You Knew (Snippet)
14. Can't Let Go (Snippet)
15. Thank God I Found You/Make It Last (Snippet)
16. One Sweet Day (Snippet)
17. Hero
18. Make It Happen
---Encore:
19. We Belong Together
20. Butterfly Reprise

mentally exhausted

i've been so bad at updating this blog....and i can't believe it's been a month since i've been in NYC. I still have 3 more weeks here before going to HK via London and Singapore.

so as you can tell from the subject line....i'm mentally exhausted.... my training here has been pretty intense covering all kinds of complicated finance topics...we just finished interest rate derivatives, swaps, and now going over other types of equity derivatives and options...and later on we're going to cover exotic options. oh joy! it started out all fun and slow and all of a sudden, the speed of the training went from 0-60 in 2 seconds... and as a result, my brain is fried. even though i'm mentally exhausted, i'm totally enjoying the stuff that i'm learning. but i'm looking forward to finishing the training and just start working.

in other news, july has come and gone but i think i manged to do a lot of things since getting here. i've been hanging out with my cornell friends on the weekend and with my new coworkers from various global offices. they're all pretty cool people to hang out with. i think we're all excited about our move to hk and starting a brand new life there.

okay peeps...off to dinner with my coworkers... i'll try to post some pics from the last few weeks when i get a chance. ciao!