It's been a while. Hi there! Anyone reading this?

Happy New Year, even though it is already half way through January . I hope everyone is having a fabulous 2009 so far! I have been busy with my job (it just never slows down). And interestingly, I will be moving to a new condo in February!

Moving to a new place has always been in my mind. Until last December I finally took some time looking at some apartments. One impression I got is that they are getting so expensive. You can't get away with paying $900 a month for renting just a small bachelor in downtown nowadays! Then I thought to myself: Why don't I spend a bit more for renting a condo? Then just before Christmas, I found one really good real estate agent from Kijiji. She helps people find condo rentals, especially for people who have pets. So I emailed her and she called me back. Since it was near Christmas, we didn't schedule a viewing until early last week.

We did the viewing on a cold Tuesday night (Why did I do it to myself?). We went mainly to Yonge/Bloor and Spadina/Front areas. The first one we saw was a very neat 1-bedroom right at Yonge/Bloor and we instantly loved it. Firstly, it is right at the PATH. So basically, I can go down to the subway and go to work and come back home without even going outside everyday. Secondly, there are starbucks, the Bay, shopper drug marts, food court downstairs. Again, I don't have to go outside if I don't want to.

The subsequent ones that we saw were not as good as the first one. Therefore, I decided to put an offer on the first one. After a flurry of paperwork and going back and forth, I will be moving to this nice condo in February. I am just so excited!

Now the hard part...moving! Oh how much do I hate moving, especially in winter! Fortunately, I don't have much furniture so it won't be a problem. But still...oh I don't want to think about it now!

For weeks I tried to start writing on my blog regularly but I just don't know where to start and eventually I gave up.  My work has been occupying me 70% of the time and it has just been quiet down for a little.

As the play Rent said: "How do you document real life when real life is getting more like fiction each day?". This is exactly what was happening over the last couple of months. I had started my job for just one month when the market started to crash in September. Even the most experienced traders could not believe the severity of the downturn. The downturn is not only unprecedentedly deep but also rapid. I am still amazed how I survived the stress I went through during the week when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and AIG got bailed out, and all the subsequent events that moved the markets. Luckily, it seems like a series of these event created a lot of opportunities that are in our favor as we are relatively well prepared for these crises compared with most US and European banks. My heart aches when I hear there are hundreds of thousands of people in the Finance industry have lost their jobs due to these events, but on the other hand, I feel really fortunate that at least I still have a job.

Anyhow, on that note, my parents came to Toronto to attend my graduation ceremony two weeks ago. I am glad that they came to visit me. The ceremony was held in the convocation hall in U of Toronto. Compared with the one at UBC, this hall was way smaller and older. But I enjoyed the whole experience very much as this is probably my last graduate ceremony (I swear to god I am not going back to school again!). After the ceremony, we took loads of pictures.

I sent these two pictures to my parents and they couldn't figure out where I was. They then laughed when I showed them where. LOL Believe it or not, I was in the third row at the back, the second kid from the left in my kindergarden photo, while I was in the second row, the 4th one from the right for the high school picture. Yes, I was that short. And thank god, I am way taller now.

These pictures meant a lot to me. Looking at those pictures reminds me of all the things happened on that year. And it also makes me miss them a lot more. I am so glad some of them found me on facebook but I am also sad that I have already lost touch with most of them. I guess life is like a series of crosses. Some of us will eventually cross paths again after all these years. It's just a matter of when and where. I hope the same goes for my long-lost friends. Maybe one day they read my blog and send me a message, or they found me on facebook? Perhaps?

Friday was the last day of my internship at Scotia and then I am going back to school for my final term on Monday. There is no break! And I have my internship report due on next week. Not to mention I am having a serious case of writer's block. So I turn to blogging to ignite my writing desire.

I really enjoyed the work that I did for my internship. So far it is the most interesting job I have ever had. It's interesting because this is my first time to be working on the trading floor, which is always lively, always on the go, always fast-paced and always dynamic. It took me a month to adjust to that kind of environment as at first I found it hard to concentrate on working because of the noise. But I started to like it after I got used to it. Right now I can't imagine myself going back to a little cubicle! I was also treated very well by the group, the traders and especially, my boss. I considered myself lucky to always work for nice bosses. My boss and I hit it off from the start and he is my role model that I am looking up to.

At the beginning I was assigned to a project to establish a new trading book. To be honest, I was pretty worried that I might not be able to handle it as it looked so difficult. Obviously, I lost many nights of sleep over this. But after a week of struggling to understand the materials, I started to gain an upper hand with the help of the traders and my boss. After passing the steep learning curve, I felt more and more confident to finish the project. In the end, I did finish the project and my boss was very impressed with my work. I got a very positive performance review by my boss and he assured me that with my ability and skills, I would have no problem finding a job in Toronto. Also, he will let me know if any opportunity comes up in his group given that most banks are not in the mood of hiring now. If the opportunity presents itself, I wouldn't hesitate to go back there to work full-time.

I feel that after this internship, I have gained a lot of confidence in terms of starting my career in finance and I am getting more and more optimisstic of getting a job after graduation given the grave situation in the finance sector right now. As my boss said, if you got the right skills, you will get hired no matter how bad the market is.

Tonight I was thinking where I would have been if I made the decision not to come to Toronto to look for a new career. I would have still sat in my little cubicle every morning waiting for the day to end. How boring it would be! I am just so glad I made the smartest decision in my whole life. The road for the future might be rough and full of bumps, but at least I know where I am heading to.