I am home.

These past several months have been both exciting and overwhelming at times. I managed to drag my suitcases out of England and move into my tiny little flat in Soho. Before I knew it, training was underway and all a hundred of us were put into a ballroom at the Marriott in the Financial District. Fast forward a few weeks, I’m at my cubicle jamming away on a model and putting together a book. In between the coffee runs, Seamless dinners in the conference rooms, 1 AM drinks, and insane amount of ping pong, we the interns became a part of this world that have been mysterious for so long.

I learned three valuable things this summer

1) Banking lingo
2) Excel shortcuts
3) And the fact that I want to do investment banking in M&A for two years when I graduate

I’m going to miss everyone I worked with this summer quite a bit.

Now that I’m back in Vancouver, it’s time to recuperate and just spend time with the people I love. Senior year starts in just over a week. Jeezes. Getting old.

I see you. I see you at your desk with a stack of names – candidates with seemingly-flawless resumes and stellar academic credentials. By this point you may have become bored with the monotonous process of Googling names. Or you may be Facebooking your potential interns and gleefully chuckling to yourself as you come upon some blurry shot of said intern doing a keg stand while making a lewd gesture to scantily-clad female cohorts who are in compromising positions.

As a freelance web designer and a (very eager) future intern, I have an especially great interest in my online reputation, which is why I had my hesitations about this blog entry. You see Dear Potential Employers, I have picked up a hobby while I’m here in England. While not exactly self-destructive or harmful to society, this hobby has the potential to burn holes through my wallet, make my evenings go by in a hazy blur, and raise questions about my status as an alcoholic. The hobby? I am currently a card-carrying member of the Oxford Wine Tasting Society.

At the beginning of term, a friend of mine suggested joining the Wine Society here. At first I thought this was a bit unnecessary, because 1) tequila is cheaper* 2) my palate isn’t that perceptive or sensitive and I will probably mistaken a Chateau Mouton Rothschild – Pauillac 2000 vintage for a £5 watered-down bottle from the Tesco supermarket  3) I’ll be taking HADM4430 – Intro to Wines at Cornell next year anyway. My skepticism eventually gave in to curiosity and I went to my first tasting: Introduction to Alsace.

* This is a joke.

A tasting session at Oxford is neither the stuffy hoity-toity scene you imagine nor… okay who am I kidding, wine tasting can be pretty darn pretentious. The meetings usually take place at Merton College and go on for about 2.5 hours. Each session revolves around a geographic region – we’ve done the aforementioned Alsace, Lebanese, Chilean, Rioja, Burgundy etc.so far – and is led either by an expert from the winery/region or the Bacchus Society’s president, the lovely Alex Linsley. The talks are very educational actually – we learned about growing conditions, wine-making traditions, the peculiarities of each vintage, and more.

Upon learning about my new-found obsession, my Oxford tutor for International Economics actually suggested that I do a paper on the wine trade and international wine regulation! THIS IS WHY I LOVE OXFORD. For research, my tutor gave me a DVD of the award-winning film about wine, Mondovino, and told me to go to the grocery store and buy a bottle from every major wine-producing region. Needless to say, my 3000 word essay was a tipsy masterpiece.

Over the course of Hilary term, my roommate and I have accumulated a large number of wine bottles. I was horrified to have this shelf collection pointed out to me one day when I was Skyping with my parents. However, my dad was VERY excited that I joined Bacchus and promptly told me he actually just bought a wine fridge. Here’s a screenshot haha:

During Easter break, we took this wine obsession one step further and went to Bordeaux to have St. Emilion wine (now that’s a whole story on its own). C’est la vie.

So Dear Potential Employer, when you come across my resume and see that I have listed “wine” as an item under “Activities, Skills, and Interests”, do not be alarmed. After all, wine – while I’m legal in the UK – fits under all three categories of “Activities, Skills, and Interests.”

Warm regards,

Phoebe

P.S. – Here are some wonderful blogs I found and now follow =)

• Dr. Vino – The author, Tyler Colman, is pretty prominent in the wine world. He wrote one of the books I read for my Intl Econ tutorials! His writing is accessible and to-the-point.
• WSJ On Wine – “Incisive criticism and accessible advice on the world of wine”
• Jamie Goode’s Wine Blog – Expect lots of pictures and tasting notes!
• The Terroirist – The name of this blog refers to terroir, a French word that holds particular significance for winegrowers. The terroir is basically the belief that the micro-climate, soil, wine-making techniques etc. all contribute to the composition of the wine.  The entire French system of appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) for wine classification is based on terroir.
• Sociology of Wine – fascinating background into this dynamic industry

To my dismay, the clerk explained to me that this supermarket had yet to install card-swipe machines. Cash only. I relented and fumbled through the unfamiliar wad of bills stuffed in my wallet,  handed her the right change, and went home.

A couple hours of frantic housework later, everything was in place in my tiny literally-one-room apartment. My mosquito net was propped up with plastic strings tied to nails driven into the random corners of the room (left behind by the previous apartment occupant). The tradeoff for not waking up with half a dozen mosquito bites was having to avoid all the strings that haphazardly cross my room – a fair bargain, I think.

Next, I got to work on the curtains. Remember those checkered plastic Chinese restaurant table cloths? Great curtains. And their functions don’t stop there – they also make great bathroom doors! So the set-up of the apartment is that I have one bedroom, and my landlord has her bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen on the OTHER side of the hallway. Basically, if I need to use the bathroom, I would have to open my door, lock it, open her door, lock it, go to the bathroom, open her door, lock it, and unlock my door. The icing on the cake is that the sliding door of the bathroom does not close, at all. Table cloth to the rescue!

Another peculiar thing I noticed is that many Chinese people don’t believe in mattresses. For the first couple of nights before I asked my landlord for a cotton pad, I was sleeping on a hard bed frame and developing back issues at the tender age of nineteen.

Other than that, I learned that duct tape truly solves all your problems and that there’s no need to buy brooms when one’s neighbor leaves a broom in the hallway (hey, it’s a Communist country, people are obligated to share their resources… or something like that).

Frugal intern score: A+
Housewife score: D-

This makes me wonder how my fellow interns are doing in various corners of the world. Are you living in some fancy studio on the Upper West Side or downtown Vancouver? An NYU/UBC dorm shared with three other people? A leaky apartment in the Bronx? Or more likely, commuting from Jersey or Queen’s? I doubt you guys make dinner every night. How does it feel going from dining hall food in Ithaca to business lunches with bankers in the financial district? I would say that, save the exception of those currently slaving away in a cubicle or a testosterone-filled trade floor for corporate monoliths, most interns are paid somewhere near minimum wage, or nothing at all (I guess I lucked out with an awesome job overseas which I love, yes, I’m talking to you boss-who-reads-this-blog).

So fellow interns, how are you doing? What (wonderful/horrific) summer stories are you willing to share?

An observation I have about Beijing in general and the Narita Airport in Tokyo in particular, is that EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING, talks! The little fast track conveyor belt thing in the airport is telling me to “watch my steps, end is approaching” in three different languages. The buses seem to sprout artificial intelligence as they tell passengers to pay the fare, announce the next stop, warn pedestrians outside the bus that it’s turning, AND blast loud public service messages about Chinese culture. On top of that, there are 2-4 TVs on every single bus and subway car, which are either running advertisements, cute little blobs bouncing around, or CCTV clips on repeat, in full volume. Also, the subway just. never. shuts. up. And if you think getting off public transit and heading into a mall would help, you would be wrong. This one McDonald’s I went to blasted an over-the-top skit about McFlurries on its radio on repeat, so much so you can hear it half a block away. I felt really bad for the security guard who was on duty right across the speakers.

Another thing that the locals have accepted to be the norm which surprised me at first was the security checks at subways! We have to run our bags through a scanner every time we go into the subway. Once the security lady actually asked me to take out my water bottle and take a sip. Intense.

Despite all my complaints about Beijing, or Observed Eccentricities as I like to call them, I really love this city. I have fond, albeit blurry, childhood memories here and I love the fast pace with which it moves. People move fast to build careers and business empires, skylines change so fast that even locals sometimes don’t recognize some of the buildings around them, and taxis literally drive at breakneck speeds through the nooks and crannies of hutongs (alleys). You can NEVER get bored in Beijing.

West Campus, Ithaca, New York – Saturday, May 22

Flora Rose is emptying up. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that I had the best suite (including other peeps down the hall) I could ask for this year. Before going away for college, people warned me about hall drama, roommate fights, and awful cafeteria food. These were mostly non-existent in my Cornell experience so far (with the exception of Flora Rose house dinners, GAH!). I’m going to miss these girls so much this summer <3.  We’ll be in DC, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Spain, China, Vancouver etc. – literally scattered around the world.

Collegetown, Ithaca, New York – Wednesday, May 26

A tearful goodbye at 4am in front of the Shortline bus, perhaps an ironic throwback to that first chance encounter.

Adios Ithaca. Every time I leave I am eager to get out of this bumblefuck and return to civilization. Every time I return, it is with trepidation and uncertainty. Ithaca seems to change a little each time. When I come back in August, one part of it is going to feel empty.

Somewhere upstate, NY – early am, Wednesday

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD why is no position comfortable to sleep in on this bus?! I am running on three hours of sleep and all I’m asking for is to be horizontal, for a moment.

Lincoln Tunnel, New York City – 9:00 am, Wednesday

Entire year at Cornell flashing before my eyes. It’s ending the same way it begun. Too much nostalgia. Snap out of it Phoebe.

Port Authority Bus Terminal, NYC – 10:00am, Wednesday

Three thoughts
1) WHY THE HELL IS IT SO FRIGGIN HOT HERE?!
2) Dragging my 50 pound luggage through the New York subway is very, very unpleasant. Major obstacles include turnstiles, stairs, subway cars, and more stairs
3) Someone helped me up and down almost every set of stairs. Wow! They all looked like Wall Street analysts haha.

Deutsche Bank Auditorium, 60 Wall Street, NYC – 11:45am, Wednesday

Can’t believe I’m here! Mad mutual connections everywhere. I was talking about “this conference I went to in Stanford about China” and someone I didn’t know pitched in, “You mean FACES?!” YAY?!

The finance training session they have is  so much clearer than anything that Finance / Accounting classes had!

I’m an Ideas person, apparently. My personality profile according to Ann Miller is deemed slightly unfit for investment banking. That’s okay, I think.

Somewhere in the Financial District, NYC – 6:00pm, Wednesday

This is the biggest scavenger hunt I’ve been in in my life.

Harry’s Steak, NYC – 8:30pm, Wednesday

I find out that 400+ people applied for this program, and 30 people got selected. Not bad.

PS – This steak is absolutely amazing.

Club Quarters, Wall Street, NYC – 11:00pm, Wednesday

Single room, king sized bed, ergonomically designed chair, WIFI. Now I can get used to this.

47th Floor, DB Building, NYC – 9:00am, Thursday, May 27

The view is absolutely gorgeous up here on the top floor. Great place for breakfast. We have a couple useful presentations in the morning and a lunch with analysts/MDs. The afternoon’s LRC analyst panel starts off uneventful. In the middle of the panel, a guy in business attire strolls in casually from the lobby. The panelists stop talking mid-sentence and someone goes up to introduce the guy.

“This is Seth Waugh, CEO of Americas for Deutche Bank.”

The room basically stops moving for the next 10 minutes (save the few people flipping to the page with the company organization chart and glossy executive photos, to make sure we heard right) as Mr. Waugh talked about the firm. Great moment.

New York City Food Bank, The Bronx, NY – 3:30pm, Thursday

So this is the Bronx. Props everyone for a job well done repackaging donations.

New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street, NYC – 9:30am, Friday, May 28

This is hands-down one of the most exciting events of the program. If anyone was watching CNBC on Friday morning, the people you see waving to the camera in the background are… us. There is so much energy (and testosterone) on the trading floor it’s just incredible.

Near NYU Dorm, NYC – 11:25pm, Friday, May 28

I am sitting in a movie theatre watching Sex and the City, IN the City. Yes, to you New Yorkers this might not be all that special, but I’m feeling very giddy. It’s a full theatre, maybe 25% guys tied to their gfs, and 75% gals.

12th Street and 3rd Avenue, NYC – 2:45am, Saturday, May 29

Can’t… keep… eyes… open. Standing at a street corner with a giant luggage at 2:30 AM is so friggin’ scary. At one point a dude came up to me and said, “You know you really shouldn’t stand there alone at this hour with so much stuff.” I KNOW, I KNOW. Never doing this again. GOD DAMN IT WHERE IS MY SHORTLINE.

Speeding towards JFK – 3:15am, Saturday, May 29

Passing out on shuttle, exhaustion.

Terminal 8, JFK – 4:30am, Saturday, May 29

I AM NEVER FLYING AMERICAN AIRLINES AGAIN. AN HOUR WAIT TIME IN LINE TO CHECK LUGGAGE?! WTF!!

Departure Gate, JFK – 5:00am, Saturday May 29

Strategically wrapping my carry-ons around me so no one would steal them. Curling up in the corner to sleep like a hobo.

Flight AA1, JFK – 9:00am, Saturday May 29

So I’m wearing a red Cornell shirt on the plane. The lady next to me looks over and exclaims, “Oh! Cornell! Wonderful school. I went there too.” She was traveling with two other people so basically my entire row, from left to right, was Cornell grad of 2012, 2007, 2007, and 1973. Amazing.

LAX, Los Angeles, California – 1:00pm, Saturday May 29

Thank god, one more flight and I’m home. It’s so nice hearing “Vancouver Passengers” on the PA!

My bed, Richmond, British Columbia – 6:00pm, Saturday, May 29

I have never appreciated sleep this much.

(Panelist skyping in to a panel from DC)

Throughout the week, we heard from Hoover Institute fellows, Stanford professors, the Beijing bureau chief of The Washington Post, an official from the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a former director of the World Bank, and a former Secretary of State under President Reagan, just to name a few. My greatest take-away from all of this is the surprising amount of humanity that is involved in international relations and foreign affairs. In Government classes, we learn about the realpolitk nationalism that plague the relations between China and the US. Our professors tell us that the Sino-US relation is shadowed by distrust stemming from sovereignty, human rights, security, and trade issues. FACES literally put a face to this entire discussion. Former Secretary of State George Schultz chuckled as he recounted how much fun he found former PRC President Jiang Zemin to be, and how much he appreciated Deng Xiaoping’s blunt, and straight-forward personality. Sure, Schultz spoke at lengths about the future of US and China in a bipolar system of world power, but what was most memorable to me was the thought, heart, and toil that these statesmen put into fostering the relationships of two countries.

Punctuating the provocative discussions of tri-party policy development in regards to Taiwan, panels about regional stability in South Asia, and seminar talks about gender roles in China and the U.S., the delegates…

Traipsed the Stanford campus making funky short films and learned the meaning of “chillin”.

Roamed around San Fran like perfect tourists.

Concocted elaborated three-course meals with a limited number of ingredients for the execs to “enjoy”.

Engaged in crisis simulations playing national leaders.

Shopped for Stanford gear

(Stanford’s mascot is a tree)

And learned how to share a small bed with a bedmate in the guest house at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

In between panels and parties, we found ourselves becoming fast friends. The delegates are Fullbright scholars, JD/MBA candidates, PHD students, entrepreneurs, government interns, non-profit founders, aspiring i-bankers/artists/diplomats/consultants/professors, multi-lingual exchange students, and much, much more. They hail from all corners of the world. Some switch between English and Chinese with a confident ease  that I admire. Some have been to more places than I will probably go my whole life. And how can we forget the executives at Stanford who organized this? Kudos guys!

Part II of the conference will convene in Hangzhou in November this year. See you in a flash!

I’m slowly losing count of how many papers I have due in the next few days (4? Maybe 5?) Here’s to hoping that I’ll be uber productive during my 3 hour layoff in the Philly airport. See, I wasn’t too bummed about staying in Ithaca for Spring Break because I have a trip planned for California, commencing this Saturday. I will mostly be spending time at Stanford University for a conference on US-China Relations. On Wednesday, the group of delegates are going to San Francisco for a day of fun. Hopefully I’ll have plenty of pictures to share!

P.S. – A shout out to the newly accepted Cornell Class of 2014, congratulations!

I did pretty well on one resolution so far – Take every opportunity to travel. There was Mock Trial at Yale in February. This past weekend I was in Shippensburg, PA with the Cornell HR Games (basically Jeopardy, HR style) team competing in the Northeast Regional. Both Cornell teams made it to the semi-finals and went head-to-head. To my immense surprise, my team made it to the finals and went on to beat Shippensburg University. NORTHEAST CHAMPIONS, HOLLA! It’s so nice to have the plaque back after the series of Penn State wins in the past couple of years.

So other than that, why is life good? Canada broke the record for the number of gold medals at a Winter Olympic game! Ithaca is finally showing the first hint of spring! I may have exciting plans for next spring semester! NY Fashion show just keeps fueling my love for fashion! School is chill but interesting! Love, love, love Cornell.

Cornell Mock Trial has 3 teams, 436, 437, 438, as designated by the American Mock Trial Association. My team 438 fluctuates between 7 or 8 people, with the oh-so-dapper Captain Fanelli at the helm (wink).

In the weeks before Cornell’s Big Red Invitational and Yale’s New Haven Invitational, we had practices every night, sometimes going til midnight at Goldwin Smith. On cross practices, I got grilled on miniscule details from the 9-page affidavit I had to memorize. And thank goodness too, otherwise surviving the UPenn and Carnegie Mellon cross-examinations would not have been easy.

So let’s talk about Yale. The campus is a spectacular collection of gothic structures packed into a couple street blocks. It had the same austerity as Harvard, but like Harvard, we discovered the quaint little coffee shops or lunch places that Yalies frequent. I didn’t spot too many places that could’ve been sets for That’s Why I Chose Yale, which might be a relief. My photos are on Facebook.

Competition-wise, we did pretty well for a mostly-newbie team haphazardly brought together only four weeks before the tournament. One member even won an Outstanding Witness award for, dare I say, mastery of the Alabama accent.

Best of luck to the two Cornell teams moving on to the next round!

This year, I waited after the New Year and New Decade euphoria to settle down a bit, hoping the overly-optimistic and wishful thinking would be out of my system before I sit down and make resolutions that are actually feasible. So here they are, somewhat anticlimatically presented.

Write New Year Resolutions – YES! DONE! (Kidding…)

Think before I speak – to avoid embarrassment, regret, hysteria, and perceived stupidity on my part.

Do something terrifying – gorge-jumping or dancing in front a large crowd of people maybe?

Hit the big FOUR-OH, not agewise mind you, but grade-wise.

Learn to cook beyond boiling water.

Get my driver’s license, because my friends currently view my inability to drive as practically a disability.

Blog more often! And write for a publication.

When it comes to extra-curriculars, DEPTH, not BREADTH.

Take every opportunity to travel.

Sleep before 12:30 and get up early to preview lectures – I have a feeling this will be the toughest one.

Of course, there’s the “internship/career/graduate school/fitness plan/eat healthier” staple that come with every resolution list which I will bypass here.

QOTW: What are your New Year Resolutions? And how many have you broken already?