I do realise that I haven’t been blogging for ages, I admit it isn’t really a top priority when I’m not overseas and more importantly, this semester has been absolutely unrelenting in terms of workload. At its most hectic, I had 4 submissions due that one day, and I hadn’t really slept the past two nights. I think that was a near death experience, but i’ll gladly do it again in place of studying for exams! Anyway, I just finished my last presentation today and I must say that it was a very satisfying and apt conclusion to a semester that I feel has been the best of my NUS life.
Results aside, it also has been a pretty fulfilling 2008 so far. This realisation only hit me while I was driving home today. Prior to this, I didn’t (or had no time) to take stock of what happened since I came back from exchange. Although I did work hard, I think luck played more than a supporting role in some moments.
I was lucky to be in project groups that were really great to work in. Especially my project groups for Financial Statement Analysis, New Venture Creation, Human Resource Management and Biz Policy & Strategy. A few of my group mates were already close friends and I guess that helped a lot. At the risk of sounding immodest, I think that my groups in these modules were definitely one of the best in the respective classes! Working with these project mates came with lots of fun and laughter too. Of course things didn’t always go swimmingly, but these were relatively well handled.
Well there were other satisfying moments like getting into Startup @ Singapore – credit due to my grp members who worked hard on it, and when I got an unexpected and unsolicited interview which became a perm job offer (in the middle east of all places!), and everything seemed like a blur from the moment I got the call for the first interview, to when they flew me over to Kuwait for the final grueling interviews. Which also solved my summer internship problem (if i decide to accept) as they would be willing to wait for me til I graduate at the end of the year. I’ve also been really really happy that Qinlei quit flying and went to do what she loves, in a firm she loves to work in. People around me have also been getting what they want, and in that regard, I really can’t ask for more.
However, the biggest highlight of 2008 has to be…. *drum roll*….
MY NEW MAZDA 3!!
Mum and gf, on the day of collection in the Mazda warehouse!
If you knew me the slightest bit, you wouldnt be surprised that I chose this event as the biggest, heh. To cut a long story short, I traded in my beloved but problematic Chevrolet Aveo** for a new Mazda 3. I fell in love with it actually the day it first came out almost 3 years ago, and when the opportunity came to get one, to me no other car came close, not in that budget range anyway. Granted, there are drawbacks such as the utter lack of power and the fuel consumption, but the other stuff such as the looks, the interior. the handling especially etc. more than makes up for it. Yes, it is *just* a Mazda but I’m very proud of it all the same. I find myself looking more than ever for excuses to drive. But damn I dunno what to do with it if i go overseas to work. Crap. I definitely wouldn’t want to sell my baby away.
**To explain the address of my blog and msn nick, aveo-lution is a pun on the Mitsubishi Evolution, which is one of the fastest cars on the road (which evidently mine wasnt).
Although I have a feeling that luck is finite, and I might jolly well have used up my quota this year, I still have one last request – to hope that the dice I bring in for my June CFA exams will give me the correct answers to the 6 hour exam. However, the general consensus is that people who bring a dice to their CFA exams might as well bring a pillow and bolster.
