Hong Kong Hustle: Time to catch up

I can't believe how slack I have been with this....

Where do I start? Well I just finshed this f**ker of an assignment yesterday which is such a relief. I know it was a really poor effort but I am just glad its out of the way...I'm just worried about the presentation for it on Thursday (and the disappoving stares of Dr. Chan). Anyway I celebrated last nigh by going out for the first time for a long, long time. I find that I have been much more sober this semester due to a number of factors (lenten promise [i really didn't do THAT bad!!], uni work and work).

Oh yeah, my internship. This has been a real coup for me, actually getting paid (which is actully illegal!) work in Hong Kong doing something that doesn't involeve teaching English. I have been working for a firm called College Hill which is based out of London and have just opened a branch here in Asia. At the moment they have offices in HK and Taipei and are looking to establish one soon in Shanghai. It does "mangement consultancy" which ranges from anything from corporate coaching, investor relations, guidence with public listing etc. It has actully been quite a learning curve for me considering that I have never done a business or finance course in my life (thank god that they mad intro accounting a pre-req or I never would have managed!) Anyway so far it has been a fanstasic experience even at the expense of sleepins and mid-week partying.

Of course I have only been doing mundane things such as english editing but also some interesting things like researching US corporate law and creating powerpoints advising Chinese businessmen about western corporate manners. The most shocking job so far though has been editing the English versions of China Telecom's annual report. The orginal translator in Shanghai was shocking and the English was completely unreadable. This meant I had to re-write up to a hundred pages of text - boring!!

And the best thing so far has been the fact that they have offered me a job here next year after I graduate!! The pay is fairly shocking (less then A$2000 a month) but is apparently quite good for a graduate position in Hong Kong. What's more they are going to pay for me to learn Mandarin!! Its a big decision, something I need to consider very carefully...but I can leave it for the moment as I still have more then two semesters to go.

Last week I finally managed to get my rear-end out og HK and paid a visit to amazing Thailand. Wow, that place was unbelieveable!! I only stayed for a few days and lost about one of them to transit but managed to spend two and a half days in Bangkok (don't get put off by the critics...that place is great if you know the right people, not to mention the shopping!!) and a day and a half on the island of Koh Chang.

Cheak this out...