Hard to say goodbye

You know that you like your job when you find it hard to leave it.
You know that you like your colleagues when you find it hard to leave them.
For these reasons, I know that I like my job and my colleagues.

Today is the last day of my internship, and handing over the projects I did, and doing write-ups for the reports or tools I built was like writing a will.

I'm pretty much packed-up now, just left with some stuff to be loaded into the car tomorrow, because, it will draw too much attention for me to load the car at night, and it will attract others to steal my car too, I mean, a fully loaded car, in a not so good area, just sounds wrong to me. So, I'm planning to hit the road at 7am tomorrow, and hopefully reaching Richmond, VA at 5-6pm.

This past week, I had been eating out more, because, I was too lazy to cook, and I did succumb to the convenience of fast food. I mean, drive-thru is just so easy, you don't even need to untie your seatbelt to order your food. The most troublesome part is having to turn down the volume of the radio while I order the food over the intercom. Damn, I'm getting lazy.

So, there's good news. But, I'll have to wait for awhile to make sure that it's official before making any announcement.

I'll post again on Monday, when I'm back at Ann Arbor, in my new apartment. Hopefully, I'm not too tired from all the driving and will be able to do some unpacking, as I have to attend the coordinator training the very next day, (a whole day event), and then, IAPA training starts on Wednesday, and the training is going to be intensive too.

And, I need to furnish my apartment... things to get:
1) 32 - 37 '' LCD/Plasma tv
2) Nintendo Wii
3) Futon/Sofa
4) Coffee Table
5) Rugs
6) ...

so, i'll be going to Ikea and CircuitCity/Bestbuy next week too.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

4 weeks gone by...

So, I'm about half way through my nine-week internship. I think last week was probably the most I've learned about insurance, and also Access. So, it's all good. Previously, I had serious doubt whether I want to be in the insurance field, or the actuarial consulting profession in the future. I think it's really a good time to start to think about this because I'll have to make this decision soon, very soon. But, one thing I learned from my internship so far is that I haven't rule out working in the property & casualty (P&C) insurance, as I have already ruled out life insurance.

One 'problem' with me is I'm a workaholic, really. So, my biggest requirement of a job will be one that constantly challenges me. Probably because I'm still single and there's not much other stuff for me to do? So, I'm a person who will be delighted to have work waiting for me, and also, to be able to help out. For that reason, if I were to work in the insurance field, P&C is more the thing for me because there's a lot more opportunities to work as it is a rather new field as compared to the life insurance work.

Alright enough of those work-related thoughts. So, yesterday, I went to Mohegan Sun Casino to explore. It was a short drive, just above an hour (approximately 65 miles) South West of Worcester, in the state of Connecticut. So, I left from my sublet at about 1pm, after gym in the morning, and a quick lunch. The directions was really easy to follow and I was there by 2.05pm.

The Mohegan Sun Casino is my second casino I've been to. The first being Genting Casino. I wouldn't say that Mohegan Sun is better or worse, but it's smaller for sure. Also, as a Math major, I know my odds, so, I had limited myself to $50 of betting/slots. Well, it's about Gambler's Ruin theory, which, eventually, regardless how much money one puts in, unless he has more money than the Casino, he will lose all his money. And the expected time of when a gambler will stop is when he loses all his money. So, it's kind of a bummer for me to know about all this stuff, and take the fun out of gambling. :) But, also, as an Econ major, I also know that people are risk loving when the wager is small, hence lottery and all. So, I decided to play slots to kill time. 1 cent slots mostly.

One thing I like about the casino is it has non-smoking section in both parts of the casino (Casino of the Earth & Casino of the Sky). So, I bummed around for about 4 hours, and invested $40. (I was up $3 at one moment and my largest payout was 1250 credits, that is $12.50). It was all fun. Also, I wanted to try the buffet as it was highly recommended, but, the queue for both of the buffets were too long. So, I decided to drive back to Worcester, and cooked. Well, I bought fried haddock and it was really good. Also, I grabbed a six pack of Stella Artois to celebrate the passing of exams. :P It's been awhile since I had a beer. The last time I binged was the night after the actuarial exam, May 17, so about 2 months ago.

So, that's about it. Today, woke up with a slightest hint of hungover, really the slightest. It was all good after an extra hour of napping.

Next week, I'm going to NYC, I think. Then, the following weekend, will go to this EcoTarium nearby. Then, the following weekend, to Cape Cod, and then one more weekend to fill (Boston again?), and the following week, will be driving to Richmond, VA to visit my cousin, and next, back to Ann Arbor.

one week of great learning experience

So, prior to this, I had not much knowledge about what actuaries really do in the real world. I did learn something about life insurance, annuities and perpetuities, and other stuff. But, I had not much knowledge on the property and casualty (P&C) work that actuaries do. Even that is an overstatement, I was so 'ignorance' that I didn't even know what are included under property and casualty.

Having said that, I learned a great deal in my first week of internship here. Not only did I learn about what they are doing now, my manager is having me working on some rather cutting edge ideas of his, and it'll be what P&C actuaries will be doing in the very near future. Cool huh? And that + being the workaholic that I am, every morning after waking up, I feel good and is actually happy to go to work. Yes, I'm for real. I mean, not many people can actually say that they are happy to go to work. I'm really fortunate to be able to say that loudly and proudly.

My colleagues are great too. Too bad most of them are staying at quite a distance from me, or else, I'm pretty sure we will be hanging out more. But, they are moving to Worcester or the neighboring neighborhood, Shrewsbury really soon though. So, that's a plus, and I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Tomorrow, I'll embark on another long journey, to visit my cousin at Delaware. It's gonna be a 5.5 hours drive, and even though this is dwarfed by the 13 hours drive I took last week, and actually, I'm loving driving now (not the having to pump gas part), I'll be driving quite some distance this weekend, because I'll be driving back on Sunday. So, it's gonna be 11 hours of driving over the weekend. So, that's quite a lot of driving too.

Last but not least, I've been having great success in my running. I ran 3 miles on Monday, 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 miles on Wednesday, 4.5 miles on Thursday, and 5 miles today. And I'm going to the gym tomorrow morning for another run before hitting the road for Delaware at about 10am. So, I think this will be my very first 20+ miles of run week for me. Also, the on-site gym (which cost on $20/month), has personal trainer service for free, and one of them is actually making a work out plan for me to help me achieve my ultimate goal, to run a marathon. I think, at the rate I'm going, and if I stay persistent, I'll be ready for a marathon by the end of the year, or end of the academic year. (Chicago Marathon?)

Also, another last but not least. I went to this supermarket, Price Chopper yesterday. And, I found seafood!!! So, I was looking and the cod fillet jumped to me, and they offer free frying service. So, I bought about 1 lb of cod fish (for 6.99/lb), I didn't know 1lb of cod fish was soooooo much, and I could only managed 1/3 of it. The fish was really fresh, and all I needed to go with it was some soy sauce and black pepper over it. I had it with rice and some mixed vegetables, and it was quite a meal. The fish was really good.

And another proud thing to say is that, I had only eat-out once (today's lunch), and that's also, to eat out with my colleagues (I actually brought lunch, but I didn't eat it, had it for dinner instead). So, I had been cooking and I had been pretty successful. And surprisingly, the rice that I cooked with a pot turns out to be OK. (even though I messed up the first time by having a little bit too much water).

So, it had been a great week. Really good week, looking forward to the weekend, and to Monday, to work, where we will have a meeting, and I'm actually gonna tell the team what I had been doing for my first week, and what I'm working on currently. (the cutting edge stuff is too cutting edge to be shared here, who knows who's reading my blog?)

Take care and have fun!

sleep... dream... ARGGGGH.... body clock kicks in...

The title pretty much says it all. So, I go to bed at about 12am, was thinking to wake up at 6.30am, but nope... body clock kicks in at 5.45am, thinking that I still have time to kill, tried hard to sleep again, and dreamed a crazy dream, and ARGHHHH... I was wide awake!!! (my second body clock?)

Well, so, I'd been pretty robotic with my time since I started working.

Wake up at 6.30am, shower + breakfast + prepare for lunch
Leave for work at 7.35am.
Reach office at 7.50am.
Start work at 8.00am.
Leave work at 4.30pm.
Go to work out at the on-site gym til 6pm
Cook and have dinner at 7.30pm
Online + reading + brain age til midnight!!!

Also, for three days in a row now I run at the gym. Hope that I really do my 20+ miles week for the first time. And we will go from there.

Information Overload...

So, today was the first day of work. It was definitely a lot of learning, and not sure how much of retaining. But, I can really see myself learning a lot from this internship, not that I didn't learn a lot from my previous internship, but, this will be more appropriate, and more applicable.

But, enough of that, so, I can only use the internet for work purposes at the office, which I think is a good training for me, considering how much time I wasted while using the Internet without restrictions.

So, I have a huge paper to read and understand for work tomorrow.

So, I'm really getting my pined-for way of life. Wake up early in the morning, go to work, then to gym, then dinner, then internet/tv. pretty robotic, pretty boring? I like it.

Also, I learned about how far and how much time typical Americans travel to go to work. Unless you are staying in the city, typically, people drive more than an hour to go to work. And that's just moving traffic, translating to 40-50 miles (60-80 KM) one way!!! (they wake up really early to beat the traffic). No kidding!

Also, the house I'm living in now is really funky. The water heating system is solar-powered, and also, there's solar panel on the roof to charge up some batteries for some percentage of energy used in the house. I have a really large room to myself, but it's kinda an old house, but it's a nice house with 2 cats, and the house owner!

Also, I forgot to talk about my trip to Cedar Point last Friday. It was really fun! I enjoyed it a lot, until the last ride, Max Air, where I got a little nauseous after the ride. The most fun one was definitely the Top Thrill Dragster, where it sped from 0 to 120 miles per hour in less than 4 seconds, and it got above 400 feets off the ground, and the it was really thrilling. We did 8 rides in our 5 hours there, and I got sun-burned and was pretty red, like a cooked-crab. It was really a lot of fun, thanks Alex and Joe for making this trip possible! So, Cedar Point is at Sandusky, OH, which was actually on my way from Ann Arbor, MI to Worcester, MA. So, the very next day, I took the very same route for the first 2 hours of my driving.

So, that's about it... have fun!

13 hours and 770 miles later...

So, I started my long drive from Ann Arbor, MI to Worcester, MA (a 770 miles = 1239.20km) at 6.15am. Look at the odometer, and also the trip counter. 4.3miles...
I stopped at Pennsylvania for gas, it was about 10.45am. I also stopped here for breakfast, there's a McD at the rest area. I had a sandwich whatever, but I really like the Ice-coffee.
On the way there, the weather was great. Sunny and nice blue skies... until the very last hour, where it was raining really heavily.
Second stop for gas at New York state line. It was about 3 something pm I think.
Again, the nice blue skies with clouds...
At about 5.30pm, I stopped at another rest area for food. McD again. For some reason, I preferred McD over other fastfood. And, I had already drive 700+ miles.
After this stop, it started to rain lightly, and I actually saw a rainbow. I finally got to my sublet at 7.25pm, could have made it there earlier, but made a wrong turn somewhere, and need to turn around and all.

So, I'm safe and I'm here in Worcester, MA. Will drive out later to check out the drive to work, and also to do some groceries.

Setting off really soon...

Hi guys, I'm hitting the road for the 769 miles journey pretty soon.

My summer sublet address will be:
57 Hollywood St., Worcester, MA 01610

Bye and take care!

It's Roller Coasters time...

So, I'm pretty much all set and ready to go to Worcester, MA to start my internship on Monday. But, because my roommates and I planned to go to Cedar Point in the summer, we decided to go there today.

I won't be bringing my camera because I'll be taking all those crazy rides. I won't be bringing my cellphone either, because I'll be taking all those crazy rides. :)

So, I'll be back tonight at about 8-9pm, then, I'll pretty much load the car with all those bulky but inexpensive items, and will wake up bright and early tomorrow and hit the road at 6am.

As I don't have a Canadian visa, I'll have to take a 'detour' to Ohio and stay in the US for my entire drive to Worcester, MA (making it a 12+ hours drive), instead of the cut through Canada 9+ hours drive.

I've burned some mix cd for the long drive too, but for some reason, my dvd burner died on me. I had to burn some disc using computer in the library.

So, that's about it. My next post will most likely be posted on Sunday, or late Saturday when I'm in Worcester, MA.

Take care and have fun....

Decisions...decisions...decisions

So, good news! FINALLY, I know what I'm gonna do for my summer. I just got an internship offer to work in a Property & Casualty insurance company. It's not beggar can't be chooser, instead, from the interviews I had, I got really interested about the opportunities and also the work that I'll be doing.

Last Monday, I got back from the Midwest Games early in the morning, I sorta stayed up whole night. So, I got some rest, and went to get some groceries with my roommates, and also, had kinda an amazing grilling-dinner (well it's Memorial Day).

I went to bed early on Monday night because I needed to wake up early on Tuesday to catch a flight to Boston, MA for an interview. I woke up at 5.15am to start getting ready as I had previously scheduled a shuttle to pick me up at 6.15am to the airport. Everything went rather smoothly, and I was picked up by a limousine to the office (about an hour away). After an interview, a lunch, and 3 more interviews, which was really informative. I was picked up by a town car again, and was sent to the airport.

So, I was there at the airport, reading, playing my NEW Nintendo DS Lite (just a nerdy game - brain age). My flight was delayed, and I was given a $5 meal voucher by the airline, which I used it for a green tea frap and a bottled water.

Anyway, I learned about the offer on Thursday, which I'm pretty sure that I'll accept. The only thing holding me back is I still need to figure out housing and also to buy a car for the summer. So, decisions... decisions... decisions... Where to stay, what car to buy... a lot to think about.

But, it's part and parcel of growing up... making decisions... :)