So, visa situation permitting, I have a job! I'm very happy, it starts in Chicago in the new year, with the flexibility to hopefully move wherever in a few of months. We shall see! Exciting times ahead..
It's odd, I think I had grand aspirations of being able to move horizontally at least into a handful of professions, but it turns out that even just 6-7 years into a job you are about as pigeonholed as you can be in finance. Ive never realised how specific job descriptions are when you aren't approaching through a contact:
-Bsc in Economics, Masters in finance, 5.25 -6 years of experience, must have worked with Latin American commodities only, first name must be Stavros, must be left handed, and able to read and write Arabic with a PhD in English Literature.
You get the drift, jobs are almost always advertised to target a handful of people, and transferability of skill is pretty much assumed to be zero. So, it seems I'll be an interest rates options market maker forever, or at least till I decide to study (no thanks) or till I'm happy to take a rather large demotion (more likely!).
Anyway, boring stuff aside, on the trip to go do the interviews in Chicago, Sonam and I decided to check out the city. Other than being very cold in comparison to LA, and with it looking more clumped together like a proper city, it definitely seems friendlier, more diverse (not just ethnically, but with people that seem to be living very different types of lives),and just generally feels more like home than in LA. Perhaps it's because its closer to what I recognise as a city, perhaps it's the people not all looking like supermodels or actors, but perhaps it's because it just seems peoples lives and goals seem more aligned to mine. Not everyone is focussed on healthy eating and exercising, or about appearance in some other way. And I'm 100% sure that's not true of LA either. It's just how the place makes me feel. I'm writing this on a flight to LA, and before I got on, I couldn't help but overhear a conversation between two aspiring models/actresses. Nothing they said was bad really, but they started with how random it was they were on the same flight, and before they even hugged, one of them took a selfie, presumably to instagram later. Then, absolutely none of what they said were things I could relate to; photoshoots, headshots, lines on their face (they can't have been older than 21), and various other OMGs I don't think warranted anything stronger than 'cool'.
Anyway, I'm not writing off America as a future permanent home, nor am I writing off the west coast, I'm just thinking LA isn't for me.
After a short trip to Chicago, and irnoning out the details for the new job, Sonam and I got back down to LA life, and if there is one thing that I can say LA does well is that it makes you feel like exercising. It's hot, sunny and it feels rude not to make the most of the outdoors. And my subsequent time in Hamburg and London, both cold and wet, really made me want to eat bad shit and sit somewhere warm.
Hamburg was a fun trip, specifically my Stag do, or bachelor party as they say in the US of A. I was lucky enough to have 11 people turn up, and as far as I can tell/remember, everyone had a great time. I got punished a little, as you'd expect on a stag, 'figure hugging' morph suit and excessive amounts of alcohol being two examples. The city itself has interesting bits to it; from an area that felt like a scene from "the Wire", to a beautiful lake and walkpath of cafes that provided the perfect location to forget about last night's shots, to a bizarrely open sex district that had families and couples wandering around just as much as the big group of guys you'd expect. All in all, almost like a concentrated version of everything that I know of Europe; beautiful, friendly, unembarrassed by boobs, industrial, ghetto and peaceful, all at the same time.
Before heading back from the Stag, I stopped over in London to sort out some work related things, and one thing felt really odd was not having a home there. I felt like a tourist visiting my home, but without the wonder and excitement of visiting somewhere new, but with an equal lack of belonging. I guess I felt a little homeless, which in a way both Sonam and I are right now.
As I head to LA, my own job worries mostly behind me, I feel really excited to be heading back, a) to have some sort of healthy routine again, but more importantly, b) to get on with that bucket list. I'm almost 100% sure I won't do a lot of what I said I would, but I'm sure it'll be fun trying.
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