My job search is over!

On monday this week I got a phone call from the HR person in charge of the Accelerated Economist Training Program (AETP) and an offer of a position in the program. Of course, I was very excited, especially because I had just gone for the interview a bit over a week before. Two days later, I made up my mind and decided to take the offer. What this means is that in June, I will move to Ottawa and start training. After a few weeks of that I will rotate through the Privy Counsel, the Treasury Board, the Finance Department, and another government department of my choosing all in a two year period. At the end of that, I am free to find my own position in the government at an ES-4 level.

Of course, this is very good news, however this offer does put an end to, or at least a delay on, my other dreams. I had been thinking quite seriously about applying for the foreign service, I had also thought about getting a job on Bay st or possibly looking in Hong Kong. I know that any of these options would be mutually exclusive of the other ones, but there is something exciting about having options. Of course I could still get back to any of these things in a few years, but I feel now that my life has already been decided. There is now, in some sense, a straight line between me and my retirement and I don't know if that is entirely a good thing. Perhaps this is just me using my blog to find the cloud attached to any silver lining as I usually do...

One of the first things I did after getting the offer was start looking for condos in Ottawa. It seems like the market there is acutally quite small and somewhat more expensive than I was hoping. There is nothing listed on MLS for less than 165, and most places are in the 180+ range, and that is for one bedrooms. I think it would be a bit of stretch on my initial salary so maybe I should wait a while until I am in a better position.

After putting the condo idea on the back burner, Evan, who will also be going to Ottawa, and I started looking at cottages in Quebec. The idea would be to get a condo on a lake and share it between five or so people so that we could all have cottage access and also have a place for QED parties. It seems like there are lakefront places available for about 130 within an hour's drive of Ottawa. I like this idea, but we will have to find some more people who are willing. I have very fond memories of the times spent up in our cottage on lake Maglashen in Quebec. We would take the boat out in the summer, skate in the winter, and go up there on weekends to be in nature. It would be nice to have something like that again.

School has been off to a slow start. I am enjoying most of my classes, but after the grades I got last semester, and the knowledge that I have a job already, it has been hard to find my motivation. Luckily, two of my classes have only required readings so far and I will only have two midterms this year. Naturally, the new job has made me more interested in my policy class... and the panel data class is interesting because we get to play around with data. Thankfully, even macro has shown signs of improvement.

Reading week is coming up and I am trying to figure out whether I can afford to go to NY. Ever since I left there 11 years ago, I have always gone at least once a year, but now that my parents no longer live there it becomes much more of a money issue because of hotels and restaurant meals must be taken into account. Looking at the numbers, based on double occupancy it would be impossible to do it for less than $1000, and the real number would more likely be significantly more. What I would really want to find is an inexpensive hotel in the lower east side or something like that... if such a place exists. It will also be nice to see Jesse and Will and perhaps the UNIS people, like a regular NY trip.

Winter is definately here. Snow started falling about two weeks ago and has not melted since. Infact, it has been so cold that I am wondering whether the whole global warming thing is just a joke... or if it has not gone far enough... While there is a novelty value for being in a real Canadian winter, it is quite boring in that it limits me from taking walks for pleasure and genereally disuades me from going outside. Perhaps worst, there is no snowboarding around here... I eagerly await the spring.

Got my grades back... not so good...

I was expecting it, but hoping that they would be better. After all the hard work of the semester all I have to show is a set of decidedly mediocre grades. I suppose that they don't mean much because I never intended to do a PhD, but on a personal and emotional level it does not feel good to be behind the curve, no matter what curve that may be. On the other hand, the feeling is somewhat mitigaged by the improvement of the final grades over the midterms... now I just hope I can find some employers that I will like that don't pay too much attention to my academic record.

My final week in Vancouver was good. I managed to walk, eat Japanese food, go snowboarding and spend time with my family so I guess I accomplished everything I set out to. I regret not making more time for some of my friends. Carolynn in particular I would have liked to see more, but our scheduals made it such that our meeting kept being pushed back and then didn't happen at all. Similarly, I did not see Helena at all and I only had a quick lunch with Cameron. Apart from that, I am happy that I spent some quality time with many of my friends and I look forward to my next visit back.

Being back, I realised how much of my life is in Vancouver. It is really my home town and I hope to move back there some day... although that day might not be very soon.

A new semester has started and it is filled with possibility. There is the possibility that I will not mess it up as badly as I did the last one... but then it would not matter much anyway. I am tentitively taking four classes: Macro, Derivatives, Panel Data, and Policy. All of them are interesting in their own way and could potentially be useful, depending on the path I take after this program is over. At the very least, I like my elective classes and I am prepared for the workload that I will get from them. Even though I know all of this, I am having a problem getting back into the school mode. Perhaps it is because I had such a relaxing break, or because I am distracted by other things, or because I am discouraged by my results from last time... I suppose things will get better as time goes on and as the assignments come due. Now I just want to pass, find a job, and be done with all of this.

Speaking of jobs, I was in Ottawa last weekend interviewing for the Accelerated Economist Training Program (AETP). I think the interview went well, especially because one of the interviewers gave me his business card. That interviewer was very impressed with my China experience, which gives me hope that when I go on the job market in ernest, I will have an impressive background that people will want to have on their team...

Ottawa was fun. It turned out that a bunch of people from my program were going up at the same time to have interviews with Finance Canada so I took the train with them. We talked the whole way about the fun things that we did over the break and the things that were going on. In Ottawa I saw Ashely which was nice. I had just seen her in Vancouver, but now I was seeing her in her new adopted environment. She is really enjoying being in Ottawa, it really is a dream come true for her. We had some good times eating shwarma, going for a walk and drinking in the market. On Saturday morning I had dim sum with Bruno et al. It was nice to see the kids, and I always like dim sum... even though it is not as good as Vancouver. Fuliwah is so much smaller than I remember is as a child... but then so much in Ottawa is.

I think I have just about finished my work for Vincent. On balance, I don't think it was a particularly successful collaberation, but I hope it was at least somewhat useful to him. I am definately embarassed with how useless I was, but I think he understood my situation and engineered a face-saving exit for both of us. If he offers me a continuing role with the company, I would take it... but only for money and with defined responsibilities. I am just grateful for the face-saving resolution...

I have decided to continue my study of Chinese in Kingston. I have posted on a Chinese bulletin board asking for an experienced tutor. I hope I get a responce because I have been noticing that my oral Chinese is slipping, although thankfully my reading comprehention is holding up better. I think my medium term goal should be to read more easy newspaper articles and learn the characters I don't know.

I must be off now to meet someone...

Back in Vancouver and enjoying it!

I finished my last final and came back to Vancouver. The city has not changed much, but after being stuck in Kingston for three months, it has become that much bigger and more cosmopolitan to me. More importantly, after hanging out with friends of convenience and aquaintances (many of whom are good people, I just don't know them that well) for that time, to be back here and see all of my friends, in some cases for the first time in almost two years, feels very good. It really feels like coming home. Of course, my parents and my sister are here too which is always nice.

I will try to give the play by play as well as I can remember it. For the first bit of my trip back, I was spending a lot of time with Noah. He is living at a hotel near English Bay and working at a mutual fund company downtown. Although he is a bit uncertain as to what to do next, he seems like he is having a pretty good time living a bachelor's life in the West End. It was fun to go to 1215 with him. To have some sake and see all the same people that were working there in the summer. We also went to the Jazz Cellar out by UBC to listen to some live music, which was also very cool. When I live in a real city again, I will try to do that more often. About a week ago Noah left to go to Japan on vacation. I guess I will see him the next time he goes through Toronto.

The world championship of debate is going on here in Vancouver this year ad for this, Gabe , my former debate partner, has come back to compete. I hadn't seen gabe in a year and a half, since we lived together in Beijing. He is looking good, and has become a vegetarian. As a result, I have dubbed him "EuroGabe 2.0". Impressively, EuroGabe has broken at worlds and will have his octofinal round tomorrow. Good luck Gabe!

In general, I have been very busy since I have been back. I have had so many people to see, so many things to do, so many walks to take. The surprising result of this has been that between seeing people and the work I am doing for Vincent (which I will not discuss here), I have been sleeping much less than when I was in school. In some ways, I am looking forward to going back to school so that I can rest and recuperate from my crazy fun break.

This post has not done justice to all that has gone on in the last two weeks. Unfortunately, I probably won't ever do that. For now, however, I need to get some sleep so that I can make at least two (hopefully three) appointments tomorrow. Only five more days until I leave Vancouver and return to Kingston. Still so many people to see, places to go, sushi to eat...