Days 1

After some last minute purchases including an internet camera and magic jack so I can talk with friends and from home, I head to the airport for my 22 hour journey from New York to Singapore. Because of the time difference although I leave the airport on Wednesday at 9:30pm, I don't actually arrive in Singapore until Friday 6:30am. Unfortunately there are no direct flights on Wednesday, so I have a small layover in Frankfort (I've never been to Germany but I don't think this counts). Now, there is a lot of hoopla about Singapore Airlines and how ridiculously good they are. Now I'm not going to complain but sorry Victor, it pales in comparison with Virgin. To be fair, it was an older plane so the seats did not go totally flat and they weren't extra wide. What SingAir did have though was Mr. Dobbs Franks an internationally renowned conductor who was seated next to me on my flight. Born in America, but living in Australia for the last two decades he fly's around the world conducting different symphonies and orchestras. He was extremely gregarious and kept on referring to me as his grandson to the stewardess. At the end of the journey, he gave me his contact info and invited me to his next concert in Japan. Since I plan on going to Tokyo at some point, it would be a nice addition to the trip.
Sorry quick interruption. As I am writing this blog, Singapore is having one of its typical tropical storms apparently nothing out of the ordinary. Let me tell you it is borderline frightening (and this is from somebody who enjoys thunder and lightening). The thunder is so powerful that it shakes the windows...pretty incredible.
Okay, I'm back. After landing, I grab a taxi to my new home and say goodbye to the driver as I wheel all that I own in this country to the guard's station where my key is being held...should have been held...wasn't held. Although there were arrangements made for me to pick up my key from the guard since the management office doesn't open until 8:30. Although it's only 7:00 in the morning at this point, I can already tell that Singapore is a HOT place. I wait outside for an hour and a half until the manager comes, gives me my key and I can check out my new pad. I would have posted pics of my place, but I don't have a camera so I'll post the ones they sent me which are very similar. It's nice, fairly big maybe 750 sq feet with one master bedroom and one very tiny one that just has a desk in it. The kitchen doesn't have an oven, apparently that is something that most Sing kitchens don't have. The TV gets about 6 Channels, 2 of which are in Chinese.
Later that night I met up with my new boss Jonathan for a few beers. I thought that it was pretty cool that he wanted to meet up with me late on a Friday when his weekend had officially started, rather than just waiting until Monday. As a British expat himself, he was very supportive of the whole experience, encouraging me to see as much of Asia as possible while here. I went to sleep that night feeling pretty good about Singapore.

Rice...and Beans

This blog isn't supposed to be about Brazil so I'll try and keep it short. With the decision to go for the Brazil position (Trade support), I did two interviews in NY and one video conference with the stakeholders in Brazil. The next step was to go to Sao Paulo and see if I survived for 9 days. If I wasn't kidnapped or mugged then I got the job. In all seriousness, I had about another 7 interviews all of which went well with the exception of one who told me that anyone on his team would know more than I did about the product. I think my response sunk me when I replied that if that was the case then this process is a waste of everybody's time since I disclosed my level of product knowledge from the beginning - before I flew 4000 miles to Sao Paulo. Naturally I expected that I would know whether or not I had an offer before I left Brazil, however when it came time to leave I did not have a final answer. I was assured that by Monday I would know at the latest. Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went - no word on an offer. By Wednesday my boss in New York decided to explore other options and made a call to Singapore where the person taking my job in New York was leaving her position vacant. It made perfect sense, why not swap roles and make everyone's life easier? A phone interview the next day sealed the deal and within 48 hours I went from learning Portuguese to learning where Singapore was exactly. (Turns out it's 85 miles from the equator...and it feels like it too). My future was set, now all I had to do was figure out how to move out of my apartment in 4 days, where I was going to put my things, and where I was going to live until whenever it was that I was supposed to leave the country.

I actually officially accepted the position in the airport on my way to Ft. Lauderdale on a trip that I had planned with my closest buddies in New York and Chicago. The problem was that when I got back I had 4 days left on my lease. Worried, but not totally panicked, things started falling into place. About that same time I was explaining (ok yes complaining) to a friend of mine Steve Wander about my predicament. It turned out that as a fellow MDP’r he was leaving for London September 1st. What’s so great about that? First he owned a CO-OP, second he couldn’t sublease it due to their strict rules, third my lease was up August 31st. Lastly and most importantly he’s a kick-ass dude who offered his place up to me so I had some place to squat until I got my life sorted out (thanks Steve). Now I had to deal with the moving issue. I had 4 years worth of stuff in an apartment and one weekend to move it. I hadn’t packed a single box, and I hadn’t lined up a storage place move to. Insert, second very cool mini miracle. I called my program coordinator and explained the situation knowing from my HR days that the Bank arranges a company to move your things for you and absorbs the cost…once you have a contract. A contract was weeks away and I needed help right away so I sweet talked my way with the coordinator and HR to have a moving company pack my belongings. This was arranged on a Thursday with my move out date being Sunday. On Friday I received a call from the storage company saying that they needed to box everything up on Saturday to move it on Sunday. This gave me a few hours Friday night to pre-pack and divide my life into 2 piles, one long term staying in New York, and one short term pile that I would take with me to Singapore. I finished this sometime around 4 in the morning – a few hours before the movers arrived. I was so delirious by the end of it that I no longer knew which pile was which and was convinced that I was probably going to end up with a box in Singapore with my 4th grade art project and storing all my business suits long term.

With two overstuffed suitcases carrying the only possessions that remained, I entered Steve’s apartment in Brooklyn under the alias of his ½ brother. Everything was in place, I was almost ready to start my Asian Revelation.

My first first

It turns out that my first - first experience of leaving NYC and moving to Singapore starts off in the small studio apartment that is still in NYC. If you are curious what that experience is, you should know that you are doing it right now, only on the other side. Confused? let me clear this up quickly. After speaking with a bushy headed friend of mine by the name of Bernie Sanders, he suggested that I start a blog about my thoughts, experiences, and travels while living on the other side of the world. I'm hoping that this commitment will do a few things. 1) Keep my friends and family informed of my general whereabouts and goings on 2) Inspire me to be more adventurous and spontaneous 3) Record a hopefully exciting year that I can look back on 4) To kill time since I'll be in a country where I know no one.

So there it is. I've read (a few) blogs but I've never made one myself so bare with me as I get the hang of this. I figure the most logical place to start is to tell people why and how I'm even in the situation where I'm moving to Singapore. For those of you who don't know (and for those who do that's why there is a scroll bar 8 inches to the right) I am moving to Singapore to leave my current position as a Business Manager take a new role within Deutsche Bank as a Project Manager. This is came about in a microcosmic way when I entered the Management Development Program (from now on referred to as MDP) and picked up momentum in July where it took a few twists and turns until today. The Global Head of Operations essentially started a program to "fast track" key employees and as part of this program international travel was "strongly encouraged". While some people were a bit reluctant, I raised my hand as someone who embraced this kind of opportunity. Not atypical to the rest of my life, I knew I wanted to travel, but didn't really know where. It wasn't too long before my choice began to be made for me. With a difficult market, and the nearshoring and offshoring of high cost jobs to more remote and cheaper locations, finding a job in a "desirable" area proved difficult. My mentor seemed to indicate that India was the place to go given our growing presence there. My one senior boss who headed Emerging Markets felt that Brazil was the best opportunity. With time slipping by (it's only a 3 year program) and no solid leads in either Singapore or Australia where I inquired about, I decided to agree to pursue Brazil. Spoiler alert you already know this doesn't happen but you will have to wait until the next blog to find out how.