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.