A Day In the Life

I've said alot of generalities about my life in Switzerland. Today I'm going to recreate a typical day.

A Day In the Life - The Beatles

Woke up at 7AM, chugged 2 cups of coffee. Tried to make the 730AM train, but missed it. Went back to my apartment to drink another coffee. Caught the 745AM train.

754AM. First one in the office. Put some headphones on and concentrated on building a model. I don't think I ever learned how to create a model in Investment Banking, one of those ridiculously complex ones that drown you in a sea of numbers. Was trying to do that now.

9AM. Meeting with a Vice President to go over some securities laws & legal issues. One of my projects is to get in touch with lawyers to devise a compliance system to make sure my company handles different countries' securities laws in a correct, timely matter. I always loved law, and this was a pretty neat project. Though, I felt overwhelmed at first with all the new legal jargon and rules. Will have to spend a weekend sorting this out.

10AM. Met with the bosses for my mid-internship review. Praised for my work ethic and commitment self-development in the industry. Haven't thought about if I'd get an offer at the end of the summer, because I don't like to wish for something I don't yet have and get disappointed. I haven't really shown anyone my true self yet, I've just been professional and quiet. No matter what, all I do know is that I like what I do here, I like the types of transactions we do and our philosophy behind them. In the end, I asked if I could do more modeling work, because I always wanted to be one those excel whizzes who can calculate anything anytime and bundle it up in neat spreadsheets (ahem, like SOMEONE I know in team A8!).

1PM. Info lunch. One of the associates taught excel skills that I already knew.

130PM. Couldn't dock my laptop back on the station. The big screen was blank. Called our "computer nerd." He said he couldn't be up for another 20 minutes. My heart went faint. A full 20 minutes without working!!! It would have been a nightmare in an investment bank. I would have had to use a spare computer, or someone else's. I guess old habits die hard. This is Europe. You won't get in trouble for not working 20 minutes. I felt... strange at this idea.

Used the 20 mins to get a birthday present for a friend.

3PM. Conference call on a private equity deal. Was too scared to speak any Spanish, and no one else was fluent (not that I'm fluent). We spoke in English.

6PM. Finalized a presentation for a very neat company I will present to the Managing Directors. I love doing presentations. I have a subtle minimalist quality to my work. I don't like pictures. I like charts and graphs to be very professional and outlined in hard lines, none of these bubble formats. My writing uses a bit of an indirect style which is hard for most executives to pick up on. I have to work on that. My one-liner catch phrases that sum up the slide sometimes push the envelope on slang and sound a bit like trader talk.

7PM. Headphones on. Back to work on that model.

9PM. Leave the office with a Wall Street Journal Europe to read on the train.

*****

***MESSAGE TO OBAMA***

I don't usually have dreams when I sleep, but not long ago I had a vivid one with a clear message. It seemed too strong to ignore, and of a different character than the "white noise" dreams of nothing I usually have.

Basically I was given the clear message that Obama is going to face alot of negative press soon, as if he hasn't already, and that the key to getting through this successfully is to form a strong alliance with Bill Clinton.

I don't know how he is perceived in the States, but hearing all my news from Europe, I am not entirely sure that Obama has succeeded in uniting the Democrats, especially supporters of Hillary.

And as people seem to be focusing on Obama's lack of experience, they seem to have forgotten the old image of John McCain as a crazy war monger with a short temper who has ran for President before but didn't even win the party's nomination. Usually a candidate who has ran and lost in an election before is embroidened with a scarlet "L". Where has that image gone now?

I think a Republican said it best when he stated that this race is not Obama's to lose, it is his to win. With Americans scared of the "risk" of being different (a risk I have struggled with my entire life in America as well) that Obama poses and his seemingly unAmerican - but distinguished - roots, I think it's clear that Obama can't confront all the demons alone. Maybe he needs Bill Clinton's help.

Some Things on My Mind

[Tilting head slightly to the left with a contemplating gaze a la JD from SCRUBS]

As I rode the train back to Cham after spending a 13 hour day at work (I was there all day doing a model of a South American mining firm, but secretly wishing I were doing a model from a South American mining firm... just joking) I came across some interesting articles in the Wall Street Journal Europe.

First, Ingrid Betancourt, recently freed from FARC captivity in Colombia, eyes challenging current President Uribe for the Presidency in the future. She attacks Uribe for using military guidance to control the FARC (who are considered terrorists in US and Europe) rather than negotiation. While I do understand and somewhat agree with Betancourt's position (because military hasn't been working until recently, and I am not a big fan of military strategies like the US uses), first I believe this "negotiation" strategy is highly risky and naive, and secondly I do understand why Uribe chooses to use the military. Alvaro Uribe is one of the people I look up to and admire, and hope to meet one day. He is trying to pass legislation to keep him president for a 3rd term. And although it was Uribe and the Colombian military that freed Betancourt, she does have a right to her opinion. I just hope she provides necessary balance to Uribe's highly Washington-like administration, working to free the other captives, instead of trying to shake Uribe off the podium... because Colombia, and the rest of the world, is lucky to have him up there.

Next, news of BBVA taking this opportunity of US bank failure to expand in the South, particularly Alabama through Texas, using leverage from their acquisition of Compass. Smart move BBVA. Not only am I a big fan of contrarian investing, but I am also a fan of Spanish banks who don't like lots of off balance sheet leverage ;-). And since visiting their trading floor in Madrid, I've always had a special place for in my heart for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria. Whatever happens, I see something good in store...

My First Taste of Switzerland

The first 2 weeks of living in Switzerland seemed much longer to me. Partly because there had been just so much going on. Got settled into corporate housing:

Yes, that is a currency trading chart up on my laptop, and a Portuguese rooster on my nightstand.

During my first week on the job, the EuroCup Quarter & Semi Finals were taking place, with Spain beating Italy and then later Russia. Work was intense, just trying to figure out everything, trying not to make a mistake, and trying to learn as much about the complicated industry of Metals & Mining as I could.

The first weekend in Switzerland, I went with my boss to Luzern, where they were having a Swiss Yodeling Festival. I actually went to the KKL to hear people yodel on stage.... drank lots of beer, took a look around:





Summary: Basically a very Germanic beerfest. With yodeling. And horns.

The next day Spain won the European Championship finals against Germany. I don't know why, because I generally hate sports, that I get so caught up in soccer despite of myself. It happened during the World Cup, and now the EuroCup. Nevertheless, enhorabuena España!

Summary: WOOHOO!

The next week at work got me starting on some new deals, and transactions scare me, especially private equity, because there is so much unknown. It's like a case in class, but luckily it is a Finance case so I have some clue of what's going on. But seeing your completed transaction in a Press Release or in the WSJ is really why I got into Investment Banking.

On Friday, it was US Independence Day, the financial markets were closed, but we had to work anyway. :-) The Caliente festival was starting in Zurich, an all weekend madhouse Latin Party with salsa, merengue, cumbia, samba, forro, reggaeton, all that stuff I just can't get enough of. Felt like I was in Heaven. Basically it was like a Latin MultiCulti, with each country setting up a booth with flags, music, drinks and food from their country. But most of them were a little mixed up, some serving Paella and Sangria, but with a Mexican flag bearing & playing Samba music, or with a Portuguese stand playing salsa (what does Portugal have to do with South American music??). I think the funniest one was the Mexican stand with Indian food.

I think my favorite stand was the only Colombian stand in the pack. They had the most authentic salsa & cumbia music. And I spent the day eating Colombian empanadas, taking aguadiente shots and listening to salsa music, occassionally dancing a few songs when someone knew how to dance (and almost all Colombians do!)

Nevertheless, it was a HUGE party encompassing a whole quarter of Zurich with Latin music, caipirinhas and spicy food. Heaven.

Cumbia!


Upon entering Helvetiaplatz, first thing I see:


Brazilians know what this is:



View at night from a friend's apartment. Reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. WOOOOO!

Summary: Caliente!

My Life in German

Since I moved to the German-speaking part of Switzerland, I've noticed how similar my life here is to the US, and how despite living in a different country, I feel like I'm repeating my past. It is like I am trapped in a German deja vu time warp.

Although I work in private equity/venture capital/active investing at Pala, I find my current job to be a lot like my old investment banking job at Wachovia. I walked into my office today, early. Only 2 people were around. I wanted to get caught up on the industry and do some research before everyone got in. But then I heard one of the Associates on the phone speaking to another Associate. And I could have SWORN those were the voices of Jeff and Michael at Wachovia. They sounded almost alike, the inflection, everything.

And when one of the Vice Presidents, a big burly guy with a blood pressure monitor, comes to talk to me about a model, I could have sworn he looked and acted just like Aaron at Wachovia. They both had a cool, manly demeanor and hid so much stress inside that they ended up having the same problem. It was freaky. And today, we had to get a report out to one of the Boards, and my other Vice President asked me to get some figures done and format the thing. But I had to do it in 20 minutes. It was a rush job. And he was standing behind me while I did all the excel shorthands as quickly as possible. It was deja vu to the extreme, imagining my VP Chris at Wachovia behind me telling me to format this, change that. I thought my investment banking analyst days were over, but it turns out I am doing the exact same thing. Why?

Although my job is similar, I am not. I noticed a big change in the way I behave at Pala than at Wachovia. At Wachovia, my papers were scattered all over my desk and project info was spread everywhere. At Pala, every project has a neat folder and a specific corner of my desk, not to mention a specific folder on the harddrive. At Wachovia, I snuck in late, and tried to leave early (though, "early" was 10PM and "late" was 830AM). At Pala, I arrive early to research and learn about the companies while no one is around, and am one of the last to leave. At Wachovia, I struggled just trying to stay above water every day. At Pala, I try to reflect and think about what I am doing, why I am doing it, how to improve it, and how it all links together. I like it. At Wachovia, I wore flowy skirts and bold striped shirts. At Pala, I am more subdued with light button downs and muted pinstripes. Although there were times I loved investment banking, most of the time the analyst life was not that good. I guess the difference is that now I actually get to do the finance that I like, but the life is a lot better, and hence I enjoy my job.

As for love, I am finding myself in a lot of the same situations abroad as I was in the US. Although most of the time the people you meet are not suited for you, or you are not suited for them, every once in a long while you meet someone who you just "fit" with. I met one of those people. And I've found that I am in the same situation I had been before: should I reveal my feelings and say "This is too good to just walk away from, let's give it a try?" Or do I never reveal how I feel and trust that if it was meant to be, it will all work out naturally?

I've certainly had this feeling before. But it's like you are wading through a sea of yellow flowers and all of a sudden you run into one bright red. It pops out at you. You know it's just what you want. But you also know that you've seen red flowers before, yet, they are very few and far between. Getting back to people, the question is, do you let this opportunity go or do you put down your pride and just say "Love conquers all!"

Although I am in the same situation as I've been in before, I'm not the same person. Before I would have called him up, or written him a letter explaining basically, "we had such a great time together, don't you want to see where it goes?" Sadly, it always ruined everything. This time, despite how much I still want to tell him, I won't. I'll let it run its course. Maybe in the future we'll see each other again, maybe never. I'll just have to live with that. If he really saw it the same way, he would have spoken up about it, or maybe we'd be talking more. I just can't force it. I have to let it be.

But I can't help but wonder why history repeats itself. Why my life turned out to be so similar to my past. Why you encounter the same types of people. Why the story is always the same. I guess the main difference in it all is how you change as a person, even if everything else stays the same.

My Last Day in Barcelona... until October

After passing my Spanish test yesterday, I can say that I'm officially done with my first year of the MBA. Tomorrow I get on a plane to Zurich, where my new Vice President will pick me up and introduce me to some members of the office. They are so very nice. I'm excited, but a little scared. This job will be a little Private Equity, a little Portfolio Management, a little Corporate Finance a little Alternative Investing. And the Company has been sooo good to me, I don't want to let them down. If anyone can tackle finance of this nature I guess it will be me, and I'm looking forward to learning alot. I hope my investment banking training will hold up.

So I'm a little nostalgic. JD paraphrases in SCRUBS that the way to restore a relationship is to remember what attracted you to the person in the first place. Although I have been extremely busy this first year, these last few weeks have opened my eyes to why I fell in love with Barcelona in the first place. Last weekend a friend of mine from LBS came down for the weekend. First day I took him to a "Spanish-style" sports bar. Dark wood, pool tables, tapas, beer & wine. I went there for the first time with Bala... it was great. (I do miss Balaaaaaaaaaa!)

The next day I had a dinner with my best friends at my favorite restaurant, Balthazar. I wanted to bring a little New Orleans culture to Barcelona, and since the restaurant requires punctuality (an anomaly in BCN), and I believe that economics is all about incentives, I suggested that for anyone who comes early, I'm bringing an ice cold bottle of schnapps and we do shots outside. Anyone from New Orleans would appreciate the beauty of this situation...

Picture is blurry but I think it adds an artsy, inebriated quality to it.

The dinner crew.

After dinner Morgan (shown below in sexy mode) takes us to a bar in Barri Gotic to meet a bunch of his Catalan friends.


We drink mojitos until around 2AM when we decide to go to the last IESE BOW of the year at Bucano. We had a lot of fun:


Still, after that, a few of us went over to Damiaan's roof and popped open a bottle of cava under the stars.

The next day, did a little shopping and watched Spain pound Sweden in the EuroCup. If there is one sport I could tolerate watching, it's soccer (sorry, Football). It was very nice. I wish I could watch soccer with a beer more often.

That night was a friend's 30th birthday party. He had a very elegant dinner with great people from all different backgrounds at El Gran Cafe. I ordered what I was craving for a while: nice piece of rare entrecot. We had Marques de Caceres Rioja all night. Was my favorite in the States, but I don't drink that much here. I prefer Torres because it's local. Anyhoo, after dinner, we took a cab to Opium Mar. It was packed with people:


We had a table and ordered bottles of vodka and champagne. Aparently there was an underground party that lasted until 1PM, but I went home modestly at 6AM.

The next day was relaxed, but equally good. I still had my LBS friend over, so we went exploring Barcelona. Stopped for some Pinchos at Sagardi, then headed to Gaudi's work Casa Batllo, then off to Barceloneta to explore the commercial and beach area. Didn't get too much beach time because the weather was dreary. Instead we stopped at a local pub and watched the Portugal-Switzerland game. Usually I am for Portugal, but since I am moving to Switzerland, I decided to switch loyalties, even if I thought Portugal was a better team. Switzerland ended up kicking Portugal's hiney 2-0. And I thought, sometimes, the only things necessary to make me happy are a big jarra of beer or a nice steak poco hecho.

As my friend left back to London, I couldn't help but realize that I made the right decision to come to IESE and in Barcelona. When I first saw Barcelona, I took a leap of faith and came to live here. That's just how I am. Very passionate. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. This time it did. And I'm lucky to be able to live in Switzerland for a while with a great job in a great company. I have grown up quite a bit since living in Europe, have figured out a lot about myself, and I have great expectations for the next year. I know it will be easier...

Obama Wins the Nomination for the Democratic Party

***WARNING: Entry contains partisan views.

This entry has been on the backburner for quite a while. Of course, Obama secured all the necessary delegates on June 4th, but Hillary officially bowed out on June 7th. It was an extraordinary event for me, as I was not used to my favorite candidate coming to the forefront. Now his main challenge is to unite Democrats and Americans again as Bill Clinton once did...

Hillary Clinton announced her support for our campaign today. Senator Clinton made history over the past 16 months -- not just because she has broken barriers, but because she has inspired millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to causes like universal health care that make a difference in the lives of hardworking Americans.

It's time for all of us to come together to take on John McCain in the general election. John McCain offers another four years of George Bush's policies, which our country simply cannot afford.

And only a few weeks before, one of my favorite candidates in the past 4 years also endorced Barack Obama:

Con esa fuerza, me sientaba como un angel ha caedo del cielo. Era una accion muy emocionante para mi gusto...

Most of the people I consider my heros are politicians. Bill Clinton. Alvaro Uribe. Al Gore. Barack Obama. And today one of my heroes endorced another:

A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States.

Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges -- including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.

This moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action. Thank you for joining me,

Al Gore

This election is starting to get nasty. Hopefully Americans will not make the same mistake 3 times... As GW Bush once said, "Fool me once..."

Hilarious!

My 1st Year in the MBA Programme

I won't pretend that the MBA has been a walk in the park. I won't say that I haven't had some moments that tested my intellectual and personal limits. I won't say that I didn't learn a lot about myself, so much I would say that I'm a very different person than when I started here in Barcelona, 11 months ago.

I have to admit I was taken aback at the caliber of this programme and just how to navigate through it, and how to make the right choices or me, not for anyone else. Most of the time I felt like I was constantly running not really getting much value to myself out of it, just trying to stay above water.

Consequently I have a lot of regrets that I hope to ameliorate next year. I regret, when I started out here, not taking the MBA as seriously as I should (I thought I came here to get out of Investment Banking and to get a relaxing job in Spain...). From the second trimestre on, I regret taking the MBA too seriously, and I regret being too hard on myself because of it. I regret letting my Spanish fall by the wayside, and being too scared to push myself with it. I regret not experimenting professionally more. I regret trying to get back into Investment Banking instead of using the time to figure out what I really liked in a career. I regret not enjoying MultiCulti as much as I should. I regret not going to as many BOWs, or as many Dinners. I regret not playing more sports in the MBA Olympics. I regret not taking the time to stop and smell the roses.

But I did make some good choices. I chose the right choreographer for the IESE salsa team in the MBA Olympics. I landed a superb internship with Pala Investments in Switzerland, where I will be working on the valuation & analysis of investment opportunities, financial modeling, and managing the investment portfolio. Seems like I will learn alot & have great responsibility. And having stopped to appreciate this opportunity, I think I'm ready to get the most value from it (rather than constantly running and trying to keep up); additionally, I made the right decision not to do the Capstone project so I have enough time to reflect and prepare for my internship, and pass the last level of Business Spanish. I made the right decision to not be afraid to leave Investment Banking, even also finding out that I don't have to leave Corporate Finance altogether. In this MBA I guess I rediscovered my love for Finance, and even more so, a field that not only I could be happy with, but also fit my skill set: Risk Management. And even so, I think the case method has prepared me to see things on another level, and hopefully all my preparation will finally pay off in my next career.

The end of the 1st year ended somewhat nostalgically. The 2nd years left slowly one by one, and it was sad to see them go. They told me that the MBA went so fast, and they had regretted not interacting more with the 1st years. I'm glad that I put up more of an effort to get to know them more, and I hope next year I make more of an effort to interact with the new 1st years. I ended the year with a good grip on the subjects, some time to go out, and some leisurely finals that I had enjoyed studying for. The day exams ended, some of us went to the beach, most of us met up at the Karaoke dinner at Shanghai. One of things I enjoy most is Karaoke, but I kept it safe by singing in groups, mostly Bon Jovi songs, and a couple of Spanish songs (I always wanted to sing in Spanish! I do it in my car all the time anyway..). Afterwards, took a cab with the Brazilians to Universal for more partying. It was a vodka & redbull night.

I guess all in all life is coming together, the confusion of being in my 20s is the driver of my personal & professional growth. And although I do miss my old friends in the States, and I'm still not sure if I will stay in Europe or not, I can say that I am happy and ready to face the 2nd year.