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| I had tears of joy rolling down my eyes today. I didn't realize I'd be so anxiety-ridden, but I couldn't sit still beginning 3pm. So I went jogging and shopping in the middle of my work day. Then I slowly came home to find out that I passed the CA bar! Praise the Lord! I am so thankful I never have to go through the bar again. | | |
| I am in love... with my jobI started working on October 2nd, so I've only worked for five weeks. But I LOVE my job.  I got accepted to the DOJ Honors program last fall and am now working in the San Francisco office of the Antitrust Division. The SF office does mostly criminal investigations of international cartels. Our office is currently responsible for the DRAM and the SRAM investigation that has been all over the press lately.
So why am I in love? Well, I am just very happy that I did not go to firm to bill .1 of an hour. Billing drives me insane. Some people may enjoy it, but I just can't keep track of every six minutes of my day. In the government, we don't bill. We keep track of our time, but we just lump the time and write, "9 hours- cartel." So simple.
In addition, for the last five weeks, I have only had two full five-day work weeks. I am on this schedule called "flex day" which allows me to work nine-hours for nine days so that I get every other Friday off. I also got Columbus day off so I've only worked a full five-days only for two weeks. Plus, next Friday is Veterans Day so I get next Friday off as well. It's totally crazy. I think I only have one full five-day work week in November. It's really out of this world.
So not only are the hours great, but the people are also awesome. Everyone is so relaxed and chill. My secretary is sort of a space cadet and gets on everyone's nerves, but she's sent in her resignation. So once she's gone, I think we'll have harmony again.
As for the work, it's quite challenging. They give a lot of responsibility early on. I'm working one-on-one with this very experienced attorney and she allowed me to draft the preliminary investigative plan and the subpoena we'll present to those we're investigating. I also had my first conversation with opposing counsel the other day. I was very nervous to lead the call, and it probably showed. But I hope I'll gain more experience through time.
There are minuses, however, to this job. For example, I'm going to training in West Virginia next week and we have a happy hour. So who pays? Us. It's cash bar. The federal government doesn't pay for drinks. The government actually doesn't seem like it really pays for much of anything. I paid for my own business cards, water in the office, and food when we went out for women's staff lunch. I even paid for my own fare to NYC when the government could have paid for my fare from OAK to NYC instead of OAK to DC. The government refuses to pay for personal travel even if it will cost the same for them to fly me from OAK to NYC rather than OAK to DC. Ridiculous. Then, there is the salary. If I went to Davis Polk or Baker and McKenzie, I would be banking. Instead, I make 40% of what my friends make because I chose to work for the government. In April, I'll get a raise. By then, hopefully, I'll make 50% of what my friends make. :D But money is money. I guess money can't buy happiness, and I am still in love with my job.
Ok, today is my flex day. I have to run off to meet my friend for brunch in the city.
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| My 9-11  
It has already been five years since the attack on the World Trade Center. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. Perhaps it's because I lived about five blocks from the WTC on 99 John Street at the time of 9-11-2001. Maybe it's because I only arrived in Manhattan two months before the attack occurred. Perhaps it's because I walked past the twin towers everyday on my way to work. I trained in 7 WTC, the building that collapsed during the fire after the twin towers fell. I shopped at the J.Crew and Borders in the WTC and rode the PATH train to Jersey from the WTC station. I walked past the towers to go sun bathing in Battery Park. I even met a blind date at the pavilion within the towers.
I remember that day on 9-11 when the other trainees yelled out that a plane hit one of the towers. For some reason that day, I had to go to another Citigroup office located in Queens. We saw the second plane crash through the Citigroup tower and rushed down the stairs to evacuate the building. My friend, CK and I, didn't realize the gravity of the attack and took the subway back to Manhattan. I wanted to go back home, but she urged me to go to her midtown apartment. Once we got off the train in mid-town, we traversed through the crowds of people speed walking, almost running, away from downtown Manhattan. We too wanted to get as far away as possible. We thought about catching a cab, but cars did not move. It was faster to move by foot. But we didn't know where to hide. After all, we were in Times Square, Manhattan. Not knowing where to go, we ended up inside a bar and watched in horror as two towers fell to the ground. In shock, we fled to her apartment in hopes for safety.
While I was at CK's apartment, my friend, JL, called me to come up to upper-west side to her in-laws' home. My college roommate, CG, urged me to flee to Jersey. I took CG's advice and got in the long line for the ferry to Jersey. There were thousands trying to evacuate and I cut through the lines to try to ride the ferry earlier. Once I arrived in Jersey, I embraced my friend and her dad who came to my rescue. They welcomed me to their home as if I were their own daughter. All night, we watched the terror unfold, and friends and family from all over the world called me to ask whether I was all right. The phone lines were clogged so it took awhile for my sister, who lived in Japan at the time, to call and see whether I was ok. But I felt the love from all those who called concerned. It was definitely a unifying moment not only for the American public, but for my own life as well.
I stayed at my friend, CG's house, for a few days. I didn't have any clothes with me so I ended up going out to buy cheap temporary clothes at Old Navy. I could not go home to get my belongings. My apartment area was blocked off and off limits to the public. After all, it was probably covered in debri and heavy cleaning needed to be done. Citigroup closed its office in Tribecca due to its close proximity to WTC, so I didn't need to go to work either. So I just stayed in NJ. After a few days in Jersey, I rode the ferry back to Manhattan. My apartmentmate and I got a room at the Soho Grand and Tribecca Grand through Goldman Sachs. So I returned to the city where ambulances ran wild through downtown Manhattan.
After the first week, Ground Zero area was briefly open to all residents to retrieve their clothes and other necessities. I returned to 99 John and walked up the eerie dark stairs with my friend, DW. The apartment building seemed so empty without all its residents. My apartment was dark and smelled of rotten foods. So I quickly retrieved my clothes in the dark lit only by a flashlight held by DW. Then we rushed down the stairs. Once we were outside of the apartment, we received a warning through a megaphone that another building nearby might collapse. The sirens started ringing and we saw cars quickly backing out to leave the area. We saw women with babies in strollers running with all their might. We too ran with all the other residents who also came down to retrieve their belonging. DW and I ran and ran until we safely reached the edge of Chinatown. We somehow felt safe within the heart of Chinatown. We felt like we were miles away, when in fact, we were only blocks from Ground Zero. With our heart still thumping from the run, we calmed our nerves with a bowl of pho.
Two weeks after 9-11, our apartment building and downtown Manhattan was opened to all residents. So my apartment mate, AW, and I returned to our apartment. Together, we cleaned our apartment and the rotten foods in the refrigerator. We received a discount on our rent due to 9-11 and decided not to move, but my apartment and the downtown area was not the same ever again. Downtown Manhattan probably will never be the same again.
9/11 by the Numbers - New
York Magazine
Death, destruction, charity, salvation, war, money, real
estate, spouses, babies, and other September 11 statistics.
The
initial numbers are indelible: 8:46 a.m.
and 9:02 a.m. Time the burning towers
stood: 56 minutes and 102 minutes. Time they took to fall: 12 seconds. From
there, they ripple out.
- Total number killed in
attacks (official figure as of 9/5/02):
2,819
- Number of firefighters and
paramedics killed: 343
- Number of NYPD officers: 23
- Number of Port Authority
police officers: 37
- Number of WTC companies that
lost people: 60
- Number of employees who died
in Tower One: 1,402
- Number of employees who died
in Tower Two: 614
- Number of employees lost at
Cantor Fitzgerald: 658
- Number of U.S.
troops killed in Operation Enduring Freedom: 22
- Number of nations whose
citizens were killed in attacks: 115
- Ratio of men to women who
died: 3:1
- Age of the greatest number
who died: between 35 and 39
- Bodies found
"intact": 289
- Body parts found: 19,858
- Number of families who got no
remains: 1,717
- Estimated units of blood
donated to the New York Blood
Center: 36,000
- Total units of donated blood
actually used: 258
- Number of people who lost a
spouse or partner in the attacks: 1,609
- Estimated number of children
who lost a parent: 3,051
- Percentage of Americans who
knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks: 20
- FDNY retirements,
January–July 2001: 274
- FDNY retirements,
January–July 2002: 661
- Number of firefighters on
leave for respiratory problems by January 2002: 300
- Number of funerals attended
by Rudy Giuliani in 2001: 200
- Number of FDNY vehicles
destroyed: 98
- Tons of debris removed from
site: 1,506,124
- Days fires continued to burn
after the attack: 99
- Jobs lost in New
York owing to the attacks: 146,100
- Days the New York Stock
Exchange was closed: 6
- Point drop in the Dow Jones
industrial average when the NYSE reopened: 684.81
- Days after 9/11 that the U.S.
began bombing Afghanistan:
26
- Total number of hate crimes
reported to the Council on American-Islamic Relations nationwide since
9/11: 1,714
- Economic loss to New
York in month following the attacks: $105
billion
- Estimated cost of cleanup: $600
million
- Total FEMA money spent on the
emergency: $970 million
- Estimated amount donated to
9/11 charities: $1.4 billion
- Estimated amount of insurance
paid worldwide related to 9/11: $40.2 billion
- Estimated amount of money
needed to overhaul lower-Manhattan subways: $7.5 billion
- Amount of money recently granted
by U.S.
government to overhaul lower-Manhattan subways: $4.55 billion
- Estimated amount of money
raised for funds dedicated to NYPD and FDNY families: $500 million
- Percentage of total charity
money raised going to FDNY and NYPD families: 25
- Average benefit already
received by each FDNY and NYPD widow: $1 million
- Percentage increase in
law-school applications from 2001 to 2002: 17.9
- Percentage increase in Peace
Corps applications from 2001 to 2002: 40
- Percentage increase in CIA
applications from 2001 to 2002: 50
- Number of songs Clear Channel
Radio considered "inappropriate" to play after 9/11: 150
- Number of mentions of 9/11 at
the Oscars: 26
- Apartments in lower Manhattan
eligible for asbestos cleanup: 30,000
- Number of apartments whose
residents have requested cleanup and testing: 4,110
- Number of Americans who
changed their 2001 holiday-travel plans from plane to train or car: 1.4
million
- Estimated number of New
Yorkers suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder as a result of 9/11:
422,000
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| Adventures in Belize
(A side-view of the Mayan temple at Xunantunich)
I just got back from two weeks in Belize with Ken. It was the most fun I've had in awhile. Instead of just relaxing on the beach, we used everyday to explore a new site in Belize. For the first two days, we rented a car in Belize and drove through the rough unpaved roads to explore Altun Ha, a Mayan site, and the Belize Zoo. We climbed the tall towers used as burial grounds by the Mayans at Altun Ha. At the Belize Zoo, we fed the deer with the zookeepers, saw a puma up-close, and got bitten by many mosquitos.
(Howler monkeys at Belize Zoo)
(Belize's national bird. Doesn't it look like a toy bird?)
Then, we rode the local bus, which is actually an American school bus, to San Ignacio, a town just 10-15 miles east of Guatamala. On the first day in San Ignacio, we hiked uphill for half-an-hour to explore the Mayan ruins in Cahal Pech.
The next day, we explored a cave called Actun Tunichil Muchnal, filled with Mayan potteries and even a complete remain of a female Mayan who was once sacrificed. We had to crawl through narrow crevices, swim through deep water, climb ladders and rocks, and wade through water in the cave that sometimes went above my chest. The cave definitely was the most dangerous activity that we did, but the most fulfilling. The archaeologists at the cave did not place any of the discovered Mayan potteries behind a display and rather left it in the natural state that it was found. So we were inches from the Mayan potteries that they found within the cave and the human remains of sacrificed victims. During the times of severe drought, the Mayan entered caves to sacrifice humans to their rain god, Chac, and archaeologists have found 14 human (Mayan) skeletons within this cave. The cave is 3 miles long, and we explored 1/2 a mile with LED lights on our helmet. Although we only explored a portion of the cave, we were in the cave for about three hours because of the rough hike. Once we were out of the cave, we had to hike an hour and wade through three rivers just to get back to the tour bus.
The next day, we went to Caracol, the largest ancient Mayan site in Belize. Caana, the sky palace, rises as high as 140 feet and is the tallest building in Belize. It was occupied in 1200BC with a population of 120,000. Because this site is so close to Guatamala, a number of tourists and tour guides have been robbed by some Guatamalans. My tour guide was robbed two times and had his ipod and his $350US binoculars stolen. Supposedly, these robbers come with advanced military machine guns on horses and take the tourists on a side hidden road and steal from them. So now, after numerous robberies and one tourist who actually got shot by the robbers, the Belize government decided to escort the tourists with their own military. So we were escorted by the Belizen military truck Ken and I made sure we didn't bring anything expensive on the trip, but the other couple were trying their best to hide their engagement rings somewhere within their bags. Overall, the tour went smoothly and we learned that only a minuscule percentage of the Mayan temples have actually been excavated. The Belize government will excavate more of them once they have the funds. So we learned through our tour guide how to figure out which mounds and hills have Mayan temples that still needs to be excavated.
(A templet at caracol)
After the trip to Caracol, we went to swim at Big Rock Falls. Our tour guide encouraged us to jump off the high cliff by the waterfall, but we ended up jumping off the small boulder in the front of the picture. The water was rather dirty and I couldn't believe he wanted us to basically rock climb to jump off a ledge by the waterfall where we may hit other rocks instead of the water. We bowed out of the offer.
On the next day, we woke up early to get on the express bus back to Belize City to take the water taxi to Ambergris island. We were greeted with this beautiful view of the ocean once we reached our destination.
I'll add more pictures and continue with details of our second week of the trip tomorrow. Gotta run for today!
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| BoredomI never thought I would be bored as a housewife. I've always dreamed about being a housewife and staying home to take care of the home. So for the first week after the bar, I relished the time in front of the TV. I loved watching Oprah, Tyra Banks show, and the other day time shows that only housewives and students can watch. I didn't even care to meet too many friends because I just wanted time to myself. I also didn't read as many books as I normally would have during school breaks because I just wanted time away from reading. The bar exam exhausted my brain and I just needed a break. The first week flew by. I spent a lot of time cleaning the house and watching TV. I also attended a birthday party and a bridal shower, and met up with a friend in town for the summer.
Now, I'm in my second week of break and am experiencing utter boredom. I don't know how housewives do it. I mean, how much of the house can you clean? And all my friends are working and my law school friends are all on their bar trips so I can't even meet up with them during the day time. But thankfully, I have one friend who is a teacher and one friend with a flexible work schedules so I was able to hang out with them during the week. Other than those two friends, it has been hard finding people who are free during the day. So I'm trying to find ways to entertain myself. I spent a lot of time finalizing the details for our trip to Belize. I even created a library card at ghetto Oakland Public library and borrowed some books to start reading again.
So during these two weeks, I decided I never want to be a housewife. Maybe I'll change my mind later, but I realized that I might go nuts being a housewife.
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