I Wish You Love in 2008

Yay new PC laptop!

2008-12-29T14:16:00.000-08:00

I still love my macbook but I'm excited to use my new PC laptop. It may not look that gorgeous but it works in many practical ways like my excel 2007 with goal seek! :D

Movies: the Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2008-12-27T09:11:00.000-08:00

We went to watch Bedtime Stories and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button yesterday and when we walked out of the theater it was already dark outside. It was a warm and foggy evening. Bedtime Stories was fun and christmasy. And the Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt was quite long, about 2 and half hours, yet incredibly touching. Through the whole life of Benjamin and his lover or "wife" Daisy, we witnessed the post-war world and how people struggled and survived and changed in war times and peace times. I especially like the going-backward clock part. It makes you feel so sad but more than that, it makes you think the meaning of war. I may give you the wrong impression that this movie's about war but it's actually a romance movie. The love story of Benjamin and Daisy is the main plot. Actually, there're many plots that I like in this movie like Benjamin's encounter with others Elizabeth, Benjamin's observance of the old people in the nursing house and his love for his mother Queenie, etc. It's a great movie and the music in it is a pleasure thing too. :D

If you ever go natural, you can never go back!

2008-12-27T09:05:00.000-08:00

this is exactly how I feel. So I threw away my old estee lauder and clinique stuff in hotel room.

list 4: body lotion + deodorant

2008-12-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

Currently have:

Dove ™ Cucumber Deodorant
Johnson's ™ Baby Lotion
Body & Bath Works ™ Japanese Cherry Blossom

Again, no more body & bath works for me!! I already threw away the Dove deodorant (the smell is good) but I only have one brain and I need it! I don't know if there's anything bad in johnson's baby lotion. It's mild and I'll keep it then.

I'd like to claim the following as mine:

Canus ™ Goat's Milk Body Lotion
Tom's of Maine ™ Long-lasting Deodorant (No aluminum to hurt your precious neural system :D)
or Nature's Gate ™ Asian Pear/Red Tea Deodorant (No aluminum and no paraben)

The canus goat's milk lotion is so cute - I want to drink it up!! :D

Tom's is a great company who cares about environment and also individual health. And the organic deodorant is not expensive at all!! (Why not getting one who wouldn't make your brain dumb? haha.) Nature's Gate is another great alternative to regular deodorant. :D

list 3: body wash & shampoo + conditioner

2008-12-22T13:35:00.001-08:00

Stuff that I currently possess:

Hair Shampoo + Conditioner:

Dove ™ Cucumber Shampoo
Pantene ™ Ice Shine (ugh...)

Body Wash:

Ivory ™ Simply Ivory Body Wash
Bath & Body Works ™ Aromatherapy Sleep - Black Chamomile
Bath & Body Works ™ Aromatherapy Stress Relief - Tranquil Mint

The Ivory body wash was a good deal. (I got it from Walmart). The two aromatherapy body wash from bbw smell really good, esp. the black chamomile. The whole sleep series is very cute.

But...they have SLS. Ugh. = = Most products from bath & body works contain SLS or other chemicals and they're not organic at all. They were acquired by L'Oreal years ago and they do ANIMAL TESTING!! Just another reason that I won't buy anything from them. (Except the C.O. Bigelow products, but I'll get them in their own retail store.)

I want to the proud owner of these awesome products (completely no SLS):

Avalon ™ Olive & Grape Seed Shampoo
Avalon ™ Olive & Grape Seed Conditioner (NO Dimethicone!!)
Avalon ™ Lavender Body Wash

list 2: cream/moisturizer

2008-12-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

Currently I'm using:

Clinique ™ Dramatically Different Lotion (what a name = =)
Estee Lauder ™ Resilience Lift
Clinique ™ All About Eyes
Estee Lauder ™ Advanced Night Repair

I bought the 4.2 fl.oz bottle of Clinique lotion. I had this lotion in tubes before and liked it so I got this bottle one. But now I found that there's no way that I can finish it up before the expiration date. I don't why I bought the other stuff but they're not good. I guess I'm tired of all Clinique and EL products. = =

I'd like to own these amazing products this Christmas:

LUSH ™ Celestial Moisturizer
Juice Beauty ™ Moisturizer (USDA Certified)

I haven't found any good eye cream to replace the Clinique/Estee Lauder crap...If anyone knows anything good, let me know!!

list 1: facial cleanser + mask + makeup remover

2008-12-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

Facial cleansers that I own/use now:

LUSH ™ Coalface
Shiseido ™ ELIXIR
Clinique ™ Liquid Soap
DHC ™ Mild Soap
Kiehl's ™ Algae Masque
DHC ™ Deep Cleansing Oil
Estee Lauder ™ Take It Away Total Remover

Coalface and Clinique liquid soap clearly have SLS listed as a major ingredient. LUSH has many things that contains no SLS but sorry, the best seller does have SLS!! But Coalface really cleans my face and leaves nothing, so I usually use it before using masks. The Clinique liquid soap always make me feel that I haven't washed my face enough. Plus, it (actually most Clinique cleansing products, esp. the toner/number 2 water)smells so like alcohol. = =

I threw away the carton box of ELIXER (even if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to read the ingredients in Japanese) It foams very well and it's a Japanese product, so I wouldn't be surprised to know if there's SLS in there. But the smell is good (very light) and it leaves a smooth skin. The ELIXIR and Coalface both clean my face thoroughly. So I'll finish them before the new organics and SLS-free stuff and I don't have too much left.

But I don't mind getting rid of Clinique stuff now though. It's just not good and I won't miss it! Also, I tried the DHC soap before. Lots of foams (now I know where it came from!) and nice olive smell. But I won't buy it and won't recommend it to others either.= =

I like the Algae mask from Kiehl's. It's unscented (at least I can't smell anything) and it can be absorbed very fast. Non-greasy at all! I looked the ingredients, oh yay, no SLS!! So I can keep it. But lots of Kiehl's products contain SLS. :(

As to makeup removers, I really gotta say Estee Lauder is a big, if not huge, disappointment!! It's just too mild to take away anything (maybe just the foundation) and the smell is so "Estee Lauder", so artificial! I bought it at a duty-free shop in the airport so cannot complain too much about it.

The DHC cleaning oil is just the opposite!! IT'S GREAT!! The commercial claims that it has been a No.1 selling product in Asia (or Japan, sorry I don't remember). It's very oily (yeah, it has olive oil! lots of olive oil!) and very effective to take away heavy makeups, even some long-lasting waterproof mascara/eyeliners. I'd recommended it to everyone. :D

GOOD Facial cleansers that I plan to buy before Christmas:

They are all SLS-free!!! Big yay!!!

LUSH ™ Angels on Bare Skin
LUSH ™ Baby Face Cleanser
or LUSH ™ Sweet Japanese Girl Cleanser
The Body Shop ™ Honey & Oat 3-in-1 Scrub Mask

P.S.: I'm 20 something and I have normal to dry skin. All products I listed here are for normal/dry skin type. ^_^

NO MORE SLS!!

2008-12-22T10:05:00.001-08:00

Okay,after reading so many stuff about SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) on the internet, I checked the back of all cosmetics products that I own to see if there's anything evil like SLS or other toxic chemicals. Yes many of them contain SLS, actually most of them have SLS in there, shampoo, facial cleanser, makeup remover, conditioner, body wash, even toothpaste and my dear bubble gel!!

I'm not a chemistry major so I found SLS very disturbing and dangerous. It's a strong chemicals used mainly as surfactant. In household products, SLS is used to create foam and remove oil from skin. It can cause skin and eye irritation and permanent damage to children's eye. SLS is also bad for respiratory system. If these facts haven't scared you yet, CONTINUE READING!! SLS is a protein denaturant and it is a mutagen that can lead to cancer!!!

When I read these from different websites, I don't think SLS is an urban legend. It's about greedy cosmetics company being unethical to public. It's really that simple. :(

Look what CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review) says about SLS:
SLS is "safe in formulations designed for discontinuous, brief use followed by thorough rinsing from the surface of the skin".

But..we wash our face at least twice a day, take daily showers, some people even take more than that, and that's "discontinuous, brief" use?? This is just ridiculous! Even if these toxic chemicals looks perfect safe and don't cause any problem now, we should know that our body absorbs and accumulate toxins. This is no kidding!

"We really in a over-chemicalized world"...and here's a good reading about SLS or other bad chemicals. It's worth 5 minutes of your time. :D

I'm not an organic person at all and I always think organics products are generally overpriced. But between something really bad for my body and something a little more expensive than I normally pay, I'll definitely go with the second choice.

New address

2008-12-03T13:12:00.001-08:00

I have a habit of keeping all previous addresses. To me each one of these addresses means a lot more than a place that I lived/rented. They kept me warm and sheltered me from storms outside, especially during harsh winter time. They made my heart warm and gave me a feeling of home at different times in my life. So whenever I tell others my new address, I feel happy and secured that I have a little place to go in this crazy and ever-changing world. :)

From Apple Valley, Mayflower, Ridgeland, Ellis, Palladium, E Market, Bloomington, HC...

Now it's almost time to move on to Locust. :D

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

When Li-Fu started his car in the morning, I saw there was a thin layer of ice on the windshield. We haven't had any snow yet and the weather this week so far has been very satisfactory. So I guess the ice comes from the frozen dew. I don't remember exactly when it started snow last year but it is never too late to have snow, especially here in Iowa. Everyday would be like what I read in Andersen's Little Match Girl when I was young.

I was born and grew up in a city where snow visits only once in ten years. So obviously snow is a precious thing to see and I had always dreamed about having a white christmas and that'd be so awesome. But when I experienced the winter in Iowa, I feel that too much snow may not be that awesome; Sometimes it could even be terrible. With tons of snow pouring from sky, walking/driving becomes a painful task. I'm so not good at balancing my body and my priority when walking in the snow is not to fall in public.

Another thing I found about snow is you gotta have your sunglass with you. Strong reflection from snow will cause serious damage to your eyes. So what I usually see in every snowy winter is extremely slippery/icy road with dirty mud/salt and girls with huge sunglasses that can almost cover half of their faces, which is not that close to the white winter that I had imagined. Winter here has stronger flavor compared to the mild one back home. Sometimes I think: isn't this just like the old saying "grass is always greener on the other side"? :D

Anyway, it's Thanksgiving - the time to give thanks!!

Okay, I'd like to thank for being able to see flying snowflakes decorating the beautiful winter season. If I never came here, I would miss so much and my world wouldn't be the same. Looking back to where I was years ago, I feel that I've been truly blessed to have all these precious experience in my life. It is really a childhood dream come true. And actually, it is much more than what I asked for: I not only get to see snow;I get to see a whole different world. And I'm really thankful for that. : )

(The picture was taken last year near my apartment.)

please please please

2008-11-20T18:24:00.000-08:00

Stock market has been in bear for a while and deteriorating conditions especially in fixed income securities area have taken down lots of financial service companies. I guess nothing is 100% safe now and the notorious aftermath of sub-prime crisis are like a domino set. I really hope the economy can walk out of its mess at the end of this year and companies can have a more decent Q4 report.

Mom

2008-11-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

No matter what I do or what others might see/judge/think of me, Mom always stands by me and supports me. In front of me it is my life, my future with countless question marks. Mom says that you never know where life will take you and you don't have to struggle. Do your work, try your best and that's enough. Relax and let life take you to different journeys.

Mom can say something like that because she cares about me, not only the present me, but the future me, the whole me. She wants to see me happy, healthy. She wants me to live a valuable life that I won't regret tomorrow. I guess she trusts me like no other and she loves me like no other. Even though she can't really tell if I'll be better tomorrow, if I'll achieve my goals, she believes intuitively that I'll have a good life and every day in my life is improving. I guess that must have something to do with one thing, love, the most precious thing in the world.

I love you too, Mom.

Unpredictable life

2008-11-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

I had a bad headache yesterday before watching the animation movie "5 centimeters per second". I guess I was pretty busy last week squeezing time from school to prepare for job interviews. Just like what Ava and Heather said that job hunting is an extremely exhausting and frustrating process, especially in this not-so-good job market. It can be one of the valleys in your life. But I guess everybody's been through this and I can't just give up now. = =

Other than the frustrating part, my recent life is actually okay. Schoolwork has been pretty okay and I can't complain a thing. It's not that tiring as I thought and fortunately, I have great team members in different projects, considerate and supportive professors and a not that hectic schedule. I actually started my Hatha Yoga class last week and it's great. It teaches basic movements and some meditation skills to help relax and focus. Mom is glad that I'm taking this class since it gives me some relaxing and peaceful time not to think about other frustrating things. So far I like it and if I'm still into it later, I guess I can take some class outside school then.

There's a graduation countdown application on Facebook that Heather told me the other day. She said it's kind of scary to think about we're leaving school that soon. I couldn't agree more, so I decided not even look at that application just to keep me calm down. I'll probably panic if I get to see that countdown every day.

I heard a lot of after-college stories, from friends or from people that I don't really know well, and I feel that life sometimes can be truly unpredictable. You never know where it'll take you next year, or even next month. For me, I've no idea where I'll go after college at this moment. Well, no like "totally no idea". If I don't land a job, I'll probably go visit Ava in San Diego and then fly home. I think I'm able to guess the big picture of the puzzle, but just not able to know how each piece will be put together.

But I know one thing that no matter how things work out for me in the end, I need to make decisions and they won't be easy. Actually, no decision in our life has been easy to make, has it?

Fall

2008-10-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

When I walked out of the library this afternoon,I saw some leaves started changing colors. The sun was warm and the sky was crystal blue. It was a breezy afternoon which reminded me of those days in Freshman year. About the same time this year, me and Ava went to hayrack ride/bon fire/farm visit/etc etc. I went to the stores at old capital mall and express is still there selling the same old crap every year. Silver spider is full of funny fridge magnets. CVS is still preparing for the coming Halloween theme and selling snack size candies at discount prices. They have kit kat on sale every year. For a minute, I think I miss Ava and all those trips we made.

Oh Britney!!

2008-09-09T18:23:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty outdated on these proporazzi stuff but I heard that Britney made a good return on her second(or third?) time on MTV Awards' stage lately. She's in way better shape now! She apparently lost some pounds and got tanned, though she still needs to work out more to get back to her GREAT body. But she's mother of two now and this is already good enough for her, I think. Anyway, I am glad that Britney looks better and got some face back. I grew up listening to her songs and watching her energetic performances and I, like thousands of others, would never want to see the legendary Britney Spears end up as a drug addict and an irresponsible mother. :D

Britney's first animation video, Break the Ice. Very catch rhythm. Enjoy!!

Artist Site

Back in Iowa City

2008-08-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've been back in Iowa City for almost two and half weeks and I don't even know where to start to tell how these post-NYC days passed and how I soon got used to everything here again.

I moved out of the old apartment where me and my other two roommates lived for two years in Ellis Avenue, a very quiet and nice neighborhood at the west side of the river. I left there simply because Ava graduated and left for San Diego and Mona decided to live in dorm next semester. And when I flew back from New York, neither of them were there in IC, so very unfortunately, I was the one who was stuck in here cleaning messes, throwing away unwanted couches, getting carpet cleaning and finally returning keys to our landlord. It was truly a super tedious work but with the help of Li-Fu and other nice friends like Min-Tzu and Yi-Lung, I made it! I moved all my belongings and God, I can't believe that I have stocked so many useless things in just four years. Me and Min-Tzu cleaned the whole apartment and also had the carpet cleaned by professionals, but I think I still left one thing undone though:hadn't taken a picture of the apartment. I really should've taken one. Fortunately I have plenty of pictures taken during the winter when huge amount of snow covered the whole area and me and my roommates bought some snow and tasted it with chocolate syrup, which was so fun to think of now. :D

I still remember the last morning, July 29, when I still had legal access to our #12, I went upstairs to double check on everything and felt so sad. I was the first one moving in two years ago around this time in summer and now I was also the one moving out. Everything in this empty apartment looked just like it was two years ago and when I talked to Li-Fu, I could hear some echos. I spent two years, half of my college life, living here, cooking, watching TV, chatting with roomies, having birthday/lunar new year parties, doing homework, lying on my bed and doing nothing the whole day. I really had great times with my roommates and all other friends came to our sweet #12. We really had great memories of doing a lot of things together, laughing for silly jokes or crying for illegally downloaded TV dramas, helping and taking care of each other. And now, it was time to leave these behind, no matter how sweet they are, and move on to new journeys.

This kinda sucks,doesn't it?

When I was waiting in the common area of Palladium 1126 for the airport shuttle bus pick-up, I felt sad too. I lived in there for two months and I got used to it already. And that sadness wasn't just for Palladium, but more for the great city New York. I felt sad leaving New York but that feeling wasn't too strong because I always believe that one day I will go back there. Plus, I was happy to fly back to Iowa to see Li-Fu back then.

The rest of the story was pretty plain. I temporarily moved all my stuffs to Yi-Lung's apartment waiting to get keys of my new apartment. Before getting into the new place, I went to St.Louis,MO, with Li-Fu after he left his apartment at the end of July. The AC in Li-Fu's car wasn't working and we weren't able to get it fixed before the trip, so imagine warm air coming out of AC for a 4-hour (8 hours for roundtrip) trip when the temp outside was nearly 90 something. Aside from that, the trip was okay and the hotel we stayed was nice and very downtown. But after wondering around in St.Louis downtown for two days, I was further confirmed that no place in the States is even comparable to New York City, one of the greatest cities in the world.

I've been to other big cities in North America and only a couple of them are truly "big cities" like San Francisco and New York. Some others are more like urban areas full of commuters. So I'm more convinced to find a job and have my career there one day. Maybe not immediately after graduate from college but some day,some day, I'll go back to New York and have a job I like.

Now I'm settled down to my new apartment. It's totally livable now and I'm very satisfied with it. I've been watching Olympics games lately, mostly Michael Phelps' swimming shows. haha. And the opening ceremony was really spectacular.

Okay, I gotta stop here and everyone have a great August!

Tomorrow is my last day of summer internship!

2008-07-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

It's already been eight weeks in the city and I'm heading home in four days.

千與千尋和本心

2008-07-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

高一時覺得無聊就沒看＝＝
沒想到７年後的上禮拜天
我跟朋友拜訪她去的佛堂
看到小朋友們在看這片
我看著看著一下子沒辦法回到現實
等到禮拜一下班去土豆上翻出來
一口氣看完才過癮

看完後大為震動 :O
有種很想大哭一場卻又哭不出來的感覺
這種熟悉的感動
伴隨童年的回憶
和音樂和畫面一起縈繞腦海

我猜我們每個人大概都能從千尋身上找到自己的影子吧
記得我小時候暑假下大雨
一個人趴在陽臺上看的出神
傻傻看這世界有一種安靜的寂寞
和巨大的渺小

這種奇特的感覺
讓長大後的我
做夢都還會常浮現那種淡淡的揮之不去的憂傷
夢裡有藍天白雲和微風
午後時分在城市的高樓中開過
亮亮的陽光和空空的車廂
隆隆的火車往前開
沒有什麼回憶或思考
抵是恍神的感到有點孤單

我想這是成長的一種無傷大雅的憂傷吧
長大會變得理智獨立明白道義和責任
洞悉社會和世界拋棄稚氣和無知
這些都是令人感到驕傲的事情
但這也是逐漸失去依靠的旅程
我們又需要用現實來看世界

在大人的世界開始清楚時
兒時的世界也就模糊起來了

這也許就是千尋牽動人心的原因了吧
因為這是每個人的來時路

車廂裏她勇敢堅定的目光
對未來雖然不知但卻有面對的決心
她的善良和純真令人感動

有人說千尋沒有迷失本心和自我
不像她父母那些大人一樣世俗起來
她有兒童純真的堅持和相信

我卻覺得千尋擁有的是本心和自我的種子
而只有在生活和經歷的不斷洗滌沖刷下
我們本來的內心種子才能得以去表面淤泥
從小孩的模糊認知逐漸發展出自我的幼芽

所以長大就是一種堅持本心的旅程
而並非迷失或丟棄
只是這個過程中危險重重
要面對烏雲和雷雨

若正確栽培
幼芽就堅強成熟起來
而我們也就會看到我們本心的種子
慢慢開花綻放人性的光芒

Happy 4th & Fireworks!!

2008-07-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

I went to see Macy's fireworks at the south seaport with Ava. It was great but we waited for a long time and the way back home also took us an hour or so. It started pouring at the middle of the firework and we couldn't take out our umbrella since there were lots of people standing behind us watching the firework. So we got half soaked at the end and we followed people slowly moving towards the nearest subway station and we needed to transfer twice to get back to Union Square. We both got really tired and went bed really late that night. And we both agreed that next year we probably wouldn't watch it though the fireworks were very beautiful. It's simply because we don't want to spend that amount of time on the way.

And..Happy 4th everyone!!

Matchbox 20

2008-07-07T18:04:00.001-07:00

I wanted to try their songs in High School but for some reasons I never had a chance to listen. So seven years later when I'm sitting here waiting for laundry,I listen from Yourself to Someone Like you to Mad Season to More than you think you are. I'm super tired now and normally anything I hear now will be either annoying or frustrating. But matchbox 20 has something different:it's refreshing. Maybe it just reminds me of high school when I was so looking forward to college life and finally being an adult.

Rain

2008-06-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

紐約洋洋灑灑夏天傍晚的雨落在玻璃上
看著對街的大樓上的大鐘
好像上海海關大樓的老鐘

天色暗下來
華燈卻才初上

久違了
車水馬龍和永不停歇的喧囂和活力

"You can't always get what you want."

2008-06-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

I watched last two episodes of House Season 4 last night and they were absolutely amazing and incredibly touching!! Amber said to House on the pure white bus in the end that he cannot always get what he wants, which is one of the best lines that I've heard this year in all the TV shows I've seen. When Amber says it, it's nothing about sadness or helplessness. It's encouraging. We all need to face what we are afraid to face in life. We may not have that many choices on things happened to us, but we do have choices on how to respond/act/live after things happen; whether to take what life offers and move on or to reject and walk away deceiving ourselves pretending there's nothing happened.

The video is the song played in the ending. It's called Passing Afternoon by Iron & Wine.

T-storm night+Jazz

2008-06-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I write anything here. I pretty much like my work now and enjoy my boss and the people in the office and other coworkers. Yes I think it's impossible to blog every little details everyday here though I thought about it before. Life's going pretty smooth here and I live a very regular life. I take a shower after getting off work and go eat my dinner then. Read papers and a book that I should've read one semester ago recommended by a professor whose class I enjoyed a lot. So..doing some reading and occasionally hang out with old/new friends in town. Oh, I'm going to see Legally Blonde Musical. YAY!!

Oh, and I watched the news that Iowa's facing flood and I looked it up on Daily Iowan and there's a bunches of pictures of lower bank of city park and mayflower and north debuque street and water's everywhere. I felt so sad and hoped that Iowa City won't have big damage in there. Lots of people asked me how the city feels like, oh yeah, the city life is fun and interesting and there's always so much to explore/learn/observe/pick up here but sometimes I miss a small and adorable college town like iowa city where I spent the last four years in there. I can think of the city park and the hancher area where I lived for two years and had great memories with great people. I can think of the ped bridge between old art building and IMU. Iowa city is a small or even tiny town compared to where I grew up or where I'm temporarily living now, but its beauty has been part of my precious college life.

Ok...and we're having a city t-storm now. haha. And I'm here preparing to continue my reading after I'm done with blogging this. I'm listening the spirit of jazz one online radio on iTunes. New York has numerous great jazz bars/clubs/concerts and I think I should take some time to taste what the city offers. :D but I heard that cover charges are pretty high here.

whoa, I'm not really a jazz person or even a music person but after work listening to some relaxing music like jazz seems to be one of the best way for me to relax and enjoy reading. Working is so much different than school, let alone working in big apple.

alright, I gotta go. I will try to update this weekend because I'm taking an extra day off this week. Stay tuned! haha.

ciao ciao.

Wondering around:Washington Sq

2008-05-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

Nice afternoon after work so I walked to Washington Sq and accidently found the NYU architecture center and it was showing special building projects in China. Wow!! :D

First day

2008-05-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

Yes today was my first day working. The manager looked nice and the office wasn't too intimidating.Me and other two interns were assigned some work and our boss explained how the company works/flows and how it's different from other big broker house. They're a brokerage firm and they cut off their costs by contracting research work with other big investment banks like Lehmam Brothers and CSFB so they can mainly focus on getting their customers and make money out of broker fees. They get involved a lot in mutual funds, ETFs and mostly asset management.

I think generally I'm pretty satisfied with this work. I observed people around today and they're busy all the time but not insanely busy, which might be a good sign for me since they may have some time to notice people like me and teach us something practical. :D

P.S.: I got my building pass when I got off work and I like scanning card to get in which makes me feel like I'm really working here. I'll take a picture of the building tomorrow and upload it here.