So last night we went out to celebrate John's 20th birthday. Fun was had by all...
We started off at Rock Bottom which had expensive drinks, no one dancing, and mostly older guys, although it did have a decent band (playing sweet home alabama). We quickly left there to go to the Intercontinental Hotel...the major American hotel here. We started at Trader Vic's for huge mixed rum drinks. I loved the decor and environment of the place, with salsa music and dancing, except there was horrible smoke. After that place we headed to the club Gazelle inside the main part of the hotel. The club wasn't that bad, with pool tables and people actually dancing on the dance floor. The music playing was mostly techno with a bit of hip hop thrown in sometimes. While the dancing was fun, the most enjoyable part was watching the people on the dance floor. There were 3 REALLY gay guys dancing hilariously, an Omani getting jiggy with it in full dishdasha, and several drunk guys spasming on the floor. Somehow I was able to attract the attention of the Omani, who asked for my name and relationship status. I just ran away while a nice British guy took care of him. On the way home, John was giving Celeste a backrub in the car...possible hookup between them?
We slept for 2 hours and then I woke up to drive Celeste and John to work. I met up with Suzy and Katy and headed to McD's for lunch and then to the old part of town. We walked around the boardwalk and then headed to a souq (market). The souq was sadly mostly closed but we'll come back later. Then we stopped by and took pics in front of the Sultan's palace. WOW it's amazing. I'm def lookign forward to actually going into the souq while it's busy and getting to visit the inside of the Sultan's palace. Then sadly I had to cut the day short cause I had to get to a fair where HSBC had a table set up. Representing HSBC was slightly dull, but outside they had a traditional national Omani band playing to attract people to the fair. The band was so weird. It was a mix of Scottish, African, and Native American. There was a bagpipe playing with African sounding beats and words. Yet, the dancing and costumes were kinda like the Native Americans. I enjoyed, and it was def better than the fair itself. I like Rest Days :)
Also, for those that have read up to here and went to high school with me. Scott is a guy that works in HSBC who is amazingly cool and went to my high school, Walton High class of '99. How cool is that?
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
annoyed
Just plainly annoyed. Really missing someone I can vent to, so for now I'll have to just keep it in and hope that someone doesn't set me off. ARGH! For now I'll try to just vent through going to the store or park....maybe i'll just jog there...
I've realized that this is my second post that is semi-negative in tone. So here is an explanation. I really like the lifestyle, people, and overall environment of Muscat. I like the food and the way of life in general. I just have an issue with my specific position within HSBC. I really feel like I'm not being utilized because I am probably overqualified for the department that I am in. They would be better off with someone that is in Marketing or Organization. My department is Business Banking, except everything that involves mathematical thinking is automated or outsourced to a different division. They are currently expanding and are increasing the number of PR events and promotions that they are doing. Somehow they passed over the parts in my resume that emphasize the quantitative skills and kinda used their imagination in putting in my love of planning events. So, when I came into the department the boss sat down with me to go over my projects and was completely unprepared to be dealing with someone who has no interest at all in planning and organizing. So he has given me bitch work to do that is tedious and boring. I've realized that as a generalization, Omanis don't like to do work so they take forever workign on things. I can't stand not being busy at work so, I'm planning on just finishing my projects sometime early next week (my weekend is thursday and friday). And just handing them in and nicely demanding to be transferred to a different department while I await going into Global Securities early June. So wait for the drama to ensue.
I've realized that this is my second post that is semi-negative in tone. So here is an explanation. I really like the lifestyle, people, and overall environment of Muscat. I like the food and the way of life in general. I just have an issue with my specific position within HSBC. I really feel like I'm not being utilized because I am probably overqualified for the department that I am in. They would be better off with someone that is in Marketing or Organization. My department is Business Banking, except everything that involves mathematical thinking is automated or outsourced to a different division. They are currently expanding and are increasing the number of PR events and promotions that they are doing. Somehow they passed over the parts in my resume that emphasize the quantitative skills and kinda used their imagination in putting in my love of planning events. So, when I came into the department the boss sat down with me to go over my projects and was completely unprepared to be dealing with someone who has no interest at all in planning and organizing. So he has given me bitch work to do that is tedious and boring. I've realized that as a generalization, Omanis don't like to do work so they take forever workign on things. I can't stand not being busy at work so, I'm planning on just finishing my projects sometime early next week (my weekend is thursday and friday). And just handing them in and nicely demanding to be transferred to a different department while I await going into Global Securities early June. So wait for the drama to ensue.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Frustrating Day
Today was one of those frustrating days that you eagerly await the end of. This morning started with waking up, after coming home at midnight, to realize that the electricity and water has been shut off. I had to use bottled water to brush teeth and wash my face. Thankfully earlier in the week I went to Lulu (a huge supermarket that looks like a casino in the evening) and got huge bottles of water that you usually with office water coolers.
I was excited for work today because there is a new product that UK's HSBC wants us to start, and they have put me in charge of working on it. It was supposed to take me a while because it would involve initial market research and then quantifying the possible revenues and costs that it would involve. I started doing the market research although there was limited information about small businesses within Oman. I went to have a conference with UK and other countries to talk about questions and concerns that we have with it. The conference started smoothly and then one of the participants put the call on hold and loud elevator music started blasting into the phone. The meeting will have to be rescheduled. Except, as I further got into the research I realized how unprepared the market is for this product, which was further confirmed by my boss. I currently have 4 other projects that I'm supposed to be workign on. One is a credit review and analysis, where I have already been waiting 2 days to get the needed financial statements to finish this. A project where I need to prepare the monthly results and trends of performance for the department except I have to wait until the month ends to get the data on the month. Also, a fellow trainee is going to be leaving in a week or so and he has to pass me the project he is working on. The issue is that he doesn't know excel (format of the project) and he has to reformat it so that I can do analysis on the work. Finally, i went and spoke to the boss talling him about my issues with not having work to do. He decided to give me two projects that he thinks will take 3 weeks to finish...i am 40% finished on both after working on it 2 hours. In conclusion there are 2 main frustrating things about HSBC Oman...1) everything takes forever to receive and finalize 2) the network usually goes bonkers and decides to freeze for 30 mins at least once a day... so everyone just chats and goes on coffee breaks.
Yesterday I drove by myself around Oman for the first time and also received my first Omani parking ticket. Oman has a huge issue with road infrastructure...where as there are no real street names, not enough streets, streets not wide enough, and not enough parking. For work everyday we park parrallel to the street in a non-existant parking lot. Many people park on the side walk or in an expensive parkign lot that only houses around 30 cars. I guess one of the few parking attendants saw our car blocking one side of the street and gave us a warning (no penalty to pay).
I found out today that Priyanka, another intern in my department, lives literally 5 doors away from me. It should be nice to have someone close. The house itslef is interesting. It has 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 1 living room, a large office, and a room for the maid. The rooms are REALLY large and have REALLY high ceilings. The only downside of this place is that it has construction everyday and that it has mold. Gonu, a large cyclone, hit last year causing massive damage and even deaths. The house we're living in now had the first floor flooded and the second floor had to be taken down. We live on the first floor while the second floor is currently being built. I would assume the house wasn't completely dried because all of the rooms have at least some mold. Usually it's in the curtains although there is one bedroom that reeks of mold. The bedroom that I will be moving to doesn't smell of mold but supposedly has some in curtains. It should also be interesting in how the room situation will work out. There are four bedrooms, with one bedroom having two beds within it. Once the AIESEC staff moves out there will be only trainees living in the house. Except during this summer we are anticipating 3 more people. If you do the math right...we will be missing a bed for one of the interns.
Everyone that is currently here is super cool.
Brett & Suzy- The cute dating couple that are uber-duper cute together. With Suzy being a cute Colombian who is currently doing a traineeship here. Brett is in charge of incoming exchange and looks Arabic or Middle Eastern but is a plain American. It's always amusing to see how everyone just assumes that he's from somewhere close by when his ancestors are Eastern Europeans.
David- Curry chaser to the extreme. His love of Indian movies and actors is intense. Also, known for his zombie stares that he gets when he's tired.
Katy- a hot chicka who has a hottie of a bf coming to visit from Tunisia.
Lynn- A chill and relaxed guy who has the easiest time meeting new people. At a grocery store I looked away for a second only to come back to him chatting with an Omani, for 30 mins.
And the trainees- John (an incredibly tall guy who loves to talk about politics and should be avoided when he gets angry while he's driving), Celeste (a social butterfly who spends as much time as possible outside).
I was excited for work today because there is a new product that UK's HSBC wants us to start, and they have put me in charge of working on it. It was supposed to take me a while because it would involve initial market research and then quantifying the possible revenues and costs that it would involve. I started doing the market research although there was limited information about small businesses within Oman. I went to have a conference with UK and other countries to talk about questions and concerns that we have with it. The conference started smoothly and then one of the participants put the call on hold and loud elevator music started blasting into the phone. The meeting will have to be rescheduled. Except, as I further got into the research I realized how unprepared the market is for this product, which was further confirmed by my boss. I currently have 4 other projects that I'm supposed to be workign on. One is a credit review and analysis, where I have already been waiting 2 days to get the needed financial statements to finish this. A project where I need to prepare the monthly results and trends of performance for the department except I have to wait until the month ends to get the data on the month. Also, a fellow trainee is going to be leaving in a week or so and he has to pass me the project he is working on. The issue is that he doesn't know excel (format of the project) and he has to reformat it so that I can do analysis on the work. Finally, i went and spoke to the boss talling him about my issues with not having work to do. He decided to give me two projects that he thinks will take 3 weeks to finish...i am 40% finished on both after working on it 2 hours. In conclusion there are 2 main frustrating things about HSBC Oman...1) everything takes forever to receive and finalize 2) the network usually goes bonkers and decides to freeze for 30 mins at least once a day... so everyone just chats and goes on coffee breaks.
Yesterday I drove by myself around Oman for the first time and also received my first Omani parking ticket. Oman has a huge issue with road infrastructure...where as there are no real street names, not enough streets, streets not wide enough, and not enough parking. For work everyday we park parrallel to the street in a non-existant parking lot. Many people park on the side walk or in an expensive parkign lot that only houses around 30 cars. I guess one of the few parking attendants saw our car blocking one side of the street and gave us a warning (no penalty to pay).
I found out today that Priyanka, another intern in my department, lives literally 5 doors away from me. It should be nice to have someone close. The house itslef is interesting. It has 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 1 living room, a large office, and a room for the maid. The rooms are REALLY large and have REALLY high ceilings. The only downside of this place is that it has construction everyday and that it has mold. Gonu, a large cyclone, hit last year causing massive damage and even deaths. The house we're living in now had the first floor flooded and the second floor had to be taken down. We live on the first floor while the second floor is currently being built. I would assume the house wasn't completely dried because all of the rooms have at least some mold. Usually it's in the curtains although there is one bedroom that reeks of mold. The bedroom that I will be moving to doesn't smell of mold but supposedly has some in curtains. It should also be interesting in how the room situation will work out. There are four bedrooms, with one bedroom having two beds within it. Once the AIESEC staff moves out there will be only trainees living in the house. Except during this summer we are anticipating 3 more people. If you do the math right...we will be missing a bed for one of the interns.
Everyone that is currently here is super cool.
Brett & Suzy- The cute dating couple that are uber-duper cute together. With Suzy being a cute Colombian who is currently doing a traineeship here. Brett is in charge of incoming exchange and looks Arabic or Middle Eastern but is a plain American. It's always amusing to see how everyone just assumes that he's from somewhere close by when his ancestors are Eastern Europeans.
David- Curry chaser to the extreme. His love of Indian movies and actors is intense. Also, known for his zombie stares that he gets when he's tired.
Katy- a hot chicka who has a hottie of a bf coming to visit from Tunisia.
Lynn- A chill and relaxed guy who has the easiest time meeting new people. At a grocery store I looked away for a second only to come back to him chatting with an Omani, for 30 mins.
And the trainees- John (an incredibly tall guy who loves to talk about politics and should be avoided when he gets angry while he's driving), Celeste (a social butterfly who spends as much time as possible outside).
Monday, May 26, 2008
Long overdue post
So, sadly this is my 4th day in Oman but only my first post.
To begin, if you haven't gotten the message...I'm doing my internship in Oman. I work with HSBC Oman in their Business Banking division and will be soon transferring to their Global Securities Trading Division.
The trip to Oman was ridiculously long with two layovers- London and Bahrain. When I finally arrived, I was greeted by all of the AIESECers which was incredibly nice. Within the first day I went to the largest indoor mall in Oman, City Center, and then to the Indian part of town, Ruwi. The mall, was interesting because it was pretty much a replica of an American mall except with occasional Arabic words next to the names of the stores and people walking around in traditional wear. Also, I was surprised by the stores that they had there. I would have expected the Omanis to be fairly concervative with their stores, but there were probably 2 or 3 lingerie stores showing off the thongs and bras in the store window. Ruwi, the Indian part of town was chaotic, with too many people crowding the streets. There I got my first taste of Omani and Indian men and their "happy" behaviour. Men here hold hands while walking with each other, and sometimes will even give shoulder massages as one is sitting. Very peculiar.
The Arabic men are not as scary as the Indian guys as Arabic men might look or quickly glance at you since you are a female that is not in the traditional abayas. Indian men look and stare at you from top to bottom. I guess that is it for my initial impressions of Oman. More later as now it is time for me to go to a park with a co-worker.
To begin, if you haven't gotten the message...I'm doing my internship in Oman. I work with HSBC Oman in their Business Banking division and will be soon transferring to their Global Securities Trading Division.
The trip to Oman was ridiculously long with two layovers- London and Bahrain. When I finally arrived, I was greeted by all of the AIESECers which was incredibly nice. Within the first day I went to the largest indoor mall in Oman, City Center, and then to the Indian part of town, Ruwi. The mall, was interesting because it was pretty much a replica of an American mall except with occasional Arabic words next to the names of the stores and people walking around in traditional wear. Also, I was surprised by the stores that they had there. I would have expected the Omanis to be fairly concervative with their stores, but there were probably 2 or 3 lingerie stores showing off the thongs and bras in the store window. Ruwi, the Indian part of town was chaotic, with too many people crowding the streets. There I got my first taste of Omani and Indian men and their "happy" behaviour. Men here hold hands while walking with each other, and sometimes will even give shoulder massages as one is sitting. Very peculiar.
The Arabic men are not as scary as the Indian guys as Arabic men might look or quickly glance at you since you are a female that is not in the traditional abayas. Indian men look and stare at you from top to bottom. I guess that is it for my initial impressions of Oman. More later as now it is time for me to go to a park with a co-worker.
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