Charlotte, Thanksgiving, 及其它

Your dear working stiff has been quite occupied of late.

It's hard to pinpoint the exact source of my preoccupation. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I can't seem to sit down and just write something. Even now, writing this long-overdue blog, I felt the strongest urge to just stop and go back to my little wonderland of reading and aimless daydreaming.

But back to the topic of this blog. About 3 weeks ago, I took my very first business trip down to Charlotte, North Carolina, and see for myself the company that is Bank of America, my current employer.

It was a jam-packed 4-day trip of conferences, speaker series, business modules, and networking events.

New hirees from Corporate and Investment banking were introduced to many of our senior leaderships, including our CFO, J. Alphin; J. Martin, our corporate treasurer (who manage the bank's balance sheet. That's ALOT of money!) and of course, Ken Lewis, the Chairman and CEO of Bank of America. To meet and been given the opportunity to talk with these people gives one a clear idea of the company's identity and its direction. All of them exhibit a down-to-earth quality that I enjoyed. But theirs is still a traditional bank mentality, and whether the bank's approach in retail and corporate will work the same in investment banking is something that only time will tell.

On this trip I was also given the opportunity to see both sides of the bank, the old and the new. I saw our high-yield fixed income trading floor, an expansive, aircraft-hangar style room with all the hustle and bustle that's your typical wall-street; to counter that is our check processing facility, which still employs "sorters" - people whose job is to proof checks, one at a time, with machines that were invented back in the 40's. As you can imagine, these experience provided 窮書生 with many things to think about, not least of which is the future of one's career.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. I came across an article last week that describes an French newspaper clipping from long ago that tries to explain Thanksgiving, Continental style. Besides a short and comical portrait of the Pelerins and their first year in Plymouth, the clipping concludes (originally in French, of-course),

"And so, on the fourth Thursday in November, American families sit down at a large table brimming with tasty dishes and, for the only time during the year, eat better than the French do."
:)
(Have to agree with this French dude here, after the feast we've had yesterday.)

For the record, and in the spirit of le Jour de Merci Donnant, I'd like to thank my family and my friends, for who I was, who I am, and who I can become. And last but not least, thanks also to Mr. T.S. Eliot, whose poetry proves yet again, that there can be magic in words.

Good night.

"With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
Calling,

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

- From "Little Gidding" by T.S. Eliot.

A picture of the trading floor viewed from above.