Updates

TODAY is the 26th day of January, year 2008. Ms. W is in Stony Brook, New York to begin a second masters degree. She just moved into a new place where she shares a dorm apartment with another Chinese student and two Indian students. Ms. C was informed that there was no funding for a new position in the large IT company that interviewed her and she is now preparing to return to Indonesia and planning on looking for work in Singapore. And I have settled into somewhat of a routine at work and am starting to make new friends and seeing possibly new adventures here in the Denver area.

No longer scared of weekends

I have lived in my one-bedroom apartment for about four months. I still have no major furniture, like a bed or sofa. But little by little it's starting to feel like home. No longer do I feel the need to fill my weekends with activities so I won't be lonely in my apartment. I don't dread weekends or holidays as much. I know that if I plan ahead, I could have at least one adventure per weekend, whether it be seeing a new museum, going to a meet up, spending time with other Filipinos or maybe dragging J off to see a movie. I also feel now that there are warm mornings when I don't want to be outdoors. All I want to do is take it easy at home, putter around and lounge with the cats, like I am doing now.

Still, I'll admit that it is a challenge to make new friends when you're new in any city. However, I feel it is easier here in the Boulder-Denver area than it was for me during my short stay with family in Las Vegas. There are more people my age in this area than in Las Vegas. There are also more varieties of people in different lines of work. Now, it's true that Las Vegas is more diverse. But then when I was there, it just seemed that too many people were in the real estate industry.

When one seeks the company of strangers-who-could-be-future-friends

Yesterday I went to a "meet up". I'm registered in a website called meetup.com and chose different activity categories. I had gone twice to my Denver museum meet up and liked the time I spent with other museum-goers. Last night, it was the northern Denver group and the scheduled activity was a stand up comedy show. I met a woman named Nancy, a guy named Shawn and a couple whose names I have forgotten. I thought there wouldn't be much time for socialization, but Nancy, Shawn and I got to chat before the show started. I like them both a lot. They seemed nice and genuinely pleasant people. The comedy show was very good too. All three comics. The opener, the featured comic and the main attraction (who happened to be the writer for "Cow and Chicken", a favorite cartoon of mine in Nickelodeon). I wasn't really in the mood for going to the bar next door after the show finished. Neither were Nancy and Shawn. But I guess the odd part was how the goodbyes were awkward. You chat all evening, get to know their jobs and likes and even some bits of their personal philosophies and then after that you never really know if you're going to see them again. My Filipino self wanted to ask for their contact details. But I have lived here long enough to know that sometimes first meetings are like that...and sometimes they aren't.

Still, I felt a certain connection with Shawn and I wonder if it's because his ethnicity is Asian. I didn't ask him where his family was originally from because, from his accent, he sound like he was born and raised in the US. But some of his humor and his manners where somewhat Filipino. It's a kind of humor or carino I also associate with men who grew up in my province. He flatters, but in an endearing and non-threatening way.

I also felt a certain disconnect at his very, very American accent. An Asian face and a non-specific but nonetheless pronounced American drawl. It as a combination I felt I was resisting or even rejecting.

No OPT for second master && 3 phone interviews

I found I made a huge mistake before today- I am not able to get OPT if I quit the second master. I supposed I could. How stupid I was! I felt really dumb since I've been here for 2 and half years and never paid much attention on visa issues which should be my main concern.
I made a big decision and it was based on false assumptions.

Luckily UMD has not released my I-20 number yet and I did not graduate in December due to the thesis. The release date for my I-20 is on Thursday. I have 1 day left to decide whether I want to continue a second master degree or not.

If I choose to apply OPT on this last day, I can get the next in February and the H1B quota will run out pretty soon after April 1st. It's highly impossible to find a company to support me during that two-month period. But I can change back to F-1 student status in Fall and thus save tuition for one semester. I can gain one year working experience but have to prepare to go back to school by next spring. It's hard to go back home and come back to US again while holding an OPT which means I can't go home for consecutive 3 years.

If I choose to continue on a second master degree, I wasted this one-year OPT and have to pay at least this semester's tuition, or even the whole 2 years' tuition since it's hard to get financial support if I only pursue a master degree. But I can apply for CPT during the summer. Unless some company agrees to give me sponsorship by April and wait me until October to work, I won't get H1B this year. So hopefully next year October I can start working. Between this period, I am free to go back home and us.

So my decision is still: I am going to pursue a second master in SUNY at Stony Brook by family financial support.

__________________________________________________________________

It's amazing that I got 3 phone interviews during this week. I sent out the resumes in early Novembers and did not hear a word from those actuarial companies during December. So I just gave up. And now they came together. Do they follow a common schedule?

But 2 of 3 are full-time positions which I am not able to do under my current status. So I am just going to use them as practice. The first phone interview was scheduled 2pm this afternoon. I was so nervous that I did not sleep much last night. But I was totally in sober today without coffee. I prepared a list of problems and practiced with Ran. She's so helpful. Ms. N also gave me some great suggestions previously.

I did anything that can keep me busy during the last hour. Finally the call came, I was asked the following questions:
Do you willing to relocate?
What's your expecting lowest salary?
what's your highest degree?
how many actuary exams did you past?
Can you give me an example of miscommunicate?
Which excel skills do you use? do you know ...?
Which computer skills do you have?
e.t.

I felt better than I did during last interview with the Mayo Clinic woman. But they were two different kinds of jobs, maybe I can't compare them like this. I could not perform well while giving some answers. Any way, this is my first step. There's a long way to go.

I schedule the second one on Wednesday and the third on on 29th. It seems a job hunting season.