Then, in the line at customs where passengers from 4 different planes simultaneously converged (Dubai, Seoul, San Francisco, and Los Angeles), as I was standing in line along with hundreds and hundreds of other people---that's when it really hit me. Welcome back to China….where everything is on a scale that you just don't see anywhere else in the world.
This trip has been exceptionally smooth thus far thanks to the amazing support staff we have at the Firm. They helped me streamline my business visa, the flight, the housing, and the transportation. Without their support, it would have taken a lot more than 6 hours for me to get back on my feet. 6 hours is how long it took me to nap off the sluggish feeling of 16 hours of flying. 3 hours from Houston to SanFran, and then 13 from SanFran to Beijing. As much as I hate flying, if I can get over my disgust of being inside a deathtrap and look out the window---there are really beautiful scenes to see.
As we were landing at SFO, there was heavy fog and rain, and our plane descended through some of the most beautiful cumulus clouds I have ever seen. You know those big fluffy clouds you see in the sky sometimes? Mountains of cotton…well, they're terrifying to fly through but also beautiful at the same time. The windows would go completely gray and then you'd be able to see for a mile and then it'd go gray again. Also, I swore there were gale force winds buffeting the plane and it was bumpy as hell.
Moral of the story: I love clouds, I love the sky, but good Lord I hate flying. Hopefully as I get older and my career becomes more international, I will overcome by disgust of turbulence or they can perfect teleportation. Whatever happens first and most likely it'll be the latter.
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When I woke up the next morning, I was starving. I planned it so that I'd land on a weekend and have 2 days to get myself together. I unpacked and tried to settle into the mammoth of an apt that I have. I don't know how I lucked out, but it was the best timing ever. A lawyer from the Firm moved away and she left her 4bedroom apt open for a month before the next lawyer & family moves in. In the meantime, I have an amazing apartment to myself.
As a good intern would, my first walk out was to scope out the office. Along the way, I picked up my first meal in China and saw the oldies out fishing. $0.70 cents.
That night, my first night out, I met up with a group of old & new friends. One of the major reasons why I love Beijing is that it's a crossroads for people from all over the world with all different backgrounds and who are all adventurous enough to call Beijing home. That makes for an interesting person. ;) Pablo & Tina from Duke Law met up with my girlfriend Niffy (formerly Peace Corp China and soon to be Ph.D. at Rice University) and then we collided with Badr (coolest guy in Beijing by far--from Morocco originally with stops everywhere else in the world--most notably TEXAS) and a Jones Day partner from NZ and his lovely girlfriend.
After a delicious Xinjiang meal (read about it here on Beijingdaze's blog), on came the live music.
Benefit of jet lag? Stayed out until 5am and didn't feel tired at all. :) At 2Kolegas, I kept running into people I knew in the crowd. Damn, it felt good to be back in Beijing. People are always in transition here, and there's always something new to learn. The phrase "oh you know, the same old" doesn't exist in this City, at least not with the expat crowd.
The next morning, Beijing Brunches resumed in full force when Li (Harvard '12) and Sarah and the world's most adorable PlusOne and I converged on Vineyard Cafe…home to the best Western brunch in Beijing.
Little did I know that it would end up being a 15 hour marathon day. I loved it. It was an incredibly exciting deal. I missed the whole feeling pressure because of an impending deadline. It's different from a school deadline because those don't usually pop up randomly. The work week passed by in a blur of different projects. I love the international feel of the office here. Every project I worked on in the first week dealt with a different country. I conducted legal research for an offshore tax proposal; created a table of veto rights for an intercreditor loan, and read/reread/rereread/rererereread documents for a HUGE deal that has been going on for a few years now and that was signed last week. I was thrilled that they were assigning me really substantive projects! I was worried that with just one year of law school under my belt that I wouldn't be able to contribute. However, a lot of the skills I learned on Wall Street really came in handy this first week. Much of what we're working on is banking finance, and given my year in leveraged finance, the vocabulary/structure/documents really made sense or came together quickly. But really, it just takes a steady, analytical mind and savvy research skills to complete these projects. People often complain that we don't learn anything in law school. I think we do...it's just not apparent. I find myself reading documents way more carefully than I ever did, prior to 1L. Every single word is important. Overall, I think my re-introduction to the real world went well and it was quite like working on Wall St again...except this time around, I was billing hours. Welcome to the world of LAW, right? :)
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