Hobnobbin' with Fancy Folk

Today the other Risk Analysts (hereafter known as RAs) who will be in the California office departed to head back west and complete their training over there**.  As a celebration of being half way done with our program and as a farewell to the California folk, the company took us and all of the people who helped to train us (and important higher-ups who happened to be visiting the office) on a yacht ride around New York Harbor.

**I am still staying in New Jersey for another three weeks. As I think I said in my first post, my job description is different than those who are heading back to Cali now and it makes more sense to finish my training with the Hoboken folk.

The night started out with one drink ticket included in the price of our cruise. The program then bought us another drink...

Another RA, Hailey, and I drinking while waiting to leave the harbor

...then one of the most senior people I've met in the company opened a tab and the rest was on him. For everyone. For the whole night. New life goal is to make money like that. Now, older family members, don't worry, I know how to drink in a professional setting. I wouldn't jeopardize a good first impression with crazy influential people by taking advantage of free booze. I did, however, network like it was my job! Before long I was having conversations about how and where I could/should advance within the company and towards the end of the night I had heard the back story behind the guy buying the drinks directly from the guy buying the drinks. In a 2-on-1 setting. HOW COOL IS THAT! He was the first client and then worked for the company on and off for its entire history. He is really excited about where the whole industry is going and believes the new software/platform we'll be releasing early next year will transform how this insurance pricing game is played. I'm gonna take his word on that, he is obviously doing something right if he can buy drinks all night and not worry. While I was chatting it up with him I saw the other RAs mostly keeping to themselves and a few getting a bit tipsy. Not to toot my own horn, but I championed that opportunity. TOOT TOOT!

In addition to taking life by the horns we had a pretty cool view of Manhattan all evening/night. 

Pinch me. 

yeah what's up Lady Liberty?!

I'm on a boat

New Jersey to the left, Manhattan in the middle, Brooklyn on the right

Brooklyn Bridge. AAAAAAAAHHHHH! (name that movie)

Manhattan Bridge

So this was a panoramic shot and I couldn't lighten it without it getting weird. But that's just the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan. No big deal or anything. 

JUST HANGING OUT WITH MY BFF LADY LIBERTY

When I saw this on my camera I thought it turned out a lot crisper than it actually did. Still awesome picture of the city lights at night. 

The trip was awesome and I obviously had an amazing time. Another fun part of the night: when the boat got close to the Statue of Liberty they started playing all these America themed songs. I am embarrassed to admit it took me a couple of songs to realize they were doing it on purpose. 

Each time we do something cool like this I need to be reality checked. I can't believe I landed such a sweet job as my first out of school. If I ever take this for granted please feel free to slap me. For now, I'll thank my lucky stars I am here. 

On a related note, I had a weird epiphany this past Wednesday. Back at school different organizations or campus things would try to get you to come to an event with the promise of "free food". I would never see the food as "free". I paid up the butt to go to that school and they were more than compensated to give me the occasional meal that I had paid for in one way or another. Similarly, every Wednesday the company buys lunch for the entire office. But what's different is that I am not paying for this meal in some round about way. In fact, they're paying me to be there and eat the food they've provided. I've never had that happen before. Then it dawned on me; yes I am paying them with my time, but it feels different. I don't feel cheated. I actually want to be there and the free food isn't something to placate me until I go home and blow off whatever steam has built up over the course of the day. The free food is just making a happy Hanna even happier. It's a pretty cool feeling. I don't mean to brag, sorry if it comes off that way, but this is just such a weird/good thing I've realized. 

This weekend has been pretty low key. Today I walked around Hoboken a bit and then took the walkway along the river back to my hotel instead of the train. I found a small patch of sandy/gravel area (not butting up against the river, that would be gross) near my hotel so I went back and got my swim suit and laid out in the sun for a bit. Been feeling a bit pale with my new office dweller life. Who knows what I'll be up to tomorrow! 

Museums and Swanky Shopping

As promised here is a brief overview of my museum excursions of last weekend. Last Saturday morning I made my way towards New York via the NJ PATH and ended up in the World Trade Center station. It's been almost 12 years and it's still a construction site. A major station used by thousands of people each day and it only feels half finished. I was quite surprised. Of all the things I would think that you would want fully functional as soon as possible after a disaster, I would have thought it would be the subway/PATH station. They may have had some Sandy damage too, I don't know, but if that's the case then Sandy caused a whole boat load of damage where they had to scrap the whole place.

I did not make it to the memorial but did get a picture of the Freedom Tower from right by its base. Eventually I'll make it over there, I just wanted to get to MoMA as it opened.

I love how the tower reflects the sky so beautifully!

I did make it to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) just after it had opened and was able to use my old Valpo ID to get the student price and save myself $10, score! I never want to look older than that picture and love that there are no years on our IDs. MoMA was everything I thought it would be and more! The top two floors were the painting and sculpture floors so it was the more traditional view of art but in a modern way. There were beauties from my favorites like Picasso, Van Gogh, and Dali. 

I may have giggled like a child when I saw this sign

And then giggled some more when I saw this

...and if I'm being honest, was a little disappointed when I saw this
(but don't get me wrong, it WAS amazing)

Yeah, my jaw dropped when I walked in here and saw the Water Lilies taking up AN ENTIRE WALL

soooooo much cooler in person
I stared at it for a good 15 minutes 

seriously? was this real life? SO BEAUTIFUL

Then on the other floors there were weird "art" things like this...

world's largest collection of dryer lint? ...at the bottom of functioning stairs...

I actually kinda liked this one. but not sure it qualifies for museum status

What. The. John. 

After walking around and being cultured for awhile I decided to make my way down Madison Ave and rub elbows with all the upper east side folk. Never have I ever seen so many stores with doormen. Literally every single store I went into had some poor soul that opened the door for me. I am sure it is part fancy pants customer service and part security but man did I feel important and simultaneously out of place. 

Of course I had to visit the mother ship of my favorite handbag designer (and fellow KKG alum) Kate Spade. Easily the happiest store I've been in. I went in knowing I was going to buy a necklace I've been lusting after online for a couple of months now. It was a calculated and thought out purchase and I consider it my "yay first big kid paycheck!" present to myself (I know you're probably shaking your head at me Mother, this was not an impulse buy and won't put a dent in the "I need a car" fund). When I first got into the store the lovely girl who greeted me asked if I needed help with anything and of course I asked her to point me in the direction of the necklace I wanted. Apparently this is how you get your own personal shopping assistant at Kate Spade! She showed me the necklace I wanted and then carried it around the store while following me as I browsed through all the beautiful purses and clothes I can't afford. She was really nice and we chatted as I browsed. Her boyfriend works in the insurance industry so maybe he has heard of the software my company sells, and she's been working at the store since May when it opened but somehow I don't think she's the type of person who needs a job. Rather I think she just seriously loves Kate Spade and got bored being a fabulous trust fund baby. Either way she was cool and I got a beautiful necklace and nice conversation out of the deal.

From there I walked through Central Park and headed to the American Museum of Natural History. Yeah, like in "Night at the Museum". I'm not the biggest on stuffed animal museums but I was told by several people that it was not to be missed. Overall my impression was that it was too crowded so I didn't get around to see everything. However, I did see the big bang movie!! It was a 4 minute movie made about the big bang and was shown in this cool circular auditorium thing where the floor was like a bowl and the movie was projected onto it. Oh yeah, did I mention it was narrated by Liam Neeson! Everyone says Morgan Freeman has the best narration voice but hearing Aslan narrate the beginning of time was pretty darn cool. 

After the natural history museum I was tuckered out and headed back to my hotel. After looking at a map and guestimating the routes I took, I walked about 40 blocks that day. My poor toesies were tired to say the least. 

Sorry this post was a bit picture heavy but I thought they were all so pretty! Shortly I'll write about my swanky yacht ride around New York Harbor from this past Thursday. Yeah, it was as awesome as it sounds and there will be even more amazing pictures.

A Bittersweet Weekend

This past weekend I ventured into the great city of New York to check out some museums and found myself thinking often during that day about my Great Aunt Pat. How she always told me stories about her travels and the great adventures she went on when she was my age.

A favorite of hers to tell me was about her first trip to New York. When she and her friend got off the train at Grand Central Station and they were the only ones in flowery sundresses in the middle of the heat of summer when it was easily 95 degrees outside. They stuck out like two very sore thumbs! Naturally the first order of business was to go shopping to get sleek black dresses like true New Yorkers would wear. Fashion does not care what the temperature is outside. They then proceeded to have the most fabulous time but when they arrived back in Chicago wearing their New York get-ups, again, they stuck out like sore thumbs! There really was just no winning. I suppose the moral of that story was to research the fashion of wherever I was going so I would fit in and have the most magnificent time while I was there. It was random gems like this she would randomly (and repeatedly) share.

The craziest part of the day came when I was headed back to my hotel and called my sister because she had asked that I did so when I was available. I then learned that Great Aunt Pat had died in her sleep the previous night. My subconscious must have known because I thought a lot of her and her trailblazing ways that day, even before I had learned of her passing. While losing a loved one is never a happy occasion she enjoyed one last birthday party (90!) a week before and from what I've heard seemed to be in good spirits. I wouldn't have wanted her to be confused in a hospital as her last memories and take comfort in the fact that she went peacefully. I am not a religious person but I know many of my friends are, if you feel inclined to send a prayer or happy thought her way I am sure she, a devout Catholic, would appreciate it. As my mom said, "she's probably up there, raising Hell in Heaven". I also like to think she's playing golf with some Saints.

I have many fond memories of times spent (underage) gambling at the race track, going out to dinner, and many tales of her travels to look back upon. The woman traveled to Havana when it was still legal for cryin' out loud! She has and will continue to inspire me to throw caution to the wind every now and again and just go wherever the first train out will take me. So tonight I'll be reminiscing and leave writing about my museum adventures for another day this week.

Week One = Done

First week of work is over and I've had so many "pinch me" moments it all feels like a blur. Wednesday and Thursday were "insurance school" and I now can add random facts about insurance to my repertoire of random knowledge. Then on Friday we got our work computers, installed the software we use, explored the company's intranet, and got some company swag in the form of computer bags. But enough about work, let's get to the weekend!

Friday evening my friend Ben picked me up and we headed to his sister's apartment in Brooklyn where we enjoyed a shin dig and met up with another one of our friends and my sorority sister, Alexa! That night I spent the night with Alexa in her apartment that's right by Coney Island. Many adventures that night and now I can say I've been through the Holland Tunnel, seen the base of the GIANT Freedom Tower, hung out with artsy Brooklyn people, hailed a cab, and ridden in the NY subway. And that's all just in one night.

On Saturday, Alexa and I headed into Manhattan to Flat Iron where she works. She's not in the actual building, but rather about a block away in the same district.

Just a major architectural landmark. No big deal or anything. 

From there we walked through some parks I forget the names of and a square I also forget the name of. We stopped in a bunch of random shops we thought looked cool and generally meandered towards Macy's. Holy poop, that Macy's is huge! And we only went on the first floor and looked at the purses! Alexa needs a new bag to take to/from work that will be cute and hold her crazy large computer so our needs were very specific and unfortunately nothing we liked was big enough or had a zipper and the hunt is still on. 

One thing we did find (but didn't buy, unfortunately) was this hilarious wallet. Those of you who are my snapchat friends probably got this picture... 

Claire's, you never disappoint 

After we did a lot of browsing at various shops we ventured into the madness of Times Square. We walked in and were just speechless. So. Many. People. We were there on a Saturday afternoon so we weren't surprised but still flabbergasted. This was my face as we walked around and tried not to lose each other in the sea of people. 

This picture doesn't do the madness justice. Stupid car is blocking the mass of people directly behind me

After walking around a little bit and almost getting trapped in the Hersey store (not a joke) we called it a day since we needed to go all the way back to Coney to get my stuff and then I had another trek back to New Jersey. Before I left Alexa and I walked past the theme park at Coney Island and I learned it's kinda really gross. I didn't expect much but it was kinda creepy, even on a Saturday afternoon in the summer.Yes, I know there is still major recovery from Sandy happening but it was just so sketchy. So so sketchy. Here are a few pictures I snapped before we scurried away. 

Then I had the wonderful journey from Coney Island to Jersey City. Not something I would recommend to anybody. Not horrible excatly, just long and made longer by delayed trains and a heavy bag. One funny thing did happen though. There was a family who had gotten on the subway somewhere in Brooklyn and took it almost as far as I did, so naturally their kids went a little stir crazy on the hour long ride. While Mom and Dad were chatting away and not paying any attention, their two kids (probably 3 and 4) were entertaining the entire car. The daughter was spinning around one of the poles (in a stripper like fashion) and falling over every time the train made any sort of bump or turn, which was quite frequently. However, she wasn't nearly as entertaining as the son. He decided the poles tasted really good. Like really really good. His must have been coated with something awesome because he went to town on that thing. People next to me were taking a video of it and the parents were off in their own little world not noticing, or not caring, about what was happening. Eventually the little boy got tired of eating the pole and joined his sister with the spinning. It was all too funny and made my night. When I was finally back in Hoboken I ventured out to the same pier that I had taken pictures from my first day and got shots of the city at night. Next time I need to remember my panoramic setting and better quality camera because these just don't do it justice. 

Lower Manhattan. The top of the Freedom Tower is hidden in the clouds.

So much prettier in person. Like 1,000,000 times prettier

Today's plans are to do some big kid things like set up what benefits I'll be electing and make my signature on my work email. I know, it all sounds so thrilling. 

First Day of Big Kid Life

Today was my first day of work and my alarm didn't go off this morning. Not a joke. I always use my ipod for my alarm and forgot to change the time settings to east coast time so instead of going off at 6:30 eastern as I had anticipated, my body woke up up at 7:11 eastern. I guess the alarm would have gone off, but an hour after I had intended, at 7:30. Thankfully I had everything ready to go and didn't need to stress too much over over sleeping.

The day today was fairly boring so I won't drag on with the details but hit on some of the cool stuff. Like this on the video screens (which they have all over the office with other happenings and updates)

Mug shots of the entire RA class of 2013. Can you find me?!

Neat office things/perks: All the walls are dry erase. Lunch is free on Wednesdays, this week they're catering Qudoba. There is a constant stock of cereal and milk as well as any drink you can think of and a crazy large assortment of snacks. The senior staff all have their offices on the interior of the building so the cube dwellers get the amazing view of Manhattan. Technically the levels we are on are the penthouse, because we're ballers like that.

The agenda for the day was very paperwork oriented but we did get to video conference with the company's CEO and founder. He was so excited to see all of us and see how excited we all were to start our careers. We went around the table and introduced ourselves and he had something to say to each person, he was amazingly personable. At the end he told us to give him a call or shoot him an email anytime. When I first heard this I thought, "oh yeah, sure whatever" but the HR woman who is our fearless leader for the coming weeks said we really should and that he will really respond. All throughout the day I got the impression that they really care about their employees and want to make us as happy as possible. There are a couple other cool perks we get but i'll refrain from making everyone jealous.

We got schedules for the next three weeks and it is looking like tomorrow will be an overview of the structure of the company. We have a presentation on the leadership structure, product cycle, into to CAT modeling, into to perils and yet another intro to models. They're approach to training is an iterative learning. Basically i've gathered that means they're going to tell us the same things over and over again and until we're reciting their jargon in our sleep. Wednesday and Thursday of this week is insurance school. They hire St. John's University from Queens to come and teach us in two full days all the basics of the insurance industry, how they handle risk, how they structure premiums, and how all that relates to what we're doing. Then on Friday we get our company computers!

Apparently the company has their own form of "hazing". I am proud to say that as a sorority woman I never was hazed by my sisters and think it's hilarious that my employer's version of hazing is installing software. Literally all day on Friday has been sectioned off to set up our emails, install the software the company sells, and be introduced to a training software we will be using. Eight hours of setting up a computer, yikes.

I'll leave you with pretty pictures taken off the end of a pier/park directly outside of my office.

From the end of the pier on the Hudson River looking Northeast at Manhattan

Same spot but looking Southeast at Manhattan. The tall building is the new Freedom Tower. My hotel is basically directly across the river from lower Manhattan and I see the Freedom Tower as I walk back to the hotel everyday. 

Oh Hey There!

Hello people of the internet! I decided to start another blog to keep my friends/family updated on the happenings of my life. I enjoyed writing my Cambridge blog, and got a bunch of feedback from people saying they enjoyed reading it, so I hope this blog does not disappoint and lives up to my old standards!

Before we get started here is a little review of what the short term plan for my life is: Tomorrow I start working for a catastrophe modeling company (I'll refrain from using their name here because I had to sign a lot of legal things and a non-disclosure agreement. If you want to know more about the company I'm working for I would be more than happy to answer your questions via phone or email). For the next six weeks I am in New Jersey, just across the river from lower Manhattan (COOL!), doing training with the rest of the new hires. Then in mid August I'll be flying across the country to the San Francisco area to my home office and starting a brand new life out west! Manifest Destiny!

FAQs
1. What will you be doing? hahaha goooooood question! My job title is "Risk Analyst" but I don't really know what that means yet. The company sounds cool, the work they do sounds cool, and I am just excited to be a part of it. I do know my role will be client facing, so I won't be doing the nitty gritty developing work.  I was hired through a new graduate program, if there are any college seniors out there who find catastrophe modeling to be intriguing or have an interest in the insurance/reinsurance worlds definitely give me a shout and I'll tell you all about the program. You do not need to be a meteorologist, just have a quantitative major and be a ready to rock the world with your amazingness. Once I figure out what it is exactly I'll be doing, I will update here on the blog.

2. Where are you living in California? Will you be in the city of San Francisco? Another good question....I don't have an address quite yet. Right now I am in a long term hotel in New Jersey but once I get to California it's all up in the air. I know for sure I won't be in downtown San Fran, it's too expensive and the commute would be super sucky. If you know of anyone in the south or east bay looking for a roommate let me know! Once I have a California address I am sure I'll be the happiest person on the planet and will, again, update here.

3. Do you know anyone out there? Nope. I have some contacts from my Kappa days and will definitely be joining an alum group but other than that I am solidly on my own. Nothing like going from the kiddie pool of college life to the deep end of adult world solo!

If you have any other questions, shoot me an email or leave a comment below. I'm pretty bored at the moment so I'll probably answer quickly!

What I've been up to for the past 24hrs
I arrived here about 4:30 yesterday evening and have been slowly exploring the area. During my ride from the airport to my hotel the driver told me how much he loves the company I'll be working for. He has been driving its employees around for 15 or 16 years now. He told me know everyone is always so courteous and the company really spares no expense when it comes to the employees. There is one guy he regularly drives to/from the airport 2-3 times a week for when he flies to Bermuda for business, crazy cakes! And he said the company spending/hiring habits seem to not have been hurt during the recession, all good news for a new employee!  He was so encouraging, wished me luck as I started my new career, and said he will see me soon because he literally drives them everywhere.

The hotel is nice, all the rooms had been renovated just over a year ago so it's all still pretty fresh and not outdated. I have a studio suite meaning there is a kitchen with full sized fridge, dishwasher, two burner electric stove, all the kitchen tools I could need (but not a cork screw! blasphemy!), a large desk that kinda elbows out to a small eating table, queen sized bed, recliner, and a TV. The closet doesn't have enough hangers for my liking but let's face it, I have too many clothes. Generally it's pretty nice and the employees are all friendly. The maintenance man saw me struggling to get out of the elevator and helped me bring my bags to my room.

In the area are plenty of restaurants and I even found a mall just a couple of blocks away with a movie theater inside. The most convenient thing is that on the same street as my hotel there is a dry cleaners, nail salon, and liquor store. I have a feeling I'll be hitting all those up pretty quickly. Yesterday and today I did some walking around and found a nearby grocery store as well. Unfortunately it is hotter than hell right now (heat index of 110) so I haven't been able to explore today quite as much as I had hoped. But I did check out the mall! It's really nothing special, just an average mall, but it did have a CVS and I was able to get in on the last day of the Bath and Body Works semi-annual sale and get myself some soap which was another one of the strange things my room didn't come equipped with.

Other than my mall and grocery store outing the day has been kinda blah. I'll probably go use the fitness center because I'm bored, then shower because I'll probably stink. I have some more paperwork to fill out before tomorrow and ironing of clothes to do too. Like I said, today is just blah. But I'll take a blah day before I start working because who knows what this week holds. If you're bored too and want to chat give me a call!

**Since I love them so much, if you want a postcard from me in the near or distant future send me your address and I'll be more than happy to send one**