But before I show you where I am, let me tell you what I've been doing for the past year. (Wow, not writing for a long time makes me actually reflect for the past year, and be grateful for what were given to me.)
Work update!
I'm still working at the intellectual property law firm. I had my first year anniversary last August 1, so now, I'm with the firm for 1 year, 5 months. Wow! That's the longest job I've ever been in. Well, this is my second job. My first job was with the research company I joined last 2014. I spent 1 year, 1 month there and had part-time job for another year. But here's what's special: I still kind of working part-time with the firm right now--academic leave, I may say. I'll get to that later.
Florida/Los Angeles trip!
So, if you didn't know, I am also a licensed advisor at Philamlife, but not really active. My mom is the agency manager so she keeps things going for me. And luckily, I became an MDRT for the year 2016! And so, I was able to join other MDRTs for our Florida, USA trip last June! We spent the entire week at Hilton Hotel (I'm not sure now of the exact name of the hotel) with co-MDRTs and had a full week of attending amazing career and sales talks. And since it's my first time in the States, and we have relatives over there, I decided to extend my stay and went to Los Angeles to visit my aunt. Stayed there again for another week. I am just grateful for the generosity and hospitality of my aunt, her husband, my cousin and cousin-in-law for accommodating me and for basically treating me the entire week!
During my stay in Florida, I haven't really explored the place. We just keep on going to the conference area and to the hotel, back and forth. We dropped by the Disney area but just had some pictures taken. But when I arrived at Los Angeles, that was where my vacation started. My aunt toured me around Los Angeles, went to Universal Studios, LACMA, Sta. Monica (?), downtown LA, Hollywood (with mom's friends back in her nursing days) and other places I now forgot (which I might list down in my future posts). We also went to San Diego where my other cousin and his husband lives and went to the Water World. (Pardon me, I am not sure of the places' name now.) I also met my college friends Pat and Rox, and they toured me through the beaches of LA, even having dinner at the shore.
It was a good 2 weeks, and definitely a highlight of the year. But really... the highlight of my year is this...
Shanghai!
So, as I have written in my previous post, I wanted to try law school this year. But then I backed out because of this Master's Degree offered by China. And so, I applied. And luckily again, I got accepted! But to tell you the truth, that application process was painstaking and it actually cost me a lot. But it's ok, I got the scholarship! And it is a generous scholarship! I applied in January, got a response for further submission of requirements around May (before this, I have already accepted that I was not accepted to the program) and then June and July, I processed so many requirements for this. August, I was processing my visa and readying for my "leave" from the firm. September 11 night, I left Manila and arrived here in Shanghai! What a great blessing! I never realized in my life that I would be spending a 1-year master's degree in another country, ever!
A view from our campus Tongji during winter
This year is really a game changer. After starting this master's degree and after meeting a lot of new IP practitioners, it suddenly became much clearer, what my future goals are. I hope this would make me happy.
Wow! It really is such a year, and I am so glad that I get to write again tonight. My resolution is to write more often. My next post would probably be more emotional (ha? haha) because I need to reflect on some things...
See you later.
