Post Baseball Practice

I just got back in late from finishing up baseball practice and afterwards enjoying some awesome Chinese food which two older guys on my team treated me to.

Got to try some squid in addition to some pippies which look like clams and taste amazing.

pippies

Hedge Fund Shadowing

I once again got to enjoy shadowing in "The Rocks" part of Sydney. I really enjoyed getting to see the traders bounce ideas off each other, determining how they want to structure macroeconomic themes into trading positions. It is as much an intellectual exercise as anything else, with the added need for discipline and control of one's emotions.

Will be headed off to baseball practice later after class.



The RocksWharf of The Rocks

Day 196

It is hard to believe I have been in Australia for nearly 200 days. Weather keeps on getting nicer and I enjoyed the whole day outside, practicing, training, and doing a little reading.

Went to the "Orphan Dinner" once again since today is Sunday and as always enjoyed the company of the Garret's who also offered me a home after I get booted out of my current living area after all finals are done on November 24. Even though finals are about a month away, classes conclude at the end of this month. It looks like I will also be winding down my internship (the unpaid portion at least) this week. If they have enough work to keep me on, I may be able to get paid which will help to potentially fund a trip to New Zealand in late November.

practicing some t-work using the on-campus cricket facilities

Fun day of Baseball

Despite a wet and lightly rainy day, I was able to enjoy the day.

After putting in some work on one my assignments, I caught a bus over to our home baseball field in Ryde where I got to help out by running the bbq while some of the younger teams for our club were playing.

We got started for our night game, and despite having a rain shortened game, I contributed with the bat and was smoking the ball. I finished up by collecting another rbi as well as adding my 4th double of our season through the 5 games I have been able to play in.

We have extended our winning streak and are 6-0 on the year, the first time their club has ever gotten that kind of start.




Some shots of our home field (ELS)

Presidential Debate

While at my internship today, I and another one of the guys I work was were listening to the presidential debate between Obama and Romney. Romney reminds me somewhat of Reagan in his talking style and seemed to exude much better body language than Obama. With two of the head guys in the office on a business trip in Europe, it has been a little quieter lately. Nonetheless, my supervisor is always very interested in my opinions.

In the office lately, I have been doing more macroeconomic-focused research; gathering and making sense of whatever data I want to form views for economy. I have used all sorts of data- some more traditional, while other sets of data are more unconventional. This means breaking down US GDP into its components of government spending, net exports, investment, and consumer spending or using the bloomberg terminal to import data on the number of UPS boxes shipped to get a sense of consumer confidence. I even came across some other data sets which involve looking at the amount of mens underwear sold or even the number of lottery tickets purchased to get a sense for how much spare change consumers have in their pockets.

Later tonight I am headed to practice under the lights with another ball player from Atlanta area. Should be a fun workout.

Weather today has been hot; low to mid-90s so a night practice will still be warm but certainly better than being out in the sun.

Baseball

Have been real busy between schoolwork, internship (headed there in the morning), and baseball but am enjoying it all.

I have to make sure that I stay on top of some major assignments for different classes which are all due on the same day.

I had another baseball game today and we were able to escape with a 1-0 win which brings our team to 5-0 on the summer season. Will be right back at it again this weekend.

The weather has continued to be outstanding and was in the high 80s today with a lot of sun.

University of Sydney buildings

Baseball

I was able to get a few guys together to get in a quality baseball practice. We got in hitting using the cricket cages and then walked over to the "oval" usually used for cricket games to throw and field. We wrapped it up with sprints. 

I was glad we were able to take advantage of yet another beautiful sunny day in Sydney and I was also able to get going on an essay and a group project for a couple classes.