Holiday Newsletter Warm greetings from foggy London! It finally started cooling down in time for Christmas, after what seemed like a global warming-induced freakishly warm weather. The spirit of the season is in now fully in the air and we got my first Christmas tree at the flat, making me as happy and giggly as a five year-old.

2006 was a year of transition and a fun-filled adventure for me and Pavel. We welcomed the New Year in New York City, a stopover before our semester exchange at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University. My mum is living in upstate NY so it was an added bonus to be near her. Hanover, New Hampshire, was a sleepy change after London but we enjoyed it thoroughly. The temperamental winter hampered plans to ski intensively although I did make some progress and graduated to the regular slopes and parallel skiing.

After our semester terrorising the American campus, we travelled around both Coasts with a stopover in Las Vegas (why not?). Our travel logs are on this blog if you haven't seen them.

Then it was back to London to finish off our final semester at London Business School and before long, we were fully-fledged, newly-minted MBAs. My Mum, Pa and Stepdad all came for graduation as did Pavel's family. :o) I then went to Paris to spend some quality time with my Pa for his birthday, came back to study for my securities exams (regulator exams required for work), squeezed in a trip to Moscow & St. Petersburg with Pavel and went to NYC for training with work. Oh yes, somewhere there was a fabulous trip to Champagne over the summer although Pavel couldn't join...

Student life was great if fleeting - both of us are now earning our keep in investment banking at Morgan Stanley (yes, same firm), where I did my MBA internship last summer. If you want the boring details, I do asset-backed securities (a type of bonds) origination and Pavel is in equity derivatives. It's much more exciting than it sounds, at least for now!

We love life in London and are planning to settle here for the foreseeable future (meaning 5 - 6 years at least). I have now been in the UK for 4.5 years; 2 more and it will be as long as my time in the US. We moved to a big (for London), old (quite) flat 2 mins away from our previous one. It's in South Hampstead in northwest London, very conveniently on the Jubilee Line, which takes us straight to work.

The neighbourhood is very cute and residential with close proximity to Hampstead Heath and Regent's Park. Our flat was shared by 5 kiwis before us and now accommodates all the junk I've been lugging around with me for the last 10 years. We love spending evenings cooking and chatting in our kitchen (very domesticated) as we readjust to normal working life. :o)

We hope all of you had a great year and wish you a happy, healthy, prosperous 2007!

Thiri & Pavel

  ¶ 10:40 PM