October 2008 - October 2009, A year in Melvin's Life

October 2008
It was time for my afternoon Starbucks break and also cruise some hot security guards in the world headquarters of the Fortune 500 firm I have worked at. My window cube was on the 42nd floor with a spectacular view overlooking the Empire State Bldg and downtown Manhattan. I just sent my coworker/friend Maria a msg saying let’s get coffee. She asked me to come by her office, she had one last thing and we can head down. As I stood up, I got a call and noticed it was from a floor I rarely frequent. Normally, I would send it to voicemail but figured I should answer it. It was my manager and he asked that I pass by. My manager was one of the coolest, smartest, laid-back lads (he’s English) and his tone sort of scared me. Unsure of what I did wrong, besides not working much (the economy cut our client based substantially), I headed to the unexplored floor. Lately, there were a lot of consultants on the “beach” (a term used by many consulting firms). I knew it wasn’t good and was certain I was going to be placed on some sort of probation (firms in NYC can’t just fire you, but would place u on probation and then fire you), and since it was out of my control I was like, ok let’s get this over with quickly.

I opened the conference room door and saw the head of global HR and knew F*C*U*K, what did I do? I looked at my manager and he looked pissed, then he began talking straight out of some manual and I felt a tone of disgust from his voice. I knew he didn’t want to say what he was about to say and then the magical words were said, “you are part of….restructuring….your compensation….”. My heart completely stopped. I was now part of (at that point) 1,000’s that were affected by the fall of Lehman (one of our biggest clients). Then the global head of HR gave his speech and unfortunately (for my readers) that info is confidential but left me in tears (if you’re reading this, I am deeply touched/surprised by the positive words you used).

The meeting was over and I headed to Maria’s office and said, I’m just going home. It was mid-October and I was basically told that I’m still active ‘til November 15, 2008 and can choose to physically come in or not. Now I don’t have anything against my firm and loved most of time there but once the round 1 lay-off notices came out, the office was just a big negative bubble. I was one of less than a handful that decided to come in the day after.
Oh yeah and they gave me a sizeable $$$ and covered health insurance for the next few months.

November 2008
I used a few weeks of my paid-time off to visit business schools in the east coast. My applications were all due early January. By the end of November I was all packed and moved half my stuff to Kate’s apartment (thanks Kate!) and other half back to Miami. I was in Miami in time for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, the one time of the year we all get together as a family and give thanks to life/love/health. This Thanksgiving was the first Thanksgiving our family was not together. I lost my uncle (who raised me and I called Dad) to an unexpected lung collapse. So as you can imagine, it was a crying’fest at the table and I’ll leave it at that.

December 2008
After a week in Miami, I knew I could not concentrate on my apps and made a call to San Francisco. My good friend Dewon was going home for the holidays and I asked if I can “house-sit”. With no hesitations, he offered and I was on a one way ticket to San Francisco. My time there was amazing (except for the rain, arghh). I did however manage to catch up with old friends, Cynthia and Tom and made new friends (Melissa/Maritza became my night posse in the Castro nightlife district). By Christmas, I was homesick and couldn’t get a ticket to Miami but noticed NYC was less than $100 one way. Made some calls and my new home became Bleecker and Leroy (Greenwich Village, NYC). I spent my New Years Eve at an apartment overlooking time square with old and new friends.

January 2009
I finished up all my apps in time and am indebted to my ex-bosses that wrote the recommendations. For the next few weeks I went from apt to apt, visiting and catching up with old friends. Kelley P. you are an amazing woman, Claire, I look forward to watching become an influential woman, Rebecca you just rock my world, Alanys I pray for you and hope you get rid of your old ways and understand that growing takes pain and most importantly push pride aside. Roman, I treasure the youth inside of you, Gerry I love everything about you, and Hector, you are such a beautiful person inside and pray you never sell yourself short as you deserve nothing but the best!
As the month came to an end, I began preparing for my move to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I had been working with a nonprofit based there for the past few years. They were about to host the first global symposium on Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality and needed all the “free” help they can get. I have family there and Carnival was towards the end of February, it was really a win/win situation. HOLLERR!

February 2009
I will never forget my first day on the job, while I knew some Portuguese nothing could prepare me for the 3 hour team meeting (all in Portuguese) but I managed to get 50% of the info. I learned a lot about the NGO (nongovernmental organization) world on a global scale. And I got to live in Rio de Janeiro! I met amazing friends (most full bright scholars) and even though I sweated like no one’s business, I still love summers in Brazil!

Carnival was no exception, it was day after day of getting home at 7-9am and waking up early to continue to party. By party, I mean drinking and dancing A LOT! I’ve always heard about Carnival from websites and peeps but I never believed or could imagine the real thing. My longtime BFF came for a visit (Talena I <3 you!) and I got to show her a lil bit of why I love RIO DE JANEIRO so much!

March 2009
The global conference started the end of March and I brought reinforcements. Claire from Melvin’s Guide, came to help out and stayed with my family. I also had a blast showing Claire why Eu ADORO RIO DE JANIERO! A toda las persoas que eu conoci durante mis ferias, fue um bom plazer em conocer todos. Fuerto abrazos gentes! Maneiro!

April 2009
The global symposium was a success and not only did I learn a lot about global social issues, but I made contracts from all over the world. I mean I was even asked if I ever go to Ethopia, I could help out! But my time in Brazil was coming to an end, my $$$ was flying away because the exchange rate is not all that great. So I headed back to Miami. I called a few contacts from the symposium and my choices were narrowed down to Mexico City or Honduras. I really wanted to go to Honduras, my mom’s country, but was strongly advised to NOT ENTER by my family. They couldn’t tell me why, they just said NO! I didn’t question them and headed to Mexico City. I was a little nervous because of everything I had read and heard, but decided to take that leap.

I arrived at Juarez airport and was greeted by the NGO I came to assist. They were working on the national campaign against homophobia. I got a quick tour of Zocalo (downtown Mexico City) and checked into my hostel (which I love!). The next day, I went to the first of 4 Craigslist apt ads and fell in love with the location and family I would be staying with. I never made it to the 2-4 listings.

I had an amazing 3 days and then my life as I once knew it would change forever. Swineflu epidemic broke out in Mexico City and suddenly everyone was wearing surgical masks. Military officials everywhere were handing them out, medical professionals were constantly shoving anti-bacterial liquid at every subway stop and I began to worry. I wasn’t ready to leave just yet because I strongly believe in the cause that I came to assist and was just looking for facts. I logged onto CNN.com and began reading. I saw a note that said, are you there? Wanna report? And that’s how I became a CNN iReporter. The following week, Mexico City felt an earthquake and I was the first to break the news on CNN and became a star-reporter.

Getting on skype and video conference with the folks at CNN became a habit and I must admit, I LOVE IT! And even though I never really saw myself on TV, I especially loved getting phone calls from family in Honduras saying, ummm we saw you on TV., WTF? LOL Or a text message from my brother who works at MIA airport, saying “So I was on break, drinking coffee and as I lifted up to get the next sip you are all over the TV’s and I told my co-workers, hey that’s my brother!” Or a random Facebook posting saying, “So was watching CNN at my hotel room and I saw a report from …Francisquini and I said, hey I know a Francisquini, wait a sec that’s you!”

Seriously guys, thanks again for sending your warm thoughts. It helped me keep sane while I was in the center of it all.

May 2009
The government finally started lifting the mandatory close business sanctions and I began to have a normal (non reporter) life. I managed to make it to Oaxaca for their campaign against Homophobia and met amazing people, some of which are now my new friends. As for Mexico City, I met an amazing person that I spent my last 4 weeks with. I happy to call him my good friend in D.F. Eric sabes que te queiro muchisimo! During my stay in Mexico, I interviewed and got an ESL job teaching for a private school in KOREA!

June 2009
I made it to Miami for the one year anniversary of my father’s death, but had to quickly move to NYC to get all my paperwork for my Alien Resident Card in Korea. I had many going away parties this month and it just made me miss my good friends in NYC/Miami/Mexico City.

July – September 2009
July 6, 2009 was the day I was suppose to celebrate my birthday with friends/family but instead was spent in the air and at Tokyo’s airport. LOL. I didn’t mind so much because I was excited for my next chapter. As luck would have it, I work at my city’s biggest private ESL school and making friends was not hard (like other foreign teachers have stated). Most of the foreign teachers are straight out of college and still act like they are in college, so those are the wave hello/goodbye peeps. I have started a gay group on facebook for this city and hopefully we can make new friendships from there. But it’s hard to find someone to connect with here, on a friendship level, because I’ve accomplished (and have been through so much) and in NYC meeting successful/cool/mature peeps was quite easy. Not so much here, but I have met a number of cool folks in Korea. (if I have your cell# then you are it folks!)

My time here has mostly been spent traveling to Busan (1hr by train) or Seoul (2hrs) and while I haven’t been in Daegu much, I have had some good times. Not like NYC/Miami/Rio/Mexico but in its own way. I also began taking 2 courses to learn Korean and can now read and write a lil, speaking is still a challenge but I’m practicing 110%.

October 2009
It was time for my first job evaluation and I passed with flying colors! How could I get nothing but great scores? I love these kids. I teach 9-13yr olds and could go w/o teaching the 13yr olds, they are just bitter. But the 9-12 are just adorable and come up with the funniest things during class. Oh and did I tell you my day starts at 4:10pm and ends at 10:20pm (9:50 on Wednesdays!). Which leaves a lot of time to spare and if you know me, you know that I don’t like to stay still. But I must admit, in the US I traveled a lot by airplane (reaching platinum levels on various groups) and now I can say that I haven’t been on a plane for a lil under 4 months and I LIKE IT! I have had my fair share of traveling but it’s all been on Korea’s high speed train.

I have been in Korea for over three months and feel that there is so much this country can do with respect to tourism (specific to non Asian tourists). So I’ve decided to re-launch Melvin’s Guide and while I am keeping the “headquarters” in NYC, I plan on bridging the gap between Korea and NYC. I’ve noticed some similarities between the two cities and hope to write on that further. The two major events for the remainder of the year, in Korea, are in film and fashion. First was the 14th Annual Pusan Int’l Film Festival, dubbed as Asia’s biggest/#1 film festival. Second, the mayor of Seoul has stated that Seoul Fashion Week is top a priority in his agenda. He wants to make Korea a major fashion capitol.

Melvin’s Guide managed to get press passes to both and will be featuring both in the re-launch issue on January 2010. Pusan Film Festival was an amazing experience (read more in the issue) and Seoul Fashion Week was nonstop where I got to hang with a very cool Australian photographer (he basically took me under his wings) and a very well connected Seoul foreigner who was recently hired by CNNGo to cover Korea. I’m also talking with CNNGo and looking into working on future projects. Oh yeah, and CNN used 10 reports I made on both the film festival and fashion week. I’m now an international reporter for CNN, how cool is that?!@$

CNNGo has a few asian cities but are looking to expand soon, check it out if you plan to travel within Asia http://www.cnngo.com/

Ending Remarks
I’m 32 and now living in Korea. I still look back and think “WTF? How/what/where/when/who”. 2 years ago I had my father and last year I didn’t. A year ago, I worked for a Fortune 500 firm and made $$$, had a great life, amazing/inspiring friends and now I’m all alone on the other side of the planet “re-starting” my life. A year ago, I would always tune into CNN and see what was going on in the world and now I don’t have a TV and I’m the one in CNN, while others around the world get the news. A year ago, I was certain I would be in business school this time around and today I sit with 9 rejection letters and have become a teacher.

One would think I should have gone postal by now, but my faith in God has kept me grounded. I don’t question why he took my job, father, income, lifestyle away from me. I am here to serve him and while I’m still unsure of what my purpose in this lifetime is, I have a feeling I am getting closer to it as the days/months/years go by. Yes it does suck to not have family member alive but death is as natural as birth. And yes, I would love to find the man who will stand by me for years to come, become a great father and partner. I know God will bring him to me, once I am ready. And I will leave you with what I mentioned in one of my earlier postings. “Listen to what the world is telling you to do, and take the leap.”

Thanks for reading.

US Primetime TV - Rankings by Melvin

Thanks to my dear friends in Korea, I have found ways to download TV shows from US. Only delayed by less than 24hrs (due mostly to time change). So here's my top list for Fall 2009 TV Shows:
#1 Daily Show
#2 Big Bang Theory
#3 Grey's
#4 CSI Miami/NYC
#5 New adventures of old christine
#6 How I met your mother
#7 Private Practice
#8 Colbert Report
#9 90210
#10 The Good Wife
#11 Top Chef/ANTM
#12 Brother's & Sister's

Worth mentioning:
Ugly Betty (Soon)
Entourage (season just ended)
True Blood (season just ended)