Cayman from a different perspective

Hello?

Well, it took 6 months but Natalie was finally able to get me to sit down and write my first blog. Its hard to believe we've been here for 6 months. It seems like just last week we woke up at 4 in the morning and drove to the Edmonton airport in the -30 winter, and were greeted 12 hours later with +30 temperatures. As everyone already knows that it is hot down here, I will avoid sounding like my father and will try not talking about the weather.

So how am I enjoying island life? Overall I really like it down here and I know we made the right decision in coming here. We have only been here for 6 months and already we have met so many new friends from all around the world, and have done and learned so many new things that I never imagined possible. I have gone from panicking while snorkelling in 4 feet of water, to scuba diving down to 100 feet one day and swimming a 1 mile sea swim another, all without drowning. I have also gone 6 months (with the exception of going to Miami for a weekend) without drinking a Starbucks coffee everyday. I didn't realize why I never had any spending money back home until I did the math (Average $3 a day x 6 months x 30 days).

I have had a lot of people ask how my job is going? This is a tough one as on any given day, or any given time within the same day, I have a different answer.

The work is really busy. It makes me realize how good I had it with KPMG back in Edmonton. In Edmonton things were busy and I definitely had periods where I had multiple (2 maybe 3) jobs on the go. But down here has been ridiculous! About a week ago I counted how many different audits I had on the go and even I was amazed to find that I had 7 different jobs on the go.

However, work has been going good and one of the most attractive things about my job are the opportunities for advancement that exist. I started in our department with 6 other new senior accountants, and at that time our department had 8 senior accounts that were one year ahead of us. Since we started, all the people one year ahead of us have left KPMG, which means means that there is a lot of opportunity for promotions. So needless to say Natalie and I may be faced with some tough decisions in a year about whether to stay, move back to Canada or go elsewhere????

So what do I do all day? I audit hedge funds. Hedge funds are the same concept as a Mutual Fund (a bunch of people pooling their money together to invest into whatever, stocks, bonds, etc). The exception is that investors have to have a minimum net worth of $1,000,000, which means that no one I know is eligible. Anyways, these "Hedge Funds" require an annual financial statement audit and thats where I come in. I would go into more detail, but trust me its really not that interesting. Im sure you would rather hear that "HEAVY RAINFALL AND STRONG GUSTY WINDS WILL BE POSSIBLE OVER GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND AND MUCH OF THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA OVER THE NEXT DAY OR SO." At least I know my dad will find this more interesting.