Day 8 - The Olive Oil Journey

9/1/2021: Note to self. Right after my first 1-week vacation since starting at Citi in August 2020. My 1-year rotation was up and I needed to decide my next desk

[Several Options]: You can do an easy desk and have a second job [outside of Citi], do a hard desk and get battered, find a fit, or go to an exit opportunity [hedge fund] which is not a bad thing rather encouraged by the highest up at the best firms. Come to them and learn from the best, on the [seemingly] right side of things.

Remember entrepreneurship is the fallback option here, not the goal. Anything could be dropped at any time for entrepreneurship, but entrepreneurship cannot be dropped to re-enter this world I’m in. Once I'm out, I'm out for the rest of my life. Scary to say but true. ["I'm out" refers to the Sales and Trading Industry].

Never would I have ever done the easy desk despite so many people recommending that. I didn’t want too hard a desk that took over my life. I never took the hedge fund recruiting process seriously enough to warrant consideration from them (even so it's very difficult to land a good HF job). So I ended up on a desk that was seemingly "a fit" as it was touted to be entrepreneurial which is what I thought I wanted. I feel sorry about this, but it turns out I was wrong and within 3 weeks of my time on the new desk, I wanted out.

Day 8

Granada, Andalusia, Spain | November 1st, 2022

Attempt #2 of doing Laundry

I get to the laundromat with cash, which I inserted into the change machine. After loading the clothing, I realize 1 thing: I have no soap.

First off, it's a holiday in Granada so most establishments are closed. Logically, I think of going to a place like CVS so I go to the 3rd Pharmacy as #1 and #2 were closed and the person looks at me like I have 2 heads when I asked for soap. She said they sell medicine - go to the supermarket for soap.

I guess CVS pharmacy is more than just a pharmacy.

I then try supermarkets but everything is closed. Then common sense kicks in. The hostel has a washing machine that’s broken, they probably had soap.

Ding ding ding got my soap, walked back 4 minutes, and threw it in the laundry. Started laundry. Walked back to the hostel, had breakfast and they actually had good Olive Oil.

But I realize I don’t have my glasses (I figured my pair wouldn’t last the whole trip anyway but 7 days come onnnn). I figured they were at the laundromat. No panic, I find them on the floor next to the machine. Phew.

I change clothing to the dryer, walked back to the hostel, did computer work for 2 hours then realized laundry was still ready 1 hour and 40 minutes ago. Walk back to Laundromat. Pick up the laundry. Walk to Hostel. 

Fold and put away clothing. Shower, change, then it's 1:00 and I'm ready to start the day.

Exhale.

Afternoon

I got some unsurprisingly underwhelming bubble tea to accompany me while walking through the streets. I love the randomness of the streets here. It's like navigating a maze vs a city. Fascinating. Stopped for a quick bite to eat at the obviously overpriced restaurant with the view, so I got the cheapest thing on the menu to buy myself a seat. Ended up staying another 2 hours for computer work.

Walked around a bit more, took some pics, espresso. Then nap.

Evening

I met 2 South Koreans in my hostile and we spoke through google translate for about an hour.

Solo dinner and a quiet rest of the night. To be frank I'm starting to doubt this leg of the trip and wish I had more Olive Oil related days in this 4-day stretch. But it can't all be perfect.

1 Olive Oil Takeaway:                                 

While Flavcity has some nice content, here's some fact-checking of his claims about Olive Oil, including the "fact" that 70% of supermarket oils are fake (UC Davis report). "The UC Davis report is intrinsically suspect because it was funded by California olive oil producers and companies, which have a financial interest in increasing market share and damaging the reputation of imported oils" (NAOOA).

But I've learned that NAOOA profits off higher quantities of oil imports into the US, so what's their incentive to enforce high-quality standards if that reduces oil imports? 

Ok, this is why I don't like politics. Both sides are biased. I probably need to do more research. 

-Jack

Thank you for reading and welcome to the blog! I'm traveling through Europe on a quest to find great Olive Oil.

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