One of the nice things about being in college is that you get an extremely long winter break – Claremont Colleges students get about 4 weeks off in total. I like to use this time to step back a little bit and reflect on the experiences of the past year and make sure I’m heading in the right direction.

For me, 2012 was a big year – a first for a lot of things. Looking back at some of the highlights…

• Built my first webapp. It’s a simple Django project for ordering food online, currently working with Claremont McKenna College to implement it at the Hub grille. You can check it out here.
• Lived in a foreign country for the first time. I worked in Mongolia over the summer at a private equity group called Asia Pacific Investment Partners.
• Went on the Silicon Valley Program (which was awesome), interned at Electronic Arts.
• Discovered the awesome world of programming.

I like to set more general goals for the new year rather than setting measurable resolutions to accomplish right away. I find this method allows me to periodically revisit my goals and enact the desired change more effectively. A few goals for 2013 include:

• Keep working on side projects. Build something with Flask or try out d3.js
• Work smarter not longer. Pursue other interests – they help make the important ones more meaningful.
• Give out more compliments. Reach out to more people in my network and build authentic relationships

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Today I am writing to you from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where I have been working and living for the past five weeks as a summer intern for Asia Pacific Investment Partners.

Mongolia, in short, is an extremely unique, rapidly growing and changing country. It has a rich culture and a deep-rooted history that dates back to, of course, the Mongol Empire. If you can imagine George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, MLK jr., and Jesus we’re all squashed into one all-powerful, all-encompassing being, that is what Ghengis Khan (or Chinggis Khaan as they call him here) represents for Mongolia. The persona of Mr.Khan permeates Mongolian culture in everyway that you could imagine and more – there is a gigantic stone portrait of his face on one of the hillsides looking in to Ulaanbaatar that you can see from about anywhere in the city, there is Chinggis Khaan vodka, multiple Chinggis Khaan hotels, even Chinggis Khaan sunscreen.

The city planning here, much like many other developing cities, is atrocious. Stoplights, stop signs, and road maintenance are all pretty much nonexistent, so getting anywhere usually involves a great deal of honking, sharing lanes, sometimes veering into oncoming traffic, swerving around giant potholes, and being quick on the brakes in case someone pulls out in front of you. Being a pedestrian is even worse, since there are no crosswalks and cars will sometimes literally run you over if you don’t get out of the way in time. On the flip side, there is also no required taxi permit, so it’s incredibly easy to hail a cab and you’ll often just get picked up by a random unmarked cab or a Mongolian on his/her way to work. Cab fares are incredibly cheap, usually about 1,000-4,000 tugriks ($0.75-$2.25), which is a bit unexpected considering how expensive gas is here…

In the states, I’d hear phrases like “emerging economy” or “frontier market” thrown around quite a bit in regards to various resource rich Latin American, African, and Asian countries, but it wasn’t until I got here that I really realized the true implications of rapid, FDI driven growth (GDP per capita rose by a whopping 17.3% in 2011). As a whole, Mongolia is the quintessential example of an emerging economy. There are literally more buildings being built in Ulaanbaatar than existing ones and rural Mongolians are pouring in from the countryside in unprecedented volumes. Road congestion is at an all-time high, as Mongolians with more disposable income than ever are rapidly acquiring cars. The real question is: is this growth sustainable?

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