Another Christmas; Another New Year

Life is going by at 100mph and I want a cop to stop me and tell me to slow down.

Senior year has been one of my best semesters. I got to hang out with friends, not stress too much about school work, bond more with Sigmas, dance more with Rice Crew, and lastly, work much closer with CSA. Everyone is beginning to feel like family and I can't even begin to think about life after they're gone.

Putting the sentimental stuff aside, I'll give a quick recap of my semester. Geez, where should I even start?

After taking the GREs, school shortly began. My day-before-school-start flight was actually cancelled for the first time in my life. They provided me a free hotel with dinner + breakfast, so it was actually really relaxing. I got to school the next day bright and early, thanks to Anthony who volunteered to pick me up. (Yay friends with cars!)

Suite Life of Moxi, Yichen, Alice, and Soyoun:
I love living with these three girls. Although sometimes we probably annoy each other with cleaning up, trash, not sleeping, eating, etc., but at the end of the day they are a really fun bunch to live with. At the beginning of the year we would do stupid stuff together and work out in the suite. Yichen also bought us beach themed decoration so our suite was very warm. Also, our across the hall neighbors (CSA suite + Josh) are all very fun to hang out with. We go there whenever (as in a lot), and chill/watch TV/play video games. I feel like I finally have brothers! Lol...in a way.

Classes:
I took Developmental Psychology, Capoeria, Voice Lessons, BCS 152, and Statistics. (Which, btw I got a 3.81 GPA from this semester and I am sooo happy) The one class I took for fun I got a B+ in, never again...

Social: 
Yeah, this is about all I did this semester which is why I enjoyed it so much.

As school got rolling around so did rush week, Mid-Autumn festival, CSA first GIM, and RICE practice. This year there were 140 international Chinese freshman, so our CSA became very fobby all of the sudden, not that it is a bad thing. Our first GIM and barbecue turned out really fun. We had a Sigma party at the suite (beach themed), which ended up getting broken up by the cops because one of my syands was yelling at them drunkenly haha. Despite all that, it was fun because I was bartending.

Mid-Autumn was the first weekend of October. Because I didn't really help much in it (since everyone who stayed during the summer did stuff), I just organized a bit and then danced with RICE crew. It was so much fun! I got a CSA little shortly after that, Jo-Jo!

I'm also making a lot of food this semester, whether it's baking or cooking. Surprisingly, everyone I'm around loves to cook so we always have time to make stuff with each other. For example, Alex and I have made bread about 4-5 times (which the first 3 times failed). Andrea and Kathy also used to come over to bake cupcakes, which were delicious! Susana too actually, but she never cleaned haha.

We went apple picking, hot poting, camping (10 people in this huge tent!), Russell Peters, lots of CSA events, domestic violence awareness week (with banquet too!), NERR at Rochester, Vice&Virtue (top bidder $180!), Halloween mixer + others, ice skating, me driving SA van (mwahaha), pre-Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving in NYC with Emma/Jing/Sining.

As you can tell, it was very eventful that I'd probably end up writing a book. The only thing I gotta elaborate on is 12/3. This was one of the best days of my life! I got into Take-Five AND Rice Crew won 2nd place in DU competition. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Well...I could have because I had to study after instead of to to Crab Shack. But anyway, I feel like sometimes all the hard work does pay off despite what normally happens.

Best Summer EVER

Monday some SURPies and I went to The Sunburnt Cow, all you can eat and drink (yes, alcohol included) for $20 only! The problem with going there that day was that I had not eaten anything until here (7pm), so my stomach was really empty and after 2 cocktails, I was feeling it. This never happens! Now I know what it feels like to drink on an empty stomach haha. Definitely worth a trip here though, I heard the brunch was really good too. After that I went to a Belgium place to celebrate Sining’s 21^st, the waffle was amazing (even though I just took a bit cause I could handle no more food).

Tuesday, I had finally had Ippudo with Stephen, after hearing about it foreverrrr. It was delicious and highly recommended! At night, I met up with Nicole and Joewin to go to a place Alice suggested for pork over rice, Wah Fung, again….AMAZING!! Only $3 too geez, what a deal. We then walked to Brooklyn bridge over the Manhattan bridge trying to find a place to take pictures. However, it randomly started to pour, so we just chilled in a Starbucks until it got better and headed home. Brooklyn Bridge take 2 the next day.

Wednesday, I had my last lab meeting, which I dunno is good or bad lol. Later, I had dinner with Susana and Sarah at a nice sushi place. We then met up with Marjorie, Nicole, and Joewin at Brooklyn bridge for take 2. There was a couple there in a wedding dress playing in the river while getting their photo taken, it was so cute! Though, I can’t help but wonder how much her dress cost that she is ruining by standing in the river. After some nice pictures, we went to karaoke in K-town. Ahhh I miss singing!! I hate being in a dorm because don’t like random neighbours/roommates hearing my singing lol.

Thursday I went to Six Flags Great Adventure with Susana, Stephen, John, and Victor. This place was so different than the one in LA. Although it is the original, it is definitely much smaller (only about 8 roller coasters versus 18 ish), the park was smaller as well. My favorite ride there has got to be Kingda Ka, it’s kind of like Superman at Magic Mountain but shoot you up at 120mph and then drops you down on a different side haha, very fun. It was such a long day because I woke up at 6am after sleeping at 4am, headed out at 7am to pick up breakfast/meet people, got picked up at 8am, got there at 10:30am, it started to rain in between so we bummed in the car for 2 hours, got out of the park by 8pm, dropped by Sonic because some of them NYers have never had it, got back at midnight lol.

Friday was such a bittersweet day because we’re all moving out Saturday, and possibly never seeing each other again. We ate at Otto with our mentors, and that place is amazing. I swear this program is awesome because we got huge gourmet tray of appetizers, various personal pizzas, coffee break, and many many flavours of gelato including sour cream and olive oil! This place tastes very authentic. We then went to the park to get our certificates and Chaia and Josh made paper plate awards for us, as well as Chiye, who is the best person ever and I’m so glad she is the director of the program.  At night, some SURPies and I went to Pommes Frites again to have our last dinner together! It was so bittersweet saying goodbye to everyone because we may or may not see each other again L After that I met up with Sining, Jay, and some friends (well…ended up being lots of people) to karaoke at K-one, I really like the atmosphere of that place and not too expensive!

Saturday, my last day, I moved out in the morning, and then went to an Indian Buffet. After that, we shopped for a bit, and ate Mediterranean food. Both places were amazinggg and as I am writing this one day later, I still haven’t hungry after stuffing myself with lots of naan/pita + meat.

I'm glad that I got to do most of the things I stated in my first week post of NY. Makes me feel very accomplished!

1.       Watch Broadway Watched THREE Broadways and spent less than $60 in all.

2.       Watch a fashion show (I doubt this is likely…) Well...I went to Alexander McQueen exhibit if that counts :)

3.       Sew a tote bag I'm sewing a camera bag instead haha

4  Take nice pictures (especially at night: Brooklyn Bridge, Time S nitely took much more than I thought and grew as  photographer.

5.       Some museums like MoMA Check, check, and check, went to 4 museums I think

6.       Six Flags New Jersey So much fun!

7.       Skydive at Long Island I did go to Long Island though!

8.       Shop Of course

9.       Eat: Try most of the famous cart foods and cool/interesting restaurants. I definitely accomplished this more than anything else.

10.   Bake macarons Even though it failed.

I’m sad to say my summer in NY is over. It has been one of the best summers ever. Goodbye New York.

Before I end this post, I compiled a list of all my favorite places to eat for future reference and suggestions, so here they are (note, this is about 30% of the places I went to so they are good, trust me):

Mostly cheap cause I’m cheap

$ under 10, $$ 11-20, $$$ 21-30

Ukrainian: 

            Streechas $

Carts:

Korean/Mexican: Korilla $

Indian: Kati roll $

Belgium waffles: Waffles & Dingles $

Japanese:

Ramen: Ippudo $$

Oyako don + skewers : Tori Shin $$$

Soba noodles: Soba koh $$

Chinese:

Milk Tea: TKettle $, CoCo $, Kung Fu Tea $

Seafood and homecooked dishes: Zhou zhi jia $$

Soup Dumplings: nan xiang xiao long bao $

Sesame pancake + duck/boiled pork dumplings: Prosperity Dumpling $

Roast pork over rice: Wah Fung

Bagel: 

           Ess-A Bagel $

Cambodian: 

          Num Pang $

Deli: 

          Katz Deli $$

Mexican: 

         Tulcingo Del Valle $

Italian

Pizza: Lombardis $$

Pizza and everything else: Otto $$

Chicken wings + interesting Korean drinks: BonChon $$

Brunch: Sunburnt Cow (all you can eat + drink (alcohol included)) $$

Empanada mama $$

High Class

Monday there was a New York undergraduate biomedical research conference on the 50^th floor of a building near the World Trade Center. This place was so high class haha, I felt very rich. There were about 200 undergraduates doing research in the city, we all gathered together, and had a panel of 5 people give us advice for the future. The advice was definitely needed, but mostly geared towards MD/PhD and biology labs than what I want to do: clinical neuropsychology. It definitely made me feel a lot better about the GREs, even though it’s still very important because I want to get passed the first cut of people.

Tuesday night I went to “The View” restaurant with Alice, Susana, Tina, and Victor, which is probably one of the most expensive places I’ve ever been. Talk about high class! The place was at the Marriot and it was located on the 50^th floor right by Times Square. Each 3 course meal costs $35 because it’s restaurant week, I also got a pina colada (and they didn’t even ID me). Honestly though, the view was great, the food probably wasn’t worth THAT much money but it was really delicious. The restaurant was two stories and it rotated around, so you can see the view of entire Manhattan and some of Queens/Brooklyn. I ended up spending $65 on my meal, waaa, but so worth it.

It’s so frustrating working in my lab sometime because Denis honestly just doesn’t care. Plus, no one is ever there, except for the grad student, Sarah. I dunno what I’d do without her, I’d probably go crazy because I can complain to her about him haha. My presentation is this Friday and he hasn’t even seen it yet. Most of the mentors have gone through it 5-6 times with the other students. He didn’t show up to the practice one, made me summarize in words during lab meeting (of course I can summarize it, that’s not what I’m worried about), and I don’t think he’ll even see it on Friday. I’m totally fine with him not seeing my powerpoint because I honestly just don’t care at this point. I did the program for the experience, money, and a recommendation letter and I’m leaving with 2.5 so I’d say that’s an A- in my book haha. The people in the department all know him and before I even say anything about what has happened they can guess which lab I’m in, which is really sad that his reputation goes that far. If anything happens on Friday, questions I can’t answer/mess up on talk etc., I think ultimately it’ll make him look bad and not me.  

At night, the program went to “How to succeed in business without really trying” broadway show. They bought the tickets for us and our mentors (how nice)! The show starred Daniel Radcliffe so I was excited just for that reason. Compared to Wicked and Bengal Tiger at Baghdad Zoo, this was my second favorite. The only problem with this was that the songs were that great or memorable, the actors were not great singers. However, the dances were the best I’ve seen, they threw around boxes, jumped around, tap danced, did weird things, and it was crazy. Also, the plot was very very clever. I wanted to wait for Daniel Radcliffe at the end, but everyone in my program left already. So…I went to Jane’s place to go cut her hair like I promised. It turned out better than I thought, I’m pretty proud of myself hahaha. Then I told her to cut my bangs, just a straight cut and she ended up cutting too much so now it’s short L Oh well, it’ll grow out. She gave me some clothes though so it all made up for it hahaha.

Thursday I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Yichen for the Alexander McQueen exhibit. I’ve heard about the first day I came to NYC and just kept hearing from random people about how good it is. Finally, I decided to check it out. His clothing…is art, I can’t describe it. He’s so creative, but dark. I would describe his pieces as frightening masterpieces (look up Alexander McQueen on youtube or something for his stuff, it’s AMAZING, words cannot describe this).

Friday was the symposium for the program, so everyone in the department + outside people were invited. Of course, my mentor didn’t show up so no one I knew was there, which made it a lot easier for me. I’m so proud of everyone in the program for going through this 9 weeks so far! I still can’t believe that I was 12 out of 500 people selected for this. Preparing for this presentation truly taught me a lot (even though my mentor never saw the finished product).

Friday night, Anthony, Alex, and Willie came to town so me and Nita had dinner with them at a Pho & Shabu place in St. Marks. I had a Vietnamese sandwich and it was ok. I think once you go Num Pang you just can’t go back. I then dragged Nita and Alex along to a roof to take pictures of the NY skyline, but it kinda failed cause my tripod wasn’t high enough, was fun though.

Saturday I went to Flushing with some Rochester people and finally had Picnic Garden! For $20, all you can eat Korean BBQ. It was definitely good, but not as good as China (expected). However, I loved the marinated ones, just not the sauce as much. Overall, it was definitely worth the long hot walk there. Did I mention NYC is currently in a heatwave? 100 degrees with lots of humidity = I don’t wanna go outside

Sunday I had brunch with Alex at a cool place that was really good, but totally maxed out on amount of eggs I can eat per day. I totally food coma’d after. But…had to make room for dinner with Jay and Yi at Soba Koh, which is the best soba noodles I’ve ever had, definitely recommended! I haven’t seen them for a while, so it was nice catching up (and practicing my Chinese).

Manhattanhenge, End of an Era, and Poker

Tuesday was Manhattanhenge, something that occurs only 2x a year. I was lucky enough to be around and take pictures of this awesome day! Let me just tell you, this is THE CRAZIEST photo taking experience I have ever been through, hands down. It made it totally worth it to ride that subway from 14^th - 42^nd street ($4.5 subway fare zzz). 

Anyway I’ll start from the beginning, I looked up good places to take pictures of this day and everywhere pointed to Tudor City (42^nd and  1^st) bridge. So I was thinking of going 45 minutes early to grab a spot, not too early because I didn’t wanna be a loser and wait by myself. When I got there around 7:30pm (sunset is at 8:20pm), the bridge was PACKED. I have never seen so many people, tripods, expensive lenses + bodies (I’m talking $10,000+), all in one place. I can’t even describe how packed it was!! (Search tudor city manhattanhenge on Flickr). So that was obviously out of the question. I decided to go to 42^nd and 2^nd to take some pictures. Of course, people were already shooting away. The funny and most fun part was, you had to wait for a red light, step to the middle of the street (along with 30+ photographers), snap snap snap at different exposures/bracketing, get honked at by cars for blocking their way, clear the road because it’s a green light, do it all over again. This was the case for the first half hour, and it was just beginning to get fun. When the sun actually started to set (~8:15pm), there were too many of us at one intersection that every person kept stepping up a bit. For example, if someone is blocking me, I would go around them and take a spot ahead of them. If I’m blocking someone, they would walk ahead of me. Basically, we didn’t care about blocking cars at that point. Every single photographer (100+) were in the VERY middle of the street to take that perfect/symmetrical shot. We basically formed a single file line that probably goes across Manhattan. If this is JUST 42^nd street, think about all the other ones as well.

Honestly though, photographer-fest and it was crazy awesome experience. I’m waiting for photos to be uploaded so I can find myself in some of them haha. I managed to take 300 photos in 30minutes, high score.

Wednesday I had dinner with Jane and Sining at Saigon Shack. Their sandwiches were ok, I liked Num Pang better. But this place was very cheap (my huge sandwich only $5, I ate half and was full lol)

Thursday I went to the Streb Human Fountain free performance at the World Finance Center after work today. However, we totally missed it and caught the ending Q&A…lol fail #1. It was very interesting to see where the World Trade Center used to be though. The event never effected me personally since I was so far away and knew no one close, but seeing this up close definitely brought back memories.  Anyway, we decided to head to Wah Fung in China Town for their $2.50 (I think now it’s $3.00) cha shao rou over rice lol so Hong Kong. We got there around 8:30pm and it closed…fail #2. Jane wanted to go to a bubble tea place close by but…it was closed again fail #3. We then went to a tea place called Yum Yum, not really bubble tea, but their drinks were delicious. The place next door was still open for food, and we went there to eat. It was just ok. On the way back, I got off the wrong stop…fail #4 lol. Anyway, that’s the last of the fails.

At around 10pm, some SURPies and I started lining up for Harry Potter THE LAST ONE. I didn’t know how to feel because I don’t want it to end. After the movie finished, I was totally in shock. The ending was great, but the fact that I didn’t want it to end made it…very very sad. This is definitely the closing of a chapter in my life. Maybe after this I will finally feel grown up.

Saturday I went to Atlantic City with Manuel. We both love to poker, so thought…hey, why not? I woke up at 9am that day for the 10am bus, we both tiredly headed to the terminal and got on our 2.5 hour ride. We got off at Caesars which gave us a $25 voucher to play at a slot. However, you have to play everything. Basically, I won $55 from the slot, so $35 profit. I thought of this as getting my round trip bus ticket back. We then wandered around the boardwalk/beach, very upset that we didn’t realize AC actually had a beach and we weren’t dressed appropriate. We had a Nathan’s hotdog, which was delicious. Then…it was poker time. I was so excited, yet nervous because I was such a noob. We went to I think it was Tropicana and played 2/4/6 limit poker. We were both split up into different tables because there weren’t enough seats. I was so intimidated at first because everyone at my table was 50+ years old. The terms like ‘option’, etc, I have never heard in my life. But anyway, I got the hang of it after a while.

I always thought that playing poker wasn’t against the house, so I felt better with the losses. However, I quickly realized that the casino takes 10% of the pot PLUS you have to tip the dealer every time you win (about $1 for our table, which is about 5-10% of what we win). This is so dumb because when we cash out we could’ve been 15-20% richer, but I guess that’s how they gain money…why have I not thought about that. I played there from 2-5pm, bought in with $100, was as low as $35, and ended up cashing out with $95, with almost a heart attack. So basically, that was no profit, which was cool because I had fun.

I then went to the outlets before it closed, bought a $5 sub, window shopped until 8pm, $5 gelato and met up with Manuel again. We then played some random slots to get free drinks lol, after many slots played at 3 different casinos (win and loss sums up to 0 profit again), quick loss of $10 at blackjack, we were on our way to check out the night life. There was a beach party that costed $10 to get into, we were like…whatever, we’re here. So we went, danced to a couple of beachy songs, and left to play more poker.

This time was at Taj because the bus left from there at 4am. We started at around midnight. This time was more friendly/young people, but they definitely played different. It was 2/4 limit and I bought in with $80. At about 3am, I was going up and down staying around $30-$40, which was killing me since I planned to get out of AC without losing money. This was when I realized the value of money. I was willing to throw away $50 for food, but yet when I lose just $50 in poker, it felt like $300. Anyway, in the end, I got a 4 of a kind and managed to cash out with $125. We got back at 7am that day, almost 24 hours of gambling.

So in summary…I wrote a lot of money stuff here because I wanted to figure out how much I ACTUALLY earned in AC (just for fun of course). And I think with all the food/transportation/random slots/tips/blackjack, my profits comes to 0. Which basically means…a free vacation!

Sunday was the world cup final: Japan vs. USA. I woke up at 3pm just in time to watch it. USA was definitely the better team, more aggressive, better team work. Japan was more strategic and defensive, not to mention their team’s average height is a mere 5’4’’. In the end, Japan always managed to come back from defeat and it ended up at PKs. USA missed the first there shots and Japan took home the title of the championship. It was a good game, but I guess I still prefer the men’s world cup a lot more based on the aggressiveness. I guess athleticism just can’t compare? Kind of sad. For dinner I went to Zhou Jia Zhuang and it was delicious, very authentic Chinese food!

Poreoticsssss....or not.

7/4-7/10

Monday, July 4^th, I went with some friends and lots of friend’s friends to an Italian place called Maria Pia. This was the first time I’ve had Italian food after going to Italy. I must say…it just isn’t the same. Afterwards, we headed to the roof again and watched the fireworks. Even though it was a bit short (30 minute display), the fireworks was amazing. It was across the Hudson river with a two mile distance, so it was basically a panel of synchronized fireworks.  

Wednesday I went bar hopping with some SURP people, we also hit up Pommes Frites, a Belgian fries place. The sauces were amazing, but the fries were just okay! I don’t see why it has 3000 reviews on Yelp honestly lol.

Thursday I went to Lombardi’s Pizza with Jane and Stephen. It is NY’s first pizza place and it was sooo good. This is definitely gourmet pizza, and very expensive too! They don’t sell it by the slice and it’s actually real mozzarella on there. I love it!

Friday I went to Circle club at Korea Town. It was very interesting because it’s an Asian club! They played mostly pop songs, but also some Korean songs. The original intent was to go to watch Poreotix. However, I think we got the date wrong or something because they never came. So…we just ended up dancing. I had lots of fun except after 2 hours, my feet REALLY started hurting. I think it was so moist that day so it kept rubbing in my shoes, but honestly it’s never hurt so much in my life. It was soooo bad, but I got a good jelly foot wash afterwards hahaha. 

On a side note, I'm freaking out about the GREs. I have so many presentations, program events, plans with friends that I feel like it's going to ruin all my studying time. Ugh, I wish I would put GREs first sometimes.

House of Cards

6/27 – 7/3

Tuesday Kang Xuan and her family was here so I had dinner with them at a nice Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. It was so nice to talk to some people from home and catch up on stuff.

Wednesday I went to Cafasia for Alice birthday. The food was pretty cheap and just okay but it made me so full, I think I ate like 20% of it. We then went to Spot dessert again because I recommended it and ended up at BonChon chicken, which I think is one of my favourite places in St. Marks so far because of the nice yummy drinks like watermelon soju and MAKOLI (I must remember that name…had it with Bruno and was gonna get it there too but forgot zzz)

Thursday I had Num Pang AGAIN but they ran out of pork belly AGAIN ughhh, when am I ever going to try what they’re famous for?! Maybe this is how they make money haha.

I know I haven’t been talking about it much, but every Friday we have a lecturer from the department talking about their research. Today was Wendy Suzuki and her current research is exercise and memory. To make it interesting, we first did an hour of Inten Sati, which is a combination of kickboxing, yoga, and cardio. While you do these moves with the music, you yell out positive words. It was really fun but so tiring! She then talked about the positive correlation between exercise and neurogenesis. So this made me wonder…is there a difference between a big city life (where you walk everywhere) and small town (drive everywhere). Would people in the city have greater hippocampus function or is just walking everyday not significant enough? Is this why they are able to work all these hours compared to small cities where they barely work? Anyway, I tried the Setagaya Ramen at night with Stephen (after 2 years ago with Jane and Sining). It was good, but not as good as I imagined.  Now I really want to try Ippudo.

Saturday I had Ess-A Bagel for brunch because it was just a few blocks away. Compared to Murray and H&H, it was definitely better. However, maybe I’m just not a bagel person (though I always thought I was). None of those three famous places really stood out to me, like WOW I have to take people here. They just tasted like bagel…it wasn’t THAT chewy or THAT tasty, but it was a lot better than what I’ve had, that’s for sure. Next time I’m going to try Dunkin Donut bagel (with my declining) to compare. At night, I went to celebrate Victor’s birthday in Flushing. We had Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao which was AMAZING and then went to karaoke (for 4 hours…lol). I was going to head to Jay’s afterwards for his party, but I think I’m getting old. I got tired around 2am and went back home instead.

Sunday I went to TJ Max, Marshalls, and Macys…like 6 hours of shopping. Yeah, that is all I did. 

Halfway there!

6/20-6/26

This week I finally started running subjects, but something was wrong with the data where they are not learning as much as they should, so I’m not sure what to do. Besides that, I had a slice of $1 pizza at the pizza truck. The crust was sooo crispy, it was delicious and very cheap too!

After the lab meeting today (and eating two huge slices of pizza), I hung out with Yichen, Frances, and Susan around St. Marks area. We went to Sushi Park where there is 50% off rolls (even though it’s always 50%) and dollar menu. It was good food for really cheap. There was also a really sweet sake we had there. We then went to Bon Chon chicken for their wings, strawberry soju, and watermelon soju. Ah, so much drinking and eating on a Wednesday night lol. 

Saturday I went kayaking AGAIN with some Rochester people and Jane. This time the waves weren’t as strong, but it was still very fun. We stopped by H&H bagels beforehand, apparently it’s really good. However, the cashier lady was SO RUDE to us and the bagels were just ok…I’ve definitely had better, no wonder they’re going out of business. Afterwards we went to Katz deli and Jane and I split a pastrami sandwich on rye. With half a sandwich, we were stuffed, which is great. The pastrami is so juicy and tender while the bread was very soft, I loved it! The only thing is that it was very expensive…$15 for a whole sandwich lol. I then went to dinner/drink with Bruno at Oh Taisho, then BonChon. It was nice getting to know him because I haven’t really seen him since Korea Night.

Sunday I went to the Harry Potter Discovery Exhibition with some SURP people. There were a lot of props from the movie and it was AMAZING. I just bought my midnight showing for the last movie and am so excited, but sad it will all be ending. I feel like a piece of my childhood will be gone. Later, I met up with Jane and Peter. We went to B&H where I got a lot of good advice for alternatives to the Nikon 35mm and SB-700. Now I need to think about it even more, but I honestly just need to splurge and get it before I run out of time in NYC. We then shopped at Macy’s until it closed and ate zha jiang mian haha. 

Living Life

6/13 - 6/19 

Being in SURP, a lot of my friends need subjects to experiment from. I was in a study for my friend that in the end pays you an iPod. However, I did not believe that a mere ‘hour’ you can earn $50 and an iPod, so I did not do the study as well as they planned. In the end, I spent 10 minutes and got $24 and an iPod shuffle. I feel really bad because it might have skewed their data, but then I asked some friends what they would have done and their bidding style is almost the same. I want to describe it on here but I’m not sure how much I can say.

Anyway, on Tuesday I went to watch another Broadway show called Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Jane and Charley. At first, I thought it was a cool magician and Bengal tiger act. Wow, was I mistaken…the story was not a typical Broadway, no songs, just acting. It was very deep to a point where I only understood the surface. Something about war, corruption, America, etc. but I lost it there. I wish I understood it more because I probably would’ve found it very interesting.

Wednesday I met up with Joewin and NJ. We went to this place called Tori Shin for their charcoal bamboo ‘special’ oyako don haha, sounds fancy right? It is supposed to be a yakitori place, however, their food is soooo expensive (each person $55 if you wanna get what most people eat). Thankfully the oyako don was not that bad, and probably the best flavored one I’ve ever had. We then walked from 65^th street to 10^th (didn’t feel like a long walk though!), got Kung Fu bubble tea, and then 8^th to go to a hookah place at St. Marks with some other Pi brothers and two girls from some sorority. I feel really weird hanging around with Greeks sometime, all they talk about is the Greek system and I never have much to say. Nonetheless, it was the first time I tried hookah, but it wasn’t good or bad. I couldn’t taste or feel anything lol.

Thursday I went bar hopping with Ellen and some SURP + roommates for her 21^st birthday. We went to Keybar first for a free round of delicious birthday shots and then went to a karaoke bar called SingSing. Unfortunately, at this hour, they don’t let under 21 go in so 3 of them left when we could not find a place. We walked a bit to West 4^th street, where we played some foosball (lost) and then a pirate bar with lots of rum. Later, we just chilled and went to a pizza place. It was a fun night, I’m finally starting to feel like a New Yorkan.

Friday I went to International Center for Photography with Jane and Sining. I thought this place was going to be huge like MoMa. Unfortunately, it was only two stories and some of photos were interesting, others not so much. However, I understood it much more than MoMa. Thank god for these free museums (although they did make us pay $1 for donation -.-) We then went to Schnitzel and Things for dinner. The fried chicken just tasted like a big chicken tender haha. This place was ok, good for cart food though. I’m sad it turned into a restaurant, but good for them. At night I went to chill with some SURP people and celebrate Ellen’s birthday again. I made these cool orange peel jello shots with sake and Chaia made a chocolate cake. We were having fun, playing kings, talking and what not when this RA knocked on our door and told us to quiet down. And we did…however, 10 minutes later this other RA came and wrote us all up. We weren’t even doing anything and it was 11pm! Wow NYU people are so strict and the girl had a very bad attitude about it. But yeah, interesting experience.

Saturday I went kayaking with Jane, Stephen x2, and Joewin at Hudson River. It was free and SO MUCH FUN!! I’m going again next weekend haha. Being in NY has made me miss the outdoors so much and this was definitely a good break from the city life. There was also this small wave that a far away steam boat made, I rode it and even got a little air! We then went to Empanada Mama and ate good, greasy Latin American food. At night, Jane, Stephen, Peter, and I headed to Flushing and ate beef noodle at a noodle shop (originally it was going to be Picnic Garden, but it didn’t work out). The soup was ok, the noodle was great, but one of my friends and my mom actually makes it better haha. There is this other new place for bubble tea called “CoCo” and I really love the black tea, haven’t tried the rest (well, I technically just tried a sip) We were then going to a rooftop party, but that failed since they moved it. We ended up chilling on Jane’s apartment rooftop which was super cool with an awesome view! I guess this is the “NY experience”?

Sunday was the most I’ve ever worked my whole time here, which is really sad. I got lunch at Xian Famous Foods (they ran out of the famous buns, but the noodles were good), then stayed at the lab, had two hours of computer problems, and tested myself for three hours which ended up useless because the data sucked, and then analyzed and was lazy for another two hours haha. I finally feel productive with 7 hours of work. I then had dinner at Otafuku where I got okonomiyaki (it was just ok because I don’t like ginger that much, I should’ve gotten the takoyaki).

Another weekend gone!

Food Adventures

Monday there was an event called ‘Taste of Times Square’. Basically, a lot of restaurants around the area bring their food and you can have a sample for $1-$5. The food was just okay, but the environment was amazing. After that we watched the new Xmen movie about Magneto and Professor X. Despite what my friends said, I really really liked it!

I had dinner with Sarah Han Thursday, haven’t seen that girl in forever! We went to eat Japanese ramen. I think I’m obsessed with this, for some reason I always crave it. Hopefully it’s not TOO unhealthy!

The next day, I had dinner with Sarah Waseem and Susana. Sarah and I both went to Brighton, so it was so nice to see her! We went to a nice Thai place and then a Asian fusion dessert bar called Spot Dessert Bar. I had a lychee matcha bubble tea and pineapple tiramisu. I then somehow bumped into Jane’s friend from college, Peter, who was going to karaoke. Even though it’s kind of weird, but I wanted to karaoke sooo bad so I tagged along haha. We (his high school friends and I) then ended up at the bar that had the amazing sliders called “Mark”. It was cool to meeting new people. It started pouring when I was walking on the way back and my sandals kept falling off because it was slippery. I never liked meeting random people on the street, but this guy started talking to me and accompanied me all the way back to the building. He wasn’t creepy or anything. Gestures like that make my day.

Saturday, I went to a Ukranian restaurant called Streecha’s. It has got to be the best Ukrainian food I’ve had! Well…uh it’s the only Ukrainian food but I’m pretty sure my taste buds don’t lie. Sarah, a grad student at my lab suggested it to me as she’s heard of it numerous times. The place is at the bottom story of this random building and set up like a home kitchen. An old lady operates it and everything is very cheap. There is beet soup ($1.50), potato dumplings ($.50) , stuffed cabbage ($2), etc, which is pretty typical in their cuisine. I can’t really explain it, but it definitely tasted like a home cooked meal.  Another restaurant I went again was S’Mac because Jane was showing her friends around. As good as this place is, I think I prefer other types of food haha. If you are a big fan of mac and cheese, definitely go here though.

For lunch on Sunday, I went to get Murray’s Bagel, one of the best bagel places in nyc. This place was packed and long lines formed around the area. The bagel was pretty good, very chewy! Now I want to try the other famous bagel shops. Then later on, for dinner, I went to Num Pang, a really famous place I’ve been wanting to try forever. This place serves Cambodian sandwiches, the most famous one is the five spice pork belly sandwich (kind of like dong po rou). Unfortunately, they ran out of that one, so I had to get the pulled pork instead. But let me tell you, it was one of the best sandwiches I’ve had, so flavourful and delicious!!!

A Wicked Week

May 30 – June 5

These couple of days have been pretty uneventful, I’m finally settling into the regular work + study + gym schedule. The only thing is that I am really frustrated with my internship, mostly because I can never find my mentor. I just want to get my project started, but to get it started requires a lot of questions and that is why I need him. The only other person in my lab is a graduate student, she’s really cool and nice, but has no expertise in this area of study, so I’m kind of by myself. I hope this will get resolved soon because I really just want to develop the methods ASAP.

It feels weird turning 21, like I’ve done so already. In Europe and China (basically the past half a year), I’ve been able to do stuff like drink, party, casino, etc. Now 21 does not feel so special, just like any other birthday. However, to take advantage of it, Jane and I went to Crepeaway for lunch because it’s free on your birthday haha, the place was so good! We got a savory and a sweet crepe. After work I headed to Adorama Rentals to pick up a tripod and flash unit, but they only accepted credit cards, so I was kind of sad because I only have a debit. I don’t know what to do now, maybe I should just buy a cheap tripod? The rentals (head + foot) costs about $17 and that’s how much a cheap one is anyway…hmmm…

Meng tao ayi and Leo bought me a taro flavored cake from China Town, it’s so yummy! At night, SURP treated me to a cupcake shop called Crumbs and then I bought my first alcohol in America mwahaha, I got sake in a cute bottle haha. I’m so glad these people are in my program, they are all very fun to hang out with.

After another short day of work, I went with Jane to MoMa. The place was interesting but I don’t understand 95% of it. I feel like I can come up with those things but not consider it art. I definitely prefer regular art or photography. After that, we met up with Rena, Yichen, Susana, and Nita, to go to St. Marks for my ‘birthday’. I never realized how Asian we were until I’m writing this, but here’s what we ate/drank: First, we went to a Japanese ramen place and I finally had oyako don! It was not as good as the place in England but very cheap regardless. After that, we went to a dessert place and got some bubble tea (I got a red bean milk tea) and then a bar for free birthday shots, lychee flavored. Last, we came back to my dorm for the leftover taro cake. So basically…rice bowl, red bean, lychee, taro…haha SO Asian…

Saturday has got to be the best day ever. I went to Jane’s place to prep for photoshooting and dresses. We went to a small Mexican place for lunch and it was delicious! (finally something other than Chipotle.) We then looked at a lot of dresses and thought of what we wanted to sew, however, we were in a food coma so ended up napping instead. We only got up to try for the student rush tickets for Wicked since it was close by. There were about 150-ish people who signed up and 15-ish spots with 2 tickets each spot. We were looking at the weather and it seemed like it was going to rain so we were a bit upset at how we might not be able to take pictures later tonight. Anyway, I WON TWO TICKETS!!! That was definitely the highlight of my time here. I never thought I could win anything like this and it was the first try too! So basically I realized that bad things always happen for a reason: I couldn’t rent a tripod and it was going to rain = wouldn’t shoot anyway because I won tickets ;) This is my very first Broadway show for only $26.25 and we were in the second row. Watching it from there was so intimate, you could see every little detail with the stage and actors. The show was amazing and visually overwhelming. I now want to watch every show on Broadway. The acting was great, the singing was even better, the lighting put you in a daze, the orchestra was so pro, the plot was clever, ahhh everything about it was sooo good!! At the end, we waited for the actors to come out and even got some of their signatures! Etai BenShlomo is really cute.

Sunday was the most tiring day ever and I have no idea why. I am passing out as I am typing this. I went to Chinatown today but I was so stupid halfway there I realized I forgot my phone so I went back to get it but the train didn’t go the other way, so I took another train thinking I can transfer to the L to 3^rd street. However, the L wasn’t running so I walked from 8^th to 3^rd, got my phone, and headed back to Chinatown (this took an hour). Haha, Asianably/fashionably late? We went to Prosperity dumplings where they had 5 dumplings (chive or bai cai + pork) for only $1, can you believe it? I also had a Sesame pancake + duck for $1.75. Let’s just say I was in a food coma afterwards for several hours. After that we went to Chinatown ice cream factory to get some lychee ice cream (yummy!!!) and Quickly bubble tea (ehh it was ok). We then shopped at Elizabeth mall and other street places until about 7pm where we could walk no further.

Food, friends, fun, and SURP!

I am going to attempt to write every day and post every week just like Europe because this summer should be fun. Note, this will probably turn into a food blog.

May 22- 29

Move-in day was crazy. At the Palladium, there were 300 people moving in, lots more checking-out, and only one person on reception. After Susana’s parents dropped me off I waited for two hours in line before checking in. The rooms are pretty nice, there’s a living room, kitchen, bathroom, shared with 2 double bedrooms. My roommate was already here and she is in the same program as me, so it should be cool. I walked around the street a bit after getting settled in and it’s such a nice location. There are fruit markets, random food carts, Walgreens, Trader Joe’s etc. right downstairs! I keep forgetting the convenience of living in a big city.

Living Rooms

Bathroom

Bedroom

Walk-in closet! 

I went with Meng Tao ayi, her family, and two other people my age for dinner at a Turkish place after they came to drop off some stuff. A city like NYC makes people want to dress up; everyone looked nice but me because I was wearing jeans. The two people, one was studying photography and the other fashion, so I was left out with science haha. All my life I’ve been surrounded by science, I have actually never hung out with the type of people that were in art, so different than Rochester people. The table conversations were interesting, but I wish I was understood more art/design/etc!

First day of ‘internship’ was long, but interesting. I got to meet everyone else in the program, there’s 12 and apparently 600 applied. Haha, I’m really surprised I got in. We just talked a lot in general, got fed like crazy, and got our IDs. I tried finding my mentor at the end, but he wasn’t around, so I just left. Jane and I then went shopping at SoHo, we found so many cute dresses but decided it wasn’t worth it until we really liked it and would wear it haha. We’re such cheap college students. We then went to a Kung Fu Tea, it was so good! I just got a plane black tea bubble tea, but the bubbles were sweet and the black tea + milk was awesome. We also went to Sarita’s Macaroni & Cheese for dinner, it was so good as well! It’s just basically different styles of baked mac and cheese, I got Cajun and Jane got curry. I definitely recommend those places.

Cajun mac n cheese

Place with best bubble tea ever

My mentor is an interesting character to say the least lol. His is such a night owl that he starts work at noon and ends whenever he feels like it, then goes to bars or something like that. He treated me to lunch at this nice café and talked about the various projects going on. However, I feel like he doesn’t have much for me to do this summer, which really sucks. I was planning to learn a lot, but we’ll see how it goes. I read his publications for five hours in the lab and it all dealt with crowding. After that I went to SoHo again and then I met up with Jane to go eat at the NYU dining center, the food wasn’t that bad! They even had a waffle maker haha. We then headed to Times Square to write some postcards, be tourists, and go shopping. The last time I came to Times Square was probably when I was nine, the place is so lively!

I went to Maoz for lunch today and had a huge falafel loaded with all the toppings I wanted. It was this little shop with a line that went into the streets. However, the falafel were a bit dry, but together with the toppings it tasted great. I went to work at 4pm today because that’s when our group meetings were. It was really interesting because there are four high school students working there this summer and I think only 2 PhD students, so I was up there in terms of knowledge. From the discussions, it was very clear that college course helped a lot, obviously. However, there are not a lot of projects going on and I am having a hard time thinking of starting a project. I feel like there’s so much covered in the visual area that I do not know what to research. Anyway, I met with some SURP people for dinner and we walked around a bit. After that, we went to the famous waffle cart because I’ve been tracking it and I finally got to eat the speculoos spread mmmmmm! Also, the gym here is super nice, it even has a rock climbing wall. I wanted to take a picture of it, but it would be a bit weird haha.

Waffle Cart

Maoz

I talked with my mentor for two hours today at a coffee shop about my project and I finally have a topic! I will be collaborating with Jordan, a PhD student at Harvard, doing a separate part of a big study. To keep it short, Jordan already started a study on how we learn and read letters, both by component and as a whole. People were much faster at learning novel letters as a whole. They submitted the paper, but it got sent back because something was missing. What I am doing is adding onto this study, and conducting experiments on objects, so it will sort of be how we recognize objects, not letters. This will hopefully add another dimension onto the paper for it to be published! I’m so excited to get started! Anyway, Jane and I went to a bhangra dance part at Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was so much fun, but at the end I still couldn’t bhangra L The park was really pretty at night with a view of the river and Manhattan. We basically danced for 3 hours straight. What a workout!

Finally Friday! I woke up 9am to go to a safety orientation then we had a SURP lunch with Dr. Chiye Aoki giving a talk about how GABA causes moody teenagers. It was really interesting. For dinner, I ate at Biryani cart and had kati rolls. I had two different kinds, one was SO GOOD, and the other was okay. Highly suggested!! I made macarons with Jane, but it failed for some unknown reason. She has made them before and they were perfectly fine, maybe it has to do with the oven, not us haha. We then went with her housemate to get Kung Fu bubble tea again, mmmm. I always end the day with food.

Fail macarons

Awesome Kati Rolls

Central Park

Saturday, I went to eat breakfast at a Polish restaurant called Neptune, it was very similar to American breakfast, but with really yummy bread. I then went to Seinfeld diner and Central Park with the SURP people. Central Park is so big, but it was a really nice walk. It felt nice being out of the city environment (even though it’s pretty much in the center).

Seinfeld Diner

 I then went to Long Island for the weekend. On the way there, we stopped at IKEA, which I kept hearing about, but it’s pretty cool and very cheap! For dinner, we went to this Chinese buffet, but it was so expensive $27 a person wtf, however the food was delicious.

Sunday, after breakfast I played tennis with Leo. It felt so refreshing to play again after all these years! After about half an hour, I started enjoying it more and more. I guess I was really tennis deprived in college haha. Unfortunately, it was way too hot, so we called it a day and went back to the house. Leo’s dad made dumplings, spinach/shrimp/pork filling, yum! I then headed to an outlet with Meng Tao a yi. That outlet has to be the biggest and most awesome/cheap/coolest one I’ve been to all my life. Everything was SO CHEAP. What a yi told me was that New York has the biggest discounts in America because of the thousands of people going to the outlets every day. I bought nice clothes that are usually $100 for $10, I mean seriously…lol, screw the random stores like Forever 21….haha. Anyway, at night we had a barbeque, cause it’s Memorial Day, and then walked along a pier. What an awesome day! I can’t believe it’s ONLY been a week since I moved in. 

Start of Summer

Ah, the start of summer. After reading the itinerary of my internship, I know I will learn so much this summer. There are lectures every week and something is always due every Friday. I am so glad I applied for this program and am very excited to see where it will lead me.

Currently it’s 3am and I’m sitting on the couch at Susana’s house. I’m staying with her family because my move-in day for NYU is after they kicked me out of GLC. Her family definitely reflects how she acts in real life, which is not a bad thing at all! They are all very fun and I think I’m slowly getting better at Cantonese. On a side note, it’s very cool that Sining and Jane will be here as well. It’s actually a nice feeling that we’ve all grown up so much and are all in a big city. It makes me feel very proud of us and gives a sense of accomplishment. We have definitely come very far, literally too.

Even though I’m in the city that never sleeps (wait…is that Vegas?). Uh…even though I’m in the Big Apple, I really have to try and focus on GRE and graduate school applications. These couple of days has been a good schedule and hopefully I’ll follow it after later with work added in. It goes: wake up, eat good food (including dimsum), go to library and study, Chinese pastry, go back to chill, eat more good food (Indian, home cooked meal, etc), watch TV, sleep. Obviously, you can tell that eating is very important in my life.

This is my first time actually ‘living’ in NYC and the first thing I have to mention is that the libraries here are so different than back home! They have many stories with security guards. You are not allowed to sleep or take your shoes off. They get mad at you over the slightest things and are pretty annoying. I also saw my first live protest. It was about how the city is cutting down on library funds by 25 million and that would result in the library opening only 3-4 days a week. People of all ages and ethnicities were there, waving signs in all different languages. It was really nice to see a community come together like that, despite all the cultural barriers in everyday life.

The last day before my move-in, I went with Susana’s family to a wedding. I believe this is called wedding crashing haha. Anyway, at first it was a bit awkward and boring because I knew no one, so I just sat there while everyone took pictures. Then, the good came. It was such good Chinese food! Anyway, there is a reason that I’m writing this. When it was everyone single’s turn to go up and catch, I went up, thinking I don’t want to catch this, I’m too young! However, somehow they threw it right at me and I had to catch it or it dropped to the ground lol. So, I didn’t know what happened next since the last wedding I went to was a while ago. They threw the garner and this random guy got it. He then had to put it on my leg with his mouth haha, it was so awkward, because he was kinda old. Later, I found out he was 27 and his name is Terry, so I guess it wasn’t too bad. The first thing he asked me was how old I am LOL, cause I guess I look like I’m 13. Anyway, everyone then danced a lot until almost midnight. It was the most interesting and fun experience this week haha, but I don’t wanna get married that soon. 

I have made a list of top 10 things I want to do this summer and hopefully it will be crossed off before I leave. In no particular order:

1.       Watch Broadway

2.       Watch a fashion show (I doubt this is likely…)

3.       Sew a tote bag

4.       Take nice pictures (especially at night: Brooklyn Bridge, Time Square after midnight, long exposure airplane in sky, etc.)

5.       Some museums like MoMA

6.       Six Flags New Jersey

7.       Skydive at Long Island

8.       Shop

9.       Eat: Try most of the famous cart foods and cool/interesting restaurants.

10.   Bake macarons

This is what happens when I actually make money during the summer L

Spring 2011

Besides freshman year and study abroad, this has definitely been one of the most fun semesters in college (which I guess makes it rank…4 out of 6 semesters? Lol). I met new friends, got closer with other friends, hung out more, and it was perfectly drama free.  

School

I think the reason I enjoyed this semester so much was because my classes did not include organic chemistry. Last year, I was so busy studying, I could not handle even the little things like going out to eat because thinking about not studying even stressed me out. This year, I took all the random classes that I needed to fulfill my major and pre-med requirements, linguistics, physics, comp sci, BCS. Although some were 200 level courses, I somehow easily managed to pull off a 3.7 and that is my highest GPA up to date. Hopefully it’ll get better from now on. J

Sigma

After being abroad for a semester, I realized that I was so busy last year I did not have a chance to be that involved. This year I took on three chairs, although they were very easy ones, and went to as many events as possible. I definitely got to know a lot of sisters much better and would like to know some of them more. It has been really nice being with them in and outside of Sigma events. I love all my sisters. They remind me of why I joined in the first place, it’s always nice to have them around and I know I can count on them when college is over and for more years to come.

CSA

I am so glad I was on Eboard for CSA, I have to say that I have learned so much organizing events with them. We definitely know how to have a good time, which includes a lot of food, while being on top of everything we do. These people are amazing and I am glad I got to know them this year. We’re pretty awesome.  I mean…we hung out with Wong Fu for a day! Being on Eboard is so much different than a member and I am very excited put together China Nite next year. I remember I was very indecisive on whether I wanted take the position, even during elections, but now I can say that I have put my mind to it and it will possibly be the highlight of my senior year.    

RICE

I love RICE crew! I have spent so much time with them this semester and learned a lot from everyone. Before I came to college, I always enjoyed dancing, but have never done any choreography. Meeting all these people and forming RICE are one of the highlights of my college thus far. Without them, I would have never found this passion for dancing. They are a group of amazing people that I love hanging out with. I have probably been with them more than anyone because of China Nite/Korea Night/AHM/Graduation performances but I enjoyed every single minute of it. Yes, even the 10 hour a day practices. After college, some of us may not have the opportunity to dance anymore, so I hope that next year we go all out and do some amazing stuff.

Life

Of course, there were some up and downs this semester, but mostly ups. I wish I had more hours in the day; there is so much I want to do before college is over. The only down side was that for a few months I wasn’t sure what to do with my life. Of course, most of my friends hit this stage with me at the same time. I guess I’ll call it…second semester junior crisis. Most of us are taking the GRE or MCAT or GMAT or something this summer and we are all afraid that we will not do well. If we don’t do well, everything we’ve worked for in college will be ruined. We would have to direct ourselves on another route to do something we may or may not want to do. That is the problem. However, I had amazing friends and family talk me through it and I just have to say I’m so grateful for everyone I have in my life.

I am so ready for summer adventures in NYC!