I've never considered myself much of a poetry fan, but every once in a while I'll come across something that speaks to me. Most recently, "Living" by Denise Levertov was one of those exceptions:
The fire in leaf and grass
so green it seems
each summer the last summer.
The wind blowing, the leaves
shivering in the sun,
each day the last day.
A red salamander
so cold and so
easy to catch, dreamily
moves his delicate feet
and long tail. I hold
my hand open for him to go.
Each minute the last minute.
Part of my reasoning behind starting this blog was to open myself up to new opportunities and experience the world in ways I hadn't before. The poem resonates with me because of its emphasis on living in the present, valuing experiences as they come to you but letting them go so you can embrace something else in the future. The poem's short, quick to read, and yet powerful enough to really capture one's attention.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
The Feast of San Gennaro
Two weeks ago I attended the Feast of San Gennaro with a good friend Hayley. I had hoped to publish this post earlier in the week, but my dad spilled coffee all over my computer and successfully broke it, leaving me without a computer for the remainder of the week. I finally got a new one today, so I'm trying to finish this guy up.
Hayley and I met downtown in that awkward area where Little Italy and Chinatown really seem to blend together, as in you see a fish market right next to a pastry shop stocked with cannolis, and proceeded to make our way up the street fair.
Let me say that this festival was HUGE. I accidentally stumbled upon it last year when I went downtown and it didn't seem to be that crowded, yet I realized that of course it would less packed on a Tuesday afternoon than it would be on a Saturday evening. However, despite my intimidation by big crowds, I managed to push my way through. I wanted to take nice pictures of the festival on my camera, but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to crowded for me to be able to pull my camera out my bag + it was raining and I didn't want to risk breaking my camera. I was forced to settle for pictures on my phone, which turned out less terribly than I thought they would.
It was hard for me to capture any good photos simply because of the swarm of people that kept pushing me out of their way when they walked by.
It started raining right when Hayley and I reached the end of the festival chain, so we decided to go into this cute little place called Macbar which is amazing because it ONLY SERVES MAC AND CHEESE!!!!!!!! Obviously I was very excited. I would recommend going there when not very full, because if you get a medium or large, you get a cool macaroni-shaped reusable container to carry your food around in.
Another unique experience of the evening was that I got to try a "cronoli". There was a lot of hype this passed summer about a new food item called the cronut, a mixture of a donut and croissant, sold only at this one bakery. Many bakeries have tried creating their own spin on the cronut, and the cronoli was Little Italy's interpretation, a cronut filled with cannoli cream. Hayley bought one and I had a bite, and I must say it was delicious. I don't think it needed the cream in the center, however, but I can definitely see why people wait outside of Dominique Ansel Bakery starting at 5 just to get their hands on two cronuts.
Hayley and I were a bit rushed on our way back from the festival as the light drizzle turned into a massive downpour. We ran to the nearest subway station and headed home. I would've liked to stay longer, but you just have to take what life throws your way sometimes.
Hayley and I met downtown in that awkward area where Little Italy and Chinatown really seem to blend together, as in you see a fish market right next to a pastry shop stocked with cannolis, and proceeded to make our way up the street fair.
Let me say that this festival was HUGE. I accidentally stumbled upon it last year when I went downtown and it didn't seem to be that crowded, yet I realized that of course it would less packed on a Tuesday afternoon than it would be on a Saturday evening. However, despite my intimidation by big crowds, I managed to push my way through. I wanted to take nice pictures of the festival on my camera, but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to crowded for me to be able to pull my camera out my bag + it was raining and I didn't want to risk breaking my camera. I was forced to settle for pictures on my phone, which turned out less terribly than I thought they would.
 |
| who couldn't love a giant cannoli?? |
Another unique experience of the evening was that I got to try a "cronoli". There was a lot of hype this passed summer about a new food item called the cronut, a mixture of a donut and croissant, sold only at this one bakery. Many bakeries have tried creating their own spin on the cronut, and the cronoli was Little Italy's interpretation, a cronut filled with cannoli cream. Hayley bought one and I had a bite, and I must say it was delicious. I don't think it needed the cream in the center, however, but I can definitely see why people wait outside of Dominique Ansel Bakery starting at 5 just to get their hands on two cronuts.
Hayley and I were a bit rushed on our way back from the festival as the light drizzle turned into a massive downpour. We ran to the nearest subway station and headed home. I would've liked to stay longer, but you just have to take what life throws your way sometimes.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Junior
I've just finished my third week of school, and I'm somewhat happy/not-so-happy to say that it has finally come on full throttle. I now at least know what to expect for the rest of the year when it comes to assignments, attitudes of my teachers, and class schedule which is nice, but the work is definitely starting to pile up, thus limiting the amount of time I have to write.
I say that things have really picked up now because I had my first test last week and have another 3 this week, and my test calendar should continue in a similar pattern for the rest of the year. I've gotten passed the boring first couple of days where teachers outline the syllabus and tell you that you can only take notes at home on the left-hand side of your notebook (which actually happened, by the way), so at least I'm learning now. The first couple days were also met with a lot of speeches from faculty members all telling us "Guys, you're going to work 749X harder than you've ever had this year. Some of you might die. Seriously," followed by the stress-management and "oh all your teachers are here for you even though they'll be slowly eating away at your soul with work" talks, which did not help me bring down my already high levels of anxiety. That just made me wish I could go back to the days where I would come home from school and watch Nickelodeon all afternoon while eating cheerios and not hating myself.
I went to the Feast of San Gennaro last Saturday evening with a friend, and I hope to have that post out by the end of this week. I brought my camera but it was raining and I didn't want to screw anything up so I took pictures on my phone instead.
Ciao! (you can see I've really embraced Italian culture)
I say that things have really picked up now because I had my first test last week and have another 3 this week, and my test calendar should continue in a similar pattern for the rest of the year. I've gotten passed the boring first couple of days where teachers outline the syllabus and tell you that you can only take notes at home on the left-hand side of your notebook (which actually happened, by the way), so at least I'm learning now. The first couple days were also met with a lot of speeches from faculty members all telling us "Guys, you're going to work 749X harder than you've ever had this year. Some of you might die. Seriously," followed by the stress-management and "oh all your teachers are here for you even though they'll be slowly eating away at your soul with work" talks, which did not help me bring down my already high levels of anxiety. That just made me wish I could go back to the days where I would come home from school and watch Nickelodeon all afternoon while eating cheerios and not hating myself.
I went to the Feast of San Gennaro last Saturday evening with a friend, and I hope to have that post out by the end of this week. I brought my camera but it was raining and I didn't want to screw anything up so I took pictures on my phone instead.
Ciao! (you can see I've really embraced Italian culture)
Monday, September 9, 2013
Fries to Pudding
Last week, in an attempt to fend off junior year anxiety from settling in too quickly, my friend and I decided to explore the East Village and try out a couple of restaurants to eat away our feelings. She had read about most of these places in a Buzzfeed article listing eateries (a word I loathe yet it seems to be the only appropriate one) that make living in New York during a shitty day worth it. Overall, I think the excursion went pretty well.
We started by going to a place called Pommes Frites and bought some poutine (a mixture of french fries, gravy, and cheese). While I've had better poutine, this was pretty close, and the fries were definitely good. It might have been more of a hit had I gotten regular fries and chose one of their various dipping sauces instead, but I'm not complaining.
On our way to our second stop, we passed by "Moishe's Bake Shop," a Kosher bakery hidden behind scaffolding, and decided to go in. We were met by a wide arrangement of baked goods making difficult to choose one thing that I wanted. I eventually decided on a sponge cake-like thing with cream in between the rolls of cake, filled with jelly and topped with sprinkles. I didn't know it had jelly at the beginning but it didn't make a difference: it was amazing. Perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing was that you got to tell them how big you wanted your piece to be, and the price is calculated by the weight, so you can configure both the size of your snack and wallet to your appetite. I got a bigger piece than I would have liked but it ended up being only $1.50 which is amazing for a place in the city.
My friend and I continued on to a place called Vanessa's Dumplings and ordered their pork and chive dumplings (you get 4 for $1!!!!!!!!!!). The dumplings were incredible and were served quickly, and the price is hard to argue with. I don't know where else you can get a meal for $1 in New York.
Our last stop on the East Village food tour was to a place called Sugar Sweet Sunshine, and boy did it make our day bright (sorry, I had to). We ordered the Chocolate Chip Extravaganza, which is sort of like chocolate chip cookie pudding. And trust me, it tasted as good as it sounds. I would recommend sticking to a small unless you're really hungry and craving something sweet, as the quantity of the pudding is a lot more than you would think. The employees also gave me a free cookie to go along with it! How sweet!
Go to all these places!!!!! They're delicious!!!!! I'll write soon!
We started by going to a place called Pommes Frites and bought some poutine (a mixture of french fries, gravy, and cheese). While I've had better poutine, this was pretty close, and the fries were definitely good. It might have been more of a hit had I gotten regular fries and chose one of their various dipping sauces instead, but I'm not complaining.
 |
| mmmmm poutine |
On our way to our second stop, we passed by "Moishe's Bake Shop," a Kosher bakery hidden behind scaffolding, and decided to go in. We were met by a wide arrangement of baked goods making difficult to choose one thing that I wanted. I eventually decided on a sponge cake-like thing with cream in between the rolls of cake, filled with jelly and topped with sprinkles. I didn't know it had jelly at the beginning but it didn't make a difference: it was amazing. Perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing was that you got to tell them how big you wanted your piece to be, and the price is calculated by the weight, so you can configure both the size of your snack and wallet to your appetite. I got a bigger piece than I would have liked but it ended up being only $1.50 which is amazing for a place in the city.
 |
| delicious pastry of which I do not know the name |
My friend and I continued on to a place called Vanessa's Dumplings and ordered their pork and chive dumplings (you get 4 for $1!!!!!!!!!!). The dumplings were incredible and were served quickly, and the price is hard to argue with. I don't know where else you can get a meal for $1 in New York.
 |
| FYI the brown sauce on the table is the one for the dumplings |
 |
| Definitely the best thing I've had in a while |
Monday, August 26, 2013
Choir Trip to DC
So about this time two months ago, my choir went on a trip to perform various concerts in Washington, D.C. I've been thinking a lot on how to narrow down the details of the trip to make it sound more interesting, but I eventually decided that maybe I should just go ahead and write it and see how it turns out. I don't consider myself one for proofreading, so hopefully no one is offended by my atrocious English.
We departed on Friday, May 24th at around 8 in the morning from Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, and luckily I didn't have to get up too early to be able to get there on time. My mom was one of the parent chaperones, so of course we were late to the pick-up spot. Once there, every chorister grabbed his or her (mostly her, the ratio of boys to girls is something like 8:1) robes, folders, and lunch and headed onto the bus. We got to travel in a really nice tour bus, which made the 5 hour trip somewhat bearable, despite the fact that I had to watch movies targeted towards the 10-year-olds. I wanted to sleep for the majority of the trip, but I had to finish writing an English paper that was due that day since I had been too excited to do it the night before/put it off for too long that I physically could not write it because my brain was unable to function at 3 in the morning (mostly the latter). That probably wasn't my best decision.
Immediately after arriving in D.C. we had our first concert: a performance at a veteran's home just outside of the city. All the veterans were super cute and seemed really excited to listen to us sing which made the whole experience so much more fun. I had a solo singing "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music but I definitely butchered it. The organizers at the home provided us with snacks at the end which made everything better, and I may or may not have taken a box of girl scout cookies to our hotel...
The veterans' home is located on Abraham Lincoln's property, so we got a tour of the premises and I was able to take a couple photos with his statue. I guess it's the closest I'll ever get to an actual picture with him.
We did a quick tour of the Jefferson Memorial with our tour guide whose name I forget, so I'll just call her Mary Antoinette. I was sometimes unable to understand some of her English under her heavy French accent, but most of us weren't even listening to her because we were too excited not being in New York/singing.
After viewing the Jefferson Memorial, we got dinner at a terrible burger place called Hamburger Hamlet. I'm normally picky with with my food yet will also acknowledge if I'm being overly critical, but trust me when I say that this food was absolutely terrible. I was expecting a Shakespearean themed burger joint. My expectations were not met. Not even the cookies were good, and it's pretty hard to mess up cookies. We were very disappointed.
We then checked into the Sheraton Hotel at Pentagon City, just outside of DC. We were also there at the same time a huge Indian wedding was going on, so about one hundred women in saris were there to greet us in the lobby. I shared a room with two guys, who also happen to be the only other males in the whole high school choir. I had a lot of work to do but they were incredibly hyper and were excited by the whole experience so I got none of it got done. Of course, this led to a series of panic attacks, but needless to say, I survived the ordeal.
The hotel provided us with breakfast in the morning which was quite nice as I did not feel like putting on clothes to leave the hotel and eat at a restaurant. I made many people's mornings worse by taking photos of them as they ate.
We did a lot of stuff on this trip, and I'm afraid of boring you with boring stories of the touristy stuff we did. So, to give you a quick rundown of the 2nd day in DC, my choir visited the Arlington National Cemetery (which I skipped out on so I could do work on the bus) and the Capitol before performing at the Basilica of the National Shrine where we completely missed a measure of one of our songs because nobody decided to start singing. We then had dinner at the Kennedy Cafe which was quite good, and headed out on the balcony to take some pictures. Throughout the day, Mary Antoinette unsuccessfully tried to teach us random crap about DC but no one listened because it was incorrect random crap that no one cares about.
The next day we performed at the Georgetown Presbyterian Church. We had to sit through the mass since we sang along to all the songs, but I actually listened to what the priest (a woman) had to say and found it quite interesting. I'm not a religious person at all but I think I felt more inclined to listen since I was forced to sit there anyway. We then drove to Georgetown University (my dad talked about the school while we drove there since Mary Antoinette was deemed incompetent at teaching us things) and sat around there for a bit. My mom and I ditched the choir afterwards so I could go back to the hotel and get some work done, as the trip was inconveniently taken just a week before finals.
On our last day we visited various attractions like the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials before returning home around 3 pm. After another 5 hour bus ride I got dinner with my mom and crashed once I got home.
I'm sorry this was not the most enlightening of posts but I had to write it simply because it's been in the works for 3 months. I will try to make things interesting from now on. I think I'm starting to put all the pieces of the blogging puzzle together.
We departed on Friday, May 24th at around 8 in the morning from Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, and luckily I didn't have to get up too early to be able to get there on time. My mom was one of the parent chaperones, so of course we were late to the pick-up spot. Once there, every chorister grabbed his or her (mostly her, the ratio of boys to girls is something like 8:1) robes, folders, and lunch and headed onto the bus. We got to travel in a really nice tour bus, which made the 5 hour trip somewhat bearable, despite the fact that I had to watch movies targeted towards the 10-year-olds. I wanted to sleep for the majority of the trip, but I had to finish writing an English paper that was due that day since I had been too excited to do it the night before/put it off for too long that I physically could not write it because my brain was unable to function at 3 in the morning (mostly the latter). That probably wasn't my best decision.
Immediately after arriving in D.C. we had our first concert: a performance at a veteran's home just outside of the city. All the veterans were super cute and seemed really excited to listen to us sing which made the whole experience so much more fun. I had a solo singing "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music but I definitely butchered it. The organizers at the home provided us with snacks at the end which made everything better, and I may or may not have taken a box of girl scout cookies to our hotel...
The veterans' home is located on Abraham Lincoln's property, so we got a tour of the premises and I was able to take a couple photos with his statue. I guess it's the closest I'll ever get to an actual picture with him.
We did a quick tour of the Jefferson Memorial with our tour guide whose name I forget, so I'll just call her Mary Antoinette. I was sometimes unable to understand some of her English under her heavy French accent, but most of us weren't even listening to her because we were too excited not being in New York/singing.
 |
| The Prophet herself |
After viewing the Jefferson Memorial, we got dinner at a terrible burger place called Hamburger Hamlet. I'm normally picky with with my food yet will also acknowledge if I'm being overly critical, but trust me when I say that this food was absolutely terrible. I was expecting a Shakespearean themed burger joint. My expectations were not met. Not even the cookies were good, and it's pretty hard to mess up cookies. We were very disappointed.
 |
| some mediocre Hamburger Hamlet salad |
We then checked into the Sheraton Hotel at Pentagon City, just outside of DC. We were also there at the same time a huge Indian wedding was going on, so about one hundred women in saris were there to greet us in the lobby. I shared a room with two guys, who also happen to be the only other males in the whole high school choir. I had a lot of work to do but they were incredibly hyper and were excited by the whole experience so I got none of it got done. Of course, this led to a series of panic attacks, but needless to say, I survived the ordeal.
The hotel provided us with breakfast in the morning which was quite nice as I did not feel like putting on clothes to leave the hotel and eat at a restaurant. I made many people's mornings worse by taking photos of them as they ate.
We did a lot of stuff on this trip, and I'm afraid of boring you with boring stories of the touristy stuff we did. So, to give you a quick rundown of the 2nd day in DC, my choir visited the Arlington National Cemetery (which I skipped out on so I could do work on the bus) and the Capitol before performing at the Basilica of the National Shrine where we completely missed a measure of one of our songs because nobody decided to start singing. We then had dinner at the Kennedy Cafe which was quite good, and headed out on the balcony to take some pictures. Throughout the day, Mary Antoinette unsuccessfully tried to teach us random crap about DC but no one listened because it was incorrect random crap that no one cares about.
 |
| a pretty accurate depiction of my choir |
On our last day we visited various attractions like the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials before returning home around 3 pm. After another 5 hour bus ride I got dinner with my mom and crashed once I got home.
I'm sorry this was not the most enlightening of posts but I had to write it simply because it's been in the works for 3 months. I will try to make things interesting from now on. I think I'm starting to put all the pieces of the blogging puzzle together.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Applause
Let me just take a second to say how obsessed I am with Lady Gaga's new song "Applause", and how disappointed I am that it only debuted at #6 on the Billboard charts while Katy Perry's new song "Roar" debuted at #2. I'm getting tired of sappy song after sappy song coming from her. And quite frankly I don't even think "Roar" is good at all. She needs to revamp her sound back to what made her famous, like "I Kissed a Girl" or "Hot N Cold", or maybe that's just me.
Also "Royals" by Lorde is the shit, even though she makes me hate myself because she's only 16 and has experienced a level of success that I never will. I think she comes second only to Jojo in terms of young teenagers who've managed to have significant success in music in recent years, even though Jojo's prime was back in '06. I wonder what happened to her...
Also "Royals" by Lorde is the shit, even though she makes me hate myself because she's only 16 and has experienced a level of success that I never will. I think she comes second only to Jojo in terms of young teenagers who've managed to have significant success in music in recent years, even though Jojo's prime was back in '06. I wonder what happened to her...
Tallinn!
Hey guys! So I had limited access to internet while I was in Finland, and only two days after returning from Tallinn I left for St. Petersburg, where it was impossible for me to write anything since I purposely left my phone in Finland. So I'll just pick up where I left off:
We decided to go on a day trip to Tallinn since it's only a 2 hour boat ride away from Helsinki, and it would give us something else to do since we were spending so much time in Finland. Unfortunately, in order to spend the full day there we had to wake up at 5:30 to catch a 6:45 boat, but that was the only downside to the day, other than the sub-par cheesecake that I ate on the boat for breakfast.
We exited the boat at around 9 o'clock and made our way to the old side of the city, walking through a big shopping center along the way. It pained me to listen to the ads for the Regina Spektor concert which was happening in a couple of days and that I wouldn't be able to go to because I would be in St. Petersburg, but let's move past that...
If you've never been to the Old Town of Tallinn, it is absolutely gorgeous. It's one of the very few areas in Europe where they've kept a lot of the Medieval buildings intact, yet I don't think all the tourist shops were around when people lived there back in the Middle Ages. We walked around for ages admiring the buildings and walking into various shops. I also got to ride a Segway for the first time in my life, and now I want one even though most people look stupid riding them. My mom's host sister from Finland ended up crashing the Segway into the sidewalk and breaking it, ending that bit of fun.
Most of the day was spent just walking around, as the old cobble-stone roads twist and turn seemingly leading in no direction. I went to a couple interesting museums and had a sub-par massage as well, but walking composed at least 50% of the time. Because of this, I got to see a lot of traditional Estonian shops and cuisine, like McDonalds.
Probably one of the most interesting parts of the visit was going on the KGB tour at the Viru Hotel, especially since our tour guide was hilarious. If you're going to Tallinn for some reason I would highly recommend going on the tour. I would also not recommend going to the zoo as I heard it was quite sad and disappointing.
It started drizzling towards the end of the trip so luckily it was time for dinner. We went to this amazing restaurant with incredibly food that was surprisingly cheap. I think I had chicken for the main course and tried their frozen cheesecake for dessert. It definitely made up for the dry, stale cheesecake I had had in the morning.
We started making our way back to the dock at around 9:45 since we had a 10:30 ship.
Unfortunately, the ship did not leave until 11:30 for whatever reason, but of course it had to involve the ship violently shaking for 20 minutes making me think the ship was going to sink, which is my biggest fear behind being murdered. Obviously that was not fun. Eventually the ship took off and we arrived in Helsinki at 12:30. I had tried sleeping on the ship by curling up between two chairs, which did not work as I woke up with a huge knot in my neck. It's safe to say that I slept well that night.
I have a lot of shit to write about so please bear with me if not a lot of it is out soon.
We decided to go on a day trip to Tallinn since it's only a 2 hour boat ride away from Helsinki, and it would give us something else to do since we were spending so much time in Finland. Unfortunately, in order to spend the full day there we had to wake up at 5:30 to catch a 6:45 boat, but that was the only downside to the day, other than the sub-par cheesecake that I ate on the boat for breakfast.
We exited the boat at around 9 o'clock and made our way to the old side of the city, walking through a big shopping center along the way. It pained me to listen to the ads for the Regina Spektor concert which was happening in a couple of days and that I wouldn't be able to go to because I would be in St. Petersburg, but let's move past that...
If you've never been to the Old Town of Tallinn, it is absolutely gorgeous. It's one of the very few areas in Europe where they've kept a lot of the Medieval buildings intact, yet I don't think all the tourist shops were around when people lived there back in the Middle Ages. We walked around for ages admiring the buildings and walking into various shops. I also got to ride a Segway for the first time in my life, and now I want one even though most people look stupid riding them. My mom's host sister from Finland ended up crashing the Segway into the sidewalk and breaking it, ending that bit of fun.
 |
| Overhead view of the Old Town of Tallinn |
 |
| Riding the Segway (FYI that's not me) |
Probably one of the most interesting parts of the visit was going on the KGB tour at the Viru Hotel, especially since our tour guide was hilarious. If you're going to Tallinn for some reason I would highly recommend going on the tour. I would also not recommend going to the zoo as I heard it was quite sad and disappointing.
It started drizzling towards the end of the trip so luckily it was time for dinner. We went to this amazing restaurant with incredibly food that was surprisingly cheap. I think I had chicken for the main course and tried their frozen cheesecake for dessert. It definitely made up for the dry, stale cheesecake I had had in the morning.
 |
| Apparently I did not take any photos of my meal, but for some reason I took a picture of the restaurant |
We started making our way back to the dock at around 9:45 since we had a 10:30 ship.
 |
| I don't know what I was thinking but I felt compelled to take this photo of a pidgeon |
I have a lot of shit to write about so please bear with me if not a lot of it is out soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)