I promise I'm not a Gangsta...

I've recently re-examined my reasons for wanting to start a blog in the first place: I hoped to become more adventurous and open my eyes up to the city by exploring new neighborhoods just for the hell of it; however, my blog has so far only been an account of things I would have normally done or experienced, rather than experiences that would make me step out of my comfort zone or known territory.

So today I tried to change that. I decided to go to Soho, Little Italy, and Chinatown with one of my friends. While I visit all of these places on a somewhat-regular basis, what I did today is what I hope to accomplish more of in the future: walking around and trying to uncover hidden gems in the city to increasing my knowledge of the place I call home.

I spent the entire morning on the Upper West Side at a friend's house and finally went downtown at 5ish. I went to a place called Macbar for dinner. I don't know whether to call it a restaurant or not, but it's basically a tiny little shop that only sells macaroni and cheese. Of course, there are a myriad of different types to choose from, so you can never feel bored of mac & cheese. I got margarita macaroni and was given a noodle-shaped container to hold it in, which I still have. I've noticed that more and more places in New York are coming up with fancy containers for their food, probably just to charge more money for their dishes. However, the macaroni and cheese was reasonably priced ($8 for a medium container, which can serve as two meals for someone with a mild appetite).

After dinner, I went to Rice to Riches (website to come once it's finished), one of my favorite stops in all of New York. Just like Macbar, Rice to Riches only serves one type of food, but in this case it's rice pudding. I'm not normally a rice pudding fan, but Rice to Riches hits it out of the ballpark, not to mention all the funny signs that hang on the walls of the restaurant. It's always hard to choose from the variety of different flavors, but the butterscotch, cheesecake, and caramel are tough to beat. Rice to Riches also serves it's food in a nice container, which I've now started to collect and can use as tupperware for dishes I eat at home. However, Rice to Riches is very expensive, so I only go once every couple of months as to not go bankrupt.

The exterior of Rice to Riches

After, my friend and I just walked downtown a bit. We passed by a very nice balloon man, and I got my friend to pose for a couple photos with him:

We then went to a sketchy alley, where I took several photos of my friend hoping she would use them for her facebook profile picture, which she did.

 The day was pretty normal until two aspiring rappers came up to me on my way home and shoved a CD in my hands and demanded that I give them a tip for it. After handing it back, I walked for another block until I was approached by the same two men--they had been following me the whole time. I was not put at ease in spite of one of them telling me "Yo son, don't be worried. I promise I'm not a gangsta." They went and harassed some different people after my friend threatened to call the cops. It's useful having friends who actually have balls.

Overall, Soho, Little Italy, and Chinatown are incredibly fun neighborhoods to go and visit, which is why I do it so often. Hopefully I'll walk around Brooklyn sometime soon, as I very frequently go there unless it's to get to the New York Aquarium to volunteer.

Junior Team Tennis Finals!

I had some trouble deciding whether to write about my Junior Team Tennis finals or the choir trip first. Then I realized it's only fitting that I go in chronological order:


SO, throughout the year a select few of kids in my tennis program played on a tennis team (called the "Harlem Treers") that competed on weekends in a lead-up to the regional championships in April. My team was absolutely amazing and I'm extremely grateful that I'm able to train with them on a regular basis. We played well throughout the year and we were ultimately seeded second at the finals, which took place the last Sunday of April (the 24th???).

Since my family doesn't own a car, my dad had to rent one to be able to get to the National Tennis Center out in Queens. We could've taken the train but the subway system was incredibly messed up and it would have taken an extra hour, so we thought driving would be more convenient. My father ended up driving two of my teammates as well, so I guess renting the car was a good choice.

We got to the tennis center at 11, checked in, and then warmed up on an empty court before the contest started. It was extremely windy, but luckily I brought a warm-up suit which did not only save me from the cold but also made me look like an incredibly legitimate tennis player, which I like to think I am. The official competition started at 12, so we then headed over to the courts we were playing on, and we all snapped a few photos on my camera:

Tyra, captain of the team (pictured left), and Sofia (on the right)

Isadora (left), and Dina (right)

Unfortunately, the girls were much more interested in taking photos than the guys, so I have no pictures of Stephen or Justin.

Tyra getting ready to serve (featuring my racket)

We beat the first two teams incredibly easily, losing only one match out of 10 (unfortunately I was the one who lost, but the guy cheated so I'll forgive myself). Each round we would play one boys' singles, girls' singles, boys' doubles, girls' doubles, and mixed doubles match.

Then we played the last team. Out of nowhere we had to play people who were incredibly talented, and we were already tired from the day (our opponents only had to play one team to make it to the finals) and weren't playing well because we had only played crappy teams. We ended up losing, but it was pretty close. Tyra and I were still playing a match from the second round when we started playing the last team, so we weren't able to select who on our team would play who on the other team. We maybe could have won if we were able to choose, but the other team really deserved to win.

I got a nice silver medal and a participation ribbon, but of course it would have been better had we won and gone on to the state finals. But I guess you gotta take what's given to you.

Yay summer!!

I'm finally done with school!

While I'm not only pleased that this means I no longer have to wake up at the crack of dawn every morning and proceed to do strenuous work all day, I'm also happy that summer break is here because it'll give me more time to write. I still have not fulfilled my promise of posting photos and writing about my Junior Team Tennis finals nor my choir's trip to Washington, D.C. Both of those will be coming within the next couple days, I promise. And I really mean it this time.

I would write more/write a post about something else right now, but it's currently 1:35 in New York right now and I don't have the energy to do so. I'm barely able to stay awake to write this.

I will be posting soon. Thanks for tolerating me.

Prelude to DC

I'm currently sitting at my desk at the Sheraton Hotel outside of Washington D.C. while my roommates are practically spooning in bed. After sharing a bed for two nights, this is thankfully my night to have one to myself.

Now why am I in Washington D.C.? On Friday I could have given you a straightforward answer, but after three screaming-children-filled nights, one very shitty meal, and one mental breakdown later, I'm currently re-evaluation my life choices. I'm not even sure why I'm here anymore.

Ok. The truth is my choir decided to come to D.C. to perform a series of shows after we were thrown into the spotlight as a result of our critically-acclaimed Saturday Night Live performance. Realistically, our choir director probably just called some friends up and asked if they would want us to sing, but I like telling myself that we were invited to come so that I feel important.

We were on a bus for 5 hours on Friday. I had to vote to watch August Rush just to avoid Madagascar 3. I hate August Rush. 

I planned to get work done but all I ended up doing was reading a little bit of a book and finishing an English paper I had fallen asleep writing the night before. I guess I couldn't expect much from the bus ride since there were 2000 little kids all screaming/singing songs that are not ok to sing on a bus (i.e. songs we had to sing at our concerts and that I was tired of hearing).

We eventually sang our concerts and I took 500+ photos, but now one of the guys I'm rooming with is leaning over my shoulder, so I'll use this as an appropriate time to sign off. 

Lana Del Rey is a genius

Ok. I can't hide it anymore. I know I sound like a teenage white girl when I say this but Lana Del Rey is absolutely amazing.

Originally, I was convinced that Lana Del Rey was talentless and sang sappy songs knowing that they would sell. However, I've now come to the realization that she's a genius, or at least smart enough to hire people who are geniuses, which means she must be somewhat intelligent, right?

Let me prove my point: Lana Del Rey clearly knows her stuff. She's obviously heavily invested in 50s and 60s Americana, highlighted in several of her music videos. I have to say, her music video for "National Anthem" is probably the best music video I've ever seen. I mean that's not saying much because most artists either jump around with their shirts off or have flashy lights (or most commonly both), probably in an attempt to make everyone watching have a seizure so they can't remember how bad the video was. But seriously, this music video is great. Lana opened with her rendition of Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday" to the President and then recreated home videos of the Kennedy family in order to make the sense of corruption come full circle. I still don't know why A$AP Rocky had to play President Kennedy but it worked.

Now she has a new music video for her lead single "Young and Beautiful" off the "The Great Gatsby" soundtrack (which is pretty solid by the way). The music video is pretty simple but the song fits the mood of "The Great Gatsby" pretty well. I've yet to see the movie but I've heard terrible things about it so I have mixed feelings about seeing it with my English class on Wednesday. Hopefully I don't think it sucks as much as everyone else does.

Ciao.

News just in on my phone

So! It's been about 3 weeks.

The mystery of "which asshole stole my phone?" has been solved!

If you don't remember what happened, basically, I was incredibly stupid and left my coat unattended on a chair at the National Tennis Center a couple weeks ago, and one of the cleaning ladies ended up stealing my phone and all of the money in my wallet. Fortunately, she was not too bright either, as she picked up my coat and moved it to a different location while doing this, allowing the management at the tennis center to figure out who stole my shit after I filed a police report. The police ended up getting my phone back, but I needed to buy a new one anyway because the lady seemed to have smashed it with a hammer or something like that.

(maybe she ran it over with a car??)

Anyway, now everything has gotten all official and I got a letter from an assistant to the DA in Queens. I'm part of an official court case! Maybe it'll go on to become one of those iconic Supreme Court Decisions like Brown v. Board of Education or Marbury v. Madison and future American high school students will have to learn about me. Probably not because it's just a minor felony and will be handled in a small court, but anything is possible, right? At least I'll end up getting paid a restitution fee from the lady that clearly broke my phone (she claims it was "like that already").

I'll let you know if I end up going to court.

Pandora is amazing

Ok. Pandora radio has to be the most glorious thing ever. Whoever created it is a genius because it's algorithm for finding music it thinks you would like is incredibly accurate; I have discovered so many new artists and songs that I have fallen completely in love with. Unfortunately, since I'm a loser and have moral qualms about downloading stuff illegally, I must wait until I have money to be able to purchase all of these songs on iTunes. I also am just too lazy to search for and crop photos to be the cover art for the music I would download.

http://www.pandora.com/

Yay Pandora