31 October 2010

lolli, macca's, and panera

i had the best past three days (including today) this school year so far!
thursday- we practiced and rehearsed outside in the back parking lot with the winds in the high 60's and that faint smell of nostalgia that remind me of colorguard nights. the effect is beautiful: marimba echoing, the sharp pierce of the xylo, and the vibrating pulse of the vibe through your soul, with the addition of the coyotes howling/barking in the back...
friday- walk to macca's with Jordan + Iman and we had various discussions about middle eastern culture, and of course Macca's menu (we had to). back at school i curled all of the girl's hair in pit. at first it was good, but then i ran out of time and so the last few girl's hair was crap (sorry). the boys....okay someone needs to learn how to jell hair. (not me. and this is not even being sarcastic). at around 630ish the sky was so beautiful. a mix of clementine orange and deep blue, striped too. the score for the varsity game was close. but we didn't win. after game percussion and some pit kids went to hang out at lollicup till 12 in the morning. it was chill, i haven't had boba in such a long time.
saturday- common app session with Chris at Panera. from 11-4pm. i love some things about them: free refills on hotwater (for my tea), their chocolate pastry was so soft, and they heat up your baguette before serving it toyou. some things that are not so pleasing: their sandwich menu isn't quite my taste, the prices are too high (but good thing food is still NY mode for me, so it didn't make me flinch as much), internet connection is insecure.

for halloween- i don't know what i'm going to be, or do. i can choose from Disneyland, trick-or-treating, or studying for a chem test.

27 October 2010

wednesday

lots and lots of chemistry. government. one flew over the cuckoo's nest
now playing: Cocorosie - Lemonade
can't believe i'm still here. and i still have a pile of homework waiting for me.
i come home. organize pictures of nyc (coming soon!) and fall dead on my bed. i wake up at 530 nauseous, watch THIS video and then on tumblr and youtube unconsciously. at about 8 i awaken from this dream-state and print out 52 pages of chemistry to read, and complete (now). if you really want an imagelaying on the floor with dark grey Columbia Uni sweater and christmas pj shorts, hood over head, wishing i was still in Manhattan...one week ago i was on my way to the airport. going to NYC.
(via tumblr) i miss that. i hate how i become so lazy when I’m in cali. Lazy and slow like the people here. It’s cali's culture, but it’s doused and drowned me. But it’s funny how something i really like, can make me work so hard. it’s like a fiery iron that burns me and makes me chase after it. Otherwise, I would just sit here....why am I losing that? MANHATTAN I MISS YOU SO MUCH ]':
-i.

ps. i noticed that if you click the picture for a larger image, there's so many things you can find captured in the frame that basically tells you everything about me #LOL okay have fun looking.

23 October 2010

a saturday

columbia university faculty house second floor


Columbia feels like my home already. Too bad it's not. And probably will never be.... ah dreams dreams dreams. Shattered by laziness.

RICHARD IS COMING OKAY BYE GUISE. GOING TO CLEAN UP WORKSTATION.
my deepest apologies for the awful quality. it's from the laptop webcam

In the concrete jungle where dreams are made of

day 0-1
930 pm flight LAX→ arrive JFK 535 am
take the blue shuttle van to 35th street & 7th ave. check into Wingate by Wyndham. hot breakfast in the lobby.
pass Parson's New School, go into a random Mickey D's to book tickets for citytour hopon/hopoff tours.
pick up bus ticket, museum tickets, and ferry tickets at Madam Tussad's.
downtown tour (travel through midtown, pass Greenwich, all the way to near Ground Zero / stop at Battery Park.)
started to rain.
visit Wall St., Trinity Church, (random borders to buy a cd), walk around some more... (-$15 for a zip hoodie my dad needed cause it was raining and he needed a hood.)
hop back on the double decker. travel pass downtown again back to midtown (china town, little italy, up up up back to midtown.)
hop off at Rockefeller center. lunch downstairs in 'Wich Craft. Pastrami Panini with Mozzarella Cheese
spot that cranberry thing. you know..that thing you always see on TV? (pictures later)
walk around on 5th ave. giant 3 story h&m (-$15 for a sweater), walk into Official NBA store, browsed Zara, saw Hermes, Prada, Juicy Couture, A|X, Bare Minerals, MAC, Louis Vuitton, Takashimaya (closed ]: ) && way more. everything is so amazing, and unique that I ended up not buying anything.
*note: they sell different things on the east coast that's more 'european' because european visit the east coast more. whereas westcoast is more 'asian' style because its closer to asia. also the weather plays an important factor because in H&M they sold all wool, sweaters, coats, furry hats, thermals. and the coats were all 20%-50% off. (amazing) hahaha.
then MoMA gift shop = cute ceramics
run past Saks, Bergdorfs, FAO, Apple Store (promises to go back to Bergdorfs and Dylan's Candy Shop). Stop in Central Park to get waffles and dinges from the Waffel Truck (: <3 YUM ♥(v v sorry for webcam quality)

hop back onto the doubledecker back to midtown.
Carnegie Hall & Julliard
midtown transfer bus onto the uptown doubledecker. pass by Harlem (apollo theater), Columbia University, Barnard, Central Park, Lincoln Center, Madison Square, Upper East Side ♥ (many millionaire's houses//yoko ono's home), the MET.
get off the double decker back near Times Square.
wander wander wander... (it's very cold)
42nd & 7th ave. night tour... midtown lights ♥, downtown lights, brooklyn bridge, brooklyn tour (jay-z and beyonce stuff), new york skyline from brooklyn ♥ (soo pretty), end back in midtown.
walk back to hotel.
walk to IL PUNTO Ristorante. (-$19 for spaghetti al peperoncino e pesto di carciofi
) olive oil flavour too strong. unsatisfied. manager apologizes and gives us almond bisconettes
walk back to hotel
FALL DEAD.
(it sounds so rushed. but it really wasn't. and this thing is an 'at your own pace' soo...yep)
day 2
hot breakfast downstairs. (tea tea tea, bacon, waffles, eggs, bagels, juice...etc) view from 17th floor in room (web cam quality sorry)

"taxi taxi !! take us to Amsterdam and 116th pleasee !" (-$20)
Columbia University Faculty House. (first floor room 2)
sit outside in the lobby doing college apps, tumblr, facebook, txting....
lunch at Pinnacle. NY style pepperoni pizza  & clam chowder (-$5) YUM ♥ // Columbia Bookstore.
back in Faculty House. Richard Leong visits for 2 hours (430-630) Educates me about the uni, talks about new yorkers, and jokes about random stuff...(jersey hatin. -silent yes- HAHAHA inside joke)
dinner at Ollie's chinese restaurant. beef with snowpeas (-$9) physical fight breaks out among two employees. whole restaurant stares and boss scolds them in chinese. mexican waiter cleans up broken glass.
goes back to faculty house and sit there for 2 more hours.
"taxi taxi take me to 35th and 7th ave"
drops things off at hotel but takes Madeline-Amelie with me.
strolls around time square. picture here, picture there...random newyorkers runinto my picture, and instantly my attractiveness drops by 70% T_T they make me look like a freaking ugly snowman. (okay rant over). many tourist stores, picture on F21's giant screen with everyone else in timesquare. walk to see the giant tkts stand, all the way to Gershwin Theater to check out Wicked showings, and the Hersey's store.
back to hotel. die again.
day 3
wake up so late, i didn't even hear my alarm go off. (woke up 4 hours later than set alarm time)
get leftovers at breakfast (most of the stuff was already gonee)
"hello can you take us to Amsterdam and 116th?"
upstairs today. great view of city...big table filled with hot water, tea bags, cinnamon apple tea, water, & coffee (v v sorry for webcam quality)

makes milk tea for self from Revolution (c) English Breakfast tea, + brown sugar + milk. yes!
walks out to Pinnacle for pepperoni pizza again. and a 1.5 L Smart H2O
2 hours at Columbia book store. (-$40 for sweater) no more sweats ]':
back on the second floor. internet stops connecting for 4 min...gets pissed off...stomachache comes along with that due to the cheese from the pizza...goes into fml mode, retarts computer...happy camper again (:
waiting for Richard to come by for a campus tour... nope. instead i went on this night cruise tour of manhattan on brooklyn at night.
after millions of photos, free bus shuttle courtesy of New York Waterways.
late night snackin at mickey d's. spotted: halloween bucket for kids meal SOO CUTE.
walking around around...bout to go home when we decided we were going into Macy's to check it out. wooden escalators (yes, so legit) and elevator riding. We rode the elevator and stopped on everyfloor to stick our heads out to see what was on each floor (8 floors) and then rode the wooden escalator back down. they have SO MUCH CLOTHES and restaurants!
dies in the hotel.
day 4
breakfast as usual downstairs. they had patties (boo. bacon is better)
subway to SoHo.
MUJI STORE SPOTTED. RUSH IN. NOW NOW NOW! spend an hour (-$15appx) ♥ ♥
jewlery store across called 'So Good'
walk to find Marc Jacobs, i find the headquarters instead. (LOL) and on the way there, i found Alexander Wang's office too (LOL again)..
TOPSHOP BABY(; three levels of pure joy. too bad i'm also pure broke and pure 'no-space-in-luggage' (-$30 for circle scarf after student discount) (AHEM. I VIL BE BAYCK)
walk around to look for cafe for lunch. stop by a really cute french cafe&adjacent bakery called Balthazar; too bad they're booked for the entire day...so iphone power directs us to Boom on (152 Spring St.) West Broadway. very indie/gypsy cafe (well most cafes in Soho are indie/gypsy). such good spaghettio ♥ and good french bread. the rosemary in the olive oil is slightly weird though.
run back to the subway to ride to 5th ave.
hello big underground Apple store, hello bergdorf goodman (from exterior), hello FAO & huge teddy bears.
then walk all the way to Dylan's Candy shop. TAO bar is spotted. (-$10 for 4 bars of chocolate) (cookies n creme, milk, dark, toffee bits)
finds a metro station. meets the sketchy hobo who sold a metro ticket. (joon bum says hobos can be CIA agents at times)
repack all bags. good bye Wyndam ! good bye Times Square! D':
find metro station.
$2.50 metro pass to ride all the way to Sutphin Boulevard – Archer Avenue – JFK Airport (30-45 min approx)(saves $55) and transfer to airtrain.
no more city view. no more goodness.
overpriced dinner at BonFire (in terminal 2)(-$9 caesar salad & -$18 for 3 tortillas with salsa and steak wrap)
9:00 flight is 30 min delayed.
boarding / random seating arrangements.
super funny flight attendant. (reminded me of mitchell davis)(jokes are hilarious)
delta is good. (you can pick CD's to listen to, ex) vampire weekend, justin bieber, taylor swift, imogen heap, john mayer, jack johnson..etc) (you can pick from either peanuts, pretzels, or cookies to eat why? other domestic flights don't even have anything to eat)(drink cups are twice the size of other airlines. more convenient)
turbulence. BIG BIG but fun turbulence.

(pictures to come later)

sigh. back to LA. too warm. too slow. too lazy. too abandoned.
manhattan i miss you already with your cold winds, busy streets, and the city that never sleeps