Sunday, April 06, 2008

Lots Of Food

Clearly I am busy, since my writings are sporadic, far and in between. Sadly, not much of it amounts to good material for interesting tales.
I work for LM, which is getting increasingly hectic and harder to control. I work for Sanavita, which I really enjoy and have time to read and talk to the employees about our spiritual selves. I love that place. I go to classes after going to the gym. Rinse, repeat.

Let's see...I finished Middlesex a few days ago. Really interesting book, but I was not a fan of the ending. I liked the symbolism and all, but the ending could have been a bit more satisfying for me.

Rimi came to stay over for a night last Thursday. She came in late, we chit chatted for a while late into the morning. It was really nice to see her, but it was too bad we didn't see any more of each other than just the sleep-over party we created.

The next day I woke up really early so I could go to a long day of Wasserman's Boot Camp for NonProfit Professionals. It was pretty informative, I learned a lot of little nuances and nuggets about the "world-changing" industry. And I networked a bit with a few professionals from non-profits that I really want to work for! Maybe someday...
The cool part about there was that, by chance!, I ended up being sat next to this German exchange student I met on the first day of the semester that I quickly grew ga-ga for! Too bad I quickly found out he's already taken, and leaving soon. But it was really fun to bond with him the whole day. He reminds me a LOT of Felix. It must be a German thing.
It was too bad that they had only wheat & gluten things to eat for breakfast and lunch. I had to smile with meal bars. I hit the gym afterwards.
Lauren and I chilled out afterwards for the night. I don't remember what we were up to exactly...

The next day I woke up and got ready early in the morning to go uptown to Harlem, also known as "where white people don't go to". My friend Billy (Venezuelan) had called me up earlier in the week to ask me for help moving him into his sublet apartment. He was moving back from Minnesota and had a UHaul full of stuff. So I helped him for a few hours haul his stuff up three flights of stairs into his studio with his other buddy Luciano (also Venezuelan). I felt very athletic while moving up and down the stairs loaded down with a bunch of stuff.
After we had an interestingly complicated time trying to return the UHaul, we celebrated his move-in with lunch at this amazing little taqueria near his apartment. Translation: thank goodness I was with two Spanish-as-first-language guys. I had no idea what I ordered, and everyone was speaking Spanish! It was kind of cool, and I think I'm picking up the language a bit.
We then went back to Billy's place and listened to Latin alternative rock, like Gustavo Cerati. I really liked it! Who knew?
Later that night I got home with a cup of Very Berry (so so good frozen yogurt), and Neil came over and we chit chatted until late.

Skip to Tuesday, where I discovered the magnificence of Charlie Brown from a glorious vegan tapas place I will discuss later. ALSO! Auriane from ScPo and her English boyfriend Giles come into town for the week! I haven't seen them for almost a year now! I made them go to GoBo and they ventured into real vegetarian goodness, which they actually really enjoyed! We talked a lot, and I gave them a tour in my neighborhood afterwards. It was a sweet time, and I hope to be going to Paris sometime soon to enjoy their company some more.

On Wednesday I finally started running outside again! It is sooo much better than running on blasted treadmills. I actually can last for 40 minutes outside.

On Thursday I was up early to dig thoroughly in the library archives for my 30-page business case. Pretty exhausting materials, just to warn you.
When I walked over to work, I ran into my coworkers and was pulled into a Korean BBQ, Do Hwa. The bibimbop there was pretty great, but the place wasn't terribly gf-friendly. At the restaurant I was trying to educate a few of my coworkers about the joys and sensuality of food. A lot of them listened and were quite interested in what I knew and felt with food - and my love of most foods - but one would have nothing to do with it. To her, food is purely a functional thing; for nourishing body of needed minerals. Funny, she was a pretty large women...which shows that she apparently uses food for something a little more than just nourishment.
I ran to a meeting with a professor, which was followed by a fast run-in at a Stern Senior event: wine tasting! I apparently know the valedictorian of Stern, and his dad's vineyard sponsored a wine tasting event for us. The wine was really excellent, too! Sadly, I don't drink much (if at all) anymore, and the finger foods were all gluten, so I got tipsy rather quickly. I hung out with some good friends I hadn't seen in a while, and found out one of them is engaged with a guy she met abroad! Amazing.
I wish I enjoyed Chambers still. Damn shame.

Friday I worked for 12 hours, both as an intern and as a student.

Saturday I woke up at the crack of dawn so I could go to Stern and work as an ambassador for an all-day event. The senior in high school that were excepted to Stern for next year came in to decide if they really wanted to go to Stern. I smiled and led people around, and talked my brains off. You know, people think that they're so original and that they are asking profound questions.....yet they all ask the same things! I repeated myself for hours. Much of it I made up.
The whole day was catered, too. I ate probably ate about 4 servings/bowls of fruit.
They had told me beforehand they would have GF stuff, but they didn't, so I didn't get to stuff my face with the catered goodness. But it was genuinely disgusting the amount of food that was provided. Perhaps I was sensitive to this because of my inability to eat it all. But there were TABLES of food left uneaten after it all. They were going to just load it up into bags and pitch it all! Which made me really really upset. So, I made several trips out of Stern, holding mass quantities of bagels and cookies and sandwiches, and doled it out to the nearby homeless.
Afterwards, I worked in the computer lab on my big project.
I stayed at Stern for 12 hours.
But Lauren was my saving grace! I hung out with her for the rest of the evening. We edited her film a little bit, but then went to the best tapas place known to man: Sacred Chow. The little hole in the wall was charming, and everything tasted absolutely amazing! And their brownie sundae was simply ambrosial. No doubt I'll become a regular in due time.
Lauren and I just talked about our normal joyous, but personal, stuff. Hours of contemplations, reflections, and revelations.

Today was Molly's art show! I haven't seen her in months! But I love how getting together with her is almost like we have just seen each other, like no real time has lapsed. She's surely someone who'll be there always for me. I went with the parents, who were in town. Molly's photographs were really quite good, too! I had a potato knish.
Afterwards I napped at Roosevelt Island, was driven back into town by my mom, and then grocery shopped before Danielle came over to talk. We just talked for a few hours.
And I made this great little dish with lightly-seasoned quinoa, steamed kale, and my new favorite meat: CHORIZO! It was really really delicious.

I'm sure I have work to make up now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi! im not sure if you read your comments anymore, but hereƩ something i wanted to ask :) http://images.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=http://www.amys.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/packing.JPG&imgrefurl=http://kimisforeign.blogspot.com/&h=322&w=449&sz=117&hl=fi&start=1&um=1&usg=__46DDSehr-HmjurLQowCxNi9_HHI=&tbnid=C0OJLKC0KHILqM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsciences%2Bpo%2Bliisa%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dfi

Anonymous said...

im sorry! that went bad... :D
i wrote that question in your old blog.

another try :

Hey! i just found your blog and i already got excited about reading someones life in paris, but unfortunately this was old blog :( Do you have any friends from Paris who´s writing a blog about their life in there? Especially i would like to read some exchance-students blog about living in Paris, because im planning to go there in two years. :) Wish your blog was new, it was good, but I already read it! :D I come back here to see if you have answered to this question :) Thanks!

A Traveler said...

Hi,

I have many friends in Paris, and some foreigners in exchange programs over there...but I don't believe any of them have blogs...unless you can read French?

~Kim