Moishe's Bakery

Why I love small mom & pop shops, run by Jewish people:
Deej and I were walking around in the sweltering heat after a great lunch at Pangea, when we decided that we wanted some challah bread (the good little Jews that we are). We go into Moishe's around the corner from our place, and order our challah. This boisterous yarmulke-donned older guy with the beard and curls bursts out of the kitchen with a steaming plate, yelling, "Fresh cinnamon sticks!...You two look too thin, and hungry! Here!" And he breaks a large, steaming cinnamon stick and gives them to both of us. Our eyes wide, like two children given a Wonka bar in a 1950s candy shop, take the AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS sticks from this kind man, and slowly (and in awe) savor our new favorite bakery in all of Manhattan's free treat.

On two separate notes:
I've been wooed! By a gym!!!! Long story short, Lauren and I went to try out the NY Health & Racquet Club for free. The guy there wooed us with free smoothies, and an irresistible semester-long plan. I now am a member. Oh lord, save me from my ways!!!! But it's an amazing place...
AND
I have never sweat pools for yoga before in my life, until today. Yoga to the People! It's suggested donation-based, and by the end of the hour, not only was I feeling tired and not keeping up, but my mat was wet and I looked like I had taken a shower while in down facing dog. It was actually funny looking. The guy walked around and tried to get me to stop gripping onto the edge of my yoga mat, while I had to tell him, "It's too wet, I'll slip if I don't." My outfit is still dripping on my door right now.

Anything else happening? Hmmm work, reading, and........some drama here or there. Meetings, mingling....not much really to discuss. I enjoy the smaller stories in life right now more than the overall hour-by-hour.

Busy Farewell

Lots of things have happened, but I don't have the time or patience to discuss it in depth right now.
Guru is a good movie about Indian capitalism and corruption.
Idlewild is strictly on LSD.
I went out with Alex all Friday night/Saturday afternoon in Boston. Met a lot of HMS kids. Alex's bed is super comfy (and platonic). Tea with HLS kids at Algiers was fun, too. I love David a lot.
I also love my Harvard u-grads, Jeff and Chris. Dinner and drinks was awesome.

I'm leaving for Paris in less than 24 hours. So, farewell to Kim is Domestic!!!!

If you want my detailed life while I'm away for the semester, please go to my International Blog: Kim is Foreign.

Have fun in America while I go party it up at Sciences Po!

A Weekend in NYC (again)

Right after work on Friday I FLEW over to South Station with Mucks to catch a train to NYC for the weekend. The trip down was fairly uneventful...Mucks and I napped and talked and make fun of each other.

Once I stepped foot off of that train, though? All bets were off. I was in complete SPRINTING mode. For the whole weekend.

And, we're off!

I first start off by meeting up with Neil to get dinner at Indian Row. I ate lots, and he ate lots. Good conversations helped me encourage him to perhaps visit me while I'm in Paris. And he has created an adjective/noun out of one of my life experiences! The word: Idoian. I believe those who know me well will be able to understand what that means.

After a 2-hour rendezvous, I haul over to the Chelsea Piers to meet up with Rob for a hockey game. I didn't even know that NYU had a hockey team! I don't care for the sport very much, if at all, but it was an interesting experience nevertheless. At first he started telling people that I was his wife/fiancée, which flustered me about what I was doing there for a bit, but then he ended up confiding in me and asking for love advice. Seeing as I'm almost the equivalent to Dr.Phil (if not better), I tried my best to advice him in his worries.

Craig picked me up from the rink to walk around (in the cold) and get a cup o' tea with me. A brief goodbye, but it's okay because it's Craig and we are like siblings. He has to love me and stay in touch.

I finally took a cab to Andy's apartment to crash on his floor around 1am. James started texting (and calling) me while I tried getting ready for bed because he was at a pub in Buffalo and found it boring. He's not the social type, anyways, so after a failed attempt at scolding him, I talked to him until I was ready to sleep.

I woke up a bit early to calm myself down for the day with some yoga.

And then I ran downtown to see Karan for an hour. We babbled a bit incoherently, and chuckled at our silly selves. I missed him....And then he walked me over to Aaron's dorm so I could meet up with him in time.

Aaron brought me all the way up to Columbia University. Seeing as I had only 2 hours with him, the trip was pushing it a bit. We tried to get into a few of the campus buildings, but we were typically thrown out. The walk was entertaining, though. My London flatmate Erin called me to make unexpected drink plans for the evening, which slightly stressed me out.

I love hanging out with Aaron, and I'm going to be missing all of our adventures when I'm gone.

BUT he made me late for my next date. Well, him and my running into Clarence for about 5 minutes (cue blast from past).

I ran into the restaurant where Chambers was, and I was on the verge of tears (and shaking). There were so many deadlines to make, so many people to see, so many goodbyes to make. It was overwhelming. But they welcomed me warmly and calmed me down in a few minutes, and I spent a magnificent timed slot with them at dinner. I went around the table, and I realized there how much I loved all of them. What a wonderful group to be a part of! We parted ways and some of us walked over to Think so I could meet up with Deejay.

And Deejay came, and it was good. I ran over to him and jumped on him, and I almost took down a few coffee drinkers while doing so. Sorry about that. I LOVE THAT BOY!!! I missed him way too much! And the best part was that when we got back together, it was as if we had been through a mere time warp and we had never left each other, truly.

Some more goodbyes came with Chambers kids, and Deejay and I (the dynamic duo) got lost via subway in Brooklyn to get to the South Street Seaport. Feel free to laugh. We met up with Erin and a few of her friends. Having not eaten much for the day, my one drink got me a little silly, so Deejay and I left early to meet up with Danielle for dinner at RED. Lots of talking, fun, laughter, pictures. I brought up a BAD conversation starter and made it awkward for a few minutes, but we prevailed!

After dinner we walked to Mariam's apartment for her Toga Party. Upon arrival I could tell we wouldn't stay long. I love Mariam. I love music and dancing. I don't love Stern children who won't dance to DANCE music and only talk about classes. Some of the people were nice and cool, but the conversation still lacked in comparison to our 3 personalities. A few dances and a drink later, we cruised out of that port.

Deej and I talked in his room until 4am. I got back late, but Andy and his roommates got home later.

Sunday started rough. I had to cancel a coffee date with Michelle so I could make my job interview at MDPPublicity. The woman was great, her apartment was impressive, and I think after an hour or so of conversation, I've landed myself at least one PT summer job. GO ME!

Darrell and I got together for an hour to chit chat, though we didn't get to talk about everything I wanted to talk about, so we'll be calling him soon.

I had an hour to myself to sit and deflate.

Cassie came over and ran me to the bus station, where I got onto the bus and didn't move for 4 hours straight.

OIE VAY!

Another Fun-filled Weekend

Andy came to visit this weekend. At first, I was worried about it all because not only was Mom's car in the shop from her little "accident", but Buck had recently died in my office's parking lot. No worries! One car left! Only issue was the whole sharing with 3 other people thing....thankfully, we got the other two cars while Andy was over (but that comes up later).

I met Andy at the Pru , where I had parked (after a few frustrating wrong turns). It was my goal for him to have a bowl of Seafood Chowder at Legal SeaFoods . And it was done.
Evan met us at the restaurant, while we stayed around for a drink. Evan and Andy got along swimmingly, which was comforting, and our conversations were full of laughter and learning (thanks, Andy). Evan brought us up to his apartment for a few hours, where Andy and I left tired and ready to sleep.

On Friday after work, I brought Andy to the gym. I'm not used to being with people at the gym at all, so it was peculiar to have someone to noticed and talk to. And I ran into a couple of people I haven't seen in years or have been avoiding. Fun for everyone!
We proceeded the gym fun with a quick carride around my area, and we swiftly drove back down to Cambridge so we could meet up with one of his friends from Hawaii who happen to be at Harvard. At the restaurant where his friend was, we met about 4 other HLS kids. The more the merrier, I say. We ate some sushi (and moshi) with all of them, and had some eyebrow-raising conversations.
We split up for a few hours. Andy and I walked around Cambridge and met up with Jeff & his new girlfriend for a few minutes. At first Jeff put on his serious face, but he quickly came back to life and we danced and sang with each other like we always do. I'm not sure his girlfriend was OK with our fun, though....
The real reason why we went into Harvard (much to my chagrin) was to see the semi-annual Primal Scream . This event occurs during Harvard reading/final days; where the undergraduates get together on Harvard Yard and run around completely naked, screaming all the way. There was a marching band playing. Pictures were taking. Genitalia was flying every which way. I was scarred, as were some of Andy's friends...but Andy loved every minute of it. He was one of the photographers.
Afterwhich we went out, as a group, to Boston Tea Stop to get some bubble tea . I invented my own drink: Strawberry Almond. IT WAS SO GOOD! I got a mug there, too.
I met a lot of great people that night.

When we got home around 3am, I realized that I had to register for classes at Sciences Po right then (the whole time difference thing...). It was 2 hours of complete confusion and chaos had by all of us International Students, who happened to all be talking to each other and freaking out at the same time on MSN. I ended up getting my classes (despite the terrible schedule), but I didn't get to bed until 5am.

Saturday started late. We got around finally around 3/4, where we met up with Shivangi and got some lunch at Panerra's. We then drove for a bit to conclude the night at her house so she could go out with her mom before her morning flight.
Andy and I went into Boston (yet again) to see Alex for the night. We got some dinner at this place called the Squealing Pig (enchantee...), which was actually surprisingly good, and ended up going back to Alex's place and playing cards with a friend of his. The conversation was fun, pleasant, constant, and casual. Then, I was deemed Alex's ragdoll as he proceeded to show all how he does reflex examations with the blunt of some scissors, and other medical examinations I am certain orthodonists don't EVER need to do. After feeling quite violated, confused, and exhausted, Andy and I left around 3am and fell into bed around 4.

I've been quite a dolt since.

Boo, Boston, Bridesmaid

Bad: B- in Business Law, blech. Hard work unrewarded.

Good: I had a great day today with Brandon, a Bass from Chambers. We met at Rockingham, went for a bit of a gander, drove down to my house and looked around my town, went to the Loop to get dinner, and just talked all the time. Good conversation, good friends.
I also had a splendid night with Penny and Jaynie. More to come on that later...

Better: I got my French visa. I DON"T HAVE TO WORRY ANY LONGER!!!

Best: Penny just got engaged!!!! Her wedding is June 2008... And what's better is, I'm one of FOUR BRIDESMAIDS!!!!!! Are you as happy as I am???

Another Grade, Another Day

Consumer Behavior: B-

Not so great...but passing, right?

Meh...

One more grade, and I'll stop thinking about it.

New Years was alright. I went to a party where my 2 friends and I were the youngest people by at least 20 years...we hid in a side room all night, and the ball was dropped, and that is all. Dom and I stayed up all night talking about boys, like the little girls we are.

Some more days, some more people.

One night Scott, Jesse, Bri & I drove up an hour into NH to see Jess in her UNH apartment. It was cute, we talked a lot, ate lots of chocolate. The car freaked out on the way back, in which we had to pull over on the break down lane in the middle of nowhere and pray that the window would go back up.

Last night Dom and Scott came over to eat dinner and watch a movie (Devil Wears Prada, anyone?). At Joseph's, I gorged myself completely and relentlessly on all of the foods I shouldn't have ever dreamed of consuming. And I am now 7 pounds heavier (no joke) than I was before this week. I'm devastated.

Gnomes and Diamonds

Just to recover some sanity left in my brain, let me wrap up my weekly life...

Grandparent story: The MORNING Aimee and I were to drive them to the airport for their flight away, grandma pulled this MASSIVE pout-fest. She had apparently hid a small container of a single piece of baklava in the dining room (3 days before) under a napkin. When the boys came over, I was trying to clean up and made the executive decision that she no longer wanted the dessert, and that I could eat it. And it was eaten. That morning, I woke up to find she'd be upset and throwing a fit all morning about how "it was just nasty" that me and my friends came in and ATE all of the sweets in the house. She made it a point to say that it had been OK if it were all "family members", but this was just unacceptable. "We had to eat salty things for breakfast." HEAVEN FORBID! And things got worse from there....
Anyways, for those of you who know my grandparents, this went on all day until we finally dropped them off. No tearful goodbye this time.
Aimee and I vented it out at Cheesecake Factory in Cambridge while I exchanged an Ann Taylor dress.
And that night, after a fruitful and fun run around the neighborhood, I fell asleep on Muck's lap while watching "Dodgeball".

I grabbed hot cocoa with Garrett. Just to get out of town, we found ourselves in a Dunkin Donuts in Salem, NH. We had a good 2-hour conversation about life and whatnot. He is such a great guy, I'm so glad we still talk.
And Jessica came over to watch Dane Cook, who is a very sexy man. It was a good night.

Yesterday I ran a lot of errands, focusing mainly on France things. And then I went to say goodbye to Craig before he moved back to NYC. Lucky bastard.

I FINALLY got an email back from Darrell. You know, I don't care what's going on with this whole......thing. I just get frustrated when friends don't keep in good contact with me, especially when I care a lot about them and am going to a FOREIGN COUNTRY in about a month. Common courtesy, in my POV. Agh, men.

Went into the North End with Steve F. today to have a lunch date. We talked in french, I told him about college life, tried to help him out with some of his problems. He acts a lot older than he really is, and I'm so impressed by him.
Wisdom teeth surgery victim Scott and I went out to dinner and a movie later tonight. We basked in the gift card glory at TGIFridays, and saw "Blood Diamond". It was a very good film. A lot of violence about the West-African diamond black market and it's relations with the RUF. Makes you frustrated with humanity, that's for sure.

I would like to take this time now to shout out to Deejay. I see you reading my blog. Hey, you. Let's chat soon.

I don't know anyone else who reads it, which is why I'm perplexed why someone in Latvia or Algeria would stumble across it....which they apparently have.

Back at Home

The chocolate thing I had was, in fact, the flu. Just to let you know. The worst jogs of my life...
Moving out of the apartment in Manhattan was a real bitch. I had to pack everything up all by myself into the car in the basement garage. Where Buck was so conveniently placed TIGHTLY (as in no moving room) between a BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, and Escalade. I'm serious. Rough 2 hours of packing my life into a Buick LeSabre.
And did I mention that there was a protest outside of my apartment at the time? Something about police brutality in Africa. There were more cops than protesters, I swear. That means Wall Street was completely blocked off, and the COMPLETELY PACKED garage was not able to get rid of any cars. Rough.
The drive home was uneventful. Dad and I talked some. I pined some. You know how I do.

Back in NA, life is same-old-same-old. Translation: lots of time. It's as if time abruptly slows down like you've hit a patch of molasses when you get to the burbs from the city.

The morning after, after a terrible run (again), Scott and I went shopping with Mom. Mom had gotten in a car accident, so she was pretty bummed out, but we tried to make her happier. Both of us kids got haircuts (though, Scott forbade me from cutting more than 1 inch off...). It was a short shopping trip, actually. We ended up getting dinner at the Loop, and then talking in my room for the rest of the night.
The grandparents came in, and my life got harder automatically. Not the cute ones, the evil ones. The biggotted ones. It's been an interesting few days.
Aimee brought home her cat, Ron. He's adorable, but a bit feisty.

I went to the doctors to discover my actual flu symptoms were legit. And I had a sore on my foot. Good, clean fun for everyone. And Jesse came over to say hi for a few.
We ended up (Jesse & Craig & me, that is) going to Dany's house for a party. Lots of people. One hour limit, thanks to the other 2 who didn't know anyone at the party but me. It was nice to see them all, but I sadly realized how far apart I really was from a lot of them. There's not as big of a connection to everyone as there used to be. Craig and I ended up going back to his place to discuss my boy problems.

Christmas Eve was uneventful. Aimee and I went to the grocers for Mom's birthday, the family went to Wilson's to get food for Xmas, and that's about it. I cooked dinner.
Ido called me, surprisingly. I was so glad to hear from him. I missed him, and it's nice to know that we can still talk. Though, his English isn't as good anymore. Oh well, I'm used to it.
Aimee and I went to Church for Candlelight Mass a bit early, where the youth came together to say "hi". Again, there was a stronger disconnect between me and the other Andover kids, which surprised and disappointed me. Oh well, que sera sera, right?
It was interesting going to church after my personal seperation from Christianity. Lots of interesting things are heard when you're not so hooked on the religion.
Grandma has the most hideous, shrill, out of tune singing voice I've heard in a long time. It made a lot of us giggle during the songs.

Christmas was fine. My family woke me up in a cruel way: continuously calling my mobile until I came downstairs.
Too many presents. I got what I wanted, and then some. I plan on donating some key things to charity, along with a lot of things from my room already.
What did I get? Money...gift cards...a piece of lingerie (thanks, mom)...a gnome (thanks, aimee)...and other joyous things.
Dad and I went for a jog around the neighborhood. It wasn't too bad.
Ido and I talked again for a while. Aparently he's going to call me more often so he can work on his English, and I owe him a song?
Scott saved me from the family, and we went to go see "Dreamgirls". Not a bad movie. MAN, do those women have chops on them!!!! Jennifer Hudson's GOT PIPES!!! That movie's really made me want to get back into the jazz singing scene.

Today, well, was amazing. After lunch with the family, Jeff and I ended up going to Salvation Army, where Jeff found the most ridiculous clothing to buy for a grand total of $15. And we ran into Maxx & Molly, which was great fun for all.
Jeff and I talked in Starbucks for an hour about life, futures, and politics. And I talked to his girlfriend on the phone.
We came back and took a long walk around my neighborhood, and talked some more.
After I made us dinner and we took pictures of Jeff being sultry, Scott joined up with us, where we decided to go to Salisbury Beach after a glass of Pinot Grigio. We sang carols on the beach, and joked about life. And we found the most dismal bar on the beach. Big place. We were the ONLY people in the bloody place. Dismal, I tell you! We had a few chuckles and headed back to my place, where Jesse stopped by for a while.
I love them.

Cleaning Up Shop

So, I should probably fill people in on what current events befell me over the past few days. As briefly as possible.

We had our Chamber Choir concert last Friday. And the parents stayed in the city to see it.
It went really well! We sang a handful of chamber music, and some not-so-chamber music (i.e. The Beach Boys). I had to conduct the Jabberwocky song because Noah was playing the piano for us all. But we had a pretty good show up, and we sang well. We recorded it, and Darrell's making us all CDs (to be sold online sometime?) of the show. It's all very exciting.
I am so glad I'm in chamber singers right now. This semester has been wonderful, and with our newer members, we have a really powerful connection between all of us. The very first practice this semester proved that not only were we good singers, but we had some really strong bond/love for each other. I love them all.

Saturday, Mom&Dad brought Aaron, Neil, and I out to dinner at this really nice place called Pietro's. I got the swordfish, and the boys got steaks. It was a good time, and my parents approve of my choice in friends. The boys seemed to enjoy the time, too. And we ate too much. We slowly walked back to the subway.
I got home 10 minutes before I started hosting my Chambers after-party. Darrell came over early to help me get ready for it. Unfortunately, only half of us were over, but we still had a blast of a time together. As always. Twister, Photobooth, politics, and SINGING! Lots of singing. My lord......we made a bit of a mess, so Darrell stayed over to help me clean up in the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, the parents offed back home, while I went to work on homework with my class groups. And, though I had had 2 hours of sleep, I went with Dad's assistant Robin to a concert of the "U2 of Pakistan/India", Ali Azmat. We enjoyed it, he was REALLY GOOD! But we both were so tired that we agreed to go home early.

Tuesday, I had 2 final tests, 1 final paper, and a final presentation. It was a long day. I aced French, did either alright or failed Business Law (I doubt the latter), and my paper/presentation group did really well (above average) on both the paper and powerpoints. Good job, us!
Danie came over for dinner, where we feasted on pasta with Tequilla/lime-sauce. It was delicious.

Wednesday was crazy. I ran uptown to do a focus group with this start-up SoSauce. It is a really cool group of NYU-grads who are making a new blogging site (sorry, Blogger). I think they've got some good ideas, and the guy that I talked with was really great. We had a good conversation for about an hour.
I then grabbed tea with Emily from Chambers. We talked about boys, and England, pre-biz minors, and other assorted joys. Good times, I'll miss her a lot.
Then, I quickly ran up to meet Liz from french class for tea at Think. We also talked about boys, and school, and we just chatted. She's a darling girl.
THEN, I ran into Dan right before going home. We ended up getting coffee, too. And we talked about stuff. He called me a player, and I resented it. It was a busy day.

Thursday we had a Chambers E-board meeting. There's a lot of things we have to do before I leave for Paris. Oie vay.
I then studied my brains out with Jean-Claude and Mariam (at different times) for global econ. Long, long day. Mariam and I ended up at her apartment, eating Chocolate Sorbet, talking about what we need to do when I come back. She gave me a holiday gift, and I love her for it. I have come to realize I know wonderful people.

Friday was my global econ final. It was a decent final. I think I did my best on it. My phone rang off the hook (vibrate, ahem) during the whole final. The last call was my friend Rob who was sitting next to me during the final but left early. He was just calling to make me more embarassed during the test. Nice guy.
I grabbed dinner with Neil and Dan. They always have an interesting debate with each other, but this time I just wasn't into it, so I just enjoyed their company while spacing out.
Darrell came over afterwards and we made mac 'n cheese. It was REALLY GOOD, but way too rich. Heart-attack quality. Oie, my arteries. Emily kept on calling me for fashion help during our cooking, so really Darrell cooked it all. Good job to him, he's got me impressed. The rest of the night we talked about it all. It was a good night, and morning.

The Yesterday, Aaron and I ended up in Brooklyn at Grand Army Plaza, and walked around the park, relishing in the green open space. We headed back after a while and went to Lemongrass for dinner. I made him go see 2 movies later; The Holiday, and The Departed (which I'd already seen). The first one was the perfect chick flick for me right then and there, and the latter? Well, it's still good.

Today (Sunday), I walked around for a while. I talked on the phone with some people. I grabbed coffee with Matt Dell, and it was great to see him and hear what he's up to right now. He's got quite the interesting life, I must say.
Craig and Alex H. came over for dinner, to help me finish the mac 'n cheese. They joked around with me, Craig left early, and Alex & I watched Y Tu Maman Tambien. Once again, a good movie. He just left after a raher large talk, and I'm tired and ready to go to bed. NIGHT!

Finals Approach-eth

It was Aaron's birthday on Sunday. I took him out to Indian Row and we ate at this nice place called Brick Lane (yes, based on the London street....). We ate sooooo much food! And I got the manager to bring him a birthday dessert with candles and singing. It was really nice. Though, I got sick from eating so much. Bad choices.
Afterwards, we came back to the apartment and watched "Y Tu Mama Tambien". It was excellent, but a bit surprising on my end.
Two presentations done, one to go.
4 finals to go.
And, 1 paper done, 1 to go.
ALMOST THERE!!!!

This picture was taken out of my apartment. It's my Holiday wishes to all.

There's a bit that's been going on, but I just want to sleep now. Night!

Happy Birthday, James!

James came in very early Friday morning (his 21st birthday). Luckily, he wanted to nap as soon as he got here, so I could sleep some more.
When we both agreed to wake up, we decided to sally forth outside. We were trying to find a DMV on Greenwich Street (which apparently exists, but we absolutely could not find), but ended up walking all the way up to campus. Since we were at campus, I grabbed my sneakers at Coles so we could jog together. I also made James go to Whole Foods to grab a heap of groceries for his birthday dinner party that I was cooking for. Lots of food. We got into an interesting conversation with our cashier...apparently he was only working for the hell of it. He had plenty of cash and investments, but he liked working for the sake of human interactions, and such. It was an interesting tale.
I got home to realize I had missed my very important meeting with my advisor about studying in Paris! I called and beseeched her, and she found mercy on me. I ran to campus for a meeting (at which I found out that I'm over credits, and not only do I have enough credits to graduate on time, but I have the ability to graduate a semester early if so feeling inclined). Oh, stress cometh!
The dinner was nice. 7 of us gathered around (after my manic cooking festivities). I was the only female around. The men lavished me with compliments on my fabulous cooking abilities and wonderful hostess skills. Loved it. And Steve, James' old roommate, took out his shaman rattle, and we took a journey with our animal guides. It was very interesting, and I think it really added to the party.
I journeyed to a place in the White Mountains I went to when I was in middle school. There was a large lake with a shining moon lighting it up, in a large open surrounded by forest and mountains. In the middle of the lake I saw a naked woman with long brown hair standing above the water. There were fish swimming up towards her. She was telling me to get into the water, but I kept refusing the proposition....when I was going to finally give into her orders, Steve brought us back out of our journeys. I'm very interested in it what that could have been all about.
After dinner, James, Neil, & I made the mistake of going to see "Let's Go to Prison". Mistake.

Saturday was a late morning for James and me. We woke up around noon and got ready to go visit his old suitemates in Brooklyn. It was a fun afternoon of guitar playing, singing, art showing, and poetry reading.
When we got back to my place, we agreed to go for a run outside. We ran up around City Hall, over towards Battery Park, and around the tip until we returned to my place. It was a nice run, and James told me I was a good runner (way to make me excited!!!).
Afterwards, James, Dan, & I went to the NY Comedy Club. We laughed, and we didn't laugh. Perhaps 60% of the show was good and funny. The rest was forgettable. Though, most of the comics picked up the fact that I was with 2, not 1, men. One assumed I was going out with Dan, one with James, and one assumed I was having sex with both! I laughed at that, hard.
Neil met up with us afterwards and we hit up a sake bar for a huge dinner and a 4-hour political/social debate. Ah, it was like old times. I was in my element. We got home around 5am.

On Sunday I had to wake up early to go to school for some meetings. Long, long meetings. And I had to run a Chambers rehearsal, which was slightly frustrating.
Then I met up with the 3 boys to go to a Japanese Tea House for a tea ceremony. It was very interesting to watch the woman go through the meticulous movements. And it was very relaxing. The tea was excellent.
We went nextdoor for some sushi and sashimi. Aaron met up with us, and we returned to the Tea House for some more tea, only without the ceremony. James and I got into a physics discussion and its role with the uncertainties in the universe, as well as God, and morality. Very intense. Aaron and Dan got in an argument about morals, too...but on a different level than us.
Afterwards, James and I went back to my place to sleep. We ended up getting into a Kim-needs-to-vent-and-tell-her-emotions-to-James conversation. He only had 2 hours of sleep. Bless that boy.
I love my boys. They are my home away from......life.

Bare With Me

Lots has happened. Little time to tell it all in.
Will write in incrimental blogs.

Last Thursday, Aaron and I went out to dinner and a movie. The Thai food was good, but slightly overpriced. I've been eating all Asian food with him, which I think wil just be our "thing", but whatever.
We went to see "A Good Year" with Russell Crowe. Much to Aaron's surprise (and dismay), it was a chick flick. Thing SUPER chick flick. French/British fusion romance. It was hilarious. He hated it, and I gobbled it up.
Then we watched the first half of "Borat". We walked out. He was offended, and I was slightly disappointed.
So, we walked into the midnight showing of "Happy Feet". It was refreshing. Still sad, but I enjoyed it a lot. I love penguins. Oh, so so much!

DC

Thursday, Aaron and I ate some Korean Food and watched 2 movies: "Babel" and "Running with Scissors". The former was excellent, I liked it. The latter was, well, disappointing (to say the least).
I finished "The Secret Life of Bees". It was a good book. Cute, and a little overly-sappy for my own liking.

I went to DC this weekend to visit Aimee. The trip was nice. I got in around 7pm because of a slightly-delayed flight. Laguardia isn't the best airport in the world, that's for sure. We went to an Epuricurean and ate LOTS of sushi. Lots. And then we spent an easy night in her apartment discussing the future of the world.
Saturday I made my sister play tourist with me. We walked from the Potomac River to the Smithsonian Mall area. Aimee complained about her shoes a lot of the way. It was a lovely day, though, so I made her suck it up. We heard Madame Butterfly playing in the park, and we mosied from place to place. Took pictures. We strolled into the Air & Space Museum, which wasn't nearly as interesting as I anticipated it to be. We made fun of the spaceships being made out of the astronauts' wive's aluminum foil rolls, and we mourned the death of Pluto's status.
We ate at Macaroni Grille before spending another lowkey night at her place. We watched "Pride and Prejudice"...and Degrassi.

Sunday we got breakfast at the Reef with Erin, and we talked about boys and boobs and other girly flares. I almost missed my flight check-in (basically, had to beg my way on), but it was 2 hours late, so no matter.

Aaron swung over after I got home to look at my music and be completely distracting.

Romantic Autumn Adventure

by peter_madera

Yesterday was a wonderful day out; just cool enough to feel alive, crisp enough to feel awake, and the perfect amount of sunlight to provoke nostalgia.
So, I went for a walk around my favorite parts of New York: Chelsea and the West Village. It was one of my best romantic adventures.
I walked around 12th & Hudson and stumbled upon some magnificent architecture. The stores were very posh, but the feeling of the overall area was something straight out of an old movie. The buildings looked slightly worn by age, but not run down at all.
I found myself walking into a building housing the Chelsea Marketplace. I fell in love. It's this simple 1-story marketplace full of food shops and delis; bakeries and patisseries; restaurants and live Dixieland Jazz. Though I felt somewhat guilty for being there because it was obvious that only wealthy affluent people could go there casually and shop (and there were a lot of people like that there), I felt like I had discovered the best private romantic spot to frequent...someday.
How marvelous!
And I continued walking through the Village to find my favorite shops lit up ever so....just enough to make me feel complete love for the area and miss it a lot. It's one of the places I miss when I'm abroad.
Since I was so satisfied with my walk through, I decided to continue on downtown back to my apartment over at the tip of Manhattan. Yes, it was quite the long walk, and my shin splints cried out a bit, but it was still great.

I put on my heels and met up with Aaron to eat Indian and go see "Outing Wittgenstein" over in Midtown. It was an interesting (and short) play ultimately about identity and the role of social constructs (i.e. gay, color, gender...). We discussed it a lot afterwards before we went to go see "The Prestige". That movie went slow enough to be thorough, and had entertaining qualities, but I was a little perplexed and somewhat disappointed about it for some reason...
Beforehand, we also went out to get more food at some Thai restaurant. I always forget how much men can eat.

The subway ride home was hilarious. I befriended some other woman in painful heels (like me), and was sitting in the train with a completely wasted boy from Fordham, or some other non-Manhattan college. There was a group of us younger people on the train where I was, and we were in stitches from this drunk guy's comments. Not much of it made sense, but I recall him hazing some girl about drinking Hawaiian Punch: That HI-C guy is just ballin' it on that can, just drinking that sugary goodness...you listen to your Radiohead, HI-C guy.
Who knoooows what he was trying to say???

Catch Up

I haven't been up to much, lately.
I would just like to make some passing comments.

Today I went to lunch at the NYU Torch Club (wicked fancy alumn place), paid wholey by Stern. I only go to these things for the free, expensive food. Nevertheless, I always have some interesting experiences.
Today's lunch consisted of a system comparable to "speed-dating", only with the heads of all of the departments in Stern. Every 10 minutes, another head of some department would come to our table, talk to us about the major, give us pointers, all of that advisory stuff. I was placed at the Finance table. God has a sense of humor.
The head of Finance was quite interesting. He is from Australia, had a very interesting life and lineage of careers. The best thing he said, though, was how he looked at all of the investment bankers on Wall Street and disapproved of their lifestyles. "I realized that non of them are married to the same person they were married to 2 years ago. And they don't dedicate any time to their families or friends. They lead these dismal lives of pure money," he reflected. Stern is KNOWN for cranking out investment bankers, so I found his views particularly intriguing. After the comment, the investment banking candidate at our table disregarded him and started asking about what the "best way" for getting into the industry was.
I also talked to the IB head (who's my professor for Global Econ) briefly, and stumbled into an interesting conversation with the head of Marketing about the new form of marketing: Social Marketing. Basically, marketing based on social responsibility. I like the sounds of it. And, seeing this woman is straight from Britain and quite the seasoned traveller, I felt a bit encouraged about my path.

I am having issues with thinking in partial French throughout the day. Franglish is my native tongue. Few understand me. Many scoff at me.

Yesterday was Danie's 22nd Birthday. Danie being one of my closest girlfriends at NYU, whom I've known (with Cassie) since the very first day of NYU Orientation. We have even formed our own "sorority": Delta Kappa Chi, Omega Chapter. We're hilarious.
Cassie and I took Danie out for lunch yesterday (our other 2 girlfriends Lara & Azadeh joined us). We surprised her with the restaurant where we 3 first met: OTTO. We feasted on several pizzas and gelato. And we talked about how we've changed, the differences between urban and rural societal constructs, and boys. It was lovely.

Aaron and I had a movie night at my place tonight. We made a stew (which turned out very, very nicely) and threw in a few Tofu Steaks. We watched "Bridge on the River Kwai". It was an interesting movie, and very typical British, methinks. We then got into a heavy conversation about the social, economic, and environmental issues with capitalism. It was a long conversation, and it resulted in pulling out my textbooks and him getting moderately upset about it all.

Otherwise, I am the world's largest dolt. I have stuck around the apartment doing virtually little. I've begun contemplating whether or not I should start packing up already.

Buffalo, NY

I went to Buffalo, NY this weekend to visit James (who's recently transfered to SUNY Buffalo) and see my old hometown.
Initially, it was stressful. I had to wait 2 bloody hours for my flight to take off! I read 200 pages waiting for takeoff, while poor James had to wait in the airport to pick me up. I finally got in around 1am, so we cabbed it to his studio.

Before I describe the weekend, I have to make a few key points:
1) He has a massive studio. I daresay it's as big as our convertible 1 BR apartment. The kitchen was cute, and James is such a minimalist, it seemed as if it was too big.
2) James doesn't buy much food, so we ate oatmeal, rice, challah bread, and sponge candy all the time. We drank lots of green tea. I took him out for the first time, to an Indian restaurant. And he made me salmon one night. But it was quite amusing to me how James went from eating more than a bear before hibernation to complete bird-style.
3) We didn't have a car, so we did a lot of hanging out in his apartment. I think he has acquired ADD by living alone and not venturing out too often with comarades. He was all over the place in his studio! Bouncing back and forth, it was quite humurous.
4) I'm so glad I got to see him. I miss him a lot, especially since he's one of my personal therapists. We talked a lot about some really interesting things: religion, spirituality, humanity, our relationships with people, personal issues, and so so much more. We did argue a lot, but it was always about silly things: "Kim, don't do the dishes!" "James, don't sleep on the floor!" "Kim, don't pay for that!" "James, don't wait for me so long at the airport!"
5) Keep in mind I was born in Buffalo, and lived there until I was about 4 years old. We have one family of friends (the K's) there still, who my mom still keeps correspondences with (I haven't seen them in over a decade, though). They have 3 kids that were Aimee and my playmates (there was a girl a year younger than Aimee, and 2 boys one and two years older than me). The youngest boy, John, and I were "married". I left John an email (though I haven't seen him in FOREVER) about visiting a month before, and I called the mom to see if I could visit the neighborhood. John hadn't gotten back to me, and the mom didn't think they had time during the weekend to see me.

Friday he had class, so I woke up late and went for a jog around his area. It was alarmingly cold, and in the middle of my jog it started to rain a bit. Cold, cold runs are a lot more exhilirating than I remembered! I enjoyed it quite a bit, though I lost $2 on my excursion. And the last snow storm took down a LOT of trees, so I had a lot of obstacles to run around during my run.
After my jog, I got back to find out I had a voicemail. At first I thought it was Mr.K because the voice was so low. Then I realize it's John! He wanted to meet up with me since I was in town. I called him back, and we talked on the phone for 45 minutes (as I was trying to wait for a bus to get to the campus and meet up with James). It was as if we talked the day before! Not awkward at all! After realizing I was waiting for the wrong bus all along, he decided to drive over and bring me to campus himself.
We met in Starbucks. At first I was nervous, since I haven't seen this person in such a long while. I was afraid that it was going to be one of those situations where you haven't seen someone you were close with in a long while, and they change so much (and so drastcially) that you become disheartened because you can't see your old friendship working out. But as soon as he waltzed into the place, it was just like meeting up with a friend I see hanging around school every week. It rekindled my faith in friendships and people! He turned into such a great guy!
We had a great time catching up, just talking and joking around. Before we picked up James on campus (and they hit it off, too!), we went for a carride around. Poor John was my chauffeur for 2 days straight.
That night, James and I gorged ourselves on Indian food. I haven't felt that overfull in a long time. We veged out in his studio all night. Well, I veged out. James bounced here and there....

Saturday, John called when he woke up. Though he had work in 2 hours, he agreed to pick us up and drive us 30 minutes to my old neighborhood. We continued the funfilled conversation as I slowly regressed to being a 4 year-old. The trees were everywhere, so it gave me a sad feeling. But overall, the neighborhood was just as I remembered it, only a bit smaller in size.
And the K's renovated the inside of their house! I remembered most of it, but the kitchen was different, and the basement was different, too! Those 2 places were our jungle gyms way back when....
Basically, John drove us to his house and back to James' place for my sake. I owe him, big time. We got pictures, and he gave me a great bear hug goodbye. Hopefully we can keep this 20-year friendship (yes, I'm calling it that, because I think it is one) going for longer.
James tried his first sponge candy (which is truly only known in the Buffalo region....no one knows about it!). He asked us if it was really sponge in the candy, and John & I laughed hard. We knew better.
James and I veged out the rest of the night after talking a walk to Tops Grocers for some food. We watched Dr.Strangelove and Motorcycle Diaries.
We talked a lot.

Sunday I had an early flight.
I took a cab to the airport.
The cabdriver assumed that James and I were boyfriend/girlfriend, and I was too tired to explain our friendship, so I just went along with him and his ideas on our "relationship". He was upset that James "left" me at NYU and didn't "help keep our relationship easy". My favorite line from Mr. Cab Driver: "If I was your boyfriend, I wouldn't have transfered away from you. I would have talked to you about the situation, how and I wanted to make it work and live with you in an apartment in the city." I got a good hearty chuckle out of it all.

I finished the book "Running with Scissors". It was alright. I want to see the movie more.

Midterms Almost Done!

Yesterday a bunch of us from last fall's music theory class, and a bunch of my Chamber Choir, went uptown to see my favorite teacher ever's composition be played in a concert. For the record, I love Sophocles Papavasilopoulos. And I love Sophocle's music.
But the other pieces were very...interpretive. I think I liked maybe 2 songs (including Sophocles') out of the whole concert, 6 songs. They were so atonal and experimental...and dissonant. Don't get me wrong; I love my Stravinsky, and Ives is sometimes a nice thing to crunch on...but there's something very different about what I heard yesterday and those composers.
For instance, Stravinsky is dissonant. And dissonant can be very good. But when I listen to Stravinsky, though there's a lot of stuff going on that doesn't necessarily make sense, I still feel like dear old Igor is holding me in a safety net while I am swimming in mild confusion. I feel like I can still grasp the intent; the theme, and direction, is recognizable. But what I heard yesterday...I didn't feel safe. I felt confused. I felt like there was no real direction. I felt like it was just upsetting chaos that really has no rhyme, reason, purpose. I feel like those composers are trying too hard to be deep, that they're taking music and sound to frivolousness. And frivolousness can be good, too. But this "music"? It seemed to me to be purely masturbatory.
The last song had no conductor (to our horror), and the ensemble stood and played random notes, and walked around....and started babbling! My group and I, unfortunately, couldn't contain our giggles very well. People scoffed.
Sophocles had a great song, though. Beautiful. Conceptual. Reasonable.

Tonight Stern paid for me (and about 30 other Stenies) to go eat at this très ritzy place in the Village, Jane Restaurant, so we could listen to a drunken (no joke) alumn talk about his successes and early retirement and advise us about how to become as successful as him in 20 years time. It was an interesting night where I held my tongue about my ambitions towards diplomacy and the Peace Corp (gasp!) and accidentally got in a debate with some Republican about capitalism.
Luckily, I sat next to my friend Mariam and we oggled the food most of the night. Stern overfeeds us on their tab. We had a magnificent 5-course meal: Shrimp pizza, bread, calamari w/ chutney, gnocchi, scottish salmon with brussel sprouts, and a banana brulée that made me believe I had never lived before (not to mention the free pomegranite lemonade). Mariam and I hobbled all the way home, moaning about how much we overate and felt sick to the core. I'm still nursing a bulging gullet.

On an upside, I am officially passing all of my classes (or at least 60% of them...I don't know about 2 of my grades). I got a high mark on my marketing case study, an average B on my global economics midterm, and a slightly-above-average mark on my accounting midterm! French I'm assuming I did alright on my midterm.
I took the Business Law midterm today. 123 points. 100 questions. NOT CONCEPTUAL AT ALL! Basically, the test was seeing whether or not you had done the homework and gone to classes...each question was something along the lines of, "based on a class case we worked on about a dance studio, true or false blah blah?" Listen, professors: I am not paying you to see if I go to your classes. I am. TEST ME ON WHAT I STUDIED! Not on what I did! JESUS!

Idiosyncratic

I saw Producers on Broadway yesterday (tickets provided FREE through Stern...god bless). It was a good show, I was entertained the whole time. Too bad the tickets were in the VERY BACK row of the balcony...hello, vertigo! But it's ok, because I hung out with a girl, Katherin, from a class. This girl's life story is amazing! A few months ago, she had cancer surgery in her throat. And now, her mom has ovarian cancer. Next weekend, she's going to San Francisco to run a 27-mile marathon for cancer research......and she's going to Barcelona when I'm in Paris. Amazing!
We made friends with some guys from Univ. South Carolina. They were hilarious because during the show, whenever there was a homosexual joke made, they looked oh-so-shocked. I giggled oh-so-hard.

I had to fight my midterm grade for Managerical Accounting to be boosted up by about 2 letter-grades because my TA was beastly and didn't give me partial credit for anything...and marked me wrong for a correct answer!

I ate lunch with Bhinish today. I worry about that boy.

As a personal happy note...I can run 6.2 miles an hour! Not a great feat, I know...but it's something!

And I talked to Felix (in Frankfurt, Germany) on the phone for an hour today. I love talking to that boy. And his English is always patchy at first, which makes me giddy. We had a great catch-up conversation. And we plan on hanging out more next semester when I'm in Europe. Viva friendship!

OH! I have a Parisian flat! Be excited! And it's wicked nice!

I went on a date tonight. Ate at Dojo's, and saw "A Guid to Recognizing Your Saints" (not a date movie, just to warn you). The night was enjoyable. I have no idea what the verdict is on the date, though....quite a quiet guy (which is odd for me). Whatever.

It's Been A While

I've been very, very busy.
In a nutshell for the past week or so, I have (not in chronological order):
~Seen Jersey Boys the Musical because Stern provided me with a free dinner and $10 ticket. It was pretty good. I like the Four Seasons.
~Had my first midterm in Managerial Accounting. I either did pretty well on it, or failed.
~Saw NYU Steinhardt's production of Urinetown the Musical, mostly because Craig is the drummer. It was alright. Funny show, the acting was great. The script, though? Meh...
~Met up with my girl Celina one night. We had a few laughs, and some great dumplings. Her friends were nice, too.
~Pulled an all nighter against my will. Which led me to complete exhaustion and me napping on Aaron's bed while he did homework before we went out to watch "Science of Sleep". Seeing as I was half asleep while watching the movie, and I have been struggling lately beause I think part in english & french, it wasn't until about 30 minutes into the movie that I realized they actually were talking BOTH english & french. It was a really peculiar movie, but I'm pretty sure I liked it quite a bit.
~Went to see a Yankees Game, but got there at the 7th inning. Aaron and I have issues finding out the times that things start. We keep getting to things too early or too late. Luckily, we both didn't mind TOO much...it was a funny story, I think. We walked around the Bronx highways a bit, but quickly realized that such areas aren't great places to walk around.
~Had coffee with old suitemate, Jen. We talked about Paris. I apparently will be helping her learn french, too....that is, if I can help myself...
~Watched "An Inconvenient Truth", with a guest speaker from the UN. Needless to say, I am not really worried about the world, Al Gore is my favorite person ever, and I want to lower my carbn dioxide emissions. While at the screening, I ran into about 4 people I haven't seen in a year, which was nice. We all agreed to hang out sometime soon, which makes me really happy.
~Ate dinner with Dad at a nice little place on Cornelia Sreet, Po. We both agreed it was excellent food. And we had a nice talk. He helped encourage my interest in diplomacy...let's see where this goes.
~Went to a Study Abroad alumn reception. Free food and drinks, and gift bags. That's about it. Cassie and I didn't really know anyone...but then JT from London came over, and we talked for a while. He is a ridiculously amazing person. And then Manny from London swung over, and we talked about his former position at the UN and what he's done with foreign policy and such. We plan on getting together sometime to discuss it more, which makes me excited.

On a more personal level, I have had a few thoughts in the past week that I need to put out there:
1) I think I'm getting dumber. I don't know why, but I just feel like I'm not as intelligent and well-knowledged as I was, say, a year ago. I feel like I don't know much of anything right now. I don't really know how to remedy this, but it makes me feel awfully melancholy about my brain's capacity.
2) Why do I feel like, when it comes to men, when it rains it pours? I kind of feel like I'm getting too much attention right now, like I'm being some kind of saucy vixen without even knowing it!
3) I really miss London. I didn't think that I would miss it so much, but there it is. It's surprising, really...
4) I'm a bit emotionally defunked right now. Don't ask me what that means, or what's not 100% right...it just is so. It's like my hormones have just decided to build a theme park inside me and ride on the rollercoaster over and over again. I'm happy, yeah, but just a little more girly when it comes to feelings.

Today I'm meeing up with Aaron to go to the UN, so I should get going...

A Memo

Dear Men,
Please don't think that by ordering females around you will either attract them OR get your way. We are not obedient pups waiting for our next command. Yes, we admire a guy with some good, healthy confidence and initiative. However, when it comes to telling us what to do and then scolding us for not concurring...that is unacceptable. You might as well pour a cup of slightly-hotter-than-scolding staining coffee on yourself. Thanks, but no thanks. We can handle our lives just as well as you think you can.
Two more comments:
1) Know our individual names
2) Don't EVER start the conversation with the words "whore", "hoe", or "bitch".
Love,
Kim, a Female

On that note, Aimee and I just had a great day. Not only did we go to the Bodies Exhibit, but we also ate lunch in Little Italy at the San Gennero Festival. And we ate chocolate at Max Brenner's chocolate shop, and watched the hilarious show Hairspray. An A+ day.