The Big Apple excursion

Like I mentioned earlier, the morning after I returned from MN I repacked my bags and headed for NYC with Seth.  The first evening was spent getting oriented in a new part of town.  We stayed in Columbia University, and our little apartment/flat/hotel on 121st Street was the farthest north we had been before.  This borders Harlem, so we got to split our time between two very different cultures.

That night we met with my cousin, Christina, and Seth's friend, Ting-Chun, over some world-famous soul food dished up at Sylvia's.     

Christina and Ting-Chun join us at Sylvia's

 I had the chicken n'dumplings and Seth got the chicken livers

I could have taken a better picture of the exterior of the restaurant but I felt rushed by a crazy guy shouting something next to me

The next afternoon Seth had meetings at Columbia and I spent some time walking around the neighborhood checking out the local coffee scene.  Turns out that in this part of town the best places to relax and have something to drink were Starbucks... ergh... Actually there was one really cool place nearby, Max Caffe, but the people working there were not so nice :o(  

When Seth returned in the afternoon we did a bit more strolling and made a big night out of cheap bananas and a halal chicken kabab on the steps of the library at Columbia.  This reminded me very much of the last kabab we had:  on some steps outside the Arena in Verona, listening to the dress rehearsal of The Barber of Seville.

A view of 125th Street, Harlem's party zone

 

The next afternoon, after Seth's shortened meeting, we took off for the East Village, probably one of the coolest, funkiest, spots in New York.  

For some reason Seven Eleven convenience stores were having a free slurpee promotion, so we got to be reunited with some flavours from our childhood, haha.   

 I thought it was pretty awesome that Seven Eleven has macrobiotic Japanese Bento boxes in stock.  Is this sort of thing easy to find in convenience stores?  I will have to check in Waltham.

 One of the many very creative, hippie eateries in the East Village

Cute designer Japanese hot dogs!  If Seth weren't still nursing his slurpee I would have liked to eat here.

We got sushi instead and ate it in the nearby park.  Not a bad deal.

In the evening we headed back up north to 125th Street to catch a show at the Apollo Theater. 

It was Amateur Night!  Thirteen contestants competed for 3 spots to go off to perform in London.

All in all it was a great four days in the big city.  In the mornings we went running in Central Park and Riverside Park, dodging misty raindrops.  The afternoons were generally clear, but on the last day we got caught in a thunderstorm on our way to the Boston-bound Chinatown bus.

The university housing where we were put up was really comfortable, especially compared to the hostel where we stayed last time.  Unfortunately I don't think we will be able to stay there in the future unless Seth can find some business to attend to at Columbia... 

After all the excitement from these past couple weeks, it is nice to be back and settling into some sort of post-school routine.  Online classes start soon, and hard-core volunteering at the hospital shall resume tomorrow!  Have a nice Memorial Day!

Photos from Andrew's graduation

 Here are some of Dad's typical family-portrait-style photos from the weekend in Rochester.  Soak up their perfect balance and symmetry ;o) 

 

 

Graduation

Last Thursday I was very happy to take a spontaneous trip out to Rochester, Minnesota for my brother's graduation from medical school.  I didn't think I would be able to go but I booked a flight about four days before departure--Mom had the idea that I would surprise my brother.  I don't know if he was surprised or not, but at least he said he was :o)  It was a great few days relaxing with my parents, Andrew's family, and Aunt Dee and Uncle Dennis.  I wish we could have more weekends like that.

On Friday afternoon (after a quick sandwich stop) I had an outing with Aunt Dee and Uncle Dennis to the Spam Museum.  Who said there is nothing to do in Rochester?

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the quality of the museum.  However, since we were pretty much the only ones there (I think I only saw TWO other people in the entire museum), they didn't have samples, which I found slightly (and unexpectedly) disappointing. 

 Yes, this is an entire wall of spam. 

Sawyer is a good eater.  I think he gets that from me.
 That evening we had a reception at a fancy old doctor's house. 

 Here I am with the graduate

 The commencement ceremony on Saturday at the Rochester Civic Center

 Mayo medical school graduates

Since Andrew worked his butt off for two degrees, he got awarded two hoods. Here is the first...

 ...and here is the second.  The guy sitting behind me called it 'double dipping', hehe.

 It wasn't a particularly short ceremony.  Nearly two hours into it, I think Carter expressed quite well what I was also feeling. 

 

Congrats, Andrew, for a job well done!   I will have some more photos posted later from the weekend. 

For now, I am spending three nights in NYC (Seth and I came down here yesterday, the morning after I returned from MN).  Seth is meeting with some people at Columbia about a project they are working on, so I get to tag along for this second mini vacation.  Woohoo! 

Around town: a fire, tree chopping, and a weekend with the Coluzzis

Like I mentioned earlier, the past couple weeks have been pretty dry, with the exception of some notable local events.  First off, there was a crazy fire in the house across the street.  I think there is one lady who 'lives' there, though we hardly ever see her and I guess she was out of town for several months.  So, no one was hurt, and the fire provided a good reason to dump some of the accumulated stuff in the house (even before the fire you could see piles of what appeared to be junk through the windows of the house, providing plenty of fuel for the flames). 

Umm... why is no one putting the fire out?  

Pretty much the whole town came out

It was a nice big 3-alarm fire.  We had a good view of the fire engine ladder in action. 

Several hours into the fire the snack table was set up  

The fire blazed for at least 3 hours, and there were 13 fire engines crowded along our street (and on our so-called front lawn) all night long. 

The second big event in town has been the clearing of the land down by where we go running in the mornings.  This space was tagged for development, though unfortunately it lies butt-up against Prospect Hill Park.  Supposedly the park will remain mostly intact, though the developer did not waste any time (or land) clearing out the trees right up to the park boundary.  This also happens to be just a couple meters from one of the main trails.  

Besides the fact that I hate seeing land cleared for yet more offices and chain stores, other annoying issues include:  

1) The offices that already border the north-west side of the park are 20% vacant.  FILL THIS SPACE BEFORE CLEARING LAND FOR MORE. 

2) There are plenty of run-down and empty buildings near the center of town.  Why not revamp Main Street and also encourage business downtown?  I hate seeing the city sprawl when so much can--and should--be done downtown. 

3) The 120 acre plot was sold to developers for the dirt-cheap price of 40 million dollars.  Land in this area was valued at $1 million per acre.  This appears to me as a poor business move on so many levels.  

4) Just two days ago we saw an albino squirrel not far away from the construction.  Just minutes later I saw a black squirrel.  I wonder who else in the park might be disturbed by the development?  

Read more about the whole situation on the blog Seth set up for the park.  This also links to a story in the Boston Globe about the development. Finally, here is an editorial Seth wrote for the local Waltham paper.  

Now for some recent news!  Seth's parents, along with Tory, Melissa, and Melissa's niece, Brier, came out last weekend to celebrate Erik's First Communion.  They arrived on Friday, so while Seth was out partying with the other Brandeis music faculty over tapas, I met the Coluzzi clan in Boston.

I didn't think there would be a good place to eat outside of Quincy Market, but we tried Wagamama and I was proven wrong.

And of course we had to take a trip into the North End for some Mike's.  Seth missed a fun, flaky, and cream-filled outing!

Saturday morning at the Church of St. Ignatius in Boston College.  The family of the newly communioned one (not sure if this is a real word).

 

Lunch at Bertucci's!

The whole gang spent the rest of the afternoon checking out Boston.  We walked from the Commons to the Ferry at the Aquarium to take the short ride over to see the USS Constitution.  A bit sunny and warm, but still a great day to see the sights!

The USS Constitution.  I have never made it to this last item on the Freedom Trail, so it was exciting to finally step on board.

A crazy jelly fish.  The Australian coast doesn't hold a candle to the horrors lurking in Boston Harbor.

So Long, Spring Semester!

Sorry I haven't been able to post in a long time.  For the past couple months I pretty much just put my head down and studied...  Yesterday was my last exam, and though my final grades aren't in yet, I am happy with how the semester went.  Ironically, I think my grades now are better than my undergraduate grades!  So many people say it is hard to go back to school after taking a few years off.  Luckily I don't think I took a single semester off from some sort of class since getting my B.S. (ie. auditing classes at UNC, ANU, Brandeis, and being enrolled as a full-time Italian student in Florence), and during these years I learned how to study more efficiently.

For this semester in particular, my biggest obstacle was getting back into the swing of studying tougher science classes.  Since I had not taken a chemistry or cell-type biology course in about 7 or 8 years, I was very out of practice and had pretty much forgotten EVERYTHING.  Several months ago I couldn't tell you the difference between an ionic bond or a covalent bond (one of the first things you learn in an intro to chemistry class).  Biochemistry was one of my spring courses, so over the winter break I read old chemistry books to try to get caught up on some of the basics, and I studied like mad during the semester.  The same goes for my tricky little human nutrition science course.  I think I will be proud of my final grades.  The best part is that after several years of flittering along, I actually feel like I deserve a guilt-free vacation!