Olivia in New York |
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Saturday, September 28, 2002
Go GIANTS!!! I'm so happy, my team won today and advance to the postseason over those annoying LA Dodgers!! Being the die-hard fan that I am, I have been watching the games online at mlb.com. Although there is a time lag, it's good to watch. And I discovered today that I can listen to the radio games on the web through realone.com. I signed up for the 14-day free trial, so I hope I don't forget to cancel it next, next Saturday. Can you imagine me sitting in front of my laptop, listening to the game, and watching the cartoon view of the game on the web, clapping and sitting at the edge of my seat??? Well, I was! And when they won, I think I even teared! SO SO HAPPY!!! I'm coming home next weekend and I'm definitely going to the game on Saturday, no matter how much I need to buy the tickets on ebay! Coming home! Oh yeah, I'm going home on Thursday for my mom's birthday weekend! Yay! Friday, September 27, 2002
First Night Out in New York Last night, Johanna and I went out on the town, since the both of us don't have class on Fridays. We went to this bar called "Forbidden City" where they had Asian-themed drinks. I had a drink that had calamansi juice and ginger in it. Very interesting drink. Then we headed over to this small place called Parlay, but it was a little dead, so we headed over to another place called Bob's. The music was pretty cool, kinda reminded me of Word. Not too many people at first, but it picked up towards the middle. After, we went to get french fries at 3am in the pouring rain. Thank goodness for cabs. I ended up crashing on Johanna's sofabed and waking up at 11:30am. New York movies Today I watched Serendipity and again felt cool that I knew where the scenes took place. Sometimes I feel like I should takes pictures at every place that I've seen in movies. Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Flower Drum Song I saw Flower Drum Song today. I liked the songs, the story, and especially the costumes! Lea Salonga was really good. The lead guy reminded me of Gary Manalus. :) Pickle in the Middle I had a bacon cheeseburger from Burger King today and after I picked out the pickles, like I always do, I decided not to throw them away, but to eat them. After I ate them, I realized that I liked them on their own, and not in the burger itself. What a newfound experience... eating pickles and actually liking the taste... Why am I always talking about food? Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Long day Today has been an unusually long day for me. I had class at 9:30 and then had class from 1:10-5:15. It's my regular Tues,Thurs schedule, but today seemed long. I even got a headache during one of my classes, and I never get headaches. Oh well. Maybe it's because the weather is getting quite cold and windy. Or maybe it's because some of the stuff that I am learning in class doesn't make sense to me yet. I hope I get my book that I ordered from amazon.com in the mail soon. I really need it now. Smallville In happier news, Smallville premieres today! I'm excited. I just hope I can fix the position on my antenna just right, so that the picture doesn't look too snowy and the people don't have shadows on the screen. Monday, September 23, 2002
Discount Broadway Tickets I'm meeting Johanna today to go down to the Theater District to buy tickets for Flower Drum Song. There's this deal that if you buy one ticket for any show this week with your Visa card, you get one free. So it's pretty much the same as getting half-price tickets. But we're going to see the show that they don't offer at TKTS, so we get our money's worth. Oktoberfest Yesterday I went the mass at St. Paul's Chapel on campus and I read the first reading. I am now a lector, but only for one weekend in the semester, since there are so many other people who are lectors. It was a good experience, I got to read the passage from the Bible to all those people at church. After the mass, there was free hot dogs and soda outside in preparation for the German festival, Oktoberfest. Shopping Weekend I met up with Johanna again on Saturday to go shopping. We went to the Macy's in Herald Square (huge store! I think I could get lost in there) and then H&M where I bought two shirts and two pairs of sunglasses (for $1.00 and $0.50!). I love that store. Then we hit the street fair on 6th Avenue between 42nd and 53rd Streets. It seems like there's always a street fair there on Saturdays. Lots of booths of food, random things to buy, like shirts, pictures, purses, etc. We walked along until we found the $1.00 Thai Food booth, and stopped to eat there. I had chicken satay, a spring roll, and fried rice. yum. Then we went to Johanna's and watched her newest Netflix movie, The Rookie. Friday, September 20, 2002
Trail of Blame: Stories of the Philippines I saw this Caucasian lady reading a book called "Trail of Blame: Stories of the Philippines" on the subway on my way home and it caught my eye. Random. My first shopping spree in New York This morning, since I don't have class on Fridays, I went down to Greenwich Village to go shopping. It started off as just a trip to go get free advanced screening passes to Reese Witherspoon's new movie "Sweet Home Alabama" at Wet Seal, but I ended up staying there for an hour and I bought some stuff. I even signed up for a Wet Seal card, because the very convincing cashier person got me sign up for only $2.30! (well, kinda... the card was $20 but I got 20% off all my purchases today, so I ended up only paying the difference between the $20 and all my discounts.) But I'm excited for my two new pairs of capris, jeans, and a cute shirt! Plus I got a free BBMak CD for buying denim! After Wet Seal, I went into Office Depot to buy a 3-hole punch and address labels; I went into The Wiz (kinda like a Circuit City in CA) because they were having a major closing sale, but didn't buy anything. Then went to Blockbuster, where they were having a buy-2-get-1-free previewed movies... so I bought Serendipity, Kate & Leopold, and A Walk To Remember DVDs. (The first two are going into my "New York" movies collection). Then went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a lounge pillow that I've wanted since I got here (Alan has one and I like it a lot!) I was going to buy online for $40, but I got this one for $9.99!! I love deals. Feast of San Genarro Last night, I met up with Johanna for dinner. We decided to go to Chinatown for some Chinese food, but when we got there and started walking around, we saw all these people and booths of food and stuff for sale and even carnival games on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. So we walked around there instead, because there were so many people and there were lights everywhere! It was the Feast of San Genarro festival, which lasts from Sept.12-22. We had some fried calamari, this cornbread with mozzarella cheese inside, and strawberry daiquiris (with one free refill!). It must have gone on for 10-20 blocks! What a great day. I love it when you just stumble upon something and it turns out to be pretty cool. When we got to the other side, we walked around the East Village and found this Japanese grocery store. Wednesday, September 18, 2002
"INGO!" Don't you love it when you turn on the tv and the talk show has some of your favorite people as guests? That's what happened to me this morning. I turned on the TV and "The Wayne Brady Show" was playing. And his guests today are Ingo Rademacher ("Jax" from General Hospital) and BBMak. I decided to do homework in my room until 11am and then go to the library instead of going at 10am so I can watch the show. He's playing a game on the show called "INGO" which is like "BINGO" but without the "B" row. Wayne Brady is pretty entertaining though. Master Chef The afritada I made last night was really good! I guess since I never cooked at home, I didn't know what I was capable of. But this last feat has prompted me to cook even more! Needless to say, Alan is pretty happy about that :) Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Happiness is Buying Cheap Groceries After my 9:30 class today I went to the grocery store near my house called Gristedes. They just opened recently, so it seems like they're having sales all the time. I love going there because everything seems so cheap (actually, they're normal priced compared to Pak 'n Save back home, but cheap compared to some of these other NY specialty grocery stores). I got some Marie cookies for 50c, orange juice, pizza-for-one, tomato sauce and potatoes (as I am going to attempt to make Afritada - the chicken dish with tomato sauce, potatoes, and peas/carrots), and a gallon of water. All for the grand total of $6.58. What a deal. H20 I don't think I've ever valued clean drinking water as much as I do now. I don't drink the tap water here, because our building is having issues with the water being yellowish in color. They say it's drinkable, but why take the risk. So every so often I buy a gallon of water (79c!) at the grocery store and since it's so hot and humid here, I drink lots of water daily. I miss home where I can just get clean water right out of the refrigerator spout. Monday, September 16, 2002
I Can See Clearly Now, The Rain Is Gone I went to campus today wearing a sweater, slacks, and boots, thinking that it was going to be cold and overcast, and I when I got to the main campus it was nice and sunny. It was sweltering hot in the subway (as it always is), but I was glad to see that the sun decided to show up today. I went to the library to study from about 1-4pm and when I went to my 4:10pm class, it was raining. And not just a slight rain... I mean heavily pouring, raining-cats-and-dogs type of rain. Can you imagine how many people were caught stuck in the rain without an umbrella? Lots, I tell you. I saw people walking on campus, so drenched it looked as though they had just stepped out of a pool with their clothes on. Crazy, crazy New York weather. But again, during my class, the sun came out again, so now it's all good. Just a reminder to always check the weather before going outside. Sunday, September 15, 2002
Chicken Soup for the New York Soul I woke up this morning and the weather was ugly and dreary. Cloudy with no sun in sight. I checked weather.com and it forecasted rain/thunderstorms for today, so I decided to make some arroz caldo, which is pretty much chicken soup with rice and other good stuff. Unfortunately, I had no ginger, but I cooked it anyway and am eating it as I write this blog. I think I put too much rice because there's hardly any soup, and any soup that initally was there is being absorbed by the rice very quickly. Anyway, it's a good warm meal and only cost me probably under a dollar. Saturday, September 14, 2002
Questions? Comments? Yay! I finally signed up for comments and it works... so write to me! Retreat! I just got back from our departmental retreat today. We left on Thursday afternoon and just came back. A total of around 100 people in Medical Informatics (students, faculty, and admin) went to the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York for a 3 day retreat. I thought it was actually pretty cool that the department took all of us on this retreat. The resort had an indoor and an outdoor pool, ping pong tables, tennis courts, a golf course, a spa, and a mini-golf course, which I played. The buffet food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was the most I think I've eaten since coming to New York. All the faculty introduced themselves and their research, so I got a good idea of which prof I want to work with. The new students actually put on a show too... asking as many people a given question and then presenting the results to the audience. My question was "What is your favorite place on Columbia's campus?" It was a good icebreaker. Ebay crazy. I've been going crazy on ebay recently, buying movies that have been filmed in New York, like You've Got Mail and One Fine Day. I like watching them now and listening to the references to New York streets, and seeing the scenes shot in Manhattan. Knowing where these locations are gives me new insight in the movies. I like feeling like a New Yorker.... (Besides these two, I've bought Bridget Jones Diary and Sleepless in Seattle (this one came with You've Got Mail - a two-film Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks auction. What a good deal!) Wednesday, September 11, 2002
One Year Anniversary of 09.11.01 Being in New York on the first anniversary of September 11 is definitely a unique experience. I went to a religious service today on campus and different religious speakers spoke and read passages, from Catholicism to Judaism to Muslim. It was a touching experience, especially the moment of silence that we all observed at 8:46am, the time when the first plane crashed into Tower I of the World Trade Center. My first blog! I'm finally starting my own blog so I can write down all my new experiences in New York! I hope this works! |
