The Great Umbrella Exchange

I had a presentation this morning that I was all nervous about but thankfully it went well. UNFORTUNATELY sometime between my preparations and giving the speech I lost my umbrella somewhere :( But after the class left and as I was looking around I spotted another umbrella someone had left under the table. All's fair in love and umbrella's! So I took that one to replace the one someone else had undoubtedly taken from me. This made me wonder: does our society have a grand umbrella exchange, of losing and finding umbrellas? People shouldn't need to buy them anymore, they should just look around until they find one that's been left behind.

Midterms are almost over! This is what I have left: a conclusion for one paper, final look-over of another paper, and.... three pages and a thesis for the last paper. Errr.

But I have much to look forward to so I'm over the worst of the midterms depression/stress. Friday night we're making margs and tacos at J's and Saturday I'm going to DC for approx 24 hours to see friends from Beijing, and hopefully my lovely former roommate as well. Then Monday it's off to TX for spring break, where I may get the chance to meet up with another Beijinger (in Chinatown there, of course!). omgcan'twait.

Ahnold in Ohio

I wanted to call my fb photo album AHNOLD but I didn't actually get to see him :( We did see some muscle-y ppl and some fencers at the convention center when we went to help set up Friday night though. But Daylight Savings ruined our plans to see the governator on Sunday.

However! I did get to see lots of NA ppl and that made me happy :) On Friday Cheng and I stuffed our faces with sushi at Jacob's restuarant and it was delicious. Then we saw Watchmen and it was... long, and pretty good, and I've still got mixed feelings on it. But Cheng loved it, so that's good.

Then Saturday we had brunch with Tristan and Jessica at North Star Cafe, chatting about wedding stuff and eatind delicious food. Though I should have tried something other than the pancakes... oh well, next time!

Had dinner at home (more food... apparently this is all I do in Ohio) and then had some birrrr at BW3's n high with Cheng's friends. $4 for a 32oz budlight, Cynthia, it was crazy good! Never can find such a thing here in NYC tho :(

After that we mosied on over to Jill's place for a good old fashioned OSU party (with some pajamas involved, though I think most ppl missed that memo). Got to catch up with more ppl, though not as much as I would have liked bc it was a party with lots of ppl and all. There was some twister action going on too. Good times.

But I wish I had had another day! I came back to NYC and the trains were all messed up and it started to rain and now I have all these midterms to finish :*( Luckily spring break is officially a week away! Can't wait for more traveling!

Even though I don't have a TV

I am supremely good at wasting time watching television. Case in point: I recently watched two seasons of the show Mad Men, which airs on AMC and will be starting its third season in the near future.

I kinda hate getting addicted to new shows because then I do indeed waste all this time catching up and becoming obsessed... but at least I can pretend I'm learning something from this show. It's set in the late 50's early 60's in Manhattan so I get my dose of New York culture and world politics from that time, which I can somehow link up to my Vietnam class since we're currently studying the Kennedy administration.

Ok but really it's about the characters and how ridiculously well their stories are written. Of course the costumes and all that help set the tone, and there are funny moments of circumstances that seem so ridiculously racist/sexist/inappropriate watching from this day and age. So I've been really enjoying all that while at the same time cringing at how much these people smoke (even on the airplanes! and while pregnant!) and thinking how glad I am to be entering the workforce as a woman in this era instead of back then.

Unfortunately one of the pervasive themes of the show is adultry: these "mad men" work on Madison Ave all day and then go off to meet up with their mistress in a hotel and then return to their wives and children in the suburbs after dark. Basically. Which is sad, and yet so seemingly common. And it's just made so much worse by the fact that television is supposed to allow a person to escape, and yet it seems impossible to escape this culture of deception. I'm lucky to have what I have, and I know I'm lucky, and that makes it all the worse when friends of mine are not so lucky. What I mean is... it's hard to watch a show (though it may be set 50 years ago) about people who cheat and lie in relationships and then have it echo back in real life.

I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact that television--that is, smart, savvy television--isn't scripted in a void, as much as we would like to turn to it for an escape. And actually I appreciate this show much more than others that are too over-the-top or gloss over more important issues (coughcoughGGcoughcough). So affairs and duplicitous men aside, I recommend watching Mad Men and would love to have more people to discuss it with, since it really is one of those shows that inspires dialogue.

Overheard in NY by YT

Last Sunday I mistakenly went out in search of dumplings for dinner (all the restaurants in Chinatown were closed for New Years, natch) and as I'm walking down Mulberry I hear this shopkeeper guy say, "None of the crazies are out tonight. It's so cold even the crazies aren't out!"

Except for me and my rumbly tummy, of course.

Also just wanted to say that skinny boys wearing skinny jeans but still trying to be "cool" should probably not sag their pants. I mean, it just doesn't look right.

Lastly: Worst weather ever today. Took the bus both ways to campus and really should have worn my wellies. Too bad we don't get school canceled for inches and inches of rain on top of really slippery snow.

In a haze

I've been going through the travel motions since I got back without really paying attention but just sort of knowing where I am going thanks to traveling the same routes all summer. If that makes sense. Well, the problem is that today I was on my way back from an interview (went well! fingers crossed!) near Herald Square and whilst sitting on the B train got lost in my thoughts and missed my stop. Oops. I looked up and saw that we were at Grant street, so I figured I would get off and switch trains to go uptown (I could've walked back, I suppose, but I was wearing heels so no).

While I'm getting off I notice all these Chinese people! And across the way on the other platform: more Chinese people! So I happily stand there waiting for the train and listening to/looking at all the Chinese-ness going on around me. There was an erhu war with one played on each platform, lots of old people with groceries, and even crazily dressed children. Oh Zhongguo! I miss you!

Only bad thing was that everyone was speaking Cantonese. Wth. Also these two blonde girls came to stand in front of me (what are YOU doing here?? clearly this area is the new Chinatown, I thought) and I realized they, too, were not speaking English. Because of all the Canto-craziness around I swear it sounded like they were also speaking Cantonese, but given the circumstances a better guess would be some Scandanavian language. Or German.

Right so as if I weren't missing Zhongguo enough already, that pretty much did it for me. Now I'm going to eat "Chinese" food tonight and cry internally that I am paying $7 for my meal instead of $1.

I would just like to say that

It is very hard living in the city (and especially having classes all afternoon) and not being able to properly eat a sandwich. How am I supposed to eat on the run??

An Historic Day

Well, for someone other than me, I suppose. Today was the first day of classes, which meant running lots of errands and standing in lots of lines. I still don't understand why the Brits are stereotyped as loving to queue, when clearly no one does it better than New Yorkers. Ugh.

Anyway, classes look good so far except that they will entail a LOT of reading. But I'm pretty good at that so yeah, it's just a matter of getting my hands on the books. I have a very full day tomorrow of class, checking out the job fair, meeting with the EAS dean, then class, then going to see my Chinese professor (and perhaps auditing his class, har).

What else? Oh yes, some random lady came up to me at Whole Foods and started going off on how she felt offended by Obama's speech as a white woman because she helped with the Civil Rights movement in the 60's etc etc and I felt very awkward. But then I saw her go up to two other people after me and repeat the same schpeel, so I guess it's whatever. Reverse culture shock, episode 153.65!

So yeah, I miss China and my friends from there lots. Prices here are already making me sad. I can't hardly eat! Well that's not true, because of this wonderful thing called the "Recession special" that some restaurants have now. For example, Amy and I ate at Calcutta the other night for 9.95 and we each got: a samosa, soup, a chicken entree (mine was korma), rice, and naan bread. Nice! Portions were slightly smaller, but still. And the tax and tip basically killed, but still. 9.95 for delicious Indian food.

And the last note: I bought a bunch of yogurt on sale and it's possibly the weirdest texture ever. Not feeling it.