Weekend in Brooklyn

This is what I have consumed this weekend:

1 platter of 2 pupusas from the flea market red hook vendors (pupusa = fried tortilla stuffed with cheese/beans/meat and covered in homemade slaw and sauce)

1 mini marble scoop of blackberry icecream

cereal with fresh strawberries

1 iced coffee from ozzie's

1 frozen chocolate covered banana from louie g's

1 bread thing with artichokes, onions, eggplant, and goat cheese from grand army green market

Also this weekend we attended free first Saturday at the Brooklyn museum and caught the end of this cool concert thing outside the Brooklyn library. Also went shopping in Park Slope. What I didn't do was go to brunch or check out the botanic gardens... these things will have to wait for next week, when my lovely guests from Ohio arrive :) I just hope the super finally shows up to make the repairs on our apt by then... grrrr....

Graduation food

If you want to see real pics from graduation, here they are:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033040&id=33901973&l=8ba2c56443

If you want to see some food porn (Kwanghee!) you have come to the right place.


We went to the Union Square Cafe for lunch after commencement. Here's our soft shell crab appetizer:
Melody (and my dad) got the lamb bolognese lasagna and Cathy got a yummy pasta with peas (and I forget what else...)
Mom and I shared this pasta with fresh asparagus, spinach, mushrooms, and an egg (obviously). We also split my steak over greens with mushrooms. I realize now that I am terrible at describing food but hey, that's what the pictures are for.Lastly, they gave us a free desert in honor of our graduation. We had also ordered two other deserts, so it might have been a bit much, but it was sooooo goood. This was a honey glazed banana on a thin tart with ice cream. And those round things are macadamia nuts, NOT mini donuts haha.

But I'm not done yet! The next morning the padres and I went to breakfast at Noho Star and this proved to be a wonderful decision. I ordered the breakfast bruschette, which was scrambled eggs and sundried tomatoes on top of toast and goat cheese. Behold:
And lastly, Dad's challah French toast with lots of berries:

All right that's the last of it! Whew that took awhile, so I hope ya'll appreciate it :)

CRITICAL DECISION

I'm not sure why I'm posting this here bc I dunno who's actually going to give me feedback, but I need to decide this soon:

Should I go to the all-university graduation ceremony OR have lunch at Union Square Cafe?

On one hand, it IS my once in a lifetime graduation from college and Hillary is speaking (though I'm sort of indifferent about that). On the other hand, it's all the way at Yankee Stadium for four hours and you just sit there.

BUT this is my once in a lifetime opportunity to have my parents take me to USC, and it's basically a foodie's nirvana, so I should jump all over that. And I need to make a reservation like ASAP.

I wonder if it would be possible to do both. And to hang out with people that afternoon. Considering we wouldn't get dinner till like... 8... maybe it would be possible to have my cake and eat it too. Hm.

Spring Break wooohooo

Have some free time so I thought I would update, even though tis the last day of vacation now. It's been a really great spring break though. Started out in DC where it was cold and rainy but nonetheless wonderful bc I got to hang with my peeps who I hadn't seen in forever. Who knew I had so many friends in the nation's capital.

Moving along to Texas: first couple days in Houston were nice and relaxing, in which I ate a lot of wonderful food prepared by Amy's mom. Then we drove to Austin where it is beautiful and weird and endlessly interesting. I really can't get enough of the weather here. I just checked the forecast for NY tomorrow and it's going to be a high of 40. I'm crying already.

We're about to go out to brunch and then spend the rest of our day with nothing particular to do. I plan to finish my book. Will update more later when I get back to my NY pad.

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.