Posts Tagged ‘Travel’
This is version two of the blog, which currently contains 136 published posts. To some extent, this blog represents the creative excesses of a design enthusiast who is somewhere in the process of applying to grad school, working at a law firm and resides in the Financial District of New York City.
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That last post was kind of a downer, so to change up the tone a bit, here’s what’s going on. Vienna was amazing, and I came home and immediately started planning my post-bar trip in 2013. I’m thinking of doing Spain and Italy, since I haven’t been to either.
I’m also looking for an apartment in Palo Alto, California right now. I can’t believe summer will be here in just six weeks! I’ve started making tentative plans with the other UChicago Bay Area kids so hopefully I’ll have stuff to do, and I want to spend a decent chunk of time in San Francisco since I’ve never been there before. Also, at the end of my gig, I’ll be going to Lake Tahoe in late July for the Wheel reunion. We’re renting a huge lake house so that should be a blast.
Afterwards, it’s to Texas for a week or so, and on the way back I’ll drive up my car so that I can embark on the Ultimate Midwest Roadtrip that I’m planning with a friend from school. Two weeks, close to 4,000 miles of road to cover. The main points of interest are camping out in Yellowstone for a few nights and seeing Mt. Rushmore. But we also want to go horseback riding, do the whole B&B thing, see Amish country, visit ghost towns, go fishing or ziplining, hiking, etc. I’m excited. We’ll be traversing Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. I’ve never been to any of those states, so it should be an adventure.
That’ll bring me to late August, and school doesn’t start until late September. I’m definitely going to visit my sister and Dan in Houston at some point, and depending on the money situation I’m thinking a trip to New York or Boston (or both) is in order.
So, yeah. Lots of traveling ahead. Last quarter was fun with musical and Vis Moot activities, but I’m a little exhausted with it all, so I’m just going to focus on knocking out these last few weeks, and then it’ll be all travel, travel, travel.
EDIT: I wrote this post last week, remembered that I had thought I’d left something out, and I realized I didn’t even mention that I’m going to China in September! So, yeah. I’ve never been to China, so yay for new experiences.
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So, Cabo was great, warm and full of family and good food. Afterwards, I came home to Plano and met up with a bunch of kids from high school – we had a four-hour dinner at a family-styled Italian restaurant – and also Iris and Ruth, both of whom I haven’t seen in over two years.
Mostly, it was heartwarming to see everyone doing well and happy with their lives and choices in careers (or at least putting on a convincing show). It’s weird to think of us all back in high school playing Tetrinet in class, doing problem sets, coming up with skits, doing artsy projects, talking about prom dates and all sorts of silly things. Now, a significant portion of our little IB class is married and some have kids. And, of the thirteen that got together over break, three were in law school, three were in medical school (or soon to be), and three had masters degrees. Others had very serious-sounding jobs, haha.
It’s comforting to see that through the stress, moving, debating over jobs, majors, colleges, and a bunch of other dilemmas, everyone seems to have gotten through it all and come out on top and are able to be supportive of each other and happy for each others’ various accomplishments.
So, yeah, break was nice. Happy holidays!
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My cousin Caroline came by to visit recently from California, and so I finally got a chance to see her – yay! We ended up going out the Friday before Easter only to discover that our bar of choice was – gasp! Closing early!? Wtf, New York? That’s what’s supposed to make you different from shitty cities like Boston. Come on. But anyway, I had a great time hanging out with her that weekend — we even got to see Mama Mia for about 20 bucks (standing room only), which was a fun time.
One of my favorite things about being in New York City in a job with fairly little responsibility is that there’s always people coming and going and it’s easy to make time for them and to take weekend trips, too. So, the itinerary for the next month or so –
Next weekend, Daniel, who I haven’t seen in over three years now, is dropping by for a visit. The weekend after, (the fantastically talented) Brooke will be here. The week after, I’m going to Seattle for a cousins’ reunion, minus Caroline, who’s off to China. And the week after that it’s off to Florida to hang out with the Emory/Just Loop It gang at Dan the Man’s place in Sarasota. And then, the following weekend, FINALLY, my sister is coming to visit! Which has been a long time coming — so, it’s shaping up like the next month and a half will pass by pretty quickly.
On a less upbeat note, but still pertaining to the topic of comings and goings, now that our two-year stints are up at the law firm, the old guard will be moving out to be replaced by newer, more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed legal assistants. Today was Peter’s last day which was great for him and sad for us, and it looks like at some point in May, Christina will be leaving the firm, which I know is going to colossally suck for me.
Also, I really need to figure out what I’m going to do about law school. I’m a little (read: very) heartbroken to leave New York, but it just seems way to expensive to stay. Even apart from tuition bills, the cost of living is really hard to justify if I have no income. Honestly, moving was not an easy process for me, not unlike how moving to Atlanta was for college. I feel like I finally created some sort of life here and now it’s time to go. At first I was considering just moving home for the sake of getting out of my job, but due to cost considerations, it makes more sense to just stay, work and only move once when it’s time for school — wherever that may be. I found that I was actually a relieved to be sticking around a little while longer.
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I’m on a bus on the way back from Charlottesville — I was at the University of Virginia, to be exact, home of the Cavaliers, or the “Hoos” as they refer to themselves. While UVA was lovely, getting there was … not. I got to Penn Station around noon and realized I had left my wallet in a different bag. Sigh. I ended up missing my bus to D.C., which caused me to miss my transfer to go from D.C. to Charlottesville.
While there are a LOT of ways to get from New York to D.C., there are only a few ways to get from Charlottesville to D.C. Namely, Greyhound, Amtrack (sold out) and by Air (very expensive). I ended up taking a Greyhound at 2:15 AM to arrive at Richmond at 4:30 AM. Then, I went from Richmond at 5:30 AM to arrive at Charlottesville at 6:50 AM. I finally, finally got to Sleep Inn at 7:30, unpacked, took at shower and called a cab to get to UVA at 8:45 — just 15 minutes before registration ended and with no sleep. I looked pretty rough that morning, haha.
Anyway, the rest of the trip proceeded much more smoothly, I really liked the current students I met, and I was really excited about the IP Law Curricular Session thing I attended, which reminded me of why I wanted to study law in the first place. The professor discussed why or why not and based on what grounds comedians would or could have a cause of action against other people who stole their jokes, haha.
As for UVA as a whole, while I am undoubtably glad I went to visit, the trip really wasn’t determinative. My main reservations are job prospects, location and diversity when it comes to UVA and honestly, I still have those fears.
So that’s where I am. Law school applications are behind me, and law school deposit deadlines loom ahead. I’ll see in the coming weeks how the situation develops.
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So, a lot has been going on the past few months, and yes, I realize I haven’t been posting. Additionally, I have been re-designing this blog/site and working out kinks so any “website” time has been allocated towards that. I’ll probably switch over to the new template soon, but it’ll be a bit messy.
Also, I went to Panama for a week-and-a-half over Thanksgiving and then Texas where it managed to snow the one day I was in Houston. Thanks, Mother Nature. Panama was amazing, except for that one place with bad water that made me break out. Yeech. And I was also tired the first few days — I spoke a lot of Spanish, and I think dredging it out of my memory was surprisingly enervating. However, there was sun, snorkeling and beaches, and I went on a coffee tour, saw dolphins and sloths, met the indigenous people, watched a boat go through the Panama canal locks, went hiking in the mountains, etc., so it was worth it. We also ate a lot of fancy meals and fruit there was so good– I can’t even compare it with the fruit in New York, it’s too depressing.
Anyway, I returned to the dank coldness of the city and managed to get sick. Fast forward two weeks later, I’m all better and now there are inches and inches of lovely power-like snow all over the place. Also, since returning from my trip, I’ve gotten admission into Duke, Georgetown and NYU Law (I’d already gotten into UT in the beginning of November)! (!!!!!) So, I’m excited for law school, but I’m a teeny bit scared of how much work it will be. Regardless, thanks to the happy news, I’m sure it’ll be a very merry holiday season.
Now that law school is close to definite, I’m starting to realize that my time in New York might actually be coming to a close — at least for now. It went by extremely quickly. My two years of indentured servitude to the firm is up in July, so I’ll probably be leaving then or even earlier. Seven months. Weird.
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So, I spent the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago — it was amazing! I got to take a look at both the Northwestern (very collegiate) and UChicago (very serious-looking) law schools and campuses. We went to Taste of Chicago where we ate anything and everything our paunchy stomaches could handle, haha. My favorite place was the indian place that served up some spicy puffed-rice curry concoction that was delicious. Oh, and we also saw the bean on the way there which is actually more entertaining than you might have imagined.
We also went to a showing of the Best of Second City (a well-known Chicago skit/comedy/improv club), which was hilarious. We took the Architectural Boat Tour of the city, we watched fireworks (an oddy death-defying and harrowing experience, actually) and Ali’s parents were gracious enough to cook and grill for us! Yummy!
So, yeah, that weekend was great. Speaking of Chicago, I bought a ticket to watch Hugh Jackman and Craig Daniel in a limited run of A Steady Rain, which is a broadway play set in Chicago about two cops, etc. I got the ticket for the day after my September LSAT. After the June administration, I went to watch Neil Labute’s reasons to be pretty, because I thought it would be nice to relax afterwards and to have something to look forward to that wasn’t the LSAT. Well, I thought that play was great, so it worked out pretty well.
Anyway, the 1-year anniversary of my moving to the city passed by last month, and I didn’t even realize it. I suppose it’s making me want to be sure to check off all the things that I had planned on doing in my time here — I’m going to John Stewart in September, too. I should have more time for these things once law school apps are over, but I don’t want to risk putting it off and never doing these things. Oh yeah, I also turned 23 last month, so I am rapidly approaching old age, haha. My birthday was great — we went to Cuba, per Rita’s reservations, where you get a free cigar with your meal that some guy that rolls in a corner — hilarious! A mish-mosh of middle school/high school/college/work friends came, which was awkward at times, but fun for me, haha.
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So, Hawaii was wonderful, basically. We actually ended up stopping in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving to see our familia in California, resulting in a Dim Sum Thanksgiving Feast, haha. They have great fruit there. Mmmm.
Anyway, post-Hawaii, I am now three different skin colors. My upper body is now the normal color that humans should be — enough color to look healthily sunkissed, but not so much that my skin color fails to correctly reflect my ethnicity. My legs, meanwhile, have been burnt to a crisp and are too dark or a bright red. Hot, I know. My torso has remained its usual pale-ish, albino-y white. Ahhh.
Luckily, most of the color differentiation can be attributed to a day-long kayaking trip that we took which was wonderful (kayaking to a nearby island, lunch on the beach, mini-geography lesson, some snorkeling, and kayaking home), so it was worth it.
Anyway, I won’t recite the details of the trip here — my sister took plenty of pictures so I’m sure I can look back on it that way. Aloha!
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Before I get into my post, I’d just like to record for my personal purposes that this past week has made me proud to be an American for the first time in a long while. Hooray for everyone. :D
That said, I’ll be visiting some new locations in the next few months. My travel plans are as follows:
November 21 – 23: Boston, MA
November 26 – December 4: Hawaii
December 12 – 14: Atlanta, GA
Also, sometime in March or April, I’m trying to plan a short week-long trip to Spain, which has been on my to-do list for a long time. The Boston trip is for the Harvard-Yale game; I’ll be staying with one of Amy’s friends. Obviously, I have no interest in the actual results of the game, I’m just going to hang out with old high school friends living in the Northeast.
Hawaii is my Thanksgiving trip with my family. The plus side is that it’ll be a nice change from the current weather conditions to be able to get into a bathing suit and do water activities under the sun. The con is, of course, I’ll have to wear a bathing suit. Yeech.
The Atlanta trip is tentative. The tickets are about $250, which I can afford technically, but I don’t know if I’d rather save up for other things like the aforementioned trip to Spain. We’ll see.
Anyway, those are just some of my updates on life. Obviously, if anyone’s going to be in any of those places at those times and would like to meet up, I’m sure I’d be happy to see you unless you suck. Suck less! Just kidding.
Work is…going. There are better days and worse days, mostly depending on the type and amount of work that is available. Oh, we also had our FIG outing that was actually really fun. They took us on a tour of the Federal Reserve gold vault, and later that night we had a lovely dinner and drinks at Cipriani’s at 55 Wall where we got to meet everyone’s plus-ones (e.g. wives and girlfriends). I discovered the next day that going to work partially hung over really sucks.
Anyway, now that the financial crisis has somewhat abated, at least in terms of rush-rush spur-of-the-moment deals taking place every other day, I’m re-focusing on my LSAT studying regime. I’m trying to gather the motivation to take 1-2 full length, timed exams each week until the end of the year. After that, I’ll try to ramp it up to 2-4 until February 7th, which is my test date. In all, I hope to take roughly 30 timed tests by the time I take the real thing. Mostly, I think I need to get used to having to concentrate for such a long period of time, which has been difficult for me. Additionally, I’d like to have done ALL of the available logic games by test day. That’s the goal, anyway.
In all, I’ve completed 6 full length tests currently, but only 2 of which were timed. I’ve can tell I’m improving, but I need to up my score by 7 points to reach my goal. I’m not sure if this is too lofty a goal, but we’ll see. Wish me luck, please!
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The eye of the storm. Life has ground (grinded? I don’t think that’s a word) to a brief and much needed halt as I wait to move northward. Graduation was hectic, as one would imagine, but honestly I’m surprised how quickly it ended. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to a lot of people, but I did get some pretty solid goodbyes in and that was good. I actually think the last person I talked to (other than my roommates) was this random guy named Jimmy, and we talked about how one becomes a man (him, not me — otherwise it would require talking about awkward surgical procedures. <– bad joke). Not how I imagined my time at Emory to end, but somehow appropriate.
Anyway, the wedding was really nice and the whole thing took place at a really romantic beach-side resort in San Diego, CA. They are a pretty chill couple so the wedding took out a lot of the unnecessary pomp and circumstance that tends to make them really tedious; the whole ceremony took all of — 15 minutes? Yeah, shortest wedding ever, or so I’m told. Just walking up the aisle, short sand ceremony, him: I do, her: I do, kiss kiss, the end. It was fun to see all the family again though it was a bit unbalanced (her side: 42 people, his side: 7, haha). Overall, it was a really well-planned wedding, I think.
Well, I’m back at home now catching up on some reading. I’ve been trying to get through Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, but I’m finding that it’s just a little bit much with all the spirituality and stuff. I mean, the parts when she is on her bathroom floor writing and telling herself it is the voice of God pouring forth from her hand (and this happens multiple times) — yeah, color me skeptical. Sorry.
I’ve had better luck with a collection of short stories by David Sedaris – I guess they’re technically essays, which is useful to know if you’re ever looking for his stuff in a bookstore – which I switch to each time the Gilbert book starts to get on my nerves. I’m still determined to finish it, but it’s definitely testing my willpower.
Finally, los videojuegos. I beat Fable yesterday. I actually really liked it. My sister’s friend Marc says it’s too short, but I thought it was a good length if you do all the optional sidequests (which I am wont to do) and take the time to find everything and try out different options. Lessee, I’ve also played The Movies (gets very boring around after 5 hours or so), the Sims Castaway Stories (waste of time, non-fun, WAY TOO LINEAR, gets boring after the first hour and a half), and I’m about three-quarters of the way through Neverwinter Nights. Neverwinter Nights is very long. I don’t know how long I’ve been playing but I’ve been trying to get through this game since prior to finals. Looong. But quite good. I think more hardcore gam3rz would appreciate the length/depth more than I do.
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