New York City in a short skirt and a long jacket

Back now at MIT, when faced with the inevitable, repeated, questions of "How was your IAP?" I realize no amount of words could explain it to someone who was not there. I also cannot satisfactorily answer the questions of "What did you do in New York City?" The gerunds eating, shopping, drinking, clubbing ring hollow and indescript. Jason phrased it as, a higher quality of life. I deem it as the NYC lifestyle.

I love walking down the streets on a bright day when the sunlight shines straight down the grid lines of Manhattan, yellow dots honking and tracing into the distance, and human achievements of glass steel and concrete rising in vertigo on both sides. I walk in step with the fast heartbeat of New York, dressed in a grey peacoat, leather & cashmere gloves, and high heeled boots. Breakfast is a bagel or pastry bought at the food trucks outside every Metro exit in the morning. Add a cup of Nespresso to my desk, and my day has begun. Lunch is but an afterthought, and the coming of dinner is signaled by the sun's disappearance over Central Park from my office window. I turn off the lights, lock up the office, and now, starting with dinner, my day has only just begun.




A handful of phone calls later, dinner might be comfort food in Chinatown, or cheap and collegiate in St. Marks and Lower East Side. Or, more often than not this month, an upscale restaurant that satisfies our Epicurean cravings. (My favorites? The Michelin star restaurants Le Cirque and The Modern. Absolutely exquisite.)



On chill days we just hang out in the Wall St apartment lounge, watch a movie, play some pool, thinking about going somewhere but never actually moving. If we're feeling fun, after-dinner drinks at a bar or lounge - soju in a watermelon anyone? - but, as college kids at heart, the guys usually end up running to a liquor store before 10pm and hanging out at the apartment in Little Italy. Quarters, Beirut, Kings, poker... Jersey Shore... good old-fashioned fun and games (and broken cups and mismatched card decks) ensue.



On the nights that we make it out beyond this, there's dancing in a dark grimy bar -- never mind the sketchy old people, because the DJ is good, the friends are good, and the bartender is very good. When we exit a couple of hours later, sweaty, cold, and hungry, our thoughts inevitably turn to K-town Bonchon. Inside the taxi, there is a slight pause in confusion as we wonder what streets exactly are K-town on, but we get there eventually. While waiting for that delicious fried chicken, we comment on particularly cute waitresses, or, upon seeing Shinhan Bank's logo across the street, revert back to MIT-ism and discuss Starcraft 2...

A glimpse into my routine in New York.

And in between all this are my random adventures wandering around Central Park, walking around the block in a circle, getting locked in an out-of-service subway train, trying to give food to homeless people, being confused in Brooklyn, etc. etc.... the usual =)

>> Rest of the pictures on Facebook

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