Pretending to be a Rich Movie Star

After spending all morning at orientation (once again!), I made plans to meet up with my friend from Vancouver, E. She's an Upper West Side resident, so she met me on her turf and showed me around!

Our fun and relaxing afternoon involved (a lot of) window shopping, browsing super expensive stores that neither of us could afford (but hey, isn't it fun to stroke a 1,500$ fur vest sometimes?) and some catching up.

The lovely E sporting a pair of vintage YSL sunglasses.

Flowershop on Columbus.

L'Occitane en Provence.

Rag and Bone, aka Cute and Unaffordable. Also the land of very intently staring sales associates.

Brooks Brothers - the lair of preppy. The wonderful store associate made my day by calling us lovely ladies all the time!

Some very nice home decor store on Broadway.

After a couple of hours, I had to split and hop on the train uptown, but the lovely day certainly woke some fashion cravings in me and I spent the evening thumbing my September issue of In-Style. None of the clothes in there were in the least bit within my price range. I personally think of that as a really great savings strategy. I can't afford them, so I don't buy them - hence, I have more money. Capiche?

Culture Shock: Snarky Commentator takes MoMA

Well lookie here, I'm on a roll. Third day in a row of doing fun stuff! Since the weather was being a little uncooperative, I decided to head indoors for some New York entertainment.

To MoMA that is! I figured if I'm ever going to start the whole I'm-living-in-New-York-going-to-museums-on-my-lunch-break-and-broadway-shows-on-random-weeknights, it might as well be now.

And I have to admit, the reason I chose MoMA was due to the ridiculously awesome souvenirs they have stocked in their Museum Store. Like I-want-to-buy-everything awesome.

But the curse of modern arts museums is that some modern arts are ... well ... kind of crappy. Now I understand that modern art is supposed to make people think beyond its physical representation and to allow meditation on more profound subjects. But seriously - sometimes, that's just a piece of bullshit.

I present to you ...

Nah, modern art usually costs millions. So this tomato-like get-up will probably set you back at least 199,999$.

Now I'm sure SOME people may find the above thought-inspiring (although guys, we know you just like to stare at boobs). But personally, I find it laughable.

Now that's not to say that there wasn't anything of value in the museum. There were some very interesting exhibitions going on, including one from a photographer tracing the bloodlines of several families ...

Not exactly art, per se, but very engaging.

... and one of inventions for a future world ...

This would be an artifical biological clock, which, taking information from a woman's banker, doctor, etc would let her know when she is prime for having children.

... and one of modern furniture (really cool too - they had this mini-apartment where everything folded together into a cube in the end!).

The last floor, which I guess is where EVERYBODY went is where the more famous painters were displayed - Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse, etc.

Wowee! Everyone and their grandma was apparently there. Note to self: put off further museum trips until the dead of winter.

In any case, there were some really nice Picasso's and even some new painters that I hadn't heard of that I really enjoyed looking at.

Umberto Boccioni, for example.

So MoMA was a success and a great practice for my snarky commentary. Since the weather had actually cleared up by then, I decided to head down Fifth Avenue, just to see more of downtown, and whaddaya know? It is indeed full of stores, just like they say. Now since I'm on a shopping hiatus (too much $$$ spent on the move and I only like to shop for summer dresses anyways), it wasn't as exciting as it could be, but at least I've scope out my route for my usual pre-Christmas shopping bonanza.

Of River-side Walks (with Complementary Eyecandy!)

In the spirit of "Operation See More of New York" (and also because my unlimited metro pass expires tomorrow), I dragged my ass out and downtown again. This time, I decided to walk on the Hudson River Esplanade, by the World Trade Center and through Battery Park to the South Ferry terminal. I figured, the day was beautiful, and the park is a straightforward place to walk through. You don't have to look at a map, you just look around: trees? You're still in the park. No trees? You're lost buddy.

I have to say, I was very very impressed by this park. It was a really well-developed waterfront area and now I really wished I lived close by so I could run there!

Speaking of running ... well, let's just say it was a hot day and I wasn't upset that all those hunky guys had to run shirtless ;)

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the shirtless guys. What do you guys think I am, a creeper? Heh. Instead, I bugged some people to take photos of me. And whaddaya know? Every single one of them was a tourist. Seriously, I'm begging to believe that there are no actual New Yorkers in Manhattan. Because when I'm downtown, anytime I'm trying to interact with people, they always seem to be from some Eastern European country with zero knowledge of English. Where are the New Yorkers?!?!

This park walk was a decidedly good choice for the day, because uptown was actually quite hot, but here, the breeze from the sea and the fact that there were two walking lanes - one in the sun and one under the trees, meant that I didn't have to start melting into a puddle right this minute.

1.5 hrs of walking later, I was starving, so I once again headed uptown (keeping these excursions short and sweet makes them exciting, right?). As soon as I walked through the door, I felt like I was hit with one of those giant rubber mallets, and I basically spent the rest of the evening doing nothing with my fan on full-blast. Met one of my new roommates (such a sweetheart!) and went to bed at 10pm. You guys, I am leading such an exciting life here in New York.

So I'll just leave you with the rest of the pictures of the day ...

Iconic photo right here. (Barely distinguishable Statue of Liberty on full zoom!)

 

Another photo courtesy of an Eastern European couple with whom I communicated via nodding and arm waving

Skyline of downtown Manhattan. Note to self: win lottery, become an overpaid consultant or marry rich so you can live here.

Wherein I take on a (tiny itsy bitsy) piece of Manhattan

 I am slightly OCD, I'll admit it. I have to have cleanliness and order in my living quarters. (Apparently, that's a sign of culture shock, as per the booklet they gave us out at orientation. Wow, way to hate on good habits. No worries, I've had it since I was 13 or something).


Anyways, as per my inner calling, I spent the morning scrubbing the kitchen from top to bottom.

Well, actually, I'll be honest - I only really cleaned the counters. The splatter on the walls did not come off with industrial strength bleach, so was kind of at a loss there. But this was a heck of a task nonetheless.

Look how pretty, shiny and beautiful it is now!!! (Although we'll see how it holds up when my new roommates join me. Sometimes, it doesn't work out quite as well ...).

Now the only problem with this whole cleaning process (because let's be honest - I like to clean. I pump up my music, dance away and get to arrange everything prettily. What's not to love?) - well, the problem was that our window doesn't open. So not only was I sweating like crazy by the end, but I was cleaning with bleach. And there was something else ...

There is no vent for the stove. I repeat, there is nowhere for air to go. So no window, no vent and just me in a hotbox with some bleach fumes.

It was fun.

Now, I would've been happy to keep on cleaning (because, whoo, the bathroom definitely needs sprucing up), but I made the yucky decision yesterday to be social. (Note to self - meh, who needs to be social anyways?). So I signed up for a campus scavenger hunt.

Yea, so there was that. Also, lots of sweating because apparently noon is when New York becomes a sauna.

Thankfully, that did not persist into the afternoon. In honour of being a resident of this fine city, I have made a promise to myself to see one new bit of New York every week. Now to be honest, it's actually quite overwhelming to start - I mean, New York is HUGE and there are so many sights to choose from. (Decision anxiety, anyone?) But I knew I wanted something more low key to ease me in, so I chose ...

The High Line Park!

This park was constructed on an oil railroad that used to run above the city. Very very cool concept. The only downside was that it was MEGA crowded (probably because it's a Saturday). Still, I really enjoyed the sights:

The High Line runs from Gansevoort (but I climbed up to it on 14th Street) and goes until 30th Street. I followed 30th all the way to 7th (which meant I walked past Penn Station and Madison Square Gardens - more sights checked off my to do list!) and my original plan was to walk all the way until Columbus Circle before taking the subway uptown, but in  reality, it was just WAY. TOO. CROWDED. Now, as everyone knows, being in a crowded sauna is not so much fun, so I just hopped on the train then and there. Still, it was nice to see my tiny bit of NYC for the week!

The Most Amazing Vegetables EVER

I am SO excited about my dinner today, you have NO idea. I mean, everybody who knows me, knows that I HATE to cook. As in, I'm perfectly fine eating the exact same thing every.single.day. (Which is what happened last year. I would switch up my menu every 3 months or something, and that's it).

But yesterday, I had orientation and I was STARVING during break, so I ran next door to Milano's Market (on Broadway and 112th).

Source

I got their Grilled Marinated Vegetables and I literally wanted to lick the container they came in (and I was eating in the full-to-the-seams auditorium. So you can see how much I loved them. And this was all happening while some lady was droning on and on about academic integrity. I mean, we. get. it. Don't cheat, don't plagiarize, blah, blah, blah. You'd think that since we've already completed one degree, apparently without any academic felonies, that we kind of know what's going on. Anyways, that's beside the point).

These vegetables were SO delicious that I, proclaimed non-cook and hater of innovation, had to try making them IMMEDIATELY.

Recipe:
- 1 eggplant
- 2 red bell peppers
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 green bell pepper
- 0.5 onion

For the marinade:
- 0.5 cups olive oil
- 0.25 cups balsamic vinegar
- 3 tsp soy sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 0.25 cups onion

Cut up the vegetables into medium sized pieces. I love me a nice long piece of eggplant and pepper, so I sliced peppers lengthwise only, and the eggplant as well (although I cut it into two parts first).

(Note, with the eggplant, I rinse the pieces, then layer them in a saucepan, putting salt onto the pieces in between the layers; I let it rest for 15 minutes and then rinse the pieces thoroughly. This takes out the bitterness that cooked eggplant can sometimes have).

Combine everything for the marinade, and whisk it up a little bit (to make sure the vinegar and the oil mix).

Then pour the marinade all over the vegetables and really dig in with your hands to mix it up together. I left mine in a bowl; some recipes suggest ziplock bags. Mind you, you'll need a giant ass bag for all of these delicious veggies.


Leave to marinade for 1-2 hours. (You can even leave it longer, I'm sure that'll make them even more delicious. Not that it's possible).

Note: I don't own a grill, so these instructions are for a frying pan. I'm sure actual grilling would be even more amazing.

Fry the veggies up in a frying pan on medium heat (cover with a lid to make sure the veggies get soft enough). Make sure to put only 1 layer of vegetables onto the pan at a time. Cook for 10 minutes.

Put in tupperware and let chill for a couple of hours.

YOU'RE DONE.

These veggies taste amazeballs when cold, you don't even need to heat them up.

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE.

Well, what are you waiting for? You need these in your life RIGHT NOW.

Moving to NYC!!!

I have held off on posting stuff a lot because GUESS WHAT?!?!

I've moved to New York!

*cue cheers and giant applause* (oh wait, is that only in my head? Ah well.)

So basically the second week of August, I spent mostly packing (10% of the time) and agonizing over packing (90% of the time). When I agonize over things, I get into this state of 'rabbit in headlights'. I say rabbit because I feel much more small and helpless than a deer; I mean a deer can really put a dent in your bumper, and that's without talking about how he can just go through the windshield and skewer your ass with his horns.

Anyways, that means that most of the time, I get really irritated about my inability to accomplish anything, and so I destress by watching TV and doing nothing remotely useful. Good coping strategy, no? Thank goodness for my wonderful mother, who, let's be honest, probably did 80% of the packing herself. Let's just say I had a more managerial role ... say Director of Fashion Choices.

So, let's get to the down and dirty of my trip:
1. United Airlines BLOWS. (Note to self - do NOT forget this fact when booking plane home for Christmas even if they're cheaper.) Flight attendants? Rude. Food? Non-existent. 

But, on the upside, the whole pre-flight experience was great. My bags? Weren't weighed. (Mind you, I was a champ - 2 bags at 23.1 kg and 1 bag at 23.0 kg). The whole immigration thing? Stamp, stamp and off you go. So that was a load off my shoulders. (Although not literally, because I had to lug around a 10 kilo bag on my shoulder for 2 hours).

2. Carts at Newark cost 5$ to rent? WTF. In EVERY.SINGLE.OTHER.AIRPORT they've always been free. I mean, I had US cash, but it wasn't exactly burning a hole in my pocket, begging to be spent, if you know what I mean.

3. I probably shouldn't have hired that gypsy cab. But to be fair, Newark shouldn't have put their Taxi stand at the FARTHEST end of the airport, across all the fricking traffic. (Note to self - fly into JFK. Too bad LaGuardia is domestic only, because that airport ROCKS). Plus my cart was so huge, loaded with my 4 huge suitcases, that the thought of going over the curb with it was too terrifying.

I may have made an off-colour joke to the cabbie along the lines of 'I hope you don't kill me and put my body in a ditch' which I don't think he took well.

4. And last but not least, everybody is SO NICE. Not what you would expect, right? But everyone, from the cab driver, to the manager at my hotel (by the way, 100$ a night buys you a bed but no bathroom. But thank god for AC - that made it TOTALLY worth it), the waiter at my new fave eatery, EVERYONE.

Conclusion - so far, I love it. I mean it's hot and humid, but nowhere near how horrible Moscow was, and besides, I just spend all my time sitting at my desk with a tower fan at full blast. That baby has already paid for itself.

Oh wait, maybe I should go explore this city outside my wonderful, cozy room. They say it's pretty cool. Or something.

Adrenaline Rush

So post-Heidelberg, it was decided that a little excitement was in order. Like I said, my cousin is not one to do the boring stuff.

So we headed out to a lake ...
... and suited up ...

Yea, somehow I had a giant fear of getting wet, which is ironic, considering what we were doing.

... and went water-skiing!

It took a few tries, but I finally got the hang of it by the end! Turns out - I love this whole cable-park wakeboarding/water skiing thing. I guess it helped that I used to ski competitively - alpine skiing really does translate in water skiing. Which meant that there were good moments ...

 Along with the not-so-good moments ...

About 2 seconds post face-first wipe-out ...

 I was SO pumped up after doing this (but also exhausted, because man, it is HARD  to hold on to the bar - it really takes it out of your arms and legs. And you know what's also hard? Swimming back to the station if you fall somewhere on the opposite side of the lake. I think out of our 1hr of water-skiing, I spent about half an hour just swimming. While tugging my water skis along.)

So I suggested that we go to Baden Baden to hit up their mineral water spas and relax there. (And by suggested, I mean, it was my plan all along and I had been inserting subliminal messages into our conversations all day). Unfortunately, my cousin's boyfriend really wanted to watch the Euro Cup football match, so we had to pick something a bit closer to home. Which ended up being a super fabulous swimming pool/spa thing right there in Darmstadt.

Oh and did I forget to mention that it started raining half way through our water-skiing and was really hammering down by that time? So let me tell you, those jacuzzi's couldn't have come at a better time. I would have taken photos ... but A) my camera's not waterproof (I know I know, I need to get on that) and B) there were a few couples going beyond casual PDA right there in the pool, and tired as I was, I figured I should shoot my porn movie some other time.

Hiding out in Heideberg

On my last day with my cousin Maria, I really wanted to visit the town of Heidelberg and its famous castle. By that point I had seen numerous acquaintances pass through there and their Facebook photos made me want to see the cute town for myself.

Jealousy FTW, because man, that was a good decision.

The castle stands on a hill, so you do have to do some climbing to get up there, but after the ropes course, I had the climbing part down.

And the view at the top was completely worth it. It's just as you expect - red tile roofs, cute white houses, the winding river with a multitude of bridges spanning it and the forest-covered jewel-green hillside on the opposite side.

 

The castle itself is a beautiful redstone and is quite expansive, but you can't actually go inside most of it. So we spent all the time hanging around outside, enjoying the view and breathing in the sweet sweet air of Heidelberg.

 The place was of course totally full of tourists, but it wasn't as bad as some other attractions I've been too (*cough* *cough* museums). Although this time, the crowd was a bit more interesting ...

 

Why yes, apparently people DO wander around in traditional German attire. I especially liked the shorts+suspenders combo that the tall guy in the back was wearing. Let's just say that when he was leaning on the railing and enjoying the view, the rest of us were as well ;)

(These weren't hired actors - there was actually a 'traditional German' themed wedding going on at a manor house next to the castle ... Note to self: have German-themed party sometime. Enforce strict dress code. Enjoy self tremendously.)

Later, we descended into the town itself and walked on its main cobblestone street. It was simply a relaxing afternoon spent enjoying a quaint little town ...

Of course the quiet life is so not my style, so we did get our adrenaline pumping in the evening ... and you'll see how much fun it was in my next post ;)

Frankly, Frankfurt was awesome

See what I did there? Oh, so punny …

So let’s just say, my cousin and I got a late start. We weren’t the usual tourists, up and at ‘em at 8am. Let’s say we could’ve just had lunch at home. Maybe a linner.

But but but, it turned out to be a good thing. Because just as we got off the train in Frankfurt and started walking into the city, we walked straight into a GIANT PARADE. Which apparently only happens every 2 years. Talk about good timing.

So this parade was a ‘respect all the immigrants who come to Germany’ parade. Which meant that everybody dressed up in their national costumes and had some sort of dance. Also, there were football players and cheerleaders, which I think was supposed to symbolize American immigrants. The football players didn’t dance. Because Americans are too cool for in-the-street dancing. No worries though, I definitely saw enough dancing what with the belly-dancers (not sure what country they were from) and the booty-shaking (Kenyan, I think) and the oh-so-adorable Russian dancers. Who were almost as adorable as their very enthusiastic dance coordinator, a cute, slightly-pudgy man in his 40s. Or 50s.

We spectated for about an hour and a half, but then the call of the ADC struck and there was nothing I could do. That’s right kids, altitude driven compulsion hit again, and off we were to the tallest thing we could find in Frankfurt. That turned out to be the Mainz Tower, which is the tallest skyscraper (I think?) except for the Commerzbank tower. I mean, this is how office buildings should really make their money – just let up tourists on weekends for 5 euros a piece, and see how much money they make.

The view was definitely spectacular, albeit a bit overcast.

After countless photo ops (thank you Maria!), we finally descended into the city proper. Now I admit, by then I was a bit of a nag, because I could see that it was already pretty late in the afternoon and we hadn’t hit any museums yet. Now, since I shelled out those 9 euros for  a Museum Card (which I strongly recommend if you plan on visiting more than 2 museums ... which I didn't, oops), I wanted to get my money’s worth. Thankfully, for our convenience, all the museums were situated more or less in a straight line on a street bordering the beautiful Mainz river. Unfortunately, we were ultimately quite exhausted from all the walking, so we only managed to visit 2 museums, meaning it actually would’ve been cheaper not to get the museum card. Gah, the lost savings! Note to self: museums in Germany are very, VERY cheap (3 euros on average), so plan accordingly.

The first museum was called something about a Collection of Objects or something. I only went there because on the brochure, they showed this whole cool collection of chairs, so I thought that’s what the museum would be about – the evolution of different objects through time.

That turned out to be 1 tiny room in the museum.

The rest was furniture, true, but all random. To stifle my disappointment, I took pictures with lots of cabinets, and tried to touch everything despite the fact that there were signs indicating that I was not to do so.

But I’m a rebel, so whatcha gonna do now, huh?

The other museum was the architecture museum, which was definitely worth the visit and was totally great (well, except for that awkward moment where we totally walked in on an architecture class in session and everybody stopped talking while we weaved our way between the chairs to the exit … oh, and then we couldn’t figure out how to open the door. Talk about awkward-turtle moments).

But back to the museum – it was full of tiny models of famous German buildings and competition models and models of unbuilt stuff and also models of ideas (like a utopian society, or a self-sufficient community). We learned tons of valuable facts. Like the fact that Hitler looooooooooooved models and sometimes had 1:1 models built for projects. That’s right.

Let me build a building that I will later build again. 

Talk about revitalizing the economy.

After making the executive albeit sad decision not to visit any more museums that day (ah, the savings!), we instead took a nice and relaxing stroll beside the river. I really have to praise the Frankfurt waterfront – it is absolutely wonderfully developed and I could see myself living in Frankfurt and taking walks there.

We did have to fend off some boat captains after they tried to Shanghai us onto their ships so we could take photos with them.

But that’s more of an upside, I think.