Overviewish

It's 5:45 am on Monday morning and I've been awake since 10 am yesterday. I could have gone to sleep when I got home three hours ago, but instead I decided to chat with people and tinker with Excel, and now it's not even worth going to bed since I'd have to wake up before a full sleep cycle anyway. So how will I spend my last hours before the new week officially begins? By blogging, of course! As the diminutive Sarah Park reminded me on Facebook the other day, it's been forever and a half since my last update, though that's certainly not for lack of eventfulness or trying. The last three weeks have been so full of activity (both planned and unplanned) that I just haven't had time to document them here. And even now, a full account would take half a day, at least. A quick overview will have to suffice for the time being.

6/21 - 6/27

Monday - Friday
I got assigned to two new deals. This was the first week where I felt like I was actually adding value at work, rather than just shadowing one of my bosses around or performing simple analysis that can be done by any high schooler with Excel and a few hours to kill. Both deals are winding down now and should close before my internship is over. Cliché as this may sound, I'm really excited to see my own work lead to tangible, positive results.

Weekend
Hank, a friend from home who's doing research at Princeton for the summer, decided to spend the weekend playing in the city (and of course, bro-ing out in my apartment). On Saturday, we watched the disappointing Korea-Uruguay game in Koreatown, wandered around East Village for a while, and then watched the equally disappointing US-Ghana game on my computer through a super sketchy website broadcasting the match in foreign languages. In the evening, we went to the west side for Kollaboration NY, where we met up with Eliot, Allen, and a bunch of other Yalies whom I didn't expect but was quite pleased to see. Kai joined us at my apartment that night (three guys in one room = bleh) and accompanied me to church the next day. All in all, a fun and surprisingly restful weekend.

6/28 - 7/4

Monday - Friday
This was probably the longest week of my life. Not only did I stay at the office past 10 pm almost every day, but I couldn't help count down the hours until Esther's arrival on Friday (and of course, a watched clock never ticks--or in this case, an anticipated girlfriend never arrives). Mercifully, the work itself remained interesting, and I found out that I'd be going on a due diligence trip to Boston or Dallas the following week. Exciting?

Weekend
Spending Independence Day weekend with Esther was, in a word, amazing. The experience was really too special to capture in writing, but here's a representative list of things we did if you feel like using your imagination: farmer's market, MoMA, grocery shop, Up, Toy Story 3, 자장면, Radiance Tea House and Books, fireworks, sleep, etc etc...

7/5 - 7/9

Monday - Friday
Just one notable development: our due diligence trip ended up being to Boston, so a Director in my group and I took an 8 am flight on Friday morning, spent a couple hours grilling one of the managing members of our client in his own office, and flew back in time for lunch. Yay for efficiency.

Weekend
On Friday night, Esther and I watched Mamma Mia, which I'm ashamed to admit was my first Broadway show ever. There was laughing and singing and fun times all around, and afterwards we randomly checked out a sushi place called Natsumi that was both super chic and super delicious, though somewhat pricey. Then on Saturday, after a day of chillaxing, we ate at another trendy restaurant in midtown called Blu, and afterwards we hung out with Eliot, John, and Heeseung in K-town and my apartment for a while. On Sunday, I saw Esther off to Port Authority (*sniff sniff*) and then checked into the office for a long night of catching up on work.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this post, and to breakfast. The week beginneth! Let me know if you're in or near the city. I'd like to play, since I only have three short weeks left. Good morning, good morning~

Edit

I just finished reading all the new posts since June 25 from the blogs that I follow on Google Reader. Wow, that was a lot of prepositions... Anyway, I am re-motivated to (1) try new foods; (2) take photos of said foods; (3) blog about said foods using said photos; (4) stay up-to-date on the new foods that my friends are trying all over the world; (5) refer to (1).

Inspiration

I apologize for my blogging delinquency. Besides briefly hosting one of my newly made BAC friends when he came to stay in the city for a weekend, I've done shamefully little worth blogging about in the ten days that have elapsed since my last post. Frankly, life in the city, after a brief and expected honeymoon period of adjusting, exploring, and playing, has become uninspiring. In prior years, I probably would have attributed this to the environment itself: the unfriendly locals who always seem to be pressed for time, the narrow muggy streets constantly filled with tourists and taxicabs, the lack of any landscape besides buildings upon buildings, etc etc. And I bet anybody from LA (or the west coast in general) would have agreed with me.

And yet, if I'm to be completely honest with myself, I can't just blame my surroundings. I admit that I have been lazy and misguided in my search for personal satisfaction this summer. I've sat around my apartment on the nicest of summer weekends, electing to browse the web rather than go for a run through the Village or read a book (from my ever-growing summer reading list) at the local park. I've lapsed on my vow to cook for myself and instead resorted to eating out or munching on cereal, fruit, and sandwich meat for most meals. Worst of all, I have yet again begun to search for my identity in aspects of life that are ultimately temporary and fleeting.

I must have the worst memory ever. How else do I explain the fact that I currently find myself wondering if I should work more hours to earn overtime money, or be more ambitious with my future career goals, or network wantonly with as many bankers as possible, when in a personal blog entry just a month ago, I recommitted myself to fully trusting in God's plans for me? Why do I bother memorizing Philippians 4:6 when I fail at both supplication and thanksgiving? Sometimes--no, oftentimes--I'm seized with the fear that someone will call me out for talking the talk without walking the walk, and yet a part of me secretly hopes that it'll happen so that I'll get shaken out of complacency. Is there any hope for a basket case like me?

I derive comfort from Paul's encouragement to the Romans: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." Yet I've matured enough to know that this freedom doesn't give me license to live however I please and only return to God when I've had enough, like a child that only stops eating candy and chocolate when he gets a terrible stomachache (or maybe an ulcer). In recognition and gratitude for the new life that I've been given, I must sacrifice my own ambitions and (re)discover my passion for live for Him. This is paradoxically the most difficult and the most natural thing that a believer is called to do.

So I conclude with a declaration. New York, I dare you to tempt me with your worldly pleasures, your fast-paced lifestyle, your urgings to revel in my youth while there's still time. Because I know of something better than all that. It's called eternity.

Abbreviated

There's a lot I'd like to say, but I've come down with a terrible case of writer's block in the past twenty minutes, so a list will have to suffice for now. My apologies in advance.

• I still haven't explored the Village yet, much less the rest of Manhattan. Time to put my thirty day unlimited metro card to use.
• My work hours are starting to suck. I have to go into the office tomorrow to put together a document checklist for a deal closing on Tuesday. Oh well, just earning my keep I suppose.
• Matt Kim (PC '09) treated me out to 자장면 and Pinkberry yesterday. And he said he'll invite me to his wedding if he ever proposes. Bless his heart.
• Speaking of yesterday, it started raining in the afternoon but the skies were definitely clear and sunny. The weather here be straight up trippin'.
• Express subway lines are the most useful invention ever.
• I found out today that ING employees get steep discounts to a lot of NYC attractions, including restaurants, Broadway shows, day cruises, and museums. Yay for clicking around randomly on the intranet home page.
• I've been learning MS Excel shortcuts by the dozen to improve my work efficiency. Some of the most useful ones: Ctrl+Page Up/Down, Alt+Page Up/Down, F2/Esc, F9, Alt+=, Ctrl+Shift+4, Ctrl+9/0, Ctrl+Shift+9/0, Ctrl/Shift+Space.
• I miss playing guitar and bass. The calluses on my right index and middle fingers (from bass) have long since disappeared, and the calluses on my left fingertips are slowly fading. Farewell, farewell.
• Everything at Yakitori Totto in Midtown West is delicious, even the runny egg they give you to mix with your rice.
• Since when do people actually celebrate Flag Day?

Maybe I'll elucidate some of these bullet points later. Good night for now.

Om nom nom nom

I think I've discovered my new favorite restaurant in the city. Actually, that's not much of an accomplishment, since my former favorite, Kunjip, was basically the only one I'd go to whenever I visited the city prior to this summer. Anyway, the restaurant is called Ogawa Cafe and it's in East Village on 4th and Bowery. I found it on MenuPages (an indispensable website for anyone living in any major US city, by the way) at the suggestion of one of my co-workers, so I decided to visit today after work.

Can I just say, WOW. I had an absolutely delicious miso soup, salad, shumai, sushi, brown rice, and chicken katsu dinner, all for $12. Plus green tea ice cream for dessert. And this wasn't just a tiny scoop like most Japanese restaurants give--I'm talking a big bowl with two huge slabs that I could barely finish. The only downside to Ogawa is that it's a little small (max capacity ~15), so I can't bring a lot of friends at a time, but that's a small price to pay for such exceptional value. I'm definitely planning to go back multiple times a week this summer.

Anyway, enough about my foodie tendencies. Today was the start of my second week of work, and I'm happy to report that I'm still not bored. Granted, things get a little slow at times, but that's usually not due to the nature of the work so much as my having a question and not wanting to interrupt my boss in the middle of a phone call or meeting. Besides, since the ING intranet blocks blocks anything that might be considered even mildly entertaining (i.e. no more YouTube, Facebook, Gmail, etc.), I've been spending a lot of my downtime on Bloomberg or Yahoo! Finance, which means I've been keeping pretty up-to-date with recent market trends and economic/financial news. That's never a bad thing, I suppose.

Also, now that I'm wrapping up my first project, which was just an annual review of one of the group's clients and thus not particularly interesting, I'll probably get to start working on an active deal. That means I'll be learning cash flow modeling, loan documentation, risk rating, the whole shebang. (Of course, I'll also have actual deadlines and consequently actual banking hours, but I can't really complain after a week of chillaxing and, well, being an intern.) One of the more annoying aspects of job so far has been my lack of access to some of the software that ING uses for financial analysis--you'd think they'd have the foresight to register my account before I arrived--but apparently that's in the pipeline so it shouldn't be a problem soon.

And now, to completely throw off any semblance of chronology: this past weekend was both entertaining and relaxing. Friday night was Andy's little farewell get-together at Park, and it was great to see some old faces in a new setting. (It was my first time clubbing in the states--oh the wonders of being 21.) Then, after sleeping, reading, and lounging around all day Saturday, I met up with a bunch of old UCWers for Faith's birthday dinner at John's. Naturally, I was grilled about my newly updated relationship status, but I like to think that I kept my cool. B] Before heading our separate ways, we also ate dessert at a little bakery called Veniero on 11th and 1st. I initially had my doubts since it seemed like they kept their pastries and cakes on display all day, but the strawberry shortcake was delicious. Sunday was uneventful: I woke up with a massive headache and really dry eyes, so I went back to sleep and woke up again around dinnertime, feeling much better but sad that I had missed church. Alas. I have a pretty good track record of not getting sick during summer break, and it'd be unfortunate to break it now.

Hmm. I've been pretty negligent on the photography front. Given how often I'm out and about, it's almost unconscionable that I still don't have any photos from outside the Village. I think part of it has to do with not wanting to lug my D100 around and look like the biggest tourist ever. Oh well, I still have eight weeks. In the meantime, here are two routes that I've been following for my evening runs so far. I intend to explore a third route that passes through Washington Square Park soon. Yay for cardio.

East River Park is really pretty at night.

6th Ave. and 23rd St., not so much. But still a fairly nice run.

And off to bed I go. My sleep schedule is so healthy compared to at Yale. Who would've thought?

Commencement

At the risk of sounding naively optimistic after just two days of work, I really enjoy commercial banking, at least as far as what my group does can be called commercial banking. (Why is finance jargon so loose anyway? Bankers would do well to learn from physicists--a technical term should have a technical meaning.) I'll spare the details since I doubt anyone wants to hear them; in any case, I'm happy that I'm not bored already like I was with research last summer.

And now, the real point of this entry:

Lessons I've learned in the workplace

• "We should get lunch" is the office equivalent of "We should grab a meal sometime." You know, that thing you say half-heartedly when you bump into an acquaintance you haven't seen in a while. Only, if it's a co-worker, breakfast and dinner are impossible because you probably live halfway across the city from each other.
• If you ask for more work, you're gonna get more work. This is perhaps an obvious point, but I should definitely take it to heart if I don't want to burn out in the next two months.
• Coffee is liquid magic.
• Work is not like college--though curiosity is encouraged, you can't ask a question wherever and whenever you want, as my MD reminded me fifteen minutes into my internship. Oops.

Lessons I've learned in life

• When buying perishable solid foods like meat and cheese, get the resealable packages. Okay, so cheese isn't really perishable, but it turns rock hard after a couple days of exposure apparently. Sadness.
• Green bananas are the way to go if you don't want them turning old and spotty and mushy after a couple days.
• Milk is arranged such that the further away the expiration date is, the harder the bottle will be to access because of all the blasted soon-to-expire bottles.
• Not all dry cleaners are made equal. Never go to the nearest dry cleaner purely out of convenience, because the owner just might be a lazy money-grubbing meanie.
• On a positive note, small meals of fruits/veggies, whole grains, and lean meat every few hours have been doing wonders for my digestion and overall health.
• Orange juice with pulp is actually yummy. Does this mean I'm getting old?

And now, the REAL point of this entry: more photos! I realize that my pictures so far make it seem like I never leave Greenwich Village (or my apartment, for that matter), but I assure you, I've been making my way around Manhattan. Maybe a photography expedition this weekend is in order. Anyway, enjoy.

Lots of books to read.

Just a sofa. Or is it?

Nope, it's also a bed! Okay, this is actually the other sofa bed in my apartment, but same difference. Notice the mess. And my panda. Her name is Xiongmao.

Fairly small kitchenette, but it serves my purposes.

And finally, the coffee table turned dining table turned laptop stand. I use my phone as an internet tether, so don't call me while I'm facebooking please. =D

And now I'm off to go running for the first time since I arrived in New York. I hope I don't get hit by a taxi driver. Wish me luck!

Calm before the storm

This is my last free weekend before I start my internship on Tuesday. As such, it seems appropriate to make a list of the goals that I have for this summer. I've found that I have much more success at meeting objectives that I plan in advance rather than create as I go along, though it's unclear whether that's because I'm just feeling more motivated in general when I prepare ahead of time or whether there's something inherently magical about planning ahead .

In any case, here goes:

Learn how to cook

I do know how to cook a few random dishes (largely the result of years of Boy Scout camping, as well as experimenting whenever I was home alone in high school). But I'd like to expand my repertoire, particularly into the domain of Italian, French, and Korean food. This probably won't be easy, especially considering my next goal and my leaky kitchen sink; but then again, learning a new skill never is.

Live a healthy lifestyle

There are actually two sub-goals here: eat healthy and exercise regularly. Both are difficult, for different but mutually reinforcing reasons: cooking healthy food tends to be more expensive and time-consuming, while exercising regularly requires that I motivate myself during my (predicted) 60+ hour work week to go to the gym, which is at least 20 minutes away by subway. I can pull it off though. I think. No, I must, for the sake of my abs.

Read a lot of books

The school year is always sad in one respect: I never have enough time to read for pleasure, much less for class. Thus breaks are always my opportunity to catch up on all the books that friends have recommended or that have caught my eye during my bookstore browsing sessions. So far, I've finished The Language of God, Freakonomics, Committed, and Eat, Pray, Love; I'm currently reading My Life As A Quant and Mere Christianity; and I still need to start Everything Is Illuminated, Blue Like Jazz, and Invisible Man. Fortunately, I don't have many commitments during the upcoming three day weekend, and I don't plan to go out too often during my internship, so this should be a pretty feasible reading list.

Get plugged into a church

Some of you will know that when I lived in the city for a week over spring break, I visited a house church called Big Apple Chapel (I know, funny name) whose principles both strongly resonated with my own and were firmly based in the Bible, specifically in Acts. Of course, one Sunday was not enough for me to really get to know the people there or understand how the church functions, but I have a strong feeling that I'll end up attending BAC regularly and getting involved in its ministries.

Work hard

I know, this is practically a given. But to be honest, because I only took 3.5 credits last semester, I feel like I haven't dedicated significant time and energy to any particular endeavor since the KASCON bid in early March. Hopefully, spending most of my days in an environment where everyone else is productive will force me to be productive as well, though it'll definitely be easier if I find the work fun and meaningful (which I should, from what I gathered over spring break).

Explore New York City

When I said I wouldn't go out often, I meant go partying and clubbing as most interns are wont to do. I still plan to make my way around the city, which is one of the most bustling and diverse places in the world. Being a native Angeleno (refer to first post), I will always stay true to my roots. But that doesn't mean I can't get to know this city and all the lovely sights and attractions it has to offer. Nor does it mean I refuse to see some of its relative merits, like the convenience of the 24-hour subway system, which I have unfortunately yet to use since getting here on Tuesday. Alas.

That's it for now, but check back regularly since I'll be amending and adding goals as the summer progresses. And now for some pretty pictures.

Artsy photo of my laptop, taken in a nearby Starbucks.

Ah yes, the ubiquity of New York graffiti.

Chicken with red wine and paprika sauce, chicken fried rice, and assorted vegetables with pepper and tomato paste. My first real homemade dinner, yum.

I know I promised to write my thoughts on Greenwich Village, but those thoughts are still in the process of being formulated, so you'll have to wait until my next entry. See you on the other side of the weekend!

Acclimation

Yesterday's festivities, in haiku:

I moved in, unpacked
Discovered kitchen sink leaks
Instant noodles, slept

As you can see, my first day in the city was fairly uneventful. I started to explore the city for a bit, but after a block or two I decided that I was too tired for such aimless wandering. On the bright side, I managed to sleep for thirteen hours, which is quite an accomplishment considering that I was already sleeping eight or nine hours a night consistently back in New Haven. At least I know I'll never have trouble falling asleep in new environments.

Today, I woke up at 9 am feeling ravenously hungry (is that redundant?) but couldn't bring myself to eat more instant noodles, so I embarked on a quest to find a cheap but quality comestibles. Fortunately, I didn't have to travel far--there was a grocery store down the street called Gristedes that had not just food but also common household items like laundry detergent and toilet paper (which I have been woefully lacking). I filled up my shopping cart only to realize while waiting in the checkout line that I would have to carry everything back myself, so I sadly returned some of the heavier items. But eventually, I made it back to the apartment, congratulated myself on a successful first solo grocery run, and made a big sandwich for lunch.

[I was going to insert a picture of the sandwich here, but the upload failed. Sigh.]

My next quest will be to find a free WiFi hotspot in this area so that I can upload photos and Skype. In case you're wondering how I'm blogging at all, it turns out that my computer can access the Internet via Bluetooth through my phone's data connection, but it's frustratingly slow and apparently can't handle significant uploads, period. Oh well, at least I still have Facebook and Gmail. Priorities, priorities.

Speaking of hotspots, the weather in New York is ridiculous. Ninety degrees? Really? Hey sun, if I had wanted to roast outside, I would have just gone home okay? Apparently this is just a passing high pressure system though, which is good because my body is pretty much incapable of handling heat and humidity simultaneously. Not to mention the fact that I'll be wearing a dress shirt and slacks for pretty much the entire summer. Yucky.

As usual, I do have a list of short- and long-term goals for the summer. I'll put that, along with some of my initial thoughts on Greenwhich Village, in my next post. Until then, farewell, and wish me luck with my leaky kitchen sink.

Edit
I'm sitting in a Rockwells Express, which offers free WiFi for customers. It's not very fast, but it'll suffice for uploading pictures.

Fresh baked French bread, tomatoes off the vine, lettuce, swiss cheese, and turkey salami. And orange juice, duh.

Anybody who's eaten with me in Commons knows I can't survive without my regular fix of bread and olive oil.

More to come soon.