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.

First post #3

That's right, I've started my third summer blog. Sure, I may not be traveling abroad, for the first time in years; I may not be doing something unconventional, like, I don't know, studying Chinese in Beijing or looking at stars in Santiago; I may not even be dependent on Yale funding for survival (gasp!). But consider this: I will be living (alone) in a huge city that is completely foreign (at least to me), working in an industry to which I have almost zero prior exposure. On top of that, this will be the first time I don't return home to LA to touch base with friends and family before embarking on my summer adventures. So it's very possible that I'll learn some tough/important life lessons in the next couple months, and I'd like to have a place to reflect on them, thank you very much.

Anyway, now that I'm done arguing with imaginary naysayers, on to content that is actually useful. This summer, starting next week, I will be interning in the Structured Finance division of ING Capital (specifically within the Investment Industry Group, serving institutions like hedge funds, investment banks, and the like). Through the generosity of my friend Hisashi and his parents, I'll be living in a studio in Greenwich Village, deep within the heart of Lower Manhattan and home of the 1950s Beat movement. Most importantly, I will be learning real-life, everyday survival skills--from the obvious (where to do laundry), to the not-so-obvious (what ingredients to buy for healthy and sustainable cooking), to the downright obscure (how to maintain a social life while working day and night). If all goes well this summer, I should be able to enter senior year with confidence in both my ability to live on my own and my competence in the finance profession. Oh, and hopefully a few great memories as well.

Finally, a couple side notes. As everyone knows, the scientific name of the apple is Malus domestica. So bigmdomestica is--you guessed it--a pun on New York City's most ubiquitous nickname: the Big Apple. And yes, angeleno is the technical term for a person from Los Angeles. Just in case you were wondering.

More to come after I move in. How exciting!