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?