http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyRWuklsiQ&eurl=

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I wish I had more Asian friends! :( Oh WHY am I in Kent, Ohio?!

Posted by Joanna at 3:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This weekend in Manhattan was beautiful! Wednesday was apparently rainy and gloomy, but when I arrived Thursday morning the weather was warm, skies were blue, and the clouds were fluffy!

The rest of the photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/berderp/sets/72157594371437329/

I got into LaGuardia around 9:15am, and I wasn't meeting Niki until 3pm. Sooo I dropped off my luggage at our hostle and took a little stroll down the NYC. 5 hours, about 50 blocks. This might have been my favorite part of the trip because I got to check out the city by myself, take my time, visit the places I wanted to visit. I stopped into a few stores, but I mostly just walked and took pictures, and took a nap in a Barnes and Noble (on accident!). I met up with Niki back at the hostle, and we took another nap (best nap ever), and met up with Steve Su himself back from the CCCMI days! Still the same ole' funny man with nice manners ^_^ We had dinner at Carmine's, which is apparently the most famous Italian restaurant in NY, and then we met up with Shantha, Shwin, Archana and Victor to go to Beds.

Apparently Beds is featured in an episode of Sex in the City, and it's this bar/lounge where instead of tables and chairs, there are beds! Really strange idea, but because they have the most uber soft beds EVER, I will say that it works. The food was overpriced and not so good, the cocktails were overpriced and delicious... it was nice. Don't know if I'd visit again though; I'm sure there are better places to go that are worth the money. Hm, I think we just went back and slept after that, I'm not sure.

Saturday we got up really early to buy tickets for a Broadway show, but tickets didn't go on sale until 3pm, so we took a trip to Greenwich Village instead. Walked around, found Doma (a cafe and gallery where Ashley's sister works), ate, sat for a long time, and made our way back to buy tickets. We got sidetracked by a guy selling $5 tickets to the Improv, and ended up buying tickets for the comedy show instead of a Broadway (and ended up saving a gazillion dollars, hurray!). Walked around... we wanted to ice skate at the Rockefeller Center, but unfortunately some ice skater person named Sasha Cohen was going to have a performance there the next day or something so they closed it down. Just kidding, I know who Sasha Cohen is. ...Borat, right? Jkjk ^_^ Walked around some more... We got a recommendation from the Improv ticket guy (who looked exactly like Willem Dafoe) to check out this dive bar called Rudy's, and it was so nice and cozy! After a few hours we headed over to the Improv, and although the last two comedians were horrible (the last one was just embarrassing), Modi was awesome, and Rio was this cute Japanese comedian with a HUGE accent I couldn't understand his jokes until a few seconds after he said them. Yea. OH! And I ordered a "Plum Martini", which was just Plum Sake - best drink EVER (yes, this trip was filled with a lot of best evers), I will have to hunt this stuff down. It was weird, the Improve had a huge sake list. Hm.

Victor and Archana had to leave, so Niki, Shantha and I headed back to the Greenwich Village area to check out their bars. We ended up at The Town Tavern because it was the only place with no cover, heh. They had a little dance area on the second floor, and we met THE nicest guy to ever frequent a bar, Bruce. Way too long of a story, but basically my newly purchased purse broke, he shined his cell phone light so I could fix it, and we all made a new friend ^_^ Ah well, that will never happen again. I still don't like bars.

Saturday morning we went to Chinatown to drop Shantha off at the bus, and all that was left was Niki, Shwin and I, and Steve met up with us again! I've been dying to go back to Joe's Shanghai, which is this little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant that is famous for their soup dumplings. I got my dumplings AND morning glory... my trip was complete!

I had to leave everyone to catch my flight, and this is the best part of the story! I sure hope you are excited about it since you've apparently stuck with me this far. Anyway, I caught a taxi outside of our hostle and told him to take me to LaGuardia. I was already running late; it was about 5:30pm and my flight was at 7pm. For some reason traffic was awful that whole day, and we didn't get close to the airport until about 6:15pm. I was on the phone for most of the time to try to check-in for my flight early (to no avail), and when I get off the phone, I realize that we are PARKED on the HIGHWAY, and my taxi driver is ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS. AAAAAAAAH! I asked, "Excuse me, what is going on?" "Sorry miss, I cannot remember which exit is to the airport." I look up, the next exit says "LaGuardia Airport." I told him to just TRY the next exit, and he said okay, okay, and started up the car. Well of course the next exit was for the airport, and I figure that the worst part is over. No, he drives past the airport and has to turn around to make the correct turn, and then takes me to the MILITARY TERMINAL! AAAAAAAAAH! It's 6:30pm by this time, and I have to be at my gate by 6:50 to get onto the plane. I roll down the window to ask where the AirTran terminal is, and it is all the way on the other side of the airport. I'm in tears by this point, because I don't want to be stuck in NYC overnight by myself, and the taxi driver says, "I am so sorry miss, I will turn off the meter." Well yea, this is your mistake! I finally make it to the AirTran terminal around 6:40pm, and I still pay my taxi driver because, maybe, just maybe, he's new to the whole taxi business and is still getting a feel for NYC. And hey, at least he got me to the airport. But I only paid him the amount that was on the meter before he turned it off. AND NO TIP! :growl: I run into the airport, the check-in guy sees that I'm crying, and just screams, "OK! I've seen her ID! Check in her bags! She's OK! Go go go!" And throws my duffle on to the belt, throws me my boarding pass, and tells me to run to my gate which luckily was really close to the entrance. Wheeeew I made it onto the plane! But what an ordeal, yeesh. And yea I am dramatizing it, but it was traumatic when it was happening! Anyway, I am back in Kent now (woohoo...), back to the Chipotle-with-the-occasional-class-and-lots-of-video-game-playing grind, but I'll be heading back to Louisville next Tuesday for Thanksgiving break! Did I mention that I only have class two days a week now? My Arts of China class meets only on Monday nights, and my Intro to Photography class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays - well Thursdays are optional now. Yea, this semester was a big fat waste of money. Oh well...

I love that it's holiday season! Though I feel like it is coming a little too fast; Halloween was really last minute for me since I had to work until 11pm that night, and Thanksgiving is already next week! I am already reading so many websites about places to pick up free stuff on Black Friday... that makes me sad because all that will be left is Christmas, and then it will be boring no-holiday spring semester. But I think Ashley and I might be throwing a holiday party (because that is pretty much the only party I throw every year), so that will liven things up during my last few weeks here. Yaaay holidays! I can't wait to go to Colorado and California. I wish I had more money for presents though...

Listening: BT - Emotional Technology
Playing: Okami (PS2) 50 hrs into this game and nowhere near finished... sigh
Watching: Drunken Master

Posted by Joanna at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Taken a break from the whole blogging about my life thing (except for about video games, of course), and well, not that much has happened! Today was the last of a 7-day work streak, I don't think I will ever want to do that again. My skin just oozes burrito after being there for so many days, and I start getting grouchy. And I'm not a grouchy person! But anyway, no more work for 5 days, hurrah!

Hmm what else is there, I am extremely upset that I am missing the Mouse on Mars show going on at the Wexner Center right now, but it's all okay because I am going to New York City tomorrow! (Though really, I hope that I will catch them sometime in my lifetime.) Niki and Shantha both just turned 21, so a proper celebration is needed. Plus I've been saying that I'll be visiting them for foreeeever, and now that AirTran is so freakin' cheap and convenient, it's finally possible! They already have a crazy itinerary planned out, but I don't want to spoil anything so I'll post pictures and everything once I get back. Oh man, I hope NYC nightlife is all it's cut out to be. Mainly, I just want to shop and eat. I hope I have time to stop in Chinatown and eat at this Chinese restaurant that sells these awesome soup-filled crab dumplings, yuuum ^_^

Some other random stuff, every single person and issue I voted for passed! I mean, I think politicians of any party are sleazy, but I'm pretty sure the ones I voted for are a little less sleazy. Anyway, the minimum wage will be raised to $6.75, there won't be dumb slot machines at race tracks (seriously, a waste of money, I don't care that "30%" would go towards "education"), and there will be a smoke free Ohio! Yaaaay now I can go out to the bars and not worry that I'll come back reeking of smoke. Smokers can complain all they want, but it's easier for a smoker to smoke elsewhere than a non-smoker to simply avoid establishments. And all the crap about businesses suffering - I think if NYC and Columbus can survive and prosper while being smoke-free, the rest of Ohio will be just fine. But anyhoo, on to something else.

Like weather!

Don't be fooled, I still dislike northeast Ohio, but we've had a couple of beautiful crisp fall days ^_^ I hope it's this nice in NYC. Though I guess I won't have any of the whole "nature" thing there, huh, more like "cement." Well I will be enjoying the rest of the night with laundry and Okami, goodnight!

Listening: Beastie Boys - In Sound from Way Out
Playing: Okami
Watching: Well, Netflix didn't offer a subbed version of The Legend of Drunken Master (unacceptable!), so I guess I'm upset and watching nothing.

Posted by Joanna at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)