Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Fundraising for a bridge
I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but a combination of being busy and distracted by other things has prevented me from doing so until now. Anyway, I got a comment on this blog about a project in northern Albania (www.albaniabridge.co.uk). A bridge that connects the two parts of this remote village was destroyed and some people are trying to raise funds to rebuild it. It's a very noble cause. I was asked if I could help with some of the engineering part, and I will try to but it's going to take a while for me to get back to Rachele (the person leading this effort) because I'm going into surgery on Monday. Apparently I broke this small bone in my wrist during that snowboarding fall more than a month ago and it seems like it's not going to heal by itself. And as soon as I'm feeling better after my surgery, I have to hop on a plane to Madrid and won't be back until May.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Snowboarding, twisting wrists...that kinda stuff
On Friday I woke up at 6am to be ready for my 7am ride to Wintergreen in the middle of nowhere Virginia. Ride was long and not that panoramic, but I did get to drive on I-81 (although a completely new stretch) for the first time since I graduated college. Wintergreen was impressive. Being in the middle of nowhere I didn't have high expectations, but I was wrong. It was on a random mountain and getting up there required driving on this narrow, curvy and steep road. Had never driven on such a road in the US before. It was kind of fun, until the brakes on our rented minivan started smelling like burned rubber. But we made it up and down fine. There were a gazillion cabins and condos up there in the mountain.
Once on the slopes, I decided to go for some snowboarding lessons. I had snowboarded a few times before, but thought of doing a lesson in case I had missed some of the basics, since when I first started doing it I went straight for the slopes and since my only instructor had been my friend Linda. It was helpful to have her show me, but maybe there was a more efficient (and less painful) way to learn. Unfortunately the lesson was useless. I already knew what they were teaching. I guess Linda had taught me the basics just fine.
After the time wasting lesson, I started going up and down the slopes by myself. It was absolutely great. There were no lines at the lifts and I didn't spent 80% of the time waiting for it and only 20% snowboarding. And I was also pretty good. I was doing everything I wanted to do. I guess my other snowboarding trip two weeks ago had made me less rusty. The only things that I didn't enjoy was the snowboard bindings and the snow making machines. I had to spend minutes trying to put the snowboard on every time I got off the lift because the step-on wouldn't lock properly if there was even the slightest trace of snow/ice on it. It was such a pain. Since we went on a weekday, they were making snow and it was so annoying having snow blown into you everytime you went by one of these machines.
Actually I should probably say that the only thing that I REALLY didn't enjoy was my stupid fall when I injured my wrist. It was such an unnecessary fall too. I was about to stop at the base of the slope and feeling kind of cocky I guess I thought that nothing would happen as I was stopping backwards. Little did I know that I would hit this piece of ice which would block my board and make me fly in the air and land on my bottom and hands. It was quite painful, but I had had way worse falls before so I didn't think it was that bad. In fact, I was more embarrased than anything else. But then I remembered that Linda had had a bad fall senior year in college too, and she was a way better snowboarder than me, so it was somewhat normal anyway. And then I also remembered that she injured her wrist pretty bad and it took a while to heal for it to heal. It was at that time that my attention turned to my right wrist which was still feeling kind of stiff from the fall. I had hoped that the pain would gradually go away but it was still lingering on. A normal person would have been smart to have given up, but I couldn't stop. The slopes weren't crowded and snowboarding was way too much fun. As the day progressed, my wrist started hurting more and more. It started getting swollen and I could barely move it. The problem with snowboarding is that you have to sit down a lot and when you do that you have to put your hands down to support yourself. So many times I had no choice but to apply more pressure on it, which only made things worse. Plus there were all these other little falls, which normally wouldn't even register on the radar but because I kept injuring my hand more and more, the pain started getting almost unbearable. When it finally became apparent to me that the pain was too much to ignore and that I was having a hard time going down the slopes because I couldn't use my left hand, I was one of the last people still remaining on the slopes. After changing, I did go to the first aid center. Since it didn't seem broken, they sent me packing. Thank God I wasn't driving back that evening.
The next day I had to go back to the office to finish what I didn't do on Friday and my wrist was worse than before; the swelling had increased and it still hurt like a b!tch. Thankfully I bought a wrist brace later that day, which helped reduce the stress on my wrist and I could do a little more with it. Two days later, my wrist is still swollen but it feels better. I guess I'll go to a doctor if it's still swollen by the end of the week. Ahh, the fun of wrist injuries.
Once on the slopes, I decided to go for some snowboarding lessons. I had snowboarded a few times before, but thought of doing a lesson in case I had missed some of the basics, since when I first started doing it I went straight for the slopes and since my only instructor had been my friend Linda. It was helpful to have her show me, but maybe there was a more efficient (and less painful) way to learn. Unfortunately the lesson was useless. I already knew what they were teaching. I guess Linda had taught me the basics just fine.
After the time wasting lesson, I started going up and down the slopes by myself. It was absolutely great. There were no lines at the lifts and I didn't spent 80% of the time waiting for it and only 20% snowboarding. And I was also pretty good. I was doing everything I wanted to do. I guess my other snowboarding trip two weeks ago had made me less rusty. The only things that I didn't enjoy was the snowboard bindings and the snow making machines. I had to spend minutes trying to put the snowboard on every time I got off the lift because the step-on wouldn't lock properly if there was even the slightest trace of snow/ice on it. It was such a pain. Since we went on a weekday, they were making snow and it was so annoying having snow blown into you everytime you went by one of these machines.
Actually I should probably say that the only thing that I REALLY didn't enjoy was my stupid fall when I injured my wrist. It was such an unnecessary fall too. I was about to stop at the base of the slope and feeling kind of cocky I guess I thought that nothing would happen as I was stopping backwards. Little did I know that I would hit this piece of ice which would block my board and make me fly in the air and land on my bottom and hands. It was quite painful, but I had had way worse falls before so I didn't think it was that bad. In fact, I was more embarrased than anything else. But then I remembered that Linda had had a bad fall senior year in college too, and she was a way better snowboarder than me, so it was somewhat normal anyway. And then I also remembered that she injured her wrist pretty bad and it took a while to heal for it to heal. It was at that time that my attention turned to my right wrist which was still feeling kind of stiff from the fall. I had hoped that the pain would gradually go away but it was still lingering on. A normal person would have been smart to have given up, but I couldn't stop. The slopes weren't crowded and snowboarding was way too much fun. As the day progressed, my wrist started hurting more and more. It started getting swollen and I could barely move it. The problem with snowboarding is that you have to sit down a lot and when you do that you have to put your hands down to support yourself. So many times I had no choice but to apply more pressure on it, which only made things worse. Plus there were all these other little falls, which normally wouldn't even register on the radar but because I kept injuring my hand more and more, the pain started getting almost unbearable. When it finally became apparent to me that the pain was too much to ignore and that I was having a hard time going down the slopes because I couldn't use my left hand, I was one of the last people still remaining on the slopes. After changing, I did go to the first aid center. Since it didn't seem broken, they sent me packing. Thank God I wasn't driving back that evening.
The next day I had to go back to the office to finish what I didn't do on Friday and my wrist was worse than before; the swelling had increased and it still hurt like a b!tch. Thankfully I bought a wrist brace later that day, which helped reduce the stress on my wrist and I could do a little more with it. Two days later, my wrist is still swollen but it feels better. I guess I'll go to a doctor if it's still swollen by the end of the week. Ahh, the fun of wrist injuries.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Stepping back in time
Partly because I'm exhausted from sleeping late and getting up early in the morning all week long, partly because I didn't feel like drinking for the fifth consecutive night, I decided not to go out despite it being Friday night. And instead I'll write about my trip to Ithaca, regardless of the fact that the potential reader will not understand most of the references I'll be making.
When I graduated college in May '06, I vowed to never go back. Not because my memories were so horrible that I needed to suppress them, but because I knew that it would be too depressing being there without the people that had been the defining factor in those memories. I remember my graduation day. What an emotional roller coaster it was. I remember that as soon as the ceremony ended, I ran to say goodbye to the closest friends I had and then packed the car as fast as I could and drove back to Queens. At that time, the only consolation was the fact that I would still see my best friend in Norway a couple of weeks later and the rest of my close circle of friends would be either in NY or DC, which would make it possible for me to continue seeing them from time to time. But I still didn't want to be in Ithaca without those people. However, as time progressed I started to desire going back and it came a point when I finally decided to do it. So last year, on Valentine's day (of all days!) I accepted an offer from my company to represent them at a career fair at my college. But because of a huge snow storm, my flight got canceled and I never got to go then. However, there was no snow storm this year and I was able to make it to the place that Jon Stewart once called a "frozen hellhole".
I was supposed to stay there for two days and two nights. Tuesday would be spent at the career fair and Wednesday administering a test that students who wanted to interview with us had to take. I decided to make the most out of it and take an early flight to Ithaca on Monday to be there on time to go out in the evening. At 11:30am I left my office to catch the 1pm shuttle from Reagan to LaGuardia, where I had a 90 minute layover before my connection to Ithaca. Because my second flight was delayed, I ended up with a 3 hrs layover in NY, which gave me enough time to visit my parents.
When I got to Ithaca, the hotel driver who was picking me up wasn't at the airport yet, even though I had called to let them know of the flight delay before I left NY. (damn those irresponsible hotel students :)) I was staying at the pricey, campus hotel, where most of the employees are actual students. It's a really nice hotel and the location can't be beat, but definitely overpriced. However, since I wasn't paying for it myself, I loved the fact that I was staying there and not at some Best Western like some other recruiters who were on the same flight as me. As we drove to the hotel, we went by the golf course which brought back memories from my golf lessons senior year, but I didn't have too much time to reminisce because the driver was talking to me about the basketball team which apparently is doing really well this year. I got to the hotel just in time for dinner and since the other people from my company who had come there for the same event had already eaten dinner, I decided to get room service from the very good hotel restaurant.
After dinner, I made my way down to the bar. I had never been there while I was a student and I wish I had. It was definitely expensive, especially for a college student, but I liked the atmosphere. It was quite different from the regular college bars. More upscale and less crowded. And it's the only bar, which is in the middle of campus. After having a few drinks with people from work, I was ready to go to Collegetown, where most students go out. Unfortunately, the other people didn't want to go out since we had to be up for the career fair at 7am. However, I hadn't been back in two years, and I was yearning to see what had changed since then. So without thinking twice, I left my hotel room around midnight to go to Collegetown. I wasn't planning on going to any bars, since I was alone. I just wanted to walk around. The weather was cold, but not unbearable. To make my walk around a little less boring I stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes so I could puff away as I checked out Collegetown. There was a new Starbucks on the corner of College Ave and Dryden. It was quite spacey and seemed very comfy, but since I'm such a traditionalist I could only go CTB, the old local coffeehouse. Greek House had also gone out of business. Although they had good breakfast, it wasn't a big loss since the other Greek restaurant, Souvlaki House, has much better food. There were a couple of other changes in Collegetown, but that I don't remember now. As I was getting ready to head back to my hotel, I saw that there were a few people at Stella's and decided to join them. This was definitely a first for me. I had never gone to a bar in Ithaca alone before. I sat at the bar by myself and ordered a Guinness. It wasn't a very exciting experience and I did feel slightly out of place. Oh well, I wasn't a college student anymore. I could go to a bar by myself if I wanted to check out the place without feeling like a loser. When I left Stella's around 1am, I ran into one of the couple of people who I still know in Ithaca. I was definitely intoxicated at that point, and didn't have a very memorable conversation with my old roommate's ex. However, it was cool running into a familiar face and it helped make Ithaca less strange for me.
I definitely had a hard time waking up the next morning. I also discovered that I had left my hotel room open because of the weird locking mechanism of the door. The career fair that day was tiring. I was up on my feet until 3pm and talked to a gazillion students. When I got back to my hotel room I called my old roommate, who had stayed in Ithaca after graduation to make dinner plans. And since I had an hour or so to kill before dinner, I decided to pretend being a student and hang out at Libe cafe. I was lucky to find a free cozy chair and tried to read the Sun. The format was still the same, but understandably I didn't recognize the writers anymore. There was no sexpert column :(. That was a very entertaining column, before the author graduated.
Afterwards, I met up with my roommate at CTB. It was great seeing him again and catching up after two years. We had an early dinner at Aladdin's, which is a so-so place. Afterwards, I was really full and I wasn't planning on eating anymore, but when one of my co-workers called and proposed that we go to the Nines, I had to do it. The Nines was one of my favorite places while in college. I think I ate their pizza at least once a week. And they do have the best pizza ever. I have eaten pizza in seven different countries and in much larger cities, but nothing comes even close to the deep dish from the Nines. I had forgotten how good it was. I had already eaten dinner but that didn't stop me from finishing my half of the large deep dish pizza with feta cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms in it. It was so good that I couldn't not eat it. But it definitely took me a while to finish it all. Another thing that I did at the Nines, which I hadn't done in a while was to get a pitcher of beer. Places I go to now days don't serve draft beer in pitchers. There was also a one man band playing there that night, but since the place wasn't packed, the guy only sang a few songs. When we walked back to our hotel that night, the weather was freezing. Actually I'm not even sure that it was that cold. Couldn't have been lower than 10 degrees anyway. I think that I've just gotten weak since leaving Ithaca and once the temperature drops below 30, I start freezing. And of course throughout the time I was there, I saw some people wearing shorts and t-shirts even though it was snowing.
Later on that night, we went to the hotel bar to have a couple more drinks before retiring for the night. My co-worker was taking a 5am flight back, whereas I had to spend the day testing students and fly back in the evening. At the bar, we ran into a couple of hotel students and started talking to them. Obviously those hotelies complain about how hard they have it, even though their major is a complete joke. I mean seriously, what other major gives you credit for being a good restaurant hostess for example. They don't do any work and I'm convinced that they have the most fun out of all majors. That's my jealousy talking :). However, it all evens out in times like this when they're the ones serving me. I definitely love having those hotelies try so hard to accommodate all my requests. Serves them well for picking a meaningless major :).
Administering the test the next day was a boring and time consuming task. There were still quite a few things that I wanted to take care of before leaving, but I was tied from 9am to 4pm giving the test. It was funny reading some of the resumes that I got, but I could definitely see where they were coming from. In an environment where so often you're not judged on what you have accomplished, but how you present those accomplishment, it's not strange to see someone hype her bar tending job, even though she was applying for a financial services job. Being a recent graduate myself, I could see right through the ridiculousness of many resumes (mainly because that's what I did when I was in their shoes), but who knows, maybe those older recruiters will be impressed more. Another thing that I observed as I looked through the standardized test that these students were taking, was that I have become dumber. Well maybe dumb is not the right word, but definitely less sharp. Yes I can structure my analysis in a much better way now, but I'm not that quick to pick up something that I have never worked on before. The reason why I'm saying this, is because I took the same test as these students two years ago, and I passed then, but that same test seemed extra difficult today. Maybe it was because I was expecting to solve each question as soon as I saw it. Maybe it was because there was no pressure me to try my best and it was easier giving up, rather than spend an extra minute trying to solve it. I don't know what it was, but I definitely think that while I've become better in certain areas, my intellectual capability has suffered in others.
Instead of eating lunch, I decided to better spend that time walking around campus since the rest of the day was taken by testing. I walked down to the campus store and then to Ho Plaza at noon. Saw a couple of tables and people handing fliers. Glad some things never change. I didn't see any advertising chalking, but that was because of the weather. I still remember the gigantic sign that we chalked in the middle of Ho Plaza for our Ibiza party the fall of our senior year. We spent hours on it and what we thought was a great location, was in fact a bad one because the ground was relatively smooth and the chalk was mostly washed away by the next morning. Good old times.
Afterwards, I made my way to the Arts quad, which was exactly the same. Since I still had some time left, I decided to walk to North campus. I wanted to check out the new bridge that connected North with Central and I also wanted to check out my freshman dorm. The new bridge was ok. I had thought that it would have been a four lane one, but they had just widened the sidewalks and put bicycle lanes on both sides. I also had expected them to build some very high guard rails on the sides, since the old ones definitely seemed quite low and dangerous to me, but gladly they hadn't built some safety monster. As I walked through the courtyard of Balch (the only all girls freshman dorm) I did feel very out of place. I wasn't a student anymore and even though the fastest way to my dorm was through there, I couldn't help but feel very self conscious about it. I walked past Donlon, my dorm, which was the most run-down freshman dorm, but which also had the reputation of being the party one. I still remember how I had to avoid the bathrooms as much as I could on weekends because not only there was cleaning service, but it was also the time when people partied the most and seeing puke and other stuff there wasn't uncommon. As turned around to go back to the testing room, I decided to take a different route back through the pedestrian bridge. Beebe Lake was mostly frozen, but there was still some water making its way down the gorge. I got back just in time for the next testing session.
When the test was over, I still had about one hour before making my way back to the airport. I decided to go towards the Ag quad to check the new bio building that was going up before going back to Ho Plaza where I needed to withdraw money so that I could later tip the bell boys and driver. The new bio building looked good, but it wasn't finished yet. The Straight on Ho Plaza was the same as before. I didn't make my way down to the Ivy Room or Okenshields because I didn't care how hungry I was. I just wanted to see as much as I could. After having withdrawn cash, there was only one more stop in my itinerary before heading back. And that stop was the bubble tea place in Collegetown. But since I had plenty of time back I decided to also go down the slope to West Campus, where I resided sophomore year. I had previously decided to skip that stop for many reasons. The main one being the fact that West Campus was always characterless. Now that they had torn down all the crappy Class halls and substituted them with some monstrous new dorms, it also seemed like a completely new place while always feeling characterless. Maybe it was just me because I never liked West and sophomore year was also my most stressful year in college. I also got lost walking around West, since I didn't know if taking one of the new paths would lead me to a quad or exit or simply a dorm and nowhere else. All in all, West Campus wasn't memorable before and it's not memorable now.
From West, I walked behind the law school and the cafeteria there (whose name I can't remember) to get to Collegetown. As I made my way to the bubble tea place, I went by Mama T's. I caught a glimpse of the owner, Enzo, which still seemed as sleazy as ever. Fat, balding and aging Enzo would always either blatantly check out or say something to all the girls that walked by his store. Ah that creepy Sicilian. But it was all part of those special college memories. The bubble tea place had for some reason gone from being Asian to having an all Hispanic personnel. They asked me if I wanted it hot or cold. Being a traditionalist, I ordered my icy regular Passion Fruit Green Tea with Tapioca, even though it was freezing outside as I drank it. It now cost $3.50 for a regular cup and for being just flavored tea with tapioca, it's such a ripoff. It cost half that four years ago. But I didn't care. I just wanted to relieve all my fun college life moments.
Back at the hotel, I collected my bags and got on the shuttle to the airport. The only thing that I didn't do in Ithaca this time, was check out the Commons. I asked the driver to drive by there on the way to the airport, but he made some stupid excuse up about his insurance not allowing him or something. Too bad for him. I was planning on tipping him generously if he had driven that way. At the airport, I saw that my flight was canceled by two hours, so I asked to be put on a different flight and the agent complied. Before I was connecting in Philly to get to DC and I was looking forward to the Philly-DC flight since it would have been my shortest flight to date (yes, I'm an aviation geek and notice those things). Now I was connecting at LaGuardia again. When I got to NY, I was starving and since I had enough time before my next flight, I called my family and had dinner with them at a restaurant near the airport. When I landed in DC, it was around 10:30pm.
As I said earlier, this was the first time visiting my college in two years. I am so glad I did it, but then again I don't know what to take away from it. All I can say is that it was different. Walking around campus I felt like a stranger at times. I definitely felt like the campus was not lively enough. And I'm pretty sure it was as lively as it was two years ago and it was just me who couldn't notice it. The problem is that I was trying to relieve those same memories from when I was a student, but even though the physical surroundings were the same, nothing else was. I was absolutely right when I graduated and thought that it would be too weird being back without my friends. It was. The whole experience was empty, for lack of a better word. I feel almost the same when I visit my hometown of Elbasan. I find that place depressing now, since all my friends have left. But I'm glad I visited my college. I wanted to go back. Maybe when I do it again, I'll try to be there at the same time as some of my other friends.
When I graduated college in May '06, I vowed to never go back. Not because my memories were so horrible that I needed to suppress them, but because I knew that it would be too depressing being there without the people that had been the defining factor in those memories. I remember my graduation day. What an emotional roller coaster it was. I remember that as soon as the ceremony ended, I ran to say goodbye to the closest friends I had and then packed the car as fast as I could and drove back to Queens. At that time, the only consolation was the fact that I would still see my best friend in Norway a couple of weeks later and the rest of my close circle of friends would be either in NY or DC, which would make it possible for me to continue seeing them from time to time. But I still didn't want to be in Ithaca without those people. However, as time progressed I started to desire going back and it came a point when I finally decided to do it. So last year, on Valentine's day (of all days!) I accepted an offer from my company to represent them at a career fair at my college. But because of a huge snow storm, my flight got canceled and I never got to go then. However, there was no snow storm this year and I was able to make it to the place that Jon Stewart once called a "frozen hellhole".
I was supposed to stay there for two days and two nights. Tuesday would be spent at the career fair and Wednesday administering a test that students who wanted to interview with us had to take. I decided to make the most out of it and take an early flight to Ithaca on Monday to be there on time to go out in the evening. At 11:30am I left my office to catch the 1pm shuttle from Reagan to LaGuardia, where I had a 90 minute layover before my connection to Ithaca. Because my second flight was delayed, I ended up with a 3 hrs layover in NY, which gave me enough time to visit my parents.
When I got to Ithaca, the hotel driver who was picking me up wasn't at the airport yet, even though I had called to let them know of the flight delay before I left NY. (damn those irresponsible hotel students :)) I was staying at the pricey, campus hotel, where most of the employees are actual students. It's a really nice hotel and the location can't be beat, but definitely overpriced. However, since I wasn't paying for it myself, I loved the fact that I was staying there and not at some Best Western like some other recruiters who were on the same flight as me. As we drove to the hotel, we went by the golf course which brought back memories from my golf lessons senior year, but I didn't have too much time to reminisce because the driver was talking to me about the basketball team which apparently is doing really well this year. I got to the hotel just in time for dinner and since the other people from my company who had come there for the same event had already eaten dinner, I decided to get room service from the very good hotel restaurant.
After dinner, I made my way down to the bar. I had never been there while I was a student and I wish I had. It was definitely expensive, especially for a college student, but I liked the atmosphere. It was quite different from the regular college bars. More upscale and less crowded. And it's the only bar, which is in the middle of campus. After having a few drinks with people from work, I was ready to go to Collegetown, where most students go out. Unfortunately, the other people didn't want to go out since we had to be up for the career fair at 7am. However, I hadn't been back in two years, and I was yearning to see what had changed since then. So without thinking twice, I left my hotel room around midnight to go to Collegetown. I wasn't planning on going to any bars, since I was alone. I just wanted to walk around. The weather was cold, but not unbearable. To make my walk around a little less boring I stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes so I could puff away as I checked out Collegetown. There was a new Starbucks on the corner of College Ave and Dryden. It was quite spacey and seemed very comfy, but since I'm such a traditionalist I could only go CTB, the old local coffeehouse. Greek House had also gone out of business. Although they had good breakfast, it wasn't a big loss since the other Greek restaurant, Souvlaki House, has much better food. There were a couple of other changes in Collegetown, but that I don't remember now. As I was getting ready to head back to my hotel, I saw that there were a few people at Stella's and decided to join them. This was definitely a first for me. I had never gone to a bar in Ithaca alone before. I sat at the bar by myself and ordered a Guinness. It wasn't a very exciting experience and I did feel slightly out of place. Oh well, I wasn't a college student anymore. I could go to a bar by myself if I wanted to check out the place without feeling like a loser. When I left Stella's around 1am, I ran into one of the couple of people who I still know in Ithaca. I was definitely intoxicated at that point, and didn't have a very memorable conversation with my old roommate's ex. However, it was cool running into a familiar face and it helped make Ithaca less strange for me.
I definitely had a hard time waking up the next morning. I also discovered that I had left my hotel room open because of the weird locking mechanism of the door. The career fair that day was tiring. I was up on my feet until 3pm and talked to a gazillion students. When I got back to my hotel room I called my old roommate, who had stayed in Ithaca after graduation to make dinner plans. And since I had an hour or so to kill before dinner, I decided to pretend being a student and hang out at Libe cafe. I was lucky to find a free cozy chair and tried to read the Sun. The format was still the same, but understandably I didn't recognize the writers anymore. There was no sexpert column :(. That was a very entertaining column, before the author graduated.
Afterwards, I met up with my roommate at CTB. It was great seeing him again and catching up after two years. We had an early dinner at Aladdin's, which is a so-so place. Afterwards, I was really full and I wasn't planning on eating anymore, but when one of my co-workers called and proposed that we go to the Nines, I had to do it. The Nines was one of my favorite places while in college. I think I ate their pizza at least once a week. And they do have the best pizza ever. I have eaten pizza in seven different countries and in much larger cities, but nothing comes even close to the deep dish from the Nines. I had forgotten how good it was. I had already eaten dinner but that didn't stop me from finishing my half of the large deep dish pizza with feta cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms in it. It was so good that I couldn't not eat it. But it definitely took me a while to finish it all. Another thing that I did at the Nines, which I hadn't done in a while was to get a pitcher of beer. Places I go to now days don't serve draft beer in pitchers. There was also a one man band playing there that night, but since the place wasn't packed, the guy only sang a few songs. When we walked back to our hotel that night, the weather was freezing. Actually I'm not even sure that it was that cold. Couldn't have been lower than 10 degrees anyway. I think that I've just gotten weak since leaving Ithaca and once the temperature drops below 30, I start freezing. And of course throughout the time I was there, I saw some people wearing shorts and t-shirts even though it was snowing.
Later on that night, we went to the hotel bar to have a couple more drinks before retiring for the night. My co-worker was taking a 5am flight back, whereas I had to spend the day testing students and fly back in the evening. At the bar, we ran into a couple of hotel students and started talking to them. Obviously those hotelies complain about how hard they have it, even though their major is a complete joke. I mean seriously, what other major gives you credit for being a good restaurant hostess for example. They don't do any work and I'm convinced that they have the most fun out of all majors. That's my jealousy talking :). However, it all evens out in times like this when they're the ones serving me. I definitely love having those hotelies try so hard to accommodate all my requests. Serves them well for picking a meaningless major :).
Administering the test the next day was a boring and time consuming task. There were still quite a few things that I wanted to take care of before leaving, but I was tied from 9am to 4pm giving the test. It was funny reading some of the resumes that I got, but I could definitely see where they were coming from. In an environment where so often you're not judged on what you have accomplished, but how you present those accomplishment, it's not strange to see someone hype her bar tending job, even though she was applying for a financial services job. Being a recent graduate myself, I could see right through the ridiculousness of many resumes (mainly because that's what I did when I was in their shoes), but who knows, maybe those older recruiters will be impressed more. Another thing that I observed as I looked through the standardized test that these students were taking, was that I have become dumber. Well maybe dumb is not the right word, but definitely less sharp. Yes I can structure my analysis in a much better way now, but I'm not that quick to pick up something that I have never worked on before. The reason why I'm saying this, is because I took the same test as these students two years ago, and I passed then, but that same test seemed extra difficult today. Maybe it was because I was expecting to solve each question as soon as I saw it. Maybe it was because there was no pressure me to try my best and it was easier giving up, rather than spend an extra minute trying to solve it. I don't know what it was, but I definitely think that while I've become better in certain areas, my intellectual capability has suffered in others.
Instead of eating lunch, I decided to better spend that time walking around campus since the rest of the day was taken by testing. I walked down to the campus store and then to Ho Plaza at noon. Saw a couple of tables and people handing fliers. Glad some things never change. I didn't see any advertising chalking, but that was because of the weather. I still remember the gigantic sign that we chalked in the middle of Ho Plaza for our Ibiza party the fall of our senior year. We spent hours on it and what we thought was a great location, was in fact a bad one because the ground was relatively smooth and the chalk was mostly washed away by the next morning. Good old times.
Afterwards, I made my way to the Arts quad, which was exactly the same. Since I still had some time left, I decided to walk to North campus. I wanted to check out the new bridge that connected North with Central and I also wanted to check out my freshman dorm. The new bridge was ok. I had thought that it would have been a four lane one, but they had just widened the sidewalks and put bicycle lanes on both sides. I also had expected them to build some very high guard rails on the sides, since the old ones definitely seemed quite low and dangerous to me, but gladly they hadn't built some safety monster. As I walked through the courtyard of Balch (the only all girls freshman dorm) I did feel very out of place. I wasn't a student anymore and even though the fastest way to my dorm was through there, I couldn't help but feel very self conscious about it. I walked past Donlon, my dorm, which was the most run-down freshman dorm, but which also had the reputation of being the party one. I still remember how I had to avoid the bathrooms as much as I could on weekends because not only there was cleaning service, but it was also the time when people partied the most and seeing puke and other stuff there wasn't uncommon. As turned around to go back to the testing room, I decided to take a different route back through the pedestrian bridge. Beebe Lake was mostly frozen, but there was still some water making its way down the gorge. I got back just in time for the next testing session.
When the test was over, I still had about one hour before making my way back to the airport. I decided to go towards the Ag quad to check the new bio building that was going up before going back to Ho Plaza where I needed to withdraw money so that I could later tip the bell boys and driver. The new bio building looked good, but it wasn't finished yet. The Straight on Ho Plaza was the same as before. I didn't make my way down to the Ivy Room or Okenshields because I didn't care how hungry I was. I just wanted to see as much as I could. After having withdrawn cash, there was only one more stop in my itinerary before heading back. And that stop was the bubble tea place in Collegetown. But since I had plenty of time back I decided to also go down the slope to West Campus, where I resided sophomore year. I had previously decided to skip that stop for many reasons. The main one being the fact that West Campus was always characterless. Now that they had torn down all the crappy Class halls and substituted them with some monstrous new dorms, it also seemed like a completely new place while always feeling characterless. Maybe it was just me because I never liked West and sophomore year was also my most stressful year in college. I also got lost walking around West, since I didn't know if taking one of the new paths would lead me to a quad or exit or simply a dorm and nowhere else. All in all, West Campus wasn't memorable before and it's not memorable now.
From West, I walked behind the law school and the cafeteria there (whose name I can't remember) to get to Collegetown. As I made my way to the bubble tea place, I went by Mama T's. I caught a glimpse of the owner, Enzo, which still seemed as sleazy as ever. Fat, balding and aging Enzo would always either blatantly check out or say something to all the girls that walked by his store. Ah that creepy Sicilian. But it was all part of those special college memories. The bubble tea place had for some reason gone from being Asian to having an all Hispanic personnel. They asked me if I wanted it hot or cold. Being a traditionalist, I ordered my icy regular Passion Fruit Green Tea with Tapioca, even though it was freezing outside as I drank it. It now cost $3.50 for a regular cup and for being just flavored tea with tapioca, it's such a ripoff. It cost half that four years ago. But I didn't care. I just wanted to relieve all my fun college life moments.
Back at the hotel, I collected my bags and got on the shuttle to the airport. The only thing that I didn't do in Ithaca this time, was check out the Commons. I asked the driver to drive by there on the way to the airport, but he made some stupid excuse up about his insurance not allowing him or something. Too bad for him. I was planning on tipping him generously if he had driven that way. At the airport, I saw that my flight was canceled by two hours, so I asked to be put on a different flight and the agent complied. Before I was connecting in Philly to get to DC and I was looking forward to the Philly-DC flight since it would have been my shortest flight to date (yes, I'm an aviation geek and notice those things). Now I was connecting at LaGuardia again. When I got to NY, I was starving and since I had enough time before my next flight, I called my family and had dinner with them at a restaurant near the airport. When I landed in DC, it was around 10:30pm.
As I said earlier, this was the first time visiting my college in two years. I am so glad I did it, but then again I don't know what to take away from it. All I can say is that it was different. Walking around campus I felt like a stranger at times. I definitely felt like the campus was not lively enough. And I'm pretty sure it was as lively as it was two years ago and it was just me who couldn't notice it. The problem is that I was trying to relieve those same memories from when I was a student, but even though the physical surroundings were the same, nothing else was. I was absolutely right when I graduated and thought that it would be too weird being back without my friends. It was. The whole experience was empty, for lack of a better word. I feel almost the same when I visit my hometown of Elbasan. I find that place depressing now, since all my friends have left. But I'm glad I visited my college. I wanted to go back. Maybe when I do it again, I'll try to be there at the same time as some of my other friends.
Monday, February 18, 2008
From Ithaca, NY
I'll probably end up writing a longer post about this later on, but I feel like putting a few lines down now. After all it's something that carries a lot of emotional baggage for me. For the first time in almost two years I'm back in Ithaca, NY, the place where I spent four beautiful years of my life. Not that my college life was all great and problem-less (if that's even a word), but it was still a very memorable time. I met some amazing people and some people that I will call my friends for the rest of my life. It definely it's a strange feeling being back and sitting in my hotel room in the middle of the campus. For the first time ever, I'm not staying in a room in North campus, or West campus or Collegetown. And I definitely had never sat down in a bar in the middle of the campus to down Manhattans before. Everything is so different now. And even though it's midnight now, I have this urge to walk around campus and see what has changed since I've left. And that's exactly what I'll do now.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Independent Kosovo
I don't usually bother writing about Albanian political issues (actually I don't usually bother to write at all) but I cannot avoid writing a couple of lines about this. It's such a great day for the Kosovar people. Yesterday after returning home from a snowboarding trip (and I didn't even hurt myself :)) I had an email in my inbox about this. I checked the news websites and saw that it was indeed a done deal and today (on Sunday) independence would be announced and so it happened. Although I'm not from Kosovo, I'm very glad. I was living in Albania in 1999 and I saw it myself as hundreds of thousands of Kosovar war refugees poured into Albania. The whole experience was surreal. It wasn't so much the fact that so many people were kicked out of their own homes. It was more the horror war stories that they shared. Families being divided based on gender and males murdered in front of their mothers, daughters, sisters etc. I'm really interested to know how many young people in Kosovo are suffering from PTSD today.
Anyway, I wish the best of luck to the newest country in the World. I celebrated by receiving the new cell phone I had ordered in the mail, which, by pure coincidence, is red and black.
PS I am always appalled at the professionalism (or lack thereof) of Albanian journalists. Some thing that happened today just reinforced my view. One of the Albanian TV stations had a crew in Belgrade among other places. As the crew was reporting live, a mob of angry Serbian nationalists gathered around. At this time, the young reporter said that she would have to interrupt the transmission because she didn't feel safe. However, the news anchor, sitting in his comfy studio in Tirana, started telling her that she owed it to her profession to keep reporting and to be brave because nothing would happen to her. Of course she wasn't in a war zone, and of course she would be considered a wimpy journalist by most people, but I would fear for my well being too if I were in her position. Of course, the stupid guy in the studio cared more about getting the news than his co-worker. In an ironic twist of events, it was later reported that the situation in Belgrade had deteriorated and the journalist was stuck together with other foreign journalists in a TV van, as the angry mob threw rocks at it.
Anyway, I wish the best of luck to the newest country in the World. I celebrated by receiving the new cell phone I had ordered in the mail, which, by pure coincidence, is red and black.
PS I am always appalled at the professionalism (or lack thereof) of Albanian journalists. Some thing that happened today just reinforced my view. One of the Albanian TV stations had a crew in Belgrade among other places. As the crew was reporting live, a mob of angry Serbian nationalists gathered around. At this time, the young reporter said that she would have to interrupt the transmission because she didn't feel safe. However, the news anchor, sitting in his comfy studio in Tirana, started telling her that she owed it to her profession to keep reporting and to be brave because nothing would happen to her. Of course she wasn't in a war zone, and of course she would be considered a wimpy journalist by most people, but I would fear for my well being too if I were in her position. Of course, the stupid guy in the studio cared more about getting the news than his co-worker. In an ironic twist of events, it was later reported that the situation in Belgrade had deteriorated and the journalist was stuck together with other foreign journalists in a TV van, as the angry mob threw rocks at it.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Weird post
So back to blogging. I'm sure my non-existent readers missed me dearly :) and that's why I decided to spend my Friday night writing this post. The fact that I couldn't go out because I'm sick has absolutely nothing to do with it. Or at least, I can pretend so. I had actually forgotten that when I wrote my last post, I was feeling sick too. I guess I have to get sick to bring myself to write here nowdays. This whole sickness thing is getting out of control actually. I never get ill. I never got sick in school when the temperatures would drop below the zero mark (the farhenheit one !!!) and I would spend a lot of time outside. Then I moved to DC and turned into a wimp and got sick twice in one month (although never bed ridden). WTF!? Obviously I refuse to see a doctor because I'm not dying, but for the first time today I found myself going to a store especially to buy medicine. I'm getting old I guess. I'm not twenty anymore.
A lot of things have happened since my last post. I passed that CFA exam that made my life hell especially in October and November. When I took the test, I thought I bombed it, but it turned out that I had passed easily. Since there are three exams that you have to pass to get the CFA designation, normally I should be preparing for the second exam right about now, but my priorities seem to have changed once again. Now CFA is in the back burner, and I've decided that I want to go back to school. At least until I change my mind again. So for now, the next exam I'll concentrate on is the GMAT. I have yet to decide which school I want to go to for my MBA, but it has to be a top school in a fun city. As much as I would like to go back to my alma mater for my MBA, I can't spend two more years in Ithaca. It's different going to a school in the middle of nowhere when you're an undergraduate. There is so much going on and a million other people in the same position as you that you don't mind the location. It's easier to entertain yourself. As a graduate, things are different. You are more mature (for lack of a better word) and your entertainment preferences have also matured. $4 long islands or $5 pitchers are not enough BY THEMSELVES anymore. You need something more on top of that, and I don't think Ithaca offers that. Now, it's not like there are no grad students there. There is plenty of them, but like everything else, to each his own. I don't want to go to school and be buried in the library 24/7. I also need to have fun. Ok, enough with why I can't get my MBA at my alma mater.
I planned on going to San Fran for a long weekend and even got one of my friends to do the same thing so I wouldn't get bored on the flight. Then I changed my mind. Then after some more thinking decided to go. And right when I was about to buy my ticket, changed my mind once more. I should say that each time that I changed my mind there was a reason, but I don't know if those reasons completely justified me changing my mind. I have been wanting to go there for a while now, but I hate having second thoughts about anything. So I took the safe way out and postponed my trip by a few months. However, I'm going on a paid vacation to Ithaca for a couple of days later this month. Technically it's not a vacation, since I'm going there for work. But part of my work is to wine and dine current students and future employees of my company. A minute ago I said that I don't want to go there for grad school because it's not fun enough, but it's lots of fun if you're there for a couple of days. When you're staying at this hotel in the middle of the campus and have hotelies serve you (it's ok if you don't get this last part) and behave as if you were still an undergrad, it doesn't get much better than that. Oh and did I mention it's all paid for? This will be my first visit since I graduated in May '06. I was scheduled to go a year ago but because of a sudden and brutal snow storm my flight got canceled. I was extremely bummed when that happened, but in retrospect it was for the best because had I gone, I would have gotten stuck in Ithaca and never gotten back to DC on time for my flight to London later on that same day. Strangely enough, I miss last year. I was living a much more jet-setting life back then. Now, I keep making plans for vacations but never seem to follow through with them. My last real vacation was back in September. And it seems that my next real one will not be before April when I go to Berlin for a week or so. I think I'm becoming boring and less willing to fly across the pond on a whim. Now it seems like I need a strong incentive to go anywhere. Sad really.
A lot of things have happened since my last post. I passed that CFA exam that made my life hell especially in October and November. When I took the test, I thought I bombed it, but it turned out that I had passed easily. Since there are three exams that you have to pass to get the CFA designation, normally I should be preparing for the second exam right about now, but my priorities seem to have changed once again. Now CFA is in the back burner, and I've decided that I want to go back to school. At least until I change my mind again. So for now, the next exam I'll concentrate on is the GMAT. I have yet to decide which school I want to go to for my MBA, but it has to be a top school in a fun city. As much as I would like to go back to my alma mater for my MBA, I can't spend two more years in Ithaca. It's different going to a school in the middle of nowhere when you're an undergraduate. There is so much going on and a million other people in the same position as you that you don't mind the location. It's easier to entertain yourself. As a graduate, things are different. You are more mature (for lack of a better word) and your entertainment preferences have also matured. $4 long islands or $5 pitchers are not enough BY THEMSELVES anymore. You need something more on top of that, and I don't think Ithaca offers that. Now, it's not like there are no grad students there. There is plenty of them, but like everything else, to each his own. I don't want to go to school and be buried in the library 24/7. I also need to have fun. Ok, enough with why I can't get my MBA at my alma mater.
I planned on going to San Fran for a long weekend and even got one of my friends to do the same thing so I wouldn't get bored on the flight. Then I changed my mind. Then after some more thinking decided to go. And right when I was about to buy my ticket, changed my mind once more. I should say that each time that I changed my mind there was a reason, but I don't know if those reasons completely justified me changing my mind. I have been wanting to go there for a while now, but I hate having second thoughts about anything. So I took the safe way out and postponed my trip by a few months. However, I'm going on a paid vacation to Ithaca for a couple of days later this month. Technically it's not a vacation, since I'm going there for work. But part of my work is to wine and dine current students and future employees of my company. A minute ago I said that I don't want to go there for grad school because it's not fun enough, but it's lots of fun if you're there for a couple of days. When you're staying at this hotel in the middle of the campus and have hotelies serve you (it's ok if you don't get this last part) and behave as if you were still an undergrad, it doesn't get much better than that. Oh and did I mention it's all paid for? This will be my first visit since I graduated in May '06. I was scheduled to go a year ago but because of a sudden and brutal snow storm my flight got canceled. I was extremely bummed when that happened, but in retrospect it was for the best because had I gone, I would have gotten stuck in Ithaca and never gotten back to DC on time for my flight to London later on that same day. Strangely enough, I miss last year. I was living a much more jet-setting life back then. Now, I keep making plans for vacations but never seem to follow through with them. My last real vacation was back in September. And it seems that my next real one will not be before April when I go to Berlin for a week or so. I think I'm becoming boring and less willing to fly across the pond on a whim. Now it seems like I need a strong incentive to go anywhere. Sad really.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Happy Holidays
I feel obligated to have a mandatory post wishing people Happy Holidays. Christmas is already over and in retrospect it didn't go that well for me, since it gave me a cold. You see I went out on Christmas Eve to some Albanian party in NYC and the retarded organizers thought it was a good idea to leave people waiting outside the club forever because apparently the outrageous admission price didn't include comfort. This was my first time going to such an event and I wouldn't normally do it, but it was my cousin's birthday and she picked the place. And on Christmas Day I went to Jersey so that didn't help matters either. And now I've been feeling sick for the past three days, although not bed ridden.
Anyway, Happy Holidays kids.
Anyway, Happy Holidays kids.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
