capital break

9/24/06
655p
This weekend was fantastic, I spent it withtwo beautifu brits in our nation's capital. We realised early last week that we had a three day weekend, and decided to do a random road trip. It was great fun, from cheking out the public mnuments to viewing a smithsonian modern art gallery to walking along the potomac under the stars and planes flying low overhead. We also had chances to walk though more industrial ghetto areas (our hotel was in one) figure out the public transport system, visit georgetown in search of good eats (the alamo grill? Is okay, and mostly worth it, but make sure you ask to sit on the roof) and accidentally run amok in adams morgan.

Adams morgan was perhaps the most fortuitous of our trip, in finding a nice new orleans style restaurant that actually was somewhat akin to cajun and creole food (though not so much that they served ever trendy café du monde coffee instead of the true louisiana staple of community coffee.) and though they asked if we wanted beignets to "complement" our meal (when have beignets ever been a complement to a meal? Aren't they more of a separate snack meal usually served with coffee and chickory?) I forgave them as the food was quite good and rather reasonably priced.

After our dinner we walked around a bit, grabbed some maggie moos ice cream (akin to marble slab and amy's ice cream) and headed to perhaps one of the most incredible parks ever stumbled upon. (pictures will follow when I get to a computer and am not sitting on a bus typing on a pda). It was gorgeous set in a part of town which has still remnants of former wealth, but now mostly an african and hispanic neighbourhood of the lower working class. The site apparently was an alternate location considered for the whitehouse.

It had whispering water steps, grand views, greenery, ponds and other beautiful things that turn studying into a relaxing occupation and one's body a tad satisfied and a great deal lazy.

Later on, I stole away into our enemies bathroom (starbucks) and then regrouped with the girls to review the attack plans for the night and assess the one most likely to lead to success.

We decided to search the historic u street district (which fortunately was a stonesthrow away) for signs of jazz. (Duke ellington and various others played here.) After being turned away from various bars due to minimum ages, and having a bouncer in th very HEART of the district swear there was no jazz around (there were a few next door to his place in fact) we were finally directed to two possibilities that might cater to all ages... The first sounded a bit like they were using sythesizers and also had a steep cover ($15)... So we decided to trek to the last choice which proved a fair distance away. But also proved to be an amazing gem; HR57. The place was all ages, served wine, beer, and dinner and had three distinct, but comingled atmospheres. From the music club, to the social lounge to the chess parlour, the place offered quite a bit in moods and pleasures.
The jazz was fantastic as well, with a pianist that as chantal said "is perhaps the most animated" any of us had ever seen.
And the food by the way was delish... Fried chicken, collard greens, and red beans and rice for $6. Oh how I miss the south sometimes. Chantal being our token veggie friend had to eat some veg lo mein from a nearby store, which she said was quite good.

We also managed to keep our tradition of oversized large cups (aka, the various plastic containers you find in grocery store salad lines) alive and well with the intoduction of a half gallon of oj and a liter of sparkling water from the neighbourhood wholefoods. (we were allowed to bring in our own food and drinks, and alcoholic ones had a $3 per person "corking fee" that tough reasonable coupled with our severely mild interest in drinking quashed any chance of us buying spirits at the store to the south.)

All in all this is a long post, its 737 and I'm on a bus from chinatown to chinatown (dc-nyc) for 35$ roundtrip... My finvgers are tired and my friends need some attention. So au revoir.
741p

gifts added to insult

9/20/06
1258pm
But others made fun of the believers, saying "these people are drunk" ~acts 2:13

Its odd to think of faith as a cross even though Jesus said it would be. He promised us great affliction great struggle and our own crosses.

He promised pain where other faiths promise escape.

If they insult you, remember they did it to me first (paraphrase of some gospel).

Insults. We're to expect them and embrace them as the Fool embraced and kissed His cross.

But how hard it truly is to embrace something our dignity rejects, and that our sense of rights, our feelings of justice finds utterly detestable.

Especially when it comes from the very place He said it would, from the faithful (they will persecute you in my name). Perhaps instinctually one wants to assume that it is only "in name" and not "in reality" that they persecute us in His name, but perhaps our instinct is wrong! Perhaps it is just as he said "in my name", for is it not so that all things come from God?

And that is precisely where the persecution and insults of true believers are clearly seen as gifts, truly great gifts of humiliations.
113pm

what what and what not.

9/20/06
248am
I incessantly tear at newspapers looking for both mischief and a place to sleep the night, week and possibly month.
Maybe weekly rent in questionably safe harlem or unsavoury southern bronx is the way to go? Or perhaps nightly rent in hostels? Either would be cheaper than rent in a traditional and difficultly gained appartment in lower, midtown east, or upper east side manhattan. Which are the places I want to live.

I'm tired of having my life divorced from the people I want to be near. From the people my age, and who know what it's like to be a twenty something, moderately affluent and in new york.

This city is magical, if you have enough money or luck to live in the midst of it all.

I'm too old to not live my life to the fullest, to live life focused on trifles on issues and things so small they hardly dignify a person. And what is money to someone who knows God will always provide?

When you live far away you miss out on the perchance happenings that always seem to require stumbling blindly and unto something magnificent.

I stumbled unto something I didn't expect in the least. Something I actually decided to actively resist. A girl. I have had several women in this city give me the all too long stare of interest coupled with the smirk that advertises availability and interest. Several have tried to talk to me, several have put out what they see as safely ambiguous flirtting that is not ambiguous and thus not truly safe.

But this one found a backdoor. I've not quite figured out which door I left open, but apparently I did leave at least one open. She very very different from who I am now, yet at the same time so similar that I've never felt so cared about, so cherished by anyone i've ever dated. She can't figure it out either, as a similar confusion is about her head.

Yet worst of all she's one of those small islanders that we rebelled against ever so many years ago to gain our obvious deserved independence.

Anyhow this is me signing off from the throne room in jazz on the villa in harlem.
318 am.

lately.

(a display on ellis island)

lately life has been quite enchanted (aside from the housing situation, being that NYC has a whole new set of rules for apartment searches/leases).

I've gone to central park numerous times, for various picnics, various dinners with friends, and various beautiful and exciting experiences in the city that I was finding trite until I discovered it's culture, (and a few londoners and a spaniard.)

NYC is filled with wonders, from starbucks, mcdonalds, subway, barnes and nobels, and duane reades (super-drug stores like eckherts or cvs) on every corner.




Life here is very odd, aside from email and making calls and searching for suitable apartments, I have class and friends I keep up with as best I can.

Some time a week or so ago, I ate lunch on Broadway, just west of central park... and when I say on Broadway I mean I ate it ON Broadway. There are islands on various avenues that they occaisionally put benches up on, aside from very beautiful landscaping, so one day I saw it, said why not? and ate a chicken, mashed potatoes, sparkling water and steamed veggies.



I also have a new cell phone, so if you're interested, you can email me and I'll send you back the number.


One of my classes rocks (well all of them really but this one especially). In my Geology of NYC, I basically get to look at the urban development of NYC by walking around it. It's pretty amazing, because I basically have to get to know this city more intimately than most people do who live here for as short a time as I expect to. On one of my trips through harlem, I saw quite a bit of things I never thought I'd see, albeit things I never even thought of. It was quite interesting to see racial divides still in place, and shame about the name "Harlem" (various businesses have changed their names over the last century to take out the name Harlem from their titles).

I also found how alive racism is... how hurt and blaming some african americans are. While on our walk through, we had one man scream "Cracka, WHITE CRACKA" repeatedly at us, and we also had a waterballoon and some eggs thrown at us. I missed the waterballoon, but luckily was the one hit by part of the dozen eggs. I can't explain why I like things like that. They're very humbling and they surely make me face my pride and sense of justice, but most of all in some weird way when someone treats me in a way contrary to dignity, I feel like I'm getting exactly what I deserve, and that oddly excites me and brings me joy. I honestly don't understand it. I really don't, I just know that I feel like a better person a more honest and true person after being denigrated and despised.

Annie and some of her Kids in connecticut, She's amazing and they love her so very much!
Superman one time use cameras are really really really expensive... I'll just stick with my cheap 150$ digital camera, and have to deal with not throwing it away after 24 exposures... though buy one get one free really is a nice deal! I'll have to rethink my position on this whole camera thing... it IS superman.
This is in the church that Annie works at... isn't He gorgeous! I love Him so much!
This is Serendipity 3, the place that inspired the movie Serendipity, and has an awesome frozen hot chocolate!!! (though its 15$ and can serve 3 easily).
A common street scene in (West) Harlem
This is the beautiful church I get to go to mass to every day when I'm at school, it's only three buildings down from school!
This is the ceiling of the Grant memorial. NSE (National Student exchange students) and the few International exchange students, went on a double decker bus tour of NYC last saturday, and apparently Ulysseus S. Grant is buried in NYC. He chose not to be buried in DC, and his wife chose NYC out of his short list of acceptable burial sites. His tomb is the largest in the nation.
The end of the civil war (I think).
Hetti playing dead, and trying to get old Ulysseus and his wife to stop being so boringly dead.
Just a beautiful photo outside of the tomb.
On top of the double decker... that's Chantal. (She's from Houndslow, aka part of London)
This is the site of and construction on the WTC.
That's Roshni and Paloma (a Brit and a Spaniard) on our picnic in central park... after our tour we decided to scout out central park for some fabled water falls, and brought along some picnic food... a baguette, jam, oj, water and maybe some other small stuff.
Central park is pretty at night... isn't it!
This is looking at Downtown from the Jackie Onasis reservoir (AKA the Lake) in Central park... gorgeous!
These are my friends again!
Manhattan from the boat to liberty and ellis island (we went on sunday after our saturday bus tour).
Lady liberty. She's surprisingly small... I wasn't very impressed by her stature.
But I am impressed by her being so meaningful to our country, and the world.
Ever viligant, she stands looking on the city and land she loves.
The docks at Ellis island.
The hall where immigrants would line up for immigration into the USA.


This was a cool display about the impact of the Statue of Liberty on post 9/11 nyc. Read the photo... its quite powerful. And then wonder what she means to you.

The ceiling to the hall of immigrants... I love old ceilings.
Hetti and Roshni became quick friends! This was at the Salsa dance show on battery park... it was by far the single best dance show I've ever been to... and we just stumbled unto it! And it was free... one of the girls from "so you think you can dance" was part of the dance group (she obviously wasn't very important compared to the rest, as she wasn't introduced until the end of the show... the dance group was some broadway show's cast, Mambo nights?).

This was from today... this is a train yard in poor manhattan... Just north of harlem on the west side (Inwood?).

This is actually an atypical scene in NYC... most elevated trains were torn down in the 50's and 70's, and replaced with subways.

couple quick things

so I'm not contagious and not a public health risk at all.

and this whole apartment business is really really getting to me. It's so much easier in Austin, TX.

9-11-06

there's something powerful about walking in a place 3 hours by foot
from the wtc and stumbling across people standing and seemingly
staring.
Staring perhaps at those 40 boquets of flowers sitting there against
the building.. Perhaps. Or maybe since that building is a fire
station, in remembrance of all firemen. Or by chance its that framed
thing on the wall. Those uniformed pictures of their men who died.
Their 9.

Mass today was equally surreal. A roll call of the 11 firemen from
the hunter college area that died. I don't know these men, I don't
know how they lived wether in virtue or vice, but I know their simple
response to duty inspires."yes, i choose to serve."

And they died, perhaps never truly realising they were in such danger.

......
as I walked home today we notied a searchlight to the south...
perchance illuminating some celebration... but as we looked a sense of
profound awe came into my soul, and two beams were discernable.

New York Lunch

I just had a New York lunch... A Hot Sausage (with Ketchup, Mustard and onions), a Pretzel and a Gatorade as I walked to the post office.

Thats it. That's all I wanted to say.
What is that not enough for you?

Fine. I'm getting a cell phone.

Happy now?

Well are you?

See what you did!

Queerness in NYC

So NYC is a bit queer, odd and downright confusing at times.

For example, I've yet to understand if it's noble, pharisaic, virtuous or greedy for a person to ask for change from the collection basket (an occurence that has happened nearly every time I go to mass, and I try to go daily).

I'm slowly catching onto the Street vs. Avenue system, (avenues in Manhattan are N/S and Streets are E/W)... and slowly connecting the random parts that I know of NYC together into one whole mental map.

I missed class again today (Dr.s appointments at the city clinic are long and rarely rarely rarely on time.). But luckily my Prof is cool about it. As for the TB, they're still trying to figure out if I have it (in the meantime the suspicion is that I do, and thus they have me on meds.) They're doing DNA tests on my Sputum... I gots the consumption.

I ate lunch at a bakery north of campus that was okay... not fantastic, but pretty tastey. Their desserts look awesome though.

Last night, I went to Carnival of Dreams with TIA! Yes, a long lost friend from Austin (UT Austin)... it was fun to catch up with her, hangout with her B/F friends, and eat good food! I love the village area, it reminds me of home... and when I say home I don't mean any place that I grew up as much as the home that your heart knows and is always searching for... the eternal Fatherland that we are longing to return.

It's perhaps a bit odd that the village area is so Weird (weird in the good "keep Austin wierd" way) and most likely liberal, but that sense of diversity, life and living is what I suspect makes it feel so comfortable.

Oh and my dinner was an exquisite "live" burger... basically completely uncooked vegan food. Crazy? yes. Delicious? Also yes. The burger was served over a salad instead of a bun, and my dessert was a berry chocolate cake that was gorgeous. (The waitress said reluctantly "it's not live" to which I responded "that's okay.") I also had a Watermelon fancy dietary water whose name I couldn't tell you if I was interrogated for 15hours and then three days more... but I do remember it was something completely overly-intellectual and affected, and it didn't make it taste any less or more like watermelon juice. And with my cake I had a "grain" coffee... it was made of some random non coffee substances like chickory and beets and stuff... it was pretty tastey and akin to coffee.

And I tried to get a PO box, but apparently you need an address to get one... Uhm... Yes?
Anyone else see a prob with this???

I went to Mass today at St. Patricks, and I'm really unimpressed by the cathedral and by the priest who presided the mass... he went through it as if it was a sprint and not something to be cherished and loved. St. Patricks is by far less beautiful than the chruch we have nextdoor to Hunter... St. Vincent Ferrer. Which is a French Gothic styled church... and impressively beautiful.

A couple of Sos and one also.

So I started laughing when I went to the restroom... Not only is my urine orange, it's gatorade orange... I'm really glad they told me ahead of time or I'd have been not only laughing but also quite a bit worried.

Also, if you come to NYC and plan to be an illegal street food vendor, BEWARE the cops here check... I saw a guy getting arrested and his cart impounded after I had lunch this afternoon (which by itself deserves some comment.)

So my lunch I went to soup salad sandwhich place near the college called "Hale and Hearty"... It was absolutely fantastic. I had a roast beef sandwich and a tomato basil soup that was delisch.

Sir Hair: Public Health Hiccup

(I was just about to post some pictures but I discovered the lab computers are locked from anything other than certain tasks).

Anyhow, back to the Hiccup thing. So today I spent several hours at the Chest Clinic in Manhattan (the NYC public health system is awesome by the way). I have a "nodule" in my lung that the doctor suspects is TB, given my exposure to TB in India, my previous test being negative and my general medical hystory. He said if it is TB, its an extremely early form, so to prevent me from coming back in in two months coughing up blood, he's put me on the meds. As such, I am now on a seven pill a day program for the next two months. (All free thanks to NYC!)

I also get the wonderful cross of possible side effects... some of which he said would occur daily for a few hours, but that it's important the I kept taking the drugs.

The side effects are... (*ahem* drum roll please!)
Nausea
Vomiting
Dark Urine
Skin rash
Loss of appetite
Numbness of hands and feet
Yellowing of Skin and Eyes (aka. Jaundice)
Fever
Easy Bruising
Flu-like symptoms
Urine turing orange or red
The drugs may stain my Soft contact lenses (not harmful apparently)
Joint Aches
Blurry Vision
Changed color vision

The only ones I have to worry about are the jaundice, numbness and vision, the rest I pretty much have to take as they come.

Aside from a chest xray, they gave me a blood test, vision test, checked my weight (which for the last few years has been pretty much stable at 145lbs or 65.8 kg), took a sample of the mucus in my lungs (sputum) and had me dance a jig for all the patients in the waiting room (well maybe not the last one, but only maybe not.)

The doctor and I talked a little bit (he even asked if I was thinking of becoming a priest after I told him what I did this summer). Apparently the MC sisters in Manhattan (the AIDS house) come to his clinic all the time for checkups. He also comented on how people in the US are unwarrantedly paranoid of TB and TB patients, and said at this stage I'm most likely not a public health risk (in laymans terms, I don't need to be locked up in a cage and observed by scientists and doctors, nor do the people I've come in contact with).

Still not sure about housing, but I looked at a nice loft apartment last night... and by loft appartment I mean crawlspace cum loft apartment, its about 10 feet square and 3 feet high... but it is really cheap and it is in an AMAZING location (right near hunter, i.e., "one of the richest zipcodes in the US") and a great price, so I might still take the "hole in the wall" as Tim so eloquently put it. But I'm hoping on a miracle that the dorms open up a male room... primo location, primo price...