"in movement there is life, and in change there is power"
Alan Cohen
One of the best parts of working in Times Square was that you could get anywhere in Manhattan in less than 20 minutes. Despite this, after-work dinner always ended up being either around Union Square, East Village, Chinatown, Chelsea/West Village, or Williamsburg, where I would take the Q express to 14th Street, N/R local to Astor Place, Q express to Canal Street, 1 to Christopher Street, or the Q to the L to Bedford Station, respectively. Anyone who lives in New York comes to know its subway system like the back of their hand, because the subway could either be a huge waste of your time or an incredibly efficient mode of transport, depending on how well you knew it.
NEW YORK STORIES
New York is a city of moments in a collection of stories. Inside a bookshop, at the corner of a street, up twenty floors of a skyscraper, and in the basement of a factory. Stories are unfolding by the second, only a few of which you will ever be let in on.
July 16th, 2013
The first time I fell in love with this city was back in high school, when I used to ride the train into Grand Central almost twice a month. I would look out the window as the trees and lakes of suburban Connecticut slowly transformed into the outer boroughs of New York City. And as the skyline emerged, I would always feel a sense of limitless possibility.
Flashback
I was reading on the bench in Union Square when the camera crew asked me to move over.
They were shooting a scene from a movie. Trying to capture that all too cliché moment of a guy bumping into a girl and they lock eyes for a second before continuing in their respective paths. They would meet again, of course, as the story would continue.
Leaving New York
The cab took me uptown on 5th Avenue towards Grand Central, and I looked out calmly on New York under the sun's brilliant rays of light. Even as I was leaving on this quiet summer afternoon, I could still feel the pulsating rhythm of the city around me.
The buzzing of chatter. Cars stopping and going. The banging and grinding of construction. New York will always be the most hopeful, passionate city in the world, full of light, energy, and endless possibilities. And here it was standing in its most natural and brilliant form before me, the way I will always remember New York to be...
Rainy Days
"Oh my gosh, don't you just love this weather?" M exclaimed as we walked briskly out of her luxury doorman building in Fidi. It was absolutely horrendous weather, that dead silence before a massive storm. Even worse, we had just been hit with a wave of torrential downpour the night before, so the air was damp, the clouds hung low, and the skyline was as grey as ever.
"Uhhh, yeahhh," I muttered, failing at feigned enthusiasm...
The West Side
Weekend brunches in New York is a big thing. Attire is always casual chic. That effortless morning-after (partying) look with sunglasses, red lipstick, unbrushed hair tied back in a bun, and a big comfy form-flattering sweater (preferably with one side hanging off-the-shoulders)...
Shooting Bryant Park in the Dark
On Tuesday after a networking event at the Cornell Club, I passed by Bryant Park where I often used to eat lunch with coworkers from Viacom. The park the way I knew it would always be crowded with corporate people eating and enjoying the sun under the tall trees by the spacious green lawn. So it was weird seeing the park just before sunset for the first time on this cool spring night, and seeing the expansive green lawn illuminated by the skyscrapers' thousands of lights...
Moving to Chelsea
Two days after my last day of work and just about a month prior to my departure for Paris, I took all my belongings and moved to the heart of downtown Manhattan to spend my last month in New York City. For the first time in my life, I had no job and no responsibility.
There’s a certain fear waking up to ambiguity, and not knowing that today, you will accomplish x, y, and z; there's a fear of wasting the precious time that you've given up so much for (you realize "time (really) is money"); and it's this fear that forces you to get up and really do something...
A Sunday Stroll Uptown
On Sunday, my parents came to visit me in New York. We met around noon at Le Midi Bar & Restaurant by Union Square for a classic French brunch, where they sat us by the warm and sunny window. We made silly lighthearted conversations in which I took my usual turn teaming up with one of them to make fun of the other. Two hours went by, and I had more than a few refills of coffee. Ever since I moved to the city, Sunday brunches have become one of our family's favorite past times...
Spring in New York
Today, New York finally woke up from its long winter sleep as Spring kindly graced us with her presence. New Yorkers were out and about, jogging, brunching, walking dogs, chatting up friends and enjoying the gorgeous weather.
I woke up at 10AM after six hours of sleep, ate breakfast, picked up dry cleaning, and decided that it would be a beautiful day to go skating. So I grabbed an iced coffee, hopped on the L train and headed over to Chelsea...
Thirsty Hungry Thursday Night
Today, after two hours at the gym (while watching Chopped on Food Network while killing it on the treadmill), I came home absolutely starved. Even after some pasta. I wanted to reward myself for being awesome, but I've been watching my diet since picking up figure skating again. I needed to eat well to be strong and flexible but also keep a low weight at the same time. So I decided to make some KALE...
Places to Eat in NYC!
1. SASHIMI at Kotobuki
Oddly enough, most sashimi look alike in restaurants (rich and fresh colors), but can taste very very different in your mouth. I search for the right texture when I taste sashimi, because I think this is what determines how the flavor will unfold on your palate. Too dry/hard and the flavors will be subdued, and the occasional stringy sashimi is just awful (mostly take-out experiences). My favorite kind of sashimi are the ones that melt in your mouth, releasing a rich, natural flavor with or without any soy sauce. This is most noticeable with Salmon, my absolute favorite - a good piece of salmon will give you that rich fatty flavor reminiscent of juicy fried pork (but not quite as pungent)...
Top Five Things I Will Miss About New York
1. Passionate, driven and outgoing people, who all seem to have hidden talents and amazing life stories to share. It is rare to find an uninteresting person in New York, and most people are also really accomplished in something or another. Fashion, technology, finance, media, law, sports, medicine, performing arts...you name it. There are activities and social groups in every field, and most people love and are excited about what they do. People are young here, so they have that wide-eyed hungry look, willing to do anything and everything to follow their dreams. Of course, just like any other city, you'll find plentiful arrogant douches around town, but you come to love the people here for who they are, both good and bad. And the best part? Everyone is down to have some fun and are super open to making new friends...
The End