Panera Day

Today I hung out at Panera to do get some work done. I was able to edit my resume before my laptop ran out of battery and before I was timed out for the Panera internet. Good progress I suppose, but I still gotta get started on searching for internships and contacting people. After Panera, the bunch of us came over to my house to watch Pitch Perfect. I liked the movie and really liked the singing. It was a good laugh and a good movie to watch on a snowy day. We then ate at Ale House, which wasn't all that special and the food took forever to come. Besides that, it was a good way to spend the snowy, nasty day.

Taking photos while driving. 

Helping my friend do calc homework.

I'm so mature.

Look at how ghetto the package and label is.

Hunter Mountain Ski/Snowboarding Trip

I left on the 21st for a ski/snowboarding trip at Hunter Mountain with a bunch of family friends. We booked the entire Gardner Inn and had the whole place to ourselves, with a kitchen, multiple bedrooms, a pool table, and various rooms that turned into play/party rooms. It was really windy and cold snowboarding the first day, but the conditions weren't terrible. The second day, however, we were all sore from the first day so it was a bit more difficult to snowboard. There weren't that many trails open at Hunter Mountain, but we only went on the blue and a few black diamonds. Blues are pretty relaxing runs and black diamonds take a lot of effort and yet I still fall a few times on the black. While we were at the inn, we played pool, taboo, watched TV and just hung out. It was nice catching up with everyone and spending time with all the other families. We  spent most of Christmas Eve at the inn eating and hanging out, and visited the town of Tannersville for a bit. I ate so much this weekend because all the food the moms cooked were so delicious. Finally satisfied my craving for hotpot since Thanksgiving and had a lot of other good home-cooked Chinese food. I don't think I was ever hungry for the past five days. We also had our Secret Santa exchange and it was great; everyone was happy and high in holiday spirits. I got a lens mug from my secret santa, and the second half of my gift is in the mail. It's four super hero shot glasses. I always forget how much I love hanging out with these people and how much fun we always have. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas lights at the inn.

Such a homey living room.

Our skis and snowboards1

This dog is so cute.

Morning of Christmas Eve.

Jam at the general store in the town of Tannersville.

I really liked the eating area in the general store. 

Cute Christmas tree ornament.

Interesting set of fish cups.

12:00 am on Christmas Day!

After the exchange. 

First half of my gift! :D

Holiday Season

I love Christmas time with all the decorations and holiday spirit. There's a house a few blocks away from my house with really nice decorations so I stopped by and took some photos. Also played around with my camera taking shots of the ornaments on my Christmas tree.

Jingle bells.

Same ornaments, but blurred. 

So festive.

Nicely decorated. 

Mix of the ornaments and the nice house.

Washington Square Arch

I never knew where the fancy European-looking arch was in the city until today when I was wandering through NYU area with Bryan and came across the arch at Washington Square Park. It's such a fancy piece of architecture to be placed in the park. I also sneaked into NYU Stern and explored the building. It's so much nicer than Cornell buildings; I don't even know if AEM has their own building... Ended a long day of walking with some delicious Akamaru Modern at Ippudo and some chocolate chunk cookies from Insomnia.

Arch at Washington Square Park.

Fancy fancy.

She'll appreciate this when she gets older..

Santa Clauses in the City

Eventful day today roaming the city like a tourist with Bryan. Got woken up at 11:30 on my first day back to let him in my house... We got dim sum for lunch; it's so good to have real food besides canned soup. Then we headed towards NYU area and met a bunch of (drunk) Santa Clauses on the subway. I thought it was the Santa Claus parade, but apparently it's SantaCon where people dress up in Santa suits and go bar hopping in the day time. Interesting train ride. While waiting for the bathroom in McDonald's, we had a fun chat with one of the Santas. She complained about McDonald's only opening one bathroom, how unacceptable it was, and how she had to pee really badly. She's a pretty cool Santa. Then we met up with Dorothy and just played Wii in her apartment for two hours. Decided to go to Shake Shack at 23rd Street and again, saw Santa Clauses everywhere we went. Something I love about New York is how there's always different things going on everyday and it's so interesting to see what people in New York do. Shake Shack was delicious. We actually got a seat under the furnaces and it was really warm. Afterwards, Bryan and I went to 59th Street and made our way down 5th Avenue to Times Square. We stopped by Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree; it's so crowded there the streets are sealed off to cars and we had to nudge our way through the crowd. These tourists. The decorations make the city seems more festive and puts everyone in the holiday spirit. This is my favorite time of the year. :)

Delicious Dim Sum!

Noms.

Santa Clauses waiting for the bus. No big deal..

Santa Clauses crossing the street. No big deal..

Santa Clauses eating Shake Shack. No big deal..

Empire State was pretty today.

  

Rockefeller tree!

Blurred version. 

Bryan visiting New York City!

Black & White Photos

Took a break from studying finals, and decided to start on a new photography project for winter break. I was debating between black & white and macro. I'm gonna do B&W first, but perhaps I'll start on macro some time over break. I also really want to finish the projects I started at the beginning of summer. 

Black & White

 

Yummy Dinner

I finally have a break from finals and can make real food to eat.