Coney Island

I went to the weekly Coney Island fireworks last Friday. It started raining an hour before the fireworks when we were all already in Brooklyn, but we went anyway hoping the rain would stop. And it did! By the time we got to the beach area it turned into a light drizzle and then stopped. We dipped our feet in the water while waiting for the fireworks to start at 9:30. I remembered it to be nicer when I went two years ago, but that might be because the weather was much nicer and I was sitting on the sand instead of standing. Regardless, it was fun going to Coney Island see the boardwalk area every so often.

The Wonder Wheel.

The boardwalk makes a really good background.

Picture within picture.

No lifeguards on duty by the beach.

Fireworks!

Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival

This past weekend I was up in Toronto at the dragonboat festival there. It was my first time there so I was pretty excited to travel up to Canada and see what the venue is like in Toronto. The race was held on Centre Island, which wa about a 15 minute ferry ride from Downtown Toronto, and there was a manmade strip of water on the island that connects to Lake Ontario. The venue was pretty good, but the festival was very small and there weren't that much going on. There were about 70 something teams at the race, and they were all very fast... We were up against Canadian national teams who train for the world championships. This was the first time I've seen teams paddle that fast and the first time I've been in a race where we were so far behind. As a team, we didn't do that bad, but we just looked pretty bad against the national teams. The other boat we got second place in the Finals, so that was a boost of encouragement.

Besides the race, we didn't do that much exploring aroudn Toronto. Our hotel was about a 30-minute drive from downtown so it was a bit inconvenient to explore on our own. On Saturday after the race we went to someone's house to have a poolside BBQ. His house was so big and the backyard was huge, with a pool and a gazebo. On Sunday, we had our team dinner at a Chinese restaurant and just hung out in the are afterwards. We ate so much for dinner both days.

Downtown Toronto.

View from the ferry to Centre Island.

Wall Street Dragons!

Watching the finals.

Woooh!

Lots of sailboats on Lake Ontario.

Found a kiddy frog umbrella at the festival!

New Photo Project: Oldness

I decided to start another project to make it more exciting. The theme is gonna be oldness. Pretty self explanatory and straight forward.

Oldness

New Photo Project: Beyond Reach

I'm gonna start a few more photo projects this summer. I got the inspiration from a 52 week project I saw online, where you take photos of a specific theme each week for the whole year, except I'm just gonna take photos of the same theme until I get enough photos. This project I'll be taking photos of things that is 'Beyond Reach,' however you may interpret it.

Beyond Reach Project!

Brooklyn

This evening I went exploring Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn area. A friend and I took the IKEA ferry to Red Hook, Brooklyn. The breeze from the top of the water taxi felt really good and I got a really good view of Downtown Manhattan. On the way back from IKEA, the water taxi took us right in front of the Statue of Liberty, facing the front side, and stalled there for about ten minutes for us to take pictures. They turned out well since the sun was setting behind the Statue of Liberty.

After we got back to Manhattan, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and took pictures of the skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan. In Brooklyn, we went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park and saw the east side of Downtown Manhattan and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. It was really beautiful and everyone was taking pictures of Manhattan. I got a few shots using my mini portable tripod. After we left the park, we were both so exhausted from walking so much - from the Pier 11 water taxi, across the Brooklyn Bridge, to Brooklyn Bridge Park, and back to the train station.

Sunset at IKEA.

Close up of the Statue of Liberty.

Downtown Manhattan, with the Freedom Tower!

Halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge.

From the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Another one from the park.

Life

Finished my first week of my internship and it's great. I really like the work environment at Elizabeth Arden and everyone there is really helpful and easy to talk to. The other interns are great and my supervisor for the week takes really good care of us. This past week I worked on bill of materials stuff on Excel and made sure that all the supplies for a certain product are up to date. It's tedious work, but I guess it's a necessary to build the fundamental knowledge. The commute to Stamford everyday is tough, but I just sleep on the train. Starting this week I'm gonna start doing 8-5 to earn more money, and maybe I can leave earlier sometimes if I go in early.

Today, I met up with Hannah and Steve and caught up with each other. We haven't seen each other since school ended and there were a lot to talk about. It felt a little out of place hanging out in the city since we normally see each other on campus, but it was still great seeing them nevertheless. We visited Hannah's apartment in Midtown and chilled on the rooftop. The view from the 30th floor is great - Queens and the 59th Bridge, midtown Manhattan, and uptown. We got food at Alice's Teacup and got Blue Moon and just chilled there for three or four hours. Our conversations ranged from reminiscing about freshmen year, talking about work life, post grad plans, careers, different life paths, and a bunch of topics that came up. They were all very meaningful and made us think about where we are in life right now. Very thought provoking. It's scary to think that after graduation, everyone might be at different cities and we won't be seeing each other as frequently as we do in college. Our circle of friends will change and there will probably be just a handful of us that will stay in touch frequently. Also, there's the trade off between earning lots of money and having a happy life. Working made us realize how little time we have after we get off from work, and how monotonous work can get. I think we all have an idea of what direction we want to go in after we graduate, but nothing's ever set in stone. Perhaps we'll change our minds after our internships in the summer and do something completely different. It's scary to think that this may be our last summer of internship before we start working fulltime. So this summer is especially valuable, and it's the last chance we get before we enter the real world. In a way, it's like a mixture of undergraduate lifestyle and working lifestyle. It'll bridge us into the real world and give us a taste of what it's like after we graduate.

I hope to have many more of these kind of hang outs this summer - just chilling and drinking and talking about life.