From last Friday.

I took these photos with my point & shoot at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. It was a lovely Friday. I relaxed, laughed, and bumped into a friend that I have not seen in a while.

Sadly, an unfortunate event happened to my friend's father that night and right now he is being hospitalized. I do not understand why two teenagers would want to beat up a man just for his iPod. I do not understand why instead of running away, the two boys had to fracture this man's face to the point of surgery. I do not understand why society has gotten this way...
I'm praying for them.

On another note, I'm getting quite busy with school.

• I had my first Yearbook Editor's meeting today. Surprisingly, we're starting to get on track. Homecoming is in two weeks. Even though I'm not in charge of photos (I didn't get the Photography Editor position) I will guarantee you that I will be taking photos! Not to mention, Alicia and I have the Student Life section to manage.
  
• The homework load is slowly piling up, day by day.
• Tomorrow is the Dartmouth Info Night.
  
• NHS General Meeting is on Wednesday.
• I need to confirm our Photography Club advisor and finalize our plans.
• The SAT is in less than three weeks.
• Questbridge scholarship is due in less than two weeks.

Oh dear. I hope I can make it through this month without being dependent on coffee!

Boston, school, and...a tornado?

A week ago, I went to Boston with Pauline and Wanling to visit colleges. (All by ourselves! I felt so grown up.) Even though I could have stayed in New York to sleep in every morning, I'm glad I didn't. After visiting Northeastern, BU, Tufts, and Brandeis, I have a better idea of what I want in a college now.

I love Tufts! Despite the fact that I probably can't get accepted into this school, I totally see myself going there. The campus is beautiful, the location is very convenient, and the school's resources sound fantastic. Northeastern and BU were both very inviting as well, though I liked BU more than Northeastern. Brandeis had the ugliest buildings ever but I like the people I met there. :) We stayed in Betty's suite, which was really nice of her. (Betty is my best friend's older sister.) We met some of her suitemates and played some word games, haha.



So that was Boston. After that four day weekend, the first full week of school started. How exciting! Well, not really. My classes are okay. I like most of my teachers; they seem like they know what they are doing (with the exception of this one lady.) Most of my friends aren't in my classes, but that's okay. Yoga is probably my favorite class (go figure, no academics involved.) Ms. Marrano is one of the nicest teachers I've ever met. She might as well be my aunt. Since this was only the first week of school, she just taught us breathing techniques. But don't underestimate deep breathing--it really helps! Because you know what? I actually didn't feel sleepy during my double period AP Biology class afterwards.

Oh, one more thing. There was a tornado in New York. Strange, right? I was stuck on the train for over TWO HOURS because the storm damage affected subway routes. I got home at 9PM! Talk about holding in your hunger...This storm created quite a commotion. Pretty epic if you ask me. Everybody had their share of stories the next day at school =)


A fallen tree a block away from my apartment.

Now that I have my point & shoot camera, I can take pictures of myself while I wait for the train!

Familiar beginnings and ends.

Today is the last day of summer.
Tomorrow is the last first day of high school.
It's all the same, really. End of summer is the same thing as the beginning of fall. Everything is looped, we just have to realize it...that's why we shouldn't hold onto things for so long...
I hope I'm ready for Senior year.

Tourist Day!

A while back, Stephanie and I both bought I Love NY shirts. We realized that even though we've lived in NYC our whole lives, we never really explored its landmarks. So we decided on having a 'Tourist Day,' where we would explore NYC with the mindset of a tourist and with the appearance of a tourist, haha.

We visited the Museum of Natural History, the Met, Times Square, and one of the Key to the City locations in the Bronx, which was about to close soon. Both museums were wonderful...and enormous. We got pretty lost, actually. In fact, we didn't even have enough time to explore all the different exhibits. Maybe we'll come back another day, since the Met is free for students and the Museum of Natural History has suggested admission (we each paid a dollar).

Walking to Times Square from the Met didn't take long (as we're fast walkers) but it was tiring, especially in the blazing sun. We took a quick snapshot of us by Times Square and practically ran to the nearest train station. The Point, which is in Hunt's Point in the Bronx, closed at 7--we didn't have much time. I have to say, that neighborhood was the scariest neighborhood I've been in throughout my whole life in New York City. It wasn't so bad when we got off the train--it was something I was used to: rowdy people, boomboxes, cursing. It was similar to my neighborhood; slightly "ghetto," if you will. But the couple of blocks beyond the train station were completely DESERTED. It was just factory after factory, with weird old men sitting outside. Creepy much?

I think it was worth it though. This location was the best one out of all the Key to the City locations. It beat the others by far. The room our keys unlocked was practically an empty canvas--except it wasn't empty when we got there. It was filled with art and splashes of creativity here and there. We hastily painted some quick, ugly drawings because obviously, we were not artists.

As we were leaving we met two other people who were coming in. They were friendly so we waited until they were finished to walk with them back to the train station. While they were painting inside, we took some pictures outside by the graffiti walls. Fun day :D

Goodbye August.

On Monday, I had another yearbook meeting. We got nowhere (again). After the meeting I hung around the school with Nerissa, Amanda & Vikaash. I ended up walking Kensington, Nerissa's neighborhood. We bought ice cream and went through the sprinklers :D

Tuesday was my photoshoot with Kayde. We went to Forest Park, but got pretty lost because it WAS practically a forest, haha. She was posing on a tree when these guys came out of nowhere and asked us if they could borrow our tree. I think they were high. :)

The shoot wasn't as successful as I hope it'd be, partly because the trees were blocking golden hour lighting. I also had nooo ideas in mind whatsoever and just worked with whatever I could think of at the moment. Oh well. It's experience!

And to start off September, Ismahan and I went to Central Park West in an attempt to catch a glimpse of Joseph Gordon-Levitt during filming. Premium Rush is being filmed all over the west side! We walked around, sat around. Eventually we got bored so we went to one of the Key to the City locations, St. John's Cathedral. It was gorgeous, but the key unlocked nothing special.

We walked back to Central Park and waited some more, but nothing interesting really happened. However, we DID catch a glimpse of a guy on a bike being filmed. Could it be him?! I had no idea. The biker in the movie eventually ends up in Chinatown (where I am mostly after school) so maybe I'll get lucky one day!