Greenwich Village

I’ve gotten the chance to start seeing New York City bit by bit in the last month in between case readings and law school in general. And, since I’m a blogging procrastinator, I’ll try to blog about these places one at a time on a semi-regular basis. It seems appropriate to start off with my neighborhood for the year, Greenwich Village. I absolutely love this place! I love the mix of old, elegant brownstone buildings (including the law school buildings), boho chic boutiques, coffee shops, and little restaurants surrounding Washington Square Park. There’s been a few spurts of absolutely lovely weather since moving to New York (70 degrees, balmy, not too breezy), and so I’ve spent quite a bit of time wandering around the Village in between classes, people-watching in Washington Square Park, browsing vintage clothing stores with my roommate, sampling the restaurants in the Village and in East Village, and  playing scrabble at ThinkCoffee.

via

Among a few other of the NYC traditions I’m getting accustomed to, brunch seems to be serious business in NYC. I had my first New York brunch at Cafe Orlin’s in the East Village. I’m not the biggest breakfast person in general, but this was pretty delicious and the atmosphere was fun. I had eggs and smoked salmon on a toasted bagel, with a latte and orange juice. I’ve also had my first NYC bagel: lox and poppy seed. In general, after seeing some of the busier, flashier, sky-scraper filled parts of NYC, I’m pretty happy to be living in a place that feels much more like an eclectic village.

Breaking Bad: Ozymandias

Very, very belated, but this really is such perfect intertextuality - I’m impressed! I rarely find TV shows of Breaking Bad’s caliber, where I could go into the episode feeling confident that the writers knew exactly what they were doing, that they knew where the plot and character arcs were going, that they weren’t throwing ideas to the wall seeing if they would stick or pandering to the audience. RIP, Sunday Nights looking forward to the next episode :(

First Impressions

First impressions are fascinating. I’ve been in New York for just about a week now, and the experience of packing up and moving to an entirely new city has been both exciting and overwhelming. To preface, I’ve spent the last week doing a combination of settling into my new place, attending orientation session after orientation session, and running around Manhattan (aka getting lost) acquiring furniture, textbooks and groceries. As such, while I’ve spent plenty of time in Greenwich Village and made my way to the Brooklyn IKEA, and the Costco in East Harlem, I haven’t actually been to many of the more traditionally “touristy” places: Central Park, Midtown, Times Square, etc. New York is undoubtedly exciting. It’s larger, older, and more steeped in history than the West Coast. I get that sense when I walk under the Washington arch or wander past old brick buildings. In the first few days, Greenwich Village seemed crowded and confusing, but it’s beginning to feel like a nice respite from the sheer size of the rest of New York City. I love the plethora of restaurants, food trucks and cafes surrounding NYU, eating lunch in Washington Square Park, and the fact that there’s at least some greenery between the buildings, even if it is just hanging ivy and strategically planted trees.

via

At the same time, I miss Seattle and the West Coast quite a bit. I miss living in a green city surrounded by lakes and almost always being a short walk from the waterfront. Walking through less crowded streets, knowing I could navigate the city using the Space Needle and whatever body of water happened to be closest. I miss sunshine and 70 degree days in the summer, while knowing that I could get away with just wearing my peacoat, sundress, and boots in the winter. I most definitely miss Seattle customer service, and not hearing extended, warring car horns outside my window on a regular basis. After two experiences of getting lost on the MTA, I miss knowing where all the King County Metro routes went (and I never though I’d miss the Metro, of all things). Growing up twenty minutes from a Microsoft Campus, I had always been aware of the prevalence of technology and tech companies in Seattle and the Eastside as a matter of course, but now that I’m in New York, I find myself missing that tech-y vibe, and struggling to adjust to the fact that, as far as I can tell, Microsoft is that far-off tech company, and not our neighborhood corporate campus.

I’m fully aware that I’ve barely begun to scrape the surface of New York City, and the prospect of becoming familiar with the city is exciting to me. At the same time, I think I can anticipate a deeper appreciation of Seattle when I return for breaks, and a little less complaining about the rain, and spotty public transportation this time around. 

Literary New York

via

There are many things that worry me about New York City. I’m spoiled by temperate Pacific Northwest temperatures and my idea of dressing for the winter mostly involves wearing my summer sundress with tights and boots and throwing on a peacoat. Rent prices in the city already make me cry on the inside, and I’m not looking forward to dealing with the cost of groceries. Nevertheless, there are a good many things to be excited about (Broadway, the Met, decent public transportation) and this blog post, "A Book Lover's Guide to Literary New York," over at http://youngadventuress.com/ highlights a few more treats to anticipate.

“Bibliophiles rejoice! The gaping dearth of online information about the bookish side of Manhattan has now been filled by yours truly. For those of you who have a deep, insatiable passion for the written word, for those who buy books faster than they can finish them, for those who get book hangovers after finishing a great story, look no further. This article is dedicated to you.”

I love her blogging style, first and foremost. Her prose is descriptive and elegant. It’s to the point as well as conversational. Also, I’m a said bibliophile, and I’m so excited to check out the locations she’s described in her blog. I’ve already been to the New York Public library, but I had no idea about some of the other locations, especially the Library Hotel and the Strand Bookstore. I recently went to Portland, and Powell’s, and I’m glad to know that there is a bookstore similar to Powell’s in Manhattan. (I have such a soft spot for bookstores). The Library Hotel just looks gorgeous, with hidden literary quirks in the room, pillow chocolates, and old-style architecture. She also recommends the rare books at the Pierpoint Morgan Library, which I had never heard of, and the Housing Works Bookstore cafe.  I visited the displays at the British Library two years ago, and I’m excited to see the manuscripts and rare book displays at the Morgan Library.  As for Housing Works, I’m always in the mood for sitting down and working at a cafe!

One definite advantage to NYC is how enthusiastic people get about the city. This summer, I’ve already been given a steady list of must-sees there and made my way through several different New York themed movies and TV shows (Suits!). I’ve seen New York city portrayed through Gossip Girls, The Devil Wears Prada, Enchanted, Glee, and I haven’t even begun to scrape the surface. Glad to add this blog’s five book-themed recommendations to my list.

London Below

Listening to Neverwhere  and looking through BBC’s beautiful London Underground photo shoot prompted me to go back and look through my own pictures from my summer study abroad in London. Reading the novel only a few weeks before I left definitely influenced the way I experienced the city. Gaiman makes such clever use of London landmarks to create London Below, and I enjoyed finding the real life counterparts of London Below locations. 

A bit hard to read, but the route was “Islington Angel.” Cue me taking a photograph. And for the life of me, ever angel statue in the British museum made me think of Islington.

“Oh my God, the floating market is in Harrod’s?" 

It may not have been a floating bazaar in "London Above” but Harrods was fantastic nonetheless. This snapshot of the deli definitely reminded me a bit of Neil Gaimen’s portrayal of the Floating Market. 

“Two thousand years before, London had been a little Celtic village on the north shore of the Thames, which the Romans had encountered, then settled in.”

A bit of an old Roman wall remaining in London reminded me of the Roman legionaries living in London Below.

“If this is the last door I open, let it take me somewhere safe.” (Tower of London)

It occurred to me quite a few times while I was in London just how many magical worlds were either inspired by Britain or contained some sort of portal to the British Isles. Neverland (2nd star to the right and straight on ‘till morning, as well as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens), Wonderland, Hogwarts, Avalon, and London Below, to name only some, added to the excitement of wandering around the city and I want to go back :)

BBC Neverwhere

It’s out! It’s out! The BBC Radio’s adaptation of Neverwhere! Right now, I’m curled up under the covers with a cup of tea listening to the first episode, which is the absolutely best way to celebrate the end of winter quarter. I have been so excited for this to come out, both because Neverwhere is one of my favorite novels, and because I’ve been so excited over a voice cast that involves James McAvoy (as the main character, no less), Natalie Dormer (though I was surprised by her casting as Door), and Bennedict Cumberbatch, among others.

Neverwhere was exactly the book I needed to find that summer. I was getting entirely disillusioned with world-building, medieval fantasy, craving urban-esque fantasy, and getting over the Harry Potter movies being over (which was less depressing than the books being over, but sort of the final nail in the coffin). Thus, I loved the novel and its portrayal of the fantastical London Underground and biting social commentary on the plight of the homeless in London. (I used quite a bit of it as the guiding backbone for my final society paper while on that program). As it happened, I read Neverwhere only weeks before I left for my seven-week London study abroad adventure. As a result, the image of London-in-literature I carried most strongly in my mind when I left wasn’t the London of Oscar Wilde, or Dickens, it was Neil Gaimen’s fantastical London Below. Listening to this production is making me relive my London trip all over again.

As for the voice actors, I nearly jumped up and down with glee when I read the casting: James McAvoy as Richard Mayhew (yay!), Bennedict Cumberbatch as Islington, and Natalie Dormer as Door. And now, I’m going to go get another cup of tea, and listen to the next installment. By the way, James McAvoy, your Scottish accent is unforgivably attractive. :)

Emerald City Comic Con

I’ve been horrendously busy for the past week and I haven’t had the chance to blog about Comic Con yet, nevertheless, I’d be remiss not to mention how wonderful my day of pop culture geekiness was! I loved, loved, loved the event and wish I bought the three-day pass now! After my first convention in October, I knew that I loved the idea of dressing up in a room of other people in costumes, but I felt a little out-of-place not understanding any of the anime content. This time around, I was right in my element, geeking out over costumes, browsing the dealer’s alley, and enjoying the panels. Overall, I felt much more suited for this convention, and I recognized more of the costumes.

There is always something wonderful about getting out of bed to get dressed in a floor-length, peach Victorian gown, opera gloves, and heels. (I would sorely regret the heels later). I had this grand idea to do a Victorian version of Princess Peach using the dress with a blonde wig, white lace opera gloves, a blue cameo pendant, and a gold tiarra. Unfortunately, due to my own procrastination, I ended up scraping the idea because not even expedited shipping would have gotten the items in time by the time I got around to searching on Amazon. It’s being saved for the next con. In the meantime, however, I had quite a bit of fun floating around the convention center in a big, puffy, period dress. The heels… not so much.

Highlights from ECCC:

-Reuniting with the steampunk clock locket that got stolen out of my cart on Black Friday. Luckily, Black Cat Jewelry, who is now my favorite stop in Artist’s Alley, had the necklace in stock and I got a replacement, a discount, and a much appreciated dose of sympathy. Favorite accessory retrieved :)

-Little girls coming up to me and wanting to take pictures/wanting to say hi/asking if I was a princess/all of the above. So cute! At the resturant after the convention, one mother mentioned that they had recently come back from Disneyland and her daughter was still in her “princess-spotting” phase. Hands-down best compliment received all day :)

-Attending the Natalia Tena panel. I (very) nearly missed this panel, and I’m so happy that I didn’t! Back in the day, I adored Tonks as a character and shipped Remus and Tonks quite hard. Seeing the actress for Nymphadora Tonks in the flesh brought back quite a bit of those shipper feels. Natalia was great: all around funny, personable, and enjoyable to listen to. She actually dyes her hair bright colors. Teddy Lupin was suppposed to be in the final scene! And, she likes Django Unchained!

-The costumes, the costumes, the costumes. Amazing! From the Mario with a friend dangling a block over his head via. fishing line, to a replica of Tim Burton’s Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts, to some truly phenomonal group cosplays, the costumes were fantastic! And, I recognized more than five of them this time.

Favorite #1: Nintendo “prom” group, description entirely mine. Peach/Mario, Daisy/Luigi, Zelda/Link. (Sadly, forgot to get a picture)

Favorite #2: Once Upon a Time: Rumple, Snow, Red (better Red than my version), and Jefferson. And me, pretending to fit in with my dress. Although, a little girl thinking I was an honest-to-goodness Disney princess should count for something!

Other honoerable mentions: Catwoman who looked like Anne Hatheway, Bilbo Baggins with fuzzy slippers, Mario-with-exclamation block, probably more.

-Dinner. It was quite the after-con experience. My friend tells it better than I do here, but it involved a group of comic con people descending on a resturant and eating the poor management out of nearly everything in their kitchen. (You can probably guess which if the five I am.)

My classical outfit (by Helena Polansky)

I love this outfit. I’m a huge fan of soft cuts cinched in at the waists, and I’m addicted to sundresses. Also, I’ve always had the irrational fear that you can’t wear a belt with a statement necklace, no matter how much I liked the combination. No idea why. I love her accessories and I’m glad for the combination that you can, in fact, pair a waist belt with a necklace.

Seattle

With the prospect of leaving Seattle in the near future getting fairly certain, I find myself finding more and more things I love about this city. 

Last Friday, I met up with a friend in Aurora for brunch after a job interview. While waiting, I wandered over to Greenlake and fed my bagel two two wandering ducks. It occurred to me that one of my favorite things about Seattle is that the city is surrounded by bodies of water. Greenlake, Lake Union, Lake Washington, there’s nearly always a body of water and a pretty water front and some park benches in the vicinity. I’m going to miss that balance of city life and nature so much when I head to New York. (I already missed it after one week in New York last summer). And then, it occurred to me that despite all the teasing we get about the rain, our winters aren’t too bad otherwise. After all, there I was, sitting on a park bench, in the middle of winter, in a peacoat and a sundress, feeling comfortably warm. And then the sun came out. Not bad for January in Seattle.

I finally watched “Sleepless in Seattle” I was apathetic about the story but loved seeing Seattle nostalgically represented on the big screen, reminding me of how well I’ve come to know this city, from the obligatory shot of Pike’s Place to being able to pinpoint locations by house numbers, to the over-exaggeration of our rain. 

I’m going to miss this place :/

Looking Ahead

On Thursday, I got my first two law school acceptances from NYU and Duke! Due to the 10-day Priority Track cycle Duke put my application into, I had been expecting a reply sometime around Thursday, but I was surprised by a call from NYU letting me know I was in. So much excitement, especially over the completely unexpected response from NYU! I still have quite a few schools to hear back from, but NYU was among my top choice law school and at this point, Columbia (at par with NYU) and possibly Berkeley (West Coast…) are the only other schools I’d consider picking instead.

So needless to say, this is a major change in outlook for me. Looking back over the last few months, it’s quite interesting to watch how my view of the future and future plans shifted. After my first disappointing LSAT experience, I wasn’t even sure if law school was going to happen this coming year, and I started fretting about what I might do in the gap year. The trouble was, nothing particularly appealed to me, and I found myself (very) half-heartedly researching options to teach abroad, attending career fairs, and scoping around for other possible options. I probably spent quite a bit of fall quarter in an unpleasant cloud of worry and uncertainty. After I got my score from the December LSAT, I could more reasonably expect to be in law school for the next year, but I wasn’t expecting how amazing it feels to have a good option (or two) for next year established :) 

When I visited the campus over the summer, I remember walking through the law building feeling that I couldn’t imagine being done with this large, daunting prospect of taking the LSAT and getting into a law school. Now that I’m on the other side looking back, it feels so good to be done! I’ve been blown away by all the support, genuine well-wishes and congratulations I’ve gotten in the last few days, and over the past year. From my professors who’ve shown their support through letters of recommendations and encouragement, to my family, to all of my friends who have motivated me both through being there as willing listeners and through being inspiring, driven, intelligent people in their own right, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people. I’ve still got to figure out scholarships, financial aid, living arrangements and, of course, law school itself, but right now, I’m enjoying taking a justified deep breath, and relaxing. 

2012 in Books

1. Best book you read in 2012? Two-way tie between “Atonement” by Ian McEwan, and “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. I just love those two books with a passion of, well, a senior thesis :)

2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t? “Sexing the Cherry” by Jeanette Winterson. It had been compared to “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood (and a personal favorite of mine), which had me excited at first. It ended up being too heavy-handed and angry with its “men are abusers and they will never understand us, ever” mantra and I was annoyed by it instead.

3. Most surprising book of 2012? “A Storm of Swords” by G.R.R. Martin, for reasons that will be very apparent to anybody who has read that book. I did not expect that plot twist, and it make me love G.R.R. Martin for doing that with his characters. For those same reasons, I can’t wait for the next season of Game of Thrones, and the reaction from viewers :) 

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2012? I’d have to say “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger for this one. Mostly due to my honors thesis; the other two novels had been read in during one of the previous seminars, but this text was self-selected for my topic. As such, I constantly recommended it to everybody any time I talked about my thesis. 

5. Best series you discovered in 2012? “A Song of Ice and Fire,” followed by “The Hunger Games.”

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2012? G.R.R. Martin (of course), and Gregory Maguire 

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you? “The Woman in Black” by Susan Hill. It was one of my first forays into the Victorian gothic/horror genre and I liked it well enough. 

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2012? Going to have to go with “The Hunger Games” for this one. I read all three books, one after the other, in the span of five hours during spring break. Even for books I like, I rarely do this. I’m more of a read-books-bit-by-bit type of person. 

9. Book you are most likely to re-read in 2013? Any of the three texts I wrote my thesis on. (“Atonement”, “History of Love”, “Time Traveler’s Wife”) Add “Wicked” to that list, though I’m unlikely to read it cover-to-cover again.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2012? I really liked the cover art for my copy of Kafka’s “The Trial”. 

11. Most memorable character in 2012? Elphaba. Fierce, enigmatic, and philosophical. Lonely, vengeful, independent, vulnerable. She runs the full spectrum of emotional states and she makes for a fascinating protagonist. 

12. Most beautifully-written book read in 2012? “Atonement.” So wonderfully, intricately written, I don’t even. “The anticipation and dread he felt at seeing her was also a kind of sensual pleasure, and surrounding it, like an embrace, was a general elation- it might hurt, it was horribly inconvenient, no good might come of it, but he had found out for himself what it was to be in love, and it thrilled him.” Just the interiority in his prose is amazing. 

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2012? “Game of Thrones.” To recap, I loved epic, medieval fantasy back in the day, but I’d largely fallen out of the genre for a while. I still liked urban fantasies like “Harry Potter,” “Dresden Files” and “Neverwhere,” but I had largely stopped reading high fantasy. I picked up “Game of Thrones” because the TV show was out and everybody was reading it. Fell straight back into loving high fantasy, started playing World of Warcraft again, and finished the book in three days. So there you have it. 

14. Book you can’t believe you waited until 2012 to finally read? “Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” So worth it.

15. Favorite passage/quote from a book you read in 2012? “She need not judge. There did not have to be a moral. She need only show separate minds, as alive as her own, struggling with the idea that other minds were equally alive. It wasn’t only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you. And only in a story could you enter these different minds and show how they had equal value. That was the only moral a story need have.” Ian McEwan, Atonement

16. Shortest and longest books you read in 2012? Shortest; “On Chesil Beach” by Ian McEwan. Longest; possibly one of the G.R.R. Martin books?

17. Book that had a scene in it that had you reeling and dying to talk to somebody about it? The coda ending of “Atonement. That is, if spending an hour discussing it with my honors seminar counts as "talking to somebody about it.”

18. Favorite relationship from a book you read in 2012 (be it romantic, friendship, etc). Elphaba and Fiyero. Make no mistake, I love them together in the musical, but my goodness. Their story arc and relationship in the novel was incredibly-written. Romance with a good bit of angst, with long and insightful political and philosophical discussions. Elphaba gets her little bit of happiness, and she never forgets it. “And though she could not tried not to sleep, on occasion, she could not help it; her dreams brought Fiyero closer and closer to home.” (Wicked, page 390) 

“Atonement” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife” get honorary mentions. It would have been an impossible three way tie, but I’ve already spent three months of my life writing my honors thesis on the nuances in Robbie and Cecelia and Henry and Clare’s relationships and blogged fairly extensively on them as well. But seriously. Any author considering writing about relationships should read these three novels and take note. They show three very different romantic relationships and portray them with such pathos and humanity. 

*NB: I don’t consider romantic relationships to be the most important or special type of relationship to portray, but I do consider them to be the most easily portrayed terribly, particularly because they’re far and away the most popular. That’s why my respect meter goes up so high when an author is able to write a good one, despite everything.

19. Favorite book you read in 2012 from an author you read previously. “Sentimental Education” by Flaubert. I read “Madame Bovary” a while back. 

20. Best book you read that you read based solely on a recommendation from somebody else? “On Chesil Beach.” It was recommended to me by a professor for the topic of my undergraduate research symposium presentation. It was enjoyable and relevant to my research. So glad it was recommended to me.

21. One book you didn’t get to in 2012 but will be your priority in 2013? “A Feast for Crows” and “A Dance with Dragons,” at least, before I spoil anymore plot points for myself. Following that, J.K. Rowling’s new novel, and more of Gregory Maguire’s works.  

22. One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging in 2013? Quite simply, keep reading and keep blogging about literature. I’m technically done with the English major and while I could still take more classes just for interest, it’s likely that my days of being assigned reading and writing research papers on literature are behind me. That said, I firmly believe that reading literature intelligently and critically is a good thing. 

2012

Celebrating New Year’s Eve with friends was particularly bittersweet this year. I’ve celebrated with the same group of people for all four years of college, some of them longer, and it occurred to me that evening that 2013 is going to be a year of change. Getting new jobs, going to graduate school, moving to different parts of the country; I’m excited for the change, but at the same time, college flew by and it’s a strange feeling to think that those four years are nearly over and we’ll all be in different places by this time next year.

2012 was an eventful year. I dropped the music major and threw myself into the English major, winning two scholarships. I started doing research in the humanities, presented at the research symposium, realized that I loved contemporary literature, and spent three months writing an honors thesis on three of my favorite novels. I studied for, and took the LSAT, which temporarily became quite a large part of my life. I re-discovered a love for the fantasy genre with “A Song of Ice and Fire” and reminisced  like crazy waiting for “The Hobbit” to be released. I started tutoring at CLUE and met an entirely wonderful group of co-workers and friends there. I’ve also kept a blog going over a year for the first time in my life.

Next year, I’ll hopefully be in law school somewhere in the country and my life will be very different once again. I started off 2013 appropriately: throwing an impromptu Hobbit-themed party at my apartment. Lots of food, wine, one of my friends skyping in, and watching “Fellowship of the Ring”. In the next few days, I received my LSAT score two days earlier than expected, threw myself into law school applications, and went on an unexpected trip to Victoria with a handful of friends (more on that forthcoming). It seemed like a good way to start a year that’s going to be, for the most part, unexpected and unpredictable.