It’s been a month since the last final of the worst semester ever ended, and almost a month (22nd) since I’ve arrived in New York. Turns out, New York’s welcomed me with its fair share of due diligence. Here are some things that have happened to me in quite possibly the most overrated city in the world (Prague is a close second).
I had a drunken bastard slap a girl I was walking with in the face then clawed my outstretched hands then quickly collapsed on the sidewalk. I was about to go and beat him up but I didn’t. Why did he have to be Asian? No wonder people look down on us.
I watched the play Macbeth for free in Central Park’s Public Theater starring Liev Schreiber (Scream, Manchurian Candidate, Sum of All Fears) for free.
Went to Cafe Lalo to grab some late night dessert cheesecakes (you may remember the location from the hit movie You’ve Got Mail starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks). Their salad was horrible (I didn’t order it, a fellow intern did) but the Strawberry and the Chocolate Mousse cheesecakes were very good.
Went to 2LT Matt Lee’s West Point graduation. It was one of those things that made me think about staying in the Army. I got to see President Bush from a distance and hear his sad little speech comparing himself and his war on terrorism with Harry Truman’s presidency and his war against the Russians during the beggining of the Cold War.
Watched the Juneteenth parade in White Plains, celebrating Black History.
Lost my credit card which will be mailed to my home of record in Berkeley.
Worked 21 hours, 47 hours, and 57 hours so far each week. It’s gonna get worse this coming week and the first of each month is going to be especially horrifying.
Visited Ground Zero, formerly known as the World Trade Center, while walking towards the World Finance Center (the latter was one of the most impressive buildings I’ve seen in the city. There’s absolutely nothing but a huge dirt hole and there’s absolutely no construction going on, either. It was fairly disheartening and disappointing.
Went to a foot doctor. Turns out, my feet are flat but not as flat as I thought.
Spent $51 on a bottle of Red Wine.
$42 for some Vietnamese food.
Went to Little Italy to watch the US – Italy World Cup game.
Went to Koreatown to watch the Korea – France World Cup game. (It was loud, but the Koreatown in NYC is pathetic.)
18 of us spent an hour in a conference room alone with Anne Mulcahy (CEO of Xerox) and Larry Zimmerman (CFO of Xerox, former executive from IBM). It was an exhilarating, powerful experience. On the way back from their Stamford, CT Headquarters, my fellow intern’s 86 Mercedes broke down in the middle of the highway. A cop had to use his patrol car to push us to the side. It rained. There was bad traffic on the highway. It took the tow truck an hour to come get us. I didn’t get back to my office till 2PM.
A Jesus looking like dude overhead me asking a friend of mine where Grand Central was and pointed me in the right direction.
I witnessed a fellow intern get hit on by a gay dude.
We had a networking event with managers and executives from both IBM and Xerox. I need to stop talking to these folks as though I’m looking for a job…
Need to do:
Niagara Falls
Broadway Shows (IBM discount)
The Metropolitan Museum (IBMers get in for free)
Statue of Liberty
The beach
And taking suggestions…